2023 Christian and Michelle Andrasch

2:30pm, be there by 1:30.

DJ to play acoustic instrumentals as guests arrive (guests arrive at 2pm)

Housekeeping announcements - Pastor Chris Pretorius

Good afternoon friends and family, My name is Chris Pretorius, and I am the pastor of the Christian Reformed church of Wonga Park. It is my pleasure to be able to lead you in this marriage service today.

Before we get started,

The couple have asked me to make a few housekeeping announcements.

Please ensure you have grabbed a wedding booklet and flower petals to share

Please throw flower petals as the bride and groom exit the ceremony

We encourage everyone to put their devices away until after the ceremony except for dedicated photographers and videographer,

they would like this to be an “unplugged ceremony” and would rather you be present, than recording.

Group photo will be taken after the ceremony.

Family and bridal party photos will be taken after this, so guests who are not immediate family or part of the bridal party are invited to move up to the reception area.

Processional music - Lover by Taylor Swift - acoustic instrumental version

Father hands over the bride

Welcome and opening prayer - Chris

Let us pray:

O God, our Father, in Your great love for the world,

You have given us the gift of marriage.

Bless Christian and Michelle today

as they pledge their lives to each other.

Unite them by Your Spirit so that their love may continue to grow and be a true reflection of the love of Christ for His church.Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Chris invites guests to stand for song

Song: In Christ Alone x3 verses (Brendina and Herman to lead)

Guests invited to sit

Bible reading and Sermon

Song of Solomon 8:6–7 NIV

6 Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. 7 Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away. If one were to give all the wealth of one’s house for love, it would be utterly scorned.

Friends, we have come together in the presence of God to witness the marriage of Christian Michael Andrasch and Michelle Dyer.

Now as a couple, they have chosen these two verses as their wedding text, and they come from a rather obscure section of the Bible.

Many or most of us are familiar with the accounts of Jesus’ life in the Gospels. Many of us are familiar with the basic story of Christianity.

We are familiar with the fact that Bible teaches that God created the world good, but that the reason the world is in the state it is in is because of sin. Sin is the the idea that we can be our own God, that we can stand in his place and that we can decide for ourselves what right and wrong is.

We would be familiar with the idea the Bible teaches, that sin is the cause of our death, both physically and spiritually. The climax of scripture is that Jesus came to earth, lived a sinless life and ultimately died on the cross, so that he can stand in our place, that he can take our sin on his shoulders and so stand in the place of all who believe in him.

As a result of that, all who believe in him are set free from their sin and so inherit eternal life through him.

Most of us would be familiar with that part of the Bible, the basic tennets of the Christian faith.

What many of us might not realise is that the Bible contains a book that celebrates love and is in places shamelessly erotic. This passage falls right at the end of that book of love.

Now for us to truly appreciate what is happening here, a few things need to be noticed. This book is teh story of a woman who is looking for love. She comes out of the wilderness, this dangerous place full of wild animals and death, to come to her wedding.

Later she and her beloved are married, and this passage describes the second time she comes out of the wilderness. This time she is not alone, she has wed her beloved, and in the story they have been married, have spent the night together as a wedded couple, and now she emerges from teh wilderness, no longer alone.

She as she walks out she describes her love in three ways.

Like death, like a seal, and like a fire.

Now we might think that death is an odd metaphor for her to use to describe her love for her beloved.

But true love is a lot like death. It is one way, once it happens there is no turning back. Once you are in the grip of death, you cannot come back again. So too is someone who is in the grip of love. Biblical love is a love that is exclusive and consumes your heart in an exclusive way. It should be unyeilding and unending.

She also describes love like a seal.

Now in the days when this was written, a seal was one of your most prized posessions. It was your ID card. If you wanted to claim somethign as your own, you would put your seal on it. IF you wanted to steal someones identity, all you had to do was take their seal. So she says she wasnt to be like the seal that he carries around. She wants to be marked by him, a seal on his arm.

But not only does want to be aknowledged as belonging to him, she wants to be a seal on his heart. She wants not only to belong to him, she wants to own him too. She wants his heart.

That is the picture of biblical love - not only is it consuming and final like death, but it is possessive. Christian, Michelle, you now belong to one another. You own each other, your marriage, your rings are a sign that you belong, to each other, exclusively and finally, as final as death.

But finally she describes her love like a blazing fire. Now this word here in the original is really somethign like the flame of God. God-fire if you like.

This is a passionate fire, an exclusive fire.

In the Bible where God is connected to fire, it is almost always, if not always, connected to God burining up evil, sin, iniquity.

That is the kind of love that is supposed to charactrise marriage - a fire that burns away the impurity of the other person.

You see biblical marriage has a purpose. It is not as the world suggests, to make you happy.

Michelle, Christian, your marriage is not supposed to make you happy.

I mean I hope it does, but that is not it’s purpose.

It is supposed to make you holy.

To burn away, in teh context of love, the impurities you have in your life.

That is why it is so important that otday you are joining together with promises before God.

You are making promises, commitments to keep working at burning up the impurities in your marriage, even when your marriage feels more like death than life.

You are making commitments to keep working about at teh impurities in your marriage, when you feel like the seal on your heart is more like burden than a joy.

Because there will be times when your marriage will be dull, and boring.

While today your love feels more like a burning fire, There will be days when it feels more like death.

You will need to rely on your commitments in those days. But more than promises, you will need to rely on your relationship with Jesus on that day. Remember that he is using your marriage to refine you, to purify you, to grow you in holiness.

And in fact the more that happens, the happier you will be.

The more holy you become, the more impurities in your life are burnt up by the God-fire of your marriage, the more you will be happy.

So my prayer for you both today is to have Christ at the centre of your marriage, that your love will be like the love of the beloved in this passage, and that God might use your marriage, to purify you as you seek to serve him, as you serve each other.

Amen,

Now, shall we do this?

Institution and meaning of marriage

We want to honour the will of God for marriage, to seek His blessing on Christian and Michelle,

to surround them with our prayers

and share in their joy.

But let’s first hear what God has to say concerning marriage.

‌We believe that marriage was designed and instituted by God.

‌In it a man and a woman covenant to live together in a life-long relationship of love,

fidelity, companionship, and devotion to each other.

‌

Right at the beginning of history, God declared,

‌"It is not good for the man to be alone, I will make a helper suitable for him”

A man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

‌When man rebelled against God his Maker, one of the sad consequences was estrangement in the marriage relationship.‌

But Christ Jesus came to reconcile man with God and in doing so also opens the door for people to find new life with one another.‌

The first miracle, Jesus did to show His redeeming power and glory was at the wedding of Cana in Galilee. Jesus endorsed the life-long nature of the marriage covenant when He declared that "what God has joined together, man is not to separate. "

‌The apostle Paul sees the union of husband and wife as a symbol of the union between Christ and His church.‌

In their sacrificial love, their faithful giving of themselves to one another,

a husband and wife portray and imitate the love and faithfulness

between Christ and His church.

‌

‌Marriage is given so that husband and wife may enrich and encourage each other and find companionship in the wholeness of their life together in service to God.

‌

Marriage is given so that they may love each other with delight and tenderness and through the joy of their physical union may deepen the union of their hearts and lives.

‌

Marriage is also given to provide a secure environment into which children may be born and learn to know and serve the Lord.

‌It is given so that home and family life

might be strengthened,

and that society might be enriched

and stand on firm foundations.

‌‌

When these purposes are faithfully pursued

in union with Christ,

His church is built,

the kingdom of God is advanced

and the well-being of husband and wife assured.

‌

Marriage is nurtured in a relationship of mutual respect and love.

As Paul says, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. "‌

In marriage husband and wife serve one another.

A husband is to exercise responsible headship in love

and a wife is to submit to her husband,

both in a way which reflects the relationship of Christ to His church.

‌

Such leadership, given and received in love, acknowledges the gifts and responsibilities that both partners have.‌

It also safeguards the freedom that husband and wife both possess before God.

Marriage is not to be entered into lightly or selfishly, but responsibly and in the deep awareness of the love and grace of God.

‌Love, in Scripture, is more than a feeling:

it is a commitment to one another

in which we follow Him who loved us to the end.‌

‌It is in this Christlike love that a husband and wife, following Christ together, will experience His daily grace.‌

They will need that grace,

just as they often

have to forgive one another.

‌Our sinful and selfish tendency to break down what God has built threatens marriage with tensions and even broken bonds.

‌However, God's grace in Christ

will sustain them when trial, hardship and sorrow come to their home too, in our world still broken by sin.

‌

In such love, and by such grace, the life of two children of God in marriage

‌- time and again-

Gives a true foretaste of the fellowship of everlasting life.

The bridegroom and bride are asked to come to the front.

‌

Christian and Michelle, now that you have heard God's message concerning marriage, do you believe that it is the purpose of God for you to enter into this covenant and do you commit yourselves to fulfil your obligations to each other?

Each one answers:

I do.

‌

Parental support

Ask parents of the bride and groom to stand

Do you, Herman and Lynette, and you Jakob Christine, give your support and love to Christian and Michelle

‌In their intended marriage and throughout their life together?

‌They answer: We do.

Exchange of the vows

Invite Christian repeat after Michelle

Marriage Promise

Christian

  do you take Michelle to be your wife

and do you pledge to commit yourself to her

in love and honour,

in duty and service,

in faith and tenderness,

to live with her

and to cherish her

in the exclusive bond of marriage?

Do you promise to love her,

comfort her

, honour and support her,

in sickness and in health,

as long as you both live?

Bridegroom responds: I do.

Michelle 

do you take Christian to be your husband

and do you pledge to commit yourself to him

in love and honour,

in duty and service,

in faith and tenderness,

to live with him

and to cherish him

in the exclusive bond of marriage?

Do you promise

to love him,

comfort him,

honour and support him

, in sickness and in health,

as long as you both live?

Bride responds: I do.

VOWS

Face each other, and hold the other person’s hands 

Christian 

I, Christian Michael Andrasch, take you, Michelle Dyer, to be my wife in Christian Marriage.

To have and to hold, to love and to cherish, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health. All that I am I give to you, and all I have, I share with you, and I promise to be faithful to you, from this day forward, as long as we both shall live.

Michelle 

I, Michelle Dyer, take you, Christian Michael Andrasch, to be my husband in Christian Marriage.

To have and to hold, to love and to cherish, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health. All that I am I give to you, and all I have, I share with you, and I promise to be faithful to you, from this day forward, as long as we both shall live.

Giving of the rings

Ringbearer (alex) to come up

Repeat after me:

Christian:

Michelle, With this ring I pledge my faithfulness and love

Michelle:

Christian, with this ring I pledge my faithfulness and love

Proclamation of marriage

And now before God and in the presence of us all,

you, Christian and Michelle have made your solemn pledge to each other.‌

Therefore according to the will of God, the laws of this land and the rites of the Reformed Churches of Australia,I declare and pronounce that you are now husband and wife,

in the name of God the Father, the Son,and the Holy Spirit.

‌

You may kiss the bride

‌

Signing of the registry

Chris to invite witnesses (mothers of couple, Christine and Lynette) to sign registry

Photographer to take photos

DJ to play background acoustic instrumentals during this time, after couple is seated and witnesses have been invited

DJ acoustics to end once couple have returned to stand in front of pastor

Song:

How deep the Father’s love for us x3 verses (Brendina and Herman to lead)

Prayer - Chris Pretorius

Christian and Michelle

May the grace of Christ, our Saviour,

and the Father’s boundless love,

with the Holy Spirit’s favour,

rest upon you, from above.

May you now remain in union,

with each other and the Lord,

and possess, in sweet communion,

joys that earth cannot afford.

God, the Father of Your people,

You have called them to be one;

grant them grace to walk together,

in the joy of Christ, Your Son.

Challenged by Your Word and Spirit,

blest with gifts from heaven above,

as one body let them serve You,

and bear witness to Your love.

Amen

Introduction of Mr and Mrs Christian and Michelle Andrasch

Ladies and Gentlemen,‌it gives me great pleasure to introduce you for the first time.

Mr and Mrs Christian and Michelle Andrasch‌

Recessional music to exit: Same - Lover acoustic, but start from 1:40