A New Prayer Life - Abba! Father!: Romans 8:12-17

Turn your Bibles, if you will, to Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

We'll be reading a short text, verses 12 through 17.

You'll find the text printed in the bulletin as well, if you'd like to follow along there.

If you've been at ABC for a short time or a long time, you may know that every new Sunday of the new year, first Sunday of the new year, we well, I preach on prayer.

Because it's really the foundation of this church and everything we do.

And this morning I'm going to preach on prayer, but it may be a different take.

It might feel different to you on the subject of prayer.

We'll get into that.

But here are the words of the Apostle Paul.

As Pastor Josh read the first half of this chapter earlier, we did that for a reason.

It's connected.

And it's really hard to understand the passage before you now without what comes before.

But hear God's word.

So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.

For if you live according to the flesh, you will die.

But if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God, for you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba, Father.

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our Spirit that we are children of God.

And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him, in order that we may also be glorified with him.

This is the reading of God's infallible, inerrant word.

Let's pray for the Spirit's work in our hearts now.

Father, we could hardly think of a more important chapter in the entire Bible.

Lord, there is so much truth communicated, and yet, Lord, we need more.

We need more than just the words on the page.

Lord, we need the work of your spirit to make what we read come alive.

Lord, that's our prayer.

Spirit of God, would you please open us up in new ways?

Our minds to be renewed by your word.

Our wills to choose that which is good and right.

Lord, our emotions where we are sullen, where we are downcast if we are.

Spirit of God, thank you for being here to do exactly what you do best.

We pray in Christ's name, amen.

When it comes to prayer, I think many of us would agree that we have more to learn.

When did you learn how to pray?

When did you start learning how to pray?

Some of us, it was as children, little ones.

Some of us were taught by our parents, some of us weren't, some of us just had to learn later in life from others who taught us.

And yet we all have more to learn.

And I would submit this morning that this may be one of the most neglected things in the life of prayer that many of us could testify to.

What we're going to focus on this morning has been largely neglected in the teaching of God's Word in many of our congregations.

Today we look at that often overlooked essential resource in prayer, the Holy Spirit.

Paul Miller in his book on prayer says that, and he says it so well, it's so memorable.

We all, you might say, are born with this badly damaged prayer antenna.

We try to direct our prayers upward, and most people know that, no matter how much or little they know about God.

Many people believe that there is a God and that it's important that we talk to God and that we pray to Him, and we do it the best way we know how.

Some people have received a lot of biblical instruction and education, and that informs how they do that.

Other people, very little, just do what feels intuitive.

But what Paul Miller calls this badly damaged prayer antenna has been replaced by the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is the one who teaches us how to pray.

The Holy Spirit is the one who enables us, opens us up.

You know, if you're really bound, you're not going to be able to pray well.

And there's lots of things that can bind us.

There's lots of things that can just kind of suppress us, lots of things that can depress us.

What's he talking about in this passage?

And we we know many of you have studied the book of Romans, in the book of Romans, chapter 7, it's all about indwelling sin.

Romans 7 · chapter mention

And if you go back, and not now, but if you go back and you count the many times that Paul refers to himself, first personal pronoun, I, me, myself, or Paul, there's just such a sharp, marked contrast when you get to chapter 8.

Chapter 8 is not about indwelling sin at all.

Chapter 8 is about the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

The contrast could not be more striking.

This is what Paul's telling us about.

Indwelling sin is when we walk by the flesh.

And yes, we all still do at times walk by the flesh.

And when we walk by the flesh, our prayer life will never be vibrant.

It will never be rich.

It will never be thrilling.

That's one reason, and I wish we had, I honestly wish we had all day to go through this.

There's so much to really look at.

But a deadened prayer life, an apathetic prayer life, a faithless prayer life is absolutely connected with walking by the flesh.

It's not walking by the spirit.

Chapter 8 of Romans, the Holy Spirit takes center stage.

It's not walking by the flesh, it's walking by the Spirit.

As we say many times in this church, I think it was J.I.

Packer who said it, the two great sendings of the Bible, God sent His Son so that we might have the status of sons and daughters.

But that wasn't enough.

He sent His Spirit so that we might have the experience of sons and daughters.

And I've been a pastor here long enough to know that most of us, almost all of us, probably all of us, have really struggled with that.

We could testify that we've learned a lot more from good biblical teaching about our status as sons and daughters rather than our actual experience of that day-to-day.

You don't do that apart from the Holy Spirit.

We have so much more to learn about this status as daughters and sons that only the Holy Spirit can teach us.

The work of the Holy Spirit.

It's the Spirit's testimony.

Again, time is so short, but there's four proofs that Paul gives us, even in these short verses.

The first proof that we are led by the Spirit is it's a life that's leading into holiness.

Somebody who claims to be led by the Spirit, to really know the Spirit well, who's not growing in sanctification, doesn't know what they're talking about.

Alright?

Just don't know what they're talking about.

Talk is cheap.

Talking about how close they are to the Spirit, talking about how filled they are with the Spirit and all the experiences that they may have with the Spirit.

If they're not getting holier, no, they're not being led by the Spirit.

They're chasing an experience.

They're not being transformed by the Spirit Himself.

That's the first proof.

The second proof is the spirit of adoption by which we cry, Abba Father.

Okay?

When the Spirit is at work in your life, he's leading you from fear to freedom.

These are tangible, practical demonstrations of the Spirit's work in our life.

It's not nebulous, it's not just a feeling that you have.

Are you growing out of fear?

Are you growing more into freedom that you have because the Spirit is testifying to your spirit that you're not a slave, you're not an orphan.

You're a child of God.

That third proof, the witness of the Spirit, to actually call God father.

It's interesting to hear people pray how we address them, and there's many ways by which we can address them.

But no matter what the choice of words may be, father, Abba, there's a sense in which I think I hear the measure of intimacy and confidence when we pray, when I pray, when you pray.

That's exactly why God uses this illustration, this example.

It's very much like that.

It should sound familiar.

It doesn't sound like a door-to-door salesperson.

It doesn't sound like a business proposal.

It sounds like a child talking to his dad, his mom.

The fourth proof.

We could spend a lot of time on this.

We won't.

One way that you know that you're being led and controlled by the Holy Spirit is you're willing to suffer for Jesus.

And you're not complaining about it.

You're not bitter about it.

He says that, doesn't he?

Provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

You see your suffering is redemptive.

You see your suffering is whatever the tests and the trials that come from God.

You see that they are with his permission, in his wisdom, for your benefit.

And you know that no matter how much suffering you endure in this world, no matter what you face in this world, you are going to be set free one day.

When you meet Jesus, you're going to be set free.

And so we suffer.

We suffer well.

Not easily, but for the sake of Jesus.

We look at his sufferings and we say, okay, what I have to suffer is a pittance by comparison.

This is just the backdrop to this short passage.

But what I want to focus on in most of the remaining moments is what role does the Holy Spirit Himself play in your prayer life?

As we said, the Holy Spirit replaces our badly damaged prayer antenna.

We tend to resist grace by underestimating what the Holy Spirit has done in doing for us.

We minimize what Jesus has done for us and what the Holy Spirit is doing in us.

I think we do that far more than we realize.

We minimize what Jesus has done for us and what the Holy Spirit is doing in us.

Consequently, we overestimate what we can do by our own moral willpower, don't we?

We tend to overestimate what we can do, and when we do that, that always hinders the work of the Holy Spirit.

They're in direct conflict.

We are debtors, Paul tells us in the text, but not to the flesh.

But if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, the Puritans had a word, a favorite word they love for this.

They called it mortification.

To put to death the misdeeds of the body.

The verb that Paul uses here means simply to kill.

Okay, pretty violent.

But you know, some violence is good.

Put to death the misdeeds of the body, of the flesh.

Don't let it live.

Our eyes, our ears, our mouths, our hands, our feet.

Put to death by the work of the Spirit.

But you see, it's only by the working of the Spirit that we can do this.

Otherwise, we learn to coexist.

Otherwise, we learn to just kind of coddle these sins that are destructive to us and to others.

Notice, though, what he says, and the language is clear in the text.

We are the ones to put to death the misdeeds of the body.

You're not passive in this at one bit.

You and I are not passive.

We are active participants in putting to death the misdeeds of the body.

And if you don't understand that, you're going to struggle for the rest of your life.

And you're going to be miserable with yourself.

You're going to wonder, why can't I ever, why can't I ever change?

Why do these sins just always have a grip on me?

Do you ever wonder that?

This is what he's saying.

Martin Lloyd Jones, the doctor, put it like this.

With comes to our sins, we have to learn how to pull them out, to look at them, to denounce them, to hate them for what they are.

Or there's no death.

We cannot do any of this apart from the work of the Holy Spirit.

This is true.

He's the one that gives us the desire.

The Holy Spirit is the one that gives you the insight to see what's killing you.

The insight to see what's really harming you and harming other people.

Apart from the work of the Holy Spirit, you won't see it.

You may see it, but you'll minimize it.

This is the work of the Spirit.

This is all in these few verses.

This is chock full of Holy Spirit-empowered living that we must understand to live the Christian life.

So I ask, are you learning how to yield to the Spirit in your life?

There's an old proverb, I think it was actually the words to a song, maybe.

It bids me fly and gives me wings.

Isn't that beautiful?

That's what that's Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

What the Spirit did, what Christ has done for us, frees us.

Like we've never been freed.

Paul says, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry out, Abba Father.

Let's hone in on this.

He does not say, well, look at that verse.

I mean, okay, it's right in front of you, right?

By whom we cry.

It doesn't say by whom we say.

Don't miss that.

In other words, you could just say the words, but that's not what he's talking about.

You could say the words, oh, I can say Abba, I can say father.

That's not so hard to say.

And completely missed what he's talking about.

This is the work of the Holy Spirit in you, in me.

Convincing my spirit, convincing you in your spirit, enabling us to do something that we could never do before he came into our life.

And that's to say it with conviction, and sometimes to say it with intensity, and sometimes to say it as a cry.

This is a powerful word that the Apostle Paul uses as we cry out.

This is the same word that was used in the gospels when the demons would be confronted by Jesus, and the demons would cry out, Jesus, Holy One of Israel, what do you have to do with us?

Jesus, Holy One of God, leave us.

This is the same word that Paul uses.

Paul says nobody can cry out, Abba, Father, but by the Holy Spirit.

This is a new prayer antenna.

You didn't order this antenna.

You didn't fit this antenna.

This is divine.

Divinely ordered, divinely given.

The Holy Spirit.

You did not receive the spirit of bondage or slavery, but the spirit of what?

Notice, okay, you're paying attention.

What would you expect to say?

He says you did not receive the spirit of bondage.

What would you expect the next phrase to say?

You did not receive the spirit of bondage.

You would expect him to say, but you did receive the spirit of freedom.

Isn't freedom the opposite of bondage?

But he doesn't say that.

He says you received the spirit of adoption.

What's he saying here?

Sinclair Ferguson says the notion that we are children of God, his sons and daughters, is the mainspring of all Christian living.

Our sonship is the apex of creation and the goal of redemption.

That's pretty high praise.

Listen to what J.A.

Packer said about this.

If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much they make of the thought of being God's child and having God as their father.

If this is not the thought that prompts and controls their worship and prayers and their whole outlook on life, it means that they don't understand Christianity very well at all.

That's quite a statement, isn't it?

Let me read that again.

If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much they make of the thought of being God's child and having God as their father.

If this is not the thought that prompts and controls, two things in particular, did you remember that?

That prompts and controls your worship and your what?

Your prayers.

And your whole outlook on life, it means that you don't understand Christianity very well.

Not like you thought you did.

Let's break that down.

That prompts and controls our worship in our prayers.

When we cry, Abba Father, it's the Holy Spirit Himself bearing witness with our Spirit.

We say this all the time at ABC.

You cannot convince yourself of anything that's worth knowing.

You cannot convince yourself of God's love.

Did you know that?

Some of you don't know that.

You've been trying to convince yourself of God's love.

You've been trying to convince yourself for years, maybe.

God, would you just please?

I need to know that you love me because I forget it so much of the time.

You can't do it.

But the Holy Spirit can.

The Holy Spirit can convince you that the truth of God's love is real.

It's just as real as this wood I'm knocking on.

The Holy Spirit can convince you of all the things that you need to be convinced of, but only He can, you can.

And that's why so many of us are struggling.

So much.

Oh, how we need to learn how to yield control to the Holy Spirit.

It's time, people.

It's time.

We've lived long enough.

Living and thinking like orphans.

And the Spirit says, I take control.

Give me control.

Yield control.

Die to self.

This is what he's saying.

He uses the word Abba.

Father.

Why did he repeat it?

Father, the Greek word, which is a very common Greek word.

Why didn't Jesus, wasn't he content just to say father?

Why did he oftentimes say Abba, father?

Well, Abba is not a Greek word.

It's not a Hebrew word.

It's an Aramaic word.

Aramaic was the trades language of the people in the time of Jesus.

When you would go shop, when you would shop, when you would trade.

It was the term, it was the language, a word.

Do you know what Abba means?

Dada.

Literally.

Papa.

It's the first word that many children speak.

Dada.

Papa.

Hermaeus, a church historian, scholar, done a lot of research in this.

He said Abba was the everyday word, the family word that was used in the home of many Jews of that day.

No Jew would have ever dared to address God in this way, however.

That would be blasphemous.

To say to address the God who created the heavens and the earth?

The altogether holy, perfect God?

Would you dare to go into his presence like a little child?

Would you dare to climb up on his lamp?

And would you dare to hold his neck?

Would you dare to say, Dada?

I don't think most Christians ever would.

And it was a long time before I could.

How about you?

No, we we just have to reserve a proper distance.

And this has nothing to do with the transcendence of God and the immanence of God.

Of course, God is altogether separate and holy and righteous.

We ought to, there's times where it's just very appropriate to be in the dust.

That his holiness blinds us.

But that's not at odds.

And this is the mystery, this is the mystery of the Christian faith that Packer was talking about, that Ferguson was talking about.

This is the amazing truth.

While he can be altogether holy and different from us, that he invites us to come close and even to utter the words, Dada, Papa.

And only the Holy Spirit can convince you of that.

Only the Holy Spirit can bring you from yourself out of yourself with all your preconceptions of who you think God is and what you can say to him and how you can approach him.

Only the Holy Spirit can free you of that and teach you a new way, give you a new prayer antenna.

This is what this sermon is about.

This is a sermon about praying with boldness, with praying with confidence, with praying believing.

Not because you convince yourself.

Okay, are we done with that?

Can we be done with that?

Trying to work it up?

Trying to just kind of gin it up.

I don't know about you, but I'm done with that.

I need the Holy Spirit.

I need to yield and invite the Spirit in.

And when the Spirit does, he does all these things.

It's not just this.

We already covered it, right?

If you're not willing to see your sin, forget it.

This isn't gonna work.

If you're not growing in holiness, this is not gonna work.

If you can't, if you can't, if you're not learning how to live in faith and not fear, this is not gonna work.

Do you see what I'm saying?

Why?

Because it's all about the person of the Holy Spirit.

And you don't just say, Holy Spirit, I want the comforting part.

He's the counselor.

He's eminently qualified to show you what's amiss in your life, but you have to have ears to listen.

You have to have a humble heart to receive.

And that's the problem, isn't it?

So much of the time.

We overestimate what we can do by ourselves, and we underestimate what he can do.

This is what Paul's saying.

It's stunning, it's astonishing.

Don't leave it at the table.

He's speaking to you this morning by his word, his spirit.

Receive rest.

Invite the Spirit in to take control.

When the Holy Spirit is at work, he applies divine pressure so that we actually see our sins and we confess our sins where we have not been doing that.

When the Holy Spirit is at work, the words of Scripture that bring comfort actually bring comfort.

They're not just words on the page that you read and say, oh, I wish this was more my experience.

When the Holy Spirit is in control of your life, he actually makes the truth comfort you.

Isn't that what you want?

He actually brings you to confess your sins.

And he opens up all whole new chambers of praise and adoration that you didn't know you had.

Well, you didn't have them.

But they begin flowing.

The Holy Spirit is the one who teaches us how to praise and adore.

And our prayer life changes.

Our prayer life is not just give me, give me, give me.

Our prayer life becomes, Lord Jesus, you are beautiful.

Look what you've done for me.

Father, you are faithful in all things.

And Holy Spirit, you are powerful.

This is the work of the Spirit.

Do you understand this?

It prompts and controls our worship in our prayers, our worship in the sense that we become more aware of tasting the goodness of God.

Thank you, Patricia, for reminding us of that.

Come and taste the goodness of the Lord.

Yes, he wants us to taste his goodness every worship service.

He wants us to taste his goodness 365 days out of the year, not just once every while.

This is tasting the Lord.

This is the work of the Spirit.

A worship spirit.

But it's also again in our prayer life.

Nowhere do we measure our understanding of our sonship more than our prayer life.

The intimacy.

The spirit who cries with our spirit.

Isn't that amazing?

The Holy Spirit.

He's called the Holy Spirit because he is holy, but also it's his job to make you holy.

The Holy Spirit says, I want to work with your spirit.

I want your spirit to yield to me.

I want your spirit to listen to me.

I want your spirit to confess.

I want your spirit to give up control.

All the things that we find so hard to do.

But it's possible.

This is what he's saying.

This is in Romans chapter 7.

Romans 7 · chapter mention

I can't do it.

This is Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Through Christ I can do all things.

This is Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

This intimacy.

Oh friends, this boldness.

Stand up today.

Get up.

Rise up.

Stop living with your orphan spirit.

Stop believing the orphan gospel if it is.

If there was such a thing.

Abba, Father.

Abba, Father.

Have you ever really cried out, Abba, Father?

Ever in your life?

Has the Holy Spirit taken a hold of your heart and given you faith to see the beauty of the Savior Jesus, the beauty of his finished work on your behalf?

Lay down all of your deadly doing.

And fall in love with Jesus.

And adore him and praise him and trust him.

Man, this is what we need.

By faith.

We cry out, Allah, Father.

I don't know what the Spirit would have to say to you this morning.

I'm confident he has something to say to you this morning.

I'm confident he has something to say to you this morning, just like he has something to say to me.

He's had a lot to say to me this week about this sermon.

I've tried to be in listen mode.

As I read the text, as I exegute the text.

Let's be in listen mode.

Because whatever the Spirit decides is most necessary in your life and mine, it'll lead to all kinds of things.

For some of us, it might lead us to going up to somebody after church and asking them for forgiveness.

Okay, that's just what it looks like.

You know, you convince yourself, no, it's really it was their fault.

That's that's you know, that's the flesh.

No, it was their fault.

The spirit may say, no, you go talk to that person.

And you know, ask you go ask their forgiveness.

That's what it looks like.

The spirit might be saying, it's time that you start talking about Jesus.

It's time that you start witnessing about Jesus to people that don't know Jesus.

Why are you so quiet?

That's how the spirit works.

The spirit could have a hundred different things.

The spirit could have three hundred different things.

The spirit might have something different for every one of us in this room right now.

That's who he is.

That's how he works.

The real question is, are you yielding your heart?

Are you yielding to the Spirit's work in your life to take the things of the Word of God and press them in to free you in new ways?

Is it changing your is it going to change your by the way, let me just say one more thing.

If you're not responding to the work of the Spirit in those ways, don't be surprised when you say Papa or Dada, it doesn't feel close.

There's nothing magical in the words.

You hear me?

It's not just some magical thing to say, oh, Abba.

You can't cry out Abba if you're not humble enough to receive what he wants to give you in your life.

It's not much different than a parent and a child or your family.

Would you?

How would you respond to your child who was disobedient?

How would you respond to your child who was disobeying your commands, your orders around the house?

Would you say, ah, it doesn't matter?

It's family.

And Christian, you have been given the greatest gift of all to be adopted into God's own family.

He's given you his own son, he's given you his own spirit, that we would live a different way of life.

That's what he has for us.

That's what he has for me.

And I'm excited about it.

That's what he has for you.

We're gonna come back tonight and we're gonna pray.

We're gonna ask the Lord to take over this church in new ways.

We're gonna ask the Lord to take over our lives in new ways.

We're gonna pray.

Abba, Father, tonight, this week as we gather to pray.

Yes, I hope you'll be a part of it.

I think we all need to learn how to pray in new ways.

And only the Holy Spirit can teach us.

Thank God He does.

Pray with me now, please.

Oh Father, how good you have been to us.

And how often we have just not responded as we should.

With gratitude, with thankfulness, with humility.

Oh God, we have sinned against you.

We have sinned against you in so many ways, including our prayer lives.

Oh God, Spirit of God, search us now.

Each one of us.

Show us what we most need.

Remind us of what you've already done to secure our salvation.

And giving us your Son.

And giving us your Spirit to glorify you.

This worship service is to glorify you.

But we can't do that without your spirit, and we can't pray, and we can't worship without your spirit.

Spirit of God take control.

Speak.

Lord Jesus.

Amen.

At this time we come to the Lord's table.

What an appropriate thing to do at this particular point.

The Spirit's work is not done.

You know what's a beautiful thing is the Savior's work is done.

But not the Spirit's work.

Isn't that beautiful?

There's not one more thing Jesus has to do.

He did it all.

He paid it all.

That's why we can come to this table this morning.

It's finished.

But the Spirit's work is not done.

The Spirit, even now, these next few minutes, would say, look, I want to, by faith, I want to keep working in your mind, in your heart.

I want you to see with new eyes, expanding, understanding that it is finished.

Rest in the finished work of Christ.

That's the Spirit's work.

Jesus talking about this table, this supper.

Talking to his disciples, talking about his death.

As they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it, he broke it and gave it to the disciples.

And he said, Take, eat.

This is my body.

And he took a cup.

And when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

I tell you, I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.

There is not another that you've ever heard that can match this story.

This story is the greatest story of all.

That the one who created us for his glory came back to redeem us because we went away.

We rebelled.

But Jesus runs after sinners.

Jesus calls sinners back.

Jesus forgives sinners.

But we have to receive his forgiveness.

It doesn't happen automatically.

You have to ask him.

Ask him.

He said, look, I'm willing for my body to be torn apart to get you back.

He said, this cup is a new covenant, my blood.

I'm willing to pour out my blood to get you back.

This is why we call it the Eucharist.

The good news, the blessing of all that he did to bring us back.

As you come forward to receive the elements this morning, come as you're ready.

Come as the Lord leads you.

But only those of you who have come to Jesus for salvation dare come forward to take the elements.

Because the Bible is very clear that you need to take Jesus as your Savior and your Lord before you take these elements, before you touch these elements.

But as you've taken, as you've taken of Jesus and you're trusting in his righteousness for your forgiveness, let the Spirit work in you.

Rejoice.

Rejoice as the Spirit testifies to your spirit that you are a child of God.

Let there be joy in your adoption this morning.

Let there be joy in hearing the Father's promise.

There is no condemnation for you because of Jesus.

Let's pray.

Father, take these ordinary elements.

Would you please use them for your holy higher purpose?

To point us to Jesus.

Oh, from your word by your spirit.

Give us eyes of faith to take and to be fed with the gospel now.

In Jesus' name, amen.