Speechless (8.9.15) 2

- So, how many times have we really prayed? It may not be surprising to discover that there have been few times in my life when I have been left speechless, when I have prayed like David Bowden is talking about.
- a. I am reminded of a story from when my younger brother, Patrick, and I were very, very young and I was jabbering in the car about everything and nothing. My momwas driving and, in exasperation, Patrick looked at me with pleading eyes and said, "Billy, be quiet!" There have been times when we have all been jabbering along in life and, out of nowhere, a situation forces us to be quiet, a situation that makes us speechless!
- b. Weall can relate to the Psalm David wrote that says "I am worn out from my groaning. All night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears. My eyes grow weak with sorrow." Let's all envision one of those moments in our lives. Envision a moment that the group Firefly had in mind when writing a song lyric that says "I've been on a losing streak, I was hit so hard I couldn't speak!" These are situations where we do not even have words to express our pain, confusion, and lost-ness. Thinking of that situation, how can God possibly use those instances for His glory and our benefit?
- c. This morning we are continuing our series entitled "This is Our Story" with this passage out of Romans 8 given to us by Pastor Mark Vale. In the passage it tells us that when we are left speechless the Holy Spirit helps us by interceding with sighs too deep for words. As we investigate this passage I want to ask a question. How do these sighs too deep for words turn those speechless moments into moments that glorify God and bring us closer to our loving creator? To help with memory, the three ways we are going to look at start with the letter 'L.' They are listen, look and learn.
- When the Spirit helps us in our weakness, we are forced to be quiet and listen!
- a. Paul positions our speechlessness in the context of our needing help when writing "the Spirit helps is in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought." I heard someone once say that the worst kind of pollution is noise pollution. Not just audible noise but all of the information being shot at us can cause us to feel like we are trying to drink out of a fire hose. The result is that we hear the cacophony of noise but we are able to listen to nothing! We, so often, need a situation that shows us that we are not strong enough to make it on our own to force out the noise so we can truly listen.
- b. People rightly describe prayer as a conversation between us and God. Think about that in the context of what our prayers usually sound like. They normally sound more like a monologue than a dialogue, more like noise than a conversation. I am not saying we should not share our heart with God. What I am saying is that we often give the King of the Universe a wish list of what we want, say amen, and are all done. Whether it is in formal prayer when we bow our heads and close our eyes, or just short breath prayers where we just say a quick prayer to God, we should always leave time for silence. It is in that silence, in the listening, that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with those sighs too deep for words.
- c. It is in that silence that we often feel the presence of God. It was in that presence Pastor Mark experienced God like never before. He shared with me the story of when this verse really gripped him. The event that knocked the wind out of him, the event that made him speechless, was his first wife announcing that their marriage was over. Not only that, she