The Prayer Ministry of the Spirit

Well, good morning, everyone. Let me invite you to turn in your Bibles this morning to Romans chapter 8, as we continue our worship. And only now we listen to God. We sing to Him our praises and our petitions, and then he speaks, and we worship Him by listening.

And fortunately our God speaks to us words of love and of grace. Romans chapter 8, we're doing a verse by verse study through, Romans 567 and 8. We're calling this a journey to the heart of the gospel, and as we continue in our journey through this section of the book of Romans, we come this morning to Romans chapter 8 verse 26, and my goal this morning is to cover verse 26 and 27, and the title of the message is The Prayer Ministry of the Spirit. The prayer ministry of the Spirit, Paul is going to unfold for us a precious gem of gospel reality and showing us a very wonderful truth about the Holy Spirit, and that is that the Spirit of God is praying or interceding for us., as believers in Jesus, we value prayer, do we not?

God values it so much that he had his son slain at the cross so that through his shed blood, we would be able to come into God's presence and pray. And so we We enjoy praying, we come to God in our moments of need and we pray, we enjoy praying for others. also, and this is where our focus is going to be this morning. We also relish being prayed for by other people, do we not?

That's actually biblical in 1 Thessalonians 5, Paul essentially says, pray for me. In Ephesians 6, pray on my behalf in Colossians 4:3, essentially, he says, pray for us. Paul throughout the New Testament is requesting prayer for himself. He prayed for others and he also wanted others to pray for him.

So we relish being prayed for by other people. When I, from time to time, meet a pastor or a Christian leader that I have a lot of respect for that I've never been able to meet before, and I finally get the privilege of meeting them in person. I enjoy talking with them, getting to know them, but I always like to conclude the time by asking them to pray for me, and I love just them putting their hands upon my shoulder and then praying over me, praying for me and praying for Cornerstone Church.

I enjoy the fellowship, but as I walk away, the greatest gift that those brothers have given to me is that they prayed for me.

I love being told by the people of this congregation that they are praying for me. Sometimes it happens, on a Sunday that someone will come up to me and say, Pastor Milton, the Lord woke me up at 3 in the morning, this morning, and I was burdened to pray for you and I prayed for you and That always delights me. not that I'm excited that they lost sleep over me, but just knowing that God touched their hearts and that they were lifting me up in prayer, that's a blessing to me. You guys know what that's like.

We used to have an elderly woman who attended Cornerstone. She has since gone home to be with the Lord, but she would frequently come up to me and tell me, Pastor Milton, I pray for you every single day. And then more times than not she would say, and when I pray for you, I pray that God will make you a humble man. I was never quite sure why she was burdened to pray for that, but I always thanked her for that.

In fact, there were a couple of times where she asked me, are you struggling with pride? but the Lord had prompted her to pray that for me, and I was deeply indebted to her and enjoyed her telling me that she was praying for me in, in that way. You guys ever had it happen that you're going through some difficult season in your life or a difficult moment in a given day, you've not even had the time or even thought about spreading the word to have other people, in on what's going on so that they can pray for you, but you're just laboring alone.

And then someone calls you up.

or they run into you in person, or send you a text or an email, and they tell you, I have felt so burdened to pray for you. I want you to know I've been praying for you this week. How's it going? How many of you have ever had that happen to you?

All right, those are wonderful moments where we get the privilege of being prayed for by brothers and sisters whom the Lord has prompted to pray for us in that way. Prayer is powerful, and anyone that's walked with the Lord for any length of time knows the power of prayer, and there's power in being prayed for. I'll never forget back the second week of September in 2007. there was, on the internet, on a reputable news site, a news story that came across, and I knew when I looked at it that I had no business reading that news story, that it would be a less stimulating type of story to, to read, but I felt harassed by the temptation to look.

at that news story to such a degree that I called my wife and just told her over the phone, here's what's happening, here's what I'm being tempted to look at. Can you pray for me right now? And my wife over the phone prayed for me and it was amazing as she prayed for me, the spell of that temptation completely went away and I was able to go on with my day. That's the power of prayer and the power we experience in being prayed for.

I've been going to McDonald's on Mondays down in Murrieta where my two of my children are being tutored in Spanish. And the McDonald's that I go into, every Monday, I see this advertisement, selling their coffee where it says behind every successful person is a substantial amount of coffee. And I get the gist. I understand what they're trying to do.

They're trying to sell their coffee and being the sucker that I am, I get a cup of coffee every Monday in the hopes that it will make me successful, and I've been doing that the last few months. I don't know if you've noticed, but I've noticed the difference. In my ministry. but I think we can retool that statement to say something a little different.

Behind every successful Christian is a substantial amount of prayer. Not only that believer praying, but also a substantial amount of prayer by brothers and sisters that are praying for and over that believer. Well, if you value prayer, and you relish being prayed for, you're going to love this passage today. In fact, you're going to love the second half of Romans chapter 8 because from Romans 8:26 through the end of the chapter, Paul is going to inform us that two of the most amazing people you will ever know, with the most amazing connection to God the Father, are praying for you all the time.

In our passage for this morning in verse 26 and 27, in verse 26, he tells us the Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, is interceding for us. Verse 27, he says it again, he, the Spirit intercedes for us. Verse 34, Christ Jesus intercedes for us. Gods.

in 3 persons, 1 in essence, 3 in person. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Romans 8 teaches us that God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are praying to God the Father, interceding with Him on our behalf. We are always being prayed for by Jesus and by the Holy Spirit.

That's amazing. I have to be careful in saying this, but I wanted to title the message Be Encouraged. God is praying for you. And if we understand that correctly, we would understand that God the Holy Spirit and God the Son are praying to the Father on our behalf, and Paul is going to just focus on the Spirit in verse 26 and 27 and give us some really delicious, encouraging truths about the intercession or the prayers of the Spirit with regard to us.

Let me read verse 26 and 27. Paul says in the same way, the Spirit also helps our weakness, but we do not know how to pray as we should. But the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because he intercedes for the saints, according to the will.

of God. There are things in these two verses that we can understand and hopefully we'll gain progress and understanding. We will also find ourselves standing on the edge of mystery, and we will marvel at what we can know and marvel At the depths that are in these verses that I'm not sure I understand yet, nor that we will understand fully this side of glory. 6 encouraging facts we're going to look at this morning from these two verses that we can relish about the intercession of the Spirit regarding us.

Before we do that, real quickly, let me just say a word about the word intercede that we find in verse 26 and 27. Basically, the word means to take up a case on behalf of another person to seek to obtain what is necessary for that person. So imagine, that I'm some great skilled attorney and I'm specifically trained. I'm the most trained person on the planet in a given area of legal expertise.

I also have just incredible connections and I come across a person. Who is facing a legal situation, a legal dilemma or a crisis that I realize is perfectly in my area of knowledge, expertise, and training, and also all of the connections that I have are exactly the connections that this person will need for their situation to be fully handled. And so I look at that person, I assess their need, and I then say to myself, I will take I will take this person's case. I will take their case, and I will own this, and I will use the skills that I have, and I will use the connections that I have.

To serve this person and serve this person well. So that's the idea of the term to intercede. And the spirit we see in verse 26 and 27 intercedes for U 6 truths that we'll look at that should be encouraging to us regarding the intercession of the Spirit with regard to us. Truth number 1 we find in verse 26 and 27, and that is that the Spirit intercedes for us, not against us.

The Spirit intercedes for us, not against us. by the way, let me just say this, to simply learn that the spirit intercedes. With regard to us, that's not automatically a positive thing. The word intercede does not automatically mean something positive.

In fact, this word is used a little later in Romans 11:2, where Paul tells us that Elijah interceded to God against Israel. OK. and also it's found in Acts 25:24 where Paul is standing before King Agrippa and Festus and Festus says to King Agrippa these words, King Agrippa and all you gentlemen here present with us, you see this man About whom all the people of the Jews interceded to me, both at Jerusalem and here. So they've come to me, they've interceded on behalf of Paul, and what are they saying in their intercession?

Here's what they're saying, loudly declaring that he ought not to live any longer. They're interceding against Paul saying this man needs to die. And so the mere fact that the Spirit intercedes to the Father with regard to us, that's not automatically a positive thing, but as we read the text, we're encouraged to find out that indeed it is a positive thing. In Romans 8:26, Paul says, He, the Spirit intercedes for us.

Verse 27, he intercedes for the saints, and the Greek word that is translated for basically in verse 26 and 27. is the same Greek word that is used in Romans 8:31 when Paul says, if God is for us, who can be against us? Clearly letting us know what Paul means by his use of the word for, that whatever he means by the fact that the Spirit intercedes for us, whatever he means by for, it's the opposite of against. OK, so the Spirit is not interceding against us.

He's interceding in our favor. He is for us. If somehow we could listen in as the Spirit is speaking to the Father, and we would begin to notice, wait a minute, he's actually talking to the Father about me. What is he saying?

And as we listen to him interceding with the Father, to the Father with regard to us, we would begin to hear and notice he's interceding in my favor. This is the spirit that we grieve, according to Ephesians 4:30. This is the spirit that we quench according to 1 Thessalonians 5. This is the spirit that we resist.

Whenever we follow the flesh, rather than obeying the promptings of the Spirit, the Spirit has every reason to intercede against us. But this Spirit who knows us entirely and knows our history entirely, as he intercedes to the Father with regard to us, we listen in and he's interceding for us. This is a, a gospel jewel for us to look at. The Spirit prays to the Father regarding us and it's not imprecatory prayers.

He's not praying for our judgment. He's praying in our favor. A second encouraging truth regarding The Spirit's intercession with regard to us is that He intercedes for us as a way of helping us in our areas of weakness. He intercedes for us as a way of helping us in our areas of weakness or our moments of weakness.

Paul says in verse 26, in the same way, the Spirit helps our weakness, for He intercedes for us. The Spirit helps our weakness, for He intercedes for us. What Paul is saying is, I want, I want you guys to understand that the Spirit helps us. He helps us in the areas where we are weak.

And let me explain to you how he does that. He intercedes for us, meaning that He intercedes for us with the intention of helping us specifically in the areas with regard to our weakness. think about your weaknesses, guys. What are the areas that you are weak in?

Some are weak and with regard to anger, some with lust, some with jealousy, discontentment, some with a spirit of condemnation, some with a lack of faith or despondency, despair, envy, jealousy, whatever the area is. Think about your areas of weakness. And maybe other people know about your area of weakness, but maybe no one knows the full scope of the magnitude of that area of weakness. The Spirit fully knows and says, I'll take your case.

I'll take your case and I will represent you before the Father. And so as you listen in on the Spirit speaking to the Father regarding you, you begin to notice, wait a minute, he's talking about that area of weakness in my life. What is he saying? And as you listen, you notice he is speaking to the Father favorably.

He is interceding with the Father, seeking to help you in your area of weakness, not condemn you, but to help. This word help. A means to enter into and to share in the burden of another person, to see to it that that burden gets addressed. It means to enter into the task of another so that the task gets done and it gets done in community or in relationship.

If you see someone who's laboring alone at a task and they're just burdened under that task and you're like, what, that person can use some company, that person can use someone to come alongside of them and to get under the load of the task that they're engaging in, and so I will do that. This is exactly the word. That you would use and so we'll get the task done and we'll get it done together in community in relationship with one another and that's what the Spirit does. The Spirit does not want you to be left alone in your weakness.

The Spirit sees. You burdened under the weight of moments and areas of weakness, and he moves towards you. This is the beauty of it. The Spirit does not turn away from us because of our weakness.

He moves towards us and he helps us. In our areas of weakness, this word help is found. In Luke 10:40 in the famous story about Mary and Martha, Martha was doing all the preparations while Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus, and Martha, distracted from all her preparation, she came up to Jesus and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Notice the aloneness there.

I'm having to do all of this stuff all by myself, and I'm alone in it. And then she says to Jesus, Tell her to help me. She's not saying, I want to get out of all the work and I want to sit down and tell her to do all the work for me. No, I want to continue doing the work that needs to be done.

Can you tell Mary to come and join me so that I'm not doing this alone? I need help in getting it done and I don't want to be alone in the doing of it. So tell her to help me. Well, God, according to Romans 8:26, has given us the Holy Spirit to help us specifically with regard to our weakness.

The word weakness just literally means without strength. Strengthlessness, a lack of strength. From a physical standpoint, this word would be used to speak of, if I go 2 weeks without eating, I would, I may not be sick, but I would experience a weakened condition. This word would be used to describe that if I contract a sickness or a disease and as it ravages my body I'm left in a weakened, sickened state, I would use this word to describe that.

I would also use this word physically even if I'm not necessarily sick or diseased. Like right now I don't have any sickness that I'm aware of. I feel totally fine, but if later today, silly illustration. I see a 300 pound boulder fall upon someone that I care about, I would immediately set about trying to get that boulder off of them, but as I'm trying to get that boulder off of them, I begin to realize that I don't have the strength to do that.

I'm not now suddenly weak. I never was strong enough to move a 300 pound boulder. I know that's a shock to some of you, but, but I'm now seeing a weakness that I always had. In other words, I'm weak in comparison to the task at hand.

That's what we're talking about. And I would use this word to say I'm too weak to do this moving of this 300 pound boulder, and spiritually. which is primarily what Paul is talking about, but it intersects profoundly with the physical as we're going to see. he uses the word weakness to speak of the weakness that we experience, in this fallen world, weakness as a result of sin.

When we are guilty of sin and we're ravaged by guilt and condemnation, and also just in a weakened state as a result of sin, this word would be used. If we're not feasting on the glory of God and the gospel, then we are going to be weakened as a result that this word would be a perfect word to describe that. Maybe we're walking with the Lord and we're not yielding to temptation, but we're being harassed by temptation after temptation after temptation. Even though we haven't given in, the temptation itself leaves us in a weakened state.

Just like Jesus in the wilderness and in the Garden of Gethsemane, he never yielded to temptation, but angels came and ministered to him and strengthened him. He was left weakened as a result of dealing with the temptation. Also weakness that we experience as a result of difficult circumstances, trials, and hardships. In fact, in 2 Corinthians 12:10, Paul uses the word weakness synonymously with insults, distresses, persecutions, difficulties.

If you're going through a season. your life where you're being insulted, you're going through pressures and distresses and being persecuted or going through any difficulty, spiritual, emotional, physical, relational, marital, parental, then you are experiencing weakness. Charles Spurgeon describes weakness in this way. He would suggest Paul is speaking of physical pain or mental depression, which Spurgeon himself struggled with, or spiritual conflict or slander or poverty or persecution.

I would only add to that list ministry. When we engage in God-sized task seeking to minister to the lost and to our spouses and to our children, we see our weakness. When a parent is trying to minister to their child, they realize, I don't have the power to get inside my child's heart and to change their heart. I can do what God calls me to do, but I don't have the strength to change them.

And a parent sees weakness in them in comparison to the magnitude of what they've been called to do by way of ministry. And so Paul is saying that when the Holy Spirit, intercedes for us. He intercedes for us to be a help to us, to get underneath the load of the weakness that we experience and to join us in that, and he intercedes for us with the intention of helping us specifically in those areas where we experience weakness. How many of you have weaknesses in your life?

Raise your hand. OK, 5 of you. Half of you. This is good.

Here, here's the comforting thought that we get from this passage. Your weakness, and again, no one in this room may know the full scope of your weakness that maybe only about. Whatever that weakness is, think about it. Your weakness does not cause the spirit to turn and move away from you.

The Spirit of God is attracted to weakness, and he moves toward weakness. And the Spirit of God looks at you with full knowledge, a greater knowledge than even you have of your weakness, and says, I'll take your case, and I'll represent you before the Father. One writer says it this way, nowhere is God more present than in human weakness. Be comforted in that.

I know you want to be strong. I want to be strong. I know you don't like having areas of weakness and encountering moments of weakness and brokenness in your life, but just understand that this is where God's power is shown. Jesus said to Paul, My grace is sufficient for you.

Power, my power is perfected. In weakness. And so Paul says, what, I'm going to be OK with weakness, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me for when I am weak, then I am strong. So the Spirit intercedes for us and the Spirit also.

intercedes for us with the intention of helping us with our areas of weakness. There is a third comforting or encouraging truth that we observe about the intercession of the Spirit with regard to us, and that is that he intercedes for us when we don't know how to pray. He intercedes for us when we don't know how to pray. Is this ever happened to you?

Look at what Paul says. He says, in the same way, the Spirit helps our weakness, for we don't know how to pray as we should. But the Spirit himself intercedes for us. Notice Paul includes himself in this.

This is a remarkable confession. We don't know how to pray as is necessary. OK? I don't think Paul is saying we never know how to pray, or that he never knows how to pray.

I think what he's saying is that as a normal matter of course we often find ourselves, including myself, Paul says, in circumstances where we don't know how to pray exactly what is necessary given the weakness or given the circumstances. this means in part that sometimes we don't know what to pray. We don't know what to ask God for. And you may say, well, we should always know what to ask God for.

Well, maybe in a way, on one level, we should, but, how many times have you been absolutely positive you knew exactly what to ask God for? And you asked God for it and it turned out that's not what God was doing at all. Any of you that have been married for any length of time, have no doubt encountered moments with your spouse where it's like, I know what God needs to do in this situation. He needs to change my spouse.

And so that's real clear. Thank you for that revelation, Lord. And I'm going to take that to the Lord in prayer and pray according to his will, that my spouse be transformed. But then you come to find out later, God was actually after you, right?

And so we often find ourselves in situations where we may ask for something and not something else when primarily what we should have asked for is the thing that we did not ask for. What do we ask in moments of weakness, in moments of physical weakness? Do we ask for healing in a given circumstance, or do we ask for grace to bear up under the absence of healing in our bodies in a given moment? Sometimes God heals, sometimes he doesn't.

What do we ask? and with regard to temptation, what do we ask for? Do we ask God to remove this desire from me once and for all so I never have to deal with it again? Or do I ask God for grace to say no to this desire?

Even though it may stick around, what, what do we ask for? Maybe you realize that an idol in your life is the idol of money. But as you're confessing that and asking God to deliver you from that, you begin to realize maybe money is not my real idol. Maybe money is just something that serves my real idol of comfort or pleasure.

What is that deeper idol? Sometimes we don't even know. So we're not even sure what to articulate to God. As we pray to Him, and then sometimes we know what to ask, but we're not sure how to ask it, or we're not sure we're asking in the right way.

Just in the last couple of weeks, I've talked to a couple of believers that were fretting over this. It's like, I've been praying, but I don't, I don't know if my motives are right. I don't know if there's selfish motives that are in my heart that are spoiling the whole, the whole deal, or I'm praying, but there's, there's unbelief that's in my heart. Am I double minded in my praying?

Is God not going to hear my prayer? And they're torn and conflicted over the imperfections that they observe in their prayers to God, not knowing what to ask for and not sometimes even knowing how to go about praying for it and asking for it. Throughout the centuries, God's people have found themselves in moments where they've not known what to pray for or how to pray. Prayer is a wonderful tool, a wonderful resource in moments of need and weakness.

It's so great to have the resource of prayer. It's like I can run to God, and I can ask for what I need. But then there are times where we come to a moment of need and we, we start to run to God and then our tongue is tied, we're in His presence and our mind wanders and our heart is reeling from what we're going through and we don't even know how to express it to God. Richard Wormbrand in his book, Tortured for Christ himself was just tortured for well over a decade.

In communist prisons as they tortured him and his fellow Christian prisoners in unspeakable ways, and he found himself in moments in prison where he said, I couldn't even string two thoughts together, utterly unable to pray. He said in solitary confinement, we could not pray as before. We were unimaginably hungry. We had been drugged until we acted like idiots.

We were as weak as skeletons. The Lord's Prayer was much too long for us. We could not concentrate enough to say it. My only prayer repeated again and again was, Jesus, I love you.

Jesus, I love you. Jesus, I love you. That's all he could say. Unable to string two thoughts together.

Here's the comfort of the passage. Paul is saying in those moments where we don't know how to pray as we should, And we're babbling before the Lord. We just, and in his case, he's just repeating one thing over and over again. So much more needs to be covered, and he can't even put two thoughts together.

The Spirit looks upon us in such moments and says, I'll take this. I'll take this. And he represents us before the Father and beautifully, flawlessly represents us in communicating precisely our need before the Father. What we learn here is that the Spirit prays for us in two senses.

He prays for us in the sense of praying for our good. But also we observe that he prays for us as our representative, as our translator, as our interpreter, as it were. And when we find ourselves on the edge of prayer and unable to go further to express what it is that we need from God and to pray it in the right manner, and we have these groanings that we're not even full Fully able to utter the Spirit is praying with us. He is interceding before the Father as our representative, and the prayer that he delivers to the Father as our representative is absolutely perfect and flawless, and it nails exactly what it is that we need.

Meaning that we are always covered with prayer. Perfect prayer, prayed by the Spirit of God for us. In a way that is specifically suited to us in our moments of weakness, one writer says the Spirit comes to the aid of believers baffled by the perplexity of prayer and takes their concerns to God with an intensity far greater than we could ever imagine. There's a 4th encouraging truth that we observe in this text regarding the Spirit's intercession with regard to us, and that is He intercedes for us with groanings that are too deep for words.

He intercedes for us with groanings that are too deep for words. It says in verse 26, in the same way, the Spirit helps our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we should. But the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings that are too deep for words. So the Spirit groans when he prays.

We've already learned in Romans 8, creation groans. In anticipating the future glory to come, we groan in our present experience of fallenness and corruption in this present life and groaning for the glory to come. Now we observe that the Spirit of God joins us in that groaning, and he expresses that groaning on our behalf. He prays for us with groanings that are too deep for, for words.

This denotes tremendous passion on the part of the spirit towards us and with regard to us. He does not pray for us casually. When we're groaning and reeling from weakness and pain and crying out to God to make us holy and to make us right in a given situation, to give us the experience of victory that we already know belongs to us in Christ, when we're experiencing tragedy and loss, when we're groaning over the fate of another person that we care about, and we're praying over them.

As we groan and seek to pray, what we ought to pray and yet feel like, am I praying exactly what needs to be prayed?

And we come to the edge of our own abilities in prayer. The spirit articulates. What is in our hearts to the Father perfectly, and he doesn't do it casually. As we're groaning, the Spirit doesn't say, Father, what Milton is asking for is such and such, and he's all casual about it.

No, no, he is filled with that sympathetic feeling, and he prays it the way it ought to be prayed, a way that I could never express. If I could but hear the Spirit praying with these groanings. I would say that's it, that's it, that's, that's what I, that's what I would love to be able to say. He's expressing my heart exactly and more fully than I could have ever thought.

To express my heart. We need to be careful with this statement in verse 26. There are some who take the statement that the Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words to basically mean that when the Spirit intercedes for us, all he does is groans. That's it.

The, the sum total of his intercession for us is nothing but groanings. And I don't think that's really what Paul is trying to convey here. I think when the Spirit intercedes for us, It's clear, it's articulate, but it's accompanied by groanings that we could never give expression to. He prays for us with tremendous passion and sympathetic feeling that fills those prayers that he articulates to the Father on our behalf.

The groanings that are being spoken about here also denote the fact that full satisfaction of the Spirit is dependent upon us getting what we need to help us with our weakness. The idea of groaning denotes dissatisfaction. In other words, the Spirit so owns our weakness and our burdens and our needs, that when he prays to the Father, the Spirit is not satisfied until and unless we get what it is that we need from the Father. That's how much he identifies with us and our need.

In fact, the Spirit will groan as long as we groan, the Spirit will groan and not experience full satisfaction until glory, until our bodies are glorified and we enter into glory, then the Spirit will no longer groan. The groaning too deep for words that Paul speaks about expresses at once both the vastness of our need and the infinite concern of the blessed indwelling Spirit for us. He loves us. He cares about us.

And if we could but hear Him pray for us, we would hear and feel the profound concern as He represents us in prayer, represents our needs. Exactly what we need before the Father. There's a 5th encouraging truth that we can observe about the Spirit's intercession for us. And that is that he intercedes for us according to the will of God.

He intercedes for us according to the will of God. It says in verse 27, and he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because he intercedes for the saints, according to the will of God. When the Spirit intercedes for us, literally, in the Greek text, it says he intercedes for us according to God. But the idea is according to the will of God.

When he prays for us, he's praying that the will of God the Father be done in our lives. Think about what the will of the Father is. We know the will of the Father, because he loved us so much that He sent Jesus into the world to die on the cross and shed his blood so that we might have salvation, and might have our sins forgiven, and then clothed with the righteousness of Jesus so that we might then clothe with his righteousness stand in God's presence. And enjoy peace with God and to enjoy a gracious favored standing with God all day, every day, good days and bad days, waking or sleeping 24/7, and it has nothing to do with our performance, but solely with the performance of Jesus.

Amen. That's the will of God. He's like, I, I have provided this for you. I wanted this for you so bad that I sent my son to die.

And I raised him from the dead so that you can have this. I want you to experience this, enjoy this, walk in the good of this, and out of the overflow of this. Love me and love others. He wants us to walk in freedom from sin.

He purchased that freedom. He broke the chains that once bound us to sin, to where we don't have to sin anymore. That is the will of the Father, and it is a good and delicious will. See, some who may not know God very well, the God of the gospel might read this and go, man, the spirit's praying for me, that's awesome.

He's making request to the Father for me, that's awesome. And they're thinking, yeah, maybe he'll ask for the stuff I want. And then they read, he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And they're like, oh Yeah, that's the catch.

OK, so it's according to God's will. It's not according to my will. It'd be awesome if it were my will, but no, I've got to settle for God's will, almost as if some people think their will is this grandiose, wonderful thing way up here, and God's will is some small puny. Thing down here that they have to settle for.

and they got it backwards. God's will is so phenomenal, so fantastic. We're learning this in Romans 567 and 8. You can't, you can't fantasize anything greater than what God has come up for you in Christ.

I has not seen. ear has not heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those who love Him. God is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we would ever think to ask or even think according to the power that works within us. God thankfully does not limit Himself to our puny prayers that are according to our will.

He hears the prayers of the Spirit, which are far grander than our prayers often are. Which is exceeding abundantly beyond what we would have asked or even thought. The Spirit, when he intercedes for us, intercedes to the Father, according to the Father's will. So the Spirit is a master from both standpoints.

He perfectly understands us. He perfectly knows our weakness. He knows our need better than we could ever fathom it or understand it or articulate it. So absolute expertise, full knowledge of us in this way, perfect in his ability to articulate all of that, perfect in his ability to express the passion of our need and to sympathize with that, and he also perfectly understands the will of our Heavenly Father and in the prayers of the Spirit, our deep need.

Meats. With God's perfect will. He prays for us according to the will of God. He brings our weakness to God, and he knows exactly what to ask.

He knows exactly what the heart of the Father is, and he asks for those things that he already knows the Father is itching to give to us. See, knowing this guy should not cause us to say, well, I guess I never need to pray. It's covered. No, this ought to free us up in prayer, to know that I can come to God and I, I'll make a mess, I know, but I know that by the time the Spirit's done with it, and the Spirit who's along with me and inside of me is articulating with groanings I could never utter the will of God and my perfect need, I know that by the time my prayer ascends to God through the Holy Spirit, It's utterly perfect.

There's a 6th and final encouraging truth that we can take hold of in this passage, and that is that the Spirit intercedes for us in a way that succeeds with the Father. it's not like the Spirit prays, and sometimes he gets what he wants and sometimes he doesn't. No, the Spirit always gets what he wants. He always obtains for our benefit, what it is that we need from the Father.

Romans 8:27, and he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. look at this. He who searches the hearts, that's the Father, knows what the mind of the spirit is. And in a passage like this, where we're told that the Father knows the mind of the Spirit as the Spirit intercedes for us, the passage clearly is saying more than just the Father knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because he's omniscient.

Of course, he has to know it. That's not what's being said. It's the knowing that involves full knowledge of and approval of, and the granting of success too. So the spirit succeeds.

Think of Psalm 16, which ends, that Psalm ends with, for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly. It'll perish. It'll come to naught. Just in that verse, God knowing the way of the righteous is set in contrast to the way of the ungodly.

Coming to naught and failing. It's the opposite of failing. God knows the way of the righteous. In other words, the way of the righteous will succeed.

God knows the way of the righteous in a way that denotes approval and the granting of success. When we're told here that God knows what the mind of the Spirit is, he knows what it is that the Spirit's asking. He knows it perfectly. He approves of it, and he grants the request.

That's what Paul is saying. Why does he grant that? Because the Spirit's interceding for the saints according to the will of God. Of course, the Father knows the mind of the Spirit when the Spirit intercedes for us, because the Spirit intercedes for us according to the mind of the Father.

Now just in closing, let me throw a few things your way. Guys, based on these realities, always believe that you always have what you need for everything. Always believe that you always have what you need for everything. That doesn't mean you're not going to experience weakness and loss, but even in your moments of weakness, you will have what you need to make right choices and to honor and glorify God.

Paul had a thorn in the flesh that he asked the Lord three times, get this away from me. And Christ said, not going to do it, but you'll have my grace, and my strength will be made perfect in your weakness. You will always have what Need for everything you need to believe that. And part of the reason you should believe that there's a number of reasons, one of which is it's covered.

The spirit is praying for those things and thus a second thing for you to ponder is never make excuses for your sin. We're good at this. As we get older, we become more subtle and sophisticated. You make a wrong choice in a moment of weakness.

don't ever cast blame on anyone else. Don't ever say, well, I was weak, and try to imply that you really couldn't help yourself. To talk that way and think that way is to impugn the prayer ministry of the Spirit for you. What you're saying is the Spirit didn't get something on my behalf that he asked for from the Father.

You always have what you need in every situation to make right choices and to honor God. That should encourage us and impose a sober sense of responsibility upon us. Also, as I've already said, let these encouragements. encourage you to feel free to pray, knowing that your prayers will be fully interpreted, as it were, and expressed to the Father by the Holy Spirit.

And also think about it this way. Paul even goes here later in the chapter. If you have Christ and the Spirit praying for you in all things, what is there to fear? What is there to be afraid of?

We ought to be able to face every temptation, every moment of difficulty and weakness, knowing I'm covered. I am so covered. By the prayers of Christ and the Spirit, I will have what I need in these circumstances. Robert Murray McShane said, if I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I wouldn't fear 10,000 enemies that came against me.

Nevertheless, he said, distance makes no difference. He ever lives to make intercession for me. We could say the same of the Holy Spirit. If we could hear the Holy Spirit praying for us, we would not fear 10,000 enemies that come against us.

Nevertheless, distance or the fact that we can't hear it makes no difference. He ever lives to make intercession for us. Lastly, I would encourage you to pray in the Spirit. Pray in the Spirit.

In Jude, we're told to pray in the Spirit. In Ephesians 6:18, Paul says, pray at all times in the Spirit. I do not pretend standing up here to know all that that means to pray in the spirit, but At least it means to try to pray like the Holy Spirit prays, to try to mirror the Holy Spirit and the way that we pray for one another. The Spirit prays according to the will of God, and so should we.

The Spirit prays with groanings, sympathetic groanings, and so should we as we pray for one another. The Spirit of God prays for us and so we should pray for or in favor of our brothers and sisters in the Lord. The Spirit prays for us when we're not sure how to pray, and we need to pray for our brothers and sisters when they don't know how to pray. The Spirit is continuously doing this, and so we should continuously be praying for others.

When we pray in the Spirit, we're not just praying to God. But we're being like God the Holy Spirit in mirroring his sympathy and something of his image to our brothers and sisters as we pray with them and for them. Paul says, pray at all times in the Spirit and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints. May we be comforted and encouraged by these truths this morning.

Let me ask you to bow your heads. God is so good to us. He's covered all the bases. He's covered bases we would have never thought.

To even ask for. He's thought of everything. Beyond our wildest imaginations. And God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are praying to God the Father on our behalf.

And your weaknesses in mind that you struggle with. Perhaps that you are ashamed of. That you're afraid to make known for fear of rejection, the spirit already knows. And he's attracted to those weaknesses and he moves towards you to be a help.

And to cover that in prayer. And if you could but hear him pray to the Father, regarding your weaknesses, you would know how for you he is. And how your weaknesses do not disqualify you from him. We're going to pray in just a moment, and also take up an offering in just a moment.

We would encourage you to give as the Lord leads you to give. Let's pray. Father, even as I pray right now, I know that your spirit is praying over this congregation. Your son is interceding for us.

In all exactly the ways that we need. Some of which we're aware of, some of which we're not. Lord, we need you. We need to walk in greater understanding of the depth of the companionship that we have with, with your Spirit.

Thank you for moving towards us in our weakness and in our brokenness. And for taking our case, rather than rejecting it. If you didn't take our case, Lord, we would be hopeless. Even as believers, we're often a mess and We see weakness all around and in us and yet your spirit every day says, I'll take, I'll take this person's case.

Some of the people in this church body, Lord, looking out in the faces of the people here today, some of our attenders and members are in situations of grave brokenness, great need, a lot of worry and anxiety, not knowing what the future holds. And your spirit moves towards them and says, I'll take, I'm taking this case. I have the connections. I have all that's needed to cover this in prayer.

May we walk in the enjoyment of this companionship and to know that wherever we go, we are covered with this prayer.