The Importance of Godly Friendships and Waiting on God's Timing: 1 Samuel 23:13-29

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in

practical ways.

Hey, everybody, welcome to the Bible Guys. I'm Chris.

Let's get to it. Chris. This is a big day.

And he's Jeff, I guess, and he's in a hurry.

So as the Jeff of the show, Yes, I'm going

to push it forward because it's Friday and as such,

and you know we are all dying to discover, Yes,

what made Chris mad this week? Well? I have one? Really, Yes,

we didn't see that coming.

I didn't even have to think for a second.

Well, you wonder why this is a segment, and it's

because when we ask what made Chris mad this week ago? Oh,

I know, I've got one. Two days ago, I was

so angry. Here's what happens.

So, Okay, this was actually tragic and this has nothing

to do with why I was mad at all. Okay, Okay,

So what I'm about to tell you is not what

made me mad.

Okay.

We were traveling from you know, Michigan, Detroit, Michigan, down

to Canton, Ohio to do this video shoot at the

Pro Football Hall of Fame and we get delayed two

and a half We sat in traffic two and a

half hours because there was a tragedy. There was a

car tracking trailer, a big car accident. People actually lost

their lives, and so we were in this uh literally

I put in park and we sat in the truck

for two and a half hours.

Well just in park. People were left.

Their cars that were walking along the freeway and it

was not that was a turnpike.

So and so then nowhere else you're stuck right.

Right, because you know, if you're on the freeway, people

can like make their way to the next exit. But

there was no exit, so there was like it was

like fourteen miles between two exits or something like that.

Something crazy. So anyway, that's not what made me mad.

Here's what made me mad is that the GPS, the

GPS could have done a better job and because of that,

I could have avoided all of it.

Oh so you made it the GPS. Correct, Okay, yes,

bring it, because I'm on your team. Now, Okay, here's

what happens.

So we're traveling and if you've ever traveled the turnpike

across Ohio, it pretty much like slices Ohio. Like right

at the top, right, it pretty much runs as a

straight line from Toledo all the way through Youngstown. Right,

you know, it comes comes zippity zooe, you know, do that.

It's just it's one straight line. There's no there's no

quicker way across Ohio. Right. So, uh so we're here,

we are traveling on this, you know, on this, on

this turnpike, and all of a sudden the thing reroutes

and it shows, it says, it says, no, take this route.

And it has me, I'm not even kidding listening to this.

It has me.

Leaving the turnpike and going all the way up to

Sandusky in the tippity top of the tippity parts of

like those little islands. It has me going that way right,

and then like and then like going through all these

back roads and then zooming down of some freeway or something,

and then finally emerging, you know, somewhere you know, closer

to like Akron or something. Right, and I'm thinking to myself,

what is happening? And it says you're gonna lose twenty

one minutes. It says twenty minutes, twenty one minutes lower

But here's what it didn't do. What it didn't do

is it didn't tell me why you would think of

modern technology. It could have said, just show red, show something, right,

but it doesn't.

Everything's blue. What were you using?

I was using Apple Maps?

Apple Maps really yes, wow?

But however Wesley turned on Google Maps and it didn't

show it. It didn't show ready either, didn't show red. Wow,

because they're tracking your phones everybody.

That's how they know what.

They have track phones on Apple Maps.

Too, yeah, I know, and they it didn't show that

it was read. It didn't show red. Wow. You should

have been using Ways.

So maybe Ways, maybe that would have worked. But you know,

but it shows blue and then it shows this other

blue and it says, oh, take this one twenty one

minutes lower.

Well, who's going to take that one? Right?

And I'm like, I'm like, why is it doing this?

And we kept on asking. And so here's what I

should have done. I should have literally pulled over, because

knowing that I was on the turnpike, hindsight being twenty twenty,

I should have pulled over and said, let's examine, let's

analyze truly before we make this mistake of committing to

this fourteen hours, fourteen miles stretch between exits, right, But

I didn't.

I was like, this is so goofy.

We're traveling. I'm like, look at this thing. And I

just passed everything until finally we So, Apple Maps tried.

To warn you and you refused it. It didn't and

now you're mad.

I tried to give me an absurd suggestion without telling me.

Why was it wrong? The suggestion? Yes? No, no, but

it was not communicating. Tried to it just didn't write right.

The robot didn't communicate in your love language, and you

couldn't hear. How about pertinent information? How about essential reasons? Why? Yeah?

So?

Does? Does? Do you have the serie talk out loud

to you on your maps? I can? And what kind

of voice do you use? The normal one? Yeah, the

typical one is the normal the lady? Yeah, the lady. Yeah.

So my wife got a hold of Ways and she

recorded her voice over Ways. Yes, so now it's always

my wife here. You go, have a pleasant drive. Oh

what happened? Took it off? I say that thing that

sound like BONDI to me? Is it it did? That'd

be weird. Here we go, let's see if it doesn't now.

Yeah, anyways, but but I've heard her.

I've heard her give you instructions on that, and she

was such a surprise. She even yells at you too, right, yeah, yeah,

it'll be like like if if I miss my turn,

she'll go, oh, brother, turn around, that's so funny.

So anyway, so I just think with modern technology the

way that it is, the Apple Maps could have done something.

What turn right, Yeah, that's so good. Make a U turn,

that's so good. Yeah. So now my wife gets to

tell me what to do everywhere I go.

That's right.

You can't escape her. That's right, you can't escape. So

then the yeah, so then if if if that had

happened to me and it told me to go another

way and I did and do it, I couldn't come

home and complain because she tried to warn me, right right, Well,

I got to tell you.

I just think with a modern technology, they should have

done something other than saying, hey, I have an idea,

lose twenty one minutes for no reason all. And both

of them are blue, they're both they both look like

they're going to work, but take the longer route.

You would do that. That's true with with it being

red or blue instead of red. It just hadn't updated

yet on that thing, correct, but it was updating that. Hey,

you probably are going to want.

This, yes, yeah, and so in hindsight I would have

taken twenty one minute loss versus.

A two and a half hour loss. Yeah. Sure. Yeah.

It was pretty rough man. Okay, so that's what made

you mad this week? Yes, I'm mad. Do you need

to call somebody you want to? I want to straighten

this out.

But I'm really hoping is that somebody will forward this

episode to the leader of Apple Maps.

Okay, so if you know him, could you or her

send it? Just send it, send it and say, hey,

there's got to be a way where you can inform

us why we're being diverted.

Yes, please, yes, okay, maybe, man.

We thank you Chris on behalf of all the rest

of us that you're irate for. We cannot thank you

enough for the sacrifices you make for the rest of us.

On behalf of everybody in that line, that's right, that

was with me.

Thank you, Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Welcome,

You're welcome, buddy. Okay, well we are we are In

First Samuel chapter twenty three lots has happened, but it's

all the same kind of stuff. David goes out, has victories.

Saul starts getting freaked out. He decides he's going to

kill David. David has to go hide, then David. Then

Saul apologizes, come back David. All these things. But at

the same time, David is starting to kind of rally

the troops. Some of these really tough guys start coming

towards him to him at this time. And so there's

David is a great leader of Saul's army, but he

also kind of has a special forces group, David's mighty men,

six hundred of them. And so here's what it says,

or in our first Samuel, chapter twenty three, verse thirteen,

it says, so David and his men, about six hundred them,

now left Kila and began roaming the countryside. Words soon

reached saw that David had escaped, so he didn't go

after Quila or go to Quila after all. David now

stayed in the strongholds of the wilderness and in the

hill country of Ziff. Saul hunted him day after day,

but God didn't tell let Saul find him. Oh, I'm

having troubles today. One day near Horash, David received the

news that Saul was on the way to Zif to

search for him and kill him. Jonathan went to find

David and encouraged him to stay strong in his faith

in God. Don't be afraid, Jonathan reassured him, My father

will never find you. You're going to be king of Israel,

and I will be next to you, as my father

saw is well aware. So the two of them renewed

their solemn pact before the Lord. Then Jonathan returned home,

while David stayed in Horash. But now the men of

Zif went to Saul in Ghibea and betrayed David to him.

We know where David is hiding, they said. He's in

the strongholds of Horace, in the hill of Aquilah. Yeah, sure, sure,

which is in the southern part. Jesshamon, Oh, okay, come

down whenever you're ready, o King, and we will catch

him and hand him over to you. The Lord bless you.

Saul said, at last, someonet is concerned about me. Go

and check again to be sure of where he's staying

and who has seen him there, For I know that

he's been very crafty. Discover his hiding places and come

back when you're sure, and then I'll go with you,

and if he's in the area at all, I'll track

him down, even if I have to search every hiding

place in Judah. So the men of Ziph returned home

ahead of Saul. Meanwhile, Dave and his men had moved

into the wilderness of Maeon in the Araba Valley south

of Jeshamon. When David heard that Saal and his men

were searching for him, he went even further into the wilderness,

to the Great Rock, and he remained there in the

wilderness of Maeon, but Saul kept after him. In the wilderness,

Saul and David were now on opposite sides of a mountain,

and just as Sal and as men began to close

in on David and his men, an urgent message reached

Saul that the Philistines were raiding Israel again, so Saul

quit chasing David returned to fight the Philistines. Ever since

that time, the place where David was camped has been

called the Rock of Escape. David then went to live

in the strongholds of Bengetti.

Well, so it's really an entire half a chapter about

David running yeah, and he has good support from great men.

Yep, He's got six hundred of them who are loyal

to him.

He still has the favor of the people, he still

has the favor of the nation, quite honestly, but Saul

has the power. Saul's gotten to the point where he's passed.

He's dropping all pretenses.

He is.

Unashamedly you know, hunting him now, right, So it's not

like he's pretending to wrestle with Oh, play music for me.

No, I'm going to try to kill you. Oh, I'm

so sorry.

I've repented, which, by the way, he did, he repented

several times. I try I'm trying to kill you and

I don't know why. I'm so jealous. Come be my

friend again. So it says the King play you know,

all that stuff, and it actually says that poor David.

Actually we skipped over it, but poor David had actually

had to retreat to one of the philistine hometowns of

gaff You remember that, and he acted crazy, remember that.

That's a great one.

Yeah, And we skipped over that. But like David, actually, uh,

I was so afraid of Sault that he had to

run to one of the towns of the Philistines of

his enemies. And now we know it's a town of

his enemies, because we literally just read that a couple

of days ago in the Bible, guys, where it said that,

remember they said when Goliath was killed, they ran as

far as the city of Gath, remember that, and and

they and you know, the bodies fell all the way

to Gath. Well, this is where David ran. And then

it actually says that while he was there trying to hide,

and by the way, props to him that we would

ever expect to look for him there, right, But it

says while he was there, the king of that region

noticed that that was David and actually said, isn't this

the man when they say Saul was killed, killed in

his thousands and David killed in his ten thousands, isn't

that him? And it says when David heard this, he

became afraid, and then he started acting like a madman.

And it says he started scratching the door, and he

started acting like this crazy person.

Himself.

And then and then to where the king just said, Hey,

I've got enough mad men here. I don't want another

mad man. Get rid of him, get him out of here, right,

and he's not going to execute a mad man.

It wasn't fun. No, it stopped being fun when like

this guy's nuts, right, And.

But but you know, I mean, think about all David

had gone through. How humiliating are all of those things?

And then it said he went to the cave of Adullum.

And then and now he's in the wilderness. So there

was a place where he actually had had hidden in

the cave. God did this great work in the cave.

He actually wrote another psalm while he was in the cave.

We skipped over that, and then and then all of

a sudden, he's back in the wilderness and we're.

About to see that.

God does this miraculous thing saying that's gonna be on Monday.

In the Bible, guys, God does this miraculous thing.

You know, you don't want to miss Monday.

You don't want to miss Monday. So it's right around

the corner. But isn't that true that so many of

us we can't see what's around the corner, and so

we don't know if it's going to be Monday, or

we don't know if it's going to be next year,

because we're still in the wilderness. When you find yourself

in the wilderness. You know, it's tempting to think that

God's not there, that God doesn't see, that God gave up.

But God still sees you. God still loves you, God

still knows you. And believe me, God is still working

behind the scenes. And that's exactly what he's doing in

the life of David. And guess what, that's exactly what

he's doing in your life as well. He's not forgotten

you and he's with you always.

There's two big things that David did, and I think

he was really wise in doing them. One, he pulled

a bunch of support around him. He has these six

hundred Special Forces guys. These are the elite of the elite.

David's mighty men wind up coming out of this group.

But he has some great fighters and so he pulled

some resources around him to help him. That's one. The

other one is he has a great friend in Jonathan, Right,

so Jonathan is Saul's son. But Jonathan to see the

writing on the wall and was like, hey, God has

his hand on David. David's going to be king and

I'm going to support him. My dad is walking away

from God, which means I'm going to lose. I'm not

gonna be king. But David is walking with God and

support him. And they made a promise. They made a

pack then no matter what happened to either of them,

the other would take care of the other one's family, right,

And they kind of they made this promise. Eventually David

fulfills that, which is really incredible. But Jonathan, they encourage

each other in each other's faith, not just in hey,

it's going to be okay, and I'm on your side,

but they're building each other's faith. They pray for each other.

They encourage one another to be strong in your faith.

And this may have been the last time that Jonathan

was with David. He and you know, so there's this

kind of a sweetness to the friendship. And you know,

I think it's one of those those things that as Christians,

it's why it's so important for you to invest in

having a godly group of people around you. It's not

for the easy times. Quite honestly, a bunch of friends

when things are good sometimes can just get in the way. Man,

You're busy, you got to be out another night. You're investing, right,

you're cultivating this friendship. It's when things get bad, that

you need this army around you when things get bad

is when you need a friend like Jonathan who sticks

closer than a brother. Right, that you need these things.

You invest in relationships for the times when you need

a safety net around you, when you need some help.

And so you choose to be that person for others

when they're in their trouble, and then when you need one,

God's going to bring those people back to you. And

that's what he did. I think there's so much wisdom

in investing in those kind of godly relationships. Yeah, and

that's what carried him through. He's not alone in his struggles.

Yeah right, Yeah.

And you know we read I think it was yesterday

and yesterday or the day first podcast where we talked

about uh it said Jonathan loved David as much as

he loved himself. What a description and and and uh

and I know that I have to say this because

I know there are hundreds of listeners, uh listening to

this and they've probably heard uh. You know, people try

to take this example and make the relationship something perverted,

like like something that it wasn't right. And yet and

yet these are the same words that Jesus used for

all of us to say, the greatest commandment is to

love the Lord your God with all your hearts, on mind, strength.

And then the second greatest commandment is to love your

neighbor as you love yourself.

That's what he's doing.

He's he's loving Jonathan, or Jonathan loves David like like, uh,

my best buddy Jeff.

Who lives in Ohio.

When we get off the phone, we say, a man,

love you, right, and so we're expressing this friendship that's

closer than a brother and uh and then and and

that's that's the friend that David has in Jonathan. And

then when he says I'm going to be beside you,

that doesn't mean in the relationship capacity. It means in

the traditional capacity when when he says, hey, you're the king,

and I'll be beside you.

I'll be your prime minister of your chamberlain.

Because every time in the scripture when we talk about

thrones and kingship and positions, it talks about the person

who sits on the right hand side of the king

is the second most powerful person in the world. Right,

which is why Jesus sits on the right hand side

of God the Father, which is, which is the reason

why James and John came to Jesus and said, let

me sit one on your right and one on your left.

You know the best positions in the Bible. Where you

sat was you know, it mattered, and so think about

the if you think about it in that respect, think

about how awesome that phrase was. You know, for Saul

to be hunting David, very jealous, saying my regime doesn't

support your regime. And then for the son of that king,

who by the way, was first in line, he was

the king, he says, no, no, my regime will support

your regime. I believe that you are anointed by God

to be the next king of Israel.

I don't agree with my father. I agree with you.

You're my friend.

I love you closer more than I do a brother,

and I will support you, and I will be at

your side, supporting you. And this is what's going to happen.

Don't be afraid. Saul's never going to find you. My

Dad's never going to find you. God's with you. And

I'm telling you there couldn't be a better support system

for David than Jonathan.

You know, the Bible, says Solomon says in proverbs, a

man that has friends must first be friendly, right, I

don't know that David, in his whirlwind fame, he went

from being a kid playing a harp out in the

backside of some little valley somewhere and fighting fighting lions

to protect his dad's sheep to the superstar in Israel

just that fast, and he's playing in front of the king.

He becomes the commander of one of the main armies.

He's out fighting battles for Philistine's I don't know that

he had the margin in his life to pursue a

really strong friendship. It's very clear in this entire thing

that Jonathan is the one that is saying Jonathan initiates

the friendship. Jonathan's one that keeps coming to David. David

doesn't go to Jonathan. Jonathan keeps coming to David when

David's out hiding somewhere. Jonathan keeps coming and finding him,

showing up when David needed the most, Right, Yeah, well

that's what's recorded. Yeah, so there's something about that that,

you know, friendship isn't just about what you can get.

Sometimes people talk about how lonely they feel and that

if they just had some friends, But what I see

is Jonathan is pursuing David's friendship. Jonathan's saying, I'm going

to be there when you need me. I'm going to

show up when you need me. I'm the one that's

going to make the promise to your family. I'm the

one that's going to abdicate my my privileged positions so

that you can be elevated. I'm gonna put you first,

and I'm willing to be second, right, Jonathan is. That

is the embodiment of Solomon's writing who Solomon is David's son, right,

saying a man that has friends must first be friendly.

He's choosing to make David his friend. That's what he's doing.

And you can't force friendships. Obviously, God bound their hearts together,

the Bible says, right, So that's there. But David was not.

David didn't have the ability to come back into town

and say, hey, dude, you want to go out to dinner,

you want to go catch a movie, you want to

play some ball? Right, Instead, Jonathan comes out and finds

David in the cave. Jonathan comes out and finds David

Hyde in a valley that right, he comes looking for him.

He's showing up when David needed him, and so instead

of wishing we had a friend, let's go be the friend.

And it's amazing you have a lot of friends when

you choose to be the friend, when you choose to

do what friends do rather than just waiting for a

friend to come to you. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

So you know, there's a couple of sermons in here,

and I think the important thing is is that I

think the overall to me the messages, David has absolutely

no idea what's going to happen next, and so we

sort of already sort of covered the fact that you

don't know what's around the corner for us. It's Monday

on the Bible, guys, we don't know how many days, right,

But and then and then we've also said we've talked

about his support system with Jonathan. I think another thing

that's really important is is.

That God still gave.

David the promise that one day he would be king,

and he's not king yet, right, and so that that's

not in this chapter, but it's it's something that is

over David's life. David, as I think, in my opinion,

there's evidence that shows his great faith and I have

to believe that his great faith is anchored into the

fact that he believes God has great things in store

for him when he is king. So that you know,

we don't have promises like that for us. Chances our

God didn't show up and send a prophet, so wh.

Annoyed you King with oil? But maybe not for you,

maybe not well next to you.

But God has given us promises. Right God, we can

trust all of God's promises for our lives. And when

we when we go through a wilderness moment and we

have it, you know, we have a tendency to you know,

forget that God is going to be faithful. Just remember

God is.

Always going to be with you and He's going to.

Fulfill every promise. Hey, if God says be faithful and

it doesn't look like that's going to turn out, well,

just be faithful anyway because you don't know what's going

to happen on Monday. Right, God is going to be

with you. Trust God's promises and in this case we're

going to see that it works out great for David,

And yes, it serves as an example for us today.

David would have never known that his experience in the

wilderness would be talked about and we are so inspired,

and we look to it. Thousands of years later, his

misery served as an example for us to continue with

our pa.

God's allowing him to wait. God's building his character here.

God's allowing him to wait. And I think a lot

of times waiting for people who know that they have

an opportunity ahead of them, for gifted people, for people

who are just they see this thing and they want

to get started, and they want to get to it.

It can be very, very difficult to wait. But it's interesting.

David's in his twenties now, maybe bumping up on thirty.

He's going to be king for what forty five years

or some crazy thing, right, He's going to be king

for a long time. I just was talking to a

young guy and I said, do you understand this opportunity

you're waiting for? Just wait? Just wait. If God gives

you a twenty five year ministry, that's already longer than

your whole life, your whole life, you can wait another

month or another year. If God is gonna say, hey,

there's some other character I want to build into you.

There's other experiences I want to Hey there. I just

was in a meeting of the day and somebody. It

was a very very very very delicate meeting could have

blown up six different ways. When we got done, everybody's

hugging each other, shaking hands. The email afterwards was so positive.

Everything worked out great. So one of the young leaders

come to me and goes, Dude, that was like a masterclass.

I would have ruined that, And I said, I've seen

it before, right, Sometimes just experience will help guide you

through a dangerous mindfield. You can't get experience except with time.

You have to wait to get the experience right. You

have to lean into those things. And so sometimes God saying, hey,

there's a little bit more experience I want you to

have before I release you into this thing. There's a

little bit more information you need before I release you

into this thing. There's a little bit just wait, just

do what's next to go and take that next step,

Go down that next valley, hide in that next cave,

go lead your people, recruit your team, develop these relationships,

learn how to lead well, all those things, and then

God's gonna And then David had a much longer rain

than this little window of time. He's running from Saul, right,

and it's okay, right to wait and not force God's hand,

or try to force God's hand. I think if David

had forced it prior to this, I think things would

have been a mess. Instead, he steps into a very

long time and.

That's a good segue for the cliffhanger for on Monday.

That's exactly where I was going. So yeah, that's great. O.

Hey, we'll pick up then and you'll have to tune

in to find out what happens next because that is

exactly the topic of Monday's podcast.

Thankstunities, thanks for tuning in on the Bible. Guys,