Have you ever felt
alone because of a shortcoming or sin? You lost
your cool and yelled in a completely undeserving manner at your spouse or
child or because of a lack of follow-thru on your part you lost your company’s most
profitable client? One way or another we all, through failure or sin experience
aloneness, or as John describes it, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8, KJV).
As Christians we
might feel alone, but the truth is that we are
not alone, “My little children, I am writing you these things so that
you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father--
Jesus Christ the Righteous One” (1 John 2:1, HCSB). Jesus here is called by
John our Advocate, “called to one’s
side/aid.” At the times you feel most alone remember Jesus Christ is at your
side.
Last Sunday we used the example of 2000 Florida State
Seminoles senior punter and placekick holder and current FSU baseball coach
Keith Cottrell to illustrate what it means to have an advocate. On
October 7th of that year FSU faced their rivals the University of
Miami with the national championship on the line. At the half FSU was down 17-0 to rally to
27-24 with 5 seconds left in the game. Matt Munyon, FSU’s walk-on freshman who
earlier had missed a 23-yard kick will now attempt a 49-yard field goal to tie
the game and send it into overtime.
With the crowds and
his opponents jeering and even teammates cussing him, Keith Cottrell steps to
his side-- “I’ve been with Matt
from the beginning of this season, when everybody cussed him before he even
kicked the ball… It’s very important for me, as a senior, as a teammate, and as
a brother in Christ, to be there for him, through the good times and the bad.”[1]
Remember, you have
more than a teammate sticking by your side. You have an Advocate!
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