1. People Who Live and Work in the Public Square

2. Introduction
People in the marketplace hold jobs in a variety of professions: business, law, engineering, medicine, teaching, politics, government, agriculture, media, leisure, sports, art, entertainment If you could have any job, what would that be and why? Or, what according to you would be the most fun job and why?

3. 1. God and the Public Square
God created it
Gen. 1-2
Work matters because it was God’s intention for us
Work is not the result of “the curse”
God audits it
Amos 5:12-15; Amos 8:4-7; Jer. 7:9-11
God governs it
Gen. 50:19-20

4. 1. God and the Public Square
God redeems it
2 Pet. 3:10-13
Rev. 21:24-27
Ponzi scheme
How should we then live?
Constructive engagement
Courageous confrontation

5. 2. Missional Engagement in the Public Square
Positioned to serve the state – Daniel, Joseph, Esther
They accepted where God had put them – adapted to the culture
They worked constructively and conscientiously in the secular world
They preserved their integrity
Commanded to pray for the city and see it’s welfare
Jer. 29:7 – Abraham’s mission of being a blessing to the nations
Earn a living by ordinary work
2 Thess. 3:6-13

6. 3. Message to Christians in the Public Square
You set forth every morning into the public square that is both the world of God’s creation and the world of Satan’s usurped (and temporary) dominion – as well as the world of your participation in God’s mission
You are the Daniels of the present world – or at least, you can and you should be
You are the disciples of whom Jesus said that you are “in the world” but not “of the world”
You live and work in the world’s public square, but you take your ultimate goals and values in life from another source – the kingdom of God
You are the salt and light of the world