H.B. Charles | Man Up | Men's Conference | 2018

[Music] [Music] that evening brothers Grace and peace be multiplied to each of you tonight and the knowledge of God our Father and Jesus our Lord what a joy honor and privilege it is to have been invited by dr. Graham and the team to be here at prestonwood tonight and specifically to be here with you men as we worship together fellowship in Christ together and study God's Word if you get your copy of God's Word I want to get right down to business I understand what it means to be the leadoff hitter and I just want to do whatever I can to get on base even if to have to lean into a pitch tonight but if you get your copy of God's Word and turn with me to the book of Proverbs chapter 30 father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ we simply pray this hour that you would open our eyes that we may behold wondrous things from your word give us understanding and we will obey your word and keep it with our whole heart in Jesus name Amen proverbs 30 I want you to notice with me verses 7 through 9 two things I ask of you deny them not to me before I die remove far from me falsehood and lying give me neither poverty nor riches feed me with the food that is needful for me let's not be full and deny you and say who is the Lord or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my god amen I want to label the message tonight the wise prayer of the week man the wives prayer of a weak man I believe you can learn a lot about a man simply by listening to him pray and I want to introduce you tonight to a man named Agri by way of the prayer he prays recorded here in proverbs 30 verses 7 through 9 proverbs 30 verse 1 is the only place in the Bible where the name agar is mentioned some scholars speculate that the name Agra may have been a pseudonym under which King Solomon wrote because we really don't know anything about this Agra outside of the contents of proverbs 30 but I contend just from the contents of this chapter there's a lot that we can learn about this obscure personality and maybe the most important things to learn about him can be found in this prayer that he prays the prayer of Agra challenges us to confront our spiritual weaknesses and to address those things in our lives that either block or detour us away from the path of godliness I really want to just lean in on the petitions of this prayer but may I suggest tonight by way of introduction that there's a lesson about prayer in Agra's invocation in verse 7 before you ever get to his petitions in verses 8 and 9 consider first that agra teaches us to pray with humble submission verse 7 says two things I ask of you stop right there agar axed God for what he wanted in prayer the language is significant he did not tell god what to do he did not try to order God around in prayer he did not attempt to use his faith as a force to manipulate God into producing the desired results in his life he simply axed God for what he wanted like a servant addressing his master like a child speaking to his father or like a sinful man praying to a holy God agar simply axed God for what he wanted and this is a lesson about how you and I should pray brothers with humble submission not arrogant presumption likewise agra teaches us to pray with spiritual priorities two things i ask of you deny them not to me before I die notice that agar as he is praying about his life he is thinking about his death proverbs a rather Psalm 90 verse 12 Moses prays Psalm 90 verse 12 so teach us to number our days so that we may gain a heart of wisdom from that perspective we can conclude that Edgar was a wise hearted man he had numbered his days he was in touch with his mortality he recognized that it is appointed to a man to die once and then stand before God in judgment so he didn't pray foolish trivial superficial prayers his prayer is weighted down with the gravity of eternity the Puritan commentator matthew henry noted here that imp raying you should think about dying and then pray accordingly he's right because worldly prayers don't reach heaven as you pray you should remember that God is sovereign and life is short and death is sure and hell is hot and eternity is long we should pray remembering what Jesus said in Matthew 6 verse 33 but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these other things you are tempted to worry about will be added to you furthermore agria teaches us to pray with godly wisdom James 1 verse 5 says if anyone among you lacks wisdom let him ask God God will give it to you generously and won't chastise you for asking you can pray for wisdom but here we also see I believe that that you should pray brothers with wisdom our text tonight is the first and shortest of 6 organized lists in proverbs chapter 30 apparently this is how a group process things in organized list agar here organizes his prayer list before he goes to God in prayer he would not have dared gone into the presence of some ancient dignitary in some careless and thoughtless manner moreover he would not enter into the presence of Almighty God carelessly or thoughtlessly and so before he went to God in prayer he thought through what he wanted to ask God for in his life and concluded before he prayed that I really want God to just do two things in my life and after he made his list he took his list to the one who is willing to here and able to answer prayer let me just pause there for a moment brothers if you were to make a bucket list of the things you want God to do in your life before you die how long would your list be what would be on your list and would that list reflect you to be a man who is wise or foolish Agri made a bucket list of the things he wanted God to do in his life before he died and he only had two things on the list on one hand he asked God to take out of his life anything that blocked his pursuit of godliness and then on the other hand he asked God not to give him anything that would deter him from the path of godliness that's it that's a curse prayer book of proverbs 31 chapters filled with godly practical wisdom for life but interestingly our text tonight is the only here me the only prayer recorded in the book of Proverbs is as if God the Holy Spirit has determined that this prayer alone is sufficient to show us men what it's like for wise men to pray here I want you to just get the bottom line of what the text is saying to us tonight just in case I don't get to everything here in the text but the bottom line of the example here of Agri sprayer is that strong men pray like weak men strong men pray like weak men if you want to be more like Jesus a good place to start is to learn how to pray like a girl on one hand ask God to remove the things that block your pursuit of godliness ask God to remove the things that block your pursuit of godliness the development of a godly knife is the result of a commitment to truth in John 8 verse 31 and 32 Jesus says if you continue in my word you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth shall set you free later in John 17 verse 17 Jesus prays for his disciples sanctify them by the truth your word is the truth I repeat the development of a godly life is the result of a commitment to truth and this is where agar begins his prayer his first petition is in verse 8 removes far from me falsehood and lying it's a two-fold request on one hand he says Lord I need you to remove from being falsehood the word their falsehood refers to that which is empty or meaningless or worthless Exodus chapter 20 verse 7 says you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain that word vain is this word falsehood it's empty meaningless talk it is deceptive speech it is a man who says what he knows is not true in order to take advantage of others first Peter chapter 2 verse one lifts deceit as one of the things you got to strip off or take off if you are going to learn how to have a healthy appetite for the word of God and grow to maturity first Peter chapter 2 verse 22 says that Jesus is qualified to be our Savior because he committed no sin and there was no deceit found in his mouth so to be a godly man we should join agar in praying against falsehood or deceptive speech but but that's not all he says Lord I also have a problem with not only falsehood but lies falsehood and lies our twins they're just not identical twins lies are uglier than falsehoods one can speak falsehood and still technically be telling the truth the issue of falsehood is that one has no internal commitment to the words coming out of his mouth he's a hypocrite who pretends to be something before others that he knows he is not before God but if I'm a faucet has a perverted acknowledgment of the truth it's pretence is a backhanded acknowledgment that there is a standard of truth but but the liar has no such standard there is no commitment whatsoever the truth in his heart so there is no commitment to truth in his mouth whatsoever proverbs 12 verse 22 the aim Clause says bluntly lying lips are an abomination to God and so this is a good place for Agra to begin his prayers Lord removed from me falsehood and lying the petition is cleared the context is not he may be praying about truthfulness within this may be a confession of sin he may be knowledge that he is struggling with falsehood and lying in his life or or maybe a warfare against the temptation to speak falsehood and lies in his life the issue may be truthfulness within or it may be an issue of truthfulness around him you got your Bible go up to the next to the previous passage verses 5 and 6 where agar says every word of God proves true he is a shield to those who take refuge in him do not add to his words let he let see rebuke you and you be found a liar and then two verses later he asked God to remove from him falsehood and 9 it may be that he is around people who speak falsehood and lies or more specifically they mishandle misinterpret misrepresent the Word of God to take advantage of others and he doesn't just want God to ultimately rebuke them he wants God to immediately remove them far from his life but whatever look whatever the context of the prayer I want you to get the big idea there is a struggle to be committed to truthfulness in his life and it is a struggle that ever could not handle on his own his in good intentions couldn't do it his best efforts couldn't do it his good works could not accomplish it so he acknowledges his weakness and brings it to God and asked God removed far from me falsehood and lying for falsehood and lying but were like termites eating away at the foundation of truthfulness in a girl's life agar could not address the problem he didn't even really know the extent of the infestation and so if you will allow calls a sovereign exterminator and says to God I need you to show up in my heart and remove from me falsehood and lying in fact he's fati look how weak he is I not only need you to remove foster denying I need you to remove it far from me I can't get rid of this on my own I need you to help me but I'm so weak that when you remove for certain lying remove it but remove it far from me because if you remove it and let it stay too close I may go back to get it or it may come back to get me and so he says God for me to be a godly man there are things in my life I need you to remove far away from me this is a good place to pray about godliness in our own lives brothers asking God by the power of the name of Jesus by the authority of the blood of Jesus by the truthfulness of the promises of Jesus to remove from you those things that are not like Christ the home I grew up in in Los Angeles California I had a tree house in the backyard and when afternoon my neighborhood friends shine and I were playing and as I we climbed up the ladder into the into the play house he went before me and we went up and played and came back down and decided to go back up later but I had was notorious for not tying my shoes and my leg got stuck in the ladder and I couldn't break free I am screaming and hollering Shyne tries to help he cannot break me free and so I tell him go in the house and get my dad he goes to get my dad and my dad comes out and he climbs up to me and I never will forget he doesn't try to pull my leg out he just breaks the steps around me and takes me in his arms and carries me safely down and once down he check to see if I was okay I was and he went back in the house and me and Shawn started playing again but when there was a break in action I looked up and Shawn is just staring at me and I said what's wrong man he said man your daddy is strong and friends that's what I want to say to you tonight there are things in your life that are not pleasing to the Lord that you cannot break free from on your own there are people that care for you but they cannot help you break free the good news tonight is our Father in Heaven is strong and by the bloody cross and empty tomb of the Lord Jesus Christ there is nothing you are bound to that God cannot break you free from so tonight ask God children move from you anything that blocks your pursuit of godliness that's the first petition there's another petition on one hand hacker says ask God to remove the things that block your pursuit of godliness and then he says ask God not to give you anything that did towards you from the path of godliness ask God not to give you anything that would detour you from the path of darkness there's another obscure Bible personality who prayed a prayer well he's not obscure anymore name is jay-bez his prayers in 1st chronicles 4 verses 9 and 10 lacs God to bless him indeed and enlarges coasts enlarges border and largest territory but as he prays for more land he says also why you give me more land I need your hand to be with me to keep me from evil that I might not do harm I submit to you tonight that the prayer of agar is the counterpoint to the prayer of Jabez jay-bez prays for a great blessing and then prays that God would protect him from the inherent dangers in the blessing I think I should just pray like agar here who says Lord you know me and you know how weak I am i'ma just ask you a friend don't give me anything that you know I can't handle if you know that it'll corrupt my integrity if you know it'll detour my devotion if you you know my heart Lord and I'm asking you don't give me anything that would get me off the right path and lead me astray this is his second prayer it's more expensive than the first petition but it is still basically a two-fold prayer here it is hold on to your seats because you don't hear prayer like this in church give me neither poverty nor riches what a prayer Lord don't let me be rich Lord don't let me be poor Lord don't let me be poor we can all say man that can't we no matter how godly you are you I take the pulpit Liberty that you don't ask God for the blessing of being broke you know a weekend we could agree with Agra at this point Lord don't let me be poor you don't have to be poor to be godly Matthew 6 verse 24 says no one can serve two masters he'll either love the one and hate the other and be devoted to one and despise the other you cannot serve God and money Jesus doesn't say you can't have dollar money he says you can't serve them both and so he prays here for the record you can be wealthy and generous and sacrificial and godly and you can be poor ingredients selfish and materialistic it's not about what you have it's about your attitude toward money in fact we'll see in a moment that poverty comes with his own spiritual perils so he says Lord don't don't let me be poor but then he says don't don't give me riches either the old moody says that getting riches brings care keeping riches brings trouble abusing rich brings guilt and losing riches brings sorrow so we should not make as much of riches as we do he's right but we most often totally ignore that the axiom says the more money you have the more problems you have and most of us just think I'll cross that bridge when I get to it here we are reminded brothers that there are spiritual perils to material wealth first Timothy chapter 6 verses 9 and 10 those who desire to be rich fall into temptation into a snare into many senseless and harmless desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evils and through it the craving for some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows so he prays don't let me be poor and don't let me be rich I've got to move on but I must put this footnote here by praying this way he acknowledges that God is the source of both he doesn't say God don't let me be rich and don't let the devil make me poor he says poverty or riches promotion or pink slip successful failure God is in control of it all you might not like the sound of that I don't either but I hate the alternatives even more because if God doesn't control every detail of my life it means some things are the result of luck or fate or chance or that the devil can do things in my life that God does not know about or control or worse it means my life is in my own hands no I rest ibly night knowing that whatever Life brings God has every detail of my life under his control and I didn't get that reading some theologian I got that from the ladies who taught the children's choir in the church I grew up in and she taught me to sing he's got the whole world in his hands he's got the little bitty baby in his hands and he's got me a new brother in his hands and so poverty or riches whichever comes we must trust that all things do work together for the good of those who love God and are the called according to his purpose here he says don't give me poverty or riches that doesn't mean he doesn't want anything look in the next phrase he explains his petition by saying just feed me with the food that is needful for me that's the bottom line there listen what agar is saying don't let me be rich don't let me be poor get feed me with the food that is needful for me one translation just simply renders it this way give me only my daily bread don't let me be rich don't let me get too much don't let me get too little here Lord keep me in a posture where I can't forget that I need you because there's peril the prosperity he says I make it full and deny you and say who is the Lord who is the Lord is not a desire to know the Lord it's a is an arrogant assertion who needs the Lord if my stomach is full I got money in the bank my job and family is going well he says if you're not careful the resources of this world will produce in your heart a sense of arrogance self-sufficiency and so he says don't don't let me be rich so that I don't arrogantly look up and start thinking that I can make it on my own but then Lord don't let me be poor because I may start stealing and cutting corners and cheating and hustling that's wrong legally and morally and ethically but he says it's also wrong theologically because I may steal and profane the name of my god by stealing I would be a false witness to the world that indicates that I'm hustling because I can't trust God to take care of me so Lord don't let me be rich don't let me be poor just keep me in a posture where I can't forget that I need you and I want to challenge you tonight to pray that brothers in your life on one hand just ask god father I'm asking you tonight to remove anything and you know what those things are named them that blocked my pursuit of Gartland it's an only other hand Lord I'm asking you just keep from me those things that would deter me from the path of godliness the little boy would go with his mother to the corner store when she shopped for groceries and when she would check out the old man behind the counter we leaned over look down at the little boy and say son reaching that barrel get you a handful of candy and put it in your mama's bag to take home with you he's saying no sir old man look at mother and say it's it okay for him to hand the candy she she says it's fine son get you a handful of candy no sir and they go back and forth until the old man would lean over and scoop up a handful of candy and put it in his put it in Mama's bag and say to the boy you take that home with you this became a routine every time they went to the store until one day mama couldn't take it anymore she said son why do you go through this routine with this old man every time we come to the store you know you want the candy you know you love the candy you get home and try to eat all of the candy I have to take it away from you what's the deal he said mom you don't understand his hands are so much bigger than my hand [Applause] time is filled with swift transition not of urks unmov'd can stand so build your hopes on things eternal and hold to God's unchanging hand father thank you for your word tonight would you just help us to adopt the spirit of this prayer would you help us to be stronger men by acknowledging our weaknesses to you would you Lord by the power of the Cross deliver us from those things that have us bound that we cannot break free from in our own strength and father would you keep our hearts affection away from those things that would lead us astray from you these are big requests but you're a bigger God who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think by the power that is at work in us and we give you glory for it in Jesus name Amen

Channel: Prestonwood Baptist Church

Views: 11,346

Rating: 4.742857 out of 5

Keywords: YouTube, Prestonwood, Baptist, Church, Non-Profit, Ministry, Ministries, Jack Graham, Jack, Graham, PowerPoint, PPT, PowerPoint with Jack Graham, Dallas, Texas, Jesus, Christ, Bible, 2017, PBC, USA, America, Media, TV, Show, Offers, Daystar, TBN

Id: SokTcgBYkw4

Length: 30min 32sec (1832 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 26 2018