Stave-Jacobson

Wedding Tammy Stave / Brian Jacobson   9.18.99

Texts:  Song 8.7   1 Cor 13.4-8,13    1 John 4.9-12

love in the verses, love in the air, romantic setting

fitting for a couple, both of whom say it was love at first sight

and romantic: at Luigis, he left their table on the upper balcony, went below, had her look in pocket for the ring

T & B are in love (getting married), but they also aware of the realities of the daily grind; challenges of managing careers; of raising children, finding time together

they know love but they also know life, and oftentimes the facts of life can overwhelm the feelings of love

impt to make distinction between LUV and LOVE

basically diff between feeling and action

LUV as a feeling is okay, desirable BUT LUV is fickle

LOVE is an action and it is this love that is described in 1 Cor 13:

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

A goal of Xn life in general and Xn couple in particular is to have this love become natural but it always remains something we practice, choose to do: Love one another!

and now I am quoting from the 1 John passage you chose

hope you realize what an awesome command and challenge this is: love one another!

But know that w/ every command God gives, God also gives the way to make it possible to keep

Look at verse: Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.

it is God’s love for you that makes it poss to love one another

in fact, I am convinced that it is God’s love that brings you to this day

God at work in the friends that brought you together;

God was present at that moment of love at first sight; there at Luigis

and God will continue to be present with you in the midst of sickness and health and better and worse and all that the years may bring

today not only celebrate your marriage but also celebrate this love of God which is being manifested in your relationship.

And throughout your marriage, I pray that you will not only LUV each other but also LOVE one another just as God loves you. AMEN.