"The Advocate" is Here W/LeMarr Jackson, Mariah, Asa

Happy Pentecost, the Holy Spirit is here! Jesus calls the Holy Spirit our “Advocate” and we are doing the work of the Spirit when we advocate, and He is choosing us to play a role in the Kingdom. Three different voices express this single message, two of whom belong to High School students.Together, they explore how the Holy Spirit’s constant presence empowers us to live life in a new way, both individually and corporately as the Church. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This is when we get to see the Holy Spirit on display. He uses us in the gifts that we have in order to bring, you know, us to acknowledgement to his name. So you're gonna continue to see a little bit more of that today. And I'm gonna stand before you for a little bit, but I'm gonna get out of the way because, like Pastor Erica said, when we opened church this morning, there is no such thing as a junior Holy Spirit. One of my favorite young people in Scripture that's talked about is a king who was eight years old when he became king. And scripture told us that he followed the Lord, so he was a good king at eight years old. So if he can use an eight-year-old, then he can use us today as well. And so the structure will be just a little bit different than what you're used to for a Madison sermon. But I'm gonna get up here, I'm gonna speak for a little bit, and I'm getting out of the way, and we're gonna allow the young people to speak as the Spirit uses them. Amen. So if you have your Bibles, you can turn to John chapter 16. There's two passages of scripture that I just want to read, and we'll be referencing throughout. It's John chapter 16. If you don't have Bibles, we'll also have them on the screen in front of you here. Um the Spirit has been so mighty, wonderful, and powerful, and we we've been in this Holy Spirit series for weeks now, maybe it's been a couple months at this point. And I just hope that all of us leave this Holy Spirit series saying, Man, the Spirit does a lot. Amen. The Spirit does absolutely a lot. The Spirit is so important, it is the power of God living in you. That is an amazing thing to me. The power of God living in you is the Holy Spirit. Oh, that's such a wonderful thing. And he's with us each and every single day, moment, second, all of that, he's here. So we're gonna read about him in John 16, and we're gonna find this story where Jesus talks, uh, is telling his disciples about this Holy Spirit that's gonna come, and then I'm gonna reread that Acts chapter 2 passage right after. So if we can all stand, those who are able, um, stand in body andor spirit for acknowledgement of the reading of the Word of God. We're gonna start in John 16, and then I'm gonna flip over to Acts chapter 2 for a few verses. John 16, here's what it says, starting at verse 5. But now I am going to him who sent me. None of you ask me where are you going? Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things. But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment, about sin because people do not believe in me, about righteousness because I am going to the Father where you can see me no longer, and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will speak, he will not speak on his own, he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you. And then jumping to Acts chapter 2 for a few verses, here's what it says. When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Amen. Suddenly, a sound like a blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. This is the word of the Lord. Amen. You may be seated. So, like I said, uh, I want us to walk away from this saying the spirit does a lot, because the spirit is so important. Um, and the structure is a little bit different, but there's gonna be three different people, but I don't want you to get it twisted. This is all one sermon. And this sermon is here to tell you that the spirit is an advocate, just like the scripture told us, the advocate will come, and he wants to use you. The spirit is an advocate and he wants to use you. That's the point right up front. And I want you to receive it throughout all of these words that you hear today. Mariah is gonna come behind me, my good friend. She's gonna tell you that God can work through people of all ages, he works through people with flaws, he works through everyone, and God wants to choose you. Your job, your role is to be obedient. Then my friend Asa is gonna come. And he's gonna tell you that God is calling us as a church to be advocates, and he's especially using the youth to do this. Now, our faith has been on the forefront of caring for people since its inception, since it was started. See, I can go to Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement and let you know that his work was inspired by his faith. I can take you back to the early followers of what was called the way. See, before we were given the name Christians, they were called the followers of the way because Jesus said he is the way. They saw the followers of the way who begin to gain followers because of their care for the people that the empire would overlook. So they were caring for women, caring for poor, caring for the orphans, caring for widows, caring for the sick, caring for the sojourners or the strangers in lands. And because of that, we begin to gain numbers. I can take you back to Jesus. Eating with the sinners and the outcasts, the people that that the society did not want to acknowledge. Jesus said, I want to eat with you. I can take you back to the Old Testament and say Levitical law actually tells us to care for the foreigner or the people who's being overlooked in your midst. Don't allow them to be overlooked. Looking after people who are overlooked has been a part of our faith since its foundations. And the word that we can also use for this is called an advocate. The Holy Spirit is the advocate who calls us to be advocates. See, understand, it works in a line just like this. This is the very mission that the Father calls us to, and then we see it lived out in the Son, and then the Spirit continues to work in us, looking out, caring for people who are overlooked. So the word advocate, if I was summing it up, I would say it's to speak up for the cause of another. And then in that verse 7 of that John 16, we see the word advocate is put there, but I actually want to unpack a little bit of that, and like I said, then I'm getting out of the way. The word was actually used this morning as well, too. Pastor Erica used this. The word parakletos is a really interesting Greek word that's translated here as advocate in many other translations. It has a bunch of translations. And one of the translations I read, it kind of gave all of these, but it says that the word also can mean advocate, a helper, a counselor, an intercessor, get in the between of an encourager, a comforter. You break the Greek word down, you get kletos, which is the one who is called in para, so perikletos, para, to always be beside. So the word perikletos is the one who is called to always be beside us with whatever we need. Parakletos. Somebody say perikletos. I love the really cool, just short definition of this word that I had found as well in my study. It says, one who pleads another's case before a judge. And what I really liked about this is that this is actually a callback throughout scripture. Actually, one of the most famous uh court analogies about being in front of a judge, one of the most famous scriptures that I feel like we sometimes misquote or forget that it says this, because when we quote it, we usually tell people that the Bible tells you, thou shalt not lie. But actually, the scripture says, Thou shalt not bear false witness. And it's actually a court metaphor. For when somebody's is in trouble or in trial, it's saying you don't come with a false testimony against your friend, your neighbor. Whether they're you might even consider them to be your enemy, you should not be bearing false witness. It's a judge and court analogy. So, in the same way, the spirit is our advocate, because the advocate of God who is going to stand in place for us will not bear false witness to us either. And so, to make sure we understand this advocate word, I want to close it with an analogy. And because it's it's it can be misconstrued and only looked at as like an Uber driver. You need to get to a destination and it drives you there. But this Uber driver is actually also the tour guide, because he will guide you to your destination, and then he will get out of the car and walk you there. He won't let you go alone. See, and I was reminded uh when I got to take sabbatical a few years ago, my wife and I we went down to Brazil and we lived in Rio. I say lived because we were there for over a month, and there was this guy, his name was Yin. I don't think I'll ever forget him. And he was our tour guide for like a week, it might have been longer than that, and he would take us to places. There was a very specific place that he took us to called the favela. Or there's many different favelas in Rio, and they actually tell you that they can be dangerous and you shouldn't go in them alone if you don't have somebody who knows those places. And he told us exactly how we're supposed to act. He said, When you go down there, there's gonna be a guy who's sitting up here, don't mess with him, don't talk to him, don't say this, or don't do that. But he actually tells us how to care for the people in the favela while we're there, and that's the work of the spirit, just like Yin was for us in Brazil. He took us to the place, told us how to act and how to treat people, how to care for those people there, and he walked the path with us. That's the spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, the advocate. And when we do the work of advocacy, we are doing the work of the spirit. The spirit was promised by Jesus in that book of John, and then I read that book, that chapter in Acts, because the Spirit was promised, and then in Acts 2, the Spirit came, and I want you to understand right now that the Spirit is here.

SPEAKER_02 11:57

This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine. Oh, this little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine, this little light of mine. I'm gonna let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

That's the victory song. I just want a game of rock, paper, scissors. Good morning, congregation. My name's Mariah, I'm 16 years old, I'm in high school, and I'm basically Kevin Hart, shorter and funnier. Now, who here has heard of a book called The Bible? Exactly my point. The whole point of this book is to spread the Lord's teachings, and part of these teachings are messing up. So many in the so many people in the Bible had flaws, addictions, and troubles. King Solomon, he was lustful, and many of his wives led him astray from God. But God still chose him, he worked on him and still let him lead Israel and gave him wisdom. Saul, he was a Jew, persecuting Christians daily. Yet God worked on him, chose him, met him in the middle, leading him on to become the biggest representative of Christianity ever. Point blank, period. Gideon, he struggled with fear, self-doubt, and anxiety, but God chose him to lead an entire army. Yeah, you right there. All of the disciples were teenagers under the age of 20. That's a teenager. God chose in each and every one of us. No matter our flaws and foolish desires, he will always continuously meet us where we're at. We walk with God. During your journey with God, it is 100% guaranteed that you will have shortcomings. You will fall short of humanity's expectations, God's expectations of you. But it is important that you come back to Him and do better the next time around. You aren't perfect. Having the Holy Spirit won't just make you get it right. You won't just, you're gonna have to learn from what you did and do better the next time so you don't mess up again. You just gotta do better and keep it pushing. God didn't choose Jonah for no reason, he specifically wanted Jonah to carry out his mission. Jonah was so afraid, but God pulled and pushed him to sneak to speak to the Ninevehes. God could have chosen anybody, he could have chosen Wesley. Who's Wesley? Exactly! That's not my point. The point is if God wants you, he will find you in the middle. On your darkest day, your brightest night, your grayish afternoon, it does not matter. God is choosing you. A lot of people have trouble finding their purpose in life. But fortunately, I do believe I found mine. I had a conversation on Thursday evening of this past week with some of my friends during art class. We talked about our near futures, colleges we wanted to go to, our life directly out of high school. Because we graduate in two years, we don't have a lot of time. Because we graduate in two years, that conversation led to another about after college children, dream jobs, where we see ourselves in 20 years. And I said, a singer. I remember one of them saying why. And I said, because it's my purpose to be on stage. That is what God has told me. They proceeded to ask me, how do I know that is my purpose? And I told them, that's what God chose me for. That is what I am meant to do, to be on stage. Because the second I'm the second I step onto one, it is not about the attention, it is not about the life, the light hitting my soft skin so perfectly I have an ethereal glow. It is about God choosing me. It is about God when I'm on stage. Points blank, period. Because God allowing me to have so many opportunities to be up on stage. It isn't an accident. Because when you're Christian, almost nothing is a coincidence. Your steps are ordered in God's favor to do his will. So yes, God chose you. He chose your sister, your brother, your mother. God is working in you to change you and to lead you to greater things. God has chosen you. I remember when God called me back. When I first moved here, I was having a hard time. I went to church and youth and I believed, but my faith was running on 50% for most of middle school. I prayed and I told people I was Christian, but sometimes my actions weren't church appropriate. So but I do remember the summer of eighth grade graduation, heading into freshman year, ninth grade. That summer, I was invited to a church camp down in South Carolina. That's where I grew up, if y'all didn't know. Um that church camp was called Somersault. Now, as I was heading into ninth grade, I was expecting a peak in high school. I haven't yet. So but that summer I went down to South Carolina to spend a week at a church camp where I was spiritually at my lowest. One night on that trip, something clicked inside of me. Sitting inside of that college campus auditorium, listening to the speaker speak about getting on good terms with God before it's too late. The two sisters in Christ I made on that trip wasn't by accident. God curated my every move to be where I was in that moment. My friends Bella and Kinsley saw something in me. I didn't have to tell them my story for them to see my heart. I didn't have to say anything to them to help get me on the right path that week. But God knew I needed it. He knew that the Holy Spirit was within those girls, and he knew that it would rub off on me. Those girls were 14 or 15 at the time, and they had the Holy Spirit within them. Think about it like this: the Holy Spirit isn't just for adults. You don't turn 21 and automatically become a saint. You don't do better things because you're grown. Anyone can have the Holy Spirit no matter the age. Just like Samuel the prophet, he was called by God at such a young age. Does anybody remember Uncle Mars the same way age that was? Mm-hmm. Yep. That age. Because of that, he became a powerful judge and a priest. Having the Holy Spirit is more than just the power of prayer. It's feeling God's presence and being able to hear him and see his signs clearly. You have the Holy Spirit and it resides in your soul. But just because you have the Holy Spirit, you need to know that when you have the Holy Spirit, you need to be obedient to it and you need to abide by the Holy Spirit. If you don't, you're just taking God's word for granted and assuming you're getting into heaven when newsflash, you won't. If anything I've said currently resonate with you, that means God is choosing you. Just how He chose two random girls from a different city with completely different lifestyles to help me back on that path. Or how at my first Where You At Youth Conference, it became an instant highlight of my high school experience. And it's something I look forward to every year. That last night, before we leave, you could feel the Holy Spirit surrounding you. It was like the entire room was just showered with an overwhelming amount of God's presence. In that same room, there were tears of joy, sadness, and life, all in the same place, all tears being shed by teenagers who have found their way back to God because of the Holy Spirit, because of how he surrounded us and kept us in that room. So sometimes when you astray from God, you know. He will always be there with you no matter where you're going or where you are, no matter what state you're in, what city, no matter if you in if you sleep in, he sees there. He chose you for a specific purpose. One that made you, when he made you specifically for, specifically to carry out that task. He put the Holy Spirit inside of you. With all this said, don't ignore the call. God chose you. God don't take ignore him lightly. So know in your heart, in the deepest part of it, that God chose you and put the Holy Spirit inside of you for a reason. If you're big, small, short, tall, thirteen, seven, it doesn't matter. You have the Holy Spirit at the end of the day. And it's your job to abide by it and to listen to it. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_03 23:25

Amen. All right. So, wow, there's a lot of people here. Okay. Okay, I'm Asa. I'm fifteen. I'm a freshman. Um, and can't wait for the rest of high school. As many of you know, a lot of us students went on the College and Justice tour about a month ago, and it was probably the best experience of my life. Well, it wasn't without its flaws. Has any of you guys ever tried to sleep on a moving bus? It's really hard. But the rest of the trip was amazing. And I think what most of us agree was the best part was visiting the Simple Way, which, for those of you who don't know, is a Christian organization uh run by an amazing dude named Shane Claiborne, who was doing some amazing work for Jesus in Philadelphia. They focused on building a neighborhood where everyone belongs and thrives, and along with opening food pantries, after school programs, and libraries, Shane also opened a Philly branch of Raw Tools, which is an amazing organization whose focus is changing guns into gardening tools. If that isn't God's work, I don't know what is. For the first, the first thing I noticed when we visited The Simple Way was location. I was expecting some kind of warehouse-like building with offices and workshops on its own plot of land. But instead, we were dropped off at a corner in the not so great part of town and led to a building that looked just like the others. And I thought that was a mission statement in itself. That instead of a big state-of-the-art headquarters, they chose a cramped old space simply to be in touch with the neighborhood. The second thing I noticed was Shane Claiborne working in the garden with his wife and his two-year-old son, which was so cool because it wasn't guaranteed they were going to be there. And we helped him in the garden, and I'm pretty sure he liked us because he took us on a tour of the Raw Tools shop, which was so unbelievably cool. Shane showed and told us so many cool and eye-opening things, especially eye-opening. The whole time I was listening to him, I was thinking about a mental his mentality, a mentality of pure service, a mentality that takes the first shall be last and the last shall be first mindset to heart. A mindset that doesn't say I'm on my way to heaven, a mindset that says I'm going to enrich other people's lives and serve them for the glory of God on my way there. One of my favorite quotes of his is if we find ourselves climbing the ladder to success, we better be careful, because on our way up, we might pass Jesus on his way down. Another amazing quote of his is, we can't just use our faith as a golden ticket to heaven while ignoring the hells around us. James, which I thought resonated with James 2, 14 through 17, which says, What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, Go in peace, keep warm and well fed, but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. And now, ladies and gentlemen, we finally get to what I'm actually talking about. I tell that story and talk about Shank Claiborne because he is such an amazing example of a Jesus first kind of justice. A kind of faith that doesn't replace God with advocating for the rights of the silenced, but advocates for the silent because of having God at the center of everything. A kind of faith that says, I'm not going to let injustice pass by without me having to say something about it. That kind of faith is what the church needs desperately right now. Now, this kind of faith is so interesting because to have it, there are two almost completely opposite messages people coming from the traditional church need to hear. Now, in the traditional church, at least in my experience, the congregational leadership is not very justice-oriented. You hear some things about walks for life and an occasional comment about whatever protest is going on in the nation at the moment. But otherwise, you don't hear anything about politics and therefore justice, other than abortion. Another thing that comes with the traditional church is a bunch of negative gender norms and whitewashing of certain issues that are mostly caused by white men. So what I find happening is that when people are have an awakening, as I like to call it, and are now aware of all this stuff that's happening in the church, and like, oh, that politician that my church supports, he's not a great dude. They start to associate that with the church and therefore with God, so their faith weakens. They become so focused on the justice work that does need to be done that they're not doing it the work because it's what Jesus would want them to do, but simply because it needs to be done. Matthew 6.33 says, But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Now, this doesn't mean do what the church, even great churches like this, tells you you should do and only do that. It means do what called God has called you to do and keep doing his work. Because if we stop doing it for him, then before we know it, the work will change and we're not doing his work anymore. So, in short, do it for him, because he created all of us, so fight for all of us because of him. Now that's the second message. I put it first because I'm weird and this church is already good with justice. But the first message is something very different. It is the awakening, the realization that this is not what Jesus wanted. Jesus didn't want his name used as an excuse to lift up rich white men. As one of my favorite shirts says, Jesus was a liberator of the oppressed, not a mascot for the powerful. Proverbs 31, 8 through 9 says, Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy. That verse is one of many scriptures that the traditional church has chosen to ignore, instead, focusing on misinterpreted verses which give excuses to hate. They are blind to 640,000 deportations, 18,000 of those parents, many, many more of those unlawful displacements. Blind to the fact that funding for healthcare and education is being stripped away to manufacture more killing machines. Blind to the fact that Jesus didn't lift up country or a don't tread on me kind of freedom. Blind to the fact that Jesus' name is being used as a gun instead of a gardening tool. Blind to the fact that Jesus wanted peace and love while the ideas and people they support lift up war and hate. So my message to you guys today, in short, keep God first. Your faith is the most important thing you can have, but don't zero in on that faith and use it as an excuse to ignore the hells around you. Jesus died for you, and that is a debt that can never be repaid. But he also died for everyone around you: the rich, the poor, the light, the dark, the old, the young, the good, the bad, the loud, the silent, the liberal, the conservative. He died for all of them. All of us. Never forget that. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 31:10

Can we please give a round of applause for the Holy Spirit and these two young people? Come on now. Come on now. To be bold and courageous is one thing, but another thing to be bold and courageous for the Lord. And these two young people, I thank you so much, Asa Mariah, for saying yes. I thank you for saying yes to the spirit in you that gave you the nudge to put words in your heart to be able to come up on stage in front of people and speak and speak about Jesus. It's admirable. So I thank you, and I thank the spirit for being a part of this all. I hope you guys heard this. I hope you guys were blessed by this. Things I'll keep in mind as I continue to walk throughout my day, yo, don't make justice my Jesus, but I do justice because of my Jesus. And that God isn't just calling others to be a part of justice work, but he's also choosing me. So thank you, you two, for sharing that with me and getting me to understand the work of the advocate who is the Holy Spirit. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for being a God who is present, who showed up this morning. I thank you for uh not allowing this day to just go by without visiting us. So thank you, Lord. I pray Lord that these words that you've given us, that they ferment in our hearts and our souls, and that they convict us into change, they convict us into love, they convict us into caring, continue to do the work of advocacy in us for us, so that we can be able to do it for others as well, too. In the name of you, in the name of Jesus, we pray and we thank you, Lord. Amen.