It Ended In Praise Thanksgiving Service by Pastor Jerry Eze: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Paul and Silas: A Picture of Living Thanks

Acts 16:16-30 — And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying. The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, "These men are the servants of the most high God, which show unto us the way of salvation." And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, "I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her." And he came out the same hour. And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers, and brought them to the magistrates, saying, "These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city, and teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans." And the multitude rose up together against them, and the magistrates rent off their clothes and commanded to beat them. And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely, who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks. And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed. And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, "Do thyself no harm, for we are all here." Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out, and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"

Not Just Thanksgiving — Living Thanks

The heartbeat of God for every one of us is not to give thanks, but to live in thanks. Thanksgiving can be tied to an event or a situation, but living in thanks is tied to who you are in Christ. When you are constrained to only give thanks for what is visible, you will be expecting only the extrinsic — but much of what God is doing on the inside is what He needs to bring another thing on the outside. Some of the things God is doing within you are things that would not have benefited you if they had happened when you expected them to.

Thank God not only for what is on the outside, but for who He is. Even a year that did not come with everything you asked for still built capacity in you, changed your focus, redirected your thoughts and your perspective, and made you understand what it means to stand in a place where only God has the final say. In that change of mind and perspective, you are not just a thanksgiver — you are living in thanks. This is what the Bible speaks of when it calls us to offer up ourselves as a living sacrifice unto God, which is our reasonable service Romans 12:1.

Thanksgiving Stoppers

Paul and Silas were not praying and singing because the prison door had already been opened — they were praising while the door was still locked. You will be tempted to despair, tempted to get depressed, but on this side of eternity the devil does not have the power to stop you; so what the devil does instead is use you to stop yourself. If this thing we have been doing in prayer and fasting is truly power, then you must be careful about what comes out of your mouth. Life and death are in the power of the tongue — never use the mouth you used to bless in order to curse; never look at your circumstances and call them nonsense, because that is exactly what the devil wants you to say.

1. Darkness

   This man entered the jail in darkness — he had to call for a light. One of the major things the devil wants to do is keep you in darkness, because darkness takes away your sound of joy. You can be called a son of light and still walk in darkness if you are not letting the Word of God enlighten your mind. The eyes of your understanding must be enlightened Ephesians 1:18. God has a program for your life, and you can only discover it in the Word — that is when your heart is enlightened and not in darkness. Even in a season where you feel you have prayed but darkness lingers, switch to a posture of praise: light or darkness, you will keep singing until light finds you.

2. The Mood of the Prevailing Environment

   There were other prisoners in that same prison, yet two men chose a mood that was not dictated by the prison. The prevailing environment is not where you draw the energy of your joy from. Because you have chosen to live in thanks, you do not allow anyone to predict your mood by what is happening around you. Even when others in the same situation are complaining, you have chosen to bring your thanksgiving regardless.

Many years ago, a planned flight was providentially avoided by an unplanned decision to travel by road instead, and news later came that the very plane a ticket had been bought for had crashed. For many years since, that has remained a reason to keep thanking God — not because of what was seen, but because of what was avoided, since there was still work to be done. God saw what was ahead and refused to let it be, because there was a purpose yet to fulfill.

It takes someone who has actually prayed to sing well. Paul and Silas first prayed, and then they sang — there is something that clicks in the spirit after real communication with God that makes the praise that follows resounding. Prayer is beyond ritual; it is you talking to God and God talking back to you. When you have truly spoken with God, there are songs you will sing, and dances you will dance, that come from that place of communication.

Prisoners Who Only Heard

The Bible says the prisoners heard Paul and Silas — they did not pray, but they heard. You need to pray so that some people around you can hear you and be affected. The chains of those who did not personally pray were also loosened when the earthquake came, because the effect of prayer is distributed to those within its reach. Even those who did not pray with you will hear when it comes, because it will hit everybody.

Moving From Door to Door

The Bible says Paul and Silas were kept in the innermost prison — locked behind several doors. When the earthquake came, all the doors were opened, but that did not mean Paul and Silas instantly disappeared from the innermost cell and reappeared outside. They still had to move from one door to the next, to the next, until they came out. The Bible does not say the building scattered; it says the doors were opened. Sometimes you don't realize where God is bringing you from.

• God will first fix your heart concerning a matter.
• Then He begins to align the system around you.
• Then He moves you, door by door, toward the outcome.

Sometimes you arrive at a door and get angry, wondering why nothing is working after you have prayed and fasted — and the accuser suggests that God has failed you. But all the doors were already open; God was not being slow, He was moving you through a sequence: one door to fix your mind, a second door to work on something you did not know was happening, a third door for another purpose. God is not a magician who makes you disappear from one place and instantly appear in another — He moves you door to door. When you later hear the testimony behind your breakthrough, you often discover that months earlier, God had already begun to speak to someone about you, to arrange something on your behalf, before you ever saw a sign of it — that was the first door, the second door, and so on.

When there is light and revelation, you begin to understand where you are in the process — able to say, "I may not have reached the last door yet, but thank You for where I am right now. This is not even a delay; You are working out something bigger than my own thought."