There's No Place Like Home Unless... Friends
Notes
Transcript
Today we’re continuing our series on relationships There’s No Place Like Home, with a look at friendships. A longing for friendship is within all of us, we’re drawn to stories of powerful friendships.
I remember being in Middle School and just wanting a group of friends like I saw portrayed on my favorite television shows, like Whose Line Is It Anyways, a group of friends who laughed with each other.
Or united together in a common cause like in Deep Impact. Though I think I had surviving Middle School in mind, not trying to prevent an asteroid from wiping out the earth.
I want you to think about portrayals of friendship in the media. What kind of friendships do you have? Maybe you’re like Buzz and Woody from Toy Story - it took awhile for you to warm up to each other
Maybe you’re like The Avengers — have each other’s back when things get tough, and willing to have hard conversations like Tony Stark and Steve Rogers. Though… hopefully without the beating each other up.
Or maybe you just want to eat Cheesecake and talk about life like the Golden Girls — sign me up for that one.
I just want a group of people around me who I know care about me, accept me, and who help me grow into the person God has for me.
And these things are what I think God has in mind for the church.
When some people hear the word "church," they might think about a building — maybe not so much right now -- a preacher, a certain kind of dress code, or somewhere they're forced to go. But the Church is meant to be so much more than just a building or an event! The Confirmation class talked about this just a few weeks ago with Sean, Amy, and Spencer. It's meant to be a community where we can belong and grow.
When I was 16 I traveled with a few friends from church to Scotland to join a group of about 80 evangelizing and encouraging local churches.
And it was hard. I had never been away from home for so long, or so far away from home. Back then cell phones weren’t really a thing, but no worries the world had pay phones, where you’d put in coins and make a call? When a call from the UK to the US… was a little expensive. I remember the first time I called home from Scotland… my mother answered… and put me on hold. Rough.
That summer stretched me, and the team of people I was with became like a family. And one day, I got a letter from home. My mother shared with me that my grandfather had been diagnosed with cancer. Now, my father had had a stroke about 7 years earlier. And my grandfather had stepped into a lot of the father role. And to get word that he had cancer… when I was on the other side of the world… and only able to call home like one a week… and even then I’d just be put on hold… sorry Mom... that was really hard.
I remember breaking down. And this older man who was on the trip, the father of one of the girls team, saw me and pulled me aside and listened to me… and he started crying too. His empathy, encouragement and friendship were so helpful. This is the kind of community Jesus wants us to find in the church, but not every story is like the one I just shared. Sometimes Jesus-followers . . . aren’t good friends. But When we get it right, being a part of the Church can change peoples' lives, like it changed mine.
The Bible gives us stories of great friendships that we can learn from. We see Paul and Barnabas, Elijah and Elisha, Ruth and Naomi. One of my favorite Biblical friendships is David and Jonathan.
David, a teenager about your age, was an unlikely King when he was anointed by Samuel, and an unlikely hero when he defeated the giant Goliath. After David’s victory, he grew in popularity. He was a national hero, and the current King, Saul, began to worry. He saw that David was a threat to the throne. He decided to place David where he could keep an eye on him, in the palace, giving him a job. It was here that David met Jonathan.
1 Samuel 18:1-3
When David had finished speaking with Saul, Jonathan was bound to David in close friendship, and loved him as much as he loved himself.
Saul kept David with him from that day on and did not let him return to his father’s house.
Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as much as himself.
This isn’t a likely friendship. As Saul’s oldest son, Jonathan was the heir to the throne. Even though Jonathan was next in line, it was David who had been anointed, David was the man God declared as the next king. But rather than becoming rivals, in this story, David and Jonathan become best friends—with a covenant commitment based in Jonathan loving David as much as he loved himself.This is a fulfillment of what Jesus would later command:
The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.
Jonathan’s covenant with David cost him a lot. He sacrificed his birthright. Jonathan even risked his own welfare for the sake of his friend.
Saul ordered his son Jonathan and all his servants to kill David. But Saul’s son Jonathan liked David very much,
so he told him, “My father, Saul, intends to kill you. Be on your guard in the morning and hide in a secret place and stay there.
I’ll go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are and talk to him about you. When I see what he says, I’ll tell you.”
Jonathan spoke well of David to his father, Saul. He said to him, “The king should not sin against his servant David. He hasn’t sinned against you; in fact, his actions have been a great advantage to you.
He took his life in his hands when he struck down the Philistine, and the Lord brought about a great victory for all Israel. You saw it and rejoiced, so why would you sin against innocent blood by killing David for no reason?”
Saul listened to Jonathan’s advice and swore an oath: “As surely as the Lord lives, David will not be killed.”
So Jonathan summoned David and told him all these words. Then Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he served him as he did before.
Jonathan lived out his friendship even when things got difficult.
When things got rough for David, When death seemed certain, When the odds were against David, Jonathan was there.
God knows we need friends who are willing to risk their comfort and welfare for our sake. It’s one thing to have friendships like this; but it’s another thing to be that kind of friend.
We are going to fast-forward to chapter 23. David is on the run from Saul. He flees into the desert and is hiding in a series of caves. And Jonathan? Jonathan was doing whatever he could to help David survive.
David was in the Wilderness of Ziph in Horesh when he saw that Saul had come out to take his life.
Then Saul’s son Jonathan came to David in Horesh and encouraged him in his faith in God,
saying, “Don’t be afraid, for my father Saul will never lay a hand on you. You yourself will be king over Israel, and I’ll be your second-in-command. Even my father Saul knows it is true.”
Then the two of them made a covenant in the Lord’s presence. Afterward, David remained in Horesh, while Jonathan went home.
Jonathan made sure to meet with David and encourage him in his faith. Friends who strengthen and encourage our faith in God don’t do so by ignoring the problems in our lives. When Jonathan showed up, he had traveled 30 miles on foot to encourage David, pointing David to God’s promise that he would be the king. Jonathan didn’t present himself as the answer to David’s problems. Jonathan presented God’s promises as the answer.
In 1 Samuel, Jonathan is foreshadowing the friendship we have in Jesus. Jonathan is a wonderful example of friendship, but only a shadow of the friend we have in Jesus. Jesus did everything that Jonathan hinted at.
Like Jonathan, He would serve us at great personal cost. He comes to us in our need—but instead of walking 30 miles, He traveled from heaven to earth.
Jonathan gave up his right to lead the kingdom; Jesus purchased our place in His kingdom at the cost of His own blood.
He made His cause our welfare, taking our sins and the punishment of death in our place so that we could have life eternal.
Jesus is the friend we’ve always searched for—the one who gave himself for us, who encourages our faith, and who is commited to our good.
Jesus said to us, in John 15:16
You did not choose me, but I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you.
Jesus doesn’t call us “friends” because of anything we did. No, he calls us friends despite all we did, it was an act of mercy, an act of love.
True friendship requires vulnerability and mercy. I remember being so embarrassed that I broke down crying in Scotland. It’s not what a 16 year old boy is suppose to do. I was afraid of people judging me. But my vulnerability was not met with taunts, it was met with love. That man in Scotland was like Jonathan, like Jesus, meeting me in my pain and encouraging my faith.
Confirmands - Church, my hope is you all will find true friendship with Jesus, but also true friendship here in this body. We are the family of faith, our friendships here matter. Friendships that have been kept at a “social distance” for far to much of the last year. The world is filled with “passive friends.” Jonathan and more so Jesus were not passive friends. They saw the challenge ahead of them, and risked it all to make sure their friend, to make sure you and me, were strong in faith. My encouragement to you is to find friends like that here… and more importantly, to be friends like that. Pointing people to the love of Jesus.