Brian & Terry Windham's Wedding

CHARGE TO THE BRIDE & GROOM

Brian and Terry, it’s been a joy to get to know you both even better over the past few months as we’ve prepared for this day.

I tell every couple that I marry that the marriage is infinitely more important than the wedding.

You two are the first to completely take that to heart, since you’ve spent much, much more time talking and planning for your marriage than this ceremony.

I want to take a few more moments to talk about your marriage before we make it official.

As I was thinking about how to encourage you two from God’s Word, my mind immediately went to the story of Ruth.

Ruth’s a story with a not-so-great beginning, but a beautiful ending. It’s a love story about second chances, a story about God’s goodness to provide better than we could ask or imagine.

Ruth was a Moabite woman who married a man that technically she shouldn’t have married. God’s people weren’t supposed to marry the idol-worshipping Moabites, but Ruth and Mahlon got hitched anyways.

We don’t know much about Ruth’s first marriage, but we know it ended in Mahlon’s untimely death.

Ruth was a young, poor, childless widow. But God wasn’t done with Ruth.

Through a series of events that only God could orchestrate, Ruth met a man named Boaz.

Boaz was a kind and generous man who loved people, and loved His God.

Like all good love stories, eventually Boaz and Ruth were married. And their marriage was better than anything they could’ve ever asked for or imagined, for from their marriage came a baby boy who would be the grandfather of King David. And of course, from David the King of Kings, Jesus Christ our Redeemer would come.

I love the story of Ruth because it reminds us that God is always working behind the scenes, turning hardships into hope. He promises to work all things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

Brian and Terry, you’ve both walked through hardships to get to this day of hope. And who led you to this moment? It wasn’t your brilliance, your creativity, your hard work, or anything else that brought you together. It was the gracious love of a gracious God.

I also love the story of Ruth because it reminds us that God is a God of second chances and third chances, and chances into the double digits. If He wasn’t, then none of us would be here. And just as He wasn’t done with Ruth after her first husband died, He wasn’t done with either of you.

As you prepare to commit your lives to one another, may Ruth’s words to her mother-in-law Naomi express your heart towards one another:

“… where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.” (Ruth 1:16-17)

To do that, you’ll need Jesus at the center of your marriage

You can forgive each other because He has forgiven you

You can love each other because He has first loved you

Let’s pray for His help now...

PRAYER

Praise the Father for the gift of marriage

Praise the Son for His redeeming love to which marriage points

Praise the Spirit for causing Brian and Terry to be born again, and filling them so they can faithfully keep the vows they’re about to make

EXCHANGING OF THE VOWS

Brian, please repeat after me…

“In the name of God

I, Brian,

Take you, Terry,

To be my lawfully wedded wife.

To have and to hold

From this day forward,

For better for worse,

For richer for poorer,

In sickness and in health,

Forsaking all others,

To love and to cherish,

Until death do us part.

This is my solemn vow.

Now Terry, please repeat after me…

“In the name of God

I, Terry,

Take you, Brian,

To be my lawfully wedded husband.

To have and to hold

From this day forward,

For better for worse,

For richer for poorer,

Forsaking all others,

In sickness and in health,

To love and to cherish,

Until death do us part.

This is my solemn vow.

GIVING OF THE RINGS

Brian, please take the ring and place it on Terry’s hand and repeat after me.

I offer this ring to you

as a symbol of my love

and of the vows I have just spoken.

Terry, please take the ring and place it on Brian’s hand and repeat after me.

I offer this ring to you

as a symbol of my love

and of the vows I have just spoken.

PRESENTATION OF BRIDE & GROOM

Brian & Terry,

upon your solemn vows that you have made here today,

and upon your sacred pledge to love one another for the rest of your lives,

by virtue of the authority invested in me as a minister of the gospel of Christ Jesus our Lord,

I now pronounce you husband and wife,

in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

And what God has joined together, let no man separate.

Brian, you may kiss your bride.

PRAYER

Father, thank You for creating Brian and Terry, and in your providence leading them together

Jesus, thank you for dying for them. May your life and love be the theme of their marriage

Spirit, help them to fulfill the vows they’ve made today