Romans – The Play Part 7 – Hurting Prayer: Romans 8, Groaning, and the Holy Spirit’s Intercession

So as surely as we expect and have the expectation and the hope of glorification in the Son of God, when we get a new body, the earth, not looking at God nor the Son, but looking at you and me, groans and hopes in expectation of the day when you are revealed. In other words, friend, you’re not the only one hurting. Creation is hurting. You hurt in the face of God; creation hurts in the face of unrevealed, redeemed children of God. One day, the earth is going to get a new “it.” And there’s going to be a new earth. And it’s going to get its glory back. It had glory. It had the fall. It has tribulation. And it’s going to get glory again. You can’t remember past glory. You can’t remember the fall, but you groan in the tribulation that you’re in. You groan in the mess that you are and feel that you are, but you will get glory.

Now, he gave the earth as an example, but he gives you another proof. Do you know what it is? That you’re going to get a new body, and you’re going to be glorified. It is once more the Holy Spirit. One more time, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is taking care of the flesh. The Holy Spirit witnesses that you’re a son of God. Now then, the Holy Spirit is the guarantor of your glorification. Do you have the Holy Spirit in you? We groan inwardly. We have that inward expectation. Sister, I am reading from Romans 8. There really is an inward as well as an outward. And the Holy Spirit is shown to us as someone inward. He is the caretaker of all that sonship means. He is the one who made, and is making, and will make us sons of God. It’s his job. And it is his job to witness to you that you are a son of God. And now it is also him who is the guarantee that you will have a new body.

Now, listen to me. Do you know the word metaphorically? Sometimes Paul will grab a metaphorical term, and he will say the Holy Spirit is the down payment. And he goes into the world of business and commerce to use a metaphor: the Holy Spirit is the down payment. That’s not what he uses this time. He says – he reaches into the world of the science of agriculture. Farming. He says the Holy Spirit, the proof that you will be glorified, that this is temporary; the proof is that the Holy Spirit is the first fruit of your body’s redemption.

What on earth does that mean? Listen to me. The creation is groaning in tribulation, waiting for a new creation. Well, bless your heart, there is only one other thing that is groaning in tribulation, waiting for a new creation, and that is the church of the Living God. She alone, you and I corporately, are waiting for our deliverance, but we have already been made new by the fact that the Holy Spirit indwells us. And we are the first fruit of the new creation. We are the first fruit of the new creation. There will be much more in the new creation. There will be a new earth. And there will be a new heaven. But there’s already a new you and me, with one part not yet redeemed. But when a farmer looks and sees a sprout come up, and as far as he can see, he can see sprouts, and one day one of them bears fruit—and that is the very first fruit out there on his farm—he knows he’s after a good crop.

Well, brothers and sisters, the Holy Spirit has already come into you and raised your spirit from the dead, has already come in and saved your soul, and is transforming it. That’s the first fruit. And he’s in there, the steward of your sonship. He is in there right now, already equipped and containing your new body, waiting for the sound of the trumpet. He’s the guarantee of your glory. Now know that. Believe it. Hope it. You don’t have to pray or read the Bible or go to church. You are the church. All you have to do is know that the Holy Spirit is in you, having taken care of the flesh, having made you a son, witnessing that you are a son, and the fact that he is in there, has done what he has done to your spirit and your soul, is the first proof of a coming new creation.

And that’s what the earth is looking at: the first fruits. The earth sees the first fruits – you. It sees that it has begun. The planet, the creation, the stars see the first evidence coming. The Church of Jesus Christ is God’s guarantee of what’s ahead.

Praise the Lord. He’s not through yet. We are still dealing with the psychotically insecure Christian. You really ought not to just listen to me. You really ought to go home and get alone with the Lord and talk to the Lord about this. As far as I can see, Paul can tell that these are the real places you and I need assurances. I would have never thought about using the planet Earth to give me assurances on my bad days. I don’t think about the fact that the Spirit leads me as evidence that I am a son of God.

“Don’t worry, Gene, about the mess you made, that you have a loving Father who’s not going to turn you down.” I don’t seem to have any particular interest whatsoever in knowing that my flesh has been dealt with. Actually, what I want to do is, I want to get depressed. I want to get down on me. I want to sit down and groan and moan. Say amen. And if I don’t want to, I do it anyway. I do travail. I do groan. I do get depressed. I do get discouraged. I do get agitated.

And yet these are the things that Paul says should be my assurances. And now it’s kind of like he threw up his hands at the psychotically insecure Christian. And he says, Okay, go ahead. Go ahead and hurt. Go ahead and groan. Go ahead and moan, because that is a prayer. More evidence that you’re a child of God. Even your depression, saint, and I’m not using that in its clinical term, I’m using it in its more popular term, even you getting down on yourself is a prayer. Paul gives you and me one of the most helpful pieces of advice in the world here, and that is: It’s okay to groan. That’s what the earth does. You do it too.

Now, let’s go back. I don’t want to go over this too lightly or too quickly, but what I just said, I really mean. It’s because even your groaning is proof of your relationship with the Lord.

Now you tell me. Let me play this game with you instead of me. Three weeks from now, you’re going to speak to the church right up here. Okay? About three hours before you get to the meeting, you get mad at something. You get mad at somebody bothering you while you’re preparing a message and praying. And you get so ticked off that anybody would be so inconsiderate at a moment like this that you stand right up and swear at them. You’ve never used a word like that in your life. Alright, are you with me? Two and a half hours, you go preach, right here in this room, this church. You just cussed somebody out. Good. How are you feeling? You’re going to talk to them about the Lord. An hour before the meeting, you are so put out with yourself. And you throw a hissy at your wife because she got in your way.

“Oh, but I’m a sister.” Alright, then you’re about to speak to the church, and you’re a sister, and you threw a hissy at your husband. Now, you’re dressed, you’re bathed, you’re all clean, you’re all neat. You’ve got one hour before the meeting, and it is time to pray. Now, don’t kid me. I mean, I’m an old man. I’ve been around for a long, long time. Do you want to pray? You’re going to call on someone. This is the time before the meeting when you ask the Lord to be your help, to cleanse you, to anoint you, to really empower you. Do you want to pray? Ken, do you want to pray? Oh, I can tell you my experience. I don’t want to talk to, of all the people in the universe, I don’t want to talk to you. I mean, if I talk to God, I am a hypocrite no matter what I do. What I should do is call the brothers and sisters up and tell them I ain’t coming to the meeting; I’m not speaking, and I ain’t coming to the meeting either. I mean, I have sinned away my day of grace. I can plead the blood, I can do this, I can do that…