Sermon Tone Analysis

INTRODUCTION

This morning we are wrapping up our Triune Strength series.

When we decided to pull the trigger and go for it, I imagined God’s Word being a pillow for us.

I imagined the church lying down on a bed and God placing His Word under our heads to relieve us and console us in our suffering.

And I hope that has happened.

As we have looked at the Father’s comfort, which transforms us into comforters...

As we have looked the Son’s example, which shows us how to endure and press on...

My prayer has been that our church has felt strong in the Lord and in His Word, though we may be weak in the world.

And that is the reality.

Whether we like it or not.

Whether we want to admit it or not—we are weak in the world.

I don’t mean that we are weak in the sense that we are helpless or hopeless.

That can never be because of who we are in Christ.

I mean we are weak in the sense that the cares of this world, the brokenness of our bodies, the heartbreak caused by the people we love---it all adds up to leave us feeling weary.

Wobbly at times.

Maybe flat on our backs.

And on those days—when you are flat on your back, staring up at the ceiling, and whatever you are encountering is so immense that you feel like you can’t bear up under the weight of it and you don’t even know what to pray, what do you do?

Where do you turn?

Well, this morning, in Romans 8, Paul will tell us to turn to God.

Romans 8 is filled with all sorts of wonderful promises regarding how the Father and Son and Spirit pour love and blessings on us.

But it is particularly concerned with blessings of the Holy Spirit.

In Romans 8--

Believers are set free from the law of sin and death by The Spirit of Life (8:2)

Believers walk according to the Spirit by setting their minds on the things of the Spirit (8:5)

Christians have life and peace when the mind is set on the Spirit (8:6)

The Spirit dwells in believers (8:9)

The righteousness that Christ provides for us opens the way for the Spirit’s work in our lives (8:10)

The Spirit that raised Christ from the dead is in us, fighting sin with us and for us (8:11)

By the Spirit, the Christian puts the deeds of the body to death (8:13)

If you are a son of God, destined to receive your heavenly reward from Him, you are led by the Spirit (8:14)

You have the Spirit of adoption so that you would not fall back into slavery, but that you would know God as Father and cry to Him (8:15)

The Spirit bears witness to you being a child of God (8:16)

The Spirit lets us taste the firstfruits of salvation (8:23)

And then finally, this morning, we will see the Spirit helping us along in our prayer lives.

Interceding when we cannot speak.

Perfecting what is imperfect

Groaning with us and ministering to us.

And I hope that we will be truly strengthened by three teaching points about the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives in Romans 8:26-27, so let’s read there.

THE HOLY SPIRIT BEARS WEIGHT WITH GOD’S CHILDREN

The first thing that we see in these verses that we must linger over is this idea that God’s Spirit is helping us in our weakness.

We have seen how the comfort of the Father turns us into comforters

We have see how the example of the Son spurs us on to endure like Him and cast off every sin so that we can run our race

Now, we have the third Person of the Trinity is not just dwelling in us, but is actually bearing the weight of our hardship in Romans 8:26...

Everything you see in verses 18-30 is really one thought.

It is a section in which Paul is explaining that the present sufferings of this world are going to be replaced by a future glory.

But even now, as we wait on that glory, God is conforming us to the image of His Son and He is already allowing us to taste the firstfruits of our salvation.

We don’t have heaven yet, but the Holy Spirit enables us to get a taste of heaven on this present earth.

When Paul says that the Spirit is helping us in our weakness, he is saying that the Spirit’s divine assistance to us is part of that “firstfruits” of salvation that verse 23 is talking about.

In Heaven, I will live in a body without sin or the threat of death.

I will live my entire life in perfect dependence upon God.

He is giving us a taste of that now, by strengthening us for the trials of the present age.

Teaching us to live on His life in the here and now.

Exposing us to the joy of depending upon His provision.

Now the idea of the Spirit helping us here carries the idea of serving alongside someone.

For example, the Greek word for help is the same from Luke 10:40

Martha was frustrated because the task of service was left to only her.

She wanted Mary to put her hand to the work with her.

The fact that the same word is being used in Romans 8:26 tells us that the Holy Spirit is assisting us in the task of suffering.

As our bodies long for redemption and we are eagerly awaiting our inheritance as the children of God, the Spirit is there to bear up under the weight of living in this world.

Teaching Point #1: The Holy Spirit bears burdens with God’s children (v.

26).

ILLUSTRATION: I remember being in seminary and I decided that I wanted to start exercising.

My roommate and I were watching Monday Night Football and I was on the floor trying to do some push-ups.

He is coaching me, saying, “I think you need to straighten your back out,” and, “Your arms are too far forward.”

But I noticed that as he was critiquing my form, he was hard to understand.

I look up to find him with a mouth full of Oreo’s that he was dunking into a tall glass of milk

He immediately busted out laughing as we both realized how ridiculous the situation was

The Holy Spirit is not like this.

He does not stand far off, coldly suggesting advice, like some sort of online life-coach.

He is not like the football fan who shouts armchair advice at the coach on TV from the comfort of his own home.

He is not even a counselor you see once a week, who offers great wisdom, but doesn’t walk with you through life.

He is better than all of that.

He is in the thick of our lives with us.

And He is involving Himself.

He is walking into the labor of our lives and says, “Let me help you with this.”

AT Robertson picks up on this language in Romans 8 and says the Greek indicates that the Spirit actively carrying the weight of our lives with us:

“The Holy Spirit lays hold of our weaknesses along with us and carries His part of the burden facing us as if two men were carrying a log, one at each end.”

If you have ever helped someone move, you know exactly what this is like.

That is the picture when Paul says that the Spirit helps us in our weakness.

Now before we go further, let’s deal with this word weakness so that we understand exactly what the Holy Spirit is helping us with.

The word is connected to the groaning that we see in verses 20-23.

In verses 20-21, Paul explains what happened to creation when sin came into the world:

The earth went from being paradise to being crippled.

The animal world went from tranquil to violent.

The created harmony of God’s design was thrust into a siege of chaos and destruction.

Sin and death opened up the door to floods and fires, earthquakes and hurricanes and tornadoes and tidal waves.

Creation is crying out for redemption and the New Earth like a woman in labor.

Creation groans.

But as you keep reading, you find out believers are groaning too.

We are eagerly waiting on our adoption and inwardly we “groan” (v.

23).

In the same way that creation longs for redemption to come in full, so do we.

We have tasted the firstfruits of salvation, which includes the help of the Spirit, and as we suffer in our perishing bodies, we groan for the imperishable to come.

So with that in mind, what are our weaknesses?

It’s all of the physical, emotional and spiritual ailments that plague us in this world that is not our home.

It is the days we hurt.

It is the days we cry.

It is the days when we feel alone.

On those days, the Spirit of God is there saying, “I know you are groaning for the Son to return.

In the meantime, let me help you with that weakness you have.”

And It is the days that we feel our prayers have gone cold.

In fact, that is the weakness Paul is most concerned about in the verse.