Prayer Of Agur Part 3 Series

The prayer of Agur (aw-goor) continues more and more to challenge me each week to ask myself what two requests must I make of God today to gain a closer fellowship with Him.

Today we remember all of our Veterans and thank them for their service to our Nation. We as Christians must also remember our service to God. God calls all of us to faithful and continuous service for His Kingdom. In Paul’s letter to Titus he gives three warnings in our scriptures this morning.

First, God is telling me as your Pastor that I must press the issue of good deeds with all those in my care. Let me assure you that we are not saved by deeds and the failure to devote ourselves to do good deeds for God in no way jeopardizes our salvation. We are given the gift of Salvation from God, and we cannot earn a gift, it is free. We must insist that we do good deeds against all odds regardless of circumstances and difficulties. We have no right to stop doing good deeds because of trials or tribulations in our lives or the life of our Church. In Ephesians 2:10 God says that He ordained us to do good deeds long before we were saved. So why don’t we continually do good deeds? It is simple to me, we just decide not to do them. Therefore, we are disobedient to God, and that causes us to be out of perfect fellowship with Him. We need to be as close to God as we can be. So we must continually do good deeds for His purpose and His glory, Amen!

Secondly, we must turn away from foolish discussions concerning spiritual pedigrees; e.g., I am related to Billy Graham, Mother Teresa once spoke to me, I am a 5-point Calvinist, I graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary, I attend Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa. None of these has anything to do with our relationship to Jesus, and they give no greater standing with Him. Also, do not quarrel and fight about obedience to denominational rituals; e.g., circumcision, type of baptism, spiritual gifts, church membership, day of worship, dress, food, and/or drink. Our purpose is to present, promote, provide, and proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ to all. Jesus is what we need, not religious rituals, the rest is useless and a waste of time. We as Christians need to focus on our commonality, that being Christ and Him crucified for the forgiveness of our sins, that He was raised from the dead, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father. This is our mainstay, the scarlet thread that binds us together forever, Amen!

The third warning tells us to reject heretics (KJV). A heretic is someone, be it Pastor, Teacher, or Layperson, who uses self-opinion to cut and paste the Word of God. They believe that they are the sole authority to determine what is and is not true for the Church. We are to reprimand them twice with the love of Jesus and if they persist, have nothing more to do with them until they repent and return to God. The sadness about the heretics is that they always take others with them. How many millions of people have been led astray within the Church by false Teachers, those who have turned from Jesus and twisted the Word of God to meet their desires?

Do you hear what God is saying to us this morning?

My prayer today is that we would turn from foolish arguments, spiritual pedigrees, self-opinion, and concentrate on continually doing good deeds for God’s Kingdom, here and hereafter, Amen and Amen!

We will continue with the Prayer of Agur next week when we study Matthew 7:21-23.