Matthew Trexler | Timeless Truths of Relationships | March 6, 2022

Lamentations 3:19-23 I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Matthew 19:3-6 Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?”
“Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united 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.”

• Marriage is a covenant not a contract.

Luke 22:20 In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

Marriage is an unconditional commitment to an imperfect person.

• Covenant is based on mutual commitment.

• Contract is based on mutual distrust.

• Covenant surrenders rights and assumes responsibilities.

• Contract protects rights and shirks responsibilities.

• Covenant has the interest of the other in mind.

• Contract has personal convenience in mind.

1 John 2:6 Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

Malachi 2:16 “The man who hates and divorces his wife,” says the Lord, the God of Israel, “does violence to the one he should protect,” says the Lord Almighty.

So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful.

“Love doesn’t give a person what they deserve, it gives them what they need.”

1.Make the choice to love.

Colossians 3:14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

2.Have to prioritize the relationship

Matthew 6:33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Galatians 6:7-9 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Psalm 127:1 Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain.