Joy in Adversity | Philippians 1:12-30
What do you do when things don’t go the way you had planned? You planned for beach day, but instead it rained all day. You thought the job would last, but the layoff came. You thought the relationship would hold, but it broke. You thought your health was secure, but the diagnosis surprised you. All of us know what it’s like to make plans and then watch them unravel. Mike Tyson: Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. Sometimes it’s big things and sometimes it’s small things. When your flight gets delayed five hours, you spend the night in the airport on the floor. Or when you’re stuck in traffic on I-75 and realize the “shortcut” you took just cost you 45 minutes. Or when you’re cheering for your team, they are up the whole game, and then they blow it at the end. That’s not what you planned! Here’s the question: When life takes an unexpected turn, does it steal your joy? This week, a lot of us got our world’s rocked by the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the school shootings and violence against Christians. It’s easy to be afraid and lose our joy.
Paul’s answer from prison is this: Joy is not the absence of problems but the presence of Jesus. If Christ is your life, then no circumstance can take your joy. If your joy depends on everything going your way, you will never have joy. But if your joy depends on Jesus, then nothing and no one can take it away. You have no choice in your circumstances, but if you are a Christian, joy is your choice. Paul teaches us how to have unstoppable joy. We have unstoppable joy when we are focused on the progress of the gospel, free by the power of Jesus, and faithful to His purpose for our lives.