Gospel Driven Wedding Ceremony

Gospel Driven Wedding Ceremony

Dakota Community Church

June 2013

All Rise - Bride enters.

Welcoming Statement & Prayer of Blessing:

Dear family and friends we have come together today at the invitation of Groom and Bride to share in the joy of their wedding.

This celebration is the culminating public expression, of the love and devotion that has been growing in their hearts since the Lord first brought them into each others lives in Month of Year.

Today they declare before God and the whole world that they are committed to each other for life; and today we all ask God to bless that commitment and to provide the grace and strength they will need in order to see it through.

The Bible teaches us in Genesis 2:24 that in the beginning God made us male and female, and He said,

“... a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”

God loved us and created us to love Him and each another. Of all the wonderful relationships known to man, Father and son, mother and daughter, brother and sister, closest friendship; He chose marriage as the relationship that best exemplifies the union between Christ and the church. Marriage then, is a sacred union, born in the heart of God.

Groom and Bride come today desiring to be united in this sacred relationship.

Let Us Pray - Blessing

Heavenly Father,

Thank you for this wonderful day and for this joyous occasion.

Thank you for the gift of love and for the institution of marriage.

Thank you Lord for the gospel, for the redeeming of lost sinners like us, and for the Holy Spirit who lives in us to lead and guide and comfort, to encourage and strengthen and to transform us.

All of this is to Your glory and to Your glory alone.

I ask today Father that you would open eyes, ears, and hearts to the truth of Your Word. Grant repentance and the forgiveness of sin, be lifted up and glorified even in this, a wedding ceremony; and draw people to yourself in saving faith as only You can.

LORD, love has been Your richest and greatest gift to the world as demonstrated in the cross of Christ and You chose the love between a man and woman which matures into marriage as the best example of your relationship to the Church.

Today we celebrate that love.

May your blessing be on this wedding ceremony.

Protect, guide, and bless Groom and Bride in their marriage. Surround them and us with Your love now and always.

Amen.

Declaration of Intent - Giving of the Bride

Who gives this woman in marriage?

(Her mother and I do) Groom receive your bride and step forward.

Time of Worship - In Christ Alone & How Great the Father's Love

Guest Reader - Ephesians 5:21-33

Sermon Scripture – 1 Corinthians 13:1-7

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

The Wedding Sermon/Homily/Message:

I did not choose this traditional wedding passage for the usual reason it is chosen.

Traditionally the passage is read and the minister encourages the young couple, and usually everyone else in attendance; to work hard to love their significant others using this definition as the template for true love. (It is and I do)

I want to point out this afternoon what a terribly difficult task that is.

“Love each other with a love that is not rude, a love that does not insist on it’s own way, a love that is never irritable or resentful.”

Clearly Paul was a single man!...

The Bible is full of these kinds of impossible commands.

“But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return” (Luke 6:35)

“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30)

“You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48)