Romans 8:26-30; Help in Our Weakness

Jason Sterling May 10, 2026 Faith Presbyterian Church Birmingham, AL Bulletin

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Transcript

Reading Romans 8

SPEAKER_00 0:23

You have a copy of the Bible turned with me this morning, Romans chapter 8. If you want a Bible, you'll see in front of you, in the Purec in front of you, you also see a black uh Bible there in the Purec. You can grab that if you want to get the context this morning. We have been studying the book of Romans. We've spent the last couple of weeks in Romans chapter 8, which has been considered by many the greatest chapter in all the scriptures. And we're going to spend this week and next week in Romans chapter 8. And so let's look at this morning at Romans 8, 26 through 30. This is God's word. 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. 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. And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose. 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, and those whom he predestined, he also called, and those whom he called, he also justified, and those whom he justified, he also glorified. This is God's word. Let's pray and ask for the Holy Spirit to come and be with us as we hear the word preached, but also with me as I deliver God's word this morning. Let's pray together. Father, come this morning in a room this size. We come from a lot of different places. And some of us are drowning just in life and in work and so many places where we feel like we're underwater. And I pray that you would help us to know that you hear us this morning in our groaning. Some of us are confused about the way our life is going. Would you help us to see that you're at work even in the ordinary confusion and in the ordinary things of life? Let the person who's afraid know that you are holding them and you will never let them go. Help us to hear the word clearly this morning. I pray that you would minister to each person here. Give all of us something that we can lock on to, that you can teach us and help us to grow and encourage us and show us the goodness of Jesus and the gospel this morning. We want to encounter him. And so please do that through this passage. Help us to do that in Jesus' name. Amen. Some of you are here currently, but imagine being in the middle of the hardest season of your life, and someone were to come up to you and tell you that Jesus is in the next room and he is on his knees and he is praying for you right now. Would that change anything in your life? Would that settle something in you to know that the Son of God has your name on his lips, interceding for you before God the Father? Most of us, of course, we would say yes. But the picture Paul gives us here in Romans chapter 8 is actually much better than that. Because he is telling us that the Holy Spirit is not in the other room praying for you. And here's why that matters this morning. If we're honest, all of us have had seasons of life. We talked about it last week, seasons of life where it feels like the breath gets knocked out of you and it takes you to your knees. And if we're honest in seasons of life where we are suffering, we feel too weak and too confused and too broken to keep going on our own. And in those moments, the words don't seem to come out. Maybe we start asking questions. God, where are you in all of this? Because I don't see, and I'm not sure that you're working. I cannot see what is ahead. And getting through this life, if it depended on our own strength, we would let go. But it doesn't. In Romans chapter eight, Paul has been showing us how Christians can suffer well, how Christians can suffer with confidence in this broken and fallen world. And last week we saw that part of giving us something to hold on to is our future glory. Remember, Paul talked about a future glory that is so certain and so vast that it actually has impact and reframes everything that we are experiencing now in this world. And this morning, the Apostle Paul gives us more truth. More truth to strengthen us and to help us. We're going to see this morning three things that in our weakness and in our suffering, we need to remember one, the spirit is praying. Two, God is working. Three, God will not let you go. The spirit is praying, God is working, God will not let you go. That's where we're headed. Let's look at our first heading: the Spirit is praying. Look at verses 26 and 27. The word likewise there is doing some important work because it tells us that the apostle Paul is not changing subjects. He's actually going deeper. He has told us that creation groans, we groan. Guess who else is groaning? The Spirit is groaning, groaning within us and for us. The groan, think about this, goes all the way down into the heart of God Himself. And notice here what Paul identifies as the specific weakness. It's not moral failure, it's not spiritual immaturity, it's not even prayerlessness. The weakness here is simpler and more honest than any of that. The weakness, he points out, is that we don't know what to ask for. And on the surface, you and I, because we're finite, all we see is our circumstances. We are not able to see the full picture. God sees the full picture, God sees the whole. We pray for relief, but God might not want to give relief because he's building in us endurance and perseverance. We pray for the situation to change. But God might want to keep us in that situation because he's using that situation to change us. We ask for what we want when what we need is something that we cannot yet see. You see, the gap between what we ask for and what we actually need is real. And the Apostle Paul names it honestly in this passage. And in that gap, the Spirit steps in. And the word here helps is a very rich word. It is the picture of someone coming alongside of you to help you, to help someone who is struggling under a heavy load, someone coming up and grabbing the other end. And so the picture popped up in my mind. I don't know what the picture is for you. Think of a heavy table, think of a rug, a heavy rug or carpet that has been rolled up, something that you cannot manage alone. And someone walks over to you, reaches down, grabs the other end. They don't stand there telling you what to do, giving you advice for how to lift it. They just grab it. And they get up under the load with you. And suddenly the thing that seemed impossible is now possible because you're not carrying it alone. That's the picture. The Holy Spirit. And so what does that mean for us this morning? Well, if you're a believer this morning and you have been punched in the gut, you've been worn down by life and exhausted and weak to the point that you cannot find the words anymore to pray, you are not failing. You might be exactly in this moment that Paul is describing here in Romans chapter 8. The groaning that rises when you have no words is not the absence of prayer, it might be prayer in its most honest form. And for those who've been praying for something so long that they wonder if anyone's listening. For decades and years, the prodigal child, the broken marriage, the infertility, the diagnosis that won't resolve, the situation that has not moved in years, and you wonder, is anyone listening? Are the prayers getting through? They are. And would you help me to know how to pray? And you see, the spirit doesn't pray instead of you. So that the application here is not that, well, the spirit's praying, like, why do I need to pray? No, no, that's not that's not what Paul is saying. It's not the spirit prays, uh uh doesn't pray instead of you, he prays with you, and he prays for you. And so don't stop praying. And when the words won't come and all you have is a groan, that's enough. And the Spirit takes it from there. Secondly, God is working. Look at verse 28, it's the most quoted verse, perhaps in the Bible, but also the most misunderstood. Let me read it, and we're gonna spend the second point just looking and unpacking this verse and making some application along the way. And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Many people read this verse as if it means life is just naturally trending in a positive direction and will naturally go that way. If you just hang on and wait long enough, it's all gonna work out for you. And that's not really what Paul's getting at here. He he's making it very clear, and we see this from all of Romans 8, who is behind it. God is the actor, and he is the one who takes broken, confusing, and the painful pieces of life, and he actively weaves those together. I don't know how all this works, and I don't know why he works this way, and I know some things in our lives are really painful, but he weaves it all together into something purposeful. So that when things work out for us, it is God. All of it, all grace, and so Christians don't look at a good outcome and say, well, of course, that's just how life works. No, Christians look at a good outcome and they say, God did that, but they also look at a bad outcome, and Christians say, God is in that too. You see, Paul really does mean everything. Words matter here. All really means all. It doesn't mean just some things and not the good days, and so does it even include our sin? Well, yes. He even uses our sin. Now, let me be very careful here. It doesn't mean God approves of sin, of course not. Sin is always destructive, and we have to live with the consequences of our sin. But do you see how big God is? God is so big, God is so great that he takes our worst moments in life and our biggest failures and mistakes, and he weaves them together into his purpose. Want some examples? Look at the cross. Most evil moment in human history. And what did God do? He used it to save the world. Joseph got betrayed by his brothers, and you remember what Joseph said at the end of the story? You meant it for evil, God meant it for good. Peter, his denial, God used all of that in order to make Peter a significant part of building his church in the world. God does not cause our sin, but he's not undone by it either. Our sin cannot ruin his purposes for us. All really means all. And some of us, maybe you're sitting here, you go, Well, I'm not in crisis, and nothing has really collapsed, but maybe your life has taken a shape that you didn't really want, and that you really didn't choose and can't quite make sense of. Maybe it's the job that you really wanted that did not happen and didn't come through, or maybe it's the relationship that you really thought was going somewhere, and you thought this is the one, this is it, and suddenly it fell apart. Maybe it's the school that told you no, or the team that you did not make. You see, the season of life that just for you feels off. Maybe you're not drowning, but you can't see what God is doing. God is in there too. He's right in the middle of that. All things include the confusing ordinary things of life. God is working in the seasons that make no sense, not just the ones that break you. And then the question is okay, so what good? What's the good uh that he's actually working in us? Well, he doesn't leave that undefined either. Look at verses 29 and following. Those he foreknew, he predestined, why to be conform to the image of his son. The good, in other words, it's conformity to Christ. Notice, and I know this is hard, and I wish it were different. I really do. Because I just want comfort. But notice he does not say the good is comfort. It is not improved circumstances, it's not the promise, it's not happiness, it's Christ-likeness. And Tim Keller once said that God always gives us what we would have asked for if we knew everything he knows. We pray for comfort, but God is working something better in us. He's working to press us into the mold and the image of Jesus. There is an old proverb, perhaps you've heard it, I think that gets at the heart of this. The same sun that melts wax also hardens clay. The same sun that melts wax also hardens clay. Think about that. Same sun, same heat, same intensity, two completely different results depending on what the sun is shining on. Wax melts, becomes soft and pliable and moldable. Clay, on the other hand, hardens and stiffens and is brittle and rigid and fixed. You see, two people can go through the exact same suffering, the same diagnosis, same loss, the same betrayal. One comes out softened and compassionate and dependent upon God and more like Jesus, and the other one, and we've seen this, you've seen this. And the other person suffering what makes them bitter and hard hearted and unmoved and closed off. The suffering is the difference, is not the suffering. The difference is what the suffering hits on the inside of a person. The difference is what the suffering runs into when it arrives inside of you and into your life. And for those who love God, people who've been changed on the inside by his grace, every circumstance runs into a God who is actively working it towards their ultimate good. Now let me be careful here. Notice very carefully, it does not say the circumstance is good or that suffering is good. The text does not say that. It says God works it for good. The wax and the clay face the same sun, but what they are made of changes everything. And again, let me say that this is not a reason for saying, um, well, I've responded to suffering this way, uh, and so I'm good and I'm better, or uh that was willpower, and I was just stronger. No, no, no, no. We all know if you're wax and your heart is soft, it's because you've been met by the glory and grace of Jesus on the inside, and he has changed you by grace alone. And so, whatever it is you're struggling with this morning, whatever suffering has hit your life, instead of our natural tendency, my natural tendency is to go inward. Let's look upward. God, you are conforming me into the image of your Son. And so please help me to understand what you're doing. Get curious about the things that God has brought into your life and what it means, and how God is trying to shape you and mold you into the image of Jesus. Lastly, God will not let you go. Look at verses 29 through 30. Five verbs, one group of people, no gaps. And that's the key to reading this correctly. Same group of people all the way through the chain. So let's look at each one of those real briefly. For new. This word trips a lot of people up, and the common reading is that God looked ahead in time and he saw all the people who were going to believe, and he chose them on that basis. But in scripture, we know to know someone is not just to know them and have intellectual awareness. To know someone is personal and relational and covenantal. And so when Jesus in the Gospels looks at his false disciples and he says, I never knew you, that doesn't mean he was unaware of them. He was saying that he had no relationship with them. And so maybe a better way to say for new is that it means for loves. Before the foundation of the world, before you existed, God said his love on you. It had nothing to do with how good you are or how bad you are or anything he saw in you. It's just simply because he said his love on you. Predestined. Well, there's a word that makes people uncomfortable. But notice what Paul says. Notice what he says predestinations for. Not to simply determine who gets in, but again, to conform you into the image of Jesus. God predestines you to conform you into the image of his son. That is the destination that he fixed for you before time began. And I know some people you read this and we have lots of questions. We're getting there, I promise. If God chose me or chose them and not everyone else, isn't God unfair? Paul knows your questions are questions, and he's going to spend an entire chapter, Romans chapter 9, on exactly that question. We will get there, I promise, but let's not miss what he's doing here in Romans chapter 8. He's not trying to have a theological debate. He's actually handing suffering, groaning, barely hanging on people something that they can actually stand on. Friends, he is giving you something to hold on to and saying you are not going to slip through the cracks. That his grip on you, he's saying it goes all the way back before the foundation of the world. And he will not let you go. Called. This is where it gets personal. God calls through the preaching of the gospel. But it's not just externally, he works internally, opening up eyes, awakening dead hearts in people. It's why some people can hear the preaching of the word and the gospel, hear the exact same sermon, and on one person it lands with weight and conviction, and they repent and they believe, and the other person it just bounces off. They walked away unmoved, like so what? The difference is not the preacher, it's God calling, creating the very response that he required. Justified. We've talked about that a lot since Romans chapter three. Declared righteous before God because of Christ. And then lastly, look, glorified. Notice past tense. And what's interesting about that is that glorification is something in the future. So why is it past tense? It's saying it's something uh that has already happened. Why past tense? Well, because the chain cannot be broken. No one falls out between the links. Isn't that good news? That your security this morning does not rest on the strength of your faith. It rests on the strength of the one holding you, who predestined you and foreknew you before the foundation of the world. Jim Boyce tells a story about an older Christian who got up in his church and shared his testimony and talked about how much God had done for him and how God had loved him and found him and called him and saved him and delivered him and forgave him. It was just a great witness of the grace and the glory of God. And he said afterwards, a man came up to him and pulled him, pulled this man aside and offered basically a rebuke. And he looked at him and said, Hey, I really appreciate what you said about all the things that God did for you, but you didn't mention your part in it. And salvation's a partnership. And you really should have said something about your part. The older man thought for a moment and he said, Well, you know you're right. I do apologize. I should have mentioned my part. And he said, My part was running away from God. And God's part. It was running after me until he caught me. That's the golden chain. Fournew, predestined, called, justified, glorified. In every link, do not miss it. God is the actor. And in every link, God will not let go. Our part is running away. God's part is running after us, and He will not stop until He brings us home. Suffering is coming. If it has not hit you yet, it is coming. So get your theology settled before it arrives. Friends, Romans is not some abstract doctrine. It's equipment. It's truth that we hang on to and latch on to. When the phone call comes that stops us down in our tracks, when we get the diagnosis we never expected, and when the thing comes that takes our breath away, we hold on to it. When suffering comes, the Spirit is praying, God is working, and God will not let you go. Let's pray. Father, thank you that you're working in all things. Forgive us for asking often and worrying about what you're doing in other people, rather than worrying about what you're doing inside of us and how you're conforming us into the image of God and into the image of your Son. Holy Spirit, when suffering comes, and for those who are in it now, would you hold us and shape us and carry us along? In Jesus' name. Amen.