The Help of the Holy Spirit: Philippians 1:18–20

Paul’s joy in Philippians 1:19-20 turns on one word, through, pointing to prayer and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ as the path to courage and deliverance. We talk honestly about why believers still need a fresh supply of the Holy Spirit, how to seek it responsibly, and why Spirit power is meant to serve the gospel instead of our egos. 
• reading Philippians 1:18-20 and tracing Paul’s undefeated posture 
• connecting deliverance to the prayers of the church and the Spirit’s help 
• clarifying the Holy Spirit’s ongoing work in believers and in the world 
• asking why Paul seeks a “supply” if he already has the Spirit 
• distinguishing indwelling presence from momentary empowerment 
• walking through New Testament examples of being filled for boldness 
• sharing personal moments of grief, fear, and preaching where the Spirit sustains 
• setting guardrails: the Spirit never contradicts Scripture 
• addressing abuse and skepticism without throwing away the gift 
• discussing speaking in tongues and Paul’s command not to forbid it 
• keeping the purpose central: the Spirit empowers gospel advance and builds the church 
Just ask for it.

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Transcript

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Let's read this thing. It's Philippians. We'll start in 18 for context and work our way through verse 20. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, I will rejoice, for I know that through, everyone say through. We know what through means. Hold on to that word for later. For I know

Reading Philippians And Paul’s Joy

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that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance, or you could even say salvation, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be ashamed at all. But there will be full courage now as always. Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. The joyful, undefeated attitude that Paul has been showing and has as he has displayed in his life is not normal. I've said this three weeks in a row now. You don't reach that point in that maturity. You don't reach that attitude. You don't reach that phase of your Christian walk by yourself on your own. Paul was not born the person ready to face the trials that he was facing, to face uh the issues he was facing, to step into this role that he would he would be. It started with grace and mercy. It started with the work of Jesus Christ. But here in Philippians chapter 1, verses 19 through 20, we see that he specifically points to the Philippian church's prayers, which we talked about last week. And he points to the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, as what he needs in order to basically walk into the fulfillment of what he wants to do. And it's through the gateway to what he wants to accomplish, the gateway to the salvation slash deliverance that he is talking about, the gateway to this courage and joy which will survive the situation is through the prayers of the Philippians. And in particular, the prayers of the Philippians for basically one way you could translate it is a supply of the Holy Spirit to help him move through this moment with success. Paul expresses a desire to have the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ or the Holy Spirit. I'm going

Deliverance Comes Through Prayer

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to try to be brief here, talking about the Holy Spirit. Again, probably need a couple of months on the Holy Spirit, and we probably will very soon. But the Holy Spirit is there to help us. We know this in this room. He's our advocate. He's working for us. He's moving for us, even whenever we can't see it or sense it. He's there. He's there. Even if you don't believe in Jesus, the Holy Spirit is still working on your heart. He's still impressing upon the world the truth. He's still impressing upon the world a conviction of their sins. He's letting people know, hey, hello, he's knocking. What we are doing is not okay. Even if you're not saved, he's working and moving. And all of these job descriptions, everything that the Holy Spirit is that I've just talked about, can be found in Scripture. But what we need to know is that He is active in your life as a Christian. The Holy Spirit's active. He didn't die whenever someone, when John the Revelator, pinned the last words of Revelations. That's not when the Holy Spirit stopped working. He's still working, he's still moving. And the same things that he did in the New Testament are the same things that he's still doing now. I think we all of us in here understand that when you're saved, you have the Holy Spirit. I hope you understand and know that. When you are saved, the Holy Spirit is a part of that process. He's a part of your regeneration, he's part of the sanctification process. And so the question that is birthed from that, in conjunction with the scripture that we just read, is that why does Paul specifically want a supply of the Holy Spirit if he already has the Holy Spirit? Right? I read that and I immediately think, what exactly is Paul asking for here? Because we know that the Holy Spirit's already in his life. We know the Holy Spirit's already at work in his life. So what exactly is Paul talking about here? It's a legitimate question, with I think a pretty clear and obvious answer. We know that Paul doesn't mean that somewhere along the

The Holy Spirit Still Works

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way the Holy Spirit has stopped working in his life. In Romans chapter 8, Paul makes it clear of the consistent and present role of the Holy Spirit and the presence of the Holy Spirit in believers. If you believe in God and you have a relationship with God, the Holy Spirit is present in your life and active in your life. With that being said, what this seems to be here is this distinction between the general presence of the Holy Spirit and a momentary bump or supply or move of the Holy Spirit to provide extra help in certain situations. It would be appropriate to even say that Paul was seeking a supply of the Holy Spirit to make it through the moment that he was facing. Matter of fact, that word supply is used later in Galatians, whenever he's encouraging the Galatians to have the Holy Spirit. So there's some sort of difference here between the general indwelling of the Holy Spirit in believers and the momentary empowerment that the Holy Spirit might provide for somebody or for some group to face a particular situation. Some Christians would somehow disagree with this, unfortunately. Many Christians today, for various reasons, believe that the Spirit is relatively inactive in comparison to what Paul is describing here and what we see

Why Ask For A Supply

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in the New Testament. Paul speaks of the Spirit being given to the Thessalonians. He talks of the Holy Spirit being supplied to the Galatians, like I already talked about. He commands the Ephesians to be filled with the Spirit. And in Timothy, he tells Timothy to fan the gift given to him by the Spirit into flame. The Spirit's active, he's moving, he's working. All believers have the Spirit all the time, but they are sometimes experiencing or experience the Spirit's presence in greater power and abundance than at other times. Thus Luke calls, or Luke tells us that Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit when he was addressing the Sanhedrin that was very hostile towards him. A couple of verses later, Acts tells us that the persecuted Jerusalem church was filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke, spoke with uh a renewed boldness. Stephen, prior to his martyrdom, said that he was full of the Holy Spirit, and no one could contend with him. Paul was also filled with the spirit when he confronted the magician Elamas in Acts chapter 13. And despite the persecution of Paul and Barnabas that they left in their wake in Poseidon and Antioch, the disciples were said to be filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, of course, lived with each one of these people and these groups of people prior to the occasions that are mentioned in these verses, but each apparently received an unusual abundance of the Spirit's infilling during a spiritual time of testing. Paul clearly has the Holy Spirit. He clearly teaches that as Christians we have the Holy Spirit, but he's also clearly asking the Spirit of Jesus Christ, for asking for the Spirit of Jesus Christ to help in a very specific moment that he is facing. And so for me, there is just some practical takeaways from this, very fairly obvious takeaways from this. You have to understand that if you're saved, if you have a relationship with God, you've got the Holy Spirit, which is great news because we all need help. And that's what this entire section of verses has been about. Paul needs help. We need help. You have the Holy Spirit. Don't fret about that. Don't freak out about that. You've got the Holy Spirit. But also, whenever you're facing something, when you've got a situation in front of you, when you've got a problem in front of you, a trouble in front of you, when there is a thing, an entity before you, and you don't know how you're going to get through it, how you're going to address it, how you're going to work through it, there is absolutely nothing wrong with asking for God to supplement you in that moment with the Holy Spirit to help you get through that in a way that maybe you don't normally experience it. That's what he's asking for here. He's asking for the Holy Spirit to step in and help him get through this. He's expressing a confidence about this joy, about this mission that he's on that's going to be okay, but it's going to happen through, he says, prayer and through a supply of the Holy Spirit. I've told this story before. You've all heard the story before. I'll be brief. The night before my brother died, I could not, I was restless. I was trying to go to sleep. It was around 9.30. I had things to do the next day. And I was just starting my master's program. I had a lot to do. And I'm trying to get some good sleep. I couldn't sleep. And so around 9.30, I got up and I just started walking around the campus. And eventually I just started praying. Praying in the spirit, too, under my breath. Thankfully, it's a Pentecostal campus. So if someone heard me, maybe they wouldn't be freaked out. But I can imagine if someone did hear me whispering, praying in the spirit, they'd probably be like, he's insane. I need to call the cops. Right? But I was walking around and just praying. God help me. I don't know what's going on, God, but you got to help me. I don't know why I

Indwelling Versus Extra Empowerment

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can't get settled. Help me. And eventually I was settled and I felt like, all right, I'm going to go to sleep. And I went and I went back to bed. And I woke up the next day to the news that my brother was gone. What I didn't know was the Holy Spirit was preparing me for that moment to go through it. He was sustaining me. He was supplying me with what I needed to make it through the moment I was facing. I've got to be honest with you right here. Every week, almost every day, and especially Sunday mornings, I am specifically asking the Holy Spirit to help me get through this moment. I don't want to be up here. I don't enjoy the process of you guys looking at me. This is not fun. I don't enjoy the process of thinking about, well, if I mess up, they're going to think this. If I missay this word, they're going to think this, which I know you guys don't actually really care, but well, except for Tara, she'll let me know later, right? But but I pray for a supply of the Holy Spirit to be able to stand up here and to do this, number one, without passing out. But number two, to do it in a way that's meaningful for you. That God's will be done. That I'm not just saying whatever I'm I'm even prepared for. I'm supposed to prepare, but more than that, I need the Holy Spirit to say what needs to happen to prepare you for what's out there. It is thoroughly okay. It is well within the realm of New Testament theology for you to pray for the Holy Spirit itself for specific things that you are going through. Some church groups call this the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Some groups might call it the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I don't care what you call it, just know the Holy Spirit is available to you right here, right now. All you've got to do is ask for help, and he is faithful to help you. He's faithful to step into a situation and do something that you can never do on your own. He wants to do that. I'm a Pentecostal preacher, if you don't know that. And that's not fancy, it's not special. I believe in complete basic basic orthodoxy of Christianity for that's been essentially relatively the same for the past 2,000 years. The only difference is, and the only specification that Pentecostal word means is that I believe in the full working and moving of the Holy Spirit, as we see in the New Testament.

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Right?

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The New Testament describes a working and moving church that is being influenced and empowered by the Holy Spirit. And that's simply what I believe. And I think that's standard. I think there's plenty of pastors out there who wouldn't call themselves Pentecostal, but they would believe the same thing. It's just a phrase, it's just a term. But the Holy Spirit works and moves right here, right now. And I need you to know whatever you're facing, whatever doubts you have, whatever situation it might be, it might be a financial problem, it might be a social problem, it might be an issue with a family member, it might be an issue at work, it might be an issue with your kid, it might be an issue with your health, it might be an issue uh with you knowing you should be doing something for God, but you don't want to do it. If you ask the Holy Spirit for help, he will do it in abundance for your life. It's real, it's tangible thing. Just ask for it. There are many more details I want to go into, but we just can't. But here are some practicalities we need to think about and keep in mind. If the Holy Spirit does move, if the Holy Spirit's already a part of your life, if you're saved. And if also you can ask for a supply of the Holy Spirit to help you, what does that really mean? Here's what it means: it means that we got to be careful. The Holy Spirit is never going to supersede the word of God. In other words, the Holy Spirit's not going to do something that stands in contrast to what God has revealed in his Holy Scripture. The Holy Spirit's not going to contradict God. Does that make sense? That's part of the fear with some

Personal Stories Of Spirit Help

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groups of people who want to minimize the work and moving of the Holy Spirit. Because they know how easy it is for anybody to say, well, the Lord told me this, or the Holy Spirit told me this, or this is a work or move of the Holy Spirit. And they can say that to anything. They can tag that on to any action they do, and it's almost like that's their golden ticket to say and do whatever they want to say, whenever they want to say it. And that's a real danger. And because of that real danger, there are many people who would just rather discount the work of the Holy Spirit than consider the fact that the Holy Spirit still works and moves. The Holy Spirit's not in the game of coming up with something brand new and unique for human history. He is only going to work in the framework that God has revealed through his Holy Scripture. This is the easy way out for many people to claim the work of the Holy Spirit in everything they do. And unfortunately, that's just not the case. We have to be grounded in God's Word so that we can discern the claims and actions of others as they claim the work of the Holy Spirit in their life or for their church. Again, God is never willing to contradict Himself through the Holy Spirit. But I understand. I understand that. Listen, I've talked to people who they are skeptical about the Holy Spirit because of experiences like that. Okay, I get it. But you don't discount everything just because it takes a little hard work and wisdom and discernment. But I don't want to throw away this great gift just because I'm a little afraid that somebody might misuse it. We don't do that. That's not responsible. The Spirit does move in powerful and sometimes seemingly unique ways, depending on what's needed in any given circumstance. And we have to be ready for it. And I truly believe we can safely judge the work of the Holy Spirit without discounting it first. The Holy Spirit moves. We want the Holy Spirit to move. So take the responsibility of having discernment and wisdom and judging things, I guess, appropriately. Because sometimes his work does not seem rational. It's not rational. You know what's not rational? I thought about this a lot this week. Speaking in tongues is such an irrational thing. It is. What an irrational thing it seems to be in Western culture. There's no framework for it. It makes no sense. Even in the church world, people who have who study scripture and love God, there are books and books and books about theological issues. And they always seem to find a way in some circles to discount this particular part of the work of the Holy Spirit speaking in tongues. Even in good books, even in books that cover other topics and they cover those topics fairly and they stay grounded in good interpretation. And yet when it comes to speaking in tongues, because it's uncomfortable, because it doesn't seem to fit, because maybe they've never experienced it, they automatically discount it. They find a way to interpret it away when everything else they've interpreted was simple and plain English, and now they are jumping through hoops to rationalize the fact that the Holy Spirit doesn't work that way, even though clearly it does. 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and 14 exist. If you don't know, those are chapters where basically Paul lays out teachings about the Holy Spirit and instructions for proper use of the Holy Spirit, and they're pretty straightforward. It's very hard to interpret your way through those and come out on the other side and think that the Holy Spirit is anything less than what's described in the New Testament, but people do that. But so long as someone is inside the guidelines laid out by Paul, then we should be perfectly okay with something even as strange and seemingly otherworldly as speaking in tongues. In fact, I will argue emphatically that speaking in tongues should be a healthy part of a church, healthy part of a Christian relationship. It's not weird. It might be strange, it might not make any sense, it might be hard to connect with, especially if you've never experienced before. But according to Paul, it's a normal part. And I would hate to be a church, I would hate to be a person who neglects the lucid command in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, verse 39, that says, Do not forbid speaking in tongues. How do you interpret around that? Clearly, there's order to it, clearly there's ways that the Holy Spirit works and moves, and there is organization to it. God's not a God of chaos, is often said, there's order to things. But I never want to be in a place or develop an attitude theologically where I don't let the Holy Spirit do the fullness of what he can do in my life. Even if it doesn't make any sense, even if it's scary, even if it's foreign. If something fits in scripture, we are in no place to condemn it. Including the work of the Holy Spirit. This is just one small example because there's lots of things the Holy Spirit is given credit for in scripture that might seem a little out there. And I'm not saying it's easy to deal with the many people in groups who seem to try to abuse the work of the Holy Spirit, because I think in this room, and those of us listening to this have seen it and experienced people sort of abusing the Holy Spirit for lack of a better phrasing. Goes back to what I was talking about. They want to connect the Holy Spirit to everything they do for better or for worse. It's a tagline for every crazy thing they do. Sometimes it's fine. Like I said, the Holy Spirit sometimes moves and it seems crazy, but it is legitimate so long as it fits in scripture. But sometimes it clearly does not fit in scripture, and it's just people wanting to do whatever they want to do. Judge the work according to scripture and to wisdom. But we need help. Paul needs help. And he's asking for the special supply of the Holy Spirit. But pay attention to this. He's not asking for this supply of the Holy Spirit to draw him into some sort of spiritual ecstasy or some sort of higher spiritual plane that's better than ordinary regular Christians can achieve. That's not what he's asking. He's certainly not asking the Holy Spirit for help to gain health, wealth, and prosperity in a sense that some do today, even though in certain circumstances there's nothing wrong asking God for help, gaining a blessing for your life. But Paul doesn't seem so concerned with that in this moment when it comes to the work of the Holy Spirit. He is praying and hoping that the Spirit will carry him to the courage and to the boldness that he needs so that his testimony might be elevated and might be made evident even as he is facing Roman execution. He is seeking the help of the Holy Spirit so that the advancement of the gospel will happen in his living and even in his dying. The Holy Spirit's supply was for the working of the gospel and for the advancement of the gospel. That's what he was praying for. He wasn't praying to be, I don't know, a spiritual guru. He wasn't praying so that he could lord his gifts over other people. He wasn't praying for a supply of the Spirit so that he could have a woohoo God moment. It was a practical tool he desperately needed to get the work of the gospel done. The power of the Holy Spirit is for the advancement of the gospel. Growing up in a Pentecostal. I grew up in a nice church. I don't have many personal examples from my own church of what I would call spiritual abuses. It was very orderly, very nice, right? I'm blessed to have experienced that. But I've also been around some experiences where I 100% understand and know how difficult it might be to deal with people who in the name of the Holy Spirit are doing all kinds of things that shouldn't be, they shouldn't be doing. Let me go ahead and say that all the bad things that you might experience with people in church using the Holy Spirit as an excuse, all of those bad things, every single one of them that I can bring up in my mind, can be avoided, should have been avoided, if people would have simply remember the role of the Holy Spirit is not for a title, it's not for some hyper-spiritualization, it's not so that you can have a position in a church, but it's simply for the advancement of the gospel. If you can remember that's what the Holy Spirit's for, that's a great guardrail for the

Discernment And Scripture Guardrails

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Holy Spirit's work in our lives, in your life, in the life of a church. It's for the advancement of the gospel, the fruit of the Spirit, which every Christian has available to them, every Christian should have developing inside them through the Holy Spirit. It is the attitudes of God growing in your life. And also it's a sign of who God is in your life for others to see. It's the role of the Holy Spirit. The gifts of the Spirit given throughout the New Testament in several parts. Almost every single one of them are exclusively for the edification, which is the building up of the church so the church can do its job. Not for a position, not for a title, not for some sort of really good moment that gives you goosebumps. That's fine, but that's not the role of the Holy Spirit by itself. Do not be afraid of the work of the Holy Spirit because others have abused it. We need the help of the Holy Spirit. Just like we need prayers from each other, for each other, to make it through this life. We need the workings and movings of the Holy Spirit to be who God has desired us to be. Carrie, to be the worship leader you're called to be, you need the daily help and supply of the Holy Spirit. Tara, to be the mom you need to be, you need the fresh supply of the Holy Spirit every morning to help you be that. To be the pastor I need to be, I've got to have a fresh supply of the Holy Spirit every Sunday morning to do this in a way that brings edification to you guys and glory to the church. We need the Holy Spirit. I needed the Holy Spirit to face the loss of my brother and my father. I needed the Holy Spirit to make the decision to turn down two job offers and move up to New York to pursue Tarah because I knew that's what God wanted me to do. I needed the supply of the Holy Spirit to know when the time was over to leave New York, even before we were engaged, to come back down here because God had a plan for me. I needed the supply of the Holy Spirit so many times in my life, and I know it's the same in your life as well. Don't let other people define the work of the Holy Spirit. Don't let other people and other experiences damage what the Holy Spirit can do in your life. Call on the help of the Holy Spirit in your life and see what happens. Call it a baptism, call it an anointing. I don't care. All I know is that whenever I face this life, I can't do it on my own. And there are moments when I need the Holy Spirit to step in and do things I cannot do, to develop things inside of me I cannot have on my own. Outside of the fruit of the Spirit, even outside of the gifts of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit has to be evident and working and moving in our lives as a church. If we want to be a church that does something for the kingdom of heaven, we have to be a church that invites the Holy Spirit into the process responsibly. Responsibly. We need prayer. We need people who will be people of prayer. We need to be people who ask for prayer, who pray for other people, and we need people to ask for the Holy Spirit. Ask for the Holy Spirit. The boldness and the courage, the rejoicing, the confidence that Paul is displaying is through the prayers of the Philippian church and the hopeful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. He says that for a reason. And if he needed it,

Speaking In Tongues Without Fear

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we need it. Amen. We need just gotta have the Holy Spirit. Gotta have the Holy Spirit. I don't want to be a church that goes through the motions. I don't want to be a church that relies on our own. Listen, if I rely on my own talents and my own gifts and my own abilities to do this thing, you guys would hate Sunday mornings. You would. I'm not saying you love every second of it now. It would be worse. Let me say it that way. What you guys get on Sunday mornings for me would be worse if I didn't rely on the Holy Spirit. What Carrie graciously offers and what Dave gracefully offers us on Sunday mornings through worship would be much less if it was not full of the Holy Spirit. We need the Holy Spirit. Not so that we can be hyper-spiritual, not so that we can be a church that elevates us and puts ourselves on a pedestal. Look at what we do, look at all the gifts at work here. No, no, no. But because we know we need help and we know where the best help comes from. We need the Holy Spirit. Let's pray this morning. And let me just challenge you. And all of us in here, the Holy Spirit is living and active in your life right now. Praise God for that. He is working on your sanctification. He is drawing you closer to God every day. He's guiding you into all truth. He's convicting you of the sins of the world, letting you know what's right and wrong. He's at work right now. But as we pray, if you've got some stuff in your life, situations in your life, stresses in your life, if God's calling you to do something and you don't want to do it, let's pray for basically a supply of the Holy Spirit this morning. And let God have our way in our lives. We love you, Lord. We love you, Lord. You are good, you are great, you are mighty, you're awesome. We walk in your grace, we walk in your mercy in confidence. You've done a work for us, Lord, on the cross. You did a work for us on your resurrection. And we walk in your salvation, and we we gladly welcome the Holy Spirit's work in our lives. But Lord, right now I pray specifically for a work and move of the Holy Spirit in each person's life in this room. Transform their lives

Spirit Power For Gospel Mission

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through the Spirit. Help them get through things that maybe they're struggling with. Help them speak about you in a way they couldn't speak on their own, Lord. Let them be parents they need to be, that they couldn't be on their own, but only with a supply of your Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, help us. Help us, Lord. Grow in us, develop us, and just supply us for the mission of the gospel. I pray that through your spirit that we would be bold in sharing the good news of the gospel. So often when the Holy Spirit shows up, what immediately follows is a gospel-sharing experience. And I simply pray that this morning, through your spirit, that we would be interjected into a situation where you simply bubble up out of us, and your glory and your honor and your work are revealed to those around us through the work of the Holy Spirit. I pray that and believe that with confidence, knowing that salvations will grow from this moment. This is not just another Sunday. This is not just a random service that we drug ourselves to. This is not just something that we have grown into a habit over a lifetime of doing the right thing and coming to church. It's a beautiful thing, a beautiful habit, but it's more than that, Lord. This is a divine moment where you are challenging us to be more of who you desire us to be. And that includes relying on your Holy Spirit for doing the work of the gospel around us. We love you so much, Lord, and we submit ourselves to you. In Jesus' name we pray, and we all set together. Amen.