I Do

1. God has declared His undying love and devotion to us as well in His Son Jesus Christ. Through our salvation we find relationship with God and the blood of His Son declares that we are His and nothing can come between us.

2. But it takes two to keep the promise. God never waivers. He never doubts. He never questions the relationship, but we do, don’t we?

3. Someone this morning has not been a very faithful bride and I am not talking about your marriage to your husband, but rather your relationship to God.

4. When you became a Christian, God pronounced you His. He claimed you and once God stakes a claim He does not give up. If you have been an unfaithful wife, an unfaithful Christian, then I invite you to come to Him and ask His forgiveness and receive his embrace.

5. In the wedding ceremony the bride and groom exchange rings. The ring is and unending circle. It has no beginning and it has no end. That is the kind of love and God displays to us as His people. It is a perfect love, an unbroken love.

6. In the Old Testament whenever two parties made a covenant, they exchanged something of value as a token of their pledge. The exchange of the rings represents this demonstration of their pledge.

7. It marks them as belonging to each other, as having pledged themselves to one other.

Conclusion:

As you leave the sanctuary this morning you will be offered a gold ribbon, the symbol of a wedding ring. It represents your marriage to Christ as His bride. I invite you to take it. Place in your bible, tie it to your brief case, put it in your wallet, etc. Let it be a reminder that you belong to someone, that you are married to Christ and as His bride he calls you to be faithful.

As a pastor I see all kinds of marriages and my heart breaks for each one that fails. How would describe your relationship with Jesus this morning. Is He the love of your life or the last person you think of?

It’s hard to explain how much Christ loves us in earthly terms. One of the closest metaphors we have is the love between a husband and his bride. It illustrates the closeness of Christ's relationship with us, and the depth of His love. We are the bride of Christ. He gave himself up for us.

I would like to end today’s service with a video clip that helps us understand what it means to be loved with a love that never fails.

VIDEO: “To Be Loved” (WorshipMedia.com)