The End of Enterprise

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

There is a perception among many Christians that the world we live in is morally neutral. I know that here at Trinity Evangel, that is not a new thing for us. We’ve heard this a lot. I know that we’ve heard plenty about the fact that there’s no neutrality. everything is either submitting to Jesus or it is not submitting to him. But I am gonna say it again because first the Bible tells us that reminders are good for us and second and maybe more importantly I do think that there is a a lot more depth to this truth that even us here at Trinity don’t yet grasp and apply, specifically when it comes to our good works, neutrality as pertaining to our good works.

I think there’s still a lot more for us to uncover and apply. We all know that Christians divide life, that many Christians divide life into two categories, right? We, in the first they put all the spiritual endeavors and call that category sacred. So Bible reading, prayer, church, missions, evangelism, this stuff belongs to God. It brings us closer to Him. And so it’s held in this special sacred category. This is what most Christians refer to when they say good works. Everything else, unless it’s clearly sinful, is held in this neutral category. So education, politics, science, art, and business, these earthly things are neutral playing fields.

And so they are called secular, meaning that they have no religious association. These things can be used to serve God, or they can be used to lead us into sin, but they themselves don’t have any kind of moral value.

So 2 plus 2 equals 4 is not good or bad, because it doesn’t have any direct correlation with faith in the God of the Bible, neither does voting or chemical research or painting or running a business for that matter. All of these things are morally neutral. That’s the second category. So like I said, I know that here at Trinity, explaining that is not new. I know that we believe that living life that way is not okay, it’s not good. We are Kyperians, whether or not we like that label. And we understand that Jesus is Lord over every thumbs-with. We do see transcendence in the common and we want to honor God with the ordinary world of work and food and play. We want to spend and use our time, our money, our strength to build with excellence in all the spheres. We want to honor God with all of our good works. This is what we teach and what we try to live like here at Trinity evangel. But we have a lot more theory about how it’s supposed to work in our heads, then actual practice under our belt, which is fine. That is okay. That is good

because the first step in anything is renewing our minds, is learning with our minds. And the second is then repentance that orients our heart, renewing our mind, orientation of our heart. But then after your head and your heart are set right, we are to put our hands to the plow. So in order for us to build anything in Marysville and beyond, we need zeal in our head, in our heart, and in our hands. And a lot of the things that we’ve built and are building so far in our community, in some sense, revolve mostly around our head and our heart. So the church, ECS, Comfort College, and the likes are all focused primarily on getting our head and our heart in the right place. These institutions are wonderful and are a huge blessing. They are doing and are intending to do a lot of good and there’s still a lot of work to be done in all of those things, we do need more people to care and to work to keep moving those institutions forward, to keep the ball going further downfield in these things that

are molding us. But these things, these institutions, are things that are molding us as tools for the building and battling project. of the things that we’ve built so far are forges. So they are blacksmith shops that are crafting us into the right tools and the right weapons. If we’re gonna make Marysville a destination, if we’re going to build and battle in such a time as this, we’re going to need a lot more people founding and building a lot more things out there, applying what we’ve all learned in here. We need more people founding and building things out there as we apply what we’ve learned in here. So a part of the reason for this Build and Battle series is to try to move the work out of our heads and into our hands to apply what we know.

The Apostle Peter calls his audience in his second epistle to be all the more diligent to confirm your calling by putting their faith to work. And in a similar fashion, we are calling our church to be diligent to confirm our knowledge by putting what we’ve learned to work. So not just knowing it, but doing something with all of that. And one of the first places where we can and should apply our worldview out there is in the area of work and business. So that’s what I’m gonna talk about tonight, business. What does building effort look like when it comes to the sphere of business? What does it mean to have good works at work?

What does it mean to build a business under the lordship of Christ? What is the objective, the goal, the whole point of a business? What is the end of enterprise? That’s my topic, the end of enterprise. And I’m gonna have three points. So if you’re taking notes, mental or physical, three points for the end of enterprise. The first point is the main point that I’ve already introduced. But here it is again, because it is the foundation for all of it. So point number one is Jesus is God. Jesus is God. The Lordship of Christ is the starting point for all of our life, including not just the definition of good works, but giving us the end of all enterprise.

If we approach our work in building a business apart from the starting point that Jesus is God, meaning if we think that business ownership is a neutral playing field that’s neither good nor bad, we’ll take one of three paths. So one of three paths when we think that business ownership is neither good or bad. First path of moral neutrality in owning a business is defining good works apart from business. Good works apart from business. When our perspective toward business ownership is a neutral one, we see business at the neutral means to an end. So it can be used for evil or it can be used for good, but in itself our business does not have any intrinsic moral value. The business is just maybe a necessity for me to have then a real opportunity to shine my light in a different sphere apart from business. Business is a necessary maybe distraction from ministry and actual good works. We know that work is necessary for life under the Sun. We need to work. We know that we need to feed ourselves and our

families and so we build a business to do so. It’s not directly connected to kingdom work, at least in our mind. We may even feel guilty that we don’t participate in missions or ministry more often. We don’t have much time because we’re so busy in our business. But it’s okay because we have our business and then we do have our ministry efforts to justify our time here on earth so we could cleanse our conscience outside of business. Maybe the whole point of my business is to fund my ministry. My ministry and good works are apart from business. So good works and business are separated. The second path of moral neutrality in business is trying to place good works in business. So I’m trying to find good works in business. Perhaps some of us do see that owning a business can have streams flowing out of Eden to bring eternal purpose to the ordinary, right?

So we see that business maybe has some kind of opportunity for us to have an eternal impact. And maybe we see opportunities for ethics and evangelism within our business. We get excited and we maybe even start referring to our business as our ministry. We can shine our light within our company so that our employees and our customers can see our good works and maybe be saved. The work itself, for which our business exists, the actual work that we do, the products we make, the services we provide, the profit that the business accumulates, is still just a means to a different moral end. So like a lion hunting his prey, our business simply gives us an opportunity to get close to unbelievers so then we can snatch them into the kingdom.

Whether I do construction work or manufacturing or run a restaurant or anything else that my business maybe does, that doesn’t really matter because my business is just a means to an end. It’s ethics and evangelism that justifies my time here on earth and my business is providing me with that opportunity. I do ministry and good works in my business. Or the third path of moral neutrality in business is trying to have good works with business, trying to have good works with business. This is when we talk about our company culture in a way that makes it sound like the business itself, again, the actual work that the business is doing still has no transcendent moral value apart from the culture that we’re creating in the business.

Again, if my business is morally neutral, it doesn’t really matter what the business is doing. On this path, I’m very focused on cultivating relationships through kindness and culture, so that I can have my business culture be the light that shines into the world. I want my business to be used for the glory of God, And the only way I can see that happening is if I’m doing good things with my business. So, each one of these side-step approaches to businesses, to business ownership that many Christians have, so either good works apart from business through, meaning business is a necessary distraction, or good works in business through ethics and evangelism, or good works with business by developing a pleasant company culture in order then to shine my light.

Each one of these approaches sees the business of the goods for profit as neutral territory. Now, all of these perspectives, although might have bits of truth mixed in there, are rooted in one deceptive lie, and it’s a big deceptive lie, that Christ does not care about the actual work the business does. That Christ does not care about the actual work the business does. Jesus doesn’t care about me framing this house, or making this sale, or cooking this food, or creating this spreadsheet. What Jesus cares about is missions and ministry, or ethics and evangelism, or kindness and culture. Everything else is only a means to an end.

That’s what moral neutrality pertaining to our business says. Jesus doesn’t care about the business as an end. He only cares about it as a means to an end. But moral neutrality in any sphere is a lie that blows its attack at the center of the gospel. The lordship of Jesus is the heart of the gospel. When God saves sinners, He opens their hearts to believe, their eyes to see, and their mouths to confess that Jesus is Lord. And again, many Christians will agree with that statement just like they agree that we are to have good works. The disagreement happens in what we place under the rule of Christ. What does His Lordship entail?

My personal life, the church, the future kingdom. The confession, Jesus is Lord, does not end at the boundary of the church or personal ethics. It extends far beyond past the borders of the four corners of the earth, and it includes all things. Colossians 1, 16 through 20, for by him, by Jesus, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things. And in him, all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning. the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. The lordship of Christ does not end at soteriology, so things pertaining to salvation. The kingdom of God does not end at conversion. The gospel does not end at evangelism. Jesus is the Lord, the Creator, and the Reconciler of all things, with everything called to obey Him and submit to Him. This means that elevating the spiritual parts of our life as sacred and devaluing the most Material parts as secular isn’t is an unfaithful way to live because it is not true There is no neutrality in this world it all Belongs to Jesus and it’s either submitting to him or it’s not submitting to him So 2 plus 2 equals 4 because Jesus says so Logic and ration and rationality only makes sense because God is a God of order Beauty is not in the eye of the beholder because Jesus sets the standards for beauty.

And free market economics, freely trading your labor for profit, is itself a moral good. The Lordship of Christ is the pulse of the Gospel, sending streams of lifeblood through every area of His domain. The Lordship of Christ is the pulse of the gospel sending streams of lifeblood through every area of His domain. So perhaps the Bible doesn’t name every sphere explicitly that is under His Lordship, so we use the word all. It does say all to cover it, but it does explicitly say that God is sovereign over free market economics. The Bible does say that God cares about and is in control over every for-profit endeavor.

You could open up James chapter 4 verses 13 through 15. James 4 13 through 15. Come now you who say, today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit. Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. Yes, the point of that passage is to humble the businessman, to not have him trust himself, but to trust the ultimate principle of his business. Who is the Lord? The Lord controls free market trade and the Lord has a vested interest in who makes how much profit.

Christ cares about everything in this world. It all belongs to Him, including each of our businesses. Our business matters because Jesus is God. We don’t need to try to Christianize business by taking it for Jesus. It’s already His. We just need to acknowledge that. So that’s point number one. Jesus is God. The second point is business is good. So Jesus is God and business is good. Because Jesus cares about all of it directly, Good works are not indirectly demonstrated in business. I’m going to say it again. Because Jesus cares about everything directly, good works are not indirectly demonstrated in business. Meaning, in order for us to have good works, we don’t need to make business a means to a different end.

Business itself is good. Business is not a distraction from our good works. What makes business morally good is not ethics and evangelism. And cultivating a healthy culture is also not what makes business good. The idea of owning and operating a business is itself a God-honoring endeavor in and of itself, apart from how it’s run or what the owner does with the prophets. Business and profit are themselves vessels of God’s mercy. Too many Christians approach business as a neutral zone that we can Christianize in order for it to be good. But it’s already good. So how is business intrinsically good? In what way does business honor God directly? So even if it’s being misused, the idea of free market economics, the idea of a profit, the idea of enterprise, of business, how is that idea intrinsically morally good? I have four things. First, business ownership is good because serving people is good. Business ownership is good because serving people is good.

So what is a business if not an organized way to serve somebody? What does a business exist for? A business exists to serve a customer. To have a business, you need somebody to serve. And having a customer is what makes the business. Every single business has that same purpose, to serve a customer. This exists for the sake of serving others. And what makes serving customers good is not indirect opportunities to do good for those customers. What makes serving a customer good is not indirect opportunities to evangelize to that customer or to demonstrate your ethics by your honest business dealings. Serving people is good in and of itself.

If somebody needs something done and you did that thing for them, you did a morally good thing. So if you built a house for somebody to live in, who needs a house? You did something that is morally good. If you machined a part that will go on an airplane and enable people to fly to where they’re trying to go, you did something morally good. Serving people with physical needs is morally good in and of itself. the whole idea of even the office of the deacon is that physical ministries of mercy are morally good things. Serving a customer is good and so business is good. Second, business ownership is good because work is good. Serving a customer is good and work is good. God created us for work and in our work, in the act of working, we image God and demonstrate our dignity as image bearers. When your hands are dirty and your back is sweaty, or when your head is thinking and you’re trying to solve problems, in those acts of labor, in those acts you are demonstrating, we find our glory as image bearers by reflecting our maker.

And one of the most fundamental ways that we do that is by applying ourselves to work. Now, what if you’re demonstrating God’s glory by working yourself and you’re making it possible for others to do so by providing jobs for them? You’re doing even more good things, right? Yes, creating jobs and putting people to work are good works. It’s not just company culture that makes employment good or bad. Yes, a bad culture sucks and a business owner is wrong if he cultivates a bad culture. He may even be in sin by doing so, but employing people, giving them jobs is not morally neutral ground. Creating jobs is a good endeavor.

When you’re giving people an opportunity to demonstrate their image-bearing quality as workers, You are doing something good. Because we find our glory in our work, by imaging our maker, work itself is morally good. And so business ownership is good. Serving customers is good, serving people, and working is good. And third, business ownership is good because progress and innovation are good. Progress and innovation are good. Material progress is God’s blessing on mankind. So technological advancement in agriculture, medicine, transportation, hospitality, food processing, construction, and every industry is God demonstrating his mercy and kindness to humanity.

God is showing us his love and his care in these material blessings. And when we neglect the opportunities we have to be a part of God’s design for human flourishing, We are neglecting godly opportunities for mercy. Business and free market economics have done more for extinguishing poverty, feeding the hungry, and raising living standards than any charity has ever accomplished. And it’s done this by contributing, it has done this not by contributing money to charity, but through the act of improving business practices, elevating quality standards, and producing goods more efficiently. By acting like a business, business is making the lives of other people better.

And that’s why all cities, including ours in Marysville, are always trying to attract business owners to start businesses in those cities. They know that cities with businesses increase the standard of living for the people in that city. Loving and serving the poor is what God calls us to do. And by enabling progress and innovation, business does exactly that. Elevating standards of living is good, and that’s why business is good. And fourth, business ownership is good because enjoying the fruit of your labor is good. Enjoying the fruit of your labor is good. First Timothy 5.18, For the scripture says, You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain, and the labor deserves his wages.”

This is a principle that Christ and the apostles build on. Or Ecclesiastes 5, 18 and 19, Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot. everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil this is the gift of God. Enjoying the fruit of your work is a gift from the Maker. Seeing profit and enjoying that profit are gifts from God. And actually not being able to enjoy the fruit of your labor, not being able to enjoy that profit is evil, the Bible says.

Because he asked these 221, because sometimes a person who has to cope with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. Something is amiss when a person works for something and then is not able to enjoy the fruit of his labor. Something is off. When God gives us the opportunity to enjoy His blessings, we should accept those opportunities with gratitude. It’s not wasting your life to enjoy the gifts that God gives you. And if we neglect them, if we neglect the gift, we’re neglecting the giver. Profit itself is not neutral, and it’s not evil.

God’s gifts never are. Profit is good, and so business is good. So business is good because serving people is good, work is good, innovation is good, and profit is good. Serving people, work, innovation, and profit. Those things are good, and so business is good. Business enterprise is where those four things intersect, making business itself very good. So that’s the second main point. Business is good. So Jesus is God, business is good, and point number three is value is goal. Jesus is God, business is good, and value is goal. These other endeavors that Christian business owners pursue are of course not useless.

They are also good. ministry outside of business is obviously not a bad thing and and demonstrating our ethics and seeking opportunities for evangelism within our business is also very good and a healthy business culture that brings joy to your employees and customers is very very good all of these things are inescapable if you’re a business owner who wants to be a consistent Christian So if you want to be a consistent Christian in business, you’re gonna be doing these things as well But the goodness of business and profit does not depend on those things So even an unchristian business owner can be doing good works that God will get glory for and that God’s common Grace applies over when he’s building a business and doing those good things So like I already said, business and profit in and of themselves are vessels of God’s mercy and blessing apart from any additional agendas that can be stacked onto it.

We are saved for good works, and building a business is a good work. One of the good works that God may have prepared beforehand for some of us to do. a business may be one of the good works that God prepared beforehand for some of us to do. A big portion of our Christian good works are to be directed at people. A big portion of our good works are to be directed at people. People are to be recipients of much of what goes under the heading of good works, whether in business or not. But people are the reason why every business exists. You cannot have a business if you’re not serving people. And in some way, every business does have some unique mission depending on who your customers are or what value you’re providing.

But before getting to any specificities, a business owner needs to understand the fundamental reason of enterprise, the mission that underlines all business. So I’ve already said that any business across any sector and any industry needs one thing in order for it to be considered a business. It’s not a business license. You can do business underground. It’s possible. Ask a Russian. It’s not employees. You can be a one-man show. It’s not profit. You’re still a business, even if you’re losing money. It’s not even a product. you’re able to sell someone else’s product. What every business needs in order to be considered a business is a customer, a person to serve.

In order for a business to be a business, that business needs a person to serve, a customer. The mission of every business is to bring value to somebody else. A business exists for the sake of the customer to deliver value to a person, to another image bearer. Value is the goal of business. A business exists to deliver value to a customer, and the key word there is value. The entire business is built around delivering value. So what is value? What is value? And once again, we come across the concept of no neutrality. If we are to define value, we are to appeal to some sort of standard. So who says what is valuable?

By pronouncing judgment in our valuation, we are appealing to a standard. And if we are to deliver value, how do we know what is valuable? The standard of our interaction with all people, including a business owner’s pursuit to deliver value to his customer, is also under the Lordship of Christ. The standard there is the Lordship of Christ. We define value by looking to Jesus. And Jesus summarized delivering value to others very succinctly in the golden rule. Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them. For this is the law and the prophets. Whatever you wish others would do to you, do also to them.

There are some moralizing philosophers who criticize the golden rule because of its active positioning. The golden rule is positioned actively. They say the better position would be to leave people alone. It’d be better to say don’t do to others what you don’t want them to do to you. That’d be better than saying do to others what you want them to do to you. And I understand the draw there. We all want to be left alone and if people were simply to not do to others what they don’t want done to them, the world might be a better place to some extent. But if that is That’s all we did. If we only did not do to others what we don’t want them to do to us, we would not ever be fruitfully filling the earth.

In fact, we would be worse off than we are today. Our lives would be worse off if we only left people alone. We are to do good for other people, and that is an active positioning. And business enterprise fits into this mold perfectly. Business is the opposite of leaving people alone. Business is proactive. Business owners are instigators. They are initiators. They deliver value. They supply because they believe in supply economics. comes first, work first, money later. A business is an organized way to love your neighbor under this golden rule mold. The business owner is the one who initiates. He risks. He goes first. Before ever receiving any money, he’s the one who pours out his money, his time, his energy, his strength. Because he cares about making people’s lives better.

He cares about delivering value to the customer. And his standard for better is that active nature of the golden rule. The standard for value is the active nature of the golden rule. This is where I think many Christian business owners fall short or miss the mark. They don’t really care about their customers. They don’t care enough about their customers. They don’t care to deliver value to the people they are serving. They’re using their customers as a means to a different end. Whether it’s directly a selfish end or maybe an indirect end to fund some other sort of ministry or some other sort of endeavor. But the customer, that image-bearer, that person becomes a means to an end.

And if we understand and believe that Jesus is God, that business is good, and that value is goal, then we are to care about excelling in our service to our customers in whatever area our business is in. We are to care about serving our customers really well, about exceeding expectations, and about winning people’s business, about having customers want to do business with us. Customers are not a means to an end for a business owner. Customers are the entire point. That is the end of enterprise. The end of enterprise is to deliver value to a customer. Period. Stop. Because Jesus is sovereign over business, We don’t need to try to manipulate our business towards some other irrelevant end.

We don’t need to justify our intentions in business with a different virtuous pursuit. In fact, we may not even try. Yes, it’s good to use money and profit for charity and generosity, absolutely. But that’s not what makes business good and neither is it its goal. The objective for enterprise is serving a customer in a profitable way. We are to build business in order to deliver value to people. And when we excel in our business by making a quality part and delivering that quality part to our customer on time with good service, when we excel in the actual work that the business is doing, instead of trying to make that work a means to a different end, then we are shining our light.

That is good work because Jesus is God and business is good and value is goal. I’m going to end with a quote from Martin Luther. Martin Luther had this to say about Christians in business. The Christian shoemaker does his duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship. God is interested in good craftsmanship. So there you go. That is building businesses. Now Q&A, if there are any. So anyhow, in college we talked about the golden rule and you’re talking about that. Every culture has it in the negative form. Every religion has it in the negative form.

Only Christianity is the only one who has it in the positive form. So it’s kind of interesting that how counter to the rest of it, and it’s also I guess another way to say this is the way, and showing that when we are putting others first in that process, the blessing that comes from that. So a follow-up question I had for you is, not everyone’s called to business, not everyone’s called to start or be an entrepreneur or something like that, but I think, as you rightly pointed out, culture doesn’t thrive, our communities don’t thrive without thriving businesses. We don’t have what we have, we don’t have schools, we don’t have thriving churches, we don’t have all those things without good businesses.

So how do the non-business people, how do you see the non-business people supporting business people, not just buying their goods, but other ways. What would you say to that? First point, I thought that’s great. And that is why it is the western free market economy that has created so much wealth coming out of a Christian worldview. And any kind of wealth in that nature that we even see on the east is from British colonies or other colonies that that that was transported to. But that actual wealth and goodness where human flourishing happens comes out of that golden rule approach. Yeah. So people who are not in business or are not called to that or called to something else.

First, I do think that the very least is for them to understand that that is also good work. So the same way how a preacher or a pastor to understand that things that other people are doing that is not preaching and shepherding people is good work. That is also good things that God has called those people to do. And then he is to encourage them in that in the same way just because you know somebody else is in the mission field or is has some active duty in a church ministry formal setting and somebody else doesn’t. Doesn’t mean that they are maybe doing better work, but that distinction is important. Second, I do think that even if we are in business, even if we’re not in business, especially like as teachers, so at the school or as parents, cultivating a a heart for caring about the thing itself, I think is really crucial.

And business gets really busy, and you get bogged down with all of the different things. And so that focus of delivering value to a customer gets lost really fast. And so to cultivate that as a standard for people who would go into business to care for the thing, to care about delivering good value to a customer, and invest your time and strength and energy in figuring out those details, I think is important. And so having that kind of culture that, hey, whatever it is we’re doing, we’re caring for the thing, and we’re not just using this thing as a means to an end, applies in different spheres, including business.

So we have not so much a brick and mortar business, but more of a digital business. So my question is twofold. First is, do you see any distinction between delivering or even over-delivering value to minister to your customer in a brick and mortar situation where you meet them, shake hands, give them an actual product versus a digital product, something they can download or experience digitally. And then second question is when it comes to serving a customer who is difficult to serve, even if they profess Christ, do you just go to Colossians 3.23 as unto the Lord? What is your mindset on that when a customer is difficult to serve and doesn’t really appreciate what you’re trying to do as you serve them.

Yeah. So regarding brick and mortar or digital, I think the experience is different, and it’s a different approach. But I think a digital market expansion has done so much more good. The fact that we’re able to learn skills or trade on a video course, as opposed to having to sit down with the teacher. That teacher is able to exponentially ship out his knowledge, and so much more people are able to learn that. I think that is a lot more of a good thing. So that’s a good thing, maximize. Sure, there’s a different experience, right? So there’s something that a personal touch could bring that a digital thing maybe can’t bring, but there’s a wind that happens on the digital front that a personal front cannot do.

And so there’s different kinds of good. I think maybe quantity of goodness is maximized on the digital front. So that’s that. Regarding a difficult customer, I think that’s a case by case. I don’t think that the customer is always right. And so depending on, and that also needs nuance and definitions. So a lot of business owners don’t understand who their customer is. They just think whoever wants me to do something for them is my customer. And so then they try to become everything to everybody. And by doing that, they’re not anything to anybody. And so understanding who your customer is is important. So when I say delivering value to your customer, well, that needs definition.

Who is my customer? And so even in the same sector, the same industry, your customer can be segmented, this kind of customer. So like the vendor beckons do remodel work. Like production builders are not their customer. It’s a whole different type. Like we do production, we do like metal servicing, metal products for production builders, mixed use buildings. Remodel contractors are not our customer, right? It’s a different approach. And so even though it’s the same industry, you need to understand that. And then even within the same, like this person is actually one of your target customers, I still don’t think the customer’s always right, in the sense that that customer can try to sabotage your delivering of value to all your other customers.

And so a customer can be creating all of your problems, and there does come a point where this is actually your target customer, but because I’m trying to deliver value to all of my customers, I need to tell this customer that I’m not gonna do business with them anymore. That is not some kind of, you know, I’m damning you, that has nothing to do with that. It’s like, hey, I’m trying to serve all my customers, and you are sabotaging that effort. So I don’t think that is unchristian behavior that still falls in line with delivering value to customers.

I guess as I listen to you, I guess I wanna, I have some clarifying questions, because I wanna understand you correctly. And I’m trying to weave my thoughts together, so it’s not like multiple questions. So businesses, and correct me if I misquoted you, businesses are a God honoring endeavor even if the business is misused, I think you said. So what I’m trying to wrap my mind around is as you were talking tonight, I was trying to gauge in my mind is he talking about any business owner or Christian business owners? Because like I’m gonna reverse the neutral lies you said, what if a Christian business owner or any business owner let’s say an unbelieving business owner, creates a top of the notch product.

And all they do is make a great product, give it to the customers blessed by it, and does nothing else, let’s say a Christian business owner, with that. There’s no desire to share Christ with your coworkers, to use it as a platform to maybe say, hey, I’m gonna take 10% of my earnings and give it to a ministry to help that ministry along. Let’s say all I do is make a good product, which is, I think the lie you were saying was Christ does not care about what a, the lie was that Christ doesn’t care about a business does.

Like would that be honoring God? Get to God if all I did as a Christian is I’m gonna make a product, sell it, give it to a customer and end it there and not go into those other areas. I’m reversing what you said. And then, is it possible for a business owner who’s not a believer to honor God, even if they produce a good product, but like I’m thinking of, for example, Ted Turner, built an empire. We all love Turner Classic movies. CNN was the first cable news network out. He did a good thing. But as I understand it, he’s an atheist. He probably cutthroat people to get to the top. did Ted Turner honor God by delivering a good product to customers even though he himself was not honoring God. So I guess I’m trying to wrap my mind around some of the statements you said. I think as a Christian business owner we should absolutely produce a top-notch product, absolutely, and then use what God blesses us with to bless others, whatever that looks like however you’re led and not just stop at the product.

But I guess I’m trying to, I need clarity, I guess, on some of the things you’re saying between unbelievers, believers, and even some of the neutral things you said. I mean, I hope every Christian business owner wants to produce a good product, or they’re not going to last, as you know. So I’m wondering if you could just shed some more light on that. Yeah. So I want to take the second one first. I think that one might be quicker, maybe. I think there’s a difference between me honoring God or God being honored, right? So a pagan, an atheist, I don’t think honors God, but God can still be honored with the work that that person does, right?

So Cyrus, we heard this morning, maybe did not have any intention to honor God by dismissing the Jews to go to Jerusalem, that was his policy. But God was honored in what he did, right? And so God used that. And so you could have a greedy, abusive tyrant of a man who runs the oil industry and does wicked things in his business practices, right? cheats and steals and mistreats employees, cuts corners, all of that. And all of the oil that he is producing is still doing a lot of good things in the industry overall with everything that oil accomplishes. And God is honored in that, in God making rain shine on the good or go on the good and the bad and the sunshine on the good and the bad.

in that common grace, the motives might be wrong in that person, in that pagan, but God is still honored in the good that is a result of that, because God is working in all of it, right? So I think there’s a distinction between the person honoring God or God being honored. That man will not get any credit. He’s gonna be damned in hell if he’s not a believer. But God is still honored in that work. In fact, through that person’s success, they become more accountable to God for not honoring him. So there is actually, God is honoring himself. That’s a good distinction between, the person is not honoring God, but God is honoring, God is getting honor, including by heaping up judgment on that person who he is enabled to do this, blessed this thing that other people can be thankful for, that other people can go to God with, and be increasing the accountability of the guy who is not acknowledging how he was able to do it.

That is honoring to God when God makes men more accountable for how they should be attending to him. Yeah, so I’m really trying to hone in on that distinction that the things that the business is doing, So serving customers, providing jobs, or the business owner working himself, instigating progress and innovation, and then creating profit. Those things are good, and so we don’t need to add other things to it in order for the thing itself to be good. We can make that thing better, we can make it even better by adding other things to it, but that thing itself is not a neutral zone, it’s not not evil or good, and it depends what I do with it.

The thing itself is good. What ends up happening is people pervert and twist it and use what God intended for good into evil, right? But the thing itself is good. And that’s what I’m trying to get at there. And so the same distinction there goes for the Christian business owner who is focused on making a good product and then just stops right there.

I have two maybe answers to that. One is I’m saying that that itself is also a good thing. And in that case, because he is a believer, and if he understands that he is honoring God by that product, it’s not just that God is honored, but he is actually honoring God. By that physical material serving of a customer, whether it’s a product or a service, whatever he’s doing, the physical good itself is honoring God. And so that Christian business owner is honoring God at that level without them having to do something else with this profits or with this culture or something else in order for this business to be good. So that’s what I’m getting at.

But then the other aspect is, I do not think that there are enough Christian business owners who care about a top-notch product.

I don’t think there are enough, I think there are way more, way more pagans and atheists who care about good quality products there are Christians. And I think that is because Christians see it as this neutral zone and then try to just use business as a means to a different end. And so they want to get out of this thing as quickly as possible. So then to be able to do something else with it that is actually more important or got honoring. And so okay, I’m just gonna sell as cheaper product as I can to as many people so that I could use that profit to find my ministry or my mission. Or I’m just gonna use an opportunity. So I’m saying that I don’t think there’s enough Christians in business who care about the actual value that is delivered. And then if they do and they’re able to then do other things, I also do think that I said that there that a Christian would be inconsistent as a Christian if he cared about value in the product but mistreated his employees or did not ever talk about Jesus to anybody, right? Or didn’t do any of those other things? I

think he would be inconsistent as a Christian, so he should be doing those things, but I’m trying to say that in the sphere of business, his focus is on delivering value to a customer, not using the business for those other endeavors. Yeah, you are trying to hone in on by separating out what God cares about and that is that is super valuable because of how many people who don’t think that God cares about actually making a good product but at the same time which is your your stating it as it would be inconsistent I like can’t imagine that this guy exists who understands what you’re saying about making a great product to please God and he’s an adulterer and he’s greedy.

So God only, I know that Jesus is Lord but he only is Lord over this good product not over my giving to the church not over my support of not over telling my co-worker who asked me why I have this hope well I can’t tell you I’m just making a good product. That’s not my focus. Yeah so I have trouble imagining that there is a person who grasps the core of what you’re describing about value and business who would not see that there’s value in other things as well in their life. Right. Where I do see a lot of people on the other side. Right. Where a lot of people value all those other things but have a hard time understanding that the actual business of delivering value to a customer is also God honoring. So that inconsistency does happen all the time.

I mean, living in the South, I remember the phone book would literally publish a Christian, or not them, somebody else would publish a Christian, Yellow Pages. And I’ll be honest, like a lot of times, just because somebody put a fish on their business, I’m like, I don’t care if there’s a fish or not, I need my plumbing fixed. And I want it done well. Amen. You know? So, and maybe this was more of a Southern culture thing, but people, I could see where people use that to get indoors, but maybe they’re not the best at what they do. Even us at MATA, the way we care for our planes, our facility, everything we do is top notch, because we want to deliver a product to our students.

We don’t want to be sloppy with how we present ourselves. So even in our service ministry is what we do, we don’t want to have a sloppy product. And that should mark us as Christians, we should be excellent with whatever we deliver and continue to use that platform, whatever God gives us, to advance his kingdom, whatever that looks like as you’re led. And not just, I believe you shouldn’t just stop at the product but keep moving forward towards an eternal purpose, because that’s why we’re here as well. So, it’s, I would say in that way, Running a business while producing an excellent product for a customer could be a means to an end, which is honoring the Lord and advancing his kingdom as he allows you to do that and convicts you to do so through that business, you know, the work you’ve been given to do.

Yeah, everything is a means to the end of honoring God, absolutely. Yeah, whatever we’re doing. And that’s the end there, that it’s the direct means of honoring God. It’s not a stepping stone to something. I think most people, not just here but in general, they would agree with that. It’s good to serve others and that business, you need a customer, you wanna serve them. I think sometimes where, and just hear your thoughts on this too, where many, in particular, Christians can maybe stumble, is oftentimes they just wanna make money and business is kind of one of those things where it’s like, okay, We’ll talk about serving customers and bringing value, but then at the end of the day, there’s money involved, and there’s potential prosperity involved.

And so what are your thoughts on, because it does seem like, majority of the time, people go into business in order to make some money, right? And of course, to do that, the only way to do that is by building value and serving your customer and all that. So just your thoughts on having money as a motive to go into business. Yeah. I think one is that a lot of people misunderstand what profit is. And so people think that profit is the owner’s paycheck. That is what it is. That’s not what it is. That’s what it could be used for. So profit could be used for the owner to feed his family. It could be used for other things.

But what profit is, is the customers telling you that you’re delivering good value. So if you’re making a lot of profit, the customers are telling you, we want more of what you’re doing. If you’re not making any profit, the customers are telling you, you’re doing a bad job. So either your quality sucks, or your prices are too high, or for whatever reason, you’re doing a bad job. So either align your prices to your level of service, or increase your service to align with your prices. So your profit is not a paycheck, it is communication from the customer. And so who the profit benefits is the customer. The customer is the one who signals the owner of forced service.

Hey, I want more of this or I want less of this. That’s why whenever prices go up, people always think it’s price gouging. Well, what it’s saying is the market is saying that there is a big need here. And so let’s flood the market with this product because there are high margins here, right? And so the business owners, entrepreneurs are flooding through that area where they’re able to make profit because the customers are telling them that they want more of that stuff. So when understanding that profit is communication from the customer, that’s a little bit of a different approach and so even when you’re trying to pursue profit, you align it with still delivering value. But then making or pursuing money even as as whether you’re a business owner or a worker, I still don’t think necessarily wrong. So the Bible has a lot to say about the fruit of your labor being a good thing.

So kind of what the things I was saying as well or feeding yourself, the stomach drives the man, right? This is the way God has designed our interactions in our world is that pursuing fruit is a good thing. It is not a bad thing and so we ought to be pursuing what is fruitful. And so if wealth and money is a part of that, that is something that is good to pursue. However, I do think that money and wealth is a weight of glory that is heavy, that not everybody is able to carry. And so like majesty, like praise, like fame, that is heavy. People can crumble under that really easy. And so it takes a lot of Christian maturity to be able to continue being faithful even with a lot of wealth. And so that requires Christian maturity where God is strengthening you in that. And so the pursuit of fruitfulness is a good thing. God wants us to pursue fruitfulness. And God also wants us to be able to handle these heavy baskets of fruit.

Well, I think that to Max’s point, if somebody got into business and said they’re not interested in the money, then either they’re going into a nonprofit or they’re not going to be in business very long because they’re not going to be focused on it enough to actually stay in business. You touched on it and I think it’s also connected to some of the things that we talked about identifying the customer. So if the profits are not there, maybe you have wrongly identified your potential customer. So if you’re looking to chase the price to the bottom, then and you’re trying to be cheap, so like you’re trying to sell for the cheapest amount possible because you think that’s going to attract more clients, but you’re doing a really bad job, people aren’t going to fund that either.

So it really is, talking about that. Another thing I was thinking about is customers, clients, and also community members, in this case. So Andy asked about, what if I’m not a business owner? Well, I mean, our community has a bunch of different talents. Some of them, people don’t even know about, You know, like there’s things that people do around us that I don’t even know. Like this person was a really good athlete or whatever. And so our community members at TEC and ECS also potentially our clients. And then do we have a responsibility as community members? And what got me thinking about this even more was today.

So we had a phone issue in our family. And I’m not tech support. The young ladies up here, like Lila Massey, were having some phone issues this evening. I told them, well, if you want some help with that, you should ask my grandkids. But Ian fixed the phone even more than the T-Mobile person did. But today, Ian had a car problem. And so I couldn’t really address the phone issue, but the car issue, now I have skills there. And so as a community, we should be trying to do a good job. But just because we don’t necessarily get paid for that, Ian didn’t get paid for working on Teresa’s phone, and I didn’t get paid for working on Ian’s car, or any of the rest of the things that so many fingers go out and do, but that’s part of our business in our group, so.

Right, right, yeah, so like living in community in a family or in this broader church body is good, and that’s different than your day job, than the work that you’re doing. And so I think, like, to Andy’s question as well about being in that community, well, in that interaction, you’re able to be a customer. You’re able to be a good customer or a lousy customer. You’re able to be a helpful customer that could help that business owner do a better job or sabotage his business, right? So the kind of customer you’re able to be in that community Also affects a lot of it has a lot to do with it. So yeah For sake of time we should not do very many more. Let’s do one more last one. So What?

Should women think about business? So I was thinking about this as you were talking as like, okay Well, this just kind of sounds like Christian virtue here and that we definitely The women do not want to be feminists if they want to honor God and then we totally swing to the Like anything that looks remotely close to business bad terrible um unless it’s like baking bread or something and then they go out of business real quick because You get tired of it anyways, and so um So should women be pursuing this in the same way. Also, side note, the Proverbs 31 passage, talking about how she perceives that her merchandise is valuable, that there is like biblical context for this, but is it like, does it have to be connected to what the man is doing? Like it’s always her supporting this business, or is it like, well, we have multiple businesses doing this together, or is it okay you need to make sure that everything else is done and then you can have a little business or like how how does that look? Yeah you’re you’re

asking me to give a hold of talk. This is not an answer to a question this is this is a series. So in short like in summary in Proverbs 31 it’s not just merchandise that is valuable, it’s land that she’s buying. She’s buying land. Like, a lot of men aren’t able to buy land, and this woman is buying land and making a good deal on this land purchase, right? And so there is a lot there that is, I think, much deeper than just like a side hustle, right? The way it’s presenting that Proverbs 31 woman is like this big household executive who is running a lot of things. And it’s much more than just selling arts and crafts on the side.

And so clearly the Bible has that as a category and even something that the Queen Mother is telling her son to look for in this virtuous woman. And so there’s that. The Bible does give us the orientation, the direction of where the woman is to be faced, right? So she is to be homeward faced in her pursuits, in her work, and depending on her season of life as well, if she has little kids, that’s different than if she has big kids. So what that looks like in her homeward orientation will be different as well. But I do think that where the man’s assignment in going out and conquering, taking dominion, and the woman given to him as a help meet in that makes it where the woman’s work is not to be in competition with the man’s work, but it’s to be a help meet to his work.

So she can’t be, I’m building my career, So you have to stop on your career, right? That is different. And so even her business pursuits are guided in a way where her husband trusts her. She is doing good to him like Proverbs 31 says, not evil, right? So her husband is trusting her and everything she’s doing is good to him. It’s not sabotaging what he’s trying to do. So kind of taking some of these, and this is a quick summary, but taking some of those categories, I think there is a lot for a woman to be able to do and that she should be doing in business endeavors, but depending on her season of life, depending on where she is unmarried under her dad’s house, married without kids, married with kids, married with older kids, all of that context is different and it will affect her intentions and her pursuits.

But wanting a virtuous wife, there is room for her buying and selling real estate, which is pretty business-y. We’ll do a series. Women in business. All right. I’m going to pray. We’ll wrap it up. Father, thank you so much for your kindness. You are so good to us. You are so big. And we are not you. We are separate from you. We are distinct from you, and that is why we’re able to look to you and wonder. We’re able to look to you and be amazed and be delighted and be curious because we are distinct from you. And you have given us a lot of work to do. There’s a lot of all sorts of different kinds of work to do. And building businesses and pursuing profit and serving customers is one of those works, of those good works. And we pray that you give us delight in our labor, joy in our toil.

We pray for this gift from you that we would love work and we would love serving people and we’d be able to do so profitably in a way that honors you and in a way that brings much good to much people. Bless us here at Trinity. May we apply ourselves to good works in Marysville. May we apply what we know with our head and what we love in our heart into our hands and may we get to work and have zeal and roll. In Jesus name, amen.