SPIRITUAL RESCUE
Notes
Transcript
His Ministry is Needed
His Ministry is Needed
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.
We are weak… I know its not a popular confession - or maybe it is in our era of sensitivity and awareness of trauma, poor coping mechanisms, needs and insufficiency… And yet it still seems like a hard confession - when we are propped up by our pride and self-reliance… or again, maybe it is an easy profession when we are worn down by our victim mentality or feel exhausted by self-pity…
OR MAYBE… it is easy because you have - through circumstances - humbly realized that you are weak - weak as in an incapacity to do or experience something. Even saying now aggravates a part of me…
NOW if we are at a weightlifting competition and I am asked to join in the bench press or the squat competition I will easily admit I am weak… But when it comes to generally doing life - or ADULTING - it grinds against my pride to say it - even as it resonates with my deeper awareness and wisdom…
Our weakness here is related to the futility of creation - an inability to fulfil our purpose. And faced with the trials, the struggles, the hurts, the emptiness, loneliness, disappointments, setbacks, failures… losses…
AND our default short-sightedness of self… which leads us to view our lives, opportunities, our plans, and our priorities related to self first… is a great barrier, a hindrance, to fulfilling our purpose - it prevents us from living a life devoted to God and His kingdom, to loving Him and loving others and finding true and lasting JOY and SIGNIFICANCE in doing so...
EVEN WHEN WE ARE FREE IN CHRIST, as believers we still struggle to live our lives here in the “in-between” waiting for Christ’s return. We are plagued by limitations, handicapped and hamstrung by our remaining selfishness and bad habits and surrounded by people struggling with the same...
AND we are called to live a life that is contrary - against the values, behaviors, and priorities of those around us… We are called to live lives that intentionally go against the flow of the society around - we are swimming up stream ALL THE TIME! But in this hard life we know that we have AMAZING access to our good God and heavenly Father through prayer - but again, even there we are weak - in fact, that is specifically the weakness Paul is dealing with here…
FOR WE DO NOT KNOW WHAT TO PRAY FOR AS WE OUGHT…
OUR weakness here seems to be IGNORANCE… We don’t know what to pray for as WE SHOULD… NOW WHY IS THAT??
Could be because of Immaturity.. We are just young Christians… or Baby Christians… we haven’t been in the church that long, we haven’t been in the Word that long...
BUT there is another kind of immaturity - that is not from being new to this, but rather being negligent to this… You are not a baby Christian — you are a Christian baby… Like those referred to in Hebrews - you have been living on milk, unskilled in the word of righteousness - “a child.”
ANd yet it could also be that we are forgetful… certainly Paul isn’t ignorant because of immaturity… he too can be forgetful… so he too needs the ministry of the SPIRIT...
LIFE IS HARD and we are weak… but I want you to get this… our weakness is a glorious place… for it is our weakness that is the stage for the Lord to display His strength and glorious grace!
His Ministry is Real
His Ministry is Real
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.
THE SPIRIT is given as a helper, an intercessor, on our behalf. Remember we said that this chapter is about the ministry of the SPIRIT - about our perseverance and encouragement… This is a primary role for the SPIRIT in our lives. Think of teaching of Jesus as he was preparing the disciples for his crucifixion and assension..
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,
even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
Jesus is with His disciples in and through the Holy Spirit - the Spirit of Truth that dwells with us - in us… And just what does the Spirit do within us???
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
We often read these verses back in Romans 8 and imagine a non-verbal, unintelligible, spiritual signal streaming to God on our behalf… but that isn’t really whats happening… FOr what are “groanings”? Yes they are silent, see .22 creation is groaning and .23 we groan inwardly - those who have the Spirit.. so it is silent essentially...
So is the Spirit groaning? It doesn’t say the Spirit intercedes for us by groaning or through groaning but rather WITH groaning. And remember we said last week that this groaning isn’t a hopeless lamentful expression of despair… but rather a hopefilled - painful expression of anticipation.. The Spirit’s work here is to stir up our hearts in remembrance of God’s promises and spur our longings to further know and do the will of God.
It is a silent, hopefulness, within our hearts that pulls us onward in perseverance wrought by the Spirit. We see this is a work in our hearts in .27 - “he who searches hearts” that is God who searches our hearts…
When you as a believer are baffled, beat down and confused… When you can’t see a way out, through or even have a hard time imagining life without the pain and struggle… when you are barely hanging on by a thread — that thread is the ministry of the Spirit!
Reminding you that you are loved, that you have been loved before the foundation of the world. Reminding you that Jesus died for you and that you have an invincible inheritance in Him… Reminding you that you are more than what has happened to you… That your situation, even your own actions and consequences don’t define you nor do they determine your future.. that you are beautifully created in the image of God and have been adopted into His family at the incredible cost of His Son… You are loved! Perhaps even now…
His Ministry is perfect
His Ministry is perfect
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.
HERE AGAIN is the MYSTERIOUS… They baffling and befuddling work of the trinity…
Follow along here… GOD the Father- the one who searches hearts, HE knows what is the mind of the God the Spirit… because God the SPIRIT intercedes for the saints according to the will of GOD the Father...
WHen we survey the book of Romans, the writings of Paul, the New Testament we get his big picture of the work of the Trinity in our salvation.
God the Father planned our redemption...
God the Son provided for our redemption...
God the Spirit applies our redemption...
And here we see the ministry of the God the Spirit in applying the redemptive work of God the Son - Christ to our lives as He works in our hearts to guarantee our perseverance and to further the work of sanctification in His people — according to the plan of God the Father…