INTRODUCTION || WHEN YOUR STRENGTH RUNS OUT & WORDS FAIL…

Have you ever felt like you ran out of spiritual gas and you are at a complete loss on how to move forward or even how or what you should pray? Have you ever started to pray and the words just wouldn’t come? Maybe the doctor’s report knocked the air out of you. Maybe the marriage feels brittle, the prodigal’s gone silent, the bills pile up…and all you can manage is a sigh. We’ve all been there—the place of wordless prayer. The truth is that you believe in prayer, you love Jesus, but inside you’re tired and weak and just at a loss for words. You try to pray — but your mind wanders. You attempt a start and are able to say “Father…” and then you just sit there. This is where the Holy SPIRIT helps us…in our weakness. This is not a promise for super-saints; it is pure oxygen for the truly weary. Today we are going to embrace what it means that the Holy SPIRIT prays for us when we are weak and our words fail. ROM 8 will guide us and teach us about the prayer of the Holy SPIRIT. Paul didn’t write this for perfect people. He wrote it under the inspiration of the Holy SPIRIT for weak people who have a perfect Savior and a powerful Helper who knows what to pray when we don’t. Lets read ch. 8 and learn what the SPIRIT has to say to us about his help for the weak and his ministry of prayer for us

8:1-4 || NO CONDEMNATION, NEW CREATION…

- Paul opens the chapter with a trumpet blast: there is now NO CONDEMNATION…we are FORGIVEN!
- That’s the foundation. The Holy SPIRIT doesn’t start His work in the STRONG — He starts in the FORGIVEN.
- The SPIRIT’s first miracle is that He set us free from sin and its consequences. The SPIRIT applies what Jesus accomplished on the cross directly to our hearts. You are not just tolerated by God — you’re in-dwelt by Him. You are a NEW CREATION

8:5-11 || LIFE IN THE SPIRIT…

- Paul contrasts two kinds of people:
---- those who live according to the FLESH
---- those who live according to the SPIRIT

- To “set your mind on the SPIRIT” means to live aware of His presence in the everyday.
-- Every time you choose forgiveness instead of bitterness that’s the SPIRIT of life moving inside you
-- Every time you choose hope instead of despair that’s the SPIRIT of life moving inside you
-- Every time you choose courage instead of fear — that’s not self-discipline alone; that’s the SPIRIT of life moving inside you.
- He’s shaping you to be more like Jesus. He’s whispering truth in the places where shame and doubt used to shout.
- This is evidence that we are living according to the SPIRIT!

8:12-17 || ADOPTION AND ASSURANCE…

- The SPIRIT doesn’t just give you power; He gives you “belonging” and a new “Identity”. I have talked about this before regarding Jesus’ words to his disciples in the Great Commission regarding baptism.

God=Father, Family || God=Son, Servant || God= SPIRIT, Sent

- He teaches your heart to call God “Father” when fear wants to call Him “Judge.”

- QUOTE: John Piper says, “The SPIRIT testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, not by whispering new information but by awakening new affection. He moves us from anxiety to intimacy.”

8:18-25 || THE GROANING OF CREATION…

- Then Paul widens the lens… Romans 8 is a symphony of hope. From verses 18–25 we see that…
- The Whole Creation GROANS — earthquakes, disease, death, decay — it’s all creation’s cry for redemption.
- All of US GROAN — we groan too, don’t we? Verse 23 says: “We ourselves… groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.”
- We live in this tension — already redeemed, not yet fully restored. All of creation is longing for redemption—but we’re not left to GROAN alone. The SPIRIT joins creation in that GROANING. So when you feel that ache for our bodies to finally be redeemed, that’s not weakness; that’s the SPIRIT reminding you he’s with us and that this world isn’t our home. There is coming a day when not only our souls will be redeemed but our bodies too! And I can’t wait!

-- So what does that look like?

8:26a || THE SPIRIT HELPS US IN OUR WEAKNESS…

- The SPIRIT HELPS US… the verb “helps” means “to take hold with someone against a burden.” Picture a heavy log on your shoulders — the Holy SPIRIT gets under it with you. When you sit in silence, when tears are all you have, when the diagnosis is too heavy to name, the SPIRIT helps us…He helps us because we are weak…
- In Our WEAKNESS… Paul says, “We do not know what to pray for as we should.” That’s humbling. We often pray short-sighted prayers:
--- We don’t know if we should pray that God would remove the thing that he has placed in our lives…“God, take this away,”
--- What if God put that thing there for a purpose…instead we might need to pray “God change my heart about this thing.”
--- The beauty of this…when we surrender to the will of the Father, the Spirit is praying the will of the Father over us enabling us to pray for...
1. God to change our situation…or for
2. God to enable us to endure the situation by His power and grace.

8:26b || WITH GROANINGS TOO DEEP FOR WORDS…

- The SPIRIT turns your pain into prayer. When you can only sigh, He turns that sigh into a symphony before the Father.

-- Quote: John Piper points out that “the Spirit’s groaning is God’s own heart beating inside the believer. He’s not watching our pain from a distance; He’s joining us in it.”

- Wow. This has been a real encouragement to me this week.
- Different commentators have said these GROANINGS are not human language but “divine communication inside the Trinity — Spirit to Father.” A “non-verbal prayer born of divine compassion.” || *NOTE: this is not referring to tongues

- Think about that:
--- God Himself prays inside you to God Himself for you || perfectly…according to His own will.
--- Every unspoken ache is translated into divine purpose. When you can’t pray right, the Spirit never prays wrong.

- So when you can’t find the words—don’t despair. The silence isn’t empty; it’s sacred ground. Heaven is busy translating your tears.

8:27 || ACCORDING TO THE WILL OF THE FATHER…

- The Father always understands the Spirit’s intercession.
- The Father knows the Spirit’s mind, and the Spirit knows the Father’s will—perfect unity within the Trinity.
- There’s never static between them. That means every prayer the Spirit prays for you gets answered…
- Because the Spirit never prays a wrong prayer, nothing in your life can fall outside the circle of God’s redemptive purpose.

8:28 || ALL THINGS WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD…

- Now verse 28 bursts in like a sunrise after a long night: it isn’t wishful thinking — it’s the logical conclusion of the Spirit’s ministry.
- This verse flows straight out of the Spirit’s intercession.
- Every event in your life is being woven by divine hands that are already praying for your good. Because the Spirit is constantly praying according to God’s will, God is constantly weaving everything—your failures, your suffering, your waiting—into His good plan.
- And like I said last week…one of the main motivations of the Holy Spirit is the magnify and bring glory to Jesus and the Father…his glory…our good

-- QUOTE: R.C. Sproul wrote, “Our confidence is not that we pray well, but that the Spirit prays perfectly.”

- Isn’t that a great statement?
- So when you’re tempted to say, “I don’t even know what God’s doing,” ROM 8:28 answers, “The Spirit does — and He’s praying it into reality.”

OUR RESPONSE — LIVING SPIRIT-DEPENDENT LIVES…

1. Admit your weakness.
--- God does His best work in our surrendered hearts. Stop pretending to be strong in your prayers if you aren’t. The Spirit will help us in our weakness…its okay to be weak…

2. Ask for help from the Holy Spirit before you pray, while you pray, in your silence when you can’t pray.
--- Whisper, “Holy Spirit, pray through me, pray for me.”

3. Rest in His work.
--- Your groans are not wasted — they’re heard. When your words fail, trust that the Holy Spirit hasn’t.

4. Live with hope. Keep your hope anchored in the sovereign power of the Holy Spirit.
--- Every sigh points toward the day when groaning turns to glory. Every groan is a reminder: this story ends in glory.

John Piper calls this “the hidden engine of perseverance.” You’ll make it home because the Spirit won’t stop praying.

Wayne Grudem says the Spirit’s intercession is “God’s providence at work on our knees.” He turns ordinary, stammering, stumbling, one word prayers into divine partnership. He is doing a work we can’t do. And I am so thankful for that.

CONCLUSION — YOU ARE NEVER ALONE IN YOUR PRAYERS…

- Romans 8 begins with NO CONDEMNATION (vs1) and ends with
NO SEPARATION (vs28 all things work together).
- Between those two promises stands the Holy Spirit—freeing, leading, adopting, groaning, interceding, working all things together for God’s Glory and our Good.

So take heart:
--- When you kneel tonight and can’t find the words—He’s already praying for you.
--- When you wonder if God’s plan is still good It is — He’s working it for your good.
--- And when you finally see Jesus face to face, you’ll realize every unanswered prayer was actually answered perfectly by the One who never stopped praying for you.

RESPOND, REFLECT & COMMUNION

I would like to give you a chance to respond to God…

-- What did God reveal about who he is to you today in our time in God’s word?
-- What did God reveal about what he has done or is doing in our time in God’s word?
-- What did you learn about who you are as we looked at these stories today?
-- What did you learn about what you are supposed to do?

—> Let's take a minute to thank Him, respond to Him, confess our sins to Him, examine our hearts before we take communion...

—> WHAT IS JESUS SAYING TO YOU TODAY?
—> WHAT IS JESUS ASKING YOU TO DO?