Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / Stop Waiting for a Sign

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Stop Waiting for a Sign · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: We spend our best years, our very best decades of
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  Speaker 1: life at work, and given the investment of our time
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  Speaker 1: and of our life, we desperately want to believe that
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  Speaker 1: all that effort, all that time, all that daily grind
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  Speaker 1: matters in the end. Secretly, most of us are asking,
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  Speaker 1: am I wasting my life? Is the work I'm doing
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  Speaker 1: truly what God intended for my life? Maybe there's something
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  Speaker 1: better for me. God send me a sign to know
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  Speaker 1: what to do today. I'm asked, Pastor John, stop waiting
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  Speaker 1: for a sign as we read Romans twelfth together. Sarah
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  Speaker 1: in Atlanta writes in with this question about ministry, Pastor John,
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  Speaker 1: I'm twenty five and wrestling with this whole missions calling thing.
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  Speaker 1: Some at my church are pushing this idea, saying that
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  Speaker 1: if you're not planning to be a missionary, you better
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  Speaker 1: have a clear call to remain in America. But honestly,
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  Speaker 1: this doesn't sit right with me. Biblically seems to flip
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  Speaker 1: the normal pattern of calling on its head. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: don't we usually see God specifically calling people to ministry
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  Speaker 1: roles rather than assuming everyone should do them by default.
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  Speaker 1: How do I think about this? Biblically? Should I really
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  Speaker 1: be planning to pack my bags for overseas missions unless
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  Speaker 1: I get some supernatural stop sign from God, or is
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  Speaker 1: there a more balanced way to desern whether God is
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  Speaker 1: actually calling me to missions work specifically great question. Here's
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  Speaker 1: what Pastor John said to a very similar question in
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  Speaker 1: twenty fifteen.
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  Speaker 2: A student just asked me two days ago whether I
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  Speaker 2: agreed with Hudson Taylor's comment that no one needs a
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  Speaker 2: call to go into missions, but only a call to stay.
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  Speaker 2: Everyone should be planning to go to the unreached people's
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  Speaker 2: and then God may stop you and call you to stay.
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  Speaker 2: And I said to the student, I don't agree with that.
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  Speaker 2: I don't think that's the biblical pattern. It may have
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  Speaker 2: some things to commend it in terms of compassion and proportion,
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  Speaker 2: and we should listen to those things, but biblically I
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  Speaker 2: can't support it. Regularly, God called his prophets, not the
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  Speaker 2: other way around. And God does not say that men
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  Speaker 2: should all plan to be pastors unless they're called not
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  Speaker 2: to be pastors or elders. Rather, he sets up patterns
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  Speaker 2: of assessment and assumes that relatively few, just the needed number,
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  Speaker 2: will be led into the office of pastor teacher elder shepherd,
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  Speaker 2: and Paul writes to the Romans to solicit their support
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  Speaker 2: in his mission to Spain, and he doesn't say a
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  Speaker 2: word about anyone in Rome going with him. And all
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  Speaker 2: the epistles of the New Testament are written with the
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  Speaker 2: explicit or implicit assumption people stay right where they are,
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  Speaker 2: salt and light in their present vocations. Like Paul said
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  Speaker 2: in First Corinthians seven twenty, each one should remain in
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  Speaker 2: the condition in which he was called. So that's the
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  Speaker 2: right question. That was my point. Glenn is asking the
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  Speaker 2: right question. So let's start with Romans twelve to two.
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  Speaker 2: Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed
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  Speaker 2: by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove
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  Speaker 2: what is the will of God, what is good and
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  Speaker 2: acceptable and perfect. So deserning the will of God assumes
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  Speaker 2: a renewed mind. I am assuming that the will of
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  Speaker 2: God here refers not to commandments of scripture, which you
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  Speaker 2: don't need a renewed mind to read and know.
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  Speaker 1: Not kill.
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  Speaker 2: You don't need renewed mind to know that's against the
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  Speaker 2: will of God. I'm assuming that what Paul is talking
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  Speaker 2: about in Rome's twelve two is how do biblical teachings
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  Speaker 2: and all the other relevant factors conspire to produce a
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  Speaker 2: direction from my life that God approves and will bless,
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  Speaker 2: which leads now to a second thing. That renewal comes
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  Speaker 2: mainly through the Word of God and prayer. So when
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  Speaker 2: it says be renewed in your mind, I think you
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  Speaker 2: means soak your mind, marinate your mind, satur rate your
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  Speaker 2: mind with the Word of God. The Christian mind is
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  Speaker 2: shaped by the Word of God, all the while praying, praying, praying,
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  Speaker 2: Oh God, shape me, Oh God, Make me, Oh God,
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  Speaker 2: bring me into conformity to this word at the depths
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  Speaker 2: of my being. Now, out of that that renewed mind
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  Speaker 2: and that prayerful experience, what the mind does to desern?
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  Speaker 2: It desern A call to missions is to take seriously
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  Speaker 2: about seven things. Number one, the renewed mind takes seriously
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  Speaker 2: your spiritual gifts. What are they? God is not calling
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  Speaker 2: you to do something He has not gifted you to do.
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  Speaker 2: What's the gifting? And I think gifting that Paul and
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  Speaker 2: Peter have in mind is summed up in one Peter
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  Speaker 2: four ten. As each has received a gift, use it
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  Speaker 2: to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace.
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  Speaker 2: That's what gifts are, varied grace incarnate in human personalities,
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  Speaker 2: which we steward for the good of others. Do you
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  Speaker 2: know how God is gifting you in this way? Number two,
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  Speaker 2: The renewed mind takes seriously the needs that you see
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  Speaker 2: in the world and the ones that move you most deeply.
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  Speaker 2: I wonder if we have thought enough about the implications
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  Speaker 2: of what Paul says in Romans twelve six to eight
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  Speaker 2: when he's talking about gifts. He says, the one who exhorts,
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  Speaker 2: let him do it with exhortation, the one who contributes
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  Speaker 2: in generosity, the one who leads with zeal, the one
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  Speaker 2: who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness. Now, every Christian
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  Speaker 2: is supposed to exhort, every Christian is supposed to be generous,
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  Speaker 2: every Christian is supposed to show mercy. And yet Paul
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  Speaker 2: treats those three things as gifts. And it seems to
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  Speaker 2: me that this would imply that some people would study
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  Speaker 2: a cluster of needs in the world, a people group,
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  Speaker 2: a crisis situation, and a very special God given compassion
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  Speaker 2: or mercy or generosity or bent to give would be
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  Speaker 2: imparted to that person and it would constitute a very
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  Speaker 2: significant component of a person's calling. So take seriously not
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  Speaker 2: just the objective real needs that you are looking at
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  Speaker 2: in the world, in the lostness and the hurt of people,
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  Speaker 2: but how does that affect you? How does it affect you?
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  Speaker 2: And then study that in relation to Romans twelve eight,
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  Speaker 2: where one who does acts of mercy is to do
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  Speaker 2: it with cheerfulness, as though there is some special show
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  Speaker 2: mercifulness that God gives to some people, and some special
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  Speaker 2: compassion that He gives to some people. For missions. Number three,
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  Speaker 2: the renewed mind takes seriously its skills, and by this
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  Speaker 2: I'm not thinking manly of spiritual gifts, but and they
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  Speaker 2: may overlap, but practical skills that God may put to
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  Speaker 2: use in a special way in some context, like with
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  Speaker 2: finances or carpentry, or organization, or dozens of possible abilities
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  Speaker 2: that may flourish especially helpful way on the mission field.
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  Speaker 2: Number four, the renewed mind takes seriously recurrent and growing
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  Speaker 2: interest and awareness of a place or a people. When
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  Speaker 2: God is moving someone into missions, he is ordinarily giving
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  Speaker 2: them a recurring not just a flash in the pan,
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  Speaker 2: but a recurring and growing interest and awareness of a
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  Speaker 2: need he's leading them to. So my question for people
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  Speaker 2: is what are you reading about, what are you investigating?
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  Speaker 2: What do you return to again and again? What are
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  Speaker 2: you finding compelling as you ponder the needs of the world.
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  Speaker 2: Number five, the Renewed Mind takes seriously the growing desire
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  Speaker 2: of the heart for the work of missions. So desire
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  Speaker 2: for Timothy three to one says it. Elders are to
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  Speaker 2: aspire to and desire the work of the ministry. And
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  Speaker 2: I take that as a principle that God uses to
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  Speaker 2: draw us into his work. Do you find this work desirable?
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  Speaker 2: Are you? Is your desire growing? Is it reaching the
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  Speaker 2: point of irresistibility? That's what happened for me on October fourteen,
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  Speaker 2: nineteen seventy nine, when I was struggling with weather to
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  Speaker 2: stay a professor at a college or whether to be
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  Speaker 2: a pastor at All I knew to say was that
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  Speaker 2: at about midnight that night, it became irresistible after years
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  Speaker 2: of brewing. Number six, the Renewed Mind takes seriously the
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  Speaker 2: affirmation and confirmation of the local church. It's essential that
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  Speaker 2: you be part of a local church. This is the
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  Speaker 2: normal way of being a Christian, and it's the only
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  Speaker 2: way I know anybody who could go to the mission
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  Speaker 2: field and know what to do once he got there
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  Speaker 2: if you weren't experienced in a local church, Because it's
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  Speaker 2: churches that we want to come into being so that
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  Speaker 2: believers have a way to be discipled there. And part
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  Speaker 2: of the experience of the local church is to confirm
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  Speaker 2: our gifts, and confirm our desires, and confirm our skills,
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  Speaker 2: and confirm our compassion. And without that confirmation, we will
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  Speaker 2: tend to be loners who can very easily mistake God's leading.
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  Speaker 2: And the last thing I would say is the renewed
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  Speaker 2: mind wants to glorify God above everything that we want
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  Speaker 2: to see the glory of God celebrated in the world.
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  Speaker 2: And so in all of these things are we pursuing
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  Speaker 2: the glory of God? Do we see what I'm being
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  Speaker 2: led to as what will glorify God?
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  Speaker 1: Most?
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  Speaker 2: So, immerse yourself in the word, pray without ceasing, take
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  Speaker 2: these seven factors seriously, and the effect I think will
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  Speaker 2: be that you'll.
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  Speaker 1: Know eventually, Yeah, so good. In broadening this whole vocation
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  Speaker 1: conversation to those who stay, who stay and work locally
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  Speaker 1: where God planted you, which is most of us. We've
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  Speaker 1: covered so many critical questions for job seekers beyond just missions,
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  Speaker 1: covering the balance between personal desire and spiritual obedience. Should
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  Speaker 1: I follow my heart to find a dream career? We
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  Speaker 1: talked about the paralysis of choice. You know, what job
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  Speaker 1: should I be chasing right now? Performance issues about if
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  Speaker 1: I'm not good at my job, is the Lord calling
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  Speaker 1: me to quit it and do something else? We've explored
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  Speaker 1: the nature of God's leading here, will God give me
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  Speaker 1: a job that I don't like to do? The moral
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  Speaker 1: worth of secular fields, you know, is my career in
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  Speaker 1: marketing vain? And the common struggle of motivation in general.
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  Speaker 1: I have no energy or direction or purpose in life?
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  Speaker 1: What do I do when I just am stuck? These
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  Speaker 1: questions and others really collectively come together to help us
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  Speaker 1: to know how to honor God in a career path
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  Speaker 1: for our very best years as we labor for all
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  Speaker 1: of that. See the aspestogs On book beginning on page
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  Speaker 1: sixty seven. A living sacrifice. That's the life we're called to,
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  Speaker 1: all of us missionaries on missionaries, a living sacrifice? So
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  Speaker 1: how do we do that? We return to Romans twelve
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  Speaker 1: next time as Romans Month marches on in March, dying
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  Speaker 1: to live, Pstor John returns to explain it. I'm Tony Ranky.
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  Speaker 1: We'll see you back here on Monday.