All right, you can take your Bible so you know we're gonna get there and turn to 1 John. My plan is to begin with a long illustration and end with a short message. It all goes together under the category of message, but that's the plan. Just some housekeeping kind of things to deal with. It's been a pleasure every time I've come to be here. It's a great encouragement, and it's been a wonderful relationship for me. It's been life-changing, and it hasn't improved my golf game, but, you know, God can only do so much. I also wanted to clear the air on something in case I lose my train of thought. because I'm 69. It's like, how'd that happen? And I know for some of you, it's like, oh, he's still a child, but not for most people, I'm not a child anymore. So this past winter, came down from upstairs, came down, put the coffee on, had my devotional time, and I had a dizzy spell like I had never had before. So I was like, I describe it like you take the lights, the dimmer lights and go. It's like, okay. So I called a nurse that's in our church up there and she said, yeah, you should go here. So the short and long of it is they made a diagnosis that I have atrial not fibrillation. That's the real one. I have atrial flutter, which I think is embarrassing. I mean, what do you got? I have flutter. So, but apparently they still are insisting on giving them this medicine, which fuzzes me out a bit from time to time. So if I can't find the right word, maybe I, today I did pretty well so far. We can play a game. You can guess what I'm trying to do. My wife tries to guess. It's like, no. Okay, but that could happen. And I could, this is very important. I could start telling you a story a second time, which humiliates my wife. So I said, here's what we do. I said, this was last Sunday. I was around for dinner and I said, look, we've got to tell them stories. And then I love, you know, and another one and another one, and I'm having a good time. And then she says, I think you told some of them before to him, to the husband. And it's like, okay, here's the deal. I don't know that. I'm not gonna be able to keep a record. So here's what you do. If you think I'm telling the story a second time, just give me the two. I'm serious, because you really don't want to do that to somebody. They're being polite, but they're in pain because they already know the story. So it's just a little wear and tear, a little age showing, but I'm fine otherwise. And so the medicine makes me a little fuzzy. So I'm doing my own reducing of the, I asked them if I could reduce the amount. They said, no. My wife said, yes. So. So I did, I cut all my pills in half. They had little ridges in there, they were made to cut in half. That's what I told the doctor, but she didn't believe me. So anyhow, I'm fine. And there's those little, and could just be age. I don't know what it is, but every now and then I get stuck not being able to grab the next word. And every time I, sometimes I'll tell another story during the same sermon or in the same conversation. And so you can help me with that. This will kind of be a group effort thing, okay? All right. I knew I could count on you guys. The illustration. When I was here last time, we had just found out that we knew our grandson's wife, sweet girl. So Jordan is my oldest, our oldest grandchild. And his wife's a sweetheart. Her name's Grace. And this is the first baby, which means it's the first great grandbaby, which is even better than grandbaby, which is even better than baby. I'm serious. It's just amazing. So, um, We're all excited, we're getting down to, we're about four or five weeks before the baby's coming. So when I, just right around, I was here last time, and I shared this as a prayer request because turns out that they messed up the testing, it got delayed, they redid it, and then right at the 11th hour, They let them know that both of them have this rare genetic defect. And since they both have it, the likelihood of the baby being born with serious issues, the likelihood that she would be around for a little while and be gone was real. And so that's a deal. And it's, when you're young, you're told yes, because you don't understand how parents feel about things. But the bottom line is, it's like, it got darker and darker as we got closer and when I went home from being here. And it looked, we finally get a email from our grandson saying, here's how it is, we talked to the doctors. when the baby's born, we're going to have to immediately take dramatic measures and do it like a bone marrow transplant right away and, and take care and do all these dramatic things because it doesn't look good. And there's so many layers. I mean, I wasn't, I never had this happen, you know, So then there's all these layers of feelings because, well, that's my grandson, and his wife, and they're sweet believers, and godly young people, and they were so lit up. Those of you who aren't in your teens, you know what this is like, your emotional connection to these things. And so this is my grandson, Jordan. And then, but then I'm thinking, well, yeah. But then there's Stephanie. This is my oldest daughter. This is her first grandbaby. That's a big deal. So you have all these emotions invested in, this is my great grandchild that's coming, a little girl, my wife and I, but it's my daughter's first grandchild and she's lit up being, oh man. And I know what it's like to become a grandparent for the first time. That's like the best until it's a great grandchild, apparently. And then, so there's so many levels of investment and so many levels of loss. And it was a deal. So we get that message, email from our grandson, and it's like, oh my goodness. So you pray, pray like crazy, pray like crazy, you get to the time. Baby's born on August 12th, baby's born, and they're supposed to hit the ground running. And so baby comes, nobody does anything. I am not a patient man. So it's like, okay, I won't call my daughter every day. I literally won't call her every day because that would be unkind. So I won't, but every other day it's happening. And just checking, just checking. And so they told us the test had to happen as soon as that baby came out or it was bad. So how'd the test go? Well, it didn't happen. 10 days. 10 times, nothing happened. Now it's really, It's this, what in the world? Well, everybody's on vacation and it's a big fancy, John Hopkins, it's a big hospital. It's a famous hospital. So as the days are ticking on, then we know that nothing's happening. Baby's born, it's great. When's the test? Not then, not then, not then. It was 10 days. And I'm wrestling with this big time because of all the people that my heart is going out to, including myself, but not myself first, all these people you love deeply. And so, and everybody's praying and nothing's happening. And it's like, we need, We need somebody to step in there for us. We need somebody to step up. Nobody's stepping up. And I'm praying like crazy and I'm telling God, look, I am not above begging. I am begging you. With all my heart, I am begging you. For all these people, for us as great-grandparents and grandparents and my daughter and her husband and they're gonna be, and then my grandson and his wife and this little baby girl. She's born, she's supposed to get the test. She's a sweetie, sheesh. And we go down to see her and still no help. Finally, what happens is, and this is, you're begging, and I'm praying for an advocate. I am praying for somebody, we need somebody to, I can't go down there and kick in the door. My dad would have in his lifetime, but I could not do that. but I can't do that, so we need somebody, and I don't know anybody, we don't know anybody, we don't know how to do this, and so just begging, we begged and begged God for somebody to step up. So after 10 days, when the test should have happened already, God had done something that we didn't know had happened, and that is some, don't mean this with any derogatory innuendo, some middle manager somewhere, some nameless workers in the system were observing this, that all the, right below the top dog person, they were all just ignoring it completely. And they're not happy, they don't know what to do, you know, if they knock out their boss, you know, what happens to them. But finally, and we don't know who's, finally, finally, somebody got a hold of the head of the department who was in New England on vacation, all appropriate, and laid out the case. She was appropriately humiliated and incensed. And so it started to roll. And so she is on it, like white on rice, she is on it. And it's like, so, but it's like we lost 10 days that were supposed to be indispensable to the survival of this little girl. So we find that out, we find out. So my grandson gets a call from this woman who's the head of the whole deal down at Johns Hopkins, who's on vacation saying, I just found out. My best friend is the head of this department at Mayo Clinic. I'm gonna send her this stuff tomorrow. It'll be immediately mailed out tomorrow on Express, whatever, get it out there fast. And she will do the tests and then we'll know what to do. So it's like, so this is all of a sudden the heavy hitters are involved. And things are moving on, and so we're waiting to find out. And eventually, so we're down there to see the baby. Well, see our grandkids too, and our daughter. But see the new one, and she's like amazing. But when we got, when we went down, Everything was fine. And so the next day was a Wednesday. So that came at about 11 or 12 days after it was supposed to be resolved. I get another message from Jordan, who's my grandson. And he says, we got the tests back and she doesn't have the disease. She, holy moly. It's like, oh my goodness. So, enormous impact on my life. But in the middle of this, it didn't escape my notice that God is, it wasn't that I forgot this truth, but God just, again, in a very obviously vivid and palpable way, reminded me that we have an advocate. that kind of outranks everybody. And when this has happened to you in your life, not this exact story, but when you see God, not some crazy thing, raising the hands, going crazy down the aisle. When you see God act, Unmistakably, act visibly, not like you see him, but you see, it's like the wind, you see the work. You don't see the wind, you see the result, okay? When you see God work, what's better than seeing God work on behalf of somebody you love with all your heart? It's like, beat that. Well, maybe two people you love with all your heart, but you can't beat that. You can't be the, it was, and so it got me thinking, this is the sermon part now, okay? It got me thinking about, because I need an advocate. I need an advocate. And it's like, well, you got one. Okay, yeah, but there's two applications. I need an advocate. God, we need you to step in. We can't do this. But we also need people with feet and hands who can do stuff. We need, human advocates as well, you know, to come in and say, and he did, and it all went wonderfully, and it was amazing, and it still is. And we're thrilled to death, and we're gonna see them soon. They're gonna come visit us in a week or so. But it only happens because we have an advocate. So that's where I wanna, I wanna go to the book of 1 John for a bit, kind of on a devotional style time with us here. In 1 John, John writes this at the beginning, 1 John 1, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life. The life was made manifest and we have seen it and we testify to it and proclaim it to you, the eternal life, which was with the father and was made manifest to us. that which we have seen and heard and proclaim also to you so we too may, so that you too might have fellowship with us and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus and we are writing these things so that your joy might be full. And so he is rejoicing in the knowledge and relationship with God himself that they shared together. So God is good and God is here and God wants to do things for us. There's a bunch of so that's in there. He comes, he loves, there's the incarnation, there's the death, the resurrection, there's the ongoing ministry of the spirit so that we might have fellowship with the father. And then again in verse six, so that our joy might be complete. So there's a bunch of so that's, okay. And these are great blessings that we are given because of God's kindness to us. There's a hitch, okay. When you get to verse five, this is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you that God is light and him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. So God is, we're made and saved to walk closely with God, but here's the deal. There's a glitch. The glitch is sin. Sin enters the world and it interferes with our relationships. And so it goes down to say, very familiar verse, which I'm sure I've spoken on here one of the hundred times that I was here is 1 John 1, 9. So we have a sin, God wants fellowship, With us, he's gracious, kind, and generous, but we're sinners. That has to be addressed. So he says, and the time embedded in verse nine is, so if we keep on confessing our sins, he's faithful and just to keep on forgiving us our sins. and to keep on cleansing us from all unrighteousness. So he says, we can't have fellowship if you're walking in sin. So you're gonna need to have a life of constant, honest, genuine, from the heart, confess, deal with your sin. Because unrepentant, unaddressed, unconfessed sin will block your relationship with God and others who follow him. So he says, God wants, God has come in Christ so that we can have fellowship together. but he can't fellowship with sin. So we're gonna have to deal with our sin as far as confessing our sins. And the text that I was working towards is chapter two, verses one and two. My little children, I write these things to you. I just wrote you these things, particularly about confessing sin, God's love for us and desiring relationship with us, but he can't tolerate sin. So you're gonna have to confess your sin as a life pattern, own it without excuse, ask him for forgiveness, not make a deal. And so he says very clearly, my little children, I wrote these things to you so that you don't sin. So don't, I'm writing this to you so that you don't sin, but when you do, I mean, God kind of knows what we're actually going to do. So it's a, when you do, we have an advocate and it's Jesus Christ, the righteous. And because of that, I can stand with God. I can have renewed fellowship with God. We have an advocate. And that advocate is present and real and powerful and good and kind and personal. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation or the satisfaction for our sins and not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world. This event in my life and my wife's life and our family's life did for me was vividly and powerfully reminded me, as I said just a little bit ago, that in fact, we need an advocate. And we have one, and it's Christ. And our sin, is an issue, but it doesn't prevent him from being our advocate. He's the one who will call us out on sin, convict us of our sin. He actually judges sin, but he's also the one who died on the cross to forgive us of our sins. It doesn't stop him from actively being involved in our life. And what happened to me personally during this time, thinking through this verse is, it's just lots of little explosions in your head of ideas and realizations. of how many times and how many times we've needed him to step in and resolve and to be an advocate for us and how many times that's happened and how powerful that's been in their life. I thought that it reminded me of that quite a bit, that we have this advocate and it's Christ and we also need flesh and blood advocates And so it leads into another application here. Obviously, we have great joy, great confidence that we're not alone. He's got this. Does he ever like let it play out in a way that still scares us to death? What do you think? What's the answer to that question? Yes. But we have that advocate. And we didn't have that advocate without being born again. We don't have that advocate without Christ in our life, in a real and personal way. But then again, I thought about it in this relationship. I was sharing it with the pastor. We live out in the middle of nowhere, which is great. So we're in the country, boonies, even for the people who live in the country boonies. They're like, oh, you live over there. Yeah. So, well, apparently it's pretty significant. We do know there's really no good phone service, cell service, nothing. But there's an upside to that. So it's not convenient, but it is a loan. So it's something that we like quite a bit. But we need, we're reminded many, many times that you need somebody to step in. So I'm sitting there every morning, I get up, I get my coffee and something sweet and not in my coffee, next to my coffee. and sit at the kitchen table, the windows are there and I'm looking out and there's deer and there's bear and there's rabbits everywhere. But this summer, like about 7.30 in the morning, all of a sudden this lady on a bicycle and her son, actually the son was on the bicycle and she was walking, comes by and She was visiting for the summer because she was helping out somebody because of illness. So she's way up the road. So it's about three quarters of a mile. And she comes by the house and I saw her drinking my coffee and was like, okay, she goes by, she goes down about 800 yards past our house to the main road. And it became obvious that she was dropping her son off to get picked up for school. because she was gonna be down so long that they enrolled him in school down here. And then later on, she'd come back up riding the bike all the way uphill to the mountain and go back to her house. And then it would repeat at the end of the school day. And this happened every day for about four months. So it's like, okay, on the heels of all of the just positive explosions of understanding and excitement about Jesus being my advocate in real intangible ways. Right now in my life, that truth has faces to it. It's not just a doctrinal statement on paper, it has faces to it. But how that would live out on a day-by-day, although I remember Zeke, that woman, and that boy needs an advocate. I was like, okay, so how do I do that? I, so often, back when I was in high school, I was nervous, but I would get the witnessing thing done. You know, I would do that. And I had opportunity to share the gospel quite a bit. And sometimes I choked and sometimes I didn't, and I stayed after it. But once I became a pastor, that kind of evangelism wasn't easy for me, even like on the airplane, because they pretend they're asleep and they put on their things, you know? Okay, so it's not so easy. And so I, but put me in a room at a funeral where there's 200 lost people, I'm a hog and slob, let's do it. So I wasn't afraid to share the gospel. But in those day-to-day things, I just was really rusty. So it's like, oh man, number one, I don't wanna be inappropriate, like stalker type. Got it. But I do want, so, oh man, what do I do? And so I prayed a lot about it, and then they go by, I pray for them both. She has another son, it's down at a university in the middle of Pennsylvania, Kutztown University. So I'm praying, I don't know how to do it, because I don't want to walk out and be the stalker. So, But I think she's lost. It's very clear that she's an unbeliever and she needs an advocate. And I'm the only guy on the street. My wife's there. We're the only people on the street for miles. So prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed. Then one day something happened that was not unusual. And that is somebody else's mail got put in our mailbox. And the other stuff, it goes the other way sometimes as well. Okay, so it's like, I gotta take this mail up to the Durhams. They're up there, I gotta go up there and then take a right and take it up the mountain and give them their mail back. But when I get up there this morning, that woman is on this bicycle sitting there in the dirt road. And it's like, okay, now what do I, you know, So I pulled up and rolled the window down and I said, hello. She said, hello. I just said, the only thing I could think of to start the conversation was, would it be all right if I pray for you? Do you have some things I could pray for? Which obviously she wasn't expecting the question. But she was like, oh, you're one of them God people. And it's like, Not really, yes, sort of. It's like, it's too long to explain all that, but it's like, okay, yeah, I'm Christian. And she's backing away, and all of a sudden she goes like, you know what? You could pray for my sons. One's at the university, and one's, and I said, okay, I can do that. And she's from the middle of New York City. and now she's out where there's nothing. But it reminded me. I mean, these are rather on its face, unremarkable truths. Who doesn't know these things? But the situation, which you were partners in praying for, my grandson and his wife and all that, going the way it did, when I, When I thought about the privilege of coming and preaching here again, and then looking at all the different options I could go for what I would normally do, which this is not what I would normally do, this kept coming to mind. It's the only thing, it's like, I just gotta go with the advocate thing, because it's lighting me up right now. So my encouragement to you is to think through, on a couple of levels, think through the people who have advocated for you and thank God for them. And if they're still around, thank them for that. That'd be just a great encouragement, right? Think about people in your life that you may be the one God has there to be the advocate for them. Nobody else was going to witness to this girl heavily tattooed woman from New York who rides a bicycle on a dirt road. So it's like, well, I'm there in my truck. We have an advocate. In the grand scheme of Jesus Christ coming into this world, being a suitable sacrifice, dying on the cross for us and rising again from the dead and living to to hear and intercede for us, care for us and forgive our sins. We have an advocate. And everybody around us needs an advocate as well. A couple of verses that came to my mind that I thought I would just share before I close. In Hebrews chapter seven, it says this, consequently, he is able to save those to the uttermost who draw near to Him, through Him, who draw near to God through Him, excuse me, since He always lives to make intercession for them. We have this advocate. Blessed be the God of our Father and of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, the God of all comfort, who comforts us in our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves, and that word comfort is advocate. Comfort, encourage. Another spot that it comes up. 2 Corinthians 5.20, therefore we are ambassadors for Christ as though Christ were making an appeal through us. So it's not the ambassador's word that is the advocate. It's the making an appeal through us. We beg you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. In John 14, six, I will ask the father and he will give you a helper. Same word, advocate. And the context will dictate which word God inspired to put it in there for the color of that word. Another passage of scripture that came to my mind that doesn't speak directly about the advocate, but it describes the process, the work of Christ's intervention in our lives. It's a verse that came to my, I read it a lot of times, but one time I read it with one of my dear friends who didn't die that day, but he died at a later time, but I go to the hospital and he's laying in bed and he's in agony and they don't think he's gonna make it. And I looked up Deuteronomy 33, 26. There is none like God, O Jeshurun, who rides through the heavens to your help. That's an amazing statement. Who rides through the heavens to your help, through the skies in his majesty, the eternal God is your dwelling place. And underneath are the everlasting arms. It's a beautiful description of an advocate, it's John 14, 26. But the advocate, the Holy Spirit, which the Father will send in my name will teach you everything and will cause you to remember everything I said to you. So it's not a typical message, and sorry if that's a disappointment, but God powerfully ministered that truth to my family. for which I will be eternally grateful. And it's not a new truth. It's not a tricky truth. It's real simple. I need an advocate, and Jesus is my advocate. And other people need Jesus, obviously, as an advocate, but they need the human advocates to bring them that gospel, to show them that love, to give them that care, to put hands and feet to what Jesus did. So that's kind of like a feature-length testimony with a little bit of a punchline at the end. And like I had mentioned before I got started this evening, not a traditional message that I would normally do with all those precise parts, but it's something that absolutely, and I'm not a newbie, Receiving, my earliest memory is asking Jesus to save me. So I've been saved for a long time. Asked him a lot of times, but I think he got me the first time. But it really rocked my world. Because I'm agonizing over this great grandbaby, and it's like, who? And it's like, hello, McFly. I'm, you have an advocate, it's Jesus. And he's counting on me being an advocate in the lives of the people to whom he leads me. So just the shared truth. Let's pray together, all right? Father, thank you so much for your kindness. I pray you would take something from the ramblings tonight. and use it to encourage. Lord, there are so many times when we need help, we need help for real. And we look around and it's not obvious where we can find it. And sometimes we're pretty sure that who could give us, who could do this for us anyway? And we know you can, and we know you have. And I pray that you would take those two really basic, simple truths, that we have an advocate and we have a responsibility to be an advocate. And that would change the way we're living our lives or it would increase it and improve it and focus it. Thank you for the advocates, your son, clearly, but all the human advocates you've brought into our lives at just the right time. Father, we thank you for these things and we ask them in Jesus' name, amen.