I am sure I will get the opportunity to speak in front of many people at my sister's wedding next week. I would like to prepare a short speech telling how the covenant of marriage is a divine play for Christ and the Church. Does anyone have any short sayings or papers or advice?

I thank God for you!

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Denton Elliott
Husband of one wife, father of three
Deacon - Christ Community Church
Monroe, GA
Student: Whitefield Theological Seminary M.Div program

Are your sister and family Christians? Reformed Christians?

I wouldn't make the speech more than 1.5 or 2 minutes.

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Rev. Andrew J. Barnes
Husband of Dena
Father of Oliver
Master of Bruce
Pastor of Tchula Presbyterian Church

What can I say, I like blogs!

I gave the message at my sister's wedding two years ago. I preached on the holy covenant of marriage as instituted by God. I connected marriage to the relationship between Christ and His church. I then charged the bride and groom with their relationship under the marriage covenant. My message lasted fifteen minutes. I believe that was an appropriate length. I also had my sisters blessing on the length of the message before I delivered it.

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Bill Brown
Elder
Reformed Baptist
Maryland

Click to get: Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions?
Visit my BLOG Theology for the Rest of Us

Denton,

Are you exhorting (preaching) during the wedding or are you doing like a best-man kind of speech or friend speech at the rehearsal dinner or reception?

I am envisioning a toast of sorts. I would think it ok to take a few minutes. I would like to use the opportunity to relate the true purpose of marriage. My sister and her fiance both profess Christ but are infants in the faith. As part of the toast I may like to give a succinct Gospel message as well?

Very short and to the point! People are expecting warm fuzzys and laughs.

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JWithnell
Member Bethel OPC
Virginia
http://learningyesican.blogspot.com/

"Congratulations" would be a good start.

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Jonathan
Audio Engineer
Reformed Anabaptist
Ohio

Moroni's magical glasses of proper interpretation:

Yeah that is a given...I don't want to be preachy and ruin the festivities, that is why I am asking for advice.

Keep it all positive, something like (this is what I would do):

1) Praise God for bringing together two into one, it's a picture of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, bringing sinners together to Jesus Christ to be one body (the Bride and the Bridegroom) through Christ's death on the cross. (Something like that).

And then maybe, An exhortation: Maybe just quote scripture like Ephesians 5:32-33.

And then conclude: Praise God for His Wondrous Workings.

Something like that.

Denton,

I would also recommend short and sweet, as Andrew and others have suggested. At my own wedding, we ended up having two receptions because we had family on two different continents. At my wife's family reception, my father-in-law toasted us with a glass of water (which I thought was respectful of my family's teetotalism) and tied in the purity of water to the purity of Christ and purity in marriage. Probably two or three minutes in total - worked very well.

At my family-hosted reception, my family's (fundamentalist) minister did a toast (as my father is dead) but his lasted 15 minutes+ and was basically like a sermon he would preach any Sunday, with full hell-fire damnation and mention of a young man who had died earlier that day in a car crash (with lines like, "Who knows where he is going to spend eternity; do you know where you are going to spend it if you died in a crash going home from this reception?" and so on). This was followed by similar 15-20 minute "toasts" by two uncles - so, as you can imagine, that reception was a bundle of laughs!

There's a time and place for the sermons and I don't think the wedding toast is the place. Hopefully the minister will have done a decent enough job in his 15-20 minutes talk at the actual marriage ceremony.

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Jon
London, UK
Ex-Redeemer PCA, Manhattan
(Now All Souls' Langham Place, London)

After pondering on that, I would suggest while everyone there is a sinner, singling out the bride and groom in that way could be taken as an off-color joke about the premarital relationship (which may or may not be true) which is inappropriate for that setting.

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Edward
Deacon
PCA
Texas

Perhaps that is a good point!

The wedding was nice. The preacher went through all the relevant Scripture that I would have wanted to be read, so I ended up not having to say anything. It was a very nice short service.

Praise God brother and congrats to your sister and her Beau.

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Michael P Doyle
Waukesha WI
Member of http://www.cornerstone-pca.com/
Attending http://www.lampseminary.org/

Yes, I am glad it went nicely!

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Tim Lindsay
member, Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church, Halifax, NS, Canada
Living in Cape Town, South Africa
"under the Southern Cross, at the foot of Table Mountain, not far from the Cape of Good Hope"

Thank you for the update on the Spirit's intervention.

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Sandra, Lady of the Lake
CBA, Acton ME
http://www.viewsfromthedeck.blogspot.com

Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Hebrews 4:16