Today, in the last day of our week-long focus on joy, we're going to explore how we can be carriers of the joy of our God.

Joy is contagious, it's powerful, and it's meant to be at the heart of our communication of who God is and what relationship with him is like.

May God fill us all with a greater measure of his joy today and a greater understanding

of how to carry that joy into a world in desperate need of it.

Welcome to the First of Team podcast. Our verse for today comes from Isaiah 5512, which reads,

For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace.

The mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing,

and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

As disciples of Jesus, we are to carry the joy of our salvation everywhere that we go.

You and I have the power to change atmospheres on earth with the joy of the spirit.

We have the power to brighten people's days, break off heaviness,

and lead people to a deeper revelation of the goodness of our Lord

when we reflect his joy to others. God is a joyful God. He is the

inventor of happiness and fun. Luke 1510 says, just so I tell you, there is joy before the angels

of God over one sinner who repents. And Nehemiah 810 tells us, the joy of the Lord

is our strength. In order to truly declare to the world who our Heavenly Father is, we must be

carriers of joy. We must be a people marked by the joy that only comes from restored relationship with an all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-loving God.

It's taken me a long time to learn, and even longer time to realize the truth that circumstances, people, trials, work, and worldly stress do not have the inherent ability to steal my joy.

It's when I open my heart to outside elements that I allow stresses to come in like robbers

and take what is rightfully mine in the Lord.

It's when I allow a fellow driver, a time crunch, a negative comment,

or a troublesome problem to take precedence over the joy and hope that I have in Jesus,

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