©2001 Larry Huntsperger Peninsula Bible Fellowship

7/22/01

Too Deep For Words

Romans 8:26-27

7/22/01 Too Deep For Words

 

Our study of the book of Romans

      brings us this morning

            to the 4th of the 5 supports for suffering given to us by Paul

                  in the last half of chapter 8.

 

As we have moved through our study of this 8th chapter

      we have heard Paul tell us

            that one of the evidences of the life of Christ within us

                  is the presence in our lives

                        of a measure of suffering that we will encounter

      as a direct result of our union with Christ.

 

Some of that suffering

      is an unavoidable element

            of the rebuilding work our Lord does within our lives.

 

The truth is, there are some areas of our lives

      that simply do not reconstruct

            without it involving a measure of pain.

 

And then there is the suffering that comes

      when our Lord allows us to see a part of our world through His eyes.

 

It is a pain that draws us into the battle,

      a pain that causes us to reach out

            and to allow our Lord to bring healing to others as a result of His life through us.

 

And some of the pain comes into our lives

      because we are servants of our King,

            involved daily in warfare with an enemy determined to destroy our ability

                  to illustrate with our lives

the grace and redemptive power of our God.

 

But then, as we have moved through this 8th chapter,

      we have seen that, as soon as Paul confronts us with the reality of suffering in our lives,

            he follows it immediately

                  with 5 strong supports given to us by our Lord

      to equip us to handle the pain.

 

Those 5 supports for suffering

      are found in Romans 8:18-30.

 

We have already looked at the first 3,

      all of which point us toward the future,

            giving us the perspective we need

                  to help defeat the lies we are so vulnerable to

                        whenever we are dealing with pain.

 

We have heard Paul assure us that:

1. Our future glory will vastly exceed our present suffering. (It really is worth it!)

 

2. This physical world in which we live will one day be brought into total subjection to Christ. (We have been permitted to read the last chapter, and our side wins, and wins big!)

 

3. And this resistant physical body in which we live

      will one day be replaced

            with a brand new one that co-operates perfectly with the righteous longings of our already holy spirits.

 

From there, then,

      Paul turns to the present

            and offers us two additional survival tools

                  to help us handle the pain here and now.

 

The first of those two is found in Romans 8:26-27 where Paul says:

ROM 8:26 ¶ And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;

ROM 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.

 

Now, at first glance this may sound like a rather strange passage of Scripture.

 

Here is Paul talking about groanings too deep for words,

      and about the Holy Spirit interceding for us in prayer,

            and about God searching our hearts.

 

So what in the world is he talking about?

 

Well, the truth is,

      when we keep the passage in context,

            there is nothing mysterious or mystical going on here at all.

 

The passage is saying

      exactly what it literally appears to be saying.

 

But let’s just take it a step at a time

      so that we don’t miss what’s going on here.

 

And the first step

      is for us to never loose sight

            of Paul’s purpose for this section of his letter.

He is equipping us with the tools we need to handle pain

      and one of those tools

            is a clear understanding

                  of how this whole prayer thing works

                        between us and God.

 

When we’re hurting

      the last thing we need

            is to cry out to our God

                  and wonder whether or not He’s hearing us,

      whether or not we are approaching Him

            in a way that gives us clear access to Him.

 

Paul writes these verses

      to free us forever from that concern.

 

Now, the opening phrase of these two verses is critical to our understanding of what Paul wants us to see here. 

      He begins by saying, “And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness...”

 

In the same way as what?

 

Obviously Paul is continuing on with an idea he began in the verses that precede this one.

 

If you were with us two weeks ago

      you will remember that, in this third glimpse of our future victory,

            given to us by Paul in 8:23-25,

Paul tells us that this holy, righteous spirit

      that our Lord has created within each Christian

            will not always be frustrated in its ability to express itself

                  because of the pathetic way in which these physical bodies of ours

                        so often resist the life of Christ within us.

 

We will one day be given new bodies

      that will provide perfect tools through which our spirits can express our love for

            and our union with Christ.

 

Then, as Paul moves on to this fourth source of encouragement for us when we hurt,

      he comes right back to this tension

            that still exists between our inner spirits

                  and these physical bodies in which we continue to live,

      and he says,

And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should...

 

He is saying that,

      just as God will one day completely and permanently resolve this conflict

            between our spirits and our bodies

                  by giving us a new body,

so right now,

      while we still remain in these mistrained physical shells,

            the Spirit of God helps us deal with the ignorance and wrong thinking they currently continue to contain.

 

You see,

      when pain enters our lives,

            when suffering comes in,

                  the first thing we want to know

is that we are not alone,

      that our God is in this with us,

            carrying us through the pain.

 

Nothing has the power to intensify suffering

      like the belief we are all alone in our pain.

 

Nothing has the power to encourage us when we hurt

      like the realization that we are not alone.

 

And when real suffering comes into our lives

      we urgently need to know

            that our God is right there with us,

that He knows

      and He cares very much.

 

We need to know that,

      even though our own stupid actions

            may have caused our pain,

and even though our lives still don’t look

      anything like what we really want them to look like,

                  and even though the truth is we are still very confused

      about a whole lot of things about our God,

            yet, right now, just because He loves us,

      He is holding us securely in His mighty grip.

 

Nearly every night before Sandee and I go to sleep we have story time.

 

We have some fun book we are reading through together.

 

Mysteries are our favorites,

(it was a sad day when we read our last Agatha Christie),

      but a good suspense or adventure novel will do well, too.

 

And every night our dog, Pepper, comes into our bedroom, jumps up on the bed,

      and joins us for story time.

 

But Pepper is getting rather old,

      and doesn’t jump as well as he once did.

And then, too, he is going blind,

      so his depth perception isn’t always very accurate.

 

Several nights ago

      he came trotting in for story time

            and gave what he thought was a mighty spring

                  to launch himself up onto the bed.

 

But somehow he missed his jump

      and came crashing back down,

            catching his hind leg between the bed and the bedframe as he fell.

 

I was still in the bathroom

      and came running in when I heard his agonized cries.

 

Though no permanent damage was done,

      he was clearly in a great deal of pain,

            and at first I was afraid he had broken his hip or his leg.

 

He stood there, holding his hind leg up,

      and when I knelt down beside him,

            he pushed his fuzzy little head into my hands,

                  and kept moaning pathetic little doggie moans

                         as he looked up at me through his foggy little eyes.

 

Everything about him said, “Please...please...please...I hurt! Can’t you make the pain go away?”

 

That is us with our God when we hurt.

 

Even the very young Christian

      has tasted enough of the love of our God

            to reach out to Him when pain comes in.

 

We need to know He is there with us in the pain.

     

We need to hear His voice

      telling us He knows,

            He cares,

                  He understands.

 

PSA 56:8-11 ¶ You have taken account of my wanderings; put my tears in Your bottle. Are they not in Your book?...This I know, that God is for me...In God I have put my trust, I shall not be afraid.

 

But the problem is

      our conscious minds

            really do not know the right things to ask for.

 

What we want to ask for, of course,

      is that the suffering will stop.

 

But sometimes the suffering cannot end when we want it to,

      because the purpose for which God allowed it to enter our life

            has not yet been completed.

 

What He is seeking to accomplish in us

      is not yet finished.

 

What He wants to communicate through us

      has not yet been communicated.

 

What He wants to do in someone near us as a result of our pain

      has not yet been accomplished.

 

And the truth is,

      with most of us,

            most of the time,

                  when suffering enters our life,

“...we do not know how to pray as we should...”

 

And when that happens,

      Paul wants us to know

            we don’t have to know!

 

Our hope of finding our God adequate in the pain,

      and our assurance of finding His path

            from where we are

                  to where He is taking us

does not depend upon us saying it right,

      or phrasing it right,

            or understanding what’s going on.

 

Do you know what Paul is really communicating to us in this passage?

 

He is telling us that prayer is not a game with God.

 

It is not some kind of tricky doctrinal maze

      in which we must find

            just the right words,

                  spoken in just the right way,

with just the right combination

      of gratitude,

            and reverence,

                  and petition,

                        and correct doctrinal perspective.

 

Prayer isn’t some kind of Divine game of Jeopardy

      in which we have to come up

            with exactly the right request,

                  phrased in exactly the right way

                        before He’ll respond with the answers we need.

 

Most of the prayers I have prayed in my life

      have been rather petty, selfish little prayers,

            doctrinally illiterate prayers,

                  prayers that are in every way inconsistent

                        with the work God is seeking to do in me as His child.

 

And yet, my God treasures every one of those ignorant prayers of mine.

 

The 5th chapter of the book of Revelation

      presents for us one of the most majestic

            and awesome scenes found anywhere in the Scripture.

 

It is a scene that takes place in the very throne room of God Himself,

      with incredible angelic beings

            surrounding the throne,

                  and the air filled with the fragrance

                        of a special incense pouring from golden bowls being held by those who are there.

 

And then, in Revelation 5:8,

      John tells us what that fragrant incense really is.

He says that incense filling the throne room in the presence of God

      “are the prayers of the saints” -

all of those awkward,

      groping,

            confused little prayers of yours and mine,

      all of them pictured as a sweet aroma to our Creator.

 

You see, every time we pray,

      by the very act of praying

            we affirm the most essential truth of our existence -

      that we are created beings

            in desperate, daily dependence

                  upon our Creator’s intervention in our lives.

 

The truth is,

      every one of our prayers

            will be prayed out of our flawed and often times completely incorrect perspective

                  on our self and our God.

 

But by far the most important issue

      is not WHAT we pray,

            it’s THAT we pray,

                  for in the very act of prayer we affirm the truth.

 

And never is that more true

      than when we hurt.

 

In these two verses here in Romans 8

      Paul tells us that when we hurt

the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words...

 

In other words,

      if all we are able to do

            is to cry out to our God in groans,

                  than that is all we need to do.

 

If all we can do

      is to cry out to our God

            and say over and over again,

“Oh God!

      Oh God!

            Oh God!”

 

Then that is all we need to say.

 

He goes on to explain why.

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.

 

In other words,

      God doesn’t listen to our words,

            He listens to our hearts.

 

When suffering enters our lives

      the first thing we need to know

            is that our God is in our pain with us,

                  and that we have direct access to Him.

 

To answer that longing

      Paul tells us that as His children

            we don’t even need words to communicate with Him.

All we need is a heart that reaches out to our Creator.

 

But there is a second question we need answered about our pain.

 

We not only need to know that God is with us,

      we need to know there is purpose for it.

We need to know

      that somehow our God can bring good

            out of this evil that has intruded into our lives.

 

And the final support for suffering

      given to us by Paul in this passage

            answers that question.

 

We’ll look at what he says about this next week.