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1: A Mysterious Business: Bringing Ministry and Marketplace Wisdom Together · Finding God at Work

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  (Transcribed by TurboScribe. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi, I'm Chris.
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  This is Finding God at Work.
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  Just a reminder that Finding God at Work
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  isn't just a podcast.
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  It's also an online course.
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  Check it out at findinggodatwork.org.
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  Today we're kicking off a new series, A
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  Mysterious Business, bringing ministry and marketplace wisdom together.
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  And we'll get more into what I mean
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  by a mysterious business, but first a question
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  for you.
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  Do you have any special memories from being
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  in a shopping mall?
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  Maybe when you were a kid or if
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  you had a kid with you.
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  For me, I grew up in the 90s
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  and shopping malls were still a big deal
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  then.
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  I had a kind of adopted grandmother.
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  She wasn't biologically related to us, but she
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  was an older lady at church named Louise.
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  So we called her Grandma Louise.
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  And because all my grandparents were hundreds of
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  miles away, she kind of filled that role
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  for me and my brother Benjamin growing up.
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  And whenever we had a birthday, rather than
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  buying us a present, she would say, let
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  me take you to the mall and we
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  would pick out our own toy, whatever we
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  wanted, our present, and then she would buy
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  it for us.
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  And that was a master stroke on her
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  part because not only did it solve the
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  problem of would we like the gift or
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  not, but it also created one-on-one
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  time with her.
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  It was like this special outing with Grandma
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  Louise, which, you know, as I remember back,
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  I don't remember what toys I got at
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  the shopping mall, but I remember being with
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  her in her presence.
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  It was this gift of love and her
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  grandmotherly presence.
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  So for me, that's a special memory from
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  a shopping mall.
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  Do you have anything like that?
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  Being in a brick-and-mortar store, not
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  online, buying something for someone or receiving a
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  gift from someone?
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  Now, if you're much younger than me, the
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  answer might be no, right?
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  Because malls were still a thing in the
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  nineties, but then the internet has eroded the
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  presence and the vibrancy of shopping malls.
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  And now you might've had this experience.
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  Have you ever gone to a shopping mall
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  that's basically empty?
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  It's kind of creepy, right?
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  Like there's maybe a couple stores, but then
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  a lot of the shops are just closed.
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  Sometimes there's a movie theater that's still in
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  business, but the rest of them all really
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  isn't.
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  And you walk around and it's just like
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  this husk of what it was meant to
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  be.
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  It's this big structure.
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  The structure is still there, but it's empty.
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  There's no life inside.
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  Even just walking around, we get this visceral
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  sense of like, this is not the way
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  it's supposed to be.
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  A structure like this should be full of
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  life.
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  It should be full of the things that
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  really matter.
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  Well, I think there's a clue there in
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  our experience, even just walking around businesses that
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  are now derelict or not as thriving in
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  the structures they once had.
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  A clue about life in the kingdom of
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  God.
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  And I know this might seem strange, but
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  the kingdom of God includes structures.
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  Okay, now my dad is an electrical engineer.
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  He's a guy that thinks a lot about
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  structures.
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  He thinks about how things connect to each
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  other.
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  And maybe you have someone like this in
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  your life, or like you're walking with them
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  around a building, and they're like, oh, that's
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  how that part of the building works.
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  That's so interesting.
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  So my dad is like this, and our
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  church building was originally built as a plastics
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  factory.
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  It was a structure for plastics manufacturing.
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  But then when we were converting it into
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  a sanctuary, we realized, okay, we can build
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  the sanctuary in this part, but there were
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  these pillars, these steel columns coming down every
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  so often, and it would disrupt the sight
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  lines in the sanctuary, two of them.
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  So they built this truss where they cut
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  off the pillars only so many feet down
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  from the ceiling.
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  And then they built these steel cylinders kind
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  of going from the corners attached to the
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  other pillars to then support those middle pillars
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  with the truss.
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  And so it's still got like the structural
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  integrity, but now the space where the people
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  are in the sanctuary is open.
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  My dad loved that.
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  When he goes around that church, he still
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  notices, he's like, see what they did.
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  My dad loves structures.
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  Structures really matter.
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  Structures really matter.
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  And yet a structure like an empty shopping
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  mall that no longer has life is eerie.
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  It's not right.
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  It's not the way things are supposed to
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  be.
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  Okay, so we're starting this series and we're
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  calling it a mysterious business to talk about
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  the structures of the kingdom of God, including
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  the structure of business.
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  I think that business is a structure in
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  the kingdom of God.
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  And I'm drawing here on the work of,
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  you guessed it, Dallas Willard.
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  So I'm just going to read a couple
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  quick quotes from his excellent book, Called to
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  Business.
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  It's a collection of some of his earlier
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  essays published posthumously.
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  Let me just read a couple of things
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  he says here.
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  Business is God's arrangement.
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  Human beings didn't think it up.
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  They put some variations on it, but it
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  is a part of God's design by which
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  human beings love and serve one another.
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  It is an extension of the basic human
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  relationships that we have in family, which reach
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  out to neighbors and communities.
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  And it is a fundamental structure of love
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  in the kingdom of God.
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  I'll say that again.
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  Business is a fundamental structure of love in
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  the kingdom of God.
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  And then Dallas goes on to say a
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  little bit about the purpose of business.
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  God gives us a point of reference for
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  determining what is good for people, independently of
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  what they want.
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  That's why it's so important in the family
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  to have this point of reference, but it's
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  equally important in the schools and it's equally
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  important in business.
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  If you look at it historically, if you
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  look at the literature regarding business, you will
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  see that the aim of business is to
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  make provision for the needs of the people
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  in an area.
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  If a business actually does make that provision,
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  it is successful.
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  Well immediately the response comes back, but does
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  it make a lot of money?
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  Here I'm going to say something that will
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  strike many people as heretical.
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  The aim of businesses is not to make
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  money, just like the aim of churches is
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  not to attract people.
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  Is it important to make money?
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  Yes, it is.
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  Is it important to attract people to church?
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  Yes, it is.
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  But that's not the mark of success.
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  And that's where we have to have a
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  different place to stand.
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  I say to you very simply that the
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  only place we can stand is in the
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  teachings of Jesus Christ.
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  Okay, whoa, there's so much going on there.
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  And we're going to have a whole series
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  to kind of unpack these ideas.
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  But I want to just pull out a
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  few ideas from Dallas there.
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  And then I want to turn to a
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  scripture passage that can help us unpack this
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  further.
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  So he calls business a fundamental structure of
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  love in the kingdom of God.
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  So note what he's doing there.
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  He's saying business is a structure.
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  It's like a container.
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  It's a place where things happen.
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  But then what's the point?
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  The point is love.
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  And then when he unpacks that in terms
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  of the purpose of business, he says, the
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  aim of business is to make provision for
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  the needs of the people in an area.
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  So business, it creates this structure, right?
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  It's profitable.
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  It creates jobs.
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  It provides goods or services.
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  People can make purchases there, right?
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  There's this structure.
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  But then the purpose, if the purpose is
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  love, the idea is that the goods and
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  services being provided are meeting real human needs
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  in a given area.
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  So that's good, right?
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  It was good that I could walk into
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  that shopping mall with Grandma Louise and she
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  could buy a present for me, a birthday
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  gift, a toy, something that was part of
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  the love and our relationship.
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  That's a good thing.
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  It's good that you can go out to
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  a restaurant and celebrate with family and friends.
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  It's good that you can go to a
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  hardware store and get the screws and the
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  wood that you need.
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  These things are good.
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  They meet real human needs.
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  But the retort that comes back, Dallas says,
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  is, but does it make a lot of
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  money?
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  We have this assumption in our culture that
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  the point of business is to make money.
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  And Dallas is challenging that.
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  Dallas is saying, as disciples of Jesus, if
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  we're in business, we gotta think about the
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  point of our business being love.
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  The point of the business is to meet
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  the needs of people, not to make money.
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  Although making money is important for the business
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  to be able to meet the needs of
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  people.
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  Money is a means to an end, not
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  an end in itself.
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  So you see how, how Dallas is saying
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  that the structure of business can hold the
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  love of God.
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  If we stand in the place of the
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  teachings of Jesus Christ, business becomes a place
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  that can hold the presence of God.
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  Wow, that's, that's really remarkable.
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  Okay, so now I wanna pivot to the
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  Bible and look at this word mystery that's
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  in the Bible.
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  Again, we're talking about a mysterious business.
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  What do I mean by a mysterious business?
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  Well, I don't want you to think about
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  like Agatha Christie novels or Rian Johnson movies,
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  right?
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  Don't think about murder mysteries.
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  That's not the kind of mystery we're talking
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  about.
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  We're talking about something that's hidden and then
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  is revealed.
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  So this is from Colossians chapter one.
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  Paul's talking about his calling and what God
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  has him to do.
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  And he says that his calling is, quote,
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  to make the word of God fully known,
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  the mystery hidden for ages and generations, but
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  now revealed to his saints.
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  The mystery hidden for ages and generations, but
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  now revealed to his saints.
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  So mystery is a Bible word.
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  Mystery is a word that shows up.
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  It's in the Old Testament.
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  It's in the New Testament.
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  And Paul's using it here to saying, there's
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  a mystery that was something that was hidden
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  that now God has revealed to his people.
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  That's what mystery means.
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  It means something hidden that's revealed.
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  So the question is, what is hidden that
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  was revealed?
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  Well, Paul goes on to link this to
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  the ministry of Jesus.
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  So think about all of the Hebrew scriptures,
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  how they have these images of like the
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  servant of the Lord in Isaiah, or these,
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  these messianic prophecies that indicate like someone's going
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  to be born in Bethlehem, these images of
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  a new Jerusalem, like in Ezekiel, the new
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  temple, and the sense of somehow God's going
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  to dwell with his people in this new
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  way.
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  There's all these hints and these metaphors and
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  these prophecies, but it's not, it's not totally
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  clear.
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  There's still something hidden there.
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  It's like, how is this all going to
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  work?
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  Then Jesus comes and he brings the kingdom
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  of God, wherever he goes and his teaching
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  and his healing and delivering from evil spirits,
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  and then he, he dies on the cross.
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  He rises from the dead three days later,
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  he appears to his disciples.
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  He ascends into heaven and they're reflecting all
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  that.
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  And they're like, he was the Messiah.
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  That's what this all was about.
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  That suffering servant in Isaiah, that was Jesus.
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  It was something that was hidden, but now
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  it's revealed.
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  That was about Jesus.
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  That, that new Jerusalem, that temple, a heaven
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  on earth.
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  Jesus is that new temple.
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  He brings the presence of God wherever he
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  goes.
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  And someday he's going to return and bring
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  heaven and earth together.
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  This was hidden.
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  We got a, we got a taste of
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  it in the Hebrew scriptures, but now it's
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  revealed in Jesus Christ and Jesus, the Messiah
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  of Israel.
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  Okay.
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  So in a way you can think of
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  a mysterious business as a Jesus business.
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  A mysterious business is a business that has
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  something inside of it.
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  That's hidden that can then be revealed.
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  And that something is the presence of Jesus.
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  And think about this when you go to
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  different businesses, right?
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  I don't mean that the business is going
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  to necessarily have like a little evangelical fish
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  logo, right?
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  On its advertising, or it's going to have
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  Bible verses pasted on the walls.
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  Although some businesses do, and that's okay, right?
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  The people who are in the business are
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  doing the business filled with the love of
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  God.
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  They're running the business in order to serve
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  real needs in the community.
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  Those people are the people of God.
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  Those people, if they're following Jesus are bringing
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  the mystery of Jesus into the business.
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  It's hidden.
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  It might not be immediately obvious, but when
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  you're in there, it's, it's being revealed, this
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  is something we talked about in our other
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  series, how in your everyday work, you are
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  revealing something about the presence of God to
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  the people around you just by doing it
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  well, by doing it out of love for
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  God, for your neighbors.
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  So this becomes true of the business as
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  a whole as well.
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  If the people who are running the business
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  are doing it out of love, the business
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  becomes a mysterious business, right?
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  It's a container for this hidden presence of
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  God that can then be revealed.
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  Okay.
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  So that's what I mean by a mysterious
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  business.
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  And what we're going to be looking at
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  in this series is how do we keep
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  the mystery in the business?
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  How do we keep the mystery in the
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  business?
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  And I mean that two ways.
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  One is literally with businesses.
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  So we're going to have interviews with some
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  people who work in business, talking about what
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  it means to them to have Jesus there,
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  motivating them, guiding them, enlivening them as they
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  do the work of business to serve needs
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  in their communities.
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  So the business itself, if you're leading a
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  business as a disciple of Jesus, the question
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  is how do we keep the business mysterious?
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  How can it not just be a business
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  that that's like that empty husk, right?
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  The shopping mall that's empty of life, not
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  fulfilling its purpose.
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  If you've got the business and you're only
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  focused on making money, it's not going to
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  be what it's meant to be.
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  But if it's a mysterious business, if it's
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  a business filled with the presence of God
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  and hidden ways, then it can be what
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  it's really meant to be.
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  Then it can become a mysterious business, a
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  business full of the life of God.
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  And then the second thing is to talk
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  about church that way.
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  There is a sense in which church also
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  has structures, right?
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  If business is a structure of the kingdom
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  of God, certainly the nuts and bolts of
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  church are also a structure in the kingdom
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  of God.
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  And you notice this when, when Jesus came,
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  he came and he created new structures.
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  He, he changed how people thought about the
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  Torah and he commissioned his apostles to kind
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  of start this new movement.
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  And we'll unpack that more in, in future
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  episodes, the study of new structures in the
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  kingdom of God.
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  But the church also has structure.
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  The church also has a container for the
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  life of God.
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  And in that sense, the church is a
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  business, not in the sense that the church
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  is a for-profit business, but it's like
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  a, it's an organization.
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  It's an institution.
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  It has nuts and bolts.
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  It has features.
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  All right.
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  And yet the church too can be empty
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  of that life.
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  This is even more discouraging to me than
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  being in an empty shopping mall, going into
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  a church and realizing this church is just
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  dead, right?
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  The people here, they're not connected to the
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  life of God.
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  There's still a building maybe, or there's still
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  a kind of an institution here, but people
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  don't know the power of the living God
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  here.
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  It's, it's so discouraging.
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  If you've ever attended a worship service in
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  a place like that, where it's like people
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  are trying to hang on to a tradition,
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  but it's like they don't really know it.
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  And yet that's not what the church is
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  meant to be.
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  The church is meant to be the structure
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  that contains the life of God.
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  And so the church too is a mysterious
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  business.
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  And so that's why I've made the subtitle
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  of this series, uh, bringing ministry and marketplace
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  wisdom together.
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  Because some of us, right.
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  As disciples of Jesus, we spend more of
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  our lives in businessy businesses.
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  We're working in quote unquote, secular workplaces or
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  in organizations outside the structure and the institution
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  of the local church.
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  Others of us as disciples of Jesus are
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  working full time in a Christian ministry or
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  in the local church.
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  Or even if that's not our job, a
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  lot of us spend a lot of time
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  in the local church, just as part of
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  our community.
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  Right.
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  And, and there are insights there that can
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  inform each other, right?
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  In as much as business people know the
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  structure side of things, they can help church
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  people with that part of church, the business
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  side of church, so to speak.
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  They're valid insights, real wisdom from the marketplace
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  that do apply to church.
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  But then similarly, right.
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  In as much as church people are in
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  touch with that wisdom of God, that presence
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  of God in Jesus Christ, they can help
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  the business people keep the mystery in their
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  business, make the business itself mysterious.
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  So we want business to be a mysterious
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  business and we want church to be a
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  mysterious business and we can learn from each
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  other and I say business people and church
• 16:13
  people, but often they're the same people, right?
• 16:15
  We're, we're learning from each other in these
• 16:17
  different areas of our life and in our
• 16:19
  different giftings and callings.
• 16:21
  It's not like these are two discreet, mutually
• 16:24
  exclusive categories.
• 16:25
  There's a lot of overlap here.
• 16:27
  And, and I want to say this just
• 16:30
  to clarify too.
• 16:32
  Sometimes the church messes up by trying to
• 16:36
  be a business and losing the mystery.
• 16:38
  We've seen this and we'll talk about this
• 16:40
  too, where, where a church starts paying attention,
• 16:42
  like Dallas said to how do we get
• 16:43
  people in the door?
• 16:44
  And that becomes the definition of success rather
• 16:47
  than we're a dwelling place of God on
• 16:50
  the earth.
• 16:51
  We're a place where heaven touches earth and
• 16:54
  where people come to know the living God.
• 16:57
  If you make the, the nuts and bolts
• 16:59
  metrics, the heart of your, your church life,
• 17:03
  then you lose the mystery.
• 17:05
  And some churches have fallen into that trap,
• 17:07
  but on the other side, right?
• 17:09
  There are some churches that really committed to
• 17:11
  like, we want to be a dwelling place
• 17:13
  of God on the earth, but they don't
• 17:14
  necessarily have healthy structures, right?
• 17:16
  They don't necessarily have those nuts and bolts
• 17:17
  things and accountability measures in place that can
• 17:19
  really help.
• 17:20
  Um, one way I think I've used this,
• 17:22
  this image before is I think about a
• 17:24
  human body, right?
• 17:25
  What if your human body had no skeleton?
• 17:28
  You'd just be a pile of, of, you
• 17:30
  know, organs and blood and skin at the,
• 17:32
  you know, it'd be, it would be a
• 17:34
  mess.
• 17:34
  It wouldn't work.
• 17:34
  Right.
• 17:35
  But what if you're a skeleton with no
• 17:37
  life?
• 17:38
  Then you're just a skeleton, right?
• 17:39
  What we need is the skeleton, the healthy
• 17:41
  structure and the life, right?
• 17:44
  That, that mystery of the presence of God,
• 17:46
  the real life of the kingdom in our
• 17:49
  institutions.
• 17:50
  Whether those institutions are businesses or churches.
• 17:53
  So I'm really excited to dig into this,
• 17:55
  uh, with you all over the next, uh,
• 17:57
  several episodes.
• 17:58
  Uh, again, we'll, we'll have some interviews.
• 17:59
  I'll be unpacking some more of these ideas
• 18:01
  from the scriptures.
• 18:02
  Uh, but just to give you something practical
• 18:04
  to leave with today.
• 18:05
  I want you to think about what your
• 18:07
  business is today.
• 18:08
  What's your work today?
• 18:10
  Are you working in a business?
• 18:11
  Are you working at a church?
• 18:13
  Are you working in your home?
• 18:14
  What's your business?
• 18:16
  And how can you welcome the mystery of
• 18:18
  God today into that business?
• 18:21
  Maybe it's just as you start your work,
• 18:23
  opening up your hands and saying, Jesus, I
• 18:25
  welcome your presence here today.
• 18:27
  Let me reveal some of who you are
• 18:30
  to the people around me today.
• 18:33
  God wants to make your business, whatever it
• 18:36
  is, a mysterious business full of his life
• 18:39
  in Jesus Christ.
• 18:43
  Lord Jesus, thank you that the mystery has
• 18:46
  been revealed, but we know we can find
• 18:47
  the true fullness of God in you and
• 18:52
  that that connects to every aspect of our
• 18:54
  lives and our real daily work, whatever it
• 18:57
  is, we ask that you would help us
• 18:59
  to open ourselves to that mystery and to
• 19:02
  attend to the structures that are there for
• 19:05
  us in your kingdom with wisdom and with
• 19:08
  insight and with diligence, show us how to
• 19:10
  bring those things together.
• 19:12
  Do your work on us as we do
• 19:13
  our work.
• 19:19
  Thanks for listening.
• 19:21
  Finding God at Work is a production of
• 19:22
  Mission Central, a ministry based in Aurora, Illinois,
• 19:25
  dedicated to forming Christians for mission in everyday
• 19:28
  life.
• 19:29
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• 19:31
  listen to this episode to get 10 minutes
• 19:33
  of teaching on faith and work every Thursday.
• 19:35
  To get resources to go deeper with each
• 19:37
  podcast series, read our blog, and get info
• 19:40
  about upcoming courses on faith in the workplace,
• 19:42
  go to our website, missioncentral.church.