Title: David and Jonathan
Reference: 1 Samuel 18-20
Speaker: Bill Gorman, BillG@cckc.church

“The physical health consequences of poor or insufficient connection include a 29% increased risk of heart disease, a 32% increased risk of stroke, and a 50% increased risk of developing dementia for older adults. Additionally, lacking social connection increases risk of premature death by more than 60%.”

“Friends are not primarily absorbed in each other. It is when they are doing things together that friendship springs up—painting, sailing ships, praying, philosophizing, fighting shoulder to shoulder. Friends look in the same direction. Lovers look at each other: that is, in opposite directions. (C. S. Lewis, “Equity” in Present Concerns)

> Alongside every wholehearted human are good friends.

Myth #1: The highest form of love is sex and romance.

Truth #1: True friendship is even better than sex and romance.

"These are the options: either we live in a universe in which everything personal eventually reduces to the impersonal, or we live in a universe in which everything impersonal can be traced back to the personal God. Those are two very different universes to live in. Which one do you find more satisfying?" -Christopher Watkins

You see, the first human being didn’t simply need a spouse. He needed other people. Adam alone couldn’t achieve what God had created him to do. So, the answer to his aloneness was not the meager provision of a single marriage relationship but the holistic resolution found in a multiplicity of interpersonal human relationships.
The creator’s solution was to make Adam not only into a husband—but also into a father, a grandfather, a family member, a neighbor, a work colleague, and a friend. God took someone who was truly alone and generated the entire community of humanity from his very body…. In other words, God’s answer to the “not good”-ness of human aloneness was, and is, the “very good”-ness of relational abundance. -Dannie Treweek, “Adam’s Aloneness Wasn’t Just His Singlehood”

Myth #2: If you have to work at a friendship it’s just not worth it.

Truth #2: True friendship requires intentional work.

Myth #3: If your friends require too much of you, you need new friends.

Truth #3: True friendship will cost you.

Friendship with David complicated Jonathan’s life enormously. He risked losing his father’s favor and willingly sacrificed his own royal future. But neither the risk nor the loss deterred him; he became and stayed David’s friend. -Eugene Peterson, Leap Over A Wall

Myth #4: The right friends will meet all your needs.

Truth #4: There’s only One friend who can meet your deepest need.