Wedding: Nathaniel and Alecia Simpson

Standard Overview

Prelude

Processional

Presentation of the Bride

Call to worship

Preface (“We have come together . . .”)

Charge

Consent (“Will you take . . .”)

Prayer/invocation

Scripture readings

Homily

Vows

Rings

Pronouncement (“Forasmuch as . . .”)

Prayer(s) and benediction

Kiss

Introduction of the bride and groom

Recessional

Postlude

Hughes, R. Kent. The Pastor's Book (p. 138). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

Prelude

Processional

Please stand.

Presentation of the Bride

Pastor: Who entrusts this woman today, to be married to this man?

Father: Her Mother and I.

Father can kiss and hug the daughter and give her to the groom.

Hymn??

If Hymn Move Mark 10:6-8 up and say: Let us worship God now as we prepare to bear witness to the marriage of Nathaniel Simpson and Alecia Gutche.

Welcome

Good afternoon! My name is Cole Shinall and I have the great privilege of serving as Nathaniel’s Pastor.

We are grateful to gather here today to celebrate a joyous and momentous occasion.

One of the great blessings any two people can share.

We are gathered together to celebrate the holy wedding of Nathaniel Simpson and Alecia Gutche.

Our Lord Jesus said Mark 10:6-8 From the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ 7 ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, 8 and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh.

We have come together in the sight of God and this congregation of family and friends to join together Nathaniel and Alecia in holy matrimony, which was instituted by God himself at the beginning of world with Adam and Eve for:

Our blessing.

The procreation of children to raise them in the fear and admonition of the Lord.

And most of all to show us the glory of the spiritual union the Church shares with Christ through His sinless life, sacrificial death, and bodily resurrection.

Christ has wed the church to Himself for our salvation. Therefore Hebrews 13:4 says Let marriage be held in honor among all, and that our purpose here today.

Honor Christ and see these two married!

Charge and Consent

Nathaniel and Alecia, today you are presenting yourselves before your family and friends to join yourselves together in marriage to become one flesh and share one life as long as you two may live to the glory of God.

You stand here making two commitments:

First, to one another.

To love one another and commit to one another all the days of your life in both prosperity and adversity without wavering.

And…most of all...to God.

That your marriage would be a window to the world that displays Christ’s love for His church, and the Church’s commitment to love and follow Him.

So Nathaniel, given these commitments and the promises entailed with them, will you have Alecia to be your loving wife?

Will you love, honor, and cherish her, forsaking all others, promising remain faithful to her as long as you two shall live?

“I will.”

Alecia, will you have Nathaniel to be your loving husband? Will you love, honor, and cherish him, forsaking all others, promising to remain faithful to him as long as you both shall live?

“I will.”

Then let’s begin your life together with a prayer for God’s blessing.

Prayer

Five Things

Now before we get to the vows, I wanted to help set the stage for why Nathaniel and Alecia want to be married in the first place.

We are here, after all, to celebrate their love for one another and the commitment they are about to make.

But what’s unique about days like today is that some of you are here because you know and love Alecia, but you don’t really know Nathaniel.

Others of you know and love Nathaniel but not necessarily Alecia.

(The rest of you, I regret to inform you, must have gotten lost and accidentally ended up at the wrong wedding).

So to help us enjoy and celebrate their love for one another, I asked Nathaniel and Alecia to each give me 5 things that they love about the other.

They don’t know what the other person wrote, and I want to share them with you now.

Groom

First, we’ll start with Nathaniel and why he loves Alecia, but given that smile its not hard to tell why.

Bride

Now for Alecia.

Transition to Sermon

These 10 things give everyone here a picture of how much you love one another. After all, that’s why we are all here today.

But here’s what’s truly amazing...

Your love for one another, as great as it is, is only just a shadow of Christ’s great love for us.

Ultimately, your marriage will endure and will be a continual source of life and blessing to each of you as you remember that, before anything else, God calls your marriage to glorify Him.

To use the covenant you are making here today to show the world a glimpse...a small picture of the kind of covenant-keeping love Christ has for us in the gospel.

Sermon

Because that is what every marriage is ultimately for…the glory of Christ.

Its a window to the gospel.

As I thought about what I wanted to say today, how to best serve you and commission you in your marriage, I thought the best way, the best thing I could do for you, was ignore everyone else, and speak to you directly.

To set Christ at the center of your marriage and charge you to make your marriage all about Him.

Ephesians 5:31-32 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

According to Paul, Marriage is all about Christ.

It is a picture of Christ and His Church.

And that’s the one thing I want to leave you with today.

Make your marriage a picture of the gospel.

In doing so you will not only reap all the blessings that God has given us in marriage, but you will also build a marriage to do the greatest thing a marriage could ever do: Exalt the name of Christ.

In Ephesians 5, the great chapter on marriage, Paul gives two commands...

One to the husband and one two the wife.

And in these commands, not only do the blessings of marriage begin to flow, but in obeying them the marriage itself begins to proclaim a great and wonderful mystery...

The love of Christ for the Church and the Church’s love for Christ in return.

To the Groom

Paul says Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church (Eph 5:25).

Nathaniel, every man that has ever been married will tell you, that is the hardest thing you will ever do.

The life God calls you to as a husband is one of constantly dying.

Dying to your self, laying down your life, for the good and blessing of your life.

Listen to what Paul says: Ephesians 5:25-30 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

That is what Christ came to do for us.

The eternal Son of God took on human flesh to offer His life as a sacrifice for our sins.

He gave Himself up for the Church, for any who would believe in His name, to sanctify her. Cleanse her.

That He might present the Church to Himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.

Christ died for us and suffered the wrath of God on our behalf to present us to Himself holy and without blemish.

All because of His great love for us.

The same kind of love Paul calls you to have towards your wife.

Paul says you are her head, even as Christ is the head of the Church (Ephesians 5:23).

And as the head, God calls you to take responsibility for your wife.

To love and cherish her as your own body.

As Adam said, Bone of your bone…flesh of your flesh (Gen. 2:23).

Ephesians 5: In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.

God has given you a great blessing in giving you a beloved wife.

Proverbs 18:22 He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor [that is grace] from the Lord.

In the same way that Christ laid down His life for the blessing and benefit of the Church, God calls you to lay down your life for your wife.

In all things to use the authority God has entrusted to you as the head to serve not yourself, but the benefit of her, and any children that God would give you.

In this way, you as a husband proclaim the glory and grace of Christ.

His love and tender care for the church.

Make your marriage a picture of the gospel and show the world the love of Christ in laying down His life for the Church.

To the Bride

Now Alecia, Ephesians 5 calls to you...

Ephesians 5:22-24 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church...Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

And later Paul defines this submission as respect.

Alecia, as a wife, you have the great privilege of showing the world the glory of Christ.

His trustworthiness. Faithfulness. Goodness.

All by submitting to and respecting your husband in the Lord.

Because at the end of the day, as you follow Nathaniel, a sinful and fallen man, just like any other man, you are not showing your faith in Nathaniel, as much as you are showing your faith in the Lord Jesus as you trust and follow him.

Your obedience to your husband…the love and respect you show him is not a lesser position in your marriage.

In fact, the glory of marriage would be incomplete without it.

How you submit to and follow Nathaniel as he leads you and your family in the Lord, is meant to be a picture of how the church is called to love and submit to Christ.

And the glory of that is, what you are ultimately doing as a wife is showing the world the glory of Christ’s love and goodness and how worthy He is our whole-hearted love and submission to Him.

Not to mention, Nathaniel can’t do it without you.

God gave Adam Eve, because Adam needed a helper suitable for him to glorify God and fulfill God’s call on your life.

Just like Nathaniel needs you.

An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels…She does him good…all the days of her life (Proverbs 31:10).

Make your marriage a picture of the gospel and show the world the glory of Christ’s goodness and faithfulness and how worthy He is of our whole hearted love and devotion to Him.

Conclusion

A man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church (Ephesians 5:31-32).

A Christian marriage is a glorious window into the most glorious love this world has ever known.

Yes…marriage is a great blessing.

One of the greatest blessings we could ever know.

Someone to share our highs, our lows and encourage us and enrich every part of our life.

It is also the way God provides the great blessing of children which the Bible says are a heritage from the Lord…blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! (Psalm 127:3, 5).

But marriage is so much more than that.

Its a picture of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Of His covenant love for us in taking on human flesh and wedding us to Himself in His sinless life, sacrificial death, and bodily resurrection to pay for all of our sins and give us eternal life.

And the covenant you are making today, is a small picture of that Covenant God has made with us and for all who believe.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

Nathaniel and Alecia, this is the foundation of your marriage.

You are both a son and daughter of God, born again to glorify his Name and are joining together today to show the world the kind of love, grace, and mercy the Father freely offers us in Christ.

By God’s grace, let your marriage and the way you love one another from this day forward, be a picture of Christ’s amazing, covenant-keeping love for his Church.

Now has come the time we’ve all been waiting for. Are you ready to celebrate your covenant love for one another in marriage?

“Yes.”

Vows

Then please turn and face each other and join hands.

Nathaniel, repeat after me.

I Nathaniel

Take you, Alecia

to be my wedded wife,

to have and to hold from this day forward,

for better or for worse,

for richer or for poorer,

in sickness and in health,

to love and to cherish,

to lead and protect

all the days of my life.

With God as my witness,

I give you my promise.

Now Alecia, will you repeat after me.

I Alecia, take you, Nathaniel

to be my wedded husband,

to have and to hold from this day forward,

for better or for worse,

for richer or for poorer,

in sickness and in health,

to love and to cherish,

to respect and obey

all the days of my life

with God as my witness,

I give you my promise.

Rings

Nathaniel and Alecia will now exchange rings as a symbol of love and commitment to each other.

These rings are a reminder of your covenant, and a symbol of the lifelong commitment that you have made to each other and to the Lord.

Nathaniel, please take Alecia’s ring and place it on her finger, holding it there and repeat these words.

Alecia, I give you this ring

as a symbol of my love and commitment to you

and with all that I am,

and all that I have,

I promise to love and honor you

In the name of the Father,

and of the Son,

and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Alecia, take Nathaniel’s ring and place it on his finger, holding it there and repeat after me.

Nathaniel, I give you this ring

as a symbol of my love and commitment to you

and with all that I am,

and all that I have,

I promise to love and honor you

In the name of the Father,

and of the Son,

and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Pronouncement and Kiss

And now by the power vested in me by the One True God of Heaven and Earth and our Lord Jesus Christ it is my honor to pronounce you man and wife.

Nathaniel, you may kiss your bride.

Ladies and Gentlemen, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, it is my great joy to present to you Mr. and Mrs. Nathaniel Simpson!

Recessional

Postlude

Instructions

Please rise for the benediction:

The Lord bless you and keep you;

the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;

the Lord lift up his face upon you and give you peace.