In need of a friend
Real friends offer real hope

2 Kings 5

Buffalo in need of a friend – lions / crocodile – but friend comes to his aid

I.       In need of a friend: Having all but have nothing

Can obtain all the things that the world says is important – but at the end of the day you really have nothing at all – dying and then what does it matter

 (NKJV) 2 Kings 5 1 Now Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great and honorable man in the eyes of his master, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was also a mighty man of valor, but a leper.

A.     Respect

B.     Honor

C.     Success

D.    But dying

II.    In need of a friend: Finding friends in unlikely places

2 And the Syrians had gone out on raids, and had brought back captive a young girl from the land of Israel. She waited on Naaman’s wife. 3 Then she said to her mistress, “If only my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria! For he would heal him of his leprosy.”

A.     Unlikely: Difficult background

1.      A captive

2.      But power of preserving in difficulty

a)      Should be bitter

b)      Should want harm to fall instead of benefit

B.     Unlikely: little life experience

1.      A young person –

2.      but wisdom is in God

C.     Unlikely: only a servant

1.      A servant

2.      But servants shall lead

D.    But a powerful friend

1.      Knew God

2.      Knew source of real hope

III. In need of a friend: Friends in likely places may offer no hope

A.     Even if you treat them good

4 And Naaman went in and told his master, saying, “Thus and thus said the girl who is from the land of Israel.” 5 Then the king of Syria said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” So he departed and took with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing.

B.     They have nothing to give

6 Then he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which said, Now be advised, when this letter comes to you, that I have sent Naaman my servant to you, that you may heal him of his leprosy. 7 And it happened, when the king of Israel read the letter, that he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to kill and make alive, that this man sends a man to me to heal him of his leprosy?

C.     Only concerned with themselves

7 … Therefore please consider, and see how he seeks a quarrel with me.”

1.      Cared less about plight of Naaman

IV. In need of a friend: Real friends point to the real God

A.     An opportunity to find the real God

8 So it was, when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, “Why have you torn your clothes? Please let him come to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.”

B.     An unexpected path to the real God

1.      Humility

2.      Response to the Word of God

9 Then Naaman went with his horses and chariot, and he stood at the door of Elisha’s house. 10 And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean.”

V.    In need of a friend: Real friends keep encouraging to respond

A.     Almost missed it

11 But Naaman became furious, and went away and said, “Indeed, I said to myself, ‘He will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal the leprosy.’ 12 Are not the Abanah and the Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage.

B.     Timely encouragement

13 And his servants came near and spoke to him, and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?”

VI. In need of a friend: But only you can respond

A.     The required response of faith

14 So he went down and dipped seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God;

B.     The discovery of the real God

14 … and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. 15 And he returned to the man of God, he and all his aides, and came and stood before him; and he said, “Indeed, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel;

C.     A commit to the real God

17 …  please let your servant be given two mule-loads of earth; for your servant will no longer offer either burnt offering or sacrifice to other gods, but to the Lord.