Real Life Radio

Jack Hibbs: Jonathan's divorcing himself from status. He's divorcing himself from the higher society, so to speak, because he has found someone that money cannot buy.

Dave J: This is Real Life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I'm Dave J, thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God's word, the Bible.

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Dave J: On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues his series now called 1 Samuel and his message titled, Friends and Foes in the Faith, Part One. Samuel of the Old Testament was the last judge of Israel and the first of her prophets. So here in chapter 18, we're going to consider the highs and the lows of friends and relationships.

You see, when David arrives at the palace after defeating Goliath, King Saul's son Jonathan makes a covenant with David as a symbol of their friendship. And that was all while Saul was jealous and fearful of David. A godly friendship is both self-sacrificial and true loyalty even in adversity.

Today Pastor Jack teaches that a godly friendship is both self-sacrificing and truly loyal even in adversity. It's a matter of the soul. The love of true friends share common goals and share a life of faith in God. Now with his message called Friends and Foes in the Faith, Part One, here is pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.

Jack Hibbs: Grab your Bibles tonight and turn, if you would then, to 1 Samuel 18. What a tremendous chapter this is. Because of the many avenues we could take and the approach of this chapter, we could probably turn this teaching into a six to eight-part series. It's so pregnant with meaning. It's amazing.

Tonight, I want you to focus on just one of the areas that we'll try to look at. That is friends and foes in the faith. As Christians, we have friends and we have foes. We have enemies and we have those that stand alongside us. So tonight, we're going to be looking at the friends and foes in the faith. It's pretty interesting.

As I began to put this together, I began to think of something regarding our Christian experience. Personally, I cannot think of a greater life to live than our Christian life. One of the reasons why as I meditated on this study was the fact of friends, friendships, relationships. I don't know what the world does with their friends. But in my life with Christians, there's real friendship.

In Christian circles, in church, we meet a lot of people. I am not saying that we have, or I have, a lot of friends. I don't want to throw that word around loosely. We have a wonderful bunch of warm acquaintances and brothers and sisters in the Lord, and that's beautiful. I know that because we are brothers and sisters, our love runs deeper than what the world can produce.

Beyond that, there are maybe a few, wouldn't you agree, in our Christian experience that are deep, abiding friends? They're friends that God has ordained for our lives. You might tonight say, "Well, I only have one or two of those kinds of friends." My dear friend, you only need one or two of those kinds of friends. You don't need a lot of them. In fact, I think they are precious. They are specially created, and we for them, a relationship.

In like manner, there are foes. Has any of you caught on to the fact that if you stand up for Jesus, there's going to be an enemy or two in your life? Some of them can be even in your own house. That can be a frightening thing. Friends and foes in the faith. Paul knew something about that. Just by way of introduction, I can never depart far from this incredible chapter of 2 Timothy 4.

I did a teaching on this chapter years ago and it moved me to tears back then because of Paul's incredible life. In 2 Timothy 4:10, Paul was nearing his death. In fact, that's the last bit of writing he had done before he went home to see Jesus. His head was going to be removed from his shoulders in the not-too-distant day. Paul pens in 2 Timothy 4:10, "For Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica—Crescens for Galatia, Titus for Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for ministry."

Paul knew something about friends in ministry and foes. One of the things that really hurts in ministry or in Christian relationship—and if you've been a Christian for any period of time and if you've had friends at all in the Christian faith—you can almost hear Paul weep in 2 Timothy 4 when he says Demas has forsaken me.

Demas is mentioned three times in scripture. With each time in the New Testament Demas is mentioned, the relationship seems a little cooler until the end. He mentions Demas and he says Demas has forsaken me. He's abandoned me. The word in the Greek means he's left me right when I was needing him to hand me something.

Have you ever had a situation like that where you're dependent upon somebody and right at that moment, they say, "Get it yourself, I'm out of here"? Have you ever known somebody that they professed to know God, they even had fruit in their life that they knew God, they held a Bible in their hand, they were even used by God, they even had ministry, and then they're up and gone from it, even denouncing the day that they even walked with God?

It's one of those things where you scratch your head about. You wonder what in the world has gone on and gone wrong with them. It's a tremendous thing. Tonight, I'm going to ask you to consider several things in our study. Friends and foes in the faith, look with me in 1 Samuel 18. The first point is in verses one through four.

Friends and foes in the faith, it's a matter of the soul. Watch what happens here. Regarding friends and foes, it goes much deeper than just acquaintances. It's in a person's life these things happen. Verse one, we learn this as we look to this study. There will be a commonality of pursuits. If you have a friend, listen everybody, especially those tonight who are single perhaps. You want to have that special friend. You're looking and praying for that special friend who might become more.

Make sure that they're a friend in the Lord first. Even if you met her or you met him and the whole thing has already started off in the area of romance, that's okay in the Lord. But stop right now and infuse into that relationship friendship in the Lord. Because, listen, single person, the person you're going to marry someday had better be your friend first.

Establish that. Because it's best that your lover be your friend. It's best that your companion be your friend. It's best that your co-laborer, your partner, be your friend. It's best that your husband or your wife be your friend. That's a tremendous thing. It's a matter of the soul. Listen, when a relationship is underway, you want to make sure that there's commonality of pursuits.

What do we mean by that? Look at verse one. It says, "Now when he had finished speaking," that's David. Remember what happened. He had just killed Goliath. Picking it up from last time, the stone had sunk in the giant's head. Remember how important it was that we looked at the detail? David picked up the sling and hit Goliath in the head. It stunned him. If you read the fine print carefully, it hit him in the head and he falls down, apparently possibly knocked out.

Again, I would have loved to have seen the angel behind that stone. Here's this little guy letting the stone go and this angel comes behind this rock and turbo-charges that thing. Supercharged into Goliath's forehead. Thump! And then almost like a cedar falling, boom, Goliath goes down. David runs over there and pulls Goliath's sword out of his sheath and begins to drag it like this because it's so huge and David was so small. It was a big deal. It was a huge sword.

Now when he had finished speaking to Saul, David's giving a report of what happened. "Saul, that's exactly the deal. I've been a shepherd in my father's house. I killed a lion and a bear and I protect sheep." He's giving a full report to Saul. Watch what happens concerning friends, concerning foes, concerning a commonality of pursuits. It says that when he was done speaking to Saul, "the soul of Jonathan," that's Saul's son, "was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul."

The word knit here is a fantastic, powerful word. It's to be woven into, to join the fabric of David's very existence. When Jonathan heard David talking to his father, Jonathan is listening and he falls in love with the heart of David. He says to himself, "This guy is a guy of character and of quality. This guy's a man of faith. He's a man of action." And there's something about David when he's speaking that Jonathan says, "I love that guy. That's the kind of guy I want to hang out with."

If you're looking for a friend, don't lower your standards. Look, we're going to come in contact with all kinds of people of this world. Do you understand that? Christian, wake up. Are you in school? Are you in college? Are you at work? We're going to come in contact with all kinds of people. We'll associate with them all, but very few of them will be our friends. Christian, learn how to keep some people at bay. They're not your friends. They're not your friends.

You say, "Well, you're kind of making that very exclusive and very selective." That's exactly correct. The world throws it around so easily. But listen, every one of us should say, "Lord, have somebody come into my life and knit my heart and their heart to mine." This is God's will for our lives, relationship like that. The commonality is, as David was speaking, Jonathan was saying, "Yes, yes. Oh man, I want to hang around that kind of guy."

Guys, you need to say that. You need to pray, "Lord, I want to hang out with that kind of guy." Girls, the same. The friend you're hanging out with, do they build you up in the Lord or do they tear you down in the Lord? Do you have to go back to them tomorrow? Are those your friends at work tomorrow that constantly harp and hound on you? "Oh, leave your husband. Come with us. Let's go. We're having a good time."

Or the guys, you know. "Hey, buddy, come on. We're all doing it. Do it, come on with us." Those are not friends. Be careful. One of the great things about having a friend is that number one, there will be a commonality of pursuits. Frankly, it had better be God first. Determine to be a friend to someone who's a friend to God and you'll be a happy friend. That will be a good thing, especially you young people. Pick your friends wisely.

Jonathan's heart is knit to David. David, as he's done speaking to Saul, this happens and it's a wonderful thing. It's no doubt in my mind that as David spoke to Saul, he was giving God all the glory. That's probably one of the things because Jonathan had a beautiful walk with God. When David was giving God all the glory, Jonathan picked up on it, his ears perked up, and he saw and heard a man that was loving the Lord.

His heart was knit to him. And the Bible says here that he loved him. The word love here in Greek is the word Philadelphia. He had a brotherly love that's deep, that's abiding. It's a united love. It's a transcending love of just this common world. It's a true friend type of love. That's important. Another thing that we want to consider in verses two and three is that there will be a glad commitment. There's not only a commonality of pursuits regarding friends. We have this in common, again, God being the number one pursuit.

But number two, a glad commitment. When you have a real friend, as Jonathan and David will show us the incredible potential of a friendship that we can have with somebody, there's a glad commitment. There's no holding back. Have you ever had a friend, have you ever been a friend to someone where you will hold nothing from them? It's glad. You like to spend money on them. Money's not an object. Time's not an object.

Have you ever had those kind of friends where the clock goes and you look at the clock and the clock becomes an enemy? You just want to spend more and more time. That's a beautiful thing. Have you ever had that kind of friend to where you're saying, "Lord, just stop the clock"? We have some dear friends and you know them, Britt and Kate. As often as possible they come and spend Sunday afternoons and evenings and they stay over at the house and we just loiter all day on Monday.

We did that just this last week and one of the things was, "Lord, just cause the clock to stop today, Monday." Because we don't want the time to end. And the conversations go in such a way, the fellowship goes in such a way, and the fun goes in such a way that as it gets more fun and more fellowship and in such a way, got to go. Oh no, come on, stay another night. I got a meeting and, oh. But then maybe months will go by without communication.

The cool thing is you don't have to communicate. You know that kind of friendship? You just pick up where you left off. It's great. It's a blast. A glad commitment. As God begins to knit the heart of a believer to a believer, I want to ask you tonight, is that going on in your life? God wants it to go on in your life. You go, "But Pastor Jack, no one said hi to me yet tonight. How can this happen if nobody says hi to me?"

Very simply, you say hi to somebody else. Yeah. "I'm just going to come here, I'm going to sit quiet and see if there's any friends." That ain't going to happen. You've got to get moving on it. Now I can just see some young guy or some young girl think, "That's confirmation, I'm to ask that person out." Look, watch it. All I'm saying is, if you want to just have a friend, then be friendly to people. Reach out.

"Now if they're a real friend and God wants them to be a friend, they're going to come up to me and they're just going to spoil me." No. And who would want to be your friend if that's your thought? You'll wear them out. No, a glad commitment for a friend in the Lord like this, so rare, anything. Time doesn't matter. Money doesn't matter. Nothing matters when that kind of a friendship's established. It's wonderful. Oh, it's a great thing.

Verse two and three says, "So Saul took him that day," that is David, "and he would not let him go home to his father's house anymore. Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he," that's Jonathan, "loved him," that's David, "as his own soul." The word covenant here means that they cut a covenant. It's the word in the Hebrew that means they went out and they got a calf and they brought it in between them and they sacrificed that calf and they laid it right in the middle and laid it open, and they shook hands over that sacrificial animal.

That may sound kind of brutal to you, but it was done in all reverence and that was the custom of the day. We are going to be so much friends, we've agreed, instantly there's the word that we would say koinonia in Greek, fellowship with each other, that this is a binding friendship forever. Agreed? Agreed. And you know what we used to do as kids? We would take a broken Orange Crush bottle. Remember Orange Crush, anybody? Grape Crush and Orange Crush.

And we would break it because that was real thick glass. Remember that big thick glass? We would break the bottle and then we'd cut our thumbs and we'd rub our thumbs to each other. Remember? Yeah, you got it down. Just go like this. Anybody remember after you rubbed your bloody thumbs together what you would do? That's right. You got a little bit of your blood and his blood, stick in your mouth, and you eat the blood, I guess. I don't know what you're doing. Drive a Jehovah's Witness crazy out of the room right now.

But kids do this thing and the other guy did and man, that was it. We are blood brothers. That was it, man. Nobody got in between blood brothers. You'd kill the guy who got in between the two of you. You're best of buds. This is way, way, way beyond that. This is a covenant before God. And an innocent lamb or innocent bull or innocent calf was sacrificed and we reach over it in an agreement that this life was given that we might uphold our agreement all the days of our lives.

Wow. They cut a covenant, as it is in the Hebrew. Interesting. I find it amazing that Jonathan would even do such a thing. Why? Jonathan lived in a palace. Where did David live? In a tent. Jonathan was heir to the throne legally. David was a shepherd. Jonathan had all the robes of being brought up and being the son of the king of Israel. He was the richest man in the nation. What was David? A poor boy. He had a little toga kind of thing he wore. He had nothing.

What does David gain by this relationship? Wow, I know the son of the king. What does Jonathan get from this relationship? Nothing on the surface. Listen, young people, nothing on the surface except that he has the pleasure, the honor, the joy, and the excitement of having a real, true, God-blessed friend. Jonathan's divorcing himself from status. He's divorcing himself from the higher society, so to speak, because he has found someone that money cannot buy.

The sooner we learn that, the better off we'll be. Did you know there's people that are poorer than you? There are people that have less than you that have much more quality and character than we do? You can go to poor countries of the world and there's people who have such a consideration of life and of a heart of being kind and gentle and cultured in a way. I've been to some cultures and into some homes in the world where you can't cross your legs because your foot—in Southern California, we take our shoes off in front of people.

In some cultures, that's the ultimate insult. In some cultures, you can't point your—when you fold your leg, when you cross your leg, the sole of your foot is pointing towards someone's face. That is worse than anything you could say to them in this culture. There's things that people, they may not even know us, but they'll invite us into their homes or we'll talk to them in some country or whatever it might be. Or maybe it's even back east where they're much more formal back east and you insult them very easily.

Jonathan had all this palace royal upbringing. David had nothing of that. Now listen, it had been a little while when Samuel had anointed David to be king. Some 20 years will pass before David takes the throne. What's interesting to me is Jonathan's not saying, "Hey, you can't be my friend. Too bad, I'm a rich kid and you're just a nobody. You're just a stinky shepherd. You got lucky killing the giant, okay?" No, he didn't do that. There's a lot going on here and it's deep and it's beautiful. Both their relationships, though, were definitely in tune with God.

Dave J: Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on Real Life Radio and his message called Friends and Foes in the Faith, Part One. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called 1 Samuel, a series highlighting the prophet Samuel, who was called by God during one of Israel's darkest times to bring the people back to a heart of true worship. We'll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.

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This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com. Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in His word. We'll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.