2 Corinthians 1:7 English Standard Version (ESV) Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.

Yesterday we spoke of being advocates for the lost and asked how we could find clients. The term ambulance chasing stirs up memories of advocates that do not have clients lining up outside their doors. It infers that this type of advocate is not very good at their job.

As a spiritual advocate for the lost it means that we look for the hurting, the damaged, the wounded, and the way we can recognize them is because we were just as they are, broken.

There are three types of responses to a wreck. Stand and stare, run in to render aid or to close our eyes and move on. The part that requires us to render aid first demands a skill set that is helpful. There is no point in trying to help if you do not know what to do. The stand and stare people can at least call 9-1-1.

At a minimum we can pray. Pray for the hurting and pray for wisdom to be able to do the right thing. We are all advocates even if we have not received the training. We at least know where our help comes from.

Psalm 18:6 English Standard Version (ESV) In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears.

What of those who are not moved and leave?

Psalm 12:7-8 English Standard Version

⁷ You, O Lord, will keep them; you will guard us from this generation forever.
⁸ On every side the wicked prowl, as vileness is exalted among the children of man.

Let the Lord deal with them. Attend to the wounded.

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?