Wedding Sermon

Tanya and Anthony Wedding Ceremony

Processional (officiant, parents, and bridal party)

Bride Entrance

Welcome and Prayer

Reading / Message (Genesis 2:18-24)

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” 19 Now out of the ground, the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found a helper fit for him. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept, took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said,

“This, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”

24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Message on Being grafted to each other

Everyone longs to give themselves completely to someone, to have a deep soul relationship with another, to be loved thoroughly and exclusively.

But God, to the Christian says, “No, not until you are satisfied, fulfilled and content with being loved by Me alone, with giving yourself totally and unreserved to Me, with having an intensely personal and unique relationship with Me alone; discovering that only in Me is your satisfaction to be found, will you be capable of the perfect human relationship that I have planned for you.”

Marriage is the Display of God

The most foundational thing to see from the Bible about marriage is that it is God’s doing. And the most ultimate thing to see from the Bible about marriage is that it is for God’s glory. Those are the two points I have to make. Most foundationally, marriage is the doing of God. Most ultimately, marriage is the display of God. Let’s allow the Bible to impress these things on us one at a time.

Marriage Was Gods Design

Marriage is God’s doing because it was his design in the creation of man as male and woman. Of course, this was plain earlier in Genesis 1:27-28, “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.’”

God Gave Away the First Bride

Marriage is God’s doing because he personally took the dignity of being the first Father to give away the bride. Genesis 2:22, “And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.” He didn’t hide her and make Adam seek. He made her; then, he brought her. In a profound sense, he had fathered her. And now, though she was his by creation, he gave her to the man in this new kind of relationship called marriage, unlike every other relationship in the world.

God Spoke the Design of Marriage into Existence

Marriage is God’s doing because God not only created the woman with this design and brought her to the man like a Father brings his daughter to her husband, but also because God spoke the design of marriage into existence. He did this in verse 24: “Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” “Therefore, marriage is God’s doing because he spoke the earliest design of it into existence — “A man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

God Performs the One-Flesh Union

The fourth way that marriage is God’s doing: Becoming one flesh, which is at the heart of what marriage is, is a union that God himself performs. (illustrate the bone graft)

Verse 24 is God’s words of institution for marriage. But just as it was God who took the woman from the flesh of man (Genesis 2:21), it is God who in each marriage ordains and performs a uniting called one flesh that is not in man’s power to destroy. Josh has inscribed in his ring the words from The Song of Solomon 2:16 “”My beloved is mine, and I am his.” Another great picture of the grafting and union of husband and wife. It is implicit here in Genesis 2:24, but Jesus makes it explicit in Mark 10:8-9. He quotes Genesis 2:24 then adds a comment that explodes like thunder with the glory of marriage. “‘The two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

God joins a husband and a wife into a one-flesh union. God does that. God does that!

Marriage is for God’s Glory

The most ultimate thing to see in the Bible about marriage is that it exists for God’s glory. Most foundationally, marriage is the doing of God. Most ultimately, marriage is the display of God. It is designed by God to display his glory in a way that no other event or institution is.

The most ultimate thing we can say about marriage is that it exists for God’s glory. That is, it exists to display God. Now we see how: Marriage patterned after Christ’s covenant relationship to the church. And therefore, the highest meaning and the most ultimate purpose of marriage is to put the covenant relationship of Christ and his church on display. That is why marriage exists. If you are married, that is why you are married.

We do not take this covenant lightly. In fact, in Ephesians 5 Tonya, it shows your relationship to your husband as to Christ, and Joshua, it commands you to love your wife as Christ loves the church and gave himself up for her.

Staying married, therefore, is not about staying in love. It is about keeping your commitment to each other. “Till death do us part,” or, “As long as we both shall live,” it is a sacred covenant and promise — the same kind Jesus made with his bride when he died for her.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (most clearly pictures what loves is and what it is not)

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.

Vows

"[Anthony/Tanya], do you take [Anthony/Tanya] to be your lawful wedded wife/husband?" "Do you promise to love and cherish her/him, in sickness and in health, for richer for poorer, for better for worse, and forsaking all others, keep yourself only unto her/him, for so long as you both shall live?" "Do you together promise in the presence of your friends and family that you will at all times and in all circumstances, conduct yourselves toward one another as becomes a husband and wife?" [Together, they respond, "We do."] "Do you together promise you will love, cherish and respect one another throughout the years?" [Together they respond, "We do, this is our solemn vow]

Ring Vows

ANTHONY, as you place the ring on your BRIDE’s finger, please repeat after me: Just as this circle is without end, my love for you is never-ending. With this ring, I take you to be my wife; I offer you my heart, my hand, and my love. With all that I am… With all that I have… I will honor you as my wife forevermore.

Tonya, as you place the ring on the GROOM’s finger, please repeat after me: Just as this circle is without end, my love for you is never-ending. With this ring, I take you to be my Husband. I offer you my heart, my hand, and my love. With all that I am… With all that I have… I will honor you as my husband forevermore

Anthony and Tonya, I now pronounce you husband and wife, Joshua, you may now kiss your bride. Let me be the first to present to you Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Edwards.

Recessional