Isaiah looks forward to our today and sees a people overflowing with thankfulness. That is a distinctive mark of God's people - drawing up joy from the well of our salvation and overflowing with thankfulness.

There is no better way to end this year then looking to Jesus and putting your hope firmly in him. Eternal joy, safety and peace is ours because of Him and so much of it is our to have now as his Spirit dwells in us. Put your hope in Jesus this advent season.

We wait in the darkness with hope because the light of life has come!

Waiting is one of those human experiences that is a real struggle sometime. We all experience it, in the every day irrelevance to the significant life moments and how we wait matters. The Advent story leads us to wait with hope in the promises of our faithful God.

How do we work through the frustration of slow or no fruit in the christian life? We tend to our spiritual life so the fruit of the Spirit can grow unhindered through clearing out sin, soaking in the gospel, watching out for our enemy and seeing God's hand in the season of suffering.

When we're struggling to live the fruitful life that God calls us into, we can look to his character and see that he is faithful to finish the race for us.

An impatient and unkind christian is one of the ugliest things you can see because a heart filled with the love of Christ wouldn’t act like that. If you want to grow in godly patience, goodness and kindness, fill your heart with the love of God. What that look like? It’s listening to his voice in his word, looking to his cross and walking by the Spirit

A look at how the first three characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit show us the path to inner fruitfulness

"By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit." We can bear nothing of eternal worth outside of Christ - but there is a profound beauty that flows from our union with Christ - the glory of God, the very thing that we were created for. Would it be our joy to pursue that and celebrate it in our lives and others this week.

Those who are saved have not just been saved to be free, we've been saved to be free to follow the Spirit. What does it look like to follow the Spirit? Firstly it is to put away the desires of the flesh.