1. We groan for a variety of different reasons don’t we?
• Look back at Romans 8:22-23
NOTE: We groan as we see and feel the effects of sin.
• We hate sin and it’s awful effects around us.
• We groan when I see people hurting and dying.
• We groan over the struggles people are in the midst of.
• We groan over our own failures and faults.
While we are in this tent we groan: but notice we groan in Hope.
1 John 3:2 (NKJV) Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
We groan because we have experienced the ‘first fruits of the Spirit’. – We have tasted just a little of the glory to come!
It’s those tastes that leave us wanting more…
• COSTCO – those guys know what they’re doing don’t they?
• SAMPLES ALL UP AND DOWN THE AISLES.
• Sausage, bread, juice, cheesecake… you can have dinner eating the samples at Costco.
• But their goal… well their goal is that you will like their product and want more – so take the samples… and enjoy.
Oh what an exciting time it was for the children of Israel.
• Delivered. FREE. Ready for a new life. Slavery was gone. God had worked miraculously and wonderfully on their behalf.
• Can you imagine the excitement flowing through the people.
• Millions are ready to go into the Promised Land, entering into the promises of God!
• Look at Numbers 13.23-27
• Oh the fruit of the land… it’s going to be glorious!
It’s that way with us as Christians… we have that longing now to be with our Savior. A longing that we never had before.
Psalm 34:8 (NKJV) 8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!
NOTE: We have tasted the blessings of heaven through the ministry of the Holy Spirit… and we want more.
• We want to see the Lord, receive a new body, & live w/ Him forever!
• We are awaiting that ‘adoption’ the redemption of our body!
Philippians 3:20-21 (NKJV) 20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.
NOTICE v24: We were saved in this hope!
• We don’t see it yet. We’re not in our redeemed bodies yet.
• But we’re longing. We’re waiting. We’re hoping for Jesus.
• But one day we won’t be hoping anymore!
• Soon it will be reality!
And our hope… it’s not some well maybe I think it will happen.
• OUR HOPE AS CHRISTIANS is based on the PROMISES OF GOD!
• It’s a solid CONFIDENCE that God will do what He said!
Philippians 1:6 (NKJV) 6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;
Psalm 138:8 (NKJV) 8 The Lord will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever; Do not forsake the works of Your hands.
We were saved in this hope… we eagerly wait for it…
V26-27 – LIKEWISE… the Spirit also helps us in our weaknesses…
• HOPE in our prayers we also have HELP with our prayers by the indwelling power of God’s Holy Spirit.
NOTE: Jesus spoke of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in John 14-16
• Preparing His disciples for the upcoming beating, crucifixion, death, and resurrection… He speaks often of the Spirit.
• 14:16-17 – I will send you a Helper.
• 14:26 – Teach you all things, bring to remembrance.
• 15:26 – He will testify of Me
• 16:8 – Conviction of sin
• 16:13 – Guide you into all truth
THE HOLY SPIRIT, the ‘paracletos’… the One who is called alongside to help you, to comfort you.
• The Holy Spirit is a Person, the 3rd Person of the Trinity who is sent alongside to help & empower you in your Christian life.
• He dwells with you & will be in you!
Paul says that the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses.
• HELPS – literally to help carry a burden, to come alongside and ease that burden, to help with the pain, the weight of it all.
• The only time it’s used in the NT is with Mary & Martha.
Luke 10:40 (NKJV) 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.”
NOW ONE area of weakness for us is prayer.
• Prayer is a wonderful and powerful spiritual tool for us!
• Flip over to Ephesians 6.13-18
Prayer is amazing! Have you ever thought about that?
• Here we are on a planet filled with billions of people… and the One who created you gives us the privilege to talk with Him!
• AND He promises to respond.
Isaiah 58:9 (NKJV) 9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; You shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’ “If you take away the yoke from your midst, The pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
Psalm 91:15 (NKJV) 15 He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him.
THROUGH Prayer… we can travel the globe in ministry.
• Even though we’re physically in Aurora, our prayers touch people and situations around the world! It’s amazing.
• But there’s a little problem.
• I don’t always know the will of the Father.
NOTE: A lot of people get surprised when I say that.
• They think, you’re the pastor and you don’t know?!
• Oh, how surprised you’d be to find out how much I don’t know!
But let’s say you come to me and you have a job issue and you ask me to pray for you. What do I pray?
• Do I pray that you keep your job? I don’t know.
• Do I pray that you lose your job? I don’t know.
• Maybe God wants you there to learn patience.
• Maybe God wants you to leave and step out in faith.
• THE purpose of prayer is to get the will of God done.
Luke 11:2 (NKJV) 2 So He said to them, “When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.
So what weaknesses to we have in prayer?
• We don’t always know what we ought to pray for.
• We don’t always know the will of God.
• Sometimes we don’t know the whole picture or are blinded by our personal opinions and bias.
• So our prayers aren’t really where they need to be.
BUT THE SPIRIT knows how to pray and He knows the will of God.
• AND THE SPIRIT intercedes within our hearts so we connect.
• Within our spirit the HS communicates to Father His perfect will!
• This so encouraging!
Not only to we have Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father.
• We also have the Spirit here on earth, in our hearts interceding
• God is so good, an intercessor in heaven and on earth!
NOW what are these groanings of the Spirit?
• There are a couple of different ways to look at them.
#1 – THEY ARE GROANINGS OF THE SPIRIT INTERNALLY.
• That is, they don’t come from our mouths are internal.
• The Spirit understands the mind of the Father and there is this communication between the Spirit & the Father.
• V27, He who searches the hearts knows the mind of the Spirit and He makes intercession for the saints…
• Turn over 1 Corinthians 2:9-16
• There is this groaning and intercession that takes place between the Spirit and the Father… in us.
#2 – THEY ARE GROANINGS OF THE SPIRIT EXTERNALLY.
• These groanings could be a reference to the gift of tongues.
• The prayer language given to believers, part of the communication with God.
• Turn over to 1 Corinthians 14:1-2, THEN v14-19
• And so these groanings could be that internal prompting upon the believer’s heart to cry out to God with a spiritual gift.
• That place where the Spirit makes intercession FOR US.
THE KEY is that our Father in heaven has given us His Spirit to help us in our prayers.
• He knows what’s in our hearts… He searches us.
• And as the work of God is done in and through us, there is that groaning of intercession that is needed in these last days.
It’s such a blessing to know that you are praying according to the will of God.
1 John 5:14 (NKJV) 14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
Let me just say…
• Oh, how Marie and I appreciate your prayers.
• We need them. We covet them. We thank you.
We know that many of you are often on your knees seeking the Lord’s favor on behalf of us, your family, your church family.
REMEMBER THIS AS WE HEAD OUT:
• Great men and women of God have always been and continue to be…. men & women of prayer.
• You can look at the life of any person God has used mightily and you will see great prayer lives.
• In the Bible there was Moses, David, Elijah, Joshua, John...
• In recent years there was Spurgeon, Moody, George Mueller…
• Before us is another man of prayer… Paul the apostle.
NOTE: This is the first of two prayers Paul includes in this letter.
• His prayers are fantastic. They are inspired prayers.
APP: Prayer is one of those ministries that can reach around the world while you sit in your prayer closet.
• AND in your prayer life, you will always have to fight the enemy.
• He will whisper things like, why did you say that, or what a dumb thing to ask God, or God isn’t interested.
• Satan does that because he knows prayer’s power.
It’s been said that you can do more than pray after you pray, but you really can’t do anything until you pray!
• And in our prayers… God has given us both HOPE & HELP!
