[00:00:00] Hey everyone. We want to welcome you to the kingdom at work webinar. Um, we are really excited to be, um, joining with you over your lunch break. Maybe today, um, Rick beaten boat. We’ll be speaking over the operational heart of God. Um, I’m Amanda Bullen and I’m the manager of kingdom at work. And we are just thrilled to have you with us the last 10 minutes of.

the webinar. We are going to have an open Q and A. So down at the bottom of your screen, we would love for you to submit any questions that you have during the webinar. So, um, please enjoy. And I’d like to welcome, um, our CEO, Rick Beatonbow.

Hey y’all. [00:01:00] Thanks for being here today. Um, right in the middle of the work week. Um, right in the middle of the day, we’re going to get together and talk about our Lord and talk about a practical thing of that, that he is very practical and we can engage with him in a practical way. And so I know he’s pleased that we’ve all set down our busy schedules and, and we’re just doing this in the middle of the day.

It’s not on a Saturday or Sunday, it’s in the middle of the week. Um, You know, the first thing about the practical nature of God this morning, I was talking to him about this and he reminded me a couple of weeks ago, Holly, my wife and I were, uh, planning a trip to go see my nephew in Dallas and his wife and kids that just moved there from Florida.

And we’re going to take our little van or RV that we don’t use all the time parked in the, in the garage. And I went out there the morning, we were going to leave. And it was just, Nothing. When I put the key in it, [00:02:00] trying to start it, just zero, no lights, no sounds, no nothing. I was like, Oh, and I started fiddling around trying to figure out what was wrong.

I said, well, maybe it’s a battery. And so I plugged in a charger and let it charge for a couple of hours. When I came back out there was still just completely dead. I changed the batteries in the P fobs and I didn’t know what to do. Finally, I called the Mercedes dealership. It’s a little Mercedes Sprinter ran and said, to the got a search advisor on the phone and start talking about is there a security issue with a key or he couldn’t figure out anything he said.

The only thing I know is Y’all go take some other vehicle on this trip and we’ll have to come tow that van in and fix it. So I hung up with him and I leaned back in the seat, sitting in the van, and I just said, Lord, what is going on with this van? You know what’s going on. And you can tell me, I don’t have to figure it out.

So would you? And then I just got quiet and just waited for him to say something. And almost immediately, I got a [00:03:00] sense that I needed to hook a battery of a car up and jump in that the battery was so dead that my little jumper, my little charger wasn’t enough and I needed to do that. But Holly wasn’t home.

I didn’t have any other way to do that. I was looking out the window of the windshield of the van and my landscaper was there on our property and her vehicle was there. So I jumped out and went and found her and asked her if she had jumper cables. She said yes, she did. She brought it over and pulled her truck up next to my van and we put the jumper cables on and sure enough.

That was what it was. And even as it was charging the battery, that other vehicle, um, I sat back in the chair and thought, wow, Lord, I’m sorry. I didn’t ask you a little sooner. Probably saved me 30 minutes or an hour of running around, trying to figure it out on my own, striding to figure it out when what you wanted to do was engage me in this simple little thing.

It’s it’s what is important to me in this [00:04:00] moment is important to you. And, and you’re very practical about that. So. Some things like that are what we’re going to talk about today. So Lord, right now, we are so grateful that you are practical because we’re, we’re, we’re just people working, going to school, raising families, uh, and you care about all those things.

And you want to be engaged with us daily and hourly and every minute of the hour. Anytime we need anything, even a small thing, like just. Help me with my van, Lord. Would you do that? You’re there to do that. You are very practical. Thank you for that. Thank you for all these men and women have joined in, set their schedule down and they’re here to hear from you.

So we don’t want to hear from a man. I’m going to tell some stories, Lord, that you’ve. You’ve given me for everyone’s benefit, but they don’t want to hear from me. They want to hear from you. So I pray for open hearts and open ears to hear directly from [00:05:00] you and for us to engage you in a different way from this minute on for the rest of this day and for tomorrow and every day going forward.

And we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Um, God is so practical. He’s so But there’s a couple of things we need to, we need to take note of. Um, of course, Beatonville homes, the home building company, Beatonville companies is the parent company. That’s the company that I work for, that I get the opportunity to lead.

And so we’re just doing business and taking care of things just like everybody else every day. And a couple of days ago, there were two or three of us. and we were gathered around a little problem. Um, we are in contract to sell a bunch of our homes to a business person and they’re agreed in contract to do that, but they’ve just not been able to for the last, we’ve been [00:06:00] for a year struggling with, you know, his ability to buy those homes because the mortgage, the real estate landscape has changed.

Interest rates are much higher. Demand is down. And so he struggled to meet the, what he said you do in that contract. And we’ve kind of gone around and around about how to deal with that. And, uh, it’s finally come to a head. We’ve got some, a bunch of homes that we need to do something with him. So we’re sitting in a circle and praying about this and what we should do.

And the Lord said, take your foot off his neck. And it just came to my mind. And I thought, wow, what, what are you talking about? Lord? And I immediately began to get this impression that we just need to change our posture. You know, the world says when somebody is not doing what they said they would do, or what you think they should do, then we should, Go to war with them, you know, by lawsuits or start using harsh language, [00:07:00] start demanding, start.

And, you know, I just got a strong sense from the Lord that in this moment he wanted a different posture from us, a posture of grace. You know, I need lots of grace. Maybe you do too. And we need to extend grace. And instantly I thought, you know, really, No man and no marketplace is my provider. You’re my provider, God.

I, I shouldn’t let the fact that I need to sell those homes get in the way of extending grace to this partner. And that in fact, maybe that would open the door to that. And I brought that to our attention and immediately everybody in our little group was trying to figure this out. We all had peace immediately, if that was the right thing to do.

And I just watched as, as God’s peace descended on all of us as we. agreed to give grace, um, to back off, to take our foot off his neck as God had asked me to do. And, uh, just interestingly, the very next day before we even had a

[00:08:00] chance to say this out loud to him, he called us and said, Hey, I have some fresh ideas about how we can do this and how I can make this happen.

And I thought, wow, look at that breakthrough from the Lord. And, you know, I think A reminder here is that we think sometimes that we’re working for God, or maybe we’re just working for ourselves. And I think what God wants us to do is work with him. That’s the shift for us to work with him. And for, for this to be blessed and for it to be, uh, at its peak, we have to have the right posture, a posture of grace, and, uh, and we have to, we have to be thinking about his purpose.

What does he want? We, we can’t. He, if we’re going to be at odds or at war with people, then God’s not going to be part of that. He’s, uh, He’s inviting us to a different way to do this. The world says to do this and the kingdom of heaven says [00:09:00] to do it this way. And it is critical for us first and foremost to adjust our posture.

And God was right there with us. and we just work with him to advance his kingdom. We’re not working for him, we’re working with him. He invites us as sons and daughters to do that, and it’s a, it’s a powerful way to think about this. We’re not service for slaves, we’re, we’re sons and daughters, and we have the opportunity to co labor with him, and that makes me emotional even as I say it, but it’s such a powerful thing.

So it’s a shift for us. Is that we must adjust our purpose from what I want to what you want, Lord. And I must adjust my posture to that of grace and peace. And then I must recognize that God is my provider. And he’s going to provide through a variety of ways, including the marketplace, but the marketplace and no man is my [00:10:00] provider.

God is my provider. And we get that out of the way and it opens the door for breakthrough. And there it was already, you know, a friend of mine, Brian is, uh, is an amazing man of God and his business, his sign business in Mesquite, Texas, belongs to God. And Brian co labors with him every single day. And he was telling me a cool story not too long ago about this idea that he was going to expand his business and he needed a new truck that was kind of specialized.

to hang signs, some big signs, and it was a big expense and he wasn’t sure if he was supposed to do that or if he should do that. And so he just started talking to the Lord about it. He was doing some research on these trucks. They’re hard to find. They’re expensive, but he just started asking the Lord if that was direction you want to do, and if that was what he should do, and he was just [00:11:00] generally engaged in that for a few days.

And one day, In the middle of that, he was headed to lunch to his favorite place, and the place was closed. And he said, well, I guess I’ll find a new place for lunch. And he drove to another place that he feels like the Lord led him to, and as he pulled into the parking lot for, for just lunch at a new place, he said he was shocked to see the very truck he was talking about, exactly like the one he was looking at, parked in that parking lot.

And instantly he knew that that was the Lord speaking to him. He’d been asking the Lord, should I buy this truck? Would you show me, would you make it clear? Would you, you know, God is very practical. Just give me a very practical sign that I should do this Lord. And there it was the very exact truck that he was looking at, parked in the parking lot.

And he knew that that was the Lord speaking to him. And that’s a reminder for us that we need to ask the Lord, believe that he will answer. [00:12:00] And watch for him to answer. Sometimes we just gotta, I hear people say all the time, you know, I asked the Lord and then this happened and maybe that was the Lord responding.

Of course it was the Lord responding. Uh, the Lord is going to respond to our need, especially when generally our posture is right. When our heart is right, when we’re aligned with his purpose, he’s right there and we’ve got to believe it. And we’ve got to watch for it and be excited about it. Uh, and. God gets the glory for that.

Um, Brian knew he was supposed to do that. And he went and bought that truck and his business has morphed in that way. And he’s used it powerfully. And it’s just an amazing, uh, way to think about this. God is very practical. Yeah. He wants to help you with a truck that you need for your business. Um, the reminder here is that our posture.

and our purpose, um, are critical [00:13:00] foundations for this. Uh, God can’t use me if I, if I’m not in the mood to extend grace. I need grace and, and he, and I need to, I need to be ready to To extend it to somebody, I’m not posh, it’s got to be right. I want a piece in collaboration. You know, the hallmarks of the marketplace sometimes are competition and anger and frustration.

And, uh, those are just not from the Lord. He, kingdom is a kingdom of collaboration, not competition. And, uh, there’s plenty for us. And all of us and God is a provider and we don’t have to be in competition with the other people. My favorite thing to do is help other home builders, other coffee shops, other people who have businesses just like ours.

I want to help them. God has sent me to help them, give them everything we have for them to be successful. I’m not in competition with them. There’s plenty for me and for them and we can all be successful. And that’s a great [00:14:00] opportunity. That’s the way we want to think about this. You know, sometimes we’ve got to remember that there are some obstacles that get in the way of this.

And, uh, I want to talk a little bit about those obstacles because we need to be aware of them and we need to figure out a way to get over them. Uh, one, one of the first obstacles that came to my mind, and that’s how I was thinking about this is, uh, unity. We’re just not unified with each other. Um, you know, and I’m not a preacher, not trying to preach, but I’ll just tell you guys.

that, uh, one of the ways that God speaks to me in a powerful way is through his word. Um, the Bible is the best business book I’ve ever read. I’ve gotten most of my epiphanies and direction in every little facet of our business from the Bible. And you should consider going there too. Uh, sometimes we just need to be in God’s word more than we are in a business book or [00:15:00] some other kind of self help book.

This is the ultimate self help book. And I’m reminded this morning, Psalm 133. I want to read it to us. How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity. My translation has an exclamation point there, and I like that. It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron’s beard, down on the collar of his robes.

It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion. For there, unity, for there, the Lord bestows his blessing. Even life evermore. Some translations say God commands his blessing where we are unified with God commands a blessing. And that whole whole idea of unity reminds me of Jesus praying for us for his people that we would be unified.

And then I think of john Ramirez, if you haven’t heard john Ramirez. I’d like you to go [00:16:00] look him up on YouTube. His, his teaching and his testimony are a little scary, but also extremely powerful, and you should check him out. John was previously a Satan worshiper, second generation. His father, um, was a Satan worshiper and led him into that.

And it’s, and it was a, that’s a terrible part of his testimony, but John. In his own words, became a very high ranking general in Satan’s army. We need to know that this is, this is scary stuff, but we need to be aware that there is an enemy that he is really active, he is out there. And even as I hear John talking about those days when he was working for the other side, he talks about sowing destruction.

in the world as part of Satan’s army as a high ranking general in Satan’s army. And he talks about leaving his body and going and so instruction. And I think that [00:17:00] what I love about John’s testimony is he didn’t spend too much time on that stuff. He spends more time on giving us clues about how we should operate in God’s kingdom because he said, as he would go around sowing instruction, he would come across believers that were unified.

He said, in fact, specifically groups of believers unified holding hands. And I was thinking to myself, you know, it’s pretty hard to be disunified with somebody when I’m holding their hand. It’s a powerful way for me to remember that it’s not about me. It’s about us and that together we should sit down the things that separate us.

and lift up the things that bind us together, that unify us. But what’s powerful about John’s testimony is he said when they would come across believers unified, especially holding hands in unity, he said their power would, would be just reduced to zero. He said, we’ve just become confused. And [00:18:00] he said, the good news is we could just move on to somewhere else because it was so rare to find, you know, find believers.

There’s always another place, but wow, to hear that our unity and our unity together, holding hands, that made a strong impression on me and should make one on you. And that’s exactly how we were the other day, the three or four of us in a meeting talking about how we were going to respond to this partner of ours that was not performing.

We were unified, uh, when we prayed. For unity in that moment and that commanded God’s blessing. And so an obstacle sometimes is disunity. We need to be unified and we need to operate out of unity so that that is not an obstacle in the way of God being with us in a practical way in everything we do. And, uh, that leads me [00:19:00] into this, another serious obstacle, which is forgiveness.

We are walking around in unforgiveness. You might be doing that. I know I was, I’m still in the middle of a battle against cancer, cancer diagnosis, a couple of years old. I don’t live in that daily. I’m doing well. God is healing me. And one of the ways he’s healed me is he has taught me so much about forgiveness.

At one point he gave me a perfect picture of a stump cut off, but not dug up. And he invited me to think about this thing that I was walking in, which was unforgiveness, people that I had not forgiven that I’d cut off and moved on and pride myself on not worrying about that or thinking about that anymore, but I didn’t dig it up.

And then I saw this field of stumps. that were cut off and not dug up. And it’s an obstacle. [00:20:00] Unforgiveness in our heart is an obstacle to fruitful living, to advancing God’s kingdom. And we got to do something about it. And you can, if someone that you need to forgive has come to your mind in this moment, That’s the Lord.

He’s talking to you and you got to go give them forgiveness or maybe someone comes to your mind and you know you need to go ask of them for forgiveness. And I know in the middle of my battle with cancer, the word came to me that that was an obstacle in the way of my healing. And I needed to go deal with that.

And wow, it’s been an amazing thing that God has done over the last couple of years, just lots of people that I needed to forgive completely. And one of the things about forgiveness is you cannot dredge up whatever was in the way. That caused the disagreement. I have to forget about that completely to really truly forgive them, you know, [00:21:00] in the Bible.

God says he doesn’t even remember our sin. That’s how we are so completely forgiven by God. He doesn’t remember that sin. And when it comes to other people, I got to forget whatever they did to hurt me and I got to forgive them completely. And I got to empty my heart of any unforgiveness. And if there is forgiveness that I need to ask for, I got to go do that in person and I got to do that right now.

And I got to live my life free of unforgiveness. And I’ve got to go offer my request for forgiveness. Anytime I’ve hurt somebody, these are serious obstacles. God’s very practical and he wants us to clean this stuff up in our life. And he wants us to join him in his work that he’s in the middle of, but we got to take care of these things.

These things right now, these [00:22:00] obstacles that are in the way of that, um, and you got to go do that. You know, even Jesus said, Matthew, in one of his great sermons, he said, you know, if you’re on the way with a sacrifice to the temple and you think of a brother that you have trouble with, a problem with, set that sacrifice down and go make peace with your brother.

I don’t want your sacrifice. I want you at peace with your brother, says the Lord. It’s almost like if you’re. Russian with a little bag of gold or a A bird or whatever sacrifice you’re taking to the temple. And you think of that brother, just drop it in the street, just set it down. It’s just not as important as making peace with your brother or sister.

That’s what we got to do. It will set us free and it will prepare us for whatever God wants us to do [00:23:00] and wants us to join him in. Um, so important. Y’all, I, I was thinking about this, this other facet of it, authority. I’m reminded that we just don’t take authority. You know, Jesus said he has been given all authority in the kingdom and he gives all that authority to us.

Do we think about it that way? Um, authority is so important. We have authority over the enemy. We have God’s authority to make a way where there doesn’t seem to be a way. And in the, in the middle of authority, I always think of a, of a fantastic store. We have, we have a huge development in Beaton Bow homes called Harvest.

Um, it’s a really large piece of land, over 500 acres. And three or four years ago, we identified this piece [00:24:00] of land as a possibility for us to buy. And we spent two years running around, negotiating, trying to figure out how to buy this piece of land with no traction. And we’d have days where we thought, Oh, we’re going to get to buy this.

Or. And then there’ll be days when, no, we couldn’t figure out how to make this deal. And we really needed some land. And I remember one day, um, I thought, I feel like the Lord said, take your, let you and your dad, my dad and I are partners in our business and take the other two guys in our land team and four of y’all, let’s go out.

to this piece of land. And let’s pray over it. Let’s take authority over this situation. That’s that’s really the word that came to me. And we did. We drove out into this cotton field, jumped out of the truck and tromped around out in the dirt. And, uh, even as we got out there together and what we [00:25:00] do. Yeah, we did.

Four guys. We joined hands. We’re going to do this. We’re going to pray in our authority and in unity over this peace land. And in that instant, I thought we were going to pray for God, give us this land. And then I realized that’s not what I was going to pray for. I was going to pray for the Lord’s will over this land.

And I, and so the simple prayer that I prayed, um, with authority was, Lord, if you want to give us this land, give it to us. Release whatever obstacles and maybe it’s just us. Maybe we’re the, what’s in the way. And so give us this land or take it away, whatever we want. We, we seek above all things, clarity of your will.

What do you want to do here? If you have another piece of land prepared for us, show us that if it’s this piece of land, and Then open the door wide and give us

clarity. And we’ve been at this two years, y’all, this was about 10 30 in the morning, in the middle of the week, like a Wednesday, I think. [00:26:00] And, uh, we finished our prayer there and we looked around, we were standing, you know, we had dust all over dress shoes, you know, from, and we climbed into the truck and drove back to the office and I kid you not at 12 o’clock on the dot lunch, about an hour and a half later.

I got a call from a realtor, the realtor, they’ve been kind of helping us with this deal. And he said, you’re not going to believe this, but the owner of that land, the person who has a full authority to make a deal on that land called and said, I want to sell this land. We, our family wants to sell this land and we want to sell it to beaten bow and we want to come make a deal with y’all tomorrow.

And that’s exactly what happened the very next morning. They came over to our office and we made a deal and bought that land. And today there’s two or 300 homes already standing on that land. And I just sometimes forget how powerful it is [00:27:00] for us to stand up at our 40 and go ask the Lord. And we got to operate this way, y’all.

One of my co workers and I were talking about this a while ago. Another thing that John Ramirez talks about is Halloween. And that it is a satanic holiday. And I think Americans forget this. We think it’s a harmless holiday. We dress up our kids. And we go have fun, but we’re asleep. I think sometimes to this stuff and we have authority.

And John reminds us to stand up in our authority as Christian, all authority given to Jesus and all that authority given to us. And we need to stand up in our families and say, we are going to celebrate. October is a harvest. It’s an ancient harvest. This is when when we, when this is when the cotton is harvested in West Texas, this is when corn is harvested, when when we harvest the crops that God has [00:28:00] grown up that we planted.

It’s an amazing time to celebrate and be grateful for what God has done. And we don’t allow the enemy to subvert that for his purposes. And we must stand up in our authority and say, for our family, I don’t care what everybody else does. This is what we will do. And God honors that and blesses that. And we have authority.

You have authority as a son or daughter in the kingdom of God. You have authority and you must stand up and take authority over all situations. God, what do you want to do? God, would you give me a solution? Together, we are asking you in unity and with the posture of peace and grace, you’re our prov

Lord, we’re not going to let that get mixed up. In this and [00:29:00] fight and scrabble with someone because of provision. You’re our provider, Lord. If we can’t make you deal with anyone, we can’t buy that. Or we can’t sell that you will provide. I’m going to trust you. I’m going to, I’m going to,

Hey, everyone. Um, if you have any questions at this time, um, we just had some technical difficulties, we’re getting figured out. And we’re taking care of right now, but down at the bottom of your screen, there is a Q and a, if anything, Rick has said. has prompted a question that you’re curious whether it’s about one of his points, one of the slides, one of the stories, maybe something that he shared in regards to an obstacle.

You can share that down at the bottom as we get him back on. [00:30:00] We’ve already had several questions submitted. And so we will ask those here in the next few minutes as Rick gets back on and finishes the last little bit of his session. So just hold tight one moment, and we’re hitting that figured out just give us a second.

One of the questions we were asked was is if this webinar, um, is recorded so we can, um, access it later. The answer is yes. We will email it back to you. So Rick is going to finish the last of his points, um, and we’ll jump back in with you. Hey y’all, we had a bat, we had a computer laptop battery go down, right?

Just, just how it works. You know, when we, when you start, when I start, when any of us starts really faithfully exercising our authority, really making a difference. The enemy is going to attack, [00:31:00] you should know that. Um, but we have authority over that enemy. We can trample on that enemy like scorpions and snakes.

God, that enemy is a created enemy. Uh, it is not. My God has authority over that. He has won that battle. And so I think that was a perfect example. Uh, that. We’re gonna, as soon as we start talking about these things, as soon as something starts happening, I was encouraged when the bat, when the, when Blacktop went black, actually for a second, it’s, it’s a kind of a pain in the butt and it’s inconvenient, but it tells me that something powerful is going on.

When we start making waves, the enemy is going to notice. And so as you start doing this, there are going to be attacks. And what we do is we stop and we push it back. And so right now we push back the enemy. He has no authority in any of the lives of any of us. We all have authority above him, Lord. And so we ask you to [00:32:00] help us in this moment.

Push that enemy back and we want to advance your kingdom, Lord. And so I’m excited to answer some questions. Uh, we want to keep this brief and we’re, I’m excited to have a question and don’t, don’t be afraid to ask anything and let’s take a few minutes and, and turn this into kind of a conversational thing.

Amanda, do we have some questions already? Yes, sir. We do. All right. So um, the first question that we have, um, which will be a pretty easy one for you to answer, but they want to know what is the name of the person you mentioned that was a satanist and do you know his website? That, that man is John Ramirez, and if you go to YouTube and just type in John Ramirez, you’ll see his videos come up.

I don’t know what his website is, but it is a very, very powerful story. Uh, John spent [00:33:00] most of his life in the enemy camp, And it’s an amazing thing for him to have a spy to come over to the kingdom of God and bring all the secrets. And you’re gonna love watching him. He has a, he has a really powerful message and I can’t say enough things about going to listen to him.

Go listen to him talk about Halloween. And that, and what it means on this, on Satan’s side of this thing. Uh, but John Ramirez is his name. Thank you for that question. Next question. Yeah, absolutely. C. C. Massey put up the, um, website for him is johnramirez. org. So thank you for that. Hey, next question we have, Rick.

Um, it is a really good one. How does your team maintain unity in times where leaders don’t always agree about how to move forward? Well, that is a great question and that is, that is a absolutely the way it’s going to go a lot. Uh, people, you know, [00:34:00] if you, if you in our group, that group that met, A couple of days ago, I was as I’ve even as I was telling that story, I was reminded that was a group of strong leaders with with lots of opinion and We started that conversation first with prayer.

We sat down, anything that we were thinking about and we prayed and that softened those hearts. And I can tell you that even if everybody didn’t agree, when, when we don’t agree, we discuss that. And then we come to a conclusion together and prayer is a powerful part of that. And just, A reminder that we need to collaborate, not compete, argue, arguing and disagreement is is a form of competition.

And there’s no place for that. Honestly, in God’s kingdom, he wants us to collaborate. And so the first rule is to sit down what I want and [00:35:00] for me to join into a discussion about what we want. What should we want? And specifically, what does God want? And we know God wants us to have, be

graceful. He wants to, you know, and I think that that vision that I had of taking my foot off his neck.

Was a powerful vision for everybody in that group. Um, we just, we cannot underestimate this, you know, uh, this is a little bit off the topic, but a friend of mine from Midland business leader tells a story of he’s a dirt contractor. And he had a guy that wasn’t had paid him in two years, owed him a bunch of money, hadn’t paid him.

And. He got noticed that that contractor was having a big meeting in Fort Worth and wanted to meet with everybody he owed in downtown Fort Worth. And Brett was invited to come bring his what he was [00:36:00] owed and throw it in the pot. They were gonna try to figure this out. And Brett says it in that moment, he reminded he had a big debt coming due that he owed and he hadn’t been sure how he was gonna pay that.

He was really concerned about that. And he thought, well, maybe this is how. And so he traveled to Fort Worth. In the top, this meeting was in the top floor of a big, tall building in downtown for very intimidating, a room full of lawyers and a long table. He said, by the time they got everybody together around, there were 80 people.

And what had happened was the night before this meeting, he was awakened by the Lord early in the morning. And God said, I want you to start that meeting in the morning with prayer. No matter what, I want you to start that meeting with prayer. And Brett was like, wow. Okay, Lord, I’ll, I’ll do my best. You know, he still wasn’t convinced he was going to be able to do that, but he got into that meeting with all those people, 80 people, he didn’t know any of them and they’re all gathered around and the presiding lawyer [00:37:00] starts the meeting and God is tapping on Brett’s shoulder.

Remember I told you to start this meeting with prayer. So Brett just kind of sticks his hand up and the lawyer looks at him and says, Yes, sir. Brett and Brett says, I’ve got to be obedient and the Lord invited me to open this meeting with a prayer. Everybody in the room was just silent and he just did what he was supposed to do.

He prayed and he said that the most powerful thing that happened was he just got a complete peace over him. He didn’t know that there was going to be any difference in the way things went, but He knew that he had complete peace. And seriously, there were 80 people in line to be paid by this contractor.

The next morning, he had a message from that lawyer that said, You know, that contractor has determined to declare bankruptcy, and so nobody’s gonna get paid except for one contractor. And you know who that one contractor was? Brett, you’re going to get paid in full and nobody else is going to get [00:38:00] paid. He goes, I don’t know why you’re going to get paid and nobody else is, but that’s how it’s going to be.

And Brett said, well, I know why, because the Lord said, that’s why. And so I think a powerful part of unity is for us to pray together and for us to start everything with prayer, um, that softens hearts and I’ll tell you, we’ve started lots of meetings. It’s holding hands and I think that’s a powerful way to do this.

So sorry, that was a long winded answer to that question. Next question, Amanda. Yeah, that was great, Rick. Thank you. Staying on the question of unity, we had another question. How can we achieve unity when the team is geographically divided into several sites and cities? I don’t know. You know, that’s a challenge.

Um, I think that you’ve got to be in regular communication with people. And if you’re separated [00:39:00] geographically, you just got to find a way to spend time together, you know, by phone calls or video or make the effort to get together in person. Um, unity. is a critical element of unity is proximity and, and we just got to have real relationship with each other.

Um, but unity is so important. It’s worth pursuing. It’s worth spending money, making effort. Um, We just got to, we just got to head forward and we got to call out disunity anytime and every time, not publicly so that someone is embarrassed. But for me and for us, we are good about when someone makes a disunifying comment or is disunifying in a moment.

And that’s true of all of us. We’re all going to be guilty of that in a moment here and there, including me. And so I’ve invited people on my team to say to me in private, Hey, [00:40:00] Or I’ve reserved the right in private to say to them, Hey, that was disunifying. Let’s be unified. Let’s find, let’s find, you know, I think Jesus spent a lot of his time talking about the things that he agreed with.

And he did not spend a lot of times talking about the things that he disagreed with. Uh, he just didn’t do it that way. He took the positive view of that. Um, sometimes as believers. We want to get caught up in all the things we disagree on, you know, the theology or the, you know, should we have music or should we do this?

Should we do that? And, you know, we, we need to spend more time on the unifying thing, which is Jesus Christ. He is the unifying thing of the Christian faith, right? The rest of the theology is on the edges and we need to focus on the things we agree on and start there. And we need to forgive quickly. Um, each other when we make mistakes and we need to call out disunity that those are the ways that we do that[00:41:00]

next really. Yeah, really good. Thank you, Rick. Um, another question we had, how do you move forward. When it seems like God is silent. Well, we don’t move forward. Um, if we aren’t in agreement, uh, and I think that that is the way God speaks sometimes, you know, maybe we think God’s silent. Maybe he has spoken.

Um, if we’re all in agreement and we wait for agreement now, I’ll, I’ll just say. And I don’t, you know, I know there’s a lot of different kinds of people, different in different roles and with different levels of authority out there, but the senior leader has authority to decide what should happen. Now, they don’t have to come up with all the ideas and it’s not always going to be their idea, but they do have the final call on how we should go forward and the people who are submitted to that leadership.[00:42:00]

have to be agreeable to that, even if their idea is not the one that’s chosen. And that’s how we think about that. Um, I’m the senior leader in our organization. And so in my leadership team, when we’re wrestling with something, we first, it’s my job as a senior leader to make sure all the ideas get heard.

It’s not my job to come up with all the ideas. It’s my job to make sure all the ideas get heard, and then it’s my job to make sure that the best one gets implemented. That’s the way to think about it. Um, and at times I’m going to make a mistake, I’m going to do the wrong thing, and so we’re committed to correcting that instantly.

As soon as we know we’ve chosen the wrong way, as soon as I know I’ve chosen the wrong way, then I’m going to stand up and I’m going to apologize. I’m gonna say, I’m sorry, that was not right. That wasn’t the right way we should go. So let’s choose a different way. And we must pursue humility in that way.

You know, we can’t, we just can’t be humble, but we [00:43:00] can be in pursuit of humility. And what it looks like to be in pursuit of humility is to be correctable and to in fact volunteer for correction and make corrections quickly. And that is how we do that. So I hope that answered that question. Yeah. Thank you, Rick.

Can we achieve true unity from a kingdom point of view with diverse team members, including those who are homosexual, Muslim, et cetera? Oh man, I don’t know. You know, that’s a good question. It, that, you know, it, I don’t, without trying to dodge the question per se. I think the answer to that again is you’re gonna have to go talk to the Lord about that.

Um, I think that for an organization, um, you’re gonna have to be like minded. Leadership team [00:44:00] that runs an organization must be like mine. They must be aligned generally. And if there are people on that team that are not aligned, then it will be difficult for unity to be achieved. I would, I would 100 percent agree.

You know, if, if your business is going to belong to God, then your leadership team has to all agree that that’s true, right? Don’t they have to be aligned around that? Um, and then the rest is. is how we pull that off on a daily basis. But fundamentally, we must be aligned in that way. And so it is going to be difficult.

Is it Amos? Word says how can two people walk together if they don’t agree? And that’s right. I mean, you know, somebody may have to go. We were talking about this this morning. Paul and Barnabas. I don’t trip got sideways. And, uh, I don’t think God ordained that disagreement, [00:45:00] but he used it, and the two of them parted company, and Paul went one way, and Barnabas went another, and now they both went off, and maybe that was a good thing in some ways, you know.

Now there’s two, uh, things going on. There’s two efforts. instead of just one. And it’s okay. I think sometimes that works out. Um, but if we can’t be in agreement, then we can’t walk together. And so I think the simple answer is somebody on your team is not aligned with this. Then they go find something they can be aligned with and go, go do that.

But it is just a truth that God commands or bestows or have you want to look at his blessing on. An organization or team that is unified and there can be no unity if there’s not alignment, uh, fundamental alignment. So that’s what I think about that. I don’t have to be aligned with everyone in the world, but that’s why [00:46:00] there’s different tribes.

You know, there’s, there were 12 tribes and one kingdom and there’s, you I mean, our company, our enterprise doesn’t have to have everybody in it. Yours doesn’t. We can all be in different tribes, so to speak, but each tribe must be unified in its own way internally. And that’s critical. And you must seek that you must chase after that must pursue that with all your energy.

Thank you, Rick. All right. We’ll do, um, we have about four more questions, so we’re doing great. Thank you guys for submitting questions. What are some of the habits or practices you have put in your day that help you live this out? Well, one for sure is, um, I try to spend some time early in the morning with the Lord.

And I know that’s probably a practice for everyone, but it sure is an important thing. God wants to be with me all through the day. That’s, that’s a very [00:47:00] important thing here. Um, I’m heading to a meeting or I’m going to go talk to somebody about something or, um, where am I going to go to lunch? Uh, those are all things that I need to talk to the Lord about because he might have something going on there.

He’s going to have something to say about those Maybe when somebody proposes something to me, I need to ask the Lord what he thinks before I respond. Um, but fundamentally, I also need to be in a peaceful place. I need to be. I need to be full. And for me, that means I got to start early in the morning talking to the Lord.

Uh, I need to fill up with his word. I need for his spirit to move me. What’s important? Sometimes I reflect on yesterday. What did I do? Could I have done that better, Lord? What is there something I need to go ask forgiveness of or give forgiveness that I do something yesterday that I need to go fix that’s, that’s how, how did it go yesterday?

I need to review that and [00:48:00] with the Lord and I need to go do something about it. Maybe. And I also need to be accountable to some people around me. That’s the second thing that I think is critical. Um, even as a senior leader, especially as the senior leader, I need to have accountability to the people that I lead.

They need to be free to come say, Rick, Um, I don’t think that was the right thing. I don’t like the way you said that that hurt me or I don’t think everybody understood that or any kind of correction. I’ve got to be correctable. I need to be accountable that I need to seek that accountability and we just all as men and women, we must be accountable to some people around us and where there is not accountability, there’s gonna be trouble.

And that’s a, that’s a important part of a rhythm in God’s kingdom. Now I’m accountable to God and he will, he corrects me. And you know, if I can’t get something off my mind, you know, if I said something and it keeps coming back to me, did I say that right? Or was that the right thing? Maybe that I didn’t pay [00:49:00] attention.

Maybe I’m causing a fence. I need to go correct it. And I just, I can’t say this enough. It’s a powerful thing to go to someone and say, Hey, I’ve been thinking about our talk yesterday and I feel like I, um, said something that wasn’t the right thing. Would you forgive me? Can I, can I correct that? I, I had to do that a couple of days ago and, uh, the, the guy that I called actually said, oh man, I wasn’t offended, but thanks for, for, for calling me and saying that.

I appreciate that. And we need to do more of that. That is how we build unity among each other. One of the ways is that’s trust. I’m trustworthy with my words. If I, if I do something or say something that’s not right, I will correct that. I will not just keep going. And that’s an important part of that. So that’s a couple of rhythms.

Spend time with the Lord and be accountable to people around you that are trustworthy.[00:50:00]

Thank you, Rick. That was good. Um, is there a particular book of the Bible where you find your business insights and inspiration or has it been application specific in your general devotions? You know, that’s a good question. Um, you know, I think generally there’s, I’ve gotten stuff from all over the Bible, but I will have to say, it seems like for me, uh, lots of times the Old Testament.

It’s just been really a powerful teacher. And specifically Exodus and Deuteronomy are a couple of books in the Bible where just, Lots of lessons from that. I love Samuel because David was, was, was a great leader, not because he did things great all the time. He actually screwed things up a lot, but he was certainly in pursuit of humility and was correctable.

And God said, you’re a man after my own [00:51:00] heart for that very reason. He was a long way from perfection. So his story is a powerful one for me. And I love Moses, story of Moses and, and his leadership and his very correctable heart. Um, so I, I have, I will admit, I’ve gotten lots of, uh, I’ve learned a lot from, from the Old Testament Exodus and Deuteronomy and, and, uh, Samuel’s other books.

Um, I’ve been in Acts of late, while the Paul Barnabas story came up in my mind, I probably But the Lord will use every, I mean, he’s used Hezekiah, uh, at one point, you know, I was, we were, when we were, our business was, we were, we were nervous about our business because the oil prices had gone way down and it was an oil crisis going on.

And, and God used the story of Hezekiah to challenge me on who my provider was. And, uh, was it, was oil my provider? Was God, [00:52:00] my provider.

And we were, we were all checking our phones for price of oil and getting all worried. And, and God just reminded me in that moment, I’m your provider and don’t look to oil or the price of oil.

I can provide everything you need in the middle of a down market. And he did, that was about 2008. When that happened and wow, it was God provided for us wildly. We, we, we grew in a year when most builders didn’t grow and that’s a, that was a testament in that God really spoke to me strongly through his word.

All right. Do you have any advice on how we can achieve unity when the team size grows very quickly? Yep. That’s that, you know, at some point the team, the team can get too big. And, you know, you [00:53:00] unity. Um, I mean, you know, it’s hard for it’s hard for a leadership team. If you’re talking about a leadership team, I don’t I personally don’t think the leadership team should get much over four or five people because it is hard to maintain unity.

Now, no, each of those people are leading teams and that and they are responsible for bringing unity into that team. And so I like to think, you know, I like to organize teams and no more than six people, four or five, six people. And the leader of that team is responsible for leading in unity. And that means being correctable, being accountable, um, to just, transparency.

Those are the things that free everyone up in that group to being unified because there’s every day there’s gonna be an opportunity for me to have an idea that I think is the one that needs to be that we need to go for and somebody else has an idea and it’s a [00:54:00] better idea and we need to do that. And, um, Unity says, I choose your idea because it’s the best one for us.

I don’t choose my idea. I don’t fight for my idea. I choose for the best idea, which is yours today. And we’re going to, we’re going to, I’m going to be unified in that, or this sometimes happens. I just flat disagree in the end, but we agree to go forward with an idea. And I will not subvert that. I will not go out.

and hijack that and say, well, you know, that wasn’t my idea. I don’t know if I agree. That’s a, that’s not a view. If we decide that I’m going to, then I’m going to make it my own. You know, if God calls a play and I’m the quarterback, right? Um, I got to go run the play as he called it. And, uh, even if I thought it should be a play like this, if he says it’s this, then I’m going to go out and run it like I, that was my idea.

And that’s how we have to do it. That’s how we maintain unity.[00:55:00]

All right. That was great. Hey, if we did not get to your question, um, our next blog post in August, we will go over these questions. And if you’re not signed up for our kingdom at work blog, we would love for you to visit our website at kingdom at work. com. We send those out once a month and exciting thing.

Um, we are going to have this webinar once a month, so. You will get a reminder over that. The next one’s going to be on August 31st. And one of the areas we want to give you the ability to find out and ask questions is we’re going to put a poll up right now and we want you to decide what the next topic should be.

So on your screen right now, um, we have three options for the month of August. Um, those are coming in right now. I see them. Wow. Look at that. We are loving your people well. Um, beginning with the end in [00:56:00] mind and working with family, all really good, um, areas that we want to talk about. If there is an area, a topic that you would love for Rick to, um, discuss later on, you can definitely connect with us.

You can send in an interest form on our website and myself or Amy will contact you. And we will, um, send out after this, um, the live recording. We will let you know, um, how you sign up for the August recording. We will do a better job making sure that, um, the, uh, laptops don’t charge out even though it was at 100 percent.

So, um, we appreciate you voting on this. The last thing that we wanted to show you guys and make sure to talk, talk about, Rick wants to invite you to something. Well, we do three times a year, our Kingdom Leadership Workshop here in Lubbock in our Willows Event Center. And this event is [00:57:00] specifically for business owners, senior business leaders.

You and your leadership team or your senior management team, which might just be your spouse, uh, or whoever it is. You’re invited to come and we’re going to talk about lots of things, but leading in God’s kingdom, co working with the Lord to advance his kingdom in the marketplace. You know, what would happen if Christian business leaders just 10 percent of them in America would stand up and bring their faith into business in a powerful way, not a religious way.

No religion allowed. Uh, the world doesn’t need any more religion. Our businesses don’t need any more religion. Um, but we do need our faith and for God to be present. And so that’s what the workshop is all about. And you’re invited. Manny, you can tell them [00:58:00] where, when it is and is that up on the screen now?

Yeah. It is right now. So that is going to be October 3rd through the 5th. Like we said, for CEOs and business owners and your spouses, you can, I’m used to QR code that is on your screen right now, or you can visit us at kingdomatwork. com. We appreciate all of you coming out. Um, we just want to say thank you and we will see you next month.

And thank you so much. Have a good day. Thanks y’all. Thanks for being here.