Robert Whiting, an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane.
At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport in his carry on.
“You have been to France before, monsieur?” the customs officer asked sarcastically.

Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France
previously.

“Then you should know enough to have your passport ready.”

The American said, “The last time I was here, I didn’t have to show it.”

“Impossible…Americans always have to show their passports on arrival in France!”

The American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look.  Then he
quietly explained, ”Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in
1944 to help liberate this country, I couldn’t find a single Frenchmen
to show a passport to.”

I had a neat moment last Wednesday: an old friend “facebooked” me & emailed me a MP’3 message he taught his church on being a servant and being “incarnational.”  Being the Body of Christ in “our world” is a big focus for Harvest Church right now, & earlier that same morning I was meditating on having a servant-heart.  So here’s a few thoughts on a very important matter:

God Almighty, the animator of all things, needs your permission to act in your life.   It’s the “privilege” of being a Free Moral Agent.  But Jesus’ example to us was lay aside His privileges. I believe He acts through us when we “lay our life down” to serve another.

If you want to be more like Christ then desire to be better at serving.  Everything He did was for others & not Himself.

If you want to be more like Jesus you can’t pick & choose which parts you want to be like. He’s offering His entire Self to us!  What an indescribable gift!

Phil. 2:1-11 Implementing this passage into our lives would see our lives change almost over night!  That’s a powerful reality!

Ultimately it’s not whose for you or against you – it’s who you are for!  Who are you supposed to serve?  What people are you called to serve?
Follow the Person of Christ & find peace.  Follow the principles of Christ & find abundance.  Both are by His grace!  Giving… serving really make us look like Jesus.

Welcome to the Post-Modern world where missionaries aren’t just for Africa & India anymore.  God is calling us, His Body in the earth, to be evangelists & missional to the world around us.  Acts 1:8
Nowhere in the Scripture does Jesus ask us to worship Him, but He does ask us to become like Him – worship Him by obeying Him.  (This is discipleship.)  Matt. 28

I believe God is taking us from institution to revolution!
Our problem is we have God all figured out – His ways are NOT our ways! There is still a mystery!  It takes more faith to NOT have ALL the answers sometimes…

But here’s what I do know:  Jesus said, “I will build MY church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”   Gates are defensive things.  So the church Jesus is building is the one that is plunging head-long into darkness & danger to get it’s hands dirty & rescue people from hell!

The Holy Spirit is calling His Bride to Action:  “Who will go?”  (Isaiah 6)

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The church always expresses itself in different ways depending upon the culture that it’s in.  It’s very fluid so it can “reform” itself all the time depending upon the culture or environment that it’s in.  The purpose for this of course is so it can be a relevant witness in that particular culture.  The problem is, we are in a “post-modern” or “post-Christian” generation.  In other words, people in the Western World ARE searching for God but just not in the church anymore.  So what can we do to increase our influence in this culture?
(NOTE: by “the church” I mean Christ-followers. Not any particular denomination.)
We only legitimize ourselves are Christians by going back to Jesus.  Are we reflecting Jesus? If we are not then we are ultimately “unChristian-Christians.”  I know this is an oxy-moron. The greatest insult you can hurl at a Christian is “you don’t look like Jesus.”  Ghandi said, (paraphrase) “I’d be a Christian if I hadn’t met so many of them.”  What an indictment that still holds true in many instances today.  Does it in your? In mine?

We are not to reflect the culture we are in but yet relate to it so we can express this other-worldly culture of the Kingdom that we are from.  The standard has always been, is and always will be – JESUS.  To be “culturally relevant” we have to accurately express JESUS to our neighbors, co-workers, friends, etc.

WE ARE MISSIONARIES!

Acts 1:8  The power of the Holy Spirit’s baptism will enable us to be a a meaningful witness.

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Luke 5:37-39

If you want to build something that lasts you have to be willing to (consistently) change whatever you build.  Apple knew they would have to.  It took a mind-set AND a process.  Does your life need a system upgrade?  As the head of my family I have to ask, “Does my family need a ‘systems upgrade?’” As the “Cultural Architect” of Harvest Church I have to ask, “Does Harvest Church need a ‘systems upgrade?’”

Upgrading is costly, time-consuming, “hard”… But not as hard if you don’t do it.

The best way to keep people moving toward the core mission is to frequently upgrade the system.

i.e.:  Cultural Relevance – appropriate to the matter at hand; connecting TRUTH to the culture & community around us.  To do this we have to be always willing to change.  We can’t stay stuck in the 1980’s or in 2010!

Even God believes in system upgrades: OLD Testament & NEW Testament.  *When you don’t upgrade the system you loose your capacity to use a more “relevant” (& thus effective) approach.

Jesus was TIMELESS!  But the Pharisees were stuck in their old system. He spoke of LOVE vs. The Law.  GRACE vs. Performance or works.  He told stories – they had their lists… *God sent Jesus to upgrade the system!

Three Principles of Wine-skins:
1. Wine is TIMELESS… Transcendent.  In other words, (like it or not) people are always going to drink wine.
2. Wines-kins don’t last forever.
3. New wine requires new skins.

Jesus was saying, “I AM new wine.”

How can what we build ultimately contain something… someONE that is ETERNAL?  We can’t. WE must change… Constantly upgrading.  Learning . Growing. We adjust to HIM.  He doesn’t adjust to us.

Churches that are not changing are abandoning what is timeless & eternal.