Wedding Sermon / Tayler & Taenelle Hinger / Matthew 7:24-27 - Pastor Ted Giese / Mount Olive Lutheran Church - June 20th 2015

Wedding Sermon for Tayler Hinger and Taenelle Erdman / Mount Olive Lutheran Church, Regina Saskatchewan June 20th 2015 2:00pm - Pastor Ted Giese.

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” (Matthew 7:24-27 ESV)

Let us pray:

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all are hearts be acceptable in Your sight O, Lord. Amen.

Grace, peace and mercy to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Good Christian friends. Tayler and Taenelle. Jesus wants you to trust Him, and hear what He says, and follow Him. Doing that is the beginning of wisdom, and it is for everyone, and on this happy occasion, your wedding day, we think on this as it applies to you and as it applies to each of us. This is the official moment when publicly before your guests and family and friends you make your life long intentions known, and once you have made your vows, and are married, then we will sign the paperwork and I will let the government of Saskatchewan know what has happened here this day. And what is it that is being done today? Is the work started today finished when we leave this place? Are we only talking about a legal document? What is it that is being done?

Tayler and Taenelle you are building something today, but you do not build alone, and you have materials on hand with which to build: Not bricks, not lumber, not steel, yet what you have is stronger stuff. In perpetration for today, in the time while we were having our premarital meetings, you had opportunity to hear Jesus from the Gospel of Mark, in the Gospel of Matthew Jesus says, "[everyone who hears My words] and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”[1]

Your family home, the house you build, is not shingles and studs, windows and doors, it is compassion and humility, patience and kindness, love[2] and trust. Build it on Jesus and it will stand. In the book of Proverbs there is this advice, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.”[3] And thinking on Jesus' parable about the house, lean on Him and He will make your house strong and together you will weather what life throws at you.

Today you make the wise choice, to hear His word, and have your marriage and married life blessed by Him. Saint Paul in his letter to the Christian congregation in Corinth wrote these familiar words, "Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends."[4] Paul then concludes saying, "So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love."[5] When we hear this at a wedding we instantly think of the couple. We do. However Saint Paul didn't write it for weddings specifically, he wrote it for living life together in all our relationships. Married life is one of our closest relationships so it naturally applies, but here is the twist. Even in our love we are not perfectly patient, or kind, we can be rude, or stubborn: the one who is perfectly patient and kind, the one who flawlessly bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, the one whose love never ends is Jesus. Build your house on Him, He is the Rock, the firm foundation, the source of forgiveness, the fountain of true and lasting love.

For those of you out there who think, 'that's all great, but my house in Christ seems only to be half built and when it rains it poor. I'm not even sure where to begin to build it, or how to continue, I feel like I've come to the limit of my expertise.' Remember I said you don't build it alone. Not everyone knows how to make steel, not everyone is an electrician or an interior designer. We work on it together. We call in the professionals from time to time, the ones who know their trade and their craft inside and out, and we rely on the m. This isn't a DYI project. The church has the tools, your Christian friends and family do too, we will all pitch in along the way, and you are not expected to build and complete it in one day either. Tayler and Taenelle you two have made some solid decisions in life and today the Holy Spirit continues to call you to make the solid decision, a choice, that will provide for a lasting strong marriage. Are you going to commit to building your home together on Christ Jesus? or on the shifting sand of the world.

Today you receive Jesus' blessing, the blessing of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, today you say, "as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”[6] He is at one and the same time both your firm foundation and your General Contractor and unlike the general contractors of the world you ultimately don't chose Him, Jesus has chosen you, and loves you. He sheds His blood and gives up His life, is risen from the dead, and lives unto eternity to give you a house in Him, a home unlike all others. Life is hard, be innocent as doves, be wise in Christ, trust in Him, "And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock."Amen. 

Let us pray:
Lord, have mercy on us, “take our minds and think through them, take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire; for the sake of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Amen.”

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[1]Matthew 7:24-27
[2] Colossians 3:12-14
[3] Proverbs 3:5-6
[4] 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
[5] 1 Corinthians 13:13
[6] Joshua 24:15