IN THE BEGINNING
God is excited about marriages.
• One of the first things that He does after creating the world is solemnize a wedding.
• He crowns His creation by bringing Adam and Eve into a lifelong relationship in marriage.
Marriage: Greatest Human Relationship.
• Not Teacher-Student
• Not Mother-Child.
• But husband-wife.
• Two people who would have had no personal relationship come together into the most intimate human relationship through marriage.
God’s imagery of our relationship to Him
• That’s the imagery God uses to show our relationship with God.
• God and us could never come together. In fact, we were enemies of God.
• Yet, God in Christ Jesus brings us into a divine relationship that is out of the world.
THREE VERSES:
• First chapter of the Bible; One in the middle and one from the last chapter of the Bible.
• From here I wish to draw your attention to the matter of ‘the Biblical marriage’.
I WANT US TO REMEMBER 3 OPERATIVE WORDS THAT WILL TRIGGER 3 LESSONS.
HOWEVER, BEFORE I DO THAT FOR THE COUPLE, I HAVE SOMETHING TO ASK SOMETHING SPECIFICALLY FROM THOSE ASSEMBLED HERE.
I. PLEDGE AND PRAY
Our presence here at this wedding ceremony indicates at least three things with regards to these two lovely people who want to get married:
1. We agree with them.
• We are as witnesses before God and man.
• We therefore publicly agree with them as they get married.
2. We celebrate with them.
• We are happy for them.
• We are here to join in their celebration of this new relationship.
3. We love them.
• We care for them
• That we will bless them with joy and happiness all their lives.
Will you pledge to pray for them?
• Pray that their marriage is blessed and that it is a blessing to others.
• Encourage them so that they can build a Christ-centered marriage?
We are here as active witnesses and that is our role.
• These three verses are for our marriages, for our families.
• It will be our prayer both for ourselves and for the couple.
THE NEW AND NO CLUE
I understand there are here who may know nothing about Jesus.
To them, I humbly ask that you pray:
• Pray! God help me understand.
• Pray! God I want to know you.
Because the Bible tells me that this is the work of God in your lives.
• Neither can you cannot coerce yourself to believe in Jesus
• Nor can I cannot force you to accept Jesus.
God must do the work.
Eternally changed
So I join with the couple here as ones who have been eternally changed at the hands of this loving God in praying that Jesus Christ would be your Lord and Savior too.
II. 3 VERSES, 3 LESSONS, 3 WORDS AND 3 PRAYERS
1. Glory: Gen 1:1.
God made you for a purpose.
May our lives as individuals and our marriages as a couple be about His glory.
2. Gospel: Jn 1:1
God marks you as a person.
May our lives be a channel of the Gospel we have received. Free received, freely give.
3. Goal: Rev 23:13.
God makes you a promise.
Let Him be your beginning and your end and you will find that fulfilled abundant life in your marriage.
III. GOD MADE YOU FOR A PURPOSE [GENESIS 1:1]
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”
GOD MADE YOU FOR A PURPOSE.
OUR TAKE-AWAY WORD IS GLORY.
I want to give you some numbers at this point so hold your breath…
• The vast heavens and the miniscule earth.
• Universe is 14.5 billion light years across [1450 crore light years]
• Milky way is 150,000 light years across
• The largest galaxy is 1 million light years across.
• If our Milky Way were the size of a dime the rest of the universe will need a sheet of paper that is 28 sq. kms.
• Now find yourself in this space.
PURPOSE: YOU WOULD BE TO THE PRAISE OF HIS GLORY
• God does not use many verses to tell us about creation.
• Ps 19:1. Heavens declare the glory of God… the vast heaven is about His glory.
• And yet, God takes more glory in bringing men and women to Himself.
• The rest of the Bible is the unfolding of how God redeemed men and women with His love.
REMEMBER
• God made us for a purpose.
• We are to be to the praise of His glory. That is the purpose.
PRAYER
• Our prayer is that your lives and your marriage would be lived for His glory.
IV. JOHN 1:1
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
• The passage goes on to say that God came down as man in Jesus Christ.
GOD MARKS YOU AS A PERSON.
THE TAKE-AWAY WORD IS ‘GOSPEL’.
1. God made you for a purpose. So make it about His glory.
2. God marks you as a person. So make it about His Gospel.
God came looking for you.
• The eternal God knows you as an individual.
• You are not just a number.
• You are not seen as a crowd.
• He knows you by name.
• He says the very hairs on your head are numbered.
Sin stained earth
• One look at the world and we can confidently say that what we see is not what God intended for the world to be.
• This wickedness that we see is what Bible calls is the result of sin.
Sin destroyed the purpose
• This sin has destroyed the purpose we were created for.
• We can’t bring Him the glory of our own – Now enter ‘the Gospel’.
WE CALL THIS THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST
• There is nothing you and I can do to get right with God.
• God alone must make the first move and He did.
• He came to us in Jesus Christ.
• Jesus lived the life we ought to have lived and died the death that we ought to have died.
• He came not just seeking but He paid the price you should have paid.
Believe in Jesus Christ as the only way back to God.
• He died for you but He rose again lives now to save you.
• He is God who has allowed sin on the earth for just a while; however, He is coming again to take me to be with Him.
• I am His and He is mine. That is the confidence of the Gospel.
REMEMBER
• God marks you as an individual and so make it about the Gospel.
• Since God loves you enough to die for you, you can be sure of His care on your lives and on your marriage.
PRAYER
• Our prayer is that this good news will not be something that you will keep to myself.
• That your individual lives and your lives as a couple would be the blessing of others.
1. God made you for a purpose. So make it about His glory.
2. God marks you as a person. So make it about the Gospel.
V. Rev 22:13.
The last chapter of the Bible.
“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
1. God made you for a purpose. So make it about His Glory.
2. God marks you as a person. So make it about the Gospel.
GOD MAKES YOU A PROMISE.
THE TAKE-AWAY WORD IS ‘GOAL’.
• These are the words of Jesus Christ and the they appear in the last chapter of the Bible.
Alpha and the Omega:
• He who says He is the beginning, also says that He is the end.
• He is the end goal.
• He is the one in whom we find our fulfillment.
• You are seeking things – career? Riches? Family? All that will come short.
• I am the One who can bring you full contentment and satisfaction.
GOD’S PROMISE TO YOU BOTH IS THIS:
“I made you for a purpose and I show you that I love you and care for you as a person and the promise is this that you will find in me your greatest fulfillment. I will be your exceeding great reward”
REMEMBER
• God makes a promise and so make Him your life goal.
PRAYER
• Our prayer is that there will be nothing in this world that will draw you away from Jesus Christ, who is to be your end-goal.
1. God made you for a purpose. So make it about His glory.
2. God marks you as a person. So make it about the Gospel.
3. God makes you a promise. So make Him your end-goal.
VI. PRAYER FOR THE COUPLE
Our prayer Lord, is that we will honor you.
We desire to live our married lives in fulfilling your purpose.
We desire to make it about your glory.
Thank you for loving me as a person.
Thank you for the Gospel of Jesus Christ that saved me and keeps me.
Thank you for the promise that as we both seek to make you, our all,
We pray that will always find our life’s greatest contentment in you.
This we believe you will grant. In Jesus Name.
