Getting Comfortable with Just Enough
Proverbs 30:7-9
Sometimes you need
to recognize that some situations are simply not very wise.
It’s not good to be
a hyperactive 2 year old in a fine crystals and china
shop.
It’s not good to
hire a pyromaniac at an oil refinery
It’s not good to
hire a lactose-intolerant guy to work at Baskin Robbins
It’s not good put a
Vikings fan in the middle of the Lincoln Financial stadium this afternoon.
Similarly, there
are some situations that are not wise for us as Christians. We need to recognize our weaknesses, our
sinful tendencies. Our passage today
offers us some wisdom.
1.
The Danger
of Having too Little: Dishonoring God
Agur prays
that God would keep him from poverty. In
one sense, this is a rather easy prayer: let me not be poor. Yes,
Lord, bless me with money!
His concern is not to get rich (he
prays against that). He wants to avoid
the temptation to steal. Agur prays that God would supply him enough so that he
would not be too vulnerable to such temptations. Sometimes we might be put in situations where
we could be tempted.
When I was in seminary, I was so
poor. I remember that my income would
barely cover my rent, utilities, and car payment (after tithe). That left barely anything for food or
incidental expenses. I remember I would
avoid toll road, I would skimp on meals, I even
clipped coupons. When it came time to do
my taxes, I didn’t know how to handle some honorariums that I had
received. I realized that the IRS would
probably never know about it, and that even some pastors I knew didn’t report
such income. I didn’t struggle a lot . .
but I did struggle a little. That tax
money was pretty precious to an impoverished seminarian as myself.
Have you ever been
in a situation where being on a tight budget made compromising a little more
tempting? I did report the income and
pay tax, but I confess it was tempting to let it slide.
I don’t
think too many of us plan to steal. “One
day I want to become a thief.”
But Agur knows himself: that if the conditions were desperate
enough and the opportunity given, he might steal.
Agur prays
that God would provide him materially because he knows his flesh is weak,
vulnerable; he prays for protection from temptation.
We often
we have blind spots where we unwittingly put ourselves in dangerous situations. We often overestimate our strength. Agur recognizes his
weakness and is wiser for it.
2. Agur loves God.
His
concern is not about breaking the law and getting thrown into jail. His concern is not about being a man of
character or about having a good reputation.
He doesn’t want to dishonor God. This is more about a relationship more than about integrity.
He loves
God, and he knows that in a moment of weakness, he is capable of doing some
foolish things, and so he prays, “Lord, let me not mess up, let me not dishonor
You.”
Have you
gone on a mission trip or done some ministry where God is working, and in your
heart you really feel, “Oh God, please don’t let me mess this up. Don’t let me get in the way. Don’t let me dishonor you.”
There is a
directly God-centered focus. God, I want
my life to honor you, not dishonor you.
2.
The Danger
of Having too Much: Disowning God
Consider
the prayer, “Lord, please protect me from having too much wealth!” Have you ever prayed this? We might pray, “Deliver me from poverty.” But have you prayed, “Deliver me from
wealth! No, Lord, that’s too much
income. Save me!”
Again, Agur knows his weaknesses, he sees the dangers: If he had
enough money, he might disown God and live his own life.
Money has a way of making us rely on
God less.
You look
at a poor guy in
But you
look at the investment banker earning 6 figures right out of college. He’s got a bright future and more money than
he has time to spend. To this person,
you want to say, You need Jesus, but to be quite
honest, they seem like they’re doing quite fine without Him.
Even for
us as believers, wealth makes us feel secure, strong, protected, accomplished,
admired, empowered. We don’t need
help—we can take care of ourselves quite well.
Have you
seen college students, fired up for the Lord, serving the fellowship, going on
summer missions.
But then they get the big job and the big firm. They’re offered huge bonuses, 6 figures,
promotions—and the temptation is too strong.
God is pushed aside as they eagerly pursue their lucrative and
prestigious careers.
If I had a
nice million dollar house, a Beemer a Lexus and a Hummer in the drive way,
vacations in the
The safe
thing about being a pastor is that I probably won’t be tempted that way, not
because of the strength of my faith but because of the lack of opportunity.
Agur is guarding his relationship with
God
He knows his flesh is weak, and so
he ask God to help him avoid situations where he could be tempted to dishonor
God or disown God.
3.
The Prayer
for Daily Bread
Agur’s prayer is
exactly the same as Jesus’ prayer, “Give us this day
our daily bread.”
Don’t give me too much, don’t give
me too little; just give me what I need each day.
God
generally doesn’t want to be your Costco: bulk supply, keep a large
reserve in storage, 100 rolls of toilet paper to last you for the next 6 months;
Janette likes the bags of salmon filets and dumplings. He wants to be your refrigerator:
you’re constantly opening it (every day/hour?).
When God
used to feed the Israelites in the desert (manna), he told them to collect only
enough for one day. If you collected a
weeks worth, it would all go bad overnight.
You could only collect enough for that day and had to trust that God
would bring more food tomorrow.
Agur finds
wisdom in being in a situation where you have
to come to God each day. It keeps you
close, dependent, prayerful. That’s
where he wants to be to make sure he’s always coming to God.
I think
most of us can understand the principle, but if we’re honest, we don’t really
want it.
We’d much
prefer to have some extra money in our savings, an emergency fund. We’d much rather have more
than just one day’s supply of food at hand. We don’t want to live month-to-month, paycheck-to-paycheck.
I don’t
necessarily think that we should all give away our savings and just live
month-to-month.
But I am
saying that we should welcome the situation where we trust God to supply our
needs.
We find
wisdom in not having all of our needs, so that we have to trust God to take
care of us.
George
Mueller has some incredible stories of how God provided for his
orphanages. They barely had enough
money, and sometimes the cupboards were empty and there was no food to feed the
hundreds of children. I remember a story
of how one day that had no food, it was lunch time, and so George Mueller
prayed for God to provide lunch. Soon,
there was a knock on the door, and a guy said his bread truck broke down right
in front of the orphanage, and that he’d like to unload all his bread here
while the truck was getting fixed.
It’s not comfortable, but sometimes not
having all our resources is a great place to be.
Recognize
the wisdom of being in that kind of place.
My guess
is most of us aren’t really too worried about our next meal. But I think this attitude of depending on the
Lord is very relevant.
I like to
have an idea of what my next sermons are going to be. I try to work out a little schedule. And then there are also times when I have
extra messages (wedding, retreat), and I feel a lot more relaxed when I have at
least a general idea for the messages.
When those sermons get close and I don’t have that general idea, I get a
little anxious.
I felt God
was challenging me to trust Him: Paul,
you want to have your next 3 sermons in advance. And it’s good to do that. But sometimes, you’ll just have to trust me:
I’ll give you messages as you need them.
I won’t always help you get them ready in advance (like next Sunday).
OIL, I
didn’t have my closing message even a week before. I was really struggling over what to preach
and I didn’t feel a strong conviction.
But in the last few days, there several things happened that confirmed
to me what message I should preach.
If I had
all my sermons for the next 3 weeks all prepared, I’d probably depend on God
less.
Perhaps
for some of us get really stressed with big projects, big deadlines, LSAT or
MCAT or board exams. You realize that to
be prepared, to get the project done, you need to get a certain amount done
each day.
Maybe God
will challenge you: I know you want to stay on schedule, but just trust
me. You be obedient to what I call you
to do, be faithful to the responsibilities that I’ve given you, and I’ll help
you get to where I feel you need to go.
Relax, trust me.
Maybe
you’re worried about the health and safety of your children.
Maybe
you’re worried about getting a job, getting into your grad program.
Maybe
you’re worried about getting married, when or if it would happen.
Maybe you
have a lot of debt and finances are a big stress.
We all want to be
comfortable, to have our resources at hand, to see the
solution before us.
It’s very
uncomfortable to not have those resources are not visibly present.
Those who’ve had to
raise money for summer missions, it’s sometimes very unsettling to feel so
helpless and uncertain about where $1000’s might come from.
It’s not comfortable, but sometimes not
having all our resources is a great place to be.
For Agur, the driving question is not, “Where would I be most
comfortable or happy?”
The question is, “Where would I be
closest to God.”
Would you prefer a safe life of no
dangers, or a life filled with testimonies of God’s provisions.
Would you dare pray, Lord, put me in
the situation where I could be most intimate with you.
For the other side
Some of us
don’t mind not having money for tomorrow.
We don’t mind getting behind in on our deadlines or the uncertainty of
marriage. We’re pretty relaxed and take
each day as it comes.
I want to
say it’s not necessarily more righteous to be laid back. There is a difference between being laid-back
and trusting God.
If the
laid-back person isn’t coming to God for his needs, then he is no better than
the anxious guy who isn’t coming to God for his needs.
The goal is not to be laid back, the goal is to grow deeper in our relationship with
God.
the anxious
guy may try to solve all his own problems, and doesn’t cling to God
the laid-back
guy doesn’t try to solve his problems, and doesn’t cling to God either
One is not more righteous than the other. Both need to cling to God.
4. The Great Provider
There are so many wonderful passage that point us to God’s trustworthiness, God our
faithful provider:
Matthew 6:31-33
So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’
or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things,
and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his
righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Matthew 7:9-11
“Which
of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a
snake? If you, then, though you are
evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your
Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
If you kids nervous asked for a
week’s supply of food to have in storage because they weren’t sure if you’d
feed them tomorrow, you’d probably feel hurt and not understood.
Romans 8:32
He who
did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also,
along with him, graciously give us all things?
Hold onto these promises.
Hold onto your testimonies.
Talked with Pastor Lloyd at our
missions conference, exchanged stories of God’s faithfulness.
I wanted to become an engineer
and (as firstborn) buy my parents a house (washer/dryer). But I went to seminary (very poor). While I was in seminary, one of my uncles
passed away and left a modest inheritance to my dad. With that they bid on a house; the owner
received a higher bid but wanted to sell the house to my parents. When I heard that they had bought a house, I
remember I got on the floor and cried. . . God called me to go to ministry—He
would take care of my parents.
My dad is a terrible financial
planner. No retirement money at all.
When my dad turned 65, a small
church in FL asked him to be their pastor.
It turns out that the house in
We have a God who is faithful. You can trust Him.
Sometimes you need
to recognize that some situations are simply not very wise.
Be too poor, we
might be tempted to steal and dishonor God.
Be too rich, we
might feel self-sufficient and disown God.
The driving
question is not, “Where would I be most comfortable or happy?”
The question is, “Where would I be
closest to God.”
It’s not comfortable, but sometimes not
having all our resources is a great place to be.