Haddon Robinson - Lessons from Agur (Proverbs 30:24-28)

0:03 President Bailey, members of the official board, faculty, grandparents, parents, spouses of the graduates, graduating class, and folks who came in early for the evening service. I am honored to be here, but I must confess that I'm a bit uptight.

0:32 It was about 47 years ago that I sat where you sat. We were at the Gaston Avenue Baptist Church, which is now the Criswell Bible Institute, or Bible College. The speaker that night happened to be M.R. DeHaan, founder of the radio Bible class. I don't remember anything Dr. DeHaan preached on, except I realized he was preaching too long. I have sat in countless graduations since that time.

1:13 That's almost a universal experience. The truth is that none of you came this morning to hear what I had to say. The speaker at a commencement is sort of like the beer hawker at the ball game. He adds to the atmosphere but doesn't affect the game at all. None of you came because I'm speaking. None of you saw my name in the program and decided to come this morning. No, you came because you wanted to dress up in black gowns, wear funny hats, get a diploma, graduate, and go out and celebrate. and so best I can do for you is not to take too much of your time.

2:14 I'm also a little uptight because as I understand my assignment, I'm supposed to say something to the women and men of this graduating class and to those of you who want to listen in to tell you about how to handle your ministry and how to be wise in the living of your days. I'm uptight because I don't know what to say I mean, 20 years ago, I had all kinds of ideas I could have given you.

2:48 But since most of them have turned out to be wrong, I'm not quite sure I'm up to it today. And so what I have decided to do is to plagiarize. Nothing wrong with stealing, provided you steal from an upper-class neighborhood. I decided to borrow the ideas and the outline of another man. I don't have much compunction about that. After all, this is in public domain. Maine. Because the man I want to plagiarize is a fellow by the name of Agar. Agar lived about 2,600 years ago. And the one qualification he has is that he was a wise man. By the way, if you ever get a chance to get around a wise man or woman, take the opportunity. I'm not I'm not talking about wise guys, they're as plentiful as parking tickets in downtown Boston.

3:57 I'm talking about wise men and women, they're as scarce as parking spaces in downtown Boston. And Agar is a wise man, wasn't a Jew, wasn't a Christian, and yet because his musings were considered wise, they're included in the scriptures. And there's one observation Igor makes about skillful living.

4:27 It's an observation in which he gives us some models to live by. He talks to us about ants and conies and locusts and lizards. Usually when we model, we model up. we model to the folks who have blazed the path made an impact upon history but Agur models down he picks out four tiny creatures and though he doesn't say it they're not only small, they're kind of ugly I mean, you may have ants at your house but not because you cultivate them as pets it's because you haven't called the termex man lately You don't see many people walking their coney after work at night. And if you find a locust and lizard in your house, you'll stomp it to death.

5:27 And yet Agur says that these four unattractive little creatures can give you insight for living, can give you wisdom for the living of your days. The ant, he says, has no strength, little power, yet they store up their food in the summer.

5:56 Putting that another way, ants know what time it is in life. Out of the instincts of the past, they use the present to prepare for the future. hands are kind of multi-dimensional creatures meet a lot of one-dimensional people there are folks who live in the past these are the kind of people when they take a trip take along two cameras and a bag full of film they don't really see the country they just see the country through a lens of a camera when they get back home they watch their slides They don't particularly enjoy the trip, they enjoy the memories of the trip. We've all met them, folks who go through life looking in a rearview mirror. The problem with such folks is that if you think you've done something big yesterday, chances are you haven't done very much today.

6:58 There are other folks who live for the present. If they had a Bible verse, it would be, now is the accepted time. Now is the day to have a blast. And these people live as though there were no tomorrow. And for many of them, tomorrow never comes. They die with drugs in their veins.

7:20 And then there are folks who live for the future. They borrow the theme song from Annie, Tomorrow, Tomorrow, Tomorrow. Or they sing with Dorothy and Wizard of Oz. somewhere over the rainbow. You know, things aren't very good now, but when I graduate from seminary, boy, it's going to be different.

7:50 Or when I get married, then I'll settle down. Or when I get out in ministry, then you can see me come alive for God. Or when we have children, that's what we're looking forward to. and then when the children leave home we'll get our act together And when we retire, then we'll live life as it should be lived.

8:16 And if you're a Christian, then we get to heaven. It's all going to be wonderful. But the ant is multidimensional. Out of the past, it uses the present to prepare for the future. It gathers food in summer, because it knows that winter is coming.

8:40 I think if the biblical writers were applying that truth, they would apply it to young people especially, who need to have a knowledge of the scriptures. Get it as soon as you can. Let it form your life and thinking.

9:01 The writers of the Proverbs tell you to know the Bible, to memorize it, to meditate on it. And the reason that you need to do that is that winter is coming. winter can come to you in a very personal way you'll come down with a disease that you thought only other people got you'll find a loved one somebody who has meant everything to you taken in death you'll be sued and not be able to defend yourself you'll get into a ministry in which you discover that the pulpit committee lied to you church isn't all it was representative to be someplace somehow you'll go through a winter what you take into that situation is what you'll have in that situation you need to gather in the summer for winter's coming Winter is coming in our society.

10:10 You can already feel the cold blast as it comes across the terrain. We thought once as Americans, because there were oceans on either side, that we would be protected from evil, discovered that we're really vulnerable. Only a person blind to reality would think that all of the trouble was in the past we are threatened with devastation like of which this country has never seen we live with people who have no purpose, no meaning they live with broken hearts and broken dreams broken lives, broken homes children grow up in that environment It's winter. It will be the winter of our discontent. If you're going to minister in that kind of a society, you've got to have something solid to say. You've got to bring something into that situation that will stand up to the bleak, cold winds of winter.

11:21 Therefore, use the summer to prepare for what is ahead. Ants do that. Ants work. Ants go to picnics, but they don't enjoy themselves. While you're sitting back drinking a tall glass of iced tea and munching on a hamburger, they're there taking the sugar off one grain at a time. If you sit there long enough, they'll be back for the potato chips. but they know that winter is ahead and they have to prepare in summer. If you've got the brains of an ant, you'll do what they do. If you ever get to an ant's office, not very large, but get there, on the desk, there's a little motto that says, as now, so then.

12:23 The ant teaches us what time it is in life. And then he says the conies are creatures of little power, yet they make their home in the crags. The conies are rock badgers.

12:47 They're larger than a kind of exaggerated chimp luck, and they have a color of rock. When the coney is sunning itself, lying on the rock, you can hardly see it. If the coney recognizes that it's being attacked by a predator, it digs into the crevices of the rock.

13:11 If an eagle or a vulture or an animal wants to get it, that coney's got to tear the mountain down. but the Kony knows where its security lies security lies in the rock I have no doubt that the biblical writers would have applied that to God. Earlier in this chapter, Agur speaks of God as a shield to those who trust him.

13:45 A major image in the Psalms is that God is our rock. And when Paul wrote to the people at Ephesus, he said be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might The Coney knows where its security lies. all that Kony has is the rock if it gets away from the rock out into the prairie it's entirely vulnerable gets away from the rock even the smallest animal will find that it's dead meat find the security in the rock well, I can imagine that a bunch of Coney's would get together to have a convention and since they tend to be academic in their approach, they'd be reading papers to one another there'd be some people who would some of the Coney's would be talking about how high the rock is These are the high rock conies.

14:59 And then there will be those who would talk about how wide it is. These are the wide rock conies. Then there will be some practical papers on making the rock cony friendly. The truth is, if they're holding that convention out in the prairie, those papers won't do them a bit of good. It is not your theology that saves you. It is not your discussions about the rock that keep you secure. theology is important but theology is like a road sign it says the city is that way pity the man or woman who thinks that the road sign is the city Laconi knows that security is in the rock.

16:00 Knowledge about the rock is not the same as finding your security in God. to trust in him to live in his shelter. By the way, if you ever get a chance to go to a Coney convention, you ought to do it. You'll be right at home there. You'll know the songs. Their favorite song is Rock of Ages, Clef for Me.

16:35 Let me find or hide myself in thee. If you have the brains of a Coney, you'll know where your security lies. Well, if the ant tells us what time it is in life and the coney tells us where our security is, then locusts tell us where our power is. Locusts have no king, yet they advance together in ranks. Locusts know where their power is. They know the power of community. One grasshopper isn't going to threaten you. It might startle you, but it won't threaten you. But when grasshoppers, locusts, come together and they become a horde of locusts, They have enormous power.

17:41 At the end of the 19th century, a huge plague of locusts swept across our American plain states and in a week, in terms of our money, did $475 billion worth of damage. Locusts have shaken kingdoms. Locusts have destroyed nations. And one grasshopper, man, a horde of grasshoppers. They have enormous power. Biblical writers would have applied that to the people of God. The covenant community of the Old Testament, the church of the new. but the locust underlines for something you already know. and that is you can have a personal faith but you do not have an individual faith you cannot be a Christian alone the word saint is never used in the singular in the New Testament God knows nothing about an individual Christian you can't be a Christian by yourself when Jesus was here had a band of disciples around him he also had a band of faithful women who supported the ministry kept the operation going financially and when he sent out the disciples he sent them out two by two Thank you.

19:29 He understood the strength of an accountability group. I'm something of a wimp. I find myself faced with a challenge by myself. I tend to buckle. I tend to run. But if somebody stands beside me, that person's courage can be my courage. My courage can be her courage. Jesus knew that when you go it alone you're often exposed to temptations that are overwhelming but if there's somebody standing with you many of those temptations disappear Paul Paul put his mark on the first century and then put his mark on history but Paul wasn't a lone ranger he had his tantos everywhere you turn in the New Testament you see them in his letters when he wrote to the Romans he had a whole list of people that had worked with him and stood with him and then there were people like Stephanatus and the Caiacus and Fortunatus there was Phoebe that wonderful woman who carried his letter to the Romans.

20:57 It was Tychicus and Nesimus and Timothy and Titus. When Paul was at the end of his life in a maritime dungeon in Rome. His hair whitened with age, his face furrowed with care, facing death from the Emperor. he wrote in his last letter to Timothy only Luke is with me Luke, that faithful physician Luke was there to care for him and to care about him but it wasn't enough Paul says to Timothy you come and Mark, you bring Mark with me Paul needed a band of bunnies as he was facing that last hour of his life. Men and women of the graduating class, hear me well.

22:00 You need other Christians. You cannot put up walls between yourself and other believers and think you are doing the work of God in all its power. You need other believers. You and I don't have it all right. We need to be aware that there are others that Christ has called and together we can confront the isms of our time. You got the brains of a locust. You'll know that there is power in community. And finally, He talks about the lizard. if the ant tells us what time it is in life and the coney tells us where our security lies and the locust shows us where our power is The lizard.

23:09 the lizard is small but it can be found in king's palaces all i can make of that is an emblem of incongruity. I mean, locusts get into kings' palaces. You can hold the locust in your hand. You wouldn't want to do that unless you were a small boy, but you could, it's not very large. But look where it gets. Years ago, Bonnie and I celebrated one of our anniversaries down in Acapulco. We were in the 24th story of the Princess Hotel. One afternoon I was reading and I looked up on the wall and there was a locust. Or there was a lizard.

24:04 I looked at it and it didn't move. Went back to reading and looked. It had moved up towards the ceiling. Hardly noticed it. It was moving up. Got to wondering, how in the world did that lizard get there? The 24th story of the Princess Hotel. Did it come up the outside wall? Did it walk up the stairs? Did it take the elevator? How did it know which button to push? But there it was. And Agur says that if I had gone to a king's palace, I would have found a lizard there.

24:48 In Congress, that this kind of ugly little creature would be in the suite of a princess hotel or in a king's palace. I think the writers of the Proverbs would have applied that to young men studying in anticipation of serving in Solomon's bureaucracy. And there's a whole section devoted to these folks that are on their way up. I think he's saying, you know, be like a lizard, don't call attention to yourself. When you go to a meal, don't be a glutton. Watch your manners, don't be a slob, don't drink too much. Discover that you'll go up in the bureaucracy. I look at it with different eyes because there is an incongruity between a be of a lizard being in a king's palace.

25:46 One of the hardest things to get over is the incongruity of the way God works. Everything seems reversed. A couple of years ago, when I was in Denver, I was trying to fix our garage door. There was a screw there, and I worked and worked. The harder I tried to turn that screw, the tighter it got. A neighbor came over and looked at it, and he said, oh, that's a reverse screw. The way you'd normally tighten it, you loosen it, and the way you'd loosen it, now that's how you tighten. It took me 50 years to learn how to tighten a screw and they changed the rules on it. But when you deal with God, there's always the reverse screw.

26:46 I mean, things are not intuitively the way you would think they would be. with God. The way to lead is to serve. The way to live is to die. If you want to be first, be last. If you're last, you'll be first. If you want a crown, find a cross. Want to be mature? Learn to suffer. the incongruity that you deal with all of your life.

27:31 And nothing could be more incongruous than that a lizard could be in a king's palace. Nothing could be more incongruous than men and women like us. could ultimately be in the palace of a king. Oh, you look great in your gowns, in your nice red hoods. Be sure to get your picture taken. But the truth is, after you take them off, nobody's going to notice you. Don't go to the restaurant this evening, they don't give you a special place. I mean, you're just you. You discover as you move along in life, as Bonnie and I have, you look more and more like a lizard.

28:21 And yet, the amazing thing is that creatures like us, by God's grace, are going to dwell with Him. C.S. Lewis has a great word in his little booklet, the book The Weight of Glory. and he points out that There are no ordinary Christians. that the people that we know who are Christians with whom we pray, with whom we praise, with whom we struggle, with whom we fight. that none of them are ordinary. They bear the weight of glory.

29:17 I mean, think of the most ordinary Christian you know. The person who has bad breath. The person who talks too much and talks too loud. a person who doesn't have it all straight I mean, you know, the most ordinary person you tend to avoid in a crowd that Christian, that's the one I'm talking about Lewis said that if that person were to come back today as they shall be ultimately you and I would be tempted bow down and worship Wow. and you live with that good news for lizards that God, when he gets finished with us,

30:13 will enable us to dwell with the king in his palace. You understand how incongruous God's grace is? It's like thinking of a long-necked crab holding a conversation with Albert Einstein. And yet, that's no more strange than a lizard in a king's palace. Well, from the ant you can discover what time it is in life. In the corny you can discover where your security is. From the locus you can know where your power is. And from the lizard you can discover the incongruity of grace. So if you ever get a chance, you know, run across an ant or coney or locust or lizard.

31:16 sit at its feet if you could find its feet and learn from it. These little creatures have a lot to teach, and you and I still have a lot to learn.