Vineyard Groningen Sermons

We are in a message series called The Kingdom Life to discover what it means to have a full life in Christ. In this series we’re trying to get a wider grasp of the impact of the Gospel through understanding how, in Jesus, our intimacy with God is restored. Jesus revealed God to us as a Father. To truly embrace intimacy with God, it is essential that we understand the Father-heart of God. This sermon's focus is to help you to understand that God is a good and perfect Father. I will show from a well-known story of Jesus how a wrong view of God's Father-heart can have deep consequences in our lives, but also, how our Father longs to restore this.

What does intimacy with God look like? The Bible provides us with many detailed descriptions of how people interacted with God. We’ve got David’s very emotional prayer journal in the Psalms. We find many detailed stories of how the prophets interacted with God and of course we have the life of Jesus who modeled complete unity with the Father. Today we explore a chapter in the life of Moses with you in this blogpost and distill four powerful lessons for our lives and our relationship with God.

Today Frank Tsiwah shared with us on the topic of Spiritual Warfare - how to deal with temptations and how our battle is won one small thought at a time.

We all face challenges, disappointments, pain, sorrow, sickness, loss, grief and worries over what might happen. The one may have more problems than the other, but no one’s life is free of any of this. How can we still haves joy in times like this? In this series I’ve been speaking about joy from the book of Philippians. But when I speak about Christian joy, we do not speak about the smile on the surface. Too many people have walked into too many churches with a big fake smile on their faces while dying on the inside. Too many churches have not been a safe environment to really share what is going on. But that’s not what church is supposed to be like. God wants the real you, and refuses to minister to your mask.

This is part 3/4 in the DNA of Joy series on the book of Philippians. Today we continued on how we can keep our joy. The joy we have received from God does not depend on circumstances. Nothing or no one can ever take it away from us because its foundation is Christ. Unless of course, we let in a robber to steal it. In chapter 3 of his letter to the Philippians, Paul warns us against legalism. This does not only steal our own joy, but also that of others.

Last week we started this series discussing Philippians chapter 1 and compared happiness with joy. Today we continue in the second chapter of Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi, where he stresses the importance of being a healthy community of believers that truly reflects the life and character of Jesus. Joy increases and abounds in community. Where ‘happiness’ focuses on the self, the joy of the Lord moves us to live in community with others. In the passage that we discuss today, Paul gives some very important guidelines and instructions about how to live in healthy Christian community.

Today we start off a new message series called DNA of JOY. As we are at the beginning of a new church year, the holiday is officially over and we enjoy the sunshine not with that anticipation like in the Spring, but with a certain melancholic feeling of; “let’s enjoy it while it lasts” – it is probably a good idea to talk about what it means to have JOY. In this message series we will go through the book of Philippians.

We are the middle of a message series called Summer Psalms in which different speakers look at a message from the book of Psalms. This week Alex takes us through Psalm 115 by looking at the difference between serving idols and being image bearers of God The Father and how we can be free from hard religious work to 'let go and let God'.

We are starting a series on Summer Psalms. Frank kicks off this first message by looking at Psalm 1 with the topic 'The Happiness we so Desire'. He explains that happiness is not based on circumstances but on the basis of who you are.

Jonas continues our series on Hope as he speaks on the topic of ''When Hoping Hurts'. In this series we look at biblical hope as an attitude of expectation and desire for the fulfillment of the promises of God. This Sunday Jonas takes us through several verses in the Bible to show the real source of rooted hope. And he takes us through some very practical applications on how to continue living in hope.

In this last message of the series we talk about the difference the Holy Spirit makes in the life of a believer. When we talk about all the work the Holy Spirit does in the believer, do you feel like this also applies to you? Learning to live under the constant influence of the Spirit is a life-long journey. Allow yourself the time to discover how to do this and learn to listen to the voice of the Spirit.

In this message series Living Under Influence, we started exploring about how the Spirit sets us free and guides us to live a life that glorifies Jesus. Then we went on to discover how the Holy Spirit empowers us to continue the mission and ministry of the Kingdom of God. I want to take this one step further and discover what the Bible says about the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

In this message series about the Holy Spirit called Living Under Influence we discussed how the Spirit is setting us free to live the life we were created for and how the Spirit is guiding us. In this blogpost we are going to discuss how the Holy Spirit is involved in the expansion of the Kingdom of God.

Today is the second Sunday in the series Living Under Influence – don’t be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. You and I are called to live life under the constant influence of the Holy Spirit. He plays an essential role in every single part of our lives as Christians, and we shouldn’t be uninformed about how He works. Last week we discovered that He is the Spirit of Freedom. He leads us to a life of freedom, the life we were meant to live, no longer bound to sin. Today we are going to take this a step further and talk about how He is guiding us in that new life of freedom.

We are starting a new message series called “Living Under Influence”. As Christians, we are called to live a life full of the power of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit enables us to live life differently. To live a life of freedom and impact. Too many Christians stay uninformed about the person and the work of the Holy Spirit. They understand God the Father. They understand that Jesus is the Son of God – but the person of the Holy Spirit is one big question mark, or a very boxed in view of what He does. Yet, the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives is absolutely essential. We start today with discovering how, through the Holy Spirit, we live a life of freedom.

In this sermon we look at three stories of prominent disciples of Jesus. In the passion week, their faith in the Lord Jesus was tested intensely, and these three didn’t pass the test with flying colours. The three disciples are Judas, Peter and Thomas. Their names are closely associated with the scenes that we will look at today. In their stories we find disappointment, fear, shame and doubt. Yet, two of the three find restoration after the resurrection of Jesus.

We are closing off the series The Generous Life today. On the first Sunday, we laid out some general principles around generosity. Last week we talked about how to break the power of mammon over your life through generosity. We would like to finish with a final message about generous discipleship. As we are going to explore some Scriptures today, we will soon discover that the life Jesus is calling us to is a life of sacrifice for the King and for His Kingdom.

This is part 2/3 in the The Generous Life series. Last week we looked at Luke 6 where Jesus gives us this radical challenge. Today we will look at a different passage where He gives us a radical choice - you either serve God, or you serve mammon. You cannot divide your life up into little parts. You cannot just be a Christian in weekends and a secular person on weekdays. You cannot divide life up into material and spiritual, thinking that they aren’t connected. There is a clear choice, and you cannot do both.

We are starting a new message series that will run over three Sundays: The Generous Life. We are going to look at the life and teaching of Jesus around this topic. This Sunday we look at the topic of 'Understanding Generosity'. The level of generosity and love put into practice that Jesus is calling us to is baffling and will be a lifelong challenge for us.

Jonas takes us through the Bible on what living an Unreserved Christian Life means. Based on Luke 14:33 and Galatians 2:20 we look at what it means to hold nothing back and to give your all for the God's kingdom.