War Buddies | Week 1

The big idea

Real friendship — the "war buddy" kind — is loyal even when it's costly, roots for your success even when it's painful, and points you back to God's hand in your life.

God designed friendship not for easy peacetime comfort but to be forged in adversity, like the unbreakable bond soldiers form under fire. Through David and Jonathan, we see what that costly, kingdom-minded friendship looks like, and we're invited to stop settling for acquaintances or allies and start becoming — and seeking — real war buddies.

Point 1 of 6

Pastor Bill opens with combat veterans' stories, including his own father's, to show that bonds formed under fire outlast almost any other friendship. He grounds this in Proverbs 17:17, noting the second line — 'a brother is born for adversity' — is the key, arguing our culture only wants friendship without conflict, so we run when the bullets start flying.

Point 2 of 6

Pastor Bill sets up David's rise from youngest son to giant-slayer to threat to King Saul, and introduces Jonathan, the prince who by all rights should have resented David but became his closest friend instead.

Point 3 of 6

Working through 1 Samuel 20, Pastor Bill shows Jonathan testing his father's intentions for David's sake, absorbing Saul's rage and even a thrown spear, and still standing by David despite the personal danger and family conflict it created.

Point 4 of 6

In 1 Samuel 23:15-18, Jonathan finds David in hiding and promises to stand beside him as king — meaning Jonathan himself steps aside from the throne. Pastor Bill calls this killing the giants of pride and self-interest every day, and illustrates it with his own story of his father sending him off to ministry and to meet his future wife, even though it cost his dad his son's daily company.

Point 5 of 6

Pastor Bill notes Jonathan encouraged David to stay strong in his faith even while David was a fugitive in the wilderness, not removing his pain but helping him see God at work in it. He warns that many of us only want friends who remove pain instead of friends who help us see God in it, and names the deeper problem as being 'kingdom minded, not just minding my own kingdom.'

Point 6 of 6

Pastor Bill closes by pointing to Jesus laying down His life for us while we were disloyal as the model and source for this kind of friendship, urging that groups and community at Rock Point exist to build these covenant friendships rather than mere acquaintances.

Take it into your week

Pastor Bill frames the challenge as enlisting: you have to choose to covenant into these war-buddy friendships, because no one can draft you into one.