Sunday Recap for 111019 Big Idea: Help When It’s Needed Most

Sunday Recap for 111019 Big Idea: Help When It’s Needed Most

Sunday, November 10, 2019, Evident Grace looked at Romans 8.26-30:

 

Romans 8. 26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

 

From those verses, we pursued this Big Idea and these three points:

 

Big Idea: Help When It’s Needed Most

 

The Holy Spirit Prays for You

All Things Work for Good

Nothing is an Accident

 

The Holy Spirit Prays for You

 

Romans 8. 26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

 

What’s Happening in these Verses?

 

Who: The Holy Spirit

What: He helps you.

Where: Your heart.

When: When you are weak and don’t know what to pray for.

Why: It is God’s will to help you when you don’t know what to pray for.

How: The Spirit Intercedes for you with groanings too deep for words.

 

So, what is the language of this prayer? Hear this explanation from the book “The Contemplaitive Pastor” by Eugene Peterson

 

3 Tenses in Greek (active, passive, middle

 

Active Voice: Initiates action – “I counsel my friend.”

Passive Voice: Receive the action that another initiates – “I am counseled by my friend.”

Middle Voice: Actively participate in an action that another initiates: “I take counsel” this is a cooperating voice (this is the language of prayer)

 

In the middle voice, I don’t control the actions – that’s a pagan concept of prayer. Putting God to work my prayers or incantations.

 

In the middle voice, I am not controlled by the actions – that is a Hindu concept of prayer. Where we slump passively into the fated will of God.

 

In the middle voice, I enter into the actions begun by another. I find myself participating in the results of the action. I neither do it nor have it done to me. I will to participate in what is willed.

 

Is this passage referencing Speaking in Tongues?

 

What is Speaking in Tongues? These are ecstatic utterances that communicate messages from God to individuals and to congregations.

 

For any experience in the Christian life, whether in worship or not, use this grid to help you answer this question:

 

Is there a spiritual precedent?

Is it consistent with that precedent?

Is it consistent with commands around that precedent?

If there isn’t a precedent, is it consistent with scripture?

How do we view that precedent in light of Jesus Christ?

 

 

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