07182015 Wedding of Mikail Freeman and Katera Johnson

Sermon Audio (Will be posted soon!)

July 18, 2015
Christ Binds You Together!

I have before you two today a cord.  It’s not just any cord, it is a special kind of cord used to connect an MP3 player, phone, computer or any kind of electronic device to our sound system.  It may seem strange to have this in front of us today as we celebrate your wedding, but you two are technologically savvy and this cord is a great metaphor for us to consider today.

You know we connected with each other and did all of our pre-marital counseling via computers.  We were connected via the electrons, we could see each other, but this cord is more tangible, it carries electrons.  Technology is great, but there is a better and greater connection you two have and are affirming here this afternoon gathered with your family and friends and especially in the sight of God.

John in his epistle which I read earlier, inspires each of us with these words, “love one another, for love is from God”.  How true this is, but God’s love for all of mankind and for you two here in God’s house declaring Your love is manifest for all of mankind simply in His Son Jesus Christ.  You see the love God has for all of mankind is clearly demonstrated by Jesus Christ.  John wrote, “By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, into the world so that we might live through Him.”  We live and love through Jesus Christ and this is the essence and real meaning of Jesus Christ life and what He did.  Jesus Christ clearly demonstrated His love for us on the Cross of Calvary.

But you two Mikail and Katera have a clearer and more profound connection with God’s love.  Just as this cord connects an iPhone or CD player to the sound system and we were connected by the information super highway to complete the pre-marital counseling, God is connected to mankind, but especially and intimately connected to you two today.  God is connected by the fact and reality that God binds you two together in Holy Matrimony.

Remember when we were together, I described the binding nature of God in Jesus Christ as the third person in this relationship.  How in a few minutes you will join your hands together in front of your family and friends as you kneel before the Altar of God.  Then I using the symbol of my office, the stole, will bind your hands together and this the binding of your hands with the stole will represent Jesus Christ binding you two together. 

Alone as husband and wife you encounter a world that will try and break you two apart, whether it is your own independent streaks, your feeling that you can handle the waves of the world, with job, family or individual situations or circumstances, but these storms of life will break you apart.  But if you put on Christ and continue to be connected to each other and Him.  And remember you are bound by Christ in Holy Matrimony.  And remember in your being bound to each other and united by Christ, nothing will be able to separate you from God.  God through His Son Jesus Christ will demonstrate what true love is.  God will remind you of His love for you and bind you two together as husband and wife united, not as two, but the three, Mikail to Katera and Christ encircling both of you in the palms of His hands.

For it is Jesus Christ binding you together, connecting you together and being shared with one another that His love will radiate from you and your marriage as a clear demonstration of God and the truth that God is love.  Because John concluded our reading with the truth when he said, “if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.”  John’s words are my prayer for you.  I pray that you remain connected to one another, better than this cord for the sound system, but that the binding of Jesus Christ may remind each of you of His love for you and His binding of you two together, perfected in Jesus Christ binding the three of you together as husband and wife in His perfect love.  AMEN.

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04182015 Wedding of Garrett Tacha and Andrea Roeder

Sermon Audio

April 18, 2015
Changing the order of God, family, baseball

Al Gallagher, retired professional baseball player and coach once said, “There are three things in my life which I really love:  God, my family and baseball.”  If Al would have stopped with that maybe people would quote him more often, but he continued.  “Once baseball season starts, I change the order around a bit.”

Today we change the order of things around a little bit as well.  Both Garrett and Andrea, love God and they both love baseball.  We won’t mention the 2007 World Series between the Rockies and Red Sox will we?  But today we create a ‘family’ here in the sight of God.  Granted we are not at Home Plate of Fenway Park or Coors Field, but today we gather to hear what God says about marriage.  God through Moses said, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?”  Perplexing as this statement is, Jesus continues, “So they are no longer two, but one flesh.  What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”

The intent Jesus has in mind is that today Garrett and Andrea are declaring publically their love for one another.  Unlike our love for television shows, truck brands or baseball teams, the love God has planted in both Garrett and Andrea God does not want their love for each other to separate or grow apart.  But then life happens.

Like a controversial call by the umpire of a pitch that is just on the corner of the strike zone, that ends the inning or game, there will be opinions held by many who surround you of what and how you should live life as husband and wife.  Yet God is clear, your devotion to each other should be unwavering and never doubt each other.  For when doubt enters, it will spread and attempt to break you apart and this is not of God.

By your standing before God and your families today declaring your love for each other, you are cementing the bond of love that God has created between the two of you.  We talked as we met about how God is the third strand that binds both of you together.  For God not only binds you Garrett and you Andrea together He protects you.  God’s protection will not prevent trouble and doubt from assailing you, but God’s divine protection will be there and surround you both to help you two stay as ‘one flesh’, bound by His Holy Spirit in your marriage and enable both of you to connect in the ‘sweet spot’ like a batter does who hits a home run.

So even when your teams potentially face off in the World Series again and you sit on opposite sides of the couch because Tulo and Oritz have squared off over a pitch.  May you remember God’s inspiration, call and desire for both of you on your life journey around the bases of life of His promise to you to help you connect with each other and with Him as God binds you in this estate of holy matrimony.  For Jesus said it himself, “So they are no longer two, but one flesh.  What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”  AMEN.

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10132012 Wedding Sermon Joseph Snethen and Paige Leach

In the beginning, when God had created the heavens and the earth and formed man from the dirt of the ground, God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone.”  This afternoon we gather to make complete and fulfill God’s plan for mankind specifically in the lives of Joey and Paige in our celebration their marriage.  We are not that far removed from Adam, for as we gather here in God’s creation very similar to the Garden of Eden, surrounded by the beauty of God’s handiwork we celebrate for Joey the fulfillment of the promise to Adam and to him.  For Adam it was the creation of Eve, for Joey it is his joining with Paige in holy matrimony.

Adam said it clearly and profoundly when he saw Eve, not like Bill Cosby, “WOOOOMMMAAAANNN”.  Adam said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh”.  Joey, Paige who stands before you was created by God in order to fulfill His purpose for both of your lives as ‘bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh’.  And Paige, Joey who stands before you was created by God to be your helpmate, husband and equal in the bond of holy matrimony.  Neither of you should lord it over the other, but mutually share in this relationship giving and receiving equally that both of you are now embarking upon together.  This is the greatest journey in life you are about to begin.

I will not lie to you this journey is not without danger.  Satan is waiting behind every twist and turn to drive a wedge between both of you.  It is his desire to separate you, but I stand here in the gap today as witness in the eyes of the state, the church, but especially God to speak of something that overcomes all the attacks of evil that you will encounter.

Paul in his epistle to the Corinthians said it so well.  “⁴ Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, ⁵ does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, ⁶ does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; ⁷ bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”  Love is the only action and means by which both of you will be able to share with one another as you mature and celebrate this union of becoming one flesh.

Both of you remember the video’s we watched in preparation for this moment.  Remember what was said about what binds you together, it is Jesus Christ the living Word of God that is the cord or cement of this union.  Unlike the cement we use to build highways, seal PVC pipes or even sewer pipes, the glue of Jesus Christ weathers all storms and forms an unbreakable bond with both of you that you share and are a part of with one another in this union.  That rope or bond of Jesus Christ is not only a model for the rest of your life, but a promise that you fulfill today in your vows before God and all of us gathered here this afternoon.  That bond is one not only of love, but also of fulfillment of God’s plan of salvation found in the union of your lives.  May God the Father, Who formed both of you in your mothers wombs, God the Son Who binds you together and Who loved you so much that He redeemed both of you on the Cross of Calvary and God the Holy Spirit Who will keep you in the one true faith enable each of you to love, not as the world loves, but as the perfect example of Jesus Christ of His great love for His bride the church.  May this love surround and bind both of you together for the rest of your lives.  AMEN.