Living as Students of the King

Morning.

Everybody. You're a lovely bunch of people. I've never met

some of you before, but I still say you're lovely.

I don't know you, but God knows you. God loves you,

and He's here for a purpose, and we're here for

a purpose. And as we gather around his word, he

wants to speak to us. We've got two ears and

one tongue. We should listen more than we talk. Do

you know that one?

Yeah?

I often don't take notice of that. I talk too much.

And I'm sure there are other people in the room

who talk too much too, but will forgive you. Our

theme for this month is living as students of the King.

I'm not talking about King Charles, by the way. What's

it means to be a student? We've got some students

in the room, some people who are coming back to university,

people maybe first time in university. It's fresh as Week

this week. Eggham, are you ready? Egham is ready? But

do you know what if you want to really get

evidence that it's fresh as Week this week, go into

Tesco's about Wednesday or Thursday. They put palettes in the

middle of the floor of things like sugar and toasters

and things that students need, and then by the end

of the week it's gone. They've all disappeared. You know,

there's a change going on in Egham. It's the beginning

of a new term. And as we press into a

new term, we'll have new neighbors. Some of us will

have new neighbors starting maybe yesterday, today, or tomorrow. People

we didn't know. Let me challenge you. Do you know

the name of your neighbor, not just not just their

first name. You smile at them and not at them,

but what about their family names? Do you know their family?

Do you know them well enough to invite them around

for a coffee or even dinner? Because do you know what,

When we're students, that means we're studying something, and when

there's a king in the place, that means that the kingdom.

So when I put those two things together, when we

study what it means to be part of the kingdom,

then we're apprentices. We're disciples, we're learners who are learning

about the authority of Christ. Too often it's all just

about attending church. You know, attending this service doesn't make

you a Christian. Attending a Bible study doesn't make you

a Christian. Putting your trust in Jesus as your savior,

your rabbi, your teacher, your king is what makes us

Christians as followers of Christ. That's what we say when

we say we're Christians. We're followers of Christ Jesus. Jesus

calls us to a life of learning, of training and

imitating him. You might have noticed Julia was sitting at

the back earlier on with two little ones sitting on

her lap. They stayed the night last night. Julia didn't

get a lot of sleep. But you know what, both

of them will imitate. They'll imitate Julieah, you can do something,

you can make a face at them, and they'll copy you.

You know they look for imitation. We all look for

a place where we can copy someone and learn from someone.

So I want to share that there's a call to

follow the king. When Jesus called his disciples, he didn't

invite them into a hall like this and say come

along and I'll tell you all about I'll give you

a lecture.

What did he say?

He said in Matthew four nineteen, come follow me and

I will send you out to fish for men and women.

Anybody in the room of fishermen. I'm rubbish at fishing.

My brother in law is a fantastic fisherman. He catches fish.

All the time.

He can just put his rod in and he'll catch fish.

But Jesus isn't talking about fish here. He's talking about people.

Do you gather people around you? Chris gave us a

little story there. She's at a party. She just shared something.

Her life provoked some questions. All she did was answered

a few questions, and more questions came. That's fishing, that's fishing.

As students of the King, we don't just seek information.

We seek transformation. The Bible changes us. This word, this

handbook of life changes us. We will just read it.

It's a living word. It's living and effective in our lives,

and we need to get hold of it with all

the truth that it has. We're not just consumers of

religious content. We're apprentices of the King. Jesus says in

Matthew eleven twenty nine. Take my yoke upon you and

learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart,

and you will find rest for your souls. Following the

Christian life is like being in school. We learn something

every day, and the classroom is our world, and the

teacher he's Jesus himself. So what is the curriculum? Every

good teacher has a curriculum. I can say that I've

had the opportunity of teaching four year olds to I

guess seventy four year olds if I think about it.

Every teacher has a curriculum, and that curriculum, as we

follow as students of the King, is number one. The

word of God. Paul reminds us in two Timothy three

point sixteen. All scripture, not some All scripture is God

breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training

in righteousness.

All scripture.

Anybody got some bits of the Bible they don't like, Yeah,

there's some bits that you don't understand.

My hands up as well.

There's bits I don't know, there's bits I want to understand,

and there's things I think I understand. But all scripture,

all scripture is God breathed. You know. I got to

meet a man who was a Christian when East Germany

was East Germany, and in the church that they met

in they had one Bible, and so to share the Bible,

what they did was they cut the Bible up and

you might think what a dreadful thing to do to

cut the book up, But they wanted to share it around.

They cut it up into various pieces in a few pages,

and they'd shared it around the church. And your job

was to take home your pages and read them, and

then the following return. And there's some pages. I would think, yeah,

really looking forward to getting that bit. There's some other

bits in the Bible. Think about kings where where we

get lists of names and think, oh, I don't want

that bit? Can I swap it? Can I swap literally?

Can I swap it with you? But you know what,

as I sat and listened to him talk about it,

he said one of the things he learned was he said,

all these names are in the Bible, and one day

I'm going to meet some of these men and women

in heaven, and if I haven't read their name.

I might say, who are you?

Every scripture is God breathe. The Bible is not just

a text book. It's a handbook for life. Have had

the privilege over many years of taking many, many, many assemblies.

And in one of our local primary schools there were

some Brethren children and they'd come up to me before

the assembly and say is it a religious assembly today,

mister food? And I was thinking, okay, why are they

asking me this question. Well, apparently they're not allowed to

sit under a religious assembly. So sometimes I would say, no,

today is not a religious assembly. But what I would

talk about was my guide book for life, my handbook

for living, my map for the journey, because this book

is all of those things. If you're lost, open the Bible.

If you're confused, open the Bible. If you need it's

some strategy, open his word up and let it speak

to you, because in it is a full curriculum. The

Bible is not just a textbook. It's the living word

of the King. Let's immerse ourselves in this word, not

out of duty, but out of hunger. I don't know

whether you have a Bible reading plan. There's lots of

ways you can engage with that. But do you know what, Please,

if you do have a Bible reading plan, don't just

do it out of habit. Do it because you want

to learn something. It's a great way. Rather than looking

at your Bible reading plan and saying, oh, that's what

I've got to read next, just say, as Pete Gregg

would say from twenty four to seven prayer. He'd say,

before you read, pray and ask God to speak to

you through whatever chapter you have to read today. Rather

than a duty, let it be a privilege that we

get fed and our first gets quenched this day. In

the curriculum of the King is not only the word

of God, but also the ways of Jesus. In one

John twoy six, John writes this, whoever claims to live

in him must live as Jesus did. I used to

have a bat. I tried to find it, but I

managed to bury it in one of those draws. You know,

those kind of draws where you put things in for later.

Do you have one of those draws. It's probably got

batteries in and a whole bunch of other things. But

I was sure my band that said WWJD was going

to be in that draw. I found lots of rubber bands,

but not that particular one WWJD.

What would Jesus do?

When you find yourself in a particular circumstance, ask yourself, WWJD.

What would Jesus do at this moment when somebody's standing

and shouting at you because something's happened? What would Jesus do.

Sometimes Jesus turned the other cheek. Sometimes Jesus went the

extra mile. What would Jesus do? That means that we

need to pray, We need to be humble, we need

to be obedient, we need to be generous and compassionate,

we need to be truthful. There's something we don't see

so much these days, and we need to be dependent

on the Father. Our curriculum is not only what Jesus taught,

but how he lived and lives, so the word of God,

the ways of Jesus, and the spirit of God. Because

Jesus was crucified. He was crucified on a cross, and

he died, The Son of God died, and he was

buried in a tomb. And we know the story because

we had the complete story. The disciples didn't because they

went to the tomb and said, where is he? Where

have you laid him? Who has taken him away? The

stone had been rolled away because Jesus is written, he

is not here. The angel said, he is not here,

he is risen. And Jesus went to see it at

the Father's right hand. What did he say to his disciples?

Because imagine your teacher, your special teacher, the one you've

been hanging out with for weeks, months, years, then says

I'm going to leave you and then gets crucified. My

heart would have been on the floor, my spirit would

have been on the floor. My teacher, my special friend

has died. And then when he comes back to life

and he says I'm going to leave you, I'd be

going no, no, no, please stay, please stay. You've just

risen from the dead. Please stay. But he went to

be with a father. But he said something. He said,

I will send a comforter who will strengthen you, who

will equip you. So Number one the Word of God.

Number two the Ways of Jesus. Number three the Spirit

of God. In John fourteen twenty six, it says this,

but the advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will

send in my name, will teach you all things and

will remind you of everything I have said to you.

It's great to consume scripture. It's great to get scripture

in our hearts. The Spirit is our inner teacher. It

guides us daily. If we're students of the King, we

need to study what the Spirit says to us and

what lessons we find in our hearts. Are you someone

who follows the spirit of God. If we're going to

be teachers, if we're going to be taught, then we

also need to put those things into practice. And when

students put things into practice, we become apprentices. Knowledge without

practice isn't discipleship, Jesus said in Matthew seven twenty four. Therefore,

everyone who hears these words of mind and puts them

into practice is like a wise man who builds his

house on the rock. Put them into practice. Otherwise it's just.

And the Bible is not a book of theory. The

Bible is a book of practice. Students of the King

learn by doing. We learn by doing. Now, I don't

know what you're like. I don't like making mistakes.

Are you like that? Don't like making mistakes?

So sometimes if I'm going to feel I'm going to

make myself look a bit of a wally. Is that

a word you all understand, or whatever you want to

translate that to, I want to look a bit silly.

I won't do it if we don't do it, because

what happens, I might look rather silly and rather stupid.

But do you know what, if we don't take a risk,

if we don't take.

A step of faith. We'll never know.

We'll never know anybody ever been typrote walking. My balance

is rubbish. I'm absolutely rubbish at typrote walking. I can't

do it. But I've had a go. I've fallen off

many times. I've been to one of those circuit training

sessions and I got on the rope and there was

this young lady who just walked up and down this

rope as though it was ten feet wide. And there's

me going, you know, two steps, and I was already

falling off. But do you know what I had to go?

I had a go. Students of the King learned by doing,

they also learn in community. In Proverbs twenty seven seventeen,

it says iron sharpens iron. You know.

One of the things is if we come alongside.

People, there will be friction because we're different to them,

and as we're different to them, friction creates heat. Heat

means that we're rubbing up against people, which means we

sharpen one another. Not only do we learn by doing

and we learning community, but we learn through obedience, even

when it costs us. An apprentice will practice their trade well.

Put our hands to work. The King trains us in

the workshop in the workplace of life, in the family,

in the marketplace with strangers. What is our goal as

a student of the King? Our goal is to become

more like our teacher. Do we look more like Jesus

today than we did yesterday. I don't know whether you

feel comfortable with this kind of image, but you've probably

had people say to you at some point in your life,

you look just like your mum, or you look just

like your dad. Now, if you've got a good relationship

with your dad, that's great. I didn't have a good

relationship with my dad father. You know, father father father

concepts were difficult for me. I didn't get on with

my dad for many, many years. And I remember one

day I did this. I didn't wear glasses at that

particular point. I rubbed my nose like this, and my

Auntie said to me, you do that just like your

father did.

No, I didn't.

No, I didn't, But you know what, I reconciled with

my father. I was actually at my dad's second wedding

when he got married to my stepmom, and I had

the privilege of speaking at his wedding. We were reconciled.

God had repaired our relationship. The goal of the student

is to be like the Father. I'm proud to say

I'm a bit like my dad. I'm proud sometimes if

I do that again, because my heart has been changed.

And one of the things when people say to you,

you're a bit more there's something.

Of God in you? Or what makes you do that?

Have you been asked that.

This week when somebody says what makes you say that?

How can you be peaceful at this time? How can

you be full of joy at this moment? And you

just say, well, because God has changed my life. I'm

sure some of the story that Chris told yesterday at

the party would have been something about how her life

had been changed, has been changed, is being changed. The

goal is to become more like Jesus. And as we

become more like Jesus, people will notice we need to

put the lessons into action. Paul puts it this way

in Romans eight twenty nine. For those who God fore

knew he also predestined to be conformed to the image

of his son, be conformed. That means to be more

like the image of Jesus. You know, the goal of

being students of the King is not to become more religious.

It's to become more christ Like, to think, to act,

and to love like the King of kings. So how

do we apply this? How can we put this into price?

How could we do this? Number one, I think as

students we need to stay teachable. Just because you've graduated

from school, university, or whatever your last.

Place that you studied at.

Please let me encourage you make life a learning place.

I never stop learning. The moment we stop learning, we

become stationary. The moment we become stationary, we become stagnant.

If you become stagnant, there's a smell my pond in

my back garden. If the water is not circulating, it

becomes stagnant. There is an unpleasant odor. Let's stay teachable.

Pride says I know enough. I don't need to know anymore.

Students of the King say, I want to be more

like Jesus. So number one, stay teachable. Number two makes

space for his word personally and corporately as a church.

Let's open scripture on regular places. Let me challenge you

about a couple of little thoughts here. Number one, when

was the last time you read scripture out loud? You

know we read it on a regular basis in our

heads But you know what, there's a big difference between

when we think something and when we say something. So

for example, if I said, do you believe me? Some

of you will nod at me, some of you won't

move your heads at all, and some of you will

say yes.

One or two might say no.

But you know what, when we speak it out, we've

committed ourselves. We've said something. When you speak in a debate,

you don't just think it in your head. You speak

it out. And as you speak it out, you commit

yourself to something. Let me encourage you. You might think,

why would I do this? I'd encourage you once in

a while, maybe not every day, but once in a while.

Read scripture out loud when you're the only person in

the room. So this isn't about an audience. It won't

matter if you can't pronounce one or two of those

strange names or cities, doesn't matter. But you know what,

speaking the word out makes a difference. It's a spiritual

statement and a spiritual truth. So let's not just read

the word and get it into our heads. Let's speak

it out and declare it and proclaim it both on

our own and together. Let's listen to the Spirit. Number three,

Listen to the Spirit in decisions. You're going to make

a big decision, just say, Holy Spirit, help me, help

me to be clear in this decision today. Help me

to know what to say, what to do, and in

our daily walk. I don't ask every morning Jesus what

should I wear today? Julia wishes sometimes I would do that,

because sometimes I'll put on a stray, strange combination. For

those who I've got pink, I've got pink socks on today.

I can't remember even remember what color socks I put

on today. But sometimes my socks do not go with

my shirt. Sometimes my shirt does not go with my trousers.

I could come downstairs and Julia go, you're not going

out like.

That, are you. But here's the point.

I don't ask the Holy Spirit every day what should

I dress in? But once in a while he speaks

to me and says, I want you to put this on.

I want you to put this on. I have some socks.

I have some socks that are called the odd socks.

They don't match. My brother in law buys them for

me every year. The socks do not match, I'll not

put them on. And one particular morning I was speaking

in a church not here. I was speaking somewhere else,

and I felt the Father say, put your odd socks

on today. Doesn't happen very often, but I just sens

I I was obedient. I put, thinking no one's going

to notice, because no one's going to see.

You know what. In the middle of the ceremony, he said,

now take the shoes off. Okay.

I took my shoes off, and then he gave me

dropped a word in my heart, and he said, somebody

in the room. A couple of people in the room

think they're odd. They think they don't fit in.

But do you know what.

You don't have to match something completely to fit in.

And I used I pointed to my feet, and they

zoomed the camera in on my feet. The socks did

not match, but they had a similar theme.

I said.

They belonged together, just like you belong in church. So

stay teachable, make space for the word, listen to the spirit,

and practice together. Serve in love, share the gospel, encourage

one another. The classroom of the King is right here

amongst us church. We're not just church goers, We're not

just attendees at church. Our teacher is patient, He's kind

he wants us to learn. He's full of grace. The

invitation stands. Come follow me, not me Jesus. And so

that's my challenge to those who are listening online, to

those who are listening later, to those in the room,

follow Jesus, follow his way, learn something, Encourage other people.

When you see someone taking steps of faith, say good job.

It was really great to hear, to see, to feel.

In the room as we worship God, there was an

encouragement going on.

We're apprentices of the King.

Let me pray, Father God, thank you, thank you that

you show us away. Thank you that you went before us.

Thank you that you go before us in our situations.

And Father, I pray Lord, you'd help us to learn

from your son, our savior, Jesus Christ, to your son,

our teacher, oh Rabonai.

Help us to.

Draw close to him, help us to be more like

him today. And so Church, as I pray, I sense

there's a few people who've got some challenges coming up

this week, this week, not months ahead.

This week.

There's a challenge coming up, and you've got some decisions

to make. I'm just going to ask you to stand.

I'm not going to ask you what they are. But

I just sense you would almost like to say, Jesus,

show me the way. Father, God, light my path, Holy Spirit,

lead me. If that's if you, would you stand, If

at home, would you stand, just make that step, Just

say Lord, I've got this challenge coming up and I

need your help.

Show me.

Shine your light on my path. If that's you, would

you stand? And I see a picture as I'm asking

you to stand of a runway and there's a plane

in the sky, And do you know what? For the

plane to land on the runway, the landing lights need

to be turned on. So as you come into land

on this question, whatever it is that you're laying before

God right now, a sense he turns the landing lights

on and says, see I've gone before you. See I

prepared a way. You will see lights, and the path

will be clear. The path will be clear, and you

will be able to walk with confidence and faith. And

as you walk with confidence and faith, boldness will rise

up in you and you will find yourself saying things.

Maybe he hadn't even thought, how can I say this?

You say it because the Father speaks to your heart,

speaks to your spirit, and speaks through you. So Father,

we embrace the uncertainty of tomorrow because he who promised

is faithful. We embrace that certain uncertainty, and we step

into tomorrow with confidence because you will go with us.

We put our hand in the hand the man who's

stilled the water, and Lord, we walk with confidence and

with faith in Jesus' name, Amen,