RADICAL PRAISE EQUALS RADICAL FAITH

When you are radical, you are different. You’re not like everyone else. When you’re radical you walk differently, you talk differently. When you’re radical you go to the extreme. When you have radical praise. Your praise is one in which you don’t care who’s watching, listening, or around. It’s just you and God. You go to the extreme. You let out a scream, or a hallelujah just because you feel like it.

Radical praise occurs when you are standing in the grocery store’s checkout line, and you don’t have enough money to buy all the groceries you need, and someone says I’m paying it forward and they buy your groceries for you. And you begin to shout in the store giving God all the Glory. That’s radical praise.

Radical praise is coming to church and giving God all the glory even though you know your rent is due and you don’t have the money and you sing and shout to the Heavens because you know your God is going to make a way.

Radical praise is when you praise God while you are sitting at the stoplight just because he’s been so good to you. Radical praise is praising God for someone else’s breakthrough. Radical praise is praising Him in the good times and the bad. When you’re at your lowest of lows you still shout out Thank you Jehovah Jireh. Thank you for being my provider.

Radical praise is giving God the praise no matter what you are going through. Radical praise is that mother or grandmother that starts shouting right in the middle of service for that child that’s gone astray. They are dancing giving God praise. That’s radical praise. Nobody knows the nights she has cried. Nobody knows the nights she lost sleep. Nobody but God. She has come to the Master to say Thank you. That’s radical praise.

Now to have radical praise, you need to have radical faith. You are burdened down by what is going on in your life and you don’t have radical praise on your lips. Because you don’t have radical faith. Some of you walk around saying Amen and Thank You, Jesus. Carrying a Bible with highlighted torn pages. Quoting every scripture in there. As soon as something happens you start crying and whining. Saying “Lord what am I going to do”? Instead of believing and living the Words on those highlighted torn pages of the Bible you are carrying around. Where is your radical faith?

You can’t be in God’s Army and have mediocre faith. God is looking for some faithful people and looking for believers who believe without seeing. Believers who trust in Him and never doubt. He’s looking for someone with radical faith.

To have radical faith there are some things you must do.

1. You must believe without seeing.

Hebrews 11:6 says, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” NIV

Now the KJV says it like this “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.”

God is looking for some faithful people. Believers that believe without seeing. He is looking for those with Abraham’s kind of faith, that radical kind of faith. The song says I will trust in the Lord until I die. It doesn’t say for a week. Or a month. It says until I die. God is looking for some trusting folks. God is looking for people with radical faith.

In Matthew 8:5-13 we find an example of believing without seeing. The Centurion believes Jesus can heal his servant. In the NKJV it says…

Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him, ⁶saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented.” ⁷ And Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.” ⁸ The centurion answered and said, “Lord I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. ⁹ For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, “Go” and he goes; and to another, “Come” and he comes and to my servant, “Do this and he does it. Verse 10…

¹⁰ When Jesus heard it, He marveled and said to those who followed, “Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel! ¹¹ And I say to you that many will come from east and west and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. ¹² But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” ¹³ Then Jesus said to the Centurion, “Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you.” And his servant was healed that same hour.

The Centurion believed without seeing. He had Abraham’s kind of faith. He knew that Jesus could heal his servant. He was in power. Had charge over many soldiers under him. But he knew the authority of Jesus. He had respect for this man called Jesus. He did not care about the position he held. He did something radical. He asked the Man of God to heal his servant and he did not care who saw or heard his request. He believed that Jesus could heal him.

How many of you are waiting to see it before you believe it? How many of you are waiting for it to transpire before you give Him praise? How many of you are waiting for someone else’s breakthrough to happen before you believe it? God wants you to take Him at His Word. Put it into action. 2 Corinthians 5:7 says what… “For we walk by faith but not by sight.” You must believe it before you see it.

• You must praise Him during your storm.

Praise Him during your storm. You don’t have a poor me party. Where you invite all your friends. Calling them either on the phone or in a group text. Saying girl, I’m going through it right now. Or they ask you how you are doing, and you are all down and depressed. You put praise on it and say, “I am blessed and highly favored”.

Acts chapter 16 verses 16-25 we read about Paul and Silas being put in prison. Verse 16 says…

Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her master much profit by fortune-telling. ¹⁷ This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.” ¹⁸ And this she did for many days. But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And he came out that very hour.

¹⁹ But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities. ²⁰ And they brought them to the magistrates and said, “These men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble our city; ²¹and they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe.” ²² Then the multitude rose up together against them, and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods. ²³ And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely.

²⁴ Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. ²⁴ But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening.

During their storm, they were praising God. They were shackled and locked away in a high-security prison. Instead of feeling sorry for themselves or texting their homies. They opened their mouths and began praying and singing hymns to God. And during their praying and singing, they were evangelizing to the other prisoners. They were listening. You may be going through a storm, but you know what. You don’t know who else may be going through a storm too. They need to hear your Radical Praise.

How many of you are so bound up like Paul and Silas? You’re shackled, chained in your circumstances. Locked up with bars all around you. How many of you are so clouded by all that is happening that you don’t see the blessing in it all? Your light bill is due and you’re running low on money. You start stressing and worrying. But you don’t realize during this financial storm you have a roof over your head. There are many homeless people right now, sleeping on the ground, in parks, in cars, and on sidewalks. Their light is the sun and the moon. And you’re having a poor me party.

Your child is acting out and it’s frustrating. Give God thanks for that child and speak the Word over them. Declare and decree that they are the head and not the tail. Their mind is blessed. No weapon formed against them shall prosper. Give Him praise and thanksgiving during your storm. During their storm, Paul and Silas prayed and gave God thanks. Give Him praise during your storm. Radical Praise equals Radical Faith.

• You must be willing to be Radical

You must be willing to be extreme. God is looking for some willing people today. Men and women who are not afraid to stand up and give Him praise. This next scripture demonstrates radical faith to the fullest. It’s the woman with the issue of blood. Mark 5:25-34 says.

Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years, ²⁶and had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. ²⁷ When she heard about Jesus; she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment. ²⁸ For she said, “If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.” ²⁹ Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction.

³⁰ And Jesus immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My clothes?” ³¹ But His disciples said to Him, “You see the multitude thronging You, and You say, “Who touched Me?” ³² And he looked around to see her who had done this thing. ³³ But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. ³⁴ And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your affliction.”

This woman did not care who saw her. She did not care what people would say. She believed if she could just touch the hem of His garment, she would be made whole. She would be healed. She risked being out in public with her condition. She had radical faith and with radical faith comes radical actions. He wants people who are not afraid to stand out in a crowd. He wants someone like the woman with the issue of blood. He wants someone with RADICAL FAITH. God wants you to be RADICAL. Be different. Be extreme. Someone radical enough to shout and give Him thanks in the middle of a grocery store. ARE YOU THAT RADICAL FOR GOD!!! He was that radical for you and me. He gave His only son for us so we could have everlasting life. His son died on the cross for us. That’s radical. Are you willing to do anything for God? Are you willing to be Radical today? Let’s be radical for God.