Kimber - Barba Wedding

Kootenai Church

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03:17

While you're standing, will you pray with me, let's bow our heads.

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We are here today to witness a covenant being made between Bryce and Emily, and it is a holy covenant and one that deserves all the sobriety and reverence that we can bring to this occasion.

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And we pray that in all that is said and done here that the Lord Jesus Christ may be exalted and honored and that you would be glorified as this covenant is made before you today.

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We ask your blessing upon this time and may you be honored here amongst and by your people we pray.

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In the name of Christ our Savior, amen. You may be seated. Who gives this woman to be married to this man?

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Friends and family, we are here today to witness a covenant made before God between Bryce Barba and Emily Kimber.

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This is a solemn and a holy moment before God. I'm going to read from the word of God found in Ephesians chapter 5 verses 22 through verses 33 and this is one of a number of passages that I could read that describe the purpose and the meaning of marriage.

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Ephesians chapter 5 says, wives be subject to your own husbands as to the Lord. The husband is the head of the wife as Christ also is the head of the church, he himself being the

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Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.

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Husbands love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her so that he might sanctify her having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word that he might present to himself the church in all her glory having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that she would be holy and blameless.

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So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself for no one ever hated his own flesh but nourishes and cherishes it just as Christ also does the church because we are members of his body.

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For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.

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This mystery is great but I'm speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.

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Marriage is God's institution. It was God's idea from the very beginning. He blesses this institution, this union between a man and a woman.

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God defines what marriage is and what it pictures and what it means and how it is to function and God himself defines the roles that are to be lived out and fulfilled by each individual in the marriage covenant.

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Our culture distorts the meaning of marriage. It perverts the meaning of marriage. A marriage is not a contract because in a contract you have certain agreements and understandings between the two people where you would agree to certain terms that if you fulfill your roles and your responsibilities of the contract and Bryce does his and then the contract remains in binding and legally valid but if one of you fails then the other one can get out of the contract.

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That's what a contract is but marriage is not a contract. Marriage is not a convenience. We don't just enter into marriage for the tax purposes or for the sake of the children or because it's cheaper to live together or because you happen to share the same friends and go to the same church.

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It might be more convenient but that's not what marriage is. It's not a matter of convenience nor is it merely a cultural convention where our society or our culture gets to define or describe what marriage is.

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Societies and cultures can say that marriage is between two men or two women or two men and a tree or two women and a dog or five men or eight women or whatever they want.

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They can describe marriage however they want to but that is not what determines what marriage is. God himself has established marriage.

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He himself has established what marriage is and he defines the parameters of it and the meaning of it. That mentality that says that culture or our society or our country can describe what marriage is that comes from a worldview that says that man determines truth and that man is the highest measure for determining truth.

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So marriage is not a contract. It is not a mere convenience. It is not a cultural convention. Marriage is a covenant.

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You guys are not entering into a contract here. It's not a legal issue. We are filing legal papers with the state but this is not a legal contract.

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This is a covenant made before God between the two of you in the presence of many witnesses. So that makes this a holy union between a man and a woman recognizing

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God as the center of this relationship. We're going to exchange in a moment vows before God and before witnesses and we recognize that you have certain obligations each of you to fulfill to one another unconditionally in obedience to God.

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And this is an exclusive union meaning that God's plan is for one man and one woman to become one flesh for one lifetime.

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That is the pattern that God has established and you are committing to one another that you will jealously guard this relationship above all others.

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And this is a mystical union. It is a picture of the relationship that Christ has with his people called the church in scripture, the bride of Christ.

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In the Garden of Eden in Genesis chapter 2 when God created the first man and the first woman he brought them together. And it was

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God's intention from the beginning that marriage would be a picture of his redemptive plan. That it would be a picture of his relationship with his redeemed people, the people for whom he has died.

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And this is why husbands are called to love their wives with a sacrificial life giving love to lay down their lives.

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Why? Because Christ loved us and laid down his life in our stead. Marriage is a picture of the glorious gospel message that we are sinners and the

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Bible says we are dead in our trespasses and sins. We are in enmity against God. We have rebelled.

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Adam sinned in the garden and by that sin he passed death onto all of us. That is why we all die. The evidence of our sinfulness is all around us.

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We have broken the law of God by our lying, our blasphemy, our covetousness, our lust, our hatred, our pride, our envy, our immorality, our impurity and a hundred other sins.

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And this is man's desperate condition that we are lost, helpless, hopeless and deserving of punishment for our sin.

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We are guilty and divine justice demands that a payment be made for our sins. Christ paid that price.

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God the Son came into this world and lived a perfect sinless life, a life that we should have lived. And then as a substitute for sinners, he died on a cross and he took the wrath of God that we deserve.

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He bore our sins in his own body on the cross and on the third day he rose again. He has ascended to heaven where he waits for the appointed time when he will come a second time not to save sinners but to judge those who will not find their take their refuge in him.

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In response to that good news, God commands us to repent and to turn from sin and to trust in Christ who has taken our sins upon himself.

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We are to trust Jesus Christ for salvation. Those whom Christ has saved through repentance and faith, they are his bride, his people, in an eternal and unbreakable covenant with him.

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And the covenant is intended by God to be a picture of what, the marriage covenant is intended to be a picture of that covenant that God has entered into with us.

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And this marriage ceremony is an acting out of God's redemptive drama. And in this drama, the man plays the role of Christ, sacrificing and sanctifying and providing for his bride, sacrificing for, not sacrificing his bride, sacrificing for, sanctifying and providing for his bride.

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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.

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She is to respect and to honor her husband, submitting to his leadership and gladly enjoying the delights of all that he provides for her.

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And together you will walk with the Lord in obedience to his commands to fulfill these roles. So Bryce, I have a charge for you.

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The commands to you are clear. You are to love your bride and cherish her, to serve her, to lead her, to protect her, to provide for her, to seek her highest good and her spiritual growth, to sacrifice all things for her, even your own life if necessary.

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

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Father and the power of the Spirit. Emily, I have a charge for you. The commands to you are clear.

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You are to love your husband and to cherish him, to respect and honor him, to submit to him as to Christ, to seek his highest good and his spiritual growth.

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

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Father and the power of the Holy Spirit. And now I have a charge for everybody else who is here who is a witness to this ceremony and to this covenant.

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

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It is the most important relationship possible and the most important relationship for both

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Bryce and Emily. Whatever your relationship to Bryce and Emily has been up to this point, it is now a distant second to this relationship that they have with each other from this day forward.

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Everyone in this room, in fact everyone on the planet, just got bumped down a notch in priority because this relationship is now the most fundamental, the most central, the most important relationship that they have.

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And so we need to keep that in mind as we make obligations and questions and requests upon their time and their energy and their resources.

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Parents and family members and friends from this point forward, whatever your relationship to them has been, it is forever changed because everyone just went down a notch and this relationship is now their most fundamental and the most basic and the most cherished relationship of all.

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They may need you to pray for them, they may need you to mentor them, they may need you to encourage them, but they do not need you to meddle in their affairs.

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So one of the most difficult things that we have as witnesses to this is to be that encouraging influence without thinking that we are to put our fingers and our noses in everything that goes on and to alter anything that happens here between the two of them.

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If you position yourself as an enemy of this union, then you deserve to be treated as such.

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It is that holy and it is that important. With all of that in mind, are you ready to say your vows to one another?

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We didn't practice this with a microphone. Do you want to say that again?

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No. Bryce, repeat after me. I Bryce Barber receive you,

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Emily Kimber. I Bryce Barber receive you, Emily Kimber. To be my wife by holy covenant. To be my wife by holy covenant.

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

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Christ himself could place within my heart. I love you with a love only Christ himself could place in my heart. I promise to love you and give myself for you.

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I promise to love you and give myself for you. As Christ gave himself for his bride, the church. As Christ gave himself for his bride, the church.

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Bryce Barber, will you take Emily Kimber to be your wife by holy covenant to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, forsaking all others as long as you both shall live according to God's holy ordinance until death separates you.

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I do. Emily, repeat after me. I Emily Kimber receive you,

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Bryce Barber. I Emily Kimber receive you, Bryce Barber. To be my husband by holy covenant.

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To be my husband by holy covenant. I receive you as God's gift to me. I receive you as God's gift to me.

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I love you with a love only Christ himself could place within my heart. I love you with only the love that Christ himself could place in my heart.

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I promise to lovingly submit to your headship. I promise to lovingly submit to your headship. As the church does to Christ.

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As the church does to Christ. Emily Kimber, will you take Bryce Barber to be your husband by holy covenant to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, forsaking all others, as long as you both shall live according to God's holy ordinance until death separates you.

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I do. Do you have rings to share with one another as a symbol of these vows of your covenant? We do. Repeat after me.

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This ring I give to you in faith. This ring I give to you in faith. And as a pledge of my constant love.

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And as a pledge of my constant love. And lasting devotion. And lasting devotion. It is a symbol of my sacred vows.

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It is a symbol of my sacred vows. To our Lord Jesus Christ and to you. To our Lord Jesus Christ and to you. Emily, repeat after me.

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This ring I give to you. I don't have it. What are you looking at me for?

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This ring I give to you. In faith. In faith. And as a pledge of my constant love.

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And as a pledge of my constant love. And lasting devotion. And lasting devotion. It is a symbol of my sacred vows.

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

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All right, let's pray together. Father, these vows are a sacred and solemn thing.

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And they have covenanted together and agreed together to fulfill these vows to one another in obedience to your command, in obedience to the sacrifice of Christ and all that he has done for us on the cross.

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And we thank you for bringing them together, for the love that you have shown them, for the love that you have shed abroad in their hearts.

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We thank you for their commitment to you as followers of Christ. And it is our desire, our earnest desire, that they may continue to follow him throughout their lives, that their marriage and their covenant that they have made and their lives together may continually demonstrate the grace and the glory of Christ and be a testimony to all that you have done for us in the great gift of salvation in Jesus Christ.

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May this covenant continually and always affirm and reflect the great covenant that Christ has made with his people in coming to die for them and to make atonement for us, that we may be saved.

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We thank you that we can have this redemption and this forgiveness through faith in Jesus Christ. And it is our desire that he might be glorified in this marriage, that it may honor you in all things, in every way, until death separates them.

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We praise you in the name of Christ our Lord. Amen. ♪ There must be a

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God ♪ ♪ I believe it's true ♪ ♪

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As I can see his love ♪ ♪ As I look at you ♪ ♪

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And he must have a plan for this crazy life ♪ ♪

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Because he brought you here and placed you by my side ♪ ♪

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You see these hands you hold will always hold you up ♪ ♪

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When the strength you have just ain't strong enough ♪ ♪

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And what tomorrow brings only time will tell ♪ ♪

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But I will stand by you and take this hand in hand ♪ ♪

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And I have never been so sure of anything before ♪ ♪

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Like I am with you, I'll never let go of you ♪ ♪

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And take this great march on these words ♪ ♪

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Till death do us part ♪ ♪ And I have never been so sure of anything before ♪

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

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As an under shepherd of Jesus Christ, it is my pleasure, my joy, and my honor to pronounce you man and wife when

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God has established to let no man destroy or defile. Bryce, you may kiss your bride. Ladies and gentlemen,

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I am pleased to present to you Mr. and Mrs. Bryce Barba. Woo! Woo!

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Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo!