Eddie and Lisa

Introduction/Devotional

"Dear friends, Eddie and Lisa….. we’re here today to celebrate your commitment to what God has done, is doing, and will do in your relationship. As you gather today here in front of your friends and each other….there is an amazing amount of rich symbolism at play today. As you walked down the path to arrive here…just now….it touches on your journey here to this place. While the road here looks different for everyone, it is good to remember that while man may have plans, God lifts our foot and places it where He sees fit.

You now find yourself standing together. Many have stood in a place that you find yourselves in. From here on out….you are together. Often occupying the same place but even when apart….you are together. As we read in Matthew 19, What God has brought together let no one separate.

As I have heard your story and walked with you as your pastor, you have touched how God has brought you together. He was the guide to your steps that led you to one another.

No one wishes for a pandemic…and yet…in a pandemic…you found one another. Talking on the phone and over time believing you had found your forever person. Whether it be your first date at the Grotto or caring for one aother through difficult times of health, your path has led you to this moment.

You have shared life together….but I want to tell you that the commitment you are making today marks a new journey. On one hand, you will go home. Your house, your hobbies, your friends and family….not much will have changed.

But today, is marking a change in you. A commitment to declaring out loud before your friends, myself, and lovely walkers on the path…We will commit to sacrificially love one another for the rest of our lives. You are different when making this declaration. This declaration changes you.

Because the love of God changes us and, since we are changed, we commit to continue to being changed by God.

1 Cor 13:4-7 lets us know….love is patient, love is kind. Love keeps no record of wrongs. If you can strive for those three things…..you can have a magnificent marriage. But the way of God continues in the verse…It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;

This declaration changes you but the sin in our lives wants to turn us back, to put us back into the way we were. Love is the way we fight that temptation. We do not insist on our own way…we are thankful for one another to battle against resentment…

Love rejoices with the truth…honesty in a marriage is an underrated attractive quality of good marriages. Someone I can say anything to. Someone who can hear anything. keeping in mind that we are still to be kind.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. I know that the last few years have had challenges. Your path has not always been rose petals, and sunrises. But that is where the goodness of God shines…is in dark moments that we give over to Him. In those moments, Love bears, believes, hopes and endures.

I wish I could stand up here and with a straight face tell you that from here on out, your committment to walk together in all things will keep dark moments away. But that is not true.

I rejoice with the truth that you will not face dark moments alone from here on out. You will have a friend, a partner, who bears, believes, hopes and endures on the days you want to give up. Together, you will showcase the love Christ has shown you…you will showcase that to each other and you will showcase that to any you come across. Friends, family, strangers…people will know you love Jesus in the way you love one another.

In a way that your part today….you declaring that you agree to showcase Christ’s love to one another.

Your friends who are witnessing this declaration, myself included. We have a part to play.

There may likely come a time…where Eddie and Lisa hit a moment that is discouraging. The temptation to give up this agreement of showcasing the Love of Christ to one another begins to falter. As their community, as their friends, we declare that we will bear, believe, hope and endure along with them. We will say the truth in kindness, we will let them borrow our belief in what God can do through them.

I don’t even have to ask if we are willing to do this, I can tell from your faces and my heart. We agree to continue to be your community.

Finally, as I was preparing these remarks, I desperately want to remind you. Without God, the road eventually leads back to the opposite of love. Don’t hear the things I have said and think…We are going to do this.

Eddie, Lisa….continue to develop and hone a desperate need for the Lord. Individually….and together as husband and wife. All the things I have said….without God, are impossible to achieve. Because we are human. Because we come up short. Put your hope in the Lord. When you do, watch as the love Christ as given you…his forgiveness, his mercy, his grace….watch as they supernaturally change your own hearts and the heart of your marriage into something extraordinarily beautiful.

Let us pray for what will do with this amazing relationship

PRAYER

God, as you join us today, we ask for your blessings upon this couple as they unite in marriage. Let all their days together be happy and all their words to each other be sweet.In all things, may they be together in love and spirit. Bless their home and allow it to be a place of joy and serenity. Remind them to nurture each other with mutual love, honor and respect. As they learn from one another, may they grow stronger in You as individuals and closer to You as a couple. May they shout from the rooftops their declaration to love You and love one another. Amen.

Private Vows:

You now have a moment to exchange personal vows with one another.

PUBLIC VOWS

Officiant: “ EDDIE… do you take LISA to be your wife? Do you promise to love, honor, cherish and protect him/her, forsaking all others and holding only to him/her for the rest of your life?”

“ LISA… do you take EDDIE to be your husband Do you promise to love, honor, cherish and protect him/her, forsaking all others and holding only to him/her for the rest of your life?”

Groom/Bride: “I do.”--

Exchange of Rings:

"These rings symbolize your unending love and commitment to each other. Just as these rings have no end, may your love continue forever.EDDIE, as you place this ring on Lisa’s finger….With this ring, do you promise to seek the good of Lisa sacrificially and honor her all of your days?

Groom says I do and places ring on Lisa’s finger

LISA… as you place this ring on EDDIE’S finger, repeat after me: With this ring, do you promise to seek the good of Eddie sacrificially and honor him all of your days?

Bride says I do and places ring on Lisa’s finger

Conclusion:

"By the authority given to me by the state and as a minister of the Gospel, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss your bride."

(Pause for the kiss.)

Final Blessing:

"May God bless you and keep you, may He guide you and give you peace, now and always. May you now walk the path together as Eddie and Lisa Roesselet

PLAY IN CHRIST ALONE -