PASTOR’S PRAYER
Let us pray. Lord Jesus, we thank You that we have before us today, two young people that have first received Your love through salvation and have dedicated their lives to You before they sought to love and dedicate themselves to each other. No one can truly love until they have known Your love. We ask You to be at this altar. We pray that you would solemnize the vows and make sacred the words we say. In Jesus’name. Amen.
PASTOR’S COMMENTS
Today, we are gathered to unite a couple in love, in holy matrimony. It is their day. They and their love are to be the focal point. They have asked you, their family and friends, to share their joy and witness
their vows of love and dedication.
Because of Michelle’s and Mark’s first commitment to Jesus Christ, we have before us a very rare situation. It is traditional for the Bride to wear white as a symbol of the bride’s purity. However, today that tradition is just that, tradition and white does not always bear testimony to the truth of the bride’s condition. Michelle, wants all to know that she has been waiting for the man God has chosen. Men normally wear black. Why, I am not sure, unless because it is representative sometimes of authority, although more often of mourning and that does not fit into a time of joy, such as this. Today, we have a man in white. A rare situation, indeed. A man coming to the altar symbolizing his purity to the one who would be his wife. Truly, in our society,this can only be the result of a life surrendered to Jesus Christ.
These two young people are to be praised for their resistance to the pressures of their society and their stand for their Lord. In fact, my daughter has a present for me today. When she kisses Mark, after the
vows, he will be the only man that she has kissed. She purposed to give me that gift many years ago of her own desire. Some would think that extreme, but if there is to be error, then let it be in trying too hard
to please God then trying to determine how far we can go and still be pure. Brethren, I think it fitting for a round of applause. God shall richly bless them. Two are stronger than one and if they are this
strong apart then their continued submission to God in their union will be a formidable threat to this evil age.
Mark, today you are to become a husband. This is no light thing. It comes with many privileges, but also many responsibilities. I know you to be a hard working man. I know you love my daughter deeply. It is never easy for a man to give his daughter to another man and no one loves his daughter more than I. While it is never easy, it helps to have the assurance that the man she marries loves her as much as him. I have that assurance with you. She will always be my daughter, but I transfer authority over her to you this day and charge you to always stay under the leadership of Jesus Christ and in His will and by this I know you will fulfill His will and mine for her life.
Michelle, my beloved daughter, this is the day that I know you have longed for. You are about to become a wife and a helpmeet to this man. This is not a light thing, either. Mark is not perfect and will
sometimes make mistakes even while seeking to love you and the Lord. Sometimes, he may even fall short of your expectations, but he will always be your husband. He is the man that you believe that God has
given you and you must walk with him, even as Sarah who trusted in the Lord and was preserved, even when her godly husband, Abraham used poor judgment. As you respect the Lord, even when you do not always
understand His ways, so must you always respect and support this man, as a child of God, even when you are unsure of his ways. Do this and both you and Mark will find the riches of Christ in your heart and His
blessings in your life and ministry.
VOWS
If you, Mark Hall, and you, Michelle Louise Bunting, have freely and deliberately chosen each others as partners for life, would you please join your right hands.
Mark, Hall, will you have this woman to be your wedded wife; will you love her, honor and keep her in sickness as in health, in poverty as in wealth, and forsaking all others, keep thee only unto her so long as you both shall live - do you so promise?
Michelle Louise Shultz, will you have this man to be your wedded husband? Will you love him, honor and keep him in sickness as in health,in poverty as in wealth, and forsaking all others, keep thee only unto him so long as you both shall live - do you so promise?
Mark, please repeat after me, I, Mark Hall.... take thee, Michelle Louise Shultz.... to be my wedded 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 cherish... ’til death do us part.
Michelle, please repeat after me, I, Michelle Louise Shultz.... take thee, Mark Hall.... to be my wedded 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, cherish, and obey... "til death do us part.
EXCHANGING OF RINGS
May I have the rings, please? A ring has been for centuries the token of love and the symbol of marital union. This is because a ring has no end and true love has no end. The Scripture tells us that Redemption, by Christ’s death and resurrection, has brought the saved person into a marital relation with Jesus Christ. They are His Bride and His love for
them never ends and nothing can ever come between them.
Mark, as you give this ring to Michelle you are saying, "Michelle, I love you with a love that has no end like this ring and with a love so strong that I would die for you as Christ did for His Bride." To
symbolize that love would you take this beautiful ring and place it upon the third finger of the left hand? As you do, you will give it to her because you love her, and she will wear it to show the world her love
for you as her life shows her love for Christ.
Now, Michelle, you are saying, "Mark, I,too want to show my love, and I show you that love by placing this ring upon your finger. I give my life, my love, and my heart and as in love I submit unto the Lord, my
Savior, I submit in love unto you, my husband." In so doin would you please place the ring upon the third finger of his left hand? You will give it to him because you love him, and Mark, you will wear it as your commitment to Michelle and your willingness to sacrifice all for her, as Christ bears the marks of His commitment and sacrifice for His Bride.
PRONOUNCING OF HUSBAND AND WIFE
For as much then as you, Mark Hall, and you, Michelle Louise Shultz, have offered yourselves each to the other, believing that it is God’s will that you become one flesh, and believing that God has led you to
this place, as Michelle’s father, an officer of the laws of the State of New York, and a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, in the presence of your family, these friends, and our Heavenly Father, I now pronounce husband and wife.
CLOSING PRAYER
Our Heavenly Father, we commit this young couple into Your safekeeping and loving nurture. As their parents nurtured them from birth unto this day, with Your guidance, so now we know You will continue and perfect
Your will for them from this day until their death or Your return. Bless their home. Bless their life together and their ministry for You. May peace, love, joy, and all the blessings and goodness of God be given
to each of them. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
"What... God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." I introduce to you, Mr. and Mrs. Mark Hall.
INVITATION
Before we depart for the reception, Michelle and Mark has asked me to share another joy with you, the joy of their salvation. They have already entered into a lifelong, actually eternal lifelong, relationship
that is to be the foundation of the relationship they are entering into today. There was a time in each of their lives when they heard the Good News of Jesus Christ. Part of that Good News or Gospel did not sound
very good at first. There was a conviction of them as sinners and the promise of eternal Hell and punishment for them as sinners. Their hearts bore witness to the fact that they were sinners and sadness at the pronouncement of their fate. However, the Good News followed. God, in His eternal love for man, had prepared a way of deliverance from that fate. He had sent His only Son into the world to die on a cross to bear the wrath of God and to pay for the sins of mankind. To show the world that the payment was accepted, Jesus rose from the dead and ascended
into Heaven to sit upon the right hand of the Father to forever be the intercessor for those who would receive God’s pardon. That pardon requires something simple and yet so hard for Man. He must acknowledge
that he is a sinner and worthy of Hell and ask for forgiveness and cleansing based on Christ’s sacrifice. Simple, in that it requires only faith and acceptance of the free gift offered. Hard, because it is so difficult for man to swallow his pride and abandon his hope of making it on his own.
Michelle and Mark want you to know that the promise is real and that forgiveness, joy and peace can be yours. The Word tells us that when we are saved we become His Bride. Today, there can be multiple weddings. While we were here to make Michelle the Bride of Mark, you can become the Bride of Christ by simply believing He paid the price and asking Him
to become your Lord and Savior. It is their prayer and mine that you will do so.
