Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] I've had many privileges in my life, but I have had no greater privilege than to have five kids, nine grandkids and one great grandchild. Call me Papa.
[00:00:27] When I watch tv, they tell me I'm too stupid to do the laundry.
[00:00:32] They tell me I can't find the right insurance.
[00:00:38] That all may be true. But I'll tell you something.
[00:00:41] Good dads make the world a better place.
[00:00:50] And, brothers, I'm just gonna say this briefly.
[00:00:55] God created us to be men, and we cannot be shamed out of our masculinity by a culture that doesn't understand God's good purpose.
[00:01:10] Our dear Heavenly Father, what an awesome thing it is that you choose the name Father to help us best understand who you are.
[00:01:25] And I pray that we would submit to your fatherly wisdom, we would follow your fatherly instruction, and we would delight in your fatherly love.
[00:01:38] I pray for myself and all my brothers that we might live up to your expectation as spiritual leaders of our home.
[00:01:47] I pray this morning that you would teach us something about friendship so that we can share the life of Christ with others through friendships.
[00:01:56] And I ask this all in Jesus name, amen.
[00:02:06] Two men stood in the Valley of Elah.
[00:02:13] The one man I could best compare to, Shaq, he was about 7ft tall, probably weighed 300 pounds, looked absolutely vicious.
[00:02:30] People were intimidated to look at the man.
[00:02:35] The other man I'd have to compare to maybe Kwan for the Cleveland Guardians.
[00:02:46] Not very tall, not very beefy, but you can tell there's an athlete in there somewhere.
[00:02:55] And the two men faced off in the Valley of Elah.
[00:03:00] You see, Goliath had defied God and the armies of Israel, and David could not abide it.
[00:03:11] And so, with a slingshot and five stones, he faced the most vicious man in the Philistine army.
[00:03:22] And he said to this vicious man, you come out against me with swords and fighting staffs.
[00:03:33] I come out against you in the name of the Lord.
[00:03:38] And that young man found the courage to start running full speed toward the vicious Philistine warrior.
[00:03:50] And he loaded a small pebble with centrifugal force by swinging it around and around and around.
[00:03:58] And at the right moment, he planted his foot and he released that stone. And that stone struck that vicious man square in the face and knocked him down like he'd been hit with a baseball bat.
[00:04:15] Now, I don't know about you, but if I was David, I'd be turning around the crowd going, hey, well, how about that?
[00:04:22] But David was playing for keeps that day, and he ran up to the giant, he pulled Goliath's sword out of its sheath and as a teenage boy, he beheaded the champion of the Philistine army.
[00:04:41] It was the original shock and awe.
[00:04:45] The Philistines were in shock and the Israelites were in awe.
[00:04:50] And then it was on.
[00:04:52] The standoff was over. The Israelite warriors attacked and the Philistine army ran for dear life.
[00:05:04] And David collected Goliath's armor that day.
[00:05:10] And according to First Samuel, he kept it and ended up displaying it in Jerusalem. When he became king and conquered the city of Jerusalem, it was a, it became a national trophy. It became a symbol of how Israel saw itself.
[00:05:37] And David became a national hero that day.
[00:05:42] But could I tell you, there's a world of difference between being a national hero and having a friend.
[00:05:52] If you read 1st Samuel right, David's brothers, ah, were not nice to him, they were insulting to him.
[00:06:01] And David's father gave him the job of tending sheep. And it's pretty hard to make friends when you have to take care of stinking sheep all day.
[00:06:11] And so David found himself an absolute national hero.
[00:06:17] But he couldn't say that he had one friend in the world.
[00:06:24] What an unpleasant position to be in.
[00:06:31] And first, the authors of 1st Samuel pick up the story. And they say as soon as he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was, was knit to the soul of David.
[00:06:45] And Jonathan loved him as his own soul.
[00:06:49] And Saul took him that day and would not let him return to his father's house.
[00:06:55] A excellent friendship, a true friendship is a knitting of souls.
[00:07:05] That's why it's important that, that you follow your mother's instruction when she told you to choose your friends wisely.
[00:07:14] Your friends will have a powerful effect on you for good, or they'll have a powerful effect on you for bad.
[00:07:23] And that's why some of you struggle with the things you do, because you have friends who don't.
[00:07:34] They're just not the right people, they don't have the right values, they're not looking at life in a healthy way.
[00:07:42] Christ doesn't mean anything to them.
[00:07:45] And the long term effect they're going to have on your life is not good.
[00:07:51] On the other hand, when you make friends with genuinely good people, they have the potential to help you live life to its richest and fullest.
[00:08:05] In fact, friendship at its best is a form of love.
[00:08:11] The Greek word phileos literally means friendship, love.
[00:08:17] Now we live in a culture that sexualizes everything.
[00:08:21] So some people, when they read this, that David and Jonathan loved each other of Course, they sexualize it and they make it something to mean something the Bible doesn't mean at all.
[00:08:32] There is an authentic, healthy friendship, love, and it. And it's part of God's good plan for a healthy life.
[00:08:45] Jonathan and David seemed to enjoy each other's company. There was something about their relationship that clicked.
[00:08:54] Can I tell you, I believe in God's good plan?
[00:08:58] If we will pay attention, God is going to cause us to run into good people and there'll be something about these good people that click with us.
[00:09:11] I don't believe God is saying to you, look, you have to be miserable to be friends with people that you cannot abide. I don't think he's teaching that at all.
[00:09:22] But what I think he is teaching is if you will pay attention, God will bring people into your life and they will be healthy people and something will click.
[00:09:34] There's another thing about David and Jonathan. They had a unique friendship that only people who serve in danger ever built.
[00:09:45] There is.
[00:09:46] I've heard many of my friends in this church who were in the military, and they said they made some of the closest relationships of their life in the military.
[00:09:59] I've heard great soldiers interviewed, and they said something like this. In the end, we weren't fighting for a big idea. We were fighting for the guy next to us.
[00:10:12] Out of our commitment and our appreciation for the guy next to us, that's. That's what we fought our hardest for. Well, can you see David and Jonathan? They are. They're warriors.
[00:10:26] Jonathan had already spent most of his adult life in his father Saul's army. And David was going to spend his entire adult life in a warrior's lifestyle.
[00:10:39] And because they were fighting for something bigger than themselves, they were able to knit a solid friendship.
[00:10:48] Do you know, in church, it's God's good idea for us to be struggling for something bigger than ourselves. And as we struggle together for something bigger than ourselves, we create very healthy friendships.
[00:11:05] If you're having a hard time creating friendships, I would suggest that you join a life group.
[00:11:12] I would suggest that you come to Love Week and you work with some other good people and you be part of something bigger than yourself and see what friendships develop out of that.
[00:11:31] And then the author of First Samuel continued, then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as his own soul.
[00:11:41] And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David and his armor and even his sword and his bow and his belt.
[00:11:53] And David went out and was successful wherever Saul sent him.
[00:11:57] So Saul set him over the men of war.
[00:12:01] And this was good in the sight of all the people and, and also in the sight of Saul's servants.
[00:12:09] Friendship at its best is a covenant.
[00:12:13] It is an unwritten covenant. But it is a promise that we make to each other. That you can trust me and I can trust you.
[00:12:23] When you, when you, when you break your friendship, you're breaking a covenant.
[00:12:32] It is an unwritten promise that I've declared you my friend. And you can trust me and you can count on me.
[00:12:43] Friendships are not commitments of convenience. You are my friend as long as it's convenient for you to be my friend.
[00:12:54] But when it's not convenient anymore, then I move on.
[00:12:59] That's not the true nature of friendship.
[00:13:02] I'm glad we're getting out of this. Cancel culture.
[00:13:07] Christ teaches, if you see someone taken in a fault, you who are spiritual, restore them with a spirit of gentleness, taking heed to yourself, because you also can be tempted.
[00:13:21] If there's ever a time to honor a friendship, it's when your friend is down.
[00:13:28] If there's ever a time to believe in the covenant of friendship, it's when they're struggling, it's when things aren't going well for them.
[00:13:41] And even in life, sometimes when they have become ashamed of something they've done or not done, that's when the covenant of friendship has to be the most solid. Will you hear me, Church?
[00:13:56] Ah.
[00:13:57] And then we have this unique thing.
[00:14:00] Jonathan, who was the son, the oldest son of the king, the person most people expected to be the next king, he looked at David and what he was wearing and he said, that's not acceptable for my friend.
[00:14:17] David was probably wearing a handmade sheep wool shirt of some kind.
[00:14:26] He was a national hero. And Jonathan looked at him and said, I. I want my friend to look better than that.
[00:14:33] So Jonathan took off the expensive robe that a king's son wore and gave it to his friend David.
[00:14:43] And he did more than that.
[00:14:46] He, he, he said, david, I want you to have my armor.
[00:14:57] Swords were very hard for Israelites to get. In fact, all of the swords they originally got, they took from the Philistines when they defeated him.
[00:15:07] And so a sword was a very valuable thing. And Jonathan said, here, I want you to have my sword too.
[00:15:14] And since you got the armor and the sword, you might as well have my bow.
[00:15:20] And he said, you'll need a belt to carry that sword around. And he gave him his belt.
[00:15:29] The Bible doesn't have any throwaway lines in it.
[00:15:33] These details are there for a Purpose. You know what Jonathan was saying, David, you're my friend and I want to do everything I can to help you look good.
[00:15:45] There is a great value in friendship when we desire to do everything we can to help our friends look good.
[00:15:53] Church.
[00:15:55] It is a beautiful thing when we set our own pride aside and we say, what can I do to help my friend look good? I'm not just talking about physically.
[00:16:08] Ah, look, if your friend has got something on their nose, tell them, don't make them walk through the whole day with that.
[00:16:21] If they spill some jelly on their beard, say, hey, bro, you got jelly on your beard. You're doing them a favor instead of walking around. All right?
[00:16:33] There should be something noble in our hearts that we do what we can to help our friends look good in the world, not just physically, but spiritually and morally.
[00:16:52] And he gave him his armor. What was that all about?
[00:16:56] Jonathan already knew that there was something in David that he didn't have.
[00:17:04] And look, Jonathan was a brave man. There are some incredible stories about Jonathan in the Bible, but Jonathan knew when push came to shove, he wasn't going to go down in the Valley of Ella and fight Goliath.
[00:17:20] He could have fact, as he was a commander in the army, he probably should have, but he couldn't. He didn't have it in him. But he saw something in David and he said, david has more potential than I do. I'm gonna do what I can to help him achieve that potential.
[00:17:41] And he gave him that armor. He gave him those weapons.
[00:17:45] Ah.
[00:17:47] Can you see yourself as the kind of friend that says, what can I do to help my friends succeed in their life work?
[00:18:02] Have you ever even thought, has it ever passed through your mind that you might be able to do something that helps your friend succeed in their work?
[00:18:14] You might.
[00:18:15] There are all kinds of good books. You might pass them a book and say, I. I think this might help you out. Look at it. If they're not book readers, you might find they have all kinds of incredible lessons on YouTube.
[00:18:31] I mean, you can get. You get the best professors in the world who'll give you a free lecture on YouTube.
[00:18:37] All right, what. What might you do that would. That would make a difference in your friend's life and give them a leg up in succeeding in what they wanna do.
[00:18:53] I wanna throw a word in here for parents. Parents, would you listen to me a minute?
[00:18:59] You'll do a lot more for your children by praising their successes than criticizing their failures.
[00:19:08] Parents, one more time. You will do a lot more to help your Kids succeed by praising their successes than by criticizing their failures.
[00:19:21] You'll do a lot more to help them see themselves in the best light if you help them have an inner voice that is speaking to themselves in a healthy way.
[00:19:36] And that comes from praise. It doesn't come from criticism.
[00:19:39] Church.
[00:19:41] Way too many of us have an inner voice that is too critical because we heard too much of that too long in our lives. And we have an opportunity not just to be friends to the people around us, but someday, I want you to know, mom and dad, you're gonna have to learn how to be your kid's friend. Cause they're gonna grow up.
[00:20:02] And when your children grow up, your relationship to them is a friendship more than it is a.
[00:20:11] I want you to do this and not do that.
[00:20:15] Hey, parents, can I get an amen out here, or do I have to do this all alone? All right.
[00:20:23] I believe David caught onto the military life more quickly because Jonathan, who had experience in it. David, was his friend.
[00:20:34] David had no experience in the military life.
[00:20:37] He had. He took care of sheep. That's what he knew. And then he had that day where God blessed him and he struck down the Philistine. And then Saul said, I want you in my army. And now David has to learn the military life.
[00:20:54] He's got to learn how to lead troops. He's got to learn how to talk to people. He's got to. You gotta learn chain of command. All right? And I believe that Jonathan's friendship with David nurtured all of that and made it possible for David to become the warrior king that he was.
[00:21:12] Wouldn't it be a great honor if you nurtured what was best in somebody and they became spectacular in their work and in their career?
[00:21:23] Wouldn't that be a beautiful thing?
[00:21:32] In fact, Jonathan's appreciation of David validated him to Saul's other servants.
[00:21:42] Everybody knew Jonathan in Saul's army. Everybody knew Jonathan and Saul's family servants. None of them knew David.
[00:21:51] But guess what? Because they respected Jonathan and Jonathan respected David got the.
[00:22:01] David got the gift of being appreciated by people who didn't know him because he was validated by his friend.
[00:22:11] It is a beautiful thing when you figure out ways to validate your friends.
[00:22:16] It is a beautiful thing. When I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday, and when he first started in his business, he needed a new relationship with the bank. And he had a friend who had a very good relationship with the bank.
[00:22:33] And his friend validated him. And the bank gave him a line of credit. He wouldn't have gotten if his friend hadn't validated him.
[00:22:43] And it made all the difference in the world in his business.
[00:22:46] It was exactly what his business needed at that moment. Okay, this is a very Christian idea.
[00:22:52] Do you remember last week, the scripture told us that Christ commanded us to make friends.
[00:22:59] And a part of making friends is validating our friends to other people.
[00:23:07] Saul became intimidated of David. Everything was going well.
[00:23:12] Everything was going well.
[00:23:14] They were winning battles, the morale was up, everybody was feeling good, and they went out and defeated the Philistines again.
[00:23:24] Well, after they defeated the Philistines again, they came home and there was a parade for the army when it came home.
[00:23:33] Now, you have to use your imagination for this.
[00:23:36] I believe some teenage girls who wanted to get David's attention, they got together and they made a little cheer.
[00:23:45] They created a cheer that they hoped would get David's attention.
[00:23:50] So the army's coming down, these girls are waiting. Saul and David walk by and they start their cheer. And their cheer went like this. Saul has killed his thousands, but David, his ten thousands.
[00:24:05] They were trying to get his attention. I mean, he was a national hero. He was young, good looking guy, all right?
[00:24:13] And it was as innocent as anything could be.
[00:24:18] The problem is Saul's insecurities.
[00:24:23] That cheer from those girls ruined his relationship with David.
[00:24:31] It absolutely ruined him.
[00:24:36] It was like stabbing him in the chest with a sword.
[00:24:45] In Saul's mind, it wasn't some girls trying to get David's attention.
[00:24:52] In Saul's mind, it was a comparison.
[00:24:57] Saul didn't hear, ah. Saul didn't hear cheerful girls trying to get David's attention. He heard a comparison.
[00:25:05] He heard, they think David is better than I am.
[00:25:12] And that wrecked him.
[00:25:14] It pushed every button of his insecurity and it absolutely wrecked him.
[00:25:21] Do you know, nothing will kill a good friendship more quickly than comparisons.
[00:25:28] Church.
[00:25:31] I don't think we ought to compare ourselves to our friends.
[00:25:34] I don't think we ought to compare ourselves to our friends.
[00:25:38] Look, whenever we compare ourselves, we end up comparing what is best that they have with what is lacking that we have.
[00:25:51] We rarely compare ourselves and say, God has blessed me and I'm pretty happy to have this, this and this. No, when we compare ourselves, we say, oh, look what they have.
[00:26:04] I should have that. All right?
[00:26:07] Don't compare yourself to your friends, especially if they have more hair than you, because you're always gonna lose.
[00:26:18] They're always gonna lose.
[00:26:20] All right?
[00:26:24] Saul ruined himself.
[00:26:27] He ruined the people around him. He ruined the kingdom because he compared himself to David and In his insecurity, Saul was very angry at this saying.
[00:26:45] This saying displeased him. He said, they have ascribed to David 10 thousands, but to me, they have ascribed thousands. What more can he have but the kingdom?
[00:26:57] Now, I need to tell you the backstory on this.
[00:27:01] Samuel anointed Saul king, the first king of Israel.
[00:27:06] And Saul didn't have the courage to lead, and he always compromised to make people happy.
[00:27:14] And God sent Saul to fight the Amalekites.
[00:27:18] And Saul disobeyed God and he brought back the best of everything.
[00:27:26] And Samuel went out to meet him and said, what are you doing? He goes. Saul said, hey, I did what the Lord told me to do. And he goes, you did? Then why do I hear all this cattle and all the sheep?
[00:27:36] And why did you bring the king of the Amalekites back?
[00:27:40] And then Samuel said to Saul, because you have disobeyed the Lord.
[00:27:48] God is going to take the kingdom away from you.
[00:27:52] And he turned to walk away, and Saul grabbed him.
[00:27:56] And when he grabbed him, Samuel's robe tore.
[00:28:01] And Samuel spun around and said, as you have torn my robe, God has torn this kingdom out of your hands, and he's gonna give it to somebody better than you.
[00:28:13] Now Saul is living with Samuel's prophecy that his son will not be the next king and that God will take the kingdom away from him and give it to somebody better than him.
[00:28:26] And who does he have in front of his face that is obviously better than him?
[00:28:32] David.
[00:28:34] And now this isn't just between David and Saul.
[00:28:38] This is also between David, God, and Saul.
[00:28:44] This isn't just about how Saul is treating David. This is about how Saul is treating God's chosen one. Next king.
[00:28:57] Could I ask you to remember that friendships are really about more than just you and your friend. Friendships are about you, your friend, and God. Can you hear this?
[00:29:08] God should be in every friendship.
[00:29:12] If God is not in your friendships, you're not living the Christian life to the fullest.
[00:29:20] We ought to pray for our friends. We ought to ask God how we can be a blessing to our friends. We ought to ask God how we can encourage our friends. And we ought to remember that we have an accountability to God for how we treat the friends that he puts in our lives.
[00:29:35] Always check your insecurities. They'll never get you where you want to be.
[00:29:40] Saul valued fickle public approval more than the contribution Dave was making to his kingdom.
[00:29:48] Nobody was making a bigger contribution to his kingdom than David, but he was willing to sacrifice that to get the fickle approval of a parade.
[00:30:02] And then we have these sad words.
[00:30:08] And Saul eyed David from that day on.
[00:30:14] Instead of looking at him as a friend, he always looked at him with suspicion.
[00:30:21] Suspicion dominated his thinking about David.
[00:30:28] And the next day, a harmful spirit from God rushed upon Saul. And he raved within his house while David was playing the lyre.
[00:30:37] And as he did day by day, Saul had a spear in his hand.
[00:30:43] And Saul healed the spear at him, for he thought, I will pin him to the wall. But David evaded him twice.
[00:30:53] Can anybody feel the tragedy?
[00:30:56] These two men used to respect each other. These two men called each other friends.
[00:31:02] And now Saul is full of insecurities.
[00:31:05] He's full of incis. He's full of suspicion. He's lost the comfort of God in his life.
[00:31:12] And on a moment's notice, he. He snatches up his spear.
[00:31:18] And David has to dodge him twice to escape with his life.
[00:31:26] I've known people who were good friends, but they became worse enemies than they were ever good friends.
[00:31:35] Church I've known people who were genuinely good friends with someone, but they handled the friendship poorly. And that friendship became an absolute disaster and an ugly thing in their life.
[00:31:55] Now.
[00:31:57] And ask you to permit me to talk to you honestly.
[00:32:01] I can't be a good friend and not talk to you honestly.
[00:32:06] Some of you sit here this morning and you remember a friendship you had.
[00:32:15] There was a time in your life you love this man or this woman with all your heart.
[00:32:24] You stood and made promises to each other.
[00:32:30] You believed you were best friends.
[00:32:34] But then life pushed you around, and then resentment got in, and then anger got in, and then forgiveness got lost.
[00:32:46] And the person that you once called friend, you resent now more than any living person.
[00:32:54] Would you let me talk to you?
[00:32:56] Listen, you gotta stop that.
[00:32:59] It's not Christian. It's not who God created us to be.
[00:33:04] In a friendship. In a friendship, we say, ah, my friendship is strong enough that I can forgive and I can let some stuff go.
[00:33:17] Church and today would be a good day for some of you to have a quiet moment with God and say, I'm drawing a line in the sand. And the resentment I've carried for my friend, the resentment and the anger and my desire to insult him, that is all going to go away today.
[00:33:43] And, and, and for the sake of Jesus Christ, I am forgiving this person.
[00:33:49] I'm not saying that you have to try to be best friends anymore, but I am saying you gotta let go of the anger and the resentment.
[00:33:58] You cannot. You cannot be a healthy friend when you carry that kind of stuff around in you day after day.
[00:34:07] Will you hear me? Church?
[00:34:15] I would also like to say, we learn from this, that it is always good to restrain anger toward your friends.
[00:34:23] Will your friends make you angry? Sometimes. Yeah.
[00:34:26] But that doesn't mean you have to vent at all.
[00:34:29] The scriptures teach us, be angry and do not sin.
[00:34:35] Church.
[00:34:36] Ah. Because your friend makes you angry doesn't mean you have to vocalize that anger. Because your friend makes you angry doesn't mean you need to vent it. Because your friend make it disappoint, disappoints you or whatever, it doesn't mean that it requires you to get even.
[00:34:57] Good friendships have a way of saying, I'm letting that one go.
[00:35:02] That's a freebie.
[00:35:04] Look, that's the way we're supposed to treat our friends. Do you get this?
[00:35:08] We're supposed to be able to say, you are my friend and you can annoy me, but that's not gonna break my friendship with you.
[00:35:15] You are my friend, and you can make me angry, but I'm gonna process that in a healthy way, and I'm not gonna sacrifice my friendship for one.
[00:35:27] Then when Saul couldn't kill David, he called Jonathan and some of his servants in and said, I want you to kill David. I'm done with him.
[00:35:40] And listen what the author of First Samuel said. But Jonathan's soul delighted much in David.
[00:35:47] And Jonathan told David, saul, my father seeks to kill you.
[00:35:52] Therefore, be on your guard. In the morning, stay in a secret place and hide yourself. And I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are. And I will speak to my father about you.
[00:36:04] And if I learn anything, I will tell you.
[00:36:08] Good friends warn their friends.
[00:36:12] Jonathan was Saul's son, but he knew Saul wasn't right, and he warned his friend. Do you know some of the. One of the best things we can ever do for a friend is see danger and warn them.
[00:36:23] Sometimes we get blind to stuff, and sometimes we need a friend to say, I want you to look at this in a different way.
[00:36:31] You may be on the wrong path here.
[00:36:34] I want you to look at this in a different way. The wise man sees trouble and hides himself.
[00:36:43] A healthy warning is a life gift.
[00:36:48] Jonathan also gave him good advice. Don't come into the camp. You stay hidden.
[00:36:53] I want you to know when you're giving your friends advice, there's a difference between facts and opinions.
[00:36:59] Church. When you are giving advice, remember, there is a difference between facts and opinions.
[00:37:06] And the best advice is not your opinion. The best advice is you doing a little homework and finding out what the facts are. And sometimes the advice is just saying, you know, I've learned these facts, and you should probably consider them.
[00:37:24] And then David. Jonathan interceded for David. I love this part of the story.
[00:37:30] Jonathan said, I'm gonna go talk to my dad for you. It's not safe for you to do it, but I'm gonna go do it for you.
[00:37:38] Ah, what a beautiful thing it is when we intercede for our friends.
[00:37:44] So this is what Jonathan said to his dad.
[00:37:48] Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul, his father, and he said to him, let not the king sin against his servant David, because he has not sinned against you.
[00:38:02] For he took his life into his hand and struck down the Philistine. And the Lord worked a great salvation for all Israel. You saw it and rejoiced.
[00:38:13] Why then will you sin against innocent blood by killing David without a cause?
[00:38:20] Jonathan says five things here. Let me share with you quickly. Listen. Listen to the qualities that Jonathan reminds us all that David has. One, Jonathan spoke well of David.
[00:38:33] What a beautiful thing it is. Like I told you last week, when we speak well of our friends, two, let not the king sin against his servant, because David has not sinned against you.
[00:38:46] Listen what he's saying. Would you please look honestly at David, Tell me what he's done wrong.
[00:38:54] And then he goes, uh, uh.
[00:38:58] He. His deeds have brought you good. Your life is better because David has been your friend.
[00:39:06] And then now he's got. He's. He's gotten himself into a good position. And he says, and have you already forgot when we were all standing in the valley of Ella and nobody wanted to go face the Goliath, and you didn't. I didn't. Nobody did. And David, the person we least thought would or could, took his life into his own hands and took all that pressure off you.
[00:39:33] And then he concluded with this.
[00:39:36] The Lord worked a great salvation for all Israel. And you saw it and rejoiced.
[00:39:44] Saul, remember.
[00:39:46] Remember how this all got started.
[00:39:51] Remember your original appreciation for David.
[00:39:55] Reconnect with what David has done good in your life. And that's great for any friendship. Remember where this friendship came from. Remember why you became friends to begin with. Remember what the friendship was really all about. Remember the good times you've had with the friends.
[00:40:13] Remember the potential that you got because of a friend.
[00:40:18] And then Jonathan asked the hard question, why will you sin against innocent blood by killing David without a cause? Do you know good friends are sometimes the one who asks the hard Question.
[00:40:33] Sometimes a good friend says, if you stay on this course, where do you think you'll end up?
[00:40:40] Sometimes a good friend says, this doesn't seem to me like your best self. What's going on?
[00:40:53] Sometimes a good friend says, ah, I really can't understand what's happening right now. I need you to explain to me what you're thinking. Do you hear this church?
[00:41:05] Sometimes a good friend asks the question that nobody else is willing to ask. And it can make all the difference in the world.
[00:41:17] This story's gonna end today. Well, in the long term, it doesn't end well. But today it ends well.
[00:41:23] Jonathan listened to the voice. Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan.
[00:41:28] Saul swore, as the Lord lives, he shall not be put to death.
[00:41:33] And Jonathan called David and Jonathan reported to him all these things. And Jonathan brought David to Saul and. And he was in his presence as before.
[00:41:44] Would you let me say that? When I read this, I had an overwhelming sense of how Jonathan reminds me of Jesus Christ.
[00:41:54] The rabbi has called Jonathan a tzedik, a righteous one. He's one of the few people in the Bible that there's not a bad story about.
[00:42:03] You can find bad stories about David, Moses, Abraham. You can't find one bad story in the Bible about Jonathan. He's a tzedik.
[00:42:12] He reminds me of what kind of friend Jesus was.
[00:42:18] Jonathan was persuasive. He persuaded his father for the sake of David.
[00:42:24] I have found Jesus Christ to be the most persuasive friend I've ever had.
[00:42:29] I have found when I am at my worst, my friend Jesus Christ shows up in my life and he says, I want better out of you.
[00:42:41] You're capable of better.
[00:42:44] I have a better vision for you.
[00:42:46] Christ has persuaded me again and again in my life out of the pure power of friendship, love.
[00:42:56] Saul swore an oath. Friendship calls out the best, even in broken relationships.
[00:43:03] Saul's relationship with David was broken, but Jonathan called out the best.
[00:43:10] Christ, as my persuasive friend, has called out the best in me again and again and again.
[00:43:17] There have been times in my life when Christ said, we're going to do something really hard and I'm. I'm counting on you.
[00:43:26] There have been times in my life when I've said to Christ, we're going to fail.
[00:43:30] We are going to fail.
[00:43:33] And Christ said, well, no, we're not going to fail.
[00:43:39] You're going to get back to work. You're going to do what you know you need to do. You're going to do it better than you've ever Done it. And my hand is going to bless it all. Church.
[00:43:48] I have a friend. His name is the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:43:52] And year after year, he. He has consistently called out the best in me. I am a better man because my friend Jesus Christ shows up in my life and says, let's do something hard together. I'm going to help you do it.
[00:44:09] Ah.
[00:44:10] Jonathan initiated a reconciliation.
[00:44:16] David and Saul couldn't speak.
[00:44:18] Saul was angry, he was resentful, he was suspicious. David couldn't talk to him. So Jonathan did this noble thing and he reconciled. Saul and David, he brought them back together. They couldn't do it by themselves, but with Jonathan's help, they could.
[00:44:37] Do you know, we lost our relationship with God the Father. We lost it.
[00:44:42] We send it away.
[00:44:43] We couldn't get it back.
[00:44:46] But our best friend Jesus Christ, out of the riches of his character, he came and lived among us. He died on the cross and he reconciles us back to friendship with God. In the last sermon in this series, I'm going to show you what friendship with God looks like. We have the potential to have friendship with God because our friend Jesus Christ reconciles us.
[00:45:12] Then the last one, Jonathan, brought David and Saul together to accomplish things they could not accomplish alone.
[00:45:23] Friends bring people together for noble causes.
[00:45:27] Do you know what?
[00:45:29] I hope you have caught the church's DNA. I want to do awesome things for Jesus Christ in my lifetime.
[00:45:38] I do not want to live a mediocre Christian life.
[00:45:42] I don't want to meander through life.
[00:45:45] I'm not in a mad race to retirement.
[00:45:49] I have a longing in my heart to team up with other good people just like you and do things in the world that prove the reality and the goodness of God.
[00:46:01] I want to be an effective partner with Jesus Christ.
[00:46:05] And I want all of us to see together we can do things for Christ that we cannot do alone. If we build quality friendships, if we have healthy friendships, if we're willing to trust our greatest friend, Jesus Christ, then he's going to bring us together. He's going to give us challenges that we can't do by ourselves. And he's going to glorify his name in all the earth in this generation by what he does in us and through us.
[00:46:32] Our friendship with God and our friendship with each other empower us to do things that we cannot do alone.
[00:46:42] I encourage you.
[00:46:44] Be a better friend to your friends and let Christ be a better friend to you. Our dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the clear teaching of Scripture.
[00:46:55] Thank you for the good examples that you give us I pray for myself. I pray for everyone who's here today and everyone who's watching online.
[00:47:05] I pray that your spirit would do in us what only you could do and you would start calling out better qualities of friendship in us.
[00:47:13] We would start making a real difference in our friends lives.
[00:47:18] They would be healthier, they would be happier, they would be more successful. They would see life in a different way.
[00:47:25] They would, they would snatch new opportunities because by the grace of God, something beautiful from Christ's friendship with us is flowing into others through our friendship with them.
[00:47:39] I ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Amen.
