If you have your Bibles, turn to Romans chapter eight. Romans chapter eight, begin reading in verse 25, and read 25 through 27. Beginning in Romans 8, verse 25, but if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. So the title of the message is The Spirit's Intercession. The Spirit's Intercession. intercession and for those who are here on Wednesday nights we've already kind of dabbled on this topic a little bit about the Holy Spirit in our study of the Holy Spirit and how he empowers and works in prayer and we mentioned these texts specifically but We'll go in a little more detail today as we look at this and just you know right off of the top I think a lot of times we think about the role that Christ has in intercession which is is true and right and good and we serve a risen Savior. He's alive today. He's at the right hand of God and he is interceding on behalf of all his people. Well isn't that an amazing thought then that He sent the Holy Spirit to be with us, and he is in heaven at the right hand of God, and yet both are interceding on our behalf, and in different ways a little bit even, but that's a comfort to us to know that both of those things are true. So our text says that the Holy Spirit helps us with our infirmities, so This is not a completely change of subject from what we have looked at before. If you go back and our last message, what we talked about was this groaning and all of this suffering and things that are going on because of the fall in verse 22. Let me just go back to verse 21, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption to the glorious liberty of the children of God, for we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together. until now. And not only they but also but ourselves also which have the firstfruits of the Spirit even we ourselves groan within ourselves waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our bodies. So during this season when we are groaning because of the fallenness of the world and and the results of living in a fallen world and we're looking forward in hope to the redemption of our bodies, making this a season that requires patience. So verse 25, we're not gonna spend a lot of time on 25 today, so what that's saying, but if we hope for what we see not, then we do with hope. then do we with patience wait for it. This is a season of patience. For the Christian, you must have patience to think about, you know, if you think about living the Christian life, it is not a get your reward now type of situation, right? So it's counter to everything that, especially in the American culture, that we're used to. You know, we That concept is really amazing. I was a history major in college and I taught history. It's amazing. I had a professor in Alaska. He did a whole symposium on what he called the beginning of the end. of the American culture. And his idea for that was the 20s and the 30s, when people began to use credit. And so used to in the old days, if you wanted something, you had to save up money and buy it. Well, then credit became the new thing, and everybody wants it now, and then I pay for it later. And that mindset just really sunk in. And then with technology, you know, the more technology we get, things become more instantaneous. We had a guy come and speak to our students at TCPS this week on technology and the dangers of it and how to handle that in a biblical way and all of those kinds of things. He said, you know, it's just amazing. These children, and that's the true word for it, these children are walking around with a device in their pocket that instantly can have any information, any. I mean, the internet is, and in some ways, that's an amazing, in a good way, but it's also very dangerous, but we are, Very instantaneous people. If we want to know something, you know, used to in the old days, if we were walking around in Walmart and somebody said, well, you know, who's the number three football team in the nation right now? I can't remember. What would we have to do? Well, we'd have to go get a newspaper or something, or we'd have to wait till we got home and turn on the TV and figure it out. Now, who's the number three football team in the nation? Boom, they tell you right there. Everything is instantaneous. Well, the Christian life is not like that. So we have to have patience. But we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. So what this passage is about is how the Holy Spirit helps us in our infirmities. And Paul had talked about this in the previous verses, so we got to remember a lot of things here. But first, because we're going to be talking about the Holy Spirit, it's really good that we're going through a study on Wednesday nights about the Holy Spirit while we're going through Romans. I think that's a good Pairing in a good combination. So all of the things that we've learned about the Holy Spirit on Wednesday nights Don't forget about those things as we look at this passage and it will actually make it come alive more to you The Holy Spirit is God right the Holy Spirit. We studied that he is God the Spirit the Holy Spirit is a person not a force and He's the third person of the Trinity, indwells the people of God, and so we're focusing on his work today in verses 26 and 27. But it also is good for us to remember what has been revealed so far about that same Holy Spirit's work in Romans chapter 8, because what emerges in this chapter is that the Holy Spirit is not just some force or power of God the Father, but a person who works along with the Father and Son in relation to the Father and Son, and he does a lot of things. And I honestly think, this is just my opinion, I honestly think a lot of theological error, especially in the modern day, comes from a misunderstanding of the Holy Spirit and an overlooking of the work of the Holy Spirit. I think that's true on a lot of fronts. And I'm not just talking about Arminian versus Calvinism. I'm talking about even within those who believe in the doctrines of grace, there is an overlooking of the importance of what the Holy Spirit does and what the application of redemption is and how important that actually is. I think there's a lot of theological error for that reason. So it's good for us to see, especially here in Romans 8, all of the things that the Spirit is credited with doing. So you don't have to write these down or go back and try to look these up. We're just gonna real quickly go through and I'll tell you all the things up through verse 23 where the Holy Spirit's mentioned in this chapter. According to verse two, the law of the Spirit of life in Jesus Christ sets you free from the law of sin and death. According to verse four, the Spirit helps you fulfill the just requirement of the law. According to verse six, the Spirit gives life and peace. According to verse 11, God will raise you from the dead by the Spirit who dwells in you. According to verse 13, the Spirit helps you to put to death the deeds of the body. According to verse 14, the sons of God are led by the Spirit of God. According to verse 15 and 16, the Spirit bears witness in us that we are the children of God. So that's an assurance of salvation issue. And then in verse 23, the Holy Spirit is the foretaste and guarantee of our final redemption. So it is that promise, that engagement ring of that glory that is to come. That's what we talked about last time. So in verses 26 and 27, the spirit helps us when we don't know how to pray as we should to intercede for us and on our behalf. That's what we're gonna look at this morning. So as we see the word in verse 26, it starts off with likewise. The word likewise the spirit also helpeth our infirmities. So Paul in this chapter has already been giving us help in what he has been saying and now he wants to give us some more help in a different way on the same topic, explaining that the Spirit himself helps us in this season that I talked about when I first started of groaning and sin and all the things that we're going through. in this life the whole creation groaneth together and it says we ourselves also even those who are the children of God even those who are true believers we are groaning and we're looking forward to a day when and this is what the last message was about at one day we finally get to put away all of this sinful body and all of the all the aches and the pains and the sin and all the things that are against us and we have our glorified bodies that's a great way for you, what the subject really is is how do I combat this now? And Paul said the first thing is you look forward to a day when you're gonna have a glorified body. So that was Paul's message in the first part. Now in this part he says likewise, also, here's another way, the spirit also helpeth our infirmities. So the Holy Spirit helps us in our infirmities or in our weakness. So that sets the stage then for this passage about the assistance of the Holy Spirit to the believer as we groan and hope in this fallen world. So we're going to answer two questions this morning. It's almost a Baptist sermon. I didn't get three, I just got two. So two's all we're getting today. So these two questions is what we're going to answer. First, What does the Holy Spirit pray for us? So what does that look like? What does he actually do for us in prayer? And then secondly, how does the Holy Spirit pray for us? Both of those things are answered in this passage, and I think they're both important. So first, what does the Holy Spirit pray for us? So that is, first of all, the first thing we have to notice about this, what does the Holy Spirit pray for us, is that the way He helps us is in prayer, by praying for us. And I've already mentioned this, kind of got ahead of myself in my notes, but that's just an amazing thought in and of itself, that the Holy Spirit knows our needs, he lives in us, he knows us better than we know ourselves, and he is actively involved in praying for us and praying through us, which is going to be a point later on. But now what the Holy Spirit, what does the Holy Spirit ask for when he intercedes for us? So I think there's kind of three sub points under this big topic of what does the Holy Spirit pray for us. There's three things we're going to answer. in that way. The Spirit asks for things that we don't know that we should ask for, okay? So that's number one. The Spirit asks for things that we don't know that we should ask for. Secondly, He does that, He asks for those things because of our weakness. So the reason He does that is because of our weakness, because we don't know sometimes what we should ask for, and that is a direct result of our weakness. So the second thing that we're going to look at is because he'd asked for those things because of our weakness. And then third, The Spirit asks for things that are in accord with the will of God. The Spirit asks for things that are in accord with the will of God. So the first thing we said there, as we unpack what it is that the Holy Spirit prays for us, the first sub-point here is the Spirit prays for things that we don't know to pray for. So that rules out a lot of things, okay? So I'm gonna start on the positive side of this. By asking that question, clearly there's some things that we don't know that we should pray for. I think this text proves that. We always don't know how to pray. So, for instance, you know, something comes up in your life and you have a direction, you can either take this job or not take this job and we can move my whole family over here and maybe you don't know how to pray for that maybe you don't know should I pray that I get the job and we move or should I pray that it works out here and I really don't know because I can't see the future I don't know all things I don't know God's will in this so sometimes I don't know what to pray for so we know even from this text and just from our experience that there's some things we don't know to pray for. What this also proves, there are some things that we should know to pray for, all right? There's a lot of things in the Bible that are very clear. So we certainly know that we're to pray for holiness and faith and hope and joy and all the other fruits of the spirit. There's no doubt that we're to pray for whatever God commands us to do, that we'd be able to fulfill that. So the revealed will of God, which is in the word of God, That's really important, okay? This is not just a small, minor point in this message. The revealed will of God that is revealed to us through His Word is 100% always something that we're to pray for. And we have a lot of the revealed will of God. There's a lot there. And the more we study God's word, and the more we know who he is, and what he's like, and his character, and how he would have us to live, then the more we know about the revealed will of God. And that should guide our prayers. So if God has plainly told us something in the Bible to pursue something, then that's what we should pray for. So in some situations, you may say, well, I really don't know what to pray for. Maybe there is an answer. Maybe there is something in the scriptures that you need to dig into that would give you that answer. So there's a work of the indwelling spirit that actually works in this way as well in our prayer life. He brings to mind those things that we should be praying for and leading and guiding and directing us to pray for those things according to the will of God. But then, of course, what we see in this text, the focus is not as much on that side in this text as it is, there's an even a different work of the Holy Spirit in helping us to pray for those things that we don't know to pray for, that intercessory work of the Holy Spirit on our behalf. So why don't we know what to pray for? So that's the second part of this. We said, you know, there's some things that we don't know that we should be praying for. Well, why is that? Well, that's the answer of number two. It's because of our weakness. This text says that the Spirit is helping us by praying for us when we don't know what to pray for, and it gives us the answer to that. So what are we not sure about or what sort of things do we not know to pray for? Well, the word infirmities in verse 26 becomes really important because that's the answer. Paul says, likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities. In the ESV, that word is weakness. The uncertainty about what we're to pray for is because of our infirmities or our weakness. Now, the word weakness in the New Testament or infirmities can mean a lot of different things. It can mean weakness owing to our limited human nature, Romans 6.19, weakness owing to sickness, Luke 5, or weakness owing to adversity in 2 Corinthians 12. But consider the context of verses 18 through 25, and I think we know exactly what this is talking about, right? Remember we said this is not a changing of subject. He's already told us the weakness that he's talking about. In verse 23, we groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for the adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. The weakness that he's talking about here is just our weakness as fallen creatures. We do not perfectly fulfill the will of God. We don't know the will of God perfectly. We are fallen, sinful creatures. And so when he says our infirmities, that's what he's talking about. It's the groaning of our bodies that are not yet redeemed. In verse 10 Paul said the body is as good as dead and in verse 11 he said the spirit will one day raise that mortal body from the dead but for now the body in verse 20 groans under the fall. We are fallen creatures. So in verse 18 through 25 Paul is helping these groaning saints by like we said, pointing them to the hope of the redemption of their bodies. And now in verse 26 he says, likewise the spirit helps with this also, with this groaning, these infirmities, this weakness that we've been talking about. I told you that the help for that is to point towards the hope of your redeemed bodies, but likewise the spirit also helps in this situation by praying for us because of our weakness. He also helpeth the infirmities or the weakness of our bodies. I'm helping you, the Spirit would say, I'm helping you in your weakness by praying for those things that you don't need to pray for. So what is it that we don't know what to pray for in this weakness? I mean, there's a lot of things. I think the answer is we don't know the secret will of God about all the events that happen in our life. That can be sicknesses, that can be hardships, that can be a lot of things, but really what it comes down to is we don't know, and because of our weakness, we don't know the secret will of God about all the circumstances of our life. We don't know whether we should be praying for healing or for strength to endure or for God to deliver from the situation or God to deliver through the situation. All of those things can be difficult. I don't think, and I wanna say this from the beginning, I don't think that this text is telling us it's wrong if we're praying for one side of that or the other. So if you have someone who has cancer, God doesn't expect you to say, well, Lord, I don't know what your will is, so I'm not gonna pray for them, you know, to be healed. I think it's okay to pray for them to be healed. And that's exactly what the message of this passage is telling us. Guess who does know the secret will of God in that situation? The Holy Spirit knows. And so even in our infirmity, even in our weakness, he can pray for that secret will of God that we don't know. So it's not wrong for us to pray for those who are sick or pray for those who are in prison or pray for those who have any other bad circumstance because we don't know. So that brings us to the third part of this, which is that the Spirit, it says the Spirit asks for things that are according to the will of God. The Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. That's in the second part of verse 27. Verse 27 says, and he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. So we can see some examples of this in Paul's life. Of course, one easy example to go to would be Paul's thorn in the flesh. You remember many times Paul prayed, remove this, remove it, remove it, remove it. He kept praying, he kept praying. Now, we're given a little insight in this particular situation, right? We don't always have that. That's what's difficult, and that's what's hard about faith. Faith means that sometimes there are things that we don't know that we have to trust God, right? That's what faith really is, is trusting God. Well, in this particular case, Paul records that there was this thorn in the flesh, And I mean, there's so much debate about what that is and why that really matters. I don't know. It really doesn't matter what it was. We just know it was something that was really difficult for Paul, and he was praying, God, remove this, God, remove this, God, remove this. And eventually, what answer does he get? My grace is sufficient for you. In other words, I'm not going to remove it. I'm going to see you through it. Okay. That was the answer. So in that case, it was revealed to Paul and it was revealed to us through the scriptures what the secret will of God was in that situation. I don't think that's going to happen in every situation, but I think in that particular one, the curtains were moved back and we get to see so that sometimes when we're in that same situation and we're praying for something and praying for something and praying for something, It's not that God's not answering, he's answering. But he's answering in a way that says, my grace is sufficient for you. So in that situation, Paul prayed and prayed, and yet the secret will of God in that situation was that Paul, that was going to remain with him. Another example is when he was in prison in Rome. And this is such an interesting passage. One of my favorite books that I've ever preached through in Philippians chapter 1 you remember Paul he's talking about his Unsure about what he's really unsure and he says this I'm unsure about what to pray for About my life in ministry. That's pretty big issues in it life and death whether to continue on or to go to be with the Lord death or courage He says in Philippians 1, 22 through 24. I'm going to turn over there because I'll misquote it if I don't. Philippians chapter 1, verses 22. All my pages are sticking together. 22 through 24. But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor. Yet what I shall choose, I want not. Okay, so let's put that in some more modern language. I don't know. Paul says, look, there's weakness here, there's infirmity here, and I don't know what is the best. I want not. For I am in the straight betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. And having this confidence, I know I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith. So, he's kind of hard-pressed from both directions. He says, I really don't know in and of myself what is better. I think what he actually says at the end there is, the fact that I'm remaining is for your good, and I do understand that, and I don't know how long that's gonna last, but as long as I'm here, it's for your good, and I'm okay with that. But he said, really, if it were up to me, he just really kinda unloads his soul here and lets us peek into his most inner thoughts. He says, if it was really just totally up to me, it'd be better for me to go and be with Christ. Which, I think if we all are in our right minds, no matter what circumstances going on in your life, you would say the same thing. And honestly, at no matter what age you are, you would say that, if you really knew what you were talking about. If you were really in your right mind, you wouldn't say, well, you know, I wanna make sure and get my kids raised and get that, then I would wanna go be with Christ. Or I would wanna do this or accomplish this or I've got some projects I'm working on and when I get that done, then I'd be ready to go be with Christ. No, not really. Really what's best is for us to go and be with Christ. But the example here that Paul is teaching us is there's sometimes that we don't know. Paul didn't know what the will of God in that situation was, but he had a great attitude about it. He said, for me, I'd rather go and be with Christ, but if God keeps me here in this situation, it's for your good. So, I think we could come up with a hundred different examples. There's plenty of situations going on in this church right now, just among, I mean, just listen to our prayer requests. You know, earlier, I was thinking that as we were going through all of those things, there's a lot of suffering going on. There's a lot of things that people are praying about, and they probably don't know exactly how to pray for. The Spirit's been busy. He's praying for exactly what the Lord's will is in all of those situations, even when we don't know what it is. So there's plenty of examples, even in this church right now, and maybe there will be some even bigger than that that come up soon. Not only many that are sick, but many that are trying to make big decisions and don't know which direction to go. Sometimes it can be even very practical things. One of the examples is John Bunyan wrote a book called Advice to Sufferers, and in that book, he brings up the question. It's a really interesting question, especially for missionaries. I have a good friend that I met at Northeast in college, Chad McCord. He came to, his kids came to TCPS for a little while. Now he went overseas again with his whole family, and I think now they are on leave and they're at home for a little while. I think they're out in Montana or something, and they're serving out there in a church. But his family, they go into, they've been into Cambodia, they've been into Thailand, they've been, they go some places where It's not even a mystery. They're in danger. He's endangering his entire family. He has three children. They go everywhere that they go. So, you know, some people might look at that and say, well, yeah, that's your calling to go, but you're endangering your whole family. How could you do that? How could you put your family in danger? And then when you're in danger, How much do you stand? When do you stand and when do you flee? When do you retreat? When do you leave? If you get a way of escape, do you take it? Is that okay or is that being a coward as a Christian? So John Bunyan wrote this book, Advice to Sufferers, and he said, this is the quote, thou mayest do as it is in thine heart. If thy heart is to fly, fly. If it be in thy heart to stand, stand. Anything but a denial of the truth. He that flies is warranted to do so, and he that stands has warrant to do so. Yea, the same man may both fly and stand as the call and working of God within his heart may be led by the Holy Spirit. That's an interesting thing he just said, right? So he said, who's gonna direct this and lead you and tell you? The Holy Spirit in your heart. And if you feel comfortable with taking off and getting out of there, do it. If you think you need to make a stand, then you make a stand. And so then he goes through the same quote, John Bunyan. He says, Moses fled, Moses stood. David fled, David stood. Jeremiah fled, Jeremiah stood. Christ withdrew himself at times and Christ stood at times. So even the Son of God at different times withdrew from situations, and then sometimes he stood. So there's examples there of both things. So when we have these big, difficult things where we don't know the right way to go, Then we come to this text and we look at the comfort that we see where it says, likewise the spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the spirit maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he does this, he that searches the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. So when you don't know the will of God, The spirit does. And the spirit knows the will of God perfectly because let's go back to our very elementary training from from Wednesday night. He is God. He's in perfect community. He's a member of the Trinity. He is a person. He is God himself. So he knows perfectly the will of God. He's not just some force or direction or anything like that. He is very God. So Paul's point is that when you groan, with the intent that Christ be magnified in your body, whether by life or death, whether it be through suffering, deliverance, pain, joy, life, death, all of those different circumstances, we might be uncertain as to how Christ might be most magnified in the particular circumstance, but the Spirit prays for you and he brings it to pass. So Paul's point is to encourage us and to help us. But really, that goes back, and I'm not gonna turn back there, but in Philippians chapter one, there's some verses above where I read that set up how Paul approached that topic. And I just mentioned them. So what did Paul want to happen more than anything else? Because he says it in the text. He says, I want Christ to be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or death. So then he says, so let me tell you how that practically outworks even in my thought life. He kind of pulls the curtain back. So he says, number one goal of my life is for Christ to be magnified. Now, let me tell you where I'm at right now. I'm in jail. I don't know how this is going to go. It doesn't look good. And I might die. And if I die, I'm good with that. I go to be with Christ, that's good. If I stay, it's for your good. And I don't know what the will of God in that is, but I want Christ to be magnified the way that that can be done the most. If Christ can be magnified the most by me continuing to suffer and doing you good, then so be it. If Christ is most magnified by me being martyred tomorrow, that's what I want to happen. That was Paul's attitude. So even when we don't know, we can have the mindset that we want Christ to be magnified in the greatest extent that it can be in our life. And then the spirit, he knows how to pray for us. And when we approach it with that spirit, you'll see a difference in your prayer life. So Paul's point is to encourage and to help us even when we don't know. what we would like to know and what we would like to pray for, even in those circumstances, the Spirit prays for us. Now, secondly, how does the Holy Spirit pray for us? So we've looked at what He prays for us and what that looks like because of the will of God and all of those things. So the second question is how does the Holy Spirit pray for us in all the ways that we've stated before? Well, I'm gonna go back and read all the way through the text one more time. Likewise, the spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the spirit itself maketh intercession for us, now here's the key phrase for this question, with groanings which cannot be uttered. He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. So to answer this question, we need to unpack that phrase. He makes intercession for us, but how he does that is with groanings which cannot be uttered. So in the last part of verse 26, he uses that phrase with word, you know, that which words that with groanings which cannot be uttered, which really means wordless groanings. If you go back to the original language and you just kind of read it literally, it would be wordless noise, just wordless groanings of the soul, with groanings too deep for words. So what does that refer to? Does it refer to groanings that we make? And I had really never thought about this this deeply, but I mean, it really could go either way, I guess, if you look at the passage, but does it refer to groanings that we make or groanings that we do not make, but the Holy Spirit makes on our behalf? Or is there a third alternative where, and that's really the one that I think is true, these groanings are our groanings. which are also the Spirit's groaning because he inspires and directs them in us. I think that's really the answer. But let's look at that a little bit. First of all, if the Holy Spirit is communicating with the Father about what we need, it really doesn't make any sense that he would have to use wordless groanings, right? The Spirit knows exactly what we need. He knows exactly what the will of God is. He knows you inside and out. Why would he have to use wordless groanings if these are coming from just the Holy Spirit? There is not even the slightest confusion in his mind, and he's never at a loss of how to communicate with the Father. They have perfect communication. So I doubt that this means that these are just the groanings of the Spirit on our behalf. Also, the one who hears and understands and answers these groans is said in verse 27 to search our hearts. I think that points to the fact that the groans are in our hearts. So this is where they're experienced as groanings and heard, and the Spirit himself intercedes for us with these wordless groanings. And he who searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the spirit. In other words, the spirit doesn't need to groan to the father in heaven directly. He registers them in our hearts where we experience them as groans in our heart. And then these groanings are brought by the spirit to God and prayed for perfectly in the will of God. Another evidence in that these groanings are actually our groanings is that these groanings are already in the context, remember, that marks the fallen world. The spirit is not fallen and he doesn't need to groan like the creation and the saints do. Remember verse 22, the whole creation groaneth, the same word, he groans and travails as in childbirth together until now. And they, and not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the spirit, even we groan within ourselves, that word within ourselves, there's groanings of the heart that sometimes we can't even explain or know fully. So groaning is part of the weakness and futility and pain and lossness of this fallen world. So that suggests that these groans of verse 26 are also part of this fallenness and weakness, and they're our groans, but they're inspired and directed by the Holy Spirit. So the spirit, the picture here is that the Holy Spirit, who lives in us, he lives in our hearts, he lives in us, He moves and guides and directs and creates these groanings in us, which maybe we don't even understand because they're wordless groanings, which are based on two things. Number one, a deep desire and ache of the heart that Christ be magnified in our life. And second, a weakness that leaves us confused as to how that would best take place. That fits the context perfectly. So in other words, by the direction of the Holy Spirit and because we have spiritual life and because we've been given faith, we want Christ to be magnified in our life. But there's a position in front of us that we don't know. We don't know what's best. We don't know the best way to turn. We don't know the best direction for our life. We don't know whether it's better to stand or to flee. We don't know whether it's better to pray for us to go on and be with the Lord or to stay and suffer more. We don't know those things. So then the Spirit leads us, we have these groanings in our heart that we want Christ to be magnified and the Holy Spirit prays for those things according to the will of God. because we're confused on what the will of God is. The Father searches our hearts, he hears this groaning, he hears the Christ-magnifying goal of it, and he hears the Spirit's clear intention that this is the will of God in this situation. It's an amazing thought that all of that is going on. So one of the reasons it matters so much is that it means that in the very moment of some of our deepest frustrations, the Holy Spirit's interceding for you. So in those moments when you don't know what to pray for, when that cancer diagnosis comes, or when we have the loss of a loved one, or all of these tragedies and frustrations, and maybe it's even things like I said before about a direction. I don't know what to do in my life to go this direction or go this direction. All of these groanings are the very work of God's Spirit for us and not against us. Isn't that amazing? He's always for us, for our good and God's glory in every situation. So no matter what the circumstance is, You may say, well, there's a positive side for me and a negative side for me, but sometimes you don't even know that. Sometimes what looks negative to you is what's best for you. So God is, and we're gonna, it's really hard to separate these two verses from Romans 8, 28, so you're just gonna have to hold on, okay? Because I couldn't preach all of that in one day, especially today. I'm about to run out of voice as it is already. But you can see where we're headed by this, is that ultimately, he's gonna work all things together for your good. And this is the foundation, these two verses, 26 and 27, are the foundation on which Romans 8, 28 is built. The Holy Spirit knows the will of God. He's interceding for you. And those things are going to work together ultimately for your good and God's glory in all situations. It's just an amazing thing. So that's where we're headed in next, the next time. So he encourages us by saying that our weakness in this world will always include some ignorance about what the will of God is and how to pray for it. Yet, we should strive to know the will of God, but we should not expect to always know it, or especially to know it infallibly, because we're weak, sinful, we have infirmities, we have weakness, and Paul says that the comfort in that is that the Holy Spirit is helping us in our infirmities. So sum it up, wrap up here. How do we practically look at this for your prayer life going forward in the next two to three weeks? Number one, be encouraged that you're not expected to know the will of God completely. Right? Isn't that a good encouragement? God doesn't even expect us to know his will perfectly. What we are responsible for, and I'll give a caution on this one, is there is a revealed will of God that we are responsible for. And you're responsible as a Christian to know the revealed will of God. We should know that. But there's also a secret will of God that we're not expected to know in every respect. Yet his revealed will for you is always faith and hope and love and purity and all the things that we learn in the scriptures. So it's okay to have concerns and worries and not know always how you ought to pray. This text tells us that that's normal in the Christian experience. Secondly, be encouraged that in that confusion and groaning and not knowing what to pray for, You are not being just watched or rooted for from afar, but instead, you are being completely understood in all of who you are. He searches the hearts, he knows all things, and the spirit knoweth the will of God, and he's interceding for you. That's pretty comforting. You know, there's some people who almost, it's really almost like they believe that God kind of did some things, and then he set you loose. And he's watching from afar, and he's gonna see how you're gonna do. That is not the God of the Bible. That is not what this text tells us. This text tells us not only does the Spirit indwell us, he intercedes for us, even in the secret things of God that we don't know, with groanings that cannot even be uttered, and it says the Father knows the heart. He sees the heart. He knows all in there. So we're not just way out here on our own. We are being known and understood and the person who knows us and understands us better than ourself intercedes for us on our behalf. And then third and last, be encouraged that in your weakness and sickness and loss and hardship and danger and all of those things, the Spirit of God is praying for you and not against you. At the end of this chapter, he's gonna talk about that a little bit more. I think we all know that passage, right? If he be for us, what does the scripture say? Who can be against us? So He is for us. And so these intercessions are being made on our behalf. The Spirit intercedes for us, not against us. And God the Father always hears the prayers of the Spirit. And that prayer is for you and for me, and it's always answered. So I hope those things have been a blessing to you and be a blessing in your prayer life as we seek the revealed will of God and we trust the Holy Spirit with those secret things that we don't know that he'll pray for us with words that cannot be uttered.