Description
TAKING INVENTORY
Week 1
Bil Cornelius
Do me a favor if you would and take out your notes, something to write down some notes on. Take out your bibles if you would too and turn to Exodus chapter 1. I’m diving right in cause I got a lot to say today, so go ahead and just buckle up, because we’re going somewhere quick. Is that cool?
Alright guys, I am fired up. I’ve been watching TV with the rest of you across our nation, and I have noticed a trend going on that frankly makes me nervous. And it’s not the fact that where the world is today, it’s where the church is that’s making me nervous. Let me tell you what I see going on. What I see happening right now is what’s happening to the people of Israel. What happened to the people of Israel is that they all came to Egypt because Joseph was going to save the nation of Egypt, and in the process of that, of course if you, if you study the life of Joseph, he ended up saving his brothers, his whole family, and ultimately the tribe of Israel. The 12 tribes, which were just his 12 brothers basically, included all their kids, their grandkids, and their grandkid’s grandkids. And so if you study the concept of Israel, go ahead and write in your notes, Israel equals church. Israel equals Christians; Israel equals the body of Christ. That’s what that actually means. And so understand that the Old Testament concept of Israel is the New Testament concept of the church.
The problem is that the church became dependent upon Joseph. See, Joseph came and said hey, come on over and I’ll take care of you. The problem with I’ll take care of you is that’s it’s just a matter of time until I’ll take care of you, turns into I’ll enslave you. And that’s what happened if you study the lives of Israel. What happened to them is that they first came to Egypt because they really did need someone to take care of them. They needed someone to save them; they were literally starving to death. And so it starts off well when the state says I’m going to take care of you, and everyone’s got their hands out saying could you help me, could you help me. And that’s a wonderful thing that we have a leadership that wants to bring help. The problem is where it goes. It starts with I need help, and it turns into I need you to lead me in every way, shape, and form. And so it quickly goes from the nanny state, to please help, to tell me how to live my life, tell me what to do, make decisions for me, and I will just give you the locus of control of me over to you, and I will not let you be in charge of me.
Now I’m not surprised frankly that that’s happening in our world today. That really doesn’t surprise me. But what scares me silly and what should make you nervous is when the church is saying that, because we already have someone giving us what we need, and it’s not going to be a president, a political party, it’s not going to be an economy; it’s going to (Applause) be Jesus Christ, he’s the one who provides for us. So here’s the deal. I want to lay out for you a vision, a plan that God has given me for his church, but also more importantly, God has given us for this time.
If you look at Exodus chapter 1, the people of God were in dire straits, they were in some serious needs. I mean they were hurting deeply and needed some help. And God gives us an answer, and the answer may surprise you. So let’s turn to Exodus chapter 1 if you would, starting at verses 6 through 11, but again, I just kind of caught you up a little bit on the whole deal with Joseph. That if you studied the life of Joseph, and I don’t have time to go into all of this, but I just want to encourage you to know that Joseph was a provider for God’s people during a critical crunch time when the economy went from bad, to worse, to dire straits horrible worse than anything we’ve ever seen in our country. People were literally starving to death. People began to literally eat those who were dying; it was that bad if you study history. It’s unbelievable. We have no concept of how bad that was. We really cannot comprehend just how bad it got in Israel’s time as well as Egypt’s time. I mean it was unbelievable, and because of Joseph being used by God, Joseph was led by God to begin to save when everyone else was spending. And so what happened was Egypt did not have a budget deficit, they had a budget surplus. Well there’s a, there’s an amazing concept right there. And Egypt became incredibly wealthy because the entire world came to borrow from them, rather than them borrowing from the entire world. Whoa, here’s a new concept. And so it was unbelievable the wealth that happened in Egypt, because this is not a political message by the way, it just has political ramifications. So please understand, we are not called to get into politics or the church, God has never led me that direction. I don’t believe that’s going to change, because I really believe that if that was the hope of the world, then Jesus would have come as a politician. He did not; he came as a Savior instead. And so understand that the underlying issue that we’re dealing with in our society right now, it is a spiritual one, it is non-economic, it is not political, it is not ideological, it is spiritual. God has a great word for us today, and this message is entitled: Face the Truth. And we are facing the truth as a nation in a big way, but more importantly, my question is will the church face the truth with the opportunity that is in front of us. Do you realize the spiritual climate we’re walking into right now? It is ripe, ripe for the harvest, like never before in our generation have we had so many people crying out for a Savior, but is not going to be a president coming down from the land of Harvard to save the world. That’s not going to happen. It’s not going to be. Now listen, you can pick whatever party you want; that’s not the answer. The answer is going to be when the church rises up and delivers what the only truth is, and we got a monopoly on truth if you haven’t figured that out yet. And the truth is that people need the Lord desperately, (Applause) and we are called to give them the Lord.
And so that, that’s what I want to talk to you guys about today. Exodus 1 verses 6 through 11 talks about the need for a deliverer. Listen to this. It says: “Now Joseph and all his brothers, and all that generation died, but the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly, and became exceedingly numerous so that the land was filled with them. And so the generation that had made them great, died off.” Sounds a lot like a country I know. There was a generation that paid some prices that we really know nothing of. There’s a group of people that we have already begun to forget that built who we are. Didn’t take us long did it? It did not take us long to begin to forget what made us great. And so they’re dying off. Then it says verse 8: “Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt. Look he said to his people, the Israelites have become much too numerous for us”. Now I don’t want to paint our president to be the new king, so don’t, no, no, no, no, no. Okay this breaks down. Okay, clearly we have a democracy, so don’t go there with it. But understand that what’s going on is the people of God have been protected, sheltered and taken care of. The problem was the sheltering turned into enslavement and they desperately needed a deliverer. Do you need a deliverer today? Are you facing a situation in your future that looks bleak, saying God I need you now? Well he will deliver. Check it out, it says: “Look, he said the Israelites have become much too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them, or they will become even more numerous, and if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.” So basically, kings you have to understand are extremely paranoid. And this king thought there’s just getting to be way too many Jews walking around here. We got way too many Jewish people, way too many Israelites here, and so this is the ultimate anti-Semite. He literally wanted to just kill them, okay. And so he said this is just way too many people of God, of the God I don’t know, of some guy named Joseph. See he didn’t even know who this guy hardly was. It’s not that he didn’t know his history; he just didn’t appreciate the fact that Joseph was not only the reason why the Jewish people were there, but Joseph was the reason Egypt was still there, and so he had forgotten that, and so he did not have the appreciation that Joseph had literally saved their entire country. Verse 11: “So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. “ In other words they, they, they stored up grain, they stored up great wealth as well. And so understand this, number one: See the full scope of the need. We have to see the full scope of the need. See if you’re just looking right now at our stock market, or real estate market, or the economy numbers, whether that would be the gross national product, or maybe you’d like to look at the quarterly stuff, or maybe you said well I’m not into any of that stuff, I’ll just look at the unemployment. I, now what indicator you want to pick; I want you to understand there is a much greater indicator. There is a spiritual indicator going beep, beep, beep, beep, it’s going off like crazy.
There’s a spiritual indicator where people are crying out for something greater than themselves to help them. The spiritual indicators are all there, the greatest movements of God, when did they happen in our country?
During the great depression: that’s when the greatest movements of God ever happened in this country. Are you aware of that the incredible movements of the world, the spiritual movements of our world always happened in the toughest bleak economic times? And so this is an opportunity like no other. And here’s what’s happening right now: people are standing around waiting for something to happen that’s going to save them, that’s going to turn everything around, and they’re watching the news, and they’re watching Washington, and they’re watching you know their paychecks closely, and they’re watch, they’re waiting around going will someone help me. And in this time, this is an opportunity for the church to rise up, because here’s the deal: followers stand around and wait for a deliverer, but leaders deliver. Leaders actually are the deliverers. And so we are called not to wait around for someone to deliver us, as the church of Christ, we are called to be the deliverers. (Crowd noise) I want to challenge you that it is time for us to rise up as a people of God and become the deliverers that God has called us to be. You’re waiting on deliverance; you are supposed to be your own deliverer. Let me say that again, you’re supposed to be your own deliverer. What that means is that Christ is ultimately the one who delivers us, but he does it through people.
So how did Christ, how did God deliver the people of Israel? He sent a guy named Moses. Was Moses a deliverer? No, Moses obeyed the deliverer. And so he many times became claim, people called; oh he was the deliverer of God’s people. Well yes, in the physical sense, he was the guy who, who did it, but God did it through him, we clearly see evidence of that all through scripture, and we’re going to be studying the Book of Exodus all this month. This entire series on save the humans, is about how God has equipped us and created us to save human lives. That is our number one job. Look at what happens next, verse 12. It says: “But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread. So the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites, and worked them ruthlessly. They made their lives bitter with hard work, with hard labor, with brick and mortar, and with all kinds of work in the field, and all their hard labor, the Egyptians used them ruthlessly.” People listen, when people are desperate, they’re easily used. When people get desperate, they easily get used for someone else’s agenda. Are you aware of that? Be wary of someone using you, because you are simply desperate, because you are hurting, because you’re struggling.
Number two is your oppression actually is a sign you were destined to do great things.
If you have been oppressed, if you feel like you have been betrayed, turned on, lied to, something has happened to you that is really oppressing you, holding you back, keeping you from the greatness of God; that is actually a sign that you were destined for great things. And so I want to challenge you not to let that oppression, that struggle, that difficulty hold you back. No, this is actually a sign of opportunity like never before. Followers keep waiting to invest, but leaders are looking to invent. Are you willing to invent new opportunities?
Instead of waiting around to invest in old opportunities that are dying, it’s time to invent new opportunities. That’s what our country was founded on is invention, not investments. It was found on the people who said well, if this doesn’t work, I’ll create something that does. And so I want to challenge you, it’s time to quit standing around waiting for investments to turn around, and turn our lives around, and begin to invent our future. And so whenever the people of God no longer could look at hope in the country of Egypt, God said I’ll invent a future, I’ll give you a brand new land, a brand new future, a brand new constitution; we call it the Ten Commandments. God gave them a brand new everything. He renewed them completely. And so while we’re still sitting around hoping in something that’s becoming hollower and hollower; God saying when you going to get your eyes off that and realize I got a whole bold brand new future for you. It’s time to step into that, and so look what happens here. It says in verse 15: The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives. Midwives are those who of course, help deliver children, and these were Hebrew midwives. It was Jewish women that helped the Jewish people deliver their babies. And so he says to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah. Now we know that these two women certainly were not responsible for every single child birth, they must have been the overseers; this was the HMO people over all the entire healthcare of helping children come into the world. In other words, these two ladies were the managers of the women who clearly brought you know, children into the world. And so verse 16: When you help the Hebrew women in childbirth, in delivering, I love this. Do you understand that God is giving us a preview of a coming attraction? We’re looking at the midwives today, instead of Moses, and the reason why is because the midwives were deliverers, that’s what they were, who were told to kill the very ones they should be delivering, and they didn’t do it. That sounds like a preview of Moses, who is a preview of Jesus, who is a preview of the Father coming back for all of us. God always gives us a preview of a coming attraction. And I have news for you: today is your preview of your future. And so God has given you a preview. He says the, he says the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, when you help the Hebrew women in childbirth, and observe them on the delivery stool; if it is a boy, kill him, but if it is a girl, let her live. And so they were more concerned about the men. And so the spiritual enemy always begins by attacking men. Are you aware of that guys? Are you aware of the reason why that most of your prayers are about oh God, help me. And most of your wives prayers are not. What’s her prayers? Oh God, help him. (Laughter) Isn’t that right ladies? Most of your prayers are for him, and his prayers, oh Lord, get me out of this one, and you’re prayers are oh Lord, get him out of this one cause he’s pulling me into it too. (Laughter) So what happens here? Number three is: there are forces trying to kill you even before you are born. There are forces; there are spiritual forces that are trying to shut you and me down.
Listen: there is a spiritual image trying to kill you, trying to kill your dream, trying to kill your marriage, trying to kill your children. You don’t understand, there’s a spiritual enemy after you, trying to destroy who you are, the hope you have, the future you have; there’s a spiritual attack going around all around you. How many guys would be honest enough to admit that you are fully aware of it right now even? Alright, it’s going on. See the reality is this is the truth of what’s happening in our society. It’s the truth of what’s happening to God’s people. We’re being attacked. And the point of attack always is right before a new birth. So actually when you’re being attacked the hardest, you’re that much closer to a new birth of something great in your life. It’s actually a sign that you are pregnant with destiny like never before. Look what happens next, verse 17: “The midwives however, feared God, and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do.” Do you understand the boldness of that, that they completely, they, they, they openly disobeyed the king. It’s unbelievable, talk about faith. It says they let the boys live. Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live? The midwives answered Pharaoh, Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women, they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive. I can understand that, they were like you don’t understand these women. (Laughter) I understand, I’m married to a woman like that. You’re like you don’t understand the strength of this woman. Says in verse 20: “So God was kind to the midwives, and the people increased and became even more numerous. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.” You know one of the things that God will do to you, is that see, midwives, a lot, a lot of these women that are midwives, that help women bring their children into the world, are midwives because they can’t have children, and so they want to share in the joy of another person having children. Do you understand the spiritual maturity it is for someone to say well I can’t have it, but I’m going to be joyous that you can. Wow, talk about spiritual maturity. So it says here that these midwives had children of their own. Verse 21: “And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own. Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: Every boy that is born, you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”
Oh, it got worse. I’ve got news for you: I believe, I’m, I’m convinced, I pray, I’m not a prophet on this, but I am convinced this is the truth, I really think it’s about to get worse. I really do. I’m convinced it’s going to get worse before it gets better. You know why? Because God’s not waiting for our politicians to get it, he’s waiting for the church to get it. (Crowd noise and applause) He’s waiting for us, for us to get on board with the vision, what God wants to do in his house. And so we’re the answer. We are not supposed to wait for the answer, we are the answer. God has called us to be deliverers. And so I want to challenge you, just like these midwives. Number four: God has given you a certain set of skills so that you may save the humans. God has given you a certain set of skills, an ability, something that you do better than most.
That God wants you to take that set of skills and harness it, and focus on those skills, and do the best you can with it. In fact, this entire series comes down to what I’m about to say: What can I do, what can I do to be a deliverer to the people that need it right now? And here is the answer. This is where we’re going to spend the next four weeks on, this is what it is. I want to challenge you to allow me to be your midwife, and I want to help you give full birth to the vision, the destiny, and the dreams that God has placed within you. Whether you were here one time, if you’re not from here, maybe from out of town; then you can tune in online, you can download it, get the I, iTunes account, whatever, get the iPod, put it on your iPod, listen to the full series, cause you don’t want to miss this, because if you will stay with us, I want to help you give birth to the full dream that God has put in you, because God has given you a certain set of skills. And I believe, I’m convinced that God wants me to help prepare you to be the BEST at what you do. Not to be good at what you do, but to be the best at what you do so you can increase your influence and your affluence to save the humans. That’s what this entire series is about; (Applause) is to help you become the absolute best. God has birthed it in you, he has birthed destiny in you, and this is a preview of a coming attraction over the next four weeks about how God wants to birth something in you through this, that you realize that the set of skills that I know and how to use with my hand; the reason my skills have been given to me is because I am here to help birth your vision, birth your dream, so you can become the absolute best at what you do. Not just simply good at what you do, but you can be in the top 10% of all that you do. So that you can have the influence and the affluence to save the humans. God has created wealth. He did not create wealth just simply so we can nicer cars and bigger houses. We have begun to believe that, even as a church. There are churches that preach and teach that that’s the reason for wealth, and that is not the reason for wealth. There’s nothing wrong with houses, and cars, and doodads, and stuff, but my challenge for you is that what it’s all about? Cause that will end in misery for you.
How many super wealthy people do you know that are very unhappy? That’s not the solution. The solution is that we are to use our influence and our affluence to change the world. That’s what God has called us to do. God has called us to be saviors to a dying world that needs hope and real change. A real change is not political, real change is spiritual. Real change is a fact that we need a Savior to change our lives, to put us on a new course, a new direction. We need a spiritual foundation to be reinvigorated in our country. And all the signs of the times are lining up for us to realize that this is opportunity to rise up, not to sit back, but to rise up. When I was a little boy, I used to get out of the bathtub, and put my underwear on, and I put on my pajamas, and then I would take my towel, and if it was a big towel, I’d tie it around my neck. (Laughter) You guys know what I’m talking about don’t you? How many guys, especially men know what I’m talking about. Yeah. And the moment I tied it around my neck, I was who?
I was Superman. I tied it around my neck and I just run around, shhhhh, and I’d save someone over here, and I’d whisk off and they’d go, who was that masked man? And I’d go over shhhh, and I’d save someone else. (Laughter) And my mom saw me do this, and I’d always come back there and I’d go it keeps coming untied. And finally she got a huge safety pin, not these little ones I see today. No, no, not a little one, those big old honkin ones, you know what I’m talking about? The kind you would never actually leave on clothes, it’ll leave a huge hole. You know what I mean, big ones. And it had this huge you know white, blue end on it, this big old plastic end, and, and she would hook my, my, my towel around my neck and then it would stay permanently and I could play for hours upon hours, Superman, right. And I’d run around you know, and I would, I was the cape man, and I’d run around and I would just love being Superman. At the end of the day I got news for you ladies, if you don’t know this about guys. We still want to be Superman. Have you noticed how Marvel Comics is making a comeback? They’re making all these movies, they got Iron Man, they got the Hulk. But you know it’s funny that all that’s making a comeback right now. You know Marvel’s making a huge comeback. But men want to be super heroes. We want to be Superman, we want to be you know, the Gladiator, Brave Heart, the Patriot or anything else Mel Gibson makes. (Laughter) We want to be strong, heroes, Superman, right? I mean that’s what God has created us to do. I don’t know if you’re aware of that, but we are men and built to be saviors. In fact when a man is doing his job right, when you marry him ladies, you should be saved. You really should be, you should be literally swept off your feet and brought into under his protection and his care. That’s what we’re called to do is to be providers, protectors, caring for you, taking care of you, sweeping in to protect you. That’s what God has called.
I can, I can show you all kinds of scripture, but the ultimate scripture is that we’re supposed to love our wives as Christ the Savior, love the church, his bride. And so we’re supposed to be saviors. So God has equipped us to be Superman. So I want to challenge you to join with me to understand that you are called to reenact Superman, and to put on your spiritual capes and to understand that God has called us to be a savior. While the rest of the world is waiting around for someone to take care of them, God has called us as a church to be Superman. (Crowd noise and applause) So are you with me Superman? Then let’s pray, and let’s save the humans like God has called us to with your head bowed and your eyes closed. If you don’t know who Christ is, you can receive him right now. You can say: Dear Jesus, I realize I need you in my life. I believe you died on the cross for me. I believe that you rose again from the grave for me, for my salvation so that I could go to heaven if I just accept that you paid the price for all I’ve done that disqualifies me, from all my imperfections; you died for me. You made a way and I receive it, I receive you in my heart right now. And I want to make you the Lord, the boss, the coach of my life, I put you in charge.
Thank you Jesus for saving me. I want to follow you from this day forward. With your head bowed and your eyes closed, if you prayed that prayer, then Christ comes in your life. And I want to talk just briefly for everyone here that can hear my voice that has already received Christ. If you’ve already become a Christ follower, I want to ask you something. Just like David said, God would you restore to me the joy of my salvation. Would you remind me of what I have and my hope in you? We have forgotten church; we have forgotten what it is to not have Jesus. And we need to remember. See the problem with the longer you’ve been in the lifeboat, the more that you forget that there’s still floating out there that need it. So I want to challenge you, don’t forget what, what it’s like to not have hope. God, restore to me the joy of my salvation. Help me to remember what it is like to go through life with no one to call out to. Help me to remember that there are people that are hell bound that need me to share with them. Give me your burden God. May I feel it and may I do something about it. Well we love you; we thank you God for the privilege, the honor to be the saviors to this world, taking Jesus Christ to a world that desperately needs him. You’re the ultimate Savior; we are simply your instruments, God. And I pray Lord that we would be your Superman, that we would swoop down on the needs of those around us, and help those who desperately need Jesus Christ, and in him we pray, and all God’s people said: Amen. (Crowd repeat) I’m fired up.
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Bil Cornelius >> We forget that the reason why the pressures on and things seem to crumble at times, is because you’re taking spiritual hits. The next time something goes wrong in your life, instead of saying: oh poor me, say get up and recognize it’s time to ground and pound. Could it be said of you and me, just because we are in our office, our office gets blessed. So we’ve become susceptible to sin by believing we’re not susceptible to sin. And God has a divine order of protection, if you will just honor the Lord, he will direct you, protect you and project you.
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