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The River ChurchSermons

The Spirit

Hope in the Groaning

Mitchell Holmes · Sunday, 24 August 2025 · Romans 8:18-27 · 37:52 · 6,754 words

Romans S18 · 8:18-27

Listen to this message

Romans 8:18–... teaches that present suffering, a result of sin, is brief and cannot be compared with the future glory that awaits believers. Mitchell explains that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us when we lack words, urging us to pray constantly and approach God as children crying “Abba, Father.” The sermon calls listeners to shift focus from current pain to eternal hope, to trust the Spirit’s help, and to seek God’s kingdom first.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

groan 25 pain 24 creation 27 behalf 13 worth 16 cry 15 despite 10 earth 17 available 9 hope 28 curse 11 compare 10

Topics

The Holy Spirit 15 Hope 12 Prayer 6 Adoption & Sonship 4 Suffering 3 Faith 2 Sin 2 Freedom 2

Scripture referenced 18

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Romans 8 6:03 Genesis 3 8:37 Romans 8:18 9:26 2 Corinthians 4 12:10 2 Corinthians 4:17 12:10 Matthew 6:33 15:05 Romans 8:19-22 15:53 Romans 3 16:49 Romans 3:17 16:49 Romans 3 16:54 Romans 3:17 16:54 Romans 1 22:08 Romans 1:20 22:08 Romans 1:23-25 22:52 Romans 7 24:55 Romans 7:15 24:55 2 Corinthians 10:5 28:37 Romans 12:12 33:22

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

Pre-service announcement — 5 lines, 0:24. Excluded from every count and search on this site, kept here so nothing is hidden.

Hey everyone, my name is Zach Hannon and thank you for checking out the message today.

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Thanks again for joining us today and we hope you are blessed by today's message.

Good morning, River Church. How are we this morning?

My name is Mitchell. I am the children's pastor at our Waterford location.

So that means I get the great honor like Carson here.

I get to work with the next generation of young believers

who are, you know, very, very infantile in their walks with the Lord.

And what a blessing it is to share stories with them.

And tell them how much God loves them.

So I actually know Carson. I attended Pastor's Academy with him

and was at Carson and Anna's wedding five weeks, four weeks, something like that.

So I want to congratulate them on their fresh marriage.

And I want to thank you guys all for being here today, having me come in and speak to you all.

And I want to thank Pastor John Carter for sharing and opening his pulpit with me.

But I'm so blessed to be here. I'm so grateful.

I'm so thankful to come and see.

You know, the different locations that are all part of one church, you know, the River Church.

And just get to meet people I've never met and be here and speak in front of you guys.

So what a blessing it is.

Now, we've been going through this series in Romans.

And last week, Pastor John walked us through the first part of chapter number eight.

Today we're going to be in the latter half of chapter number eight.

And last week we learned what it means to face adoption, to become sons and daughters of God.

What does that look like?

What does that practically mean for us, right?

And listening to Pastor John Carter's message, the biggest thing that I took away that hit harder for me than ever before was, you know,

the section that he's talking about, what it means to cry out, Abba, Father.

As if a son crying out to their father, like, Dad, I need you now.

And, of course, I knew what the interpretation meant.

Of course, I knew what that looked like before.

I'd heard the term Abba, Father before.

But it just kind of hit home for me.

And so I've got...

I'm three months old sitting right here in the front row.

And it had never really, like, hit me the way that it does now, you know, as a fresh dad who is not doing a great job.

But we're okay.

I'm just kidding.

But I think I'm doing okay.

He smiles at me pretty regularly.

But anyways, just as this new father, you know, it all kind of hit me differently for the first time, what it looks like to cry Abba, Father, to cry out to your dad, right?

And so it just...

It really, really hit me.

And so he talked a lot also as well last week about the Holy Spirit and how the Holy Spirit is a confirmation of our faith, okay?

And so with those two thoughts in mind, Paul builds to a final kind of thought here.

Not a final, but he builds to today's thought, okay?

So before I begin, I wanted to share a little bit about my life as a child.

I grew up and I really often would look forward to something.

I would find something that I would get excited about and then I would make it what I lived for until it came there, right?

I look back now and I'm like, oh, that was just undiagnosed ADHD, of course.

But the only things that, you know, were appealing to me were the things that were, you know, stimulating and would get me excited, you know.

So I would find whatever it was and like, oh, I can't wait for this weekend when I get to hang out with my friend.

So Monday in school, I'm sitting there and they're trying to teach me multiplication tables and all I can think about is I can't wait to show my friend.

The new thing that I unlocked in the Star Wars game that we're going to play this weekend.

Or maybe I'd be thinking, oh, kids camp is right around the corner.

It's two months away.

All I can think about for two months is how excited I am to go to kids camp.

My favorite place on earth as a kid was to go to Indiana where my cousin and best friend lived at the time.

And so when I found out, oh, we're going to Indiana in the summer, all I can think about is going to Indiana to see my best friend, my cousin, right?

And if enough time had gone by where I had hyper-focused.

And made it my life to think about that thing for a while, right?

The day before, I would be like vibrating like, oh, there's less than 24 hours.

It's here.

You know, I'm so excited.

I'm like literally like vibrating, you know, because I was so excited.

I had genuinely like it was unhealthy how much I was like I lived for this exciting thing.

You know, finally something that's going to be fun and whatever, you know.

And with that idea, you know, Paul is going to be talking to us about like what does it look like to vibrate?

Vibrate with excitement for something that's coming, okay?

So like I said, we're going to be in Romans chapter number 8.

And, you know, he's been building here to an idea, an idea of a hope that is waiting for us.

A hope that we have ahead of us.

Something to look forward to.

Something to get excited about and eagerly anticipate.

Something to eagerly look forward to and patiently wait on.

So let's pray and then we'll read from Romans chapter number 8.

Lord, we love you.

God, I just thank you.

For using me as a humble instrument to be here today and share your word with your church, Lord.

I just pray that you speak through me.

And that you would allow this message to land on the hearts of those that it needs to land on.

Help us to seek you with all that we say, think, and do.

In your name we pray.

So in Romans chapter 8, we're going to start in verse number 18.

It says,

With eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope.

That the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.

And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit.

Grown inwardly as we will.

We wait eagerly for adoption as sons.

The redemption of our bodies.

For in this hope we were saved.

Now hope that is seen is not hope.

For who hopes for what he sees?

But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness.

For we do not know what to pray for as we ought.

But the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

And he who searches hearts knows what is in the mind of the Spirit.

Because the Spirit intercedes.

He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

So Paul, we're going to break this passage down.

Paul here, he begins by telling us some really heavy truths.

He begins by saying, hey, here this present time, here on earth, man, it's associated with pain.

It's a time of suffering to be here on earth.

And I know what you're thinking, like, yeah, I suffer.

I went to my favorite coffee shop this morning.

They didn't have my favorite coffee.

I'll tell you, when my wife and I were house shopping, I said,

no question about it, our house must have central air.

I'm a sweaty person.

I need it.

And then we found the perfect house that didn't have central air.

I have suffered, okay?

I'm suffering, okay?

So, but I joke, you know, that's not true suffering, right?

But it's also, Paul's not saying that this is like agony.

You know, we're not in eternal torment.

You know, it's somewhere in between, right?

So what is he saying?

This existence here on earth is associated with pain.

There is hurt that comes with being here on the earth.

As a result of the curse from the original sin that happened in the Garden of Eden,

there is hurt.

Genesis chapter 3 tells us that because of our sin, the land is cursed.

It says we will toil and sweat to scrape a living.

Pain, suffering, and death entered the world through Adam and that original sin.

So as a result now, we now, generations and generations and generations later,

feel that to this day.

Feel the pain of losing loved ones.

Feel the pain of battling sickness.

Feel the pain of all of the things that are associated with this curse.

However, despite this pain, despite the destruction in the world of men as a result of sin,

Paul here, yes, that's heavy, but he gives us something to look forward to.

He doesn't just drop that and leave it and be like, yep, it stinks right now.

No, he tells us that there is a hope to look forward to.

And he says, if you look back in verse 18,

he says, it is not worth comparing with the glory that is yet to be revealed to us.

It is not even worth comparing.

Despite the fact that all we can see is the present,

and all we can feel is what's currently afflicting us,

when the present is filled with painful and disastrous events,

of course it feels all-consuming.

When we lose a loved one, that is all-consuming for a time.

When our child doesn't want a relationship with us, that is all-consuming.

When the medical bills are stacking up, that can feel all-consuming,

because all we are capable of feeling is right here, right now,

this is the window I have available to me, is the present,

this is what I'm feeling, and it's overwhelming.

But Paul is saying, hey, it's not going to be that way forever.

Now, he's not trying to minimize it, right?

He's not saying, you know, pain is illusion, right?

He's not trying to say that like some of the false religions that are out there.

He's not saying pain is in the mind, it's not real, move past it.

He's not minimizing it.

He's saying, yeah, it's real.

Yeah, pain is awful, the suffering is terrible,

the curse that comes from sin has hurt all of us.

But it's only here for a time, and it has nothing,

it's not even worth comparing to what is ahead of us.

Because despite those wretched times, despite how terrible they are,

it is a blink in the face of eternity.

And the depths of the worst pain imaginable here on earth

can't even, isn't even a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of the height of God,

God's majesty and the glory that is one day going to be made available to us.

Now, please understand, you know, if anyone deserves to write on pain, it's Paul.

It's Paul.

He writes us for a reason.

He says, hey, for I consider the suffering of this present time is not worth comparing.

And he says it is not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

He includes himself in this conversation.

Paul has been whipped.

He's been beaten.

He says five times I've been left with 39 lashes because 40

to fill it, kill a man.

I've been stranded.

I've been shipwrecked.

Yeah, pain.

But it's only a blink in the face of eternity.

Says he's present.

Sufferings are not even worth comparing.

That is how insignificant these punishments are when compared and

contrasted against the eternal hope and glory that is found in our eternal home

in heaven alongside our almighty creator.

He writes it differently in Second Corinthians, chapter four, verse 17.

It says this.

I believe it'll be on the screen behind me.

It says for.

This light momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal way of glory

beyond all comparison, this light momentary affliction.

Now, it stinks to think like I just lost my loved one.

I I'm I'm now a widow.

My son won't talk to me. Right.

You're telling me that's a light momentary affliction.

Are you? Of course, we're not minimizing that.

Right. But in the face of forever in the glory of God, it is but a vapor.

Kent Hughes is a pastor

and commentator, and he wrote this on it.

He says no matter what we have gone through, are presently going through or

will go through, the sum total is not worth comparing with the glory available to us

one day later on in that same passage, he continues and he says we can compare a

thimble of water to the sea, but what we cannot do is compare our

suffering with the coming glory, despite the vast difference between a

thimble of water and the oceans of the earth.

We can conceptualize that.

But we can't conceptualize the difference between our suffering here on Earth and

the depths of that pain versus the immeasurable heights available to us in heaven.

Now, I pray that this passage brings you immense hope.

Paul wrote it to be a passage of hope.

In those ten verses, he wrote the word hope six times, six times.

He writes here because there's a hope available to us, because the scripture here

is telling us that our eternal destination is worth it.

It's worth it. It's worth any pain.

It's worth having awkward conversations with our loved ones to make sure that they

know the gospel. It's worth it.

Whatever it is that we're going through here and now, whatever it is, self-inflicted

or otherwise, it's worth it because there's something coming that is better.

C.S. Lewis writes this.

He says we are half hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex

and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us.

Yet, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because

he cannot imagine what is meant when he is offered a holiday at sea.

Right now, all we have available to us,

all that we can see right now is the dirt, the pain, the suffering that's here on Earth.

Now, this is a little bit dismal.

We'll talk about positives later on.

Right.

But what all we can see right now is, is we've got our face buried in the dirt.

We're making mud pies, as C.S. Lewis has said it, you know.

And we can't even conceptualize what is being offered to us.

And yet, if we believe in scripture,

if we allow scripture to lift our eyes

from the dust and the dirt and look to heaven, it should change our hearts.

Matthew 6:33, Jesus says, seek first the kingdom of heaven.

Seek first the kingdom of heaven and I'll take care of the rest.

Seek first me. Seek first what I have for you.

Seek first my will today and the rest of it I've got.

Tomorrow has enough care for itself.

Worry about today and how you can honor me today is what God is saying here.

Seek first the kingdom.

The hope that's available to us is so

substantive that creation cries out for it.

The passage said groans for it.

And even the Holy Spirit aids believers

by groaning on our behalf, looking forward to that day.

Now, what are these groanings?

What can we learn from the three types of groanings in this passage?

That's what we're going to break down today.

We're going to talk about those three groanings.

The first is the groan of creation in verses 19 through 22.

I'm going to read it one more time.

It says, for the creation waits,

with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God,

for the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly,

but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set

free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory

of the children of God, for we know that the whole creation has

been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.

Creation was once perfect.

It was once an Eden.

The term Eden is now synonymous with a perfect utopia, right?

It was Eden.

It was it was a garden.

It was flawless.

But with the fall of man in Eden came the curse of sin from God.

God caused the curse.

He cursed creation.

Genesis, chapter three, verse 17, tells us as much.

I referenced it earlier, but let's read it together real quick.

Genesis, chapter three, verse 17, says this.

And to Adam, he said, because you have listened to the voice of your wife and of

heat and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat it.

This is the ground because of you in pain.

You shall eat of it all the days of your life.

He continues and says thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you and you shall

eat the plants of the field by the sweat of your face.

You shall eat bread till you return to the ground for out of it.

You were taken for you are dust and to dust you shall return.

The very ground was cursed when sin entered the world in a blink.

Sin entered the world and corrupted everything.

When sin entered the world, it wasn't just Adam and Eve that was affected.

The entire planet was engulfed in decay, death and destruction alongside it.

Those are the consequential side effects of sin.

The earth that was once flawless is now marred with scars.

Turn on the television, look at the news and tell me it's not true.

Floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, avalanches, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods.

The earth is hurting.

The earth is dying.

The earth is corrupted.

It's being slowly eroded by the pain.

It's a curse of sin.

Now, Paul here, when he says that creation is eagerly awaiting with an outstretched neck,

the language that he uses, if you take it back to the original language,

it describes as if someone was on their very tiptoes, craning with their neck,

trying to desperately see and look forward to what's coming, right?

It's craning its neck, looking desperately and excitedly for what's coming.

And it's looking eagerly to see the wonderful sight of the sons

of God coming into their own, because they know on that day,

the opposite of the day that the sons of God left their own.

They left right standing with God.

So on that day, when we are made sons and daughters, when we are given our

glorified bodies, creation will be remade along with us.

In verse number 22, he writes how creation has been groaning

together in the pains of childbirth until now.

He says that it's groaning like a woman in labor, desperately

wanting to be delivered. And a day is coming when that will happen.

The earth will be delivered and free to produce and grow and work as originally designed.

Now, when we were giving birth, I remember asking my wife and she said,

it is as bad as everyone says it is. It is as bad as everyone says it is.

But she's holding our son and she's like, but it was worth it.

It's as bad as everyone says it is.

I thought I could do it unmedicated. I couldn't.

But it was worth it, right?

That's what Paul, the imagery Paul is describing here.

He's saying, yes, you're crying out in pain.

Yes, you're groaning.

Creation is groaning, but one day delivery will come.

That is what we are waiting on in creation.

That is the future hope that Paul is writing here to encourage the Romans.

They're in Rome, they're in the epicenter of Christian persecution.

And here he's saying, yes, what you're going through is hard.

Yes, you have been killed.

Yes, you have been martyred.

You're facing heavy persecution.

You're afraid for your lives.

Yes, all of those things.

But deliverance is around the corner.

And just like a mother is groaning, it'll be worth it.

Creation eagerly awaits this day, craning its neck, standing on its tiptoes,

waiting expectantly for the revealing of the sons of God.

The entirety of animate and inanimate creation is crying out, eager to once

again return to the perfection of the world as God had originally created it.

For a time,

the earth like us is stuck with the corrupted touch of sin.

When I when I think of this, I think of the song where it says, even the rocks cry out.

If even the rocks cry out in anticipation of eternal glory, so too can we.

Now, I say all these things and I talk about creation, right?

And it's yes, there's destruction and it's marred by these scars.

And yes, those are terrible.

But that does not mean that all of creation is broken and destroyed.

There's still much beauty in the world.

We can see it.

We can catch glimpses of God's majesty when the flowers are in full bloom,

when the mountains stand grand over the surrounding area.

Food is tasty and nourishing, right?

There are glimpses of the beauty and how it was meant to be.

John MacArthur says, he says, despite the terrible curse,

God's majesty and gracious provision for mankind is still evident wherever one looks.

And what he means by that, like for that reason, right, everywhere we look, God's

majesty is evident.

That's what Paul means when he wrote in Romans chapter one, verse 20.

It says, no one is without excuse for his indivisible attributes, namely his

eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation

of the world and the things that have been made.

So they are without excuse.

God is still evident in creation.

Despite the corruption of sin, there is still beauty there.

Now, with the idea of creation in mind, just as man brought destruction to the whole

so will glory and hope return alongside us with our restoration to righteousness.

So it brings us to the second type of groaning, the groaning of the church.

Verses 23 through 25.

As creation groans and calls out to return to perfect harmony, so does the church.

So do believers.

All believers groan because we inherently long for a future day where we can say,

I'm no longer trapped in my flesh.

Last week we we learned that those who believe in the name of Christ have been

adopted as sons and daughters of Christ.

And when this happens, our inside is transformed.

It says, behold, we are made a new creation.

The old has passed away.

Our inside is transformed.

But the day that we're saved, we look no

different on the outside because we still have our fleshly exteriors.

Our inside has been made new.

It's now the home of Almighty God.

We've been given the indwelling of the Holy

Spirit. He lives inside of us and makes his home in our bodies.

And yet still we have this fleshy exterior.

And that's hard. That's difficult.

Because we're sitting here and we're like, man, you signed the paperwork.

You signed my adoption paperwork.

I've been stamped. I've been sealed with the Holy Spirit.

I belong to God.

And yet here I am waiting to be taken home.

I'm stuck in this body.

You've signed my paperwork. Now take me home.

That's what he's saying we long for.

We're blown out, ready to go home.

But that process is only finished for

eternity when we get our glorified bodies and we finally come into the full

realization of what it means to be a son and daughter of Christ.

So with the idea that our insides have

been made new, but our exterior is still fleshly, we carry the burden of sin every

single day. We're told to crucify our flesh daily lest we fall into temptation

because we battle it every day. We're told that we have to do this.

We have to crucify our flesh.

Because otherwise we'll do the very things we know we shouldn't do.

It's a byproduct of having a flesh.

Paul writes in Romans chapter seven, verse 15.

He writes about the struggle and says,

For I do not understand my own actions.

I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

He's saying, hey, I know the right thing to do.

I want to do the right thing.

I would love to do the right thing, but I still do the very thing I hate.

I struggle. I'm caught in this eternal conflict, this spiritual battle between my spirit

and my flesh. It's hard.

It's hard for a believer to have that

pull in two directions and be caught in the middle.

We desperately want to do what is right.

We want to do what is God honoring.

We want to glorify God with our actions.

Yet the flesh is strong and we choose to do evil anyway.

This is a tiresome existence to have to constantly battle your own flesh.

Now, this groaning comes as a result of our eyes being opened to the truth as well.

A dead creature does not know it's dead, but when

we've received adoption, when the Holy Spirit indwells us instantly,

our eyes are open to the truth and we're given the first fruits.

It says our eyes are open to the truth.

And suddenly we are intimately aware of our own shortcomings.

We're intimately aware of the fact that we

are fallen, hopeless and dead apart from Christ.

But God doesn't let us stay there.

He doesn't open our eyes and say, hey, spoiler alert.

You fall desperately short of perfection. Have a good day.

Right. He doesn't leave it with that.

He sends the Holy Spirit to give us the first fruits.

This is mentioned in this passage.

What are the first fruits?

The Holy Spirit has been sent to us to give us an installment,

a first installment of the incredible heritage that God has for us for eternity.

He's giving us a foretaste, the peace that comes at the forgiveness of our sins,

the power of the almighty God to calm us despite any circumstance,

the joy that passes all understanding, even when we're going through

our world is crumbling, everything is on fire, there is a peace that passes

all understanding as a result of these first fruits of the spirit.

Kent Hughes, he writes, these gifts are all mere foretastes of what is to come.

They're merely a foretaste.

One of my favorite restaurants is Olive Garden.

OK, we just went last week for a couple of birthdays in the family.

And I don't know if you've been to Olive Garden, but I'm going to tell you the hack

right now, OK, go to Olive Garden and when they bring out the infinite bread.

All right. Yeah, it's infinite.

I don't know if you knew that, but I know it because at some point

they say, hey, infinite is just a word we have to cut you off.

You've had 15. And I'm like, OK, you said infinite.

So but so I start eating the bread and

then like, what what would you like to go with the bread?

And I was like, chicken gnocchi soup, please.

OK, I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly.

And so then I'll stir the bread in there and it's it's fantastic.

OK, there's your hack. Try it.

All right. It's fantastic. And I'm not lying.

I probably have seven sticks of bread and eat this soup.

And then I'm like, OK, here's your chicken parm.

And I'm like, oh, I'm not hungry anymore.

So it's OK.

Right. The first fruits of the spirit is not like that.

It's not it's not better than the main course.

OK, Olive Garden, it is better than the main course.

But the Holy Spirit, his first fruits.

Right. It is not better than the main course.

It's just a taste, a foretaste of the glory available to us.

So while we are here on Earth, we will battle.

We will struggle inwardly against our flesh.

If you're if you're here and you're identifying with this, if you're like,

man, I, I feel this constant guilt because I know the right thing.

But I choose to give in to the wrong things. If you've

said the words that that was the last time I'm ever going to do that.

Fifteen times there is hope.

Second Corinthians 10:5 says we destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised

against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ.

He continues eight verses later and says he will not let you be tempted beyond

your ability, but with this temptation, he will also provide the way of escape.

Go to your father today.

Submit yourself before God today.

Ask him to search my heart, reveal

to me the means of escape so that I can escape this eternal battle back and forth.

I don't want to I don't want to be tugged in two directions.

Reveal it to me.

He has provided us a helper.

And in the spirit's power lies everything

that a believer needs to ignore the flesh and pursue Christ.

Do not let yourself be overwhelmed by the now.

And instead, remind remind yourself what is waiting for you in eternity.

That conflict is now, but eternity is waiting around the corner.

But that's if if you have

at least your trust in him, because you might be sitting here and you

might be thinking, I don't know what you're talking about.

I don't know who Jesus Christ is.

I don't know what's the cross.

I don't know what you're talking about.

That here that he's saying that this hope

is offered to us if we have the Holy Spirit, if we have looked and said, I believe

that Jesus Christ is the son of God, he came down and he left heaven behind.

He left perfection to sit here in squalor

with us in the mud and the dirt and the pain with us.

And despite being in the mud and the dirt and the pain

with us, he never sinned.

He never did wrong.

And at the end of his life, they hung him on a cross for it.

And he was able to pay the price for the sins of the entire world.

And the Bible says, if you believe that,

if you repent of your sin and believe in Jesus, you will be saved.

But then he rose again three days later

and showed us, hey, there is a hope available, a hope against death.

He showed us that our groaning is only

temporary and it is nothing in the face of eternity alongside him.

Because of his sacrifice, our sufferings are only temporary if we are his sons.

And daughters. So if that's you and you're like, I don't know what that is.

Talk to me after the gathering.

Find someone that you know and trust after the gathering.

Ask someone for help with that today.

That brings us to our final groaning, the groaning of the Spirit, verses 26 and 27.

The final groaning that Paul writes about is the groaning of the Spirit here.

He says that the Spirit speaks on our behalf.

He intercedes before God with prayers for our best interest.

Now, what does that look like?

Some people have taken this to mean something that I don't believe it's saying.

What I believe it's saying is that there are people out there who are incapable

of forming words and the Holy Spirit prays on their behalf.

There are people hooked up to machines on

their deathbeds, hearing the gospel for the first time.

And they can't physically form words.

They don't have the strength, the willpower, they don't have the ability.

And yet the Holy Spirit intercedes on their behalf and prays to the Father.

There are people who are so distraught

with anguish that they go to the altar and they aren't speaking in English.

They're just crying out in anguish to

the Lord. And yet the Holy Spirit speaks on their behalf.

As they wail in agony, the Holy Spirit interprets and takes that prayer to God.

He perfectly operates on our behalf and

prayers how we ought to, even when we cannot or do not.

One commentator and pastor, he says,

the Holy Spirit says those things we want to say, but cannot mouth.

How beautiful may we appreciate our wealth, he says.

Now, I'm so thankful that the Holy Spirit prays on my behalf because I,

I'm not always a wise man, and there's been times where I've prayed

for things that the Lord had a different will.

I'm so thankful that when I vehemently and passionately prayed to God for something,

saying, please, Lord, I want this, I'm begging and pleading.

I want this, even though it's not your will in my life.

I'm so grateful.

Looking back that I can see how the Holy Spirit intercede on my behalf.

I'm so grateful God answered my prayer in the exact opposite way of the way

that I wanted him to, but that's the power of the Holy Spirit.

Even when I'm praying and saying,

I want this, and what I meant was, I want this, over here, God's like,

I'm going to answer your prayer, not in a way that you ever expected or wanted,

but the Holy Spirit knows how to pray on your behalf.

He's going to pray for you, even when you're praying wrongly,

even when you're praying for something that's not in my will.

The Holy Spirit is there.

Those answers to prayer don't just happen.

It happens through the Holy Spirit speaking to God the Father on our behalf.

Now, the Holy Spirit also prays on our behalf when we feel like we have nothing to say.

Romans 12, 12 says,

I read that and thought, how is that possible?

I have to open my eyes to drive, okay?

What does this mean, right?

Now, this be constant in prayer is not a dismissive remark.

It's a command to be constantly in communication with our Heavenly Father.

We are told to pray without ceasing.

Pray without ceasing.

So why, then, is it so easy for us to fall into the trap of thinking,

I have nothing to say to God.

I guess I'll just pray when dinner time comes.

Maybe I'm just preaching to myself today, but I've been there.

I've been there where I'm like,

oh, I've prayed three times today for my three meals, and that's it.

I've been there.

Why is it so easy for us to fall into this trap?

If we believe what we learned last week,

if what we learned last week,

and we've been adopted sons and daughters of God,

if that's true,

and we are given the privilege and honor to be able to call out,

then how dare we act this way?

How dare we think so highly of ourselves

that we think our Father in Heaven doesn't want to hear from us,

even if it's just for something small.

How dare we?

How dare I?

Let me make it personal.

Let me make it personal.

Think so highly of myself that I think,

I have nothing to say to God right now.

How dare I think so little of God

that I think He doesn't want to hear from me.

Even if I feel,

even if we feel that we genuinely have nothing to say,

why wouldn't we spend time in the presence of God

and let the Holy Spirit fill in the gaps?

Why wouldn't we go to Him and say,

God, I'm here.

I don't really have a lot going on.

Thank you for sunshine.

I know that's silly.

I know that sounds dumb,

but why?

Why not spend time in the presence of the Father

and let the Holy Spirit speak on our behalf?

Even when you do not know what is best for you,

even when you pray for things that are actively not what is best for you,

even when you feel you have nothing left to say

but to cry out and wail in despair,

your Father in Heaven wants to hear from you.

And you can do that at your seat, in the car, on a walk.

Thousands of years ago, they had to trek to a temple to do this.

And now here we are with the ability to pray

and be in the presence of Almighty God whenever and wherever we are.

And wherever we want, are we taking advantage of it?

I don't know.

Now, as we leave today and return to the world,

I want us to ponder these things.

I want us to ponder the groanings that are in this passage.

If you have not cried out to Jesus,

I want to encourage you

because there is so much hope and peace found in Him.

There's so much hope found at the foot of the cross.

This earth is engulfed in darkness.

It feels hopeless, but there is a light and there is hope,

and His name is Jesus.

I want to encourage you to cry out to Him today.

But if you are here today and you're like,

I am a son, I am a daughter of Christ,

I've got the Holy Spirit in me,

I've felt that peace that passes all understanding,

I know, I'm stamped and sealed with the Holy Spirit, that's me.

Then I want to ask,

how are you handling the struggles of this world?

Are you reminding yourself of the hope

that is waiting for you in eternity?

Are you praying without ceasing?

Or are you neglecting God

because you feel you have nothing to say,

or it's too small, or He doesn't care?

Are we doing these things?

Are we trusting the Holy Spirit?

Are we trusting the Holy Spirit to pray on our behalf?

Are we going to God when we've got these afflictions?

Are we going and saying, God, it's difficult now,

I know you're going to give me the means of escape,

and I know I'm going to look back on this

and in turn be like, what was I so worried about?

But it requires us to go to our Father

and cry out,

Abba, Father, Dad, I need you.

Let's pray.

Lord, we love you.

And God, I just thank you that we are a generation

that has been allowed and blessed

and privileged to cry out to you.

May you reveal to us,

our shortcomings, may you reveal to us

opportunities where we might better

utilize our ability to call out to you

and pray to you

and trust the Holy Spirit to move.

Again, I pray that you help us to seek after

you with everything that we say, think, and do.

In your name we pray. Amen.

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