We Have an Advocate

If you have your Bibles, 1 John chapter number two, I don't necessarily plan to preach long, but I want to be obedient to what I feel. And if at any time there's a young person that says it's my time to get what I need from the Lord, you don't have to wait on me to finish. The Lord has sent me here with a very direct assignment tonight. And I feel so burdened in my spirit. 1 John chapter two in verse number one, Bible says, my little children, these things are right. I unto you that you sin not. And if any man sinned, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And he is the propitiation for our sins. That's just kind of a fancy way of saying he was the atoning sacrifice. Dr. Anderson was talking about baptism. The reason that baptism is powerful is because the precious blood of Jesus Christ was shed upon Calvary. And when you are

baptized in Jesus' name, it's not just H2O, but it is the precious blood of a sinless savior who died for us. Aren't you thankful for the blood? Amen. And how many know this is true? He didn't die for just us, but he died for the whole world. I said, everybody ought to know that there's a God that loves him. First story, and hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know with him and keep it not as commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word in him verily is the love of God perfected. Hereby we know that we are in him. He that saith, he abideth in him This is just good instruction right here. If you say that you're in Jesus, we ought to walk even as he walked. I want to read verse one again. My little children, these things right I unto you,

he's not saying little children to belittle them. He's saying little children as a term of endearment. He cares about them as a father would to his sons and daughters. I write I unto you that you sin not. That's the goal, right, that's the goal. Nobody, I don't think wakes up and says, I just want to disappoint Jesus today. The goal is that we don't want to sin. We don't want to make a mistake. But how many people know that if you live long enough, mistakes are inevitable. And so there's hope here because he says if any man sin, and I am so thankful that we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. The Greek word for advocate, paraclete, toes, paraclete, it's five times in the New Testament. Four times it's translated as comforter. John 14, 26, but the comforter whom the Father was saying in my name, she'll teach you all things he's talking about. We know that the comforter

is the Holy Ghost. Four times it's comforter and then one time the verse that we just read, it's advocate. But what it literally means is one who is summoned to one side to help or to plead the case for it. And what John is writing is that if any man sins, makes a mistake, falls, we have an advocate with the Father. And as Jesus Christ, the righteous one who not only will fill you with the Holy Ghost the first time you repent and ask for it, but that same Holy Ghost will come to you over and over and over again to help you, to give you assistance, to give you wisdom, to give you direction. I wanna just challenge you. Don't reduce the Holy Ghost to a date on the calendar. Oh, I got the Holy Ghost July 4th, 2010, that's amazing. But that's not just what it was for. It's supposed to be every single day. And so I wanna preach to

you and I wanna draw for first John too, one, and I wanna preach to you what John declared to us. And I wanna preach to you tonight, this first night of Arkansas H-Y-C that we have an advocate. I want every student and young adult to lift up your hands. Come on, no matter how much shame you walked in this building with, I want you to lift up your hands in the face of that right now. And I really want you to pray that the Lord would speak to you tonight. Come on, would you lift up your voice right now and pray God speak to me? But more than just God speak to me, would you pray right now, let me hear what you say and let me respond to what you're speaking. Come on, would you lift up your voice right now and pray? Come on, I believe there are destinies that will be altered tonight. Come on, I need somebody to help

me pray right now. Soto rabbi ya kata ya hata ilobo soto ya in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. Come on, I need a young man or a young lady that knows the power of one moment. I want you to lift up your voice and pray. I know we've gone through all the trouble to get here and drive here and raise the money. Come on, but all of this would be in vain if God doesn't show up. I need somebody to really plug in right now and say, God, I need you to help me. God, I need you to strengthen me, God. I need a breakthrough. Come on, would you take your neighbor by the hand right now and can we agree? Come on, that the next three nights in two days would be supernatural. That the next three nights in two days that heaven would invade this place. In the name of Jesus. Come on, I feel something shifting in this room

right now. Come on, as you begin to pray, something is moving in this room right now. Thank you, Jesus. God bless you, you may be seated. A couple of weeks ago, I had been spending some time praying, fasting and trying to just consecrate my mind, my spirit. I knew that this week was coming up, and I had really been seeking the Lord and there was one day I was in my office there at the church reading and I just felt, I felt the nuts to go pray in a specific place. So I got up from my office and I made my way over to the student center at our church across the parking lot and as I walked in, it was very evident, presence of the Lord was in that place. And the Lord began to move on me. The Lord began to stir my spirit. But in that prayer meeting that day, I felt a very unique weight in the room. And

as I began to pray, I knew I felt the burning of this meeting and this weekend, but it was more than just that. And so I began to pray and I began to ask the Lord what I was feeling. I felt like the Lord gave me insight that what I was feeling was the weight of the prayers that are being prayed for the young people that are in this room right now. It is the prayers perhaps that are taking place right now all over this state, the prayers of a mother and the prayers of a father. The prayers of a pastor, the prayers of a youth pastor that is just praying somehow that over the next three days that the Lord would do something in their son's life or their daughter's life or the young person's life in their youth group. As I began to pray and I began to weep, I began to think about in just a few years, my sons

are gonna be sitting in chairs in meetings like this. And I said, God, I wanna feel the burden and the passion of how I would want somebody to reach for my kids. If that was the last time they were ever gonna go to church. And as I began to pray, the Holy Ghost began to speak to me and the Lord spoke to me and said on the first night, I am sending you to Arkansas as an ambassador for the advocate. And I want you to stand on the first night in the face of everything that's coming against this generation. And I want you to tell them that I am for you. I know it's not a big revelation, but I'm telling you, the Lord has sent me from Louisiana to come against every lion spirit that's been in your ear. Every person that's tried to tell you you'll never overcome this. You'll never break through this. Your mother was like this. You're gonna

be like this. I'm telling you, the Lord has sent me to let you know that he is for you. And if God be for us, then what can be against us? Come on, I need somebody that's been going through a little bit. I need you to jump to your feet right now and say I agree with that in Jesus' name. Come on, the Holy Ghost is gonna give me a breakthrough this week. We have an advocate. And I've been sitting here by him tonight to preach to you. I have not come to condemn you. I have come on an assignment from the Lord to help you. I have not come to preach a message of doom and gloom, but I am here on behalf of the advocate to help you tonight. I don't know who you are. I don't know where you sit in this room right now. I don't know what you've done, but I know there has been an adversary and

an accuser in your ear. They are telling you, you might as well backslide. You might as well throw in the towel. You don't ever need to go back to church. They know what you've done and they know who you did it with. But there is an adversary in your ear, perhaps. There are people in your life that have tried to tell you you're never going to be able to overcome this. Your mother was this way. Your father was this way. Your sisters and brothers are this way. You just need to accept that you're gonna be this way. Can I just preach to somebody right now that it doesn't matter how long it's ran in your family, it can run out with you? I am sorry if your mother and daddy wasn't alcohol-ing, but you don't have to be. I have come to press back against the lying choruses that tried to tell you that this is always how it's going to be. John

told them, my little children, I don't want you to sin, but if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ, the righteous, the goal, hear me. I don't have time to qualify everything I'm gonna preach. I understand the goal is we do wanna please God. The goal is we don't wanna fall, but I'm looking at a lot of young people right now who had good intentions but made bad choices. Not everybody that makes a mistake is a heathen. I've sat across coffee tables, prayer rooms many times with young people who wanted to do the right thing. I'm not condoning sin. I'm not condoning willful disobedience, but I'm telling you the Bible is full of people who fail but repent and made it right. As you open the Bible, you're gonna read very quickly in the first three chapters that we have a tendency to fall. Genesis chapter three is known as the fall of man. It only took 56

verses, a man fail. One conversation with the tempter, Adam and he failed, prayed to deception. They were naked and they were ashamed, and now they are hiding from the very God that gave them everything. The moment, this moment in the scripture is known universally as the fall of man. When man sin, it was equated with falling, which is why we hear things like we live in a falling world. The rest of scripture is our great God restoring what Adam and Eve lost in the garden when they fail. The rest of scripture is a battle. There is an adversary, Peter would tell us, that walks about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. But there is also an advocate trying to help us make it right. We see it many times. Adam and Eve were the first people to fall, but they would not be the final people who would fall. It was people like the people that sit in this room

tonight that can identify with Adam and Eve. People that can identify with the fall. People that empathize with them had no other slight to be called by God, but also no other slight to fall. Had no other slight to succeed and also no other slight to stumble. Had no other triumphs of living for God, but also no other low points and where I feel like I have tripped up. Adam and Eve's fall was a result of disobedience, but in 2 Samuel 4 we read of another fall. The Bible said that Jonathan saw a son had a son that was lame on his feet and he was five years old when the tidings came that his father and grandfather had died. And the Bible said there was a nurse that took him up and fled and it came to pass as she tried to run away and bring him to safety that he failed. And the Bible says he became lame and his name

was Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth failed, but really he didn't fall, he was dropped. But Mephibosheth felt the effects of a fall even though hear me for just a moment, it wasn't his fault. What happened to Mephibosheth was not his fault. Genesis chapter three, the fall was because of disobedience, but in 2 Samuel 4 we meet Mephibosheth who as a child was dropped by a nurse trying to flee danger and he became crippled and he would live with the effects of this fall for many, many years. One fall because of disobedience, another fall because of an unfortunate circumstance, but both of these falls produce brokenness. Some people fall because of the choices we make. Some of us have been dropped by things that we didn't ask for, but the reality is the fall still affects us. There are students here tonight that the divorce was not your fault. The abuse was not your fault, the dysfunction you were raising was not your fault, your family's decisions

were not your fault, but like Mephibosheth, here you are, looking at the effects of a fall that were not your fault, trying to pick up the pieces. There are students in this room who listen to me preach even now who've got to look through the lens of falls that you didn't ask for, moments that you did not choose and situations that you did not cause and yet here you are, somehow you made it here on Monday night. Young men and young women like Mephibosheth would purpose in your life. The Bible would tell us that this fall drove Mephibosheth to an isolated place called Lodobar. This place in the scripture literally means a place of no pastor. It's a place where nothing happens and what the enemy would love nothing more is what has happened to you to drive you to a place whether mentally or physically where you feel like nothing can ever come of your life. Bible says he's in Lodobar, crippled

feet and he didn't ask for it. This shouldn't have happened to me. In Acts chapter 20, there was another fall. The Bible says it was the first day of the week and Paul was preaching and he was on preaching and there was a young man at church that night who was sitting in a window and the Bible says his name was Euduchus and the Bible says that Paul was on preaching. He fell asleep and he fell out of the window and the Bible says he was taken up dead. Now Adam and Eve failed because of disobedience but Mephibosheth failed because he was dropped. Euduchus fell because he fell asleep in church. Elbow your neighbor and tell them to wake up. But the Bible says this time the fall doesn't lead to a man and a woman who was naked and ashamed. This time the fall doesn't lead to somebody with crippled feet. This time the fall leads to what was about to be

a funeral. At least to somebody having a go tell Euduchus' parents, I'm sorry he was just a teenager but he passed away. It was a fall and the enemy doesn't care how it happens. It can be forbidden fruit. It can be a situation that you didn't ask for or it can be you falling asleep spiritually to a place where you don't even realize that you've fallen to a spiritual dead. But listen, he doesn't care how you fall. All he cares is that you fall. Make no mistake about it, the Bible is very clear. The enemy has come to steal, to kill and to destroy. There will be no peace treaties. There will be no compromise. All the enemy cares about is that you fall. And if I were to close my Bible, walk off right now, this might be the most depressing message you've ever heard at an HSC. But can I just preach to somebody that in all three stories that I

just read, none of them end that way? You know what the enemy thought? The enemy thought that when Adam and Eve partook of the forbidden fruit, the enemy thought, oh yeah, this is gonna happen. God's gonna kill him and then all of a sudden there was something that happened that the enemy never saw coming. There was a kryptonite to his plan. The adversary and the accuser thought, oh yeah, God's about to take them out, but all of a sudden here comes God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And it says, hey, Adam and Eve, I've not come to destroy you and I'm not come to hurt you. I have come to heal you. I love this because it shows us the very first time that somebody falls, how God responds to his people when they fall. Can I tell you, the scripture is true. He will never leave you and he will never forsake you. You have to know

you serve a God that doesn't give up that easy. So the enemy thought, oh yeah, God's gonna kill him. But what the enemy failed to factor into his plan is something called the mercy of God because the enemy has no counter for the mercy of God because the law said you gotta die you sin. God's love said I don't want you to die you're my people. So when law and love have a collision, here comes the mercy that says, hey, you don't have to die. Something else is gonna die in your place. So God comes in the garden in Genesis 321 and the Bible said he comes with coats of scans and he wants them to know I'm gonna clothe you because there is something about the mercy of God that the enemy has no answer for. And can I just preach to a young person right now? The Bible still says that our great God is rich in mercy. What does that

mean? That means that God that has everything, when the Bible comes to attribute mercy, the only way to describe it is God is rich in mercy. That means you don't have enough sin to bankrupt the mercy of God. I don't know why we have no trouble believing in the power of mercy for a sinner, their first time in church. But somehow we get conflicted when it's somebody that already has the Holy Ghost and they need mercy. I'm telling a young man right now, in spite of all the lies you've been listening to, there's mercy in this room for you. Come on, I'm telling a young lady right now who's been living beneath the cloud of shame, there's some mercy in this room for you. And it wasn't just out of beneath, the Bible says Mephibis said he's living in Lodobar and then all of a sudden one day at his house, there's a knock on the door because what Mephibis said doesn't know

is even though this fall broke him, it's that there was a king having a conversation with his servants back at the palace. And so Mephibis said gets a knock on the door and he can't believe it, who's in Lodobar? Nobody comes to Lodobar, why are they here? Are they here to kill me? I know it's the custom that they would kill anybody related to a city king. Oh no, it's not only bad that I've got handicapped feet and now they're gonna kill me. But to Mephibis' surprise, when he opens the door and the servants said, are you Mephibis' chef, I am, he said I've got to let you know the king has requested your presence at the palace because what Mephibis' chef doesn't know is that the king made a covenant long before the fall. And Mephibis' life was broken by a fall but it was restored by a covenant that was made before the fall ever took place. And so the Bible

says Mephibis' chef makes his way to the palace and he can't believe it. He walks in before David and he falls on his face. He's the same to even look at him. And then king David looks at him and said, Mephibis' chef, I want you to know, I know the fall wasn't your fault. I'm sorry that you had to go through that but I've just come to let you know there is a seat at the table for you. Come on, I know you think the fall broke you so much but can I just preach to a young person? There's still room at the table for you. There's still room in the church for you. I know it was bad. I know the abuse was bad. I know the trauma was bad but we've still got room for you at the table. Come on, I need somebody to agree with me right now. There's room at this table for you. There's room at this

table for you. I don't care who doesn't think you belong here. The king said, there is room here. But it's not, it's not just Mephibis' chef and it's not just Adam and Eve. The Bible says, Eutychus falls from the window and he's dead. Some theologians will try to say, well, he wasn't really dead. He just got the wind knocked out of him. Well, the writer of the book of Acts is Luke who's a physician. He's a doctor. Luke said, he died. Now, I'm from Boogalooza. We're not the brightest people in Louisiana except for Rabbi. But I'm just gonna say what the doctor said was true. He died. And everybody is ready to eulogize Eutychus. It's over. He shouldn't have been doing that. He shouldn't have been in that relationship. We told him, we knew all along. He's just like his dad. No, that's not what the apostle Paul did. The apostle Paul stopped preaching and walked down. And he's staring at a lifeless

young person that has no hope but walks up with a prophetic word from God. And the Bible tells us in Acts chapter 20 and verse number 10, the Bible says that Paul looks at everybody around them and said, trouble not yourself. I'm telling you, the Lord has sent me to Rogers, Arkansas to just encourage a parent and a pastor and a youth pastor. Hey, don't be afraid. There is life in him. Come on, I've come to preach to somebody. I know you think the fall was so bad that it crushed everything that God was ever gonna do. But I'm telling you, there's still a pulse in you. There's still purpose in you. God's not finished with you. God has sent me here on this first night to declare there is life in Arkansas youth. There is life in this building. Come on, somebody stand through your feet and lift up your hands right now. Come on, I'm telling you, there is life in

this room. There is life in this room. Hear me, hear me. When nobody else can see it, Paul said, I see it. I know everybody else thinks they're always gonna be this way. But brother Sullivan, I see it. There's a missionary in that young person. There's a pastor in there. There's a prophet in there. There's a teacher in there. Come on, I've come tonight on behalf of the advocate. Hey, he is for you. There is life in you. I know the fall was brutal. I know it hurt, but the fall is not final and the fall is not fatal. Come on, there you go. There's life in me. I've still got hands to clap. I've still got a voice to raise. There's life. Come on, it's not over. God, it's not finished with me. God, oh, I'm still cold. I'm still chosen. I'm still anointed. Lift up your hands, everybody in the room. He called Toya Dalabashataha. Come on, somebody lift up your

voice right now. Come on, we have an advocate. We have a helper. We have a God that wants to help you. Ma, listen, I'm sorry. I've been in church for 15 years. I've been a youth pastor for almost 13. That's why I don't have any hair. I'm just transitioning. I'm not to a pastor or a robot. Let me just preach to a young person right now. I've seen too many stories. When everybody else was ready to write them off. And there was something in me that said, oh no. God's not through with them. I can't tell you how many times I've had people tell me about a certain young man or a certain young lady. Drew, you're wasting your time. They're always going to be that way. And I say, oh no, there's life in them. There's life in them. I see a purpose in them. I see an annoyance in them. Come on, come to let you know. You might not have

the right mom or the right dad, but you've got the right God. And if you want to do something in this kingdom, I see life in you. I see life in you. Brother Austin, I'm telling you that day, that day in prayer, as I begin to pray, and Lord said, I want you to go as an ambassador for the advocate, and I want you to tell them, it's not over. I love them, and I believe in them. Listen, I know the frustration sometimes. Let me just be honest, of working with teenagers, but I'm not in the business of writing people off. Come on, Adam and Eve, I know it's embarrassing, but there's a code for you. But Phoebus said, I know I'm sorry. I hate that you went through that. I really am. I hate that for you, but there's still a place at the table for you. Don't let it hold you hostage. Come on, Eutychus, when you didn't even know what

to say, when you didn't even know what was being said over you, there was a man of God that when you couldn't even hear it, that was prophesying. There's life in him. With all, with all three falls, there were three things that came. There was a call, and there was a word. And I'm telling somebody right now, the Lord has sent me here with a word for somebody that if you want to get up, you can get up. You got to stop being a victim and say tonight is the last night. I'm getting up. Here's what the Bible says in Romans chapter number 8 in verse number 11. But if the spirit of him that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he's talking about the Holy Spirit or the Holy Ghost. If the Holy Ghost is in you, the same way that it raised Jesus from the dead, it has the power to quicken your mortal body and whatever grave of

sin you are in, it can still bring you out. When Jesus looked at his disciples and Martha and Mary in the book of John, and he told them, I am the resurrection and the life. When you look up what the word resurrection means in its simplest form, it literally means the ability to stand up again. Can I just tell you there is something about the spirit of Jesus Christ that just has a get up inside of it? Come on, you've been down too long. You've been depressed too long. Somebody needs to let the devil know. I know you're my adversary, but I've got an advocate named Jesus, and I'm getting up. I'm getting up. I'm getting up. I've got to hurry. Can I just help somebody right now? The same enemy, the same adversary and the same accuser who tells you you cannot recover from this fall. That same devil had a fall. I say in chapter 14 and verse number 12 how

are thou fallen from heaven? O Lucifer, son of the morning Jesus said it like this in Luke chapter 10 and verse number 18 I beheld Satan fall like lightning. Can I just tell you the same enemy who tries to tell you that this fall, this mistake that you've made is so great that there's no getting up from that same enemy had a fall. But the Bible tells us in Revelation chapter 9 that for 1,000 years he shall be cast into a bottomless pit. Has anybody ever hit rock bottom? Just be honest. Anybody besides me? Anybody ever feel like you hit rock bottom? You know what I love about rock bottom? Two things. Number one, you find he's still the rock at the bottom and number two, you find the bottom is a great place to get up. If there's no bottom you never stop falling. But once you hit rock bottom square your shoulders get back up on your feet and say I'm

gonna live for God. I'm gonna be holy. I'm gonna preach. I'm gonna teach. I'm telling you, I feel all holy ghost pulling this on me. I wish a young man will say it's been a long time since I ran the house. I'm running tonight. It's been a long time since I danced before the Lord. I'm gonna dance again. Why? Because I'm getting back up. Studies. Hear me. Studies show after a person loses their ability past their AJ to get up they have less than 5 years to live. Because your ability to live is tied to your ability to get up. And the advocate come here right over here. Come here. I want to watch. I want to show you if you can just see in the spirit what's happening right now is there's a God that says I'm not looking down on you. I'm not condemning you. Here's what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to bring you up. I've got my hand.

Come on. The advocates in Rogers, Arkansas to let you know. Come on. You're one prayer of repentance away from everything changing. You're one altar call away from everything changing. We have an advocate. I know we've got an adversary but bless God. We have an advocate. I said this is your time to make it right. This is your time to get it right. You have any friends here? You got a couple? Here, hop down. Where are your friends? I have four friends. Come here, come here. They're straight. Give me one more. You're on the end. That's what the Bible says. In the Gospels the Bible says there was a man who was sick of the palsy. You know what that means? That's an old way of saying he was paralyzed. That kind of sounds a little fancy here. Sick of the palsy. The Bible says they had an idea. They said we got to get our friend to Jesus. He was paralyzed. He could

not get up but they just had this idea if we bring somebody that can't get up into the presence of the resurrection something's got to give. And so they get to church and it looked like the foyer at the embassy sweets at about 530 more people everywhere. And they could have said well here's just going to have the palsy one more day. They said no. Tell you what we'll do. Let's put him on the roof. Because what that our place for a paralyzed man then on the roof and they tore the shingles off and they lowered him down and do you know what happened their friend that could not get up all of a sudden in the presence of Jesus things that cannot stand can stand again. I don't know how long you've been down but I'm telling you tonight it's your invitation to get back up. I'm telling you there's a young man and a young lady who needs to get out

of your seat and run to the altar and say tonight is my night to get up. I am not waiting on anybody else I'm getting up. Now here's what I want us to do. As you come I want you to hear me. Just listen I'm very thankful I'm very thankful for your response to the word but the only way for there to be real change is we've got to repent because if you keep doing what's always made you fall you'll just keep falling but there is a God who can help you if any man sin if any man fall we have an advocate I want this to be so embedded into the mind of a young person that when you make a mistake again six months from now or a year from now and the adversary comes to you and says you should just give up you say oh no I've got an advocate so here's what I want us to do everybody

in the building lift up your hands come on we're all going to do it together I'm not going to tell you what to say but everybody in the room God I'll repent right now of anything in my life that's unholy that would separate me from you Jesus you said repent you therefore and be converted your sins may be blotted out and times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord come on I want you to lift up your voice right now as loud as you have all night and I want you to repent come on I want you to repent this is your way out of bondage this is your way out of shame come on young person repent right now in the name of Jesus come on that sin in the name of Jesus come on let the tears flow God I'm sorry but I'm ready to get up I'm not a failure come on somebody hear me you may

have fallen but you're not a failure Jesus it's the resurrection and the life there is life after this mistake now lift your hands come on lift up your hand come on and freely receive the forgiveness of Jesus Christ come on you have an advocate he is for you he loves you the devil is a liar you're not always gonna be this way tonight it's the night where everything changes