Everybody Praise the Lord — Hans R. Waldvogel

Everyone Joining in Praise

Where we all join in praising the Lord. You know the praises of God are not complete until everybody praises the Lord. It's like a pipe organ. Sometimes a mouse gets into one of the pipes and the harmony is hindered thereby.

The Piano Illustration of Hindering and Restored Harmony

And so then we got to get a repairman to... Or I had a friend who had a bicycle, not a bicycle, but a piano given to him, new piano. And so the little girl had to take lessons and after a few weeks that piano wouldn't play.

Only the top and the bottom octaves played and the rest didn't play. What did he do? He was frightened and he called by long distance. He called the factory where the piano came from and they sent post haste a repairman down 50 miles.

And he just opened the lid and took out a dust rag and that piano played very well again. And so it is with a meeting like this the Bible says we ought to be filled with the Spirit and speaking to yourselves and among yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

A Harmonious Meeting Directed by the Holy Spirit

And that flow of the life of God has to flow from pipe to pipe and from vessel to vessel, from one to the other. And there's something very unusually wonderful about a meeting where everyone joins in.

Everyone is clear, clean, pure, a vessel unto honor, sanctified and meet for the Master's use. And then the Holy Spirit, this great director from heaven, he can just raise his baton and then everybody harmonizes and the fiddles and the cellos and the trumpets and the bass drums and every instrument plays his part.

And sometimes they don't all play, but tonight and in these last weeks, thank God, it sounded real good. It sounded real heavenly. And the result is not only that we hear one another, of course, that's what praise is for, but God hears it.

There comes a blessing from heaven. The atmosphere is clear. You'd be surprised if you could have your eyes open and see how the bats and the owls and the cockroaches disappear and the angels of the Lord come.

The glory of God fills his temple. That's after all what we are, the temple of the living God. And so everyone has a part to play. And isn't it sweet that God unites us like that? We don't all sing the same tune.

You don't sing my tune and I don't sing your tune, but I sing the tune God sings through me and you sing the tune God sings through you. And that creates a heavenly harmony. And more than that, it creates a heavenly victory.

Praise as Spiritual Victory Over the World

There's something wrought on this earth. Just think of all the black powers of hell that are let loose upon this earth today. You take these discotheque, is that correct? Discotheque. I passed one of those things and, you know, I thought, my goodness, even a bunch of goats would be ashamed of that thing.

And beetles and beatniks and hippies, poor children. They haven't got anything else. They've got to have something to make them happy, but the trouble is the devil is in that thing. And just take what it means to God to look down from heaven upon a place like this and see the pillar of fire light up and see hearts ablaze with the love of God and with the praise as after all God is seeking such who worship Him in spirit and in truth.

Overcoming Criticism by Entering Into Worship

And people sometimes come into this place and they make a long face and they criticize. And I know why, because I did the same thing. First time I came to a Pentecostal meeting and I heard the people praising the Lord.

I said, oh, they're hysterical. They're just imitating one another. And why was it? Why? Because I couldn't praise the Lord. I couldn't. I couldn't get my hands up. My hands were like two hams hanging down by my side.

I couldn't open my mouth and praise the Lord. Something was choking me. And I blamed the people. I blamed the Pentecostal people. And I found out that I was the one that was to blame. Told you the other night how an up-and-seller that one section in Switzerland had eaten some Limburger cheese and he got some of it stuck in his mustache.

And so I was complaining about everybody he met. Why don't they wash their feet? And all the while he had that in his mustache. And if you look it in your mustache, you'll find that's where the trouble is.

But you better clean up and get in into this wonderful swing of music and worship in the Holy Ghost and God will meet you. What does it say? Don't be drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit.

Being Filled With the Spirit Brings Inner Change

What a wonderful offer. God himself offering to fill me with the Holy Spirit. And I know the change that comes. As I said, I couldn't praise the Lord. And later on I discovered it was because I wasn't living right.

I was a dumper. I was a critic. Par excellence. And that thing sat in here. It was the devil. I found out it was a demon obsession. And when I found that out, I said, out with it. And the only way to get rid of it was to praise it out.

My, how different things feel now. Everything feels. My stomach is different. Do you know where your stomach ulcers come from sometimes? Your kidneys feel different. Your lungs feel different. Your body feels different.

And above all, your heart feels different. Your heart responds to the heart of God. Rejoice evermore. How can I do that unless the Holy Spirit becomes within me that fruit of the Spirit which is love and joy and peace.

Hearing the Message With Familiarity

Now I know some of you are not even listening to me. You've heard this a thousand times. My little Edith was little. I was correcting her about something and she wasn't listening to me at all. She was talking to Aunt Wally and Aunt Wally said, why don't you listen to Uncle Hans.

Oh, she says, I know what he's saying. I've heard that many times.