Advent Joy

Things get dull over time, don’t they?

I remember the first time I made a really great omelet.

They’re harder to do than you might imagine
I worked hard, not the most coordinated person in the world
Man, was I happy.

Now, I can practically bang out a cheese omelet with my eyes closed.

While that’s not, it doesn’t make me happy.

Second time you watch MOST movies, they get a little less enjoyable

You see plot holes, bad acting, the second time through.

Happiness needs novelty, newness otherwise it ceases to make quite as happy.
Most joyful feeling in the world

Ryan story – reading letters
There was a lot going on in my life at the time

Wasn’t happy at church I was serving
Other struggles of life
BOOM JOY

Saw his, became joyous

Reminded me of the whole sweep of the Christian story

Joy is always, well, joyful!

Differences

Happiness is. Feeling generally tied to exterior things, joy is more of an inner satisfaction. 
Happiness can be achieved singularly, joy requires another participant (God, other people, etc.)
Happiness can be synthesized

Big Macs make me pretty happy
Dan Gilbert (2014) made a big deal about synthesizing happiness.

It’s a way to convert it to joy but, well, have you heard of either synthetic happiness or Dan Gilbert?

It can’t be done consistently without a Christian worldview

Why?

Hope falters without an understanding of The Kingdom.
There are somethings from which happiness cannot be synthesized WITHOUT an understanding of God.