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Welcome to Trinity Sermons. Thanks for joining us today here at Trinity Church

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Streetsville as we journey together to love Jesus, live like Jesus and lead

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others to Jesus. Now this is episode 5 of our fourth sermon from our sermon

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series we're calling Live in the Dream and we are excited to have Rob Hirkmans

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with us again today. In today's message Rob will be continuing our journey

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through the life of Joseph and is going to be talking about the dream job that

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Joseph lands and how we can learn to approach our work like Joseph did.

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Definitely a relevant and relatable talk today and you don't want to miss it.

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Now just before we get started please make sure to follow our podcast so that

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we can better reach even more people with the good news. God bless.

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Our reading today is from the book of Genesis chapter 41 verses 39 to 57.

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Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, since God has made all this known to you, there is no one

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so discerning and wise as you. You shall be in charge of my palace and all my

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people are to submit to your orders. Only with respect to the throne will I be

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greater than you. So Pharaoh said to Joseph, I hereby put you in charge of the

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whole land of Egypt. Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his finger and put

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it on Joseph's finger. He dressed him in robes of fine linen and put a gold chain

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around his neck. He had him ride in a chariot as his second in command and

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people shouted before him, make way! Thus he put him in charge of the whole land

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of Egypt. Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, I am Pharaoh but without your word no one

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will lift hand or foot in all Egypt. Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zephanath

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Panaya and gave him Aznath, daughter of Potipharia, priest of On to be his wife.

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And Joseph went throughout the land of Egypt. Joseph was 30 years old when he

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entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt and Joseph went out from Pharaoh's

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presence and traveled throughout Egypt. During the seven years of abundance the

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land produced plentifully. Joseph collected all the food produced in those

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seven years of abundance in Egypt and stored it in his cities. In each city he

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put the food grown in the fields surrounding it. Joseph stored up huge

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quantities of grain like the sand of the sea. It was so much that he stopped

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keeping records because it was beyond measure. Before the years of famine came

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two sons were born to Joseph and Aznath, daughter of Potipharia, priest of On.

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Joseph named his firstborn Manasseh and said it is because God has made me

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forget all my trouble and all my father's household. The second son named

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Ephraim and said it is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my

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suffering. The seven years of abundance in Egypt came to an end and the seven

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years of famine began just as Joseph had said. There was famine in all the other

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lands but in the whole land of Egypt there was food. When all Egypt began to

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feel the famine the people cried to Pharaoh for food. Then Pharaoh told all

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the Egyptians go to Joseph and do what he tells you. When the famine had spread

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over the whole country Joseph opened all his storehouses and sold grain to the

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Egyptians for the famine was severe throughout Egypt and the world came to

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Egypt to buy grain from Joseph because the famine was severe everywhere. This is

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the word of the Lord. Well according to statistics the average

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worker will hold between 10 and 12 different jobs throughout their lifetime

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which is to say that the job that you work in won't necessarily be a job that

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ends up working out and I can attest to this because you know before I received

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my dream job of working here at Trinity streetsville I went through my share of

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day jobs. I'd like to share a few of those day jobs with you now and just to

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warn you there's a few dad jokes that are about to come at you. So for example

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I wanted to be a photographer but nothing really developed. Yeah I went

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into telemarketing but it wasn't my calling. Yeah that's right. I thought

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about being a barber but I just couldn't cut it. That's right and you know I lost

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my job as a psychic. I just didn't see that coming and actually there was a

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time when I worked as a baker because I really needed the dough. I really needed

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the dough but enough about that enough. Get that spit that out get that out of

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your mouth those horrible jokes. What about you? What is your dream job? If you

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go to indeed.com Canada's premier job search website you can find some of the

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hot jobs some of the dream jobs that everybody wants. I want you to take a

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moment and and and turn to the person beside you and and just discuss which of

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these eight jobs is for you would be a dream job. I'll give you this 15 seconds.

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Ready set go.

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Yeah.

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All right okay all right I'm just curious to know let's take a little quick show

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of hands. How many of you said pro athlete? Oh how many said actor? Musician?

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Pilot? Mmm zookeeper? Video game tester? No. Fashion model? There they are.

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Anglican priest? Yes thank you. All right we'll talk after the service. Hey listen

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most of us are actually happy just to have a job and we don't often have the

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luxury of thinking about what our dream job might be but maybe that's not true.

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Because it actually depends on how you define a dream job. You know if you

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define a dream job as some job that fulfills all of your dreams then yes

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that might be pretty hard to achieve. But if you define a dream job as any job

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that furthers God's dream, now that's a different kind of dream job. That is a

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dream job but that's a different kind of dream job. I want to suggest to you that

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that's the way we need to think about our dream jobs right? Desmond Tutu once

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wrote a little book. The book was called God has a Dream. I don't know if you guys knew

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that that God has a dream for the world. God has a dream but he but he does and

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if you read in this book this is what Tutu says. He says and now my clicker has

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stopped working for some reason I want to show you this quote because it's a

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really good quote about God's dream. God calls on us to be his partners to work

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for a new kind of society where people matter more than things, where human life

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is revered, where no one will suffer from hungry, from ignorance, from disease, where

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there will be more gentleness, more caring, more sharing, more compassion, more

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laughter, where there is peace and not war. God has a dream and that's what God's

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dream looks like and I want to suggest to you that whatever your job may be if

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it in even a little way helps further this God's dream then you do have a

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dream job not because it fulfills all of your dreams necessarily but because it

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furthers God's dream in the world. So we're in the middle of a teaching series

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which is called Living the Dream and we've been looking at the life of Joseph

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and today in our story Joseph gets his dream job and you would say oh I know

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why it's a dream job for Joseph because he's surely gonna be rich it's a well

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paying job and he's very powerful and sure there's a sense in which you might

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say that's what makes it a dream job but I want to suggest to you today what

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really makes Joseph's job a dream job is not because it fulfills all of his

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dreams but again it's because Joseph is gonna use that job to further God's

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dream not his own. But before we go any further it's probably helpful just to

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stop and acknowledge that sitting here today there's probably people in all

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sorts of different places when it comes to jobs. Some of you may have a job and

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you absolutely love your job way to go that's fantastic. Others of you may have

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a job and you you endure it it's not great but but you endure your job and

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others of you maybe just hate your job and we're sorry to hear that. There are

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others here who don't have a job and really wish they did and then there's

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some of us here who've retired from our jobs and we really need to get in

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another one. And then and then there are some of us here who are studying for a

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job you're in high school you're in college you're in university and you're

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looking ahead to the job that you want to have maybe you want to have a dream

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job one day well whatever your job if we look closely at today's reading we're

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gonna see that Joseph's job is actually not all that different from your job or

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mine. Our day jobs whatever they are can become dream jobs when we work them

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toward God's dream and to show you all this we're gonna let Joseph kind of be

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our job coach today we're gonna look at Joseph's job and see what we can learn

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from it. Namely we're gonna kind of go through these things. What was Joseph's

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employment? What was his job? Secondly what kind of education did

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Joseph have in order that qualified him for that job? Thirdly what were the

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experiences that Joseph had that readied him for the job? Fourthly what was

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Joseph's first day on the job like? His entrance into that job? And then fifthly

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what were the job expectations? The job description that came along with

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Joseph's job? I want to say to you that we're gonna find out we have a lot more

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in common with Joseph than you might first think. Let's start first with

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Joseph's employment. What was Joseph's job? I mean if you go to indeed.com and

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you want to look for a certain job you got to start by typing in the position

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you're interested in. I'm interested in a psychologist or a chef or you know I

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want to be a firefighter or I am a firefighter I'm looking for a job I'm an

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Anglican priest I'm looking for a job click oh there's no jobs there isn't

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that interesting. We're looking for a certain position right? Well the title of

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Joseph's job what is it? It's not exactly told to us in the text but we can kind

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of put it together. We read that the Pharaoh says that all my people are

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gonna submit to your orders Joseph and only with respect to the throne will I

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be greater than you and then later on he goes on to refer to Joseph as his

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second-in-command. So for this reason many Bibles and theologians translate

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Joseph's job as this a minister. He is a cabinet minister maybe he is the minister

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of agriculture or maybe he's even the prime minister right? He is Joseph Trudeau

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right? I though do not believe that it is an accident that Joseph's job is

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best understood as minister because he wasn't just a politician he wasn't just

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an administrator he was a minister in the truest sense of the word. Do you know

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what a minister is? And don't look at me and say oh there's a minister that's not

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how it works as we're gonna see. The noun the noun minister means any agent

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working on behalf of another so anytime you're working on behalf of somebody

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else and minister as a verb means to serve to serve the needs of someone

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else. So Joseph was a minister because he was acting on behalf of Pharaoh he was

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acting on behalf of God that makes him a minister and he was a minister because

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he was serving the needs of the people the people of Egypt in particular that

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makes Joseph a minister. Joseph's employment was a minister. Joseph's work

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is ministry and I want to say to you that whatever job position you have or

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whatever job position you are pursuing with God a job is never just a job. With

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God you're never just a worker you're a minister with God your job is a

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ministry. So when you apply for that job as a psychologist you're actually

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applying to be a minister because you're applying to help people right to serve

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them. When you apply as a teacher you're a minister because you're applying

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to care for people. If you apply as a chef you're a minister you're also

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you're applying for a job that is meant to serve other people whatever job it is

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you're studying for whatever job it is you are working in that job is a

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ministry and you are a minister if you can think about it that you are working

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actually on behalf of God and serving the needs of the people around you. So I'm

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gonna do something we don't normally do here in Trinity but I'm gonna get to say

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something out loud together on the count of three I'd like to get all of you to

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say I'm a minister okay are you ready one two three I'm a minister. I mean one

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of the one of the biggest problems in the church is that we have this very

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narrow definition of what a minister is we have this very narrow idea of what

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ministry is in history the church has been kind of bad at this and saying oh

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there are certain jobs that are really holy and then there are these other jobs

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that aren't of course as holy and and the best job of all of course is being

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an Anglican priest that's the very best job that the church has set but my

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goodness how wrong that is because if you go back to the 16th century go back

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to some of those reformers like Luther and Calvin and they railed against us

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and they said no no no no no all work all work even so-called secular work is

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as much a calling from God as the monk or the priests calling the Bible is

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clear every person can be a priest every member can be a minister and the

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scriptures say if if a minister speaks they should do no no if anyone speaks

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they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God if if the priest

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serves then no if anyone serves they should do it with the strength that God

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provides so when we reimagine our employment as ministers then our jobs

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become ministry our jobs become a place to do God's work not just the company's

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work right and to pursue God's dream not just our dream so that's what we learned

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from Joseph's employment first and foremost he wasn't just a master of many

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people he was a minister to many people okay but secondly we've got a look now at

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Joseph's education I mean if you're applying for a job good grief you've got

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to have the right education some of you were in school right now and you're

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studying and you're paying big bucks to get the right degree because you know

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that if you want to get the job you've got to have the right kind of education

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no one's gonna hire you if you don't have the education so Joseph too didn't

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just enter into his employment without some education can you imagine if God

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had just picked a 17 year old shepherd boy up and transported him into the

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throne room of Egypt and put him as second in charge of all the land that

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would have been a complete disaster no actually Joseph was educated over time

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for this job but he didn't get an MBA from the University of Egypt and he

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didn't get a commerce degree from you know the Alexandria School of Business

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no Joseph trained slowly as God gave him more and more responsibility and here's

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what I mean right before Joseph was given all the power in Egypt he started

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off as like a slave as a servant working in Potiphar's house a slave just

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purchased to do menial work but Joseph made the most of it he was faithful in

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that work so much so that after doing that for a while his boss saw his

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potential and said wow Joseph you are I see what you're doing I like what I see

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I am gonna give you a promotion Joseph gets promoted to a higher place even

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when Joseph got sent to prison you might think oh that's the end of it for Joseph

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but no he was faithful in prison he worked away in prison even the prison

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official the chief jailer said gosh I like what this guy's doing I like how

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he's working I want to give you a promotion pretty soon Joseph Joseph is

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in charge of the whole prison now if I were you and you were applying for a job

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I would not put head prisoner or head slave on your resume that's probably not

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gonna help but but the point is little by little and bit by bit what is God

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doing he is training Joseph Joseph is learning he's gaining more

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responsibilities gaining more insight into administration into finance into

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politics into diplomacy until eventually the day comes where Pharaoh says to

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Joseph I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt so if you're here

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today and you're pursuing your dream job or you're studying for your dream job I

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think the lesson is clear start where you are with what you have to all the

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college and university students out there that might be watching or

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listening you know you're thinking about a dream job you're thinking about the

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success that you're gonna have and the money you're gonna make but remember

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Joseph be patient be faithful don't look for shortcuts to success instead take a

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look at what God has put into your hand right now take a look at the opportunity

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God has given you right now whatever Joseph's job was wherever he was working

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he did whatever God gave him to do with his whole heart and he rose to the top

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and I wonder if that's what Jesus was thinking when he said this line back in

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Luke's gospel Jesus said he who is faithful with little will be faithful

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with much we may not have a dream job we may not have all the fame or the

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reputation or the success like Joseph but we can be faithful with what God has

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given us with what God is teaching us and training us and promoting us to do

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one day little by little so that was Joseph's education but of course

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education on a resume is never enough you also have to have some experience

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right employers don't want to just see all your degrees and all the letters

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after your name they want to know what kind of experience you bring to this

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position well what kind of experience did Joseph bring to his position well I

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got to tell you they weren't very nice experiences he was thrown into a pit and

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left to die that's an experience he was chained to a wagon and carted off to

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Egypt that's an experience he was accused falsely and slandered by

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Potiphar's wife ruined his name that's an experience he was thrown in jail and

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forgotten there's an experience for you I'm sure there were many times when

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Joseph just looked up to heaven and said why God why are you putting me through

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all these horrible experiences and the answer and I think we can get in

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retrospect is that these experiences were all part of the training they were

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all part of of helping to form Joseph into the person that he needed to be for

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the job that God had in mind before him Madame Goyon wrote she said it is the

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fire of suffering that brings forth the gold of godliness you see often we look

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at the painful experiences of our lives and we assume that it means that we are

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moving further and further away from God's dream for our life but God never

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wastes an experience in your life a good one or a bad one he will use those

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experiences to draw you closer to him and closer to that dream in fact some

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say some say that your greatest ministry will likely come out of your greatest

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hurt and that the the the greatest resentments and the greatest regrets of

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your lives are actually preparing you for the greatest work of your lives so

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when we encounter a problem when we encounter a setback it's natural to ask

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why God why are you putting me through these experiences but can we also ask

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the other question what God God what do you want me to learn from this

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experience how are you shaping me in this because for Joseph there was a

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purpose behind every problem and every pain and so we see finally now that

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Joseph who was had his employment he was a minister he was educated and he now

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had the experience and that means he can begin this great job this great job and

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Joseph enters into this job on day one we see quite a ceremony happening in

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fact most offices most new jobs when you start there's a little ceremony that

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happens you kind of come on in and all the people greet you and your staff

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members there's coffee there's Timbits that day you're handed a bunch of

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paperwork to fill out you get your key card you get your laptop here's the keys

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to the company car you know I'm still waiting for the keys to the company car

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actually have to check into that one you know but you're given everything you're

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given everything that you need when Joseph entered his ministry there was a

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great ceremony to right Pharaoh sitting on this ivory throne dressed in robes

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Joseph has given a signet ring it's a sign of authority he's given a chain

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around his neck it's a symbol of dignity he's given a robes he's he's given the

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keys to the company chariot and and there's a great big announcement make

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way for Joseph make way right he's even given a new name his name has changed

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from Joseph to Zathmath Paneah which translated means something Savior of the

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world right but there's there's more not only is Joseph given these tokens he's

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also given a new family he's given a wife and later on he's he's given

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children everything he needs is provided for him and all of it comes as he begins

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this new role now do you know that in the church we also have this special

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ceremony where people are given their new ministry where people are welcomed

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in and they are provided with everything that they need we call it baptism and

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there's no thrones and there's no robes and there's no rings but there's water

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and there's fire and there is an announcement I baptize you in the name

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of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit right let your lights so shine

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before others that they see you good your good works and they glorify your

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father in heaven right that's how we begin the work God has for us baptism is

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day one your first day on the job as a minister of Jesus Christ so yeah

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baptism is an entrance into the people of God but don't forget baptism is also

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your entrance into the employment of God into the mission that God has that

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means if you are baptized if you're baptized then you and me are called to

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ministry just as this is Joseph was given Pharaoh's authority in baptism we

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are given Jesus authority and just as Joseph was given a family in baptism we

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are given a new family right this church just as Joseph was given a new name in

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baptism we are given a new identity and just as Joseph was provided for we too

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are provided for we received the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit gives us

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everything we need for the work that God calls us to do I have to say it

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sometimes as followers of Jesus we forget this and sometimes we get nervous

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you know maybe we feel like God is calling us to something new or God is

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promoting us or God is moving you into a new job or a new opportunity or new

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ministry or whatever and you're nervous because you're like I don't know if I

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have what it takes I don't know if I can do it I don't I don't know what if I

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don't know if I can afford it if our family can afford it what if it's too

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hard and in the story Joseph reminds us that those whom God calls God provides

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for if you enter into God's work you'll be equipped for God's work God provided

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for Joseph he'll provide for you too and so where have we been so far we've seen

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Joseph's employment he was a minister we've seen his education we've seen his

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experience now we've seen his entrance into this new job day one and that

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brings us to the final part of Joseph's dream job what were the expectations

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every job is gonna have some kind of job description to go with it right that's

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all the stuff you're supposed to do in the job and you're responsible for

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Joseph was no different he had a job to do during the seven years of abundance

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Joseph collected all the food he stored it in cities Joseph stored up huge

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quantities of grain like the sand of the sea and when the famine came then Joseph

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opened all the storehouses he sold all the grain to the Egyptians and the world

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came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph what was Joseph's job description well

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that's kind of Joseph's job description but here's another way of putting it

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Joseph's job description was to feed the hungry to save the lost to bring life

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and hope and healing to a hurting world I look around this world I look around

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this room I see all sorts of different jobs out there and all your jobs of

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course have very different job descriptions some of you work in offices

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some of you work at home some of you work in restaurants or schools or

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hospitals or whatever and I think God is saying I want you to do those jobs the

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very best way you can do them to the best of your ability but on top of those

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jobs and on top of those responsibilities God has this other job for us that has

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these other expectations right and like Joseph what are we supposed to do we're

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supposed to feed the hungry right we're supposed to save the loss we're supposed

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to go out and bring life and hope and healing to a hurting world that's the

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dream job those are the expectations or as Jesus would put it later on he would

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say go to the lost go to the confused people right here in the neighborhood

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tell them that the kingdom of God is here bring health to the sick raise the

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dead touch the untouchable kick out the demons you've been treated generously so

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now live generously as ministers you and me who have been employed and empowered

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by the Holy Spirit this is the job but not just any job like I said at the very

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beginning it's the dream job not because it necessarily fulfills your dream but

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because it furthers God's dream so that's the job then let's get to work

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you've got a position you're a minister of God you've got an education God is

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teaching you right now to be faithful just be faithful with what you're doing

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you've got the experience God never wastes an experience the good ones and

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the bad ones you've got the job descriptions the expectations have been

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laid out and heck you've even already started the job baptism was your very

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first day so let's go out from this place as a mighty workforce of God living

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the dream but also working toward God's dream thanks be to God I'm in thanks so

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much for joining us today and if you enjoyed the show please take a minute to

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rate and review our podcast so that we can continue to spread the good news

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with others today's sermon was taken from the November 19th 2023 service at

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Trinity Church streetsville in Mississauga Ontario come back again next

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week and thanks for listening