Vineyard Groningen Sermons

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Synopsis

Latest sermons from Vineyard Groningen

Episodes

  • True Story | Part 1 | The Gospel

    05/02/2024

    Picture this: you have a good conversation with a friend who is not a Christian, and somehow an opportunity comes your way to share about your faith. How do you share the Gospel in 5 minutes? Many would be tempted to draw two hills with a chasm in between, man on one side, God on the other, and the cross in between. For many of us, the heart of the Gospel is about sin, guilt, forgiveness and faith. Yet, this is not the biblical understanding of the word 'gospel'. It's not the Gospel Jesus preached, nor the Gospel the apostles preached. It is a reduced version of the full Gospel of the Kingdom. In this opening message to a 16-part series, we are going to journey through the full Gospel, starting at Creation and ending at the Return, always connecting it to a simple diagram that you can explain in 5 minutes to a friend.

  • Healthy Habits | Part 3 | Spirit

    29/01/2024

    What's the difference between your spirit and your soul? What does it mean to be spiritually mature? These two questions will be answered in this message. Join us for this last part of the Healthy Habits series, understanding the three parts of our humanness; body, soul and spirit.

  • Healthy Habits | Part 2 | Soul

    22/01/2024

    You are not a self, you are a soul. The self is not a sufficient life-center, but the soul is. Dallas Willard said: “If your soul is healthy, no external circumstance can destroy your life. If your soul is unhealthy, no external circumstance can redeem your life.” How can our soul truly be healthy? And what should we do to protect it?

  • Healthy Habits | Part 1 | Body

    15/01/2024

    In this series, we are not going to focus so much on the what of those practices, but try to dig deeper into Biblical values and truths that undergird our healthy habits. Why do we come to a new year with resolutions to eat healthy, exercise more, read more, grow in our relationship with God and things like that? Why should we aspire to live healthy anyway? Christians have always understood that a human being consists of a body, soul and spirit. Paul, in his closing remarks to the first letter to the Thessalonians mentions them explicitly together: may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. In this three-week series, we are going to reflect on each part of our humanness; body, soul and spirit, getting a Biblical view on that part of us, so that we can care for it well; with the right awareness and motivation. We will start off today with the body. This message aims to give a Biblical perspective on the human body that can help us to discern the

  • Peace on Earth? | Part 2 | Kingdom vs. Empire

    18/12/2023

    Did Jesus come to bring peace to the earth, or to start a revolution? Was He a peace-maker or a trouble-maker? We usually talk about Christmas in soft and peaceful terms. But in this message, Koen will show how the Incarnation was in fact a declaration of war against the empire darkness, and how celebrating Christmas still holds that same power today.

  • Peace on Earth? | Part 1 | The Three Dimensions Of Advent

    11/12/2023

    Peace on earth? Yeah... not this Christmas. There are currently 32 armed conflicts in the world, and with all the anxiety and burnout we can't say that people really have a sense of internal peace either. In this message, we will walk through the three dimensions of Advent - remembering with thankfulness that Christ came as the Prince of Peace, looking forward to Christ's second coming and how He will restore peace to earth, and anticipating His coming into our lives today to refresh us with His peace.

  • Freedom Sunday

    07/12/2023

    In this message, we hear from Merel vd Ven from IJM (International Justice Mission) about loving your neighbour, being touched by God's compassion for people and the important work of justice and how we can be involved.

  • What about Israel?

    27/11/2023

    What is the church's relationship with Israel? And how should we, as the people of God's Kingdom position ourselves in a time when the ongoing conflict in Israel-Palestine is escalating once again? In this message, we're trying to give you a Biblical framework for looking at the current situation, to help you to look at it in a nuanced way, and understand what you are praying for when you pray for the 'peace of Jerusalem'.

  • In The World Not Of The World | Part 2 | Priests

    13/11/2023

    Like Israel during the exile, taking on your priestly role empowers you to live as a stranger in a non-believing society. In this sermon we explore three aspects of this priestly attitude, so that you can find practical ways to worship and live differently in this world, while still not being of this world.

  • In The World Not Of The World | Part 1 | Exiles

    06/11/2023

    In this message series that we have called “In the world, not of the world”, we are going to discuss four different postures or roles that will help us to fulfil this purpose Jesus has for us in this world. Today, we are talking about our roles as exiles, connecting to Jeremiah's prophetic words in his letter to the exiles, and the work of Tim Keller on the topic of what a Christian's attitude needs to be towards the city.

  • The Kingdom and the World

    30/10/2023

    In the recent past, we have often heard the term, “already-not yet”. What does ‘already-not yet’ mean for our hear and now? In today's sermon, I speak about what does it mean for us to engage with our present world in light of the already-not-yet kingdom reality. I believe that as a new creation, we relate to the world in at least three different ways, and these can be better understood by thinking of our posture concerning the world: We stand with the world, we stand against the world and we stand for the world. Tune in to understand how they help us navigate the perceived tension between this-world and already-not yet kingdom.

  • Fasting | Part 4 | Stand with the Poor

    23/10/2023

    The life of a disciple of Jesus, including all its rhythms and practices – such as we are discussing in this sermon series – are never only about the individual’s flourishing. Not only are those who eat the fruit of your flourishing relationship with God the main beneficiaries of your spiritual formation. The journey of spiritual formation itself, for a large part, is about moving away from your own needs towards the needs of others. As we close off this message series on fasting today, we are going to walk through the beautiful, but also very confronting chapter of Isaiah 58, and discover how fasting can help us to stand with the poor and grow in empathy for the underprivileged.

  • Fasting | Part 3 | Amplify our Prayers

    16/10/2023

    Fasting and praying is just something we are called to do out of faith and obedience. And there is something that fasting unlocks, something that we access, something that Fasting is a mighty weapon God has given us to amplify our prayers, to be heard on high and to hear from on high. And perhaps the best thing for us to do is not to try and understand exactly how this all works, but to go and do it as a faithful response to God’s invitation. In this message we are going to explore how fasting and prayer helps us to hear God better, and how it helps us to be heard by God.

  • Fasting | Part 2 | Growing in holiness

    09/10/2023

    John Wesley once said: “Why are we not more holy? Because we are enthusiasts that want the ends without the means." Growing in holiness is a lifelong journey. And the practices – including fasting – provide the pathway on that journey to continue to grow and work out your salvation. In this message we are going to explore how fasting helps us in both self-control (saying "no" to something that is bad) and self-discipline (saying "yes" to something that is good).

  • Fasting | Part 1 | Offering ourselves to God

    02/10/2023

    This is the opening message of a four part series with Practicing the Way about Fasting. Every world religion, and even Western non-religious spirituality recognises the physical and spiritual benefits of fasting. Also as Christians, we stand in a long tradition of fasting; the prophets, the apostles, the church fathers, the saints, reformers and revivalists the all fasted regularly. The Lord fasted for forty days! Why is it then that fasting, for most Western Christians today, is no longer something that we see as essential to our discipleship to Jesus? In this message, Koen explores the first biblical motivation for fasting; offering ourselves to God.

  • Whoever wants to be my disciple

    25/09/2023

    In this sermon I discuss what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, and to follow the Practices of Jesus in our 21st century world. I focus on the Call to discipleship, the Practices of a disciple, and the Why of discipleship. This sermon specifically gives an overview of the call to Discipleship that we, as a church, are embracing. It is the path we believe God is leading us on.

  • Gospel Community | Part 5 | Say Yes to the Dress!

    17/09/2023

    True change starts with a deep change on the inside. Instead of throwing all our willpower and resources at changing the 'what', it should start with the 'why' - a purpose, a motivation, a perspective. In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul gives us a very powerful 'why' for growing in Christlikeness. As he talks about putting on the new self like a new pair of clothes, he connects that to the future that we have in Christ Jesus as He returns, putting discipleship in an eschatological context. Join Koen as he explores this powerful 'why' and as he also explains Paul's important advices on the process of being renewed into the image of Christ.

  • Gospel Community | Part 4 | Set Free

    14/09/2023

    The Colossean church had a big problem with two different cultural powers that were distracting them from their new life in Christ; the gnostics with their elaborate philosophies and rituals, and the zealous Jewish Christians who thought that also Gentile believers should live by the law of Moses. Paul tells the church in Colossae, in no uncertain terms, to make sure to live in the freedom of their new life in Christ and to not let themselves be taken captive again by some philosophy or human tradition. In this message, we are going to explore what challenges the Colossean church was facing, how Paul instructs them, and what all this means for us today - because even though there are 2,000 years in between, we face quite similar challenges in our world.

  • Gospel Community | Part 3 | Mature In Christ

    05/09/2023

    When the New Testament talks about us being ‘in Christ’ it is talking about that full new reality after grace – a new position, a new function, a new purpose, a new qualification. Being ‘in Christ’ is our new identity. And that identity is something that we are learning to live out as we are growing in discipleship. In this message Koen explores further what it means to be 'in Christ' and how we in Vineyard Groningen are focussing on discipleship in this coming year.

  • Gospel Community | Part 2 | Jesus At The Center

    28/08/2023

    Colossians 1:15-23 boldly declares that Jesus is the first, and the last, the genesis and the telos, the origin and the purpose, the beginning and the end. He is before all things and above all things. He is at the center of everything and holds everything together. In this series, as we are learning about what it means to be a Gospel Community from Paul’s letter to the Colossians, today we are going to talk about what it means to have Jesus at the center of it all. What does it mean that Jesus is the head of the church?

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