Work with Purpose | Intro to the Kingdom of God & Theology of Work
Description
Discover how the Kingdom of God isn’t just a distant promise but a dynamic, everyday reality in this inspiring keynote at the Work with Purpose Conference. Cal Zant, Betenbough Homes President, shares about his transformative journey—from a life-changing encounter with the gospel of the Kingdom to realizing that God’s reign is meant to permeate every sphere of our lives. Drawing on Jesus’ own ministry—where He preached, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand”—and the timeless truths of Scripture, Cal challenges us to rethink our work as more than just a means to an end. Instead, he reveals how every task can become an act of worship and service—a living expression of God’s order.
Key topics include:
• How everyday work and worship merge through the Hebrew concept of “avoda” (work, worship, and service)
• Practical insights on transforming daily labor into a testimony of God’s eternal reign
• Real-life examples and personal testimony that illustrate bringing Heaven to Earth in business, relationships, and beyond
Watch now to learn how you can invite God into every moment of your day and expand His Kingdom on Earth. For more videos like this, visit Kingdomatwork.com
yall welcome my friend
cant thank you my friend uh you’re too kind
uh you know the reason I’m qualified to stand up here is I’m not uh first of all
I’m just a home builder but I’ve seen some crazy stuff over the years really the Lord’s been taking on
us us on this journey of uh for the past 20 years kind of met us right in the
middle of a homebuilding company and has been teaching us all kinds of stuff and he’s been so patient and gracious with
us he’s uh worked despite us a lot of days worked despite me but man he has
given us some stories and it’s been a very Progressive Journey but like looking back I can identify a few times
where it was a big day where God showed us something that we just wouldn’t be the same
at the end of that day we would never see the world the same again and one of
those was in 2013 I was on a trip uh me and my wife there’s a few people in this room who were were there Rick and Holly
beat and Bo went and uh we heard the gospel of the kingdom of God for the first time and I’m going to say that
became the foundation and launching pad for much of what you’re going to hear about today and so we thought that’d be
the appropriate place to start here so the the rest of what we talk about is going to make sense um so this is what
I’d like to start with this is where I’d like to start because actually this is where Jesus started his
ministry says from that time Jesus began to preach repent for the Kingdom of
Heaven is at hand repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is hand uh you know this was
originally written in Greek and the word there for repent is mattino and what
that means is to change your mind or to think differently
we want to change our mind and think differently so we’ll start with that Lord we invite you to change our mind we
don’t want to hear from men and women we want to hear from you so would you give us fresh Revelation today every single
one of us me included into what your kingdom looks like and how we can get in on what you’re doing we ask that in
Jesus name amen you know Kingdom can be a spooky
word can it like what does that even mean but if you read the four gospels
the books of Matthew Mark Luke and John you would see that Jesus incessantly
talked about the kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven as it’s translated Matthew it’s same thing in fact through
those four gospels the word that’s translated Kingdom appears 109 times and
the word church appears three times 109 times the word Kingdom appears
church only appears three y’all the Dallas Cowboys haven’t even lost by that much it’s not even close like Jesus
wouldn’t shut up about it Jesus is quoted in the gospels as saying to what shall I compare the kingdom of God to
it’s like a farmer who went out and spread some seed or it’s like uh a land
owner who went and hired some people or it’s like a guy who was doing some
accounting and then he would go on to explain what seems like an alternate
reality where things worked completely different than people knew them to work
um often in what seems like reverse order where the last they become the
first where where the smallest seed in the garden becomes the biggest plant
it’s where um the poor are invited to the Feast at the king’s table
it’s where the person that tries to preserve their life will lose it but those who lose their life will find
[Music] it from beginning to end Jesus is incessantly talking about the kingdom in
fact the first words of Jesus in the gospels of Matthew and Mark are about
the kingdom virtually every Parable Jesus told was a kingdom Parable every story
he told was a kingdom story every prayer was a kingdom prayer you remember the Lord’s Prayer your kingdom come
your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven you know after Jesus’s
crucifixion and Resurrection he appeared to his disciples for a period of 40 days and I always wonder he he must have
been super intentional about what he talked about then think about this if if
you knew you only had six weeks left on Earth how intentional with your time
would you be who would you go talk to what would those conversations look
like they probably wouldn’t be about Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift
right Jesus must have been super intentional in fact I I guess I thought
you know he probably was helping his Apostles understand you know the next
steps like how they should organize the church or or all the things they need to do after he’s
gone like if I could go back to any time in history I think it’d be that 40-day period and go I just want to I want to
hear what he’s saying I want to be a fly on the wall luckily the first verses in Acts
actually tell us exactly what he talked about after his suffering Jesus he appeared to them over a period of 40
days and he spoke about what did he speak about the kingdom of God he just kept
talking about what he always did he basically had a 40-day conference on the kingdom of God you know if Jesus spoke
about it so much isn’t it odd that we don’t but this concept of of Kingdom can
be so foreign or abstract we don’t even know what it means so what is the kingdom of God you know when I think of
the word Kingdom I get this picture in my head you know Kings and castles and
moats and knights in the simplest form a kingdom is simply a place where a king Reigns
it’s where he’s seen as the one in charge you know a king might say hey we need more workers in that field or the
new road should come through over here or we need to fortify those walls it’s
where that King is seen as the one providing provis provision and protection so the simplest definition of
the kingdom of God Is this where God rules where he’s seen as the one on the
throne where his priorities are made the priority where his will is
fulfilled uh you know like Jesus said your kingdom come your will be done here
on Earth like it is in heaven a more helpful definition might
be this sometimes this is the way I think about it the emerging order of God in the Affairs of
mankind but really that still doesn’t come close to capturing it God’s kingdom
is Cosmic in scope it’s bigger than our company it’s bigger than our churches
it’s bigger even than our world it’s bigger than religion it’s bigger than simply faith it encompasses the entirety
of the cosmos but here’s the hard part the kingdom is a
mystery Jesus even says that the truth is we can never fully comprehend or
capture the kingdom in words in fact if anybody says they got this Kingdom thing figured out you better watch them cuz
they’re going to lie to you about something else too even Jesus himself said the kingdom of God is
like and he couldn’t describe it directly because it is literally
infinite and eternal it’s something we can’t fully comprehend in our human minds and we will spend eternity
exploring it but God doesn’t hide it from us he hides it for us for
Discovery honestly uh here’s what Jesus says and 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
Jesus wants to give this to us and discovering the kingdom is not
just information but what I have experienced as lifelong Adventure into
Revelation and transformation um you know for the longest time I thought I’d experience
the kingdom of God one day like when I go to heaven or when Jesus comes back um
it was as if Jesus was always describing what heaven would be like like and we were left thinking gosh that sounds nice
doesn’t that sound nice I can’t wait to experience that I hope to get to heaven one day so I can experience that and I
was having lunch with a friend that uh he told me when when he heard Jesus talking about the kingdom of God he he
always thought he was describing how things should work in the church did you know Jesus never said
either of those things in fact scripture teaches us the kingdom
has come is coming more fully right now in the present today and we’ll continue
doing that until it reaches complete fullness and don’t take my word for it here’s a couple uh
scriptures and and he said to them Jesus truly I say to you there are some
standing here right now who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with Power news
flesh none of those people are still alive youd probably hear about them if they were the kingdom of God has come in
power and then this is in Colossians he has delivered us from the domain of
darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son transferred what verb tense is
that past tense that’s past tense y’all might need to take them remedial English
like transferred we’re already there we’re already there the kingdom is not a future thing
we’re supposed to we aren’t supposed to be waiting to go go to heaven he clearly taught it’s already begun remember
change your way of thinking for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand it is as close to you as your hand it is at
hand one of the biggest Revelations I’ve ever had in my life is this God invites us to take an active
role in reestablishing his order and making his kingdom a reality in the here
and now that’s literally what Jesus spent his life doing and it’s what we’re
called to do as well if you’re in God’s family that is the family business you know as as as people who
acknowledge that God is on the throne we have the authority and charge to expand
the area over which God rules that’s our
calling he wants us he he doesn’t want us to wait to go to heaven but to join Jesus as citizens of heaven today in the
hearing here and now and bring Heaven to Earth in every aspect of the world in
business in politics in education everywhere and whatever place we find
ourselves we can choose to do it in a distinctly different way one that reflects God’s order of
things like maybe it’s uh showing Mercy to a person who made you look bad in
front of the rest of your team the that can bring God’s kingdom Heaven to Earth maybe it’s showing honor
to a boss who frankly doesn’t deserve it that can bring Heaven to
Earth maybe it’s when you’re interviewing a candidate for a job we were talking about this one yesterday in our company when you’re interviewing a
candidate for a job looking past the fact that they’re a
felon and truly seeing the person in front of you and not their
record those are what it can look for for God’s kingdom to manifest on Earth
in the middle of our everyday work it could be in the medical field it might be helping a patient who doesn’t have
insurance or or or any way to repay you in the school system it might be
seeing a child that’s struggling and that’s disruptive in the in the classroom and not seeing them as a
problem but as a person one you’re called to minister to that is that could be your minist
those are similar to The Parables where Jesus would say the kingdom of God is like in fact you know over half The
Parables he told were in the marketplace in everyday work it’s because he was
trying to show us practical examples of how to live this stuff out here’s the crazy thing each of those
moments literally causes something to shift in the Unseen spiritual
realm we have power to do that and one more the kingdom of God is
like a guy named Eddie who was a salesperson at beatbo
homes and one time Eddie met with a customer that was moving to town and needed a home great we sell homes that’s
awesome um Eddie discovered the customer was looking for a new place because his
marriage was falling apart and he’d finally given up and moved
out but you see my friend Eddie had also gone through a really bad
divorce and I get emotional because I love my friend
Eddie and he realized it was probably not a coincidence that this guy got paired with
him and so Eddie stepped into that and he was vulnerable and he shared his own
story and his struggles with a customer and through a few conversations
he gave that guy the courage to move back to DFW and try to reconcile his
marriage and Heaven came to Earth that day in the middle of everyday work it’s
choosing the kingdom of God and his right order of things over making a
sell and keep in mind Eddie was 100% commission but Eddie saw the bigger
picture that day and he knew that’s what he bringing Heaven to Earth would look like that
day that’s what the kingdom of God manifesting in a business or an organization could look like often times
it takes vulnerability Mercy love forgiveness
H it’s selflessly putting someone else ahead of yourself it’s you know giving people
another chance just like God gives us again and
again you know as I make decisions in my business and in my family with each one
I’m declaring who’s on the throne is it God is it me is it my kids is it the
customer who is it if I choose to get in on what God is
doing I am literally expanding the territory over which God rules so that’s what we mean by that
that’s what Jesus was saying um okay tragically
the church as a whole has largely abandoned the message of the kingdom and we’ve replaced it with the
message 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 and salvation is important but
it’s not even close to the Full Gospel in fact the Bible teaches in the end
times uh and and this Gospel of the Kingdom will be Proclaim throughout the
whole world is a testimony to All Nations and then the end will come the gospel of the Kingdom it’s not the gospel of
Salvation and this is what Paul did the last couple verses in Acts tell us what Paul was preaching at the very end of
his life after all of his experience Paul proclaimed the kingdom of God and
taught about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance you see 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 which is bigger than
either of those you know I believe Satan knew if he could steal this message and keep it hidden from us we’d be
through if if he could just keep us from seeing
how we have the power to bring Heaven to Earth he’d be okay with us waiting to go
to heaven but in that we’re giving up
ground and as a result many Believers are blind to Kingdom realities now the
message of Salvation is important don’t misunderstand but it’s a small subset of
the Kingdom message Jesus shared in fact Jesus didn’t talk about salvation
specifically very often salvation’s like the doorway into the kingdom but God has so much more in
store for us as we explore Kingdom realities in the present it’s like God is so excited to
show us this massive mansion and we decide we’re not going to move
past the front door so God I I I see him like over his shoulder he a big grin he’s running he’s like come on and he
wants to show me the the water slide coming off the third floor and I go man this is really
cool no I’m good right here I’m just going to stand right here in the doorway and listen he’s not mad at us
for that don’t hear that he is so proud that we chose to be with him he was just hoping
to show us more so how does the kingdom relate to
the church I want to be clear that the kingdom message is not a form of replacement theology the church
certainly still has a place and is critical to God’s plan but the kingdom does not fit within
the church the church fits within the kingdom the church should be one place
where God’s order and his Reign is established right but if we stop there we miss the whole
point we’re supposed to take ground and expand his territory really into all spheres of our influence not just the
church when we’re submitted to his rule every place we step our foot becomes
Kingdom territory that’s Kingdom territory now that’s Kingdom territory now this place today is Kingdom
territory because we established it that way God rules here because we say he does we
choose to for his word to be the final word for his priority to be made the
priority you know over the past decade the Lord’s been showing us the craziest things around here um I believe the Lord
wants to show us how life works best and it’s always a little different than we think um he wants to show me a new way
to lead a homebuilding company that often makes me feel crazy or
unorthodox at the very least uh it often feels backwards and that’s because most
most of it isn’t natural It’s Supernatural it’s me stepping into that
alternate reality that Jesus described where the master must become the
servant where you really have to die in order to
live did you know that Jesus never said seek first about any pursuit or purpose
other than the kingdom of God but seek first the kingdom of God
and his righteousness how I translate that in my head is his right Order of Things God’s right order of things so
seek first the kingdom of God and his right order of things and all of these things will be added to
you now that’s a command there and actually the verb tense used there means it’s supposed to be continual continuous
never stopping it’s not a one- time thing we’re commanded to always be seeking the kingdom of God most people
don’t see the kingdom of God because they don’t seek it but if you seek it
you will start to see it everywhere I just noticed this verse in
Luke a couple months ago uh being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come he answered them the Kem of
God is not coming in a way that can be observed nor will they say look here it
is or there for behold the kingdom of God is in the midst of
you it’s there in our midst if we’ll seek it but if you don’t seek it you won’t
see it and the truth is we’re all seeking something first it’s
inevitable honestly Eddie could have chose to make a sell that day if commission and numbers were what he was
seeking Our Lives reflect what we’re seeking and if we’ve chosen something
besides that which has Eternal value it will show up in our lives until in pursuit of the Lesser we
lose the greater you know when I first started working at beaten B Homes I actually
didn’t believe that God cared anything about what I did for a living so I know what some of you are thinking uh you know because I thought
it does God even care about our work isn’t that a secular thing or not a
spiritual thing and I’m so glad you asked you know most Christians see work
as means to an end we’re looking forward to retirement so that we don’t have to
do this anymore maybe one day we’ll have enough money I won’t have to do this anymore we’ve bought into this really
Pagan notion that Leisure is good and work is bad if you can avoid it you
should and we’ve been misled by this sacred and secular distinct which teaches that only work in a church
is full-time Ministry did you know that hasn’t always
been the case like if we look back on History there’s lots of times where people had a very different perspective
than that in fact in scripture Jesus himself certainly gave no General call
to all Christians to give up everyday work in fact most of his teaching Drew
upon the themes from everyday work they were about farming or accounting or paying people or doing something out in
the marketplace and Paul also emphasizes this positive view of work and really
call for Christians to continue in their work in fact in three letters of Paul’s own writing he makes it clear that he
never gave up his trade of temp making even after his quote call to full-time
Ministry really that’d be the primary pattern for the church we see Christian giving glory to
God through their OCC occupations doing the same job as non-believers but doing them in a little different way these
early Believers live the entirety of their life differently and in so doing they they really invited their
unbelieving neighbors to consider their words and actions and the faith that they
proclaimed Martin Luther actually said we respond to the call to love our
neighbor by fulfilling the duties of our everyday work that’s where loving our neighbor is
fulfilled through our everyday work here’s here’s another direct quote from Martin Luther the works of monks and
Priests however holy and arduous they may be do not differ one wit in the
sight of God from The Works of The Rustic laborer in the field or the woman woman going about her household ta tasks
all work all works are measured before God by faith alone you know with that view
the platform of work can become the primary place our faith turns into
action each time we make a decision or we perform a task it’s an opportunity to show employees our business partners
customers something different we can model the love of Christ through the
sacrifice of Self in the service to another we can show intangible ways that
we care more about people than profit our faith should inform the quality of the product we provide or the service um
how we deal with our customers the prices we charge how we handle conflict how we invest in our team members and
every other aspect of our work you know if Jesus was a carpenter which I’ve Heard lots of people say I
bet you he didn’t build crappy cabinets there wasn’t somebody like I’m
glad that whole savior thing worked out because those cabinets that typically built for me I bet he did really good work which
reflected the creativity and Excellence of the father and we can do that in our
work the Bible has a lot to say about work which in all the different forms is
mentioned more than 800 times and did you know that is more than uh it has to say about worship music singing Praise
combined ancient Jews had this deep understanding of how faith and work came
together in their lives and it shouldn’t be surprising that in ancient Hebrew the language of God’s chosen people they use
the same word for both work and worship I want to introduce
you to a Hebrew word at some point right there
avoda at least that’s the west Texas pronunciation of it avoda and this word
simultaneously means work worship and service
isn’t that crazy that they have one word to describe those three
things the various uses in scripture of this Hebrew word shows God’s original design is that
our work and worship and our serving of other people would be a seamless way of
living there’s no need to make a distinction between them in some verses the word avoda means
to work meaning like performing labor out in the field uh but in other verses it means worshiping the most high God in
other verses it’s serving people let’s look at the first place it was mentioned this is in Genesis the
Lord God took the man and put him in the garden at Eden to work it and take care of
it that word work there is the verb form of avoda and you know the English
translators looked at this and said well the context here is a garden so that probably means work like sweat of our brow so in our
English Bibles we see the word work appear there instead of abod here’s another place this is in
Exodus this is Moses saying to Pharaoh this is what the Lord says let my people
go so that they may worship me again the word worship there is
avoda but you know what it could have also translated an equally valid translation would be pharaoh let my
people go so they may work for me work alongside me not you
Pharaoh do you see why he might have had a problem with that it makes sense in that context and
finally this is Joshua but as for me and my household we will serve the Lord said
Joshua but it could have also been translated we will work for the Lord or
we will worship the Lord word you see Joshua would have said he was saying all three in fact Joshua
would been be confused while we have three words to describe the same
thing you know also in Hebrew there there is no word for secular because
even a small Hebrew boy would know nothing can be apart from
God nothing obviously
your work is sacred and important to God y’all if if God wanted to teach them a distinction between what is sacred and
what is secular or a distinction between work worship and service he would have
taught his CH chosen people those Concepts and they would have had a word for each of them but they
didn’t that tells us about what God is thinking about this what he needed to teach them about
it I believe avoda is this beautiful picture of an integrated
Faith a life where work and worship they come from the same root the same
foundation and it’s not just the results of the work that matter the labor itself
where we apply the skills God has given us to take care of something to serve
people or make something more valuable is just as sacred to God as worship on
Sunday morning did you know that the first time
the spirit of God ever came on a person in the Bible it was on a construction
guy to help him do his work not to prophesy not to not to speak over people
or to bless people it it was actually to help him do his work as a construction guy it’s in Exodus 31 I’ll let you look
that up yourself you know Rick bbo used to share a really funny image that got stuck in
my head and he said uh he could see God he was he was up in heaven I guess on
clouds or something in a recliner and it’s okay if God has a recliner I guess but some angels rushed over to him and
he said and they said God you should come over here your people are really worshiping you down there you got to see
this and to him that was like an aroma and he just leaned over and he
took a big whiff and he goes or are they working for me because
to me it smells the same here’s my point our work matters
profoundly to God profoundly our service to God has to go
well beyond teaching Sunday school or serving in a soup kitchen or saying a
prayer before meals through faithful development of
god-given talents we mature as Christians and we actually become more useful in the
kingdom of God and through our faithful labor we
imitate God’s Own creativity order his appreciation for
beauty and Excellence we get those things from him that’s his spirit in
us and through this redeemed view of work God can and does change
culture change people transform them in a way that no person ever could and I’m
a testament to that my own story
uh you know I I grew up not far from here actually 20 miles north of Stanton
uh and early on in life I had a lot of struggles with drug and alcohol
addiction honestly to a place I became hopeless where I thought if I keep living like
this I won’t live to be 21 years old and I didn’t care
hopeless I ran from God wanted nothing to do with
him and that’s a guy that came into this business you know when I joined in 2006
I had been sober but just for a little while and I wanted to be somebody different but I actually wasn’t quite
sure I could be
and Ron beatbo interviewing me we used to have a question on our job application have you ever been arrested
for a felony and so I got to explain that in my first job interview and Rod and beaten both saw pass that and said
you know what we’re going to give this guy a shot I think I think there’s something
here but there wasn’t that day that’s the truth of it I I think the Lord’s
giving him a vision but what changed me is I came into a business where people loved me and saw me beyond what I could
produce for them where they loved me like a son where I I started seeing them apply
their faith in ways that were Radical that I couldn’t even understand or wrap my head around I didn’t have context for
it and I thought this is nuts but I saw how their faith
penetrated all of them and I couldn’t unsee it and over time that’s started getting off on me and changing who I was
changing how I saw the world to where I’m not even the same person I
was that’s what God can do in the middle of a business but it’s not about trying to save people nobody ever treated me
like a project they loved me right where I was they accepted me right where I was
and then God did something with that and that can happen in our
work so we’re supposed to seek the kingdom and take an active role in expanding it and that even includes our
work which God cares deeply about hey and we’re practical people I’m not a
preacher I’m a homebuilder uh so the rest of our day will be filled with lots of practical ways people are living out
their faith in their everyday job and inviting God into it and hopefully this groundwork 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 even at work okay before we move
on I’d like to end with a couple questions if the kingdom of God includes your work then what would it take for
your work to become worship or service to the king you know if you if you saw your
work as service and worship to the king what would change about how how you went
about it what if your work what if your work was where your supposed to live out
your call to love your neighbor how would that change your view and then the second one what would
it look like for you to invite God into your everyday job if Jesus rode
alongside you in the truck all day or or or went to your meetings do you think he’d have something to say about how you
go about your work or interact with people ask him what he thinks about that and I’ll bet you he’ll talk to you about
it we’ll give you a few guys you guys a few minutes to reflect on those question questions thank you for your time
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