Edwin H. Waldvogel emphasizes the critical importance of having a vision in our lives, drawing parallels between historical figures like von Braun and the transformative power of God-given visions. He recounts stories of individuals who, driven by their visions, made significant impacts, such as Sister Trasher in Egypt and the missionaries in the Congo. Waldvogel stresses that without vision, people perish, and encourages the congregation to seek God's illumination to understand their purpose and potential. He highlights the necessity of being open to the Holy Spirit's guidance to fulfill God's plans for their lives. Ultimately, he calls for a renewed vision of Jesus and a commitment to reach the lost.

We heard about a vision in our song tonight and we know how important that is. Maybe we do and maybe we don't. My wife was telling me a story last night about von Braun. You know who he was? Head of our rocket program, our space research program for years. He's gone to heaven now. He was a real believer in Jesus Christ. But to get to the moon didn't just happen, you know. It has to happen in here first or in your heart, in your vision. And this boy in Germany, he saw these rockets that they use for the 4th of July. You know these things you light up and it'll shoot up into the sky and he saw those things and he began to think, I wonder what would happen if I could get a some of them together, a whole bunch of them together, tie them together somehow and hook them onto my wagon. I wonder if I could shoot that thing up in the sky. So he did that. He got a collection of them, tied them together, lit the fuses and watched. The wagon didn't go up but it tore down the street at a terrific speed. He had invented rocket power and you know the police got him as they would in Germany and they got after him because he could have of course caused a lot of damage with that thing if he had run into somebody. But here was an idea, here was a vision and this, I was going to say kid, this young boy's head that you could harness this power and use it. And after a while we see and have seen pictures anyway and heard the conversations from the moon just as clear as crystal they come over. Well that didn't just happen, somebody had a vision and the allies when they conquered Europe they tried to get these scientists to help us and they got him and that man worked and others of course with him, many others, but he headed up that program and they got to the moon. And my uncle used to say, he used to say, I don't think they'll ever get to the moon. I don't think the Lord will allow them to get to the moon. And Ulrich Jelinek used to come once in a while, he was a scientist that worked on that project. He said to my uncle, yes they'll get to the moon. You watch they're going to get there. And he had the vision too. And you know these people they had something in their hearts, something in their minds, the possibilities dawned on them somehow. Now this man Jelinek developed the the cones for the rocket engine that would have to withstand such terrific heat. He knew it could be done. He was a very good metallurgist and a research man. But anyway together it developed into a marvelous story and it isn't finished yet. They're still working on that. It interests me very much. And when they offer to take a preacher along, I want to go for a ride. They're taking school teachers, that didn't turn out so good. So maybe they'll take a preacher. I'd like to go, wouldn't you? Circle around the earth and see the earth from up there, I'll say. But there has to be behind it all there has to be that vision in the heart of a person, that light it can be done. We were talking then about people that came over from Europe, some very poor people. And in this land they found the liberty to work on their projects, to expand. You have the Mr. Steinmetz who came over here, a wizard at electricity and a man who was used to found General Electric. Just a fellow that came over with a few dollars in his pocket. But he had something up here, you know. And he was free to develop that here in this land. And he had the vision first. And there have been many, many people and we have been blessed by people that have had this type of a vision. But it is also true that as we read in Proverbs, the 29th chapter, where there is no vision, the people perish. Where there is no vision, the people perish. People get into their ruts and they don't change, they don't have any possibility, don't have any outlook at all. It's very important for us that the Lord give us a vision. He show us what he is wanting to do and what he can do. There have been people, some of our young people, I don't know if any of them here, but in years gone by, they had a vision. God laid it in their hearts. Think of Sister Trasher, the orphanage in Egypt. The Lord came to her, called her, told her he wanted her in Egypt. And you know that woman didn't know where Egypt was. She didn't go to New York public schools, but she went to one of the other states in the school and she never knew where Egypt was. And she came to a missionary conference to find out something about Egypt and there was a missionary there. And she asked him such foolish questions. You know what he told her? He said, you go back to Mama. She was only about 18 years old then. Go back to Mama. That's where you belong. That's how much confidence. But the Lord had given her a vision. He showed her where he wanted her. She had no idea. But as she followed on, God led her to Egypt. And then she saw the poor, neglected children. And those buildings, I just looked at the pictures of them the other day, that housed thousands of children, homeless children, children that are taken in and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ. What a transformation one woman made because God gave her a vision of what he wanted. And she followed that light. She never deviated from it. She used to go out and visit the rich Egyptians and collect money for the orphanage. And as the orphanage grew, she got so weary of that that one day she simply said, Lord, I'm going to stop. You take care of the finances. I'll take care of the children. And that was a turning point. When she turned that over to the Lord, oh God began to move more greatly than ever before. We all need a vision. There are many people that are throwing their lives away today. They don't see what they're created for. They don't see any possibility getting ahead. They get into drugs. They get into all kinds of criminal activities. And that precious life, they're perishing. Why are they perishing? There's no vision. There's no thought of what God can do. There's no light of what can happen to them if Jesus gets a hold of them. What God can make out of a man or a woman is wonderful. And when we find God's plan, and we hear the call of God, and somehow God awakens us inwardly, and he says, I got a place for you. I want to use you. My brother Walter began ministering in Virginia, in Bowling Green, Virginia, a little town in Virginia. And I went to visit him one day, and he was preaching in the church. He said, God doesn't only hold me responsible for what I do and what I, how I follow him, but he holds me responsible for what I could be, to fit into his plans, to be what God wants me to be. You know, those are revelations that God gives to people. Dr. Torrey, when he heard about the baptism in the Holy Ghost, he said something that, you know, most Pentecostal preachers wouldn't say. But he said, God holds me responsible for all the souls that do not get saved if I don't have the anointing and if I'm not filled with the Spirit. There is that potential there. He saw that in the Word, what God wanted to do with men and women whom he could fill with his Spirit and anoint. And he said, I'm responsible. You know, he gave himself to God, and God used that man to go right around the whole world preaching this wonderful gospel. Tremendous blessing flowed through that life. But these visions, this light that God wants to put into our souls, we prayed about a vision tonight. We ought to have a vision of a lost world. A world without Christ. But that would drive us to despair if we didn't have a vision of Jesus and his power to save and how he would like to meet that need. And God would like to give us light from his Word and make us to understand his plan of salvation, what he wants to do through the church. And every one of us can know that if we want to. It's good for us to seek for a vision. Where there is no vision, the people perish. And we could ask ourselves, how many people are perishing because of my lack of vision? Because of my lack, we have a young woman who is working in Germany. She came here for a while and lived here, and I enjoy her. She's real German. I told her one day, your problem is that you're a German. Because the German personality and the way they get along over there is a little different than we get along here. She likes to befail, if you know what that means. She likes to give orders. You do this, you do that, you do the other thing, you know. It's the way we're trained. I'm like that too. Sure. Hitler, pure befail. We're folding. We wait for that. Well, she didn't let any vacuum grow there. She stepped right in and she's sort of bossy. And sometimes she has little rubs with people when she gets to America. But over there, she's working among the children in the city of Ulm. And the church is next to the railroad station. They have a very large railroad yard there. On one side, there's not a house around. People couldn't live. Of course, there's a long section of this railroad yard and a bridge that goes across to the other side. It's not in the center of a populated area. Factories on the other side, you could sit down and say, well, nobody's going to come here. And I got to go too far to get them. She doesn't do that. She works. We just got a letter from her again. God saves boys and girls through her ministry. Older folks get blessed. Summertime comes around. One of our dear missionaries said, well, summertime, all the kids go away. There's not a thing I can do. They're all gone. I might as well go too. So she usually goes too. Well, that's good. As long as she goes to the right place. But this girl, summertime came. You know what she did? She went to a part of the city of old, an entirely different part, rented a room in a saloon. They have their meeting rooms there generally in connection with the saloon. She rented a room, went out to the playgrounds around, collected the kids, and had a whole new group of children in a new ministry all summer long. People that had never heard the gospel before. You see, that girl has a vision. How can I reach souls? How can I do it? What is there that I can do to reach more children for God? You have to work. That's the problem. You got to go where they are. But she has that vision, and God is using her and blessing her, and she is winning young people for the Lord. And that always makes me happy to see what God can do when a person has a vision from God. Lord, you've called me. And you said you're the salt of the earth. What can I do? How will you use me? Well, first of all, it wouldn't be right for me to sit in my room and say, now Lord, I'd like to have a vision. Show me Gabriel or somebody. That isn't the kind of a vision that is very productive. The vision is the illumination of the Holy Spirit, that we get through the Word of God. But I need to live in the light of God like that. And you'll find throughout the Bible, God gave prophets, and he gave them illumination. You take the book of Zechariah, filled with visions that this man had of what God wanted to do, how God wanted to bless his people, how God wanted his work to grow. He has visions of the today, the way we're enjoying it. Visions of Christ building his church. Marvelous revelation. And when you look into the Word of God, you find that this is what God wants. Here's what he wants. Oh, we all ought to be open to that light of God, that God can speak to us and make us to know the possibilities. We read about Ezekiel. It's an interesting first chapter there. Ezekiel, I think it's in the first verse, if I'm not mistaken, maybe the second one. But you find, we read about his visions. Yeah, it's in the first verse. It came to pass in the 13th year, in the fourth month and the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river Kebar, that the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. Now you can go right through Ezekiel and find many revelations that God gave him. The Bible tells us very clearly that when the Holy Spirit is poured out, that your young men shall see visions. What does he mean by that? I suppose he means that the Holy Ghost will give revelation to young people. Your old men shall dream dreams. That's for us oldies, you know. We can look back and dream what we could have been. But you're young. Don't you do that. You get visions from God. Ezekiel as a young man here in the captivity, where everything looked absolutely hopeless and people had given up hope. We read that he had visions of God. He saw what a great God he was. And when you read that vision, how the Lord moved by his spirit back and forth as quick as lightning. He could see that God could be in Jerusalem and he could be in Babylon and he could be in this labor camp and in that camp and everywhere at one time. It moved so quickly. And he saw those lights and he saw the glory of God and the power of God. And instead of thinking everything's lost, I began to see, say we got a great God. He's watching over us. And he began to speak of what God was going to do. And how God was going to visit his people. He gives us wonderful words we talked about one Friday night about the new covenant. How Jesus would come and people would be born again and changed. You know that man, that Ezekiel, right there in that desperate need, he had visions of God. Young fellow, listen, all you young fellows here, you ought to pray, Jesus, show me yourself. Let the Holy Spirit make Jesus real to me. Where there is no vision, the people perish. If you don't get to know what a great Savior you have, you're going to wither out, up. You're going to backslide. You're going to love the world. You're never going to be what God wants you to be. But he has promised your young men shall see visions. And young ladies are included there. You know, God wants to reveal himself to you and show you how great he is. And then you won't think, well, I'm nobody and I can't do anything. And I can never go to the foreign field and I can never be a witness here. I'm just not cut out like that. You'll begin to think of how precious Jesus is and how able he is. And now he wants to use you and let his love flow through you and make you his witness. And you know, that's where God gets there. And Ezekiel, God began with him in this desperate situation. He gave him visions of God. I believe that we all need a greater sight of Jesus, don't you? By the Holy Ghost. We need to see visions. We need to see his will. We need this illumination from heaven. Oh God, what is your purpose? When the apostle Paul had that vision of Jesus, he realized immediately that Jesus was Lord. And he said, Lord, what do you want me to do? The Lord had a plan for him, didn't he? He sent Ananias to him. He said, I want you to go and tell him he's a chosen vessel unto me. And I'm going to show him how much he's going to suffer for me. But I've chosen him to open the eyes of the blind, to bring this word to the Gentiles. I've chosen him to set the captive free, to preach this wonderful gospel. And he saw the purpose of God over his life. And immediately he walked right into that purpose of God. He wanted to fulfill. He said, God, there's one thing I want from you. I want to apprehend that for which you apprehended me. I don't want to miss that. But I want to be all that you want me to be. But first of all, I have to find out what God wants me to be. He wants me to be his vessel. He wants me to be crucified with Christ. Do you ever get that vision? It's hard to get. It's hard. But it's a glorious vision. And Jesus will show you yourself and your failure, but then he'll show you his glory, his ability, his power. And it's so good to find God's will for your life. You young people, you get to school, there's a guidance counselor there, and they give you all kinds of aptitude tests. And they find out you're pretty smart at mathematics. You might do well in computer sciences or something like that. And they do their very best to steer you into some future work that you're adapted for. And really they try to help. If you want to be helped, they'll do their best to help you. And they'll plan your whole career for you before you're out of high school, what college you ought to go to, what courses you ought to take. And it's a sad thing that sometimes we fall into that pattern and we say, well, this is for me. This is what I like. And we have not received a sight of Jesus. We haven't had him reveal his will to us, show us what he wanted to do, what he had in mind for us. I have a picture in my office to men, to Englishmen. I wrote for it to England. They had it on the wall of their office and I guess nobody was looking at it much. So they said they'd send me the last one. I felt favored to get the last one. But their picture of Mr. William Burton and Mr. Jimmy Salter. Now Mr. Burton was a tall man and he was a very well-educated engineer. He was also an artist, had real ability to do watercolors, pencil sketches. He could have made a living in art anytime in England. And he could have made a go of his engineering. And Mr. Salter was an orphan boy, sort of the opposite, brought up in an institution. But you know, they both went to a Pentecostal church. And there the Lord spoke to them. And there the Lord gave them a call. And both of them got the call to go to the Congo with the gospel. They had that sight that God wanted them there. Three of them went. They came up from South Africa by train as far as they could. And they had to take river boats, go down the Congo River to find a place where they thought God wanted them to establish a mission station. One of them died on the way in a fever. And Brother Salter was so sick that the captain of the ship said, leave the grave open. This fellow will be put in tomorrow. But you know, God raised him up from that sickness. Kept him alive, Mr. Burton prayed, of course, and they were opposites in nature. But they all both had the same vision. But now you know what God has done through those two men. There have been hundreds and thousands of people saved and very large Pentecostal churches formed in the Congo through the Congo Evangelistic Mission, just through these men that got a sight of Jesus. They got a sight of the lost people there in the Congo. The very first meeting they had, Brother Burton was, as I said, an educated, an engineer, businessman. And he said to the Lord, they had an interpreter with them. They didn't know the language at all, but they had these, like a street meeting. And he said, Lord, how am I going to make these people know that you sent me to them? How are they going to know that? I don't have any card that I could give them, pastor, William Burton, missionary, nothing like that. But there was a crippled man there. And you know, he called him. He said, you come over here. He got him to step out in the middle and he laid his hands on him. And he said, Jesus, you sent me. And now you've got to confirm your word with signs following. And he laid his hands on that fellow and God healed him right there. And that man followed Mr. Burton for more than 20 years before he passed away, this black man. And everywhere he went, he would just say, it's real. Jesus healed me. And there was this calling card. God gave him a living one, a witness to go right with him. But it all started with a vision. And that vision started with a preacher in England who had a compassion. Oh, Jesus, you see, the world is dying. We need you to pour out your spirit. And for one year, they never closed the doors of that church. That sounds strange to us. But day and night, they kept a prayer meeting going in that church. I went to the other side of the world, to Taiwan, and I met a missionary there. And I talked to him about Brother Burton, Brother Salter. Oh, he said, my father comes out of that same assembly and God sent him to China. And he did a real wonderful work for God in China. And you know, it came about because there was a group of people that had a vision. Jesus, you died for the world. We're not going to let them all go to hell. We're not going to let them perish. They are perishing without you. And they got down on their faces and they sought the Lord. They had a vision. And what salvation has flown from that assembly in England as it has spread around the world. Oh, I tell you, God gave you a vision, didn't he? And you say, Jesus, you died. You shed your precious blood. Save souls, Lord. Let your kingdom come. Let your will be done. And as you pray like that, God is bound to give light and a call to others. Say, I want you. I want you to be my witness. And he'll give you a vision. And he'll give you a bird. And he'll say, now, you can be victorious. You can shine for me. Praise the Lord. Remember, Jack Wurzen used to live right around the corner from us in Woodhaven. And I remember him when he first started out. His work for young people. He had a vision. And he worked at it. And he went around preaching and started that word of life work. And those days they met in the Alliance Tabernacle over on 8th Avenue. And there he started. And after a while, the summer camps at Silver Bay on Lake George, I met him there. And then after a while at Sprune Lake. But the man had a sight somehow of what Jesus wanted to do and what he could do for young people. And he says, Lord, here I am, send me. I'll give myself. I'll do what I can, Lord. What has God done? Oh, there are multitudes that are serving him tonight. And that have been transformed because they heard the gospel. How about you? What kind of a vision has God been able to give you of Jesus, first of all? How mighty he is. How loving. How kind. How he can save to the uttermost. Does that grip your heart? Has he given you a vision of dying souls? People without Christ that are slipping into hell, into an eternity without the Lord. God will do that. Without the vision, people perish. And we ourselves perish. But he says, your young men shall see visions. I'll pour out my spirit upon all flesh. And I'm going to do it. Hallelujah. And we're here tonight because he's done it. We wouldn't be here if God hadn't done it. But he has. And I pray that God will just fill my sight. We sing, fill all my vision, Lord. Let me see only Jesus. But let me see what you want to do, Lord. And what you can do. And we need that great sight of the Lord. And our young people. And I include myself because I feel just as young as you do. Maybe. Listen, we need to have visions of God. Oh, let's break through. Let's seek him. That's how God began with Ezekiel. He showed him how great he was. Jesus wants to show you what a great savior he is. All of us. Hallelujah. Then we'll believe him. Then we'll trust him. And then he'll send us forth. And he will continue to give us light in our souls. Praise God. Hallelujah. It's missionary Sunday. I was going to high school, Richmond Hill High School. One day I got sick with German measles. I had to stay home. And Uncle Hans, my uncle whom I was living with, came up to my room. I was in bed. He knelt down next to the bed and prayed with me. And he said, you know, I'll tell you, if we're true to Jesus, God's going to send us all over the world to preach this gospel. That was 1900, maybe 32. Before you ever thought of being here. You see, I'm an old man. But that's what he said to me. If we're true, he had that vision. God gave him that vision as he waited on the Lord, what God had in mind for him. And then he didn't jump. Oh, now we had a chap come to New York some years ago. And he visited the Pentecostal churches. And he said, the Lord has sent me here to show you preachers what a Pentecostal church ought to be like. He lasted about five months. He went back west. That was jumping ahead of his vision. Listen, my uncle had that vision and he waited. God spoke to Habakkuk. He gave him a vision too. Marvelous vision. But he prayed. The time is coming when the just will live by faith. Now he says, if the vision tarry, what should he do? Wait for it. Wait for it. God lays a burden on your heart. And he did that to my uncle. He waited. He waited until the Lord opened the door. And the door didn't open until 1948. That's quite a while later. But he waited. But when the door opened, he had that vision and that faith. And oh, I tell you, it's a great privilege to see the Holy Ghost move. Hundreds of people find Jesus and get filled with the Holy Ghost. And the sick were healed. And the Word of God was preached. And God came because God gave him a vision. And he held it before the Lord. He never gave up. He said, Lord, you've got to work this out. And God did. And then in Taiwan. And he really, after a while, did go all over the world. And I'm glad it's been my privilege to travel some to in different parts of the world to see what Jesus can do to strengthen my brethren. Oh, God, won't you give us a fresh vision of Jesus? Won't you help us, Lord? This day, we know you're willing. And you have given your promise. You said it would be so when you pour out your spirit upon all flesh, your young men, your sons and daughters shall prophesy, you said. Your young men shall see visions. Your old men shall dream dreams. Upon my servants and my handmaidens will I pour out in that day of my spirit. Oh, God, we thank you for the Word of God. And we thank you for the fulfillment. We thank you that we're living in these days. We thank you that all around us, Lord, there have been men and women that have touched the Lord and have gotten the sight of what God wanted and have given themselves to believe you and do your will. And you have done such phenomenal, wonderful things, Lord, when you found a vessel that was entirely given to you. And we would like to give ourselves as we sang, Lord. We would like to have a vision, oh God. We would like to have you grip our hearts, Lord. Show us your great salvation. Show us yourself, Lord. Fill us with your love, we pray thee. Oh, Jesus, you are in our midst tonight and you walk among us. And we ask you, Lord, reveal yourself to us. Make Calvary love real to us. Take these cold hearts, oh God, and warm them by this spiritual revelation, by these visions of God, where we get to see Jesus by the power of the Holy Ghost and where we reach out for your will to be done, Lord. You said you shall be witnesses unto me. And Lord Jesus, we know that your will for us and we pray that you'll grip us, Lord. Let the light shine into our hearts, oh God. Illuminate us, Lord. Don't let us be of that company that have no vision and perish and wither and die. But Lord, we pray that we shall get a great sight of the King and the Kingdom of God and shall give ourselves to believe and follow on. For thy glory we ask it. Amen.