Divorce

Sermon on the mount: May 3, 2026

What does it mean to have a “relationship” with God? __________________________________________

1. Beatitudes= Kingdom _______________, _____________ _______________

Matthew 5:3+

Blessed are the..… are pronouncements of blessings found in Jesus. Not Laws.

Matt 5:21+

6 Antitheses (instructions) on Anger, lust, divorce, oaths, retaliation, and enemies are instructions, _________ _________!

Jesus is revealing Kingdom Ideals, not ammunition

Matthew 5:31–32 CSB

“It was also said, Whoever divorces his wife must give her a written notice of divorce. But I tell you, everyone who divorces his wife, except in a case of sexual immorality, causes her to commit adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

2. Covenant is a __________________ Idea in scripture

Most common way that God RELATES to people

Covenant=Self sacrificial promise built on security and trust, where God’s unique Agape love is revealed

Marriage is a Covenant, ____________ God in the world

1 Corinthians 13:4–7 CSB

Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Why do kids think people get divorced?

Ancient divorce culture

Shammai-Moral grounds

Hillel-Any reason

Matthew 19:4–10 CSB

“Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that he who created them in the beginning made them male and female, and he also said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.” “Why then,” they asked him, “did Moses command us to give divorce papers and to send her away?” He told them, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because of the hardness of your hearts, but it was not like that from the beginning. I tell you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another commits adultery.” His disciples said to him, “If the relationship of a man with his wife is like this, it’s better not to marry.”

How Many divorces would happen if we properly dealt with Anger, contempt and lust?

“Hard hearts may make divorce necessary to avoid greater harm, and hence make it permissible. But kingdom hearts are not hard, and they together can find ways to bear with each other, to speak truth in love, to change-often through times of great pain and distress- until the tender intimacy of mutual, covenant-framed love finds a way for the  two lives to remain one, beautifully and increasingly… divorce must be viewed somewhat as the practice of medical triage (making tough decisions to save lives)….it is never right to divorce as divorce was then done and as it is now usually done. Divorce if it were rightly done, would be done as an act of love. It would be dictated by love and done for the honest good of the people involved.” Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy

What effects have the teachings of Jesus had on your Heart recently?

Jeremiah 31:31–34 ““Look, the days are coming” —this is the Lord’s declaration—“when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt—my covenant that they broke even though I am their master”—the Lord’s declaration. “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the Lord’s declaration. “I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know me, from the least to the greatest of them” —this is the Lord’s declaration. “For I will forgive their iniquity and never again remember their sin.”