Let the Shepherd Lead

Originally Proclaimed 07/22/18

Intro:

• Has there ever been a time when you did not know how best to pray for a situation?
• On a number of different occasions church members have asked me about how they should pray for a terminally sick loved one. I always share with them to pray for God’s mercy – that suffering will be alleviated and healing will be granted, here or hereafter.
• But friends, can I share that there are times when as a pastor, I do not know how best to pray for a situation. And it seems that I am not alone
• 9 Marks, a ministry encouraging churches to become healthy through biblical church practices, released a journal this week on pastoral burnout.
  • I have not read all of the journal, only about four articles, but I resonate with much of what I have read.
  • The one focused on Shai Linne a church planting pastor who returned to his work as a Christian “spoken word” or rap artist. In the first six months after launching a church his family welcomed a third child, they moved to a new city, the home they purchased had structural problems as the upstairs bathroom leaked so badly that water came through the downstairs light fixtures, then the basement flooded, they hit a deer totaling their car and his wife began experiencing serious panic attacks. Shai Linne says “my life began to feel like I was strapped to a treadmill to the fastest possible speed on the steepest possible incline. Pastoral ministry began to feel more like a burden than a joy” which led to his decision to step away.
  • Another pastor, Jon Starke writes about his depression, “But I began to notice that I wasn’t just sad or discouraged about my circumstances. Something was different. There was a darkness that had set in. My sorrow and discouragement began to wrap around me and squeeze. It was hard not to experience my entire reality (my family, work, rest, prayers) through the filter of sadness and sorrow. ‘The flesh can bear only a certain number of wounds and no more,’ says Charles Spurgeon, ‘but the soul can bleed in ten thousand ways, and die over and over again each hour.’ In other words while depression may have been triggered by circumstances, it wasn’t just discouraging circumstances that kept me low.” In his life this depression lasted for eight months where he struggled to find words for his feelings with those closest to him like his wife and most importantly with God.

Hook:

• The truth is that all of us experience times and seasons when knowing how to pray is extremely difficult.
• Repeatedly in the gospels Jesus asserts that as disciples we should “ask and it will be given to [us]” (Matthew 7:7). James 4:2 says that we do not have because we do not ask.
• Since we have a relationship with a God so great that he can raise the dead, surely we should pray and ask God to help us.
• In those moments when we do not know how to pray, we have a decision: we can struggle to find enough words to pray or forsake prayer all together. Which do you most regularly choose?
• Today, I hope to encourage you with two reminders that for believers a better connection is available.

Message Points:

• As we pick up from last week’s passage remember that in verse 23 we are told we who have the Spirit will groan inwardly at the struggles in this fallen world and in our sin and suffering scarred bodies. The good news in that verse is that as believers we have a great eternal destination to which we can look forward.
• Verse twenty four picks up those ideas and tells us that “in this hope we were saved”
  • Notice first that the verse says that “we were saved”.
    • This is a past tense verb which means that salvation has been completed. It is a done deal, and as Paul says in Ephesians, it is by faith, which is a gift of God.
    • Salvation is not a mere hope that we will one day receive.
    • That said, we cannot forget that verse 23 tells us the fullest extent of our salvation is yet to come.
    • Thus we should understand that the event that secures our salvation has already occurred at the cross of Calvary but the completion of our salvation will not happen until Christ’s 2nd Coming.
    • As the commentator Lenski says, “as to faith and hope, the former embraces salvation as it is present, the latter embraces salvation as what is yet in the future. Hope always rests on faith; faith always bears hope with it.”
  • Now, let’s focus on the prepositional phrase “in this hope”.
    • IF we are saved into something, it means that we have a new “sphere” or realm in which we now operate.
    • Verse nine tells us that we now operate in the realm of the Spirit, not of the flesh. Being saved into the realm of the Spirit as it says there means the Spirit of God indwells us.
    • Because of this, when verse 24 says we have been saved into a hope, we can be certain that the hope we have been saved into is a spiritual hope.
    • Do not misunderstand this friends, a spiritual realm and spiritual hope is not a belief in a wispy, ethereal, less that material, ghost-filled eternity.
    • Since God is a spirit, but acts in our material world; and the Holy Spirit indwells us to impact our physical lives…
      • A spiritual realm is a kingdom where God’s will is made manifest. This currently occurs amongst believers in the church.
      • Similarly a spiritual hope is a that one day God’s will is going to be done in every place on earth as it is in Heaven.
• This leads to our 1ST reminder as it relates to prayer: Our relationship with the Holy Spirit connects us to our ultimate hope.
  • Notice with me the rest of verse twenty four.
    • There we read that “hope that is seen is no hope at all”.
    • Then it says “who hopes for what they already have?”
    • Paul is laboring the point that when we experience the object of our hope, the hoping is over.
    • So what do we mean when we say that we hope?
      • A common web dictionary definition of the verb hope says that we hope when we “want something to happen or be the case”. This sort of definition leans into the concept of wishful thinking in which we would want something to be the case that has no basis in reality – say for instance “we hope there will be pink elephants at the zoo.”
      • In the New Testament according to the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, “hope is not concerned with the realization of a human dream of the future but with the confidence which, directed away from the world to God, waits patiently for God’s gift, and when it is received does not rest in possession but in the assurance that God will maintain what He has given.” (TDNT 2.532)
      • In other words it is like a parent saying to a child after chores we will get ice cream.
        • The child remembers that the every time the parent has promised ice cream, the parent has provided.
        • The child knows that the last time the parent made the grocery list ice cream was on the list.
        • The child while completing the chores, hears the parent getting out the bowls, spoons, and scoops.
        • The child has every reason to hope not as a wishful thought, but based on the reality of their relationship with the parent.
  • In that same way, our relationship with the Spirit connects us to our ultimate hope.
    • We do not yet see a world where God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven – however everything that we experience in our relationship with God through the Holy Spirit testifies to the reality of that hope.
    • That is why when you read verse twenty-five, it tells us that when we hope for what we do not yet have WE WAIT FOR IT PATIENTLY.
      • That word translated in the NIV as patiently in the original language has a much more active sense than just patience.
      • Often times when we think of patience we think merely of waiting – like being stuck in an airport waiting for a plane.
      • The word translated as patient describes our attitude and activity as we wait. It is not merely a synonym for waiting.
      • Thus, as some of the other meanings in the lexicon point out the word could be translated in this passage as “with endurance” or “steadfastly” or “with perseverance”.
      • I personally like the idea of us “with perseverance” waiting. In Christian circles that word perseverance means that we endure faithfully as believers through it all.
    • It is our relationship with the Holy Spirit, that still, small voice indwelling us that encourages us and reminds us that we have a hope worth persevering to see.
      • In those moments where we do not know how to pray or proceed, it is the Holy Spirit who says to us “press on, press on, God’s best is yet to come”.
      • That is the most basic step towards persevering. It is hearing and believing what the Spirit says. And the Spirit wants you to take the next steps to follow Christ.
        • At this church we have defined these steps generally as Seeking Jesus as Savior, Serving Christ as Lord, and Sharing Christian love with everyone you meet.
          • We assume when that those who show up for worship are seeking Jesus as a Savior.
          • We encourage each believer to connect with a Sunday School so that we can be encourage to serve Christ by serving others.
          • And finally once we find a place to serve Christ, we encourage people to begin sharing Christian love with everyone we meet.
          • Following Christ, we believe, will ultimately lead to our Christian hope, an entire universe where people seek Jesus, serve Christ, and share Christian love eternally.
        • When it seems difficult to pray and proceed, you might not see the relevance or importance of these steps or how the Spirit personally leads you to accomplish them. But as a believer, it is your relationship with the Holy Spirit that helps you to prayerfully press onward to follow Christ.
• A specific aspect of our relationship with the Holy Spirit becomes Paul’s next topic in verses 26-27.
  • Paul continues his thoughts about the importance of our relationship with the Holy Spirit as he says, “in the same way”.
  • Then he continues to tell us that the Spirit helps us in our weakness.
    • This word for weakness could mean any number of human infirmities as the KJV renders it or frailties.
    • For instance a weakness could be when there is a conflict in your family and you do not know how best to resolve it. Thinking about it consumes your time.
    • A weakness could also be that dementia and Alzheimer’s has begun to affect you so that you no longer remember your prayer list.
    • It could be that pain racks your body so that you are so distracted, or worry about an upcoming procedure dominates your thinking.
    • Your concern for a friend or a loved one may be all that you talk about with others.
    • All of these fit into the category of weaknesses according to this passage.
• The verse then continues revealing our 2nd major reminder about prayer: The Holy Spirit connects our prayers to God.
  • Look with me very carefully at what we find in verses 26-27.
  • First notice what we see at the end of verse 27. There we read that the Holy Spirit intercedes for God’s people according to God’s will.
    • God knows about our weaknesses. He knows how frail that we are. He knows that we need help.
    • It is for this reason in John 14-16 that we hear that Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to indwell us. Jesus calls him the Helper, because he knows that we need the help.
  • Second, notice that God’s will and his desire is to personally know us and fellowship with us.
    • The concept that God “searches our hearts” comes from the Old Testament.
      • For instance Jeremiah 17:10 tells us that “the Lord searches the heart and examines the mind to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.”
      • In that passage we are left with the impression that the Lord “searches our hearts” in order to judge us and give us the penalty for our deeds.
    • But here we see the fullness of what that means. God searches our hearts, and according to His will the Holy Spirit communicates where we need the most help.
  • That leads to the third and most important realization. Look at verse 26. Read what it says. “We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.”
    • One of the greatest weaknesses we have is not knowing exactly what God’s will may be for a situation.
      • We can certainly know God’s revealed will for a situation because the Bible tells us.
        • For instance if someone has hurt us we know according to Ephesians 4:32 that we are to be kind, tenderhearted and forgiving because God in Christ forgave us.
        • Therefore we can pray easily that the Lord would help us to be kind, tenderhearted and forgiving towards that one who hurt us.
      • Be we cannot know with certainty God’s hidden will.
        • How should we treat this serious illness?
        • How do I manage life with my increasingly fading memory?
        • How can I best help my friend or loved one?
        • God certainly has a will for every situation, but we do not always know it.
        • Thus because of the uncertainty, it is often the case that we do not pray with the fervency that communicates our need for God’s help in the situation.
        • We might degenerate into desperate praying, We pray for what we want, asking as many people as possible to pray, as often as we all can. We think that the volume of prayer might be effective.
        • We also might degenerate into despondent praying. We settle for asking for unspoken prayer request and silently die inside as we begin to believe prayer is nothing more than an empty, ineffectual habit.
    • But notice that into that weakness God provides the Holy Spirit to intercede or pray for us.
      • Notice the word groanings translated to describe the Holy Spirit’s intercessions in the NIV.
      • This connects the Spirit’s intercession us back to the groanings of all creation in verse 22 and of us personally as believers in verse 23.
      • It is almost as if Paul is telling us that as we groan here on earth at the frailties, suffering, and sin that surrounds us, the Holy Spirit helps by communicating those groans to the Triune God.
      • The word translated as “wordless” here in the ESV is translated as “too deep for words”, and in other translations as “inexpressible”.
      • The point is not to encourage us to think that we should not seek to express our prayers. The exact opposite is the case.
        • Notice that it says when we do not know how to pray as we ought. The implication is that we still pray, but in less than perfect ways.
        • We know that all of our communication with God will be flawed because we are flawed people.
        • Our “groanings” may seem petty or trivial to God apart from the Holy Spirit’s communicating with God in ways too deep for our words to convey.
        • In other words, God wants us to find ways to express our prayers, because when we pray, the Spirit intercedes.

Conclusion:

• A number of years ago, a spiritual man at the second church I served as a youth pastor asked to come and meet with me.
• While I had not shared it with anyone, there was a great deal of difficulty between the pastor and myself to the point where I did not know how to pray anymore.
• This brother did not know anything about the situation, but wanted to come and pray with me. “He told me that he was going to bring with him his Bible. When I asked why, he said I am going to bring it because that Bible is stained with my tears, and sweat, and knows my prayers.”
• When I read this passage I am reminded of that brother. He was communicating to me that he believed that the Holy Spirit helped him when he prayed.
• Friends one way you can trust Christ is to pray!