Romans 15:13 page 1

Here's our text:

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
[Romans 15:13]

When I conduct a Methodist wedding, I have one part of the service that is usually a surprise for the guests. Before the bride and groom make their vows I ask the congregation to make a vow. I tell them they haven't simply turned up just to get a free lunch at the expense of the happy couple, or the bride's parents, or whoever has extended their mortgage to pay for this day: they are present as a sign that they are going to support the about-to-be-married couple in the months and years to come.

Then I lead a prayer for the bride and groom immediately before they turn to face each other and make their solemn promises. After all, they're going to need all the help they can get!

Now why am I talking about weddings at a confirmation service? Have I turned up at the wrong place? No - current British law says you can't conduct a wedding after 6 pm, so no, I shouldn't be somewhere else.

I use this introduction to say to those of you this evening who are about to be confirmed and take your vows to God that the rest of us are here to support you, both tonight and in the coming months and years. It's a shame there isn't a vow in this service that we could all take in order to promise publicly that support to you.

Not only that, part of our support is that we are praying for you. And I want to share with you some of the things we are praying for you on this special night in your lives. To do that, I want to take over those aspirations Paul prayed that the Roman Christians might have. Let's hear them again:

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

There you go: joy, peace and hope. Those are the things we are praying you will have tonight. Let's take each of them in turn.

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Copyright © David D Faulkner, 2006 except where other sources are attributed or noted as inspiration.