Sermon Tone Analysis

*Fit Yourselves \\ into God’s Plans for You!*

*Wedding Sermon*

*Jeremiah 29:11*

/Rev.

Alvin H. Lange, emeritus, Jefferson City, Missouri/

/ /

Dear (names).

Finally, after all the planning and working and studying and arranging, the day you have been anticipating for more than  a year is here!

If you believe that planning a wedding is a big project, then imagine the planning that God has been doing from before the beginning of the world so that you can be joined as Christian husband and wife today.

*God’s Plans from the Beginning of the World*

It’s amazing, but it’s true! God’s plans for you began even before the foundations of the universe were laid.

That’s so difficult to imagine, but that’s what God reveals in his Word.

St. Paul writes, “He [that is, God] chose us in him [that is, in Christ] before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.

In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will” (Eph 1:4–5).

Think of it!

God knew from eternity that the two of you would be born of your parents in 1978.

He chose you to be adopted into his divine family through the mysterious work of the Holy Spirit who brought you to faith in Jesus Christ through the water of Holy Baptism.

Imagine the immensity and completeness of God’s plans for you.

First, he provided a succession of parents and grandparents all the way back to Noah and Adam, your ancestors, from whom you and your brothers and sisters are born.

And then, because of our first parents’ sin, he provided, in the fullness of time, a Substitute Adam through whom the whole human family could be reborn into the family of God through water and the Spirit.

These immense truths assure us that God cares deeply about each of us and all humankind, whom he has made.

He has planned for our existence and for our inclusion into his divine family so that through faith in Jesus Christ we might be freed from the consequences of sin and have an eternal existence with him.

*God’s Plans for Blessing the Worl*d

In addition, Holy Scripture tells us that we have been included in his plans for blessing the world!

Again, St. Paul writes, “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph 2:10).

God prepared each of you for this joyful and blessed good work of being joined together in Christian marriage.

Through your marriage God has plans to bless this world.

What you are beginning this day is a good work, pleasing to God, ordained by God, and blessed by God.

God said of Adam, “It is not good for the man to be alone.

I will make a helper suitable for him. . . .

For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh” (Gen 2:18, 24).

Your being joined together in holy marriage today is not simply a gift from God to the two of you alone.

God is accomplishing his good and gracious will and purpose through your marriage today that you may be a blessing to your families, your congregational family, and to the family of humankind.

Your life together can be a wonderful adventure with God as you observe throughout each stage of your life how God is using the two of you, joined as one in holy marriage, to bring blessings into the lives of others.

God’s plans for us are perfect and right.

*Our Plans Are Not Always God’s Plans*

The same cannot be said about us and our plans.

Because of our fallen, sinful nature, we can neither know nor do what is good and right in our own strength.

For that reason, we need our all-knowing, all-seeing, all-loving God to direct our lives and to lay out his plans for us.

He assures in a personal way that he knows us and knows what we need.

In addition, he makes powerful promises to you, me, and all who desire to live under his lordship in Jer 29:11: “I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

What a wonderful text to remember for as long as God gives you life together.

What more do you need than these promises from your loving Lord as you begin your life’s adventure under God?

The future is secured for you.

Your task is to stay close to him.

In the following verses, the Lord says, “Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (29:12–13).

Remember to seek him with all your heart day by day.

Read God’s Word and pray together day by day.

Worship him Sunday by Sunday in his holy house.

Gratefully place yourselves under his Word and Sacraments and faithfully receive the great and eternal blessings that he provides for you there.

Practice the presence of God in your home life and in your professional lives.

By the power of the Spirit, fit yourselves into God’s plans for you, and you will have a rich, blessed life!

*The Promises of God Are for Us All*

These promises for each of you, their wedding guests, too.

Fit yourselves into God’s plans for you, and you will have a rich, blessed life!

Remember his promise: “I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”