Unearthing a Sense of Purpose in Your Work: Jordan Raynor

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? Yeah, 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 to Zoom. Welcome to Family Life Today, where we want to help you pursue the relationships that matter most. I'm Shelby Abbott and your hosts are Dave and Ann Wilson.

You can find us at familylifetoday.com or on the Family Life app. 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 you know, it would sort of swept across the league and it's a league of copycats. So, you know, I remember thinking they are like, if you got a spiritual influence in your locker room, they're going to tell your players playing football isn't important. Only worshipping Jesus in church is important. And I was like, that is not what the Bible says. Well, think about it.

Think about the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy and peace. An owner is 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 on Jordan Rayner Day. Jordan Rayner Day. Because it was a year ago we had you, I didn't know this, but the exact same day talking about some of your other books. But Jordan, welcome back to Family Life Today.

Dave and Anne, 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. You have to to write a book called The Word Before Work, right? 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, yeah, and your energy, but man, when you bring up the topic of work and God's perspective, you light up. Why? Because I have a very similar story to you, Dave.

You do? In the NFL. You were in the NFL? I was in the NFL. Can't you tell? Five or six.

We both look like we play, yeah. So when I, 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, 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 going to pat me on the back. Say, way to go.

Maybe write me a check. I don't know, whatever. It just looked me like square in the eyes like, yeah, I got to be honest, that sounds really dumb for you. That's what he said. Yeah, that's what he said. For you.

For you. And I said, what the heck are you talking about, Rick? 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 one, 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 128, long before the Great Commission, we find the very first commission to humankind, which P.S. is never rescinded, even post sin, 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.

Spoiler alert. But that message changed my life and it's why I'm so passionate about it today. So go back to that Genesis one to subdue the earth, like explain, go a little deeper into that. 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 ward. Then you get to fill the earth. Yeah, exactly.

Then you get to fill the earth. This is different. Most scholars agree this is not just have babies. It's to create culture, right? We treat, you know, I talk about this in my children's book, The Creator in You. We treat the sixth day as the end of creation. Day six is 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 that... Yeah, 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-honored way, obviously. Most people would say no, but the yes. But Dave Wilson!

Dave Wilson would say yes. It wasn't really enjoyable in Detroit. That's right, that's right.

I sure got a win to be in Detroit. No, but yeah, it's entertainment. But this is what we're 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 image bearers.

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 Ten Commandments, for crying out loud. Yes, the fourth command is a command of 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 than other work. I told you as we're walking over here, my story coming out of college, I'm a brand new Christian, maybe a year and a half, I get an offer from the Cincinnati Bengals to come to camp as a free agent quarterback. And I go to my spiritual mentor, who was not an athlete, but he's my mentor and I don't have a dad, I don't have anybody really to ask.

I have Anne's dad saying, go, go, go, you gotta take this opportunity. But I want a spiritual advice. I want somebody that's got wisdom from God to open the Word of God and tell me what to do. And I told you, he looked at me and said, if you go to the NFL, you are out of the will of God. The will of God for you and everyone else is full-time Christian work.

And I literally said, okay. And I'm not saying, look at me, I'm not saying I would have been some great player in the NFL, but I didn't even try because I thought that was secular and less than and spiritual was the will of God. And that was his mindset that I think a lot of people carry. Yeah.

A lot of people. I did not have your mindset that I could work unto the Lord. Well, it was your friend's mindset.

It's 100%. So I think there's a couple of roots to this. One is this false divide between the spiritual and the 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 spirits. I think if you asked Jesus about his spiritual life, he'd look at you like you had three heads.

I go, 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 to it. Oh, that's so good, Jordan.

That's it. Instantly sacred. You've just brought God. Everywhere you walk is sacred. So that's number one. I think the source of this is this false divide between the spiritual and the material.

I think the second one, and this is gonna open up a bigger can of worms. I'm not sure you guys wanna 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 20 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 gonna 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. Yeah, that is, I mean, I get fired up because- Well, I wish Jordan would get fired up. Yeah, you know, you gotta bring a little energy. I'd be like, I need to listen to him every single morning along with my Bible of this perspective of work.

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, well, 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 is that as you are going, make disciples, because the perspective was I've got to stop what I'm doing and go. Go to Africa, go to some kind of call to vocational Christian work.

And he's saying, no, no, no, no, you got a different mindset. As you are going as a plumber, as a doctor, as a school teacher, as a janitor, whatever it is, stay at home mom, 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.

It could be in a sewer underneath the street or a NFL coach or you name it. Yeah, a hundred percent. This doesn't get talked about nearly enough in churches. 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.

It's this, to get really nerdy, it's called an aorist tense passive participle, that word go, right? 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 gotta 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, right? Well, it's so interesting, Jordan, because 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 gotta 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. It's hard, it's toil, yeah. It's hard, it's 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 gonna be perfect once again. Anytime I have a buddy who hates his job or her job, I point him to Isaiah 65. It's one of the most beautiful promises of scripture. Isaiah's talking about the new earth. He says so explicitly, I think in verse 17. He says, see, I will create new heavens and a new earth.

Then he goes on and 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 five with Jesus, the King, and that includes good, perfect work that we will long enjoy. You should probably write a book on that. I should probably write one, huh?

How about next year on Jordan Rainer Day? There we go. Yeah, we're gonna have you back next year cause I've seen a preview of what you've written and that is such a different perspective on heaven. And by the way, it's a biblical perspective. It's in the Bible. Especially, I can remember having a son that was very tech IT, analytical. And I remember him saying, going to heaven sounds terrible if all we're gonna do is sit around and sing. Not that singing's bad, but you know, that sounded incredibly boring to him. And did you have that similar thought as a kid?

A hundred percent. And this is related to what we were talking about before, this divide between the spiritual and the material. 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 three 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 inch of 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 one, 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, 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 in 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 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. They know their work matters and they do it with excellence. I even brought up the blemished land comp set from the Old Testament. Don't offer God a blemished land. Give him your best.

Don't show up at work and just give it. You know, you give everything you got. 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 pointed to excellence. We claim to be image bearers of God. Amen?

Yep. 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 gonna work with excellence. You're gonna work hard.

You're gonna work with care for people beyond their productivity. You're also gonna 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 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. Yeah, last night. I did because I wanted to. Me too, I was doing prep.

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're Dave.

You have this church, you know, blah, blah, blah. He goes, one of your guys, he's a high school kid, works 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? He goes, and I didn't know this kid, but he was like, he shows up early. He cares for people. I mean, he goes way out of his way to, he's so caring.

He just, he's a model. And then I look at him like, well, that's great. Why are you telling me that? 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 busboy.

That doesn't matter to him, it mattered. A hundred percent. There's lots of talk about exile right now. In the West, we feel increasingly like we're in exile. First Peter is a letter to exiles. And what does Peter say in First 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 think about this- What do you mean by that?

Explain that. Yeah, so in the 10 Commandments, or 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 gonna 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 a parenting, very much work. Were you able to grab that perspective when you were stay-at-home mom? Yeah, 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 what I'm doing down here?

Like, this is nothing. And I felt like God was saying, this is a worship moment, Anne. 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 37, 23 is one of my favorite verses. It says, the Lord directs the steps of the godly and he delights in every detail. Every.

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 and an accordance with God's commands, every time you make a latte and create a spreadsheet and land a deal with excellence and love and 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 want to hear more and Dave Wilson will be back in just a second to continue to remind us of what it means to work unto the Lord.

I'm Shelby Abbott and you've been listening to Dave and Anne Wilson with Jordan Rayner on Family Life Today. Jordan has written a devotional, a week-to-week devotional, but it's actually a year-long study and it's called The Word Before Work, a Monday through Friday devotional to help you find eternal purpose in your daily work. If your heart is led to come alongside us in the mission of developing godly families today, you can partner with us and we'll send you this devotional that Jordan has written as our free gift. You can go online to familylifetoday.com or give us a call with your donation at 800-358-6329. Again, that number is 800, F as in family, L as in life, and then the word today. Or you could feel free to drop us something in the mail.

Our address is Family Life, 100 Lakehart Drive, Orlando, Florida, 32832. And you know, books like Jordan's can really help us not only absorb daily truth from God's word, but also really train us on how to communicate that truth to other people. Now, is there a chance that you, you, yeah, you, could lead a small group growing healthier families and deeper knowledge of God in your own personal community?

I think the answer is yes. You know, we've stuffed Family Life's art of parenting small group study with key principles and practical advice on shaping your kid's character, relationships, and identity, issues every parent in your neighborhood or your church faces, because every one of us, if we're honest, is pretty much winging it. Well, we'll help you facilitate meaningful conversations about messy parenting, and help you dig into God's word through this video-based, zero-prep study. So you can have time for driving your kids around and being a homework tutor this fall, right?

You can grab 25% off for a limited time and preview it in today's show notes. All right, now let's hear more from Dave Wilson about what it means to work unto the Lord. 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 I, every time I made that walk, I 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 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. And God has put me here. Or you could get his devotional.

Or you could get his devotional and read it every day. That's good. Now, coming up tomorrow, culture tells us we need to be passionate about what we do.

But actually, passion sometimes comes later when you get good at something. We need to ask the question, what's the work behind the work? Jordan Rayner will be with Dave and Ann Wilson again tomorrow to talk about just that. We hope you'll join us. On behalf of Dave and Ann Wilson, I'm Shelby Abbott. We'll see you back next time for another edition of Family Life Today. Family Life Today is a donor-supported production