Shining like Christ in the World

Before I get into the word, I just want to

kind of lay a bit of a foundation, because how

can I put this? Okay, it's been a week of

roller coaster rides, highs and lows and lots of stuff

going on, and our banner disappeared, the banner that's been

out on the road. We paid the council to put

the banner up officially, so we did it all properly.

We put it out for six weeks, and somewhere in

the week it disappeared. We just sung some words there

what the enemy meant for evil will turned for good?

So I just did what I don't know what you do.

I reached out to a couple of people, do there

anybody know where it's gone? Somebody taking it down? Couldn't

find anybody, So I went on too social media and

posted it on all the local social media with the banner,

a picture of the bat. Has anybody seen this? And

then I realized, Okay, I don't know how many hundreds

of people might have seen the banner if it had

been out there physically. We he's just been posted to

about four twenty five thousand people. I just thought, come on, god,

what the enemy meant for? Evil will turn for good,

will turn for good. We've been looking at a journey

this week, this month, sorry, as we head towards the

end of September. We've been looking at a journey of

being students of the king. Who's the king. The king

is Jesus, not Charles, King Jesus. Many of you have

worked in different places, and you will have a boss

at work. There have been times in my life when

my boss has told me what to do, and there

are other times when he doesn't know what's going on.

Because my boss, Jesus has told me what I need

to do, and sometimes they've aligned, sometimes they haven't. But

you know what, when God's at work, he wants to

touch us, move us, and change us. Matthew Chapter five,

verses thirteen to sixteen, As I talk about shining and

slightly that you are the salt of the earth. But

if salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?

If then good for nothing but to be thrown out

and trampled under foot by men. You are the light

of the world. A city cannot is set on a hill,

cannot be hidden. Nor do you light a lamp and

put it under a basket. But on a lamp stand,

and it gives light to all of those who are

in the house. Let your light shine before men, that

they may see your good works and glorify your Father

in heaven. I believe God wants to encourage us today

to shine like Christ in the world. Jesus encourages disciples

to be salt and light. One of the things about salt,

If salt stays in a pot, it doesn't do anything.

In fact, it goes crusty and hard and becomes useless.

You know, for salt to perform its function, it needs

to be rubbed up. Remember I'm not a cook, so

please don't take any cooking advice from me here at all.

Juli is to cook in our household. But what I

do know is if you want to flavor at steak,

you've got to put salt on it. The salt has

to hit the food. If you want to cook vegetables,

you know, and want to get some flavor out of there,

and you're going to put some salt in there. And

I know we're not meant to have too much salt,

but we're meant to have just enough salt to bring

out the best flavor in the good ingredients that we

have and so we have. That's what that illustrates to

me is we need to get close to people to

be salt to the world, to be light, we've got

to lift the lamp up. You know why are lights

in ceilings. They're in ceilings so they shine upon us.

If you have if you put a torch on the floor,

it's no good to you at all. Really, it creates

a little bit of light. So we're going to explore

today what it means to be Christ's followers, to find

salvation and to outwork grace in our lives. Christ Followers

are people of the Word. Colossians three sixteen says, let

the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom,

teaching and amnishing one another, in psalms, hymns, spiritual songs,

singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. One

of the things I want you to notice in a

number of scriptures as we journey through today is the

word grace appears again and again and again. Grace is

a precious thing. God's grace towards us. Man shall not

live by bread alone. There have been times even this

week when I've eaten very little and I've felt full.

Have you ever done that? And there's other times when

I've had a full meal. In fact, it happened to

Cherris yesterday. Chris had a full meal yesterday and then

she said, I'm still hungry. It's true, is Nick Harris? Yeah,

you said I'm still hungry? Yeah, just embarrassing. How that's all? Yeah?

But do you know what Something that sustains us, that

fills us is his word. Think about the last time

you ran a race, a race where maybe you ran

out of energy, or you were trying to do something

and you pushed into trying to finish. Well, you ran

out of energy, you ran out of passion, you ran

out of something. What carried you over the finish line

was probably a word. Somebody encouraged you, somebody said you're

going to finish. You're going to do it. I sense

the Father says to you and to me, you're going

to do it, pressing hold on, hang on in there.

We need to shape our worldview. We need to shape

our worldview in line with this book, the Bible, the

guideline for us. I would encourage you to begin your

day with the word, end your day with the word. Now,

there's a challenge here. I know Julia says to me,

screens late at night not a good thing, you know.

I know that's meant to be kind of good for

us to get away from screens. But so many of

us now our Bible is on our phone. And so

if I said to you read the word last thing

at night, I'm encouraging you well print something out, read

something of God's word, get away from the screen, because

the word will sustain us. Christ's followers are filled with

his spirit, not getting drunk, as we read in Ephesians five,

verse eighteen, do not get drunk with wine. Do not

get drunk with wine. In fact, I think this was

a story from last term. Am I allowed to tell

this story? Kerris? I think there was a group of students,

some of you were there, and you are having fun

late at night. I think it was a Thursday night, possibly,

I can't remember the night, Carris toy and the security

guard came around and said, what's going on here? And

then he came in and he said, there's no alcohol.

You're making such a noise and you seem to be

having such fun and there's no drugs. What's going on here?

It's God it's God at work. He's Holy Spirit. Yeah.

I want to encourage you to live out reality. Now

what does it mean to live out reality? Let's have

joy in our hearts when we need joy. Let's have

power in our bodies. Let's have a boldness in us.

Let's see the gifts of the Spirit released to us

and through us and to the body of Christ. Let

me encourage you. I'm going to throw some little notices

in my sermon this morning because I just think, you know,

most of you don't know who we are, and you

know it's all a bit new. You saw a worship

team up here this morning, very multicultural worship team. I

look at you and think of wow, this is going

to be a glimpse of heaven. You know. The more

national is one of the reasons we put the flags

up every Sunday. Is number one, we make this space

our own. But number two, we say, look at all

the kind of countries we've touched in some way or other,

and if your flag is not up, let Robert the

back know and we'll sort that flag out because we

touched another nation. There's even a flag of Greece directly

behind you, Anna, right behind you. I'm looking straight at you.

You know, wow, that what that's coincidence? So welcome no

God's incidents in Jesus, as the early Church met. We

read in Acts chapter one, you will receive power when

the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be

witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and

Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Now why

do we need power? You know, we meet stuff, we

meet situations. We need wisdom, we need energy, we need passion,

We need the power of God's Holy Spirit in us

to be able to discern. Sometimes somebody will come to

you and say I need an answer, and you'll think,

I don't have the answer, but we'll ask God for

the answer. And so when we need God's Holy Spirit,

and that's every day, every day, why do we need

the power of the Holy Spirit to be witnesses? Witnesses

have seen something. You know, you are not called to

a trial to give a testimony to say something. If

you haven't seen anything, you can't say, well, I didn't

see the accident, I didn't know why you're not a

witness to that particular court event. So we need to

be witness if we're going to be witnesses where well, okay,

maybe you're not going to go to Jerusalem and Samaria.

Just want to bring it back up again, I could.

Maybe you just want to go don't want to go

to Judea Samaria, Well, okay, let's make it Eggham running meat,

sorry and beyond wherever you come from. You know what

that's talking about is talking about near, a little bit

further away, a little bit further away, and to the

uttermost parts of the earth. And for those people who

don't know, we stream our services every Sunday. There are

people in Asia who will see this service next Sunday

because we're streaming to people we don't know. But we

feel it's important to share the gospel and the good

news of Jesus Christ. And that's you. That scriptures for you.

I know it's spoken to the early Church. But you

shall receive power from on Either Holy Spirit will fall

upon you as believers and disciples for Christ. If we

make ourselves available to God's Holy Spirit, he will equip

us and empowis. If we give him the lordship of

our lives, then he will fill us and equip us

to do the things. I put my dishwasher on three

times yesterday, and I got to the end of the

day and I thought, what's going on here. I'm not

a fan of filling the dish Actually, no, I am

a fan of filling the dishwasher, because that means the

plate has been dirted, and that means somebody's at something.

But I'm not a fan of emptying it, if you

know what I mean. And I suddenly realized I got

a bit towards the athought, oh, I'm emptying it the

third time, And then I thought, yes, but that means

we've had people in our house who've heard the Gospel,

heard the good News at some point throughout the day.

Thank you, Lord, empowered. I didn't go home, I didn't

go to sleep last night tired. I went to sleep

last night satisfied. And we walk with humility and a

desire to serve one another. In Philippians chapter two, verses

five to eight, it says, this have this mind in you,

which also is in Christ. Jesus, who being in the

form of God, did not consider it robbery to be

equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking

the form of a bond servant and coming in the

likeness of men, and being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death,

even the death on the cross. I just want to

go back to some real basics here. There is a

consequence for wrongdoing. If you do something wrong, if you

speed and the police take a picture of you and

you get a ticket in the post, there's a consequence

to speeding, you know, and then you either get a

fine or go to naughty school, or whatever the consequences are.

There is a consequence to wrongdoing. And there are things

that you and I do wrong, and that's including those

who are listening later. There are things we do wrong

that we can do nothing about. We've done it. We

God calls it sin. It's not doing what He wants

us to do. And there's a consequence of sin. But

there's a price that's been paid. There's a sacrifice that

God made. He sent his one and only son, Jesus,

his only son. He didn't have a plan B. There

isn't a plan B. He sent his one and only

son to die on across for you and for me

to pay the price of the consequence of that sin.

And as we choose him as our savior, He did

not just die on across and get buried in a tomb.

He rose again. We read about that, and I love Easter.

Easter is a great time of the year because we

remember that he's risen. But we remember every day that

Jesus Christ has risen. He's our savior and He's paid

the price for us. And so when we read about

Jesus being humble, Yeah, he was a leader, he was

the son of God. He was influential, he was a teacher.

And yet he washed his disciples feet and he served them.

And some of the disciples said no, no, no, no, no,

don't do that. He said, no, I must, I must

wash your feet. I want to serve you with humility

and obedience. Guys, if you ever sense the Father nudging

you this week to serve somebody, just to do something.

And so when I say sir, it doesn't have to

be a big thing. Sometimes it would just be no,

you go first, Oh, can I buy you a coffee?

My wife and I were sitting in a restaurant many

years ago, and there was a person sitting on the

table next to us, and he was obviously on his own,

and he started chatting to us, and we got chatting

and talked a lot. All the way through the meal.

I just felt the father say bless him. So I'm

not saying you have to do this. I'm just saying

giving you an example, because it could be as simple

as a coffee. But just went up to the waiter

and just said, look, I'd just like to pay my

bill and this gentleman's bill, please. And I said, if

he asks you about it, just say it's a blessing

nothing more. Doesn't have to be anything complicated. I didn't

want to say, oh, you've got to become a Christian

to get your meal, none of that. I just wanted

to bless him. We walked out the restaurant and I'd

love to have been a fly on the wall when

the waiter went up to the guy and said, oh,

your bill's paid. But I leave that with God. I

leave that with God. True greatness is not about position.

It's not about qualifications. It's about how we serve one another.

Humility is thinking less about ourselves and thinking more about others,

or thinking of yourself less. This is counter culture. This

is very different. Serving someone is Yeah, what's an example.

An example would be I went into so Marks and

Spencer's not that long ago. And I stood there and

I held the door open, like you do. I was

taught to hold the door open for people. Initially it

was a lady, and then some more and then some children,

and they all walked through, and no one even acknowledged me.

I didn't want to, oh, thank you very much, but

at least a nod or a smile, but head down.

I don't think they even realized that I was holding

the door open to them. And then I saw some

more people coming, so I carried on hang and then

I started going thank you, thank you, and they looked

at me, and I didn't want to thank you. I

just wanted to engage with people. It's important to look

at people. It's important to engage with people. Look for

the unseen and unglamorous ways you can serve people you

live with, people you study with, people you work with.

Because Christ's followers live in community, community is gathering. You

can't be a community of one. You cannot be a

community of one. And so as we devote ourselves to

the teaching, and as we read in two Acts two

forty two, devoting ourselves to teaching, we can find ourselves

following Christ ways and Christ's purposes. We are not lone rangers.

We grow together. There was next week, We've got a

guest speaker, Albert Sloman, and let me do a little

bit of a recap because this could be interesting for

some people. So he came and joined us August last year,

so just over a year ago, and he had a

prophetic word for us as a church, God speaking through

him where he said, there's a tsunami of souls coming.

Get ready. And at that point in time, we were

in another building and we're nowt here and it's great

that we're kind of filling this space. But I'm already

talking to the college about the next bigger haul in

the college because it won't take us much to fill

this and God is on the move. God is on

the move, you know. And so as I said, worship team,

if you want to get involved in the worship team,

speak to Carris. Let her know, let her know what

your gifts are. If you like singing, let her know

if you if you've played the drums or keep it.

More and more, as I get to know some of you,

I have found there's hidden talents and technology too. You know,

we are a technology technology enabled church, you know, cameras

and all those kinds of things working on the desk,

you know it Just so if you want to get

involved social media, there's a whole bunch of stuff. Just

let us know, because we'd love to involve you in

being church. We can grow and we can flourish together.

I don't know what your horizon is. How far if

I said think about the long term, how far ahead

would you be thinking. I guess for the students in

the room, you're probably thinking to the end of your degree,

So that might be June next year, or it might

be June into a further two three years time. For

some of you, if you've ever had a mortgage, you'll

have to start thinking about a mortgage or settling down

or buying a house. You're starting to think about five, ten, fifteen,

twenty five years when you start thinking about pension planning.

And I'm looking at the average age in the room

and thinking, nobody's worried about pension planning right now, but

for those who do, we're thinking about what happens when

you're sixty seven and older. It does come. It does come.

You know it will come one day, but you know what,

there's an even longer perspective than that. It's called an

eternal perspective. Where are you going to spend the rest

of eternity? Each one? I don't want to get morbid

about this, but one day we will all leave this earth,

and where will we go next? Are We're going to

be with Jesus. We're going to be with Father God.

An eternal perspective that matters. We're not just being saved

from something, but we are being saved for something. We're

not just being saved from sin. We're saved to serve.

It's such a privilege to serve you in different ways.

And do you know what evangelism speaking, the Gospel comes

out of the love of Christ in our lives. When

I am full of the Holy Spirit, and I'm not

full of the Holy Spirit every day, sometimes the me

rises up, you know, and I get a bit angry sometimes.

You know, we all do it, don't we don't. We

all get things wrong from time to time. But I

want to be full of God's stuff so that when

somebody comes along and squeezes me, a bit of God's

stuff comes out, not a bit of me. Think about

a sponge. A sponge is absolutely useless if it's crusty

and hard on the side of your bath. If you

drop it on, the water will float until the surface

is broken and the water will start to flow into

the sponge and it will start to soak up the

water around it. Then you can use it for what

you need to use it for. And then when you

squeeze it, the water comes out. If I squeezed you today,

what would come out. I'm not going to come along

and do it. We are ordinary people trying to do

extraordinary things. The extraordinary things we cannot do in our

own strength, but we can with God. So I'm going

to give you a couple of challenges as I close

out what I'm sharing today. Number one is I'd like

to encourage you. Now. I want to say this month,

but actually it's really near the end of September, So

let me say, before the end of October. Why don't

you have a coffee with someone you don't know and

just get to know them. I sometimes put a sign

I sometimes go and sit in Starbucks. I generally work

from home. I do like Starbucks by me, not other

coffees are available, by the way, Sorry I forgot that.

But sometimes I'll sit in Starbucks and I'm literally sitting

there working and I'll have a little sign up in

front of me that says, please, if I can buy

you a coffee, I'd love to have a chat. And

I've had people come ac to me say is this real?

So yeah, what kind of coffee would you like? And

I've talked about loads of things, not always about church.

But do you know what, I know I need to

get to know more strangers. And I know some of

you are strangers to me today and I'm a stranger

to you. But do you know what if we stay

in the circle that we're in all the time, that

circle will get smaller and smaller and smaller. If we

keep our eyes open, looking to some of the other things,

looking to the stranger, looking to the person that's lost.

If you don't know whether you live in Egging mooor

Inglefield Green or somewhere else, if you see someone lost,

and you know first week of term there will be

lots of people who are lost looking around, just go

up and ask them can I help you. There's been

people who've been in this church because somebody asked them,

can I help you? And that was all they did.

And then consequences then followed up. Christ's followers are filled

with his word, They're filled with his spirit, and they

serve one another. And when I say serve one another,

I don't just mean serving the church. I mean serving

his people. I want to kind of close out with

a scripture. It's Luke twenty four, and it's as Jesus

left his disciples, Luke twenty four, And it's because of

what he did here. So let me just read this

Luke twenty four, fifty to fifty two. And he led

them out as far as Bethany, and he lived up

his hands and blessed them. Now it came to pass

whilst he blessed them, that he was parted from them

and carried up to heaven. And they worshiped him and

returned to Jerusalem with great joy. Here's the thing I

want to call out. A blessing is a wonderful thing

to do. If I sneezed right now, some of you

might go, bless you. It's kind of a habit we

get into. But wow, isn't it good just to say

bless you? God? Bless you he as he left them.

As Jesus left this earth, he left his disciples those

who'd been following him, being intimate with him for months

and years. He said, I'm going now, but I'm going

to bless you. I want to encourage you have a

coffee or a tea if you prefer tea with a

stranger in October, and end the conversation with some kind

of blessing. The blessing doesn't have to be bless you.

It might be thank you so much for sharing your

story with me, thank you for being honest with me.

I want to respond to this word today by coming

back to worship. I'm going to encourage the worship team

to come and gather with me, because I sense there's

a whole pile of things that people are dealing with.

As I talked about the banner and what the enemy

meant for evil turn for good and will turn for good,

I'm absolutely sure we're going to get the banner back.

I'm going I'm going to I'm going to be talking

to God about this all weeks, saying where's the banner? Lord,

Show me where it is, because a testimony will come

out of that. But you know what, there are people

who've had a difficult moment this week, and it's irritating

you because it's irritating you. You can't put it down.

Because you can't put it down, it dwarfs everything else.

And I think the sense the Father's wants to just say,

come take a step, take a step, take a further step,

don't stay where you are, don't stay stuck, take a step,

and as you take a step, I will be with you.

There's one or two people who've had to make hard

decisions this week, and you had to make tough decisions.

Somebody's asked you to make a choice. You say, I

don't want to make it now. Can I make it

in three months? No? No, Unfortunately, you need to make

the decision today or this week, and you've had to

make a choice. I think there's one or two people

who had to say farewell to stuff things and people,

and in saying farewell, you're kind of still looking over

your shoulder, saying I want to be back there, but

I'm here now. All I'm going to ask before these

guys worship is I'm just going to pray a simple press.

So if any of those things is you, would you

stand where you are for those who are listening at

home and those who are listening later. If you need

to take a step to move from where you are

stuck to a new place. Would you just stand, I'm

not going to ask you anything about it. I'm just

going to pray for you. I'm going to leave that

conversation between you and God. But if you are stuck,

you're stuck in a rut, You're stuck in a situation,

You're stuck in a relationship, You're stuck in a place

where you can't get out. You almost feel like the

I see a picture of God coming in unlocking some doors,

some prison doors, some people who have been stuck in

certain situations, and you feel it's nothing you can do.

But I sense the Father says, just try the door.

In fact, the door's not even locked. I've already unlocked it.

But because it's shut, you think it's locked. Anybody else

want to stand as who I'm just going to pray,

taking a step with God. And so Father, we lift

our hands, and Father, we pray for these folks standing. Father,

we pray that Lord you'd help them, you'd equip them,

you would enable them. Father, I pray, firstly, Lord, you'd

let your light shine in them and through them. Let

your light shine, let the shadows be gone, Let the

darkness disappear. In Jesus' name, and Father, I pray that

confidence would arise. I pray that boldness would fall upon

my brothers and sisters who are standing today here in

this place. Father, Would you fill them? Would you equip

when they would enable them? Father, I pray for breakthrough.

I pray for a breaking of contracts that have been

put in place in the wrong way. Father, I pray

for a new contract. I pray for a new relationship. Father,

I pray for a new connection. And Father, I pray

that would all be in your name. We'd pray as

Jesus is glorified in this place. Amen,