I invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Samuel chapter 18. As you are turning in your Bibles, I just want to express my appreciation for being invited to fill your pulpit on this evening and my appreciation to your pastor, Chris Gordon, who is a dear friend of mine, and appreciation for Steve Donovan as well. It's always enjoyable to come here in January and dry out and enjoy the seminar at Westminster and fellowship with this congregation and this time to bring the word of God to you. I think last time I was here, well, I won't comment on that. I wasn't very happy with my previous sermon, let's just say. I think I reverted my old Pentecostal self. 1 Samuel chapter 18, we'll begin reading with verse 1. Please give your attention to the reading of God's Word. As soon as he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. And Saul took him that day and would not let him return to his father's house. Then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as his own soul. and Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David and his armor bearer and even his sword and his bow and his belt and David went out and was successful wherever he sent Saul wherever Saul sent him so Saul sent him over set him over the men of war and this was good in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul's servants as they were coming home when David returned from striking down the Philistine, the women came out of all the cities of Israel singing and dancing to meet King Saul with tambourines, with songs of joy, and with musical instruments. And the women sang to one another as they celebrated, Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands. And Saul was very angry, and this saying displeased him. He said, they have ascribed to David ten thousands and to me they have ascribed thousands what more can he have but the kingdom and Saul eyed David from that day on the next day a harmful spirit from God rushed upon Saul and he raved within his house while David was playing the liar as he did day by day Saul had his spear in his hand and Saul hurled the spear for he thought I will pin David to the wall but David evaded him twice. Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him but had departed from Saul. So Saul removed him from his presence and made him a commander of a thousand and he went out and came in before the people and David had success in all his undertakings for the Lord was with him. And when Saul saw that he had great success, he stood in fearful awe of him. And all Israel and Judah loved David for he went out and came in before them then Saul said to David here is my elder daughter Merib I will give her to you for a wife only be valiant for me and fight for the Lord's battles for Saul thought let not my hand be against him but let the hand of the Philistines be against him and David said to Saul who am I and of who are my relatives my father's clan in Israel that I should be son-in-law to the king. At the time when Merib, Saul's daughter, should have been given to David, she was given to Adriel, the Maholathite, for a wife. Now Saul's daughter, Michael, loved David, and they told Saul the thing, and the thing pleased him. Saul thought, let me give her to him that she may be a snare for him, and the hand of the Philistines may be against him therefore Saul said to David a second time you shall now be my son-in-law and Saul commanded his servants speak to David in private and say behold the king has delight in you and all his servants love you and then now then become the king's son-in-law and Saul's servants spoke these words to the ears of David and David said does it seem to you a little thing to become the king's son-in-law since i'm a poor man and have no reputation and the servants of saul told him thus and so david's did david speak then saul said thus shall you say to david the king desires no bride price except a hundred foreskins of the philistines that he may be avenged of the king's enemies. Now Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines and when his servants told David these words, it pleased David well to be the king's son-in-law for the time had expired. David arose and went along with his men and killed 200 of the Philistines and David brought their foreskins which were given in full number to the king that he might become the king's son-in-law. Saul gave him his daughter, Michael, for a wife. But when Saul saw and knew that the Lord was with David and that Michael, Saul's daughter, loved him, Saul was even more afraid of David. So Saul was David's enemy continually. Then the commander of the Philistines came out to battle. And as often as they came out, David had more success than all the servants of Saul, so that his name was highly esteemed. And thus concludes the reading of God's word. When you think of a polarizing figure, who do you think of? Do you think of a political figure that maybe you disagree with politically, their ideology? Or maybe you think of somebody with a personality that you just find to be outright offensive. We don't always want to admit these things. But most of us have somebody that we naturally struggle with. We just find them to be offensive. Some would say that of our current president. Has there been anyone more offensive than Jesus Christ? Not because of his personality, not because of his political ideology, but because of his identity as God's anointed. Has there ever been a man more polarizing than Jesus Christ? You either love him or you hate him. But nobody is neutral. No one is neutral. Well, this conflict goes all the way back to the fall of the human race in the Garden of Eden when Adam rebelled against his covenant Lord and he ate of the forbidden fruit from the forbidden tree and God appeared and God pronounced a curse and he cursed Adam, he cursed man, he cursed the ground, he cursed the woman and men live under now this curse in the midst of this god introduced a new world order he restructured creation in genesis chapter 3 verse 15 we read and i will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed she shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel i want us just quickly to go through this and break this down the first thing that happened was eve and the serpent had established an alliance between them and god breaks that apart and he puts enmity between the woman and the serpent and then he goes on and he says all of humanity will be defined now by their relationship to the anointed either you will be of the seed of the serpent and you'll be at enmity against god's anointed or you'll be of the seed of the woman and in the very third stage of this one will come from the seed of the woman he and he's the messiah the anointed one the redeemer and he will crush the head of the serpent and he will deliver the seed of the woman from sin and death and he will provide them with the comfort and the security and the strength everlasting life well this verse really is probably the most important verse in all the bible because now we see this is the first time that god has announced the gospel and we see that there's this unfolding conflict that goes all the way through history now culminating with jesus christ and his life and his death and his resurrection but ultimately the time of his return. All history can be viewed through this. They won't teach you in a history class this. But this is the true spiritual outworking of what God is doing in history. And that's what we see in our text this morning. We've seen this great conflict between David and Goliath, a young boy who, humanly speaking, has absolutely no ability to defeat Goliath. a man of superior size strength experience technological advantage every human advantage possible and yet david realizes the battle is the lord's and the lord is the one who slays the giant and now we fast forward and we find ourselves in first samuel chapter 18 very very important what do we make of this well it's become evident to everybody that the lord and the spirit of god is with david david is god's anointed and this is very important then because if you are of the seed of the woman you are going to look upon david as god's chosen instrument of salvation but if you're a seed of the serpent you might stand in awe of David you might be impressed with David but ultimately you are going to oppose him and there's going to be enmity in your heart towards him and even though you know he's God's anointed you're going to relate to him in unbelief and that's what we see going on here this morning we have two responses to God's chosen instrument of salvation to god's anointed we have jonathan and we have saul this this evening will begin with jonathan the soul of jonathan was knit to the soul of david and jonathan loved david as his own soul the hebrew word here translated knit conveys the idea of two things being bound together. Now let me ask you a question here at this time. Do you have the ability to take your heart and to bind your heart to another human being in such a way that you love that other human being with the same intensity, the same infection that you love yourself and your own soul? You have the ability? You don't have that ability. But God has the ability because God ultimately controls the heart of man. And what we see here is that God has united David's heart and Jonathan's heart. And what we have here is a beautiful picture of the new covenant gospel ministry, whereby the Holy Spirit takes the heart of a man who was previously dead in sin and effectually unites this man to Jesus Christ by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. and the man is called from death to life he's united with christ he's born again and as a result of being born again he's a new creation in christ and he is reorientated and this reorientation is profound it affects his desires his affections and all of a sudden this is illustrated in jonathan because he loves david the soul of david like he loves his own soul and this is true of you if you have been born of the holy spirit god's spirit knits your heart to jesus christ and yes it's true that you look to christ as an object of your faith but that's not the focus right here i mean certainly presence is a part of the storm but the holy spirit will also reorientate your affections in such a way that you will love christ It's not enough to just agree mentally and say, yes, this doctrine's correct and this is wonderful. It's all recorded for us. But Christ has to be the object of your faith. You have to be a sense where you trust in him. And with that then comes the working of the Holy Spirit and your affections and you love him. The Apostle Paul speaks of this in Romans chapter 5 where he says the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the holy spirit you can't do this for yourself god does this for us when a sinner is united to christ and born of the spirit the spirit of god does this and he continues to do this is why you need to be here sunday night and sunday morning because it's through the preaching of the gospel the preacher of the word that the holy spirit works he continues to reorientate and and alter your affections and work in your heart at a very deep profound spiritual level that's the only place you can go to the doctor and he won't do that for you go to the chiropractor you can go out to have a great lunch you could go have a beer with your buddy or whatever it may be the holy spirit does this and he works through means we heard about that this morning the priority of the word it was why did they have deacons because so the word might be preached that might be that the word might multiply, that God's kingdom might be blessed, and his people might be blessed and strengthened. Well, this is illustrated in a very beautiful way here through this wonderful narrative through Jonathan and David. And I almost resent the fact that I need to address this. It's because of the world we live in. But there are many in the world today that will look upon this, and they're going to construe this as some kind of a homosexual relationship. you know why that is because the seed of the serpent cannot understand notice I'm using my fingers not my fist cannot understand the love of God this pulpit's flimsy cannot understand the love of God they can't understand it they're blind to it they've never experienced it you can talk to them until you're blue in the face they'll never comprehend it because you'll understand and comprehend the love of god when the holy spirit has brought you from death to life and you've been born again and all of a sudden the lord works at the deepest level of your infections your desires he changes your thinking it's like romans chapter 7 sin is still present with you the old man is there the old nature is there sin is with you but you know you are alive in christ you delight in christ you delight in his law you recognize what is good you love what is good you love the lord and yet the same time there's this flesh here and the flesh will never be transformed that's why it has to be put to death and it'll be ultimately put to death remember what paul says oh wretched man that i am who will deliver me for this body of death thank the lord jesus christ jesus christ according to the world there is a thin line between love and hate because the world has no real understanding of god's love for the world love and hate are just the expression of human passion but for a christian there's not just a thin line between love and hate they're miles apart because for the christian while you were an enemy of god jesus christ died for you and it wasn't out of unbridled passion it was loving kindness it was a commitment that honestly we struggle to understand because we're completely unworthy. It's mercy, grace. And the world does not understand the grace of God. This was driven home to me recently in a very, very personal way. My father is 90 years old. My father is an old logger and being raised in the home, the two-seat principle was on display every day in my home because my mother was a Christian and she tried to raise her son in church as a Christian young man. We were in church morning and evening on Wednesday nights and my father despised the church and my dad would take me aside And he would say, son, Christianity is for weak men, people who need a crutch. You need to be a strong man. You don't need this blank. I remember sitting on my dad's lap when I was probably five, six years of age and trying to explain to my father that he was a sinner and he was in need of forgiveness of sins. And him becoming so agitated, he would literally throw me off his lap and say, son shut up well this after christmas my father came for a visit i picked him up in the train station everett washington and he was with us for about a week and it was my last shot it was saturday night and i had to take him to everett and put him on the train i tried two times during the week to talk to him about the lord the eternal state of his soul And the train station at Everett Washington, I said, Dad, certainly you understand that you're a sinner. My father said, I'm not a sinner. And I said, Dad, everybody is a sinner. The difference is there's forgiven sinners. and his response to me when I said everybody's a sinner he said nah if I'm a sinner it's not much not much my father has no understanding of the love of God and no understanding of God's grace and his own son is a gospel preacher it's only by the working of the holy spirit and we see that here is the soul of jonathan is knit to the soul of david this impacts me in such a powerful way humanly speaking what would cause a man who is the rightful heir of the throne of israel humanly speaking why would he take the royal robe that he's received from his father and hand that over to david because he's recognized david as god's chosen instrument of salvation humanly speaking it's horrendous it's foolish can we say it's stupid humanly speaking it would buy it'd be like you having millions of dollars i mean what kind of asset what kind of financial attachment could you put to the kingship and the prestige the power and everything but belong to this and he willingly enters into this covenant he hands over the royal the royal robe to his to david he gives him his bow his sword all his military equipment and as soon as they appear in public everyone's going to know everyone's going to know when you recognize that Jesus Christ is God's anointed, he is God's servant for your salvation, it will disrupt your life because the only way you recognize Jesus Christ is God's instrument for your salvation is you must come to terms with the fact that you're a sinner and you can't do anything to save yourself, but you also, in conjunction with that, are confronted with his authority and boy do we have a problem with that and that's one of the reasons i'm so drawn to this passage because jonathan has the attitude of john the baptist he must increase and i must decrease and that's what happens when the holy spirit works in our hearts and our hearts are being knit to christ he must increase and i must decrease so what we see in jonathan is evidence a picture of faith the kind of faith that would cause us to surrender the rights that we pretend to have is we acknowledge jesus christ as our lord and our king as our savior acknowledging and trusting in jesus christ as god's chosen instrument of salvation can be very disruptive very very disruptive this was certainly true of jonathan it affected him giving up his future plans as israel's king his position his right to israel's throne it even affected his identity he saw himself as God's possession set apart for God's service in terms of his own kingdom that he was building it all went away in the second verse we read Saul took David that day and would not let him go home to his father's house anymore in contrast to Jonathan who sees himself as belonging to God's anointed Saul tries to take possession of David does not allow him to go home and even though David may have been a fairly young man and most likely was Saul sees him as belonging to him he's going to grasp at him hold on to him and he's going to use David to build his own kingdom a kingdom that he knows does not belong to him because God has already said i will not build a dynasty after you in chapter 13 and then later in chapter 15 god has said i reject you as israel's king saul knows that and therefore saul is pushing against and rejecting god's authority he's insisting that he's going to build this kingdom he's going to put his name on this kingdom he's building the tower of babel and he's going to use david to help him do it. This theology of Saul is still very alive and well in the church. And I'm not talking just about crazy Pentecostal or charismatic churches. I'm not talking about just goofballs like Joel. I'm talking about good reformed folk in your hearts when you think, if I honor God, he'll honor me, but I won't tell anybody. If I honor God, he'll honor me. if i honor god he will help me build my kingdom and that's where my real hope and security is there's a lot of people that want to use christ for their earthly advantage certainly want to use god for their earthly advantage look at verse five so david went out with saul wherever saul sent him and behaved wisely and saul set him over the men of war and he was accepted in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of saul's servants regardless of his age, David behaved wisely, and he's accepted among all Saul's servants, and this includes the military leaders. Can you imagine generals, captains, accepting a boy set over them? Have you been around military men? I was a pastor in Great Falls, Montana. malstrom air force base was in my backyard and i spent once every two weeks i would eat lunch with a good friend of mine who was the master sergeant and he introduced me to military life and just to show off he would give orders so i could be impressed with the way he could make that base come alive and hop he thought he was cool stuff and humanly speaking i was it was pretty impressive could you imagine a boy being placed over such a man dr godfrey gave this lecture you know he's always smooth and he gives good lectures you know he's good he's good guy he's not here to hear me preach but he's a good guy but anyways um maybe he's out there and i can't see him he's a little shorter but anyways um i hope he's not here actually now i lost my whole train of thought can you imagine he talked about dr godfrey talked about focal points reading the text slowly this is one of these focal points here where you stop and you pause and you think because it becomes so evident that god's spirit is upon this man this man is god's chosen instrument this is god's anointed and even saul understands this even unbelievers you know why i did the call to worship this evening from psalm 98 because in psalm 98 it says god's salvation is clear to all the world because of what he's done all time is organized around the death and resurrection of jesus christ in the first century there was no debate about whether or not jesus christ actually rose from the dead there was an empty tomb people had seen him alive and walking the whole world knows the christ of the bible is for real and yet in unbelief you see the foolishness the hard-heartedness of unbelief it can't be overcome by human energy intellectual learning and activity it can only be changed and altered by the sovereign working of god's spirit and he works through the gospel david is clearly god's anointed he is god's chosen instrument of salvation and even those who reject him including saul know this now i want to really focus on this this aspect in the sense that Saul is building something here. He's building a kingdom. And given the fact that I've been so engaged in this text for a little while, for some time now, like I'm preaching through 1 Samuel, and having my father come. My father's 90 years old, as I mentioned, and his health is failing. And I'm trying to talk to my father about, Dad, we've got to have a plan for the future. Dad, we need to think about selling the motor home. You haven't used it in five, six years at least. We need to think about, Dad, you really can't live independently anymore. The guy living with you isn't going to be there. We've got to have a plan here. You know what? If my father died next week and I sold all his stuff, I hope there would be enough money to pay for this funeral. But I can't get my father to sell his stuff because he still takes a lot of pride in his Harley-Davidson motorcycle that he bought a year ago. And he still has the motorcycle endorsement on his driver's license he showed it to. Can he ride it? Not and live. He still has a 40-some foot motorhome that he hasn't taken care of that he should have sold years ago. But he can still go down to the local restaurant and he can still brag about the diesel motor in that motor home. He can still brag about his Harley-Davidson. He can still brag about the camper. He can still brag about his Lund boat because that's his kingdom that he's built. That's all he's got. And he's holding on to it for dear life. It's a part of his identity, his security. And like my old principal said, your dad's a survivor And these things he finds pride in, don't take them away from him. So what he was saying to me is, leave your dad's idols alone. It's my father's dung heap. And most of you here, your dung heap would look a lot more impressive than my father's. Saul's building his own kingdom. You know what creates real problems in this text? You know what really makes things go off the track? It's country western music. That's exactly right, because country-western music tells a story, and that's what we have here. We got country-western music all the way back in 1 Samuel. We got good-looking women with tambourines that says musical instruments. They're playing guitars, and they're singing about Saul killed his thousands, but David, his tens of thousands. They're making a comparison between the two. They're singing country-western music, and Saul hears that, and he is inflamed, and he is ticked off, and the Bible says he looks crossways at David from that day on with great suspicion. What else can he have but the kingdom, which proves, biblically, what is Saul holding on to? The kingdom. The kingdom he's holding on to. The same kingdom that God has said, I reject you as my king, and I'm not going to build a dynasty after you. Because you rejected me, rebelled against me in my word. And yet Saul is trying to hold on to a kingdom. He's the king of Israel. He's an unbeliever. He's the seed of the serpent. No, even though my father would say he's not a sinner, he still goes to church once in a while. Because as far as he's concerned, he's righteous and good people go to church. And he's holding on to the kingdom that he's built. Nobody in this congregation would sit down with Pastor Gordon or Donovan and say, I'm a righteous man to their face. But in your heart, in your heart, when somebody accuses you of doing wrong, do you cling to the righteousness of Christ ultimately? or you cling to your own righteousness. On the next day, the Bible says a distressing spirit came from the Lord, and Saul went raven mad. And David was ministering to him musically, and Saul took his spear and tried to pit him to the wall twice. If you don't yield and recognize the authority of Jesus Christ, You were at war with God. You either recognize the authority of Christ in your life. Young people, that means it affects. You go to college where there's no church. I'm talking not a church in name. I'm talking a faithful church. You make decisions in your life in terms of who you marry and where you live that reflect a submission to the authority of Jesus Christ in your life? Or do you build your own kingdom and hope that God's going to bless your endeavor? As you pursue your selfish ambitions independent of acknowledging and recognizing God's authority, I pray and I hope that your heart is submissive and filled with a love for Christ and faith. And you seek first his righteousness and his kingdom. That was certainly true of Jonathan, but it's not true of Saul. I need to move a little faster here. Saul is a shifty guy. He's got a plan. He's going to outsmart God. He thinks he's smarter than the Lord. And so far, him trying to take his own hand and his own spear and kill David doesn't work too well. So he's got a plan. He's going to give his oldest daughter, Marib, to David, and then, on this condition, you're going to go out and fight the Lord's battles. You're going to fight valiantly for me. And his whole thinking is, the Philistines will do my dirty work. Eventually, they'll get to David, and they'll put him to death, and job done. Well, for whatever reason, David makes the vow, and he's faithful, but Saul isn't faithful. he gives his oldest daughter to a different man. But then Saul learns that Michael loves David, and what's reported to him, he's got a plan, and he's, okay, this is going to work out really well. And David is a humble man, where he says, you know, it's a big deal to become a son-in-law of the king. We've been through this now, this is the second time, and I'm a man of no reputation. I'm a man from a poor family. Here's a man who's not clinging to his own righteousness. And anyways, the story becomes really, really interesting. Because Saul sends messengers to David who says, let him know that this pleases the king. And I'm not looking for this expensive dowry for my daughter, which normally the king would expect. All I want is a hundred foreskins. That's right. A hundred foreskins of the Philistines. Well, this delights David. He's like, hey, we can do this. So he gets his men, and they go out, and instead of getting a hundred foreskins, they kill 200 Philistines, and they circumcise them, I'm assuming, after they killed them. They collect the foreskins. They put them in a bag, I presume, and they bring all 200 foreskins. before king saw. The Bible doesn't tell us who counted them, but it indicates that a full account is given. I wonder who got that job. I suspect it was not the king. 200 foreskins. And if you don't know the foreskin and his children, when you go home, you ask your dad and he'll tell you. And how does this turn out? Every time there's this theme going through the text, God blesses David. He behaves more wisely than anyone else. And it becomes evident that God's spirit is upon him. And how does Saul respond? He fears David, and he's at war with him continually. He's at war with him continually. You know why there was so much grumbling in the Old Testament? as they're wandering through the wilderness. Because we don't always do a very good job in the midst of the trials and the difficulties of wilderness living, of learning to find rest in Jesus Christ. And understanding that his loving kindness is better than life. And there's always a mixed company in the covenant community. There are always some within the covenant community who are at war with God, like Saul. Elders and deacons and ministers and congregations. We need to wrestle with that and acknowledge that's part of life in this age. I'm fascinated by Saul's willingness to promote David and give him his daughter in marriage, And yet all this was done with an alternative motive. He was setting a trap for David. And every time he sets a trap for David, David ends up being exalted by the Lord. He appears as one who is God's chosen instrument of salvation. How can you read that and think about that without thinking about Jesus Christ and his interaction with others spiritual leaders who were at war with god the pharisees the sadducees the priests many of the elders they tried to trick him they they questioned him whose authority do you do this they challenged him he said you tell me john the baptist his authority come from god or men you answer that and i'll answer you and every time they tried to trap him and every time they tried to trick him he behaved wisely and he was exalted and lifted up and the end he's condemned for sins he never committed and he's put to death for sins he never committed and he raised up his own life from the grave that we might be justified. And I close with this. In Psalm 2, the psalmist says the nations rage. The nations plot. What do they rage against? The Creator and God's anointing. and according to psalm 2 how does the lord respond the bible says he laughs and then he holds them in derision he speaks to them but what does he do next he establishes his son his anointed on his holy hill he says ask of me the nations and he gives them the nations the elect from the nations and christ is described as dashing the nations to pieces those who reject him will be dashed to pieces like Saul and therefore this evening I can't conclude without asking the following question or questions in your own faith very simply is Christ the object of your faith are you trusting in the person of Jesus christ and his righteousness alone and have you yielded submitted to his authority who do you identify in this text jonathan or saul there's a great temptation isn't there to build our own kingdom and ultimately and to find comfort and strength and security in the kingdom that we build and even to try to get god to cooperate with us and bless our endeavor and build our kingdom. And it can happen to any of us, ministers, seminary professors, elders, whoever. None of us are immune to it. In the end, there's only one kingdom that endures. One kingdom that endures. And it's not of our own making. I think of my father. I think of where he finds his strength his comfort his identity his dung heap is small and none of you would be impressed by it and just because your dung heap is more respectable and more impressive humanly speaking doesn't mean it'll ever provide you the comfort the security ever satisfy your heart ultimately may you seek first christ's righteousness and his kingdom that's built by him and christ alone it's built by his righteousness it's a kingdom we're received into translated into but we don't build it and we're not co-builders and we're not co-redeemers, regardless of what you might read or hear elsewhere. Christ is ultimately the one who builds this kingdom. Yes, he might have servants, but nonetheless, he works through his word, his spirit. It's his kingdom. And may he give us clarity in our hearts this evening. Are you hungry and are you thirsty? May you be satisfied by his righteousness. And all that you stand in need of, he provides you. Let us pray. Father in heaven, this evening we are confronted with a challenging text, and yet a very encouraging text. For Lord, although the enemies of David are great, And they would seek to kill him. They would seek to prevent you from establishing him as the king. No matter how great the opposition is, no matter how great, humanly speaking, Saul's advantage seems to be. We see here, Lord, that you work through even Jonathan, Saul's own son. You work through Michael in the next chapter to preserve David's life. And then we discover the power behind all this is the power of the Holy Spirit. For even Saul's messengers begin to prophesy and speak under the power of the Holy Spirit because you are the one who ultimately builds your kingdom. You are the one who does the work. Lord, help us this evening that we might have clarity, that we might, in terms of our faith, may we trust in the person of Christ alone. May we trust in his righteousness alone. May we recognize his authority that we do not belong to ourselves. May we seek first Christ and his kingdom, his righteousness. May we learn to rest in him, Lord. May we learn to be satisfied in him. May we learn to be comforted in him, Lord. Oh, we pray that you might fill us with the love of God, knit our hearts to Jesus Christ, that we might love him as we love our own souls, that we might seek first his righteousness and his kingdom, we pray, just like Jonathan did by way of shadow and typology. This we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.