Work with Purpose | Intro to the Kingdom | September 2025

Um, I was just an IT guy. So, they asked me to run the microphones and speakers.

The rest of the room was filled with super spiritual people, you know, the

top like church planters and full-time missionaries and pastors.

Several of them had doctorates in theology. Um, and then there was one young IT nerd

in the corner. But it turns out the whole thing was a setup.

God had tricked me into being in that room under the pretense of technology,

but over the next few days, he would show me one of the biggest revelations I’ve ever heard in my life.

It was there in the Austrian Alps that I heard the message,

the gospel of the kingdom for the first time.

Rick and Holly Beatenbo were there with me in the room and it changed

everything. There wasn’t one thing in our lives that was not changed after that day.

I uh I don’t want to get ahead of myself though. I I I’m going to try to share

the biggest takeaways from that week in my time with you guys. But I’d like to

start with actually the same exact place that Jesus started.

From that time on, Jesus began to preach, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

You know the book of Matthew which this comes from was originally written in Greek and the word that is translated

there as repent is meto and it simply means to change your mind

or think differently. 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.

None of these people came here to hear an IT guy turned home builder. We want

to hear from you. So, would you give us fresh revelation into your kingdom and and how we can get

in on what you’re doing? Our hearts are eager and open to learn

like little children. Help us change our way of thinking.

We want to hear from you. Amen. You know, that whole verse right there

can be a little spooky. Uh the word kingdom can actually be a little spooky.

Like what does that even mean? But if you read the gospels, uh the four books

of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, it seems like Jesus was always talking

about the kingdom. Um in fact, he spoke about it more than anything.

If you add up how many times Jesus said the phrase the kingdom of God or or

what’s translated the kingdom of heaven in Matthew’s gospel, it adds up to 109

times. How many times in the gospels do you think Jesus said the word church?

It’s 109 to3. That’s a blowout. That That’s even a

bigger blowout than the recent Tech football games. Like that’s that’s a blowout.

Jesus would not stop talking about it. He’s like quoted in the gospels as constantly saying, um, what is the

kingdom of God like to what shall I compare it? It’s like, and then he would

say things like a farmer who who was going to go out and spread some seeds or

uh maybe someone who went out and hired some people or or somebody who was doing some account accounting. And then Jesus

would go on to explain what seemed like an alternate reality

where things work differently and often what seemed like reverse order where the

last becomes the first, the smallest seed becomes the biggest plant.

Where the poor are invited to feast at the king’s table. Where the person who

tries to preserve their life will lose it. But the person who loses his life

will keep it. That doesn’t sound right, does it? From beginning to end, Jesus

incessantly talked about the kingdom. Virtually every parable he told was a kingdom

parable. Every story he told a kingdom story. His prayers were kingdom prayers. Remember the Lord’s prayer? Your kingdom

come. Your will be done on earth like it is in heaven.

You know, after Jesus’s crucifixion and his resurrection, he

appeared to his disciples for a period of 40 days. And he must have been super

intentional with everything he said in that time.

I just wish I could be a fly on the wall there. So, think about this. You know,

you only have six weeks left on Earth. Who are you going to spend that time

with? What are your conversations going to be about?

Probably not Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, right?

You’re probably going to talk about the most important things. And I bet Jesus did that.

So, lots of people might think he probably spent that time like guiding his disciples on how they should

establish the church after he’s gone. like like, “Hey, Peter, Peter, listen up, buddy. I need I need you to pay

attention on this one. This is important.” But luckily, the first verses in Acts

actually tell us exactly what he talked about in that 40-day period. After his suffering, Jesus, he appeared

to them over a period of 40 days and he spoke about what did he spo speak about like for 40 days, he spoke about

one thing, the kingdom of God.

He just kept talking about what he always talks about, the kingdom of God. He basically held a 40-day conference on

the kingdom of God. But if Jesus spoke about the kingdom of

God so frequently, isn’t it strange that we don’t,

you know, if Jesus emphasized the kingdom, why do we mostly emphasize getting saved or church?

But that whole concept of kingdom can be so foreign or abstract that we don’t even know what it means. So that’s where

I’m going to start. What is the kingdom of God? I’ll be honest, when when I hear

the word kingdom, I get a picture like this in my head. You know, castles,

moes, knights, kings, land. In the simplest form, a kingdom is the

territory where a certain king reigns where where that king is seen as the one

in charge. If someone was traveling through this territory, would they be confused about who was in charge? It’s probably the guy in that house, right?

That guy is in charge here. That’s it’s his kingdom. So God’s kingdom is where

God rules, where he’s rightly seen as the one in charge, the one on the throne.

where his will is fulfilled, where his priority is made the top priority, the

very top priority. You know, in a kingdom, a king might say, “Hey, we need more workers in that field, or the new

road should go here. We need to fortify that wall there. It’s where God gets to

say what happens.” That’s God’s kingdom. But I’ll be honest, that doesn’t even

come close to capturing the whole concept. Uh God’s kingdom is cosmic in

scope. It’s bigger than our churches. It’s bigger than our company. It’s it’s

bigger than earth. Like it’s it’s it the entirety of all created things are part

of God’s kingdom. It’s bigger than religion. It’s bigger than faith. It actually includes all that stuff, but it

is infinite and cosmic in scope. Um,

the hard part is the kingdom is a mystery.

If someone says they’ve got this kingdom thing all figured out, you better watch them because they’re going to lie about something else, too.

That’s why you can’t like describe it directly. That’s why Jesus himself would say things the kingdom of God is like

even he was struggling to put into words something he knew so intimately because it’s hard for us to understand in our

humanity but God doesn’t hide it from us only for us. That’s what I’ve learned.

This is one of the things Jesus said. And he 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. It’s actually an invitation to this lifelong adventure

of transformation and revelation. You know, for the longest time, I

thought I’d experience the kingdom of God one day when I die. It’s like when I

would read through the Gospels, I was just assuming Jesus was describing what heaven would be like. And we’re left

going, “Gosh, that sounds nice. Doesn’t that sound nice? That sounds nice. I I

just hope I get to heaven one day and I can experience that.” You know, one of my closest friends, I was having lunch

with him one time and he said when he would read and see the kingdom of God or

kingdom of heaven, he he always assumed it was describing how things should work in the church.

Did you know the Bible never said either of those things?

Scripture teaches us the kingdom of heaven has come, is actively coming right now in the

present and will continue to come until it reaches complete fullness. That’s the

truth of it. Um, we have the authority and the charge. This is what God has given us.

Really, let me back up. I will say here, here’s one of the biggest revelations I’ve ever

seen in my life. God invites us into an active role in reestablishing his order and making his kingdom reality.

He He invites us into an active role in the here and now. He actually gives us the power to expand his kingdom today in

the here and here and the now. We get to decide whether it’s expanded and it follows us around today or not.

We have the authority and charge to expand the area over which God rules and his will is fulfilled.

He doesn’t want us just waiting around like we’re waiting for a bus to go to heaven to experience this stuff, but to

join Jesus as citizens of God’s kingdom today in bringing heaven to earth.

That’s actually what he did. He spent his whole life doing that and

it’s what he’s inviting us into. And if you’re part of God’s family, that is the family business.

Whatever place we find ourselves, we can choose to do it in a distinctly different way. One that reflects God’s

right order of things. Uh, and let me show you what that might look like at work.

It might mean showing mercy to that coworker who made you look bad in front

of the customer. Oh, hate that guy. Don’t want. Showing mercy could be

establishing God’s kingdom is ruling in that situation. Another one might be if you’re

interviewing somebody uh that you look past the fact that they’re a felon and

you see the person sitting in front of you and not just their record.

That’s establishing the kingdom of God in that moment. It could be honoring a

boss who frankly doesn’t deserve it. That could be the kingdom of God

manifesting on earth. It’s what Daniel did. It’s what Esther did.

You know, those are what it can look like for God’s kingdom to manifest on earth in the middle of our everyday work

or in the medical field. could be choosing to take care of a patient who doesn’t have insurance and can’t pay you

back for this in a school. It could be that kid who is

always in trouble and disrupting the classroom, seeing them as a person and not a problem.

All of those stories are just like the stories Jesus would tell where the kingdom of God is like a teacher who saw

things differently. Does that make sense? And I I’ll leave you with one

more thing. The crazy thing that happens is that when we do that, something

shifts in the unseen spiritual realm.

That’s the kind of power God gives us if we’ll pick it up.

One more story. The kingdom of God is like this guy named Eddie who was a

salesperson at Beenbo Homes. And one time Eddie met a customer who was moving

to town and needed a home. Perfect.

And you know Eddie discovered this customer was looking for a new home

because their marriage was falling apart and they had finally given up on it and moved out.

But you see, my friend Eddie had also gone through a hard divorce

and he figured it was no coincidence that this customer came to him and not one of the other salespeople there that

day. And so Eddie in real humility and

vulnerability shared with him his story and his struggles.

and over a few conversations gave that man the courage to move back

to DFW and try to reconcile his marriage.

That is the kingdom of God manifesting in a workday on a Tuesday at 10:22 a.m.

Who was on the throne there? you know, it’s choosing the kingdom of

God and his right order of things over making a sale. Uh, and keep in mind,

Eddie was 100% commissioned.

But Eddie saw the bigger picture and knew that’s what bringing heaven to earth would look like in that moment.

And so, he stepped up to the plate.

You know, often times for the kingdom to manifest, it takes vulnerability. It

takes really uh mercy, love, forgiveness,

grace. It’s selflessly putting someone else ahead of yourself.

It’s giving people another chance just like God gives us again and again.

You know, as I make decisions in our business or even in my family, with every one of those, I’m declaring who is

on the throne. Is it me? Is it my kids? Is it our

customers? Who is it? Who’s on the throne? I get to decide. And if I choose

to get in on what God is doing, I am literally expanding the territory over

which God rules, which means I’m literally expanding his kingdom, which

has huge spiritual consequences. That’s the kind of adventure Jesus is

inviting us into. But tragically, the church as a whole, we’ve largely lost

this whole kingdom message. And this gospel of the kingdom, we’ve

replaced with the gospel of salvation. That’s why the call of action in most

churches is to invite your friends to church so they can get saved. Salvation is important, but it isn’t

even close to the full gospel. In fact, the Bible teaches this about

end times in Matthew. It says, “And the gospel of the kingdom, the gospel of the

kingdom will be proclaimed through the whole world as a testimony to all nations and then the end will come.” Not

the gospel of salvation or or the gospel of the church, the gospel of the kingdom.

Another place in Acts tells us what Paul talked about at the very end of his life

his life. It says he Paul proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord

Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance to his very last day. Paul wasn’t like passing on propaganda

about church or salvation. He talked about what Jesus talked about, the kingdom of God. That’s what he talked

about all day, every day. That’s what he talked about. I believe Satan knew if he could steal

this message of the kingdom, if he could keep that hidden, he would rob us of all of our power and we would be through.

And so many believers are just blind to kingdom reality because of that.

Now, the message of salvation is important. Don’t get me wrong. It is important, but it’s a very small subset

of the kingdom message that Jesus shared. In fact, Jesus really rarely talked about salvation specifically. Go

look for that yourself. He he talked about the kingdom all the time.

But salvation is like the doorway into the kingdom,

but God has so much more in store for for us as we rediscover kingdom living in the present. Um, the picture I get,

it’s like God has taken me to this huge mansion that he’s so excited to show me.

And salvation is the doorway. And I’m walking in and he’s ahead of me

running. He wants to show me the slide coming off the third story. Like, he is giddy that I’m there. He wants to show

me all these cool things. But I choose to stand in the doorway and not move past it. And I go, “Oh man, no. This is

really cool. Uh, thanks for bringing me over. Wow, what a view. But I’ll stay right here.

And listen, God’s not mad at us or disappointed for doing that. In fact, he

is so glad we came over. He just wants to hang out with us.

But he did hope to show us more. But we have to accept that invitation.

So, how does the kingdom relate to the church? I want to be clear. here. The kingdom message is not a form of

replacement theology. The church is still a critical part to God’s plan and still has a place. But here’s the truth.

The church does not the kingdom does not fit within the church. The church fits

within the kingdom. The the church is one place in God’s kingdom where his

rule should be established. Right? Things of the church, they should work. They should be ordered like God wants

them to be. But if we stop there, if we never bring it past there, we miss the

whole point. We’re supposed to be take ground and to

expand his territory into all of our spheres of influence, not just church.

And when we’re submitted to his rule, every place we step our foot

becomes kingdom territory. That’s how that works.

You know, over the past decade since we’ve heard this message, uh, the Lord has been showing us the craziest things

around Beanbo, uh, I believe the Lord really wants to show me and you how life

works best, and it often is different than how we think it is. I think he wants to show me

a a new way, a different way to run a home building company. Um, that often

makes me feel crazy or unorthodox at the very least. It often feels backwards really. That’s because much of it isn’t

natural. It’s it’s actually supernatural.

It’s me stepping into that alternate reality that Jesus describes where

the master must become the servant. must

where you have to die in order to live where where those who are the strongest are

actually the weakest and it’s those that are the weakest that are actually the strongest.

Did you know that Jesus never said seek first about any other pursuit or purpose

other than the kingdom of God but seek first the kingdom of God and

his righteousness. The Cal translation of right righteousness, that’s like a religious word to me, is his right order

of things. So, seek first his king, the the kingdom of God and his right order

of things, and all of these things will be added to you. And the verb form used

there means it’s to be continuous. This isn’t a one-time thing. Seek it and when you find it, great. It’s a continual

thing. We’re supposed to be seeking the kingdom of God our entire life.

our entire life. But 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. You know, not long ago, I noticed this verse in Luke.

Um being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered

them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor they will nor will they say, look, here it

is,” or therefor behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.

It’s there in the midst of you. If if you’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. You know, my friend Eddie could have chosen to make a sale that day

if commissions and numbers were what he was seeking.

Our lives reflect what we’re seeking. If we’ve chosen something besides the

thing that has eternal value, which is God’s kingdom, it will show up in our lives until in pursuit of that lesser

thing, we lose the greater thing.

But I need to confess something at this point. When I started at Beenbo,

I did not believe God cared anything about my work.

I I figured he didn’t want me to steal or maybe he he didn’t want me to cuss somebody out probably, you know, he

probably doesn’t want me to speed either. I still do that sometimes. Uh but I had swallowed this quiet lie that

Sunday is sacred and Monday is secular.

That faith belonged in my private life. That I’m supposed to sing there,

sell here, pray there, produce here, but keep them separate. Right? very clean, very

compartmentalized and neat. But the Bible has so much to say about work, which in all of its different

forms is mentioned more than 800 times. Would you believe that’s more than the

words for worship, singing, praise combined?

The Lord has a lot to say about our work. But like most Christians, I kind of

viewed my work as simply a means to an end. I I’d bought into this pagan notion

that really leisure is good and work is bad. We wish we could avoid it, right?

We only do it because we have to in order to buy groceries and pay our bills,

but really we’ll retire as soon as we possibly can, right?

Okay, this is for somebody. You know, when I read through the Bible, I see no precedent for retirement.

the way we define it in America at least like where we’re we’re going to save up

so one day we could just disconnect live off our savings and enjoy life to where

we no longer add value to the community around us. We take all this knowledge we’ve accumulated over a career and we

just take it over here and we’re going to go fishing or play golf or something. I can’t find precedents for that in

scripture anywhere. Maybe the Lord doesn’t want us to have work that we feel like we have to escape

from. God intended for work to be a blessing,

not a curse. You know, he gave us the gift of work before the fall, before sin

ever entered in the world. What what sin did is it made it inevitable that sometimes our work would be frustrating

and seemingly meaningless. But God’s intent the whole time was that we would

work. He gave Adam and Eve the gift of work before the fall. It was his plan the whole time.

Not that we sit in the heavens, but that we work, that we produce something, that we follow his model of that. He is by

nature a worker. In the beginning, God what?

Created. You can’t get out of the first verse before you realize God in his very

nature is a worker and we get that from him.

His intent from the very beginning that is that work would be a blessing. So maybe he needs to give us a different

vision for what our work can be. You know, many of us have been misled by

this sacred secular distinction which teaches that only work in a church or a

nonprofit is full-time, you know, Christian service. That’s real. But in

scripture, Jesus certainly gave no general call to everybody for all Christians to give up their everyday

work. Did you know over 50% of his parables actually come from everyday

work? They were about a guy farming or accounting or paying people or something

out in the marketplace. Maybe Jesus wasn’t just simply teaching us what God

is like, but helping us understand what application can be in our work because

that’s where most of us are. He was trying to bring us past theology and go

look how this could work differently. And Paul also emphasizes this positive

view of work and actually commands all Christians to continue in their work and to do it well. And it’s apparent from

three different letters of Paul’s own writing that he continued in his trade

of tent making even after his quote call to full-time ministry. Paul continued in

his occupation. How do you think he engaged with people? That’s a great place to do it. Hey, want to buy a tent?

Hey, let me tell you about this guy I met. You know, that would be the similar pattern for

the early church. We see Christians giving glory to God in and through their

occupations. Martin Luther taught that we actually respond to God’s call to love our

neighbor through our everyday work.

Through our everyday work. With that view, the platform of work can

become the primary place our faith becomes action. Each time we make a decision or perform

a task, it’s an opportunity to show co-workers or customers or business

partners something different. We can model the love of Christ.

We can show in tangible ways that we care more about people than profit. Honestly, our faith should inform the

quality of the product or service we provide. Uh how we deal with customers, the price we charge, how we interact

with our own team members, how we handle conflict, and every other aspect of our work.

Ancient Jews had this deep understanding of how faith and work come together into

their lives. And I want to introduce you guys to a Hebrew word, avoda.

At least that’s a West Texas pronunciation. Avdar. Uh, this word

jointly means work, worship, and service.

Isn’t it crazy? They only have one word to describe all three of those things. Work, worship, and service. Seems like

it’d be confusing. Uh the various uses in scripture of this Hebrew word shows

us that God’s original design and desire is that our work and our

worship and serving would be a seamless way of living.

There’s no need to make a distinction between them.

In some verses, the word avoda means work, meaning like you’re out in the field uh working. And in other verses,

it means worshiping or serving the most high God. Let’s start with Genesis 2. The Lord God

took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

That word work right there is the verb form of avod. And the English translator

got to that verse and he was like, “Okay, this seems to be in a garden.” So

they probably mean work there, like sweat your brow. So that’s what they put. So when we read our Bibles, it’s

work. But the word is avoda. Um, but he could have said worship or

service. But let me show you another passage. This one is in Exodus.

This is Moses speaking to Pharaoh. This is what the Lord says. Let my people go so that they may worship me.

Their worship, the word behind that in the original text, Avoda.

So it would have been equally as valid of a translation for them to say, “Let

this is what the Lord says. Let my people go so that they may work for me or alongside me. So they will serve me,

not you, Pharaoh.” Do you understand why Pharaoh might have had a problem with that? Like some of

these make more sense when you know this. Pharaoh didn’t like the idea of them working for they work for me. What

are you talking about? But he understood this concept too. And then finally, but

as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord, says Joshua.

And once again, same Hebrew word, avoid.

So Joshua could be saying, “We’re going to work for God,” or, “We will serve

God.” You see, Joshua would likely say he meant all three things.

In fact, Joshua would be confused why we have three words for the same thing.

That’s why Eddie’s work in sales was work

and worship and service. You know, ancient Hebrew also doesn’t

have a word for secular. It’s kind of interesting because even a

small Hebrew boy knew there was nothing that could be apart from God.

That concept doesn’t even make sense, y’all. If God wanted to teach them a distinction between between things that

are holy and things that are not, he would have taught his chosen people that concept and they would have had a word

for it. But they don’t because that’s not how he thinks about

it. So maybe we need to change our own mindset about that.

This avoa is this beautiful picture of an integrated faith. A life where work and worship come from the same root,

that same foundation. And look, it’s not just the results of

the work that matters to God. The labor itself where we apply our skills to take

care of something uh to serve other people or make something more value valuable is just as sacred to God as the

worship that happens on this stage on Sunday morning. It’s just as holy to him

if it’s work done with him, alongside him, for him.

Did you know that the first time scripture says that the spirit of God came upon someone,

it was a construction worker? That’s kind of crazy. Surely it was to

help him prophesy or something. No, it was to help him do his construction work. The spirit of God came on him to

help him do his work. I’ll let you look that one up yourself. Exodus 31. There’s your homework. Uh,

you know, my closest friend Rick Beanbo often shared a funny image that that got

stuck in my head. He said he sometimes pictured God up in heaven in a a

recliner is what he said. I guess God can be in a recliner. And he’s like pro back and the angels like run over to him

and they say, “Lord, you got to come see this. Your people are down there and they are really worshiping you.” And

it’s like an aroma to God. And so he leans over in his recliner and he takes a big whiff and he says,

“Or are they working for me because it smells the same to me.”

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, which

God cares deeply about. Okay, I need you to close your eyes for

a minute if you haven’t already. Picture your first meeting over the next

week or or the hardest task that’s ahead of you. I want you to picture that.

Now, picture the person at work who will be the hardest to love.

Everybody knows that person, right? There is your full-time ministry.

There is your mission field. Pray with me. King Jesus, I offer you my

work. Teach me what it can look like for your kingdom to come

and your will be done in the middle of my workday as it is in heaven.

May my labor be worship. May my service be an act of love to my neighbor.

Amen. Hey, I want to tell you, we are very practical people. I’m actually not a preacher. I’m a home builder. Just a

home builder. So, the rest of our day is like going to be filled with a hundred ways people are doing this in their

everyday job. But I hope this foundation that we laid helps you understand why we

believe that’s important. the power that God offers us if we’ll see it this way and pick it up.

But before we move on, I’d like to end with a couple of reflection 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? If you saw your work 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 call to love your neighbor?

And then number two, what would it look like for you to invite God into your everyday job?

If Jesus rode alongside you in the truck or went to your meetings, do you think he’d have something to say about how you

go about your work or interact with other people? We’ll give you a few moments to reflect

on that. Thank you for your time.