An Ally to Keep 5/19/19 - Chris Buskirk

Well, that's the first I've heard that song, but I won't soon forget it.

Wow.

What a powerful heart song we've been talking about living like kings and specifically looking at the lives of Jonathan and David as models for what a, that kind of life would look like.

First Samuel 18 is where we find ourselves today.

If you want to turn in your scriptures to that location for Samuel 18, I think we all need, we all long for a friend that sticks closer than a brother, don't we?

There's something just, uh, almost innate about all of us.

God's wired us for, for those kinds of bonds with others, those kinds of living relationships and, and vital strength that we draw from, from each other.

And that's part of living like a king.

If Jonathan and David specifically are the models for, for that kind of life.

In fact, I, I think some of our, uh, you could lift up some other examples if you'd to help me with the next slide.

Remember those guys, I often wondered why they are called the three musketeers when I could only find pictures of four of them.

But, um, but, but the three messages, everybody remembered their, they're saying

[inaudible]

I never remember which comes first.

Yeah.

I'll all for one and one for all or one for all and all for one.

Uh, but, but that, that's the spirit we're talking about, that kind of sharing of life with each other, that having each other's back, that defending one another's costs.

And the three musketeers, it's just, Oh, yep.

Batman and Robin, you know, boy wonder.

Holy cheesy Batman.

Yeah.

But there they are.

Who are these guys?

Woody and buzz.

Okay.

Help me out here.

Who would you bus?

Yeah, next.

Okay.

Lone ranger and Tonto.

That's right.

Even the lone ranger wasn't alone.

Imagine that.

He always had Tonto, Starsky and Hutch.

All the people of the seventies unite.

Yes.

Starsky and Hutch.

My kids are going, who are these guys?

Starsky and Hutch.

Yes.

Oh, anybody?

Riggs and Murtaugh.

That's right.

Very good.

Very good.

Yes.

[inaudible]

Siskel and Ebert.

Yeah.

I'm going to go outside the envelope here a little bit.

Yep.

Who's next?

Yes, that's right.

The comic duo.

That's right.

[inaudible] okay.

Some sixties folks with this.

That's good.

Yeah, Simon and Garfunkel and yes.

[inaudible]

Spock and Kirk.

That's right.

That's right.

Yeah.

Sherlock Holmes and Watson.

Yes.

Very good.

Very good.

[inaudible]

Laurel and hardy.

I don't even know what generation that would be.

What decade would that be?

Forties thirties.

Yeah.

[inaudible]

that's right.

Barney ubd, everything.

You know that, that's right.

There you go.

Barney and Andy, butch Cassidy and Sundance.

It's very good.

Y'All are doing really well.

I'm impressed.

Dumb and dumber.

Okay.

All right.

We, we brought it forward a little bit there.

That's good.

Yeah.

Some eighties or nineties folks there.

That's right.

Dumb and dumber.

Yeah.

So today we want to talk about this mysterious, wonderful thing.

Uh, that's really a part of our lives.

And uh, this idea of having this, uh, best buddy, uh, there's just something about those movies and those duos isn't there.

That resonates with our heart.

We admire that.

We, we, we want that.

We, we long for that, I think ourselves, which is part of what made each of those duos so compelling for us.

But the truth of the matter is, even the lone ranger doesn't go it alone.

Jonathan and David I think found that kind of comradeship, comradery in each other.

And maybe more so than any other duo in all of scripture.

Jonathan and David, I tried to think of an example before Jonathan Day and David, the closest I could get was a,

yeah,

Joshua and Caleb maybe or afterwards, Paul and Barnabas, maybe, uh, you might, you might come up with some for yourself, but throughout scripture and even in our own history, are these dynamic duos, those relationships that,

uh,

are the real stuff of life.

And I think God not only gifts us with friendships like that, but I think he calls us to friendships like that.

In first Samuel 18, we have that relationship between Jonathan and David depicted this way.

Now, it came about when David had finished speaking to Saul that the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David.

And Jonathan loved him as himself.

And Saul took him that day and did not let him return to his father's house.

Saul was the king.

He decided to keep David.

There's this right after David had taken out Goliath.

So verse three.

Then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as him, as himself.

There it is again, that same phrase.

Jonathan loved him as himself and Jonathan stripped himself of his robe that was on him and gave it to David with his armor, including his so sword and his bow and his belt.

Jonathan made covenant with David.

There's some givens in this relationship that Jonathan and David May not have had so much control over.

One, they seem to just resonate, be knitted.

It's not that they, it's not an active voice.

They knit themselves to one another.

It is.

They were knitted.

There was something there.

It was a given.

Their hearts resonated with one another.

They were soul mates because their souls honored the same God.

They had that sense of looking towards the same mountain and going in the same direction about who they were.

They were soulmate.

Scott knit them soul to soul, David and Jonathan, but there's this visceral kind of resonance between the two of them as well.

Many things that Jonathan was quite a bit older than David.

And yet when Jonathan, a warrior himself of great courage, saw the way David took on Goliath and took on Goliath in the name of his God, and stood with that kind of courage before that kind of fierce opposition and ran towards the battle and took him out.

Just like the Lord told him that he would something in Johnathon reignited the warrior's heart in him kindled afresh, right.

And Johnathan was connected to this young David and, and Jonathan then takes it a next step.

It's not just the givens of what was already there.

I want you to hear this very clearly, that there was an intentional framing of relationship between these two guys.

Now I know we might have friends in our past that were just buddies.

You know, we kinda clicked with, we seem to enjoy the same humor.

We went to the same concerts.

Uh, we love the same teams.

You know, there's, there's these areas of affinity that we might have with a lot of people.

But Jonathan and David took all those affinities, those ways in which they resonated with one another and took it another step.

They intentionally defined their relationship with one another and what the scriptures call a covenant.

A marriage is a covenant.

It has a, it has a distinct set of terms.

Uh Huh.

I will from this day forward to love and to cherish from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer in sickness and health to 11 to two.

There's terms to this relationship, right?

And and, and in a marriage they cut covenant and Jonathan is doing that same sort of thing though it's certainly not a marriage relationship that's going on here.

He does call him to Covenant Tribes, Cut Covenant with one another.

Kings may treaties or covenants with one another for all of the, the natural resonance that seem to be there between the two, the spiritual connection that was innate.

There was also this intentional step.

Can you remember the friends that you've shared that kind of relationship through the years?

I can.

I just started listening them, listing them the other night, Steve and Mike and

Rick Davis

and Charles and Joe.

I could list others in this room there.

They'd probably be embarrassed if I did.

So no one wants to be out at like that.

It's glad close to the pastor.

But anyway, I remember one of those guys, his name was Alan.

This June 21st on my birthday, I'm going to be playing golf with him.

We, we, we met, we met in college and a calculus class and, and, and we both kind of sparred with each other to see who could get the concept that was being laid out there.

The first, you know,

we were

mentally competitors and then we met up on the basketball court and we both played basketball, intramural basketball, and we were fierce warriors against one another there.

Uh, uh,

but somewhere along the way we be, we became fast friends.

I, I remember this summer of my freshman year, the summer after my freshman year, I, I was toying with a call to explore ministry.

I couldn't find a single job and all of Tulsa in, in the medical field.

I was trying to put something together for my resume as a college kid, you know, going on to med school thereafterwards that was my plan there.

There I couldn't even get hired as a orderly in the city of Tulsa.

I went to every hospital, every nursing home for God's sakes.

You can't find enough people to do that kind of grunt work anymore.

But I couldn't find a job anywhere.

I ended up in Hobbs, New Mexico as a youth director a week before I left.

I was panicking and that was for with good reason.

When I got to Hobbs, I exhausted everything I knew about the Christian faith and the first two Bible studies I did

and I was anticipating

the difficulty of it.

And who did I turn to?

I turned to this Fred Allen.

I knew he had been a youth minister and he's been a good one.

I knew he was true to me and he was true to the Lord.

And so I took him to lunch one day before I left for Hobbs New Mexico.

And I said, man, I'm going to get in over my head.

I know I am.

I need somebody I can call.

And this was before cell phones.

I said, if ever I call you, I need to know how to get in touch with you and you can't delay in calling me back cause it may be serious.

And he gave me his number and he gave me some advice.

But more than that, he looked me in the eye.

You said you were meant for this.

You don't need me.

All you need, you've already got and he's going with you.

I'll pray for you.

And he did.

All summer.

I'd receive letters maybe every other week from Alan.

And from that moment on, every every letter we've ever shared, every note we've ever sent, he always signs it the same way.

Fire and wind, fire and wind ever had a friendship like that.

Well, we've since that time, been at each other's weddings.

We've, uh, taken our families on mission trips to foreign places.

We're playing golf together next month just because we want to ever had a, I had a friend for life like that.

They are some of the greatest gifts this side of heaven.

To have a friend, to know, a friend, to celebrate a friend, uh, like Jonathan found in David and like David found in Jonathan at some of the richest stuff of life.

Let, let me ask you, do you have a best man?

Do you have someone who's looking out for your back?

Who knows that you have their back?

David's grief song at Jonathan's death in Second Samuel one 26 through 27 goes like this.

And the last, uh, verse, uh, of that song, it reads, uh, I am distressed for you.

My brother Jonathan.

Jonathan had just died in war with his father saw I am distressed for you.

My brother Jonathan.

He wasn't his brother, but he was his brother.

You have been very pleasant to me.

Your love to me was more wonderful than the love of women.

How have the mighty fallen and the weapons of war perished?

There are many that mischaracterize believe those words.

If David is some evidence of a, of a homosexual connection between Jonathan and David, I, I, I don't find that hard to believe.

They both had wives and, uh, the strength with which he speaks to him, how has the mighty fallen and the weapons of war perished?

There were no weapons that parish Jonathan had perished.

David considered Jonathan

a weapon

in this world for God and for him.

Well, if, if you want to have a relationship like Jonathan and David's, then we must learn from them what it means to be covenant makers, to be intentional about finding such people in our lives claiming such people in our lives and nurturing such relationships in our lives.

Covenants are always a matter of intentional commitment.

When you see a Jonathon in those versus giving his coat to David and giving his sword and his belt to David and his bow to David, and when tribes cut covenant with one another, the, the, the, the representatives would come forth and they would show each other their weapons of war.

And in doing so were pledging their weapons of war, their protection to one another.

This is what Jonathan is doing as he gives him his coat.

But this not just the coat of a fellow warrior, it's also the coat of a prince.

Jonathan in this ceremony, I think is beginning to speak what he would later flesh out even more fully to recognize that David is God's next man, not himself.

He's laying down his own princely rights in order to serve.

David is his friend.

It's an incredible, uh, expression of loyalty.

But let me ask you, who, who have you ever intentionally given permission to speak into your life?

Is that kind of friend?

Have you done that?

Is there someone that's fire and when to you, Vicky, both supports you and have fun with you and be nice with you, but also loves you enough to get in your face when you're out of line?

Well, there's been times I've hated Allen, but I've always loved island and I've never doubted his loyalty to me.

I think that's what's beginning here with, with Jonathan and David in a very profound form.

Have you ever granted someone Ephisians Ephesians four 10 permission to you to speak the truth in love to, you know, most people don't feel confident doing that unless you've so claimed them is such a friend, unless you've given them permission otherwise.

Especially as we grow older, we're more concerned about being polite than being a power in each other's lives for good, but, but here are these covenant makers.

They're intentional about their commitment.

They speak into one another's life.

And I hope you, we'll take lesson from Jonathan and David of the value of finding such a friend of making such a friend for life.

What can we learn from them as covenant keepers?

Uh, well, first of all, Jonathan and David didn't cut covenant his kids and then just grow older together.

You'll find that in the scriptures at least three times that they renew this covenant with one another three or four times.

Actually, if I count the last one with Mephibosheth's four times, they renew intentionally this covenant relationship that they have with one another, that this commitment that they have one another and, and it's, it's based on this idea of loyalty, loyalty, that they would have each others back from the very beginning.

Jonathan has the task of protecting David and the strangeness of this relationship is the, the the one that, that Jonathan has to protect David from his Jonathan's own father saw who is now the king, but when David comes in from having some success with the Philistines, the ladies in the street are giving a chant and their chant is Saul has killed his thousands, but David has killed his 10 thousands and and solve the king.

Then here's David receiving more glory than he has for his, his battles.

And Saul has hard turns.

He becomes suspicious.

He becomes a full of dread that all that's left for David to have it as the crown then saw it says in verse eight of Chapter 18 then Saul became very angry for this saying displeased him.

And he said they have ascribed to David 10 thousands but to me ascribed thousands.

Now what more can he have?

But the kingdom and saw looked at David with specific suspicion from that day on suspicion.

And verse 15 it says, when Saul saw that he had prospered greatly, he dreaded him, Saw Seas David as his younger competition for the throne and again and again, Saul's paranoia will lead him to try to take David out to take him out.

And, and Jonathan has cut covenant with David.

And yet Jonathan has an incredible sense of character and that he is always loyal to his covenant vows to David.

And yet he is never disloyal

to his father.

What an incredible study in loyalty is, is this heart of Johnathan's.

And Chapter 19 verse one I saw told Jonathan his son and all his servants to put David to death.

But Jonathan Saul's son greatly delighted in David.

So Jonathan told David saying, saw my father is seeking to put you to death now, therefore, please be on your guard in the morning and 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 that will speak with my father about you.

And if I found out anything, then I shall tell you.

And then Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul, his father, and said to him, do not let the king

do, uh, uh,

do not let the King Sin Against His servant David, since he has not sinned against you, and since his deeds have even benefited you for he took his life in his hand and he struck the Philistine and the Lord brought a great deliverance for Israel.

You saw it and rejoiced.

Why then will you sin against innocent blood by putting David to death without a cause and saw, listen to the voice of Jonathon and solve out as the Lord lives.

He shall not be put to death.

And Jonathan called David and Jonathan told him all these words, and Jonathan brought David to Saul.

Yeah,

and he was in his presence as he was formally.

Okay.

Jonathan is this peacemaker between his father and his son, but he is always one who defends David.

He defends David even at his own life.

Now, Saul was so bent on making sure that David got knocked out, that he even gave his daughter Michael to David because it says in that same chapter, because he saw that she would be a snare to him.

Now before we assume that that's you're saying something negative about Michael's character, which I think is legitimate, it'll prove itself out later.

No, this, that

Saul[inaudible]

realize that David did not think he was worthy to be a given the daughters king and marriage.

In fact, he said in that very chapter, who am I that Michael would, would, would marry a guy like me?

I, I don't have a king's dowry to give for, for a princess like that.

And so Saul decides,

okay,

basically to get two birds with one stone, he's going to give his daughter Michael to David.

And put pressure on David to then come up with a king's dowery, but he's going to name what the Kings dowery are the gift to the king to have his daughter should be.

And he says that the, the, the price of having his daughter in marriage, she loved him and he was impressed with her.

Apparently the price was a hundred Philistines, a hundred Philistines.

And so David goes out and doesn't kill a hundred Philistines.

He kills 200 and brings back evidence thereof.

Right?

He thought that he would go into battle against these Philistines and, and, and be undone, be killed, and Saul would be rid of his problem.

But instead, David only increases his credibility with the palace and with the people.

It backfires on him and it backfires on him so much that then he decides to go on another jealous, a tirade of David and he's coming to kill him.

Well, now Michael is David's wife, Michael.

Here's of a, I know, it's Kinda Weird, Michael.

It's a girl's name though.

Michael is married to David and Andy saw is coming after David and Michael because of her love for David, puts him in a window and lets him escape out of the window when the soldiers come in to seize him.

And when Saul comes in there after and asked corridors, David, she says, well, what was I to do?

He told me that if he, if I didn't let him go, that he would kill me, which he'd never said, which says something about Michael.

She was willing to defend David but not at the risk of her own neck, whether her dad, Jonathan, on the other hand, again and again, we'll be true to David, we'll be loyal to his father, will do that to his face and will risk his own life again and again and again.

He, he portrays that kind of loyalty.

Let's look at our next slide.

Isn't that a great picture?

I is kind of going off the top of the screen screen in two soldiers, one's got a pistol and he's firing back at the enemy as they approach once picked up his friend at the risk of his own life.

And its carrying him out of the fray.

How's that for two soldiers that have each other's back?

What an incredible picture.

I wish it wasn't cut off like that.

But anyway, if you'll help me with it.

Yeah.

Covenant keepers, they didn't just make a covenant with you.

They had that kind of loyalty and the Hebrew word for that kind of loyalty.

The loyalty of covenant keeping is just said, could you say that with me?

She said it.

It's a, it's a Hebrew root word that's most often translated loving kindness.

It's the kind of regard you show for someone who was a covenant keeping partner with you.

Just said that kind of loyalty.

It's a loyalty that in verses a chapter 19 verse four, uh, spoke to Saul at risk of his own life.

He spoke well of David to Saul.

Do you have a friend that speaks well of you even when everyone else is speaking against you?

That's the kind of friend we're talking about.

Like Jonathan, not like Michael.

Do you have a friend that's willing to, to risk loss?

Their self-giving even risks their own death.

They'd lay down their lives for you.

Meaning people say that Jonathan sounds like Jesus, and they're right.

In chapter 20 verses 12 through 17, uh, Jonathan Renews this covenant that he took in chapter 18.

Then David fled Flaman EOF and Ramo and came and said to Jonathan, what I have I done?

What is my inequity and what is my sin before your father that he is seeking my life?

And he said for him, for him far from it, you shall not die.

Behold my father does nothing either greater small without disclosing it to me.

So why should my father hide this thing from me?

It is not so yet.

David vowed again saying, your father knows well that I have found favor in your sight.

And he has said, do not let Jonathan know this list.

He be grieved, but truly as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, there's hardly a step between me and death.

Uh, so I could just keep reading, but skip down to chapter, I mean to verse 12 then Jonathan said to David, the Lord, the God of Israel, be witnessed between us.

Covenants were always taken in the Ha and the name of your highest loyalty in the sight of God.

They still are today in weddings where we vow ourselves to one another in the name of our God, right?

The Lord God of Israel be witness when I have sounded out my father about this time tomorrow or the third day, behold, if there's good feelings towards David, shall I not then send to you and make it known to you.

If it pleased my father to do you harm.

May the Lord do so to Jonathan and more also, if I do not make it known to you and send you away that you may go in safety.

And may the Lord be with you as he has been with my father.

And if I am still alive, will you not show me the loving kindness to said the loving kindness of the Lord that I may not die and you shall not cut off your loving kindness from mile house forever.

Not, not even when the Lord cuts off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth.

So Jonathan made covenant with the House of David saying, may the Lord require it at the hand of David's enemies.

Require what require.

Whatever it takes requires life.

That may be the case, but Jonathan had just sworn himself to David and Jonathan.

May David vow again because of his love for him, because he loved him as he loved his own life and then solves finds out about it.

Skip ahead to verse 30 of Chapter 20 then Saul's anger burned against Jonathan and he said to him, you son of a perverse, rebellious woman, do I not know that you are choosing the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of your mother's nakedness?

For as long as the son of Jesse lives on this earth, the son of Jesse, of course, was who?

David.

For as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, neither you nor your kingdom will be established.

Why is that?

Because if David becomes king, Jonathan won't be Jonathan's the prince.

He's the, he's the son of Saul.

He will be established.

Uh, neither you nor your kingdom will be established.

Therefore now send and bring him to me for Hema.

Surely die.

But Jonathan answered solid his father and said to him, why should he be put to death?

What is he done then saw hurled his spear at Jonathon to strike him down.

So Jonathan knew that his father had decided to put David to death.

And then Jonathan arose from the table in fierce anger and did not eat food on the second day of the new moon for he was grieved over David because his father had dishonored him.

Wow.

What an incredible kind of loyalty.

In chapter 20 verse 41, it says simply this, when the, uh, it says that Jonathan and David find each other in the field and there's been a communication, a secret communication that is told David that he must flee, but they find themselves in that field and they[inaudible] they fell upon each other.

They, they bowed and the, the, they kissed one another as they do in the east.

And they, they wept together.

But David more and Johnathan said to David, verse 40 to go and safety and as much as we have sworn to each other in the name of the Lord saying, the Lord will be between me and you and between my descendants and your descendants forever.

Why did David we, they wept together.

You ever had a friend where you felt their burden so much?

It was as if it was your own.

There are lost so much.

It was as if it was your, if you ever had a friend whose victory, well, so glorious in your side is it was if you had one, this is the kind of relationship that these guys had.

They not only pulled for each other and fought for each other and defended one another when their hearts were broken, they would weep with one another as a powerful kind of strength that a man can give another man when they are willing to be so vulnerable and given to one another, that they will weep in each other's presence.

Alan and I had a third friend.

His name was John.

His name is John.

Yeah.

He'll be playing golf with this next month too, about three or four years ago, I think it is now.

May I may, May.

It may be longer.

I shared with you all the tragedy that came into Jonathan's life.

His son at the age of 19 committed suicide.

It was just before Christmas.

Alan bought me a plane ticket and I was gone that day.

We showed up in Colorado together and Alan looked at me like, you're the preacher.

Okay,

but there are no words for tragedies like that.

Grown men dropped their bags in a doorway, wrap their arms around each other.

Just wept.

We went for 30 minutes and didn't move, but when the tears stopped flowing and we looked up into each other's eyes, my friend Jonathan had a strength that he didn't have before.

His friends walked in the room when the whole world walks out.

Who's going to walk in?

I pray.

It's a person who knows your God.

As you know, God, a person who will stand with you in tragedy and not have to take away from the tragedy in order to pour strength into you at that moment that you need it most.

For instance, have each other's backs.

Friends that would die for one another.

Friends who speak well of one another, friends who can weep together.

David, after this goes on the run and saw, pursues him again and again.

In chapter 23 David is hiding out.

He's on the run in Verse 15 of Chapter 23 now David became aware of that.

Saw had come out to seek his life while David was in the wilderness of Ziff and heresh and Jonathan Saul's son arose and went to David at Horesh and encouraged him in God.

Bessie said to him, do not be afraid because the hand of saw my father shall not find you and you will be king over Israel and I will be next to you.

And saw my father, those that also.

So the two of them made a covenant before the Lord and David stayed in heresh while Jonathan went to his house.

The, the, these friends can give you a strength that only because they walk in when the whole world walks out, but, but because even while you're apart there being in your life is a strength for you to carry on.

Okay.

Jonathan showed up and he spoke strength into David.

He believed in him.

He continued to defend him.

He told him, you shall be the king and though everyone would consider me the prince to follow in my father's line.

Someday you will be king and my father already knows that I desire for God's desire to give you the kingship and I will support you in it.

I'll be there at your side.

I'll be your best man.

I'll still have your back.

What friends, what an incredible, loyal friendship.

He strengthened him in the Lord and David, I think needed that strength.

Jonathan, I think knew his brand well enough to know when to show up.

And David, we all know David had some pretty bad falls.

Maybe, maybe the worst comes not in this chapter, not in First Samuel, but in second Samuel after Jonathan has died.

Jonathan, even though he was loyal to David and always honest with his father, died in battle protecting his father from the enemy.

What incredible loyalty is to David did not compromise his loyalty to God nor his loyalties to his father, and yet he gives his life defending his father in battle.

Now, David is without this soulmate in life and he's had some success with the Philistines that he decides to stay home from the battle.

In one night he sees a woman taking a bath on her adjacent building looking down from the palace.

Of course, we all know the story of Best Sheba and David is so at a loss without Jonathan that he doesn't even seem to acknowledge his sin until a Jonathan like person confronts him whose name interestingly is strike the Joe.

Nathan.

Nathan comes in and confronts him, but Nathan loves David Apparently, much like Jonathan did because he tells him a story in a way that David can process it and take it in and own it for himself.

He tells a story of that, of that shepherd that only had one sheep and a rich man who had many, many sheep has a guest come.

And as the guests comes, he needs a, a sheep to sacrifice for, uh, his guests in order to feed his guests.

Then instead of taking one of his sheep, he goes and steals the one sheep from this one, from this, the shepherd, and David being a man with the shepherd's heart, it says, who is this man death to this man?

Who is this man?

And Nathan says, Oh, King, you are the man and the reality of what he's done sets in.

You know, I, I, I wonder if Jonathan, it's still been around.

I wonder if David on that night, that was the night of Beth Sheba.

I, I wonder if if that night he had been out on the back palace porch having a Bruschi with his friend Jonathan, I wonder what would've happened.

I wonder if David would've said to Jonathan, Whoa, Jonathan, check this out.

If Jonathan witness said, king, sit your butt back in your throne.

I bet he woulda.

He might've just slapped him, Alan would've slapped me.

You've got a friend like that.

We all need a friend like that.

We can all be a friend like that.

How differently this story might've ended if Jonathan hadn't come to an end so tragically soon.

But that's not the end.

Nevertheless, of Jonathan's loyalty to David.

David's loyalty's to Jonathan.

I'll have to tell you the rest of that story next week, but, but let me just mention to you, this is number three.

Well, what does this mean to see relationships like this?

If I could have the next slide, please help me click three more times.

Here you go.

Well, what do you mean?

There you go.

Well, what?

What does this life of Jonathan and David say to us?

I think it says to us that each of us can make a covenant friend.

If you look around in your realm today, these kinds of friends aren't just for our childhood or just for our growing up years or just until we get established professionally.

I think these kinds of friends are friends for life.

If you don't have such a friend in your life right now kind, I encourage you by the grace of God who would want you to have a friend like this to make such a friend, to make a covenant France, to take that initiative to talk to somebody, to tell them, I would like to give the you Ephesians four, 10 permission in my life, right?

Make such a covenant friend, all renew with those covenant friends.

Some of you as I've talked about this this morning, names have come to your mind.

Friends from your past have, have drafted in their, their memories, uh, through your heart this morning and, and maybe you're realizing, man, I've taken that relationship for granted here for awhile or somebody I need to call before the end of the day and thank them for being the person who speaks into my life.

Chris, you are strong in the Lord.

Do you have a friend like that?

Let them know that you appreciate them.

Speak that kind of love.

Loyalty back and forth.

Practice has said, practice blessing one another in the name of the Lord, holding each other accountable in the name of the Lord, lifting each other up in the name of the Lord, speaking into each other's lives and the name of the Lord.

Blessing one another to be a blessing, for instance, like this or to be cherished.

Yeah.

Who's your best man?

Who would be the other half of your dynamic duo?

Who are your three musketeers?

Young man.

I'm here to tell you that this world has, has diminished the role of friends like this in our lives, the the romantic novels of the 21st century.

You have tried to make us believe that there's no room for somebody like this in our lives.

Once we have a girlfriend or once we have a wife, but that's one of the greatest lies ever told a man.

If you've got a friend like this, he'll make you a better husband.

If you've got a friend like this, he'll make you a more faithful father.

If you've got a friend like this, you will be iron sharpening iron for the purposes of God in each other's life.

Whatever it takes.

Gentlemen, I don't need such a frame.

Would you pray with me?

Lord God, I pray those kinds of friendships, especially over the men in this congregation this day, especially over our young men as they go forward into their, their college years.

These seniors that are graduating, Lord God, give them such friends even more so.

Father helped him to be such a friend that such a friendship might be made by their initiative.

God, fill us with your power, with your strength, with your character, to the point that we can be these kinds of loyal friends to one another.

Help us to find our Jonathan or our David.

Help us to be Jonathan and David to one another.

Lord God, we repent this day of our lone ranger ways.

We pray that you would help us find the strength, your strength in one another in the name of the father and the son and the Holy Spirit, and all God's people said, Amen.

Let's stand and sing this praise.