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And he came across a mirror that some tourist had left at a camping site.

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And the hillbilly didn't know what in the world this thing was.

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He saw a reflecting there, and as he picked it up and looked in it, he was astonished.

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And he said, I didn't know Pappy had his picture made.

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And so he stuck the picture in his pocket and took it back home.

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His wife was a rather suspicious sort of person, and she saw him come in and watched him.

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And he went over, took the picture out and looked at it again, actually a mirror, and

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turned it upside down, slipped it and hit it.

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And she waited until he went back outside, and she walked over to where he had hit it

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and pulled it out and looked in it.

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And she said, just like I thought.

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So that's the old hag he's been running around with.

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Well you say, what in the world has that got to do with 1 Samuel?

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Absolutely nothing.

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Absolutely nothing.

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So now we can start the tape recorder, Mark, and go to 1 Samuel chapter 18.

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We're going to talk tonight about friendship that sticks.

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First Samuel chapter 18.

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We're going to talk about the friendship that developed between David and Jonathan.

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

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to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as himself.

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

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

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And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David with

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his armor, including his sword and his bow and his belt.

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Turn over page to chapter 19, verse 1.

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Now Saul told Jonathan, his son, and all his servants to put David to death.

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But Jonathan, Saul's son, greatly delighted in David.

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So Jonathan told David, saying, Saul, my father is seeking to put you to death.

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Now therefore, please be on guard in the morning and stay in a secret place and hide yourself.

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

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with my father about you.

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If I find out anything, then I shall tell you.

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Then Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul, his father, and said to him, Do not let the

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king sin against his servant David.

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Since he has not sinned against you, and since his deeds have been very beneficial to you.

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For he took his life in his hand and struck the Philistine, and the Lord brought about

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a great deliverance for all Israel.

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You saw it and rejoiced.

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Why then will you sin against innocent blood by putting David to death without a cause?

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And Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan, and Saul vowed, As the Lord lives, he shall

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not be put to death.

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Then Jonathan called David, and Jonathan told him all these words.

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And Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence as formerly.

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Chapter 20, verse 1.

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Then David fled from Naoth in Ramah, and came and said to Jonathan, What have I done?

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What is my iniquity, and what is my sin before your Father that he is seeking my life?

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He said to him, Far from it, you shall not die.

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Behold, my Father does nothing either great or small without disclosing it to me.

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So why should my Father hide this thing from me?

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It is not so.

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Yet David vowed again, saying, Your Father knows well that I have found favor in your

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sight.

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And he has said, Do not let Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved.

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But truly, as the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, there is hardly a step between

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me and death.

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Jonathan said to David, Whatever you say, I will do for you.

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Down to verse 17.

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And Jonathan made David vow again because of his love for him, because he loved him

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as he loved his own life.

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Verse 35.

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Now it came about in the morning that Jonathan went out into the field for the appointment

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with David, and a little lad was with him.

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And he said to his lad, Run, find now the arrows which I am about to shoot.

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And as the lad was running, he shot an arrow past him.

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And when the lad reached the place of the arrow which Jonathan had shot, Jonathan called

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after the lad and said, Is not the arrow beyond you?

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And Jonathan called after the lad, Hurry, be quick, do not stay.

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And Jonathan's lad picked up the arrow and came to his master, but the lad was not aware

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of anything.

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Only Jonathan and David knew about the matter.

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Then Jonathan gave his weapons to his lad and said to him, Go, bring them to the city.

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And when the lad was gone, David rose from the south side and fell on his face to the

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ground and bowed three times.

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And they kissed each other and wept together, but David more.

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And Jonathan said to David, Go in safety, inasmuch as we have sworn to each other in

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the name of the Lord, saying, The Lord will be between me and you and between my descendants

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and your descendants forever.

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Then he rose and departed while Jonathan went into the city.

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Chapter 23, verse 13.

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Then David and his men, about six hundred, arose and departed from Keilah.

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And they went wherever they could go.

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When it was told Saul that David had escaped from Keilah, he gave up the pursuit.

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And David stayed in the wilderness in the strongholds and remained in the hill country

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in the wilderness of Ziph.

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And Saul sought him every day, but God did not deliver him into his hand.

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Now David became aware that Saul had come out to seek his life while David was in the

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wilderness of Ziph at Horish.

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And Jonathan, Saul's son, arose and went to David at Horish and encouraged him in God.

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Thus he said to him, Do not be afraid, because the hand of my father, of Saul my father,

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shall not find you, and you will be king over Israel, and I will be next to you.

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And Saul my father knows that also.

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So the two of them made a covenant before the Lord, and David stayed in Horish while

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Jonathan went to his house.

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And that was the last meeting of the two men.

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We have read every time that the Word of God records that they met together.

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But there is one more passage that is significant as we talk about their friendship and is found

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in 2 Samuel chapter 1.

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Then David chanted with this lament over Saul and Jonathan his son.

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And he told them to teach the sons of Judah the song of the bow.

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And then David begins to give a poem, an expression, a lamentation of great sorrow because of the

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death of Saul and Jonathan.

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We'll skip down for times sake to verse 23.

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Saul and Jonathan, beloved and pleasant in their life, and in their death they were not

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parted.

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They were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions.

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O daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you luxuriously in scarlet, who put

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ornaments of gold on your apparel.

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How have the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle?

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Jonathan is slain on your high places.

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I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan.

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You have been very pleasant to me.

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

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

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We see in this part of Samuel a contrast in two of David's relationships.

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There is the relationship on the one hand with the king, Saul.

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And I suppose the word that would summarize that relationship is the word deterioration.

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For very shortly after the battle in which David killed Goliath, the relationship with

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King Saul began to fall apart.

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And the reason for that was very simple.

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Saul became jealous of David's popularity.

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For the women of Israel began to sing songs about their heroes in war.

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And they talked about Saul killing his thousands and David his tens of thousands.

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The implication being that David was ten times better than Saul.

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And Saul just could not stand that.

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It would seem also that he saw David as a rival to the throne, although he was not aware,

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as far as we know, of David's secret anointing by Samuel to be the next king.

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As much as we know, Saul was not aware of that incident that had occurred sometime before

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this.

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Nonetheless, Saul put two and two together and he was able to see that David was a definite

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threat to his reign.

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He knew that his reign had been condemned and judged by God and that someone was going

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to have to take his spot.

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And it might well be this young David.

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On the other hand, there is the relationship between David and Saul's son, the prince,

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the one who would be the next king after Saul, naturally speaking, the boy Jonathan.

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The one word that would summarize their relationship is the word development.

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It was a friendship that was immediate and which then grew.

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It is a blessed friendship.

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It is the intertwining of two similar spirits, two kindred hearts.

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And their friendship was pure, wholesome, and edifying.

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There are some in this day who, with their perverted minds, try to make something more

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out of David and Jonathan's relationship than it was.

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Their relationship was one that was absolutely aboveboard and pure in the most profound sense

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of that word.

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David speaking about his love for Jonathan, Jonathan speaking about his love for David,

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was a pure and wholesome love.

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Friendships are to be treasured.

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As was the friendship treasured by these two men of the other.

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There are a couple of verses in Proverbs that deal with friends.

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Perhaps you'd like to turn with me to Proverbs 17.

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And notice what the writer says regarding friends.

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Proverbs 17, verse 17.

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A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

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The thought seems to be there that when trouble comes, you really find out who your friends

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are.

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For a friend is one who loves at all times, not just when things are smooth or pleasant

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or when it's convenient, but a friend is one who sticks.

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And how much does he stick?

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Well chapter 18, verse 24 puts it this way.

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A man of many friends comes to ruin.

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It seems like a strange statement, doesn't it?

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But the thought apparently is that if a person chooses his friends indiscriminately, he puts

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himself in the place of danger.

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What kind of friend should he choose?

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The kind that's described in the last half of the verse.

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There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

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And perhaps many of us tonight can say, perhaps even with some sadness, that we have friends

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who are closer to us than our own brothers.

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Friends stick together even when things are tough.

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And that is the kind of friendship that David and Jonathan enjoyed.

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You can imagine how David, or rather how Jonathan might have felt.

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He knew that his father's reign was judged by God.

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In chapter 13 of 1 Samuel, chapter 15 of 1 Samuel, God had pronounced judgment upon Saul's

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reign, had told him that he would raise up a king after his own heart.

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Jonathan might have been threatened by this.

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He might have been suspicious.

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He might have been envious or even scheming.

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He might have been the one with a murderous attitude instead of his father.

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For if David were in fact that next king, he would be the one who would keep Jonathan

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from reigning.

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But none of those attitudes characterize this man Jonathan.

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I think that we can say without doubt of being wrong that Jonathan is one of the most outstanding

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men of character in all of the Old Testament.

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You will not find a man who had the qualities, the sterling qualities that Jonathan had very

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frequently.

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As we look at the friendship between these two men, there are several lessons that we

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can learn about what real friendship is.

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We'll learn what friendship that sticks is all about, what characterizes it.

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And as we do this, we're also going to see that you and I have one friend who does stick

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closer than a brother, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.

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For he is the dearest friend that any of us could know.

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The first lesson we see regarding friendship that sticks is this.

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A friend gives himself for a friend.

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In other words, a friend is one who is willing to sacrifice for another.

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We see this, for example, in Jonathan's attitude in the first passage we read in chapter 18.

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Do you find it strange that Jonathan took his robe off, gave it to David?

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He took his armor, including his sword, his bow, his belt, and handed that to David as

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well.

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What is Jonathan doing in this symbolic act?

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Listen, it's significant.

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For it seems to indicate that Jonathan was aware, somehow, that David was anointed to

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be the next king.

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Jonathan seems to be aware of that, and far from trying to stop that or be envious of

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it even, he in fact encourages it because in giving David these items, he is saying

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to David, here, you take my inheritance.

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And his inheritance was the throne of Israel.

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So you see, Jonathan is one who gave himself for his friend.

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The highest expression of love is an act of voluntary self-sacrifice.

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And that is what Jonathan did.

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He was not going to be the next king.

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God had already determined that.

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But Jonathan voluntarily, out of his own heart, sacrificed that position and symbolically

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did so by giving to David these items that are mentioned.

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They represented his inheritance.

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May I suggest to you tonight that there is one who is our friend, the Lord Jesus Christ,

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who has done a similar thing for us?

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Go back to John chapter 15 for a moment.

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Don't lose sight of Samuel, but go back to John 15 and look at these words, perhaps familiar

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words of the Lord Jesus, regarding a friend.

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Verse 12, he says, This is my commandment, that you love one another, just as I have

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loved you.

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Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.

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You are my friends, if you do what I command you.

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No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing.

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But I have called you friends.

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For all things that I have heard from my Father, I have made known to you.

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You did not choose me, but I chose you.

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The Lord Jesus Christ here calls us his friends.

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He identifies with us, and he says that the greatest test of love is for one to lay down

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his life for his friend.

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And that is exactly what the Lord Jesus did for you.

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And he did it so that he might share his inheritance with you, his inheritance as God the Son.

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For as God the Son, he is the heir of all things, all things.

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And he has designated you as his friend and shares with you his inheritance, making you

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a joint heir with himself.

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In other words, the Lord Jesus in giving you that designation has made it clear that he

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cannot inherit what is rightfully his unless you are there with him to inherit it.

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You are a joint heir with him.

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And furthermore, a joint heir shares equally in the inheritance.

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And so the Lord Jesus is not giving you a little bit of his inheritance.

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He is not meagerly portioning it out to you, but he so loves you and me.

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He so calls us his friends that he has said he will share equally with us in the inheritance

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that is his from his Father.

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That is real friendship.

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A friend gives himself for a friend.

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Let's apply it this way to our lives.

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We should give ourselves for others.

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There have been some occasions when people literally have laid down their lives to save

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a friend.

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But not often do we have that challenge before us.

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But there are times when we can choose to put the other person first and take the second

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position or the last position for ourselves and in so doing make a sacrifice for our friend.

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If we really are a friend of another person, we will give ourselves for him or her.

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I would like to apply that especially to husbands and wives because we should have no dearer

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friend on the earth than the one that we are married to.

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There should be no one with whom we would share intimate secrets like we do that one

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who is our beloved.

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Are you giving yourself for your wife, for your husband?

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Is the spirit of your marriage one of mutual self-sacrifice?

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For it is that kind of a spirit that gives marriage life and vitality.

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How easy it is for subtle selfishness to creep in and for us to begin claiming our own turf

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in the marriage in very clever and even disguised ways.

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How vital it is that we realize when that takes place we have left something of the

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spirit of the marriage that God intends for us to know.

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We need to get back to that place where we give ourselves completely to the other.

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People talk to me about marriage and I try to make it clear to them that marriage is

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not a 50-50 proposition.

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It is 100-100.

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Each giving himself fully to the other.

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That is what makes a marriage work.

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That is what makes a friendship work.

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A friendship that sticks is a friendship in which the two people give themselves unreservedly

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and with sacrifice for the other.

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Lesson number two from the life of David and Jonathan.

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A friend protects a friend.

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We see Jonathan doing this on behalf of David.

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He placed himself between his father and David on several occasions.

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On one occasion it nearly lost him his life when Saul in his confused mental state picked

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up a javelin and threw it at his own son seeking to nail him to the wall and kill him because

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he was so envious of David and of Jonathan's loyalty and love for David.

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Jonathan protected his friend.

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He put himself between Saul the enemy and David his friend.

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There is a sense in which the Lord Jesus Christ has done the same for us, isn't there?

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There is a difference because we were not friends of God.

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We were enemies of God, sinners.

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Those who had declared hostility against God.

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And yet the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world and stepped in between us and God.

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And that white hot wrath of God that flowed from his holy throne of justice and righteousness

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was coming to lick us up and to carry us away to our eternal destiny in hell.

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But the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross stepped in between us and God and died for us even

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while we were yet sinners and absorbed in himself that judgment of God, that condemnation

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that we deserve and in so doing protected us from God's wrath.

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God's wrath which is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness.

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And still today now that we have trusted the Lord Jesus as Savior assuming that you have

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done that, that you've received him into your life to be your own Lord and Savior.

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Even today he acts as our advocate.

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God in no sense is our enemy now.

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We've been reconciled to God.

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And yet God in his holiness and we in our occasional sinning have a problem.

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We need someone to be our mediator or our advocate.

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And the Lord Jesus Christ is just that.

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John says, I write to you that you stop sinning.

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But if any man sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one.

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And so he is the one who stands between us and the Father when we do sin as the children

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of God.

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And he is our advocate.

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He is there for our intercession to keep us with the Father, our advocate.

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And we need that advocate, don't we?

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Every day, every day you and I sin as children of God.

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There are times when we do it almost in carelessness.

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There are times when we do it even by choice and we allow the flesh to make provision for

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its fulfillment.

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When we do that, we need to confess it, come in repentance to the Father.

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But let us never forget that the Father has established an advocate on our behalf, the

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Lord Jesus Christ, who always intercedes for us at the throne of grace.

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Let me apply that to us.

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A friend protects a friend.

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Do you realize that your friend needs protection, that one that you call a friend?

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There may be a time when you would be called upon to protect his life.

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There are other times you may be called upon to protect his testimony.

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An example of that would be if you see your friend heading into a period of carnality.

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You see him straying into sin.

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What should you do if you're his friend?

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To protect his testimony, to protect his fellowship with God, you must go to your friend and say,

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my beloved friend, here is something that I observe.

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Please tell me where I am wrong if I am.

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I come to you because I love you and because I don't want you to stray from the Lord.

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We cannot call another our friend unless we are willing to take that step of loving admonition.

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By the way, that's where church discipline begins.

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That's the first step of it all.

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And it's the responsibility of all of us to protect our friend from the hurts and the

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sorrows that come by straying into Satan's territory and to go to that friend and protect

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him by putting our arms around him and seeking to restore him with the spirit of meekness,

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considering ourselves lest we also be tempted.

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There are times we may need to protect our friend from his reputation being harmed by

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intervening on his behalf and gossip and stopping the gossip, standing up in his defense and

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saying, wait just a minute.

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I'm not going to allow you to talk about him that way.

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You don't know of what you're speaking.

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And so we intervene to protect.

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A friendship that sticks is a friendship that involves the friends protecting each other.

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Lesson number three.

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From the life, the friendship of David and Jonathan.

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A friend sympathizes with a friend.

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He sympathizes with a friend.

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Turn to chapter 20 once more and let's look at verse 30.

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We'll see here the incident that I referred to a moment ago when Saul's anger burned against

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Jonathan, verse 30.

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And he said to him, you son of a perverse rebellious woman, I don't think I have to

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give you the more up-to-date rendition of that, do I?

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Do I not know that you are choosing the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame

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of your mother's nakedness?

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Saul could not have found language that was more coarse, that was more cutting than the

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language that he used upon his son in verse 30.

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

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established.

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Therefore now send and bring him to me for he must surely die.

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

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What has he done?

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Then Saul hurled his spear at him to strike him down.

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

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But Jonathan arose from the table in fierce anger and did not eat food on the second day

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of the new moon, for he was grieved over David because his father had dishonored him.

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The lesson that I see here is that a friend sympathizes with a friend.

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Jonathan identified with David in his rejection by suspicious Saul.

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There is great empathy in the heart of Jonathan for David, and the empathy here takes the

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specific form of anger because he was so grieved that his friend had been misunderstood.

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A friend sympathizes with a friend.

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Need I tell you that the Lord Jesus Christ is our sympathetic friend?

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That perfectly He knows how we feel?

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When you and I rejoice, He rejoices.

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When we are sad, He is sad with us.

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He sympathizes with us where we are.

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He feels with you the temptations that face you because He has been tempted just like

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you have, and yet without falling into temptation, He is able to perfectly sympathize with you

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as your friend and your great high priest.

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And if we are going to have a friendship that sticks, we must learn something of what it

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is to sympathize with others.

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One who does not know how to empathize with other people in their various seasons of life

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is one who will have few friends.

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If one's heart is cold and untouched and unfeeling toward others as they pass through

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the valley or the mountaintops, then he will likely have very few friendships that stick.

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Because a friendship that sticks is between two people who feel for each other, and that

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is why the apostle says, bear ye one another's burdens.

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In another place, he says, rejoice with them that rejoice and weep with them that weep.

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What kind of a French are you to that friend of yours who is in need tonight, that one

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00:32:53,580 --> 00:33:00,160
who is weeping, that one who is going through a difficult time?

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00:33:00,160 --> 00:33:08,040
One Indian tribe in North America had this eloquent expression to describe friend in

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00:33:08,040 --> 00:33:10,800
their language.

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A friend was one who carries my sorrows on his back.

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That is the English equivalent to their word for friend.

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One who carries my sorrows on his back.

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Maybe one of the reasons that someone here has had a difficult time developing close

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00:33:37,720 --> 00:33:42,480
friendships has been right here at this point.

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A fourth lesson that I see in the relationship between David and Jonathan to tell us how

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to have a friendship that sticks is this, a friend can be transparent with a friend.

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Look in chapter 20, and let's look again at verses 41 and 42.

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When the lad was gone, David rose from the south side and fell on his face to the ground

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and bowed three times.

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The language here indicates that he did this several times.

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00:34:21,640 --> 00:34:29,040
He bowed three times, he fell on his face before Jonathan, and they kissed each other

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00:34:29,040 --> 00:34:32,080
and wept together.

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00:34:32,080 --> 00:34:36,360
David shed more tears than did Jonathan.

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00:34:36,360 --> 00:34:44,640
Jonathan said to David, go in safety in the name of the Lord saying, the Lord will be

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between me and you and between my descendants and your descendants forever.

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00:34:49,280 --> 00:34:55,200
Then he arose and departed while Jonathan went back into the city.

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00:34:55,200 --> 00:34:59,440
David was able to express his real heart with Jonathan.

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00:34:59,440 --> 00:35:02,240
Do you notice that?

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00:35:02,240 --> 00:35:12,720
As great a warrior, as courageous a man as he was, he was a man who had tears.

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Now you know that, don't you, from the Psalms that he wrote.

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But those tears were not always shed in private.

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On this occasion, he was with his friend and was not embarrassed, he was not hindered by

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any thoughts.

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He shared his tears, and his friend shared tears with him.

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A true friend loves another, even with the imperfections, the blemishes, the inconsistencies.

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And because there is that kind of understanding between friends, there is no embarrassment,

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there is no fear in allowing true emotions to surface, the real thoughts of the heart

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to be expressed.

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In a friendship that sticks, there is a transparency without threat.

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00:36:09,800 --> 00:36:15,680
A teenager described a friend this way, a friend is one in front of whom you can be

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your own true self.

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Now because David and Jonathan were that way, they had the friendship they did.

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00:36:24,480 --> 00:36:27,920
Do you have somebody that way?

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00:36:27,920 --> 00:36:32,800
Someone with whom you can be honest and genuine and true?

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00:36:32,800 --> 00:36:37,880
Someone with whom you can put away the mask and the facade that we all so easily build

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00:36:37,880 --> 00:36:40,480
up in our lives?

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I think George Eliot expressed it so eloquently when she wrote, oh the comfort, the inexpressible

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00:36:50,900 --> 00:36:56,160
comfort of feeling safe with a person.

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00:36:56,160 --> 00:37:03,080
Feeling neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but to pour them all out, just as they

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00:37:03,080 --> 00:37:13,600
are chaff and grain together, knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep

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00:37:13,600 --> 00:37:22,180
what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away.

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How well is expressed there, the kind of friendship that sticks, a friendship in which a friend

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00:37:29,880 --> 00:37:35,440
can be transparent, be real with his friend.

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00:37:35,440 --> 00:37:40,680
And a final lesson that we want to see in closing is this, a friendship that sticks

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00:37:40,680 --> 00:37:48,760
is characterized by a friend remembering a friend.

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00:37:48,760 --> 00:37:52,920
David did not forget Jonathan.

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All together too quickly, Jonathan was killed.

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He was taken from the earth.

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Their plan seems to have been that when David would become king, Jonathan would be right

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there beside him.

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They would almost share the throne.

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So greatly was their love and their trust for one another.

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But alas, that was not the plan of God.

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00:38:18,440 --> 00:38:25,600
And Jonathan was killed the same time that his father Saul was killed on the mountains

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00:38:25,600 --> 00:38:27,920
of Gilboa.

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Turn with me to 2 Samuel chapter 9, and you will see that sometime later, David remembers

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00:38:36,520 --> 00:38:39,720
his friend.

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2 Samuel chapter 9, verse 1, then David said, Is there yet anyone left of the house of Saul

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that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake?

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Now there was a servant of the house of Saul whose name was Ziba, and they called him to

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David and the king said to him, Are you Ziba?

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And he said, I am your servant.

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And the king said, Is there not yet anyone of the house of Saul to whom I may show the

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kindness of God?

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00:39:13,080 --> 00:39:21,660
And he said to the king, There is still a son of Jonathan, who is crippled in both feet.

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So the king said to him, Where is he?

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And Ziba said to the king, Behold, he is in the house of Maccear, the son of Amiel of

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Lodibar.

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Then king David sent and brought him from the house of Maccear, the son of Amiel and

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Maccear, and Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David and fell on

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his face and prostrated himself.

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00:39:42,920 --> 00:39:45,760
And David said, Mephibosheth.

464
00:39:45,760 --> 00:39:48,600
And he said to him, Here is your servant.

465
00:39:48,600 --> 00:39:54,020
And David said to him, Do not fear, for I will surely show kindness to you for the sake

466
00:39:54,020 --> 00:40:00,920
of your father Jonathan, and will restore to you all the land of your grandfather Saul,

467
00:40:00,920 --> 00:40:05,360
and you shall eat at my table regularly.

468
00:40:05,360 --> 00:40:11,200
So you see, when David was in that place that God had appointed to him, when the kingdom

469
00:40:11,200 --> 00:40:17,560
had been consolidated under his authority, when he was the absolute sovereign, he did

470
00:40:17,560 --> 00:40:22,840
not forget about his friend Jonathan, who had been dead some time.

471
00:40:22,840 --> 00:40:27,000
But rather he purposely sought out to see if there might be some relative of Saul to

472
00:40:27,000 --> 00:40:28,640
whom he could show kindness.

473
00:40:28,640 --> 00:40:35,640
Now that would have been a good political move on the one hand, but it was a sincere

474
00:40:35,640 --> 00:40:41,560
human move on the other hand, because he wanted to remember Jonathan.

475
00:40:41,560 --> 00:40:47,240
And there was Mephibosheth who was still living, and David remembered his friend and showed

476
00:40:47,240 --> 00:40:50,160
kindness to the son of Jonathan.

477
00:40:50,160 --> 00:40:54,240
Do you know that our God remembers us?

478
00:40:54,240 --> 00:40:58,600
There is not a second that goes by but that you are not in his mind.

479
00:40:58,600 --> 00:41:02,800
You say, but wait a minute, there are so many people who love the Lord, there are so many

480
00:41:02,800 --> 00:41:07,160
believers, how can he remember all of us at one time?

481
00:41:07,160 --> 00:41:10,920
My friend, he is God, and he does.

482
00:41:10,920 --> 00:41:18,800
Look at some words that are penned by Isaiah in the 49th chapter of his prophecy.

483
00:41:18,800 --> 00:41:26,680
These words written about Judah, about Israel, but which are applicable, I am sure, to us.

484
00:41:26,680 --> 00:41:31,160
Isaiah chapter 49 verse 13.

485
00:41:31,160 --> 00:41:40,080
Shout for joy, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth, bring forth into joyful shouting, O mountains,

486
00:41:40,080 --> 00:41:47,080
for the Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted.

487
00:41:47,080 --> 00:41:54,800
Now the tone changes, but Zion said, the Lord has forsaken me and the Lord has forgotten

488
00:41:54,800 --> 00:41:55,800
me.

489
00:41:55,800 --> 00:41:58,480
Do you ever feel that way?

490
00:41:58,480 --> 00:42:00,240
Maybe tonight that is the way you feel.

491
00:42:00,240 --> 00:42:06,280
In the midst of the trial, the circumstances that confront you, you say, God has forgotten

492
00:42:06,280 --> 00:42:11,240
me, I am on the shelf, he does not remember me.

493
00:42:11,240 --> 00:42:19,040
It goes on to say, can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion on the

494
00:42:19,040 --> 00:42:21,840
son of her womb?

495
00:42:21,840 --> 00:42:27,160
The Lord says, even these may forget, but I will not forget you.

496
00:42:27,160 --> 00:42:32,720
Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.

497
00:42:32,720 --> 00:42:37,960
Your walls are continually before me.

498
00:42:37,960 --> 00:42:44,440
I think in a very wonderful way we can see the Lord Jesus Christ interceding for us in

499
00:42:44,440 --> 00:42:53,000
heaven and there on the palms of his hands, inscribed as it were with a nail, is your

500
00:42:53,000 --> 00:42:56,000
name and mine.

501
00:42:56,000 --> 00:43:02,280
And continually as he is our high priest and friend, intercedes before us before the Father,

502
00:43:02,280 --> 00:43:09,120
we are remembered, inscribed upon the palms of his hand.

503
00:43:09,120 --> 00:43:12,080
A friend remembers a friend.

504
00:43:12,080 --> 00:43:16,280
There's some friend of yours that needs to be remembered.

505
00:43:16,280 --> 00:43:18,800
Who is it?

506
00:43:18,800 --> 00:43:24,880
Who is that friend tonight that you need to remember in his difficulty and go to him and

507
00:43:24,880 --> 00:43:28,240
say, my friend, I care.

508
00:43:28,240 --> 00:43:32,840
My friend, how can I help?

509
00:43:32,840 --> 00:43:36,160
Conclusion.

510
00:43:36,160 --> 00:43:38,160
Do you have any friends?

511
00:43:38,160 --> 00:43:46,320
Better, let me phrase it this way, are you anybody's friend?

512
00:43:46,320 --> 00:43:51,920
Proverbs says if a man would have friends, he must show himself what?

513
00:43:51,920 --> 00:43:54,120
Friendly.

514
00:43:54,120 --> 00:43:58,080
Are you anybody's friend?

515
00:43:58,080 --> 00:44:04,760
Or to put it a different way, if you were another person, would you want to be a friend

516
00:44:04,760 --> 00:44:09,960
of yours?

517
00:44:09,960 --> 00:44:15,600
What kind of friendships are you building?

518
00:44:15,600 --> 00:44:23,220
Someone said, I went out to find a friend, but could not find one there.

519
00:44:23,220 --> 00:44:31,760
I went out to be a friend and friends were everywhere.

520
00:44:31,760 --> 00:44:39,120
Emerson said the only way to have a friend is to be one.

521
00:44:39,120 --> 00:44:48,520
Let your friendships be characterized by unselfish giving, by courageous protection, by genuine

522
00:44:48,520 --> 00:44:57,520
sympathy, by confidential transparency, by careful remembrance.

523
00:44:57,520 --> 00:45:04,960
And if your friendships are characterized by that, you'll have friendships that stick

524
00:45:04,960 --> 00:45:11,240
and that will endure the storms and the stresses of life.

525
00:45:11,240 --> 00:45:14,680
There's happiness in little things.

526
00:45:14,680 --> 00:45:18,000
There's joy in passing pleasure.

527
00:45:18,000 --> 00:45:27,560
But friendships are, from year to year, the best of all life's treasures.

528
00:45:27,560 --> 00:45:33,200
Our Father, I pray that you will make us to be friends.

529
00:45:33,200 --> 00:45:37,480
For as we are friends, then we will have friends.

530
00:45:37,480 --> 00:45:42,260
And I pray that our friendships will know something of the character of that friendship

531
00:45:42,260 --> 00:45:47,280
between David and Jonathan, the kind of friendship that sticks.

532
00:45:47,280 --> 00:45:54,680
Thank you for the friendship that we have with the Lord Jesus Christ and that he is

533
00:45:54,680 --> 00:45:59,080
truly a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

534
00:45:59,080 --> 00:46:04,440
Lord, if there are some practical applications that we need to follow through on in the areas

535
00:46:04,440 --> 00:46:10,200
we've touched on tonight, I pray that we'll be diligent to do that.

536
00:46:10,200 --> 00:46:20,120
May we make the right kind of friends, the kind of friends that are worth sticking to.

537
00:46:20,120 --> 00:46:41,160
In Jesus' name I pray, amen.