Studies in 2 Timothy: Paul’s Last Words
(Discipleship & Leadership Development) II
Preached in DUMC on 4 & 5 Feb 2012
Reproduce
& Remember (2 Timothy 2:1-13)
By
Pastor Chris Kam
(Summarized by: Ng Phaik May and Emily Foo)
Picture this: an older man, Apostle Paul, coming to a younger man,
like a spiritual father coming to encourage a spiritual son.
What did the older man do? He
encouraged him, exhorted him, affirmed him, equipped him, empowered him and
enabled him to be faithful in the ministry.
How many of us would love to have a spiritual father like that? We all need a spiritual father like
that.
But how many of us would think that we need or aspire to be a
spiritual father or mother to someone?
Just as much as we receive that kind of love and encouragement from
others, we should also be doing the same for people around us.
Do we have stories like that in DUMC, where we are encouraged and we in
turn encourage someone else? Here is a
testimony from Amy and Warren Tan, who were married not too long ago.
Amy and
Warren
Prior to getting married, Amy and Warren were courting for about three
years and they have been married for more than two years already.
As they were a couple who were ‘crazy in love’, after three months of
courtship, they knew that they wanted to get married to each other, but of
course they knew that they were not ready, because she was only 21 years of age.
At that stage of their
relationship, they realised that they needed help, because they were so in love
with each other. Since Auntie Stella
(wife of Pastor Chris Kam) was a mentor to Amy already, Amy suggested to Warren
that they, as a couple, should go see Pastor Chris and Auntie Stella to get
their advice on what to do. Pastor
Chris, being someone who knew Amy for many years, called Warren one day and
invited him for breakfast. Warren was
really scared because he thought when a pastor calls you up, it usually means that
you are in trouble. Warren thought that
counselling was for people who needed help, and at that point of his life, he
was proud and assumed that he knew how to take care of Amy. He then realised how wrong he was. Through that first meeting and subsequent
relationship counselling, their lives were changed.
Amy chose Auntie Stella to be her mentor because Amy found her to be
very practical, and she always sought to relate and to empathise with Amy. Amy thought that was very helpful for her. What did Amy and Warren learn from Pastor
Chris and Auntie Stella?
Three things came to mind: how humble they both were, how practical
the both of them were and how God-centred the both of them were. Amy and Warren learnt a lot because in the
early stages of their relationship, they made a lot of mistakes and as with any
couple, they had their issues and problems.
Whenever Amy and Warren approached Pastor Chris and Auntie Stella, they
felt that they could share openly, transparently and honestly. They never felt judged or condemned. Through each and every issue Amy and Warren
had, they would encourage them, and Amy and Warren could see the light at the
end of the tunnel. They were always very
encouraging, and Amy and Warren are always grateful for that. Hence, they want to model their lives after
Pastor Chris and Auntie Stella’s. Today,
they stand proud to be their disciples.
For Amy, it is also the
element of humour in a marriage, which is very important. During each counselling session, Pastor Chris
and Auntie Stella never failed to have a joke between each other, and they will
laugh at the other’s jokes. Amy was in
awe in that after more than 20 years of marriage, Pastor Chris and Auntie
Stella still have fun with each other, which is contrary to what most people
believe about couples who have been married for long. Amy and Warren thus incorporated humour into
their own lives as well, because it is so much more fun and exciting.
To courting couples, Amy and Warren have this to say: before deciding
to get married, it is always good to seek an older couple for purposes of
accountability, and if you are already planning to get married, look forward to
the Pre-Marriage Counseling (PMC), which sets the foundation for married lives. To married couples, the couple firmly
believes in counselling and discipleship, and it is also important that each of
us takes somebody on to mentor to as well.
Introduction
Mentoring, discipling,
counselling, etc. is actually about a life affecting another life. You do not need to know a lot in order to
affect somebody. You just need to be
authentic about your life, and begin to pass it on. DUMC has actually married over 300 people
over the last 18 years, and every couple has gone through the pre-marital counselling
(PMC) process. Right now in DUMC, there
are more than 30 couples being counselled by over 30 other older couples.
What Apostle Paul had in mind was, whatever he builds on, it must be
built to last. Apostle Paul does not
build short-term. What he did was that
he imitated the Lord Jesus Christ, in the way the Lord Himself discipled 12
people under Him. In other words, the
entire future of the Christian faith was in the hands of 12 people. That is a scary thought. Jesus Christ came to earth and entrusted
everything to 12 people, and it was only over three years. Apostle Paul copied this strategy.
What does it mean, ‘to pass on’?
It is really about investing in people’s lives. If you were to remember one thing from this
sermon, it is about investing into another person. We should not invest into things because
things will not last. But when we invest
into people, it will last.
For example, in ‘RM5’ shops, most items will be labelled with a ‘Made
in China’ label. For some reason, this
does not ring positively among most people, as compared to products with a
‘Made in Japan’ label, where the perception changes immediately. What would people’s perception be, if we are
labelled with a ‘Made in DUMC’ label?
There was this story, about this businessman from DUMC who ordered a
huge consignment of umbrellas from China.
He negotiated for a lower price from the supplier, so that he can get
another consignment. The supplier agreed
to provide a discount. Soon enough, the
huge consignment arrived and when the businessman opened the parcel, to his
horror, what he found was only frames of umbrella (without the nylon cloth). Frantically, he called the supplier and
complained. The supplier said that since
the businessman wanted a discount, this is what he would get. What is the moral behind this story? When you want something of excellence, you
actually have to pay for it.
In our context of investing into people’s lives, what do we pay, in
terms of making this effort here? It requires
your energy, a process, and the know-how.
It also requires a desire in our hearts to be excellent. In other words, if you want something to be
good, there is no quick fix. You cannot
take short cuts. You have to invest into
people’s lives if you want people to be excellent disciples.
Apostle Paul gave two simple instructions as to how this can be
done. One, he said to reproduce
yourself. Two, while you do that,
remember Christ.
A. Reproduce
1. Look at
yourself
As we do this, pray that in the days to come, people will not only see
a ‘Made in DUMC’ label, but one that says ‘Made in Christ’ in us. We thank God for the privilege of being able
to invest in the lives of somebody else.
What does it mean to reproduce ourselves?
You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in
Christ Jesus. (2
Timothy 2:1)
Before you reproduce yourself, make sure you look at yourself first. You cannot reproduce something you do not
have. You can only reproduce something
that you do. Apostle Paul asked Timothy
if he was strong in the grace of Jesus Christ because at that time Timothy was
going through a difficult time. Timothy
was being persecuted and was probably wondering why he has to go through all
these. He may even be at the verge of
giving up. Are you right now going
through a difficult time? Be strong in
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
problem with many of us is that we do not know how to be strong in the grace of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Before we even
talk about reproducing ourselves, we need to grow in the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ.
How does God grow us in
His grace? God often grows us through
trials and tribulations and difficulties in our lives. We do not normally grow during good
times. In fact during good times, we
forget God. We see it over and over in
our lives and in the lives of God’s people as well. Therefore, strangely, we often grow in the
grace of God through difficult times in our lives. In the mind of Apostle Paul, Timothy will grow if he maintains the right
attitude towards the problems and sufferings in his life.
Are we living in difficult times right now, for us living in urban
Kuala Lumpur? Reading about the
persecuted churches around the world and people who died for their faith, we
are living the good life, compared to what is going on around the world. And we can thank God for that.
While studying in Australia, in the midst of a good country, somebody
reminded Pastor Chris of: If
you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete
with horses? If you stumble in safe country, how will you manage
in the thickets by the Jordan? (Jeremiah 12:5)
It means simply this: when you are racing with men on foot, if you
fail in that, how in the world would you be able to fight with those on
horses? If in a safe country, you keep
falling as a Christian, how in the world would you be able to survive when
persecutions really come?
While in a safe environment in Malaysia, e.g. the
freedom to come to worship God every week, how are we doing as Christians? How is our relationship with God?
When you look at yourself, you will realise that
there are still so many Christians who are struggling with themselves. They spend so much time struggling with
themselves that they have no time for others.
And that is the strategy of the evil one, who makes you so busy with
yourself that you have no time for others.
In DUMC, there are many platforms for you to grow, to get out of yourself,
and to be the kind of person that God wants you to be.
2. Look at others
Do not misunderstand. You do not have to be
perfect before you look at others in the journey of growth. The average Christian live only for
themselves because most of the time they are struggling. The only things they leave behind are their
wealth, status and the food they consume.
These are broken things which do not make life worth living.
What is the strategy that Jesus used in sharing
the love of God among people? The strategy
is very simple and does not involve great crusade meetings. The strategy?
One touching one. If
this is practiced by each of us, then in 30 years, the whole world can be
touched. If anything that we do in
church does not involve building people, then don’t do it because it is a waste
of time.
And the things you have heard me
say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable
men who will also be qualified to teach others. (2 Timothy 2:2)
What are the things you look for as you look at others? Paul is confident of how people view him as
he shares in front of witnesses. There
is nothing in his life that people can use against him. Cobwebs in our lives will one day be out and
that is the fear of most people in leadership positions. But Apostle Paul is
very clear – whatever he says in front of witnesses, he says it with clear
conscience, that is, he not afraid of people finding out about his life. And that is why he lived a very consistent
life and is not afraid of what others will say of him.
If we live our lives with integrity and
authenticity, we have no fear in life.
The most important thing in ministry is to invest
in faithful men and women; or at least the potential to be faithful. Do not invest into people who are unfaithful.
But look, observe and pray, and look for
these reliable people.
Pastor
Chris Kam shared that in his journal, he has a page that contains a ‘List of
30’, where he asked the Lord for a list of 30 people that God has made him
noticed in his life. Over the years, he
will jot down the names of those people that he has noticed, that he thinks has
potential. He will then pray to the Lord
as to who He wants Pastor Chris to invest in.
Then God will begin to show certain people to him
and he will make time for these people. These
do not happen overnight. The ‘List of
30’ has made him realise that investment in people is one of the most important
things in ministry, not speaking to huge crowds. It is really about investing, one-on-one,
into people around you.
If this is something so important that the Lord
Himself did and Apostle Paul reminds us to do, then why has this been a neglected
in ministry and in the church? How many
of us make time for people regularly? The
main reasons we do not are because it takes time, effort, a lot of
inconveniences and it costs money too.
3. What do we reproduce in our disciples?
What is discipleship? Discipleship is simply reproducing ourselves.
The key idea behind discipleship is to reproduce. It is imitation. However, it is not imitation in a negative
way, as you would see imitation goods being sold on Petaling Street. These pirates usually copy brands like Nike,
Adidas, etc, but not brands like Bata. Why? It is perception of the brand. The
famous ones are worthwhile to copy!
Imitation happens all the time, even in the bible.
Here are a few examples:
Therefore I urge you to imitate me.
(1 Corinthians 4:16)
Apostle Paul urged the Corinthians to copy him. Like how Amy and Warren copied Pastor Chris
and Stella with regards to humour.
We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those
who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. (Hebrews 6:12)
Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you.
Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. (Hebrews
13:7)
Follow my example, as I follow the example of
Christ. (1 Corinthians 11:1)
Is discipleship a tough
concept? No. It is basically reproducing ourselves, people
copying you as how you would copy Christ.
That is all that is needed in discipleship.
Discipleship is not about just teaching. Most of us shy away from discipling people
because we think we must be so well-versed with the Bible that we must know
everything from Genesis to Revelation.
That is a misnomer.
A discipler would just need to walk one step ahead, and bring someone
along with him/her. Some of us may be
two or three steps ahead, but all you need is just to be one step ahead, and
you can bring someone along with you. It
is okay to bring someone else along with you because you are following someone
else too. You are not doing it yourself
because you are also looking to Christ. That
is Jesus Christ’s strategy of world evangelism.
But remember, you cannot pass on something that you don’t have. That is why it is so important that you grow
in God. In DUMC, in a safe country, we
have plenty of opportunities to grow.
But why are we not taking these opportunities to grow?
Apostle Paul has shown us three things that we must reproduce in people. He brought up the analogy of the soldier,
athlete and farmer.
Soldier:
Obedience and a clear mission call
Being a soldier imitates the obedience and a clear mission call.
You therefore must endure hardship
as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one
serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to
please his commanding officer. (2
Timothy 2:3-4)
In other words, Apostle
Paul is saying to Timothy, obedience is key.
You need to obey God and teach others to obey Him. When you obey God, God is going to challenge
you to do things that we do not want to do.
But as a soldier, we will obey. So
that is something we have to reproduce in our disciples.
Expect hardship as you follow Him.
During the days of Apostle Paul, there are very few full-time
soldiers. Many of these soldiers are
farmers, blacksmiths, etc., but they will be called into and paid for their
service. And they will be away for a
period of time before returning home. They
will miss their families, but they will obey their commanding officer and
go.
In the movie Gladiators,
Caesar asked Maximus how long he has been away from his home, to which Maximus
replied, two years, 246 days and this morning.
In other words, he was longing for his family. He was counting the days. But he will obey his commanding officer
despite the hardship, and does what the commanding officer asks him to do. He will only return home when the time is
up. That is called obedience and a clear
mission call. To be ready for hardships and sacrifices - these are demanded of
the Christian life.
Do we understand that the Christian call is a call to obedience? The Christian life is a life of spiritual
warfare, whether you like it or not. When
you are a man, you are a warrior, fighting for your rights. Too many men are losing their own lives and
families to the world. Therefore, we
need to learn to be soldiers of Christ. Every
man should recognise that he is a soldier of Jesus Christ and should fight for
what is his. That is the spirit of a
soldier/warrior that we need to reproduce in men.
Athlete:
Discipline – play by the rules
Similarly, anyone who competes as an athlete does not
receive the victor’s crown except by competing according to the rules. (2
Timothy 2:5)
As an athlete, we train people to be disciplined. There are rules that we play by. In ancient Greece, before an athlete
competes, he needs to go before the god of that time, Zeus, as well as the
priests to say that they have already been training for ten months for the
games. If they have not trained for ten
months, then they are out of the competition.
That is why we need to reproduce
discipline in disciples. They would then
do what is right and will not fumble. In
DUMC, there are many platforms that can be used to help with our Christian
life.
For example, cell groups, whereby there is a community people who can
help you. We must be disciplined in our
family lives as well, such as making time for our spouse and children. The School of Leadership programme helps make
you strong. So, have the discipline to sign up and mark it in your
calendar. There are many platforms in
DUMC that will help you grow but it takes discipline.
Farmer:
Perseverance and hard work with an end in mind
The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a
share of the crops. Reflect on what I am
saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this. (2 Timothy 2:6-7)
The hardworking farmer
perseveres and does not give up. Even
when the going gets tough, he keeps going because he has a fruit in mind. What you need to reproduce in people is the
ability to look long-term. You look say
10 years down the road and see what your disciple would become when we disciple
them properly.
Do the soldier, athlete and farmer speak to you about your life? Because that is what you need to reproduce in
people. And you cannot reproduce, if you
do not have it. Pastor Chris then
challenged us to put some simple goals in our personal life and grow in those
areas. There is no easy Christianity. Often, we do not take our faith seriously
enough.
Pastor Chris then quoted A. W. Tozer in Men Who Met God: ‘We must face the fact that many today are
notoriously careless in their living.
This attitude finds its way into the church. We have liberty, we have money, we live in
comparative luxury. As a result,
discipline has practically disappeared.
What would a violin solo sound like if the strings on the musician’s
instrument were all hanging loose, not stretched tight, not ‘disciplined’?’
B. Reproduce
We need to
toughen up ourselves a lot more in our lives.
Remember Jesus
Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel, for which I am suffering
even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God’s word is not
chained. Therefore, I endure everything
for the sake of the elect that they too may obtain the salvation that is in
Christ Jesus, with eternal glory. Here
is a trustworthy saying: If we died
with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with
him. If we disown him, he will also
disown us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown
himself. (2 Timothy 2:8-13)
In all that you do, Christ must
be the centre. When you reproduce
yourself in other people, Christ must be the centre, because Christ gave an
example of what it means to give His life to us. Therefore, when He gives His life to us, how
are we then to give our lives to somebody else? The greatest gift that God has
given to us is the gift of eternal life.
And that is the greatest gift that you can give to somebody else. But the second greatest gift after the gift
of eternal salvation is to help the new believer grow so that he may be the man
or woman that he or she ought to be. That
is discipleship.
Pastor Chris shared that he has
been discipled by many people in his life.
He has followed some people very closely in his life journey. For some
others, he followed from a distance. There
are also some where he followed by reading their books. Pastor Chris is a good follower even until
today. But he is also a good observer of
people.
Disciplers
Pastor Chris shared some of his experiences with
some of his disciplers over the years.
Brother Rick Small whom Pastor
Chris met while he was still studying in Australia, requested to meet up with him
every Friday to work through issues like his prayer life and his quiet
time. He would also bring Pastor Chris
along as he goes out to share Christ with other people. Pastor Chris is to watch how he does it. That is what Pastor Chris did every Friday
for one whole year.
Also during Pastor Chris’ university
years, he met with Pastor Milton, a university pastor, who has a great
compassion for people who are hurting.
Only when Pastor Chris was in ministry did he realise that it is true
that people are hurting all the time. Pastor Milton taught Pastor Chris about
compassion for people.
Pastor Chris also met this other
couple, Max and Irene Williams during his years in Australia. They taught him what it means to have a
Christian family. They did not really
teach this directly; he just watched their family life, and how they expressed
their love for each other.
In DUMC, Brother Yeoh Beng Keat,
who is Amy’s father, actually mentored Pastor Chris to be prophetic. Pastor Dr Ling taught Pastor Chris about having
a passion for missions. Pastor Kee
taught Pastor Chris about family, hospitality and how they bring up their
children. Pastor Chris also shared that
Elder Wong Cheng Mun and his wife Elena, who are the most humble people he has
ever met, and he told himself that he wants to imitate them. Senior Pastor Dr Daniel Ho taught Pastor
Chris to have focus and faith in building Dream Centre. For Pastor Edmund Chan and Wayne Cordeiro,
Pastor Chris modelled after them from a distance, and he fell in love with the
Word of God because of them.
It is time for us to pour
ourselves to other people. The greatest
joy that Pastor Chris and Stella had last year was when their youngest son
Ashton, told them that they had taught him to love God more. His second son, Shaun shared that they taught
him how to handle the Word of God better as he talks to people, just like how
his parents do the same when they talk to people. Pastor Chris and Stella were also thrilled
when his eldest son, Ian, asked him if it was possible for parents to conduct
pre-marital counselling for their own children.
Ian requested that his parents themselves conduct pre-marital
counselling on him, because he has seen how his parents had conducted the same
on others.
Discipleship is not about the big
things you do for people. Sometimes,
people do catch the little things that you do like story of Mr Holland.
Mr Holland’s Opus
Pastor Chris then shared from an extract of the
movie, Mr Holland’s Opus, starring
Richard Dreyfuss, which is about a high school teacher, Mr Holland, whose
desire was to be the composer of a symphony, which was his first love. He wanted to compose music and be
famous. But because of the situation in his life, he
remained a high school teacher for 30 years, in the same school.
The final scene depicts Mr
Holland’s last day of teaching as he was about to retire. He wondered if he has made a difference, if
people would have remembered what he has done, or whether he has wasted his
life. This is because in his mind, he
still wanted to write the symphony.
The
excerpt of the movie shown is as follows:
On his
final day as a teacher, Mr Holland is led to the school auditorium. Hearing that their beloved teacher is
leaving, hundreds of his pupils have secretly returned to the school to
celebrate his life. His wife and son arranged
for musicians to perform, as a surprise to Mr Holland. One of his students who became the Governor
of the town asked the retiring teacher to serve as their conductor for their
performance, as the curtain is raised to reveal an orchestra made up of his
students over the past 30 years. His
wife and son looked on, appreciating the affection and respect that Mr Holland
received, as he lifted the baton and began to conduct his opus.
Pastor Chris shared that in the
lives of the world, Mr Holland may be a failure because he did not compose a
symphony, but he has invested into the lives of so many students. That is his
symphony. Over 30 years, he has made an impact in each of their lives.
Pastor Chris’ prayer is for God
to challenge us to live lives more purposefully. We are to live a life where we
can reproduce ourselves in others, be strong in the grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ and to help us lead lives where others would like to imitate.
Would you reproduce and remember
Christ?
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