Spirit of Help

Joe Henseler · Faith Church · Mar 1, 2021

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Joe Henseler

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god83spirit52pray29god help11jesus28life24hard19emergency backup7holy spirit7help17groans17good15christ15pain15weakness15backup14groaning14people13love13time13hope13together13prayer13power11

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Scripture references · 8 citations

Romans

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Repeated openers: “i mean” (8), “god help” (8), “you have” (7), “you can't” (7), “would you” (6), “the spirit” (5)

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So as modern Americans, we're addicted to electricity.

It's like we need electricity for everything we do.

You know, it starts to flicker.

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Jesus ·18Paul ·9Jesus. ·6Jesus Christ ·2Joe ·2Christ Jesus." What ·1Christ Jesus. ·1grace ·1Joe. ·1Sally ·1

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Pennsylvania ·2

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spirit of god ·16god help me ·11when you can't ·7life is hard ·7for the good ·6talk to him ·6for the good of ·5god help me to ·5i mean ·10god help ·9you can't ·8you have ·7

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Transcript

So as modern Americans, we're addicted to electricity. Have you noticed this? It's like we need electricity for everything we do. And if a storm comes through and knocks out our electricity, we're just like, how are we going to make it? We have no power. You know, it starts to flicker. You have plans, right? You're doing some work. You got some things to do. You're going to watch the game and it starts to flicker. And then it goes out. And you're like, think the world is over, right? out. And so here in Pennsylvania, because it's cold and we've had seasons where the power goes out for a number of days, a lot of us have purchased generators. Have you done this? Where you get this gas thing going and pull it out of the garage, drag it, plug in a couple extension cords, run them around the house and you kind of get some power back and you feel pretty good about that. That's pretty cool to have a generator but you know those people that have the automatic ones. You know the whole house ones, you've been breaking the It's like the kind that the lights start to flicker and then they go out and it's out for like two seconds And then you hear the hum of the generator And everything powers back up and back to normal no problems our generators got us we got a backup as Americans if you don't have an emergency backup and if you can get one that's automatic Doesn't get much better than that. How are you doing with the storms of your life? power out that look a little more personal. Right? So when finances really hit the skids and you can't pay your bills, the storm knocks the legs out from under you financially. What do you do? How about relationally? You are in conflict with someone. Someone you love, you're arguing, you're at an impasse. Maybe you got dumped by your boyfriend or your girlfriend. Maybe you're in the middle of a separation right now, or a really messy divorce. When those kinds of storms hit, what do you do? How about that health storm that comes? When you're going along and life is good, and all of a sudden you hear the C word, or you got some heart issue that you have to completely reorient your life because the storm of health hits you. And all of a sudden they're gone, and you can't talk to them anymore. You can't apologize. Nothing's going to change. Life will never be the same. And the pit of grief is real and deep, and there's no way out of it. When those kinds of storms come and hit you, what's your backup? What power do you have? of the Holy Spirit is your emergency backup. I mean, maybe you know this, maybe you don't. But if the Spirit of God is inside you, you have a backup. You have someone. You look at your life and you see a situation as a Christ Father when you look backwards at it and you see how did I get through that? What did I do? How did I manage that? It was the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit helped you So I don't need a backup, really? I mean, have you had moments where you've seen something so marvelous, you're speechless, and you just go, "That's beautiful." Speechless, awesome moments? What happens when, if you haven't had it already, you have a speechless, dark moment? So debilitating. You have a hard time standing. You have a hard time walking. You have a hard time making sense out of anything. You can't even pray. If you haven't had that experience, just wait. You will. What do you do? I mean, this is where the Holy Spirit of God is your backup and you don't have to believe me. five through twenty seven and we say this all the time open up your Bible, turn them on and I see that a lot of you do but I also see some of you don't. Oh I see you and honestly you're just hurting yourself because God's word is like a compass a guide an anchor. You shouldn't believe me. You should look at His word that's alive and active and will begin to change you. So get a Bible, follow along backup that comes from Romans 8, would you pray with me? God, there's an old song that says, "Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me." Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on us. Whether we're watching online or listening in our car, here in Pennsylvania or somewhere else, here in the center or somewhere on campus, wherever we are, Spirit of the living God, you Would you fall fresh on us? Would you speak to us? Would you guide us? Would you lead us? Would you remove any distraction? The distractions of what's happening in the living room or what the kids are doing downstairs? Any distraction that are here in the room with us at church? Remove any distraction? Remove any obstacle for us to hear from you. that I might hear. We want to hear your voice. We want to know what's true and right. We need your help because storms come for all of us. And life is hard. So, Spirit of God work right now. I pray through Christ our Lord, amen. and difficult books in the Bible to understand. It's jumping into the deep end of the pool when you read the book of Romans. And it takes a little bit of work to get our minds around what's happening here, but I know you're up for it. I know you're willing to be challenged to think. And so Romans 8, specifically where we are today, contains a bunch of promises that many of us have starts out by saying, "There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." What a great promise that not any sin that we have or any shame, any mistake that we've made, anything that's done to us or we have done. If you believe in Jesus Christ, there is now no zero, No condemnation. That's how Romans 8 starts. And Romans 8 finishes in verse 31 saying, nothing will separate us from the love of God. That's in Christ Jesus. Another great, awesome promise. That if God is for us, who could be against us? Paul says, when you face trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or violence, none of these things can separate you and me Jesus. I mean, Romans 8 starts out by saying, "No condemnation, no shame or sin can condemn you if you're in Christ." And ends by saying, "Nothing will separate you from His love." I mean, this is such good news. Yet, sandwiched right in the middle of these two incredible promises is a struggle. the spirit of God, if you have put your faith in Jesus, the spirit of God lives inside you, and it war's up against sinful desires that we all have. There's a conflict going on, and so Romans chapter eight, verse one through 17, talks about this conflict. The spirit of God lives inside us and helps us to say no to sin and yes to Jesus. The spirit of God helps us to crucify the flesh, the things that Jesus died for, our sins, to say, "Yes, to Jesus, I will follow you." But beyond this real internal struggle, there's another kind of suffering we all face. Another kind of struggle. Let's pick it up in Romans 8, 22, where Paul is teaching us something about the emergency backup of the Spirit of God. Paul writes, "We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. Follow what he's saying. He's saying the whole world groans as in childbirth. I mean, this is universal, worldwide, millions of people dying. Everything turned upside down. There's this worldwide pandemic that causes universal groaning. There's nobody that's not touched by this groaning of fear and loss and unknowns. And when are we going to get back to normal, this universal groaning, but beyond the pandemic in our planet, on our planet, there are people that have no food today. It's that personal groaning, no water. Their lives are torn apart by war, by famine, by disease, by injustice, by torture, by pain, by death. Paul says the whole world and every Christ follower groans. This isn't just a worldwide groaning that we all look at life and go, man, this pandemic There's this worldwide universal groaning about all of those things, but there's also a groaning inside every Christ follower. You have the spirit of God living inside you. You've been forgiven of your sins. There's now no condemnation for you in Christ. If God is for you, who or what can be against you? You have these promises yet still. We groan. to be dried as followers of Christ, we're not immune to suffering and pain and groaning. Paul says in verse 22 that the whole earth groans as in childbirth, keep that in your mind. If someone's giving birth, there's groaning and pain. Look at verse 24. He says, "For in this hope we were saved, but hope that is seen is no hope at all." Who hopes for what they for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. He's making this connection. He's saying Christ followers groan with hope. See, when a mother is giving birth to a child, she groans in pain, but she looks past the pain to the new life that's coming. It's a great expectation. Yes, this is hard in the moment, but there's an expectation of something great coming. Paul says, like a mother groaning in in childbirth. Followers of Christ grown in hope. Yes, life is difficult. Yes, this pandemic is traumatic. Yes, there are real injustices and real evils. These cause real difficulties that seem sometimes impossible to navigate. Jesus is going to make all things right and new. We grown with hope. out, but in our modern times you know, well, at some point it's going to come back on, right? You're not going to have no power forever. That's not been our experience or our reality. So we go, okay, this is hard. We're going to get through it, but there's a hopeful expectation like just as quick as that power went out, it's going to come back on and everything will be good. So we grown for There's times that we're so confused, we don't even know how to think or process. It's going to be hard, but we have hope in Jesus. What do we do? How do we navigate this? We count on the promises of Romans 828, right? So the book of Romans chapter one starts out with, there's no condemnation, it ends with, nothing will separate us from his love. In the middle is this great promise. for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purposes. So as followers of Christ, we've grown with hope, because we know that somehow God isn't going to waste anything, all the pain, all the suffering, all the difficulty that we go through. He's going to work through it for our ultimate good. That's a fact. Sometimes as Christ followers, we're like bad parents coaches that when things get difficult, we just tell our kids, "Oh, buck up, it's just a pandemic. It'll make you better." I'll just get over it. The lights are out. There's people that have it far worse. Grow up. Deal with it. What's the big deal? God's gonna work all things for the good. Your friend is suffering going through pain and hardship and you come alongside like a life coach. Because it's hard. Yes, these are true facts that God is going to work all things for good. But that doesn't change the fact that life is hard. I am hard-pressed on every side, the Bible says, but not crushed. But who wants to volunteer to be hard-pressed? Do you? I don't. This is hard. And here's where the Spirit of God becomes our emergency backup. Romans 826, in the same way the spirit helps us in our weakness. This is great news. The spirit of God helps us in our weakness. God knows that I'm weak and sometimes in my weakness he comes and delivers me from my weakness and helps me. And other times I'm in weakness and he leaves me in weakness but he doesn't leave "Never leave me or forsake me." But sometimes he comes alongside me in my weakness and doesn't remove the weakness. Paul prayed in 2 Corinthians, chapter 12. He said to God, "Take away this problem. "Take away this problem. "Take away this problem." He prayed three times. God, take away this problem. And God said to him, "My grace is sufficient for you "for my power is made perfect in weakness." in groaning and pain and weakness, but you're not alone. Verse 26 continues, "We do not know what we ought to pray, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us through wordless groans." We're caught in this situation. We don't even know what to do, what to say, what to feel. it intercedes through wordless groans. You know, there are times you call out to God. God fixed this. God changed this and he doesn't. And then you get to a point where you're like, where are you God? How could you not fix this? How could you not change it? You could get to the point where you won't even pray. You can't even pray. All you can do is groan. And what Paul is promising us here is the spirit for us. He says, "God, spirit in that dark moment. We don't know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. He's the emergency backup that automatically kicks on when you're too confused, too in pain. You're struggling too much. You don't even have a word to utter the power kicks on. And it's automatic. This is what He does for His sons and lives inside of you. So you're at the end of your rope, maybe the financial rope, you're just at the end, and you don't have anything, and you're not sure how you're gonna do this. Maybe it's at the end of your relational rope, just the conflict is so deep, or your spouse will not even talk to you. You're in the middle of a terrible divorce, maybe it's your kids, they're just making stupid bone-headed decisions and over and over and over again and you're completely out of loss. You can't do anything to control them or you've been caring for a loved one who's been ill and it's just day after day after day after day and they don't get better and it seems like it will never end or you just got the sucker punch of your life the one you love so much is dead. You can't make things right. You can't hear their voice. You can't smell them. Hear them. And you're out elite loss, God loves you so much that he put his spirit inside you to groan for you when you can't even pray. You see, just like Jesus becomes your sin, your groans, the spirit becomes your groans. I mean, this is such good news. powerless, sent his son to pay for our sins on the cross. Jesus became sin for us, the Bible says, so that now by faith in Jesus, God looks at us and Jesus intercedes for us and Jesus says, "That's your son. That's your daughter. There's no condemnation for Joe. That's your son. That's your daughter. There's nothing that can separate Sally from you. That's Here comes the Spirit of God now, who becomes your groaning. Your groans become his groans. This is how much God loves you. He will never leave you alone in your weakness or in your struggle. God will never say to you, "Just buck up. All things will work together for the good of those who love me." He doesn't ever say that to you. Instead, He gives you His Spirit to come alongside you in your weakness, to speak to you. for you to pray for you to groan for you. That's how much God loves you. He won't lead you alone in your sin or in your struggle. Watch what happens next verse 27. And God, who searches our hearts, knows the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the We don't know what to pray. We don't know how to ask. We can't comprehend. We don't know how to sort out this evil, or this injustice, or this confusion, or this pain. The spirit with wordless groans talks to God on our behalf. And this verse 27 comes right before the promise of verse 28. So listen to it together. God, who searches our hearts, knows the mind of the spirit. in accordance with the will of God, and we know in light of what the Spirit is doing, and we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him, and who have been called according to His purpose, "Joe's translation, when my pain is beyond words." The Spirit's grown Jesus paid for my sins. I couldn't do that. And the Spirit now groans on my behalf when I can't talk. We don't know what to think or what to pray. We're just in pain. God knows this about us and He works on our behalf. And somehow in that moment God takes my pain and my brokenness and my confusion and with the in my life now work for the good of those who love and trust Him. And this is a promise. This is the promise of why Jesus describes the Holy Spirit who someone is going to come alongside you, who's going to comfort you, who's going to guide you, who's going to be your advocate. So the moment your power goes out, the Spirit kicks in. That's awesome and groans and aligns our hearts with the God Almighty with the promise, "Joe, it's gonna be okay. "I'm coming alongside you in your weakness. "I'm coming alongside you in your pain. "I'm not cheering you up with some platitude. "God works together for the good of those of them." No, my spirit is gonna come alongside you and help you and give you courage and translate your groanings into prayers and align the heart of God with you, you with Him, he with you, That's awesome. So what do we do? What's practical about this? How do we navigate these things? Here's the deal. I'm going to give you a bunch of maybe practical things, but the reminder that life is hard. Christians are not immune to life being hard. You are going to suffer. You're going to face difficulty, persecution, hardship, doubts, pain. hope in Jesus. I know that sounds so basic, but if you put your hope in money or in your health or in your career or in relationships, they will all let you down. Jesus will never let you down. Put your hope in Him. And what I love about putting my hope in Jesus, you see, religion is going to fail me, priests and pastors are going to fail me, but Jesus won't fail me. And when I put my trust in Jesus, I have access now to God the Father, God the Son, and God the The three of them are working on my behalf. I mean, you don't want that? The sun takes away my sin and the spirit groans and works in me when I'm struggling. Put your hope in Jesus. In this world, you will have trouble, but Jesus has overcome the world. So today is the day to put your trust in Jesus. Call out to him and ask him to enter your life and remove your sin and you watch what he does. Life is hard. Talk to God. I mean, that's so basic, right? Talk to God. You know, we sort of call that prayer. Talk to Him. Talk to God. He hears you. If you put your faith in trust in Jesus, you have access to God the Father at any time. And in every moment, you don't have to do it in a special way through a special person. No magic words. I just text God all the time. Sad face emoji. I mean seriously whatever you just whatever little truth or word you need to speak to him God help me God sustain me God change me just talk to him and don't wait for a difficult situation where you need his emergency backup Paul says and pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and God help me. God help me. I can't take one more diaper. God help me. I can't handle one more toddler breakdown. God help me. My teenagers are driving me nuts and I'm not sure what to do. God help me to know what to do with my finances. God help me to know how to build this wall. God help me to get through today because it seems like I won't be able to make it one more moment without my loved one. God help me. I'm feeling suicidal. God help me to say no to drugs. God, help me to say no to porn. Whatever it is, you just bring it to the God of the universe. Just talk to him. I'm being misunderstood, God. My friends, don't get me. I feel alone. You just talk to him. And you watch as you talk to him and open your Bible, because he's going to talk back. Use the word of God. Say to him in spirit of the living God. I want to hear from you. Watch as you open your mouth and talk to him. how he's going to change the circumstance of your life. Don't wait for emergency backup. The spirit of God will work as you keep in step with him, as you grow his fruit, as you say, notice sin and yes to God, he'll change you. Hey, FYI, life is hard. Pray with other people. I mean, don't just talk to God alone. Maybe that sounds awkward to you. You're like, "Ahh." But I struggle. I've been praying to God for change in my life in many different situations across my lifetime. Maybe it's time to invite my wife into that prayer, my friend into that prayer. Someone I trust into that prayer, you go, "It's too awkward." Get over yourself. Life is hard. Hey, let's stop and pray. Not thank God for the burrito, but God, I'm struggling with this. Would you help me pray with someone? Maybe it's time to say to your spouse, we have never prayed together. We're 50 years old. We have never prayed together. We've been together for 18 years. We have never prayed together, except God bless my burrito. Maybe it's time to say, should we pray together about our kids? Should we pray together about our job? Should we pray together about our fears? Let's pray together and you don't need special words. It might be really awkward, but anything awkward is worth doing. Pray with other people and ask someone around you who you love if you can pray for them. Because I'll tell you what, I'll get you out of your self-centered groaning. Is to hear the requests and prayers of other people who might be in more need than you are. someone else and there are many people in our church that have many needs. I wanna invite you into praying with us together. Would you join our prayer network? It's sort of simple, it's this. Go on our website to the top of our website, on the far right, you can hit the word prayer. And when you open up that page, if you need someone to pray for you, you can send a prayer request in. At any time, 24 hours, and there are people But also, maybe you want to start hearing the prayer requests of other people. We won't bombard you with it, but once a week you'll get a prayer request for people in our church that you could go through and pray for people. Join our prayer network and we would love to have you pray with us. Quarterly, we do something called prayer and praise. It's coming up in just a couple weeks. We've stopped it because of the pandemic, but it's time to get going again. for prayer and praise. It's not awkward or weird. It's a time where we just get together to praise God and bring requests to Him. No one will make you feel weird. You don't have to pray out loud. Join us for prayer and praise. And we're gonna start streaming this one online. So maybe you're not ready to come back at, okay, join us online on March the 9th, 'cause God will work through our prayers. Here's the last thing and you're not gonna be surprised. Life is hard. Holy Spirit groans for you. The Holy Spirit knows how hard your life is. He gets it. And in your weakness, he comes alongside you. When you can't pray, when you can't solve, when you can't defend yourself, when you can't fix, when you can't control, when you can't say no, the Spirit of God comes alongside you to help you in your weakness. You know the promise of the Bible where God says, "I'll never leave you or forsake you." He put his spirit inside you. You can't get away from him. He's sticking to you. So when you're speechless, prayerless, faithless, and full of doubt, fall on the spirit of God. He's got your back and kicks in automatically. Is that not good news? Let's pray. Spirit is alive and real. We wouldn't be able to know who you are. We wouldn't know our need for Jesus without your Spirit convicting and guiding us. And your Spirit helps us to say yes to you and no to sin. And your Spirit gives us peace and power. And now we're learning that your Spirit groans for us. when we can't even pray. Your spirit helps us in our weaknesses and takes these mess, the mess of life we find ourselves in and you promise to make it good with your spirit's help. So humble us and help us to know that when we fall, when we can't And fail, you forgive us. When we cry and no one notices, when we groan and no one hears, you see, you understand, you defend, you empower, so spirit of God, be our backup, we trust you, we need you, we love you. I pray this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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