Praise at Midnight: Choosing Better Over Bitter When Betrayed

Sermon outline

When betrayal and hardship come, praise God at midnight and at all times, because praise keeps your heart from turning bitter and shakes open every prison door.

1. Don't get bitter, get better

   Betrayal by people inside the household of faith can shake you and tempt you to become cynical, hard-hearted and mistrusting, as David could have when Saul turned on him; yet David refused to touch God's anointed. The Lord told him that if he stayed bitter he could not be used, and that the answer was to praise. Whoever leaves you, it is their loss: one person with God is a majority.

   Illustration: David loved and served Saul, then had to flee when Saul tried to kill him, but he never retaliated or grew hard.

   “I don't want you to get bitter, I want you to get better.”

   • 1 Samuel 24:6
   • Romans 8:31
   • Psalm 91:7

2. At midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang

   Beaten, chained and thrown into the inner prison, Paul and Silas prayed and sang hymns at midnight, and suddenly an earthquake shook the foundations and every door opened. When you praise in your midnight situation, God responds and everything that has kept things from you begins to shake. Don't spend your energy describing your midnight; use it to praise.

   Illustration: The cold, smelly dungeon with their hands and feet bound, and still they sang.

   “Don't talk about your midnight. Don't describe your midnight.”

   • Acts 16:20-28
   • Psalm 150:6

3. Paul learned it from David: at midnight I will rise

   As Daniel learned from reading Jeremiah and Paul asked for the parchments, Paul learned from Psalm 119:62 to rise at midnight and give thanks. Midnight is also the pitch-black hour of a great challenge: when a Goliath faces you, don't cower or cave in, stand up and shout hallelujah over your finances, family, business, job and church.

   “When a Goliath faces you and challenges you, that's a time not to cower, not to cry, not to give up, not to cave in, but to stand up and shout hallelujah.”

   • Daniel 9:2
   • 2 Timothy 4:13
   • Psalm 119:62

4. Shout, and the walls fall flat

   God did not tell Joshua to fast or pray but to march in silence and then shout, and Jericho's walls fell flat; walls of sickness, lack, demons or discouragement will fall the same way. 'Cute' Christians who are too proper to praise cannot be helped: let go of inhibitions, praise in the Spirit, and stay on fire, because devils settle where the fire has gone out.

   Illustration: Flies never sit on a hot stove; they only settle once the pots of dhal, biryani and roast lamb have gone cold.

   “Devils and demons only come on your life when you are not on fire from God.”

   • Joshua 6:1-20
   • 2 Samuel 6:14
   • 2 Corinthians 3:17

5. Seven times a day I praise You

   David rose before dawn and praised God seven times a day, so take seven short praise breaks, even in the office bathroom or on the stairs. For a child of God there is no midnight, because your light dispels the darkness, and as you praise, a cynical, hardened heart begins to melt and you can let hurts go.

   Illustration: Tell a colleague you are going to powder your face, lock the bathroom door and say, 'Lord, I praise You'; or take the stairs instead of the lift and praise on the way down.

   “When you start to praise God, your cynical heart starts to melt.”

   • Psalm 119:145-148
   • Psalm 119:164
   • Proverbs 4:23
   • John 7:38

6. The sacrifice of praise, continually

   Hebrews 13:15 calls praise a sacrifice, which means it costs you: you praise when your mind and body don't feel like it. He explains the Greek words: offer (to bring and carry up), sacrifice (an act), praise (a visible praising act), continually (through all times), lips (pouring out) and thanks (confession). Like Job, you don't need a reason, and the fruit of your lips is part of the much fruit that glorifies the Father.

   Illustration: Job's wife told him to curse God and die, and he answered that though God slay him, he would still praise Him.

   “When you are to praise God, you're going to praise him when you don't feel like it. That becomes then a sacrifice.”

   • Hebrews 13:15
   • 1 Timothy 2:8
   • Job 2:9-10
   • Job 13:15
   • John 15:8