Pastor, author and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. There was no sadness. There were no tears.
There was nobody was fighting. There was perfect worship of God. There was there was abundance of everything. The weather was great.
I mean, it was just perfect. It was Eden. It was paradise. And yet God said, This isn't good.
It won't be paradise as long as man is alone. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series Son of David, as presented at Rinaldin Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program today, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries. As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org.
Or call 877-544-4860. Now more on this later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching.
Here is Alan Wright. First Samuel, chapter 18. And then we're going to look also at First Samuel, chapter 20. As we continue today in our exploration of the life of David, we are in an undisclosed number of weeks of exploration of David's life, which means it's a long time. But it is worthy of our attention because the Scripture gives so much attention to David. Israel loved David, and then Jesus was called the Son of David. So everything that we learn about David, we're actually learning about Jesus because David prefigures Jesus. In fact, all of the Bible in the end is about Jesus.
It's all in one way or another pointing to who he is. So David was a shepherd. He was a hero. He was a king. And so is the Son of David, shepherd of our souls, hero who rescued and delivered us from death, from sin.
And he is the king eternal who reigns forevermore. So today we're going to look at First Samuel, chapter 18. It's something that's right in the heart of the story of David. It's a friendship between David and a man named Jonathan. Jonathan is the son of King Saul, the reigning king who will become murderously, insanely jealous of David.
What an unlikely friendship. First Samuel 18, verse 1. As soon as he finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David. And Jonathan loved him as his own soul. And Saul took him that day, speaking of David, and would not let him return to his father's house. Then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as his own soul. And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him. That was his sign of royalty and gave it to David and his armor and even his sword and his bow and his belt, a sign of his power.
And David went out. Then look over to First Samuel, chapter 20. And what's happened here is that Saul has become insanely jealous of David and Saul, so worried about losing his throne to David, becomes murderous. And what happens in this unlikely friendship is that Jonathan begins to help David, be an advocate for David, to be like a spy, to be able to warn David. And you'll see that their covenantal friendship is reestablished at First Samuel, chapter 20. Look at verse 13. But should it please my father to do you harm?
This is Jonathan speaking. The Lord do so to Jonathan and more also if I do not disclose it to you and send you away that you may go in safety. May the Lord be with you as he's been with my father. And if I am still alive, show me the steadfast love of the Lord that I may not die. And do not cut off your steadfast love for my house forever when the Lord cuts off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth. And Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David saying, may the Lord take vengeance on David's enemies. And Jonathan made David swear again by his love for him, for he loved him as he loved his own soul.
You ready for some good news? God wants to be that sort of friend with you. Two of the most watched ever TV shows for kids. One was about a man who walked around in a silly looking neighborhood with a train and a fishbowl and sang first a song about being neighbors, but then had a very special song about being friends.
And he said, you're special and you're my friend. F R I E N D. He was a Presbyterian minister who had not liked the way that children's programming had been going. And so he started this show, Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. A TV guide listed Mr. Rogers as one of the top 35 TV shows of all time. And a second of the most watched TV shows for kids all time is about a purple dinosaur. But the show wasn't just called Barney. It was called Barney and Friends. And the theme of it was, I like you and you like me. Should be no surprise to us then that two of the biggest adult TV sitcoms of all time were shows about friends. The first one, nobody thought a show like this could work. Just a show about friends, just not really doing anything, but just hanging out.
But Seinfeld became one of the biggest sitcoms of all time, which then was later followed by what might be the biggest TV sitcom of all time, a show that was simply called Friends. It shouldn't surprise us then when social media erupts onto the global scene that Facebook is basically a grown-up Mr. Rogers. Will you be my neighbor?
It's just Barney in adult terms. I like you. You like me. It's interesting that the whole thing of Facebook was built around friends. We even came up with a new verb now, unfriend. We saw some weeks ago in a different message that by some measures sociologists would say that loneliness is now epidemic. Three times as many people than just two decades ago, three times as many people now report that they don't have one close friend, somebody that they could actually confide in.
By some measures, a third of people in our country don't have one person. In the middle of this narrative of David that is filled with so much drama, there is the call, the anointing, the rush of the Holy Spirit, the slaying of the giant, the chanting of the crowds, the persecution of Saul, the hiding for fear, the low valley times of David, the association with the bankrupt and the distressed, the ascendancy to the throne, espionage, murder, adultery, reconciliation, grief, all is in this story. In the middle of it, at the heart of the story, the plot depends upon it. David's life depends upon it.
The whole story depends upon it. In the middle of it, interestingly, is a friendship, a friendship between David and Jonathan. I want to talk to you today about why that's so important. I want to talk both on the natural level and the deepest spiritual level. I want to talk about what a friend is, what a good friend is. But I want to do so ultimately not just to show how David and Jonathan show us what earthly friendship is, but how it also shows us something very important about who God is. And we'll talk about friends. The starting place of this is to recognize that God designed you to need friends. And when I say friendship today, I'm including the friendship that happens in marriage, but talking about a kind of covenantal bond that we want to learn about today. And right from the beginning, this becomes quite apparent in the design of God.
Maybe you never noticed this before. I want to show you, if you get your Bible open, turn back to Genesis chapter 1, and you're familiar with this refrain that keeps going through the chapter of creation, that God is creating, and at each phase of creation, God affirms the goodness of it. Verse 3, Genesis 1, let there be light, and there was light, and God saw that the light was good. And so it was that he, verse 10, called the dry land earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called seas, and God saw it was good. And verse 12, the earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And say it with me, God saw that it was good.
It's just a refrain, right, that runs throughout it. So it's one of the most important pieces of the whole creation story is that over and over, God says it was good. But then you get to chapter 2. And in chapter 2 of Genesis, you get sort of this micro view of the creation of human beings. And chapter 1 is kind of like this macro view, let us make man in our own image. Male and female, he made them.
But now you get like this detailed more up close. This is actually what happened in Genesis chapter 2. God made first a man out of the dust and put him in the garden by himself. And so you've been reading all this, and God saw it was good. It was good. It was good.
It was good. And then you come to verse 18, and it just pops right out at you. Then the Lord God said, it is not good. What's not good? The only thing that is said that is not good, that man should be alone.
That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Got some giants to slay? Need some encouragement in the midst of a trial?
Wondering if God really cares? Meet David. Who can compare to him? He was the ruddy, handsome, youth-tending sheep riding psalms and worshipping God in the humble Bethlehem fields. He was the lone Israelite brave enough to decapitate Goliath and the sole warrior adept enough to cut off the scourge of the Philistines.
He was the stately king who established peace, expanded the borders and reigned in prosperity for 40 years. Who else could be a gentle shepherd, a glorious hero, and a noble king? Would there ever be another leader like David? Yes, the son of David. His name is Jesus, and he is a better David than David could ever be. He came to be your shepherd, your hero, and your king. In a 12-message audio series, Alan Wright takes you on a thrilling adventure with David in order to point you to the answer for your every need, the son of David.
Discover how Christ enables you to face your biggest obstacles, deal with your fiercest persecution, and live as an heir of grace. It's an audio series from Alan Wright. As our thanks for your donation, we'll be delighted to send you Pastor Alan's audio messages in either a digital download or a CD album format.
Son of David, shepherd, hero, king. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support.
When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.
That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. This is kind of a staggering thought for me this week. I never really thought of this, that this was paradise. Paradise is defined in its essence as being perfection, where everything is good. But there was one thing in paradise that was wrong.
It had to be fixed. There was no sickness. There was no sadness. There were no tears.
Nobody was fighting. There was perfect worship of God. There was abundance of everything. The weather was great.
I mean, it was just perfect. It was Eden. It was paradise. And yet God said, this isn't good. It won't be paradise as long as man is alone.
And he made a friend. The reason that this is the case is because in chapter 1 of Genesis, when God said, let us make man in our image, there is a startling thing for the opening chapter of the Bible to use a plural when we know that probably the single most important theological affirmation we have is that there is one God. Deuteronomy 6, Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one and you shall have no other gods.
Love him with all your heart, soul, mind, and spirit. The Lord is one. In Genesis 1, he says, let us make man in our own image.
Why is he saying this? Because on the opening pages of scripture, we're learning already God is a triune God. The mystery of the trinity is a mystery that we cannot ever wrap our minds around this. How can God be one and yet three persons? We cannot come up with any apt illustration for it. Every illustration we give has human terms to it, and it doesn't make sense in the end.
We might say, well, maybe this comes close. I'm one person. I'm one man. But I'm daddy, I'm husband, and I'm pastor.
But see, it doesn't really do it. Or somebody said, the sun is star, the sun is heat, and the sun is light. But you see, the problem with trying to come up with an illustration of the trinity like that is it leaves out the most important ingredient characteristic of what the trinity is all about. And that is that God mysteriously is one, but because he's also Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, he is in community. In other words, God is eternally in fellowship within his own godness.
Let me say it even more directly. If God were going to design a creature in his own image, that creature would not be in his image unless that creature were in community. So when he made Adam in his own image, in all the ways that Adam is like God, a little lower than the angels, given all of these godlike attributes that we have, including everything from our creativity and our imagination and our capacity for love and faith, and all of these different things, he looked down and he said, this is not good.
The man that I have made in my own image is lacking one thing. Until he has the opportunity to love someone else as his own soul, until there is that kind of covenantal, ongoing fellowship, then he will not be made in my image. And so God made us in his image in many ways, but not least of which we're made in his image in this, we must be in relationship. Now this has some startling implications to it, and I gather some of this thought from a great message on this subject from Tim Keller, who makes this observation. Do you see what this is saying about who we are and about who God is? This is saying that if God designed you to require fellowship, to require true friendship, then this means that when you are feeling empty and lonely, you know that feeling where sometimes you go, I just feel needy, and everything around us would say that needy feeling of I just am lonely, everything around us would want to say, you know, you need to buck up because that's a sign of your imperfection. But if God made you so that you have to have friends, then in fact, when you feel lonely, it's not because you're being ungodlike, it's because you're being godlike.
In fact of the matter, what if it's like this? When a person is healthy, they hunger when they need food. If you've been sick and you don't want any food, and then you start wanting food, you realize I'm feeling better, right? Because the hunger, even though it can even be painful if you don't have food readily available, hunger can hurt, but it's not a pleasant feeling to be hungry. The reason it's not a pleasant feeling is you want to get rid of that feeling, and so you look for food.
So hunger is a gift. Loneliness hurts, but that loneliness doesn't mean there's something that's wrong with you, it means there's something right with you. If you feel lonely, it doesn't mean it's because you're unhealthy, it means because you're healthy enough to know that you're made in God's image and you're made for covenant friendship.
Let me put this even more starkly. What this means is that God has ordained it that you made in his image will have when you don't have real fellowship, real friendship. He's ordained it that when you don't have that, that you will feel one of the worst feelings you can feel in life to be lonely.
Why? Because he wants you to be reflecting his joy, his life, and his image, and it only happens in relationship. It only happens in relationship. We cannot fully reflect the glory of God as an individual. It happens in friendships. But the second thing that's startling about this notion that God designed us this way is that it says something about God because what this means is that in a very real sense, if God made you so that you would need other people in addition to him, then it means he's one of the least envious persons in the world.
He's unimaginably secured in and of himself because he made Adam to worship and glorify him, but God takes delight when Adam has a companion. When there's real friendship, when there was marriage, he is, the Bible says, jealous, but only in this sense like a husband would be jealous for a wife who was unfaithful. If a husband said, well, I don't care. You can have as many lovers as you want. We would say, well, that husband doesn't really love.
Love burns deeper than that, right? So in that sense, but that's where it's speaking of idolatry. So God is like a jealous husband when we're idolatrous. He doesn't want any other God beside him because he loves us so intensely that he wants our exclusive worship.
But he's not jealous in the sense of not wanting you to have friends. He takes delight in you having the deepest fellowship imaginable, thus David and Jonathan. And at the heart of this incredible story that is prefiguring Jesus a thousand years before Jesus ever comes, that he gives David this friend, Jonathan. And it's just a friend that we think must be from God. And it is astounding because it is so unlikely of friendship, isn't it? I mean, this is Jonathan who is the son of the reigning king and the reigning king is trying to murder David. If Jonathan ever wants to take the throne, then he needs his father to stay alive and David not to ascend for Jonathan to become David's friend.
This is so unlikely. Alan Wright and today's teaching simply titled Friends. It's from the series that we're currently in on the son of David.
And Alan is back in just a moment in the studio sharing his parting good news thought for the day. Got some giants to slay? Need some encouragement in the midst of a trial?
Wondering if God really cares? Meet David. Who can compare to him? He was the ruddy, handsome, youth-tending sheep riding psalms and worshiping God in the humble Bethlehem fields. He was the lone Israelite brave enough to decapitate Goliath and the sole warrior adept enough to cut off the scourge of the Philistines.
He was the stately king who established peace, expanded the borders and reigned in prosperity for 40 years. Who else could be a gentle shepherd, a glorious hero and a noble king? Would there ever be another leader like David? Yes, the son of David. His name is Jesus and he is a better David than David could ever be. He came to be your shepherd, your hero and your king. In a 12-message audio series, Alan Wright takes you on a thrilling adventure with David in order to point you to the answer for your every need, the son of David.
Discover how Christ enables you to face your biggest obstacles, deal with your fiercest persecution and live as an heir of grace. It's an audio series from Alan Wright. As our thanks for your donation, we'll be delighted to send you Pastor Alan's audio messages in either a digital download or a CD album format.
Son of David, shepherd, hero, king. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries.
Call us at 877-544-4860 or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Back here in the studio to share Alan's parting good news thought for the day. And as we think of friends and examples of friendships in the Bible, you have David and Jonathan. There's good news to be learned here. It's a beautiful story that is so unlikely. They were in enemy camps and they became best of friends. And it's really a friendship that is only understood by covenantal love, the Old Testament Hebrew word chesed. And the covenant that they make is a wonderful picture, not only of a deep and true friendship, but it also is a picture of the kind of covenantal love that God has for us. And it's an astounding thing that we have been called God's friends. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.
