As you read Philippians you’ll notice Paul mentions joy or rejoice about 10 times. To appreciate why he emphasized joy let’s do a topical study on Joy as found in Philippians. First, collect all the references where joy is mentioned and write down what is said about joy in each reference. Second, with this information correlate it into an outline. When I did this I developed this outline: 1. Joy through fellowship, 2. Joy through service, and 3. Joy through worship. Then I amplified these points as follows: Under Joy through fellowship I noted joy in prayer for faithful partners, 1:4 and 4:10, joy resulting from Christian harmony, 2:2, and joy in welcoming faithful servants, 2:29. Under Joy through service I put, joy because Christ is preached by others, even if their motives are questionable, 1:18, joy because of deliverance through the prayers of others, 1:19, joy through suffering, because it results in Christian growth, 1:25-26 and 2:17, and joy because of fruitfulness, 4:1. Finally, under Joy through worship, I noted, when we share with others what God is doing, they will rejoice and praise God, 2:18. When we focus on the Lord He will be our source of joy, 3:1, and we need to make focusing on the Lord a habit of life, 4:4. That’s where Paul admonishes us, “Rejoice in the Lord always, I say it again, Rejoice!” When we’ve collected the information on the topic and correlated it into an outline, we’re ready for the third step, crystallize what you learned into some applications. We’ll do that in our next visit.