The Real Stuff… No Fake News…

Text :

Sermon Title : The Real Stuff… No Fake News…

Occasion : English Sanctuary Service

Location : Paya Lebar Methodist Sanctuary

MPP : We need to pursue genuine and authentic stuff and not superficial things…

<pray>

Good morning/afternoon,

About 3 months ago,

I received a notification from my National Service unit to go for medical check-up to prepare me to go for my annual Individual Physical Prophecy Test (IPPT)…

to which I responded and so I found myself back in the medical centre at the Ministry of Defence…

Well, even though I had spent close to 2 decades in uniform, I’ve not been back for quite a while and

Initially, all these things that I was so familiar with in the past,

Like SAF100, HSP – 1, FFI, are now things of somewhat of a distant past and whenever the person at the counter mentioned such terms,

I took a while to process what he was referring to,

And produce the document that they were asking for…

But after a while, most of it came back to me, and I became quite comfortable to the environment once again…

Becoming relatively proficient in the vocabulary used by the people there,

and how to respond properly when questioned…

Like when someone asked me which department I come from,

I am aware enough to say my NS unit rather than Paya Lebar Methodist Church, Missions Department…

So after a while, I finished what I needed to do in the medical centre,

Had my blood sample taken and was dismissed from the place…

I was of course in a hurry because I had to fast for the glucose test,

So I walked briskly to my car…

At that point of time, I saw many of soldiers carrying their rifles and day packs and full-battle order, with many vehicles waiting at the parade square suggested that they were able to go for a major exercise and were going to be out in the field for a few days and the first thing that came to my mind was…

poor things...

they are going to be deprived of the many comforts that we take for granted on a daily basis…

a nice clean bed to sleep on, to be able to shower and not be muddy and wet all the time…

to have a nice flushing toilet…

Just having a nice porcelain cup of coffee drunk at your own pace without someone shouting at you…

I was then reminded of the reason I joined the air force and not the army so that rather than running through the jungles, I was flying over the jungles, seeing those troops running around in the jungle below then landing and returning to my air-conditioned cabin with my flushing toilet…

Just then, my day-dream got interrupted by this poor soldier who was struggling to put his backpack on while trying to carry his stretcher…

Coming from the medical centre and carrying a stretcher, I knew he was a medic…

He had the red-cross arm band on….

My heart went out to him for I remembered what it was like to carry such a heavy load…

But I tried not to make eye-contact with him or look at him,

Remembering how as a recruit or private we always looked with envy all those civilians who can just walk to their vehicles and get back to their happy lives while I had to go through a few days of being wet and dirty…

I remember those days were miserable days and how it was so easy to be influenced by the environment and the cussing and the swearing and all the negativity and how important it is to have the intentionality not to conform to the ways of the prevalent culture… and to be different… to be a light of the world…

Suddenly a dull thud broke my trend of thought…

and my eyes instinctly trained towards the source of the sound…

The poor medic who was struggling with the backpack, finally lost his battle with the backpack which slipped out of his hands and slammed onto the floor…

Suddenly, my pastoral instincts took over and I wanted to go towards him and help him put on his backpack… but then the picture of the domestic helper carrying the backpack of the soldier flashed across my mind which caused me to hesitate…

perhaps for too long because the medic caught my glance who perhaps misunderstood my intention and replied me saying “stare what stare!”

At that point in time,

all my pastoral instincts disappeared,

my military instincts appeared…

I stopped in my tracks, I clenched my right fists,

Turned towards him who was just about 15 paces away…

I was going to walk and run if necessary towards him and give him a piece of my mind for being rude to me…

And you know what?

I had every right to do so…

he was being rude…

and not only being rude,

he was being rude to someone who had the intention to help him…

he was being rude to someone who was higher rank than him…

he was only a corporal, I was an officer…

of course he didn’t know that because I was not wearing my uniform, but that didn’t matter…

I was an Officer whether I was in uniform or not…

And if I was to scold him and give him a piece of my mind,

I knew that there was nothing he could do about it because I was working within my authority and was in an environment within which my identity as an Officer was recognised…

But you know what?

I hope you’re proud of your pastor because his pastoral instincts kicked in and he decided not to pursue the case…

3 things came into my mind…

One is that this poor guy is going to be miserable over the next few days and I don’t want him to have to start his field camp having just been chastised and have an extra-duty waiting for him when he come back at the end of his field camp when he’s tired…

Two, I know there are many of our members who are doing their national service or who are in the military and I don’t want a case whereby after yelling at a poor soldier and in the process stumble anyone there who is from PLMC and hasn’t acknowledged me yet…

I can just imagine me…

Scold scold scold…

Walk away… then someone come to me and greet me “Hi pastor…”

I wouldn’t know how to react after being so unpastoral…

Three… I was hungry and wanted to fill my stomach with food…

Jokes aside, you know what this incident taught me?

How quickly we can slip into our old habits and how easy for us to be influenced by the environment and do what the environment urges you to do, whether it’s right or not…

For me, it is to go into the mode of operating that fits the environment, behaving in a manner sanctioned by the prevalent culture around me, but satisfying my need to be vindicated…

It was a real struggle not to conform into the prevalent culture of the environment and it was a struggle not to conform but to stand against the tide and do what is right…

For me, this was a glimpse into how young Timothy felt at this point in time in our passage today…

Timothy was discouraged because he felt like he was fighting a losing battle…

The environment in which the church was in was quite toxic…

There was like a disease that was spreading in Ephesus that was causing the Ephesians to be “lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,

3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,

4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure…”[1]

In fact, in verse 1 of our text today, Paul used the word “χαλεποί” to describe the situation and the only other place in the entire where this word was used was in , to describe the two demon-possessed men in Gadarenes that “were so violent (χαλεποί) that no one could pass that way.”[2]

Against such a difficult background and environment, this young pastor felt like giving up, he was probably thinking to himself why bother…

How can he, one person be able to overcome the overwhelming and unchangeable environment? Especially so when his mentor, Paul is in prison and about to die?

The situation seems so hopeless, the situation seems so helpless…

Why should I continue? How can I ever think of winning this fight?

For the answer to this, we have to jump right to the end of our passage today, namely verses 14-17 which says

2 Timothy 3:14–17 NKJV

But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

2 timothy 3:14-17>

“ 14 But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, 15 and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”[3]

Here, Paul was telling Timothy to go back to the source of his calling…

To go back to why he was doing the things in the first place…

And a casual reading seems to indicate that the source of his calling and conviction comes from the scriptures…

In v14, Paul tells Timothy to remain faithful to the things that he had been taught…

and what is it that he has been taught?

V15 tells us that it is the holy scriptures…

And what does it do?

V15 again tells us that it makes us wise for salvation…

How? Through faith in Jesus Christ…

So it seems Paul was telling Timothy that through reading of the scriptures and constant interaction with the word, and using the word in ways mentioned in verse 16, namely by teaching, rebuking, correcting and training,” things will be alright…

But I’m sure you know as well as I do, empty quotations of the words do not make a difference…

You can quote as many scriptural verses in front of your unbelieving friends and you they still remain unbelievers…

You can paste as many memory verses on your vehicles and sometimes you still get into accidents…

And do you know why?

It is not the words in itself that have power…

It is God that has power…

Without God, the scriptures are just like any other texts…

But God is what makes our text fundamentally and critically different from all the other literature…

Because if you look at verse 16, the word used for inspiration is not as if God is a cheer-leader standing beside the author as the author crafts the scripture…

The word here is θεόπνευστος, which is made up of two words… θεόυ which means God, and πνευ, which is the contracted form of air or spirit…

That’s why you get the word pneumatics or pneumonia from…

But the point here is that Paul is telling Timothy that all scriptures have the breadth of God on it… the very ru’ah of God in it…

And just like the other created being that has the breadth of God in it…

Us, human being… who need the constant touch of God in our lives, without whom we are so incline to make mistake,

The study of God’s words need the constant touch of God for it to be efficacious…

God’s touch is needed when it was written by the authors…

God’s touch is needed when it is read by us the reader…

God’s touch is needed when we want to understand it…

God’s touch is needed when we want to apply it in our lives…

In other words, God is present throughout the entire process, meaning that God is with us throughout our entire life and that’s what will make the difference…

The scriptural text in itself is simply a combination of symbols…

But it is God’s presence when we read, interpret and apply it that makes it possible to make a difference…

To make it possible to make a difference when we use God’s teach, rebuke, correct or train in righteousness…

So in essence, Paul was telling Timothy the same thing he wrote in

Romans 8:31 NIV

What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

“If God is for us, who can be against us?”

So essentially, Paul was telling Timothy

‘Take heart! Endure! Press on! Be strong! Don’t give up!

Because it is God who ordained you in this ministry and God will carry you through and God will sustain this ministry and it will come to pass!

The circumstances around you seems overwhelming and impossible and it is truly impossible…

But you know what, Timothy, with Christ all things are possible…’

So Timothy, turn your eyes away from the problems at hand and upon Jesus and seek your assurance from Him… The true source of power… and the one who will grant him success…

Continue your close relationship with God, and since God had called you into the work through the prophecy of the elders, and ordained through the laying of hands, God will empower you and allow you to finish the work that He had given unto you…

And you know what, friends?

This advice is for each and every one of us as well…

Which resounds from the Old Testament as well….

For example, says

“ 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

“ 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.

13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

14 I will be found by you,” declares the Lord” “and will bring you back from captivity.”[4]

The Lord has always been telling us all these while… turn to me, turn to me…

Don’t look at all these things of the world and be waylaid… come to come and I will grant you victory… do not be deceived by the ways of the world and lose the battle…

Come to me and receive encouragement… come to me and receive hope…

Come to me and I will grant you victory over all these things…

So, my first point and the most important point this morning is:

1. God is our True Source of Hope

So, friends, no matter what situation you are facing right now,

No matter what difficulties you are facing, do not lose hope…

Do not be waylaid by the things of the world and the falsehoods of the world… but look beyond the created things and the creatures but look to God, the creator and He will grant you peace, He will grant you hope… I will grant you a future… He will grant you victory over all these things…

Anything apart from me is a false hope…

Turn to the True source of Hope my friends and do not be deceived by all the imposters…

And you know what friends, I hope I can tell you that once you set your eyes upon Jesus and keep trusting in him, life will be peaceful and you will have an easy life…

And it will be so easy of for you to discern between truth and falsehood, right and wrong…

But you know what, life is not so straight forward…

Remember the list of terrible of behaviour we talked about earlier in verse 2-4?

Do you know that they are not referring to non-believers, but to members in the church?

And how do we know?

You see in verse 5, they are described as “They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly.”[5]

In fact, KJV translates this verse as “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof”[6]

In other words, they are pretending on the outside to be Christians, but internally, they are not…

They are choosing not to have their inside transformed… they are living a life of deceit…

They are not living a true Christian life…

And why are they doing so?

V4 tell us that it’s because they are conceited, self-centred, lovers of self and pleasure rather than God…

They are choosing me-lor-centricity rather than theo-centricity…

What’s theo-centricity… that is having a life that is centred around θεου... God…

Then what is me-lor-centricity… that is having a life that is centred around me-lor…

Friends, that’s a scary warning for all of us…

What kind of Christians are we?

We can have the form of godliness, coming to church, saying the politically right things like “God bless you, brother…” wah… sounds so sweet…

You give out so much sweetness on Sunday that you give everybody around you acute diabetes…

But inside… wah… grumble grumble grumble…

Having words in your mind about the people around you that cannot be repeated over the pulpit…

Friends…

We all need to check our spirit everyday…

Listen to this phrase that is attributed to Abraham Lincoln…

“You can fool all the people some of the time…

and you can fool some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”

And you know what?

I want to add another line to that…

You cannot fool God anytime…

In case you didn’t know, God has H-ray vision…

What’s H-ray vision?

That is the vision that looks straight to your heart…

states that the “Lord searches every heart and understands every desire and every thought”[7]

So friends, be careful not to be like the people that are stated here in the Ephesian Church, but

2. Pursue true Godly living and not a sugar-coated One…

And how do we ensure that we are on the right track?

One practical way in which you can do so is to do what St. Ignatius calls the daily examen, which is basically to take breaks along the day, for example breakfast, lunch time and dinner time, review each hour that had passed in the day and ask yourself a few questions which I modified…

So for example, you woke up at 6am and it’s now lunch time… then you go hour by hour and ask yourself

1. Was there any significant incident in that hour?

2. What was my emotion at that moment? Were you angry or sad or happy?

3. Where is God in the picture?

4. What is God teaching you?

5. Choose one thing that God is showing you and take it along the day… or if it’s just before you sleep, take it to bed and let it be the first thing in the next morning…

But the next question we ask then… Why is this true godly living difficult?

Because we are pushing back against a prevalent culture… a culture that is fallen and one that is screaming at you to take care of yourself first, pursue your own interest beyond all else, and it’s just like how it is for me in the story I shard with you in the beginning to just embrace the culture and the ethics of the environment we are living in, it is so easy to just take on the culture we are living in…

This we see in what Paul tells us in v12-13 that “(1) everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, (2) while evil men and imposters will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived”…

The first part talks about opposition that someone who wants to live a godly life faces and Paul gave this as an example of his life when he started his missionary trips at Antioch, Iconium and Lystra…

he faced initial success, but opposition would arise and Paul and his travelling companions would be forced to leave the city…

In Antioch, the message of Paul and Barnabas was enthusiastically received. But some Jews, filled with jealousy at the large crowds, slandered them and contradicted their words, eventually stirring up so much persecution against them they had to leave the region.

At Iconium, also at first in the synagogue, many believed. But again the unbelieving Jews stirred up persecution against them and tried to stone them

At Lystra, Paul and Barnabas were again well received after they healed a crippled man, but once again, jealous Jews persuaded the crowds to stone Paul and dragged him out of the city, thinking he was dead…

Every time work is done to expand the Kingdom of God, you can be assured that there will be some sort of an opposition for every time you are doing God’s work, because every time the Gospel is preached, every time you are dying to yourself and every time you hold your tongue and not lash out at someone, but showing grace, choosing not to pursue the ways of the world but pursuing God by choosing not to click on that offending website, choosing not to extend kindness to that co-worker who really don’t deserve it, but nevertheless receives God’s kindness and love through your smile, you are pushing back the Gates of Hades my friends… and the owner of Hades wouldn’t be happy my friends…

But nevertheless we need to do it… this is who we are… this is our calling…

And that means we cannot take the easy route my friends, but we must take the right route…

And friends, as a church, we are the offensive instrument of God that had been described by Jesus as the entity by which the Gates of Hades will not be able to overcome because as a church we are going to push back the Gates… winning one soul at a time… one soul at a time…

Overcoming persecution one at a time…

And Paul tells us that we will be able to overcome these persecutions as long as there is work left for us to be done, because just as the Lord had rescued Paul from all the persecutions that he had faced, likewise, we will be delivered from all the persecutions that we will face because the same God who is with Paul is with us and the Lord our God is not a God in the history books my friends…

Our God is a living God that continues to breathe into our lives today and He is the same yesterday and forever…

So my third point today is that

3. True followers of Christ will face challenges but will be delivered from them…

The second part about why it is so difficult to live a godly life, is because…

And this may come as a surprise…

Because we are so confused ourselves…

Remember verse 13 which says “evil men and imposters will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived”

Being deceived…

So sometimes, it’s not that people want to be evil or to be imposters, but sometimes, they are so confused themselves, that they are being deceived… and they genuinely do not know how to behave anymore…

<illustration about deceiving and being deceived>

There was this episode of The Simpsons that I watched while I was pursuing my Bachelor’s Degree… in that episode, Lisa and Bart Simpson had to convince their parents Homer and Marge Simpson that they could get along before they could keep a dog that they got from a kennel… SO, even though Lisa and Bart really did not like each other and couldn’t stand each other, they had to act like they loved each other to keep the dog…

So it worked and Homer and Marge allowed the Simpsons kids to keep the dog…

But you know what?

After they managed to fool they parents, they were so used to being nice to each other, it became a habit and continued being nice to each other…

Well, that was a positive example of how deception can change one’s behaviour but the point is that sometimes, deception that are put up can be so real that even the deceptor becomes deceived himself…

Meaning that it is becoming especially hard to separate falsehood from reality nowadays and I’m not sure about you, but I get bombarded by quite a bit of posts and forwards that promises some new facts or information that is so novel that nobody has ever heard or seen it…

And so many times a simple check on the Google will tell you that it is fake or someone just made it up… and I have to tell the person who sent it to me to comfort the person and tell the person not to worry and that the world wouldn’t explode in the next 5 years…

Friends, whenever you receive such posts or messages, remember the words of Qohelet in the book of Ecclesiastes ok?

And what does it say in “there is nothing new under the sun”[8]

Friends, my last point is simple…

And that is

4. To sure to pursue truth and not fads…

You know friends, verses 6-8 of our text today talks about deception and two groups of people…

The first group of people are people who are described by Paul as “always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.”[9]

The word learning here is “μανθάνοντα”[10] which gives a nuance of receiving information by hearing, and the words “ἐπίγνωσιν ἀληθείας” means coming to a intimate understanding of the truth…

This is in contrast to other word for learn, “ἔμαθες” used in verse 14 to describe how Timothy learned the scriptures being taught by his Grandmother Lois, which has the nuance of gaining understanding through instructions and to become acquainted with…

Therefore, the first word used in verse 6 refers to obtaining information by hear-say, whose judgement call and datum used to determine his actions are based by emotions... fleeting emotions...informal sources... shallow and unreliable sources of information... things that cannot stand the winds of change... always chasing what pleases the eyes and ears, described in as turning away from the truth and scratching the itch on their ears, but never treating the source of their itch..

while verse 14 refers to a careful and deliberate study perhaps with a mentor, but at least with a trusted source of information, perhaps over a long period of time… things that can stand the test of logic and challenges... the marks of someone who is matured

In other words, μανθάνοντα refers to someone always doing google searches, never checking the source of their information or a fad, while ἔμαθες refers to a Bible study or encyclopaedia… resistant to fake news...

Don’t get me wrong…

Google searches and hear-says are great sources of information, but they cannot be your only source of information…

You still need to verify your information and you need to check your sources through other means…

And more importantly, you cannot depend on Google and other important for information all the time…

You will need to go deeper than that to feed your soul…

Fads are ok, but you cannot go round chasing fads all the time… and you shouldn’t reject tradition…

Our Bible is one that is so rich in its construct and contents and so complex in the way it is written, so carefully and beautifully written…

So beautifully arranged in it’s canonically, it is really a book that deserves our careful study with the holy spirit…

One in which you should read slowly and chew upon the words, and meditating upon it…

It shouldn’t be treated like a recipe book in which you just turn the pages, look for some nice sounding verse to support what you are trying to say or worse, go to the search function of your electronic bible, search for a word and misquote the verse that pops out…

In our text today, Paul tells us how important and useful some traditions are…

Paul reminds Timothy of his heritage and how from infancy Timothy had been instructed in the Bible… and we know from the Jewish sources that from 5 years old, they start memorising the Bible, and at 10, the commentaries…

So, at 40 years old now, Paul is confident that the word is grounded nicely in him and his constant commune with God is able to guide him and lead him even when the things around him are so difficult and challenging…

He had deep groundings that can stand the test of time and tides…

This is opposed to the group that had shallow understanding of the scriptures and was being swayed by the deceivers out there with their more attractive but shallow teachings… teachings that run contrary to God’s words… teachings that tell them they can be free from the laws and should pursue selfish means…

Or teachings that bound them even more with stricter laws…

Contradictory teachings that confused them…

So parents and grandchildren, you have a responsibility to set up a family altar at home and to inculcate in your children and grandchildren, a biblical grounding that will stand the test of time… and all the contradictory and shallow fads out there…

Do not go for the sugary fads my friends, but go for the life-giving truths…

So my friends, even in today’s confusing world, stand fast and do not yield to the temptations of the world…

And remember that as you do so,

Our God is our True Source of Hope that will carry you through all your challenges…

We need to pursue true Godly living and not one only of external form…

As we seek to be true followers of Christ, we will face challenges but we will be delivered from them…

Hold fast to the truth and do not indulge in the attractive but shallow truths or deception…

Amen…

[1] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), .

[2] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), .

[3] The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), .

[4] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), .

[5] Tyndale House Publishers, Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2013), .

[6] The Holy Bible: King James Version, Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version. (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009), .

[7] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), .

[8] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), .

[9] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), .

[10]W. Hall Harris III, The Lexham Greek-English Interlinear New Testament: SBL Edition (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2010), .