No longer two but one!

Welcome to the blessed occasion to build a house church.

Let us bow our heads and pray to The Lord. 

Our Heavenly Father, thank  you for bringing us together to witness the blessed couple coming together and offering you the pledge of marriage building a house church in your blessed name. Please be with us and bless the couple. In Jesus' name.

On this blessed occasion I would like to share with you one word from Genesis 2:24, "That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they became one flesh." 

In LA UBF there is a saying "Whoever cleans the bathroom faithfully gets married a beautiful woman. The longer you do this the more beautiful woman you end up getting married." 

You know cleaning a bathroom once or twice might be okay but doing it all the time is challenging. After sunday worship, the bathrooms get messy. There is 9:00 hbf worship service, then 11 ubf service, then lunch, then 1:30 children service. Then there are other activities such as choir practice. And by 9 pm or so people are all gone. Then close to midnight a man shows up. That is andrew. He goes to the bathroom area. He cleans the bathroom - both man's room and woman's, mopping the floors refilling the supplies, etc. And he did so for so long.

The night before his departure to kiev Andew was seen cleaning the center as well. So during the flight from LA to armsterdam I said to  him, "After getting married you may wish to stop doing this." And guess what he said. "Missionary Isaac, I want to continue to do this, Perhaps with Natasha." I was so surprised, so I asked, "Why?" He said, "I want to break the record." Now I understand. What he meant was "I want to marry the most beautiful woman in the whole world." Tonight his dream has come true. Look at the woman seated right next to him!

Now let us go back to the Bible. Right before coming to Kiev, we had a fall bible conference. The first night shepherd Andrew served the opening message. His message was on Genesis 1. He spoke of man's origin, man's identity, and man's purpose. He testified on the blassed task of bearing fruit in The Lord. In Genesis 2, The Lord God provided for man's perfect happiness by making a prefeect environment, giving him blessed work to to, blessed command to obey, and to top it off, the blessed companionship. So the  Bible reads, "But for Adam no suitable helper was found." So what did The Lord do? Let us read Genesis 2:21-25 NIV

 [21] So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. [22] Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. [23] The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man. ” [24] That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. [25] Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame."

Look at v. 24 again. "That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh." Notice the word 'one'. 

Referring to this passage our Lord Jesus says, "and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh."

Tonight upon this couple exchanging before The Lord an oath they will be joined into one: they are no longer two but one flesh!

One word: no longer two but one!

Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father! Thank you for bringing the couple together and building a house church between them. Please accept this union into your presence as one. Please be with them with your hands of protection and provion. In Jesus' name.