Sermon Title: Speechless 8.9.15

Speechless (8.9.15) 1

First Scripture: Psalm 8:1-9

1Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger
or discipline me in your wrath.
2Have mercy on me,Lord, for I am faint;
heal me,Lord, for my bones are in agony.
3My soul is in deep anguish.
How long,Lord, how long?

4Turn,Lord, and deliver me;
save me because of your unfailing love.
5Among the dead no one proclaims your name.
Who praises you from the grave?

6I am worn outfrom my groaning.

All night long I flood my bed with weeping
and drench my couch with tears.
7My eyes grow weakwith sorrow;
they fail because of all my foes.

8Away from me,all you who do evil,
for theLordhas heard my weeping.
9TheLordhas heard my cry for mercy;
theLordaccepts my prayer.

Second Scripture: Romans 8:26-28

26In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirithimself intercedes for usthrough wordless groans.27And he who searches our heartsknows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedesfor God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

28And we know that in all things God works for the goodof those who love him, who[i]have been calledaccording to his purpose.

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.
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 mom was 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!
We all can relate to the Psalm David wrote that says "I am worn outfrom my groaning. All night long I flood my bed with weepingand drench my couch with tears.My eyes grow weakwith 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?
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!
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.
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.
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 was taking his children from California, where they lived, to Minnesota where her parents lived. Talk about hit so hard you cannot speak! He told me that he spent a whole day crying and contemplating on the beach. He was on his way to the Golden Gate bridge, to end it all, when the Spirit interceded for him with sighs too deep for words! In those sighs, he realized that even when he felt all alone, God was with him, his life was never the same after that!
He was never the same because the Lord, through those sighs too deep for words, searches our hearts and intercedes according to God's will. In other words, when we are left speechless the Holy Spirit looks into our hearts. Leading us to our second 'L' which is to look.
Now God already knows our hearts before He looks because He knows everything. So, for who's benefit, is He searching? It is for our benefit. Until we are hit with a situation or moment that leaves us speechless we can obliviously go through life not even knowing the state of our own hearts. Many times I hear people saying "God knows my heart" as if that is comforting. Think about that for a moment. Every hateful, prejudiced, and unkind thought and emotion is fully present before the Lord. The implication of this was illustrated by a Christian philosopher named Frank Turek. He asked a college student, "What would you do if every thought and emotion you had was projected on your forehead for 24 hours?" She said "I would wear a hat!" Why, because it would be embarrassing. There are parts of our hearts, and things that we think, that we know are not right.
When we are left speechless, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with groans too deep for words by looking into our hearts and showing us places where they need renovated. We often modify the Psalm that says "Search me Lord and know my anxious thoughts" to say "Search me Lord, but not too much." These traumatic events that leave us speechless have a way of taking down that facade of having it all together.
That's defiantly what happened to me during my father's third heart surgery. It was a 12 hour long surgery and there were times when it was really touch and go. After the surgery was over he was in the ICU recovering but he was not out of the woods yet. He was still on a respirator, and a device was still pumping his heart for him. They allowed two of us to visit him at a time so me and my mom went in first. It was Friday and they said that he would be sedated until Monday but we could still talk to him in hopes that he could hear us.
He looked like hell but he still looked like my dad. Mom and I were each holding one of his hands, talking to him, when the emotionally grueling day all hit me. I fell to my knees and I didn't even know what to say. I said,"Lord I'm losing it I need you." In that moment the Holy Spirit looked into my heart and revealed to me that I was not worshiping and being dependant on God, I was worshiping and being dependant on what I thought God could do for me. The whole day I had said 'God I will love and serve you if my dad is healed.'
I should have been praying as Jesus did before His sacrificial death. Pleading with my loving Father but finishing the prayer with 'not my will but yours be done.' The Holy Spirit showed me that a God that I could control is no God at all. Further what I needed more than a healed father, which I desperately wanted, was Him. Thankfully, my dad made it through the surgery and recovery. However, God used that speechless moment for me to learn something.
This leads us to our final 'L.' God uses those times where we are left speechless for us to learn.
What God would have us learn is well articulated by Douglas Coupland in the postscript of his book entitled 'Life After God.' The book is about a generation that has been brought up in what was touted as total freedom from God. I would not read this quote for 15 years after the event I just shared. However when I read it the memory of this event came flooding back. Couplandwrote: "here is my secret:I tell it to you with an openness of heart that I doubt I shall ever achieve again,so I pray that you are in a quiet room as you hear these words. My secret is that I need God - that I am sick and can no longer make it alone. I need God to help me give, because I no longer seem capable of giving; to help me be kind, as I no longer seem capable of kindness; to help me love, as I seem beyond being able to love."
The Holy Spirit interceded for me with sighs too deep for words and enabled me to learn that I need, above all else, God. A God that is at our beckon call and functions as a cosmic sugar daddy, is not a God worth worshiping or depending on. However, a God who intercedes for us when we have been left speechless and will never abandon us in the midst of our suffering is one whom we can depend on. That is what the Lord wants us to learn through those times when the wind is knocked out of us, dependence on Him. That's what God desires for our growth and His glory. When I was talking to Mark about this verse and its application he said that it reminds us that we are not in charge! Sometimes it takes a traumatic event that leaves us speechless to help us realize that. Corrie Ten Boom was a Holocaust survivor who, after the war, preached forgiveness through Jesus Christ to some of the very German guards that tortured her and killed her family. She very insightfully said that "You will never know that Christ is all you need until Christ is all you have!"
What glorifies God and helps us to grow in His likeness is not pretending that we have it all together. It does not impress God when we pretend that we always know what to say. Self righteous superficial acts and flowery prayers do not gain us favor with God. Instead, the Psalmist tells us the sacrifice acceptable to God: "a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise."
So brothers and sisters in Christ, let's not shy away from admitting when we are left speechless. Instead we should open ourselves up for the Holy Spirit to intercede for us with sighs too deep for words. In those speechless moments, in those sighs, let us listen for God's guidance, look for His presence, so that we may learn to be more dependent on Him. As Amy Grant wrote in her song entitled 'Better than a Hallelujah:'
God loves a lullubyIn a mother's tears in the dead of night, Better than a Hallelujah sometimes, God loves the drunkard's cry, The soldier's plea not to let him die, Better than a Hallelujah sometimes, The woman holding on for life, The dying man giving up the fight, Are better than a Hallelujah sometimes, The tears of shame for what's been done, The silence when the words won't comeAre better than aHallelujah sometimes, We pour out our miseriesGod just hears a melody, Beautiful the mess we are, The honest cries of breaking hearts, Are better than a Hallelujah
Prayer: When we are left speechless, Lord, help us to listen, look, and learn from the Holy Spirits sighs that are too deep for words!
Benediction: Let us go forth a people who do not have it all together. A people who learn to be dependent on the Holy Spirit to intercede for us when we are left speechless!