Oasis Church Birmingham: Talks

2. God With Us - Rich Bowpitt

Advent means ‘arrival’ or ‘appearing’, and is an annual season for engaging with the reality of the ‘time between’ the comings of Christ. It is not simply the ‘build up to Christmas’, as if we pretend Jesus has not yet been born and then celebrate his birth. Rather, it is ‘forward leaning’ and engages with the unseen forces at work in the world, facing the darkness, embracing the light, and encouraging us in how to wait patiently whatever situations we are living with. In this second talk, Rich looks at two names that are given to the promised saviour: Jesus, and Immanuel.

1. Hope in the Darkness - Alice Gray

Advent means ‘arrival’ or ‘appearing’, and is an annual season for engaging with the reality of the ‘time between’ the comings of Christ. It is not simply the ‘build up to Christmas’, as if we pretend Jesus has not yet been born and then celebrate his birth. Rather, it is ‘forward leaning’ and engages with the unseen forces at work in the world, facing the darkness, embracing the light, and encouraging us in how to wait patiently whatever situations we are living with. In this first talk, Alice explores how hope comes to meet us within the darkness, whatever life is looking like right now.

4. The Shaping - Adrian Hurst

The book of Acts tells the radical story of how the earliest followers of Jesus lived with a revolutionary dependance on the Holy Spirit. Rather than seeking to be everything and do everything in their own strength, they created a Spirit-filled community - one where the power and presence of the Holy Spirit was central to everything they did. 2000 years later, the invitation for today's followers of Jesus is to do the same. This week, Adrian continues the series by looking at how the early church community devoted themselves to four things - teaching, fellowship, breaking bread, and prayer - and how this caused them to live with awe, joy, generosity and worship.

3. The Announcement - Rich Bowpitt

The book of Acts tells the radical story of how the earliest followers of Jesus lived with a revolutionary dependance on the Holy Spirit. Rather than seeking to be everything and do everything in their own strength, they created a Spirit-filled community - one where the power and presence of the Holy Spirit was central to everything they did. 2000 years later, the invitation for today's followers of Jesus is to do the same. This week, Rich continues the series by walking through Peter's message in Acts 2 - looking at how the Spirit is poured out so that everyone might be invited to know the life-changing truth that Jesus is both Lord and Messiah.

2. The Filling - Adrian Hurst

The book of Acts tells the radical story of how the earliest followers of Jesus lived with a revolutionary dependance on the Holy Spirit. Rather than seeking to be everything and do everything in their own strength, they created a Spirit-filled community - one where the power and presence of the Holy Spirit was central to everything they did. 2000 years later, the invitation for today's followers of Jesus is to do the same. This week, Adrian continued the series by looking at how the Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost to fill the believers and cause them to break out into the world