Polish (5) — George Verwer

Today, some of you have had some special showers and blessings. We have to learn to rejoice when we have the sunshine or when we have the rain. And this morning we're going to be dealing with one of the most important subjects in your Christian life.

The Importance of Prayer

The great subject of prayer. I know one particular group, they have a whole seminar of several days just dealing with prayer. So don't think that to have one morning on this subject is so much. Because it is such a big subject in the Word of God.

I want to mention again three books, one of them I haven't mentioned before. It's a brand new edition, Praise the Lord of the Gospel of Luke. Some of you have seen that special Jesus film, based on the Gospel of Luke.

We have been showing that film in many, many parts of the world and God has used it. And this can be used in conjunction with that film or it can be used completely apart from the film. Now, this is the kind of book, you don't go over and ask, oh, can I have one copy?

This is the kind of book, you go to the stand and say, can I have one copy? But ask them for a full copy. And ask them for a special price. But God wants to use His Word. And I hope there will be an opportunity to share what we have experienced here.

Yesterday my friend Nicky Walker came to me. He lives now with another group of young people, about 50 kilometers from here. Nicky is very specialist in speaking out in the street. I thought, what is he going to do in Poland?

I mean, in Poland, you can't go out and talk in the street. But he's been teaching all those young people how to use the chalkboard, you know, a parchment board. And they have really been responding to this.

They've gone out into the street each day. They're having big crowds. And people are hearing the gospel. This is an amazing answer to prayer. We all need wisdom, and each place where we are, we need to get God's wisdom for that place.

But one thing we can all do is distribute carefully and prayerfully the Word of God. On my first day, I very, very briefly mentioned this book called I Married You. That's an excellent book to give to someone as a gift, just before they're getting married.

Because God has used this book, originally written for Africa, to help many people in their marriage. Walter Trobisch, he's now in heaven. And this is a very open, honest book that everybody needs to read.

And then I want to again just remind you of John Stott's book on basic Christianity. I'd love to see you get him here to give some Bible teaching sometime. One of the greatest Bible teachers in the world.

Meanwhile, you have his book. Very good to give to someone who has questions about the Christian faith. What is Christianity really? Give them this book. Now, when we think of the subject of prayer, especially if you're a young person, you think, well, I mean, really, that's for older people, prayer.

We hear, you know, the older lady praying. We picture the old monk in the monastery, praying day and night, not eating any food. We have a lot of false ideas about prayer. In the mind of some, it even has sort of a feminine connotation.

My mother used to pray for me. Praise the Lord if your mother prayed for you. But your father can pray also. I want you to turn with me to 1 Timothy, chapter 3, verse 12. 1 Timothy, chapter 4, verse 12.

How many of you are under 20 years of age? You're still a teeny bopper. Teeny, teenagers. How many of you are under 20 years of age? You're still a teeny bopper. Teeny, teenagers. Oh, that's 75 of all the people here.

Let's read this verse. 1 Timothy, chapter 4, verse 12. May thou an example of the believers in word, conduct, love, spirit, in faith and in purity. Every day I've given a challenge about memorizing the Word of God.

Every day I've given a challenge about memorizing the Word of God. How many of you have made a specific decision in your heart that you are going to memorize Scripture from this cup in front of you? Has anybody done that?

Raise your hand. That is a great encouragement to me. I've been memorizing God's Word. And I hope that one of the verses you'll memorize is 1 Timothy 4, 12, what we just read. One thing that helps in memorizing the Word of God is when you pronounce it out loud, you say it out loud.

Another thing is to write it on a little card. That's the method I used when I first started. Then after I got many hundreds of verses in my mind, I developed a system of marking my Bible. How many of you mark your Bible with a pen, a color pen or a regular pen?

Raise your hand. That's a very helpful way to study God's Word. Now, one of the systems I use, when I start memorizing a verse, I put a line just next to the reference number. When I have the verse half memorized, then I put the line underneath the number.

When I get it almost 100%, then the line goes up the other side of the number. And when I have the verse perfect, there's about all the way around the reference number. And then I spend a lot of time going back and just meditating and thinking of those verses again.

Memorizing and Meditating on Scripture

The power of God's Word. And as we go away from here, all of us memorizing and meditating on the Word of God. We will experience greater power and victory in our lives. We will be able to resist Satan's subtle attacks upon us.

We will also be able to use God's Word when we speak to other people about Christ. Let us just think about this subject of prayer. Combining it with this verse. As young people, you can be an example in this area of the Christian life.

It talks about basic conduct or maturity. It talks about love. It talks about the Spirit. And it talks about faith. We cannot talk about prayer without talking about faith. They are together. Prayer without faith is of little value.

Turn to Hebrews, chapter 11. Hebrews, chapter 11. I'd like you to read verses 1 through 6. And we're going to have a real marathon of Bible teaching this morning. Because of the weather, we're not going to go into small groups.

That's a blessing for me. Because I have so much I want to tell you. And I probably won't get back to Poland for many years. I need to tell it now. And I found out all this material is going on to cassette tapes.

And people are buying these cassette tapes. And this is going to go all over Poland. This is getting me very, very, very excited. But very good. Let's hope this whole platform doesn't come down. But we're going to have a break between different sections.

So you can sing and you can stand up. And I told my wife to prepare me a cup of tea. So I'm going to run off, get a cup of tea. And talk to my wife. And then come back. But not right now. Read Hebrews 11, 1 -6.

That's correct. Oh God, open our hearts this morning. To your holy word, to your way of faith. Lord, we want to take steps of faith this morning. We want to enroll in the university of prayer this morning.

We believe you are no respecter of persons. Whether we are young or old, you want to teach us to pray. Deliver us of false ideas about prayer. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen. Now notice verse 6.

But without faith, it's impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God, that's speaking of prayer, coming to God. Must believe that he is. And that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Diligently seek him. Is this possible for young people? To diligently seek God. One of the reasons that much of my time is spent speaking to young people. Is because I totally committed my life to Jesus Christ at 17 years of age.

So I am not talking to you about something that I have not experienced. In fact, I can more easily remember what happened between ages 17 and 21 than I can, for example, between 25 and 30. They were the formatives, the foundation years in my Christian life.

And these are your foundation years. Don't miss these valuable years. Don't wait until you're 20 to totally consecrate your life to Jesus Christ. A great youth preacher, a man of God, said this. He was speaking about his own country.

Maybe this is not true here. I don't know. He said the great sin of young people is the sin of wasting time. Ephesians 5 says redeem the time because the days are evil. There are many ways to redeem the time.

I could give you about 30. There are many ways to redeem the time. I could give you about 30 or 40 ways. But one of the ways to redeem the time is through prayer. I was once in prison for one or two days or, you know, under arrest.

It was all a mistake. But I had a lot of time. And I just longed for people to realize the great adventure of the life of prayer. And you may ask me, I want you to ask me, how old were you when you started to really give yourself to prayer?

You may ask me that, please. I was 17. 17 is a great age. How many of you are 17? Anybody 17? Stand up, stand up. All those who are 17. That's a special age. All right, let's give them a clap. Okay. You know, with God, every year is special.

The Christian life is one great challenging adventure for Jesus. Now, when I was saved and I came to Christ, I was very in love with the things of this world. Especially the nightclubs and the dance floors.

And I would dance for hours and hours, completely captivated by the music and the women and the orphans. I would dance with three girls at the same time. They would all be tired, and I'd still be going wild.

And if I couldn't find any girls, like in my own room back in my home, I would dance with a broom. I'd get an old broom and dance with a broom. Many other things in the world infatuated me. And when I became a Christian, all of that didn't change.

Just poof! Overnight. I had to grow. I didn't know. I didn't know what was wrong and what was right. There were different people saying different things. And I thought to myself, unless I find something better to do, I'll never get away from some of this stuff.

You know, this is a great problem. People think that Christian life is a list of things you're not allowed to do. Some of our churches and some of our countries, they actually give you a list of things you cannot do.

But you know, unless you have a positive spiritual revolution going on in your heart, it's very difficult not to do those things. And so you end up living a double life. And you end up doing things in secret.

And that causes a lot of tension and a lot of guilt and a lot of confusion. At 17, I discovered there was something better. Communion with the living God. Getting involved in the great adventure of faith in which we see God answer prayer.

And it was when I was 17 or 18, I had been reading some powerful books, memorizing the Word of God. I got on my knees in my room and I said, God, I only want one thing in life more than anything else.

I want to learn to pray. I had no plan to start any kind of organization. I was not thinking about ships. I just wanted to know God. And that wasn't easy for a character like me. I wonder if any of you feel at times like I do.

You just don't feel very spiritual. And sometimes you go to a meeting and there's a great man of God, and he speaks about all the wonderful things that God is doing. How life has been changed. And you just somehow feel, that's not me.

I don't feel very spiritual. This was a great struggle for my life. Still is a struggle for me. I don't feel spiritual. Sometimes I feel ugly. Now, I don't want to project my problems on you. Maybe some of you are just naturally spiritual.

Every day you're just more and more spiritual. All you want to do is pray and read the word and love people and serve Jesus. Well, praise the Lord. I've heard there are such people who exist. I myself am a natural backslider.

If God doesn't meet me every day, I begin to grow cold. I begin to get a wrong attitude. There was once a great evangelist named D .L. Moody. One secular encyclopedia a secular encyclopedia said this about Moody.

Famous evangelist who depopulated hell by one million people. What an amazing character. He wasn't very good looking. He was way overweight. He could not speak his own language, English, he couldn't speak properly.

But he won a million souls to Jesus Christ. He was the founder of the Moody Bible Institute where I had the privilege of studying and miraculously graduating. D .L. Moody would often speak about being filled with the Holy Spirit.

He would say, be filled again with the Holy Spirit. Be filled every day with the Holy Spirit. One lady, she didn't like that. She said, Mr. Moody, why do you keep saying be filled again and again? He said, lady, because I leak.

And you know, this is the story of my life. One weak, leaking Christian leader. Hallelujah, I know where the free refills are. This is why we want to emphasize the need to have a daily quiet time. The need to spend time with God each day.

The Hour of Power: Adoration and Confession

Now I want you to draw a circle on your piece of paper. Can you see this circle? I want you to make a circle. You have to have very good sight in the back if you want to do this. You need an overhead projector.

Make a circle. And I want to give you something very practical. How to have an hour with God. How to have an hour of power. And we're going to divide the pie into different sections. The first five minutes that's the first section is five minutes of adoration.

Jesus said that God was looking for worshipers. Those who would worship in spirit and in truth. It says in the Gospel of John. We'll look at some more verses in the later section. Tozer said that worship A .W. Tozer and I hope you've bought all of his books.

Worship was the missing jewel of the evangelical church. So when you start your quiet time, your hour of power just have five minutes of worship. I suggest you use the Psalms. I use the Psalms every day.

There are so many Psalms that emphasize this. Praising God. You may want to use music. If you're early in the morning and you're feeling very tired you can listen to some praise music. But have five minutes of worship and praise.

Then the next section in your little pie over around about two o 'clock in the afternoon Two minutes of confession. Confession before God. 1 John 1 .9 We read that yesterday about confessing our sins before God.

We can be honest with God. It's such a blessing to be honest with God. Sometimes I confess a poor attitude toward a brother. Sometimes people bother me. Do you ever have this problem? Somebody bothers you.

Somebody who talks too much. You ever get with these people that talk and talk and talk and talk. And other times you get with these people they're completely quiet no matter what you say. Nothing. Then you get with people that they have funny habits.

People that pick their nose. So sometimes I have to pray. Oh Lord, you know I can't stand that brother. I never want to see him again. Have mercy on me. I am a sinner. I never want to see him again. We can be gloriously honest.

We can be gloriously honest with God. We don't have to pretend that we're spiritual. Oh Lord, I love everybody. Oh, I'm so wonderful God. I know you appreciate having me as your child. That is not the way to pray.

Isaiah said, Oh God, woe is me a man of unclean lips. And if you want a great passage for your time of confession you read Isaiah chapter 6. Then you move into the third section of your little pie. Three minutes of thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving and the Will of God

Thanksgiving. That is a very important part of our Christian life. It says in the book of Isaiah chapter 6 Thessalonians and there are many, many, many other verses that in everything we should give thanks for this is the will of God.

First Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 18. In fact, while we're there just look at verse 16 and 17. Rejoice evermore. That's verse 16. That's an easy one to memorize. That could be the verse of the day. Rejoice evermore.

Then verse 17 Notice verse 18. Read it again. So many young people write to me. Oh brother George I don't know what the will of God is for my life. I don't know who I'm going to marry. I don't know whether I should be a bus driver or a farmer.

I want to know the will of God for my life. And we get what I call will of God neurotics. They're just always worrying about whether they're going to find the will of God. Very, very important. If you don't do the things that are commanded to be God's will they're commanded in scriptures to be God's will.

Very clear, simple, basic things. If you disobey those things how do you think you're going to get special guidance in very difficult areas of life? So here it says this is the will of God. What? Giving thanks.

Giving thanks. So easy to see our problems. I have a strong negative streak. Do any of you have that problem or are you all the optimist club? I see easily the negative things. And I have to go continually to God for cleansing over my negativeness which comes in and becomes a little puck sore of cynicism in my soul.

Power of thanksgiving has been one of the greatest helps to me in my Christian life. Hardly ever a day passes in my life when I don't spend time in thanksgiving for the small things. Look at these beautiful flowers for the big things like this big tent.

Supplication and Bringing Personal Needs to God

So after three minutes of thanksgiving the next section of our little pie getting right over to three o 'clock in the afternoon five minutes of supplication you have a word for that in Polish? Supplication at the time of beseeching God of pleading with God concerning our own personal needs.

For an example of that look into Psalms chapter six. Psalms chapter six. A beautiful example of supplication there are many in the Psalms. I was reading this one this morning. Just read verses one through three.

Notice again notice again verse two. Have mercy on me. Oh Lord I am weak. Oh Lord heal me. Supplication. It means bringing our own needs to God. God is interested in you. He is interested in you. I remember some years ago after living in Nepal we had many illnesses diseases in Nepal where I lived.

I would love to talk to you about that country. Ninety five percent cannot read. Only if yet the church has been growing. When I lived there there were maybe only a few thousand believers. It is a Hindu kingdom.

Now we have twenty or thirty thousand believers. We are going to hear about those people and we are going to pray for those people on Monday night. But one year when I came back I found something growing a little lump growing here in my in my stomach.

And one doctor looked at it and he said oh it is nothing. Very small thing. But it is not too small for God. We can take our small burdens about our health about our struggle we can take those things to God.

He loves us. He is concerned about us. As we are sitting here now everybody is looking up at at us at Henio and at George. We seem outwardly we seem to be more important right now. We are up here on this pulpit right in front of all of you.

I love the Lutheran churches. They have the most beautiful pulpits especially all over Germany I preach in the Lutheran churches. I was in one very big Lutheran church. I had to climb up to the pulpit.

I was beginning to feel air sick. All the people were looking up at me. Oh praise God for the pastor. He is so wonderful. But when God looks down He looks at you. This little girl with the red sweater.

And this one with the blue. This girl with the little white glasses. This sister who is holding her chin like this she is looking at me. See I can see I can see every one of you. But God one hundred times more is concerned about each one of you.

1 Peter 5 7 says casting every care upon him he cares for you. What a great verse. You write that down and memorize that and use that verse again and again. It's a beautiful experience. Supplication before God.

And then ten minutes of just Bible reading. The next section in your circle. Just reading the word of God try to cover at least three chapters and I recommend you read in three different places at the same time.

One chapter in the early part of the Old Testament one chapter later on Psalms, Proverbs the Prophets and one chapter in the New Testament. Just spend at least ten minutes in reading the word of God. And then just before the half past the hour five minutes of further worship and supplication before God.

Responding to what God has said to you from his word. And that will take you halfway through your little circle. And that brings us to half past ten. I am going for my cup of tea. And you are going to do whatever the leaders tell you to do.

Help me have your circle. Help me have your circle on your paper. Raise your hand. Very good. Thank you very much. We now get just past the halfway mark. And we move into one of the most important aspects of our prayer time and of our prayer ministry and of our ministry.

Developing a Sustainable Personal Prayer Life

Let me say that I only share this as an example. You can find your own system. That is no problem whatsoever. You may want to spend more time in one thing and less time in something else. This is just one person's way of approaching a daily quiet time.

There are many, many other ways. And when you are having time with God, don't be discouraged if you have some failures. You may even fall asleep. The disciples fell asleep. In OM we have many prayer meetings.

One time, very late in the night, actually early in the morning, the great leader of the prayer meeting sitting in the front row fell asleep. You can be sure there were many stories the next day. Headlines in the Gospel Gazette.

George Brower falls asleep in night of prayer. Sometimes I have problems because my mind is wandering. No problem is too big for God. Do you think you surprise God with some of your funny thoughts? I remember one time I was in a prayer meeting in Switzerland.

You know, sometimes our temptations and our wrong thoughts can come even in a prayer meeting. When we are in a prayer meeting we are still human beings. We have not yet been elevated to angelic position.

And I was having a wonderful time in this prayer meeting and then this very attractive girl walked into the prayer meeting in this beautiful dress. And I said, Oh Lord! The whole prayer meeting is going to be in complete chaos.

So I buried my head in prayer so I could not see anything. And I was praying, Oh Lord, cleanse my wicked imagination. Forgive me Lord, I am unworthy to be your servant. Then the temptation became bigger.

And so I just let my fingers open just a little bit to see. And I found it a real struggle. Many people are discouraged in their prayer life because they have some of these struggles when they are actually praying.

One thing that has helped me when I am praying privately is to pray out loud. Then it is harder for the mind to wonder. I often try walking around. Oswald J. Smith was a great missionary leader. Ten months ago I was with him at his bedside.

He was becoming 96 years of age. Ten days? No, about ten months ago. He had a great burden for Poland. Oswald J. Smith. Some of his books, they used to be in Polish. And he went to be with the Lord a few months ago.

He would pray walking around his desk. Some people pray on their knees. Buck's thing in India, he likes to always pray on his knees. We're all different. And you have to find the way that's best for you to pray.

In our little pattern that we're sharing with here the next ten minutes is intercession. There's a beautiful picture of it back in Exodus 17 and verse 11. Exodus 17 There is a great battle going on with the Amalekites.

And we find that Moses is interceding on the mountain. Read verse 9. Yeah. Moses was going to stand on a hill communing with God on behalf of the army. Very unusual story. Moses actually got tired after some period of time.

Read verse 11. Verse 12. Because of that intercession with God it says in verse 13 that Joshua vanquished the Amalekites. And of course they then wrote this for a memorial in the book. Verse 14. In verse 15 Moses built an altar and called the name of it Jehovah Nisi which means my banner.

The Lord is my banner. Now turn over to the book of Acts for a New Testament comparison of this kind of intercession. Acts chapter 12. A very important picture. Verse 5. Peter therefore was kept in prison but prayer was made without ceasing by the church unto God for him.

Prayer was made without ceasing. Now in our little circle we are talking about your private prayer life. We are talking about having an hour alone with God. You of course can do the same thing in a small group.

You can do the same thing in the church. Some years ago I wrote an article for a magazine a well-known Christian magazine called What Happened to the Prayer Meeting? Maybe that someday will get put into Polish.

I wrote this article because it's one of the greatest burdens that's on my heart to see the resurrection of prayer meetings within the church. I believe that God's key for accomplishing His work is the local church.

Prayer Meetings, Revival, and God's Answering Work

God wants to do great things in our churches. Firstly He wants to bring revival. He wants to bring greater reality, greater honesty, greater love and this is going to happen as we learn to pray. Every Christian should belong to at least one or two prayer groups.

Perhaps one within his church at least and maybe one other one that maybe with Christians of different groups. And let us not think that prayer is just some kind of therapy for those who are praying. Even in some of our seminaries today in certain countries they are giving the idea that God doesn't really answer prayer.

Prayer doesn't actually accomplish anything out there like if you're praying for India. Prayer is for us. It's a therapy. It's like talking to a psychiatrist. We can tell all of our problems. Now that may be true to some degree but that is not the basic goal of prayer.

God is alive. God hears and answers prayer and here in Acts 12 we have one of many specific examples.