The Power of a Godly Friend

All right, good morning, everybody.

Can y'all hear me?

Is this thing working now?

Something's working.

Something, I hear something.

First Samuel chapter number 18 this morning.

First chapter 18.

It's good to be this morning with my church family.

I'm thankful to see everyone this morning.

And if it's your first time with us, we are thankful to have you.

I'm Jarrett Wells, the pastor here at Lake Church, and we are so excited that you're with us this morning.

We're going to be in 1 Samuel chapter 18.

1 Samuel 18 · chapter mention

And some of you may be wondering, okay, I thought we already covered 18.

And we're going to we're going to jump from 8 chapter 18, chapter 19, and chapter 20 this morning.

Y'all ready for that?

Some of you like not too sure about that.

You're like, how long are we going to be here?

It's going to be quick, all right?

It's going to be quick.

We're going to highlight something, a few things in each of these chapters, and we're going to look this morning, take a step back, and focus on one of the greatest friendships in the Bible.

And that is the friendship we see between David and Jonathan.

It's a great example of what a great friendship really looks like.

And I want you to think about how unlikely this friendship is, and how unlikely this friendship was.

David was the next appointed and anointed king of Israel, and Saul was trying to kill him.

Saul the present king.

Saul's son was Jonathan.

So David had a close friend in Jonathan, the son of the king that was trying to kill him.

So it's a very unlikely friendship, right?

And when I think about friendships, real friendships, true friends, I believe that's a very rare thing.

And it's something we should not take for granted.

It's very rare to have a true friend.

We have a lot of acquaintances, but not a whole lot of friends.

And I believe that's okay.

Somebody once said, I heard this before, you know, a good friend will bail you out of jail.

But a great friend will be sitting in the cell next to you saying, man, that was fun.

Right?

Some of y'all have been that great friend, right?

But what I want to preach on this morning is not a good friend or a great friend.

I want us to look at a godly friend.

Hopefully, a godly friend will help you stay out of jail.

Hopefully, you have those godly friends in your life.

And if they say, ah, I don't know about that, you know, that might not be honoring to Jesus.

But I want to look at a godly friend and the power of a godly friend.

Because here's what we need to understand: a godly friend is not just important and it's not optional.

A godly friend is essential.

Whether we like to admit it or not, especially, fellas, men, we don't prioritize friendships and we don't put a whole lot of value on friendships, uh, but friendships matter.

Friendships are essential.

Because it's friendships, it's godly friends that will help you get through some of the hardest times in your life.

Amen?

And that's what we see here in Jonathan and David.

David was about to go through one of the greatest seasons of suffering in his life, and he didn't even know it when he met Jonathan.

He killed Goliath, and then Jonathan, you know, he admired David, and they become friends.

Little did David know God was placing a friend in his life through Jonathan that would help him through one of the greatest sufferings, greatest heartaches and pain and trials of his life.

He was about to be running from King Saul.

Some believe up to 10 years hiding in caves, a dark season, but God placed a friend in his life.

A godly friend.

Because a godly friend will be with you in the hard times of life.

Proverbs 17, verse 17 says this a friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

Proverbs 17:17

When you go through hard seasons of life, God will place those certain people in your life to help you through it.

And look, in a world today, in a society today where we have hundreds, maybe even thousands of friends on Facebook, you have maybe some of y'all are, you know, viral and you got millions of friends.

I don't know.

You got connections, you got followers, but the problem is we live in one of the most lonely, isolated times of history.

Where people are alone and they're they're they're they're they don't have anyone to call when life falls apart.

I don't believe David would have made it through this time without Jonathan.

That's the power of a good friend.

I don't think David would have made it through this season of suffering without Jonathan.

Literally, Jonathan helped David continue living.

He helped him escape the hands of Saul, who was trying to kill him.

And so Jonathan was in David's life and he helped him through this hard time.

Now, here's the thing.

I want you to approach this message and this thought this morning in two ways.

You may be here this morning and you may be a Jonathan.

Or you may be here this morning, you may be a David.

What do I mean by that?

You may be in a season of your life where you're called to be that friend to someone who's in need.

Someone that needs a friend.

Or you may be that one this morning, this moment, you're going through a season of suffering, and you need a friend.

You need someone to walk alongside of you.

You need someone to comfort you in your pain.

You need someone to let you know that you're not going through it alone.

That's the power of a godly friend.

You don't have to go through life alone.

And listen, that is the beauty of the church.

I say this all the time.

We're not just, this is not just a place we go to, this is a family we belong to.

Because when you go through sufferings and trials and heartaches, you are not called to go through it alone.

God has given us the church, the called out assembly.

It's not a building, it's not the location, it's the body of Christ that we are here for each other.

We comfort each other.

Paul says it like this: when one suffers, all suffer.

And when one rejoices, all rejoice.

We go through life together.

That's why we're here.

We're not here to just waste time.

We're not here just to go through the motions.

We're here to go through the struggles of life, to be friends in those times of need.

So, the power of a godly friend.

I want to say this before I'm I'm really dig into chapter 18.

Uh I want to just get real this morning.

Some of you are bad at making friends.

Do I need to use the handheld mic?

Good.

Some of y'all, some of you, you know, you don't have a lot of friends.

And I know the reason why, because I'm talking about myself right here.

I am bad at prioritizing friendships.

You know why?

Uh this may go for you.

Sometimes those people that you thought were your friends hurt you.

Anyone know what I'm talking about this morning?

Those people that you thought would never abandon you abandoned you in your time of need.

They ran out on you, they walked away from you, and that's one of the most hard things to deal with.

The most hurtful things is when you thought you had a friend that you loved and you trusted and they just take off.

When you are in your season of suffering, like David was, when you are going through a dark season of life, you look around and they are nowhere to be found.

And what happens?

This is what happens.

You put up walls around your heart so that you will never be hurt again.

And you are successful at protecting yourself, but the cost is you're preventing friendships in your life.

You're successful at keeping everybody at distance.

You know, you go through the month, you do the church thing and you show up, you know, you do all that thing, but but but you keep go keep a wall around your heart.

You keep yourself guarded because you don't want to let anybody get too close.

You want to protect yourself, and I get it, but the danger and the consequence of that is that you are preventing godly friendships in your life that God has placed for a purpose and for a season.

The Bible says in Proverbs 18, 24, uh, it says, a man who has friends must himself be friendly.

That'd be a good verse for us to remember, huh?

So basically this if you want a friend, be a friend.

If you want a friend, be a friend.

And then it goes on to say, but there's a friend who sticks closer to you than a brother.

And I'm thankful this morning that even when the world runs out on you, even when you look around and family's nowhere to be found, you have a friend in Jesus, amen, who will never leave you, he will never abandon you.

I'm gonna get to this at the end of the sermon, but I just can't, I gotta, I gotta you have a friend that when the world walks out on you, he shows up, amen.

He will never leave you in your suffering and in your pain and in your heartache all alone.

But we see here in this friendship of Jonathan and David, we see Jonathan is a good picture of a great friendship and points us forward to not a great friend, but a perfect friend that we have in Jesus.

So when we look at Jonathan, what do we see?

What makes Jonathan a great friend or a godly friend?

Number one is this a godly friend loves sacrificially.

A godly friend loves sacrificially.

Now, once you turn to 1 Samuel 18, we're gonna read three verses, three or four verses in 1 Samuel 18, and then we're gonna move on.

Verse number one.

Everybody there, say amen.

Amen.

The ones that are looking at the screen, say amen.

Amen.

All right, it don't matter.

We're gonna get into it.

Verse number one.

Now, when he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David.

And Jonathan loved him as his own soul.

Jonathan what?

Loved him as his own soul.

Saul took him that day and would not let him go home to his father's house anymore.

Then Jonathan and David made a covenant because he what?

Loved him as his own soul.

What do we see here?

A godly friend is someone that God places in your life to share a love for each other.

And and they made a covenant with each other.

They said, We're I'm gonna be here for you, you be here for me.

We are going to be brothers, we're gonna be friends, we're gonna uh we're not gonna abandon each other.

They loved each other.

In a sense, their soul was knit.

Anybody anybody here like knitting?

Is that still a thing?

People like knitting.

What do you do when you knit something?

You join it together, right?

You're joining it, you're tying it, you're binding it, you're connecting things together.

And that's what this means.

Their hearts, their souls was joined together, not by their common interest, not by their family tree or history.

They came from two different social classes, two different families.

Jonathan was royalty, David was was uh lowly, you know.

They they were not joined together by their uh age, they were different ages.

What were they joined by?

They were joined by the love of God.

They had a love for God.

David loved God, Jonathan loved God, and that's what joined their hearts together.

You ever meet somebody?

And as soon as you start talking to them, you just already know that this is a Christian.

Because your spirit bears witness with their spirit.

They don't even have to tell you, you don't even have to be talking about Jesus.

There's just something within that joins your hearts together.

That's the power of a believer.

And we are brothers and sisters in Christ.

We are joined by the Spirit of God.

Listen, look, godly friendships are great friendships because they are joined by a love for God and by the Spirit of God.

We're joined by the love for God and the Spirit of God.

By the way, that always makes the best marriages, too.

When you are joined by the love of God, some of y'all probably heard this before, but you know, you think of a marriage like a triangle.

You're the spouse, say the husband's on one side, the wife's on one side, God's in the the top of the triangle.

The closer you grow to God, the closer and you become to Jesus, the more closer you become to your spouse.

You are joined by a love for God, a supernatural love, a sacrificial love.

And and again, I'll say it, that's the beauty of the church, is we are joined together by the love of God and the Spirit of God.

How many here can testify that sometimes your spiritual family can be closer to you than your physical family?

Why?

And I think physical family is important, okay?

We don't we don't downgrade that, but you say blood is thicker than water, but here's the truth the spirit of God is thicker than blood.

And we are joined not just by being related, we are joined by Jesus.

It's not that, it's not about we're joined by what we like, it's we're joined by who we belong to.

And Jonathan loved David in a sacrificial way.

I want you to look at verse number four.

It says, and Jonathan took off the robe that was on him and gave it to David with his armor, even to his sword and his bow and his belt.

So, what did Jonathan do?

He gave him his robe, he gave him his armor, he gave him his sword, he gave him his bow, he gave him his belt.

What does this mean?

Everything, Jonathan's saying, everything that is mine is yours.

Jonathan wasn't trying to take something from David, he was wanting to give something to David.

And that's what a friendship really is.

It's sacrifices.

Friendships cost.

And love sacrifices.

A true friend, you know, if you have a true friend, it will cost.

Sometimes it'll cost your your time.

Sometimes it'll cost your energy.

Sometimes it'll cost your your your money.

Sometimes, depending on your friend, it might cost you food in your pantry.

It'll cost you tools in your shed, right?

It'll inconvenience you at times.

Sometimes it'll cost you some sleep.

Sometimes it'll cost you some sanity.

Anybody got those types of friends?

A friend that will call you up at two in the morning and say, hey, I don't know who else to call.

But you will inconvenience yourself for a friend because friendships cost, and we sacrifice because of love.

David, uh Jonathan sacrificed.

Look, he was giving to David.

The best friendships are the ones that are built on sacrifice, along with the best marriages.

You know, David didn't have anything to give Jonathan.

But Jonathan didn't want anything from David.

Be careful with friendships where it's always one-sided.

Come on, somebody.

Y'all being quiet this one.

Am I?

Look, be careful with friendships where you're always giving and they're just always receiving.

Be careful with friendships where there's jealousy and there's one-upping.

Y'all know what y'all know what I'm talking about?

The ones that always want to put you down and not lift you up.

The ones that can never celebrate you.

The ones that can never be happy for your success.

Be careful with those friendships.

Those may not be good friends.

You need friendships that will celebrate your successes, that will be there in your time of need.

Not friends that you just can constantly pour out and pour out and pour out to them.

You need godly friends that will be there for you and just be uh willing to sacrifice, willing to be there.

Behavior is a language that speaks louder than words.

Be careful with those that just say they love you but never show it.

And if you have those friends in your life that they are there, they give, they sacrifice, they show love, you should be thankful for them.

Look, you don't need thousands of them.

You don't need hundreds of them, you don't even need dozens of them.

Maybe you just need that one Jonathan in your life.

And maybe God is calling you to be that one Jonathan.

You know, we like to look at, you know, amen.

I know that friend that, you know, they're always, I'm always giving them.

Hold up, let's look at ourselves too.

Because sometimes we can do the same thing that we accuse others of.

We should be those Jonathan.

We should sacrifice.

And what this is, is it reveals a friendship like Jesus gives us.

Jesus says uh in John 15, 13, greater love has no man than this, that a man laid down his life for his what?

Friends.

The greatest example of sacrifice, Jesus laid down his life.

Jonathan laid down his robe and his armor and his belt and his sword, and he laid, but Jesus laid down his life to call us friends.

A godly friend loves sacrificially.

Number two, a godly friend stands with you courageously.

Stands with you courageously.

I want you to look at 1 Samuel.

We're gonna jump over to chapter 19.

And I want to look at verse number one.

1 Samuel 19, verse 1.

1 Samuel 19:1

It says, Now Saul spoke to Jonathan his son and to all his servants that they should kill David.

But Jonathan Saul's son delighted greatly in David.

So Jonathan told David, saying, My father Saul seeks to kill you.

Therefore, please be on your guard until morning and stay in a secret place and hide.

And I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I will speak with my father about you.

Then what I observe, I will tell you.

Thus Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father.

I want to read that again.

Thus Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father, and said to him, Let not the king sin against his servant against David, because he has not sinned against you, and because his works have been very good toward you.

For he took his life in his hands and killed the Philistine, and the Lord brought about a great deliverance for all Israel.

You saw it and rejoiced.

Why then will you sin against innocent blood to kill David without a cause?

So Saul heeded the voice of Jonathan, and Saul swore, as the Lord lives, he shall not be killed.

Then Jonathan called David, and Saul told him all these things.

And Jonathan told him all these things.

So Jonathan brought David to Saul and he was in his presence as in times past.

What did Jonathan do here?

He stood up for David.

He spoke up for David.

You know what I love about this?

He defended David when David wasn't even in the room.

We need friends like that.

Amen.

He was willing to go against his own father.

I mean, think about this tight place that Jonathan was in.

He was in between his best friend and his father.

He was in a position where he might hurt or lose one of these relationships.

And what did Jonathan decide to do?

He decided to stand up.

For what was right.

I hear people say so many times, you know, well, I don't want to get in the middle of it.

I hear people say, you know, I don't want to take sides.

And sometimes it's wisdom to not get in the middle of something.

But sometimes it's fear disguised as wisdom.

Sometimes, depending on the person and the situation, sometimes your love should lead you into the middle of something.

Your boldness, because you have a friend that's being done wrong, because you know that there's injustice being done, because you know someone is saying something that's not true, love and boldness in the Spirit of God should lead you to become in the middle of it and stand up for that friend and stand up for what's right.

We need some bold friends like that, and we need to be that bold friend.

And we're not gonna buckle under the pressure, and we're not gonna say, Well, I don't wanna look here's here.

It is I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings.

Sometimes love hurts your feelings.

Sometimes love gets all up in your business and stands for truth when it's hard.

Doesn't cower back in fear, but stands and says, This is what Jonathan said.

Dad, you're wrong.

Dad, I love you, but you're wrong.

And you know what?

If David would have been wrong, I believe Jonathan would have done the same thing.

David, you're wrong.

Because what was Jonathan doing?

He wasn't taking, he wasn't just taking David's side.

He was standing for what was right and what was true.

A godly friend stands with you courageously.

Maybe you're in the same place as David this morning.

Maybe you, maybe there's some conflict in your life right now between people you love.

You know the best thing for you to do?

Speak truth in love.

Speak truth in love.

It's not about taking sides, it's not about, you know, who's right and who's wrong, and you know, uh, you know, this game that people play.

It's about standing up for the truth and for what is right.

He stood up for David.

And like I said, if David would have been wrong, I believe he would have stood against David.

Because here's what a godly friend does: a godly friend stands with you when you're right and confronts you when you're wrong.

Anyone got those friends that will look you in the eye and get up all in your grill and say, I love you, but you're wrong.

Be careful with friends that will just tell you everything you want to hear.

Be careful with friends who tell you what you want to hear and not what you need to hear, because those are not really good friends.

The best friends are the ones, the godly friends are the ones that will help you, encourage you, and sharpen you by challenging you and confronting you.

Proverbs 27, verse number six says this faithful are the wounds of a friend.

Think about that.

Faithful are the wounds.

Why would a friend hurt you?

Because sometimes the truth hurts.

Sometimes we have to speak truth in love.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

The flattery, the lying just to make you feel good.

That's not a friend.

That could, Proverbs says that's an enemy.

And then Proverbs 27, verse 17, it says, as iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.

Proverbs 27:17

How many of y'all know that sharpening takes friction?

If you want to sharpen your friends, friction is necessary for sharpening.

Sometimes you rub each other the wrong way, right?

That's what standing up for right, what's right, and that's what truth will do.

We need those godly friends that are willing to defend us, but also willing to confront us.

And listen, search for those friends, be thankful for those friends, and again, I'll say it again: be that friend.

Be that friend in other people's life.

And then I'll give you one more thought this morning.

Number three, a godly friend is present in your pain.

Anybody have that season of life?

The greatest suffering you've ever experienced.

Maybe it was emotional, mental, spiritual, maybe physical pain you were dealing with.

Here's here's we remember two things.

We remember who was there, and we remember what?

Who wasn't.

We remember the ones that were there with us, and we remember the ones we thought would be there that were nowhere to be found.

A true friend is presence in your pain.

And there's power simply in presence.

There's power when someone is just there for you.

And look, I can't be there for everyone all of the same time.

Pastor Byron can't be there.

We will make ourselves as available as possible.

That's why the church, we are called to be friends that will be there for us.

That's why we emphasize small groups and we emphasize cultivating friendships, is because we need each other.

You need friends that will walk with you through your darkest season of life and through your suffering, through your heartache, through your pain.

A godly friend is the one that's present in your pain.

Now, chapter 20, I'm not gonna read through the whole chapter.

Y'all don't worry, it's 42 verses.

Y'all want to?

Let's get it.

Let's get into it.

Y'all ready?

No.

It's 42 verses, so we're not gonna read all of it.

I just want to highlight a couple things this morning.

Verse number one, chapter 20, verse one.

It says, Then David fled from Naoth in Ramah and went and said to who?

Jonathan.

He didn't go to his brothers, he didn't even go to his father, he didn't go to the soldiers that he was over that he fought in battle with.

Who did David go to?

He went to Jonathan.

And he said, What have I done?

What is my iniquity and what is my sin before your father that he seeks my life?

What did David do?

He went to the only one that he knew would be there for him in this darkest moment of life.

And you see Jonathan's loyalty and his friendship shining bright through this entire chapter.

David didn't know where else to go.

He didn't know where to turn, he didn't know what to do, but he knew that he had a friend in Jonathan that he could sit with and pour his heart out to.

And what did David do?

He said he was full of questions.

Now you gotta remember, if you were here last week, David is coming from his house.

He just escaped out of the window by his wife to escape the the servants of Saul that came to kill him.

Right?

The servants of Saul went to David's house to kill him.

He escaped through the window and he he he goes to Samuel and then he goes to Jonathan.

He didn't know where else to turn, and he went to a friend.

And here's what we need to remember: friends make them self available in those times.

Friends inconvenience their schedule.

They make time to sit with you, at least to call you, to check on you, to send an encouraging text, to say, hey, I'm thinking about you.

Friends make time to do those types of things, to let them know that you are here for them.

David went to Jonathan, and then here's another very important key part.

You know what Jonathan did?

He listened.

He didn't automatically jump to, okay, David, this is what you need to do.

You need to do this, this, this, this, this.

You know, he didn't, no, he just listened.

He let David pour out his heart.

He let David vent.

And church, we don't always have to have all the right answers.

And we don't have to always give the perfect advice.

And we don't have to always say the right thing.

Sometimes we just need to sit and listen when people come to us.

There's power in your presence.

There's power when you just sit with someone who's hurting.

David was stressed, he was confused, he was afraid, he didn't know what to do.

And Jonathan just sat with him.

Sometimes, church, presence is more powerful than answers.

And sometimes you don't need someone to fix your pain.

You just need someone to sit with you in it.

Y'all remember Job?

Job lost everything.

And the Bible says he had some friends at the beginning.

It says they sat with him in his suffering.

They sat with him in his pain and they did not say a word.

If they would have just done that, but then they opened their big mouth.

Like some of us tend to do at times.

And they tried to explain why all these things were happening.

And here's the thing they had no clue of what was going on, and they did not have authority to give that type of advice.

And you know what Job said?

Whenever they started throwing their philosophical ideas around and their advice and their theology, and David, you must be in sin, or Job, you must be in sin.

You know what Job said?

Miserable comforters are you all.

You were doing good when you were just sitting with me.

While I was sitting in the ashes in my suffering, but then you had to speak and you ruined it.

Sometimes, church, we just need to shut up.

Listen.

Tell them you love them.

Be with them in their pain.

And then when we do speak, look what Jonathan said in verse number four.

Look at verse number four.

Jonathan said to David, Whatever you yourself desire, I will do it for you.

Church, that's a friend.

He's not saying I have the answers.

He's not saying this is why all these things are happening.

He's saying, David, whatever you need, I'm here.

David, you don't have to go through this alone.

I will walk alongside of you with you.

You don't have to suffer in isolation.

He's saying, David, I'm here with you.

I love you.

I will support you.

You are not alone in this heartache.

And some of you right here this morning, you feel like you're alone, but God has placed friends in your life.

Let them be Jonathan in your life.

Let them comfort you in your suffering.

Let them be there for you in your pain.

You have to allow and open yourself up to receive that.

You see, this is a two-way street.

Jonathan's, we need to be there for them in their suffering, but you also have to allow people that opportunity.

You can't get mad at people when they don't show up and you don't open yourself up to it.

So a godly friend is present in your pain.

Jonathan said, Lord, he said, David, whatever you want, I'm gonna do it.

And then you know what else Jonathan did?

In David's pain, he helped him turn his eyes toward God.

That's what a true friend does.

He helped him turn his eyes toward God in the middle of his pain.

I want you to look at a few verses and then we're gonna close.

Verse number 11.

Look what Jonathan constantly turned David's attention, focus, heart, eyes towards the Lord.

In verse number 11, it says, And Jonathan said to David, Come, let us go out into the field.

So both of them went out into the field, and Jonathan sent, uh said to David, Jonathan said to David, the Lord God of Israel is witness.

When I have sounded out my father sometime tomorrow or the third day, and indeed there is good toward David, and I do not send you uh to you and tell you, may the Lord do so and much more to Jonathan.

But if it pleases my father to do you evil, then I will report it to you and send you away that you may go in safety, and the Lord be with you as he has been with my father.

Verse number 14, and you shall not only show me the kindness of the Lord while I still live, that I may not die, but you shall not cut off your kindness from my house forever.

No, not when the Lord has cut off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth.

So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, Let the Lord require it at the hand of David's enemies.

What is Jonathan doing?

He's constantly bringing the Lord, God Jehovah, reminding David that you're not alone in this.

David was leaving, he was about to leave everything he loved, his home, his family, his wife, Jonathan, his soldiers, his friends, everybody.

And Jonathan was reminding him that, yes, but the Lord is still with you.

He's with you in your heartache.

The Bible says he's near to the brokenhearted.

And he goes on in verse number 20.

Look at verse number 20.

He says, Then I will shoot three arrows to the side as though I shot at a target, and there I will send a lad saying, Go find the arrows.

If I expressly say to the lad, look, the arrows are on this side of you, get them and come then.

As the Lord lives, there is safety for you and no harm.

But if I say thus to the young man, look, the arrows are beyond you, go your way, for the Lord has sent you away.

And as for the matter which you have spoken of, indeed, the Lord be between you and me forever.

He's constantly turning David's eyes to the Lord.

That's what a friend does, and that's what we should do.

Now, I don't have time to get into all the specifics of this, but basically, Jonathan and David were coming up with a plan that if Saul still wanted to kill David, Jonathan was gonna let David know, and this is how he was gonna do it.

He was gonna have dinner with Saul.

He could see if Saul was still angry at David, and then David, uh Jonathan said, Look, you go out and hide in the field, and he says, I'm gonna shoot three arrows.

Got any archers in here?

We're getting close, right?

I'm gonna shoot three arrows.

And he says, If I tell the servant to go right here and find the arrows, then you know that Saul does not want to kill you.

But if I shoot the arrows way over your head and I tell the servant to go way out in the field, that is me telling you that you need to leave.

That was the that was the plan to keep to keep them from letting everyone know what was going on.

So what happened?

Saul got angry, wanted to kill David, tried to kill Jonathan in the process.

Jonathan went out, shot his arrows, signifying, telling David that, okay, you're right, my father is trying to kill you.

And then I want you to read one more verse, two more verses right here in verse number 41.

It says, And as soon as the land had gone, David arose from a place toward the south, fell on his face to the ground, bowed down three times, as the and they kissed one another, and they wept together, but David more so.

Then Jonathan said to David, Go in peace, since we have both sworn in the name of the Lord, saying, May the Lord be between you and me, and between your descendants and my descendants forever.

So he arose and departed, and Jonathan went into the city.

This was the farewell between Jonathan and David.

And you gotta imagine how David was feeling, heartbroken.

He went to Jonathan, and the Bible says they were crying and they kissed each other.

Now hold on a second.

Some of y'all like, wait, hold, hold, hold.

Wait, they did what?

You gotta think of the culture.

This was a this was a cultural Jewish thing.

Paul would say, you know, greet each other with a holy kiss.

Jacob, Jacob kissed his father.

Joseph and his brothers, when they met, they kissed.

It would be the same as giving a hug, okay?

All right, fellas, we okay with that?

Well, with that being said, with that being said, Brittany is the only one kissing me up in here, alright?

All right?

Y'all can hug me, all right?

And when they kissed, it wasn't a it wasn't a uh you know a lip kiss, alright?

It was a cheek kiss, probably.

And and and this is a cultural thing.

The greatest, most famous kiss that we see between Jewish people was what?

When Judas kissed Jesus, right?

And Jesus said what?

Friend.

He called him a friend.

Ain't that significant?

But this was a moment where David was heartbroken.

Two men come together.

Now, now listen, these were hardened war heroes.

These would be Medal of Honor winners.

These were not girly men, okay?

These were not, these would be the ones that were highest ranking officials.

They killed thousands.

David, they praised him.

He killed tens of thousands of Philistines on the battlefield, alright?

So before you start looking down at David, like, man, he done lost his man card.

We have no, we are nowhere in his league.

All right, guys?

So I just want to emphasize that.

But here's the thing they were not ashamed and afraid to show their emotions and their love for one another.

And one thing I want from this study as we study the heart of David, is I want us men, focus on you men for a second, to realize that we need each other.

That we're battling life, raising families.

Marriages are struggling, and we need each other.

And you need a church group, you need godly friends, you need people that will walk with you in your hard times and in the dark seasons of life.

But so many men suffer in silence.

When God has placed friends in our life, if we would just be open, be real, throw off the tough image and say, Yeah, I need I need a friend.

Then God would really bless your life through that.

Because a real friend will sit with you in your pain and your suffering.

I want to close with this.

I want our worship team to come forward.

We'll have a song of invitation.

But I want to ask you to do something this morning.

I want us to get real honest in here, alright?

Can we be honest?

Can we be some honest Christians this morning?

Can we do that?

I want us to be completely real, completely honest.

Not be ashamed to admit before God and before everyone here where you are right now.

Like I said, you may be a Jonathan, or you may be a David.

You may be the one that needs to be a friend, or you may be the one that right now, in this moment, this morning, anyway, you need a friend.

You need someone to walk with you through your pain.

And and I want to I want to do this.

Let's we're church family.

Right?

We're family, amen.

We're gonna be real.

If you're here this morning, usually I tell you to bow your heads and close your eyes and nobody look around, but I'm not doing that because we're a family.

If you're here this morning, you say, This moment, this morning, I walked in here, and I feel like God has placed me in a season of my life, this right now, where I can be a Jonathan to someone, where I can be a friend to someone who's hurting, where my comfort, my love, and my presence could help them through a time of suffering.

If you if you feel you walked in here this morning in this moment, it may change next week, right?

But right now, you can be a friend to somebody.

No shame.

Be honest, I want you to raise your hand up high this morning.

Amen.

Keep them up, keep them up.

Amen.

You can put them down.

Now, are you Jonathan's?

I want y'all to pay attention.

If you're here this moment, this morning, in this moment, this time, and you say, I don't have it in me right now to be that.

Friend.

I'm the one that needs a friend.

I'm the one that's walking through some suffering.

I'm the one that's hurting right now.

I've walked in here with burdens, and uh, you know, I have so many things going on in my mind and in my heart, and I'm overwhelmed, and I just need a friend.

I'm exhausted, I'm carrying things, maybe things that nobody even knows about.

And I just need someone to help me walk through that.

To be present in my pain.

You say, I am a David right now, and I just need a friend.

Honest, humble, be real, pride will keep your hand down.

I want you to say, I'm a David, and I just need a friend.

Would you raise your hand up this morning?

Amen.

Raise them up high.

Keep them up.

Jonathan's, I want you to look around.

We're family.

We're family.

I need a friend.

By the way, I'm raising my hand up.

I need a friend right now.

I need a friend.

You're not called to walk alone.

You're not called to suffer alone.

You're not called to go through life alone.

You're not called to hurt alone.

That's what the church is for.

Paul said, when one suffers, we all suffer.

When one is hurting, we all hurt.

When one is walking through a trial, we're all walking through it.

And usually I would say prayer partners come forward.

I'm not doing that this morning.

Everyone that's a Jonathan, you're a prayer partner this morning.

There may be somebody that you notice raise their hand and they need someone to comfort.

I want you this morning, if you're near them or if you feel led to go near them, I want you to walk to them, put your arm around them, let them know you're here for them, let them know that they're not going through life alone.

And I want, let's all stand to our feet, and we're gonna close like this.

We're gonna have a song of invitation.

And I want you to go to that David right now.

Right now.

Come on, right now.

Go to that one that's hurting.

Go to that one that raised their hand.

If you are a Jonathan and you can go to a David, go to him right now.

Say, I need some love, I need some comfort, I need some help, I need some support, I need a friend, I need a friend.

I have a burden, I can't do it on my own, and you weren't called to.

You weren't called to.

And as we close in prayer, I want to remind you this morning that Jonathan was a great friend, but Jesus is a perfect friend.

He's a friend that will never fail you.

Hallelujah.

He's a friend that will never let you down.

He's a friend that will that will be there in your pain.

He's a friend that sticks closer to you than a brother.

He's a friend that will never leave and never forsake you.

He says, I go with you even to the ends of the world, even when everyone walks out.

You have a savior, a savior, a friend who will come to you in your hurt, in your pain, and he will give you grace and strength in this time.

And we're gonna close in prayer.

But if you need prayer this morning, don't leave here without it.

If you need someone to walk alongside it, if you need someone to lead you to Jesus this morning, don't leave here alone.

Let's bow.

Father, we love you.

We praise you, we thank you for the friendships that you've allowed Lake Church to have.

What a beautiful thing that the church is more than just a congregation, it's a family.

It's more than just a bunch of people trying to look perfect, it's imperfect people needing other imperfect people serving a perfect God.

And God, I pray you'd help us to get real, get honest, to pour out our hearts, and realize that we do not have to walk through this alone.

And the greatest thing is that we know we have a Savior that can comfort us in our hurt, in our pain, and in our suffering.

We love you.

We thank you, Jesus, that you are our friend.

And it's in your name we pray.

Amen.

We're gonna sing, we're gonna praise, we're gonna pray, and I want you to honor the Lord.

I want you to go to that one that's hurting, maybe bring them down to this altar, spend some time in prayer, telling them, letting them know you're there for it.

Let's sing.

All our sins and griefs to be what a privilege to kiss, and everything to God and praise, oh what peace be of control, oh what needless pain we bear because we do not care everything to God in praise have we trials and