Sunday 28th September, 2008

If you missed the talk from this Sunday, you can listen to it by clicking here. (26 minutes)
Or you can right-click and choose "Save as..." or "Download..." to save the mp3 file to your computer.

THE PARABLE OF THE PRODIGAL SON

• Read the passage in Luke 15:11-24. Put yourself in the position of the youngest son. Do you relate to any of his story – perhaps for your whole life or just an area of your life?

• Imagine you have a friend who says, “I don’t need God, I’m happy to be my own person.” How would you answer them in a way that would make sense to them?

• When we detach ourselves from God we attach ourselves to something else. Can you think of an example of this process in your own life? In the book ‘The Great Divorce’ by C.S. Lewis a woman is unable to enter heaven because she loves her child too much. Do you think this is possible? How do you feel about something that is normally good, actually becoming harmful?

• Read the two preceding parables in Luke 15. What other elements of forgiveness and God’s love do these illustrate?

• Do you ever come up with a scheme to earn forgiveness from God? Have you ever made any deals with God? Are these healthy promises to live in a better way, or are they because you don’t quite believe in God’s forgiveness, or is it a mix of both? Do you need to rethink this?

• How do God’s forgiveness and our repentance fit in together? Can you think of an analogy to help explain it? If possible, share it online by clicking on the comments link below.

RECEIVING GOD’S FORGIVENESS

• People often lean towards one of two extremes when it comes to God’s forgiveness. Either they find it really easy to believe God forgives them or they find it really hard to believe God forgives them.

• How do you lean? What are the dangers of that position? How does this affect your behaviour? What needs to change to get a more balanced and healthy view of forgiveness?

• With God being so radically forgiving do you think it is possible to take this for granted? How? Do you ever feel God shouldn’t be so forgiving? Does it feel too unfair sometimes? Read Luke 15:25-32.

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Sunday 21st September, 2008

To listen to the notices and testamony from this Sunday, click here. (12 mins)
To listen to the message from this Sunday, click here. (14 mins)
You can right-click and choose "Save as..." or "Download..." to save the mp3 file to your computer.

Below is the film clip shown in the service.



SIN: OUR PROBLEM

• How do you feel about calling yourself a ‘sinner’? Do you feel like a sinner? Do you think your answer to that question is a healthy way to consider yourself or not?

• Are there things that you do or behaviours you fall into that you feel hold you back from having a character like Jesus? Why do you do these things and where did you learn them? What do you think would need to happen to move beyond them?

• Why do we sin? If we know it’s bad, why don’t we just stop? Do you ever justify your sin and let yourself off the hook? Is this a good or a bad thing?

BIBLE PASSAGES TO HELP US THINK ABOUT SIN

• Read Hebrews 12:1. Does this seem ridiculously unrealistic?

• Think of a sin-behaviour that you fall into. Have you drawn an imaginary line that once you cross you’re sinning? Is the line in the right place? Can you recognise any patterns or triggers? How could you do something positive before you get to that point?

• Read Hebrews 11:1 through to 12:13 out loud.
  

• Pay special attention to the passage of Hebrews 12:7-11. What do you think God’s discipline is? Do you think it’s connected to sin?

• Read 1 Timothy 1:15-16. Why did Paul think he was the worst sinner? What can we learn from this? (It’s often suggested that Paul is thinking about things in his past like the events in Acts 7:57-8:3, but surely the people who actually stoned Stephen would be worse.)
  

• Read 1 John 1:5-10 out loud. Try rewriting it in your own words, as if you were going to convey all of the ideas in the passage to one of your friends. Don’t be afraid to read between the lines. Take as many words as you need to get the point and emphasis across.

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Sunday 14th September, 2008

Read and reflect on Hebrews 10:23-25, which is a passage about Christians coming together to meet.

• There are 5 or so commands in this short passage. Think about how they form a process. Does this process work in your life? Where does it fall down?

• What do you think it means to “hold unswervingly to the hope we profess”? What would this look like in your life?

• The passage expects us to be active, even to prepare in advance, when we meet together. Is this what we really expect when we come together? How should we balance giving and receiving? What opportunities exist for us to encourage one another? Do we take hold of them?

Ephesians is the only letter written to a church that wasn’t struggling with some issue or problem.

• Read Ephesians 3:10. What do you think Paul means? How do you think the church displays God’s manifold wisdom? Does Paul’s amazingly exalted view of the church seem understandable given your experience of church? How can you explain the difference between Paul’s understanding of the church and yours?

• Read Ephesians 3:2-21 out loud. Work your way through it again, this time rewriting it out in your own words as if you were going to convey all of Paul’s ideas in the passage to one of your friends. Don’t be afraid to read between the lines. Take as many words as you need to get the point and emphasis across. This may seem like a silly exercise, but trust me it can be really powerful. Suddenly you can’t skip over a bit where you’re not really sure what it means. This sort of process is what a good preacher will do every time they prepare to preach from a passage.

• Read Ephesians 5:25-32. Paul is trying to talk about marriage relations, but can’t help getting sidetracked onto how amazing the whole idea of the church is. Try to understand his amazement and wonder and what the significance of this could be for you and our church.

Sunday 7th September, 2008

Think about how people are fed (e.g. at a restaurant, a self-serve cafeteria, supermarket, at home and so on…)

• How could you use this idea of being fed as an analogy to explain how an average church, like ours, works and is structured?
  
  
• What strengths and weaknesses about the church does this analogy show up?
  
  
• Using the same type of picture (about feeding), how would you change the analogy to better suit the kind of church do we often look for or want to go to?
  
  
• And what feeding analogy might better suit the way you think church should be?

Contribute your thoughts by clicking "comments" below. You can also read other people's contributions too.

What is The Vineyard Takeaway?

We often use the analogy of getting fed at Church. Well, how does the church feed people?

We've been thinking about this, and came to the conclusion that we have been trying to make church like a restuarant. We would prepare, serve and even cut up into bite-sized pieces the spiritual food - so everyone leaves full-up and can last through to the following Sunday.

We didn't think this was the best way...

So we're trying an experiment where we're trying to be less like a restuarant and more like a place where, instead of being fed, we get taught to hunt and farm and cook our own food. This means we can feed ourselves through the week, and perhaps more importantly, be able to feed those around us who are spiritually starving!

The Vineyard Takeaway is to try and give you tools to help you feed yourself throughout the week. It helps you know where to start in the Bible, and gives some help in how to apply the events of thousands of years ago into your everyday life.

All you have to do is find some time, get a quiet place and give it a go!

Our Sunday message will be a little shorter, and the speaker won't try to tie everything up - leave some questions unanswered and some applications unsuggested, to allow us to find out for ourselves in partnership with the Holy Spirit.

If you would like to hear a 4-minute explaination click here.
Or right-click and choose "Save as..." or "Download..." to save the mp3 file to your computer.