I attended my best mate of 30 year's wedding on the weekend, we hadn't seen each for a long time as we have been living on opposite sides of the country for years. What a great night it was and a lovely testimony to God. Here was my best man speech below
First off I Just want to Say again a big congratulations to the happy newlyweds.
For those of you who don't know me I'm Andrew, Liams best man.
Liam and I have known each other since we were just we were we little tackers, we met through a salvation army, that both our parents were attending and became best mates not long after that, As we both had a healthy interest at getting into mistuff, it's hard to say who was the instigator, but one of my earliest memories was rushing over to liams house one morning with my cassette tape in hand, rewound to the perfect spot and showing him this cool new song I recorded off the radio, it was by an artist named Dennis leary, I won't say the name of the song as their are kids present, anyway after a minute or so of the song playing, liams mum, sharron, came in grabbed the tape out and said get that rubbish out of my house! I thought that was a bit harsh, but now I've got my own kids I know I would and will do the same, and I'll follow it up with a kick up the backside, funnily enough the name of that song was another word for backside....
Anyway as we got older we grew out of getting up to mistuff and focused on a bit of exercise, skateboarding to be exact, it was always a good cardio workout to go to a shopping center, find some security guards, get them real agitated then try to out run them all over town...
Later down the track, long story short, both our parents had gone different ways and we thought getting his dad and my mum out of the house to go have a coffee or something might work out good and we could even convince one of them to move out and we could have our own Batchelor pad, well the plan worked a little to good and they ended up getting married and that's how we became step brothers..
We've traveled around the word together and had many ups and downs, but when I think of words to describe liam , genuine, loyal and caring come to mind, which are all great qualities for your new life together in marriage.
Liam is very loyal to the around him who he loves, he has always stuck of me and had my back even in most cases where I was in the wrong, and he will bend over backwards to help anyone whether he knows them or not. He has a tendency to put others first .
We were travelling through India back in the day and somehow found ourselves in a not so nice neighborhood, there were half a dozen men surrounding us jeering and saying some mean sounding words we didn't comprehend, liam, knowing I couldn't fight to save myself, just said alright Andrew as soon as I drop the first one you just run for it and find help. Laim shapped up and then , Luckily a taxi drove between us and yelled to jump in, the taxi driver just said , what are you white boys doing here, your in the wrong neighborhood. Thank you Lord for that man....
We had a bible study going back in broome with a couple of our friends years ago, our friend Katherine, she knew both liam and I before we came to know the Lord, she saw the worst of us....
Anyway we were praying for Liam one night and Katherine said, when Liam comes to know the Lord he is going to do great things for Him, I just know it!
Not long after that liam came to know the Lord and that's how we went from step brother to the best kind of brother .
Brothers In Christ.
Katherine was right even she could see his genuine loyal and kind side through all our antics.
And she was right in what she said. Liam has encouraged me many times in his walk with the Lord.
One instance comes to mind, when he called and told me he had found the love of his life and was getting married, and asked me to be there to be the best man, I lwas living in broome in WA at the time and with all this covid rubbish going on, at that stage it was going to be hard to leave wa and get back in, we had kind of been talking about leaving broome at that stage and this news sealed the deal.
We decided to put the house on the market buy a caravan and hit the road, Anyway it was only a few months ago liam called and asked how the house sale was going and I said nah no real bites yet, I'm started to get a bit worried it won't sell in time, liam just replied with no concern, don't worry, it will sell, all in God's perfect timing, just have faith. A week or so later we got an offer and it sold and not long after we were on the road.
I'd been hastling liam for a couple of years, found a nice girl yet ? He always replied nah all in good time just focusing on my relationship with Lord atm.
Anyway, God's perfect timing again, liam had not felt right at the church he had been attending and stopped going, after a while he bumped into an old friend who invited him to the cairns Baptist, which he went along, and soon after attending there , his words " I just couldn't stop thinking about this gorgeous woman at the church always running around helping others and always with a cheerful smile, he asked her out on a date and yeah the rest is history...
Back to God's perfect timing...
I want to just end with a verse out of the Bible
Jeremiah 29:11
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
It was God's plan that you guys meet and marry and in His perfect timing.
Always keep Jesus in the center of your relationship and it will be a great adventure together.
I'm very humbled and happy to be part of your special day,
Here's a toast to the lovely newlyweds
