Introduction to Advent 2021 teaching series

Well today we begin a new teaching series, as we begin a new season in Advent. And I wonder how you're approaching the Advent season this year? I was talking with my Spiritual Director who's someone who accompanies me to just listen out to what God's saying in my life. Because, who pastors the pastor? And so I meet with her every couple of months and we got talking, because not only does she do spiritual direction, she's a counsellor and does various different things, and we were reflecting upon how maybe, others are approaching this Advent season. That maybe people are feeling really worn-thin weary, I'm struggling, that we've maybe lost a bit of confidence and we're still yearning for that real return to normal? And, even now, we see the news and what's happening in another variant and we might not be approaching this season with a feeling of hope and joy and peace. And so, it got me thinking. What, where might we turn in the Advent passages? Where might we turn to be renewed in that? To be renewed in faith and in our hearts too? To be uplifted again. And so, today, and for the next three weeks, we're gonna keep coming back to Isaiah chapter 9. We'll dip into some other passages as you'd expect me to do, but in Isaiah 9 we find four titles of Jesus and we're going to dig into those titles and see why they are good news for us today. And so, we hear our passage now read for us by Liz.