Someone Is Praying For You: The Holy Spirit Prays

Someone Is Praying for You: The Holy Spirit, Our Intercessor

Text: Romans 8:18-28 18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. 26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will. 28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Intro: This morning we talked about Someone who cares about us and is praying that our faith will not fail. Jesus knows all about us and all about our situations, and He knows how to pray for us. He was tempted in every way that we are tempted, yet He did not sin. He understands what we are going through, and gives us the strength and comfort of His presence to help us through it. I am glad that I have such a friend in heaven who is pulling for me, urging me to keep going, and asking the Father to give me what I need.

-Well, another Divine person is also praying for us. The Holy Spirit is making intercession for us, as we read in v.26 of our text. We will talk about that more deeply in the next few minutes, but the main idea of the message is this:

Prop: God the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness, because He prays for us according to the Father’s will.

Interrogative: How does this help us in life?

TS: We will see from the Scriptures that although we often come up short in our best efforts, with God’s help we can get through anything we face in this life. First, let’s talk about our weakness.

I. Our Weakness

-Most of us would admit that our weaknesses are many. Few of us are really as strong or effective as we think we should be spiritually. If we do think we are strong enough, we’d probably better be careful.

-Sometimes we are weak in body. Do you ever come face to face with the reality that your physical strength is decreasing? You just can’t do the same things you did when you were 21. I remember being reminded of this about 5 years ago when I was playing basketball in Baker with Steve Coles and some other men. I tried to do a reverse lay-in, and I pulled my hamstring muscle. I’ve never been the same since. Knees, ankles, hips, muscles… they all wear out eventually. We are weak and frail, although we don’t really believe it when we are under 30.

-We are sometimes weak mentally. Throw a little pressure and stress at us, and we cannot even think straight. Mess up our sleep schedule and our mind wants to take a nap on us. We get easily confused and intimidated because of all the grand ideas out there. How do we know what is really true and what is not? We can have mental weakness.

-We can have emotional weakness. Perhaps we lack self-control and fly off the handle sometimes. That is weakness, even though some might think the power of anger is a strength. God gave us anger for a reason, but if lack the control to master it, then it can quickly become a liability.

-We have spiritual weaknesses as well. Sometimes we don’t pray like we should. We don’t stay connected to God’s word. We allow our relationship with Him to be put on the back burner because of the busyness of our lives. We make wrong decisions sometimes, relying on ourselves, rather than on the Lord. Sometimes we compromise in areas of our lives we never thought we would. And if none of these glaring weaknesses get a hold of us, then pride tries to come in, telling us what a good person we are. God is gracious and forgiving, but it becomes very clear that we have weaknesses.