Title: Our Friend Jesus
First, a friend is a person who communicates with each other.
A person who wants to share everything Humans, unlike animals, have a strong desire to communicate with each other. We want to become one by sharing our deep meaning, love, dreams, and frustrations. The word “communication” originally meant to become one. I am reminded of how great the joy of communication was in my short solitary life in prison. A few days ago, seeing the patients who became vegetative at the Veterans Hospital broke my heart. It was sad to see that he could not communicate with his loved ones and only his eyes moved. A friend is a person who shares joy and increases it, and shares it with sorrow and reduces it. Someone who sheds tears and gives courage, smiles and rejoices together and shares happiness.
In fact, Jesus gave them courage, hope, and wholeness while communicating with humans, sinners, twins, women, children, and Gentiles at the time of great sorrow. That's why he was criticized by the hypocrites at the time as a 'sinner's friend'. The Lord always communicated hope by saying, “He who has ears, let them hear.” The Lord is our true friend.
Second, a friend is a really comfortable person.
When you go before him, your furious passion like a storm quietly subsides, and your hardened heart that harbors poison like a cobra snake becomes as docile as a dove. Meeting them in times of distress gives you strength, and even if you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you are not afraid. The writer of Psalm 23 saw Jehovah God as such a friend. It may be read as "The LORD is my friend, I shall not want...". Because the Lord is a friend, He said, "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden." A friend is a person who feels comfortable even when he/she confesses his/her weaknesses without hesitation. No, that will make you feel more comfortable. Even praying to the Lord is an act of confessing our wrongdoings to the Lord, but doesn't that kind of prayer give us stability, peace, and joy? The Lord really puts us at ease. We must not forget that a prison with Jesus is happier than a palace with the devil. Because heaven is where the Lord is.
Third, you have a really equal relationship with your friends.
Even if they are of different heights on the outside, when they become friends, they become equal. We can see each other transparently and speak the right words without hesitation. You don't have to keep an eye on your friends. A relationship with no eyes is an unequal and uncomfortable relationship. True community does not arise. Those who look out for them are low-key people. In the world, it's common to lose friends because you have too much money, too much status, too much knowledge. But our Lord is equal with God, but he is our friend who came into the world to make himself equal with lowly and lowly humans. What a wonderful friend of sinners.
Fourth, a friend is a happy being that is always close to you. You are always a living person in your heart, no matter how far apart you are in space. A person who has the potion of love that eliminates spatial distance. This friend's love is 〈In spite of this love〉. Although we are sinners, the Lord lives in us. A friend is a heartwarming existence that makes you feel that you are with me even if you are far away in time. Jesus was the one who lived 2,000 years ago, but we can feel His presence here and now. The Lord is our friend who overcomes the barriers of time and space and is always by our side to give us strength, dreams, courage and health. This is the mystery and grace of Christianity.
Finally, the Lord has taught us the secret of being a friend (John 15:12-15).
If we love one another, we can be the Lord's friends. If it is a great joy to be a friend of the President, being a friend of the Lord is a greater joy. The secret to the glory of being friends with the Lord is that we love each other. The Lord said, "If you love me, you become my friends," but "if you love each other, you become my friends." It's an amazing truth. It is difficult for us to love the Lord directly. But we can love each other among ourselves. Isn't the church a community gathered to love one another to become the Lord's friend? That's right. Let's make love despite each other. Only then will the Lord declare to us, "You are my friends."
How powerful is it to be the Lord's friend in this lonely world where friends are gone? When the Lord is my friend, it means that there are true friends in the world. Isn't the church community just such a gathering of friends? We love this church more because we love the Lord who is our friend, and we thank the Lord for being our friend because we love this church.