It’s such a joy to be here with you. Please remain standing. We’re going to read Scripture together as we stand together. We believe that God meets us whenever we open up His Word, but particularly when we open up His Word together. God would have us receive nourishment to our soul as we would read Scripture together. Paul tells Timothy, “Do not neglect the public reading of Scripture.” Isn’t it fascinating? Have you ever been into a church setting where there was no public reading of Scripture? That’s one of the few things that we must do when we get together. We must read Scripture together because God speaks to His people through His Word. We get to participate in the joy of having God minister to our souls. We’re going to be reading Romans 8:14-27. We are in a series called The Helper. It’s a series that focuses on the Person and work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. This particular section teaches us how the Holy Spirit helps us to pray. So let’s read this together.

14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
26 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. 27 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.
May God encourage us through His Word!

Every Sunday, we have the opportunity to experience and receive the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our own individual lives and together as a church. Today, it’s my prayer that as we receive the ministry of the Holy Spirit, we would be helped to pray. It’s that we would leave here with a heart filled with a zeal to be praying men and women, boys and girls, so that we might live for the glory of God and that we would be bound together through prayer and through the Gospel in our love for God and our love for each other, so that we might be a community that communicates the Gospel through our relationships as well as through our words. I think it’s going to be exciting to see what the Holy Spirit does through His Word today and through this series! Won’t you pray for your church family and pray for your own heart every time you come in to gather to worship God together with your church family that God’s Spirit would work in a profound way, a life-transforming way? We need that!

Every part of the believer’s life requires supernatural help. Only with God’s Spirit can a sinner understand and receive the Gospel. Only with God’s Spirit can a believer experience the love of Christ. Only with God’s Spirit can a believer open God’s Word and actually hear God speaking truly and personally to us. Only with God’s Spirit can we sing with genuine joy, joy that flows from salvation unto the Lord. Only with God’s Spirit can we maintain hope in seasons of distress and great sorrow and grief. Only with God’s Spirit can a believer encourage other brothers and sisters in their walk with Christ. Only with God’s Spirit can we use our spiritual gifts given us by God to actually have an effect for the glory of God, for the strengthening of His people, the strengthening of His church. Only with God’s Spirit can we overcome sin habits that would otherwise enslave us. Only with God’s Spirit can a believer protect themselves against the assaults of the evil one. There is a real devil with real demons who are prowling around to devour us. Only with God’s Spirit can a believer bring the Gospel to the world with the hope of having this powerful life-giving impact. Only with God’s Spirit can a church family be vibrant and healthy and joyful.

You see, every part of the believer’s life requires supernatural help from the Spirit of God. Amen? (Amen!) I need that. Every part of my life that is meaningful, that is spiritual, requires God’s active work. How good it is of God to send us His Spirit to indwell us to be our Helper. The Holy Spirit does not look upon our many needs and say, “Good luck with that. I hope it goes well with you.” He doesn’t even just simply say, “Let me give you some advice.” When the Holy Spirit sees a specific need in our life, and those needs are daily, the Holy Spirit rolls up His sleeves and says, “Let me help. Let me get to work with you.” That is the kind of Spirit we are given. It’s a Spirit who doesn’t just simply make comments, doesn’t merely give us advice, but a Spirit who comes alongside of us to work, to help. We desperately need the Holy Spirit’s help! We need Him every moment of every day!

One of the reasons why we don’t experience His help is because we aren’t even aware that the Helper is present. So the goal of our series on The Helper is first, to build an awareness of His presence in our life and then an active dependence upon Him for His working to us. So this morning, we open up our Bibles to Romans 8:14-27 where we learn that the Holy Spirit helps us to pray. The Holy Spirit strengthens us so that we can pray in every circumstance of life.

Do you ever get discouraged in prayer? Do you ever get frustrated in prayer? Do you ever wonder whether or not God really hears you as you pray? Do you ever wonder, “I’m not even sure if I know what to pray in this circumstance”? We all have answered yes to some of these questions. We need help if we are to be the kind of people who communicate with God in such a way that God is active and living in our lives, working His grace in us, for us, and through us, through prayer. The Holy Spirit delights to help us to pray and He especially uses times of confusion and difficulty and doubts, to come alongside us to lift us up so that our prayer life might be vibrant, healthy, and strong. God gives us Romans 8 to light a fire in our prayer life.

We ask the question, how exactly does the Holy Spirit help us to pray? In this passage of Scripture that we’ve just read, we’re going to discover three specific helps that the Holy Spirit provides that energizes our prayer life. Again, in order for the Holy Spirit to energize our prayer life, we must open up our hearts and avail ourselves to Him. We must not neglect Him. We must not discard Him. We must not quench His work. But this is a help that God’s Spirit offers to every person who is in Christ Jesus. It is specific, personal help to energize our prayer life. The first help we’re going to consider this morning is from verses 14-16.

Prayer Help #1: The Holy Spirit testifies that God is our loving Father.

14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

You might underline the word “led.” The Bible teaches us that the Holy Spirit doesn’t coerce us. The Holy Spirit doesn’t twist our arms. The Holy Spirit doesn’t bully us. The Holy Spirit doesn’t force us to act in any way. He is a gentle, patient Spirit. He is our Helper who in gentleness and patience leads us toward a godly, Christ-centered life. In this, the Holy Spirit is very much like our Good Shepherd, Jesus. The Good Shepherd never drives His sheep. The Good Shepherd always leads His sheep to green pastures. Jesus says this in John 10 about Himself.

John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice,

In other words, He is personal.

John 10:27 …and I know them,

In other words, I care for them. I love them.

John 10:27-28 …and they follow me. I give them eternal life

We know that we are sheep in Jesus’ flock because the Spirit so works first, to help us hear the voice of the Shepherd. Other sheep, when they hear Jesus speak, they don’t even listen because they don’t know that He is their Shepherd. They don’t know Him as their Shepherd. We hear the voice of Jesus through the Word of God and we say, “I hear the voice of Christ.” Then we recognize that He loves us. He laid down His life for us. Then we, in obedience, follow Him and we receive from Him eternal life. When the Spirit places us in Jesus’ flock, the Holy Spirit changes our disposition toward Jesus.

The Holy Spirit reveals a Shepherd who is loving and sacrificial and who will always, always, always lead us to green pastures. We never have to fear when we follow Jesus whether we’re going to follow Him into some dead place. He leads us through dead places, but not to dead places. The same is true of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit offers to lead us every moment of every day. Our daily blessing from God is then tied to our willing submission to the Holy Spirit and to Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit and Christ won’t drive us as sheep. He won’t force us. Again, He won’t twist our arms. If we are to be led by the Spirit into fruitful places, it’s because on that day that the Holy Spirit leads us, we made a decision to yield ourselves, to place ourselves under the Spirit’s direction and authority. “As many as are led by the Spirit, these are sons of God,” Paul writes. We will not receive the help that the Holy Spirit offers us if we do not willingly yield ourselves under His direction and His care and His authority.

15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

Here, notice that the Holy Spirit gives Himself a name. That name is the Spirit of adoption. What an amazing title! The Holy Spirit, in the Holy Spirit’s Book, gives Himself a number of titles and each one of them are precious. The Holy Spirit calls Himself the Spirit of God twenty-seven times in His Book. In other words, He wants us to know He is the Spirit of God. He is God of very God. He is a Person. He is Powerful. He is sovereign. He is gracious. He is holy.

He also calls Himself the Spirit of the LORD twenty-seven times, the Spirit of Yahweh. He is the Spirit of the eternal covenant. His faithful love for His people will never fail and never fade. He is also the Spirit of Jesus. This Spirit connects us to Jesus and communicates Jesus’ majesty to us. He communicates Jesus’ work. He communicates Jesus’ power and salvation.

He is also called the Spirit of wisdom. He is the Spirit who reveals the ways of God and convinces us that the ways of God are good and right and fruitful. He is also called the Spirit of counsel and of might. He is the Spirit who directs our lives in very specific ways and then empowers us to follow the path that He lays in front of us, to follow His counsel.

He is the Spirit of knowledge and the Spirit of the fear of the Lord. The Spirit reveals God’s majesty to us so that when we consider God, we consider Him as holy, holy, holy and hold Him in deep reverence and awe and majestic wonder and in worship. He is the Spirit of Truth. Four times, He calls Himself the Spirit of Truth. The Spirit writes a Book filled with necessary, inerrant, perfect truth about God and about God’s ways and about God’s workings. Then He shows us how to apply all that life-giving truth to our life.

He is called the Spirit of Holiness. He is the Spirit who transforms us by freeing us from sin habits and pursuing practical godliness. He is called the Spirit of life. He imparts the life of God into our soul so that we’re no longer dead souls, but we’re living souls, alive to God. He calls Himself the Spirit of grace. This Spirit relates to us not on the basis of merit, not on the basis of works, but on the basis of grace, on the basis of His mercy. He is called the Spirit of glory. This Spirit shows us the glory of God and fuels our praise so that we sing with joy in our hearts to the almighty God. All of these titles and more, the Holy Spirit gives to us to help us understand who the Helper is. Here in Romans 8, He gives us this amazing and beautiful title, the Spirit of adoption. I love that! You might underline that in your Bibles.

Adoption is a well-known practice in the Roman world in which Paul writes. Romans would often adopt sons into the family. As adopted sons, these sons would not be inferior to any natural-born son. They would take on the father’s name. They would inherit the father’s estate. They would be born and granted the same affection, the same privileges of natural-born sons. So here, the Apostle Paul is explaining to us that we’re born dead in our sins, but we’re not lost. The Father then adopts us as He chooses us and pulls us into His family, where we become heirs of the same blessings that the Son receives from the Father, Jesus Christ receives. We are co-heirs with Christ, with all of the benefits of being fully children of God. All of that is wrapped up in this little phrase, “Spirit of adoption.” He produces this adoption and then He convinces us that God loves us like a dad loves his son or his daughter. The God who created this world, the God who is transcendent and holy and awesome entreats us and relates to us as His own beloved children. When we address Him then, we address Him with a title so familiar, so tender, so loving.

You see, we are creatures of God, but we don’t merely relate to God as our Creator. Indeed, we are servants of God, but we don’t merely relate to God as our Lord, as our Master. Here, the Spirit of God says, “You are also God’s children, His sons and His daughters, and you relate to Him as a child does his or her dad. Again, we’re reminded of the loving generosity of the Spirit who leads us. The Holy Spirit removes the Spirit of fear that brings unhappiness, insecurity, doubt, terror into our relationship with God. The Holy Spirit replaces this spirit of fear with a confidence that we can approach God boldly as a little child would approach his or her own dad.

How does this impact our prayer life? How is this a help for us as we develop a growing, thriving life of prayer? There are two ways, two motivations. The adoption motivation first tells us in prayer, we address God personally as Father and as Daddy. Secondly, in prayer, we know that as our Father, God loves to bless us. Both of those are driving motivations for our prayer life. Let’s consider the first. In prayer, we address God personally as Father or Daddy.

15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
Paul echoes that very same idea in Galatians 4.

Galatians 4:6-7 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

That word “Abba” is a very fascinating word. It’s an Aramaic word that is untranslated. In other words, Paul says, “I’m not even going to write a Greek word here as I’m writing the New Testament in Greek. I’m just going to take that Aramaic word that is so often used by children on the streets and I’m going to insert it into the text of holy Scripture.” He does that of course, through the direction of the Holy Spirit.

If you go to Jerusalem today, you would hear this word “Abba” being spoken by little children in the streets as they are running about with their families and as their dads are present. It’s a term of affection. It’s a term of security. It’s a term of intimacy. It’s a term of endearment. Recently, I’ve come across some articles even just this last week that were trying to press home the idea that Abba does not mean “Daddy.” For some reason it’s become important to some authors. One article reads, “For Christians, young and old, to address God as “Daddy” is totally inappropriate, for in English usage the term is too casual and flippant and unassuming to be used in addressing the Lord God Almighty, the Creator and Sustainer of all things.”

Normally, this author writes many good things. I understand the concern that it’s possible to treat God with flippancy and irreverence. But I totally disagree with this argument. I disagree with the conclusion that when we consider God as our Daddy or as our Father, we are rejecting His transcendence. We are somehow disrespectful. I loved my dad all my life. He was an amazing dad. He died eleven years ago. All my life, I called him “Dad.” Never once did he say, “Stop calling me Dad or Daddy because that’s too disrespectful. You’re not treating me with the kind of esteem that I deserve. That was okay when you were a little kid, but not anymore.” He never did that.

A number of years ago, my son, Jackson, was in a head on car accident. We got the call. I didn’t know what I was going to see when I got onto the crash site. When I got there, the paramedics had already taken Jackson out of the car. He was on the buckboard. They were fastening his head to that little buckboard before they put him in the ambulance. He saw me from a distance. This strong seventeen year old young man looked at me and he starts crying, and he said, “Daddy, daddy.” For me, I was a symbol of affection, somebody who could help in a time that is helpless. The truth is, I felt pretty helpless at that moment. But I loved that he called me “Daddy.” I didn’t say, “Son, I’m your father. Don’t use that irreverent term.”

Now again, I understand it can be used irreverently, so we do have to watch out for that. But Abba means Daddy. It means Dad. Little children still use it. Adults who have this endearing wonderful relational relationship with their father often still call their father Dad or Daddy. I think that’s the point. It’s because of the Spirit of adoption, we are so in that we never have to feel ourselves out and to feel a kind of superficial formalism. That’s a wonderful motivation for prayer.

It’s insightful that Jesus, on the night He was betrayed and He went up into the Garden of Gethsemane, He used this very title in addressing the Father, His own Father, His own eternal Father. He understood that He was going to bear the weight of the sins of the world upon Him. He calls His disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray with Him. He said

Mark 14:34-36 And he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch.” And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

What a help to our prayer life! Do you ever think God is so distant that He might not even really care that much? Here we are given a Helper who says, “No, don’t ever think that. That’s never true.” The Father’s heart toward you as a child of God through faith in Jesus Christ is always tender. It rejoices to bless. It rejoices to be that security. It rejoices to be that protection. It rejoices to be that provider. Call out to Him!

16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

In other words, there is something mystical about the Christian life. There is something the Holy Spirit does that we can’t explain. Scripture tells us that it happens, and God’s children through faith in Christ experience this. The Spirit bears witness. He says, “You are God’s child through faith in Christ.”

17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

What a difference to have a Spirit of adoption instead of a spirit of fear. Fear is a tremendous motivation to make people do what they don’t want to do. It’s a tremendous motivation! Totalitarian governments have used fear throughout history to force people against their will to obey rules. We’re seeing more and more fear motivation in our own country, in our own government, and also from big companies. But I want you to know encouragement because that fear motivation never causes a person to say, “I want to draw near and have relationship. I want to just kind of hang out and talk and I want to share and unburden my life.” That’s not what fear motivation ever does. It’s the motivation of adoption that says, “I want to draw near to God with all of my needs. I want to talk with Him and lay all my burdens upon Him because He cares for me.”

Last week, my wife, Kimberly, commented about a part of the sermon that struck her as the chief takeaway. It was this statement: Assurance of God’s love is a key to a praying life. If we’re not absolutely convinced that God is a Father who loves us and is tender, we’ll say, “God doesn’t want to hear all the stuff in my life. Does God really care? Does God hear me? Does it matter?” It’s the assurance of God’s love that becomes the key to a praying life, the foundation.

A little boy is raised in a family and one parent is stern and harsh. We would even say unloving and begrudging and condemning and critical. The other parent is winsome and affectionate and patient and kind and providing blessing and generous. When that child has a need, which parent will that child want to talk to? You see, it’s the Spirit of adoption that is such a motivation for us to say, “I need to bring my life before this Father who loves me.” When that child has a sin and they want to overcome that sin or they want to confess that sin, which parent is that child going to confess their sin to? Always, it’s the parent that represents what God is communicating to us about Himself, of a good, good Father who loves us, who is affectionate to us, who cares for us, who wants to bless us, who delights to bless us. Such is our Father. What a motivation we have to bring our burdens to Him!

Years ago, a man in our church, over twenty years ago, came with some huge burdens of sins. He had confessed those sins and turned from those sins, but for years, he lived in those sins. It was a secret life for years and years and years. When he came to the church, often his conversation with me was, “Do you think God will really forgive me? Do you think I have a place in the Father’s house, still?” I would tell him yes. He would say, “But don’t you know, I knew the Gospel. I believed the Gospel. Yet, I turned away from God and I lived for years in these sins. Do you think God will love me?” I couldn’t give him assurance. The only thing that I could do is open the Scriptures and allow the Spirit of God to give him assurance.

You see, if we’re to be assured, it’s not our mom or dad, it’s not our church leaders, it’s not anyone else who is going to give us assurance. It’s only going to be the Spirit of God working through the Word of God and the power of Christ to bring assurance. “Yes, God is my Father.” He struggled with that almost all of his life, up until the very end. Then he talked to me about the assurance that he had been granted before he went home to heaven.

But again, it was a tremendous, paralyzing trial that Satan wanted to remove this person from worship, remove this person from any godly influence for the rest of his life. If he can convince this person that God didn’t love him, he would do it. He would cut this man off from God through that deception. That’s why it’s a help that the Spirit of God says, “You are a child of God through faith in Jesus.” Confidence in God’s love for us fuels our motivation to pray. The second help that the Holy Spirit brings is

Prayer Help #2: The Holy Spirit strengthens us for prayer.

26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought,

You see, we are weak and frail and failing creatures. One of our weaknesses is that we just simply often come to circumstances where we don’t know what to pray for. It’s in these circumstances that the Holy Spirit comes alongside of us and helps us.

That word “helps” is a very long Greek word with a very special meaning. The Greek word is sunantilambanetai. Now, let’s say that together. Ready? (Laughter!) If I taught you how to say it, someone would accuse me of teaching you how to speak in tongues. Sunantilambanetai. What it means is, sun means together with. Anti means coming against an obstacle, something opposing. So anti means we have to move something that is an obstacle. Lambanetai means bearing together.

So what the Holy Spirit does when He helps us is He comes along with us to grab hold of some obstacle standing in the way so that together we lift that burden. The idea is there is a telephone pole that falls in your yard and you need to move it out of the driveway. First, you try yourself and you say, “I can’t budge it.” Then a really strong neighbor comes along and he helps you. That doesn’t mean you say, “Okay, you go pick it up on your own.” It means, “We can do this. We can roll this together.” So when the Holy Spirit helps us in prayer, He doesn’t say, “I got this. You don’t have to pray anymore.” Rather, He says, “Keep praying and I’ll bear together with you this burden. I’m here with you. You’re not alone.” When we get alone, we get very discouraged. We feel completely unable because we are.

I remember in high school sitting in Calculus class being very frustrated. Did any of you have some kind of circumstance like that? There might be a couple really smart folks who would say, “No, I got it completely.” I was looking at these problems and I’d look at them and I’d read the book and I’d look at them and it just was not coming together. I was getting frustrated and discouraged and I was about ready to say, “Close the book. Walk away from it. Walk away from the class. You don’t need the class to graduate.” Then I thought to myself, at the beginning of the semester, this teacher who was sitting at his desk said anytime you have a problem, come and talk with me. Okay. So I got up from my desk and I said, “I don’t understand this. Could you help me?” Do you know what he didn’t do? He didn’t say, “Go back to your desk. I’ll solve the problem for you and then at the end of the class, pick up the solution to the problem.” He didn’t do that. What he did was he said, “Sit down here with me. Let’s talk through this.” By the end of that ten or fifteen minute conversation, the light started going on and I kind of understand it. Without his help, I would have remained stuck, frustrated, unable. With his help, suddenly now there is invigorating, sort of motivating fuel for myself to engage in. That’s what God does by His Spirit in prayer.

Have you ever grown disheartened in prayer? Have you ever grown frustrated in prayer? The Holy Spirit doesn’t leave us to ourselves to figure out how to pray. He says, “I’m going to help you.” The Holy Spirit also though, doesn’t relieve us of the burden to pray. He doesn’t say, “Don’t worry about it. You don’t need to be involved anymore. I’ll take care of it.” He says, “Pick up the weight of prayer and as you pick that up, we’re going to do something together. It will be something wonderful, something fruitful, something joyful.”
It’s very important for us to recognize our weakness in prayer. You see, if we understand how weak we are in prayer, we have a good foundation to build a strong prayer life because we’re reliant upon the Holy Spirit. We are willing to go up to the desk and say, “I need help.” It’s when we think, “I think I know how to pray. I’ve learned some good words. Maybe I’ve read some Scriptures. I’ve pretty much got this on my own.” It’s then that we don’t experience the power of a praying life.

There are two key weaknesses that this section talks about that the Holy Spirit helps us to overcome. The first is that we are weak in remembering the ultimate goal of our lives. Almost always, we sort of stop short in our prayer of the ultimate goal. We ask for daily bread, but we forget that the whole reason why God would give us daily bread is so that we might live for His glory, that we might become more like Jesus. The Holy Spirit comes along and helps us understand the end purpose, the fullness of our adoption.

17 and if children, then heirs—

He points us right to the future. He says, “This is where it’s all going to end up.”

heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ,

It’s going to end up in eternity. Keep that in mind as you pray.

provided we suffer with him

Keep that in mind, that as you’re going through some fires and some floods and some hardships and some difficulties that seem overwhelming, God has a purpose behind it.

in order that we may also be glorified with him.

That ultimate purpose is to bring us out on the other end and to glorify Him like Christ. If you read Romans 8:28-29 it says everything is working together for the good of those who love Him. What is that good? It’s that we might be conformed to the likeness of Christ.

How much fuel does that give to us when we recognize the chief end of our praying and of our living is not something temporal? God wants us to bring those temporal things to Him, but the chief end is something eternal, something lasting. So the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness because frankly, we forget that the real purpose of life is about eternity and not about time. We need the Holy Spirit to keep this ultimate goal ever in view. I believe this is what it means to pray in the Spirit. It means to pray with this ultimate goal in view. I believe that on the basis of Jude 20-21. Listen to what God’s Spirit writes in Jude.

Jude 20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith

He says it’s about spiritual life and growing in spiritual life toward an end.
Jude 20…and praying in the Holy Spirit,

There’s that phrase.

Jude 21 keep yourselves in the love of God,

In other words, stay in the sphere where God’s love and direction and righteousness dominate. Keep yourselves in the love of God. How? By praying in the Spirit.

Jude 21…waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.

Waiting for that future day when faith becomes sight, when the work that God began in us on the day that we trusted in Christ will become complete. All of that is bound up in praying in the Holy Spirit with a view of the ultimate goal.

The second weakness we have is we are weak in knowing what to pray for, especially in times of suffering. Especially in times of trial, we don’t know what God’s will is.

26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought,

We know much of the Lord’s will. Of that portion of the Lord’s will, we should be very confident in our prayers that we know this is the will of God. Twenty-eight years ago, when I became a pastor at Bethany, I was I think, ten or eleven years old at the time. (Laughter!) Within the first couple of months, there was a leader in the church that said, “I’m going to leave my wife and I’m going to go off with this other woman. I’m going to move away from the state with her and start a new life.”

At the time, he was like forty-three or forty-four years old. In my view as a twenty-nine year old, he was ancient. At twenty-nine, what do I know? What kind of life experience do I have to talk to a forty-three year old guy? But I’m his pastor. God ordained me. So I said, “We need to talk. Can we talk?” As we talked, he said, “This is God’s will. I’ve prayed over it and this is what God wants.” I said, “No, it’s not. You are deceived. You are deceived into believing that something is right when it’s wrong, something is good when it’s evil.” He looked at me and said, “How do you know?”

That’s a great question! How do I know? Do I know on the basis of my experience? Do I know on the basis of my emotions? Do I know on the basis of my knowledge of this guy’s life and how hard his life was and how good his life is going to be? Do I know any of that? No, I don’t know any of that. Here’s how I knew what the will of God was. I opened up the Bible and said here is the will of God. It’s written forever. It’s written clearly. That’s how I know. That’s why I, as sort of a stranger to you and really young and inexperienced can say with great confidence that there is so much we do know of God’s will. When we pray over those things, we should pray with that kind of confidence. We know this is truth. It’s truth forever settled in heaven.
But you know, there are so many things we pray about that we don’t know. God’s Word doesn’t tell us. Some of these things are really, really important to our lives. I think of men in Scripture who didn’t know. I think of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. They said, “We think we know that God is going to save us through the fire, but if He doesn’t, we don’t know. But this is what we’re praying. This is how we kind of think.” I think of the Apostle Paul as he was sitting in prison. “I think God is going to take me out of this prison cell by liberating me. If He doesn’t, He’ll liberate me through death. I don’t know. I think this is the way.” I think of the Apostle Paul later, to the church at Corinth he said, “I prayed three times for a thorn in the flesh to leave me. I thought that’s what God would want. But He didn’t. He was doing something else.” There are so many things we pray about that we don’t know.

By the way, in those things, be very cautious of believing that anyone knows. You’re going to have some people who say, “I know that this is the will of God.” How do you know? If it’s not written in Scripture, don’t believe someone else just because they tell it with confidence and because it’s what you want to hear. Go back to the Word. Our confidence is not that some other person who seems like they have an inside track to God can tell us. Our confidence is that God’s Word, first of all, is sufficient. Secondly, I have God’s Spirit, who helps me in my weaknesses, weaknesses like this.

What God’s Spirit says is, “I’m going to help you in your weakness because I do know God’s will, because I am God. Whatever you pray, I’m going to translate it. Even though it might be very different from what you pray, I’m hearing your prayer, the prayer prayed in faith, the prayer prayed in dependence, the prayer prayed as a cry out to God for help, and I’m going to take that cry because God is a God who says the means through which He works is prayer. I’m going to take that prayer and I’m going to use it to bring something fruitful. So when I bring it to the Father, it’s translated perfectly. You don’t have to worry about translating it because you’re weak. You don’t know. But I know, and I’m going to translate it perfectly before the Father and it’s going to be answered perfectly.” So pray! Pray boldly! Pray courageously! Pray! Don’t let the fact that you don’t know how to pray, keep you from praying.

I was talking to my really godly mom. What a joy she is to my heart! She’s growing weaker in body. One of the weaknesses is she is having a hard time waking up. So we were talking after she had woken up. She said, “Years ago, I prayed that when the Lord would take me, He would take me in my sleep,” because she’s seeing herself not being able to wake up very easily. Then she looked at me and she said, “Do you think that was selfish? Maybe I shouldn’t have prayed that. I know a lot of godly people who don’t die in their sleep, who die in suffering.” My dad kind of was one of those. “So maybe it’s selfish of me to pray that.” I said, no, it’s not selfish. Pray!

Now, we have to be ready that the Holy Spirit might translate that in a way that is different from what we’re praying. We have to be ready to trust God with whatever, but yes. If God answers your prayer by having you go to heaven in your sleep, it’s not because He had to take that blessing away from someone else. So it’s not selfish. If this is a prayer of your heart that is a desire, pray. God says, “Let your requests be made known with thanksgiving.” Then know that if that’s not in the will of God, the Holy Spirit hears that. He takes it and He translates it perfectly to God so that your prayer is actually effective. Your prayer is actually fruitful even though it’s a prayer made in ignorance. So pray, pray, pray.

In fact, our ignorance of all that God wills, rather than keeping us from praying, it should motivate us to pray. When we read this, we understand exactly how God works in our ignorant prayers. We actually say, “This is great! Because I’m so ignorant, the Holy Spirit is going to be active.” That’s what He says. So it becomes a prompt for us to pray about those things because we know that the Holy Spirit promises to take our ignorant prayers and bring them in accordance with God’s will for us. What a wonder!

The Holy Spirit testifies that God is our loving Father. The Holy Spirit helps us by strengthening us for prayer.

Prayer Help #3: The Holy Spirit intercedes for us.
26 …the Spirit himself intercedes for us
That means He simply prays for us. He prays on our behalf.
with groanings too deep for words. 27 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.
The word “intercedes” brings up a picture of a lawyer pleading our case in court because we don’t know how to do that for ourselves. We don’t know the law. We need someone to intercede for us. We need someone to help us. The Holy Spirit says, “I’ll intercede for you. I’ll act as your go-between and I’ll plead before the Father, petitioning Him. This kind Father has a propensity to bless. He has a desire to bless. I’ll plead with Him. By listening to your request, I’ll intercede and I’ll pray in accordance with God’s will.”

Here is a remarkable thing that Scripture does. It often does this because the only understanding we have of heaven is when the Holy Spirit peels back some of the curtain to the mystery. We have no access from here. We don’t have it through our emotions. We don’t have it through our mind or our reasoning. We only have access to what happens in heaven and who God is on the basis of revelation. What God’s Spirit is doing is He is peeling back heaven. He says, “I’m going to give you a glimpse to a conversation you otherwise wouldn’t have access to.”

There is one God in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Here’s the Father. He’s the one receiving requests through the Son. By peeling this back, He’s showing us, “I’m listening because I’m dwelling in you. I’m listening to your requests. I’ll know if it’s in the will of God or not. If it’s not, I’m going to intercede for you with groanings. In other words, I’m there with you. I’m there all in, in my emotions and every part of me with you. I’m for you and I’m going to translate those prayers into prayers that are asked in the will of God and God is going to hear. God is going to answer to bless you.” That’s how this works. We would have no access to that picture except the amazing Word of God gives it to us. What a joy!

There are two features of the Holy Spirit’s intercession. He says, “with groanings two deep for words.” Then He uses the phrase that it’s also intercession “according to the will of God.” The first feature is the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with deep sympathy and with yearning for our joy. Groaning is the natural cry of a sufferer. We groan in some of the trials and we call out to God in our groaning. We don’t know what the end outcome will be through this trail of tears we’re walking, but we know that we’re sons of God because the Holy Spirit teaches us. We know we’re strengthened in our prayer because the Holy Spirit promises that. We know now that the Holy Spirit is hearing our groans and He is groaning with us.

Have you ever been alongside a person in either deep, physical pain or emotional pain? You hear them just groaning. You’re just sitting there with them and you hear them groaning. What do you do when you come alongside of them? If you have empathy and sympathy, one of the best things you do is you just groan with them. I’ve done that many times. I don’t know what to say, so I just groan, “This is hard.” That’s the picture of what the Holy Spirit does. He cares so much and He is so tender, He’s so compassionate to us. He’s so personal. He comes alongside us and groans with us. He says, “I’m groaning before the Father, on your behalf. I’m petitioning Him with this intercession that is deep with affection, deep with connection, deep with yearning.”

The second feature is that He does so in accordance to the will of God. He translates our weak and ignorant frail prayers into something meaningful and something true, into something that God will always, always, always say yes to. The Holy Spirit strengthens us so that we can pray in every circumstance.

So what is the application? How do we want to end this? There are three applications. First, let’s pray. I would have each one of us to ask the question today, how is my prayer life? Do I have the kind of life of prayer that is satisfying, that is joy inducing, that I sense the power of God at work in my life because of how I’m communicating with God through prayer and how He is communicating to me through His Word? Is that the vibrancy of my walk? Let’s pray. Consider what actions the Holy Spirit would have you to take today in order to deepen your conversations with God, in order to deepen your dependence. Sometimes it can be as simple as I just need to set a specific time in the morning and just set aside a bit of the schedule because one of the biggest distractions to a prayer life is just busyness. There may be some other emotional or spiritual obstacles that you would say, “I just haven’t wanted to pray. I’m not sure if God loves me.” In this case, it would be a pleading, “Spirit of God, help me! Convince me that the Father actually hears and the prayer actually counts for something, that prayer makes a difference. Convince me of that, please!” Then open up the Word and seek after Him and know that He will work. It’s what He promises to do. But the first thing I would just say is ask God to deepen your life of prayer.

Second, I would say let us also pray for one another. There are so many great aspects to prayer. There is praise. There is this pursuit of His will. There is confession of sin. There is thanksgiving for all the past and present blessings. There is petition for spiritual needs and physical needs. There is petition that we would pursue the glory of God in everything. All these are parts of prayer. But a key part of that is intercession. It’s joining with the Helper because the Helper intercedes for us. God the Son intercedes for us. Let’s join in this divine work of interceding for our brothers and sisters. Look around you.

In a moment, we’re going to take communion. Communion is a means by which God would say, “Awaken first to me, but then also to one another.” We need God and we need one another because this life is hard and there are some people carrying tremendous burdens, tremendous emotional and physical and spiritual burdens. They need a brother or sister who would be the instrument of God to say, “Let me come alongside of you. Let me represent God’s love to you by just simply interceding for you.” Be that person! Let’s intercede for one another.

Then last, let’s pray for spiritual transformation. Again, we are right to pray for all the physical, emotional, relational needs, but let’s make sure that we do not neglect the call upon God for our own soul and for the souls of others, that there would be a spiritual transformation, that we would become worshipers who worship God in Spirit and truth, that this church, the church that you’re a part of, would be strong for the glory of God, would be healthy and vibrant. Let’s pray for spiritual transformation.