If you're 18, be the place to go, there's one friendship that we are desperate for. There's no substitute for it, though we'll try to substitute almost anything. There is no substitute for that friendship. Those nearest and dearest us, we can lose them. There's one friend we will never lose. We are um, you might, I don't know if you know, we have a sanctuary under construction. And so a lot is appointing to that in the fall and there's a lot of curiosity in our community and there's a lot of enthusiasm in our church and we want to take advantage of that to give us an opportunity to tell our community about that friend that you cannot live without. Tell our community about the gospel, tell our community about Jesus. We have, we've found Christ, Christ has found us. We want that for others in our community as well. So we're going to be challenging you in the days ahead, particularly as we get to the fall. How are you going to be trained to do that? How are you going to be trained to tell others about Christ? How are you going to serve folks when they come? How are you going to, who are you going to bring when we open that new building? And we have a whole team being organized to lead our church into that. And so you might get a call in the next couple weeks then when you'll be on this team. When we get to the fall, we want to say this church is going to focus on one thing. Calling the nations to come and worship the king. And we want you to be a part of that. So we're calling that, uh, talk about it, right? Talk about it. Somebody in the staff suggested we should call it, put your mouth where your money is. That's where your money is. Now put your mouth where your money is and talk about it. Okay, for Samuel chapter 18, we're studying the gospel as it impacts the life of David this summer. We've read about David's of a solid rejection and David's selection. I was surprising and shocking. Nobody expected that this son of Jesse would be named the future king. Then he's actually brought into the court of Saul as a musician. And then actually goes from there out to become Israel's champion and plays the giant Goliath. And comes back into the home of Saul where he is a wildly celebrated. And somebody begins to wake up and realize that right in his midst is the new king. And he's not too wild about that first Samuel chapter 18. We're going to cover three chapters tonight, but I'm not going to read all of that. So if you'll stand if you're able and willing, we'll give our attention to the word of God. Starting at the 18th chapter, it came about when he had finished speaking to Saul with the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David. And Jonathan loved him as himself. And Saul took him that day and did not let him return to his father's house. Then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. And Jonathan stripped himself of the road that was on him and gave it to David with his armor, including his sword and his bow and his belt. The David went out wherever Saul sent him and prospered and Saul set him over the men of war. It was pleasing in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul's servants. It happened as they were coming when David returned from killing the polysten that the women came out of all the cities of Israel singing and dancing to meet King Saul with tambourines, with joy and with musical instruments. And the women sang, Saul has played his thousands and David is 10,000. Oh, Saul became very angry. This saying displeased him. David scoured the David 10,000, but to me they've scoured thousands. Now what more can you have but the kingdom? And Saul looked at David with suspicion from that day on. It came about on the next day that an evil spirit from God came mightily upon Saul and he raved in the midst of the house while David was playing the harp as usual and his spear was in Saul's hand and Saul hurled the spear so he thought I will pin David to the wall, but David escaped from his presence twice. Now Saul was afraid of David. Isn't that interesting? Saul was afraid of David. So the word was with him but had departed from Saul. Therefore Saul removed him from his presence and appointed him as a commander of a thousand and he went out and came in before the people and David was prospering and always ways for the word was with him. When Saul saw that he was prospering greatly he dreaded him but always real and judo loves David and he went out and came in before them and Saul said to David, here's my order older daughter Merib. I will give her to you as a wife, only be the valiant man for me and fight the words battled for Saul thought, my hand shall not be against David but let the hand of the Philistines be against him. David said to Saul, who am I and was my wife and my father's family in Israel that I should be the king's son-in-law. So it came about at the time when Merib Saul's daughter should have been given to David she was given to Agriel for a wife. Now Michael saw a daughter run David and when they told Saul the thing was agreeable to him and Saul thought, I will give her to him that she may become a snare to him and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him. Therefore Saul said to David, for a second time you may be my son-in-law and Saul commanded his servants, speak to David secretly saying, the king the wife's in you, all his servants love you. Now therefore become the king's son-in-law so Saul's servants spoke these words to David. But David said, it's trivial in your sight to become the king's son-in-law. I'm a poor man and lightly esteemed and the servants of Saul reported to him according to these words which David spoke and Saul said, that you shall say to David, the king does not desire any dowry except a hundred fourskins of the Philistines to take vengeance on the king's enemies. Not many of you don't know what's being referred to here. You can call Jim Cole. He's an expert at explaining these things. A hundred fourskins of the Philistines. Now Saul plans to make David's fall by the hand of the Philistines and when his servants told David these words, it pleased David to become the king's son-in-law. Before the day that expired, David rose up and went, he and his men and struck down two hundred a man among the Philistines and brought their fourskins and they gave them in full numbers as a king that he might become the king's son-in-law so Saul gave him Michael's daughter for a wife. And when Saul saw and knew that the word was with David and that Michael's daughter loved him then Saul was even more afraid of David. That Saul was David's enemy continually. Then the commanders of the Philistines went out to battle and it happened as often as they went out that David behaved himself more wisely than all the servants of Saul. So his name was highly esteemed. Now Saul told Jonathan his son and all his servants to put David to death. But Jonathan's son greatly delighted in David. And Jonathan told David, Saul, my father is seeking to put you to death. Now therefore please be on guard in the morning and stay in a secret place and hide yourself. And I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are and I will speak with my father about you if I find out anything that I shall tell you. Then Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father and said to him, don't let the king's sin against his servant, David, since he has not sinned against you and since his deeds have been very beneficial to you. Now if you turn all the way over to chapter 20 verse 30 when it becomes all the more obvious to Saul that his son has sided with David this is what he says, Saul's anger burned against Jonathan and he said to him, you son of a perverse rebellious woman, do I not know that you are choosing the son of Jesse to your own shame and the shame of your mother's nakedness? For as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth neither you nor your kingdom will be established. Therefore now send and bring him to me for he must surely die. But Jonathan answered, Saul's father and said to him, why should he be put to death? What has he done? So Saul hurled his spirit, Jonathan. And Jonathan knew that his father had decided to put David to death and Jonathan arose from the table and fierce anger and did not eat food on the second day of the new moon for he was grieved over David because his father had dishonored him. May God bless this reading of his holy and insolable word, you may be seated. Friendship matters, connection matters. It may be one of the most lightly discussed parts of Christianity or spirituality. Eugene Peterson says, Friendship is important to a spiritual matter as his prayer or as is the Lord's supper. We were made for connection, a relational God whose forever and eternity lived in relationship. Father, son and Holy Spirit made up relational to connect. There is a man-shaped, you know, Augustine's famous phrase. There's a God-shaped vacuum and every human heart and man will be reckless until he finds his rest in God. Indeed, there's a man-shaped vacuum and all of our souls were made for connection with others just as the body needs air and the body does need air. As I witnessed this week, we were in Chili's restaurant, no commentary on the fair there, but there was a man who was jagging on his food and he had his head reared back and his food was lodged in his throat. My son and I and others tried to pull him out of his booth and a man came up and gave him behind lick maneuver and an air rushed into his body. Where our bodies need air, our souls need connection but we struggle to connect. My lapal was a columnist for the Chicago Tribune. She wrote a column in which he said, I am lonely, this loneliness saddens me. How did it happen? I could be 42 years old and not have enough friends. She asked her husband if there was something wrong with her. She wondered if people were just too busy for friends. She says it seems as though every woman's friendship code has been filled and she's no longer accepting new applicants. She wondered if perhaps there are women out there who don't know how wrongly they are. Sure, it's easy to fill up the day with work, but is that really enough? She concluded her column by saying, I recently read my daughter Hans Christian Anderson's ugly duckling. I thought an immediate kinship with this bird who flies from place to place looking for creatures with whom he belongs. He eventually finds them. I hope I do too. He knows she said more than any other column she wrote. She was flooded with response. Seven times the response he's ever had to any other column. Women would come up to her at her children's games and the grocery store aisle at the bank and they would say, you too. They'd say, I feel exactly the same way. All the letters she said had the same theme. Why do I feel so lonely? Why is it so hard to make good friends? Now, sociologists say that if this is a problem for women, guess who it's a far greater problem for? That they're really very few men who would be able to identify a true friend, a deep friendship. And is there any life that we could say that somebody who fails a relationship will at the end of their life say it was a great life? No matter what you achieve in all your life, if you don't experience deep relational connection at the end of your life, does anybody say that was a great life? No, we're made for relational connection, for friendship. It's the universal longing of the human heart. We know it's from the time we're born. Maybe as parents, you remember a time when your, oh, maybe one, one and a half year old child would be waking up from a nap. One of the sweet memories of that age. There are others less so sweet. But you'd hear them waking up and ruffling in their crib and so you'd open the door to their bedroom and when you'd peek inside their bedroom, they'd stand up in their crib and what would they do? They'd stand up in what would they do? They'd put their stubby chubby little arms out and they'd say something like this, hold, hold you me. You hold me, hold you me? Well, this evening I want to invite you to be a little children with a heavenly father to extend your arms and experience connection with him as the route to connection with each other. First Samuel chapter 18, 19 and 20, David is in peril throughout. But he survives because he has what? Because he has what? He has a friend. He survives because he has a friend. We will not survive without friends. So I want to ask you as we start to this message. How about you? A relationship of high value to you. Is there something that keeps you from deep connections with people? Can I give you a little secret? There is. There is. There's something that keeps all of us from connection, fear, insecurity, sin, safety. And so tonight we want to ask God to kind of do a spiritual Heimlich maneuver on us to dislodge some of those things that are stopping up our hearts from running to connection that our souls so long for. Is there anybody that wouldn't say I'd like to be more loving? You might be really loving. I bet you're doing better than me. You might be really relational but is there anybody here that wouldn't say I'd like more of that? As I said before, if I could listen into my own funeral or my own kids gathering at my tombstone, there's a couple of things I don't really wish to hear them say. You know, he really brought home the paycheck. He was organized. We have good vacations. But there's something my ears will long to hear them say, what's that? He loved us. He loved us. He gave us his heart. He gave us his time. He gave us himself. Who doesn't want their kids to say that? Their grandkids to say that. So let's ask God to dislodge those things to keep us from being relational. We have a sound online. The first thing we'll talk about is this God's blessing of connection. Covenant or connection might call it. As we look at this relationship, particularly of David and Jonathan, the first thing we say is that is a deep relationship, is a relationship that pledges. There's an element of pledging to it. An element of commitment to it. In this passage, we read that when David killed Goliath, it really shakes things up. David becomes a part of the royal family. And there's nothing like the parade of all the women in the tambourines and the dancing and the celebrating and the shouting when the king comes in. And he hears them all shouting, you know, Saul has killed his thousands. If that's all they said, Saul would have gone to bed that night, a happy man. Look at their singing about me and my military prowess. Saul has killed his thousands, but David has killed his 10,000. Oh, there's a new kid on the block and they're celebrating David. God, there's everybody likes David. Saul sermons like David. Saul's people like David. Saul's daughter likes David. Saul sermons like David in a deep envy festers and so begins to fester inside of Saul and so that he wants to kill David in the midst of that hostility. What do we read? A deep friendship is forged between David and it's between Saul, Sun, Jonathan, and David. Look at those first couple verses. What does it say? Their souls are what? Knit together. Their hearts are soul. Their knit together. It says that Jonathan made a covenant with David. He loved him as himself. This is a relationship that involved a bond. A broad bond. You understand, a covenant was something that was cut. There was a shedding of blood. There was a severed animal and two. There was a rendered in two and the parties to the covenant would walk between the pieces of the animal, saying what? If you're not true to me, then may you be as this animal is. That's the kind of commitment they make to each other. Their souls are knit. There's a blood oath. Deep friendship is a relationship that pledges. It's a commitment to be loyal, to be faithful. It's a commitment to be steadfast and reliable. It's not fickle. It doesn't add and flow. It's not with the seasons. It's not situational. It prevails even in the worst conditions. It's a relationship in which you can find security because there's a lot. There's a pledge. There's a covenant. There's a promise. Deep relationships involve a pledge. Maybe the best place we see that or the place we long to see it the most is in what relationship? Marriage. Marriage. Till death do us part, right? There's going to be forever. That's end of my road. I have seen it in my mother's care of my father in his last years as his health but particularly his mind began to slip. Nine months after my father died, my mother died perhaps because she felt she could. She had accomplished her mission taking care of her husband, not sensational or glamorous, just covenantal. It had something to do within sickness and in health. The team leader for my daughters in Kenya is a woman. Someone told me her story just a week ago. They said that two or three years after she was married, her husband was in a horrible car accident. He has the mind of about a 10-year-old. That was 25 years ago. They're still married. She still loves him. She takes care of him. He's institutionalized for part of the week. He comes to their home where he demands almost her full attention for 25 plus years. Why? Because there's a pledge. It's about a pledge. It's a covenant. It's a commitment. Gary Gyer talked about it, didn't he? A beautiful picture of what it means to be an a pledge, a relationship. It's something we experience. We join the church, don't we? We join the church. We say, we commit ourselves to take care of each other. We had vacasms in our worship service. What happens in vacasms? We say, we ask all the congregation where you are. Will you assist the parents in the raising of these children? That's why there are families in this church who pay for other children to go to the Christian school. Why would they do that? I mean, I'm talking thousands of dollars. Not for their children, but for somebody else's children. Why would they do that? Because there's what? They pledge and so have you. And so have you. My children are your children. Your children are my children. You're my brothers and my sisters. It's a pledge. It's a covenant. It's a commitment. Jennifer Carr got married last week in Jackson, Mississippi for many years. She was a member of this church. People from this church went. Why? When Jean Campbell's mother died, people from this church flew to some god-for-stake and corn field in the middle of Illinois. Yes. Where Jean grew up out of that dark soil right there in Bushnell. And they had to get an Indian guide to find where this church was. But they went. Why did they go? Because we're connected to each other because when one cries, others cry, when one celebrates, others celebrate, that's what friendship is. Our souls are knit together. That's rich. Not many people know that. It's a precious thing. It's a precious thing to have that, to cultivate that, to value that. That's what deep friendship is. It involves pledge. It involves covenant. Second with Jonathan. I want you to see verse four that deep friendship is a relationship that's provocative. It's a relationship that provokes. If you look at verse four of chapter 18, it says that Jonathan is hard knit with David. It's hard and covenant with David. It did something very interesting. He did what? He took off his row. He took off his battleguard. He took off his bow. He took off his spear, his sword, his implements of war. He takes them up and he gives them to David and what does that mean? He's surrendering his position to David. He's giving up his place as a rightful air. He's the crown prince of his father, the king, and he's giving it all up and giving it to David. Now, I just want to say something. Nobody in the ancient world will do that. Nobody does that. Nobody acts that way. Imagine going to a realtor and saying to your realtor, how much is my outfit? What's always a hundred thousand dollars? I want you to put it on a market for eighty thousand dollars. The realtor would look at you like you're crazy. It's not because I want to get rid of it quickly. I just want to sell it for less than it's worth. The realtor would say, nobody does that. Nobody takes a young upstart and makes yourself less than they are and gives up your place in the royal order. To them in the ancient world, what do you do to people who are the upstart? You eliminate them. You kill them. This is the expected behavior from Jonathan instead. He loves David. This is what I want you to see. There's something about deep friendships that provokes, that you look at it. You look at Jonathan's behavior and you say, nobody acts like that. That's a radical. It's provocatively radical. We voluntarily chooses to be the leftist. I'll say there's something about friendship that doesn't make us laugh. It doesn't drag us down. It doesn't make us less than what we are. It doesn't encourage us to be worth. It does the opposite. Deep friendship pulls us up. Makes us long to be more. We watch another raise their kids and we don't feel that I'm lecturing us like you should do this with your kids. We just watch them and something happens and out that we say, what? I'd like to be patient like that. I'd like to be tender. We watch others in the way that the friend of the law are non-christians. We watch their manner and their care and their concern and their mercy and we say, I want to be like that. It provokes, it incites us, the Bible says. So love and good deeds iron sharpens iron. There's something about a deep friendship that sharpens up. It doesn't make us more dull. It makes us sharper. It makes us want to be more virtuous. It calls out the best and the highest from us. You know, I was thinking, just follow my crazy thinking through. And then I'm not going to tell you all my crazy thinking, but you know, this church has adopted a lot of children. And as we look at the next 20 years, I think, what if we were to adopt? What did you just picture this with me? What if there were 10 or 20 African-American children adopted by families in this church? If a visitor walked in and lived around the room and saw 10 or 20 families carrying African-American babies, then what would they say? They would say, what? Did you think they'd know that? They would say, what's up with that? What's up with that? What did these people, why are they doing that? That's what a good friend does. They provoke you. They provoke you with their behavior to say, you know what, I bet I could do that. I bet God could do that in me, too, with Bill Heible's team and spoke here. And he talked about listening to God and making his heart soft and to make sure that whatever he had was on the table, God wanted it, he could have it. And when I walked out of that room that night, I was provoked. I mean, that night I said, I don't think I've done that. Something about that. Something about disobedience said, I can go there. God, give me the faith. I want to go there, too. Unfortunately, the person who most provoked me is my wife. And also many ways. Let's restrict it to this object. Number some years ago, we were in, I took the kids to Taco Bell and we prayed, the kids and I prayed over the food, which is a good idea in Taco Bell. And I don't know why after we prayed, there was an elderly gentleman came by the table and he said, you know, he's just so moved and he said, I didn't think families prayed anymore. He said, I think that's so great that you, and he took out his wallet and he gave eight each of the kids a dollar bill. And I remember thinking, didn't he see me pray?
So I thank him and we went home and the kids were all excited and they ran to tell their mom about, you know, we were in the restaurant, we got a food, we were playing and this man, you know, he gave us this money and I said, did daddy invite him to church? And I'll never forget the words of my daughter. Mom, he's not like you, you know? Friendship is a relationship that makes me say, you know what, I want to walk with Jesus. I want to experience that God centered freedom and abandonment all the more. It's a relationship of pledging and provoking third. I want you to see, it's a relationship that protects. We know that. Saul makes repeated attempts to kill David. Two times he tries to spear him to the wall and then he becomes the rest, you know, the hot outburst of flashes of anger. He becomes a little more subtle and he plots murder by marriage. First, he offers his daughter, Merub. You know, you become a Philistin hero. The Feats of Philistins will give you Merub. You'll become the Kings and the Kings family, the Kings son-in-law, quite an honor. David goes out of the Feats of Philistins. He gives her someone else. Then he offers some Michael for that. As you remember, that tiny little sum of the Philistin forced him and, again, Saul's thinking is, he's not trying to marry his daughters and make some sort of covenantal arrangement with David. He's trying to kill David and he figures, one of these encounters with 100 Philistins is going to do this guy in. Instead, David kills 200 Philistins and comes back and passes the test. We know that Saul commissions Jonathan in chapter 19, verse 1. Go kill David. Jonathan intervenes on David's behalf. We know that he tries to spear David to the wall, again. I think it's first 10 of chapter 19, and then he actually sends a hit squad. After David, they camp around the house of Michael, his wife. She lets him out through the window. He escapes. She stealthily, you know, she creates a dummy, you know, in the bed before these hitmen and David escapes again. So chapter 20, which we didn't read, tells us that of all the places that David runs to for refuge, because now he's a fugitive. Saul wants to kill him. He runs to Saul's son. It's an amazing thing. He finds refuge in Jonathan. Why would he run to Jonathan because they had a covenant? Because when you need a place to go for refuge, you turn to the ones who swarmed, who's pledged, they had a covenant. He runs to Jonathan. Now, Jonathan doesn't really believe it. He's already talked to his father. Saul said, I'm not going to kill David. So Jonathan, they can talk to a little test. There's a three-day new moon festival in which all of the high officials in Saul's court need to be there, and David's not going to show up. And so they want to see how Saul reacts when David doesn't show up. This will be the test. And of course, what happens is when David doesn't show up and Jonathan defends David, Saul goes ballistic, points at his son basically and says, you will never be king. Your kingdom will never come to fruition if we don't take care of David. What in the world are you thinking? A relationship that protects. Friendship is a relationship that protects. Jonathan is selfless in this. He chooses David's kingdom. He chooses David, and thereby he loses the throne. He loses his father's favor. He risks his own life. Deep friendship puts one's self in harm's way for a friend. We know that Jesus said, greater love has no man than one. And then a man do what? He lay down his life for a friend. How would God have us lay down our lives for one another? Well, there's a lot of ways. And I don't know how God might call you to do that. But I think of a pastor who said he was in a meeting one time and one of his friends was being assailed in that meeting. And he didn't say anything. Because the whole group, they're sort of a mob. The whole group was against his friend. To stand up for his friend meant they would be against him. It was the cost. He said, he was quiet. He went home ashamed. And he vowed, I'll never sit there again while one of my friends is skewered. Tampa City reported Lance Williams went to high school with Lance Williams. Did you see that program on TV a couple weeks ago about him? He's been battling cancer for the last number of years. He's channel eight to the reporter. The last hope for Lance Williams' leukemia was a bone marrow match that very difficult time finding a match. And finally, it was a 17, 18-year-old girl. You're not allowed to know who your donor is. But they broke the rules after a couple months and they got in touch with each other. Lance Williams is still alive three years later. That little girl was his friend. She gave her own bone marrow painfully. She allowed it to happen for somebody. She was a friend of somebody she didn't even know. She was fighting for the life of someone she didn't know. In God's Providence, she spent the last three summers at Lance Williams' home in Tampa now. She's an intern at channel eight news in Tampa. They've become, indeed, fast friends. There's something about friendship that one offers up tasty and protection in life. Remember Sue Winship, when she gave her testimony a couple weeks ago? She said she went to a small group and she was dry spiritually and she was afraid to tell them, but she did. And it was safe. She was afraid. She'd become them, but it was safe. I read this week of a man who went to his small group with his addiction to pornography. He talked about shame. Talk about humiliation. And when he looked up, he saw all the guys in the group and their eyes were filled with tears. It's safe. It's safe to be real. That's what friends offer to one another. So I guess I want to ask this tonight, how relational, how connected are you? We spend a lot of energy on a lot of things, don't we? We spend a lot of energy making money. We spend a lot of energy on our yards. Business knows, we spend a lot of energy on our pets. How much energy do you spend on friendships? How much energy do you spend on connection? On, you know, Christianity is not principally about avoiding the big sins. Christianity is not principally about getting all your doctrine straight. Christianity is about experiencing a pursuing level of God and then sharing it with others. Relational, it's relational connection. How do you get that? How do you get that ability to move past your fears and your selfishness and your anxieties and your worry to really care about people? Because we can talk about it in church and all sounds good and who's against friendship. But it's a lot harder than that. It can be wearying and it can be difficult. Where does that come from? It comes when we experience the relational friendship and connection of Almighty God. And that's the last point of the sermon. What I want you to see in this passage is more than David is pursued by Saul who wishes to kill him is pursued by him. He's pursued by the God who wishes to give him life. So who do you think wins? More than David is buried by the friendship of Jonathan, David is strengthened by the friendship of you. What is the passage? The repeating seems throughout the passages and God was with him. David prospered because God was with him. Saul was mad because God was not with him. They could see that Saul was with David. God was with him. God's favor, God's love, God's grace, was experienced by David. Listen, what chances a shepherd boy have against the king? How effective is a harp against the spear? Who could explain this passage except for this? David belonged to God. God was his friend. And if every encounter Saul gets weaker and David gets stronger and the friendship bond grows greater. See, that's the story of the passage. It's not about Jonathan. And David, it's about David and the Almighty God, his Heavenly Father, who has sworn his royal wealth to David. That's what I want you to know. That's what I want you to know. That the friendship of God is our refuge, our protection. This week I was playing golf with my sons. And about a half hour after we started, it started. Not the bogies, they started right away. But the rings and the thunder and the lightning. You're on a golf course, you're vulnerable. We booked it for the shelter. And in the shelter, guess what? It cracked, it rolled, it rumbled. The sky wore, the rain poured. Who cared? We were safe. Father, take me under the shelter of your wings. We see David sheltered. When the going gets dicey to home, do you run? You run for the one you're in covenant with. The one who has pledged to you. David, a greater one than Jonathan, had pledged himself to be David's friend. I want to tell you, I've been in this church for 20 years and the story of this church is plain and simple. From my vantage point, it's plain and simple. God has been mighty on our behalf. God has been a friend to us. I remember a couple weeks ago I was doing a funeral and just a couple weeks ago. And in preparing for the funeral light, I still experienced a flashback of fright. There's nothing that frightens me more, and there's a lot that frightens me. I'm frightened every time I get up here. I struggle with fear all the time. But nothing like the idea that I would have to lead the singing. That's why when I look at Dan Ghandi up there, I think, oh my, he should just go straight to heaven right into the Apocalypse. He should just, how could anybody do that? First thing I know we ever did in this church. I remember I was set in determined. We are not just going to bury people. We are going to give them a memorial service. We're going to sing. We're going to celebrate. And all my great ideas met the fact that we didn't have a church. We didn't have a building. We didn't have a music program. We didn't have a music theater. We didn't even have a penis at the time. And so we had to do the first funeral. I remember we went to the funeral home and the only music they had was all the way in the back and it was some kind of like electric organ thing. I don't know if it was like a crank organ or... And so I said, we're singing an amazing great. That was as risky as I would go. I think if people knew that, it's wahili. And so we're singing a man. And I remember there were six guys from our church who were Paul Bears. And I remember lying those guys up and saying to them, if you guys hang me out the door. I'm getting in my car and I'm leaving this county. You'll never... Because when I don't even know if I can hear that organ when it stops, I don't even know if it's a gay play load. But at some point, I'm going to have to start this song. And if you don't come in with me... I mean, my heart was saying, honestly, if you don't come in with me, I'm not going to be your pastor. I'm not going to... I'm going to say something for 20 years. Not only have you guys come in with me, but for 20 years, we've watched God do His thing, Emily. He is our protection. He is our pledge. He is our surety. And He's our purpose. Our stories, our lives are so small. The purpose of our life was our kingdom. But, you know, Jonathan gets it, doesn't he? Jonathan understands it's not about his kingdom. There's a bigger story going on. You see, through David, ultimately, is going to come the son of David, even Jesus. There's a bigger story going on with Jonathan gets to be king. And so, Jonathan's father says, you'll never be king if you act like this. Jonathan doesn't want to be king. There's something better. The way to life isn't to want to be the king. The way to life is to serve the king. Jonathan gets it. See, his connection with Jesus that puts us in touch with all of that. True life, purpose, not doing my kingdom, building His kingdom. As you know, my daughters have been in Kenya for three weeks. We've delighted in their communication. They've told us about ministering to people with AIDS. They've told us about the conditions there. They said that one walk into the Caberra slum will change your life forever, one walk. They've talked about hiking up their garments and leaping over the open sewage in the streets of children. His bellies are so distended in there, so weak and they're so hungry, they can't muster the strength to smile. And all that courses through these letters is this, that my daughter's telling me we have never been more alive than we are on this trip. We're in the midst of the worst poverty and deprivation we have ever seen, but we have never felt more alive. Why? Because laying down your life for the king, the true king, the real king, not yourself in life. That's what Jesus said. That's what we want. That's the connection that we want. How do you get it? Stella wrote, maybe the other day, he said he was speaking at a camp and at the end of this talk, he spoke on experiencing God as your dead. He said when he was done talking to these teenagers at the summer camp, they lined up in a long line to come and hug Him. Many of them broke and hearted for what they did not receive in their own homes, the love of a father. But he said at the same time with mending hearts because of what they were receiving in relationship with Jesus. You might be like me. You might not be that good at relationships. But you know what? Our hearts can mend right from the inside which can be transformed. So that out of us starts to go well for other people. Life was never known before. The ability to look people in the eye, the ability to ask the right questions to care. Your heart can mend. How does it start? You know how it starts. You lift your hands up to the heavenly Father and you say what? How do you hold you in me? And he will. How do you hold you in me?