1 John 2:1 English Standard Version (ESV) My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

An advocate is a lawyer. Lawyers do not pronounce judgements, they only plead the case before the judge. Advocates need to know three things, the law and everything their client has done and the circumstances that led up to those charges being brought against their client.

Yesterday it was suggested that we can be spiritual advocates for the lost. There is a similarity in advocacies which have the same basic issues. We must know the spiritual demands, the spiritual absolutes, which are required to set the lost free. We must know what the lost sinner has done and the circumstances surrounding those sins.

The reason circumstances are an issue for the advocate is because it goes to the sinner’s state of mind. It is often discovered that rather than admitting to themselves that they have in fact sinned, they blame others or refuse to understand that sin was committed.

The arguments that are offered up in defense of the guilty, and all our clients are guilty, are prayers.

It is important to understand the pleading of a case in the spirit to Christ as our advocate in order for Him to take on the case before the Father. We might think of ourselves as junior law partners who find clients and try to argue the merits of a case before the Head of the law firm.

To be effective advocates we must do the grunt work. We have to do the interviews and convince the client that it is in their best interest to accept us as their advocate here on earth.

How do we find clients?

Acts 16:18 English Standard Version (ESV) And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.

Spirit speaks to spirit and this is the point of this message. We are human and we speak to humans. The words we speak are truth and life but we cannot compel anyone to accept Christ. We have to wait upon the Lord to do the real work of salvation.

“Who are you to tell me anything?” This can be a response to our witness.

We were all someone else at some point in time. Can they relate to those times and understand why we yearned to escape that life for something better? This takes a deeper discussion than just being able to say God loves you. It takes time, it takes transparency, and it takes admitting what we were in the past. That can be an ugly place with bitter memories. We escaped and have no desire to go back.

How can that lost soul connect to those real human feelings if we will not be vulnerable to a stranger and let them know we have been exactly where they are now?

Only a person of low descent can be lifted up. How we escaped is nothing more than an escape plan. We cannot make someone use that ladder to get out of the hole they dug for themselves.

The first thing they have to do is to admit to themselves they do not want the life they are living in the here and now. If they are proud of that life, they will not seek change. If they feel unsure then it is a conversation of conditions. Why do they feel uncertain? What is troubling their soul? Where is the peace they seek? Do they feel like they deserve the troubled life and are punishing themselves?

These things are discoverable only by being an honest advocate.