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- In Nothing Be Anxious; But In Everything By Prayer
In Nothing Be Anxious; but in Everything by Prayer
Hans R. Waldvogel

Hans Rudolf Waldvogel (1893 - 1969). Swiss-American Pentecostal pastor and evangelist born in St. Gallen, Switzerland. Emigrating to the U.S. as a child, he grew up in Chicago, working in his family’s jewelry business until a conversion experience in 1916 led him to ministry. In 1920, he left business to serve as assistant pastor at Kenosha Pentecostal Assembly in Wisconsin for three years, then pursued itinerant evangelism. In 1925, he co-founded Ridgewood Pentecostal Church in Brooklyn, New York, pastoring it for decades and growing it into a vibrant community emphasizing prayer and worship. Influenced by A.B. Simpson, Waldvogel rejected sectarianism, focusing on Christ’s centrality and the Holy Spirit’s work. He delivered thousands of sermons, many recorded, stressing spiritual rest and intimacy with God. Married with children, he lived simply, dedicating his life to preaching across the U.S. His messages, blending Swiss precision with Pentecostal fervor, remain accessible through archives
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In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of learning from our experiences rather than complaining. He encourages the audience to do all things without murmuring and disputing. The preacher reminds them that nothing can come their way without the appointment of God, who has loved them since before the foundation of the world. He urges them to lift up their eyes and behold the wonders of creation, as a reminder that God has not forgotten them. The sermon also emphasizes the need to trust in God and seek to know Him, as well as the importance of having a heart that is perfect toward Him. The preacher highlights the power of God to fulfill His promises and encourages the audience to have faith in Him.
Sermon Transcription
The characteristic of the Son of God was absolute trust. Even when he said, you're going to leave me alone. And yet I'm not alone, for the Father is with me. Absolute trust in the Father. Absolute confidence. Even on the cross, they accused him of that. They said he trusted in God. Let God now deliver him. Even there, when all heaven seemed to have forsaken him, he trusted in God. In the last extremity, that's why death could not hold him. It was impossible. Now the Bible says, and they that know thy name will put their trust in thee. You will trust in a person in proportion, and sometimes little children have a lot of confidence. When I saw my kindergarten teacher in Switzerland, I was now bigger than she. She said, you've been a great blessing to me. When you were a baby, you smiled at me. She said, how do you know that? Well, she said, I said to her, well, because you're a little child, and just a little, that much trust, that much confidence, and of course she didn't drown. Now, beloved, that's our victory. And to mark all the promises to those, they that trust in the Lord, can never be removed. They shall be like Mount Zion, that cannot be removed. And then again, O how gracious thy goodness, which thou hast wrought for them, that trust in thee before the sons of men. And then again, some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will trust in the name of the Lord our God. They're fallen, they've fallen off their horses, but we stand upright. We are trusted in the Lord. Blessed are all they that put their trust in thee. What a wonderful lesson. What marvelous promises. Here's one for you personally, individually now. Thou will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusts in thee. Trust ye in the Lord Jehovah forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. It seems to be one of the great lessons that God has for his people. Listen, God cannot do anything for me if I don't, now that's strange, but that's the law of the kingdom. If I don't trust in the Lord, Madam Guyon says, we perish for want of trusting him. None that trust in him shall be desolate. In one place it says, and none that trust in me shall be ashamed. Isn't that wonderful? Do you believe that? Well now we ought to examine a little bit and see what it means to trust in the Lord. It's a matter of the heart, not of the head. I've dealt with people who were sick, and they say, well, I dealt with a woman who had swallowed a bone, and she couldn't sing anymore very well. The bone was stuck in her throat, and I said, why don't you go to the doctor? Oh, she says, I want to trust in the Lord. Well, then I began to wriggle around on that bone a little bit. She wasn't trusting in the Lord at all. That was far from her mind, but she was scared to go to the doctor. And so she says, oh, how many times people say meekly, I'll trust. Maybe they're too cheap to pay the medicine or pay for the doctor. They're not trusting in the Lord. When you trust in the Lord. Now put that in your notebook. None that trust in him shall be ashamed. None. Now what is the matter with my trust? It may be mental. Some people try to force God to help them by saying, well, they're trusting in the Lord. Listen, it's a very serious matter. It's an awfully serious matter. The Bible says that trusting in the Lord is a matter of the heart. And so much so, it also tells us that the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself mighty toward them whose hearts are perfect toward him. That's trust in the Lord. When it's a matter of the heart, then you don't advertise it. You don't brag about it, how much you trust the Lord. It's something in your heart. Thou will keep him in perfect peace because he trusts within the Lord. Oh, that's it. Perfect peace is the characteristic of perfect trust. But the Bible tells us that if my heart is not perfect, it's a double-minded heart. I don't need to expect anything from the Lord. It's that you don't get anything from the Lord even though God is, I was going to say anxious. God is never anxious. But God is eager. The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself mighty. He talks about the exceeding greatness of his power. And now he's talking about the power. And when I look at myself, I can say, Oh God, I thank thee because I'm fearfully made. Wonderful are thy works. And that's when he makes the world or the universe exceeding joy. And I cannot help him in healing my body when I'm in need of healing. God's got to do it. But God did it when he raised Jesus, my Lord, from the dead and commissioned him, gave him the job, gave him the command to perfect redemption in me and in all that put their trust in him. That's why trust is so exceedingly important. And that's the reason we can't fool with this. We may think we trust the Lord because we picked the promise out of the promise box. Lots of people do that. I saw a consumptive woman do that one time. Somebody gave her a message, told her that she was going to be healed. And, oh, she has such an unction and such a wonderful blessing. And then she died. It wasn't real at all. You can't fool with these things. It's a gift of God when your heart is perfect toward him. It's because you know his name. We fall down on the job. Paul said, I count everything but refuge, that I may win Christ, that I may be found in him. And you know God perfected that job in Paul. And have you ever found out how God did it? Why, he said, we have the sentence of death in ourselves. Terrible. Terrible. You prayed, and everybody prayed. And you sent messages to all the Pentecostal churches. Please, stand in prayer and stand in faith. Or maybe you send out a mimeograph. And nothing comes in. Mailman comes, and he brings you a lot of bills and not a dollar bill. Terrible. We have the sentence of death in ourselves. We have nothing to do. No lookout. No hope. No expectation anywhere. God said, it serves you right. You don't know. You don't know your own heart. You don't know there's a little bit of a root of trusting in yourself. Maybe in your own faith. You've had a blessing. You've had wonderful healing. You've had wonderful answers to prayer. And you don't know how the old man has taken credit. Oh, beloved Jesus is going to have a clean. And they're going to give all the glory to him. Praise God. And why not rather learn our lesson than complain? Do all things without murmuring and disputing. Nothing can come my way but by the appointment but of university. Praise the Lord, and call us all by his name. And it's that you think, I forgot you, you little trip. You think that I don't hear you. He said, Abraham, come out of that tent. Don't listen to Sarah anymore. Come on. Come into my tent. Lift up your eyes. Look. That's how your seizure is going to be. Praise God said it. God said it. That settles it. But, beloved, it doesn't settle it. That's the trouble with us. It doesn't settle it until we have dealt with God about it seriously. We need to be very serious prayer warriors. Do you know that? Madame Guy says, don't let anybody think that you'll get to heaven without prayer. Now, that would be put down as a false doctrine today. But God has arranged it that way. He said, in nothing be anxious, but in everything everything becomes a subject for prayer. Everything becomes a subject. Hallelujah. Becomes a contact. You've got contacts. We like them. And if we haven't got them, we put them there. We need a contact for our life and for our hand and organ and for our recording instruments. And we need contacts for our washing machines. And whenever there's a contact, why, you've got contact. But you've got to find that contact. And every circumstance in my life is a contact for God to manifest the exceeding greatness. Why do I murmur? Why do I dispute? I find falsehoods God. I don't believe that all things... And I said, Romans 8, 28. All things were together. He didn't believe. I said, what? You don't believe? He was a preacher that had been greatly blessed of God. Oh, so wonderfully blessed in Pentecost. But you know, when you don't walk in the light, that light will become darkness. And today, this fellow was sick. And instead of seeking to the Lord, he sought, not to the doctors only, but every doctor book and every healing book. He had all kinds of doctrines about vitamins. Now, if your little toe aches, that's why you need vitamin A. Now go to the infirmary or get some dehydrated fertilizer. He waits to manifest the exceeding graciousness of his power. What power is that? Why, it's to us. And if I allowed God to make a man out of me, he didn't make a monkey out of me. Thank God. He did it by his own plan. And I cannot trust the Lord except in the hour of trial. When the trial's over and the victory's won, you don't have to... When the bulls goes up and they didn't have any gyroscopes in those boats on Lake Janissary. Now that thing was going, going, going up and Peter was hanging on to the mast. And he had a bad conscience for the scrambled eggs. He wanted her to unscramble them. You know how these mountains are. And he finally said, Oh, it's only the master. Why, he's here. I saw him there sleeping in the back of the boat. Oh, he must have washed over the board. Let us open our hearts. But goodness, when you... They have these thick containers in them. All day they put their trust... I'm not bragging about my trust. He said, We had a lesson to learn I have not yet attained. Oh, here I am. I am willing for lessons. Any lesson that God has for me. Praise God. The sentence of death taught me the greatest lesson of all. That we should not trust in our... Well, if I can't trust in myself anymore, who? But God who raised us to death. Tell me, who do you trust in? Who is it that your heart is fixed? My heart is fixed. It's an experience. When God puts trust into your heart, it's an experience that makes Jesus Christ supreme in your thoughts. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. That's where the trouble comes in. We have thoughts. And how many times do we open our hearts to the thoughts of men. You never get into any kind of a trouble, but all the aunts and uncles and cousins and all your relatives come around. Yeah, I know what that is. My great-grandmother... What's the matter with you? You can't go a half a block from this church after having had a wonderful divine evening. Thoughts of the devil into your head. You watch and see if that is so. I'm surprised. As soon as somebody gets sick, I visit them sometimes. And then so-and-so was here and told me it was bad. Listen, if you haven't got anything to pray for, unbelief, stay home. The word of faith which we preach, it is in heaven, you don't have to get it down. It's not in the depths, it's in your heart. Christ is in your heart, thank God. He can never be removed. And He is there for a job. He is there to be the Lord, the Redeemer, to bring you out of every situation and to make you like unto Himself. And here we are wavering, wavering, spending all our lives complaining and murmuring. Watch it sometimes. Get a recording instrument that records everything you say and every sign you hear. And you'll be surprised at the end of the day how many times you've murmured and complained and caked about something. That's what defeated Israel. Beloved, God's eyes run to and fro throughout the whole earth today, still today, and it's looking for those whose hearts are perfect toward Him. God knows what I think in my heart. What I say with my lips is not near as important, but what I think, what I feel in my heart, and when my heart is perfect, I will not be anxious. That will be gone, it will be impossible. I will think the thoughts of God, and the Bible gives me His thoughts. I have thoughts of faith toward you. Go through the whole Bible and see the exceeding great and precious promises, and every one of them is for you and for me. Praise God. And who will guarantee their fulfillment? Why, God has guaranteed them when He raised Jesus, my Lord, from the dead. When Jesus came in flesh, it's at this day this scripture is fulfilled. He has anointed me for this purpose, and I always wondered why was it that Jesus Christ, He marveled at their unbelief. He said, where's your faith? He says, why are you so fearful? What right did He have? Why, He had a right to say in the face of death, don't fear. I am resurrection and life. What are you afraid of? Is that death? Well, that's what I came for, to conquer death, to abolish death, to bring life and immortality to life through the gospel, and if He demanded that, how much more does He demand? Faith of me for the fullness of the Holy Ghost, when today that's His whole job, to represent me in the present time. Find the fulfillment. I ought to really be serious about this lesson. I ought to get to the Bible. I ought to study the word of God, and see what it means to trust in the Lord, and I ought not to be satisfied with the mere profession of my lips. You'll fail every time. But when you pray through, and that's what the Bible teaches us in Philippians 4, 6, that's the best recipe for us all. In nothing be anxious. What is your anxiety over? People will come, and they'll ask you to pray for them, and then they'll spill it all out. They'll tell you how sick they are, until you have an education in anatomy that you can't get in any biological institution in the world. You can see the inside of their gallbladder, and their stomach, and one man explained to me what his stomach looked like on the inside, and all that, and they're just looking for sympathy. That's all. When you put your trust in Him, that's none of your business. Absolutely none of your business. You expect everything from Him because He has done everything. He is resurrection and life. Don't you worry. But they don't learn that lesson overnight, you know. It's step by step. It was that with the apostle Paul. And finally that grand lesson. We have the sentence of death in ourselves. Now most of us would have cashed in, but he didn't. He knew that he couldn't die except at the command of God. No. Why, this test has come my way. God will not suffer you to be tested above that garable. God portions that test. Isn't that wonderful? All things, all things work together for good. Isn't it wonderful? Doesn't it make your life tremendously interesting? Praise God. Showing glory in tribulations also. Hallelujah. Oh, it's interesting. It's wonderful. Here's a tribulation. Here's another storm. And one day, when there were four thousand men beside women and children, and Jesus fed them, next day they were crying. They brought all the kids because naturally they thought, here we get free lunch. And the disciples, and Jesus said, how many did... What's the matter? Where's your faith? I'm still here, beloved. And He'll be there till He comes for you, and He won't come until the overcomer. And are we learning our lesson? Oh, that's the question. It's an individual matter. It's a personal matter. They that overcome. And not only that, He says. He that overcomes. It's an individual matter. The epistle is to the church, but the promise is to the individual. Praise God. He that overcomes. Oh, Jesus. To know Thee is to know the power of Your resurrection. Hallelujah. He that sinneth hath not seen Him, neither known Him. We'll fall from one pit into the other because we don't know our Savior. Beloved, our lives today ought to be a testimony to the wonder of Jesus. Not our lips, but our lives. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And our lives ought to be lives of trust. Not only trusting God to pay your bills. That's a small matter. But trusting God for your spiritual victory. Trusting God for your children if they're unsafe, your husband, your wife. Oh, what wonders have we experienced along that line. Putting our trust in Him makes Him responsible to manifest His feeling greatness of His power to us who believe. Today, the program is acceleration. I remember when one of our sisters bought a new Ford, a Model T Ford. My, we looked at that thing. It looked brilliant like a giant. We thought, my. And then when she allowed me to run that thing. Now it looks funny, you know. It looked like a goat. Sort of an over-balanced thing. But to run that thing, it felt as if you were going a hundred miles an hour at a much central horsepower in Schnabel. And one time I got into a traffic jam and I stepped on the gas and the thing wouldn't move. It just crawled along. But today, we have 130 horses, if you wait, just think. That's 130 horses, Rick. 230. 230. California is over. And you know when you get on the open road, you can't help it. That power is there waiting to snort along the road. Bring it along. It's just that, just, just, just for your favor. It's just waiting to, to make that thing run like six. And here is the power waiting. Waiting for a vet. Waiting for someone that puts their trust in God. And what is that power for? Why? To defeat the powers of Satan and of God. But it doesn't come like so many people think. Oh, Heavens, all you have to do is just defeat. We're in a school. Paul was in a school. You and I are in the school of the Holy Ghost. He shall guide you into all truth. And he doesn't put the thing up here where you lose it again. But he'll put it into your bones, into your life, into your blood. He makes you a son of God. We're members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. And that's how it comes. We're displaced as we put our trust in him. Step by step to the, step by step he leads us with a guiding hand. Step by step. And now he says, and God delivered us from so great a death and we trust he shall yet deliver us. Now Paul had learned his lesson. Now he had shifted gear. He had no longer looked at himself. No longer studied about violence and stuff and had a thermometer with him in his pocket. But he trusted in God and raised us to death. He said, Beloved, our God has already raised us from the dead. Praise God. He says, you're not a debtor to the flesh. You don't have to count calories. There's another fountain inside of you. It's he that raised Jesus from the dead. I don't think I could work if I couldn't trust in that fountain and that fountain didn't flow within me. It's something very wonderful. It's something beyond divine healing. It's divine life. It's life from heaven. It's the life of Jesus Christ. But it will not become my portion until I have gone through with God in nothing behind this but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known unto God that unloading, rolling it on him is the job. It's been my job ever since I got into the ministry. People look at me and sometimes they say, well, he's been pretty successful. No, he hasn't. I've had lots of problems to face and my job has been to unroll the monty. It takes a lot of prayer. I'd be ashamed to tell you how much I've got to pray even today. I've not read of it yet but oh, how wonderful to unroll everything on him but if I don't do it and I can have all the holy phrases in my mouth. I can read all the books about faith and trust that I want and I can swing around with advertising my own faith and so on. That's no good. It needs to be gold fried in the fire. There are people that, oh my, they came to the faith home in Zion and they couldn't understand why we didn't have lumps of butter on the table every morning. Why we thought you folks live by faith. You ain't got no faith but less than half the day have been borrowed. That's where you find out whether your trust is real or not in the hour of trial. Praise God and God in his great mercy sometimes allows real tests to come our way. Did you ever feel as if your test was greater than anybody else's? Well, that shows that you need it. That's the way God does praise the Lord. He fits the shoes. His fist doesn't praise God. Well, now you can kick and follow. He'll never help you any. You remember the legend by Shemitah of a man that was going to the holy city and he found his cross much too heavy. Oh, he said, my cross is heavier than anybody else's. My, I can't make the grave. It isn't right. God give me to anyone. And so he had a vision and he came to a house, beautiful palace and an angel said, now here is the arsenal. Here you can pick a cross that you like. If you don't like your cross, go and put it down at the entrance and he went through the whole museum and he found silver crosses and gold crosses and crosses started with diamonds, little ones and big ones and he tried them all and finally found one that he thought was measured to him. He said, I think I'll take this. Of all the crosses in the whole palace, only this one suited him. And when he looked at it, it was the one he had laid down when he came in. And now it had gotten dark and he thought I better rush because they are close to the gates of the holy city. And so when he came inside of the city, he saw the porter already closing the gate and there was no bridge across the river and how is he going to make it? He yelled and the porter said, try your cross and so he put that cross there and look it fit exactly. It was a bridge and he could walk over it. It would have been too short. Oh beloved God is wonderful. To learn that one lesson, to trust, trust the Lord. It makes you love him. It makes you really love your God. But you can choose. You can be a crab all your life. You know the older we get, the more crab we become. If you ever find that out, especially if you are a great saint, you will become so cantankerous that no life will flow from you. Rivers of life. Jesus Christ will make a vessel out of you. Hallelujah. It was the Son of God who put his trust in the Father when the all was true. God raised him from the dead and gave him a name which is the Father. And he is waiting today for you and for me to not trust in ourselves anymore, but in him who is risen from the dead. He is our Savior. But he cannot be mine if I don't trust him. If I don't learn to live by the faith of the Son of God and praise the Lord really and truly, put my trust. After a while it becomes your habit. After a while it becomes so pleasant that when a problem comes you say, well, you smile instead of just smile and say, well, Lord, I wonder what you're going to do now. I told how I was locked in there in South America when everybody was gone and inadvertently I'd let the door go closed and here I was under the tropical sun and I didn't know when the folks would come home and I just smiled and said, well, Jesus, this is wonderful. Here I'll be baking like an apple till those folks come home. But, you know, I reached into my pocket and inadvertently I had taken a key with me from Brooklyn. I didn't know I had it there and when I tried that key it opened that lock. Now, the strange thing was this, when I came home I had that key caught by a locksmith and he looked at it. He said, this is a very rare key. It'll open only one in 15,000 locks. I'm sorry I didn't try that twice, you know, but it opened that one lock in South America. Now, the Lord knew that. Wonderful, it's really wonderful. It becomes a habit by and by and you realize that every time... Elijah, when he came to Jordan, he said, where is the God of Elijah? Now, let's see. And he took Elijah's mantle and smoked the waters in his heart. Where is the Father of my Lord Jesus Christ now? Glory to God. But the love of this God to be real. And Philippians 4, 6 is a lesson that very few people are willing to learn. It's too hard a job.
In Nothing Be Anxious; but in Everything by Prayer
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Hans Rudolf Waldvogel (1893 - 1969). Swiss-American Pentecostal pastor and evangelist born in St. Gallen, Switzerland. Emigrating to the U.S. as a child, he grew up in Chicago, working in his family’s jewelry business until a conversion experience in 1916 led him to ministry. In 1920, he left business to serve as assistant pastor at Kenosha Pentecostal Assembly in Wisconsin for three years, then pursued itinerant evangelism. In 1925, he co-founded Ridgewood Pentecostal Church in Brooklyn, New York, pastoring it for decades and growing it into a vibrant community emphasizing prayer and worship. Influenced by A.B. Simpson, Waldvogel rejected sectarianism, focusing on Christ’s centrality and the Holy Spirit’s work. He delivered thousands of sermons, many recorded, stressing spiritual rest and intimacy with God. Married with children, he lived simply, dedicating his life to preaching across the U.S. His messages, blending Swiss precision with Pentecostal fervor, remain accessible through archives