Imitate Paul as He Imitated Christ | A Radical Christian Life

I would repeat: has anybody tried to imitate brother Paul in the last hundreds of years now? Maybe some of you know why I wept so hard when we tried to have some little sisters come visit us, because they have some faint testimony in this area. It was not the Lord’s sovereign will that it be done. Brothers, we must reestablish Paul’s testimony. You saw, written out before your very eyes, a small, pitiful example of how far Paul went, working far beyond his needs and giving it away to others.

A heart. Now, you say, “I don’t have this kind of heart.” That’s okay. Just listen to the description. That’s all I want you to do right now. Would you listen to the description? A heart so on fire for Jesus Christ, for His kingdom, for the salvation of souls, for the establishment of His church, His bride on this earth, and for the sharing of the mystery, that you go out and work hard six days a week, utterly disinterested in the fact of what is done with the results of it. Come and give it all. Walk out of there to go and proclaim the Gospel. Having given it all without question, where or who you had that you get, or whether you retire or how you’ll die, who will bury you, or what you’ll be buried in, or whether you will have security…you didn’t care, but for the gospel of Jesus Christ, yes; when you spread the Gospel, you give it all.

We are a people who banded ourselves together here for one purpose, and one purpose daily: to forget to live while we are on this earth, to forget to count our interest in ourselves, and to totally pour ourselves out on the gospel, the church, and the Lord. That’s why we’re here. That’s what we live for. That’s what we breathe, eat, dream, sleep, speak, pray, testify, and spread. We have lost all interest in all other things.

Now, you know what Paul taught, and it finally caught on. That was what shook the world. From this day forward, we will expect such a standard from all the Lord’s people. We won’t demand it; we just expect it of all the Lord’s people. You didn’t come here for that, yet I don’t think any of us can say, “Gene, that’s more than what the Lord ever demanded.” Brothers, if you have eyes to see and ears to hear, you’ve heard something tonight that I believe the angels may be rejoicing over. Finally, somebody grab that flag the way it ought to be grabbed, take it the way it ought to be taken, and plant it where it ought to be planted. First-century believers who met the likes of Paul met that standard.

I want to say one encouraging word to you. If you happen to be sitting here saying, “Gene, I just plain flat don’t love the Lord that much, I don’t love his house that much, I don’t love his gospel that much; I’m not really all that excited.” I want you to know that may not be true of all of you; maybe some of you will go right now. Praise God, I believe that’s where many hearts are tonight.

I want you to know something. Dear Christian brothers and sisters, when you have tasted the mystery, you won’t care anymore. When you have tasted the mystery, you won’t care one bit anymore. It will be a privilege in your heart, and you’ll ask, “Oh Lord, what else?” For I am an unprofitable servant who has only done what I ought to have done.

All the things the world counts as something, we will count dung. We will live our lives only for Him and for the Lord’s service, for the lost, His bride, for the gospel of redemption and the mystery that’s hidden in it.