Romans uh chapter 8 we’re in that section getting closer to the end of this section of uh verses 26 to 30 we’re looking at a series titled right now uh we’re on our way and that is so true for the believer we are on our way and as a Believer we are to be doing everything in that area of discipleship as Believers remember salvation comes to you listen salvation comes to you one time uh when I say one time I mean not the offer of Salvation God called out to you and I many times before we made the decision to accept Christ but the moment

you accept Christ that’s the first step that you make maybe you pray uh that prayer to accept Christ in a hotel room you read a Gideon Bible and you give your life to Christ maybe it’s at a crusade maybe it’s a radio maybe whatever it is and um once you make that step to say Jesus I believe that you are the one the Bible speaks about you are the Messiah of the world you died on the cross and rose again from the grave for me I receive you and I ask you to forgive me of all my sins and make me your child by your righteousness and

when you pray that prayer that’s done you and I growing up spiritually might waver back and forth will doubt our sincerity did we really mean it the Bible makes it clear Satan will come and Whisper things in our ears to cast doubts but then we have to default to what did we do and would we do it again that’s important thing right now listen what did you do then I accepted Christ let me ask you would you do it again and you would say yes that’s because that was a one-time Awesome event where the Holy Spirit sealed you until the day of

redemption that is a sure work of God and you can Revel in that you can take great courage in that but from that moment on what do you do well that’s what Paul’s been teaching the Believers in Rome is that it is a constant daily Moment by moment walk of discipleship with Christ when we say that we’re on our way that is we’re on our way home we’re on our way home to a home we’ve never been to but we long to go there we can’t wait to go there and now we as we’ve been learning we’re groaning to

get there Nature’s groaning we’re groaning and we’ve learned that even the Holy Spirit groans Romans chapter 8 I’ll begin in verse 26 if you’ll pick it up in the odd number verse likewise the spirit that’s the Holy Spirit also helps our weaknesses for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought but thank God for that the spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered now he who searches the hearts knows the minds that Hees intercession for his Saints

according to the will of God and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God to those who are the called according to his purpose for whom he fornew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son that he might be the firstborn among many Brethren and if that’s not enough he says moreover whom he predestined these he also called and whom he called these he also Justified and whom he justified these he also listen past tense glorified I know you don’t feel like it this morning but according to the

mathematics of God and his theology you are already glorified we’re just on our way for you and I ultimately realizing that when we stand in his presence and I hope that comes today I hope Christ comes back today if that’s if that scares you that means you’re not ready uh but listen father we pray that by the working of your Holy Spirit what a great great moment today we get to be more and more introduced to the one who’s been with us for nearly 2,000 years the Holy Spirit dispatched from heaven above by

Jesus himself sent to us to be the one that would cause us to experience this great great work of God in our lives this work of sanctification thank you Lord you didn’t save us and then just put us in a in a waiting room you’ve saved us and you’ve equipped us to go out into the world and to be lights and shining armor so father God we pray now that your spirit would speak to us we ask in Jesus name and all God’s people said amen amen church you can be seated it is a fact the Church of God is a benefit by constantly the work

of God the church is to be God’s instrument God’s hand and um yes it’s obvious that God could get whatever he wanted done done immediately if he did it himself it’s just like you try to mow your lawn and you’ve got a three-year-old you can get it done in a moment but then your three-year-old wants to help you and it’s going to take you an hour and a half to get it all done God could get his work done in a moment but isn’t it amazing in the divine plan of God he’s included you and

I as Believers to enter into that labor that he’s invited us uh to partake of it’s a it’s remarkable to me that God would use us at all and I always remind our pastors on staff how privileged and blessed we are to be pastors called by God out of all of those who have been born in humanity think about it from Adam and Eve to today billions and billions of people have been born and then here here we are just a little handful of pastors on staff here that have been called to take care love on see to it that you’re doing well with

Jesus it’s such a humbling thing it’s remarkable but the work of God is for the work of the church and that is for the work of every uh believer in our lives uh Warren WBY said a long time ago in one of his great books he said that God will never prostitute the minister for the ministry and I like that God will never destroy your life to get his job done but as you yield to him God winds up using you yes you get physically exhausted but that’s okay because you get spiritually pumped up and God’s way is absolutely beautiful

Philip Philippians chapter 2 uh verses uh 12- 13 says this listen carefully work out your own salvation with fear and trembling work out your own salvation apply yourself to the fact that you’re saved do it with fear and trembling the word means with awe and reverence knowing that we will give an account it doesn’t mean work out your own salvation because that’s how you get saved it means now that you’re saved move in the awe in reverence of God for it is God who works in you both to Will and to do for his good pleasure I love

verse 13 just when verse 12 scares you to death verse 13 says but don’t worry about it I’m the one working in you and so for that you know it’s it’s it’s blatantly right there in uh before your face but it seems to be a secret and it shouldn’t be and that is Lord God then then if that’s the if that’s the way you do things then you do all of this by your spirit’s work in my life uh you do whatever you want to do God uh but I’m yielding to you I’m going to submit to

you and every single one of us as Believers the holy spirit will see to it in your life that we are in Hot Pursuit Of The Nearness of God in our lives and the the work of the holy spirit is such a great comfort remember I told you that’s one of his names in the Bible the paracletos the the comforter the one who comes alongside you and we know from Jesus as we’ll see in a moment again that he’s the one that dwells within us but it’s a wonderful thing to be listen to be possessed by the holy spirit in

life you say possessed that’s kind of scary yeah that’s if you just watch scary programs no you want to be POS possessed by the Holy Spirit you want him to animate you you want him to control you you want him to be the governor of your life and so the beautiful thing is is that God at work in you is the spirit of God and you experience him by this nearness by this interaction Genesis 3:8 the Bible says and they that is Adam and Eve heard the sound listen to this they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the

garden in the cool of the day the best we can do is Imagine The Nearness of God imagine what they experienced Adam and Eve before they fell before they went into sin that they heard the sound of God what does that sound like pretend for a moment I’m teaching the the fifth uh five-year-olds in class listen when you’re teaching children’s ministry it’s amazing you cannot get away with quoting that verse and moving on because a little hand will pop up and say what did he sound like what did that look

like if God’s walking through the garden is it like this or did his feet touch the ground you think about that for a moment we have no idea what that was like but Adam and Eve knew God so close and so well and so perfectly that when they heard heard the sound of him that was a common thing unfortunately the Bible tells us when they had sinned all of a sudden the sound of him walking in the garden in the cool of the day was not a happy sound it’s a sad day when things are blessed and precious in our lives listen

I’m going somewhere with this when things are innocent as they ought to be and then evil comes in and pollutes it from the outside when some somebody introduces something that taints and makes ugly the things that God has made beautiful you know God’s greatly offended at that you’re not the only one offended at it God is offended at that and um we’ve been standing you’ve been standing this community’s been standing against pornography in the public school and this last Thursday thank you for

showing up because they voted three to2 to reject pornography and uh yeah I want to I would have loved to have clapped even Lou uh louder and longer but the tragedy is there’s two people on the school board that are weirdos they have no problem apparently with the offending of innocence and all of that comes from Adam and Eve’s Rebellion against God and God in his great Redemptive work introduces to us in his salvation and sanctification of the believer the indwelling of the Holy Spirit Church remember just quickly last

time way back in verse 23 regarding we’re on our way is that we saw the heartbeat of Heaven heartbeat of Heaven number two in verses 20 to 20 uh 24 and 25 we saw that there’s a hope of heaven and then we left off with this argument last time and that is the help of Heaven and the help of Heaven is none other than the Holy Spirit and it says in verse 26 likewise the spirit that is the holy spirit also helped remember what that word means he comes alongside and he picks up one end of the plank remember how we were hoping and

wishing that he picked up the entire plank no he picks up the word means he picks up one part of the plank and you and I as disciples pick up the other part of the plank of course he takes the heavy end I’m sure but he comes alongside us to help us he doesn’t snap his finger and you do Christianity his Spirit fills you with the power of the spirit to live out Christianity big difference it says for uh he helps us in our weaknesses for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought but the spirit himself makes

intercession for us with groanings sounds that have no earthly application which cannot be uttered or understood in inarticulate technically now he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the the spirit is because he makes intercession for the Saints according to the will of God and we looked at this fact that verse 26 tells us that heaven is listening do you remember that heaven’s listening Heaven is listening Heaven wants to hear from you and I pointed out to you the the the dichotomy between the

the believer and the unbeliever if you’re a Believer Heaven is listening to hear your prayer to hear your cry to hear your joy to hear your worship I said something last week it made some people upset and so I’ll say it again uh that when we worship worship prano is the word which is the root word to pray that prayer and worship is the same thing to God he’s blessed by it and so there are people who don’t go to prayer meetings they scarcely ever pray and there’s people that take worship as something

that uh just gives us more time to park the car are and worship should be top of the list it should be the preeminent thing because worship for us is the encompassment of all things when we witness when we pray when we study when we love our husbands and our wives when we love our community for what is good and what is right is all an act of worship do you guys remember when Pixar did that cartoon one of the very first ones where the guy was in the little European Courtyard he had like his gestures hat on he had a big drum in the

front he had these musical instruments and he had tambourines and everything he was a oneman music machine and he just began to move and all of these sounds and all of these incredible things came from him and when I first saw that Pixar I immediately thought and I still do of the life of the believer when you and I move we should be moving in an act of worship are you going to go to work tomorrow it should be an act of worship what are you doing this afternoon it should be an act of worship ship I believe it is by the way if we

realize it or not and so we understood this that heaven is listening we saw also that heaven is speaking that’s where we left off that the Holy Spirit himself makes intercession for us and that word intercession is this in the Greek language it means to obviously intercede but to make petition for or on the behalf of another this is very encouraging people listen for the believer when we pray God is listening for the non-believer God is not listening except but for one prayer listen up so I’m not a Christian but I’ve been

praying for years into into deep space you have been praying according to Isaiah chapter 59 the Bible tells us that God’s hand is not short that he can’t save you neither is his ear deaf that he cannot hear you but your sins have separated you from from God so that he will not save you nor will he hear you that’s a very terrifying verse but when the believer comes along the Bible tells us that when Christ forgives us of our sins you and I are in uh worshipful prayer and that’s how we maintain fellowship and that part of that Great

Fellowship is please mark this down part of this Great Fellowship that you and I enjoy is based upon the intercession of the Holy holy spirit that the Holy Spirit according to the Bible is speaking to the father constantly all about you all about me constantly without ending the word means without ending the spirit of God never stops talking to the father about your life my life that brings me great comfort does that comfort you I hope it comforts you if you believe the Bible that’s going to comfort you cuz do you have problems

anybody have any problems four of us we’re going home with the rest of you people today in all of our problems he Comforts us we had part of our Christian family this week several of our Christian family meet Jesus this week and uh family weeps family cries of course they do they’re going to miss them but we have to remember that their lives listen they may have been SI in this world or that accident may have happened but the fact of the matter is uh they had just passed through the valley of the shadow of death the moment

they passed they were in the presence of almighty God and every day the holy spirit is interceding on behalf of we the Believers man if you’re not a Christian today you need to change that now because uh all you have is luck right luck in the grace of God Luck’s a joke I’m just oh even as a non-believer you’re existing by the grace of God he could snap your fingers the Bible tells us that that those who are without God that in due time their foot will slip the book The Bible says in the book of Isaiah that hell opens up its mouth

wide to receive those that are coming into it that’s terrifying you say yeah that’s scary well is it is it scary enough to get you to run to the Arms of Jesus because he loves you but his love will not override your will I find that uh fascinating and sometimes at the same time frustrating I love God but only like this much be honest I’m saying this for you too so don’t even look at me like that you love God about this much the moment you say God I love you so much it’s not listen if we loved God so much we we things

would be different we must confess that the love we have for him is genuine and honest but it’s like a candlelight compared to a raging fire I think one of the great pleasures of Heaven is being able to love God perfectly without distraction what an amazing thing but he prays for us and we need prayer apparently we need it constantly listen to what FF Bruce has to say it’s a long quote but it’s beautiful through our inarticulate groanings now listen carefully because there’s various theologies on this and uh I don’t want

to sound like like uh some sort of compromiser but I actually embrace the two prominent arguments even though they’re diametrically opposed FF Bruce the pastor of yester year said through our inarticulate groanings either in size or utterances we speak to God that is a fact no matter what your theology is if you are of reformed theology or if you are Pentecostal in your theology uh whatever your uh persuasion is that first statement is a fact because you can groan on the inside of yourself you can just look at the

world around you and be grieved and without saying a word you can just be just or you can visit the Children’s Hospital of Orange County and you see those babies that are there in the condition that they’re in and you just there’s no words for that grieved it also indicates that there is a prayer or Spirit language that is Unbound by Earthly words it may be included in this teaching that Expressions longings pain sufferings aspirations coming from the spirit of our new man that’s the Born Again us

that has been created within us that which Wells up from inside the depths of our spirit as our prayer is offered having now been born again by the spirit of God we can no longer longer be imprisoned by human limitations I find that powerful such prayer prompted by the indwelling Holy Spirit who communicates our true need this God ordained intercession which comes forth from us is immediately listen immediately heard and understood by God the Father to whom the prayer is addressed and in the name of Jesus Christ through whom the prayer is

offered God the Father is listening to the Holy Spirit who is speaking from within us he being Transcendent of our frail human nature prays on our behalf and all God’s people said have you ever been to that place in prayer pain suffering sorrow and you don’t even know what to pray you know you should you know you have to but you don’t know what to say well whatever your theology is if you you’re if you’re uh Pentecostal or not let’s we can agree on this we’re grieved and we groan we’re also clearly taught that the

spirit himself groans that is the Holy Spirit to think that he who dwells within you Grieves over sin Grieves over the horrible things that we witness we see in this life can you imagine can you imagine the the control of God I was talking to a police officer recently and he was telling me about an investigation that he was involved in with a child molestation ring and U he was telling me about it and I’m listening and I asked him I said when you were when you came in upon this did you have a gun and he said of course

I had a gun and I said okay he goes what’ you ask me that for I said well you’re to me I’m I’m beyond impressed listening you tell me this story this event this account and it’s clear why I’m not a police officer I mean I’d start shooting people and then turn myself in and I’d be smiling about it when you catch these people in the ACT seemingly God does nothing oh no no he’s doing something remember he doesn’t move according to our time God will bring Justice and Jesus said in any way shape

or form it’d be better for a person to have never been born for that person in the day of judgment when Christ gets a hold of them if you offend a child well what about God’s children are we not offended over the sin and the grief of this world of course we are but we’re reminded we’re not home yet we’re on our way but that word groaning groanings that word means grieving sighing to mourn to bemoan or to lament we all know what that’s like maybe it’s a relationship maybe it’s a child’s

illness and the word uttered inexpressible Words Words that cannot be understood by human means there are no words is what it means it means it’s it’s too deep to express the spirit of God does that it’s amazing so you I don’t I don’t understand it but this all I know is what I feel what you feel what we go through what you’re going through right now as a Believer the holy spirit inside is grieved that you are going through this the spirit of God turns to the father and speaks to the father W with

Words that cannot be articulated that’s the Holy Spirit I’m not talking about you jumping up and speaking in tongues that’s not what we’re talking about that’s not even the same thing we’re talking about prayer the context is prayer and to think that when the spirit of God speaks to the father of God it’s considered prayer you never think about that huh you never think about God in a sense praying to God but he does for you for me the Bible says now listen 1 Corinthians 14:14 this is good for us to know for if

I pray says Paul the Apostle notice every are you guys are you with me you’re so quiet you he all right for if I pray in a tongue this is not the gift of tongues you’ve read about that you’ve heard about that for if I pray in a tongue Paul says my spirit prays the inside of me is the Born Again me prays but my mind my understanding is unfruitful you hear that you see that the inside of me is praying to God I don’t know what I’m saying with my in his case Hebrew Greek Aramaic I mean Paul spoke so many languages he was

brilliant but uh I don’t even speak English I speak American so so for if I pray in a tongue an unknown language my spirit is praying it’s my spirit praying and it’s not in American it’s not in English how do I know that because he says the mind is unfruitful the understanding is unfruitful what is the conclusion then listen to what he says I will pray with the spirit you guys all hear that some of you who have a hard time with this because of your denominational background you go I don’t

like this verse too bad it’s in the Bible Paul is saying when I pray with the spirit notice it’s it’s a lowercase s it’s not the holy spirit it’s his Spirit I’m going to pray and I’m not going to understand when I pray and I will also connecting statement pray with understanding so I will pray in English with you and then there’s times when I’ll pray with groans and with utterances that I don’t know not So Much from the Holy Spirit himself because he certainly is praying but it

could it could be very well prompted by the spirit because it’s my spirit praying to him as you see in 1 Corinthians 14 now this gets this even gets better he says I will sing with the spirit and I will also sing with understanding when you read 1 Corinthians 4 you might be shocked to find out that not everyone speaks in tongues because that is something that has to have an interpretation notice not a translation an interpretation and it has to be a statement that glorifies God and Praises him can never be a message

listen Pentecostal friends hate to freak you out but there are no such thing in the Bible where a message came in the sermon or a message came to you through tongues impossible use of the very very gift it’s not given for that it’s always an utterance and there must be an interpretation so that those who are in attendance hears the interpretation so all may give G glory to God Paul says yeah that’s that’s fine in fact he even says after the third utterance there should be no more did you know that in a gathering 1

Corinthians 12: 1314 read it later some of you have gigantic question marks on your faces just go read it later tongues are very specific for a very specific reason but don’t confuse that gift of tongues with praying in a tongue simply this praying in a language that is not of this Earth is something that is personal private that’s why Paul said I would rather pray alone with few words I don’t understand than in public where nobody understands say why are you saying this because there’s a time when you think I

should be praying I don’t even know how to pray in that moment don’t be surprised as you sit in silence before God and you begin to just pray to him that your spirit begins to pray you don’t understand what’s being said but listen up everybody I can spend hours in prayer for some topic and I still don’t sense the victory and how do you explain it that 5 Minutes Alone silently with God praying with that Spirit Connection in silence you can feel the weight lifting I don’t understand it I hope that makes sense to you there

is no gift of prayer regarding a tongue tongues are for public interpretation the prayer Spirit or the prayer life of the believer is for all believers thank God for that he doesn’t give the gift of prayer he gives you the ability to pray and it’s in a word or it’s in a sound that is private and you don’t know what it means Hebrews chapter 7 verse 25 therefore he also is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God he’s speaking about Christ through him since he always lives to make

what intercession for them imagine we just read a moment ago the holy spirit’s praying for us now we got Jesus praying for us for such a high priest was fitting for us it’s he’s exactly what we need he’s holy harmless undefiled separate from Sinners and has become higher than the heavens thank God that today we have a great high priest in heaven and he’s talking to the father in The Great the spirit’s speaking to the father about me and the son is speaking to the father about me in the in the in the face of

two or three threee Witnesses the truth shall be established it’s like oh thank you God he looks on the inside of you he knows you John 10: 28 Jesus said I give them eternal life and they shall never perish he’s speaking to his father neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand that’s Jesus speaking to the father again John chapter 17 veres 2 and 3 as you have given him authority over All Flesh that he also give eternal life to as many as you have given him and this is eternal life that they may know

you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent is it interesting that Jesus is praying in John 17 to the father in the third person did you catch that he’s praying he’s praying to the father but then at the end it says the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you’ve sent remarkable John 16: 20 uh John 16:12 John 16:12 I still have many things to say to you but you cannot bear them now this is before he leaves back to Heaven however when he the spirit of Truth has come he will guide you into

all Truth for he will not speak on his own authority but whatever he hears he will speak this is the Holy Spirit who dwells in you John 16:5 but now I go away to him who sent me and none of you asked me where are you going but because I have said these things to you sorrow has filled your heart nevertheless I tell you the truth it is to your advantage that I go away for if I do not go away the helper will not come to you but if I depart did he depart remember the book of Acts tells us that as they were talking to him he

just began to lift off from the earth and was ascended into the heavens and received up in the glor glory of God he says if I depart from you I will send him to you one of the overwhelming facts truths undeniable realities that I know Jesus Christ rose again from the dead I mean think about it I know he was crucified yes the Bible says so I believe he rose again from the dead I know this yes the Bible says so but how do I know that I wasn’t there somebody who was there dwells within me and when you think about that reality

for a moment that God would inhabit you by the Holy Spirit you know Jesus said in worship I don’t know how I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have Jesus I I know what she would do she would do the same thing that I did and she we did what many people do do today is you just you just frankly you’re just a denier you look around at all the Mischief of this world and you just grab another drink you you’re denying look I’m not calling you out about being a drunk or an alcoholic or a drug addict I’m not

calling you out for that if I didn’t have Jesus I’d probably be right with you and that’s no joke but how do I express to you that he has the ability to move inside of you and fill up every spot that it takes possession of your life are we frail oh totally all the more though we look at our frailties and we rejoice in them because when we’re weak so the doctor says you know you got six months to live right but what does that mean mean to the believer well you got six months to finish things off you got six months

to up your game there’s no losing equation for the believer because the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and he answers us Heaven is answering what a tremendous truth this is Heaven is answering the Bible says in verse 27 now he who searches the hearts I love this he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the spirit is I want everybody to look at that for a moment I’m sorry I’m kind of Pumped up excited about this can I just read this to you look look to the screens or look at your Bible now he that’s