Smith - Osman Wedding

Thank you. I'm actually a fair -married man.

Or mother. Please be seated.

This is the first time that I've ever married. It's in the

Antiquities, Chapter Five, Verses 22 -23. wives be subject to their own husbands, he himself can take care of the body.

But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives are urged to give themselves up for her, so that they might sanctify her.

So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself, and no one ever hated.

For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall be joined to them.

This mystery is grave, but I am speaking in the preference to Christ and the church. Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife, be him as himself, and the wife proceed to her that she respects her husband.

A marriage is God's institution, it's God's idea. Both of you have grown up in a

Christian environment where you stick with sound doctrine and good teaching, and that means that both of you have no excuse to be squishy or uncommitted on the doctrine of marriage.

And you know what a marriage is, you've seen the model, and you know what it is, and what marriage is all about.

So I'm going to speak to the witnesses here for just a moment. Marriage is a symbol of the relationship that exists between Jesus Christ and his people.

It was intended by God to picture the relationship between Christ and his church, which is the redeemed, in this age.

And it is intended to picture the saving relationship that Christ has in sanctifying the woman, the

Savior, and the Lord. The evidence of our simpleness and our need for a Savior is all around us.

We see the evidence of it in our own conscience, in the fact that we know that we have done wrong, and we want repentance and faith, and without the work of Jesus Christ, we stand condemned.

We have lied, we have stolen, we have blasphemed God's name, we have taken things that do not belong to us, we are lawbreakers.

From the moment of our birth, we go astray, and our hearts are wicked, desperately wicked, and we need a Savior. That is evident to us in the fact that we violate the

Ten Commandments, it's evident to us in creation, which is on the reverse, and we desperately need a Savior. And that's the bad news.

The good news is that God sent the Son of the Lord Jesus Christ into this world to take upon himself human flesh, so that he could live a perfect life, a life that we shouldn't live, but could not.

And he offers us salvation, even this day, through repentance and faith. We turn from our sin and be meek unto the one whom

God sent to save us from our sins. That's the good news of the Gospel. And so those who have come to Jesus Christ, and have been saved and redeemed from their sins and born again, we have a new relationship with each other in Christ, but we also, more importantly, have a new relationship with God.

He is our Father now. He cares for us as people.

And the relationship that we have together is pictured in the marriage relationship. The Church submits to and loves and honors you guys, provides, protects, sanctifies, makes us holy, and that is what the two of you are called to do.

Our culture distorts this wonderful picture of marriage in so very many ways. Some people think and pretend that the marriage is a contract, something that two people are entering into.

This is not a contract. It's being signed up here. A contract is something that if one of the partners or parties violates the terms of the agreement, we simply dissolve it.

This is not just a legal agreement between two people. Our culture says that marriage is a convenience, something we enter into, because it's cheaper for two people to live together than it is for two people to live separately.

And it's not just something we enter into because it's convenient for raising kids, convenient for getting insurance, convenient for tax reasons.

It's not a convenience, nor is it a cultural convention. Marriage is not something that we are able – and marriage is not what the

Supreme Court says it is. Marriage is not what our culture says it is. Marriage is not wherever we want it to be. God himself has revealed what marriage is, what the marriage covenant is to be, and how it is to be lived out.

And he's revealed that in the pages of Scripture. What we are doing here together is not a contract.

It's not a matter of convenience. It's not a cultural convention. This is a covenant. This is a holy union between a man and a woman.

Vows are exchanged before God and witnesses. We recognize that you two have certain obligations to fulfill to one another, unconditionally, in obedience to God.

This is an exclusive union that plans for one woman and one man. You are committing to one another today that you will jealously guard this relationship by your love.

And this is a mystical union. This is a picture of the relationship that Christ has with his people, the Church, calling Scripture the bride of Christ.

And in this drama that you are playing out, the man plays the role of Christ, sacrificing, sanctifying, and providing for his bride.

He is to guard her, to love her, to serve her, and to sacrifice for her. The woman is to play the role of the

Church. She is to respect and honor her husband, submit him to his leadership. And gladly, together, you will walk with the

Lord in obedience to his commands and fulfill these obligations to one another. Chosen by charge to you, the commands to you are clear.

You are to love your bride and cherish her, to serve her, to lead her, to provide for her, to protect her, to seek her highest good and her spiritual growth, to sacrifice all things for her and give your life if necessary.

These are not dependent upon your feelings. These are not conditional obligations. You are to do this in obedience to Christ, to the glory of the

Father. Melina, the commands to you are clear. You are to love your husband and cherish him, to respect and honor your husband, to seek his highest good and his spiritual growth.

These are not dependent upon your feelings. These are not conditional obligations. You are to do this in obedience to Christ, to the glory of the

Father. And we, as witnesses to this covenant, also have obligations.

What is being formed here today is a one -flesh covenant relationship. It is the holiest relationship possible. It is the most important relationship possible.

And whatever your relationship is to the bride and the groom up to this point, that all changes this day. Everybody in this room, in fact, everybody on this planet, has got to walk down the notch in terms of your importance to these two people.

And I implore you, I beseech you, and I command you to keep that in mind. Everything has changed.

So, Shepard, when your friends call you up and they want to go out and do something, that would threaten this relationship and your relationship with your wife, you stay home.

This comes first. Melina, when your friends call you up and they demand your loyalties, your affections, your time, your energies, that might be, even if I call you up and say,

You both have to come. That's it. Parents, family members, and friends, from this point forward, anything you say or do is going to undermine in any way your faithfulness, love, devotion, and commitment to these two, to one another, makes you an enemy of achievement.

If you position yourself as an enemy of this marriage, you deserve to be treated. The responsibility is to pray.

It's to pray, not to cry. The responsibility is to pray.

They need our support in person. Keep us coming faithfully as long as they don't shout at me. Now, are you ready to say your vows to one another?

Okay, Shepard, this is your good afternoon. I, Shepard, the Honorable, receive you, Melina Smith, to be my wife and my cousin.

I receive you as God's gift to me. I love you and love only

Christ himself, the Christ of my heart. I promise to love you and be myself for you, as Christ gave himself for his bride and church.

Shepard, I offer you, Melina Smith, to love and cherish, forsaking all others, as long as you will,

Shepard. Melina, good afternoon.

I, Melina Smith, to be my husband and my cousin.

I receive you as God's gift to me. I love you and love only

Christ himself, the Christ of my heart. I promise to love you and submit to your mission, as the church does.

Melina Smith, will you take Shepard the Honorable to be your husband and my cousin, to have and hold and be faithful?

Shepard, good afternoon. This ring I give to you in faith, as a pledge of my constant love and lasting devotion.

It is a symbol of my sacred vows to you and to our Lord Jesus Christ.

Melina, good afternoon.

This ring I give to you in faith, as a pledge of my constant love. It is a symbol of my sacred vows to you and our

Lord Jesus Christ.

You have made vows to one another before God made these witnesses. You have given to each other a lasting symbol of those vows.

As a member of Shepard and Jesus, I ask you to magnify Shepard and Yeshua.