The Prayer of Agur
Introduction: ABC news in Alabama reported this week that Piedmont High school in Piedmont Alabama would no longer say prayers over the loud speakers at football games because they received a letter from the atheist organization called Freedom from Religion Foundation, out of Wisconsin that read in part that legal action would be taken based on the perception of a 'school sponsored prayer' The school couldnt afford a legal battle so they stopped praying over the loud speaker but during the next football game, amazingly hundreds of Piedmont High school students, parents, and fans walked out of the stands and stepped out onto the field and they began to pray anyway. The FFRF claim to have sent 800 letters to schools threatening legal action if prayer is not stopped! What's ironic is they don't realize they are trying to ban the only thing that saves them.
In recent years a lot of public attention has been focused on prayer. Our courts have banned prayer from public schools, public functions, and public display. And as we've seen in Piedmont this week, it hasn't stopped people from praying and it never will.
The question is what are you praying for? The focus of this sermon; to examine what our prayer priorities are.
We tend to pray selfishly, treating God as a divine pop machine, instead of a dollar we put in a prayer and expect our desire to be given to us in return.
Christian Cartoonist Bill Keene, the creator of the cartoon 'Family Circus' had a cartoon that depicted several angels in Heaven receiving prayers, and suddenly one of them shouted “Quick, get the big Guy, I want him to hear this. Here's someone who isn't asking for anything!”
A.C. Dixon said: "When we rely upon organization, we get what organization can do; when we rely upon education we get what education can do; when we rely upon eloquence we get what eloquence can do. And so on. But when we rely upon prayer, we get what God cand do."
There is only one prayer in Proverbs, the book of wisdom. It is the prayer of Agur. Agur is mysterious. We don't know a lot about Agur. We don't know when He lived or which tribe He came from. But we do know that what He wrote was indicted by the Holy Ghost and was meant to be kept on record. Agur prays with such integrity that it's considered to be a model prayer for all believers.
“Two things, I ask of you, O LORD,
Do not refuse me before I die:
Keep falsehood and lies far from me.
Give me neither poverty nor riches
but give me only my daily bread.
Otherwise I may have too much and disown you.
And say, who is the LORD?
Or I may become poor and steal,
and so dishonor the name of my God.”
Proverbs 30:7-9
In a culture that wants to hear and tell lies and are obsessed with who has what and how much they have, this prayer is a breath of fresh air. Our culture is very self-centered but Agur's prayer is God-centered.
Transition: Agur asks for two things. But before He mentions what they are He asks that God would not keep them from him before He dies.
Agur reveals his urgency
“Do not refuse me before I die”
When we pray, we should consider that it might be our last prayer. Because obviously there is no time after life, to do the things that we should have done during life.
Ill. Norman, Ok police detective Wayne Martin & his wife Susan were headed to a family re-union in Arkansas one Sunday morning in May of 2002 but they never made it. As they were crossing the Arkansas River on the I-40 bridge, unbeknown to them, a captain of a barge had a seizure and hit the bridge causing the whole thing to collapse killing them and 11 others.
Imagine that! One moment they were looking forward to a day of family fun, catching up with friends and family, havingbfood and games, and the next moment they were gone. Surely they never knew on their way to Arkansas that they would shortly be standing in te presence of Almighty God! James said “why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” I sometimes think about what a friend or loved one who passed away unexpectedly, was doing the day before. Not knowing that the next day they would be gone.
Transition: Before His vapor of a life disappears, Agur knows He can't escape the first death, so he pleads with God to keep him away from the things that would bring him closer to the second death.
Agur reveals his spiritual need
“keep falsehood and lies far from me;”
Agur puts his spiritual needs before his physical need. Christ said “seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matthew 6:33
Agur's priorities show his integrity and wisdom. He prays that God would keep gossip, lies, rumors, slander, deception, and corruption away from him. James said “Submit yourselves then to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Agur wanted to be protected from sin. Jesus told us to pray “..lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil..” Those things that hinder our relationship with Christ must be rejected.
One of our spiritual desire should be to keep away from sin, the one thing that separates us from our greatest spiritual desire: Christ.
Ill. Gary Richmond, a former zookeeper, had this to say about pet Racoons: A raccoon goes through a glandular change at about 24 months. After that they often attack their owners. Since a 30 pound raccoon can be equal to a 100 pound dog in a scrap. I felt compelled to mention the change coming to a pet raccoon owned by a young friend of mine, Julie. She listened politely as I explained the coming danger. I'll never forget her answer.
“It will be different for me. . .” And she smiled and added “bandit wouldn't hurt me. He just wouldn't”
3 months later Julie underwent plastic surgery for facial lacerations sustained when her adult raccoon attacked her for no apparent reason. Bandit was released into the wild.
Sin, often appears harmless and we often think 'it will be different for me.' The results however, are always predictable. (Sermon Central ill.)
Transition: Agur knew the danger of sin and prayed to have it kept away from him, and since his spiritual need was petitioned for, He brought before God his physical need.
Agur reveals his physical need
“Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.”
This is quite a bit different from modern prayers of today that focus only on good health, great wealth, multiple blessing, constant success, and perpetual prosperity. We think 'how can I pray against what I work so hard for?' You miss the point, Agur essentially prays 'Lord, I want what you want for me' Jesus said to pray: “give me this day my daily bread” “thine will be done on earth as it is in Heaven”.
Agur prays not to be poor nor to be rich. There is no virtue in either and neither of them in and of themselves are evil. But either of them by the grace of God may be sanctified and do us good. Unlike the grumbling Israelites in the desert, who would surely die without God providing them manna from heaven every day, Agur prays only for his daily bread. He prays that God would give him only what he needs for today. He prays not to have too little and not to have too much. Paul said: “I know what it is to be in need and I know what it is to have plenty.” -Phi. 4:12
He knew poverty and He knew prosperity and regardless of which state he was in he had learned to be content. He wasn't overwhelmed with despair when He had little or nothing and He wasn't inordinately pleased when He had a lot. Remember Paul considered everything a loss and everything was garbage, refuse, dung compared to Christ. Nothing in this world, when compared to Jesus can be considered good.
Ill. There was an American man who was walking with another pastor who was living in horrible poverty in Ethiopia, and he made the mistake of showing his presumption, by making what he thought was a nice gesture. He said to the Ethiopian pastor, “We pray for you in your poverty.” The humble Ethiopian pastor said “No you do not understand. We pray for you in your prosperity.”
That took the American back, but the Ethiopian pastor explained, “we pray for you Americans because it is much harder for you to rely on God in your prosperity than it is for us to rely on him in our poverty.” (Sermon Central ill.)
I'm not saying money is evil, if you think it is, we have plenty of people that would take it off your hands. But anything loved before the lord is evil. And thus the love of money certainly is evil. In comparison to Jesus, its worthless. Christ is the greatest gift there is. Jesus said “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” And Agur asks for nothing more or less than his daily portion from God.
Transition: The last part of his prayer is an explanation of why he is praying it, which reveals his honesty and integrity.
Agur reveals his integrity
“Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'who is the LORD?
Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.”
So He basically says “I don't pretend to know more than you God, I don't want poverty because it may lead me to sin and I don't want riches for the same reason.” Even though the sin may be different, the result is the same. “The wages of sin is death” One may cause him to covet and steal and the other may cause him greed and pride.
To have too little may cause us to be unable to pay our bills, our food, our fuel and cause us to go out and take out a loan we cant afford to pay back. Poverty is a strong temptation to be dishonest. And some people believe it will be their excuse but Agur knows it won't help their case to say “I stole because I was poor” The ends do not justify the means. And he also knows that prosperity is a strong temptation to be proud and get forgetful of God, "why do I need you Lord, look at what all i have done for myself." as if God isn't needed anymore and therefore there is no obligation to him.
Conclusion: In Greek mythology the character Achilles was dipped by his mother, into the river Styx by his heel making him invincible except for his heel because it did not go under the water with him. He was essentially a Superman of sorts, invincible. His enemies greatly feared him and He was a hero and adored and admired by his friends and allies, but during the Trojan war He was killed by his adversary, Paris who shot a poison arrow that hit him in his one and only vulnerable spot on his body, the heel. This is why we use the phrase Achilles heel, symbolizes our only weakness or our vulnerabilities.
Agur was a selfless man, and He was a wise man. He was wise enough to know his vulnerabilities or possible vulnerabilities. He knew two of the most important things in life were; first, to keep as far as possible away from sin and second, to rely completely on God. (Crucify the flesh and live by the spirit.)
What if we prayed for God's will instead of our own? We may think that we would be unhappy because we aren't getting what we want, but Romans tells us God works ALL thing together for GOOD..." so we learn instead of being unhappy, the exact opposite is true. God created you he knows what will give you joy, what will make you happy. One of the fruits of the Spirit is joy! What if we prayed “Lord I want to be what you want me to be! I want to hear what you want me to hear! I want to think what you want me to think! I want to say what you want me to say! I only want to have what you want me to have, nothing more and nithing less, because you know what will cause me to stumble and you know my vulnerabilities, you know my 'Achilles heel'.”
We may or may not know what our weaknesses are, but we should pray knowing that God does. And then ask him to keep us from those things that would cause us to sin.
Agur is known as a humble man who prayed wisely, not a bad legacy wouldn't you say?
