How to Have Joy When Life Falls Apart: Philippians 1:12-18
Today’s Episode: How to Have Joy When Life Falls Apart
Scripture: Philippians 1:12-18
Series: Philippians: The Unshakable Joy of Life in Christ
How can we have joy when life falls apart? In this episode, Pastor Jim continues our new series of Timeless Truth, Philippians: The Unshakable Joy of Life in Christ. Teaching through Philippians 1:12-18, Pastor Jim focuses on how the Gospel turns suffering into strength and how Paul’s imprisonment served to advance the message of Christ.
Here are four truths I am strengthened by from this passage:
1. Suffering is real and this means the Bible is both honest and hopeful. (v. 12)
Professor John Lennox says that within the Christian faith, we find a Creator God who becomes part of our shared experience in this broken world, including experiencing pain, evil, and suffering.
What did Jesus do about it? He took it full on. He went to the cross, died, and was buried. Then He rose again three days later, proving that He had the power over death and could offer life and a destiny to those who would believe in Him.
2. Courageous faith always becomes a contagious faith. (v. 14)
“Being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously and actively doing God’s will.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
3. Our motives are usually mixed; but the Gospel is always true. (vv. 15-18)
4. Jesus Christ is our hope in life and in death. (vv. 19-20)
“My thesis will ever be, that, face to face with the deeper questions of life and death, all our knowledge and our culture will fail us, and that our only hope of peace is to be found in the crucified Christ.”
Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Life of Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Iain H. Murray
What is our hope in life and death?
Christ alone, Christ alone
What is our only confidence?
That our souls to Him belong
Who holds our days within His hand?
What comes, apart from His command
And what will keep us to the end?
The love of Christ in which we stand
Oh, sing hallelujah
Our hope springs eternal
Oh, sing hallelujah
Now and ever we confess
Christ, our hope in life and death
“Christ Our Hope in Life and Death”
Words and music by Matt Boswell, Matt Papa, Keith Getty, Matt Merker, and Jordan Kauflin.
© 2020 Getty Music Publishing / Getty Music Hymns and Songs / Jordan Kauflin Music / Love Your Enemies Publishing / Messenger Hymns (admin. by Music Services, Inc.)
