Heart Series: I Will Survive | 1 Samuel 20

You're listening to the Bridgetown Church Podcast with

Pastor Casey Kendall, where our vision is Jesus, our mission is

people, and our cause is love. Thanks for tuning in.

Let's dive in. For Samuel chapter 20, if you

have your Bible handy, the title of the message, if you've if

you've ever heard it, is is called I Will Survive.

I Will Survive. Yep, I Will Survive.

So I just want to pinpoint First Samuel chapter 20, verse 3.

1 Samuel 20:3

And then we're actually going to go through every verse in that

chapter and talk about David and Jonathan's life together.

I Will Survive. Look at verse three of first

1 Samuel 20 · chapter mention

Samuel chapter 20. And then David took an oath

again and said, your father certainly knows that.

I have found favor in your eyes. And he has said do not let

Jonathan know this lest he be grieved.

But truly, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, listen to

this last sentence. There is but a step between me

and death. I just want to repeat that last

line again of David's life at this point in time is he says

there is but a step between me and death.

I I, I want you to pay attention to that.

And if you would just look at your neighbor this morning, and

as we've always do when I'm present, if you would just look

at your neighbor and say neighbor, my neighbor, I Will

Survive. I, I, I know some of your minds

went all the way back to 1978 when you heard that title.

Some of you didn't even know that 1978 existed, but your mind

went back to a woman by the name of Gloria Gaynor who sang this

dance song. I Will Survive.

I Will Survive. It went something like this.

I know you know it. No, not I.

But I Will Survive. Long as I know how to love, I

know I'll stay alive. I got my life to live and all my

love to give, and I Will Survive.

I, I, I Will Survive. I they will survive.

I know your mind has gone back to this past song, but I want to

talk to you about your very present struggling situation

that you're in right now. If I could just this morning

slide into your DMS and if I could find myself saying that

this isn't just a song, but some of you have reached a place in

your life where you have so much coming against you that the only

immediate objective on your agenda is to make it to the next

day. I know there's some of you that

you've come in here that I'm not preaching to everybody today,

but just some of us who have been in places where life will

bring you wave after wave and problem after problem and hurt

after hurt where it just seems like you will not survive in the

land that you are living in today.

I know some of you find yourself in this place of challenge where

the enemy has come against you so hard.

It has been situations that have happened at your work place.

It's been situations that have happened in your home.

It has been situations that have happened in your new school

year. It has been situations that have

happened between husband and wife, between boyfriend and

girlfriend, between uncles and aunts.

And it just seems like you will not survive in the land where

you are walking. And maybe your goal is not even

just to get through the remainder part of this year or

the new part of this week, but your goal today is just to get

through today. Am I speaking to anyone?

Four people. That's great.

The rest of you listen to the podcast because you're going to

need this for later. This is a time and a place where

we will all face a struggle in our life.

We will all go through very difficult situations.

And this is not a place where I'm praying that the Lord gives

me a new house. This is not a place that I pray

to Jesus that I would win the lottery.

This is not a place where I pray that I'd be promoted.

I'm just trying to ask God to completely and sufficiently get

me through the day. It is that type of place in your

life where you have been in survival mode and all you wanted

to do was just get through today.

If I could just define this term survival mode for you.

Survival mode means this. You get there when you realize

your new definition for life is simply to survive.

And I met a person a few years ago who hadn't been in church a

while. And when I saw him, I asked him,

I say, where have you been? He said.

Pastor Casey, I have been in the fight of my life.

I am just trying to survive. I don't know if you found

yourself there trying to survive through that divorce, trying to

survive through that marriage, trying to survive through that

family situation, trying to survive in your job, trying to

survive with the relatives, just trying to survive through your

finances as everything seems to be getting a little bit more

money when you hit the grocery store aisles.

I am just trying to survive. If I could speak something over

you in the name of Jesus Christ, we will survive because of Him

and by Him and through Him and for Him, we will survive.

In the situation that you're in has not come to ruin you.

It's actually come to restore you.

The situation that you find yourself in is not going to

break you down as much as it will build you up.

Your situation in your life right now will be something that

it just seems so hard, but it is in this moment that in the

hardness of my situation that the Lord expands the capacity of

my shoulders to bear what seems unbearable, to do what seems

unreasonable, and to expect something that seems impossible.

You will survive. If there ever was a man in the

Bible that we would look at and he would be diagnosed clinically

with this condition, it was David.

David was in survival mode. You all know the story of David

called by Samuel, forsaken by his family.

He's now delivering lunch to his brothers via DoorDash and Uber

Eats. And he finds himself at this

place now in this area of his life.

All he wants to do is give his brother some food.

And he hears this Philistine taunting God.

And he then says who will take care of this problem?

And everyone lived in fear. But David because of his faith

would come and say that the battle is the Lord's.

He wins against Goliath, chops his head off, his Philistine

army is moving backwards, his name is getting more popular and

more popular, he has anointed the king of Israel and King Saul

is not happy. You think that David in victory

from 1 battle would enter into the palace in the next, But

rather than that, for the next 15 years of his life or so, he's

running from King Saul. He's running in such a place

where his life is being pursued. And when we hear David say this

in verse three, there is but a step between me and death.

I want you to hear the anguish of David's soul that this is

like someone who has been battling cancer and going

through chemo and they just can't take one more step.

There's just one step between me and death.

This is the step when there's trouble in your relationship and

the agony of your heart wants to see something differently but

but but it stays the same. This is the agony of someone who

has lost someone that they've loved and cared for and deeply

adored. This is the cry of David's

heart. I don't want us just to gloss

over this. This is a bit deeper in emotion.

The pain in the agony in the sweat upon David's face and the

blisters upon David's feet and the brokenness upon David's

heart. There is just one step between

me and death today. You ever felt that way where

your expectation of something or someone has to be lowered

because of something that's happened in your life?

You ever found yourself in a place where, a lot like David,

you just want to survive? I was looking up the definition

again for survival mode. It refers to a state, a

prolonged stress, where the body's fight or flight mode is

constantly activated, leading to a physical or mental exhaustion.

And that's how you've walked in here today, physically and

mentally exhausted. I know you say said, praise the

Lord, but inside of your heart you are physically and mentally

exhausted. You're wondering how you're

going to keep on parenting in this pain.

You're wondering why you continue to be on the cycle of

fighting with your husband or your wife.

You're wondering as a single person, is there really anyone

that's going to be good for me while I follow after Jesus

Christ? Listen, this is David,

physically and mentally exhausted.

Every crutch had been taken out of his life, life taken from

him, removed from him, all of his resources in this place.

He had lost his position. He couldn't stay with his wife

Samuel. This would be the last time that

he sees him. Jonathan now as a friend.

He lost his self respect because he had to run back down to the

Philistine country and hide from King Saul.

Every crutch was taken away. It was now David at this point

in verse one where the Bible says then David fled from Nayoff

in Rama. I just want you to understand

Nayoff Rama. Nayoff means in verse 1A high

place or a dwelling place. And notice it if you would.

The word Rama there in our Bible brings us to, excuse me, Neyaf

means habitation. Rama means dwelling place or

high place. So David's up in this high

secure place. He has to leave the high secure

place to go to a place that is unknown.

The Bible says that David fled. He fled and sometimes when we

read our Bibles we we just read the black and white, but we

don't put the emotion that's inside of that.

The word fled literally means to be chased away.

The word fled there means that someones pursuing after you.

It means that he had been driven away.

Literally. The Hebrew word means to bolt,

to flee something suddenly. And here is David, and he flees

a place that is high and a place that is secure, and he loses

everything around him. Notice not just where he's at,

but who he leaves. In chapter 19, David is with

Samuel the prophet of the Lord, the man that had called and

anointed him to be king, the one who had mentored him, the one

who had loved him, the one now David found thus saith the Lord

in he now has to be removed from Samuel.

And at this place and time David lost his association, his

affluence and his anointing. He thought even though he had

come to this spot, notice this. David says these words in

survival mode. He said, what have I done,

Jonathan in verse one? And then he says another

question. What's the what's my iniquity?

And then he says, what is my sin before your father, that he

seeks my life. Notice what survival mode often

leads to. It leads to doubting yourself

and questioning your motives. And here at this point in time,

David's investigating. He's examining his own life, and

here he sits here in survival mode, maybe like you sit here

today in survival mode. You might be asking, OK, what,

how, what? What are some of the things that

I need to know that I'm in survival mode?

Number one, if you're taking note, write this down or letter

A, whatever you want to label it as.

How do I know I'm in survival mode?

You have difficulty making decisions.

You have difficulty making decisions.

Or should I go? Yes.

Or should I take that? Yeah, no, no, no.

Pull it back. And you're always vacillating

between two decisions. Notice the letter B or #2

There's a lack of motivation. You just don't even want to get

up. You, you just aren't motivated

anymore. This is survival mode.

Maybe you have a persistent stress letter C The stress upon

your finances, the stress upon your health, the stress upon

relationships, which then leads to letter D poor concentration.

You just can't focus. And then it leads to having mood

swings. You're happy one minute and then

you're severely irritable the next.

And then mood swings lead to physical symptoms and increase

heart rate, heart problems, anxiety, and depression in the

mind. This is David's story.

But here's what I want to highlight in chapter 20.

This is not the end of David's story.

This is just part of David's story.

Just like when you hear the song I Will Survive.

I didn't know. I thought it was about

relationships. The song was written by a man

who had been fired from Motown and before he slammed the door

as he walked out of that place, he told them I Will Survive.

So we grabbed another guy and they wrote this song together.

Then a lady by the name of Gloria Gaynor takes this song.

Gloria Gaynor at this time in her life in 1978, is a woman

that has a broken back and full of setbacks in her career.

And then she owns the song for herself and she sings, I Will

Survive. And I want this to be the anthem

of your life. You will survive in Jesus.

I'm going to just say that again.

You will survive in Jesus. This will not be the end of your

story. But you might be asking, well,

how does that happen? I want you to write some things

down if you're taking note. And that is this.

This is how it happens. Number one.

Number one, God will bring you people to assess the situation.

God will bring you people to assess the situation, David

says. I'm just one step away and

notice what happens. The Bible says in verse 4.

So Jonathan said to David, whatever you desire, whatever

you yourself desire, I will do it for you.

And David said to Jonathan, indeed, tomorrow is the new

moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king to eat, but

let me go, that I may hide in the field until the 3rd day at

evening. If your father misses me at all,

then say David, earnestly ask permission of me, that he might

run over to Bethlehem, his city, for there is a yearly sacrifice

there for all the family. If he says thus, it is well your

servant will be safe. But if he is very angry, then be

sure that the evil is determined by him.

Therefore you shall deal kindly with your servant, for you have

brought your servant into a covenant of the Lord with you.

Nevertheless, if there's iniquity in me, kill me

yourself, or why would you bring me to your father?

And Jonathan said, far be it from you, for I knew certainly

that evil was determined by my father to come upon you.

Then would I not tell you? Then David said to Jonathan, who

will tell me? Or what if your father answers

you roughly? And Jonathan said to David, come

and let us go out into the field.

So both of them went out into the field.

No notice if you would just take note of this.

This chapter is going to be broken down into three scenes.

The field, the crown, the spear, the field, the crown, the spear.

And notice who was brought to David in the midst of his

survival mode, his friend named Jonathan.

And here in this spot, Jonathan and David come up with a plan

where David says, your father is seeking my life.

And Jonathan says, how can it be?

If it's so, I will tell you. And so they come up with this

plan on how they would go back, Jonathan, to his father's feast.

And if David is missing and the dad saw gets mad, then Jonathan

will go tell David that there is harm coming against him.

Did you see it's not just important where you go, it's

important to who you go to for the right assessment of your

situation. David went to Jonathan.

Jonathan, a man who feared God, love God, who sought God, who

was not advocating for the throne but was willing to

promote God's agenda and Kingdom.

This is so important because some of us are running to people

that are giving us advice and we who love Jesus are running to

people who don't love Jesus. So because of that, you're not

going to get the correct information and wisdom from the

Word of God, from someone who you tell that you're having

problems in your marriage. You might hear something like

this. Well, just end it all.

You know, I'm battling depression.

Well, here's what you need to do.

And then they give you advice that doesn't match the

scripture. If there's anything we need to

do, it is to come back to the book.

And I need people in my life who will bring me back to the book.

I need this to be the authoritative word of God over

my life where I can come to such a place where some people in my

life are going to tell me hard things and see things in my life

that I don't just see yet. We need people in our lives to

help assess the situations that we often find ourselves in.

Did you do you know that this is what God wants to do?

The reason being is many times. Times through our situation, we

could lose sight of doing what's right in the eyes of God.

And so God brings specific people in my life, some folks

who follow after Jesus, folks who have my back and hold my

heart to come in and give me clarity where there might be

confusion. Did you see we need people in

our lives to help assess our situation?

You know those people who give us advice because we still don't

don't know everything. We need people like that in our

lives. You know those people who can

assess the situation. Someone who will help you and

not hurt you. Someone to remind you to see

past the moment and remember the long term work of God and what

He's doing. We need people in our lives who

will come in. Someone to tell you not to make

a foolish mistake because you're angry.

You know that type of person, Someone who will tell you to

write it, but hit save, don't hit send.

Do you know what I'm saying? We need those types of people in

our lives. People who could honestly look

at the situation and find themselves in a specific spot

where they're willing to give to us and go with us on the

journey. We need those people.

I was talking to a pilot, an Air Force pilot who was going

through survival school for him flying the fighter jets.

And, and he was telling me about the survival school of all the

the times he had to hide and how many times he had to sleep in

the dirt and cover himself from the enemy.

And they let these guys out this this team of people, and they

are taken as prisoners of war so they could simulate what it

means to be caught. If they're ever in battle and

they have to get out of their plane and they're caught, how do

they actually survive? And he told me about all the

bugs that he ate. He told me how he had to hunt

for certain berries. He told me of where they would

shove him into horrible things that were put into a barrel, how

they would put this loud speakers over his ears and play

these screaming noises. And they would torment him day

after day after day, so much so in his 20s that his brown hair

turned all Gray when he got out of survival school.

To this day, this gentleman has one spot on his head that is

Gray that never went back to the same color.

That's how much stress he was under.

And so I said, well, what? What was it for you that really

tormented you? He's all I could sustain all of

that. But the one thing they did to

torment them us, the most is they isolated us.

They isolated us. And when they isolated us, we

thought that we were turned on by our comrades, and then we

were left alone. One of the enemy's greatest

things he wants you to do in a stressful situation is to

isolate yourself. Because when you begin to

isolate yourself, you begin to think that God is no longer for

you and nobody will ever love you.

But I love what one man said. He said these words.

When God wants to bless you, He doesn't send you things, He

sends you people. I just want to read that to you

again. When God wants to bless you, He

just doesn't send you things. He sends you people.

He sends you people. Look at all throughout the Bible

that this is how it is. This is the biblical truth that

God gave people, people. Now I know right now you're

looking at just people. You're driving in traffic and

you're just like people. You're at work and you're just

like, oh, people, you go to your school.

It's just people California is flooded with.

And God chooses to use people to reach you for his glory.

Isn't that amazing? Yeah.

Where's the biblical principle for this?

Who did Adam begin? Who?

What was at? Who was Adam given Eve?

You might go, well, that was a mistake.

No, no, no, no. Listen, it wasn't Eve's fault.

It was Adam's fault, although she ate of the fruit first.

Listen to let's, let's go back to the leadership of Adam,

because some of you women have gotten a bad rap for years.

The woman made me do it. No, you did it.

Moses was given Jethro and Aaron.

Paul was given Silas, Barnabas, and Timothy.

Naomi was given Ruth. Esther was given Mordecai,

Peter, James, and John. And then Jesus says I entrust

you with the message of the gospel, greater things you will

do than I have done. And he says that to people.

Now, this is what I want you to understand.

You are never at your best by yourself.

And maybe the reason you're not growing is because you're the

most holiest person in the room. Maybe we need some more people

in our lives. They're going to challenge us.

You know those people that there's so much in the Word of

God that you know that their devotions are about to rub off

you in the morning. You know what I'm saying?

I just read in the book of Judges and you're like the fuck

of judges. And with enthusiasm, someone

shares what they just read in the I need people that when they

say they're going to pray for me, they're actually praying for

me. I need people that just are so

bold for Jesus Christ that they're willing to go into the

city by themselves, buy and rent a booth at Flashback in Glendora

on Saturday, and then call me to come serve with them.

I need those types of people in my life where it is exciting and

people are rubbing off on you. People are directing you, you

know, people who are greater than you in the situation that

you might find yourself in. Someone to say I've walked with

God long enough to know that he's faithful to you in this

situation. I've walked with God long enough

to know that the rug will be pulled out from you, that life

will hurt, that you are a Sinner, that you are broken,

that we need repentance, but Jesus is faithful.

I need people in my life like that to help assess the

situation. We will survive, but at some

time and some point you will need someone and God brings

Jonathan to David. But not only this, I need not

just someone who will help me assess the situation, write this

down. I need someone who's going to

speak affirmation of God in my situation.

Look at this long part here if you would verse 12 that Jonathan

said to David, Notice this, the Lord God of Israel is witness

when I have surrounded out, when I have sounded out my father

sometime tomorrow on the third day.

And indeed there is good toward David and I do not send 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. Notice this, I will report it to

you and go and send you a way that you may go in safety and

the Lord be with you as He has been with my father.

Look at the truth, truth that is being shared, the affirmation I

will tell you, and you shall not only show me the kindness of the

Lord while I still live, that I may not die.

Jonathan says to David, 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. And Jonathan again caused David

to vow notice that truth because he loved him, for he loved him

as he loved his own soul. And then Jonathan said to David,

Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed because your

seat will be empty. And when you have stayed three

days, go down quickly and come to the place where you hid on

the day of the deed, and remain by the stone of Azel.

And then I will shoot 3 arrows to the side of it, as though I

shot at a target. And there I will send a lad

saying, go find the arrows. If I expressively say to the

lad, look, the arrows are on the side of you, get them and come.

Then as the Lord lives, there's 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 and I have spoken of, indeed,

the Lord be between you and me forever.

We're reading the whole chapter. Keep going.

So David hid in the field, and when the new moon had come, the

king sat down to eat the feast. And now the king sat on his

seat, as at other times, and on a seat by the wall.

And Jonathan arose, and Abner sat by Saul's side.

But David's place was empty. Nevertheless, Saul did not say

anything that day for the thought something has happened

to him, he is unclean, surely he is unclean.

And it happened the next day. The second day of the month at

David's place was empty. And Saul said to Jonathan, his

son, why has the son of Jesse not come to eat either yesterday

or today? And so Jonathan answered Saul.

David earnestly asked permission of me to go to Bethlehem.

And he said, please let me go, for our family has a sacrifice

in the city, and my brother has commanded me to be there.

And now if I have found favor in your eyes, please let me get

away and see my brothers. Therefore he has not come to the

King's table. Then Saul's anger was aroused

against Jonathan. And he said to him, you son of a

perverse, rebellious woman, how's that dad at the table when

we speak to our kids? Can you imagine that you, son,

perverse, rebellious woman, owner of Jonathan's mom's, just

look and it's all like, what in the world are you saying?

But anger always makes you say things you later regret at the

table. Do I not know that you have

chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of

your mother's nakedness? Come on, Saul, for as long as

the son of Jesse lives on the earth, you shall not be

established, nor your Kingdom. Now therefore send and bring him

to me, for he shall surely die. And Jonathan answered Saul's

father and said to him, Why should he be killed?

What has he done? And then Saul cast a spirit him

to kill him. Talk about a family fight at the

dinner table. Here is Saul, and he says you

are the son of a rebellious and perverse woman.

Then he takes his spear at the dinner table while they're

eating meatloaf, and as he hears the words, he throws his spear

at him. He says wrong words.

He does wrong things. He threw a spear at his son.

I wonder how many times, Dad, we've thrown Spears at our sons

and we've said things that we just want to take back but we

can't. The spear has been thrown.

And here in this tense moment at the dinner table.

You ever have a tense moment at the dinner table?

All right, I'm just going to say Amen.

All y'all are lying. Tense moments at the table.

This wasn't in front of the throne.

This was at the dinner table. Come on here it happens and

Jonathan arose in verse 34 from the table in fierce anger.

He ate no food the second day of the month for he was grieve for

David because his father had treated him shamefully.

And so it was in the morning that Jonathan went out into the

field at the time that was appointed with David and a

little lad was with him. And then he said to this lad now

run, find the arrows which I shoot and as the lad ran, he

shot an arrow beyond him. And when the lad had come to the

place where the arrow was with Jonathan, had shot Jonathan then

cried out after the lad and said, is not the arrow beyond

you? And Jonathan cried out after the

lad? Make haste, hurry, do not delay.

And so Jonathan's lad gathered up the arrows and came back to

his master. But the lad did not know

anything. Only Jonathan and David knew of

the matter. And then Jonathan gave his

weapons to this lad and said to him, Go carry them to the city.

Notice what Jonathan does. He says something and he

completes something. He looks at David and he says, I

will tell you the truth. I'm not going to hide anything

that my dad does. I'm not going to cover anything

that my dad does. I will be the one who comes and

I will be the messenger for you in this situation.

I think in our messy situations we always need the message of

the truth because sometimes in our messy situations we need a

Jonathan that is willing to come in such a place and say some

hard things about some hard people and situations that they

see from the outside now that they have knowledge of can help

David further the calling that God had placed upon his life.

I think we need people in our lives who will give us the right

affirmations. Even in this moment where David

is in the field hiding, Jonathan is at the palace, sitting at the

table he could have chosen. I'm not going to say this to

David because it might just be too hard to hear, but he

doesn't. He says hard things that saves

David's life. And maybe the hard thing that

you're about to say will be said with grace and truth, but it

will save somebody else's life. That's why I'm here.

That's why I'm standing here, is because I had failed in the

beginning of our church plant. I couldn't find a building.

We had about 60 people with us and there I told everybody that

I'm going back up to the desert and two men in my life said not

at all. You are not moving, you are

staying right where you are at Chris Norman and Dustin Batalo.

Everything within me wanted to run because everything within me

knew that I had failed them. Everybody but just a few people

left us and our family. And these two men had enough

courage to look me in the eye and say you stay there.

And I need people like that in my life because there's

situations that often pump, come and pump themselves up in my

heart that bring me to a place that I make a very reactive

decision. And that is, I'm reacting

because of my fear, not because of my faith.

And these guys came into such a place and said, no, you stay

put. Jesus said if you know the

truth, the truth will set you free.

In your trauma, you're going to need some truth in the burnout,

you're going to need to be reminded of the Bible in your

chronic stress, you're going to need consistent scripture.

And This is why, if you take note, write this down, because

the truth confronts me in my situation, The truth confronts

me in my situation, and then this is what happens next.

The truth also comforts me in my situation.

The truth can comfort me in my situation.

And then lastly, the truth compels me in my situation.

I need someone who's going to reaffirm the truth to me because

I need someone that's going to confront me, comfort and compel

me to walk with Jesus Christ. Can I just give you a truth?

If you just highlight this somewhere in your notebook

throughout the week and that's this.

Survival is not an excuse for sin.

Can I, can I just say that somebody like, I'm in survival

mode. I just, I, I got to go get

drunk. I'm in survival mode.

I just got to go have another relationship.

I'm in survival mode. I just, I just need to go get

high. I'm in survival mode and I need

to No, no, no, no. Survival is not an excuse for

you to sin. It's a reason for you to

surrender. Can I give you another truth

that survival is not your new life?

Survival's not your new life. Right now it feels like it is,

and it feels like a long time that you've been battling this

and facing this. But this won't be your life

forever. You will heal.

The wound will turn into a scar. The people that you've lost and

you love, you try not to forget them, but time seems like it's

pushing the ship further and further from the harbor.

And you do everything within your power to keep the memories.

And I'll just tell you this from the truth of God's word, that

Jesus is the resurrection and the life that even though a man

dies, yet he shall live. That that doesn't mean that I

don't miss them every single day of the rest of my life, but that

does mean that I begin this healing process and what I've

been wounded out of scars now formed to tell a greater story

of the greatness of God in my life.

Listen to this if you would, you might be in survival mode right

now. Can you just write this down.

The last thing is that this place of survival mode brings me

to a place to express compassion to people.

Now as soon verse 41 as the lad had gone, David arose from a

place toward the South. He fell on his face to the

ground, and he bowed down. Three times.

He kissed. Or they kissed one another and

then they noticed this. They wept together.

But David more so here's David. They're in a field.

They're not in a church. They're not in a Tabernacle, a

temple. David's in a dirty field.

And he falls at Jonathan's feet and says thank you.

But it just wasn't a thank you from Jonathan.

David knew that this would be one of the last times that he

would ever see Jonathan alive. And the Bible says that they

kissed one another doesn't mean that they're homosexuals.

Some people take this verse and they twist it all around David

and Jonathan. Their friendship was not that

they were men who were warriors and who love God.

But notice this. Strong men still show emotion.

And here is David in this place, and he falls down at Jonathan's

feet and three times he bows and then they raises up.

He kisses Jonathan. And then the Bible says this.

Notice this. The Bible says that they wept

together. They actually cried together.

They wailed together. This is not two women coming

together where you would think, oh, OK, they're must be

pregnant. They're just too emotional.

This is 2 men who are warriors, who have killed people, who have

positions, who are called by God, and then they're weeping.

They're weeping with each other, they're sharing their grief with

one another. And I think sometimes we are in

survival mode because we're unwilling to grieve.

We're unwilling to let the secret out and let ourselves be

vulnerable in front of people. We're unwilling to really let

out what we've been holding on to for so long, because if I did

that, I would look like that, and then I would have the

reputation of that. And here are these men coming

together. They wept together.

And 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. They separated, and they would

only see each other one last time.

These are best friends separated by a jealous father.

Jonathan doesn't look at David and say, get up, stop weeping.

Why you crying over spilled milk?

You're going to be better. You just scraped your knee.

Come on, get up. He weeps with him.

There is something about experiencing turmoil that makes

you a deeper well of compassion for other people who are in

turmoil. I used to look at sick people

and go, you need to get better. And because I couldn't fix them,

I got aggravated, meaning because I couldn't fix their

condition of cancer or I couldn't fix the condition of

their, their cold or their flu. As a as a fixer, I wanted to

just like, come on, get up, you could do this until I got sick.

And God put me in the bed and I laid there in my bed wondering

if I was really going to live from the Lyme's disease,

wondering why my heart was acting this way at Loma Linda

Hospital. I shouldn't have been 33 years

old strapped up to all these heart monitors.

I should be out there playing catch with my kids.

I should be running with my kids through baseball practices and

soccer fields. And the moment that I got sick

is the moment of my breaking because I realized when I was

put in the hospital, I realized how I was so wrong as a pastor

entering into hospitals previously with the wrong

attitude, trials, birth, compassion or cruelty.

And in this moment with David, it is here that Jonathan's

compassion is extended to him. And now I ask the Lord for

healing. But he has yet chosen to heal me

out of these last many years since I was 33 years old.

But now I walk into a hospital room differently because I know

what it's like to be there. And the compassion for me is

this, stop being so hard on people when you don't know their

whole story. And maybe it's just, maybe it's

just you weeping, worshipping. Maybe it's you getting out and

being vulnerable. Maybe it's just you learning

what it's like to be compassionate.

And that is this, that in your survival mode, I want you to

receive this truth God is birthing.

It's something inside of you because of the situation that

you're walking through. He's doing it, and I believe

he's doing it today in you. The Bible tells us that it was

the love of God that sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sin.

The Bible tells us that because of Jesus, now we have the access

and the ability to come to a God where the Bible says his

kindness leads us to repentance. And in this moment, I want to

give us the opportunity to grieve, to let go, to stop

holding on to maybe some things that you've grasped with your

hands that God is telling you to release.

And maybe your survival mode this morning can turn into this

surrendered Spirit of God touching and healing your heart

as you lay it at His feet. Jonathan was a good friend, but

there's a greater friend and his name is Jesus.

And he doesn't offer you an easy life, but He does offer you

eternal life. He doesn't offer you a pain free

life, but He does offer you the forgiveness of your sins, not

because you did something to earn it, but because He did

something for you to receive it. And so as you've gathered

together today, as we close out in this time of worship, I want

to remember Jesus through communion, but I also want to

remember Jesus by you coming and grieving, languishing,

lamenting, and then in that spot, us giving this to the

Lord, whatever it is we're holding on to.

We hope you enjoyed this message and we'd love for you to join us

in person every Sunday at 10:30 AM.

For more information and updates, visit

wearebridgetown.com. Thanks for tuning in and we'll

see you next week.