Play Book
I. Introduction
Everyone who has practiced and prepared is in the game. The draft secured the needed components so perceived weaknesses have been eliminated. The crowd rises in anticipation. The whistle blows and the clock starts to tick. It is game day. The game has started.
You can spend hours in preparation. You can have the very best athletes in the whole world on the same team. However, unless they have all studied and mastered the playbook you are operating at a decided disadvantage. Unless everyone knows the playbook you can’t call the one play that would take advantage of the hole in the defense. Unless everyone knows the playbook you can’t exploit the other team’s weaknesses. Unless everyone knows, commits to, and execute the play that is called you end up with players doing their own thing, out of place, out of sync, actually getting in each other’s way and the advantage swings to the opponent. The playbook is essential for victory. The playbook is essential for unity. The playbook is even key for evaluation because you can compare the play called to the play that has been run and see whether everyone was on task and in place.
I believe we have the right players in the game. Now it is time to make sure we all know the plays. So let’s look at our playbook and see if we are on task and on target. Join me in
Luke 9:1-5; 10:1 (NIV)
When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. He told them: “Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt. Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town. If people do not welcome you, leave their town and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.”
He said, “Don’t load yourselves up with equipment. Keep it simple; you are the equipment.
This is our play. The same exact instructions are recorded in Matthew 10 and Mark 6. In fact, even as the team grows the playbook stays the same. If you continue to read in Luke 10 Jesus now sends 72 out and He again repeats the instructions.
10:1 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go.
I won’t take time to reread the same exact play but I do want you to notice the opening statement.
There it is in red. Jesus makes it very clear what our play should be. Go everywhere preaching the good news, cast out demons, cure diseases, heal the sick, stay focused, refuse distraction, don’t get weighed down with materialism, and bring peace into every place you go.
This very clear and concise playbook forces us to ask some questions . . . are we running the play? Are doing what we were instructed to do? Are we running the enemy off of territory? Are we bringing healing? Are we staying focused? Are we distracted?
I have some things I want to teach us out of this account but until we ask ourselves those questions the rest doesn’t matter. The logical conclusion is if we aren’t running the play called by the coach it means ...
A. We are trying to run something. So, if we are not running the play called by the coach, then we must be running our own play.
B. We won’t win. We won’t take territory. The coach won’t be pleased. We won’t be blessed because The Coach won’t bless rebellion!
I submit to you this morning that we will never really be effective as a team until we run the play the coach has called!
So, let’s stop here for a moment and repent and ask the Coach to help us run the play.
The coach calls the same play over and over again. Too many of us are trying to call an audible. Jesus steps back into the huddle calls He play ... 2 by 2, power right, provision left, peace 2 them, and persistence. Ready break. Now run the play. But we don’t. Why?
Honestly, I think this playbook makes us nervous. We feel inadequate to run the called play. So, our fear cause us to substitute or set out. I am going to teach you a couple of things that I think will help.
1. We aren’t supposed to run the play alone.
Although not mentioned in Luke 9 the other accounts specifically state (as does Luke 10) that Jesus demands that the play be run in pairs. I watch as so many of us continue to try to run the play by ourselves. Jesus was adamant that we need a running mate, someone to block, someone to encourage, someone to defend, someone to lean on. Someone to watch back. A wingman. You were never supposed to run this play by yourself. I think one of the main reasons we fail to run this play is because we are alone! It as I team up with a partner that the deficiencies I have are covered. When I lack faith my parter has faith. I think the truth revealed here is I am not complete in myself. It is the giftings that you bring to the table that make our play effective. You can tackle things I can’t tackle on my own. I am much more brave because of you.
2. For the play to work we must know how to run the play!
It may do us good to take a moment and look back at Luke 8 before Jesus tells us about the play. In Luke 8, Jesus first runs the play so we can see what it is supposed to look like. In Luke 8, Jesus preaches the Gospel, drives demons out of a man and sends them into the pigs, heals the woman with the issue of blood, and then finally raises a man’s daughter from the dead. He is literally walking His disciples through the play. It is like a football practice where the coach takes the ball and says ok let’s walk through this at half speed then step by step he shows each player what to do and where they are supposed to go. Jesus did that so we would know what to do. So, we have seen it done . . . We know the play can be run. But do we know how to run the play?
Jesus, The Coach, after showing play, He calls the play and then He tells us the how to run the play . . . He says run it with power and authority.
The best illustration I have ever heard on power and authority is the illustration of a police officer. A police officer has power (a gun) but he also has authority (a badge) or a vested right which is given to us by a sovereign. Both components are crucial for him to be able to carry out the duties of his job. If he uses power, but has no authority he gets put in jail even though he is a police officer. If he has no authority, then his use of power is illegal.
Power requires a source. Relationship with the Coach determines your power. In order to run the play we must have power! If you unplug from the source, then you will have no power. But power with no authority won’t stick. Jesus reminds this when the disciples come back from running the play and they were bragging about the power - demons are subject to us. Jesus stops them and makes them marry it to authority. He says look it isn’t important that scorpions, demons, devils are subject to you what is important is that your name is in the Book of Life. In other words, what is important is knowing who has supreme authority, knowing who has the authority to save souls, knowing who reigns over all those things. Our ability to run the play is contingent on shooting power through authority.
Authority comes from understanding your status or position. You have authority because you are in Christ. Jesus is saying you have the legal right/vests right or authority for these things . . . Not other things. We are trying to exercise authority over things that we have no legal right to do. (You have power to steal but not authority.)
It is only as we marry the two - we stay plugged into the source, we gain power but we also walk in authority. Our power is backed up by who backs us up. He lends His power when He knows we understand authority. If we understand authority, then He knows we won’t try to steal His glory nor will we use the power for our own benefit! So many of us are missing one of the two key components. So, I am challenging you to plug in and get back to the source. You can’t gain power if you come in here and go through the motions. We can’t leave powerless and think authority will win. We can’t rely on our status as His child but never plug in for power!
It takes both! Listen run the play. Power and authority is how we run the play! Walk into places and drive out demons and sickness with power and authority.
3. For the play to work we must prepare.
We know that Scripture says the Lord will go before us but in this instance Jesus tells the players to go before the coach! The players are supposed to to into a situation and prepare it for the arrival of the coach. If that is the play, then can I make another logical conclusion? If the Lord (The Coach) isn’t showing up, then it may be because we have not prepared the town, the home, the job, the school for His presence. God has made it clear and then reiterated it through Jesus’ play calling that He inhabits, arrives in, operates in prepared places. We are tasked with preparing the place for Him! What does that mean? It means we represent Him in such a way that it lays the ground work for His arrival so that people recognize Him when He steps onto the scene. We set the atmosphere of expectancy and faith. We operate in peace so that when the Prince of Peace sweeps in they recognize the source. We operate in justice so that when the Righteous Judge arrives. We conduct business in the light so when the Light of World arrives. We behave in relationships so that when the Friend that sticks closer than a brother arrives. We are preparing the way for Him. You can’t expect Him to show up in places where He has been consistently misrepresented! You can’t be rude and then expect Him to roll in and people recognize and respond to His grace!
When old Nebby threw 3 Hebrew children in fire he looks in and sees 4 and says the 4th who looks like the son of man. How did he a heathen king recognize the son of man? 3 guys had prepared the way by representing God so when God showed up someone who didn’t even know Him recognized Him! Are you preparing the way for The Coach?
