If You Don't Praise the Lord, You're Going to Fail — Hans R. Waldvogel

Rejoicing in the Lord from the Dungeon

Not in a comfortable lobby of a fine hotel, but out of the dungeon, which certainly couldn't have been very comfortable. And he writes to the Philippians out of the dungeon, and he writes a word that is interesting, Rejoice in the Lord.

And again I say rejoice. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe. I have many times thanked God for that word, because I too am one of those harpers that are harping with their harps all the time.

Harping on the same thing. Now we've just passed through our Thanksgiving service, where praise, of course, was the main theme. And so here we come together again tonight, and the Lord sets before us again the theme of praise.

Praise as a Spiritual Necessity

Not only the importance of praise, but the great and unspeakable blessing. One of the first words that I heard when I came into Pentecost, or came in touch with a Pentecostal minister, was a motto I saw on the wall.

He had made it himself. And this motto said, if you don't praise the Lord, you're going to fail. That was news to me. I'd known a great deal about theology, and biology, and phrenology, and philosophy, and a lot of those things, but I didn't know that I was going to fail if I didn't praise the Lord, because I didn't praise the Lord.

I was a dumper. And you know, lots of professors are dumpers. Lots of theologians are dumpers. I've known theologians that were crushed by their dumps. And they worshipped them. They liked them. I remember one, for instance, who used to laugh at me when I talked about praising the Lord, and told him how in our meetings we shout the praises of God.

He said, oh, that's a lot of flesh. He said, you don't have to make all that noise. You don't have to shout the praises of God. But you know, he got sick, and he had to be operated upon, and I visited him as he came out of the ether.

Not brimstone, but ether was coming out of his mouth, and before he was fully awake, he said this word to me. You ought to shout the praises of God and thank him for the ether. I said, heavens, what a logic, what a theology.

Praise Breaks Chains and Makes Temples of God

Why not shout the praises of God for the blood of Jesus Christ that has broken every fetter and has set me free? There's something in praising the Lord that brings God into your soul, that liberates you, that breaks the chains, that makes a way for the glory of God to descend upon you, makes you a temple of the living God.

You know how in Old Testament times, in the temple, the singers had to sing day and night, and the light of worship had to burn day and night, typical of this New Testament temple. Know ye not that ye are the temple of the living God, and my house shall be called a house of prayer, but ye've made it a den of thieves.

And if you knew what thieves and murderers lodge in your soul tonight, you'd get rid of them. I found out what was lodging in my heart. I thought I was a good Christian, but I was a dumper, and when things didn't come my way, sometimes I felt like tearing the whole world to pieces.

Did you ever feel like that? You know, religiously, of course, righteously indignant, but oh, when I came into a meeting where the glory of God descended, I couldn't lift my hands, I couldn't open my mouth and say, Hallelujah, comfortably.

Even if I tried, it felt as if somebody was choking me. And then I made a discovery. I found out that instead of being a temple of the Most High God, there were idols dwelling in this temple. There were bondages there that stemmed from hell and from the devil.

And when I woke up to that, I tell you, I did something about it. And that's what makes me wonder about some of you folks that come into a meeting like this, where God gives praise. You know, it's God that does that.

You couldn't do it yourself. You couldn't make a praise meeting if you tried. I know people that have tried to do it and they can't do it. They don't succeed. Why? They're up against a stone wall and the glory of God cannot flow through.

And the reason God gives us praise meetings is because He sees your need. And not only because He is worthy to be praised, but because He wants to make you a glory vessel, a vessel unto honor, sanctified and made for the Master's use and prepared unto every good work.

Vessels of Honor and Dishonor

And like someone has said, in a great house there are not only vessels unto honor, but also vessels of dishonor. And so it is in every church there are vessels unto honor, filled with the glory of God.

Jesus is pleased with them. All these sacrifices of praise are always upon their lips. And then there are the vessels of dishonor. You know, in every house there are vessels that hold the jewels. They're made of gold.

They're untarnished. And then there are the spittoons and the garbage cans, too. Don't take the lid off. And you've got them in every church. Garbage cans. You tell them a story about anybody in the church and they'll swallow it.

They're ready for it. Vessels unto dishonor. The poison of asps is under their lips. Ah, but His praise shall continually be in my mouth. What a cure for all these bondages is the praise of the Lord. And tonight Jesus means to cure you.

He means to help you. He means to restore the lights of God within your soul. Finally, brethren, Paul says, after his great discourse on being filled with God, rejoice in the Lord. And again I say, rejoice.

Rejoicing, Pride, and Sanctification

Rejoice not in somebody or somebody else or something else, but rejoice in the Lord. Delight thyself also in the Lord, in whom though you see Him not yet rejoicing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.

I read something by Andrew Murray recently, and he says, without the joy of the Lord, holiness is impossible. Now, those are not his exact words, but I was surprised to read that from the pen of a pastor of a Reformed church.

And you'd think that every Pentecostal preacher should know that without the joy of the Lord reigning within you, you cannot fulfill in God. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say, rejoice. And when I discovered these bondages in my soul, I did something about it.

God wouldn't let me get by without this victory. I found out that it was fundamental. Absolutely, I found out that a lack of joy is due to an innate pride, an inborn pride. If you don't rejoice in the Lord always, it's because you think too much of yourself.

And God doesn't want us to think of self. And I did something about it. I said, Schluss jetzt damit. I said, God, by thy grace, I'm going to make room for you. You know, it was a hard job. And I know I'm talking to somebody in this place that God's after.

You'll never be a fruitful branch in the vine until you get this victory in your soul. It's a victory of the Son of God. He is the Prince of Glory. And if He is to reign supreme and to subdue all things within you, He'll certainly subdue these idols that you have worshipped, maybe unknown to yourself.

And so I said, God, I'm going to get that victory. It took time. I had to get alone with God. I had to deal with God about it. I had to repent of my dumps. I had to ask God to forgive me. I had to sometimes go to people and ask them to forgive me because I had feelings against them.

Oh, these feelings, where do they come from? Listen, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless. Here's a triunity of redemption. Hallelujah. And when I discovered that there was uncleanness within me, I had to get it out.

I had to get rid of it with a vengeance. And that's what he means when he says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, because it is God that worketh in you. He is working in this meeting.

He has opened the windows of heaven above us. He is pouring out His glory tremendously. And you can be restored tonight. And so finally I went to meeting and I said, now live or die. If it chokes me, I'm going to join the praises of the Lord.

Choosing to Join the Praise

I did what lots of people do when they come into a Pentecostal meeting. I found fault with it. I said, oh, these women are hysterical. We had a woman that used to scream, you know. I said, she's hysterical.

Then somebody else screamed. I said, oh, they're just imitating one another. And then when a woman got up and in prophecy commanded us all to stand to our feet and raise our hands and praise the Lord.

I said, jetzt erst recht nicht. If it weren't a woman, I might do it, but it wasn't the woman at all. It was God. And finally, when I got next to myself, I said, my God, I'm going to go to that meeting and I'm going to join the praises.

I remember what happened. I was bound. And when everybody began praising the Lord, up with my hands. Some people say they can't get them up. What do you do when you hang up? Wash. Oh, maybe you let your wife do that.

But anyway, I got them up. I opened my mouth. That's the only way to praise the Lord. Hallelujah. With a loud voice. Stick out your chest and hallelujah. I joined in the praises of God with all my heart and God did something for me.

Liberation Through Praise

Beloved, that was worth more than a university education. God took that rock out of me. That thing went, that heaviness that had controlled me for many years, all my life. My father told me that when I was three days old, I laughed for the first and the last time.

And then when I was five years old, I had the measles and then it was all up. Then I became a terror to my sisters. I had four of them. But anyway, now that thing went and somebody came in. God came in.

I'll never forget that wonderful change. I became as light as a feather. I knew it was God. I knew as surely as my dump was the devil. I knew that the spirit of glory and of praise and of joy had entered into my soul.

That's 40 years ago and it has never left me. But I practiced it. I have exercised myself unto godliness. I consider it a great privilege to come into a praise meeting where I can really praise the Lord.

When I first went to Europe in 1933, I was without a meeting for five days, mind you. I mean a Pentecostal meeting. We had one on board ship. Oh, I made a beeline for the first Pentecostal meeting because that's my element.

The glory of God, the presence of the Lord, that's Pentecost. Hallelujah. And the presence of God would be manifested much more greatly if everyone presented his body, a living sacrifice so that the fire might descend and might consume this sacrifice.

The Necessity of Joy and Spiritual Victory

That's what it means. And I'd like to rub it in tonight because without this victory, you're going to fail. I know what I'm talking about. As I said yesterday, people consider me a senior minister now.

I never got over the idea that I'm young and that I'm younger than everybody else. I'm going to hang on to that anyway. But I have some experience. I have seen men go down in defeat that should have been riding high in victory.

Men that had much more education than I had. They did. Didn't do them any good. What good would it have done Samson if he had taken that jawbone of an ass and painted a few forget-me-nots on it? Would have made a more honorable death for those Philistines whose skulls he cracked.

But the forget-me-nots wouldn't have done it. Beloved, the fruit of the spirit is love and joy. Joy is the king of glory. Joy of the Lord. Oh, this joy of the Lord is the fruit of the spirit. And you can have it and you must have it.

And that's why we need Holy Ghost meetings where we don't hear only preaching, but where we get some real practical education in worship and praise and love and joy and peace. And you'll feel different this week if tonight you enter into the joy of the Lord and open your heart and your mouth and praise the Lord.

Why, that's the operation of God. It's the flow of the spirit of the living God. I think I told you how one time a brother took me out to Long Island in his car with an Auburn and we got stuck on the way.

And I think everybody that drives a car ought to know something about the mechanism. If something goes wrong, it's either the ignition or the gas line, one or the other. But he didn't know that. I still see how he danced around that car and he kept saying, Oh, what to do?

What shall we do? What shall we do? What shall we do? What shall we do? The thing didn't go. So finally, we had to go to the next town and get a mechanic and he happened to know something about it. And he fixed it.

And a few years later, I came to Switzerland and the pastor in charge also had an Auburn. And so he offered to take me to the mountains. I'd never been in the mountains. So when we started out, we got a little distance and then the thing stuck and got stuck.

I said, I know what's the matter. I know that car. I know it's the gas line. Oh, he says, what do you know? He had the thing hauled into a garage and three or four Swiss mechanics got on the job. Now Swiss mechanics, you know what they're like?

America was trying to produce during the war, a very fine steel wire. So fine as a human hair. And they wanted it still finer. So they sent it to Switzerland and asked the Swiss to make one still finer than that.

And what did the Swiss do? They hollowed this fine wire and they pulled another one right through it. They're mechanics. Well, they worked at that car for an hour and for two hours and I kept telling them, I know what's the matter.

They wouldn't believe me. The preacher wouldn't believe me. What was the matter? Just a little tube, the gas line. They especially put into that gas line, a little sieve that catches the dirt. And all they had to do was take that out and blow it out.

And the car went. And without that, we lost a whole trip into the mountains that day because they wouldn't believe me. And after two hours, they did that. And in two minutes, the thing was fixed. And you know what that preacher said?

He said, I always thought it was that. He's dead now. He's gone to heaven. Praise the Lord. But you know what praise will do for you? It's the gas line that makes you get stuck. Oh, let God blow that thing out and give you a fresh flow of power.

Hallelujah. You'd be surprised what praise. Hallelujah.