Wedding: Kelsey & Kevin

Wedding Ceremony for Kelsey Guyette & Kevin Anderson

Friday, October 15, 2021

3:00 pm

Order of Service

Prelude Music Seating of the Grandparents

Processional Welcome/Prayer

Giving of the Couple Who gives this couple to be married together in marriage? (“Her Mother and I do.”)

Marriage Address Tom Steele Well, you made it! What a beautiful May the fourth it is! Kevin, you clean up alright! Kelsey, you look beautiful! Kelsey! Isn’t good to finally be here? You have had quite an adventure to get to this point; a few ups and a few downs, but here you are…ready to become husband and wife. It’s been a pleasure getting to know both of you at Iowa City Church and through our counseling. You have done a great job trying to prepare for this new adventure in your life, this adventure of marriage. I’m excited to see how God works in your lives and in your marriage!

So, here you both are ready to get married. But once this day is over, then what? What does tomorrow bring? Everything to this point has been focused on getting married, but what about tomorrow? What is the purpose of your marriage? A house with a picket fence, full of little Kevins and Kelseys? Is a minivan in your future? Or is it your careers that are next in line? Where is this all heading? Jesus gives us a goal, a direction to take our marriages. Listen to what he says.

5 and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” ~ Mt. 19.5-6

The key word in what Jesus teaches is the word one. The goal of marriage is oneness. A man who is one with God through Jesus and a woman who is one with God through Jesus, coming together to be one; one physically, emotionally and spiritually. Marriage is about oneness.

It’s truly a beautiful and mysterious thing…this oneness of marriage. You don’t see it every day, but there are times when I meet couples who have been married for 50, 60 years and you can see it. Though time has caught up with them physically, they are one…they look similar, they finish each other’s sentences, they are one in purpose and goals.

This oneness can be accomplished but it is not easy! Selfishness, pride, and sin sneak in and it doesn’t take long for that goal of oneness to be put to the side. There have literally been a lot of people who have stood where you are not standing, making the same promises, heading out on the same adventure...but a lot of them have not made it. How are you going to be different? What is it going to take to push through these detours? Two things:

1. Jesus. Keep Jesus at the center of everything you do. Jesus is the one sent to us from God to make all things one again. That’s kind of his job, to take broken things and make them one again. If you keep Jesus at the center of your marriage, you have a key ingredient in making your marriage one.

2. Sacrificial Love. You each need to make a daily decision to love one another. Now, when I say love, I’m not talking about whatever that thing is you see in movies or on TV shows. I’m not talking about those fickle feelings that come and go…I’m talking about true love. Jesus gives us an example of this just hours before he demonstrates it on the cross. Listen to what he teaches his disciples in the upper room.

12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” ~ John 15:12-13

Kevin, each day when you wake up, make it a priority to lay down your life for Kelsey. Your greatest goal in life is not inventing a new musical instrument, getting another dog, your career. Your greatest goal is laying down your life for Kelsey so that you can be one. Kelsey, each day when you wake up, make it a priority to lay down your life for Kevin. I know that you are driven by goals, a career, I’m sure the list is long, but before them all you must lay down your life for Kevin if you are to become one. We know that this works because Jesus laid down his life for us so that we could become one with God. Kelsey and Kevin, if you daily follow Christ’s example—I guarantee that you will reach your goal of finding oneness in your marriage.

Let me close with the apostle Paul’s instruction to the church in Corinth. A very divided church…that desperately needs love to become one. Here’s what’s ironic about the words the Paul writes, we use them on wedding days…and rightfully so. However, they are needed even more in the midst of conflict…or those days when you are ready to give up. Pull out 1 Corinthians 13 and read these words:

“If I speak in the tongues n of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, u but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails.” ~ 1 Corinthians 13:1-8

QUESTIONING:

We two become one, the make promises or vows to each demonstrating their commitment to each other. You have both chosen to write your vows to share with each. Kevin would you share your vows with Kelsey? Kelsey, share your vows with Kevin.

EXCHANGE OF RINGS:

May I have the rings you have chosen to seal these vows? These rings are the symbols you have chosen to represent the covenant you now make with each other. They are more than precious metal. They are a precious promise of love and faithfulness. Wear them proudly!

(Kevin, placing the ring on Kelsey’s finger, Kevin repeat after me:)

I, Kevin, take you Kelsey, to be my wife . . . to have and to hold from this day forward . . . for better, for worse . . . for richer, for poorer . . . in sickness and in health . . . to love and to cherish . . . ‘till death do us part . . . according to God’s holy ordinance . . . and, thereto, I pledge you my love.

(Kelsey, placing the ring on Kevin’s finger, will repeat after me:)

I, Kelsey, take you Kevin, to be my husband . . . to have and to hold from this day forward . . . for better, for worse . . . for richer, for poorer . . . in sickness and in health . . . to love and to cherish . . . ‘till death do us part . . . according to God’s holy ordinance . . . and, thereto, I pledge you my love.

UNITY CANDLE & SIGNING OF THE MARRIAGE LICSENSE:

Until today you have been two. Today you become one. To symbolize this oneness, each of you take your candle and together light the one candle that demonstrates your unity.

PRONOUNCEMENT:

Because Kevin and Kelsey have consented together in holy matrimony and have declared their vows before God and this congregation, I now pronounce you husband and wife!

TO THE GROOM: "You may kiss your bride."

INTRODUCTION OF THE COUPLE:

It is now my pleasure and honor to present to you for the very first time, Mr. and Mrs. Kevin Anderson.

RECESSIONAL