This time in his life was more than likely the worst thing he had ever faced.

Some of you know what he felt like. I’m talking about those valleys in our lives that take us lower than we’ve ever been before. The ones where we feel as if we just can’t go on and that the whole world has caved in on us. Some of you are there now.

It was during this period of David’s life that God showed his faithfulness and his love for David by providing Jonathan, a true friend.

The beginning of our scripture lesson today introduced us to Jonathan, King Saul’s Son, who immediately took a liking to David and we’re told, was bound to his soul. As you’ll see in the next few minutes, God used Jonathan to meet the needs of David as he journeyed through this dark valley.

One of the things that’s amazing about this entire story is that while the hatred of Saul for David was growing every day, David was surrounded by others who loved him. We’re told that the Israelites loved him, that the King’s son Jonathan loved him, and that the King’s daughter loved him (in fact, when the text says in I Samuel 18:20 that Saul’s daughter Michal loved David, it’s the only place in the Hebrew scripture where a woman is said to love a man). In the midst of this darkest hour of David’s life, while Saul’s hatred for David burned within him, everyone else was growing more and more fond of David.

If you were with us last week you might recall me making this statement: the closer you get to becoming the man or woman God wants you to be the more enemies you’ll create. We discovered this was the case with David and Saul. And while that’s true, something else is true as well (it’s in your outline this morning): The closer we get to becoming the man or woman God wants us to be the more attractive we become to others. This is exactly why Saul became such an enemy of David: because David was gaining popularity with everyone around him and stealing the attention away from Saul.

There was a reason why Jonathan and his sister both were drawn to David – because David was a young man of exemplary character whose integrity and honor shone through so that those with whom he came in contact wanted to spend time with him.

Have you ever been around a person like that? These are the kind of people that we want to be friends with and who make friends much more easily because they’re attractive on the inside and make excellent friends.

When you and I grow in the image of Jesus Christ, when we begin to evidence the fruits of the Holy Spirit in our lives, when we, because of what’s on the inside become different on the outside we will begin to draw people to ourselves. There will be something attractive about us that has nothing to do with external appearances.

But the converse is also true: there are a lot of people today who have no friends because they’re just plain ugly on the inside and it shows through to the outside. If we want a friend then the contemporary proverb is true: to have a friend you’ve got to be a friend. We’ve got to be the kind of people with whom others want to be friends.

If you’re hungering for a close friend, or for deeper intimacy in a relationship that you already have then there’s a lot that you can learn from the story of David and Jonathan. I want to look at four characteristics of intimate friendship as exemplified by their relationship