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20: When God Gives You a Dream for Your Work · Finding God at Work

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  (Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi, I'm Chris.
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  This is Finding God at Work.
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  Just a reminder that Finding God at Work
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  isn't just a podcast, it's also an online
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  course.
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  Check it out at findinggodatwork.org.
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  Our current series is Divine Disappointments, Facing Pain
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  and Sorrow at Work.
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  And to wrap up this series, we're kind
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  of going to do a series within a
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  series, a four-parter on the life of
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  Joseph in the Old Testament.
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  But it's also going to be a little
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  autobiographical.
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  I'm going to share a little bit about
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  how my own journey with disappointment and my
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  vocation in some ways follows the pattern of
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  Joseph in the book of Genesis.
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  And we're also going to have a special
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  guest.
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  My wife, Katie, will join us for some
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  of these episodes to share kind of how
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  our marriage journey has also reflected some of
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  that pattern and how that's interfaced with her
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  vocational life and mine.
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  So really excited to dig into this and
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  to share a little bit more vulnerably with
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  you all.
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  I have been really impressed by the vulnerability
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  of the guests that have shared in this
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  series and so I wanted to step up
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  and do that myself.
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  So in this episode, we're going to do
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  a quick overview of the whole life of
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  Joseph.
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  And we're going to talk specifically about the
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  idea of a dream.
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  What happens when you have a dream for
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  your work?
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  Okay, so Joseph is a descendant of Abraham.
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  Actually Abraham's great-grandson.
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  So it goes Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph.
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  Joseph is one of twelve brothers and they
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  eventually become the patriarchs, the forefathers of the
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  twelve tribes of Israel.
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  But before that happens, they're one big family
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  and they're living together.
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  They're doing the kind of ancient Near Eastern
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  agricultural herdsmen life.
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  And Joseph is his father's favorite.
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  Which we know causes problems.
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  Because of this, his brothers are envious.
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  Joseph has a dream.
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  We'll come back to that in a few
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  minutes.
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  And then his brothers, out of envy, decide
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  to sell him into slavery.
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  And they tell his father, Jacob, that he
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  was killed by a wild animal.
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  So they lie to Jacob.
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  Joseph is dead in Jacob's eyes.
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  He grieves him.
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  And Joseph, meanwhile, goes off to Egypt and
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  is a prisoner.
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  Excuse me, he's a slave.
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  He's enslaved.
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  He ends up working in the household of
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  an official named Potiphar.
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  Then Joseph is falsely accused of sexual assault
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  by Potiphar's wife.
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  He becomes a prisoner.
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  He's thrown into prison unjustly because of that
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  false accusation.
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  And so then he's languishing in prison.
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  What happens when he's in prison?
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  Well, he continues to have this thing with
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  dreams, where he's able to interpret dreams.
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  God gives him the gift of interpretation.
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  And there's some other prisoners who have some
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  dreams.
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  And Joseph interprets them correctly.
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  One of those prisoners ends up getting executed.
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  The other prisoner ends up returning to Pharaoh's
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  court, where he worked.
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  Well, a while later, Pharaoh has a dream.
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  And Pharaoh doesn't know how to interpret it.
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  Nobody knows how to interpret it.
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  They're trying to find somebody to interpret it.
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  And this official of his court that had
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  been in prison remembers, hey, there was that
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  prison mate of mine named Joseph.
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  I think he had a dream interpretation thing
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  going on.
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  So they go get Joseph out of prison,
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  bring him to Pharaoh.
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  Joseph interprets his dream according to the grace
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  that God gives him.
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  And this leads to Joseph being exalted to
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  the right hand of Pharaoh.
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  Joseph, from that position of authority, ends up
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  saving not just Egypt, but also his own
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  family during a time of famine.
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  So his brothers, the ones that had sold
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  him into slavery, they end up journeying to
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  Egypt to go get food because Joseph has
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  helped Egypt have food when nobody else had
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  food because of the foresight of this vision
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  or this interpretation of the dream that God
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  had given him.
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  And he's ultimately reconciled with his brothers.
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  Okay, so that was a lot of story
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  in one.
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  But you see this pattern in the story.
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  And that's what I want to talk about,
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  is this pattern in the story.
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  That there's a dream, a God-given dream.
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  But then the dream dies.
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  And the dream dies again.
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  It's like a double death of the dream.
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  And then, miraculously, the dream comes to life.
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  When Joseph, at the end of the story,
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  gets to know his brothers again, he sends
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  for his father Jacob.
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  And Jacob comes and embraces him and sees
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  him.
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  The son that he thought was dead this
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  whole time is actually alive.
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  It's like a resurrection.
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  Something that was totally impossible coming to life,
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  coming true.
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  And this can also be a pattern of
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  how God fulfills his work in our lives.
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  That he gives us a dream, the dream
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  dies.
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  The dream dies again.
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  And then, miraculously, the dream comes to life.
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  Maybe in a different form than we anticipated.
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  Often in a way that we couldn't have
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  predicted.
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  But in a way that shows that God
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  is faithful to his promises.
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  That the dream wasn't just a random idea
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  in the first place, but it was part
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  of what God was doing.
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  And in a way that gives glory to
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  God and works out his salvation.
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  Not just for us, but for the people
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  and the communities around us, too.
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  Okay, so that's the structure of these four
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  episodes.
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  With the rest of the time that we
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  have today, I want to focus on this
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  idea of a dream.
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  Okay, so in Joseph's case, he had a
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  very literal dream from God.
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  And this is Genesis chapter 37.
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  So let me read starting in verse 5.
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  Now Joseph had a dream.
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  And when he told it to his brothers,
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  they hated him even more.
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  He said to them, hear this dream that
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  I have dreamed.
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  Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field.
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  And behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright.
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  And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and
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  bowed down to my sheaf.
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  His brothers said to him, are you indeed
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  to reign over us?
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  Or are you indeed to rule over us?
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  So they hated him even more for his
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  dreams and for his words.
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  Then he dreamed another dream and told it
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  to his brothers and said, behold, I have
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  dreamed another dream.
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  Behold, the sun, the moon, and 11 stars
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  were bowing down to me.
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  But when he told it to his father
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  and to his brothers, his father rebuked him
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  and said to him, what is this dream
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  that you have dreamed?
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  Shall I and your mother and your brothers
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  indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground
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  before you?
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  And his brothers were jealous of him.
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  But his father kept the saying in mind.
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  Okay, what can we observe here?
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  One thing that we can observe is that
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  Joseph is not a popular figure among his
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  family.
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  He seems to be a little bit full
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  of himself.
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  He seems to be more than eager to
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  share this dream where somehow he comes to
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  an exalted position.
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  And even his dad, even Jacob, the one
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  that dotes on him, the one that treats
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  him as the favorite, says, whoa, slow down
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  there.
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  He clearly interprets this dream about the sun
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  and the moon and the stars as referring
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  stars, apparently, to Jacob's brothers, and then sun
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  and the moon to Jacob and Rachel, Joseph's
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  mother.
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  And so there's this clear sense of this
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  is about people, this is about community, and
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  it's somehow about Joseph having this exalted position,
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  okay?
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  Joseph doesn't communicate this in a particularly humble
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  way.
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  He doesn't seem to be too good at
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  figuring out how to garner people's trust in
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  the middle of the situation.
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  But that doesn't mean that the dream isn't
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  from God.
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  And that's where I wanna start, is that
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  sometimes we have a dream for our life,
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  for our career, for our vocation.
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  And we may enter into how we think
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  about that, how we communicate that, even how
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  we pursue that, in relatively immature ways.
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  Because we're immature people, early on in our
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  careers, by definition, we do not yet have
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  the wisdom, the character of a long life
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  lived following Jesus.
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  And so particularly, if you have a sense
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  of your vocation, your sense of what you
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  think you're called to do, and you have
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  a strong sense of that when you're a
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  young person.
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  Not everybody does have that, and that's okay.
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  But if you have that, probably the first
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  stab you took at pursuing that was not
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  the most mature, wise, established, noble way to
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  pursue that.
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  You might have even been a little full
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  of yourself.
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  You might have even been a little headstrong,
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  in terms of how you communicated that to
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  others, or what you thought you were gonna
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  do, you might have had some delusions of
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  grandeur in the mix there.
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  And for me, that's definitely been the case.
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  So this is the autobiographical section, so kinda
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  seeing patterns in my own life that match
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  Joseph's patterns.
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  I was a very precocious child, and teenager,
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  and 20-something.
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  So somebody who was very eager to perform,
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  and to do well at things, and who
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  often was impressive in terms of my academic
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  performance, and the way I interacted with teachers,
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  and sometimes even with peers.
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  I was a quote-unquote student leader.
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  So I kinda thought I was the stuff.
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  I thought I was pretty great.
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  And when I was about 12 years old,
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  I heard the story of a couple from
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  our church who were gonna go plant another
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  church.
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  And I had never heard about that before.
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  I didn't know that you could start a
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  church.
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  I thought all the churches were already started.
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  And when I thought, wow, you could go
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  start a new church, something just sort of
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  clicked for me.
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  Even at 12 years old, I was like,
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  that seems really interesting.
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  That, I should pay attention to that.
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  And then as I got older, it became
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  clear in my interactions with peers, with mentors,
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  that I just sort of just had the
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  disposition to be a pastor.
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  It just sort of oozes out of me.
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  And if you've been listening to the podcast,
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  that's no surprise to you.
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  I'm a teacher.
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  I love helping people understand the Bible.
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  I love talking about what it means to
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  follow Jesus.
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  That was really clear in my life early
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  on.
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  So then by the time I was 17,
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  I had this sense of, okay, I think
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  I wanna be a pastor and possibly a
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  church planter.
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  And I think I wanna do it in
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  the sacramental Anglican tradition in which I was
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  raised.
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  And then when I was 17, I had
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  an encounter with a leader named John M.
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  Perkins, African American civil rights leader.
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  John is actually still with us at the
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  time I'm recording this podcast, which is amazing,
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  cuz he was already an octogenarian when I
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  met him at 17, I believe.
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  But I was deeply influenced by my encounter
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  with him, even though it was relatively brief,
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  spent some time at his home just for
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  a couple weeks on a school trip.
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  And it gave me this vision of multi
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  -ethnic ministry as well.
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  The idea that the kingdom of God isn't
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  limited to one race of people or one
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  ethnicity of people, but that we can be
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  honest about the history of racial injustice in
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  the United States, and that the gospel of
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  Jesus Christ can speak to that, and can
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  even redeem that narrative, and can establish communities
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  where people are growing in humility across those
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  divisions of culture, of race, of socioeconomic status,
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  of language, etc.
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  So even before I graduated from high school,
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  I had this really clear sense, like, I
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  think what I wanna do is be a
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  pastor, and maybe even a church planter, in
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  a sacramental, Anglican, kind of evangelical, charismatic context,
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  but also that's multi-ethnic somehow.
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  That's a really specific dream, right?
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  That's a really specific dream.
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  And also, I thought I was the stuff.
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  I thought I was great.
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  So I thought, I'm gonna achieve this dream.
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  I'm gonna pursue this dream.
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  I would talk to people about this dream.
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  I would tell them about my plans for
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  this dream.
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  I had like a 10-year plan for
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  this dream.
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  I went to Peru to learn Spanish.
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  That was a whole adventure.
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  I went to Wheaton College to get more
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  grounded in a Christian liberal arts education.
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  I went to seminary and got a degree.
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  We'll share more in future episodes how the
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  plan kind of went off the rails.
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  But I was really headstrong at first.
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  I thought, I've got this under control.
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  I'm gonna make this happen.
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  This is what I'm about.
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  Thankfully, by God's grace, there were some good
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  things, even in the way I pursued that
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  early on.
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  But what was significant was not my maturity.
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  Because honestly, I was pretty immature about the
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  whole thing.
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  What was significant is God's action.
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  I think that God gave me that vision
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  of pastoral ministry, of multi-ethnic ministry within
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  the sacramental Anglican context, early on for a
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  reason.
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  And I think that God intends to work
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  into that dream, maybe even to fulfill it,
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  although I don't know exactly in what form
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  that may take.
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  And so that's where I want to rest
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  with you is, if you've had that moment,
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  and it's not just an idea you've had,
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  but it's something that's come up again and
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  again in your life that other people have
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  spoken into, that community has confirmed in some
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  way about who you are and what you're
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  meant to do in the world, but your
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  first kind of forays into it haven't been
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  particularly successful, that doesn't mean that it's not
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  from the Lord.
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  That doesn't mean that it's not a word
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  from Him.
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  It means that what God wants to do
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  in your life is to shape your character
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  so that you're ready for that dream.
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  And that's what we'll be talking about more
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  in the episodes to come.
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  Lord Jesus, thank you that you care about
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  us enough to give us dreams and to
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  work in our hearts so that we're ready
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  to step into those dreams at the right
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  time.
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  Give us that humility and that patience to
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  wait for how you are working, and do
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  your work in us as we do our
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  work with you.
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  Thanks for listening.
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  Finding God at Work is a production of
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  Mission Central, a ministry based in Aurora, Illinois,
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  dedicated to forming Christians for mission in everyday
• 13:30
  life.
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