Therefore Part Six - Help in Suffering

Introduction

Series: Therefore …

Here in Romans is where we discover the benefits/blessings of being “in Christ”

Justified, set free, a new life (out of autonomy and self-sufficiency, adopted, heirs.

Illustration: “Our new suffering” Have you ever been left out of a party or something that other friends were invited to? Can you imagine what Jesus must have felt … he came to his own people and they rejected him.

We as God’s people are going to feel the rejection and insult that the world can give.

When we face betrayal or rejection, there’s not a lot of words to express that feeling.

Last week we saw that if we are “in Christ” we are adopted as God’s children, but in that we are also going share in the sufferings of Christ (general suffering, suffering against sin, suffering for others)

Big Question: How do we endure the suffering that we will inevitably face? 

Last week: Hope — as we compare this present suffering with the glory that is to be revealed

This week: Help!

Main Idea: The Holy Spirit helps us in our suffering by interceding for us to the Father (3 Questions)

1. Why do we need the intercession of the Spirit?

Illustration: A Peanuts cartoon from way back when has Lucy asking a glum-looking Charlie Brown what he is worrying about.

Here’s the reality: we are “weak”

Very unpopular in our culture.

Illustration: Jessie Ventura—“Christianity is just a crutch” — no Christianity is a stretcher

J.I. Packer— “[Weakness}, the idea from first to last is of inadequacy” (physically? mentally? emotionally? spiritually?)

“At one level, prayer is an admission of weakness. We pray because we cannot meet a need ourselves.

But prayer unveils for us the depth of our weakness, for not only are we unable to bring about what we ask for, we are not even capable of asking for the right things by our own strength: “We do not know what to pray for as we ought” (Rom. 8:26).” (Derek W.H. Thomas)

2. How does the Spirit intercede for us? METHOD

Romans 8:26

What is amazing is that the Spirit steps into our situation, takes up our burdens (“groanings”) and takes them to the Father on our behalf.

The picture here is to reassure us while we are suffering.

God is not up in some ivory tower somewhere unaffected and unconcerned with our momentary suffering.

God doesn’t just say “Get over it. It will be over soon.” No! The Spirit of God dwells within us, and helps us in our need by interceding for us.”

So when we are out of words, or don’t know what to pray; the Holy Spirit comes into our situation

Illustration: A father, walking past his 5 year old daughter’s room one night, proudly noticed she was on her knees in prayer. Listening in, he heard this curious prayer "abcdefg...."- the whole alphabet repeated several times. When she was finished, he asked her what it meant: "God is really smart," she said, "when I don’t know what to pray about, I just say the alphabet and He figures it out for me”

What is the result of the Spirit’s intercession for us? RESULT

“The prayer of a righteous man avails much” — but what does the Spirit’s prayer avail?

This God who looks on the heart, knows “the mind of the Spirit”. What is the mind of the Spirit? The mind of the Spirit always makes intercession on behalf of the saints according to the will of God! The point is that since the Spirit intercedes in accord with God’s will, His prayers are always answered! Although our spoken prayers are not always answered, the unspoken intercession of the Spirit which accompanies our prayers is always answered! God’s will is not thwarted by our weakness in prayer. There is great encouragement here! God’s will is going to be fulfilled in our lives despite our weakness in prayer.

He is saying that the Holy Spirit expresses our heart's longings perfectly to the Heavenly Father. And they are perfectly understood by the Heavenly Father, even if we can't quite comprehend them all ourselves. The Spirit expresses our heart's longings perfectly to the Heavenly Father, and they are perfectly understood by the Heavenly Father. We don't know what to pray for or how to pray for it, and God is still able to discern the voice of the Spirit in our groans.

God is so gracious and so sovereign, that He makes groans without words to be understood and to prevail by the work of the Holy Spirit. Even when through the pressures of life, and the accompanying spiritual darkness, we grow helplessly and inarticulately in prayer, God still hears. For confused or even mistaken as we may be, He discerns the voice of the Spirit in our prayers, and He is not confused, even if we are. But the Spirit is interceding for the Saints according to the will of God.

Conclusion

Illustration: “Keep Playing"

Are you weak? Are you suffering? Are you to the point of not even having the words to say to God? To know what to ask for? 

God to him in prayer. Take your concerns, your weakness, your brokenness to him—and the Spirit himself with take it on your behave before the Father. 

Unbeliever: you could have this help too! Go to him. He will receive you with grace and mercy. 

Believe and trust what Jesus has done for you. 

Illustration: My first prayer — “God, I feel like I’m talking to a wall. … "