Work with Purpose Conference | Keynote 1| August 2024
Description
Discover how God invites us to play an active role in welcoming the Kingdom of God everywhere we are, including our work! Learn more about Work with Purpose, here.
me mind you this is
happening man thank you guys for being here I know there are a lot of busy
people in the room you could be a lot of other places doing things today the Lord is so pleased that you’re
here to talk about him
this whole Kingdom at work movement um really has been a progressive Journey for us over over a period of like 20
years and the Lord’s been so patient to teach us about who he is and how we can get in on what he’s doing at times we’ve
been slow Learners um many days he had to work Des spite us but he has taken us
on a wild ride and you know looking back we can we can pinpoint a few Milestones
that were game changers for us and one of those was in 2013 we were on a mission trip in
Austria um what a terrible place what sacrifice we had to be uh to go down to
Austria and uh Rick and Holly beatbo were there my wife Dita and I were there and a few others that I know are in the
room and it was there we heard the message of the Kingdom For the First
Time The Gospel of the Kingdom and really uh that was a huge Catalyst for a
lot of what you’re going to hear all day today um it it it was like a foundation and a launching pad for us and so we’ve
learned that if we don’t start with that same revelation of the Kingdom the rest of this stuff’s just not going to make any sense so that’s why we put it at the
very top of the agenda we want to take you on that same Journey uh that God
took us on um and this is where I’d like to
start is there a clicker there we
go sorry I’m just a homebuilder I’m not a professional speaker so we’re figuring
this thing out um from that time Jesus began to preach saying repent for the
Kingdom of Heaven is at hand thanks Rusty repent for the Kingdom of Heaven
is at hand you know the Book of Matthew was originally written in Greek and the word that is translated repent there was matino in
the original text which just means to change your mind or to think
differently Matthew 18 uh says this and he said to them truly I tell you unless
if you change and become like little children you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven therefore whoever
takes the lowly place the the lowly position of a child is the greatest in the Kingdom om of heaven we want to
invite the Lord to change our way of thinking so we’ll start right there
Lord we want to hear from you we don’t want to hear from men or
women we don’t want to hear from Cal we want to hear from you so will you speak
to us our hearts are open like little children we’re eager and open to learn
straight from your hand we give us fresh re ation today into your kingdom and our role in it we
want to hear from you amen you know Kingdom can be a spooky
word can it like what does that even mean um if you read the four gospels Matthew Mark
Luke and John um it seems like Jesus was talking about the kingdom of God
constantly um in fact he spoke about it more than anything even more than the
church if if you counted the number of times the word that is translated Kingdom appears in the gospel it’s
109 and church is three so oh
sorry y’all that’s the the Dallas Cowboys don’t even lose that bad 109
to3 Jesus wouldn’t shut up about it Jesus is quoted in the gospels at as saying things like to what shall I
compare the kingdom of God to what what shall I say it’s like it’s like a farmer who was going out and and
spreading some seed or or a landowner who was going to go hire some people or somebody who was doing some accounting
and then he would go on to explain what seems like an alternate reality where
everything works a little differently um often in what seems like
reverse order where the the last becomes the first where the smallest seed in the
garden becomes the biggest plant where the poorest are invited to the king’s
table to a feast where the person that tries to preserve his life will lose it
but if you lose it you’ll find it virtually every Parable Jesus told
was a kingdom Parable every story was a kingdom story every prayer was a kingdom prayer remember the Lord’s Prayer your
kingdom comes your will be done on Earth as it is in
heaven Jesus uh from beginning to end incessantly talked about it the the first words of Jesus spoken in both
Matthew and Mark were about the kingdom you know after Jesus’s
crucifixion and Resurrection scripture tells us he appeared to the disciples for a period of 40 days before his
Ascension think about how intentional he must have been in his conversations well think about you if if
you knew you were only going to be around for another 6 weeks and then you were leaving Earth and you were never
going to talk uh to your kids again to your family again how intentional would you be about
your conversations like who who would you spend your time with and what would your
conversations be about probably wouldn’t be like scrolling on Instagram or talking about
break dancing in the Olympics or something right you would be so intentional with your words and so
really I would have love to go back and been a fly on the wall like what did Jesus talk about in that 40-day
period and fortunately the first verses of Acts actually tell us that after his
suffering he Jesus appeared to them over a period of 40 days and spoke about what did he speak about maybe s up
the church like hey hey Peter Peter hey Focus buddy this is important this is
how you need to organize this thing no that’s not what he spoke about he spoke about the kingdom of God
surprise surprise he spoke about what he always did he just went on talking about it he
he he basically held a 40-day conference on the kingdom because it was what he thought
was most important and if Jesus spoke about it so frequently isn’t it odd if we don’t but like the concept of Kingdom
can be so foreign or abstract we don’t we don’t even really know what it means you know so what is the kingdom of
God when I think of the word Kingdom I’ll show you the picture I get in my head it’s something like this you know
like kings and knights and moats and castles and land it in its simplest form a kingdom
is simply a territory where a king Reigns where he’s seen as the one in
charge um you know the the a king might say okay we need more workers in that field
or the new road should come right through here or we need to fortify those walls he’s the one that gets to set the
priorities and so the simplest definition of the kingdom of God is where God
rules where God rules where his will is fulfilled it’s
where God is rightly seen as the one on the throne giving protection and provision
it’s where his priorities are made the priority the very top
priority a more helpful definition might be this the emerging order of God his
order of things in the Affairs of mankind but still that doesn’t quite
capture it you know God’s kingdom is actually Cosmic in scope it’s bigger than our
company it’s bigger than our church churches it’s bigger than our world it’s more than religion it it’s
more than our faith it is infinite it it has no end it
is literally Cosmic it it it it encompasses the entirety of the
cosmos but here’s the hard part the kingdom is a
mystery the truth is we can never fully comprehend or capture it in words and if
somebody says they have this Kingdom thing all figured out you better watch them cuz they’re going to lie to you about something else too even Jesus it’s
why he said uh the kingdom of God is like it can’t be described
directly it’s something you can experience it’s something you can learn about but it’s not something in our
Humanity we can fully comprehend and I believe we’ll spend eternity exploring
it but God doesn’t hide it from us he hides it for for us for
Discovery Jesus says this in Matthew and he he Jesus answered them to
you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven but to them it has not been
given discovering the kingdom is not just information but a lifelong
Adventure into transformation and Revelation you know for the longest time
I thought when the Bible talked about the kingdom of God it was actually talking about heaven and like what it’ll
be like there and you you read some of those and you’re like wow that sounds that sounds really nice doesn’t that
sound nice sound that’s pretty nice I just hope I get to go there one day and experience
it and one time I was eating lunch with a friend and he said when when he read through it he always thought it was
talking about the church did you know Jesus never said either of those things that that that
he’s talking about heaven or this is I’m talking about the church over here it’s actually bigger than both of those
things and it’s not something we have to wait for that’s what I was missing he never uh scripture teaches us
the kingdom has come is coming more fully right now in the present and will
continue until it reaches complete fullness here here’s a couple verses uh
just to convince y’all that that may not be convinced yet and he said to them
he is Jesus again truly I say to you there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the
kingdom of God after it is come with power that was a long time ago I don’t
know if you know that it’s a couple thousand years ago none of those people are still alive the kingdom of God has come with
power then the second verse he has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his
beloved Son transferred is past tense the Kingdom’s not a future thing we’re
actually supposed to be we’re not supposed to be waiting to go to heaven to experience it Jesus clearly taught
it’s it’s a now thing it’s already begun remember repent change your way of
thinking because the kingdom of God is at hand how close is your hand that’s how
close it is it’s at hand um you know we can choose to step
into that reality today and be part it part of it and honestly one of the
biggest Revelations I’ve had in my life one of the most beautiful truths I’ve ever heard is this God invites us into
an active role right now in the here and now in reestablishing his order and making his
kingdom reality that is exactly what Jesus spent
his life doing his his whole life doing and that’s what we’re invited to do
too and if you’re in God’s family that is the family
business you know as Kingdom dwellers and by that I just mean people who acknowledge God is the one on the throne
he’s the one in charge here U we have the authority and the charge to expand
the area over which God rules and his will is fulfilled he doesn’t want us to wait to
go to heaven but to join Jesus now as citizens of God’s kingdom to bring
Heaven to Earth in every aspect of the world business
politics education the medical field everywhere you know whatever place we
find ourselves we can choose to do it in a distinctly different way one that reflects God’s order of things uh and
that literally shifts things in the Unseen spiritual realm as I make decisions in my business
or even in my family I’m declaring who’s on the throne
is it God is it me is it my kids is it our customers who’s on the throne and if
I get in on what God is doing I am expanding the territory over which God
rules and by definition I’m expanding his kingdom that’s what we mean by that
that’s what we believe Jesus was talking about but tragically uh the church as a
whole has largely abandoned the gospel of the kingdom and we’ve replaced it with the gospel of
Salvation that’s why the call to action in most churches is to invite your friends to church so that they can get
saved salvations is important but it’s a very small subset of the Gospel of the
Kingdom in fact the Bible teaches this about end times in
Matthew and this Gospel of the Kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole
world as a testimony to All Nations and then the end will come the gospel of the
Kingdom not the gospel of the church not the gospel of Salvation and then this is at the very end of Acts this is Paul at
the very end of his life what is Paul preaching the guy that wrote the majority of the New Testament he
proclaimed the king the kingdom of God that’s what he’s doing at the end of his life he’s proclaiming the kingdom of God
and he taught about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance Paul wasn’t talking about the good news
of Salvation or the good news of the church it’s the good news of the kingdom of God but I believe Satan knew if he
could steal this from us and keep it hidden we’d be
through we’d be helpless we’d be hopeless we would be Rob robbed of our
power in the here and now just wait for it one day and that’s why there’s so
much attack and that’s why there’s so much blindness even among Believers relating to the
kingdom you know the message of Salvation is important but it’s a small
subset of the Gospel of the Kingdom um it’s like it it’s a very small subset of what
Jesus even talked about in fact he he didn’t specifically talk about salvation very often to me it’s like salvation is
the doorway into the kingdom but there’s so much more to it and this picture I get in my head is
like God wants to show you this crazy mansion and we step into the doorway and
he’s like come on you should see the water slide off the third floor and we stand in the doorway and we
say you know what I’m good right here this is really cool thanks for bringing
me here this is awesome really cool view but we won’t move past the
doorway and you should hear God’s not mad about that
he’s not mad he just had so much more he was hoping to show us and he invites Us
in so how does the kingdom relate to the church I want to be clear the the
kingdom is not like some form of replacement theology the church still has a place and it’s critical to God’s
plan but my point is the kingdom doesn’t fit within the church the church fits
within the Kingdom the church is one place where God’s Rule and his order of things should be established but if we
stop there we miss the whole point you know we’re supposed to take
ground and expand his kingdom into all of our spheres of influence wherever we are not just church and honestly when
we’re we’re submitted to his rule in our heart every place we set our foot
becomes Kingdom territory there and there
and there that’s how it works we bring it with us um over the past decade the
Lord has been showing us the craziest things um around here uh I believe he
wants to show us how life works best I believe he wants to show me a new
way to run a homebuilding company that honestly makes me feel crazy or at least
unorthodox most most days there’s nothing about it that feels natural and
that’s because it’s supernatural it’s not going to feel
natural it’s me stepping into that alternate reality that Jesus described
where the master must become the
servant where you have to die in order to
live where the strongest person is actually the weakest through the biggest
liability and it’s the weakest person who is the strongest that’s the person
you should put in charge the weakest one did you know Jesus never said seek
first about any pursuit or purpose except for the kingdom of God but seek first the kingdom of God
and his righteousness his right order of things that’s kind of how I translate that in my head and all these things
will be added to you you now that is a command and the verb tense there that’s
being used uh means it’s to be continuous it’s not a one-time thing but a lifelong thing uh we’re we’re we’re
commanded to always be seeking the kingdom of God you know most people don’t see the
kingdom because they don’t seek it but if you seek it you’ll start to see
it everywhere hey I just noticed this verse in Luke a
couple months ago being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come he Jesus answered them the kingdom
of God is not coming in ways that can be observed nor will they say look here it
is or there behold the kingdom of God is in the midst of you it’s there in your
midst if you will seek it but if you don’t seek it you won’t see
it the truth is we’re all seeking something first it’s inevitable in in fact Our
Lives reflect whatever we’re seeking first and if we’ve chosen something
besides that which has Eternal value and I might propose the kingdom of God might be the only thing that has Eternal
value then that’s going to be reflected in our life until in the pursuit of the Lesser we lose the greater
okay when I first started work at Bebo homes uh a long time ago I didn’t have
gray hair uh 18 years ago you know I didn’t actually believe that God cared
what I did for work in fact if I was walking through the front doors and someone asked me that I would probably
reply with a sarcastic remark of like yeah God cares about what I do does he
also care if I have coffee or tea in the morning or is is that like everything
it didn’t make sense to me so I know what some of you are thinking because I’ve thought it does God even care about our
work isn’t that a secular thing and not a spiritual thing and I’m so glad you
asked uh most Christians view work as simply a means
to an end most people really and they they’ve bought into the Pagan notion that Leisure is good and work is
bad they’ve been misled by this sacred secular distinction that even the kids
talked about which teaches that only working a church is is true full-time Christian
service did you know that hasn’t been the case for most of History like if we look back through history you can
actually see times where work has been viewed very differently um in ancient
Greek in the ancient Greek world work was seen as a curse and something to be
avoided they they actually believe Society was organized so that a few people could enjoy Leisure while the
work was done by those people in the lower socioeconomic classes um it was something you should
try to avoid there was definitely nothing spiritually meaningful about it
but in scripture Jesus certainly gave no General call commanding all
Christians for all Christians to to give up their everyday work and much of his teaching actually
Drew upon themes at work they were you know farming or paying people or
accounting or doing something out in the marketplace and even Paul he also emphasizes this positive view of work
commanding all Christians to continue in their work and do it well and it’s apparent in three books of his own
writing that Paul actually continued in his trade of temp making even after his quote called a full-time
Ministry why would he do that you know this would actually seem to be
the primary pattern in the early church we see Christians giving glory to God in and through their occupations doing the
same jobs as unbelievers but doing them in a distinctly different
way these early Believers live the entirety of their lives differently and
in so doing invited their unbelieving neighbors by word and action to consider
are the truth of the faith that they proclaimed Martin Luther taught we’re
actually supposed to respond to God’s call to love our neighbor we respond to that through our duties and our everyday
work that’s a place where that becomes action here’s another direct quote uh
from Martin Luther the works of monks and Priests however holy and arduous they may be do not differ one wit I
think we should bring that word back one wit in the side of God from The Works of The Rustic labor in the field or the
woman going about her household tasks all works are measured before God by faith
alone with that view the platform of work can actually become the primary
place where our faith becomes action each time we make a decision or
perform a task it’s an opportunity to show other employees or team members uh
business partners or customers something different we can model the love of Christ through
the service and sacrifice of self and the service of another we can show in tangible ways we
care more about people than profit you know our faith should actually perform our work ethic the product we make the
service we provide how we deal with customers how we handle conflict with
other people on our team every aspect of our work
do you know the Bible has a lot to say about work which in all the different forms is mentioned more than 800 times
which is more than music worship singing and praise
combined God talks a lot about work it’s important to him in fact the Bible
starts with this in the beginning God
created he didn’t sit Majestic in the heavens he went to
work did you know the week of creation was the first work
week in the opening scripture of the Bible we’re faced with this inescapable
conclusion that God in his very nature and character is a
worker in Genesis 2 we read the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden
of Eden to work it and take care of it Man was created by God for work God
assigned Adam and Eve important work before the fall this is a place we get confused sometimes actually Paradise
wasn’t a vacation it was a vocation work was a gift from God and
still is the fall in sin didn’t create work what the Fallen sin did is is make
it inevitable that sometimes our work would be frustrating and seemingly meaningless that’s what they
did did you know that the first place in the Bible where it says the spirit of God came on a
person it was a construction guy it wasn’t to
prophesy it was to help him in his work to give him wisdom and understanding so that he was a better
Craftsman does God care about his work yes he was helping him in it it wasn’t a
secular thing that’s in Exodus 31 I’ll leave it to you to go read that story um ancient Jews
just had this deep understanding of how faith and work came together in their lives it shouldn’t be surprising then
that in Hebrew the language of God’s chosen people it used the same word for
both work and worship I want to introduce you guys to a Hebrew word
avoda at least that’s the west Texas pronunciation of it this word jointly means work worship
and service is it isn’t it funny that they have one word for all three of those
things you know the various uses in scripture of this Hebrew
word shows us God’s original design and desire is that our work and our worship
and serving would be this seamless way of living there’s no need to make a
distinction between them in some verses the word avod is translated work like
howing cotton out in a field sweat of our brow work and in some places it’s worshiping and serving the most high
god let’s go back to Genesis 2 Lord God took the man and put him in
the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it you know that word work right
there is a first place abidah appears in the Bible and English translators when they saw
this they were like well you know it’s in a garden so he’s probably talking about like work so they put work there
but they could have also chose worship or serve here’s another one this is what
the Lord says this is Moses talking to Pharaoh this is what the Lord says let my people go so that they may
worship me the very same word there is translated worship
but they could have also said Pharaoh this is what the Lord says
let my people go so that they may work for me and alongside me not you
pharaoh and that context does that help you understand why Pharaoh might have had the reaction that he did not letting
them go and finally but as for me and my household
we will serve serve the Lord says Joshua and once again it’s the same
Hebrew word all three of these places avod so Joshua could be saying as for me
and my household We Will Worship the Lord we will work for and alongside the
Lord in fact Joshua would probably say he he meant all three of those
things in fact Joshua would probably be confused why we have three words to
describe the same thing do you know Hebrew also doesn’t have a
word for secular because even a small Hebrew boy
knew nothing could be apart from God and while this might sound like
semantics or like technical things the truth is if God wanted to teach his his
chosen people his people a distinction between secular and sacred if he wanted
them to know the difference between that he would have taught them those Concepts and they would have had a word for it but they
didn’t if he needed them to know the difference between when you’re working and when you’re worshiping and when
you’re serving he would have taught them those Concepts and they would have a word for each of them but they
didn’t that’s because uh really avod is this beautiful
picture of an integrated faith it it’s a life where really really work and
worship come from the same root the same foundation and it’s not just the results
of the work that matter to God the labor itself where we we apply
our skills to take care of something to serve other people to make something
better to add value that is just as sacred to God as
worshiping on Sunday mornings you know Rick Bebo often shared
funny image that really got stuck in my head he said uh sometimes he would picture God up in heaven propped back in
a recliner and I guess God can have a recliner that’s okay uh and he said Angels like rushed over to him and he
said hey God you should come see this your people are really worshiping you down there and he said it’s like a
fragrance to God he just leaned over and took a big whiff and he goes or are they working
for me cuz it’s smells the same to
me you know through this redeemed view of work God can and does change
culture so we’re supposed to seek the kingdom and take an active role in expanding
it and that even includes our work here here’s my point our our work
matters profoundly to God profoundly our our service to God has to go well beyond like teaching in in
Sunday school class or volunteering at a soup kitchen or praying before
meals through faithful development of what I believe are god-given talents we
mature as Believers and become more useful in the kingdom of God I believe
lots of times God gives us each gifts but it’s in raw form and as we work to develop those it’s our gift back to God
what we do with them through our faith labor we
actually imitate God’s Own creativity his order his his appreciation for
beauty and Excellence we got those things from
him hey and I I I’ll say we are very practical people around here again I’m
not a preacher I’m just a homebuilder um and so the rest of our day will be filled with lots of practical ways that
uh people are living out their faith lots of examples for you guys of people how they live this out in the day-to-day
but hopefully this lays the groundworks and helps us understand how God sees our work and the fact that he gets so
excited when we start thinking about how we can bring Heaven to Earth in the middle of our everyday
job before we move on I’d like uh to end with a couple reflection questions get
you guys thinking about it number one uh if the kingdom of God
includes your work then what would it take for your work to become worship or service to the
king if you saw your work as as service and worship to the king would it change
how you went about it what if your work was where you’re
supposed to live out your calling to love your neighbor how would it look differently and then number two what
would it look like for you to invite God into your everyday job you know if Jesus was he rode
alongside you in your truck every day or went to the same meetings that you went to what do you have something to say
about how you went about it would he would he give you some advice what would that look like so we’ll give you a few
times to reflect on those questions thank you guys [Applause]
English (auto-generated)
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