The Spirit As Intercessor Series

A. Four years ago, the world experienced a crisis that few of us had experienced in our lifetime – a microscopic virus shut down life as we had known it.

1. The Covid 19 pandemic crippled the economy, incited global anxiety, and took the lives of multitudes of people.

2. It created a tsunami of fear and altered every aspect of our lives for a number of years.

3. New phrases captivated our consciousness and vocabulary: “shelter in place,” “social distancing,” and “flatten the curve.”

4. Masks covered our faces, fear shrouded our hearts, and the dread of a fatal inhale shut our doors.

5. In hindsight, governments – including our own – might have taken a different or better approach, but in truth no one really knew what to do or how to do it.

6. And more importantly, we often didn’t know how to pray.

B. Many ministries, including Max Lucado’s, created virtual prayer pages and their pages were flooded with prayer requests.

1. Some of the prayer requests were: pray that I find some work, pray that I get along with my family, pray that I can sleep, and pray for someone to call me, I’m lonely.

2. But the most common requests were like these:

a. I don’t know what to ask, just pray for me.

b. I’m at a loss for words, can you mention my name?

c. I try to pray but I can’t, most of the time I just weep.

d. I’d pray, but the needs are too great for words.

e. All I can do is sigh.

3. These kinds of prayer requests are the groans of the heart.

a. Most of us have heard them and many of us have made them.

b. They are the language of pain, the vocabulary of despair.

c. When there are no words, these are the words.

C. Nevertheless, these guttural appeals find their way into the presence of God the Father.

1. How can we be sure of that? Because the Bible tells us that they are entrusted into the care of the Holy Spirit.

2. The Bible says: 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains until now. 23 Not only that, but we ourselves who have the Spirit as the firstfruits—we also groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for adoption, the redemption of our bodies…26 In the same way the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. (Romans 8:22-23, 26-27)

3. Few passages of Scripture reveal the tender heart of the Holy Spirit as much as this passage.

4. We are more familiar with the Holy Spirit’s mighty deeds:

a. Like what appeared like flames of fire falling on the apostles on the day of Pentecost.

b. Like doors opening for the apostle Paul.

c. Like the prophet Ezekiel seeing the dead bones rise.

d. Like the deliverer Moses seeing the Red Sea part.

5. Those mighty deeds are powerful, but equally powerful and important is the way the Holy Spirit intercedes for the children of God.

D. One of the important things for us to understand and to rest in is the fact that the presence of the Holy Spirit does not guarantee the absence of pain.

1. This passage from Romans 8 mentions our groaning and our weakness.

2. Pain is a part of every life, Christian and non-Christian, and it leads to groaning and weakness.

3. Paul and Timothy both had their physical afflictions and weaknesses, which God did not remove.

4. Many in our church family suffer from ongoing chronic illnesses, including: migraines, diabetes, arthritis, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, COPD, and cancer.

5. But other groanings and weaknesses come from other sources: a crumbling marriage, the rejection or abuse from someone, a business failure, unemployment, or poverty.

E. All these groanings and weaknesses lead to the same struggle in prayer.

1. Perhaps we feel like Hezekiah who prayed: “I moan like a dove. My eyes are weary with looking upward.” (Isaiah 38:14)

2. Or perhaps we feel like the psalmist who wrote: “I am feeble and utterly crushed; I groan in anguish of heart. All my longings lie open before you, Lord; my sighing is not hidden from you.” (Psalm 38:8-9)

3. There is often a gap between what we want from life and what we get in life, and during such times of struggle and weakness, “we do not know what to pray for as we ought.” (Rom. 8:26)

4. Aren’t you thankful for Paul’s honest admission?