What does it really mean to "seek first God's kingdom" when you're running a business?

It's Matthew 6:33—a verse we've all heard. But what does it actually look like when you're building and scaling your company?

David takes us back to Daniel 2 and that dream about a statue. A stone—carved without hands—smashes it and becomes a mountain filling the entire earth.

That stone? It’s God's kingdom. Unlike Babylon, Persia, Greece, or Rome, this kingdom never ends because it's made up of people from every nation following King Jesus.

When Jesus shows up, He says, "The kingdom of God is at hand."

The Kingdom of God is individuals following Jesus—King Jesus. A multitude of people aligned with Jesus, seeking, loving, knowing, fearing, and obeying Him. From creation to Israel to the eternal state, God's plan has always been the same: a world of people who love, know, and fear God.

So what does it mean to seek God's kingdom in your business?

It means asking: Is this action or plan in alignment with God's way? Your product, marketing, sales, operations, customer service, treatment of clients, vendors, employees—all of it. And whenever there's a difference between your way and God's way? You choose God's way. Every time.

David gives you five specific ways to seek God's kingdom while building your business. Lead by growing yourself. Advance in faith. Work with diligence. Work with humility. And work with excellence.

You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. Seek first God's kingdom by choosing His way—not the world's way, not your way. Pick God's way, every time.

Remember: What's good for your faith is good for your business. Dig deeper into those five specific ways you can seek God’s kingdom while building your business by following this link.

In This Episode, You'll Discover:

1. What Daniel's dream reveals about God's kingdom today
2. Why the kingdom of God is individuals following King Jesus
3. The one question that transforms every business decision
4. Five specific ways to seek God's kingdom in your business
5. Why your business reflects the God you serve

Redeem your business today by the following:

How can we honor God in our business?

Stop treating business decisions like they're separate from spiritual ones. Every choice—how you price, who you hire, what you promise, how you deliver—is a chance to choose God's way over the world's way.

Before your next big decision, ask yourself: "Is this aligned with God's kingdom, or am I defaulting to what's comfortable, what's conventional, what everyone else does?" God cares about your sales process, your team culture, and your marketing copy. Do it God’s way.

One challenge from today:

This week, pick one area of your business where you know there's a gap between how you're operating and how God would have you operate.

Maybe it's how you talk about competitors, how you treat a difficult employee, or a shortcut you've been taking that doesn't reflect excellence. Name it. Then take one concrete step to close that gap—not because it's easy or profitable, but because you're seeking first God's kingdom.

More About David Schmidt

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Newsletter also comes with Bible verses for business success for you to read, apply, and be inspired by.

Website: redeemingbusinesstoday.com

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What God Says About Business

Jesus said, seek first God's kingdom and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. But what does that mean? And what does it mean and how do we do we seek God's kingdom while at the same time building our business, growing our business and scaling it and making it great? Well, let's look at this and try to define these terms and see what exactly this means and how we can do this. To seek means to go and search for, to look for something.

To seek out implies looking for something specifically among other things. I'm sure you all have helped your child look for something, look for a stuffed animal, a book, their shoes, their jacket, because we tend to lose things and our children very much tend to lose things. And for some reason, we as parents are able to find them and they are not. And so as we look at that word seeking,

let's apply to the kingdom of God. We have to seek first God's kingdom. It doesn't mean we can't seek other things, but it does mean we're to seek first God's kingdom. Jesus in the gospel comes on the scene talking about the kingdom of God. What was Jesus talking about? I think to help us understand what the kingdom of God is, let's go back to Daniel chapter two. In Daniel chapter two, there's a story of where Daniel tells,

King Nebuchadnezzar a dream. King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream of this great statue. The head was of gold, the chest and arms were of silver, the belly and thighs were of bronze, the feet of iron and the toes of iron and clay. While he was looking, there was a stone carved out without hands and hit smashed the feet of the statue and the feet of the statue broke to pieces.

It says that the iron and clay, the brass, the silver and gold were broken to pieces and became like chaff in the summer and the threshing floors and the wind carried them away and no place is found for them. And that stone, that stone which smote the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. And a few verses later, Daniel explains what that is. He says that stone, he says, in the days of these kings,

shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. The kingdom shall not be left to another people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms and it shall stand forever." You know, the first kingdom was the kingdom of gold. That kingdom was Babylon. It was not just a kingdom, it was an empire. It's a worldwide empire conquering the known world. After them was the Persian empire, conquered the known world, ruled the known world. Then after them, the Greeks.

The Greeks defeated the Persians, they were that kingdom of bronze and they were the empire of Greece. And then after them, of course, you have the Romans, the Roman empire. The Romans ruled and dominated the entire known world during their time of the empire. These empires spread throughout the whole known world. They dominated the world. But then after a time they were removed.

empire was removed, that empire was removed. But now it says in the days of those kings of the last time, there's gonna be a kingdom that God sets up that's gonna destroy all those kings and that stone is gonna become a mountain to fill the whole earth. This is an empire. This is a new empire, this is God's empire and it fills the whole earth. It says, it shall not be left in other people. Nobody's gonna overthrow it, nobody's gonna take it down.

it's gonna remain forever. This is the backdrop. This is the background of Daniel. Daniel is the background of Jesus when Jesus comes on the scene and he starts to talk about the kingdom of God.

Now, before we go on, I want you to understand that in Matthew, Jesus talks about the kingdom of heaven. In the other gospels, he talks about the kingdom of God. They're the same thing, same thing. Because back up, the Jews were carried away into captivity because of their disobedience. And when they got back into the land, the Pharisees and scribes and all that realized that they were carried away into captivity because they had disobeyed God's law.

So in order to not ever let this happen again, so it will never be carried with capital again, they said, we're going to make sure we follow the laws of God this time. And so what they did is they made, they took all of God's laws and they made rules and laws on how to follow God's rules and laws. And one of the things they did was commandment number three is you should not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

because God's not gonna hold him guiltless who takes God's name in vain. And so what they did is they looked at that commandment and they became so, in fact, so taken with not taking God's name in vain that they would not even use God's name. They would use other terms to describe God, but not use his actual name. So that's why in the book of Matthew, the writer was writing to the Jews.

And so he used the kingdom of heaven because God is in heaven, God rules in heaven, God is from heaven in replacement of saying the kingdom of God. All that to be said that the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, same thing, same thing. So let's get back to our story here. Jesus, my friends, Jesus initiated the kingdom of God. Jesus initiated the kingdom of God here on this world when he came.

I know you all think different things about the kingdom of God. You may have be clear about the kingdom of God, may not understand about it, but I want you to give me some time. Try to follow me. Try to work through what I'm telling you. Jesus initiated the kingdom of God. Jesus is the King. Matthew four, when Jesus steps on the scene, what does he say? What is the first red words in the text? It says, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Mark chapter one.

First words in red, it says, the time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel. Jesus is saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand. When he was there, he says the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Matthew 12, when Jesus talks to the Pharisees about they were undermining his authority because he was cast out demons. And they said it was by Beelzebub that Jesus cast about demons. And Jesus talks to them.

And amongst all that he says, he says, if I cast out devils by the spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come unto you. And so Jesus in casting out demons is basically saying, because I'm casting the demons out, Satan's kingdom is weak and is no longer reigning. The kingdom of God is here, has come unto you. Indeed, Jesus talked about to his disciples and said, some of you guys here,

will see the kingdom of God come in power, come in dominate, come in power, not necessarily come in rule the world in a geographical physical sense, but come in power to dominate in influence. Babylon, Greek, Romans, Persians, they dominated the world in their influence as well. But this stone that broke all those things to pieces filled the world. This stone became a mountain.

And Jesus is saying, some of you here are going to see this stone start to become a mountain in your lifetime. At hand, Jesus is saying the kingdom of God is at hand. That means it's right there, right now, ready to start. The words is at hand. If you look at the Bible in Matthew 26, verse 46, Jesus, when he was in the garden after he had prayed, he said, rise, let us be going. He is at hand that doth betray me.

And then immediately Judas Iscariot came. So that phrase is at hand means it's right now. It's right now. When Jesus said, he will betray me as at hand, that means Judas was there right that minute with the next couple of minutes. That's what he's talking about the kingdom of God. He said the kingdom of God is at hand, it's here, it's come upon you. And so what is this kingdom of God? No matter what, we'll try to refine that a little bit.

But what I you to understand is the kingdom of God is not something down in the future, but the kingdom of God is now in his hand. It's interesting in Luke 20, Luke 17 verse 20, when the Pharisees and Sadducees asked Jesus about when is the kingdom of God coming? Because they didn't quite understand what the kingdom of God was either. Jesus said unto them, the kingdom of God cometh not with observation, neither she say, lo, here it is, or lo, there it is.

for behold, the kingdom of God is within you. Jesus said that the kingdom of God is within you. So how is this kingdom of God within you? Hold that thought and we will continue describing that here in a little bit. So the kingdom of God is at hand. The kingdom of God doesn't come with observations. The kingdom of God is here. The kingdom of God is within you.

How did Jesus describe the kingdom of God? Not only did he describe it as the kingdom of God's within you, but it's interesting. I know some people talk about the kingdom of God is future and it's gonna be on this earth and in heaven and different things. That could be. I'm not gonna hear talk about the future. I'm here to talk about today. John 18, 36, Jesus talking to Pilate said, my kingdom is not of this world, else my servants would fight.

My kingdom is not of this world. Else my servants would fight. So Jesus at that time anyway said, my kingdom is not a physical kingdom. It's not of this world. Or else my servants would fight. So we know that the kingdom of God is here. We know that the kingdom is God within you. The kingdom of God is not of this world. Jesus also talks that the gospel is a mystery. It's not open. It's not obvious. He said those who are without, they get the...

They get the mystery. It's just a mystery to them. You disciples, you who are inside here, I'm gonna talk to you and explain to you what this is. Many times he said, has ears to hear, let him hear. Everybody else Jesus spoke to in parables. It was a mystery. It was something they didn't understand because the Jew in the first century believed that the kingdom of God, that the Messiah was gonna come and physically reign in Jerusalem, overthrow the Romans.

and establish a kingdom of the Jews reigning in Jerusalem at that time, at that day. And Jesus had to realign their thinking. It's like, it's not what you think it is. I don't think it is what you think it is. And so Jesus is saying, this kingdom is not right now an earthly kingdom. This kingdom of God is a mystery. This kingdom of God is within you. It's interesting. Jesus also hinted that there are changes coming. The kingdom.

that they are thinking about in the kingdom that Jesus is bringing in, there's gonna be some changes. In John four, Jesus talking to the woman at the well said, the time is coming and now is when the true worshipers of God will not worship at the temple or here, but worship God in spirit and in truth for such worshipers the Lord seeks to be his people.

So we see that in this coming kingdom coming, it's not gonna be tied to the temple. It's not gonna be tied to the sacrifices. And you and I know from looking back, it's tied to Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ has died and fulfilled the sacrificial system that God ordained in the Old Testament.

Another thing, Paul. Paul talks about the kingdom of God in Colossians 3, 1, 3, 13. He says, has delivered us out of the kingdom of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of his dear son. That was a present reality. See, we are taken from Satan's kingdom and moved into the kingdom of his dear son. This is the kingdom of God. What is the kingdom of God, my friends?

The kingdom of God is individuals following Jesus Christ, following King Jesus. The kingdom of God is a multitude of people who are aligned with Jesus, seeking to love Him, to know Him, to fear Him, to obey Him. A kingdom needs land and law in a people to be a kingdom, to be a nation. And Jesus has established a land and law of the people. It's interesting, the people,

are not one geographical people anymore. It's not like the Jews and the descendants of Abraham and Israel. That's not who fills up the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is filled up with people from every tribe, nation, and tongue and people, everybody. And that's why you have this rock that becomes a mountain and fills the whole earth because it's made up of people from every country. Land.

Babylonian Empire, Persian Empire, Greek Empire, Roman Empire, they ruled certain lands, physical lands, and after awhile somebody came in and kicked them out and overtook the land. Jesus' kingdom, God's kingdom, guess what? This mountain, this rock, fills the whole earth. God's kingdom consumes the whole earth. This whole earth is God's kingdom. This whole earth has people who love, know.

Fear obey Jesus. The laws that God has, Jesus said, all power has been given to me, therefore go teach all nations, all things I have commanded you. Jesus taught the disciples a lot of things. And he said, all these things I commanded you, go command other people. There is a law. We are not a lawless people. We have a law. So there's a law, land is the world, the people is all the people who serve God, know God, love God. And that's why

when you go back to Daniel 2, this kingdom of God cannot be overthrown. There's no geographical land that you can take away from the kingdom of God because it's not tied to land. It's just everywhere where we live. And the people, you can't corral all the people up that believe in God, like you could conquer all the Babylonians or conquer all the Greeks or conquer all the Romans. You can't do that because they are

everywhere, they're interspersed in every nation. It is a kingdom that will not end. It's a kingdom that has filled this whole earth. Jesus is the King. Someday Jesus will come back and yes, there will be a physical fulfillment, I believe, of this where Jesus sits on physical throne. But as for today, that seeking God's kingdom is not just future, it's here today.

Jesus said the kingdom of God is here. You know, Jesus also told some stories about the kingdom of God. We call them parables, but I want to go through a couple of them to help you understand that, yeah, it fits. He told the parable of the mustard seed. He said, the mustard seed is a small seed of all the seeds, and yet it grows to be the biggest plant in the garden with branches and the birds come to nest therein. That's exactly what the kingdom of God was like.

The kingdom of God expanded. Jesus started it because he's the king. He had his disciples, 12 of them that he spent all the time with. There are a of people who believed. In Acts chapter one, says after Jesus ascended into heaven, there was 120 of them, 120 of them in upper room that prayed and waited for the gift of the Holy Spirit. After the day of Pentecost, it says 3,000 people were added to their number.

Acts chapter five, it says the number of disciples grew to 5,000. And throughout the book of Acts, the kingdom of God continues to grow and grow and grow. That mustard seed was the smallest of all religions, you might say, but it is grown and increased and become great and everybody benefits from it. The leaven in the bread. So the kingdom of God is like a little leaven which a woman took and put into the three lumps of dough.

until all was leavened. Leaven is like yeast, or it is yeast. It is like yeast, and you put in the bread, you mix it up, and what happens is all the little bits of leaven affect everything around them. They all affect everything around them until the leaven is spread throughout the whole dough. And that's how the kingdom of God is like. As we, Christians, we affect those around us. We are salt and light in this world.

I am responsible and I take care of and I influence the people in my circle, the people in my circle, not the people in your circle. You are a light to the people in your circle. I'm a light to the people in my circle. And that light that we have then shines in other people and other people start following Jesus as well. And so the leaven grows and expands and continues to go throughout the whole loaf of bread, just as the gospel of the kingdom of God grows and spreads.

throughout the entire world. Jesus also talked about the parable of the pearl of great price and the treasure of great price that when a man saw he went and sold all that he had and bought that treasure. Paul talked about that. Paul said that I've experienced loss of all things, but count it but loss for the sake of knowing Jesus. I think if you look and talk to any true believer in Jesus Christ.

and ask him, what would they give to throw away their faith? And they'd be like, nothing. There's no treasure on this earth that I would give to throw away my faith. And if you didn't have it, there's no treasure on earth that you wouldn't give to obtain this faith. And so this faith that we have in God, this kingdom of God is valuable beyond price. We can't put a price to it. The kingdom of God.

is individuals following Jesus Christ, following King Jesus. To put things in perspective, just gonna do really high view, is when you look, it's interesting, when you look at creation, God created Adam and Eve, and what was the plan? That people would follow him and things would go well with him. It didn't happen. We did not get a world full of godly people from Adam and Eve, because they sinned. When God took on the nation of Israel and God,

chose Abraham and later on brought Israel out of Egypt into the land of Canaan. He gave them rules and laws. He was gonna be their God. They were to be his people and they were to be a nation who knew God, loved God, feared God, who are prosperous in this world. And they were to tell other people about him because God wanted to have a nation of people who served him and that there would be a light to people around him. Didn't happen.

In the eternal state, what's gonna happen? There's gonna be a world full of people who love God, who are forever indebted to God because he has saved them. That's eternal state, this world full of people who know love and fear of God. That is the eternal kingdom of God. But these are all similar to what we have today, similar to the kingdom of God today. What is the end purpose? What is the end goal, the end plan is that

We have a world of people who love God, know God, fear God, obey God, that things may go well for them. The plan has never changed. God wants people to be in relationship with him, to just obey him because things will go well for them then. And so this kingdom of God today is God's kingdom today. It's kind of like an expansion or similar but different to Israel.

Israel was supposed to follow God wholeheartedly, they did not end up. And so the kingdom of God today is made up of people who individually follow God. And when, not only when we're individually following God is it good, but when we get a group of people together following God, when you get a company together following God, a business, a church, all following God, that blessing multiplies. And so that's, as we look at business and seeking God's kingdom,

That's where the exponential blessing comes as you get more and more people together all in the same vein seeking one thing. So ask, ask yourself, what does it mean to seek God's kingdom? What it means to seek God's kingdom first is in your business, when you look at doing business is to ask and say,

Is this action plan that I'm thinking in alignment with God's ways of doing life or not? Is my plan of growth, is my plan of execution, is the product that I have, is it in alignment with how God wants me to live? Seeking first God's kingdom is asking in your business, what does God want me to do? Like I said, is this action plan, purpose, deed, whatever I'm doing,

Is it in alignment with God's ways? And essentially when you seek first God's kingdom, you give God's kingdom precedence. So when you seek out and say, God says I should do this over here and you are doing this right here. Whenever there's that difference, to seek first God's kingdom means you choose God's way. You don't continue in your own way, you choose God's way. Let me summarize that up. I know I said it a lot.

When you seek first God's kingdom in your business, it's asking is what I'm doing in alignment with God's way, with God's laws, with God's principles, with God's standard, with God's purpose in my life. And choosing and seeking first is kingdom means if there's a difference, if there's a difference between the way you are doing or what you're doing and what you believe God wants you to do, that you choose God's way.

not your way. See, in business, this goes with your product, with your marketing, your branding, your sales, your operations, your customer service, your treatment of clients, vendors, employees, whatever. You need to ask this question, am I doing it God's way or my way? Is my ways that I'm doing it today, is it honoring to God or not honoring to God? It's asking yourself those questions

and choosing God every single time. You see, God's kingdom, how do you build God's kingdom when you scale and grow your business? Again, you seek out God's way.

Are you gonna be perfect? No. Are you gonna do this in a day? No. But the important thing is that you start. You start today. That's why you start to redeem your business today. Buy it back today. Use it for God's glory. That's why I named this podcast Redeeming Business Today, because I want you to redeem your business, buy it back from the world's way of doing things, redeem your business, and do it today.

Don't put it off, do it today. And the easiest prayer that I've seen so many people pray is that when they give the company to God saying, I don't know what to do, but I'm willing to follow you, show me. And then God starts showing them step by step, one thing after another what to do. And this is good not just for business, but it's good for you as an individual too. You pray and say, God,

Search me and know my heart, try me, know my ways and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. That's what David prayed. Seeking first God's kingdom is essentially putting that verse into practice in your life today. And what's really cool, and I want you to get through your head, is that whatever is good for your faith is good for your business as well. You see, a lot of these things that I talk about is a lot about God's

faith in God and how God wants you to do things and all that. But understand that what is good for your faith, what builds your faith, what strengthens your faith in God is good for your business and will strengthen your business and strengthen your way you do business. Now have a free resource that I have for you. It's gonna be in the show notes, you can get it. And it talks about five specific detailed ways, objective ways that you can measure your business

with right now today that will help you seek first God's kingdom in a way that honors him. We're just gonna talk about number five. I'll go through them quickly, but we're just gonna go into detail a little bit with number five to help you understand what this is. Five ways in which you can objectively measure yourself. Are you seeking first God's kingdom or not? One, lead by growing yourself.

Two, advance by faith. Three, work with diligence. Four, work with humility. And five, work with excellence. My friends, work with excellence. Stop wallowing in mediocrity and grow, thrive and be great, because great, because your business reflects the God you serve. Do you realize that? Your business reflects the God you serve. David, at end of his life, he wanted to build a temple to God.

He was not able, so his son was gonna build it. Solomon was gonna build his temple. And David provided his whole life, saved his whole life and gave Solomon the plans. They said, here's all the silver, here's the gold, here's the iron, here's all the plans for it. This temple that we're gonna build is going to be magnificent. It's gonna be great. It's gonna be the best around so that when people come to this temple and they look at this temple, they will say,

Your God must be a great God or you wouldn't build him something like this. Yes, David wanted to build the best temple in the whole world. He had plans given to him by God and it's gonna be a magnificent temple, a very costly temple because great is the God that they serve. It is true. This temple, it's not even big enough to hold God. It was just a place that God humbled himself to come and dwell among his people.

But this temple was a representation of the God that Israel served. In the same way, your business represents the God you serve. So build your business in a way that is worthy of God's great name.

There's two guidelines, two guide rails, if you will, to help you build this business and to help determine what you should do, what you shouldn't do. Paul talks about...

Whatever you do, make sure that the gospel, you asked this question, is the gospel and God's name gonna be blasphemed because of what I do? Will the gospel and God's name be blasphemed because of what I do? If your actions are gonna give God a bad name, if your priorities are gonna give God a bad name or allow the people who don't know God and who hate God blaspheme God's name because how you act, that is not the way to go.

Not the way to go, you need to change your actions. The other thing is, are you adorning the doctrine of God? When you do the actions, are people gonna look at them saying, wow, that was really cool what that person does. That really glorifies God. Those are kind of guidelines there. But again, when you look at your business, grow a big business, not necessarily big, but grow a good, excellent business.

You should not be wallowing in mediocrity. When people look at your business and how it's operated, how it's functioning, how solid it is, not just the profit margin, but all these things, is it solid, is it firm, is it doing business? What are they gonna say about your God? Are they gonna say, hmm, they have a lot of faith and that's nice, it's, business is kind of mediocre, business isn't very great. That's a reflection on the God you serve.

Build your business in such a way so that when people look at your business, they're gonna be in awe of the God that you serve and all that you do. And that comes from building and working with excellence, not mediocrity. Don't say, it's good enough, we're Christian and you understand my heart, not my intent and not my actions. My actions weren't very good, but my intent was very golden. Uh-uh.

Your business is a reflection of the God you serve. So work your business, build your business in excellent way. Now friends, you are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. Seek first God's kingdom and all his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. Seek first God's kingdom and ask in your business, am I doing things God's way or not? Is my work adorning the gospel of God? Is any of my actions

Will any my actions cause God's name to be blasphemed? Ask yourself those questions. And when you choose God's way, and not your own way, that is seeking God's kingdom. Because God and Jesus is ruling and reigning in your life and you are being obedient to him. That's what it means to seek for God's kingdom and his righteousness. And that's what it means. And that's how you can grow your kingdom. I'm sorry. That's how you can grow.

scale and build your business while seeking first God's kingdom. One final thought and challenge. I want you to understand and remember that what's good for your faith is good for your business as well. If you're looking to go deeper and learn more about what it means to seek first God's kingdom while building a business that is thriving, reach out and let's talk. Check out the show notes for more information and for free resources and remember that your business

is reflection of the great God you serve. So build in a way that is glorifying to God. Have a good day.