CrossTrainers

Date: April 21th 2010

Speaker: Mike Swaim

Title: God Built – Chapter 4: “Take This Job & Shove it”

Today we are going to make Joseph a bit more practical. We are going through the book of Genesis and looking at the life of Joseph. We are seeing what happened to take Joseph from victim to victor.

Psalm 37:23 “The Steps of a man are established by the Lord. And he Delights in his way.”

How many of you are righteous men? All of you. You steps are ordered by the Lord. God wanted me here speaking today.

How many of you think that God didn’t know about this volcano erupting? God knew when He made the volcano.

If you are looking at your job and feeling really frustrated it is because you are looking at the job rather than at the job provider.

Let me tell you about a job that I had-

I was the assistant to the communications coordinator for south east Asia. I was waiting for my assignment. All my friends were going into career course, grad school, teaching at West Point. I wanted to go teach at West Point but my orders were to go to Fort Louis in Washington. I was bummed and my commanding officer noticed so he tried to help me out. He said that the folks in DC wanted me to be a Company Commander in Washington before I went into a career course. One evening I had to take something over to the guy that was a little higher in rank than my boss. He said that he could rearrange my assignment but even he wasn’t able to help me. So I get to Washington, I find my self way down on the totem pole. It was a total dead end assignment.

Joseph found himself in a the same place. He went to Egypt and ended up in a dead end assignment.

Dead end assignments:

In God’s plan, there are no wasted assignments

Potipher’s house:

What could Joseph have possibly found in his assignment that would have made him think that he this assignment in Potipher’s house wasn’t a wasted assignment.

It was a great opportunity to learn the language and the culture, and to practice godliness

He learned how to depend on God. In every one of our jobs it isn’t about who we work for it is about learning to depend on God.

Prison:

With the dregs of the earth. He learned faithfulness, patience and HOW TO DEPEND ON GOD!

If you’re a computer guy are you learning how to depend on God?

If you’re a bank manager are you learning how to depend on God?

If you’re a appraiser are you learning how to depend on God?

In God’s plan, every assignment is preparation.

Dwight David Eisenhower’s Assignment – Staff Officer Forever

Eisenhower graduated from West Point and had no opportunities to command ANYTHING for the first seven years. He was sent to Panama and ended up working under a man who loved Military history, he studied this guy and learned a lot. But he kept moving from dead end assignment to dead end assignment for 16 years. Douglas MacArthur saw something in him and he took him on as an aid. He was MacArthur’s aid for 3 years until MacArthur made him an adviser to the Philippine army. 21 years in the Army and he is still in dead end jobs. Eventually he is transfered to the Pentagon where he is responsible for drawing up war plans for potential wars with Japan or Europe. This was a dead end job no one ever thought we’d be in a war with Japan. After 26 years he was finally promoted to brigadier general – in eighteen months he moved from that position to being the supreme commander of the Allied forces!!

Key phrase when it appears you’re in a dead end assignment – “And God was WITH Joseph” – God is with you.

If you are in a dead end assignment, God is with you. Colossians 3:23 “work hard as unto the Lord”

Talk with the guy next to you: What’s your current assignment?

Psalm 37:3-4

Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.

God will put the desires in your heart when you Trust in HIM.

Then He will bring those things to pass!

Our hope for the future is always based on God’s faithfulness in the past.

Lamentations 3:18-20 DEPRESSING!

Lamentations 3:21-26 YET! Wow! Where is your hope?

The rest of the my story

I was so fed up with the Army and I still had two years left on my commitment. The Army decided to start the ninth signal battalion. It was an experiment in starting an all volunteer army. I became a commanding officer over this experient.

The best part of the story though is that if my boss or my his boss had gotten me out of this dead end assignment I would have never been sitting in that small church in Washington where I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior.

Click HERE for the Full Audio for this message.

(notes typed by PJ)