Heavenly Construction Instructions

Sermon Summary:

We often underestimate the depth of transformation Jesus desires for our lives. This message takes us through the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus presents us with a stark choice: build our lives on His teachings or watch everything crumble when the storms inevitably come. The imagery is powerful—two builders, two foundations, one outcome that withstands and one that collapses with a great crash. But here’s what makes this so relevant to us today: Jesus isn’t just asking for intellectual agreement or emotional enthusiasm. He’s calling for something far more demanding—putting His words into practice. We’re reminded that willpower alone won’t transform us; we’ve all experienced the failure of ‘from now on’ promises. Instead, transformation comes through partnering with Jesus, allowing the Holy Spirit to work within us as we practice His teachings within community. The text challenges us to consider whether we’re truly willing to be completely redeemed, transformed, and conformed to Christ’s image. It’s a lifetime journey of learning to be salt and light—not too much that we burn people, not too little that we make no difference. And the stakes? Jesus makes it clear that storms are coming to all of us. The question isn’t if we’ll face trials, but whether our lives are built on the solid foundation of obedience to His teachings when those winds begin to blow.

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Sermon Points:

Matthew records 5 major sermons from Jesus:

• Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7)
• Commissioning of the Disciples (Matthew 10)
• Parables of Salt and Light (Matthew 13)
• Community of Faith (Matthew 18)
• Olivet Sermon – Eschatology (Matthew 24-25)

Matthew presents Jesus of Nazareth as the King who has come to establish the Kingdom of Heaven (God) on earth. He is the Messiah (Christ), Savior, Son of Abraham, Son of David, Son of Man, and Son of God. He has come to redeem and restore all that is broken in creation. He was born a King and He will return as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!

What is Jesus really after regarding your life?

Jesus Christ desires to absolutely, completely, and holistically redeem every part of you, transform you by the power of the Holy Spirit at work within you and through His redeemed community, to conform you to His image.

AUTHORITY: Does Jesus have the authority to demand such a complete transformation of human beings?

When Jesus concluded his address, the crowd burst into applause. They had never heard teaching like this. It was apparent that he was living everything he was saying—quite a contrast to their religion teachers! This was the best teaching they had ever heard. -Matthew 7:28-29 (The Message)

MEANS: How can Jesus accomplish such a transformation in a person’s life?

WILLINGNESS: How willing are you to partner with Jesus to experience all He would like to accomplish in you?

Jesus Christ desires to absolutely, completely, and holistically redeem every part of you, transform you by the power of the Holy Spirit at work within you and through His redeemed community, to conform you to His image. 3

Key Takeaways:

• Jesus Christ desires to absolutely, completely, and holistically redeem every part of us, transforming us by the Holy Spirit’s power to conform us to His image
• Matthew’s gospel presents Jesus as the King establishing the kingdom of heaven, with five major sermons paralleling the five books of Torah
• Jesus has all authority in heaven and earth to demand complete transformation of our lives
• Willpower alone is insufficient for transformation; we need the Holy Spirit’s help and the community of faith
• Following Jesus requires hearing His words and putting them into practice—it’s a lifetime journey of learning
• Being “salt and light” requires balance; too much salt ruins the food, too focused light burns rather than illuminates
• Wisdom means having deep understanding of God and His ways and practically applying them in life
• Storms will come to everyone’s life, revealing whether we’ve built on the rock of Jesus’s teachings or the sand of our own way
• Spiritual growth requires practice, like athletes training—we will make mistakes but must keep learning and improving
• Flourishing means being formed, transformed, and conformed by the gospel through consistent practice within God’s community

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Scripture References:

• Matthew 7:24-29 (primary focus)

Stories:

• The parable of the wise and foolish builders—one building on rock, one on sand, both facing storms
• Personal anecdote about grandchildren (little Gideon) using salt shakers at the table, illustrating how too much salt ruins food
• Story about the Texas Rangers practicing despite being highly paid professional athletes ($207 million payroll for 26 players)
• Reference to Ron Washington coaching Pete Alonzo (Mets first baseman) during the 2022 All-Star game despite being on competing teams, emphasizing the importance of practice and coaching
• Illustration about wind damage in Texas (Lubbock wind blowing into Metroplex, fence damage in backyard)
• Reference to witnessing families, friends, celebrities, and religious figures experiencing “mega crashes” when storms reveal their foundation

Sermon Transcript

Well, good morning, church. It’s so good to see you here this morning and I’m glad to be back with you. I have been in this last couple of weeks just immersed in the missions and engagement world. And so I was out last Sunday. Can I say a word of thanks to Ryan Chandler for filling the in for me last Sunday and preaching?

Ryan, He’s such a talented member of our staff and I’m grateful for him and his leadership. And if you are studying the Gospel of John and your adult Bible study classes, then you know that Ryan has written that curriculum for us. And we appreciate Ryan and Amy so much. But while I was away, I have been with numerous missional investments that you’re invested in as a church. Last week I was not here.

On Sunday, we were in Colorado at the Restore Hope Board retreat. Restore Hope is the ministry that we use so that we can send our workers to the field and we’re connected to their work beyond our church. As you know, Cindy’s executive director of Restore Hope. And we heard reports about what’s taking place through the ministries you’re invested in because you and I as a church, we support Restore Hope beyond First Baptists with all our partners. And we received a report from Cindy that at one of our partnership ministries that you’re involved in in Asia through the ministry of Pastor Daniel, we just received a report they now have 2,956 house churches in this ministry in Asia.

In the latest reports, 7,600 salvations. In 1700 people were baptized in this last report there in Asia. Is that un incredible? Say amen to that.

And also, of course, we’re heavily invested in Sierra Leone and we have 419 church planters working on our behalf through our Restore Hope Network and through First Baptists in Sierra Leone and have established hundreds of churches throughout that West Africa nation. And then when we flew in from Colorado, we hosted the Steering Council. And that is a new missional movement that your church is helping to establish. I’m honored to serve as the chair of the Steering Council. And we heard reports about our beginning work together.

Ascent actually has not officially publicly launched yet. We don’t launch until next March. But when we launch in March, we’ll be in Virginia and 2026. And we have a great conference summit already planned. We have several guest speakers who will be speaking for us.

Beth Moore is one of our speakers. Charlie Dates, he’s a pastor in Chicago. Our own Julio Guarner, who is the executive director of Texas Baptist, is one of our speakers. Ed Steer, if You’re familiar with him and his leadership in the conversation about the establishment of the church in the west is also one of our speakers. And so we’re really excited about it.

And then this week, I also spent time in the Baptist building in Dallas with the BGCT, which is our primary partner here in the state of Texas, learning more about GC2, which is an initiative that Texas Baptists are beginning and promoting. It’s a reference to the Great Commission and the Great Commandment. And our own Sergio Ramos, who is a member of our church. He and Dora remember, here he is, he’s the director of that movement for Texas Baptist. So I have been immersed in our missional engagement connections.

And I just want to encourage you all as a church because you just need to know, through your support of our mission efforts, both directly through our global centers that we have in Sierra Leone and in Europe, but also through our extended partnerships, there’s so much happening that God is doing that you direct a part of. Isn’t that awesome? So I want to thank y’all for your generosity, for your prayers, just how God is at worked through the life of this church and all the partnerships we’re connected to. I told the folks at 8:30 sometimes I’ll wake up late into the night or whatever. I didn’t used to wake up, but I do now.

But I go right back to sleep because I just have clean conscience. How about y’all? When y’all wake up? But now, here’s what happens to me now. A few years ago, I started doing something that when I wake up, I just asked the Lord to bring to my mind somebody that I need to pray over.

And it’s amazing to me how often I find myself thinking about folks that we know relationally that are engaged in ministry all over the world, have no idea what time it is, where they are, or what God’s doing. But I have found myself just praying over them. So I just want to encourage you. Let’s be in prayer for all of our partnerships, for how God is using this church around the world. So with all that said, let’s continue our conversation that we began three weeks ago about relationships.

That is one of the domains that’s been studied in the flourishing study. And so today I’ve entitled the message, why Can’t We Be Friends? And the text is found in 1 Samuel 18, 19 and 20. So if you have your copy of the Old Testament, I wanna ask you to look at that with me as we have a conversation about friendship today before we get to that, let me just set the stage for us, because you might not quite be aware of what’s taking place contextually in 1 Samuel 18, 19, and 20. So let me just remind us all these three pages of the Bible.

I’m not gonna read all three pages, but they’re located in the midst of a very challenging period in the life of Israel. Israel had settled in the Promised Land many years prior to what’s shared here in 1 Samuel 18. And for a number of those years, Israel was led by Judges. However, Israel wanted a king. And so finally, Samuel, who was a prophet and a priest, he anointed Saul as the first king of Israel.

And Saul would rule for 42 years as the king of Israel. However, his reign was filled with challenges. First of all, Saul was just a troubled person himself. And secondly, he had to deal with the Philistines during the entire time of his reign. In fact, the Bible says in 1 Samuel 14, verse 52, the entire time Saul was king, he was waging war with the Philistines.

And any time he came across a brave man, he would bring that man close to him and keep him and use him as best he knew how. Also, Saul was prone to just take things into his own hands rather than wait for God’s direction. But even worse than that, whenever he received God’s direction, King Saul would often disobey God’s specific commands. And so the result was, finally, we read in 1 Samuel 15 that God rejected Saul as the king of Israel. And then we Read sadly, in 1 Samuel 16, God removed His spirit from King Saul.

And that Marked the beginning of a time of torment for Saul. In fact, the Bible tells us in 1 Samuel 16 and 1 Samuel 18 that there was a tormenting, evil, disturbing, harmful spirit that visited Saul on occasion. In fact, we read of several instances that this tormenting spirit was given to Saul, and somehow it was connected to Yahweh. And that’s hard for us to comprehend. There have been numerous explanations offered through the centuries by commentators and Bible scholars.

And the bottom line is we don’t quite fully understand it. But here’s what most scholars seem to think. There’s consensus in embracing the view that Saul had spiritual, theological, and psychological problems. And so he was given to these huge mood swings that led to all kinds of erratic behavior. Now, if you will, contrast that with the Bible’s portrayal of David.

David appears in this story on page 16 of 1 Samuel. He’s the youngest son of Jesse. And God led Samuel to anoint David as king over Israel, even though Saul was still alive. And the Bible says God’s spirit had departed from Saul. But God’s spirit was upon David.

Now, David was this rugged, handsome, gifted man. He was a natural leader. He is going to become Israel’s greatest king. In fact, Jewish theologians are going to build messianic expectations around David and his rule. In fact, the Messiah would actually one day be called the son of DAV David.

Now, in our text today, when you come, are y’all still with me? Y All right. You come to page 18 of 1 Samuel. And it’s a fascinating story that’s about to unfold because Saul has a son named Jonathan. Jonathan is the crown prince of Israel.

He’s next in line to the throne. However, he perceived this diseased spirit in his own father. And Jonathan recognized that the future of Israel was in David’s hands, not in Saul’s hands. As a matter of fact, I would say it even more directly. He realized that the future of Israel was in David’s hands and not his hands.

That the mantle was being passed from Saul’s family. That’d be Jonathan’s family at to David’s family. He gladly welcomed this. It drove his father crazy. His father was characterized by raging jealous and it engulfed Saul, but not Jonathan.

Jonathan welcomed David as a leader and a future king. You know the story of David. He’s going to kill the giant Goliath. He’ll gain notoriety as a valiant warrior. Saul will then take him into his own household because he was such a brave man.

But he became consumed with jealousy toward David. As a matter of fact’if you read this story, he will try to kill David several times. Jonathan, meanwhile, will strike up a friendship with David that we’re going to learn from this morning. Eventually, Saul and Jonathan will be killed in battle at Bethshan. Some of you have been to Israel.

We’ve been to Israel. We’ve actually been to that city, Bethshan, where Saul and Jonathan were slain and gave us a chance to pause and just reflect upon the sad ending the story of Saul and Jonathan. However, Jonathan at this point in the story develops a friendship with David. And that’s what I want us to learn from this morning. Allgh why can’t we be friends?

So let’s look at this text. We’re just gonna look at the first four verses and we’ll let that be a springboard for our conversation. Okay, so look at 1st Samuel 18, verse 1. After David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself. From that day, Saul kept David with him and did not let him return home to his family.

Remember, the Bible’s already told us whenever Saul came across a brave man, he would keep him in his household, thinking he could use him in his army. Verse 3 and Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. Jonathan took off the robe he was wearing, gave it to David along with his tunic, even his sword and his bow and his belt. And we’ll talk more about this friendship. So let me ask you this.

How many friends do you have?

Let me tell many. I have.

I have 3,608 friends. That is awesome. And we spend a lot of time together. We’re very close with one another. Right?

Friends. Think about it. I came across a few quotes I’ve shared with some of these with you before about friends. One person says, if I have to clean my house before you come over, then we’re not real friends.

Oscar Wilde says, a true friend stabs you in the front.

Someone said, friends are God’s ways of apologizing for our families. Mark Twain said, I don’t like to commit myself about heaven or hell. You see, I have friends in both places. You have to think about this one guy indoor says, I bet dying vultures have lots of awkward moments with their friends.

Emile Sa Janice says, true friends don’t judge each other. They judge other people together.

So what kind of friend are you? Well, actually, friendship is not a laughing matter. In fact, here’s what’s fascinating. In some ways, because of our technology, we are more closely connected than we’ve ever been before. But isn’t it fascinating that we are also, as a society characterized right now by a pandemic, if you will, of loneliness?

It’s an epidemic, actually. Isn’t that fascinating? And you know what the research is showing us? It’s also fascinating some of the research that’s even been done in the Global Flourishing study. The younger you get in our society, the more lonely you’re likely to become.

In fact, our Previous Surgeon General, Dr. Viveic Murthy, I’ve shared this with y’all before. He has declared loneliness as an epidemic in America. Here was one of his last reports he published as Surgeon General. Let me just read it you. I’ve read this to you before, but some of you may be new.

According to the former Surgeon General, loneliness is far more than just a bad feeling. It harms both individual and social health. It is associated with a greater risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, stroke, depression, anxiety, and premature death. The mortality rate of being Socially disconnected is similar to that caused by smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day, and even greater than that associated with obesity and physical inactivity. And the harmful consequences of a society that lacks social connection can be felt in our schools, workplaces and civic organizations where performance, productivity and engagement are diminished.

It’s fascinating, you know that just a few years ago, the UK created a new position in their cabinet. It’s called the Minister of Loneliness. Stuart Andrew occupies that seat right now for the uk Japan has also launched a position, a Minister of Loneliness. It’s fascinating, isn’t it? You would think as connected as we are, somehow or another we would have found our way past loneliness.

But it just doesn’t seem to be working. We’ve already learned this in this series, this sermon series. We began with theological reflection and we learned this truth that God’s designed us as relational creatures who are to flourish in community. We have the capacity for and the need of friendships. Remember, we’ve already learned that God Almighty exists in eternity, in relationship.

We are. We believe in the triune God. We believe in God the Fatherd, the Son, and God the Spirit. So God exists in this eternal relationship with himself, and he’s created us in his image. What does it mean to be created in the image of God?

Well, it means a lot of things, but one thing it means is we’ve been designed by God to live in healthy relationships, to live in community with one another. In fact, as I was preparing for this message, I came across a sermon a while back, several years ago, actually. I’ve just clipped parts of it from a pastor named Mike Woodruff in Lake Forest, Illinois. And he says this about friendships. Having deep friendships with a handful of people is God’s plan.

There are a number of passages of scripture that make this point somewhat directly, such as Acts 2, which talks about how devoted the early church members were to one another. But the fact is, the idea that we are in this together is so basic, it’s more assumed and then stated. What this pastor argues is, is that it seems like on every page of the Bible, it’s just assumed that we’re living in relationship with one another. Kirk Johnson, he is a staff member at Saddleback Community Church that Rick Warren started. He’s written a whole lot of material about friendship, and here’s what he says we should learn from Jesus.

He says Jesus had lots of followers. He had lots of casual acquaintances. Then he had some close friends, about 12 of them. But then he had some core friends. There were three of them, Peter James and John.

What Johnson argues is we should learn from that. We can have lots of friends, lots of casual acquaintances. Absolutely. We also can have a good number of close friends, but we all need just a handful of core friends, the ones that we are extremely close to. And the question is, when you look at your relationships, how are you doing in that friendship arena?

On the one hand, you may have lots of casual friends, casual acquaintances, you may even have some close friends. But we all need some core friends, and you only need a handful of those. As I was working on this sermon, as I was reflecting on it in the last week or so, I just started walking through our life that Sid and I have lived together in ministry all these years. We’ve lived in numerous towns through the years as I’ve pastored several churches. And what’s fascinating is that every stage of the journey, the Lord has provided us with some core friends.

When we were in seminary, when we made our way to our first church, as we have kept making our way through our ministry lifetime, everywhere we have ever been, Arlington included, we’ve had some core friends, people that we could be ourselves with, people that we’ve gotten to know, that we share our life with. We’ve had close friends. We have lots of acquaintances, lots of people that we know. But there are some core friends. So I’m gonna encourage you to think about that in your friendship circle right now.

Can you name two or three just really good friends, core friends? And how are you cultivating those relationships? And how good of a friend are you to those that are in that circle? Now, here’s what I wants to do this morning. I want us to learn from Jonathan and David.

And I’m just going to point out some very basic principles that I find in their relationship that I think can help us learn more about being friends. This isn’t really new. It’s pretty fundamental. But y’all remember, I’ve shared with y’all before. One of my spiritual gifts is stating the obvious.

So I’m just gonna state the obvious this morning. How do you find friends and live in those core friendship relationships? Well, let me offer you some suggestions, things that I see in this text. First of all, love. Friendships are forged through love.

Don, you look at this text. Let’s look at it again. Chapter 18. This text says in verse three, Jonathan made a covenant with David. He loved him.

Now, it’s interesting to me, in the modern era, some people have completely misconstrued the relationship between Jonathan and David. There are some who have tried to portray this as a homosexual relationship. And what I would tell you is anybody who does that does not understand culture. And they obviously can’t read this text in Hebrew. I’m no Hebrew scholar, but I have leaned on a number of Hebrew scholars to help us understand what this text actually teaches.

It has nothing to do with that. This is a healthy, deep friendship that has political overtones to it. Because of the context of the culture in which they live. There are numerous words for love in the Old Testament. The Old Testament is written in Hebrew, not in English.

And when we translate it into English, we have to learn from the scholars who helped us do that. This word for love that’s used here is the word that has both deep personal meaning, but it also has some political overtones. What do I mean by that? Well, Jonathan is the crown prince of Israel, and he is next in line to the throne. But I want you to notice what he does in his relationship with David.

Look at verse three. He makes a covenant with David. In other words, he’s entering into a relationship with David based upon love. But there are also some political connections to it. He’s recognizing David as the future leader of Israel.

And one of the ways he does that is he enters into a covenant relationship. That’s what’s taught from the Hebrew perspective. He’s recognizing him as the incoming king. But at the heart of that friendship is love. He loved him, the Bible says.

And so love is at the foundation of any friendship relationship. And aren’t we grateful that God has created us with the capacity to have a healthy, wholesome love for our friends and for our friends to have the same with us? So it starts with love. Then secondly, there’s a unity of spirit. Friends share a sense of unity and companionship.

There’s just something about it. Look at what this text says. In verse one, David and Jonathan. Jonathan became one in spirit with David. He establishes a covenant relationship with David.

There’s something about sharing life with other people. There’s something sacred about it as the people of God. David Benner has written a book called Sacred Companions. Let me read a quote from his book. He says this.

The essence of Christian spirituality is following Christ on a journey of personal transformation. The distant land to which we are called is not heaven. It’s the new creature into which Christ wishes to fashion us the whole and a holy person that finds his or her uniqueness, identity, and calling in Christ. Spiritual friends accompany one another on that journey. You see that word accompany companionship.

I’m not a psychologist, but I read and study psychology. There’s a psychologist at Northern Arizona University, Dr. Damer. Here’s what she says in all her research about friendship. She says that the heart of friendship is companionship. We accompany one another and that’s what you and I need.

And here’s what I would tell you. What you discover on this is not companionship. That’s just not what it is. We don’t do companionship through social media. I shared with y’all a few years ago is an interesting story.

It finally was resolved. But there’s it was resolved in the state of Florida. I was a judge in Florida, Judge Butcho, and she was overseeing a particular case. And one of the attorneys, Israel Reyes, was representing someone in the case. Well, one of the opposing attorneys learned that Judge Butchko was friends on Facebook with the attorney, Israel Rees.

So the other attorney filed a complaint and said, this judge needs to recuse herself because she’s friends on Facebook with this attorney. The other attorney countered and said, just because we’re friends on Facebook doesn’t mean we’re friends. And so it went to court. It made its way through one of the circuit court of appeals in the state of Florida. It went all the way to the Supreme Court in Florida.

Aren’t you glad that the state Supreme Court of Florida has finally ruled on what a friend is? Are you on the edge of your seat to wonder what is a friend according to the state Supreme Court? Guess what? They decided Being a friend on Facebook legally in Florida does not mean you’re a friend. Thank you so much for clearing that up for us.

Aren’t we glad you actually have to be a friend to be a friend? You can’t just be a friend on social media in name only. You actually have to be a companion to be a friend. At least in Florida.

I think that’s true in Texas. In fact, I think it’s always been true. There’s a certain companionship that you and I need if we’re going to be friends. And so there’s this unity in spirit. And then here’s one that’s real simple.

Friends just act like friends. That’s what we do. It takes time and we take the time to express our commitment to our friendship. What did Jonathan do? Look at verse 4.

Jonathan gave gifts to David. He didn’t just tell David, we’re good friends. He demonstrated to David. David is going to return the favor. Because here’s what friends do.

Friends give time. They expend energy. They exchange gifts just because they find expression for each other. They make Space for each other. That’s what friends do.

What I’ve discovered about friendship is that it takes effort. It doesn’t just happen. You have to take initiatives. Sometimes you have to drop things just because your friend needs you. And you’ll spend your time and your energy and your effort in just being a friend.

And I would encourage all of us to think about it. You know, again, we can’t replace real friendship with fake friendship. It just won’t work. We had earlier this past year, Justin Whitmel Early came and led our families. He’s written several books that I have found interesting.

This one here is a really fascinating book about friendship. It’s called Made for People. Here’s what he says about the difference between social media friends and real friends. He says the Internet and smartphones are fantastic for connections, communication, and knowledge. But connections are not friends.

Communication is not intimacy, and knowledge is not wisdom. Use a social network for intimacy and you will invite great harm. Use a chat room for wisdom and you are guaranteed foolishness. Use connections for friendship, and you are destined for loneliness. And that is exactly what the research is showing us.

Friends take time. It requires something of us. Here’s what I tell you about our church. You know, our church has a busy church. We have lots of ministries that you can find your way in.

Our church does a lot of programming on your behalf. And the reason we do that is we want to help you find community in ways that you can minister. But our church also sometimes just provides space for you, and then you figure out yourself what you want to do with it. And we’re doing that on purpose. We’re trying to find the balance between programming something and just providing space as well, so that you can determine for yourself how you’re going to navigate your way through making relationships and friendships.

You know, a good example of that is Wednesday night. Okay, I’ve been a Baptist all my life. I know what you’re supposed to do on Wednesday night at a Baptist church. I’ve done it for years, in fact. It’s gotta be written down somewhere.

You know, my mom used to say, if it ain’t in the Bible, it ought to be. It may not be in the Bible, but it ought to be. We know what you’re supposed to do on Wednesday night at a Baptist church. Okay, well, guess what? After Covid, that’s just all changed now.

We still have choir rehearsals and all kinds of things. We have programming for children. We have some limited programming for adults. But if y’all notice, we also just provide space for You. Well, there’s no programming at all.

It’s just you. And it’s an opportunity for you to decide. How much programming do I need? Or how much time do I just need to hang out with my friends and just be present why my children are doing other things. All that is not laziness on behalf of your staff is highly intentional.

Because we’re trying to help you figure that out for yourself. Because we know that you’re smart enough to know what you need sometimes for sure. And we wanna help you find your way in it. We want you to develop relationships. All these conversations and development of small groups, all that is built around a desire to help you act like friends.

Two other things real quickly. Loyalty. There’s an underlying loyalty expressed in true friendships. You know what’s gonna happen if you keep reading the story? Some of y’all may not have read this story in a while.

It’s gonna get pretty dicey over these next two pages. Saul is gonna decide to kill David, and Jonathan’s gonna find out about it. And so now what’s going to happen? These two men are going to have to decide. Are they gonna be loyal to each other?

Not even at great risk. And what you’re going to discover is, you read this text. These two men decide to work together to protect each other. It’s not blind loyalty, but there’s just a certain amount of loyalty that exists in your core friendship group. People that you get to know and love.

One of the desires you’re going to have is to protect them and be loyal to them and believe the best about them. You know, you’re not going to find a perfect friend. Neither are you going to be one. So we’re always going to disappoint each other. The only one who never disappoints us is Jesus.

Your friends will always disappoint you. There are things that we’re going to do that we shouldn’t do. That’s just what happens in a friendship. But we overcome those things through grace. And we maintain a certain level of loyalty to each other.

That’s what’s expressed in true friendships. So these two guys are going to do just that. And that leads me to this one. Intimacy. True friends share and confide in each other in healthy ways.

Here’s what. If you read the next couple of pages in one Samuel, these two guys have to start confiding in each other. They’ve got to trust each other. They’ve got to take some risks with each other. But it cultivates a layer of intimacy that they won’t have in their casual friendships.

Jonathan is going to tell David, David, my dad’s about to kill you. And David’s going to say, okay, what am I going to do? How am I going to escape this? Saul has captured me. I’m right here in this household.

And so Jonathan says, well, I’ll tell you what, let’s do. So they start confiding in each other about how they might protect each other and how they might find their way through this so that David will not be slain by Jonathan’s dad. And they take risks. And as they provide for each other and they have safe places of communication, they accomplish so much together and they rescue one another. And it cultivates a layer of intimacy between them.

You need that with your friends. You need safe places with a handful of people to just share who you are and confide in them. Your hurts, your cares. And you listen to each other and you care for each other. And sometimes you sacrifice on each other’s behalf.

That’s what good friends now. I wanna share a story with you. I’ve talked a little a bit about this story in the past and it’s a story about Bryson DeChambeau’s dad. And when I was first planning the sermon and I sent this to Jen, I was hoping I was going to be able to say, aren’t we proud of the United States Ryder Cup team and how far we are right now in this Ryder Cup competition? But those of you that have been keeping up with that, not so much.

We’re in bad shape. Bryson DeChambeau was on our team. But anyway, his dad is John DeChambeau. Where he was, he had a friend named Ron bank of Fire. Ron and John grew up together.

They were childhood friends. They went to school together, they played ball together. As kids, they lived in each other’s neighborhoods. They grew into adulthood and they lost touch with each other. Hadn’t seen each other in 30 years.

Ron bank of Fire was watching the US Amateur Golf Championship in 2015, and a young man named Bryson DeChambeau won the US Amateur Golf Tournament. Boker Fire thought to himself for bungaff Fire said, such an unusual name. Gott be my. It’s gotta be my DeChambeau. How many of them are there?

And then he saw John DeChambeau, the dad in a wheelchair who went out to congratulate his son for winning this golf tournament. And Ron saw that and he thought, my goodness, wonder what’s happened to my friend. Wondering why he’s in a wheelchair. Why does he look so ill? And so we tried to reach out to him and finally was able to contact him.

And they met in the spring of 2016 in Augusta at the Masters. And he was able to attend the Masters with his friend John. His friend John was in a wheelchair in really, really poor health. And he confided in Ron. He said, you know, I don’t know that I’m gonna live much longer.

He said, I’ve got bad kidneys. I’m on dialysis 12 hours a day. And he kind of shared this story, and he said, they’ve just not been able to find a match for me, and I’m not gonna make it much longer. And so Ryan began thinking about that, and he said, you know, something just came to him one morning. He thought to himself, well, I should give my kidney to my friend.

I’ve known John my whole life, and we’ve just now reunited. This can’t be a coincidence. And so he goes to John. He said, John, what if I give you one of my kidneys? And John said, well, you know, you don’t just give somebody a kidney.

That’s not how it works. Said, well, we gotta go test and see. So they go through a series of tests, and the medical team comes back and says, this is the most perfect match we’ve ever seen in our practice. And so Ron gave a kidney to his friend John after not seeing him for over 30 years. And he extended John’s life for a number of years where he could actually go follow his son and out of a wheelchair and live a productive life.

What a beautiful story. And when I’ve read that story, I’ve reflected on it over and over. Friends just do that kind of thing for friends, you know? I love Buzz Lightyear and Woody, don’t y’all? It’s two of my favorites.

And I love the song at Toy Story. Y’all know it. How’s it goes?

How does s it go?

You got a friend in me. I love that. I hope that there’s a handful of people right now that you can honestly not just sing that to em, but you can live it with them. Hey, you got a friend in me and I hope there are some people in your life who can say that to you. May it be so.

Let’s pray together.

Father, we’re grateful this day for how you have created us, how you’ve designed us. It was just within your will to create us in such a way that we could be in relationship with people. We could be friends, we could have friends. We thank you for that. In fact, we even sing a hymn, what a Friend we have in Jesus.

And so I want to thank you, Lord, for that design, that unique design. And I pray right now for those within the sound of my voice, Lord, that you will bless us with some core friendships that help us to learn how to live in those relationships in a healthy way. And they will honor you in them and that they will bless us, and we’ll be a blessing in them. That’s our prayer today. In Jesus name amen.