The Marriage of Ed And Christina

Cherished friends and family, it is my great privilege and honor to welcome you to this sacred and blessed moment as Ed and Chris are joined together in Holy Matrimony.

That you are here today shows that you both love and are loved by these two wonderful people whose lives become one today.

As a pastor, I have had the blessing of being a part of many such occasions. But it isn’t every day that you get to officiate your sister’s wedding, or for me to meet face to face with those that she has loved well and built lasting relationships with in her day to day life.

Each one of you is special to Ed and Chris for different reasons and they consider themselves blessed to have you here with them on their special day. Thank you for being here with us, and for setting time aside to celebrate this moment when they will enter into a covenant with God that will endure for the rest of their lives.

Today is not just about the joining of two lives, but the weaving of a new story-one that is grounded not in perfect pasts, but in faithful futures.

This is not unlike each one of us in our relationship with God.

We come to God as imperfect sinners, marred by our choices and stained by our pasts.

And yet, in Christ, we find new life and a hope that will endure.

A stained-glass window welds together many pieces and fragments that on their own have beauty, but together as one they stand as something far greater. And so it shall be today with you, Ed and Chris. May the many moments of beauty, joy, pain, and struggle you have experienced before this day be fused together for a future far greater than either of you could experience by yourself.

Before we turn our attention towards that future and the promises you are here to make to each other and to God, I must ask that if there is anyone present that has just cause that these two should not be wed, may he speak now or forever hold his peace.

Let us go to the Lord in prayer:

King Jesus, we come before you today on this blessed occasion, and we ask that you would fill this place with your presence.

May all who are present here to witness this day feel you moving among us.

Be with Ed and Christina as they make promises to you and to each other.

May you seal their promises by the power of the Holy Spirit as binding in their hearts and minds.

May your blessing be upon them, both now and throughout the life they will share together.

We ask that in their marriage you would constantly draw each of them to you, so that they will also be drawn continually toward each other.

In their hours of greatest joy and deepest aching, would You stand as their pillar of strength and their strong fortress against the raging storm of life.

Would you make their marriage a testimony and witness to the goodness of who You are.

We thank you for bringing them together and for giving us this moment, the beginning of a lifetime before you.

We commit this ceremony and this union to you, and we ask you for your blessing over it in Jesus’ Name.

Amen.

From the dawn of creation, God’s intention has always been for the unity between a man and a woman that reflects the close spiritual relationship we have with Him.

Listen to His Word from Genesis chapter 2:

Genesis 2:15–24 NASB95

Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.” For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.

Ed and Chris, always remember that this relationship you are entering into is not just contractual; it is deeply spiritual.

From the very beginning, marriage was meant to point us to:

the unity that we witness between The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and that we experience with God when we follow Jesus.

It was meant to remind us of the companionship with Him, as we learn to communicate with another beyond what words can say.

In a world of brokenness, Genesis reminds us that God's plan is still beautiful: two lives becoming one, a picture of deep companionship and spiritual unity.

In marriage, you can experience the mutuality that can only shared among those who choose to selflessly love.

Love is the backbone of a strong and lasting marriage.

Love is not the goosebumps, the heart skips, and the wistful romance so fantasized in the world around us.

It is the blood, the sweat, the tears, and the hard work of what it means to put another above yourself.

Listen to what the Apostle Paul writes about love in 1 Corinthians 13:

1 Corinthians 13 NASB95

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.

This love that Paul speaks of is a picture of Jesus Himself.

It is selfless, constant and unconditional.

Ed and Chris, this is the kind of love on which you will build a strong and lasting marriage.

It is a love that is never conditioned on response.

It is a love that will always be growing, always pursuing the better of the other your own, and never surrendering to the easy way out.

This love does not deny the past, but it does not chain you to it. It believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Let the love of your marriage be centered on building each other up.

Let is be built on humility and the pursuit of outserving each other.

Always be the first to say I’m sorry.

Never go to bed angry.

Ephesians 5 tells us the root of marriage is mutual submission,

Ephesians 5:21 CSB

submitting to one another in the fear of Christ.

This submission looks different for husbands and wives, but it is submission none the less.

Chris, you are charged with following Ed’s leading, trusting that He will follow God’s leading and lead you both to the best version of yourselves.

Ed, you are charged with sacrificially loving Chris, lifting her good, her growth, and her relationship with God as your highest priority.

Marriage as God intended it to be is built on service, forgiveness, and honor.

It is the opportunity to learn what true selflessness is.

It is daily choosing to love your spouse with all of their imperfections and shortcomings, even the ones that infuriate you and drive you crazy, even if they never change them.

It is the opportunity to constantly grow and humbly better yourself as you see how your shortcomings impact your spouse, and you try to grow in those areas.

This day is special. It will stand among one of the most memorable and cherished days of your life.

But this day is just one day that serves as a doorway.+

A doorway to a life of choosing to love, forgive, believe, cherish, and pursue each other’s hearts.

A doorway to a life of sharing

Joys and laughter

Sorrows and tears

Moments of great celebration

Hours of deep heartbreak.

When a sorrow is shared, that sorrow is halved.

When a joy is shared, that joy is multiplied.

Our prayer for you as you turn towards your vowels is that your sorrows would continually diminish and your joys would overwhelmingly abound.

But when life carries you down into darker hours and lonely places, may you cling to each other and remember the promises of this day.

May forgiveness be the theme of your marriage, as you walk with each other through the fires of life.

May you lean into the joy the Lord has given you in each other.

And may you point each other towards the God that loves each of you even more than you love each other.

You’ve both lived enough life to know that love is not always easy. But you’ve also seen that it’s worth it. Let your story be a testament to redemption and to the goodness of God’s timing.

Ed and Chris, you have crafted your own vows to share with each other in the presence of God and these witnesses. I invite you to share them now as we share in your joy.

Vows are shared

May we have the rings that Ed and Chris are giving to each other?

These rings are not just symbols of love-but a reminder of a covenant with God and each other.

The ring is a circle, which reminds us of the unending nature of the promises you have just made.

The gold reminds us of the purifying refinement that God does in you through your marriage.

May it be that as you pursue God and each other that your lives resemble this gold more every day.

These rings remind you that you are not alone.

You are chosen.

You are loved.

Ed, would you take the ring you have for Chris and slide it onto her left ring finger. Repeat after me.

“Christina, with this ring I thee wed.”

Chris, would you likewise take the ring that you have for Ed and slide it onto his left ring finger. Repeat after me.

“Edward, with this ring, I thee wed.”

Let us pray,

Father, we lift up these promises, this covenant to you today. We ask that you would hold them to it in the easiest and hardest of seasons ahead. We ask that You would continually draw Ed and Chris to yourself, and that through this You draw them closer to each other. Lord, we pray that you would bless them abundantly with every spiritual blessing, and that their love for each other would be driven by their pursuit of you. In Jesus’ name we pray.

Amen.

“May the Lord bless you and keep you; may His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May your love be rooted in grace, strengthened in faith, and sustained by hope.”

It is my privilege to pronounce you Husband and Wife in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

You may kiss the bride!

Friends and family. I present to you Mr. & Mrs. Edward Teng.