We're in the last sermon of our sermon series, "A Praying Church." This series has been interesting as we've examined various aspects of prayer, including waiting on God in expectant prayer, prioritizing God in prayer, and prayer leadership in the church. Today, as we finish our series, we will examine prayer and thanksgiving.

This Thursday is Thanksgiving, and this holiday is a timely reminder of the importance of a thankful heart. For Christians, gratitude is about praising God for what he has done. Today, we will look at how God uses our thanksgiving and praise to bring deliverance, joy, and salvation to others. Thanksgiving and praise to God is not just for us. God will use your heart of thanksgiving and praise in the life of others.  

It's hard to be thankful during challenges. It's a lot easier to complain. I remember when my wife and I moved to San Diego. I had left a good job in New York and assumed I would easily find another one when I arrived. Of course, I moved during a recession, and I soon found out that my good job in New York didn't mean what I thought it might mean here.

Months went by, and as we know, living in beautiful San Diego simply on your savings is not a good idea. Our savings dried up quickly. As I looked at our bank account continuing to go down, I tried to reconcile reality with my faith. We believe in the rapture, and there were a few days right before the rent was due when I would pray, "God, a rapture would be good right now." In those moments, it was easier to complain than to be thankful.

Today, I look back at those times and see how God got me and my family through it, and I am thankful. But can we be grateful in the middle of hardship?

Today, we will examine the story of Paul and Silas in prison, two men who chose praise during hardship. Open up your Bibles to Acts 16:25-34.

"About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the jail were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's chains came loose. When the jailer woke up and saw the doors of the prison standing open, he drew his sword and was going to kill himself, since he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul called out in a loud voice, "Don't harm yourself, because we're all here!" The jailer called for lights, rushed in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. He escorted them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" They said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household." And they spoke the word of the Lord to him along with everyone in his house. He took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds. Right away, he and all his family were baptized. He brought them into his house, set a meal before them, and rejoiced because he had come to believe in God with his entire household." Acts 16:25–34

Paul and Silas were in a difficult situation. In Acts 16:25, they sit in a prison cell "praying and singing hymns to God." But to appreciate what they're going through, you must understand what got them there. Acts 16:16-24 tells us what got them into prison. Acts 16:16 says,

"Once, as we were on our way to prayer, a slave girl met us who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She made a large profit for her owners by fortune-telling." Acts 16:16

Paul and Silas were on their way to prayer. Prayer was a destination, a time of gathering with others to pray. Interestingly, the enemy got involved as they took a step of faith to pray with others. When you are taking steps of obedience to Christ, expect opposition.

A young girl who was possessed by a demonic spirit started following them around the city, saying that Paul and Silas were "proclaiming the way of salvation and were servants of the Most High God." It says in verse 18 that she did this for many days.

Now, as you can imagine, sometimes it's not what you say but how you say it. This girl had been disruptive, so Paul finally had enough. He turns to her and commands the demon to come out! He says in Acts 16:18, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!" And the demon left. It was gone.

This girl was enslaved, and her owners used her to make a lot of money. Her owners were mad once they realized her skills were gone and the profit was gone. So they dragged Paul and Silas out to the authorities and started accusing them of various crimes. The crowd joined in, and so the authorities began stripping off the clothes of Paul and Silas and ordered them to be beaten with rods.

And they got beaten. Whack! They started hitting their backs and sides with the rods. It says in Acts 16:23,

"After they had severely flogged them, they threw them in jail, ordering the jailer to guard them carefully." Acts 16:23

They beat Paul and Silas many times. After they beat them with rods, they threw them in jail like dogs, put them in chains, secured their feet so Paul and Silas couldn't move, and left them there until they could figure out what to do with them.

You can imagine, after all of that, Paul and Silas could've felt like they had every reason to complain. They were just on their way to prayer. They were on a mission, doing the work of the Lord, and this is what they got—an unjust prison sentence for doing a nice thing for a slave girl.

But complaining is a mindset. It is natural to complain in a hard situation because none of us feels like we should be in hardship. But Paul and Silas do something different. They do what it says in James 1:2-4, where James says,

"Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing." James 1:2–4

In the middle of the trial (or hardship), Paul and Silas's trust in God was having its full effect on their spirits. Enduring trials as a child of God has an effect that allows one to do something other than complain. Paul and Silas chose praise in hardship.

That brings us to our first point. As Christians, we can,

1. Choose Praise in Hardship

Look at how Paul and Silas chose praise in hardship in Acts 16:25,

"About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them." Acts 16:25

Choosing praise amid hardship is an act of faith. Prayer is a way of realigning our thoughts with God's thoughts. When you stop focusing on your circumstances and instead on who God is, you praise God. You see this all over the Psalms. In many of the psalms, the psalmist will go from focusing on his circumstances to ending in praise to God.

For instance, you see this in Psalm 42:11, where he ends the psalm by saying,  

"Why, my soul, are you so dejected? Why are you in such turmoil? Put your hope in God, for I will still praise him, my Savior and my God." Psalm 42:11

You can feel the psalmist talking to his soul as he thinks about God and says, "I will still praise him." Prayer is a way for us to choose praise in hardship because we will praise God as we think about him.

I love how Paul and Silas praised God by singing hymns. I don't know what they sang. They didn't have K-Love radio or the Baptist hymnal, but they praised God through hymns. Singing hymns to God is biblical. Many times, during our Sunday worship services, I find myself in a state of prayer. You can use the songs during worship as a time of prayer and praise to God.

Remember that choosing to praise God in hardship is choosing thanksgiving. Despite whatever is happening around us, as we shift our minds to God, hardship starts to move into the background. Suddenly, even though we don't understand what is in front of us, we trust God, who is behind the scenes and in control.

In the book of Philippians, Paul is sitting in another jail cell later in his life. He writes this letter to the church in Philippi, the same area where we are in Acts 16. He writes these words in Philippians 4:6-7,

"Don't worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6–7

He says, "Don't worry about anything." I did a deep dive on "anything," which means "nobody, nobody at all, nothing, nothing at all, in no way." In other words, don't worry about anything.

"But in everything," in every way, as we consider our mindset before the Lord, he gives us two things. The first is the method of approaching everything: "through prayer." This verse shows why we've spent two months discussing prayer: prayer must affect everything as we move forward as a church.

The second is the attitude of the approach: "petition with thanksgiving." Petition God, seek him in prayer, but bathe those prayers with thanksgiving. Once we understand the approach and the attitude, "present your requests to God."

Why would we want to bathe every request to God with thanksgiving? We do that because we trust in God. We trust the promises of God in Romans 8:28,

"We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28

So we pray prayers like, "God, I am going through this hardship, and I pray that you will deliver me from this, but even if you don't, I will praise you. I will thank you through this trial because I know you are working all things for my good." When we choose thanksgiving, even in hardship, we trust God's promises because he is bigger than our hardships.

Paul understood hardship and tells us what got him through: "the peace of God." As the Holy Spirit inspired him, there is a promise for you from God: a heart of prayer and thanksgiving is a peaceful heart and a peaceful mind because "the peace of God... will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."

Choosing praise in hardship is not easy, but it is always worth it.

Mental health techniques often reflect what Scripture taught thousands of years ago. Gratitude is a technique used in behavioral health to help people realign their thinking. Mental health experts suggest that people should complete gratitude journals, writing down 3 to 5 things they're grateful for daily. They might have you write a gratitude letter to someone who impacted your life. One fun suggestion is to create a gratitude jar, where you write down something you're grateful for on a piece of paper, and over time, this gratitude jar starts to overflow with all of the things you're thankful for. You can remind yourself any time of what you're grateful for by looking at a paper in your gratitude jar.

In the same way, when you approach everything through prayer and thanksgiving, you start to grow that gratitude jar with the Lord. And when the hardship comes, you can pull from the gratitude jar of your prayers and say, "Thank you, God. I will praise you in the hardship because I know how good you are to me."   

As we choose to praise God in hardship, God will use that because,

2. God Responds to Praise

How does God respond when his people choose praise and thanksgiving in hardship? Acts 16 shows us that God responds in a big way. Look at Acts 16:26,

"Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the jail were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's chains came loose." Acts 16:26

As God intervened, the jail was shaken divinely. In verse 26, there's something special to notice about God's work. Freedom affected everyone in the prison, not just Paul and Silas. In the same way, when you choose praise in hardship, it's not just for you. It's for everyone around you.

Let me help you understand. When Paul and Silas chose praise in hardship, they trusted God's purposes over their own. When we complain, we focus on our purposes, not God's.

• God, I can't be sick because people need me.
• God, I can't be without money because I need to provide.
• God, I must be in control because my purposes are essential.

That's not choosing praise in hardship. Praise in hardship is trusting God's purposes over our own. Paul and Silas didn't know God's purpose during their hardship. They just trusted that God had a greater purpose in mind. As it says in Ephesians 3:20, God is "able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us."

What's happening in Acts 16:25-34? God is using the prayers and praise of his people to bring deliverance, joy, and salvation to others.

As the foundation of this jail shakes, the scene shifts to the jailer. Now, the jailer is the kind of guy who assumes the worst. Do you know that person who, when a situation arises, believes that the worst outcome is about to happen? That's the jailer.

The prison shakes, all the doors are open, everyone's chains come loose, and the jailer wakes up to his worst nightmare. All he knows is there's been an earthquake, the doors are open, and that must mean everyone has escaped. As a jailer, this was the worst thing that could ever happen to him.

Now, I don't know if he was depressed before this, but this was too much. It would be better to take his own life than to experience what would come next. Maybe he didn't want to deal with the shame. Perhaps he would face execution.

In either case, he reaches for his sword and gets ready to take his own life when he hears a voice: "Don't harm yourself. We're all here!"

He can't believe it. There's no way. He lights up a torch and starts looking around, and through the light in the dark, he can see every face still there.

And the two who were praising God, the two whose God just released them and everyone around them from their chains, with their backs still blood-stained from all the beating, had enough love in them to tell their enemy, "Don't harm yourself. We're still here!"

I wonder, as they were praying and singing hymns in the jail, were they praying for the jailer? As the Lord said in Matthew 5:44,

"But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" Matthew 5:44

I don't know what their prayers were. But they could've let the jailer take his own life. It would have made an easier escape. But love knows that your enemy needs Jesus.

This love was too much for the jailer. He's overwhelmed and falls before Paul and Silas, trembling, and he says to them, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" And then you get this verse in Acts 16:31,

"They said, 'Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.'" Acts 16:31

Now, look at God's purposes. Paul and Silas chose praise in hardship because they trusted in God's purposes. Now, the chains of all the prisoners are gone, and the jailer and his whole family are coming to Christ.

We may not always understand what we are going through, but we can trust that God's purposes are good.

Something about testing, trials, and tragedy tends to bring people to Christ. There's something about desperate moments when we are brought to our knees and realize how fragile and needful we are for God. God's purposes brought a jailer and his whole family to Jesus.

God still uses testing, trials, and tragedy to bring people closer to faith. Christian singer Jeremy Camp often shares his testimony about his wife, Melissa. They were engaged to be married, and he found out that she had cancer. They pushed on with the marriage, believing God would get them through it. After the marriage, the doctor told them that the cancer spread throughout her body. After she had passed, Jeremy stated God prompted his heart to worship him. After losing his wife, he wrote a song titled "I Still Believe." The song says, "I still believe in Your faithfulness, I still believe in Your truth. I still believe in Your holy word. Even when I don't see, I still believe."

God calls us to believe in his bigger purpose even when we don't see it. God calls us to believe in his faithfulness and his truth. Believing is trusting God. It is choosing to praise God even in hardship.

There is an incredible testimony that you leave for others when you choose to praise God in hardship. That leads to our third point,

3. Praise and Thanksgiving Is a Witness to Others

The testimony of Paul and Silas, who praised and worshiped God despite hardship, was such a powerful witness that the jailer brought the whole family to hear the gospel.

It says in Acts 16:32-33,

"And they spoke the word of the Lord to him along with everyone in his house. He took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds. Right away he and all his family were baptized." Acts 16:32–33

God used Paul and Silas's prayers and praise to bring deliverance, joy, and salvation to the jailer and his whole family.

Now, each person in his household had to hear and believe the gospel for themselves. The jailer's faith doesn't save his wife. His wife has to believe in Christ for herself—the same with the kids.

But picture what's happening. You can picture the jailer coming in with excitement. "Wife! Family! You've got to hear this good news. These men have come to tell us about God, and God works through these men. Listen to them!" This excitement and transformation within the jailer is an incredible testimony to his family.

The whole family sits down and hears the gospel. They learn that God sent his only Son to earth, that he lived a perfect life, that he died on the cross for the sins of the world, and that he was resurrected from the dead. They learn that if they believe in Jesus, they can be saved from their sins and set free in him.

And one by one, each family member says, "I believe. I believe in Jesus. I want to follow Jesus Christ with my life." And what was their first step of obedience in following Jesus Christ? Acts 16:33 says, "Right away he and all his family were baptized."

The Lord Jesus Christ gave the church two things, sometimes called sacraments. Both are symbolic actions of a spiritual reality.

• The Lord gave his church communion to remind us of his sacrifice for us on the cross.
• The Lord also modeled for us water baptism and gave baptism as a command to his church.

He says in Matthew 28:19,

"Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" Matthew 28:19

And this is precisely what the church does. Peter, in Acts 2 on Pentecost, preaches the gospel to thousands of people. Like the jailer in Acts 16, the people in Acts 2 ask Peter and the apostles, "Brothers, what should we do?" Peter says this in Acts 2:38,

"Peter replied, 'Repent and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.'" Acts 2:38

There is a repentance, a belief in Jesus Christ, in the heart. Salvation is a spiritual work within you that comes by faith alone through God's grace. Baptism is the working out of that faith in Jesus Christ already present within the believer.

Baptism symbolizes spiritual truth. I have a new life in Jesus and want to follow him. The first step is to trust his word. 

Baptism also symbolizes Jesus's death and resurrection. Where do I get this? You can see this in Romans 6:3-5,

"Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection." Romans 6:3–5

Baptism then aligns us with Jesus Christ's death and resurrection. Just as Jesus was buried in the tomb and rose again, we are baptized into his death and resurrected in him. As believers in Jesus Christ, we now walk in the newness of life.

Usually, I would have to give a sermon illustration to illustrate what that looks like. Today, I don't have to. Right after church today, you'll see believers in Jesus taking their first step of obedience by proclaiming their faith in Jesus through water baptism. Nothing is more encouraging than witnessing the newness of life in people who have put their faith in Jesus Christ. One truth has remained constant over and over: Jesus changes lives. He is the only one with the power to do so.

Conclusion

Everyone getting baptized today has told me something similar: Someone in their life led them to Jesus Christ. Why is that important? It reminds us of what we see in Acts 16: God uses the prayer and praise of his people to bring deliverance, joy, and salvation to others.

As we finish this sermon series, A Praying Church, we remember that we need to be a praying and thankful church. When you cultivate thanksgiving in your prayers, you prepare yourself to be grateful in the hard times. When we choose thanksgiving, we allow God to use our testimony to bring others to Jesus.

As we enter into a week of Thanksgiving, let's remember the words of 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18,

"Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in everything; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:16–18

Find something to be thankful for every day this week. Let your thanksgiving be a witness to the world of Christ's power in your life. Let us be a church that is thankful to God in everything, trusting that the peace of God will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

This sermon was preached on Sunday, 11/24/2024, at Catalyst Church San Diego. Click here to hear the sermon.