By Kasey Castillo
Would you all like more hope in your hearts? I know I do. When I think of a woman filled with hope, I think of a tender-hearted woman. I think of a bride: beautiful, tender-hearted, full of hopeful expectation of what is to come. A bride that is entering a marriage knowing she is loved and cared for. She is full of hope.
We are covering Romans 8:26-27 and after searching the Scriptures and seeking the LORD on these verses, there is a point I’d like to make. And I would love for all of us to read it together and make it personal. Will you say it with me?
“If I endure my trials and grow in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit; and guard my heart and allow Him to keep my heart tender, I will be enabled to take my attention off myself and turn my attention to God, seeking His will, as I pray and serve my brothers and sisters in Christ, and reach out to a lost and dying world, and I will be filled with lots of hope.”
What have we been learning the past several weeks in Romans 8? We have been studying that there is no condemnation in Christ! We have been soaking in God’s unending love and grace, learning how we have, through our faith in Jesus Christ, the privilege of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and all of the amazing benefits this brings! We finished last week talking about the hope we have in Jesus! And verses 26 and 27 continue to do so, encouraging us:
Let’s read it. And for all of this to make more sense, I need to include verse 25.
Romans 8:25-27: “But if we hope for what we do not see, through perseverance we wait eagerly for it. Now in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know what to pray for 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.”
So, let’s dive right in:
Starting with Verse 26 Now in the same way Your version may say Likewise. It is referring to Verse 25, which is why I included it. So, another way to say it is, “Speaking of eagerly waiting, in the midst of your suffering, with perseverance for the hope we have in Jesus, the Spirit also helps.” What hope are we waiting for in the midst of trials?
This immediately takes me to Revelation because the theme of the book is that as believers, we overcome In Christ Jesus–a very hopeful message.
Read with me, Revelation 21:1-3 “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among the people, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them.”
There is so much hope in this passage. But I can’t say it better than Steve Carr, when talking about this, so I am going to quote him. It is a long quote, but oh so worth it,
“When God sent His Son in the form of a man, it says that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. That word dwelt is the Greek word for tabernacled. So, God tabernacled with the person of His Son while He was here on this earth, dwelling with men, but here we have [in Revelation 21] the eternal state. The Lord is going to tabernacle with us. He is going to dwell in our midst forever and ever. And this is the ultimate desire of God…and I love this, because this reveals God’s heart. He wants to tabernacle with man, this is His ultimate desire. This is the end of all of what He has accomplished. Sending His Son to the cross, to redeem you and me. So why? So that He could tabernacle with us for eternity. As Paul says in Ephesians 2, “reveal throughout eternity His kindness and His love and His goodness towards us.””
We all know Paul experienced suffering. But do you know that he also experienced the eternal hope of Heaven? 2 Corinthians talks about how he was caught up in paradise. This, according to most, means that Paul was dead and came back to life. And his familiarity with both suffering and the hope of heaven. He definitely had this life experience as he wrote our passage this morning.
Paul already declared in Romans 5: 3-4 that tribulation brings perseverance and perseverance proven character and proven character hope. But this is only if we rely on Jesus Chris and the power of the Holy Spirit. Because we all have trials–that is one thing we all have in common. But we don’t all end up with hope from them. Some of us end up bitter. The key here is to keep a tender heart.
Romans 8:26 and 27 show us how to endure and end up with hope. Continuing, the beginning of verse 26: the Spirit also helps. Okay, so we now know what He helps–He helps us to be hopeful. How specifically?
The New King James says, “the Spirit helps in our weaknesses,"; NASB says, “the Spirit helps our weakness.” They’re both true. The NASB here is a transliteration, it is literally what Paul said when he wrote this: The Spirit helps our weakness. The Spirit helps our weakness. We are weak. We are not kinda strong with occasional problems, weaknesses. We are weak.
Let me tell you a story about birds nest outside of my office. These are some pictures of the view from my office at work–right on the Santa Ynez riverbed in Santa Maria. And it is just beautiful. And there is a lot of wildlife. And a ton of birds. There are stray cats, feral cats, rabbits, all kinds of wildlife. And the Lord has given me a huge heart for animals. He has also given me an even bigger heart for humans, but He has given me a big heart for animals. And actually, all of my co-workers care about the animals around our office. Lots of big hearts. Every year a mother bird builds a nest right outside of my office. And I watch her build the nest. I watch too as dad helps her. I watch her lay on the eggs. Then I get to see the babies come along, grow into strong young birds and get their first flying lessons. I watch this every spring. As this has happened for a few years for me now, I have grown acquainted with how babies grow up. They eat every two hours, like clockwork. Every two hours, I hear them start to make chirping noises, squawking for food, just like newborns. And mama comes along and feeds them. They open their mouths wide and she, one-by-one, regurgitates some food into their mouths. Then they quiet down, because they’re full, until another two hours passes and the process repeats. It is like clockwork. Well one afternoon a couple of years ago, we had a nest and the babies were, oh probably about 10 days old, and, just like clockwork, they start chirping and you know, that means it is feeding time. I waited five minutes, no mama. Ten minutes, still no mama. The babies and squawking–they are very hungry. Mama still had not shown up after an hour. Now it has been two hours, still no mama. It is time for me to leave the office and head home. I went home that night, pretty much resolved that a cat or some other predator got mama. and I researched information and developed a plan as to what to do for these baby birds who will need rescuing. I came into the office the next morning, still no mama. And because of my big ole gushing heart, I am determined to help these birds. I am also actually grieved that they do not know how much I care for them. As I am telling you this story, I bet you have a picture in your mind about what the scene looks like: a pretty nest, nestled in a tree, a pretty sight. But we live in a fallen world, and it isn’t quite so pretty. In reality, the nest is inside the upper rail of an aluminum door awning. It’s not that pretty. The nest is completely inside of the rail, so you see no “nest”. To boot, there is bird feces caked on to the outside of the rail, building up thicker and thicker as each day passes. And to make matters worse, the babies look kinda pathetic: no cute feathers yet, just pinkish bald skin. It is all quite pathetic. But we are so similar to the birds. We have such a strong sin nature; we do not see the reality of how strong that sin nature is. My talking to those birds that day about their condition is a picture of God talking to us about our sin nature.
Romans 7:14 says, in speaking of the conflict of serving two masters: “For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold into bondage to sin.”It hit me hard: this is how grieved God is, when, in my utter pathetic weakness, with this veil of sin over me, I do not realize His love, care and power to help me and, and instead of trusting and resting in Him, I keep squawking for my needs, working in my own strength. We are weak. John 15:5 says, “I am the vine, you are the branches; the one who remains in Me, and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”
We are weak. We can do nothing apart from Christ.
Do you need conviction in your heart about how truly weak you are? Are you operating in your own strength? If so, I guarantee you there are roots of bitterness springing up in your heart. Do you need to confess it and turn away today, so that you can bring in that tender, heart? Your heart will begin to soften as you see God’s goodness in His care for you. By not too much later the mama bird came back and all was well. I count it an answer to prayer.
Middle of verse 26: For we do not know how to pray as we should ,
We know Paul is not saying we don’t know how to pray; Jesus taught us how to pray in Matthew 6. But I sense that Paul is talking about our attitude as we approach our Heavenly Father. To find out what he means, we go to Scripture. Scripture interprets Scripture.
Let’s go to Romans 1, While we are going through this, observe Paul’s heart and think about what he meant when he said we do not know how to pray as we should: Romans 1:1 “Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus , called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,” Paul makes it very clear in his introduction where His heart is–in serving–not to be served. I sense this whole heart attitude when I hear him say, “we do not know how to pray as we should.” (And interestingly he includes himself. Paul introduces himself as a bondservant, adulos, declaring that his whole being, heart, mind, body and soul belongs to Christ Jesus and his purpose in life is to serve Him. One more thing about bond servanthood. Joe Focht brilliantly points out: “Everybody here is a slave. It is not about being free, it is about choosing the right master.”
Here is the rest of Paul’s introduction in Romans 1. We are not going to go through it, but you can take a glance here up on the screen and trust me when I say, Paul’s heart in writing to the Romans is obvious: He loves and is concerned with the body of Christ, and he is obsessed with sharing the gospel to a lost and dying world.
The theme verses for the Book of Romans according to many is Romans 1:16-17 . Romans 1:16“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” For more context we can look at the at the conclusion of his letter to the Romans, where he talks about self-denial for the benefit of our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Romans 15:1-3 says, “Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength, and not just please ourselves. 2 Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification. For even Christ did not please Himself.” So now, we have honed in on Paul’s heart as he wrote this verse–that we do not pray as we ought. In light of this, what do you think he meant? I am thinking that he meant that we probably pray too often for our own selfish wants and desires.
I am thinking he is encouraging us to get into the habit of praying not only for ourselves but also shifting our focus in our prayer to the family of God and also for a lost and dying world. I also believe that Paul is encouraging us, through prayer, to declare ourselves bond servants–to seek God’s will, not ours. He said in Romans 1:6 that we also are “the called” of Jesus Christ.” What is He calling you to do? You will find out in prayer. Do you need a soft heart toward the body of Christ this morning? Do you need a soft heart toward the lost? Is your prayer life primarily about you and your wants? Is there room to mature and have a fervent prayer life, crying out for the brethren and for the millions of people who are perishing? Do you ask the Lord to change you from the inside out, making you have a desire to be in alignment with His will? Do you desire to declare yourself a bondservant of Christ? I believe God will answer these prayers.
End of verse 26: but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
From a grammatical standpoint, when reading this phrase, it reads as though the Spirit is doing the groaning. But that is wrong. See at the beginning of our verse where it says the Spirit Helps? The word help here in the Greek means to take hold of opposite together, that is to cooperate. To work together. It is a collaboration between me and the Holy Spirit. So, it means both myself and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is inspiring my groaning - by interceding - when I don’t even know how to pray. The other remarkable thing I discovered here is that this particular Greek word for interceding in verse 26 is the only place it is used in the Bible, which makes it a very special thing. And it is again, speaking of our heart attitude. This is speaking of our coming to Him with a humble, Spirit-filled attitude. (Because we all know that when we have a bad attitude, we have plenty–and I mean plenty of words. There is no groaning, there are just a lot of words.)
As I was preparing for this study, and I was thinking about my own prayer life, and I look at when I am most likely to make a groaning sound inspired by the Holy Spirit, I think of the times when I am praying for someone who is in great distress. And it wasn’t until I prepared for this study that I learned about what is going on here. And it is very cool. I love it. So, the next time you find yourself making this groaning sound while praying, know that something phenomenal is happening in the spiritual realm. Ephesians 6:18 says, With all prayer and petition 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, Do you humbly and with a soft heart regularly commune with God, asking for the infilling of the Holy Spirit, so you find yourself moaning in collaboration with The Holy Trinity as you pray for your own heart and others?
Verse 27 is a beautiful thing: 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.”
It harkens me to John 17 and that extremely intimate gathering where Jesus prays for us.
John 17:9-11 Jesus prayed: “I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but on the behalf of those whom You have given Me, because they are Yours; 10 and all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I have been glorified in them. 11 I am no longer going to be in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, so that they may be one just as We are .”
Like John 17, here is Romans 8:27 we have God; The Holy Spirit; and Jesus all concerned about the welfare of us, the saints. And the unity of the Saints. and He who searches the hearts This is referring to God. There are a ton of scriptures speaking of God searching man’s heart, for example, Psalm 139:1 “ O Lord, You have searched me and known me.” I also want to share Proverbs 17:3, “The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, But the Lord tests hearts.” I am bringing this one up because it connects His knowing our hearts to refining our hearts. God cares about our heart attitude. Once again, if there is any bitterness in your heart this morning, I encourage you, ask the Lord to help you. He will I want to tell you, one time in my life, I was betrayed quite egregiously. But I, because of God’s grace, determined, from the get-go, that I was not going to allow Satan to cause more harm, I made a choice to keep a tender heart. And God made that happen for me.
A little further along in verse 27: “God knows what the mind of the Spirit is”
What is the mind of the Spirit? The mind of the Spirit is life and peace. Romans 8:6 says, “For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.”
We have been learning these past several weeks about The Spirit of God, and how He lives inside of us, wanting desperately for us to allow Him to lead and empower us, to receive life and peace, because He loves us so much. He wants the very best for us. Are you allowing the Lord to lead and empower you to life and peace by the infilling of the Holy Spirit as you come to Him in prayer? Because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. Who intercedes for the saints? Jesus Christ.
Romans 8:34 says, Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Interestingly, this intercedes in the Greek is different from the one in verse 26. This intercedes means that Jesus is pleading with God on our behalf according to the will of God. Let that sink in. In our utter weakness, Jesus intercedes for us. Hallelujah! Jesus is pleading for God’s will in our lives. This is great news. Of course, there are specific things going on in each of our lives where we need the Lord to direct our steps. But it begs the question, what did Paul mean when he referred to the will of God. We can’t be completely sure of what he meant when he wrote it, but we can get some truth by going to Scripture. Scripture interprets Scripture:
To see Paul’s heart, we looked at Romans 1 and Romans 15 , the introduction and conclusion of Romans. Let’s take a further look at Romans 15. Romans 15-8-9 says. I like the JB Philips paraphrase, “Christ was made a servant of the Jews to prove God’s trustworthiness, since he personally implemented the promises made long ago to the fathers, and also that the Gentiles might bring glory to God for his mercy to them.” And Paul goes on to quote from the Psalms and the Prophets to support this.
Paul goes on to say, in Romans 15:13 “May the God of hope fill you with joy and peace in your faith, that by the power of the Holy Spirit, your whole life and outlook may be radiant with hope.”
So, guys, this is God’s will. It is God’s will to 1) keep His promises that He made to the Jews 2) that Gentiles might bring glory to God for his mercy on them –that many would enter into the New Covenant (that’s us) and 3) that your whole life and outlook may be radiant with hope.
Someone said, “True hope is what the Holy Spirit inspires and what enables you to endure.” I must add here that, as I was thinking about hope and how it is always connected to faith in Scripture, it makes sense. Because if you think about it, you cannot have hope without faith. Imagine reading Revelation 21– about this holy city, Jerusalem and how John describes this literal city in great detail, made up of crystal-clear jasper and pure gold, like clear glass where God Himself will provide the light with His glory .... Imagine reading it with no faith. There is no way you would have hope in it, because you would think it sounds like fantasy. So, the key is faith. Faith is of paramount importance to God.
Earlier I said that Romans 1:16-17 could be chosen as the key verses for all of Romans. Verse 17 says, “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.” Joe Focht said, and I like this a lot, “Obedience to the faith, in the New Testament, was belief…obedience, doctrinally, in the New Testament in regards to the faith was belief.” And how do we get faith? Romans 10:17 says, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
Is your whole life and outlook radiant with hope? Do you need more hope today? Ask the Lord to speak to you about this message today. He will. I want to shift our focus now to Application. How are we going to apply these truths in our life?
Toward the beginning of my share today, I quoted that beautiful quote from Steve Carr, speaking of God’s ultimate desire: to dwell with us forever and ever. This is His will. He wants to tabernacle with us; commune with us starting now, not wait until we get to heaven. To apply this in our lives, I want for us to broaden our scope when we think of the word prayer, to think of it more as communing with God, now, not waiting until eternity. To develop a closeness as a bride and her husband. Practically speaking, what do I specifically mean, by communing: On a regular basis, ask for the infilling of the Holy Spirit to renew you afresh. As for Him to empower you each and every day, to give you a tender heart.
On a regular basis, get rid of the distractions; open His Word; Get lost in His Word; Study His Word. I love how Kay Arthur puts it, “Inductive Bible study draws you into personal interaction with the Scripture and thus with the God the Scriptures, so your beliefs are based on a prayerful understanding and legitimate interpretation of Scripture—truth that transforms you when you live by it.”
On a regular basis, wait on Him. I like to take a blank piece of paper and in the center of it, write the thing I am seeking Him in. And then I just wait. And when I do this, He will bring Scripture to mind. And that sorta directs me to the next step, and so on. Seek His will in all things, understanding that our ways are not His ways. Trust Him in the process. Pray with other believers on a regular basis. This is why the prayer time at the end of our weekly study is so important. It allows you on a regular basis to hear the cries of fellow believers and to see God’s miracles happen. Follow world events that are related to Bible prophecy. You will see God’s predictions come to fruition before your very eyes. Look for ways you can serve your brothers and sisters in Christ. And Very Important! If you have any ill-will toward one of them, make it a priority to find unity. Ask the Lord to give you those divine appointments each day to share His love with a lost person. You will see your heart transform. As he changes your heart, you will be filled with HOPE - hope overflowing - the hope like a beautiful bride who trusts her husband and who knows she is well loved and well cared for