Wedding Service for Andy & Kennedy

The Importance of a Relationship with God...

I want to start by saying that it is a privilege to be a part of this celebration today as Andy and Kennedy commit themselves to each other, to have and to hold, to love and to cherish as long as they both shall live.

Andy & Kennedy has asked me to share from a couple of Scripture passages that they have chosen.

Let’s read from

Ephesians 4:2–6 NLT

Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, in all, and living through all.

This passage speaks to all areas of our lives. Today, we are here to bring a couple together. They will no longer be separate, but they will be joined or united in marriage.

As Christians, we don’t believe that this is just a civil union, but this is something that God has brought together. This is a foundation that has been built right from the story of creation, with Adam and Eve.

Genesis 2:23–24 NLT

“At last!” the man exclaimed. “This one is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh! She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken from ‘man.’ ” This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.

Jesus added to this in the gospels where He said,

Matthew 19:6 NLT

Since they are no longer two but one, let no one split apart what God has joined together.”

This afternoon, I want to share about God’s design that we call relationship.

God created us for relationship, with each other and also with Him.

When He was creating humans, He said,

“It is not good for man to be alone.”

Maybe it would have been enough for Adam to have had relationship only with God, but God designed us to have each other.

Let’s look at human relationships, and then having a relationship with God.

There are different levels of relationship, and because of this, our love is different in each kind of relationship.

Let’s start with

The basis of any healthy relationship...

is putting each other first.

Healthy relationships never work well with a me first attitude.

This is for marriage, family, friends, and even relationships around work.

The apostle Paul described it well in verses 2-3.

Ephesians 4:2–3 (NLT)

Always be humble and gentle...

Be patient with each other..,

making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.

Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit...

binding yourselves together with peace.

Misunderstandings, words spoken, disagreements...

These are bound to happen in relationships…but fighting doesn’t strengthen our relationships, it can destroy relationships if we allow bitterness to fester and grow.

I want to say something more, as Andy, Kennedy, Donna, and I went through the Alpha Pre-marriage course, two different animals were described as personality types, and each of us are somewhere along the spectrum.

What animals you might ask? Rhinos and Hedgehogs.

The Rhino charges into conflict and the Hedgehog rolls up into a ball, and avoids conflict.

If conflict is left under the surface for too long, it will eventually boil up to the surface.

We’ve probably seen it in our families as we were growing up or even at different times in our working relationships. Some blow off steam right away and want to move on, while others internalize it and it comes to the surface later.

Deal with issues quickly, with gentleness and respect.

Pride says that I need to be right. Humility says that I want to honour you.

Proverbs 16:18 NLT

Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall.

Pride does not care about how somebody else feels. Pride will not bow or bend. Pride looks only at what I can gain from the situation.

It was pride that caused the devil to fall, as he wanted to usurp God’s authority.

Proverbs 15:1 NLT

A gentle answer deflects anger, but harsh words make tempers flare.

Growing up, I didn’t like the silent treatment. My dad probably gave me the silent treatment because if he spoke, I probably would have liked that even less.

Healthy relationships grow

when we are patient with each other...

and willing to accept each others faults...

We don’t need to compromise high standards, but showing grace to each other while we are working out our stuff is important.

Get over it…Grow up… Seriously...

Some words are better thought, than spoken. Harsh words can break a spirit.

We can regret our words, but we can never take our words back.

Let’s be quick to apologize when words and attitudes have come out. Let’s be quick to forgive each other. This doesn’t mean that we keep the door open to abuse and mistreatment.

Now I’m going to change focus a little bit, but our relationship with God will reflect on how we treat each other. We can’t fix broken, but God can.

Ephesians 4:4 NLT

For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future.

You have been called to one glorious hope for the future. When we commit our lives to Christ, when we come into relationship with Jesus Christ, we have been promised hope that there eternal life.

1 Peter 1:3–5 NIV

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

One day as Jesus was teaching, He was asked about marriage and if a person was married more than once who would be the woman’s husband in heaven. Jesus told them that they really didn’t get what heaven was going to be like. People won’t marry in heaven.

So an expert in the law asked Him what the greatest commandment was, and this is what Jesus said,

Matthew 22:37–40 (NIV)

...“ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’

This is the first and greatest commandment.

And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Relationships need to be based on love. First, loving God.

He has already proven how much He loves us.

1 John 4:9–11 NIV

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

We make a lot of life changing decisions, but you will never decide to make a more life changing decision than to have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

Paul describes a husband’s relationship with his wife as compared to Jesus and the church.

Ephesians 5:25–27 NIV

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

This is quite a picture of selflessness. Jesus laying down His life, dying so that we could be pleasing to God.

Husbands, we need to love our wives with that same kind of love.