Helped By the Spirit

We are continuing with our sermon series focusing on How God Changes Us. We have been allowing Paul’s book to the Romans to help us discover the ways that God i s at work within us and ways that he is desiring to change us.

We have been looking so far at how the struggle with sin is real. How we have true freedom in Christ, and last week how God desires to adopt each person that walks this earth into his family. You can find each of these sermons and all of our sermons on our You Tube channel.

This week we look at how we receive “Help by the Spirit.” Our scripture comes from Romans 8:26-39. The words will be on the screen.

26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Let us pray…

The first verse of Psalm 121 asks and answers a question, “Where does my help come from? The answer, “My help comes from the Lord, the maker of Heaven and earth.” We believe that we have a God that desires to help us through whatever we are going through in our lives.

Our scripture reminds us that “the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness.” Jesus left for his disciples and us a helper. Those that have chosen to follow him are able to receive help from God through the Holy Spirit.

We have been conformed into the image of Jesus. We spoke of this last week we have become children of God. We have been adopted into the family of God. This means for us that we are loved by God and we are cared for by God.

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 Our first reading tells us that under the circumstances of life that we are facing that God will be with us. We are to trust in God. We are to have no fear. We are to believe that God has redeemed us.

This language of us being redeemed should remind us of what Jesus did for us. Jesus paid the price for us. Jesus allowed for us to not have to wallow in our sin but to be free from the power of sin. We should have no fear because of what Jesus did for us.

Isaiah offers three different scenarios that make the same point. God is stating through Isaiah that he will be with us, when we pass through the waters and the rivers and when we walk through fire.

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Water and fire were two of the biggest fears for the Jewish people. Water because it was unknown. They were unable to see what was in the water of the sea and they could be swept away at any time by the waters of the river.

God is saying that under the scenario of the sea that he will be with them. The sea could represent living life day to day. At times the sea could be calm and during other times it could be rough. Under both circumstances God will not abandon them or us. God will be with us.

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The river represents those times when life transitions from easy to hard. When we believed that all was well until suddenly it was not. Christian columnist and author Ed Stetzer spoke of this firsthand on a Facebook post. He recently had to go through emergency spinal surgery, someone asked him, “What has surprised you the most?”

His answer was “Ten days ago, my wife and I were hiking through the redwoods for several hours. Nine days later I couldn't walk without help and was preparing for spinal surgery. “Life comes at you fast,” Ferris Bueller once said––and it does. That realization has made me even more grateful for each ordinary day God gives me.”

God will attempt to help us not be overwhelmed during these circumstances. It is not that we are not going to face the troubles of the world, but that God will walk with us and help us as we are facing them.

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Our last example is fire. What we know about fire is that it destroys. It can destroy our life. It can destroy our faith. The longer the troubles of life continue, the harder it can become for us to keep the faith, to trust in God.

God will help protect us from the world. We can be reminded of the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who were tossed into a fiery furnace because they were unwilling to fall down and worship the image of King Nebuchadnezzar.

When King Nebuchadnezzar said that they will fall down before his image or face death they said to him…

 17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

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They trusted that no matter the circumstances that God would be with them, that God would help them. We find the disciples after Jesus’ death facing time in prison and being beaten but still keeping the faith and believing that God is with them.

It leads us to verse 31 of our main text which tells us that “if God is with us, who can be against us.” We have a God that will never leave us or forget about us. He will continue to help us through the good, the bad, and the ugly of life.

We have Jesus as our example. The Holy Spirit was within Jesus and helped Jesus throughout his ministry. He showed us how to live our lives in a way that would be pleasing to God. He then died for us and became our savior.

He saves all who are willing to follow him from the power of sin and death. He helps us live our lives without guilt or shame for the times we fail God here on earth. He offers us hope in a future where we are able to overcome death and live forever with him.

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There is nothing that God will not do for us. What he asks from us is a willingness to believe that he is our Savior. A willingness to ask for our sins to be forgiven. It is through these beliefs that we receive the Holy Spirit. It is through these beliefs that we are able to be made right with God.

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God helps us overcom e the troubles of life. I don’t know what you may be dealing with right now, but what I do know is that God desires to help you through it. Our scripture begins by talking about the Spirit “interceding for us through “wordless groans.”

God knows what we are seeking. We may not be able to put it into words, but God will help us discover what we need even before we recognize the answer to our situation. I know I keep saying it but I don’t think we can  be heard enough. God will not leave us.

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Those first statements show us the importance of asking or at the very least trying to ask God to intervene. God could intervene on his own but God desires for us to want him to intervene. God could push himself into our lives but God desires for us to want him in our lives.

We are on a journey with Jesus. We get to decide how we want to live out this journey. One of the best scriptures that speak of living out the Christian faith comes from Revelation chapter 3. This segment of scripture is a part of John’s messages given to him by God to the seven churches of Revelation.

These are letters that represent the good, the bad, and the ugly of the church. John will name a church. He will often begin with a good thing that the church is doing and in most cases that is followed by a problem the church is facing. A problem that is moving them away from God instead of towards God.

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The letter we are focusing on today is to the church in Laodicea (lay-oh-di-see-uh). This letter does not offer any positive affirmation. It immediately calls this church out for their actions. He says to them…

“You are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”

This can be a hard message for any of us to hear. Based off of this message, God would prefer that we be struggling in our relationship with him then stating we are followers of him and living lives that do not reflect our belief.

We could find the Holy Spirit at work in both the cold and the hot. The Spirit could be working on the heart and mind of the person who is struggling. The Spirit could be helping this person remember what God has already done for them to lead them towards God instead of away from God.

The Spirit would be helping a person who is hot discover the ways that they can serve God and those around them. A person whose faith is “hot” in this scenario would be someone who is living out the greatest commandment of love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength; and love your neighbor as yourself.

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A person whose faith is lukewarm is someone who believes in God but has chosen the ways of the world over the ways of God. They may show up to church but their purpose of being there is not so much to worship God but to be seen.

This way of living is “useless to God” because it lacks a vigor to become closer to God and to serve God. It also can be dangerous for the individual because it can leave them open to spiritual attacks.

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I relate this idea of a lukewarm faith to a stagnant faith. It is there but there isn’t any movement. This type of faith, like stagnant water, may even look good from appearance but is hiding the dangers of being and living this way.

What do we know is often contained in stagnant water? We can find dangerous bacteria and mosquito-borne illnesses. There is danger in a stagnant faith just as there are dangers found within stagnant water.

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The dangers we find in stagnant faith is that it leads us towards what James chapter 3 calls “bitter envy and selfish ambition.” A desire to focus on ourselves and our desires over God’s desires. We can find ourselves becoming unwilling to spend time with God.

The dangers of not spending time with God include a lack of willingness to let God lead and direct us, and a lack of noticing the need to be protected by God. This will often cause us to become farther away from God.

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When we are choosing to not let God lead and direct us, we can find ourselves wandering through life. We can end up doing what we should not do and being where we shouldn’t be. We can end up what looks good on the surface but will hurt our relationship with God and others in the long run.

Satan is always looking for a way to impact our relationship with God. When we are unwilling to seek God, we will find ourselves falling into the trap of temptation. We will allow Satan to have a foothold on our lives.

This foothold will cause us to turn inward towards our wants and desires which will often lead us to have actions that will hurt our relationship with God and those around us. Stagnant faith is dangerous to us because it can lead us down a path that is not good for us and those around us,

(Transition)

A “hot” faith means that we are attempting to follow the ways of God. We are to choose to be people of the Spirit. When we view our lives this way we should look towards living a life filled with the Fruit of the Spirit.

In case you forgot what the fruit of the Spirit are they are love, joy, peace, forbearance or patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Can you see how having a Hot faith looks different than a faith that is lukewarm.

A “Hot” faith will lead us towards actions that will be beneficial to those around us. A “Hot” faith will cause us to focus on those we meet. A “Hot” faith will lead to us relying on God and trusting him to guide us to those that we can benefit instead of focusing on those that can benefit us.

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We have  a choice on how we desire to live our lives. We can focus on ourselves and desire to please the world and go and do what the world would want for us to do. Or, we can make the decision that we want to be people of the Spirit.

We can during the good and bad times of life remind ourselves of “Where our help comes from?” We want our help to come from the God of truth and light. We want our God to lead us down the path that will lead towards him and serving others. Let us let God be our help here on earth?

Let us pray…