This episode is supported in part by the Christian Standard Bible, a translation designed to be faithful to the original text and clear for everyday readers. We're grateful for their partnership in helping bring gospel-centered content to families like yours. To learn more about the CSB, visit csbible.com. I think if you asked Jesus about his spiritual life, he'd look at you like you had three heads: like, oh, you're talking about my life? I hear a lot of people use this term secular work.
Here's the deal: secular literally means without God. That's what it means. If you are a Christ follower, You believe that the one true God literally dwells inside of you everywhere you go. And so the only thing you have to do to instantly make your quote unquote secular workplace sacred is walk through the front door or log onto Zoom. Welcome to Family Life Today, where we want to help you pursue the relationships that matter most.
I'm Dave Wilson. And I'm Ann Wilson. You can find us at FamilyLifeToday.com. This is Family Life Today.
So, early, I think, first five years of being the Detroit Lions chaplain. I don't know if you even knew this. There was a. Belief among owners in the league that teams should get rid of their chaplains because chaplains are telling their players that what they do as an athlete and their work is not important. Only God is important.
I remember this because you were worried. And you were also frustrated because it was a misbelief. Yeah, but it would sort of swept across the league and it's a league of copycats.
So, you know, I remember thinking they were like, if you got a spiritual influence in your locker room, they're going to tell your players playing football isn't important. Only worshiping Jesus in church is important. And I was like, that is not what the Bible says.
Well, think about how it matters. Think about the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, and peace. An owner's probably thinking, This is what we do not want.
Somebody that has those principles in the locker room.
So you can understand their fear, but they don't get it. They don't get it. And we're going to get it today because I think that belief isn't just at one time in the NFL, it's all over the place. We have Jordan Rayner back. Welcome back to Family Life Today.
David Ann, I love hanging out with you guys. Thanks for having me back. Yeah, so you, I didn't know this. You've written seven books in three years.
Something like that.
So you like to work. I love to work. I love, you have to write a book called The Word Before Work, right? Yeah. The Word Before Work.
What a great title. A Monday through Friday devotional to help you find eternal purpose in your daily work. I don't know if I've met a person more passionate than you. On this topic. Yeah, I mean, on, yeah, on your energy.
But man, when you bring up the topic of work and God's perspective, you light up. Why? I spent the first 10 years of my career as a tech entrepreneur. And about halfway through that journey, I was in the process of selling my second company. Just trying to figure out what I was going to do next.
When you sell two companies, the natural thing is to go start a third.
So that was the plan. But one Sunday we went to church and we had a guest preacher preach a sermon I think most Christians have heard before. This sermon that made me feel so guilty about wanting to go start another business when there was a need for people to move to mud huts 5,000 miles away from home to quote unquote make disciples of all nations, right? Right, right. And so my wife and I felt this tremendous guilt and we started praying about, all right, maybe, maybe there's another path.
Path one is go start another business, but maybe we need to be going down path two and go start a church. And so we're praying about these two paths. I'll never forget it. One Sunday after church, I had this godly mentor of mine pull me aside. And he said, Hey, I hear you're thinking about planning a church.
And I'm thinking this guy's gonna pat me on the back. The way to go. Maybe write me a check. I don't know, whatever. And just look me like square in the eyes: like, yeah, I gotta be honest, that sounds really dumb for you.
That's what he said. Yeah, that's what he said. For you. For you. He's like Jordan.
You're a talented entrepreneur. You've created a lot of jobs. You've served your employees and your investors really well. And I've seen you come fully alive when you do that work. Why in the world do you think you have to go plan a church in order to do ministry?
Don't you get that your work as an entrepreneur is ministry? And I looked at this guy like he had three heads. I was like, I have no idea what you're talking about. He's like, here's what I want you to do. With this conversation in the background of your mind, I want you to go reread Genesis 1, which you probably read 200 times in the context of this conversation and tell me what you find.
And what I found changed my life forever. I saw that. Long before God reveals to us that He is holy, Or omnipotent or loving, he tells us that he is a God who works, a God who is productive, a God who creates, and then. Fast forward to Genesis 1:28, long before the Great Commission. We find the very first commission to humankind, which P.S.
is never rescinded, even post-send, to fill the earth and subdue it, to take the raw materials of creation and just make it more fruitful for others' benefit and enjoyment.
So I didn't go start a church. But that message changed my life and it's why I'm so passionate about it today. Wow.
So go back to that Genesis 1 to subdue the earth. Like, what does that mean? Because we've all read that scripture, but not all of us have taken it to that point. Yeah. So there's a lot of components of this first commission, right?
First is be fruitful and increase in number. We know what that means. Have lots of babies, fill the maternity warp. Then you get to fill the earth. This is different.
Most scholars agree this is not just have babies. It's to create culture. We treat the sixth day as the end of creation. Day six was the beginning of creation. It's when God passed the baton to us and told us to fill the earth like he did.
Then you skip down to this word. Subdue, and this is where things get really interesting. Subdue the earth. What does that mean? Wayne Grudem, a famous theologian, editor of the ESV Bible, says we've had him on.
Wayne's great. He says that subdue literally means, quote, to make the earth more useful. for human beings' benefit. and enjoyment. End quote.
And isn't that what players in the NFL Are doing every single day making this world more useful for human beings' enjoyment, doing it in a God-honoring way. Most people would say no, but the yes, the enjoyable in Detroit. That's right, that's right. Sure, got a win to be no, but yeah, it's your entertainment. But this is what we are doing every day.
We are imaging our heavenly father, who first and foremost, before he shows up as a preacher, shows up as a creator, and are taking this world and making it more useful for our fellow imagery. That's the very thing we were created to do. And keep in mind, we're still in Genesis 1. This is prior to sin entering the world. Sin comes on the scene in Genesis 3, and work becomes difficult.
But even after that, even after work is cursed, God still reiterates the first commission after sin over and over and over again. In Genesis 9, after the flood, first words to Noah, fill the earth again. It makes the 10 commandments for crying out. Loud. Yes, the fourth command is a command to Sabbath and rest, but it's also a reminder that we're called to work six days a week, right?
Work is God's first gift to humankind.
So, where do we get this idea? And it's a Prevalent idea that spiritual work is better and more important. I think there's a couple of roots to this. One is this false divide between the spiritual. And material, right?
The word spiritual doesn't appear in the Old Testament. Doesn't appear in the Old Testament. You know why? Because all of life is spiritual. I think if you ask Jesus about his spiritual life, he'd look at you like you had three heads, like, oh, you're talking about my life?
I hear a lot of people use this term secular work. Here's the deal: secular literally means without God. That's what it means. If you are a Christ follower, You believe that the one true God literally dwells inside of you everywhere you go. And so the only thing you have to do to instantly make your quote-unquote secular workplace sacred is walk through the front door or log on the circle.
That's so good. That's it. Instantly sacred. Everywhere you walk is sacred.
So that's number one. I think the source of this is this false divide between the spiritual and material. I think the second one, and this is going to open up a bigger can of worms. I'm not sure you guys want to really unpack, but in the last 200 years of church history, for the first time in church history, we have treated the Great Commission. To make disciples as the exclusive commission of followers of Jesus.
This is very new in church history. I got many, many theologians who have said prior to 200 years ago, nobody interpreted Matthew 28 as the exclusive mission of the church, right? Is the great commission commanded of every follower of Jesus? Absolutely, non-negotiable. All of us are called to make disciples, but we have a dual commission.
We are called to the first commission to fill the earth and subdue it, and the great commission as we go about. That first commission, and oh, by the way, in our increasingly post-Christian context, guess what? It's not pastors and full-time missionaries that are making the most disciples. It is mere Christians, entrepreneurs, baristas, and accountants who are working alongside people who are never going to darken the doors of a church.
So, we have to bring the church to them.
So, ironically, By making the Great Commission the only commission, we're becoming less effective at the Great Commission because we're making people feel guilty about going to work in the very places most likely. To carry out the Great Commission and make disciples.
Well, I mean, Jordan, I'd love to hear your comments on this. When you talk about the Great Commission, I remember in seminary, so 20, 30 years ago, maybe 40. Studying Matthew 28, and for the first time realizing that the word go. Is actually a participle. And again, if you don't know English, you're like, oh, so what's the big deal?
Most of us go, oh, participle, that's an ing word.
So, what he's really saying is what you just said. That's why it hit me: as you are going, make disciples.
So, what you just said is literally the call of Jesus on our lives, the great commission means wherever I send you, make disciples. Yeah, 100%. Most biblical scholars that I've read. Agree that the NIV translation, go and make disciples, is a really poor translation of Jesus' words in the original Greek. Dramatic ramifications for you, because as you said, Dave, the better translation is as you are going, make disciples.
And oh, by the way, Jesus himself didn't go more than 200 miles away from his hometown and he was the greatest disciple maker of all time.
So if we're telling our people that we've got to go away from our current vocation and location to make disciples, that's a slap in Jesus' face because Jesus didn't go very far and he changed the world forever with the gospel of the kingdom. Hey friends, Ron Deal here, Director of Family Life Blended. Did you know Blended and Blessed? The only worldwide live stream designed for couples and blended families is free this year, Saturday, April 18th. We're going to be live in Oklahoma City.
If you show up there, we're going to charge you for lunch. But other than that, it is free. Free to live stream. Churches can bring a group of couples together and enjoy the day. Absolutely free.
Gayla Grace is going to be with us. Davey and Christy Blackburn. Cheryl Shoemake is going to be with us. Kathy Lipp and Brian Goens, RMC. It's going to be a wonderful day.
I hope you can join us. Learn more and get the link in the show notes at familylifetoday.com. Especially as Americans, we work to retire. You know, work is like, oh, I have to go to work. The way you're living feels like, oh, I get to go to work.
We have this mentality that work is this terrible thing. And it sounds like you're saying, no, work is this gift that God's given us. Yeah. And listen, we got to be careful here, right? The three of us love what we do.
Yeah. And I have a lot of friends who don't. And they feel more of the effects of the curse in this specific area than we do.
So I tried to as hard as toil. And listen, that's the reality. What's been lost, though, in the conversation is that there's still creational goodness in all good, God-glorifying work. All work was created to be perfect good. And oh, by the way, One day, It's all going to be perfect.
Once again, anytime I have a buddy who hates his job or her job. I poemed Isaiah sixty five. It's one of the most beautiful promises of scripture. Isaiah is talking about the new earth, says so explicitly. I think in verse 17, he says, See, I'll create new heavens and a new earth.
Then he goes on, he says, My chosen people will build houses and live in them. They will long enjoy the work. Of their hands, they will not labor in vain, right? Contrary to this American caricature of heaven as a glorified retirement home, our eternal reality. On a new material Earth, right, that is not exclusively quote-unquote spiritual, contains work.
And what that means is if you hate your job today, look forward expectantly to the day when you will long enjoy the work of your hands. And if you love your job, may that fuel your anticipation for eternity. Heaven isn't boring. Heaven is the most epic adventure of all time because we will be ruling and reigning forever and ever. Revelation 22:5 with Jesus the King.
And that includes good, perfect work that we will long enjoy. Those who claim that saving souls is all that matters, that's a slap in the face of Jesus because Jesus came to make everything new. And the curse of Genesis 3 broke the spiritual and the material realms.
So unless Jesus returns and restores every part of this material world, this earth, and makes it like new again. Then his redemption is incomplete, but his redemption is incomplete. We know that he's won back every square into creation. And that gives value and meaning to the material things that we do today because he has redeemed them. He has redeemed this earth.
He has redeemed our souls. And so working with both souls and the material world, whether you're working, grinding coffee beans or making laptops or creating spreadsheets, whatever it is. That is good work because God never once renounced his claim that this material world, in the words of Genesis 1, is good. You know, it's interesting. That leads me to ask this question.
So if I'm a Christian and I understand this right perspective, how does it change the way I work? Because when the NFL was sort of saying, you know, and I had a head coach who was like, he came to chapel. He disagreed with that idea, but he wasn't sure, you know, and he said to me, can you speak to this? I did a chapel on it. And he said, you got to do that chapel every year just to remind us.
And one of the points I made is. You know, here's what's going on in the league. There are owners saying we don't want. Christian players on our team because they're going to care more about God than what they do on the field. I said, They should, if they understand what a Christian player understands about work, they should be begging for you to be on their team.
You know why? And I would go off. You know, I'm like, you should be the hardest working people in the locker room. You should be there first. You should leave last.
Why? You're not playing for an owner. You're not playing for a paycheck. You're playing for the king of kings. He's giving you a gift.
He's giving you work. It matters. Your intensity should be unbelievable. You should be the most caring person in the locker room. You're loving people.
It should be like, I don't know what these people are, but I want those kinds of guys in the locker room because that's how Christian workers work. Am I right? 100%.
So if you get this high-level concept that work is a gift from God, a good gift, and whatever work you're doing today, so long as it's not explicitly out of line with God's commands, is good, then the practical outworkings of this are endless. You point it to excellence. We claim to be image bearers of God. Look outside your window. How does God work?
How does God create? I was just in Zion National Park. Excellence falls so far short of describing the God of the Bible, but that's what we can ascribe to. And so if you believe your work matters. And you're an image bearer of God.
You're going to work with excellence. You're going to work hard. You're going to work with care for people beyond their productivity. You're also going to work with rest because you know that the God of the universe loves you on your most and your least productive day, right? And that you can rest and still find favor as His child.
I could go on and on, but when you get this, when you understand that your work matters to God, the practical outpourings of what that means shape at a very practical level how you do your work. That's why I wrote what I think is the first daily Monday through Friday devotional. Which is really cool. Yeah, to help people connect the word to their work because the implications of this are legion. I did a whole week of your devotional last night.
What? I think I was doing prep. I bet you were. I mean, I wanted to read through what you wrote. And I remember the first year we started our church in Michigan, I was at a restaurant near where we started it.
And this. Owner comes up. I didn't know the guy. He says, Hey, this is my restaurant. Can I talk to you a minute?
And I'm like, Oh, no. And pulls me sort of aside. He goes, Hey, I heard, you know, you're Dave, you have this church, you know, blah, blah, blah. He goes, One of your guys, he's a high school kid, worked for me as a busboy. And then I'm like, oh, what did he do?
And he goes, He is the best worker I've ever hired. I go, what? And I didn't know this kid, but he goes like he shows up early. He cares for people. I mean, he goes way out of his way to, he's so caring.
He's just, he's a model. And then I go, I don't know. I look at him like, well, that's great. Why do you tell me that? He goes, are all your people like that?
And I wanted to say, yeah, but of course not. But I thought, what a picture of the way a Christian works in what many people would call a secular job. A bus boy, that doesn't matter to him. It mattered. 100%.
There's lots of talk about exile right now. In the West, we feel increasingly like we're in exile. 1 Peter is a letter to exiles. And what does Peter say in 1 Peter 2? He says, do good, live good lives amongst the pagans, not retreating to your Christian subculture, engaging the city, rushing into dark places, going and working in that industry that you think is God forsaken.
For the glory of God, so that people could see your excellence and your love and your genuine care and they get glimpses. You're scratching off little glimpses of the eternal kingdom of God and the God who is king of all things. This is so good. And now I'm thinking as a mom of the stay-at-home moms or dads that are feeling like, I want to get back to work, but my husband and I, we've committed to being home with the kids. And so I remember that stage when our kids were little and I felt like, I have no life.
I have no life. I have no value because so much of my value was in my work. And so I was trying to get a perspective of, God, I know that this is a gift. I know that you've given me these kids and they're a gift to us, but it feels like it's nothing. Jordan, what do you say to those parents that are home?
I've been so encouraged that those parents have found this devotional book to be helpful because I make very clear in the book, listen, we define work. As the thing we get paid to do. That is not how God defines work. God defines work so broadly that his definition of work in Exodus 20:10 includes animals. Working, right?
That's called work. I think it's more helpful to what do you mean by that? Yeah, so in the Ten Commandments, we'll get to the fourth commandment, and he issues the Sabbath command. God says, Let the animals rest from their work. It's the same word described as human labor, right?
So this term is very broad in scripture. And to me, that's very encouraging because I think we can define work very broadly as not the thing we get paid to do, but basically the opposite of leisure and rest. And so, you, parent, you're a stay-at-home mom, stay-at-home dad, you're doing the work that God has created you to do in this season. And that work is just as important.
Now, society's not going to value that work. Right? Very much. But the God of the universe does. I mean, look at Mary.
I think Mary's all the evidence that you need. Elizabeth is all the evidence that you need. Exodus chapter one, which is all about mothers and women, is all the evidence you need that God calls that work of parenting very much work. Were you able to grab that perspective when you can?
Well, I can remember being at home and I can also remember cleaning toilets. Like, this is my life now. This is it. But I remember praying, like, Lord, do you see? Do you see what I'm doing down here?
Like, this is nothing. And I felt like God was saying, this is a worship moment, and every one of these moments is you're wiping bottoms and you're wiping noses and you're cleaning toilets and no one sees and no one's applauding. I'm applauding every one of those little and big tasks. No matter if you're speaking before thousands or if you're all by yourself cleaning your toilet, I see it and we're applauding it in the heavenly realm. Psalm 3723 is one of my favorite verses.
It says, The Lord directs the steps of the godly. And he delights in Every Detail. of their lives. Not just when you're sharing the gospel. Not just when you're donating money to church, although he certainly smiles upon those things.
Every time you change a diaper with excellence and love in accordance with God's commands, every time you make a latte and create a spreadsheet and land a deal with excellence and love in accordance with God's commands. Our Heavenly Father sees it. He delights in it, and his delight is eternal. Hebrews 6:10, he will not forget the work that we do for him. He is not unjust.
He'll remember it forever. It contributes to his eternal pleasure. And so that should fuel our purpose and pleasure in the present. I was going to ask you, Jordan, to speak to the person that's struggling with their job. And you just did.
I just thought that's what you would say. It's like, I remember when I was coaching high school football, I'd be walking down the ramp to the high school field. I was just a volunteer coach, but every time I made that walk, I put. Prayed and I remembered what I'm doing here. It isn't trying to win football games.
It's I'm a light for the kingdom. I'm loving these boys. I'm modeling to them what a man looks like. I'm like, I am working unto the Lord, and this is a beautiful thing. But I had to remind myself as I walk because I get caught up in football.
And then that's good too, because it's part of the work. But it's like, no, this is what I'm about. You just did that. I was like, man, if somebody's listening, it's one of those, I'm going to play Jordan's words over again before I go to work today because I need to be reminded. It's going to be hard.
This is not an easy job, but it matters. Or you can get his devotion. Or you can get his devotional reading every day. That's good. Man, I love Jordan Rayner.
He is, he's such a systems guy. He's such a Bible guy. And again, his book is called The Word Before Work, a Monday through Friday devotional to help you find eternal purpose in your daily work. And don't we all need that sometimes? We just need to be reminded.
This has an eternal purpose, even in the mundane days. And so you can find his book at familylifetoday.com. Just click the link in the show notes. At Family Life, we really believe strong families can change the world. And when you become a Family Life partner, you help make that happen.
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