Pastor Jon Burgess
March 8, 2020 - W2010

"Friends for Life"

Life Lessons from A King: Study in the Life of David

Pastor Jon Burgess 

March 7 & 8, 2020 

Welcome, New Hope and those online! As we complete our series Life Lessons from a King, we are talking about how you and I can be true friends—Friends for Life—because friends are in short supply and it takes work! 

Proverbs 18:24 NIV says, “One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”

You’ve heard it said, “You are who you hang with.” It's very clear that we should use our time investing in friends that will keep us on track and position us for the Divine Calling that God has for us—that was certainly true of Jonathan with David. Their friendship was amazing and powerful; the inception of this friendship is found in…  

1 Samuel 18:1-4 NIV, says: ”¹After David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself. ² From that day Saul kept David with him and did not let him return home to his family. ³ And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. ⁴ Jonathan took off the robe he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his tunic, and even his sword, his bow and his belt.”

As David is talking to King Saul, Jonathan, King Saul’s son, is in the tent listening. David is saying, “I'll face that giant.” And Saul says, “You're a shepherd boy. You can't do that.”  David says, “Oh, I'm going to.  I'm going to face that giant.  We cannot let him blaspheme our God!”

As Jonathan is listening to David’s faith, something happens inside Jonathan that connects him immediately in a friendship level with David.  Jonathan is giving David his robe, tunic, sword, bow, and belt—each is symbolic of the power and authority that Jonathan has and confirming, “I'm not the next in line to be king—David, you are! I'm handing the authority that I have positionally and relationally over to you spiritually.  I will support your kingship.” Jonathan is incredibly sacrificial.  If anyone should have been threatened by David's assent into stardom and power, it should have been Jonathan as he was the rightful heir to the throne.  

1. A True Friend Will Choose to Be Collaborative Instead of Being Competitive 

We live in a highly competitive culture. Anytime you see someone doing better than you, do you rejoice, or do you feel that you must undermine them?  A true friend will rejoice and choose to collaborate to see him succeed—as Jonathan did with David.

When Jonathan’s father tried to kill his friend, Jonathan said to David, “I will warn you. I'm willing to risk my life when my father finds out that I chose my friendship with you over my loyalty to him and my throne.

2. A True Friend Will Choose to Be Sacrificial Over Superficial  

We live in a superficial age.  The guests that we have invited today will share their stories from “What's in it for me” to “What can I do for you?”  

The first guest that we have the joy of welcoming is someone I consider to be Friends for Life! We first met in 2014 when Pastor Wayne called our family to move to Kona on the Big Island to restart a church called New Hope Legacy.  

[Video] 

PASTOR JON:  I love how, out of all the places that God could have called us to and the house that He called us to live is this house, right here because it just so happened that you, Pastor Makana, live here! It's almost as if God was up to something, huh? 

PASTOR MAKANA:  Now that we look back, we can see that wasn't an accident. 

PASTOR JON:  No, not at all.  It was God's divine design.  I love coming back to Kona because it was in these waters that I got water baptized, as a keiki. And it was right across there that we had our church called The Tradewinds,and next to it was the halfway house also operated by my parents. And, it was in Kona that I knelt by my bed and asked Christ into my heart.  So, coming back is like coming back to my spiritual roots! 

When we left New Hope Seattle (after being there for 10 years), my big prayer was “God, I really need friends for my kids and, also, for me because I'm leaving a lot of friends. You can't get through life without good friends.” I realized that it was the friendship of my dad and Clyde that led your dad coming to know the Lord. Out of all the grand plans we have, the greatest is to have is a friend. I stand in awe and thank God for your friendship with me. Even though we're on different islands, we're doing this together! 

[End Video]

PASTOR JON: Would you welcome Pastor Makana Delovio from New Hope Legacy?  I remember the day when Cyndi and I invited you and Tammy to have coffee at Starbucks and you thought you were in trouble. Instead we said, “Hey, Pastor Wayne has invited us to be campus pastors at New Hope Oahu, and we feel that you guys are supposed to take the church.” There was something special about that timing.  What was special about that day?

PASTOR MAKANA:  It was 15 years to the day that we graduated from Bible college—and that was the day we were asked to take over the church at New Hope Legacy! We had put that dream on the shelf thinking I'd just pastor on jobsites and my family, and I'd be happy doing that.

PASTOR JON:  Then God resurrected that dream through our friendship; He's using your family and connections as a Kona Boy, raised here to bring even more people to Christ! As a friend, I was really concerned, recently, when I found out that you were here because of health emergency.  Tell us what was going on.

PASTOR MAKANA:  On Valentine's Day I started having chest pains and went to the doctor; he said, “Man, you have problems.  We're sending you to Oahu!” They discovered that my heart was 97 percent blocked and put a stent in my heart! It was a surreal moment that at 47 years old I have this kind of health problem!  The doctor who did the stress test said, “Man, I've been doing this for a long time, but I've never seen anyone as bad as you are looking as good as you do! I had just finished surfing—and now I’m in the emergency room! 

PASTOR JON:  I was obviously very concerned for you, your family, and church; but out of that experience came a fresh perspective that you shared with me. Would you share with us?

PASTOR MAKANA:  At 47, Makana died! But because of the miracle of medicine (a stent in my heart) my blood flow is back to normal!  I look at it as if I did die, and I got a second chance at life. The guy who loves salt and vinegar chicken wings, died!

PASTOR JON:  It caused you to reprioritize your relationships.  It takes a lot of intentionality to stay connected with friends, so what would you say to those who say friendship is optional?  

PASTOR MAKANA:  It's definitely worth the intentional effort! And it's valuable in your time of need to have someone by your side. Talk about living in a digital age, there were lots of people that knew I was in the hospital—but very few came to see me.

PASTOR JON:  It's in those moments that you realize who your true friends are.  On that note, I challenge each of us to consider building a friendship that you can pursue. In fact, Cyndi and I were taking Elijah to look at colleges on the mainland, when our childcare fell through—guess who I called?  My friend. Can we thank Pastor Makana for being with us and sharing his story? 

Our next friend is well?known around the world.  He has a television show on KHON 2 called In the Kitchen with Sam Choy.  He and I met, ironically, in the house that we lived in Kona.  Before he ever got on KHON, he was starting a YouTube Channel with the same concept, going into someone's home, finding leftovers in their fridge, and making it into a gourmet meal. Our friendship started right there!  Welcome the world?renown Celebrity Chef Sam Choy!

SAM CHOY:  Aloha.  Hey, the Lord is my doctor and I'm not worried. When we were growing up in Laie, my parents fed the neighborhood kids. My mom and dad always had large pots full of food—chili, stew, or spaghetti.  One day I asked, "Mom, where are all these kids from?"  She said, "Well, their parents knew that they couldn't feed their kids, so they dropped them off at our house." That's how I started cooking, doing the dishes, and chopping vegetables.  I liked cleaning up because there were a lot of leftovers! 

PASTOR JON:  And leftovers have become kind of your thing now. When you came to our house in Kona and opened the fridge—that was awesome! 

SAM CHOY:  That was the beginning of our show on TV—I got blessed talking to you! I used to eat a lot of bad food—this was 450 pounds ago. I used to stick my head in the restaurant window and say, “I want gravy all over my rice.  And, by the way, an extra scoop of rice, if you don't mind.”  Then, “Oh, and one diet Coke.”

PASTOR JON:  That balances it all out, right—the diet Coke? So, while you're doing that, you came to know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior at an Easter service with Pastor Wayne? 

SAM CHOY:  The feeling was outstanding, great!  The most important thing was that you could feel the Lord in the service.  That's what we are all searching for—where we can feel the Lord and say, “That's for me!”  I've lived that lifestyle almost all my life.

PASTOR JON:  The turning point in your health was when God used a doctor friend to actually speak into your life.  Friends will not necessarily tell you what you want to hear, but what you need to hear—right? 

SAM CHOY:  I was driving home one day, and all of a sudden, I looked across the road, and everything looked blurry. I said, “Wow, that's weird!”  Then I got tired and felt like sleeping. I made it home and sat on my chair and fell asleep in the middle of the day!  My wife looked at me and said, “You better go to the doctor.”  Of course, I listened! The doctor took blood tests and all that, and looked at me and said, "Wow. You should be dead. Your sugar is so high, that's why everything is blurry—you have Type 1 diabetes! Man, your kidneys are going to fail, then the doctors cannot pull you out of it.” I got scared!

PASTOR JON:  And so how much weight have you lost since then?

SAM CHOY:  I weighed 405 pounds. I'm down to 245. I want to get down to about 200. That's my goal.  I have more energy and more focused now.  I'm on the road about seven, eight times a week for two weeks; and as a chef for American Airlines, I'm all over the world.  But in the process of losing weight, look at what's good for you and eat the good things!  

PASTOR JON:  We are ending our time with two friends you are familiar with—they lead worship for us. Would you welcome our worship leaders, Ana Allen and Doulesha McCormick! Everyone sees you ministering together, so they probably assume friendship was really easy, but it actually took some work. How did it start?  

ANA: I actually started on the Frontlines team. During that time, I was walking through my own personal valley, and it seemed as if God knew that I needed a friend.  Over the course of getting to know Dee, between the music and the makeup, I made friends with her.  It took some courage because when you're going through stuff, you are vulnerable.  And when you’re going through something heavy, you need someone who can make you laugh, and that was definitely Dee.  And all this music was coming out of me for the first time in my life! I was writing songs, and she would listen to the lyrics, and because I really admire her talent so much, that was scary too. She called something out of me that I have never been called before—she called me a lyricist, a song writer, and I'm like, “Really?  You think I'm a song writer?”  So that was kind of the start.  

DEE: I'm originally from Michigan, and my husband is in the Marine Corps; and we moved to Southern California.  I made friends at church and met a Christian band—it was like family!  A year and a half after that, we received orders to go to Hawaii, and I really did not want to leave but obviously, we ended up here! 

I said, “Jesus, I need a friend.  I need somebody to talk to. My husband doesn't like makeup.  He doesn't like music.  What am I supposed to do here?”  Finally, Ana and I started meeting together; she would come to my house and I felt honored that she was coming to me with her music because she is an amazing songwriter—she is definitely a lyricist.  She was really open and told me about what she was going through, so I was able to be open up with her.  

I'm a stay?at?home mom, and she's this crazy overqualified businesswoman!  So, one day at choir practice, I just said, "Ana, I really like hanging out with you, and you're a wonderful person.  Thank you so much for speaking your life into me. I just want to be your friend, to go out to eat and talk about our problems. I want to rejoice in the things that we have accomplished.  I want to make this deeper than just a surface friendship.  And she was like, "Oh, my gosh, I've been wanting to do the same thing.  Yes, please, yes, yes, yes—you're my friend!"

PASTOR JON:  Can we thank Ana and Doulesha because true friendship doesn't just happen automatically—it happens intentionally!  It happens because we actually pursue that.  We can attend church with the same people for years and never actually find true friendship. None of these friendships would have even been possible if it weren't for our friend Jesus Christ!  

John 15:12-15 NIV says: “¹² My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command. ¹⁵ I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”

If you’ve never experienced an intimate friendship with Jesus, He is waiting for you.  

STUDY QUESTIONS:

1.      How was Jonathan a true friend to David? 
2.      Which story inspired you the most, and why?
3.      Why is intentionality important in forming friendships?
4.      How important is it to have a friend for life?