Paul and Zhanna's Wedding

Introduction

Paul, Zhanna I want you to stop and take a deep breath. After all the planning and work. After all the waiting and phone calls. After all the joys, laughs, stressing, and crying you made it and what I would love for you to do for me is to stop and take a look around this room.

Look at all of these people who came here today to support you. To celebrate with you. To encourage you and send you all their love. I know that I myself and everyone here with you today are so excited to watch you Paul and you Zhanna take this next step in life together as we watch this wonderful, beautiful miracle today before God as a man and a woman become one flesh.

Preparing before the wedding I was able to FaceTime Paul and Zhanna and briefly speak about their desire for the direction of the short word and I loved their answer. It was so genuine. The one thing they said to make sure was addressed was the gospel and I believe that is such a good reflection of who I know Paul and Zhanna to be. Paul I’ve known you my whole life but the last few years I have seen you take your relationship with Jesus so much deeper. Zhanna I’ve known a shorter time, but immediately I could see the passion of your heart and that was Jesus and to reflect Him to the world around you. When two people who come together that love Jesus immensely you know that something amazing is about to happen. So today I just want to talk to you guys about three things that I believe will help you build a lasting foundation as you take this huge step together.

1) Serve relentlessly

As you walk out your marriage together Paul and Zhanna you will see that quickly self centered ness must die. Self-centeredness is a havoc wreaking problem in marriage and it is the ever present enemy of every marriage. In reality selfishness is the default mode for humans and it is much easier to live selfishly than it is to live selflessly.

Philippians 2:5–8 NIV

5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!

tells us though that Christ being in very nature God took it upon himself to take on the nature of a servant and serve humanity to the point of death on the cross and we as believers model that with our lives.

Phillipians 2:5-8

tells us though that Christ being in very nature God took it upon himself to take on the nature of a servant and serve humanity to the point of death on the cross and we as believers model that with our lives.

The example of Jesus as He laid down His life for his bride. He lived among sinful humanity without counting his equality with God a thing to be grasped. Through the power of that Gospel message we receive the power through the Holy Spirit to walk this out towards our spouse. Serving relentlessly.

In essence you must lose yourselves to find your true selves. A true biblical marriage is daily dying to self and living for the glory of God. The more time we spend looking at God and obeying Him ourselves the more we will grow in our faith and in loving and cherishing our spouses.

2) Love when the emotions don’t line up

Now if you speak to anyone in the room that has been married for some time they will tell you. Marriage is always perfect and you are always extremely in love and in fact my spouse makes it just so easy to love them. If this has crossed your mind I want to break it to you that this is simply not true. In fact people change so often throughout their lives that it seems as if you are married to a different person almost every 5 year, but we weren’t called to love people for just a certain time frame.

When Jesus died on the cross it was not easy. He took on human flesh, was beaten, and marred, and died innocently for His enemies. At no point could His love be based upon our goodness or action. While we were still sinners Christ died for us.

Marital love Paul and Zhanna is sacrificial love.It is love that adapts to the changes in your spouse. It is love that seeks to give your spouse what they need in the way they need it. This will involve finding out and loving them in their love language.

As you stand up here today you are making a covenant with each other and with God. A covenant is a beautiful blend of love nad of law. A covenant doesn’t throw away freedom, but rather says I will use my freedom to love them through and through. To love them even when I don’t feel the emotions to love.

3) Build a friendship that lasts

Paul the mission of marriage for you is to see Zhanna conformed to the image of Jesus. Zhanna the mission for you in marriage is to see Paul conformed to the image of Jesus. Friendship in marriage is a means to fulfill this mission. This is our mission as believers to pursue a true friendship with Jesus and in turn we pursue a true friendship with our spouse. In fact in marriage our spouses should be our best friends. As you two walk out your marriage your highest aim should be to see them become the person God is creating them to be. This is what your friendship with each other should embody. Sex, fun, romance and all the rest are byproducts of the ultimate aim of seeing our spouses become holier.

Our culture has twisted the view that friendship is vital for marriage and that a spouse should be chosen on that very basis. Rather than screening people based upon sex appeal or financial partnership we need to find a spouse who can be a good companion and from the looks of it you both have been building an extremely strong friendship.