A FRIEND IN NEED IS A FRIEND INDEED
Text: Luke 11:1-13
“A youngster in Connecticut, not understanding the words of the Lord’s Prayer was overheard saying, “Our Father who art in New Haven how did you know my name?” (Williams P. Barker ed. Tarbell’s Teaching Guide. 86th Annual Volume. Elgin: David C. Cook Publishing Company, 1990, p. 144). Even though that is a misquote it is very accurate. God knows our name, our needs, our pains, our praises, the number of hairs on our heads (Matthew 10:30), indeed God knows every one of our hearts’ desires (Matthew 6:8). We sometimes think to ourselves if God already knows then why should we pray. Well one of the reasons that we should pray is so that we do not lose heart (Luke 18:1). Corrie Ten Boom once said it best in the form of a question: “Is prayer your spare tire or your steering wheel?” When we pray we are communicating with God. “It has been said that “In prayer, as in every other phase of His ministry, Jesus taught His disciples by performance as well as precept”. (Herbert Lockyer. All The Parables Of The Bilble. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, , 1963, p. 264). In the Bible, we see that Jesus was always using His prayer life as a “steering wheel” for all that He ever did. When Jesus taught His disciples then as He teaches them today, He helps us to understand that prayer is a necessity.
Jesus’ disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. Jesus taught by example as well as by concept. Jesus’ taught His disciples then as He teaches His disciples today how to pray what has become the known as Lord’s Prayer. We are friends of God and we are also His adopted children. “A friend in need is a friend indeed”.
A FRIEND IS SOMEONE WHO UNDERSTANDS US
There are times when we need the aid of a friend. Such was the case for the needy “importunate” friend who came asking for the assistance of his annoyed friend in this parable that Jesus told. The “annoyed friend” was agitated because of the hour that the “needy friend” came asking for help. The family of the annoyed friend is asleep. He wants to turn his friend away because of the inconvenience of the hour. Yet, the needy friend is determined and persists. Finally, the “annoyed friend” gives in, in order to keep the peace and quiet so that his family will not be disturbed.
A friend understands us because he or she stands by us even when they get annoyed with us. The “annoyed friend” helped his “needy friend” at midnight for two reasons. He did not want his household disturbed and the family awakened. Given that he probably had neighbors, he did not want his neighbors to get disturbed and “annoyed” with him because e of the commotion. The second reason that the “annoyed friend” helps his “needy friend” is because he does not want the hospitable reputation of the community where he lived to be tainted. As someone has said, “To every Jew the law of hospitality is sacred, sees nothing for it but to go, late as it is, to the house of a friend”. (Herbert Lockyer. All The Parables Of The Bilble. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, , 1963, p. 264). To be inhospitable to a visitor was an insult to the visitor and a bad mark against the reputation of both the host and the community where he lived.
Jesus used the likeness of a friend as a contrast to God’s compassion toward us. A contrast is a striking difference between the things that are being compared. Jesus uses the example of the “annoyed friend” that He contrasts to God and His kind loving compassion. “God’s care for people includes their total welfare. The needs of the body are as important as the needs of the soul”. (Charles Bugg. ed. The Abingdon Preaching Annual 2001. Don M. Aycock. “The Prayer Template”. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2000, p. 278). Jesus tells us this parable, it seems, to contrast the hesitant willingness of an “annoyed friend” with God’s kind, loving compassion. As the Bible points out, God neither slumbers nor sleeps (Psalm 121:3,4) and He watches over our coming and going (Psalm 121:8) and Shepherds us through the dark valleys (Psalm 23). God understands us and our needs better than we understand ourselves.
GOD IS OUR BEST FRIEND
It has been said that a friend is someone who knows all about us and loves us anyway. God, who created us knows all about us and loves us anyway. But, not everyone accepts God’s offer of salvation and friendship. God is so loving that His only begotten Son Jesus died for us while we were still His enemies (Romans 5:8) and proved his love for us. Aristotle, once said “What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies”. As Spirit-filled Christians, God lives and dwells in us so that we can be one with God. God sent His only begotten Son our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (John 14:15-17,25, 16:6). God the Father and God the Son sent God the Holy Spirit so that through our faith in Jesus Christ and the indwelling of His Holy Spirit we could become both God’s adopted children as well as His friends. The Holy Spirit is our Helper, Comforter, Advocate in our lives to guide us and remind us of all that Jesus taught and teaches us.
The Lord’s Prayer helps us to be the best friends of God that we can be. In John 15:14, Jesus tells His disciples, “You are my friends if you do what I command you” (RSV). When we do what Jesus tells us, we are able to worship in “spirit and truth” (John 4:24) and we will also pray with the right motives (James 4:3). Jesus’ disciples wanted Him to teach them to pray. That is when Jesus gave us this model---this template (Aycock, p. 279) prayer that we call the Lord’s Prayer. From the Lord’s Prayer that we pray in church today, Jesus teaches us how we are to pray. Jesus teaches us to understand Adoration and to be Inclusive: “Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name … ” (Luke 11:2 KJV). Jesus teaches us about God’s will and our role in it as citizens of His kingdom here on earth: “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven … ” (Matthew 6:10b). Jesus teaches us about our Dependence on God and how He provides for our “total welfare”: “Give us this day, our daily bread … ” (Luke 11:3 NIV). Jesus teaches us about God’s forgiveness and how to forgive: “Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us…” (Luke 11:4 NIV). Jesus teaches us about how to handle temptation: “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil ….” (Matthew 6:13 KJV). Jesus teaches us that God’s kingdom shall always prevail and will never fail: “For Thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory, forever”. Amen. (Matthew 6: 13b KJV).
The Lord’s Prayer is not something that we are to recite, it is something that we must live out! We cannot rely on our own strength or our own resources if we want to succeed. We have to accomplish living out the Lord’s prayer with the help of the Good Lord! One of our biggest struggles will be in the area of our pride. Our biggest weaknesses will be in the way try to face daily life without relying on God’s help to get us through those things that will cause us to stumble. When Jesus said, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, He means as someone (Don M. Aycock) has said “do not let us fall into a trial so difficult that we will fail” (Aycock, p. 279). We often fail to realize one of the biggest temptations of all is the failure to forgive as God has forgiven us. The failure to forgive is a temptation that is designed to make us fall. “ … many people are stingy with the grace of forgiveness. They assume that forgiveness is to be granted only when it is merited [deserved]. They fail to recognize that forgiveness is always a gift. To neglect, to refuse, or to fail to forgive is to open the door for our satanic enemy to come in and destroy that which is very precious in family relationships” [and relationships in general]. (T. T. Crabtree. ed. The Zondervan 2002 Pastor’s Annual. David Jenkins. “The Pratcice Of Forgiveness In The Family”. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 2001, p. 176). The failure to forgive makes us stumble and fall because the failure to forgive someone who has sinned against us allows the devil the opportunity to get a foothold and drives wedges in both our relationship with God and other people!
Prayer helps us to endure every day life and stand up to the temptations that will tests us every day. The Lord’s Prayer is the best model to follow and live out prayerfully because the Lord Himself gave it to us! Jesus gave us this prayer as a model to follow. Jesus gave us this model to show us how prayer should be “out steering wheel and not our “spare tire”! “Take Time to be holy, speak oft with thy Lord; abide in Him always, and feed on His word. Make friends of God’s children, help those who are weak, forgetting in nothing his blessing to seek” (First stanza of the hymn “Take Time To Be Holy”). We are always in need of our friendship with God! That is why we must ask to receive, seek that we might find and knock that the door may be opened (Luke 11:9).
