I have many fond memories of my late grandmother. One of my favorites was the way she always argued about who would pay the bill at the restaurant. It would never fail. I’d invite her out to lunch and we’d have a nice visit together until the waiter brought the bill. It was as if my grandma grew four extra hands. She’d grab at the bill in the blink of an eye. Then we’d pursue in our usual argument over who’d pay, and she always seemed to win the argument.
I outsmarted her though. Right after ordering, I excused myself as if I were going to the restroom, and then I tracked down our waitress and explained that I’d like to pay the bill. The bill was paid before we were finished eating, and my grandma had no idea until it was too late. She sat and sulked saying, “I was going to pick up the tab.” (Of course she always tried to stuff some money in my pocket afterwards.)
I enjoyed picking up the tab for my grandma. It was an honor. Today, we learn that the Holy Spirit has the same joy and privilege in our prayer life. Now, he doesn’t pay for lunch but THE SPIRIT PICKS UP THE TAB. He does so 1) when our prayers are lacking. The Spirit also picks up the tab and helps us along 2) when our hope is waning.
1) When Our Prayers Are Lacking
Have you ever been tempted to walk out of a restaurant? Maybe the service was really bad, or the food wasn’t very good. If people have to wait too long in line, then they’re going to be tempted to leave and go someplace else. We have the same attitude towards God at times. We Christians have every reason to be eternally grateful for what God has done for us; yet, St. Paul reminds us that we aren’t. The truth is we aren’t always grateful. The reason for this is because we live in a sinful world.
Last week the apostle Paul told us how we are in a time of waiting. We are waiting to be delivered from this sad, moaning world. And during this waiting period called “life” we pray. We pray that God would deliver us from all the troubles of this life. We want God to heal our sick family member suffering with cancer. We want God to put an end to war and poverty. We want God to give Wall Street a booster shot. We want God to bring a little rain to the neighborhood. The list could go on.
Before you know it, your prayers look something like a restaurant receipt. You order up a huge list of complaints and demands and expect God to pick up the tab. After all, we’ve been taught to pray, “Thy will be done”, so God better hop to it, right? He’d best work out good in our lives.
We expect a certain kind of service from God regardless of what God has said. We expect God to deal with every intimate detail, smooth over every bump, solve every problem or argument, and generally make our lives worry-free.
I’ve met so many people who claim to be upset with God because he’s never “delivered the goods.” A lot of people think God is some sort of divine pizza delivery boy who’s supposed to whip up some concoction to satisfy their every whim and fancy and deliver it to them piping hot.
Someone once said, “Pastor, I’ve given up on God. I’ve prayed to him, but he just doesn’t care.” Have you ever found yourself praying to God and asking, “Where’s my ‘pizza?’ God why don’t you do what I ask?” Maybe you’ve been tempted to stop praying to God because it seems the order just isn’t getting through, and you always seem left with the bill.
So, we find our prayers are lacking because, sometimes, we just don’t know what to pray for. Quite often, the pressures of this life can be so heavy; the struggle so severe, that the best we can muster is a groan or sigh. Each of us, at one time, resembles the classic image of a frustrated Charlie Brown. It’s always pictured in the next cartoon frame after Charlie has just messed something up – a badly thrown pitch, a kite caught in a tree, whatever. The picture that follows is one of Charlie Brown with head tilted back, mouth opened wide, and above a single word: AARRGGHH! Sometimes, that’s the best we frustrated, disappointed, disillusioned Christians can rally.
We’ve perused the menu of life. We’ve considered all the options, sampled all it has to offer, and the best order we can place to God is: ARRRGGHH! This is because we are weak and we live in a vicious world. This is also because we don’t have insider information on the will of God. We’re often left wondering what God is up to. The truth is we don’t always know, we’re weak: ARRGGHH!
But take heart! The Holy Spirit hears those orders, our weak prayers dipping with frustration, and he writes them down upon his heart. He memorizes them word-for-word. A-R-R-G-G-H-H! And he gets behind the meaning of them. He absorbs those whimpers and sighs. He carries them to the Father and sorts out every order and demand. He explains to our Father just what we mean in our hearts: “This child is frustrated. And this one is afraid. Oh! And this child is confused! I know these things for I am in touch with their spirits. For I am your Spirit, dear Father.” Just imagine the Holy Spirit saying that on your behalf! And he does. He lives in us through the faith he’s given us in Jesus. That means the Spirit speaks, groans, prays and with his sighs and prayers will stand at our side until our final breath. The Holy Spirit doesn’t only place our prayers before our heavenly Father, but he picks up the tab. He makes it complete by sanctifying it in God’s eyes.
2) When Our Hope Is Waning
We need the Spirit’s intercession because the problem, as St. Paul tells us, is that we are weak. We are weak because our will doesn’t naturally correspond with God’s will. More often than not we’re ordering from the wrong menu. We’re more worried about ordering the dessert when God wants to give us the main course. We’re more worried about the short-term when God is concerned with the long haul. Hope is essential to our prayer life. Sometimes our prayers may lack hope or confidence. We get caught up in the momentary problems of this life that we forget the tab has truly been picked up. Yet, the Holy Spirit fills such in such things. Again, he picks up the tab by reminding us in his Word that our sins are forgiven. God’s Word reminds us of our sin and points us to the One who picks up the tab with no expectation. The insurmountable debt has been repaid. St. Paul wrote, "All . . . are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus" (Romans 3:24).
As essential as it is to know our need of forgiveness, equally essential is it for us to know that we are forgiven freely by Jesus Christ. "The wages of sin is death," Paul wrote, "but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:23). "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:8). The most important thing in life is free--the forgiveness of sins! Someone special picked up the tab freely! We are justified by faith in him, free of our sins, free of guilt, free of fear, free of any obligation concerning our forgiveness. It is a gift.
Such a message revives our waning hope. Greater than a cure for cancer is your eternal salvation. More important than financial stability is your faith in Jesus, your priceless treasure. Understand that God cares for you in every way. He will not leave you alone. That means you are secure in his love, body and soul. If God has picked up the tab for your eternal salvation –paying the debt of your sins – don’t you think he’ll hear and answer your prayers according to his good will? Of course he will.
Sometimes people don’t think that what we teach is very practical. People have come to our church and have left wanting more. More than once someone has said, “you talk too much about Jesus. Tell me something I don’t already know. Tell me how God wants me to live my life. Tell me how he’s going to balance my checkbook or help me find the right dress to wear at the prom.”
I have to smile when I hear such things. Again, it’s a matter of weakness. It’s really a weakness of understanding. Jesus did not come into this world to satisfy our sweet tooth. He didn’t come to top off our lives with whipping cream and cherries. He came to be the main course – offered up for our salvation – and he picked up the tab ensuring that heaven is ours today, tomorrow, and forever. In the same way, Jesus didn’t come to be an example or guide for us to follow. He came to live a perfect life in our stead, so that we who simply have faith in him can live freely for him without obligation or guilt. Jesus didn’t come to be a financial guru and straighten out our bad stock investments. He came to pay our debt to sin, so that we might be rich in his mercy. And Jesus didn’t come to be our fashion coordinator, lining our closets with the newest fashions. Instead, he came to clothe us with his robe of righteousness; to dress us in his undeserved love, so that we might be beautiful for all eternity.
These are the things the Holy Spirit reminds our heavenly Father on our behalf. The Spirit of God has brought us to faith. He has strengthened us in faith, and is actively engaged in our lives so that the end of our faith will be accomplished – eternal salvation. When you pray to God and aren’t sure what to say, God hears you and knows what’s in your heart. He knows what’s troubling you. He feels our hurts. He sees our tears. He rejoices in our joys and successes. He carries our woes. And he is gracious. He forgives our fears and doubts, our frustrations and worries. He washes them away in the blood of his Son and reminds us that he knows us far better than we know ourselves.
Whenever I bought my grandma lunch she always insisted on leaving the tip. She just couldn’t let me pay the whole thing. As weak Christians on this side of heaven, we sometimes take that same approach with our prayers. Most people pray to God because they want him to help them, so they pray as if their prayer is a sort of incentive to God -- a tip if you will: “Well, God here I am. Deliver me now!” Here’s some shocking news! God doesn’t answer prayers simply because we pray. He answers prayers because he wants to answer prayers. He wants us to pray because he wants to trustingly call on him first.
Realize that you can’t even pray on your own. God takes your prayers and makes them his own. He hears and answers them for his sake because he is good and loving. So, pray to God because you know he will hear you. And he does hear, even our bumbling sighs and groans. The Holy Spirit covers our prayers – he picks up the tab – even when we pray poorly or too little. This is because our prayers are covered by the grace of God in Christ Jesus. And it is in the name of our risen Savior that we say, “Amen.”
