back to index2016-12-11 The Spirit's Help in Our Prayers
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...to Romans chapter 8. Again, I'm going to highlight verse 26 through 30. We're going 00:00:09.180 |
to be mainly focused on the two verses in 26-27, the ministry of the Holy Spirit in 00:00:13.040 |
our prayers. Romans chapter 8, 26 through 30. "Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our 00:00:20.440 |
weakness for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes 00:00:26.140 |
for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the 00:00:31.060 |
mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 00:00:36.060 |
We know that for those who love God, all things work together for good. For those who are 00:00:40.620 |
called according to His purpose, for those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be 00:00:44.600 |
conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many 00:00:49.240 |
brothers. And those whom He predestined, He also called; and those whom He called, He 00:00:53.780 |
also justified; those whom He justified, He also glorified." Let's pray. 00:01:03.460 |
Gracious and loving Father, we entrust this time to You. We thank You, Father God, for 00:01:08.460 |
Your grace, not only spiritually, but even physically, Lord God, that in safety we can 00:01:14.540 |
raise our children to be able to gather together and celebrate Christ and what He's done. 00:01:20.580 |
Help us, Lord God, to be good stewards of every good gift that You've given. Especially, 00:01:24.780 |
Lord, as You've given us Your Word and Your Holy Spirit to help us, we pray that power 00:01:31.220 |
of the Holy Spirit would do more than just instruct, but to illumine our hearts, that 00:01:36.060 |
we may hear Your voice and no one else's. So we entrust this time to You, in Jesus' 00:01:43.260 |
I know that our collegians have taken their finals, at least a lot of you guys have taken 00:01:47.660 |
your finals and you stayed up all night studying and preparing, you've taken your tests. And 00:01:52.140 |
I don't know how quickly you get your results, but you know how frustrating it is when you've 00:01:57.940 |
given everything that you've gotten and you just fall short, right? And you've stayed 00:02:02.880 |
up all night, did everything that you're supposed to do, and then you get the final result and 00:02:07.380 |
you fail. The frustration that you feel. And you don't have to be a college student to 00:02:10.900 |
know how that feels. You could be somebody at work and you've been given an assignment 00:02:16.020 |
and you've really given your best. You've stayed long hours, you did everything that 00:02:22.780 |
the company told you to do and you're supposed to get this project done and at the end it 00:02:26.580 |
just didn't work. And after everything that you've done, you've only gotten yelled at 00:02:30.740 |
because you just didn't complete the job. Or you were trying to get the sales and you 00:02:35.820 |
did everything to appease this customer and it just didn't work. I think something a little 00:02:40.420 |
bit more personal at home is a lot of times, you know, between husband and wife, when you 00:02:44.060 |
have frustrations with communication. The husband is trying his best to love his wife 00:02:49.700 |
and to understand her, but no matter what he does, it just always seems to come short. 00:02:55.620 |
And vice versa. You know, wife is doing everything. She's cooking his most favorite food and doing 00:03:01.340 |
everything that he could possibly do and at the end, you're just missing each other. And 00:03:05.700 |
the frustration that you feel when you've given everything you've got and it just doesn't 00:03:10.460 |
seem to be enough. Well, how do you feel when that happens? Frustrated? Dejected? Possibly 00:03:21.300 |
wanting to give up? You know, it's one thing if you didn't give your best. It's one thing 00:03:26.460 |
where you're just kind of nonchalantly going through this thing and so answer is pretty 00:03:30.180 |
clear when that happens. Like, I need to study harder. I need to work more. I need to be 00:03:34.540 |
more sparred about the way I approach things. But, you know, there's things that we do that 00:03:38.260 |
we've done everything we could possibly do and it just still wasn't enough. A lot of 00:03:44.460 |
people feel that way about their spiritual life and their walk with God. If you've been 00:03:49.580 |
walking for a while where you felt like, you know, maybe there was a period when you've 00:03:53.820 |
given everything that you've gotten, you've been disciplined, went to church and did Bible 00:03:58.860 |
study and served and went to missions, did everything you could possibly do, but the 00:04:03.020 |
end result wasn't what you expected. And you go through a few cycles like that and 00:04:08.260 |
after that you just kind of feel dejected, you know, and hopeless maybe. And if you're 00:04:15.420 |
not careful, it leads to despair and that despair leads to giving up and you quit. See, 00:04:24.460 |
whenever we strive anything and given our best and we come short, that's usually the 00:04:29.820 |
end result, whatever it may be. But you could see the logic behind why our salvation is 00:04:38.860 |
by grace and by grace alone. Because if God left it to us and said, "If you give your 00:04:46.380 |
100% and you did the best that you could and if you achieved an A rather than a B or C 00:04:52.180 |
or D, you can get to heaven," the end result would be exactly what I described to you. 00:04:58.300 |
You would continually have this cycle of dejection and then eventually just end up quitting. 00:05:04.100 |
But the reason why we are able to persevere is because the scripture tells us that what 00:05:08.700 |
we could not do, even with our best effort, Christ did. So our assurance of salvation 00:05:16.180 |
is not based upon our hard work, but upon His grace. 1 Peter 1, 3-5 it says, "Blessed 00:05:22.180 |
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has caused 00:05:26.980 |
us to be born again. According to His mercy, He caused us to be born again to a living 00:05:33.220 |
hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, 00:05:38.620 |
undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded 00:05:45.300 |
through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." See, our assurance of salvation 00:05:51.700 |
isn't based upon where God is looking at us to see how much you're doing and how hard 00:05:56.100 |
you're working and see who achieves and who does not. If that was the case, we would always, 00:06:02.540 |
we would, our salvation and our walk with God ultimately would lead in only despair. 00:06:08.540 |
The reason why we're able to persevere is because He gave us salvation. And He assures 00:06:13.980 |
us that our assurance is based upon what He has done and what not we do, what we do. 1 00:06:19.180 |
Corinthians 1, 7 and 9 it says, "So that you are not lacking in any spiritual gifts, so 00:06:23.980 |
as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the 00:06:28.700 |
end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful by whom you were called 00:06:34.660 |
into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. It's because of His faithfulness, 00:06:40.540 |
He says He will sustain us, He will make us guiltless until the day of Jesus Christ." 00:06:45.940 |
Now that's what Paul has been teaching through the book of Romans all the way up to now. 00:06:49.940 |
But remember when Paul began to teach that in chapter 6 he says, "Well if that's the 00:06:54.980 |
case, isn't that going to lead to licentiousness?" If you're saying that we don't have to obey 00:07:00.220 |
the law, it is not by our effort that we get saved, won't that lead to a group of people 00:07:05.900 |
who just say, "Well I'm just going to do whatever I want." Paul says, "By no means." That is 00:07:11.100 |
not what happens at all. And he tells us why he gave us the Holy Spirit. There's a distinction 00:07:16.860 |
between a non-Christian and a Christian. A Christian has been baptized with the Holy 00:07:21.260 |
Spirit, it is the Holy Spirit who empowers us. So in chapter 8, 2-8, he gives us that 00:07:28.260 |
the Holy Spirit empowers us to obey the commandments of God. Verse 9-13, the Holy Spirit enables 00:07:34.820 |
us to resist our flesh. Verses 14-17, the Holy Spirit reassures our adoption, our assurance 00:07:42.100 |
of salvation comes from the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And then verse 18-23 it says, 00:07:47.900 |
"The Holy Spirit guarantees our inheritance as adopted children along with Christ." So 00:07:53.060 |
he's been laying out that the distinction between a non-Christian and a Christian is 00:07:57.980 |
the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer. Well today's passage that we're 00:08:02.700 |
looking at, verse 26-27, he says, "The Holy Spirit now, He empowers us to pray effectively 00:08:08.740 |
that God would hear us." I think you will agree with me, at least to the extent that 00:08:15.740 |
it's either the most important or one of the most important gifts that we've been given 00:08:20.500 |
as a child of God is that we are able to pray to Him, that we have access to Him. That we're 00:08:25.580 |
not just legally His children. It's like we went through the adoption papers and stamped 00:08:30.500 |
the name, but we're still living in the orphanage and the one who adopted us is living somewhere 00:08:34.740 |
else. You know, a lot of Christians live like we're just legally His children, but in all 00:08:41.020 |
practical purposes there's no relationship. The whole purpose of salvation is to restore 00:08:46.340 |
what was broken. So it wasn't just simply legally that we became His children, but the 00:08:51.500 |
benefit that we have as children of God, that we have access to Him, that we are able to 00:08:56.180 |
pray to Him, and He hears us as His children. Not just some creation, but as His children. 00:09:04.420 |
And so over and over again He says, "If we pray, He hears us." And we are encouraged 00:09:09.100 |
and challenged and commanded even to come to Him in prayer. So if prayer is a distinction 00:09:16.100 |
between a Christian and a non-Christian, because we have access to this Father, the next question 00:09:23.340 |
we have to ask ourself, "Then how is your prayer life?" Now I don't have to survey the 00:09:29.580 |
church because I've surveyed many, many times. If you ask most people which spiritual discipline 00:09:35.980 |
they struggle with most, you put it between 1, 2, 3, 4, usually people say, "I'm good 00:09:42.980 |
with fellowship." Because I went to Disneyland and we spent 24 hours together yesterday and 00:09:48.220 |
we were all Christians, so we had fellowship. We're good. We went and grabbed boba every 00:09:53.620 |
other day, so we're good. Probably not real fellowship, that's not what fellowship means, 00:10:00.620 |
partnership in doing something. But typically if you ask an average person what they feel 00:10:06.540 |
like they're good in, it's like, "Well I'm good with fellowship." And then the second, 00:10:09.980 |
especially if you attend a Bible teaching church like ours, "I'm good with Word." Because 00:10:14.500 |
the Word of God is being taught on Sunday, and Bible study, especially in our generation 00:10:18.980 |
you can just turn on the radio and the Word of God is taught. And so typically it would 00:10:23.140 |
go fellowship, the Word, and then 3 and 4 usually is different based upon what kind 00:10:30.140 |
of personality you have. So if you happen to be an outgoing person who likes to talk 00:10:34.380 |
to strangers, you say, "Well evangelism is number 3 because I talk to people." That's 00:10:39.780 |
evangelism. And then the fourth would be prayer. So if you happen to be an introvert, you may 00:10:43.580 |
be 3, you know, prayer would be 3, evangelism 4. But whatever it is, it's usually prayer 00:10:49.580 |
is in the bottom half, either 3 or 4. Well if prayer is the most powerful, most significant 00:10:56.580 |
thing that we have gained, to have access to the Father and pray, and yet we find ourselves 00:11:07.340 |
struggling in our prayer, in our disciplines, wouldn't that leave us in despair, frustration, 00:11:14.340 |
maybe even desire to quit? And many people actually end up doing that because, "Well, 00:11:23.220 |
I have such a hard time praying. In fact, even when I begin to pray, all I can think 00:11:27.780 |
about is fantasy football or basketball or all these different things that I've watched 00:11:32.460 |
are playing through my head and all the deadlines and everything that I'm responsible for and 00:11:37.140 |
I have such a hard time praying." And then eventually after a while you just stop praying. 00:11:43.500 |
It almost seems like God knew that you and I were going to struggle. If God left us and 00:11:50.500 |
said, "Well, you know, all these other things don't matter, but if you just become a powerful 00:11:55.580 |
prayer warrior, then at least that will save you." But that's not what the scripture says. 00:12:03.140 |
In fact, Hebrews 7.25 says, "Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those 00:12:08.340 |
who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for us." 00:12:15.340 |
Christ intercedes on our behalf. And the text that we're looking at this morning says that 00:12:20.180 |
the Holy Spirit joins him in interceding. In Romans 8.26, "The Spirit himself intercedes 00:12:26.020 |
for us with groanings too deep for words." We talked about that word groaning before. 00:12:32.620 |
In the RSV, the word for groaning is translated sighing. Sighs too deep for words. If you've 00:12:39.620 |
ever been in a situation where you're not just struggling, you're just like, the pain 00:12:49.620 |
is so deep, the struggle is so intense that you can't even articulate what to pray for. 00:12:56.620 |
And all you can do is sigh. If you've ever been in that situation, you know exactly what 00:13:01.180 |
he's talking about. There's a groaning and sighing that you can't articulate. And when 00:13:06.060 |
you pray, some of the most deepest, most powerful prayers are without words. And I can remember 00:13:11.940 |
a few times in ministry where the deepest prayers, my prayer life basically was just 00:13:18.500 |
waking up in the middle of the night just sighing. I don't know if I can keep doing 00:13:23.580 |
this. Lord, help me. And I remember every single day that was my prayer. It was not 00:13:27.780 |
calculated. It wasn't something that I said, "I need to pray." It was just something that 00:13:32.500 |
the Holy Spirit, I believe, by putting pressure, just forced me to pray in that way. And some 00:13:38.540 |
of you, again, may have been in a situation where your prayer was just sighing and groaning. 00:13:45.540 |
The word that is translated says it was without words. Literally, it's just one word. It means 00:13:51.980 |
"wordless." The prayers that are offered up on our behalf by the Holy Spirit are wordless. 00:13:58.980 |
It is just groaning. Again, if you've ever been in that situation, you know what that 00:14:05.420 |
prayer feels like. You don't know what it sounds like, but you know what that prayer 00:14:08.980 |
feels like. And you have to, that's not something that you can just generate. That's something 00:14:15.360 |
that happens to you. That prayer comes as a result of the pressure that God places upon 00:14:20.300 |
your life. It just happens. But that prayer is an intense prayer. It's a passionate prayer. 00:14:27.300 |
Typically when we pray, a lot of times, a lot of our prayers are this type of prayer. 00:14:34.380 |
We're not Catholic, so we don't do this, right? But a lot of our prayer is no different than 00:14:38.740 |
that. Beans and rice in Jesus Christ. Usually when we pray, you may not say beans and rice 00:14:44.780 |
in Jesus Christ, but a lot of your prayers for your food is kimchi and fried rice in 00:14:50.080 |
Jesus Christ, or boba and chicken in Jesus Christ. So basically, there's not a lot of 00:14:55.580 |
thought that goes into it. It's just, "Thank you for this food. Thank you for this day 00:14:59.540 |
in Jesus' name. Amen." So a lot of our prayers, and not just for food, but when we pray for 00:15:03.960 |
certain situations, it's your time to pray. So you just kind of have some rote things 00:15:07.980 |
that you say in prayer. But these are not intense, thought out, groaning and crying 00:15:12.840 |
out to God. See, when the Bible describes the Holy Spirit praying, it is not this, you 00:15:19.840 |
know, not thought out, just kind of rote prayer that He just kind of offers up and saying 00:15:25.940 |
His duty, He just did His job. Groaning typically is a deep-seated desire, passionate, and it 00:15:32.940 |
is consistent with the way that the Bible describes the way God pursued us. The Bible 00:15:41.460 |
describes our God as a jealous God. He didn't just casually pursue us. He didn't just look 00:15:47.660 |
at the world and say, "Ah, I feel pity for them, so let's do this one thing." His passion 00:15:53.060 |
for lost sinners like you and me was so passionate, was so jealous, that He would even offer up 00:15:59.660 |
His only begotten Son to pursue us. So when we think about His love, it is really beyond 00:16:08.020 |
anything that you and I could possibly imagine. If somebody was to create a story, wanted 00:16:13.980 |
to make a movie about the greatest love that human beings ever could imagine, we wouldn't 00:16:19.020 |
imagine this, because it wouldn't make any sense. Because you've never experienced it, 00:16:24.860 |
you've never seen it. Even the greatest love of a mother toward their child, it's beyond 00:16:28.940 |
that. So just because it is beyond us, we wouldn't imagine this. And yet the Scripture 00:16:33.780 |
describes the love that He has for sinners like us, to pursue us. It's that deep, it's 00:16:39.940 |
that passionate. So it only makes sense that the Holy Spirit who intercedes on our behalf 00:16:46.100 |
is groaning in the same way. You may have experienced that type of groaning, but the 00:16:51.380 |
question I have for you is, have you ever prayed for someone else with that type of 00:16:56.180 |
groaning? That type of sighing. You might have sighed for yourself, maybe God put pressure 00:17:01.540 |
on you, but what did you care about so much? It may be somebody that you loved. Maybe the 00:17:08.540 |
pain for somebody else that you're watching from a distance was so intense that you may 00:17:14.900 |
have groaned and sighed. But it needs to be intense. You're not going to groan and sigh 00:17:21.900 |
from a distance nonchalantly. It is only because it was so intense that you may have prayed, 00:17:30.340 |
if you've ever done that for somebody else. See, that's how the Bible describes our relationship 00:17:35.660 |
with God, that our God jealously pursued us, willing to even send His only begotten Son. 00:17:41.940 |
So the prayers that are offered up on our behalf by the Holy Spirit is described as 00:17:46.500 |
a sighing, this groaning, wordless on our behalf constantly. And it is this groaning 00:17:56.740 |
that our Father hears. If you've ever been in a hospital setting, or maybe somebody in 00:18:03.140 |
your family was so sick, and there was so much pain and discomfort that you hear groaning, 00:18:09.580 |
and if you hear this groaning, your first reaction is, "God, do something. Hurry up 00:18:15.580 |
and get the nurses or the doctors. We have to help this person relieve their suffering." 00:18:20.300 |
That's the image I get when I hear this term groaning, that the Holy Spirit is groaning 00:18:25.700 |
on behalf of His adopted children. And so the prayers that God hears is this groaning 00:18:31.820 |
and sighing on our behalf. So no matter how far we fall short, the reason why we have 00:18:38.820 |
assurance of salvation is not because you are strong. It is not because you are determined. 00:18:47.220 |
It is not because you know theology better than the next guy. The reason why we have 00:18:53.180 |
assurance of salvation is because the Holy Spirit that has been implanted in us is groaning, 00:19:00.180 |
and our Father is listening to the groaning of the Holy Spirit on our behalf, interceding. 00:19:08.140 |
That's why we have assurance of salvation. That's why He can say with all confidence 00:19:12.300 |
that He guards and He protects the inheritance that He entrusted to us. It is by His power, 00:19:18.940 |
by His faithfulness, because He's referring to the Holy Spirit that is groaning on our 00:19:23.780 |
behalf. The text that we're looking at, verse 26, in these two verses, we're given maybe 00:19:29.420 |
about three or four insights that I want to highlight for you guys to understand this 00:19:35.380 |
ministry of the Holy Spirit in intercession. He begins in verse 826 by saying, "Likewise, 00:19:41.220 |
the Spirit helps us in our weakness." The reason why the Holy Spirit was given to us 00:19:47.380 |
is because He says He understands our weakness. Hebrews 4 to 15, it says, "For we do not have 00:19:54.380 |
a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect 00:20:04.100 |
has been tempted as we are yet without sin." He doesn't understand our weakness from a 00:20:11.100 |
distance. He stepped in our shoes and He understands it from first-hand knowledge, the weakness 00:20:16.420 |
that you and I experience. See, the strangest scene that you see in the Scripture when you 00:20:22.700 |
really understand the totality, the context of Jesus' incarnation, which we're going to 00:20:27.940 |
be celebrating in a few weeks. When Jesus comes into the ministry, the very first scene 00:20:34.660 |
in His ministry after the baptism is He's led out into the desert for 40 days He's tempted. 00:20:39.940 |
At the end of the 40 days, Satan comes and tempts Him, saying, "If you would bow down 00:20:45.780 |
to me, I will give you all that you see." Imagine the ridiculous proposition that is, 00:20:52.780 |
that Satan, a created being, is tempting the Creator that, "If you would bow down to me, 00:21:00.340 |
I will give you all that you have created, and I will give that to you." I mean, you 00:21:05.660 |
look at the context of that, you say, "Ridiculous. Is Satan stupid? Is Satan really stupid that 00:21:13.620 |
he would approach the Son of God and think that somehow that's going to be a temptation? 00:21:19.620 |
That you give me your bicycle, right, you give me your Lamborghini and I will give you 00:21:23.620 |
my bicycle. Is that a temptation? Why did Satan even tempt to come to Jesus with that 00:21:30.620 |
proposition? There was something about His incarnation, there was something about His 00:21:37.380 |
weakness in taking on human form. For the first time that Satan has been challenging 00:21:44.180 |
the God of the universe to usurp His authority and glory, for the first time he saw weakness 00:21:51.060 |
in Jesus' humanity that if there was any time that Satan had any chance of taking over His 00:21:58.060 |
throne, it may have been now. And that's what Satan was targeting. It was something about 00:22:07.180 |
His humanity where the scripture says that He left His glory and He took on human form, 00:22:14.060 |
and He understands our weakness because He stood there with us. You know, another strange 00:22:19.300 |
scene is right before He goes to the cross, He's praying, and He's wrestling, and He says, 00:22:25.180 |
"Lord God, if there is another way, if there is another way." Now think about that prayer. 00:22:34.300 |
All of Old Testament history, all of Israel's history, all of everything that God has been 00:22:38.620 |
doing that we recorded in scripture is about the coming of Jesus Christ and what He was 00:22:43.100 |
about to do the next morning. Jesus was born for that purpose, whole purpose of ministry. 00:22:50.100 |
He's been prophesying to His disciples that He's going to be crucified and resurrected, 00:22:54.420 |
and yet the night before that happens He prays, "Is there another way?" See, it was something 00:23:01.140 |
about His humanity. That's exactly how every weak human being would react, knowing the 00:23:06.660 |
suffering that was going to come. The physical suffering, the spiritual pain, being separated 00:23:12.040 |
from the Father. There's something about His humanity that He took on weakness, all for 00:23:19.040 |
what purpose? So that He can be a sympathetic high priest. See, our Savior has an intimate 00:23:31.060 |
knowledge of our weakness, and He knows. And that's why when the disciples were praying, 00:23:35.980 |
even as He told them that He's going to be crucified, "Couldn't you stay up with me one 00:23:41.540 |
hour? Your spirit is willing, but your flesh is weak." Jesus knew that they were going 00:23:47.580 |
to be weak. Our assurance of salvation would have been utterly destroyed if it wasn't for 00:23:57.020 |
the fact that our Father already knew that we were weak. See, first and foremost, He 00:24:04.020 |
sent the Holy Spirit because we were weak, because He knew we would struggle. And our 00:24:12.020 |
confidence comes, not because of you, not because of me, not because of our background 00:24:17.660 |
or experience, because in our weakness He sent the Holy Spirit. See, Scripture says, 00:24:23.820 |
"Remember, when Jesus saw the multitudes, He had compassion." You know the word "compassion" 00:24:30.820 |
in the Greek is a very intense word. It means to have your bowels. I mean, today, you know, 00:24:36.540 |
we use that term for different purposes. But the term that is used in Greek is kind of 00:24:41.300 |
like being punched in the gut. If you've ever experienced being punched in the gut, and 00:24:46.180 |
I hope you haven't, but if you've ever had an experience being punched in the gut, you 00:24:51.020 |
can't think straight. You can't breathe. You can't concentrate on anything. It is something 00:24:57.660 |
that requires all of your attention. You will kneel to the ground until you can gain sobriety. 00:25:04.660 |
That's what it does when you get punched in the gut. The word for "compassion" in Greek 00:25:09.420 |
means that when Jesus saw the multitude, it was like He was punched in the gut and He 00:25:13.460 |
was moved with emotion, with compassion. And He immediately turns around and compassion 00:25:21.460 |
He says, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few." He saw them, He says, "They 00:25:27.460 |
are like sheep without shepherd, harassed and helpless." What that means is, without 00:25:34.340 |
the Holy Spirit, that's exactly who you and I would be, harassed and helpless. He told 00:25:40.780 |
the disciples when He was about to leave, "If you go, what about us?" And Jesus said, 00:25:44.220 |
"I will not leave you as orphans." And then He promises the Holy Spirit. So what that 00:25:49.580 |
means is, without the Holy Spirit, you and I would be helpless and harassed and like 00:25:55.140 |
orphans with no help. But that is not the way He left us. We have assurance of salvation 00:26:01.580 |
because the Holy Spirit is interceding, groaning and sighing on our behalf. Second observation 00:26:08.580 |
is that the Spirit helps us because there are times that we don't even know what to 00:26:14.140 |
pray for. Sometimes it's difficult to pray because we sit down and we try to pray. We're 00:26:21.140 |
not even sure what to pray for. Should I pray for safety? Should I pray for strength? Should 00:26:27.780 |
I pray to move on? Should I pray to persevere? And sometimes we don't even know. But He says 00:26:33.140 |
that even because we do not know, He says, "For we do not know what to pray for as we 00:26:37.820 |
ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us." He intercedes because we don't even know 00:26:43.820 |
how to pray or what to pray at times. The whole book of Job is a description of this 00:26:50.020 |
righteous man who couldn't understand why is God doing this? Why is suffering coming? 00:26:57.020 |
So each one of his friends are coming in three separate cycles telling him, "Let me tell 00:27:01.180 |
you the answer." And every single one of them were not only wrong, but it made matters worse 00:27:07.660 |
because they were wrong. And Job is trying to understand through all of this suffering 00:27:12.140 |
what is going on, what is going on. We see that in Elijah, this man of God after confronting 00:27:19.140 |
these bald priests and having this victory, instead of seeing revival come, Jezebel is 00:27:26.460 |
even more determined to continue this evil. And he's burned out and tired and he's escaping 00:27:33.460 |
into the desert because he doesn't understand. "I've given everything I've got. You've demonstrated 00:27:38.980 |
your power publicly. And instead of revival, they're trying to kill me because he didn't 00:27:44.220 |
understand." There's a lot of things that happen in our life that we don't fully get, 00:27:50.340 |
that we don't understand. We don't even know how to pray. Not only are we weak in our flesh, 00:27:56.660 |
we don't even know what to pray for. But the hope that we have is that the Holy Spirit 00:28:03.660 |
who is sighing and groaning on our behalf, He knows. That's where we have assurance. 00:28:10.700 |
It's not because of the great church that you're at. It's not because of the great friends 00:28:20.100 |
you're surrounded by. It's not because of your talent, whatever background, whatever 00:28:26.000 |
gifting you may have. It's because in our weakness and in our lostness, He gave us the 00:28:33.000 |
Holy Spirit to guarantee. Thirdly, the reason why the Holy Spirit intercedes is because 00:28:40.260 |
He's the best person to intercede for us. He says, "The Father knows the mind of the 00:28:45.660 |
Spirit and the Spirit knows the will of God." John chapter 15 verse 7, it says, "If you 00:28:53.340 |
abide in my word, my word abides in you. Ask whatever you wish, it shall be done for you." 00:28:58.880 |
But sometimes we don't even know what the will of God is. In fact, one of the most common 00:29:03.820 |
questions that I get as a pastor is, "What is His will?" So how can we pray according 00:29:09.800 |
to His will when at times we're just lost? If you want to know what I like to eat, ask 00:29:18.280 |
Esther. Esther knows me better than anybody else, at least now as an adult. I spend the 00:29:24.400 |
most time with her. So if you want to know where I am Wednesday at 3 o'clock, she's 00:29:29.240 |
the best person to ask. She's my best ambassador. You know, it wasn't always like that. When 00:29:35.760 |
we first got married, a lot of the marriage problems comes because we don't understand 00:29:39.520 |
each other. I would come home and her sadness, annoyance, tired, angry, all looked the same 00:29:47.160 |
to me. And you can imagine what kind of trouble you're going to get into. You walk home, it's 00:29:53.560 |
like, "Why are you angry?" She might have just been tired. And she's like, "I'm just 00:29:59.360 |
tired." "Why are you treating me like this?" And then it would turn into, "She's angry 00:30:04.000 |
because I got angry and then I'm angry because now she's really angry." And then that starts 00:30:07.520 |
to fight, right? So it wasn't about anything other than I misread her. The good thing about 00:30:13.040 |
being married for a long time is that communication is a lot easier. And sometimes we laugh about 00:30:20.040 |
it because I spend the most time with Esther. And so after almost 25 years, I can fidget 00:30:28.920 |
a certain way and she knows, "Oh, you're thirsty." We'd be driving in the car and even before 00:30:38.680 |
I'm about to fall asleep, she'll say, "You're tired. Pull over." Like, "Wow, I didn't even 00:30:45.680 |
swerve." I remember one time I was driving and I don't know, I was thinking about something 00:30:52.680 |
that was making me mad. And I was just driving by myself and I'm just, I mean, with her in 00:31:01.000 |
the car and then she looked over and she's like, "What's wrong with you?" I said, "I'm 00:31:08.720 |
not mad." I said, "What do you mean?" She's like, "You look like you're going to kill 00:31:10.720 |
somebody." I said, "She read my thoughts." And that's the benefit of being married for 00:31:17.640 |
a long time. Like the communication becomes a lot easier. I walk in, I can tell the distinction. 00:31:24.640 |
There's no better person to represent us before God than the Holy Spirit. Not only does He 00:31:31.640 |
sigh on our behalf, if He doesn't know who we are and if He doesn't know who the Father 00:31:36.560 |
is, His prayer would be like ours. It would just kind of miss. He's saying things that 00:31:41.280 |
really doesn't matter. It's not according to His will. But nobody knows the mind of 00:31:45.440 |
the Spirit better than the Father. And nobody knows the will of God than the Holy Spirit. 00:31:52.440 |
And that Holy Spirit that is indwelling in us is sighing passionately and groaning on 00:31:59.720 |
our behalf constantly. That's where our eternal security comes from. Not you, not me. That 00:32:06.720 |
even in our weakness, He knew our weakness. He gave us His Son. That's why our prayers 00:32:17.480 |
in accordance to the Spirit is effective. In the Old Testament, you had Moses who represented 00:32:27.200 |
the nation of Israel and God to the nation of Israel. But at the end of his life, because 00:32:32.920 |
he didn't represent God as holy, because he was a human being. And he was disqualified 00:32:39.280 |
into entering the Promised Land. Every single prophet that spoke on behalf of God was a 00:32:45.120 |
human being. Also under the bondage of sin. And even the high priest, he could only enter 00:32:52.280 |
the Holy of Holies once a year because he himself was sinful. Only the Holy Spirit can 00:32:59.280 |
be in the presence of the Father and know His will perfectly and His will known perfectly. 00:33:06.880 |
And that is why He doesn't need to speak. His prayers are groaning and sighing without 00:33:12.640 |
words because God knows Him. And that Holy Spirit is indwelling in us. And God answers 00:33:22.140 |
that prayer. God answers that prayer. So next question we have to ask is the Holy Spirit 00:33:29.140 |
is interceding for us. And that's where our confidence assurance comes from. What is He 00:33:34.800 |
sighing for? What is He groaning about on our behalf? Well, it's stated in John chapter 00:33:41.200 |
17. So turn your Bibles with me to John chapter 17. I'm not going to read the whole text, 00:33:46.800 |
but John chapter 17 is called the priestly prayer, high priestly prayer. Jesus is praying 00:33:52.920 |
and He's praying deliberately and publicly so that people can hear. So that we would 00:33:57.060 |
understand that as Jesus intercedes on our behalf this is what He is praying. So I'm 00:34:01.660 |
not going to read all of it, but the first section of it He basically says, "Now is the 00:34:05.340 |
time for Me to glorify you and for you to glorify the Son." And He's talking about the 00:34:08.940 |
cross. So the first part of the prayer is between Him and the Father and how His whole 00:34:14.420 |
ministry was to glorify Him and how He's come to save mankind to honor and glorify the Father. 00:34:20.420 |
But the section that I want to read to you starting from verse 13 where His prayers turn 00:34:24.740 |
directly to us. And this gives us a glimpse of what the Holy Spirit is groaning and sighing 00:34:30.940 |
for and this is what He says in verse 13. John chapter 17, 13. "But now I am coming to 00:34:37.180 |
you and these things I speak in the world that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves." 00:34:42.300 |
So let me stop right there. Remember we talked about that joy and Zoe, life, go hand in hand. 00:34:49.300 |
He's not just saying biologically that we're going to exist forever, but He's talking about 00:34:53.380 |
this separation from the author of life to be alive, to make us alive again, Zoe. So 00:35:00.100 |
when He says to make My joy fulfilled in them, He's talking about to give them life and give 00:35:04.660 |
this life abundantly. So first and foremost He's praying for our life, verse 14. "I have 00:35:10.780 |
given them Your Word and the world has hated them because they are not of the world just 00:35:15.260 |
as I am not of the world." So stop right there. He recognizes that because they become followers 00:35:21.040 |
of Christ that persecution and hardship is going to come into their life. That difficulty 00:35:26.600 |
is going to come because they're living in this world, but they're not of this world. 00:35:31.340 |
But look at verse 15. He doesn't pray for deliverance, verse 15. "I do not ask that 00:35:35.460 |
you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one." So He prays 00:35:41.180 |
for life and He prays and recognizes that suffering is going to come as a result of 00:35:46.540 |
being a Christian. Not despite, but because you're a Christian. You no longer belong to 00:35:52.940 |
this world. The things that this world runs to for comfort, it is no longer yours. And 00:35:58.460 |
as a result of that, there's going to be trials and difficulty and suffering. He recognizes 00:36:03.460 |
that, but He doesn't pray that they would be taken out of the world. In other words, 00:36:07.500 |
He's not praying that that suffering would stop. That's what He means that He's not, 00:36:12.620 |
I'm not praying that they would be out of this world. He says, "I ask that you would 00:36:17.140 |
protect them from the evil one." In other words, that they would persevere. When the 00:36:23.360 |
attack comes, when the suffering comes, that you give them enough strength to persevere 00:36:28.620 |
through these trials. And then verse 16, "that they are not of the world just as I am not 00:36:32.940 |
of the world. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth." So let's recap what 00:36:40.660 |
He is saying. What is the Holy Spirit sighing and groaning intensely on our behalf? Who 00:36:46.780 |
knows the will of God perfectly and is praying perfectly according to His will. What is He 00:36:53.780 |
praying for? Our salvation, joy. He's praying that suffering that will come because we are 00:37:00.940 |
Christians, that He doesn't pray for us to be delivered from that, but to persevere in 00:37:05.860 |
it so that our faith will not fail, to protect us from the evil one. And then third, that 00:37:11.820 |
we will be sanctified in the process. He's praying for our salvation and our own sanctification 00:37:19.260 |
above your safety, above your comfort. That's what the Holy Spirit is groaning on our behalf. 00:37:27.980 |
If you pray and your prayer is contradicting the Holy Spirit's groaning in you, guess which 00:37:34.500 |
prayer is going to be answered? Beans and rice in Jesus Christ or the groaning of the 00:37:43.660 |
Holy Spirit? Groaning of the Holy Spirit is being answered by our Father. The sighing 00:37:51.940 |
of the Holy Spirit, wanting us to be saved, wanting us to persevere through hardship because 00:37:58.260 |
we're Christians and to sanctify us. That pressure that you feel in your life, that 00:38:07.340 |
you're trying so hard to escape from, may have been an answer to the prayers of the 00:38:13.460 |
Holy Spirit in you. Because God desires sanctification in your life more than anything else because 00:38:21.820 |
it is in sanctification that you are connected to the author of this life. But his prayer 00:38:28.740 |
doesn't stop there. His prayer goes on, verse 18, "As you sent me into the world, so I have 00:38:33.380 |
sent them into the world. And for their sake, I consecrate myself that they also may be 00:38:38.140 |
sanctified in truth." And then he says in verse 20, "I do not ask for these only, but 00:38:43.220 |
also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one." And 00:38:49.380 |
finally, not only our salvation, not only our perseverance and sanctification, but that 00:38:55.580 |
God would use us to continue to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is what is being 00:39:02.900 |
prayed on our behalf, morning, day, and night. And it is in answer to that prayer that God 00:39:11.780 |
is acting in your life. And he says, "If you pray, if you abide in me, my words abide in 00:39:21.820 |
you. Ask whatever you wish, it shall be done for you." You know, when my oldest son, Jeremy, 00:39:30.260 |
when he was younger, he was in high school, you know, Esther and I, there was a period 00:39:34.180 |
when we would go out on campus together to share the gospel. Well, Jeremy would have, 00:39:40.300 |
you know, certain periods of the day he was off, and he'd say, "Hey, what are you guys 00:39:42.900 |
doing?" I'd say, "Oh, we're going to go, you know, go on campus and share the gospel." 00:39:46.180 |
And Jeremy said, "Can I come?" So I said, "Why?" You know, he's never asked us this 00:39:53.180 |
before. He said, "Can I come?" I said, "Well, you know, we're going to share the gospel." 00:39:55.860 |
He said, "Yeah, I want to join you." So Esther and I were like, "Is this our son?" And obviously 00:40:04.160 |
we were elated. You know, this is the reason why Esther and I got married. We're in ministry, 00:40:09.740 |
we're doing this together. And so our son, when he wanted to come and he joined Esther 00:40:14.540 |
to go on campus to share the gospel, I mean, to this day, and that's why I'm using it as 00:40:19.620 |
an illustration because he was, I mean, it just made us so happy that he wanted to do 00:40:24.060 |
this with us. Now, he didn't know it at that time, but he could have literally asked for 00:40:29.640 |
anything at that time, and I would have given it to him. If he said, "Dad, I need new shoes 00:40:37.980 |
because I need to go on campus. My shoes are dirty, you know, and I want to represent Christ 00:40:44.860 |
in clean shoes." I would have said, "Yes, my son, you need clean shoes." Right? "Oh, 00:40:52.380 |
the car, I don't know if it's going to make it. You know, I need a car that's going to 00:40:57.100 |
take me there so I don't, the car doesn't, the engine doesn't shut down halfway there. 00:41:01.340 |
So I need to make sure that I get there on time to share the gospel." I'd say, "Yes, 00:41:05.580 |
which car do you need, son? Make sure that you get there." Right? He could have asked 00:41:11.700 |
anything at that moment. He didn't know it, and that time has passed now. But he tapped 00:41:24.180 |
into the core of what makes Esther and myself happy. But once he tapped into that, he could 00:41:32.620 |
have asked anything. See, when the Scripture says, "If you abide in me, my words abide 00:41:38.380 |
in you," our Father is eager to answer our prayers. But He wants to answer our prayers 00:41:45.860 |
to what is best for you, and that's the Holy Spirit that He's entrusted and is groaning 00:41:50.500 |
on our behalf. Now, you can hear all of this, "Oh, thank God we have the Holy Spirit. Now 00:41:55.580 |
we don't need to pray, because since we have an advocate praying on our behalf, perfectly 00:41:59.260 |
know the mind of God." Right? You may think that, but I believe a genuine response to 00:42:06.540 |
this is to live up to the calling that you have received. See, if God left it up to you, 00:42:14.060 |
you would be defeated, anxious, maybe even wanting to quit. The reason why we can persevere 00:42:23.140 |
in our prayers, the reason why we can persevere in our walk with God, that despite our weakness, 00:42:29.820 |
God understands who we are. And that's why He's given to us salvation, gave to us the 00:42:36.540 |
Holy Spirit, gave to us the intercessor, so that we can get up and keep going. I made 00:42:43.980 |
you my children, now live up to it. Now live and use the things that I have given you. 00:42:51.420 |
It is interesting that in the midst of all of this, even with the Holy Spirit, even all 00:42:57.700 |
that He fulfills, and even though it is all in Him, beginning, middle, and the end, and 00:43:03.220 |
yet God responds to prayer, if not ours, the Holy Spirit's. So imagine what our life would 00:43:11.660 |
be like if we actually joined the Holy Spirit in that prayer. How pleased our Father would 00:43:18.500 |
be. How honored and glorified our Father would be if we joined the Holy Spirit to pray for 00:43:25.900 |
the things that He is already sighing and groaning for. As we remember and celebrate 00:43:32.940 |
the coming of Christ, and I know there's a lot of busyness and exchanging gifts and all 00:43:38.620 |
of that stuff is great, you know, but let's take some time to remember what it is that 00:43:45.220 |
we have in Christ. That we don't just let it pass. That we think and meditate and really 00:43:52.060 |
thank Him and glorify Him and worship Him for what He has given. Let's take some time 00:43:56.660 |
to pray as our worship team comes up. Again, as our worship team comes up, I want to encourage 00:44:06.540 |
you, take some time to meditate and think through. Maybe some of you guys are that person 00:44:16.660 |
that I described in the beginning, frustration. You know, feel like you're repeating the cycle 00:44:20.980 |
over and over again, not making progress. Maybe just take your eyes off of yourself 00:44:27.020 |
for a minute and just thank God for what He has given. That in our weakness, He gave us 00:44:30.540 |
the Holy Spirit. That even when we are weak, there's prayers being offered up on your behalf. 00:44:38.900 |
And to really come before the Lord in thankfulness and take some time to meditate and to refocus