WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.400 Okay, so we read the beginning of 1 Samuel, chapter 18. Now, the story goes on. David 00:00:06.400 --> 00:00:14.240 Marys, Michael, who is Saul's daughter, but the jealousy gets deeper between Saul and 00:00:14.240 --> 00:00:19.679 David. And then most of chapter 19 is about various efforts of Saul to try and kill David. 00:00:19.679 --> 00:00:27.280 And then chapter 20 is more about David and Jonathan again and the final pact that they 00:00:27.280 --> 00:00:33.520 make to find out exactly what's on Saul's mind. And I'm going to read a bit of that. 00:00:34.240 --> 00:00:42.640 I'm going to read verses 5 to 17, but I'm going to do slightly differently. I'm going to read it 00:00:42.640 --> 00:00:48.640 in the message, okay, which is a paraphrased version of the Bible. And sometimes for some of 00:00:48.640 --> 00:00:55.600 these big long stories that we get, it's a good way to read them and maybe have a ESV or an NIV 00:00:55.600 --> 00:00:59.200 alongside that. But I'm just going to read it. I think it's coming up on the screen from the 00:00:59.200 --> 00:01:07.760 message as well, is it? Yep. Okay. And it's, this is the interaction between David and Jonathan 00:01:07.760 --> 00:01:14.319 to find out if Saul really is going to try and kill him. Okay. So David said, tomorrow, Marx is 00:01:14.319 --> 00:01:19.760 the new moon. I'm scheduled to eat dinner with the king. Instead, I'll go and hide in the field 00:01:19.760 --> 00:01:25.040 until the evening of the third. If your father misses me, that's Saul. Say, David asked if he 00:01:25.040 --> 00:01:30.000 could run down to Bethlehem, his hometown for an anniversary reunion and worship with his family. 00:01:30.640 --> 00:01:36.800 If he says good, then I'm safe. But if he gets angry, you'll know for sure that he's made up his mind 00:01:36.800 --> 00:01:42.960 to kill me. Well, stick with me in this. You've entered into a covenant of God with me. Remember, 00:01:42.960 --> 00:01:49.040 if I'm in the wrong, go ahead and kill me yourself. Why bother giving me up to your father? 00:01:49.040 --> 00:01:55.760 Never exclaim Jonathan. I'll never do that. If I get the slightest hint that my father is fixated 00:01:55.760 --> 00:02:04.880 on killing you, I'll tell you. David asked, and whom will you get to tell me if your father comes 00:02:04.880 --> 00:02:10.879 back with a harsh answer? Come outside, said Jonathan. Let's go into the field. And when the two of 00:02:10.879 --> 00:02:15.840 them were out in the field, Jonathan said, as God the God of Israel is my witness, by this time tomorrow 00:02:15.840 --> 00:02:22.240 I'll get it out of my father, how he feels about you. Then I'll let you know what I learn. May God 00:02:22.240 --> 00:02:28.879 do the worst to me if I let you down. If my father still intends to kill you, I'll tell you and get 00:02:28.879 --> 00:02:35.680 you out of here in one piece. And God will, and God be with you as He has been with my father. 00:02:36.480 --> 00:02:41.439 If I make it through this alive, continue to be my covenant friend. And if I die, 00:02:41.439 --> 00:02:47.680 I keep the covenant friendship with my family forever. And when God finally rids the earth of 00:02:47.680 --> 00:02:54.000 David's enemies, stay loyal to Jonathan. Jonathan repeated his pledge of love and friendship for 00:02:54.000 --> 00:03:03.520 David, for he loved David more than his own soul. Okay, we're going to look more especially at chapter 00:03:03.520 --> 00:03:06.719 eight. It'd be good if you've got Bibles. You can follow through. There's one or two references 00:03:06.719 --> 00:03:12.319 we're going to be making and follow this story. And it's, I think, a really important one. If you 00:03:12.319 --> 00:03:17.360 do have time tonight or maybe tomorrow at some point, do read the whole section, 18 to 20. 00:03:18.719 --> 00:03:23.759 It's great stuff, it's very dramatic stuff as it's happening. And think about reading it maybe in 00:03:23.759 --> 00:03:30.159 NLTE or the message. Just it flows sometimes a little bit easier for some of these bigger stories. 00:03:30.159 --> 00:03:37.919 And we know that the life of David teaches us about the redemptive work of God. We know it 00:03:37.919 --> 00:03:42.960 teaches us about our individual lives. And we know it also teaches us about what God is doing 00:03:42.960 --> 00:03:46.639 in redemptive history, what He's doing right through the Bible. We know they're not just 00:03:46.639 --> 00:03:53.519 plonked in certain parts of the Bible as random stories. God has specifically chosen what He's 00:03:53.519 --> 00:03:59.039 chosen to record because it's significant. And it's important for us to learn a little bit more 00:03:59.039 --> 00:04:04.479 about God and His workings in our lives and what He wants from us as believers as well 00:04:04.479 --> 00:04:10.159 if we are Christians. And what He challenges us to if we're not Christians to consider in our lives. 00:04:10.719 --> 00:04:16.319 And I hope that you hear God's word for yourself in your own lives today. I don't know your situations, 00:04:17.199 --> 00:04:23.120 but I believe and pray that God speaks through His word to each of us in our needs. 00:04:23.120 --> 00:04:29.280 And really the theme this evening is friendship in many ways. It's about friendship in the face of 00:04:29.280 --> 00:04:33.280 God. That's the first thing I'm going to talk about. And then I'm going to talk about how the 00:04:33.280 --> 00:04:41.199 gospel story itself parallels very much with this story here of David and Jonathan. But I'm 00:04:41.199 --> 00:04:45.280 going to initially speak about friendship in the face of God because that's what we've got in these 00:04:45.280 --> 00:04:52.720 early verses of 1 Samuel chapter 18. It's about this tremendous brotherly love that there was 00:04:52.720 --> 00:05:01.440 an incredibly strong love between Jonathan, Saul's son, and David who Corey spoke about last week in 00:05:01.440 --> 00:05:07.600 the great story of David and Goliath. And you know, lots has been written about the nature of this 00:05:07.600 --> 00:05:13.440 friendship and what exactly this friendship was. But I think if we're to really understand it 00:05:14.320 --> 00:05:19.760 properly, we've got to understand the situation that they were in the nation the earliest and the 00:05:19.759 --> 00:05:25.439 situation historically and in the place in the Bible. And then I think it becomes clearer to us 00:05:25.439 --> 00:05:31.120 how, why and how it's so relevant as a story of friendship and more than that. 00:05:32.959 --> 00:05:39.039 So we see this, I've called it a friendship in the face of God, okay? And I hope that I'll become 00:05:39.039 --> 00:05:46.000 clear when we go through this story. There's one or two things that help us unpack and open up this 00:05:46.000 --> 00:05:51.920 whole idea of friendship in the face of God. Because what's clear between these two guys, 00:05:51.920 --> 00:05:58.560 David and Jonathan, both of them had God in their hearts, okay? God held their hearts. He was their 00:05:58.560 --> 00:06:06.639 King. He was their Lord. They trusted in Him. And God was their Redeemer and Savior. I mean, David, 00:06:06.639 --> 00:06:11.439 we've seen already that David has been anointed. We've looked at that story. And we know that he 00:06:11.439 --> 00:06:19.839 was anointed because God could see into his heart. 1 Samuel 13 and verse 14, Samuel says to Saul, 00:06:19.839 --> 00:06:23.839 you have done full, so you've not kept the command of the Lord your God with which he commanded you. 00:06:25.120 --> 00:06:30.159 But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart. 00:06:31.199 --> 00:06:36.879 And that was David. David was someone who trusted in the Lord and whose heart had been changed by 00:06:36.879 --> 00:06:43.279 the Lord, and for whom the Lord was his Redeemer and his Rescuer. And the Spirit of the Lord was on 00:06:43.279 --> 00:06:51.519 him. He knew God's will. He obeyed God's will. He followed God's purposes. He submitted to the 00:06:51.519 --> 00:07:02.480 kingdom of God before anything else. And although Saul had rejected God's way, David was the one 00:07:02.480 --> 00:07:08.400 who would follow that through. And we know God had rejected Saul and Saul's leadership. 00:07:09.120 --> 00:07:14.720 And David was next in line. He served God's first, served God's first. And even already, 00:07:14.720 --> 00:07:22.319 that had some major challenges as we've seen last week with Goliath. He was an outsider in the palace. 00:07:22.879 --> 00:07:28.160 He wasn't royal blood. He was the youngest. He wasn't trained. But in all of these hurdles, 00:07:28.160 --> 00:07:35.600 he overcame them because his heart was fully focused on trusting and in following his God 00:07:35.600 --> 00:07:43.680 and his Lord. So his heart was held by the Lord, and he loved the Lord. Jonathan also loved the 00:07:43.680 --> 00:07:50.320 Lord. That was the basis of their friendship. Because in the first four verses of chapter 18, 00:07:50.960 --> 00:07:56.560 we see Jonathan here making an alliance with David. Now, it's a friendship for sure. 00:07:56.560 --> 00:08:02.000 They are brothers who love one another for sure. He loved David more than his own soul for sure. 00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:06.639 We'll talk about that in a minute. But there was more than that. It was a formal commitment 00:08:07.680 --> 00:08:12.480 that was happening between the two of them. Jonathan was making a covenant, we're told. 00:08:12.480 --> 00:08:17.439 Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as his own soul. And it was a covenant 00:08:17.439 --> 00:08:24.399 that was made before the Lord. Chapter 20 verse 8 tells us that this was a covenant before the Lord. 00:08:24.399 --> 00:08:30.319 It was something significant. And what he was doing here was massive. He was entering into this 00:08:30.319 --> 00:08:37.919 formal kind of relationship with David. And by doing so, he was renouncing his right as the crown 00:08:37.919 --> 00:08:46.799 prince because he was next in line after Saul. But you see, there's this great symbolism of going 00:08:46.799 --> 00:08:50.559 on. You may be wondering what he's doing. He's stripping off his clothes in front of David. 00:08:50.559 --> 00:08:55.679 Well, he is. He stripped himself of the robe and the armor and the sword and the bow and the belt. 00:08:56.399 --> 00:09:01.039 And what he was doing was, this was a great symbolic act where he was handing over, 00:09:01.759 --> 00:09:07.759 as it were, the right of succession. The royal clothing was being handed to David. 00:09:08.559 --> 00:09:14.000 And by doing so, he's absolutely turning convention on its head. And he was, in many ways, 00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:18.719 he was signing his own death warrant. Well, normally that would have been the case. It was a 00:09:18.720 --> 00:09:24.879 crazy thing to do. But his, he was doing it before the Lord because he was aware of a different 00:09:24.879 --> 00:09:30.320 kingdom. He was aware that David was God's choice. And he was willing to submit to that, 00:09:31.360 --> 00:09:35.360 not only because he loved David, but because more importantly, he loved the Lord. And this was a 00:09:35.360 --> 00:09:44.639 great act of obedience on his part. Both of them, in many ways, were signing their expected lives 00:09:44.639 --> 00:09:50.960 away, lives away. David wasn't going to be the shepherd boy. He was going to be thrown into this 00:09:50.960 --> 00:09:56.480 incredible role. And Jonathan wasn't going to be the next king. He was giving up that right because 00:09:56.480 --> 00:10:03.679 both of them, God held their hearts. They loved God and they obeyed God first. So God held their 00:10:03.679 --> 00:10:09.120 hearts. And that was a very important part of their friendship. But they also shared God's love 00:10:09.120 --> 00:10:15.600 in their friendship together. You know, we're told that twice in this little section. We're told 00:10:15.600 --> 00:10:21.840 that Jonathan made a covenant because he loved him, loved David as his own soul. And earlier on in 00:10:21.840 --> 00:10:28.639 verse 1, we're told that David and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. A very strong language, 00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:37.519 warrior men, strong language, loved each other. Sacrificial love because they both had 00:10:37.519 --> 00:10:44.000 a new understanding, both of themselves, in the light of God's love for them and of one another. 00:10:44.960 --> 00:10:50.480 You see, Jonathan could love David as his own soul because he knew God loved him. 00:10:51.919 --> 00:10:59.199 And when he knew God loved him, he could love himself. And as God loved, as he knew God loved 00:10:59.199 --> 00:11:06.319 him and he could love himself, then he knew that he could share that love with David. These were 00:11:06.320 --> 00:11:13.760 tough warriors. And yet, they were able to love one another because they'd experienced God's love 00:11:13.760 --> 00:11:19.280 for them. How do we know that? Well, it's really interesting, but I've actually read it in chapter 00:11:19.280 --> 00:11:27.680 20. If you flick forward, if you've got a Bible, if you've got it on your phones, chapter 20, 00:11:28.320 --> 00:11:33.600 and verse 8, I'm actually sorry, I'm going to change Bibles. Sorry, I've got lots of different 00:11:33.600 --> 00:11:40.480 Bibles tonight. Okay, but I've prepared and worked on the sermon from my own study Bible, and 00:11:41.200 --> 00:11:46.399 it's easier to, I find it easier to find things in my study Bible than I do in the pulpit Bible. 00:11:46.399 --> 00:11:54.720 Sorry. So, chapter 20 and verse 8, where David and Jonathan are talking about what Saul is going 00:11:54.720 --> 00:12:00.240 to do or what Saul might be going to do and what might happen if they find out that Saul 00:12:00.240 --> 00:12:09.279 hates them. 20, verse 8, David says, as for you, show kindness to your servant, for you have brought 00:12:09.279 --> 00:12:15.919 him into a covenant with you before the Lord. That's David speaking. And then in verse 14, 00:12:16.480 --> 00:12:26.879 Jonathan says, but show me unfailing kindness like that of the Lord as long as I live 00:12:26.879 --> 00:12:34.639 so that I may not be killed. Both of them want each other to show them loving kindness because 00:12:34.639 --> 00:12:41.360 of what the Lord has done for them. And see what's happening there. This word that both of them use, 00:12:41.360 --> 00:12:46.080 kindness or loving kindness or treat me kindly, is that great Old Testament word, 00:12:46.080 --> 00:12:54.480 Hesed, is, I think the A.V. authorized version uses the translation loving kindness. And I think 00:12:54.480 --> 00:13:00.960 that's probably my favorite or steadfast love. And it's this great redemptive word. It's the word 00:13:00.960 --> 00:13:06.639 that's used right throughout the Old Testament of the way God's saving love, the way He saved them 00:13:06.639 --> 00:13:13.680 as a people, redeemed them, bought them back. They knew this kindness, this loving kindness, this 00:13:13.680 --> 00:13:19.920 Hesed of the living God. They knew God as their Savior. They knew His mercy. They knew His forgiveness. 00:13:19.919 --> 00:13:27.439 They knew His friendship, this covenant keeping God. And that was the basis of their ability to love 00:13:27.439 --> 00:13:35.360 one another like they love themselves. Because they understood, you see, that His love was sacrificial 00:13:35.360 --> 00:13:44.480 for them, was forgiving. And they could show that same love to one another. And that changed 00:13:44.480 --> 00:13:49.599 everything. It changed the whole course of their lives. It changed the way that they responded to 00:13:49.600 --> 00:13:55.600 their circumstances and the guidance that they sought. And that was how they could love each other 00:13:56.560 --> 00:14:04.720 with this incredibly loyal friendship. Because they themselves had experienced their warrior king. 00:14:05.920 --> 00:14:12.480 And His love, His covenant love, His great love for them, His mercy and His forgiveness. 00:14:12.480 --> 00:14:21.519 And they knew as it were, and this isn't really maybe related to this exactly, but they had tasted 00:14:21.519 --> 00:14:29.600 His meekness, the great loving meekness and sensitivity and care of God in their lives. 00:14:29.600 --> 00:14:34.560 And that word meekness is a great word, isn't it? And I think it's relevant here because 00:14:34.559 --> 00:14:42.959 when we think about that word, and when we think of it as the genesis of that word in the Bible, 00:14:42.959 --> 00:14:48.959 it's really the meekness is not weakness, which sometimes we think meekness is. It's the controlled 00:14:48.959 --> 00:14:56.719 strength of a war horse. You know, a horse that is no longer wild, but is under the control of its 00:14:56.719 --> 00:15:02.799 rider. And immense strength. And you can think of these guys, you can imagine that with these guys. 00:15:02.799 --> 00:15:07.919 These were warriors. They were warrior kings, they were warrior men. And they had this great 00:15:07.919 --> 00:15:15.599 controlled meekness, this great strength. But it was governed by God's love and by God's sensitivity 00:15:15.599 --> 00:15:21.759 and God's grace and God's forgiveness. And that enabled them and enabled Jonathan to love David 00:15:21.759 --> 00:15:28.479 like his own soul and vice versa. And it's why they basically wanted one another. Whatever was 00:15:28.480 --> 00:15:32.879 happening with Saul, whatever happened if Saul threatened to kill David and if David had to run 00:15:32.879 --> 00:15:37.200 away, they would show each other and their families down the line loving kindness, 00:15:38.480 --> 00:15:48.720 because that's what they had received. So it was a friendship that was motivated by God's love, 00:15:48.720 --> 00:15:54.560 but also it was a friendship that was fiercely protective. We saw that, didn't we, in the two 00:15:54.559 --> 00:16:06.559 two, please that they make for one another. We recognize that Saul by chapter 20 here was determined 00:16:06.559 --> 00:16:14.479 to kill David. We've seen that in chapter 19. If you read it in chapter 20, verse 3, David says, 00:16:14.479 --> 00:16:23.039 you know, I know that I'm not going to be far from death if I stay here, even though I don't 00:16:23.039 --> 00:16:33.360 know what I've done wrong before King Saul. And both of them made this pact to protect one another. 00:16:33.360 --> 00:16:39.759 You know, that story of Jonathan goes in and finds out that everything's a disaster, 00:16:39.759 --> 00:16:45.120 Saul's raging. And so he goes back in the field and he's got a boy with him who's going to he's 00:16:45.120 --> 00:16:51.519 going to ping the arrow and it goes so far. And if the boy runs out and if he says, no, go beyond 00:16:51.519 --> 00:16:56.079 there, then David who's in the field at this time hiding, he knows that Saul's going to kill him. 00:16:56.720 --> 00:17:04.960 And so they have this kind of pact and this way of explaining to one another the situation. 00:17:06.000 --> 00:17:12.720 And Saul in this chapter reveals his heart, of course, to Jonathan when he finds out that David 00:17:12.720 --> 00:17:19.279 isn't going to turn up for the meal. And in chapter 20 and verse 30, Saul's anger flared up at Jonathan. 00:17:19.279 --> 00:17:27.119 He said, you son, you son of a perverse and rebellious woman. Don't I know that you have 00:17:27.119 --> 00:17:32.000 sided with the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of your mother who bore you, 00:17:32.879 --> 00:17:37.759 to the shame of the nakedness of your mother is the literal translation. As she bore you, 00:17:38.799 --> 00:17:45.200 you have shamed the family by siding with David, even though that was God's anointed. 00:17:45.200 --> 00:17:53.039 And so we recognize that Saul is determined to kill David. And yet David and Jonathan have this 00:17:53.039 --> 00:18:00.880 incredibly fiercely protective love for one another. Both, and it's unique, isn't it? Because both of 00:18:00.880 --> 00:18:07.440 them are dependent on each other showing mercy. David says to Jonathan, you'll please show me 00:18:07.440 --> 00:18:14.160 mercy and if I've done wrong, you kill me yourself. And Jonathan says, look, if everything goes pear 00:18:14.160 --> 00:18:23.040 shaped and I die, please look after my family for my sake and protect them. And of course we know that 00:18:23.759 --> 00:18:27.040 happens. Later on, we'll probably look at the story of Mephibosheth. 00:18:30.080 --> 00:18:39.840 And so it's an incredible story of friendship and of loving merciful kindness to one another. 00:18:39.839 --> 00:18:44.319 And isn't it interesting in this story, there's the very opposite, isn't there? 00:18:44.319 --> 00:18:54.399 Saul's relationship with David is so different in verses 8 and 9 of chapter 18. We just see that, 00:18:54.399 --> 00:19:00.399 don't we? That he's jealous when the women are singing about David killing his tens of thousands. 00:19:00.399 --> 00:19:05.279 And we're told, you know, that he was very angry. And from that on, that time on, Saul kept an eye 00:19:05.279 --> 00:19:15.440 or a jealous eye on David. We know that he'd rejected God's covenant lordship. He wanted God, 00:19:15.440 --> 00:19:22.639 he's such a sad character, Saul. He wanted God's love, but on his own terms. And his heart was 00:19:22.639 --> 00:19:30.079 really closed to the truth. You know, he didn't value God. You look back at some of the accounts of 00:19:30.079 --> 00:19:36.319 Saul, he just didn't value God as God. At best, he kind of, he tried to get what he could from 00:19:36.319 --> 00:19:41.679 God, the best from God. But he didn't treat sin seriously. And he didn't treat his own heart 00:19:41.679 --> 00:19:46.399 condition seriously. He talked a good religion. Go back and read. It's a really sad chapter, 00:19:46.399 --> 00:19:53.519 chapter 15. Read that chapter again and see how just how misguided Saul was in his relationship 00:19:53.519 --> 00:20:00.639 with God. He loved himself first. He loved his position, his reputation. He loved the fact that 00:20:00.639 --> 00:20:06.799 he had a kingdom and that he came first in that kingdom. That's why he was so jealous and so raging 00:20:06.799 --> 00:20:15.279 about David and David being more popular than him. His rotten heart mastered him. And you see the 00:20:15.279 --> 00:20:22.319 difference between the three characters, David and Jonathan, whose hearts were won by the kindness 00:20:22.319 --> 00:20:29.759 and mercy of God. And Saul, who was such a confused and broken character, threatened by David's 00:20:29.759 --> 00:20:39.599 popularity, jealous, paranoid, violent, guilty, a betrayer, divided. He couldn't believe his own 00:20:39.599 --> 00:20:47.679 son's loyalties. And he couldn't even protect his own son. It really is a sad, so it's a really 00:20:47.680 --> 00:20:56.160 sad story of wasted talent, selfish pride, of heart, a heart that was closed to God's work of grace. 00:20:57.519 --> 00:21:02.240 And it reveals itself as he raged against David and his son, Jonathan. 00:21:04.640 --> 00:21:09.039 So that's the first part of the story. And I want to just finish off by looking at why there's a 00:21:09.039 --> 00:21:16.400 strong gospel parallel here in the story. Because we know in Matthew 26, verse 28, you know these 00:21:16.400 --> 00:21:22.080 words very well, where Jesus is inaugurating the Lord's Supper. He says, this is the blood of the 00:21:22.080 --> 00:21:26.880 covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sin. I tell you, I will not drink 00:21:26.880 --> 00:21:32.320 from this fruit of the vine from now until the day when I drink it new with you in my father's kingdom. 00:21:33.600 --> 00:21:39.440 And so we recognize that there's a New Testament covenant as well, isn't there? Of which this is 00:21:39.440 --> 00:21:46.880 an early exposure of. And that there is another kingdom that we belong to as well, 00:21:46.880 --> 00:21:52.400 just as David and Jonathan recognized a different king and a different kingdom. So we recognize 00:21:52.400 --> 00:22:00.400 that God makes a covenant. Jonathan made a covenant with David. So God through Christ has made a 00:22:00.400 --> 00:22:07.120 covenant with us. It's different. And this here is just a shadow of it. But it's nonetheless 00:22:07.119 --> 00:22:14.159 pointing towards it. Now it's different because the covenant God makes with us is a one sided covenant. 00:22:14.959 --> 00:22:20.959 David and Jonathan had both received God's mercy and God's forgiveness. They were both sinners, 00:22:20.959 --> 00:22:25.599 ordinary sinners saved by grace as it were. But that's different between the covenant with us 00:22:25.599 --> 00:22:33.439 and God. Because God promises, makes all the promises. God's the one who fulfills the covenant. 00:22:33.440 --> 00:22:37.759 God's the one who prays the price for the breaking of the covenant himself. 00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:46.720 So that we're able in his strength to become covenant keepers. It's not a covenant between 00:22:46.720 --> 00:22:51.039 equals. We don't come and say, Oh God, I'm going to bargain with you. I'm going to give you something. 00:22:51.039 --> 00:22:56.480 You're going to give me something. God gives us everything. We are guilty. We are lost. He is 00:22:56.480 --> 00:23:04.240 God. He is just. He is innocent. Yet he dies as the covenant breaker in our place for you and for me. 00:23:04.799 --> 00:23:11.279 And he's raised to life and that changes everything. And yet he promises to be faithful 00:23:11.279 --> 00:23:17.839 and just and protective to the very end for us. And it's the covenant he first made with Abraham 00:23:18.400 --> 00:23:25.200 fulfilled in Christ. He makes the promises. He reveals the plan. He becomes flesh. 00:23:25.200 --> 00:23:32.080 He too faces opposition. His family are also against him. He's also betrayed by his friends. 00:23:32.080 --> 00:23:41.279 He's forsaken also by his father. His blood is shed. Yet he defeats death. And he does it 00:23:43.200 --> 00:23:50.240 because of hesed, because of loving kindness, because of mercy for each and every one of us. 00:23:50.240 --> 00:24:00.240 And so redemption, the work of Jesus Christ for us is a recovered friendship. That's what it is. 00:24:00.960 --> 00:24:06.880 He is recovering a lost friendship. If you are a Christian today, through Jesus Christ, you have 00:24:06.880 --> 00:24:15.279 the pathway to a renewed and recovered friendship with the God that sins separates you from. And 00:24:15.279 --> 00:24:21.599 his sin is separated us from. And he asks us simply to trust in his covenant promises and in 00:24:21.599 --> 00:24:28.079 his covenant work and in his covenant shed blood on our behalf and enter into a friendship with him 00:24:28.879 --> 00:24:36.319 by faith. So there's a strong gospel parallel both between David and Jonathan and the covenants 00:24:36.319 --> 00:24:43.519 and how that points forward to the living God in Jesus Christ. And that reminds us that our 00:24:43.519 --> 00:24:50.639 friendship with God is our radical friendship. Just as this friendship between David and Jonathan 00:24:50.639 --> 00:24:56.799 was a radical life-changing friendship. So our friendship with God through Christ is a really 00:24:56.799 --> 00:25:04.240 radical friendship for us in our day-to-day living. Because when you come to Jesus Christ, when you 00:25:04.240 --> 00:25:08.960 call yourself a Christian, when I call myself a Christian and then coming into a relationship 00:25:08.960 --> 00:25:14.720 with Christ, what do we do? We're giving ourselves and our allegiance to a different kingdom. 00:25:15.840 --> 00:25:21.680 We're saying, God's kingdom, your kingdom come, we pray. We belong to another kingdom. We're 00:25:21.680 --> 00:25:30.319 citizens of another kingdom. We are friends with God. And that affects us in our very soul, in our 00:25:30.319 --> 00:25:38.960 ego, in our person, in our being, in our heart, our mind, and our will. And he reorders our loves, 00:25:38.960 --> 00:25:46.399 because we've entered into this new relationship with him, covenant relationship where we put God 00:25:46.399 --> 00:25:54.159 first. And each of us are asked to put God first. David did so, and God was with him in all the 00:25:54.160 --> 00:26:02.400 impossibilities he faced. And he even knew peace through that chapter 20 and verse 41, just at the 00:26:02.400 --> 00:26:12.560 end of that chapter when Jonathan and David separates. David got up from the south side of 00:26:12.560 --> 00:26:16.800 the stone, bowed down before John, and three times with his face to the ground, they kissed each other 00:26:16.800 --> 00:26:22.800 and they wept together. But David wept the most. Jonathan said to David, go in peace, for we have 00:26:22.799 --> 00:26:29.919 a sworn friendship with each other in the name of the Lord. And so there was, you know, even as they 00:26:29.919 --> 00:26:38.079 put God first, and they were probably separated for life, God was with them. And there was a peace 00:26:38.079 --> 00:26:44.960 because they were doing the impossible by obeying him, even though there was rejection, opposition, 00:26:44.960 --> 00:26:54.480 heartache, Saul sought David's life. He put God first. Tomorrow, well, tonight, what is it that 00:26:54.480 --> 00:27:04.960 you need to do to put God first? What's relegating him to a second or third or fourth place? God comes 00:27:04.960 --> 00:27:11.920 first in the kingdom of which we belong. How is God first in your workplace relationships? How is 00:27:11.920 --> 00:27:17.440 God first in your marriage? How is God first in your studies? How is God first in your choices, 00:27:17.440 --> 00:27:25.600 in your thought processes, in your imagination? God, He comes first as we obey Him. We're called to 00:27:25.600 --> 00:27:31.440 obey Him. And all the impossibilities that that means, okay, we haven't got Saul rampaging after 00:27:31.440 --> 00:27:36.000 us with a sword to cut our heads off. It's not as simple as that. It's not as black and white, 00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:42.640 isn't it? But we have spiritual enemies who want to take us down and who will take us down if we 00:27:43.279 --> 00:27:48.079 are casual like Saul was in our relationship with God. And I think it didn't really matter. 00:27:48.079 --> 00:27:56.000 We put God first. Our friendship with God is radical. And every believer, like David in this 00:27:56.000 --> 00:28:03.680 case, every believer now, like David, is anointed. So we're anointed. Second Corinthians 121 says, 00:28:03.680 --> 00:28:11.680 now, is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set His seal of ownership 00:28:11.680 --> 00:28:18.080 on us, put His spirit in our hearts as a deposit guaranteeing what is to come. We have a new life 00:28:18.080 --> 00:28:24.960 and a new love and a new power in our lives. And we're called to obey. And can I just encourage 00:28:24.960 --> 00:28:31.759 you to say we're called to obey even in our miserable failures? Because what is obedience? 00:28:31.759 --> 00:28:37.759 It's coming to Him for forgiveness. It's repenting. It's coming to Him in prayer. And that, you know, 00:28:37.759 --> 00:28:43.599 David was a man after his own heart, after God's own heart, but he was a failure as well, massive 00:28:43.599 --> 00:28:52.480 failure. But he took that failure to the living God and they sought repentance and sought in confession 00:28:52.480 --> 00:28:58.319 a new life of faith. Every believer is anointed like they were anointed with the Spirit. And we 00:28:58.319 --> 00:29:05.279 go back to it and back and back and back to the living God in that covenant relationship that 00:29:05.279 --> 00:29:10.639 he promises never to leave us or forsake us. Because there is such a danger, isn't there, 00:29:11.759 --> 00:29:17.119 of keeping our hearts closed. You've got a great danger because I know, because I have too, 00:29:17.119 --> 00:29:24.000 of keeping my heart closed to the living God like so, like Saul. Maybe when we make mistakes and we 00:29:24.000 --> 00:29:31.920 sin, we regret it, but we don't repent. We're sorry because we've been found out or we're annoyed 00:29:31.920 --> 00:29:37.200 because we haven't got our way or we regret the mistakes we make, but we're not repentant 00:29:38.240 --> 00:29:46.319 because Saul is a warning to us of that. He owned his own heart, but he couldn't change it. And it's 00:29:46.319 --> 00:29:52.240 such a danger for us to try and own our own hearts. But we forget we can't change it. 00:29:52.240 --> 00:29:57.839 For Saul, the cost was too high of giving God his heart. Cost was too great. 00:30:01.039 --> 00:30:08.079 But his loss is inestimable. And that's the same challenge for us. What are you holding on to 00:30:08.079 --> 00:30:13.440 potentially? Why is there something that you're keeping your heart closed to from God? He simply 00:30:13.440 --> 00:30:19.759 is asking for access to your heart. To all its blackness and darkness and mistakes and failure 00:30:19.759 --> 00:30:26.240 and doubt and struggles. And he says, let me in here. Give me your heart. That is the friendship. 00:30:26.799 --> 00:30:33.759 That's the radical nature of that friendship. The cost can never be too high to do that, 00:30:33.759 --> 00:30:40.480 because the loss is inestimable. You lose something absolutely inestimable if you will close your 00:30:40.480 --> 00:30:45.680 heart to the living God. And that's the friendship that is spoken of here. Our friendship with God 00:30:45.680 --> 00:30:52.240 is radical. And the very last place in terms of this, our gospel community is a covenant friendship 00:30:52.240 --> 00:31:00.720 community. Okay, the same covenant friendship that Jonathan and David shared is one that we 00:31:00.720 --> 00:31:08.000 aim to have in St. Columba's here. And you know that the level of our French spiritual friendship, 00:31:08.000 --> 00:31:15.039 or as I called it at the beginning, friendship in the face of God, reflects our understanding 00:31:15.039 --> 00:31:21.440 of what God has done for us. So our commitment to friendship with one another is a reflection of 00:31:21.440 --> 00:31:26.159 how much we understand that God has done for us and has brought us into friendship with Him. 00:31:26.159 --> 00:31:34.639 So we will have that same committed, sacrificial, patient, forgiving friendship with one another, 00:31:34.639 --> 00:31:40.960 just as David and Jonathan had. Remember what they said? They said, please show me loving kindness. 00:31:40.960 --> 00:31:47.680 Jonathan said, show me in my family loving kindness in the name of the Lord, because that is what they 00:31:47.680 --> 00:31:53.920 had received. So the friendships of St. Columba's that we strive after are God-shaped friendships, 00:31:55.200 --> 00:32:06.000 before the Lord friendships, committed, generous, loyal, fiercely protective, devoted kind. 00:32:06.000 --> 00:32:11.359 You know, we speak quite a lot now, and I think it's a great thing. We speak quite a lot 00:32:12.240 --> 00:32:18.480 in different places about church culture, the culture of our congregation. And it's such an 00:32:18.480 --> 00:32:28.799 important thing to have a good culture. That is a culture where Jesus Christ is glorified and 00:32:28.799 --> 00:32:34.720 honored in the kind of relationships we have. And we want to be a gospel community that has this 00:32:34.720 --> 00:32:40.480 kind of God-shaped friendship as our culture. And I say gospel community rather than church, 00:32:41.360 --> 00:32:45.680 because I think sometimes when we think of church, we think of the institution or the 00:32:45.680 --> 00:32:53.200 organization or just the Sunday service. But it's that gospel community where there's this God-shaped 00:32:53.200 --> 00:33:02.079 friendships. So that we look at one another, that we, Jesus, looks at us long-term committed, 00:33:02.079 --> 00:33:08.799 forgiving, open, merciful, loving kindness. And can I just finish by saying, be encouraged, 00:33:09.519 --> 00:33:18.159 be encouraged. You do a fantastic job at working towards these committed friendships here. Keep 00:33:18.159 --> 00:33:23.759 it central, keep working at it. I know it's difficult. We're a gathered congregation. It's 00:33:23.759 --> 00:33:29.679 struggle, it's hard. It's difficult to make these commitments and these friendships. But keep on 00:33:29.680 --> 00:33:37.920 developing that as we see God working in our heart and receive His covenant keeping. He said, 00:33:37.920 --> 00:33:43.920 His loving kindness. Keep showing that to one another and all the sacrifice that it requires 00:33:43.920 --> 00:33:51.200 as we are emptied in His service. Our Christian friendships are like no other because they are 00:33:51.200 --> 00:33:58.000 Christ-centered, God-filled friendships where Christ is Lord. He's the center of them. He's 00:33:58.000 --> 00:34:05.839 the motivation behind them and He is what gives them their flavor. And if you don't know Christ, 00:34:06.960 --> 00:34:11.519 He is the greatest friend that we can ever have. And He simply asks you to trust in His finished 00:34:11.519 --> 00:34:19.840 work and commit your life and your heart and your soul to Him. It is a great journey. Let's pray. 00:34:19.840 --> 00:34:24.719 Father God, help us to understand You more through Your Word and through Your promises. 00:34:24.719 --> 00:34:32.719 Thank You for this very old story from the Old Testament that is as sharply up to date and relevant 00:34:32.719 --> 00:34:40.319 as any newspaper article could be today because it's the living Word of the living God, a message 00:34:40.319 --> 00:34:46.959 from God to us that You've always been faithful. You've always had this pleasure to enter into 00:34:46.959 --> 00:34:52.159 covenant with us through Your saving work. You become the covenant breaker in our place, 00:34:52.159 --> 00:34:59.679 and yet You become the covenant maker in Your resurrection. Rejoice. Help us to rejoice in that 00:34:59.679 --> 00:35:04.879 truth and follow You with all our hearts. Forgive us when we don't show covenant 00:35:07.279 --> 00:35:14.559 Christ-centered before the Lord friendships, when we're grumpy and selfish and judgmental and 00:35:14.559 --> 00:35:23.599 distant and cold and our hearts are not open to the living God and His mercy. Help us. It's so 00:35:23.599 --> 00:35:28.639 simple, Lord, we know, and yet we make it so complicated. Forgive us. We pray and bless us 00:35:28.639 --> 00:35:45.119 as we sing in response to Your greatness and goodness. Amen.