Characteristic number two of the Apostolic Church is living a radical lifestyle. It's diligence and perseverance. It's about living a sold-out life of discipleship, irrespective of how hard life gets, no matter how difficult it is, we follow Jesus and the focus is on the task no matter what.
That's the mindset. In Revelation 14.4 it says, These are the ones who have not been defiled with women. For they have kept themselves chaste. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These have been purchased from among men as the firstfruits to God and to the Lamb.
See, there's a hardship with the life of the apostolic. You know, you're denied, there's difficulty, there's hardship, there's suffering. But that's what following Jesus is all about. In Acts 4.18 it says, And when they had summoned them, they commanded them not to speak or teach.
at all in the name of Jesus. And see, and the disciples and the apostles that Jesus called, they knew that if they were to hold back, they're not being true to the Lord or to themselves because that's the apostolic call. It's to be a voice.
It's to live a life of boldness, a radical lifestyle declaring the message of the kingdom. In 2 Corinthians 5, 14 to 15, it says, For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all therefore all died and he died for all so that they who live may no longer live for themselves but for him who died and rose again on their behalf we don't live for ourselves we live for christ we live for the one who died for us we live for the one who rose again on our behalf his name is jesus and so our entire focus and center point and centrality of life is about jesus himself perseverance Diligence, long-suffering, patience. We live with a sense of urgency and it's almost as if we're under compulsion in that sense.
And here's the thing, if you don't have it, you don't have it. You can't muster it up, you can't make it up. It's just something that's within your heart, it's something within the nature and character of who you are.
If you have it, there's a sense of compulsion. You know, they knew their sphere of influence. You know, and they stayed within their lane and they lived and walked out this radical life. For example, Matthew preached in Persia, known as modern-day Iran. Thomas preached in India.
Bartholomew preached in Georgia or Dagusta. You know, and so they knew their lane. We all have our lanes.
And the question is this, do you know your lane? And whatever that lane is, we endure. We long suffer.
You know, we suffer for the Lord and with Christ. Christ. You know, St. Patrick, you know, he was the apostle of Ireland, and this is how radical he was.
I mean, he raised the dead. He had the favor with the king. He literally baptized over 300,000 people himself.
You know, he had this passion for souls. He lived a life of suffering, but yet he built the kingdom. His focus was Christ. There's another man, George McKay.
He was a Canadian. He was He was called to be in Taiwan. He was known as the Apostle of Taiwan.
And he wanted to see many Taiwanese to hear and live the Christian life. And this is the foundation of apostleship. This is the apostolicity we need today. And so every man, every woman, every child, you know, we need to live to see that they have an opportunity to choose or reject Jesus.
Regardless of choice, we need a trumpet like McKay. the gospel of the kingdom. You know, and so when it comes to apostleship, when it comes to this radical lifestyle, the biggest single barrier to apostolic living is not theological, it's not anointing, but in fact, it's sociological.
You know, we have the, you know, the problem is this. We have the same desires and passions and we live the same lifestyle as the world. So that's why it's a sociological issue. So we need to preach Christ to them.
to the world, those who don't know him, and understand that the biggest barrier to epistolic lifestyle, to living this radical, just abandoned life, is sociological. See, we may live in this world, but we're not called to live of it. You know, we can't allow the social normalcy in our culture today to lead us to spiritual depravity.
You know, and so we need to have this just this focus in our life that we need to just fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, and we need to say to ourselves, by the power of the Holy Spirit, We need to depend on Holy Spirit and we need to say, God help us live an abandoned lifestyle, abandonment to ourselves, you know, that we would be completely just lavish and that we would be just radically just, you know, in pursuit the way that Jesus lived. You know, it's living the life that Jesus lived. This is apostolic living.
How much endowment do you have? Are you persevering? Are you engaged? Is your mindset, you know what, at any cost, I'm going after this.
The mandate, I'm going to be obedient to God in a radical way, no matter how difficult it is. I'm not going to live by feelings. I'm going to live by faith. Because this is the apostolic generation. This is the apostolic people God is raising up.
Are you a part of it? Just ask the Holy Spirit right now to help you endure, help you have long suffering. to persevere, you know, because this is what we need today.
No matter how difficult life gets, I want to tell you Jesus is worth it. So Holy Spirit, right now we ask for your strength and your ability. We ask that you would help us to endure, to suffer, and to live a life of following you as a true disciple.
That we would be literal witnesses for you in this world. that we would live in this world but not be of it. God, we confess with our lips that apart from you, it's impossible. So help us to live this radical call, this apostolic living, this apostolic message, that we would become the face and the message of Jesus to a world around us. In Jesus'name.