Girls Sunday School 10.6.24

LRA- Good friend/Bad Friend? Read the scenario, then decide if your friend is a good friend or bad friend then state why?

You go out with your friends to a pizza place and to a movie. There are 5 of you together. During the movie you go to use the restroom where you notice you have a gigantic piece of food stuck in your teeth from pizza. Its been 2 hours and your friends had to have seen it. You ask them about it and they all start busting up laughing. “We were wondering how long you would go without noticing?”

Your grandpa passes away suddenly. Your fried can’t make it to the funneral because of prior obligations but she texts you the day after to tell you how sorry she is for your loss

Your friend starts dating your ex boyfriend 8 months after you ended things with him.

One of your friends tells you that your best friend has been talking behind your back. You talk to her about it and she assures you that nothing like that happened at all.

You cheated on a test. You didn’t want to but it was due right now and you had two questions left. You glanced over to your friends test and saw what they put. Plus you NEED a good grade in this class or you’ll fail it. Your friend sees what you did. She tells you that you have to confess and if you don’t she will tell the teacher herself.

You invite your best friend to your birthday sleepover. She tells you she can’t make it because she already told another girl she’d spend the night with her. You understand but she is YOUR BEST FRIEND.

You find out that you didn’t make the volleyball team. Your friend’s mom is the coach and you find out that she knew all week long but didn’t tell you because her mom told her not to talk about it with anyone.

Transition

We all have a desire to have good friends in our lives. That’s for everybody. No one wakes up one day and says, “I want no body to be my friend or to care about me.” We all have the desire to have good friends and we’d like to think that we are good friends too.. But here is the rub. Often times in our lives we find ourselves struggling to find and keep good friends. Sometimes its easy to see why. Perhaps a person is a really selfish person. Or maybe they are super bossy and don’t let anyone else have a say. Sometimes it might be because they can’t be trusted. Maybe they are lazy and make you do everything. However, sometimes, friendships might end because of no reason really.

Today we are going to discuss what a good friend really is, and then ask the most important question we can: “Are we good friends or not?”

Today we are going to be talking about 3 guys in the Old Testament in the Book of 1 Samuel.

Now, before this passage happens a very familiar one happens that we all most likely have heard of. Its called David and Goliath. To recap, David killed the giant Goliath with a sling then cut off his head with his own sword because he had faith in God. The rest of the Israelite army was too scared to call him out or do anything about it, including the King Saul. As David finishes talking with the King Saul, we pick up in 18:1.

1 Samuel 18 1-5

1 Samuel 18:1–5 (ESV)

1 As soon as he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.

2 And Saul took him that day and would not let him return to his father’s house.

3 Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul.

4 And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David, and his armor, and even his sword and his bow and his belt.

5 And David went out and was successful wherever Saul sent him, so that Saul set him over the men of war. And this was good in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul’s servants.

Have you ever just hit it off with someone in a way that sounds close to Johnathan with David? Like you loved him as you loved yourself?

What kinds of characteristics do you like in a friend?

A covenant is a one sided contract you make with someone based on who you are, not what they do or don’t do. Do you think good friendships are more like contracts or covenants?

What was the significance of Johnathan giving David his armor, his robe, his sword and his belt?

1 Samuel 18:6–12 (ESV)

6 As they were coming home, when David returned from striking down the Philistine, the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with songs of joy, and with musical instruments.

7 And the women sang to one another as they celebrated, “Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands.”

8 And Saul was very angry, and this saying displeased him. He said, “They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed thousands, and what more can he have but the kingdom?”

9 And Saul eyed David from that day on.

10 The next day a harmful spirit from God rushed upon Saul, and he raved within his house while David was playing the lyre, as he did day by day. Saul had his spear in his hand.

11 And Saul hurled the spear, for he thought, “I will pin David to the wall.” But David evaded him twice.

12 Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him but had departed from Saul.

Why do you think Saul lost it?

Have you ever had anyone turn against you suddenly for no reason? What is that like?

How should we treat those who mean us harm?

What did David do to deserve such anger from Saul?

Will people in your life turn against you for seemingly no good reason?

As Christians, do you think it matter how we treat our friends and our enemies? Why or why not?

You can finish up the story today when you go home, but for our purposes this morning, Johnathan helps save David’s life and flee from Saul. David had done nothing to deserve the treatment he was getting from Saul but he decided that he would not fight back, instead he would leave the king and try not to make things worse, even thought Saul wanted him dead.

When it comes to being a good friend, like Johnathan was to David, you will have a hard time coming up with a better list than 1 Corinthians 13. After all Johnathan loved David as he loved his own soul. 1 Corinthians tells us what love is and what it does.

1 Corinthians 13:4–13 (ESV)

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant

5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;

6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,

10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.

12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

So here is where it gets hard. We all know what its like to have a good freind and how special it is to find a great one. But, if we are honest with ourselves, are we good friends?

So, lets do an activity. Would we agree that a good friend loves you like Johnatahn loved David? Like they have the same love for you that they do for themselves. If so, then lets put 2 and 2 together. Give yourself a genuine score as a friend. 1 being the worst that ever was and 10 being role model.

I am patient

I am kind

I am not jealous

I don’t brag

I’m not full of myself

I am not rude

I don’t always have to have things my own way

I’m not irritable

I’m no resentful

I don’t enjoy with when people do the wrong thing

I celebrate and stand in truth

I endure hardships with people

I am not childish in how I speak, think, reason, or act