Following the Flow of Joy; Zeph. 3:17; Phil 4:4; John 5:11

Delivered during the Sunday Morning Worship Service, 12/14/2025. As our Advent season continues, we come to the celebration of the JOY we have in Christ. And those are the operative words: "In Christ". In this message we will turn once again to Scripture to help us understand the nature of true Christian joy and why more Christians are not "joyful". Towards that end we will use three verses to help us follow the flow of Joy. Starting with God, we will learn of His joy as expressed in the prophecy of Zephaniah. We will discover what brings God joy and how His joy is manifest in the perfect obedience of His Son Jesus Christ. We will then turn to Paul's letter to the Philippians to learn that God's joy is a supernatural gift of the Holy Spirit and therefore our rejoicing must be "in the Lord". Finally we will turn to the Gospel of John where Jesus emphasizes the only way to experience God's joy is to "abide in Him". Through these verses we will follow the flow of Joy from the Father, through the Son and the Spirit to the church. Ultimately, we will realize the straight-forward principle that the more we live for and in Christ, the greater joy we will experience.