Teach us to Pray - Part 5

It's a great privilege being it's.

Yeah. What can I say?

Thank you for coming this evening.

This morning after my talk, Anita said, you know what?

People know nothing about us. Why don't you just tell them a

little bit? And you know, behind every

successful man is an amazed mother-in-law.

So. So I had no choice but say

that's, that's OK, that's I'll do it.

But very few people know it. At the age of 17, I went to

university. I studied pharmacy and Anita's

also a pharmacist. And I stayed in the garage and

patches through him with one of those up flip doors.

And it was the coldest I've ever been in my life.

And I was poor, right? 15 Rand a month.

And even those days it was nothing, $0.50 a day and a

coffee and a toasted cheese cost $0.35.

So I only had 1. And in all the years that I was

at university, of course, until I met Anita and then she was

already a pharmacist and I was in the pound seats.

But that taught me and gave me a heart for people that that are

cold, that are hungry. They don't have the privileges

most of us have, and I thank God for those days.

My father was an alcoholic. And in my final year at

university, I got a phone call from a policeman that said your

father has shot your mother and she was killed and he tried to

commit suicide. And the bullet went through to

loaves of his brain. And it took me 20 years to

forgive him. And I thought, why 20 years?

I was in my own cage, locked in this cage for 20 years with

unforgiveness. And every time I saw him, I had

this brick in my stomach until I could forgive him and even say

to him, Dad, I love you. And I was free.

And I wonder over the years, people are walking around with

so much hurt and they just can't forgive.

And if I can forgive my father, then I'm sure people can forgive

their their fathers and their mothers and their wives or

partners of whoever that hurt you.

But let it go and you'll be free.

We started in 1975 after we bought a pharmacy just quickly,

I was rather disappointed in pharmacy selling pots, pans and

panteos and then decided that maybe I should do a a course in

Johannesburg in hearing aid acoustics.

And that changed my life. That was 1975.

Ten years later. Remember, there's always the 10

year, 10,000 hour learning curve. 10 years later I got the

opportunity of distributing phonic hearing aids in Southern

Africa. It was only me, I had nobody

else. In the mornings I did the ear

molds, in the afternoon I saw my patients.

In the evenings I did the repairs and God built our

business that today we have 28 year institutes.

We have the Eduplex with 840 children, with 70 deaf, two or

three deaf children. In every class we teach them

normal spoken language. One of our children was the

first deaf person ever to be allowed to do medicine in the

history of South Africa and, and we have more than 500 staff and

people ask me how did you build this business?

I said on my knees. The hours of pray, the days, the

months, the years of pray that went in between me and Anita and

our family. And I want to honour my family

for their support and Anita that stood next to me all these years

through thick and thin. Was it easy?

No, it was very difficult on our knees.

We built the company, heck of a hard work, a lot of prey, a lot

of tears. But at the end, if we look back

in the thousands of people we help every year with with good

hearing, it was all worth it. Now I want to build my talk this

evening on three verses. The first one is from Isaiah 43,

Isaiah 29 verse 13 that says you afflicted people.

Isaiah 29:13

You come to me with your mouths and with your lips, but your

hearts are far from me. The Lord knows when we rush in

and rush out, but our hearts are far from me.

The second verse that I like is one book further Jeremiah 29

Jeremiah 29:13

verse 13. We all know verse 11.

I know the plans. I have few plans for good and

not for evil to give you a future and hope.

But the key to verse 11 is verse 13.

If you seek me, you will find me.

If you seek me with all your heart, the one is your mouth and

your lips. The other one is seek me with

your heart, then you will find me.

And then the last verse that I want to build my talk on is

James 1/5 that says, if you need wisdom, ask me and I will gladly

give it to you without reproach. But when you ask, you have to do

it in faith, because if you don't, if you doubt, you will be

like a wave tossed by the wind, and such a man will be unstable

in all his ways. So as I said this morning,

friends, this is not a game. This is very serious.

We're talking here of the creator of the universe and if

you've and and and Jesus that died on the cross for us.

So it was a couple of years ago that I went to Greece.

I have a friend, he's 88 years old, a Swiss friend that went to

immigrated to Switzerland at 88. At 90, he had a party for a week

long and I was invited, all expenses paid.

Well, something you can't refuse.

And just remember at 90 you don't have that many friends

left. But but he, he invited 90 people

and at 90, he also changed his girlfriend, but that's a

different story. And while I was at this

function, at the, at the various functions, I once walked down

to, to the coffee shop and I walked past a fisherman's boat

and a father and son was working on this boat, scraping the pain

down. And the most beautiful wood was

displayed. And I looked at this and I

thought, wow, that's fantastic. After my coffee, I came back and

they had a torch, gas torch in their hand and they burnt the

wood black and I was rather shocked because I thought

they're going to varnish, this boat's going to look beautiful.

I walked in and said, Sir, do you speak English?

And he spoke fluent English. He said my son.

I said well my son and I and my daughter and we all in business,

my son-in-law, my wife of course.

And I said but why are you doing this?

He said, no, no, no. Every 7 to 8 years we've got to

scrape down the paint and you have to burn the wood to get the

impurities out. And then we repaint it and it's

good for seven or eight years. I said, oh, that's very

interesting, but tell me what's the most important part of this

of, of, of your boat? I mean, is it the radar?

Is it the depth Finder? Is it the fish Finder?

Is it the engine? Is it the tiller?

What is it? He said no, no, no.

Is that what you can't see? I said, oh, what's that?

He said is the ballast of the boat.

It's that the weights that they put in the bottom of the boat to

keep it upright in a storm. I thought that's very

interesting that simple fishermen have know that they

have to prepare for a storm in their life when they fish.

And yet when we become Christians, we think this is a

smooth sea for the rest of our lives.

And that's exactly what it's not because our characters are not

built at a carnival, but in the desert.

And it's only in the desert where we hear the the Lord's

word. And I have had the opportunity

of, of go to our farm on my own without any electronic devices.

And that was where I heard the the clearest, the Lord's voice

in my life. So we need to put time aside

with the Lord. I can't say that I love Anita

and I don't spend time with them.

Can't say I love Jesus and I don't spend time with him.

Do I do it to my salvation? No, I've already been saved.

But I do it out of love for him. So what is then important?

What? What must we learn from this

whole episode? With a, with a boat that we as

Christians need to build below the waterline.

And you know, there's a line on every ship that it shouldn't go

below that if they load it, because otherwise it's it's too

dangerous. And below that is the ballast of

the ship in the ship we need to build below the waterline.

That means we need to invest in our quiet time with a Lord.

And if we don't, it's the best investment you can make.

It's the best investment, but there is you.

There is a little bit of a of a program that I'd like to share

with you. I'd like to share some examples

on the effect of prayer when you pray and when you read what

happens. Let me just share a few

practical examples for you with you.

I worked for eight years from 8:00 in the morning till 11:00

at night, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

I guess I had now and again. We had one week that we could

take leave. We were so poor that we had

sheets in front of our windows and Anita looked after the

children. I worked and whenever we needed

meat, she would go and do a locum for two or three days so

that we can afford the meat and the day.

I got to know the Lord one morning in my quiet time and I

started already those days. That's 44 years ago, having my

quiet time. I read from Psalm 127 verse 2

Psalms 127:2

that it's senseless for you to get up early in the morning and

work till late at night because for those that love the Lord,

you will give even when they sleep.

I resigned my second job right there and I said, Lord, I'm not

trusting you to provide. And for years, every morning

that I walked into the company, passed our fax machine and saw

the orders that came through during the night, I was reminded

of Psalm 127. God will provide for us if we

love him, if we seek Him with all our heart, even while we

sleep. I remember one day we have 12

deaf people working in our Emerald lab and I remember one

day that they came to see me and said we'd like a salary

increases. And I explained to them in

detail that you can only make so many Emols with your hands and

we're getting this income and it's impossible to give you an

increase. 2:00 That morning the Lord woke me, went to my study

and I said, Lord, you know, I'm a little bit uneasy here, but

but these guys, you know, we can't afford to pay them more

money. What must we?

What do you expect of me? The Lord took me to Isaiah 58.

The first few verses it says new people, you fast and you pray

and you wonder why your prayers are not answered.

And he says, because I hear the cries of the workers in the

fields. Yeah, I was devastated.

I said, Lord, this is this is I mean, this is me.

I hear the cries of the workers in the fields and whenever they

pick us up to go to the airport and I ask the driver from a

multi billion Rand company, the drivers, and I say, how much do

you earn a month? I say, how old are you?

I'm 54. How many children do you have?

30. Does your wife work?

No, she can't get any work. So what do you earn a month?

6000 Rand a month. And I said, what a disgrace,

what a disgrace because I hear the cries of the workers in the

fields. I called the my staff together

the next morning and I said to him, well, I still stand with

what I said I've got to save face here and that, but I want

to say that it's not me. I'm not the head of the company.

This is what Christ said. He said he hears the more cries

of the workers and you'll get your increases.

The dividends were hundredfold, hundredfold.

But then I read about the poor as you carry on with Isaiah 58,

the importance of looking after the poor.

And I'm always amazed when people say, you know, these guys

standing next to the traffic lights, you know, they get 200

Rand a day or 300 Rand a day, 300 Rand a day times 20.

That gives you 6000. Can't live on 6000 Woolworths

cost us sometimes 3000 on a Saturday morning.

OK it's more or less so we have to have an open hand to the poor

and then first 7 says do not turn your back on your family

that needs your help. My friends.

So many people turn their back on their families.

Why? If you can afford it, support

them, help them, and then it's the most amazing thing verse 9

says. Then you will call and the Lord

will answer, If you look after your staff, if you look after

the poor, if you look after your family, then you will call and

the Lord will answer. You will cry for help and he

will say, here I am. Wow, isn't that amazing, but if

we just if we just do what the Lord expects from us and it it's

sometimes it's so simple. It's not not talking millions.

We're talking just what you have share it.

But we also have to expect the unexpected when we pray.

I mentioned this morning about the edge Plex and and and the

and the school and our the Lord when I prayed, he knew I I knew

absolutely nothing about education and he gave me this

vision in 1992 to make a difference in deaf education. 10

years later, Mr. Mandela opened the preschool and but he first

sent me somebody 75 year old retired principal for the school

for the deaf in England. Did I expect that?

No. Who did I expect?

I haven't got a clue. I just knew I knew nothing about

education and he sent this lady Fast forward to our sports

grounds and our second campus that we had to develop when I

had 27,000 ran in the bank and God said, I want you to develop

a second campus and we needed to get the sports fields and, and

our minister of electricity, Mr. Amahopa, he was then the the

councillor, the, the mayor of Pretoria and he came and he said

to me, you know, what you're doing here is really

commendable. We showed him our children and

so on. But I actually wanted to ask him

for the sports fields 9.4 hectares in Queensland and he

said let's drive around. But I could see something

upsetting because we had the deaf parents there to speak to

him and the and, or the parents of the deaf children.

And of course 70 of the 40 of the 70 children are, are

sponsored and got those parents to speak and say what the

Edguplex meant to them. And he then went to the sports

grounds and and we drove there and I had a tent and I had all

the plans out and it was grass this long.

And I had a guy cleaning his shoes when he goes back to the

office. And I could see that he lost

interest in what I was about to say.

And eventually he said to me, are you finished?

And I said, yes. I said, can I see you?

And he walked around the corner next to the tent with two

portable toilets. And he burst out crying.

He cried so much that he pushed himself between the toilets.

And five times he turned around and he said, it's because of

people like you and start continue to cry.

Eventually he came out, I hugged him.

I cried with him, didn't know what I was crying about, but it

was a good one. And he said, let me tell you my

story. My mother was illiterate and

people like you brought us food and brought us clothes and

brought sent us to school and sent us to university.

And we have 8 postgraduate degrees between eight children.

And my one sister is the vice president of the Citibank in New

York. Because of people like you.

And in that moment. And then he said today is

payback time. I will come in one month and

bring my whole executive to come and have a look at this ground

and I will see what we can do to have this donated ANC City

Council. But everybody said it's

impossible. They will not donate the ground.

They donated the ground. And I.

And I just realized, folks, I spoke about the poor I one kind

act can change the world. The wings of a butterfly, the

flap of a butterfly can cause a hurricane on the other side of

the earth. And I saw that with my own eyes.

When I saw the man's heart, I knew that this is what we should

do. Be kind.

Be kind to your people. I also said expect the

unexpected. And then we had to develop the

sports grounds. And the day that we got the

letter from the City Council said they donated it.

A little girl, she was nine years old, asked me to come to

the school and she said, Nico, the Holy Spirit said she's 9.

I need to give my birthday party money to you.

As for the development of the sports fields, I thought, how

much does she get on her birthday?

She took out the 100 grand. I took the 100 grand, put it in

my pocket, and I said, oh, thank you very much.

Nice. And my thoughts.

I said, Lord, I don't need 100 grand, I need 100 million.

A year later I go to Switzerland and I have dinner and and

somebody walks past. One of my donor friends walks by

and they saw me sit there and he came and greeted me and he said

no, I walked past saw you sitting here.

I just wanted to come and say hi.

He said no, come and sit and have a glass of wine.

And as his bum hit the seat, he said, what about the sports

grounds? I said, well, we just got a

letter that we can actually start with the ground works and

we can start with a with a fencing in.

He said, I want to help you. I want to send somebody to you,

a Swiss company that would develop the pump track.

I thought the pump track, I don't want to Google it under

the table. It's very impolite.

Didn't have a clue what it was. And a mountain bike track and

you have a book to build a pool too.

And I said, yeah, I know Andy, but it costs says no, I'll give

you $1,000,000. Proverbs 21 One, the heart of

the king is in the hand of the Lord.

He sends the thoughts like water in a furrow.

I did not see that once. I saw that many times.

But we had to soak what we were doing in prayer.

We had to ask the Lord. I never asked for money.

I only share the vision. Sometimes it's very difficult.

I sat next to a billionaire for four hours on a flight and the

pressure to ask this man for money was so intense that I

started crying. And he said, what's wrong?

I said, I'm so happy. And eventually I then just

shared the whole vision of the of the school with him.

We have to. And then when I got back from

Switzerland, my son Nico said, dad, do you remember on a bets

100 Rand And in that moment I saw the little boy with the five

loaves and the two fishes go to Jesus and he fed 5100 Rand given

in faith was multiplied 140,000 times to 14,000,000 Rand.

And that gave us the seed money to start with the development of

the sports grounds. We spent 35,000,000 Rand on the

grounds and the ground was not yet on our name.

And people said that's highly irresponsible.

What about Mr. Malema that comes and he might take the ground,

said well, the promise that the Lord gave me on the 5th of April

2010 was that he will open the door, he will break down, he

will flatten the mountain. Because I said the money in

front of me to develop the second campus is like a

mountain. I will flatten the mountain and

I will break down the city gates.

And I knew that was the sports grounds so that you may know

that I'm your God. And I said to people when they

said this is irresponsible, I said the Lord said he's going to

break down the city gates. I have to step out in faith,

folks. Is it easy?

No, it's very difficult. I have to step out in faith and

put my money where my mouth was. This is what we do, Lord, but we

trust you for the future. It took six years for them to

transfer the money to transfer the ground to the school's name.

And often I I when we go on on leave in December, I have time

then to spend lie under the umbrella and, and and just have

a bit of quiet time and one year I asked Lord, now please give me

the verse for the year aid and he gave me Hebrews 13 verse 5.

Hebrews 13:5

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content

with what you have. And I said, OK, this is for the

year Yeshua Lord, yes OK keep your life free from the love of

money and be content with what you have.

Never will I leave you never will I forsake you.

And I started thinking about this and think, but how do how

do greed is such a part of our being?

And and how do I get rid of the love of money?

There's only one way. You have to give it away.

That's the only way to get to it.

But but I don't have the money. I'll get to that in a moment.

Then I said, but be content. What does it mean to be content?

It means to be happy with what we have, to stop striving.

Did you know that the average South African in, according to

The Sunday Times article of a couple of years ago, changed its

houses 7.2 times in their lifetime?

7.2 times. And we tend to always upgrade,

go bigger and bigger. And what do we do?

We go to the bank and we ask how much can I get from the bank on

my salary? And they give you a 20 or a 30

year loan and you're forever enslaved to the bank repaying

your bond plus your car plus plus plus.

And I realized that there's a time that we have to say, but I

have to cap my lifestyle. I have to close my circle.

I have to say enough is enough. Whether I have a lot or little,

this is enough. And I have to have a plan how to

get debt free. If you have no plan, forget it.

You're not going to get there and how do you do that?

How do you get to close your circle?

How do you get to, of course, sometimes you can throw a little

something in. I mean, that's a that's also

allowed. But you have to certainly cap

your lifestyle. And for me, there's a few

things. There's five points that I'd

like to mention, especially for the young people.

First of all, you have to pray about it.

And if you're married, you have to take pray with your spouse

and say, how can we get debt free?

And if we have a plan, then we're going to work this plan.

We stayed, we staying next year will be 50 years in the same

house in De Vilhurst that we paid 40,000 Rand for in 1975.

And my, and I remember my oldest brother, he was, he's seven

years older than me. He walked in and he said as he

walked through the house, my dear brother, in my lifetime,

you will never, ever, ever get your money back.

So that was proven a bit wrong, but you kept your lifestyle and

let's let's look at to become debt free.

There's five points. You have to pray about it, Then

you have to plan, then you have to implement your plan.

No use planning this and you're not implementing it.

And, and I know people that's got a barometer on their fridge

of the debt and how they, they, they eliminating their debt

because they have a plan and they're working their plan.

And then you have to save. Forget the toys, friends, forget

the toys. And I'm not, I'm not saying that

we've got to be poor, but why, why do we do this?

Why do we want to become debt free?

So that we can become generous. Generous towards the church,

generous towards the poor, generous to your family,

starting with your own kids. Maybe we can send them to a

better school, may I say the edge duplex.

Send them to a better school, send them to a good university

and try and get them debt free. Our whole family is debt free

because we have a plan. And then after we saved and

we've been generous, there's a lot of things that you can then

enjoy that you would not have been able to enjoy.

Maybe you can fly on holiday instead of driving down.

Maybe you can help your parents in a better way.

Maybe you can help your family. Maybe the poor as the Lord leads

you. And I would like to.

My second point that I have is to talk to you about the future.

Let me say that when God gives you a promise, you can cast it

in concrete. I write it on brass blocks.

Why? Because I tend to forget and if

the Lord of our first building that the Lord gave me from 2

King 6 and I said, where in the Bible does it say I can build

buy office block? And he took me to two King 6 and

the seminary students said to Elijah, so our dormitory is too

small. Can we build a bigger one down

by the Jordan River? And he said, yes, you can go.

And I said, let me put this in a brass block and I put it on the

wall. And my secretary at that time,

Pat Patty, where are you hands up there.

Well, Pat and Pat said, no, people can't see it.

They said this is not for the people.

This is for me because when I go through difficult times, I need

to come and see what the Lord has said to me because that is

the truth, not the circumstances, not what I feel,

not what I experience. And two years later she stopped

in front of the office and she saw me standing in front and I

said, what's wrong now? I said I have now so many

problems that I'm beginning to doubt that the Lord said we

could buy this property. So just before the election in

1990, four, 1993, talking about the future, I asked the Lord,

what about the future for our company?

We want to expand. We thought of expanding into the

rest of Africa and he took me to Isaiah 54 verse two to four that

says enlarge the place of your tent, spread out your tent pens,

strengthen your stakes. Do not hold back.

Soon you are going to burst by the seams.

And then verse four said do not fear, you will not stand

ashamed. And to a certain extent I

immediately thought back about my past, said the Lord will be

with me and I need not to be ashamed.

Remember you can cast it in concrete.

It has no expiry date. A few years ago, after the

Americana massacre, they've invited me to speak in

Rustenburg and thousands of people standing next to the

roads. The mines are closed.

It was a dismal situation and I said, Lord, what must I go and

tell him? He said go and give them a

message of hope. I said I don't want to give them

false hope. That's worse than no hope.

Give them a message of hope. Tell them to forget the former

things. See, I am doing something new.

Don't you see it? It's already begun.

I'm making a pathway in the wilderness and rivers in the

desert. Isaiah 43 verse 18 and 19.

Isaiah 43:18

And I went and I spoke to them and I said, friends, fear blinds

us from the opportunities that God sends over our path.

Ask the Lord to open your eyes to see what he the opportunities

He sends you. And a year later a guy walks

into my office. He made an appointment from

Rustenburg. He stopped in a Bucky and he was

he was really quite large. He sat the whole front seat of

the Bucky full. He walked down the the passage.

My staff thought that I was going to be donut.

Sorry, can I use that name? And he said to my office, he

said a year ago you said that we should ask Lord to open our eyes

for the opportunities. He said, and I did that and I

got a 14,000,000 Rand contract to close a mine and a year later

another 14,000,000 to actually open the mine again.

He said, I just want to say thank you very much.

And he walked down the aisle. I wanted to say, but he's not

the small Commission for me. So these things happen and and I

want to say if the Lord gives me that, that word, then surely

that's applicable for all of us. And I want to be where the Lord

is working. He said I am doing a new thing.

This is where I want to be, not in a nanny state somewhere else.

And this friend of mine, Rolf, which had the 9th when he was 90

year old, the party we went and I worked for him in a, in a

project in, in Zimbabwe. Now, if you know those of you

that's been to Zurich airport, it's got black marble floors and

it's a fantastic building, but there's not a sound.

It is like the grave. It's dead quiet.

And when we arrived at O or Tembo and we were going up the

stairs, their music was blaring, and there were little dogs going

on the floor, and there were planes flying in the air and

people laughing. And I turned around to say to

him, Rolf, I'm so sorry with this racket.

And he looked up to me and he said, yeah, there is life, my

friends. Yeah, there is life.

This is where I want to be, not somewhere else.

I'd like to end by just sharing with you how I keep my quiet

time. I think the first thing that we

have to say is let's take our example.

When do we have it? Let's take our example from

Jesus, from Mark 135 that said he went, he got up early in the

morning and went to have his to meet his father.

It takes discipline to get up early in the morning.

I used to get up at 4. It's now 430.

It takes discipline. It means that I have to put off

the TV at night. I have to put close my book.

I have to go to bed a little bit earlier than normal.

Why I have a very important meeting in the mornings because

I need wisdom, I need insight, I need understanding for the day

ahead. That's why I have to ask him and

I have to spend time with him. Can't just rush in and rush out

with my mouth and my lips. I have to go in with my heart.

So I pray and I'm honest with the Lord.

You can be honest. He knows we have feet of clay.

He knows that we're not strong, even if we sometimes think we're

strong. He knows that I pray and then I

read. And this is the important part,

that when I read, of course, the Word is the basis.

I also have daily devotionals and I have 3 or 4 of them or

five of them that I read through every day.

I cannot read yesterday's piece today or tomorrow's piece today.

It's a one day at a time and it keeps me regular.

Invest in a good daily devotional book.

It's worth it. It keeps you regular.

You can't miss it because God works one day at a time and then

I have to be obedient. I can't hear this because the

word says and may I remind you of what the word says from James

One verse 22 Do not merely listen to the word and so

deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

Look after your family, look after your staff, look after the

poor. Give your tithe to the church.

But then I also keep a record because and this is where my

books was created from because you have to keep a record and I

keep doesn't help you. You write it in journals, my

friend. I have a friend that's got 63

journals on his on his shelf. And I said, do you ever read

back in these journals? No, no, no.

But I keep a regular record. That's sure.

Nothing I have. And I I bought out the journal.

But you have a journal in your book And and I have the book and

I make these little notes instead of your Bible that you

don't keep it on the daily devotion.

Every day of the year you make these notes and you see.

Wow. It encourages your faith.

Yeah. We battled with this and the

Lord provided. Yeah, I had this and this

happens again. How many times have I contacted

Rory and said, you know what, three years ago we had a meal

together and we're having now a meal again today without it

being planned. It encourages your faith.

And I want to close and say, may the best investment again is to

have your quiet time, to develop a solid quiet time and seek the

Lord with all your heart. And I can guarantee you tonight,

your life will never be the same.

It might not be easy, but it would be fantastic.