...to Romans chapter 8. Again, I'm going to highlight verse 26 through 30. We're going to be mainly focused on the two verses in 26-27, the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our prayers. Romans chapter 8, 26 through 30. "Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. We know that for those who love God, all things work together for good. For those who are called according to His purpose, for those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers.

And those whom He predestined, He also called; and those whom He called, He also justified; those whom He justified, He also glorified." Let's pray. Gracious and loving Father, we entrust this time to You. We thank You, Father God, for Your grace, not only spiritually, but even physically, Lord God, that in safety we can raise our children to be able to gather together and celebrate Christ and what He's done.

Help us, Lord God, to be good stewards of every good gift that You've given. Especially, Lord, as You've given us Your Word and Your Holy Spirit to help us, we pray that power of the Holy Spirit would do more than just instruct, but to illumine our hearts, that we may hear Your voice and no one else's.

So we entrust this time to You, in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. I know that our collegians have taken their finals, at least a lot of you guys have taken your finals and you stayed up all night studying and preparing, you've taken your tests. And I don't know how quickly you get your results, but you know how frustrating it is when you've given everything that you've gotten and you just fall short, right?

And you've stayed up all night, did everything that you're supposed to do, and then you get the final result and you fail. The frustration that you feel. And you don't have to be a college student to know how that feels. You could be somebody at work and you've been given an assignment and you've really given your best.

You've stayed long hours, you did everything that the company told you to do and you're supposed to get this project done and at the end it just didn't work. And after everything that you've done, you've only gotten yelled at because you just didn't complete the job. Or you were trying to get the sales and you did everything to appease this customer and it just didn't work.

I think something a little bit more personal at home is a lot of times, you know, between husband and wife, when you have frustrations with communication. The husband is trying his best to love his wife and to understand her, but no matter what he does, it just always seems to come short.

And vice versa. You know, wife is doing everything. She's cooking his most favorite food and doing everything that he could possibly do and at the end, you're just missing each other. And the frustration that you feel when you've given everything you've got and it just doesn't seem to be enough.

Well, how do you feel when that happens? Frustrated? Dejected? Possibly wanting to give up? You know, it's one thing if you didn't give your best. It's one thing where you're just kind of nonchalantly going through this thing and so answer is pretty clear when that happens. Like, I need to study harder.

I need to work more. I need to be more sparred about the way I approach things. But, you know, there's things that we do that we've done everything we could possibly do and it just still wasn't enough. A lot of people feel that way about their spiritual life and their walk with God.

If you've been walking for a while where you felt like, you know, maybe there was a period when you've given everything that you've gotten, you've been disciplined, went to church and did Bible study and served and went to missions, did everything you could possibly do, but the end result wasn't what you expected.

And you go through a few cycles like that and after that you just kind of feel dejected, you know, and hopeless maybe. And if you're not careful, it leads to despair and that despair leads to giving up and you quit. See, whenever we strive anything and given our best and we come short, that's usually the end result, whatever it may be.

But you could see the logic behind why our salvation is by grace and by grace alone. Because if God left it to us and said, "If you give your 100% and you did the best that you could and if you achieved an A rather than a B or C or D, you can get to heaven," the end result would be exactly what I described to you.

You would continually have this cycle of dejection and then eventually just end up quitting. But the reason why we are able to persevere is because the scripture tells us that what we could not do, even with our best effort, Christ did. So our assurance of salvation is not based upon our hard work, but upon His grace.

1 Peter 1, 3-5 it says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again. According to His mercy, He caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." See, our assurance of salvation isn't based upon where God is looking at us to see how much you're doing and how hard you're working and see who achieves and who does not.

If that was the case, we would always, we would, our salvation and our walk with God ultimately would lead in only despair. The reason why we're able to persevere is because He gave us salvation. And He assures us that our assurance is based upon what He has done and what not we do, what we do.

1 Corinthians 1, 7 and 9 it says, "So that you are not lacking in any spiritual gifts, so as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

It's because of His faithfulness, He says He will sustain us, He will make us guiltless until the day of Jesus Christ." Now that's what Paul has been teaching through the book of Romans all the way up to now. But remember when Paul began to teach that in chapter 6 he says, "Well if that's the case, isn't that going to lead to licentiousness?" If you're saying that we don't have to obey the law, it is not by our effort that we get saved, won't that lead to a group of people who just say, "Well I'm just going to do whatever I want." Paul says, "By no means." That is not what happens at all.

And he tells us why he gave us the Holy Spirit. There's a distinction between a non-Christian and a Christian. A Christian has been baptized with the Holy Spirit, it is the Holy Spirit who empowers us. So in chapter 8, 2-8, he gives us that the Holy Spirit empowers us to obey the commandments of God.

Verse 9-13, the Holy Spirit enables us to resist our flesh. Verses 14-17, the Holy Spirit reassures our adoption, our assurance of salvation comes from the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And then verse 18-23 it says, "The Holy Spirit guarantees our inheritance as adopted children along with Christ." So he's been laying out that the distinction between a non-Christian and a Christian is the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer.

Well today's passage that we're looking at, verse 26-27, he says, "The Holy Spirit now, He empowers us to pray effectively that God would hear us." I think you will agree with me, at least to the extent that it's either the most important or one of the most important gifts that we've been given as a child of God is that we are able to pray to Him, that we have access to Him.

That we're not just legally His children. It's like we went through the adoption papers and stamped the name, but we're still living in the orphanage and the one who adopted us is living somewhere else. You know, a lot of Christians live like we're just legally His children, but in all practical purposes there's no relationship.

The whole purpose of salvation is to restore what was broken. So it wasn't just simply legally that we became His children, but the benefit that we have as children of God, that we have access to Him, that we are able to pray to Him, and He hears us as His children.

Not just some creation, but as His children. And so over and over again He says, "If we pray, He hears us." And we are encouraged and challenged and commanded even to come to Him in prayer. So if prayer is a distinction between a Christian and a non-Christian, because we have access to this Father, the next question we have to ask ourself, "Then how is your prayer life?" Now I don't have to survey the church because I've surveyed many, many times.

If you ask most people which spiritual discipline they struggle with most, you put it between 1, 2, 3, 4, usually people say, "I'm good with fellowship." Because I went to Disneyland and we spent 24 hours together yesterday and we were all Christians, so we had fellowship. We're good. We went and grabbed boba every other day, so we're good.

Probably not real fellowship, that's not what fellowship means, partnership in doing something. But typically if you ask an average person what they feel like they're good in, it's like, "Well I'm good with fellowship." And then the second, especially if you attend a Bible teaching church like ours, "I'm good with Word." Because the Word of God is being taught on Sunday, and Bible study, especially in our generation you can just turn on the radio and the Word of God is taught.

And so typically it would go fellowship, the Word, and then 3 and 4 usually is different based upon what kind of personality you have. So if you happen to be an outgoing person who likes to talk to strangers, you say, "Well evangelism is number 3 because I talk to people." That's evangelism.

And then the fourth would be prayer. So if you happen to be an introvert, you may be 3, you know, prayer would be 3, evangelism 4. But whatever it is, it's usually prayer is in the bottom half, either 3 or 4. Well if prayer is the most powerful, most significant thing that we have gained, to have access to the Father and pray, and yet we find ourselves struggling in our prayer, in our disciplines, wouldn't that leave us in despair, frustration, maybe even desire to quit?

And many people actually end up doing that because, "Well, I have such a hard time praying. In fact, even when I begin to pray, all I can think about is fantasy football or basketball or all these different things that I've watched are playing through my head and all the deadlines and everything that I'm responsible for and I have such a hard time praying." And then eventually after a while you just stop praying.

It almost seems like God knew that you and I were going to struggle. If God left us and said, "Well, you know, all these other things don't matter, but if you just become a powerful prayer warrior, then at least that will save you." But that's not what the scripture says.

In fact, Hebrews 7.25 says, "Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for us." Christ intercedes on our behalf. And the text that we're looking at this morning says that the Holy Spirit joins him in interceding.

In Romans 8.26, "The Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words." We talked about that word groaning before. In the RSV, the word for groaning is translated sighing. Sighs too deep for words. If you've ever been in a situation where you're not just struggling, you're just like, the pain is so deep, the struggle is so intense that you can't even articulate what to pray for.

And all you can do is sigh. If you've ever been in that situation, you know exactly what he's talking about. There's a groaning and sighing that you can't articulate. And when you pray, some of the most deepest, most powerful prayers are without words. And I can remember a few times in ministry where the deepest prayers, my prayer life basically was just waking up in the middle of the night just sighing.

I don't know if I can keep doing this. Lord, help me. And I remember every single day that was my prayer. It was not calculated. It wasn't something that I said, "I need to pray." It was just something that the Holy Spirit, I believe, by putting pressure, just forced me to pray in that way.

And some of you, again, may have been in a situation where your prayer was just sighing and groaning. The word that is translated says it was without words. Literally, it's just one word. It means "wordless." The prayers that are offered up on our behalf by the Holy Spirit are wordless.

It is just groaning. Again, if you've ever been in that situation, you know what that prayer feels like. You don't know what it sounds like, but you know what that prayer feels like. And you have to, that's not something that you can just generate. That's something that happens to you.

That prayer comes as a result of the pressure that God places upon your life. It just happens. But that prayer is an intense prayer. It's a passionate prayer. Typically when we pray, a lot of times, a lot of our prayers are this type of prayer. We're not Catholic, so we don't do this, right?

But a lot of our prayer is no different than that. Beans and rice in Jesus Christ. Usually when we pray, you may not say beans and rice in Jesus Christ, but a lot of your prayers for your food is kimchi and fried rice in Jesus Christ, or boba and chicken in Jesus Christ.

So basically, there's not a lot of thought that goes into it. It's just, "Thank you for this food. Thank you for this day in Jesus' name. Amen." So a lot of our prayers, and not just for food, but when we pray for certain situations, it's your time to pray.

So you just kind of have some rote things that you say in prayer. But these are not intense, thought out, groaning and crying out to God. See, when the Bible describes the Holy Spirit praying, it is not this, you know, not thought out, just kind of rote prayer that He just kind of offers up and saying His duty, He just did His job.

Groaning typically is a deep-seated desire, passionate, and it is consistent with the way that the Bible describes the way God pursued us. The Bible describes our God as a jealous God. He didn't just casually pursue us. He didn't just look at the world and say, "Ah, I feel pity for them, so let's do this one thing." His passion for lost sinners like you and me was so passionate, was so jealous, that He would even offer up His only begotten Son to pursue us.

So when we think about His love, it is really beyond anything that you and I could possibly imagine. If somebody was to create a story, wanted to make a movie about the greatest love that human beings ever could imagine, we wouldn't imagine this, because it wouldn't make any sense.

Because you've never experienced it, you've never seen it. Even the greatest love of a mother toward their child, it's beyond that. So just because it is beyond us, we wouldn't imagine this. And yet the Scripture describes the love that He has for sinners like us, to pursue us. It's that deep, it's that passionate.

So it only makes sense that the Holy Spirit who intercedes on our behalf is groaning in the same way. You may have experienced that type of groaning, but the question I have for you is, have you ever prayed for someone else with that type of groaning? That type of sighing.

You might have sighed for yourself, maybe God put pressure on you, but what did you care about so much? It may be somebody that you loved. Maybe the pain for somebody else that you're watching from a distance was so intense that you may have groaned and sighed. But it needs to be intense.

You're not going to groan and sigh from a distance nonchalantly. It is only because it was so intense that you may have prayed, if you've ever done that for somebody else. See, that's how the Bible describes our relationship with God, that our God jealously pursued us, willing to even send His only begotten Son.

So the prayers that are offered up on our behalf by the Holy Spirit is described as a sighing, this groaning, wordless on our behalf constantly. And it is this groaning that our Father hears. If you've ever been in a hospital setting, or maybe somebody in your family was so sick, and there was so much pain and discomfort that you hear groaning, and if you hear this groaning, your first reaction is, "God, do something.

Hurry up and get the nurses or the doctors. We have to help this person relieve their suffering." That's the image I get when I hear this term groaning, that the Holy Spirit is groaning on behalf of His adopted children. And so the prayers that God hears is this groaning and sighing on our behalf.

So no matter how far we fall short, the reason why we have assurance of salvation is not because you are strong. It is not because you are determined. It is not because you know theology better than the next guy. The reason why we have assurance of salvation is because the Holy Spirit that has been implanted in us is groaning, and our Father is listening to the groaning of the Holy Spirit on our behalf, interceding.

That's why we have assurance of salvation. That's why He can say with all confidence that He guards and He protects the inheritance that He entrusted to us. It is by His power, by His faithfulness, because He's referring to the Holy Spirit that is groaning on our behalf. The text that we're looking at, verse 26, in these two verses, we're given maybe about three or four insights that I want to highlight for you guys to understand this ministry of the Holy Spirit in intercession.

He begins in verse 826 by saying, "Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness." The reason why the Holy Spirit was given to us is because He says He understands our weakness. Hebrews 4 to 15, it says, "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin." He doesn't understand our weakness from a distance.

He stepped in our shoes and He understands it from first-hand knowledge, the weakness that you and I experience. See, the strangest scene that you see in the Scripture when you really understand the totality, the context of Jesus' incarnation, which we're going to be celebrating in a few weeks. When Jesus comes into the ministry, the very first scene in His ministry after the baptism is He's led out into the desert for 40 days He's tempted.

At the end of the 40 days, Satan comes and tempts Him, saying, "If you would bow down to me, I will give you all that you see." Imagine the ridiculous proposition that is, that Satan, a created being, is tempting the Creator that, "If you would bow down to me, I will give you all that you have created, and I will give that to you." I mean, you look at the context of that, you say, "Ridiculous.

Is Satan stupid? Is Satan really stupid that he would approach the Son of God and think that somehow that's going to be a temptation? That you give me your bicycle, right, you give me your Lamborghini and I will give you my bicycle. Is that a temptation? Why did Satan even tempt to come to Jesus with that proposition?

There was something about His incarnation, there was something about His weakness in taking on human form. For the first time that Satan has been challenging the God of the universe to usurp His authority and glory, for the first time he saw weakness in Jesus' humanity that if there was any time that Satan had any chance of taking over His throne, it may have been now.

And that's what Satan was targeting. It was something about His humanity where the scripture says that He left His glory and He took on human form, and He understands our weakness because He stood there with us. You know, another strange scene is right before He goes to the cross, He's praying, and He's wrestling, and He says, "Lord God, if there is another way, if there is another way." Now think about that prayer.

All of Old Testament history, all of Israel's history, all of everything that God has been doing that we recorded in scripture is about the coming of Jesus Christ and what He was about to do the next morning. Jesus was born for that purpose, whole purpose of ministry. He's been prophesying to His disciples that He's going to be crucified and resurrected, and yet the night before that happens He prays, "Is there another way?" See, it was something about His humanity.

That's exactly how every weak human being would react, knowing the suffering that was going to come. The physical suffering, the spiritual pain, being separated from the Father. There's something about His humanity that He took on weakness, all for what purpose? So that He can be a sympathetic high priest.

See, our Savior has an intimate knowledge of our weakness, and He knows. And that's why when the disciples were praying, even as He told them that He's going to be crucified, "Couldn't you stay up with me one hour? Your spirit is willing, but your flesh is weak." Jesus knew that they were going to be weak.

Our assurance of salvation would have been utterly destroyed if it wasn't for the fact that our Father already knew that we were weak. See, first and foremost, He sent the Holy Spirit because we were weak, because He knew we would struggle. And our confidence comes, not because of you, not because of me, not because of our background or experience, because in our weakness He sent the Holy Spirit.

See, Scripture says, "Remember, when Jesus saw the multitudes, He had compassion." You know the word "compassion" in the Greek is a very intense word. It means to have your bowels. I mean, today, you know, we use that term for different purposes. But the term that is used in Greek is kind of like being punched in the gut.

If you've ever experienced being punched in the gut, and I hope you haven't, but if you've ever had an experience being punched in the gut, you can't think straight. You can't breathe. You can't concentrate on anything. It is something that requires all of your attention. You will kneel to the ground until you can gain sobriety.

That's what it does when you get punched in the gut. The word for "compassion" in Greek means that when Jesus saw the multitude, it was like He was punched in the gut and He was moved with emotion, with compassion. And He immediately turns around and compassion He says, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few." He saw them, He says, "They are like sheep without shepherd, harassed and helpless." What that means is, without the Holy Spirit, that's exactly who you and I would be, harassed and helpless.

He told the disciples when He was about to leave, "If you go, what about us?" And Jesus said, "I will not leave you as orphans." And then He promises the Holy Spirit. So what that means is, without the Holy Spirit, you and I would be helpless and harassed and like orphans with no help.

But that is not the way He left us. We have assurance of salvation because the Holy Spirit is interceding, groaning and sighing on our behalf. Second observation is that the Spirit helps us because there are times that we don't even know what to pray for. Sometimes it's difficult to pray because we sit down and we try to pray.

We're not even sure what to pray for. Should I pray for safety? Should I pray for strength? Should I pray to move on? Should I pray to persevere? And sometimes we don't even know. But He says that even because we do not know, He says, "For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us." He intercedes because we don't even know how to pray or what to pray at times.

The whole book of Job is a description of this righteous man who couldn't understand why is God doing this? Why is suffering coming? So each one of his friends are coming in three separate cycles telling him, "Let me tell you the answer." And every single one of them were not only wrong, but it made matters worse because they were wrong.

And Job is trying to understand through all of this suffering what is going on, what is going on. We see that in Elijah, this man of God after confronting these bald priests and having this victory, instead of seeing revival come, Jezebel is even more determined to continue this evil.

And he's burned out and tired and he's escaping into the desert because he doesn't understand. "I've given everything I've got. You've demonstrated your power publicly. And instead of revival, they're trying to kill me because he didn't understand." There's a lot of things that happen in our life that we don't fully get, that we don't understand.

We don't even know how to pray. Not only are we weak in our flesh, we don't even know what to pray for. But the hope that we have is that the Holy Spirit who is sighing and groaning on our behalf, He knows. That's where we have assurance. It's not because of the great church that you're at.

It's not because of the great friends you're surrounded by. It's not because of your talent, whatever background, whatever gifting you may have. It's because in our weakness and in our lostness, He gave us the Holy Spirit to guarantee. Thirdly, the reason why the Holy Spirit intercedes is because He's the best person to intercede for us.

He says, "The Father knows the mind of the Spirit and the Spirit knows the will of God." John chapter 15 verse 7, it says, "If you abide in my word, my word abides in you. Ask whatever you wish, it shall be done for you." But sometimes we don't even know what the will of God is.

In fact, one of the most common questions that I get as a pastor is, "What is His will?" So how can we pray according to His will when at times we're just lost? If you want to know what I like to eat, ask Esther. Esther knows me better than anybody else, at least now as an adult.

I spend the most time with her. So if you want to know where I am Wednesday at 3 o'clock, she's the best person to ask. She's my best ambassador. You know, it wasn't always like that. When we first got married, a lot of the marriage problems comes because we don't understand each other.

I would come home and her sadness, annoyance, tired, angry, all looked the same to me. And you can imagine what kind of trouble you're going to get into. You walk home, it's like, "Why are you angry?" She might have just been tired. And she's like, "I'm just tired." "Why are you treating me like this?" And then it would turn into, "She's angry because I got angry and then I'm angry because now she's really angry." And then that starts to fight, right?

So it wasn't about anything other than I misread her. The good thing about being married for a long time is that communication is a lot easier. And sometimes we laugh about it because I spend the most time with Esther. And so after almost 25 years, I can fidget a certain way and she knows, "Oh, you're thirsty." We'd be driving in the car and even before I'm about to fall asleep, she'll say, "You're tired.

Pull over." Like, "Wow, I didn't even swerve." I remember one time I was driving and I don't know, I was thinking about something that was making me mad. And I was just driving by myself and I'm just, I mean, with her in the car and then she looked over and she's like, "What's wrong with you?" I said, "I'm not mad." I said, "What do you mean?" She's like, "You look like you're going to kill somebody." I said, "She read my thoughts." And that's the benefit of being married for a long time.

Like the communication becomes a lot easier. I walk in, I can tell the distinction. There's no better person to represent us before God than the Holy Spirit. Not only does He sigh on our behalf, if He doesn't know who we are and if He doesn't know who the Father is, His prayer would be like ours.

It would just kind of miss. He's saying things that really doesn't matter. It's not according to His will. But nobody knows the mind of the Spirit better than the Father. And nobody knows the will of God than the Holy Spirit. And that Holy Spirit that is indwelling in us is sighing passionately and groaning on our behalf constantly.

That's where our eternal security comes from. Not you, not me. That even in our weakness, He knew our weakness. He gave us His Son. That's why our prayers in accordance to the Spirit is effective. In the Old Testament, you had Moses who represented the nation of Israel and God to the nation of Israel.

But at the end of his life, because he didn't represent God as holy, because he was a human being. And he was disqualified into entering the Promised Land. Every single prophet that spoke on behalf of God was a human being. Also under the bondage of sin. And even the high priest, he could only enter the Holy of Holies once a year because he himself was sinful.

Only the Holy Spirit can be in the presence of the Father and know His will perfectly and His will known perfectly. And that is why He doesn't need to speak. His prayers are groaning and sighing without words because God knows Him. And that Holy Spirit is indwelling in us.

And God answers that prayer. God answers that prayer. So next question we have to ask is the Holy Spirit is interceding for us. And that's where our confidence assurance comes from. What is He sighing for? What is He groaning about on our behalf? Well, it's stated in John chapter 17.

So turn your Bibles with me to John chapter 17. I'm not going to read the whole text, but John chapter 17 is called the priestly prayer, high priestly prayer. Jesus is praying and He's praying deliberately and publicly so that people can hear. So that we would understand that as Jesus intercedes on our behalf this is what He is praying.

So I'm not going to read all of it, but the first section of it He basically says, "Now is the time for Me to glorify you and for you to glorify the Son." And He's talking about the cross. So the first part of the prayer is between Him and the Father and how His whole ministry was to glorify Him and how He's come to save mankind to honor and glorify the Father.

But the section that I want to read to you starting from verse 13 where His prayers turn directly to us. And this gives us a glimpse of what the Holy Spirit is groaning and sighing for and this is what He says in verse 13. John chapter 17, 13. "But now I am coming to you and these things I speak in the world that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves." So let me stop right there.

Remember we talked about that joy and Zoe, life, go hand in hand. He's not just saying biologically that we're going to exist forever, but He's talking about this separation from the author of life to be alive, to make us alive again, Zoe. So when He says to make My joy fulfilled in them, He's talking about to give them life and give this life abundantly.

So first and foremost He's praying for our life, verse 14. "I have given them Your Word and the world has hated them because they are not of the world just as I am not of the world." So stop right there. He recognizes that because they become followers of Christ that persecution and hardship is going to come into their life.

That difficulty is going to come because they're living in this world, but they're not of this world. But look at verse 15. He doesn't pray for deliverance, verse 15. "I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one." So He prays for life and He prays and recognizes that suffering is going to come as a result of being a Christian.

Not despite, but because you're a Christian. You no longer belong to this world. The things that this world runs to for comfort, it is no longer yours. And as a result of that, there's going to be trials and difficulty and suffering. He recognizes that, but He doesn't pray that they would be taken out of the world.

In other words, He's not praying that that suffering would stop. That's what He means that He's not, I'm not praying that they would be out of this world. He says, "I ask that you would protect them from the evil one." In other words, that they would persevere. When the attack comes, when the suffering comes, that you give them enough strength to persevere through these trials.

And then verse 16, "that they are not of the world just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth." So let's recap what He is saying. What is the Holy Spirit sighing and groaning intensely on our behalf? Who knows the will of God perfectly and is praying perfectly according to His will.

What is He praying for? Our salvation, joy. He's praying that suffering that will come because we are Christians, that He doesn't pray for us to be delivered from that, but to persevere in it so that our faith will not fail, to protect us from the evil one. And then third, that we will be sanctified in the process.

He's praying for our salvation and our own sanctification above your safety, above your comfort. That's what the Holy Spirit is groaning on our behalf. If you pray and your prayer is contradicting the Holy Spirit's groaning in you, guess which prayer is going to be answered? Beans and rice in Jesus Christ or the groaning of the Holy Spirit?

Groaning of the Holy Spirit is being answered by our Father. The sighing of the Holy Spirit, wanting us to be saved, wanting us to persevere through hardship because we're Christians and to sanctify us. That pressure that you feel in your life, that you're trying so hard to escape from, may have been an answer to the prayers of the Holy Spirit in you.

Because God desires sanctification in your life more than anything else because it is in sanctification that you are connected to the author of this life. But his prayer doesn't stop there. His prayer goes on, verse 18, "As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.

And for their sake, I consecrate myself that they also may be sanctified in truth." And then he says in verse 20, "I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one." And finally, not only our salvation, not only our perseverance and sanctification, but that God would use us to continue to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That is what is being prayed on our behalf, morning, day, and night. And it is in answer to that prayer that God is acting in your life. And he says, "If you pray, if you abide in me, my words abide in you. Ask whatever you wish, it shall be done for you." You know, when my oldest son, Jeremy, when he was younger, he was in high school, you know, Esther and I, there was a period when we would go out on campus together to share the gospel.

Well, Jeremy would have, you know, certain periods of the day he was off, and he'd say, "Hey, what are you guys doing?" I'd say, "Oh, we're going to go, you know, go on campus and share the gospel." And Jeremy said, "Can I come?" So I said, "Why?" You know, he's never asked us this before.

He said, "Can I come?" I said, "Well, you know, we're going to share the gospel." He said, "Yeah, I want to join you." So Esther and I were like, "Is this our son?" And obviously we were elated. You know, this is the reason why Esther and I got married.

We're in ministry, we're doing this together. And so our son, when he wanted to come and he joined Esther to go on campus to share the gospel, I mean, to this day, and that's why I'm using it as an illustration because he was, I mean, it just made us so happy that he wanted to do this with us.

Now, he didn't know it at that time, but he could have literally asked for anything at that time, and I would have given it to him. If he said, "Dad, I need new shoes because I need to go on campus. My shoes are dirty, you know, and I want to represent Christ in clean shoes." I would have said, "Yes, my son, you need clean shoes." Right?

"Oh, the car, I don't know if it's going to make it. You know, I need a car that's going to take me there so I don't, the car doesn't, the engine doesn't shut down halfway there. So I need to make sure that I get there on time to share the gospel." I'd say, "Yes, which car do you need, son?

Make sure that you get there." Right? He could have asked anything at that moment. He didn't know it, and that time has passed now. But he tapped into the core of what makes Esther and myself happy. But once he tapped into that, he could have asked anything. See, when the Scripture says, "If you abide in me, my words abide in you," our Father is eager to answer our prayers.

But He wants to answer our prayers to what is best for you, and that's the Holy Spirit that He's entrusted and is groaning on our behalf. Now, you can hear all of this, "Oh, thank God we have the Holy Spirit. Now we don't need to pray, because since we have an advocate praying on our behalf, perfectly know the mind of God." Right?

You may think that, but I believe a genuine response to this is to live up to the calling that you have received. See, if God left it up to you, you would be defeated, anxious, maybe even wanting to quit. The reason why we can persevere in our prayers, the reason why we can persevere in our walk with God, that despite our weakness, God understands who we are.

And that's why He's given to us salvation, gave to us the Holy Spirit, gave to us the intercessor, so that we can get up and keep going. I made you my children, now live up to it. Now live and use the things that I have given you. It is interesting that in the midst of all of this, even with the Holy Spirit, even all that He fulfills, and even though it is all in Him, beginning, middle, and the end, and yet God responds to prayer, if not ours, the Holy Spirit's.

So imagine what our life would be like if we actually joined the Holy Spirit in that prayer. How pleased our Father would be. How honored and glorified our Father would be if we joined the Holy Spirit to pray for the things that He is already sighing and groaning for.

As we remember and celebrate the coming of Christ, and I know there's a lot of busyness and exchanging gifts and all of that stuff is great, you know, but let's take some time to remember what it is that we have in Christ. That we don't just let it pass.

That we think and meditate and really thank Him and glorify Him and worship Him for what He has given. Let's take some time to pray as our worship team comes up. Again, as our worship team comes up, I want to encourage you, take some time to meditate and think through.

Maybe some of you guys are that person that I described in the beginning, frustration. You know, feel like you're repeating the cycle over and over again, not making progress. Maybe just take your eyes off of yourself for a minute and just thank God for what He has given. That in our weakness, He gave us the Holy Spirit.

That even when we are weak, there's prayers being offered up on your behalf. And to really come before the Lord in thankfulness and take some time to meditate and to refocus as our worship team leads us. You