Vineyard Groningen Sermons

Having a well-functioning small group ministry has proved to be essential to any healthy, and growing church. It’s essential for both health and growth! Because, for one, churches that grow in numbers have discovered that as they are growing bigger, they need to grow smaller – facilitating intimate relationship in a large community. But also for spiritual growth, it is essential to be plugged into a small group of Christians that gather around the Bible and learn and pray together.

As part of the series Hallmarks of a Healthy Church we looked at the topic of Gift Based Ministry. God has created you uniquely, to make a unique contribution to the body of Christ, in line with how God has wired you, empowered by the Holy Spirit, in an area where you will find fulfillment. This is our vision for how we may serve here in Vineyard Groningen.

We're in a message series called: Hallmarks of a Healthy Church. This series is in the context of a church health survey that we’re doing with NCD. This Sunday we talked about 'passionate spirituality'. We looked at the topics: What does it look like when passion has left the church? What does it mean to be spirituality passionate as a Christian? And can you become spirituality passionate?

We're in a message series called: Hallmarks of a Healthy Church. This series is in the context of a church health survey that we’re doing with NCD. This Sunday we talked about 'inspiring worship services'. Our vision for what we do on Sunday morning, is that it will empower you to live a life of worship for God.

The finish line is within reach…it is a perfect fit with the passage from which I will preach today: Hebrews 12:1-3. The great encouragement of the final chapters is the one of ‘perseverance’. This is the practical consequence that you may draw from the systematic theology in Hebrews: because Jesus Christ is far, far greater than anything or anyone else; persevere, knowing that the time will come that all things will be set right.

I continue my series on ‘New Beginnings’ with the focus on ‘baptism’. From three different angles I look at the meaning of baptism in the life of a Christian. Last week I spoke about baptism as the introduction to discipleship of Jesus; serving, learning and following Christ. In this message, I look at baptism in relationship to the freedom from the power of sin in order to live UP to God.

It’s Pentecost and the Church celebrates the outpouring of the holy Spirit – the wonderful gift of the Father! And in today’s message I would like to look in particular at the holy Spirit as a gift ‘to the world’ – working in and through us as you witness Jesus.We’re going to read from Acts chapter 1:1-8. These verses contain the very last words of Jesus before Jesus ascended to the Father. Whereas the gospels ends with Jesus’ last words, Acts opens with it. And whenever you’ve been with someone dying; the very last words are the words that you remember; they’re usually the most important words; the final things that the person wants to say before he breathes his last.

When an unbeliever, a friend, or someone close to you listens to you when you pray, what conclusions would they make about God? This morning Frank Tsiwah took us through the topic of prayer based on the two words "Our Father" from the Lord's Prayer Matthew 6:9-15.

Celebration is at the heart of the practice of all the Spiritual disciplines. Without joy and celebration it will become a dead and dry thing to do. Joy creates energy. Joy makes us strong. Richard Foster explains why celebration is a spiritual discipline. He says ‘The choice to focus our attention to the higher things in life is a matter of our will. That is why celebration is a spiritual discipline.’ Celebration is the result of a conscious chosen way of life.

Today I pick up my series on ‘Going Deeper’. The spiritual disciplines all involve bodily action and today I am going to look at a couple of passages from the Bible that describes how your body can be used in order to ‘go deeper’ with God.

Today I pick up my series on ‘Going Deeper’. The spiritual disciplines all involve bodily action and today I am going to look at a couple of passages from the Bible that describes how your body can be used in order to ‘go deeper’ with God.

This morning Maurits kicked-off a new series of preachings Going Deeper on the practice of Spiritual Disciplines

This morning Maurits kicked-off a new series of preachings Going Deeper on the practice of Spiritual Disciplines

This morning Jan-Bernard Struik was sharing with us on the topic of Come Holy Spirit

God is looking for builders who want to build wholeness and unity nto a broken and torn apart world. They’re people like Nehemiah who build the broken wall of Jerusalem. They’re disciples of Jesus who take following Jesus seriously. We learn from Nehemiah some important steps in order to advance unity, wholeness, restoration and peace on multiple levels of our society.

Paul spoke in these verses in Gal. 3 about baptism as ‘clothing yourselves with Christ’. Meaning that it involves the deep spiritual implications of ‘putting all that Christ is and what He has done for us’. The clothes of Jesus are the clothes of his salvation, authority and discipleship. As we baptize today, we celebrate the story of ‘lives being changed’; from ‘slaves to sons of God’ through faith in Jesus. A powerful demonstration!

Brooke Christensen from Vineyard USA, Vineyard Amsterdam is sharing with us how grace changes everything about our calling based on Galatians 6:1-10

A powerful message about the shift that takes place when you put your faith in Jesus Christ: from slaves to sons and heirs of God. In this ‘identity-shift’ the holy Spirit fulfils a powerful role as He is called the ‘Spirit of sonship’. Still many Christians are ‘afraid’ for God. But it’s exactly because of your ‘sonship’ that there is no reason at all to have any anxious fears for God. Instead you’re called to a life of peace, joy, hope and love, imparted by God’s Spirit.

Guest speaker Crispin is sharing his message on how we are commanded to reproducing faith bearers by ministering to our children.

From the story in which Peter encountered the risen story I will look at ‘power to forgive’. Forgiveness as culture in God’s kingdom, as a necessity and release, restoration and reconciliation as result of forgiveness. The teaching of Jesus on forgiveness is radical and it’s certainly not easy to put into practice. It takes courage and humility. And yet it’s one of the most powerful steps we can take!