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

You Are a Praise Being

Before we consider how it ended in praise, understand why we are praise beings.

Revelation 4:11 For His pleasure we were created. Psalm 22:3 God inhabits the praise of His people. So you are not a request being. If I live more in petitions and supplications than in praise, I have probably not understood why I was created or the fullness of my identity.

Praising God is not in the rhythm. I can sing a song whose lyrics are full of praise while my mind is not connecting to God. The reason God has made you a praise being is for you to realise that praise is who God is, and praise is what He inhabits. This is the ultimate assignment of every believer. There is the church militant, which is who we are now, and the church triumphant, whose assignment after this life is to bow in worship before God. The language heaven understands is the language of praise, and the language of praise is the language of access.

They Sang Before Anything Changed

Acts 16:25-30 At midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises to God, and the prisoners heard them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, the foundations of the prison were shaken, all the doors opened, and everyone's bands were loosed. The keeper, waking and seeing the doors open, drew his sword to kill himself, thinking the prisoners had fled, but Paul cried out that they were all still there. Trembling, he fell before Paul and Silas and asked what he must do to be saved.

Acts 16:35-36 When it was day, the magistrates sent word that the men should be released and depart in peace.

Make no mistake: Paul and Silas were not singing because their situation had changed. Some receive their answers in the course of a fast, but another set of people feel the devil stole their answers by luring them into bitterness and anxiety two or three days after the prayer. You will shock the devil by letting him know that even if the victory has not yet blossomed, the praise of God will be on your lips. There are praises you give to God to thank Him for the seasons He seemed silent, because in those seasons you gained a capacity you would otherwise never have gained.

Praise Magnifies God

Proverbs 23:18 We praise because we know how it is going to end, for the expectation of the righteous will not be cut short.

Psalm 34:3 The psalmist says, "O magnify the Lord with me." Praise is a magnifying glass. As I sing the praise of God, the picture of God in my heart begins to enlarge, so that I begin to see again what He did years ago, and a faith surges from within. If my praise only stimulates my dance step but does not enlarge the picture of God, then I am praising the wrong way.

Praise is a weapon. If there is anything the devil does not want you to do, it is to praise in the midst of a crisis.

2 Chronicles 20 When the armies came against Jehoshaphat, the Lord had him set singers before Him and leave the rest to God, and the battle became the Lord's. 1 Samuel 17:45 The enemy comes with sword and spear, but we come in the name of the Lord. Psalm 118:22 The stone the builders rejected became the chief cornerstone, who is the person of Jesus.

Praise in the Season of Transition

The Bible marks the word midnight: night about to become morning, a season of transition. Transition seasons are creation seasons. When the caterpillar is becoming a butterfly, it can no longer go back to being a caterpillar, yet it is not fully a butterfly; if anything goes wrong there, it hangs in between, no longer where it was and not yet where it is going. In that place you can feel locked up, and even your own generation may reject you because you do not look like anything familiar.

If you find yourself in your transition season, praise. You are moving from somewhere to somewhere. Do not let the devil spoil you with bitterness or with complaint. You may not have it all worked out in your head, but it is a choice to praise the Lord. Psalm 103:1 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Psalm 37:25 I have never seen the righteous forsaken, nor His children begging for bread. When transition beckons, press through it.

Matthew 11:2-3 One thing the devil does in transition is throw doubt into your heart, exactly as he did to John the Baptist. Locked in prison, an offence arose in John, and he sent to ask Jesus, "Are you the one, or should we expect another?" Not long after, they demanded his head. Give no space to the lie of the enemy. It is praise all the way.

Guard Your Praise Company

Acts 15:36-40 Before there was ever a Silas in the life of Paul, there was Barnabas. At a critical season Paul and Barnabas quarrelled and separated, and God sent Paul a Silas. There are seasons of your life when all you need to do is raise your voice, and a Silas will not stop to ask, "What are you doing?" But a Barnabas would question you: "Why are we singing? Do you not know we are locked up and sentenced to death?"

When destiny is beckoning, for reasons you cannot explain, a Barnabas will go. So be careful not to chase after a Barnabas when God has brought you a Silas. When you finish praying and some relationships are no longer adding up, do not force it and do not push it. Do not allow your own mind to get in the way of what God is authoring and finishing. Notice too that the reason we kept hearing of Barnabas was his connection to Paul; soon after he left Paul, we heard little more of him. Be careful, as you journey, not to leave your Paul.

Prison Praise Precedes Prison Break

We know about a prison break, but there is another thing called a prison praise. What happened in Acts 16 could be described as a prison break, but before the prison break there was a prison praise. Some of us are praying for a prison break but are not serious about our prison praise. Their hands and feet were in the stocks; the place was bad, smelly, and dirty. Where do you even start praising God from there? But praise is what I do.

Hebrews 13:15 This is the sacrifice of praise: the kind of praise you offer while the tears are coming down, saying, "God, You did not bring me this far to abandon me. You are God all by Yourself. I vow to praise You, not because of what You have done, but because You are my life." How can you give Him a prison praise and He not give you a prison break? It is not even possible.

Their praise was not silent; the prisoners heard them. Their praises were loud, and they were hiding nothing. So we will be loud, prison or no prison, and we will not be moved by what others think. Some people run to a marabout and do all kinds of things, but the only one I have in heaven is God.

Acts 16:25 Here is the public service announcement: the prisoners heard them, but they did not join them. When Paul and Silas were later brought out, the other prisoners were kept back. Do not be a spectator in an atmosphere of praise, or others will leave while you are still held there. Bring your praise.

Dance Like David

2 Samuel 6:14-16 When the ark of the covenant was brought home, David danced before the Lord with all his might, so freely that his garment opened, while Michal, Saul's daughter, watched from a window and despised him in her heart.

2 Samuel 6:20-22 She met him with contempt, accusing him of exposing himself before the servants' maids like a vulgar street dancer. David's reply is the reply I would give any day: he would dance all the more before the Lord who chose him over her father's house and made him prince over Israel, and he would become even more undignified for God's glory.

Do you think you owe God just a shout? He deserves all the glory, all the honour, and all the worship.

I decree it is done. Whatever season you are in, it has ended in praise, and your life will not end up as a statistic.