COPING WITH CIRCUMSTANCES
Philippians 1:12-20
Dr. Jerry Vines
If you are really going to be a happy person in life then you
are going to have to learn to deal with the different kinds of
circumstances that arise in your life. Most of us, when circumstances
are good and things are going well, it's not too difficult for us to
have joy in the Lord. When our bills are getting paid, when our
working conditions are favorable and pleasant, when the air conditioning
and the tv are working fine, then most of us have joy in the Lord and we
are very happy about it alL~ olt an the- ather hand, when circumstanc
are bad, when the job is falling apart, when finanrially we are seeming
to get further and further behind every day and when things just aren't
working out too well it's very easy for us to go to pieces and lose our
joy in the Lord and not have the joy in Christ that the Bible wants us
to have.
One of the things we learn as we study this little letter is the
experiences which Paul had that help us know how to respond and how to
deal with the circumstances that come in our life. That's the reason
why it's so easy for us to get a lesson from this little letter because
we know it's written by a man who has been there. He has had the
experience so it's not him academically telling us something that we
ought to do. He is sharing with us what he did in the circumstances
which arose in his life. You have to keep in mind that Paul is writing
this particular letter from a prison cell in Rome. His circumstances
2
had certainly not been very favorable. He had been arrested illegally.
He had experienced shipwreck. He had been marooned on an island. He
had now been incarcerated in a Roman jail. Even some of the other
preachers in town were trying to give him a hard time. His
circumstances were not very favorable and yet in the midst of them all
Paul continues to experience in a wonderful way the joy of the Lord in
his heart.
I saw a book several years ...
Philippians 1:12-20
Dr. Jerry Vines
If you are really going to be a happy person in life then you
are going to have to learn to deal with the different kinds of
circumstances that arise in your life. Most of us, when circumstances
are good and things are going well, it's not too difficult for us to
have joy in the Lord. When our bills are getting paid, when our
working conditions are favorable and pleasant, when the air conditioning
and the tv are working fine, then most of us have joy in the Lord and we
are very happy about it alL~ olt an the- ather hand, when circumstanc
are bad, when the job is falling apart, when finanrially we are seeming
to get further and further behind every day and when things just aren't
working out too well it's very easy for us to go to pieces and lose our
joy in the Lord and not have the joy in Christ that the Bible wants us
to have.
One of the things we learn as we study this little letter is the
experiences which Paul had that help us know how to respond and how to
deal with the circumstances that come in our life. That's the reason
why it's so easy for us to get a lesson from this little letter because
we know it's written by a man who has been there. He has had the
experience so it's not him academically telling us something that we
ought to do. He is sharing with us what he did in the circumstances
which arose in his life. You have to keep in mind that Paul is writing
this particular letter from a prison cell in Rome. His circumstances
2
had certainly not been very favorable. He had been arrested illegally.
He had experienced shipwreck. He had been marooned on an island. He
had now been incarcerated in a Roman jail. Even some of the other
preachers in town were trying to give him a hard time. His
circumstances were not very favorable and yet in the midst of them all
Paul continues to experience in a wonderful way the joy of the Lord in
his heart.
I saw a book several years ...
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