Playing On God’s Team
Scripture: First Corinthians 12:14, 18; 27-28; Jeremiah 15:16
The title of my message this morning is “Playing on God’s Team.” As many of you are aware, Fall is upon us and with the coming of Fall football season is back in action. I got the opportunity to go to one of my godson’s games a week ago and it was fun to watch the kids really go at it. Many people are now planning their schedules around football games, especially those who love to attend live weekend games and tailgate. This morning I want all of us to think about football – not the games that might be scheduled for today, but football from a spiritual viewpoint – and you will need to use your spiritual imaginations during this message.
In spiritual football, there are two opposing teams: God’s team and the team the devil manages. On God’s team He is the head coach and Jesus and the Holy Spirit are His assistants. Now let’s assume that Jesus is the offensive coordinator while the Holy Spirit is the defensive coordinator. Now for those of you who know a little about American football, the head football coach manages the team, preps players for the game, and has to know each player on both sides of the ball (offense and defense). The head coach also manages coaching duties on the sideline and decides on the in-game strategy. The offensive coordinator is in charge of the team’s offensive game plan, and typically calls offensive plays during the game. Likewise the defensive coordinator is the coach responsible for the team’s defense. Both of these coaches report to and partners with the head coach around their strategy for the game. Finally, each coach has what is known as a playbook for their team. The playbook is a notebook containing descriptions of all the plays and strategies used by a team, often accompanied by diagrams, and issued to players for them to study and memorize before the season begins. It is vastly important that each member of the team knows the playbook by heart. As I go through the message this morning I want you to keep this brief overview of American football in the forefront of your mind.
Some years ago, a well-known professional football player was selected to be on the cover of the new John Madden football video game. At the announcement, a reporter said, “Every player had a less productive year than the year before after he was put on the cover.” And then he asked him, “Do you believe that being on the Madden cover is a jink?” The player was a linebacker and the question presumed that he would have less tackles than he had the previous year. The player responded, “I don’t believe in jinks. What God has for me He has for me.” In essence, he said that being on the cover of the well-known video game would have no impact on what God had planned for him during the upcoming football season. New Light, this sounds a lot like many Christians today who faithfully believe that God is in control of everything in their life, so whatever happens in their life is part of His divine will. For example, I have heard Christians rationalize after not getting a particular job say, “I guess God didn’t want me to have it.” And then there’s the “God I don’t understand why You would allow such and such to happen.” You see, people who think this way believe that everything that happens in their life must have been the will of God. Imagine telling parents who lost a child in a shooting that it must have been God’s will for this to happen and we don’t always know and understand the ways of God. How can we say such things with a sincere face?
In thinking about this, the idea of God being a “football coach” came to mind. It’s an analogy that can help us understand why many Christians question God and blame Him for the uncomfortable things that happen in their lives. So, let’s talk a little about God’s team. Everyone who is born on this earth is by default assigned to Satan’s team because we are all born under sin. But, and this is the good part, to join God’s team all you have to do is make the request. God does not hold tryouts to see if you are capable of being a contributing member of His team; no if you want to be on His team all you have to do is ask. But remember, for every person who joins God’s team, Satan loses that person from team, so He will do everything in his power to keep everyone on his team.
Once God has members on His team, it’s time for the team meeting. Before His first meeting with His players, the Coach (God) and His assistant coaches (Jesus and the Holy Spirit) come together to develop the playbook, which I mention earlier, that outlines each player’s responsibility or assignment. First Corinthians 12:14 says, “For in fact the body (the team) is not one member but many.” So, as a good coach does, Scripture tell us the following: “But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.” (First Corinthians 12:18) On a football team, some members will have different assignments; some will have similar assignments, and some will have more than one assignment. In American football you have different positions that each person plays with the most important being that of the quarterback. His only job is to keep the ball moving on the field and to do that he must have ten other players who help him like the receivers, running backs, center, tight ends, etc. Those positions are on offense. But you also have another group of men who play solely on the defense side. In most cases there is no overlap. Now I want to pause and stress something here. In American football, a person specializes in a particular role (quarterback, running back, defensive end, etc., and those working on the special teams.) For the team to be successful, each person must perfect their role and operate in it to a very high degree. But, in spiritual football, although you have something similar you also have general positions that everyone must play. There are some specialized roles where God places a person in a specific position as was recorded in First Corinthians 12:27-28 which says, “(27) Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. (28) And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues.” I will talk more about these positions later. But this Scripture gives us an idea of both offensive and defensive positions in spiritual football.
In American football it’s not uncommon for a coach to refer to the playbook as the “Bible” and that the players must learn it inside and out for the team to be. Well, the same applies to spiritual football. Listen to what some of the players have said about the Coach’s (God’s) playbook. The prophet Jeremiah said, “Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; for I am called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts.” (Jeremiah 15:16) King David said, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.” (Psalms 19:14) So here we see how a couple of players responded to the Coach’s playbook. But what is most important is what the Coach has said about His playbook and why it is so important that every member on the team learn it and places it within their hearts. He says this, “(16) All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, (17) that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (Second Timothy 3:16-17)
In the playbook, the Coach and the Assistant Coaches also define clear expectations regarding every player’s conduct. For example, here is one expectation I found online pertaining to American football players: “In every environment an athlete experiences, they have a choice as to how they look at it, how they talk about it, and how they become successful in it. There are only two types of people in this world: positive and poisonous. Which one are you?” This sounds good from a natural point of view, but there is a huge difference in how our Coach and His assistant coaches approach conduct. They don’t give us a choice if we are going to be on their team. Their “conduct expectations” are clear. For example: First Peter 1:15-16 says, “(15) But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, (16) because it is written, ‘BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.’” In these verses our Coach lays out a very clear expectation for our conduct and what is important to see here is that He is asking us to be as He is! This is not a situation as we see in some cases where a coach says “Do as I say not as I do.” No, our Coach is demanding that our conduct mimic His. Another conduct in the Playbook is found in Ephesians 4:25, 29 which says, “(25) Therefore, putting away lying, ‘LET EACH ONE OF YOU SPEAK TRUTH WITH HIS NEIGHBOR,’ for we are members of one another….(29) Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.” Again, each player is required to know the Playbook in order to understand their positional roles and how they are to conduct themselves. To do this, they must spend a lot of time with the Playbook.
So why is spending time with the Playbook so important to playing on God’s team? Well it goes back to what I said at the beginning about the belief that what happens in our lives depends on God’s mercy because He is in control of them. To give you a clear picture I want you to visualize an American football game that you might have seen on TV. In EVERY game it is the coach’s responsibility to put together a game plan with plays designed specifically to defeat the opponent. Are you following me? Our Coach has put together a game plan from before the foundations of the world designed specifically to defeat every “play” of our opponents. Every play, every time!
And let me say this before I continue because I do not want us to miss this point. Remember when I said in spiritual football there are two opposing teams? Well although there are two opposing teams, we, individually, will have to deal with multiple “opponents” of which one is ourselves. Do you know what happens in American football when a player loses faith in their ability? A running back fumbles the fall several times and begins to doubt their ability to hold on to the ball leading to them fumbling more. This is not the other team causing this, it’s internal. So the coaches work with the running back to reestablish their self-confidence by teaching him different ways to more securely protect the football. The same happens in spiritual football. Our minds can be opponents - (unbelief, rebellion, doubt.) And our bodies can also be opponents - (aches, pains, etc.) We need to know our playbook because our Coach’s playbook contains an abundance of plays to address all three which will get us back on track. This whole process starts with knowledge – knowledge of the talents on His team and that of the opponent.
Knowledge. After putting the game plan together, the coach and assistant coaches will meet with the players to go over every play in the game plan and each player’s assignment in a given play. This takes place first in a classroom setting. For the next two or three days, the coaches will spend hour after hour with the players, dissecting the plays in different game situations and asking questions to gauge their knowledge and understanding as to what the plays are designed to accomplish. This is the same process in our spiritual football game. Second Peter 1:2-7 says, “(2) Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, (3) as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, (4) by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. (5) But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, (6) to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, (7) to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.” Peter wrote that we have been given everything we need which pertains to life and godliness, but we have to understand the Playbook in order to obtain that knowledge. The players must understand the plays and then believe they will work before the Coaches can move to the next step – practicing the plays.
Practice. The players will practice every play in the game plan again and again and again in various situations. As the plays are practiced, some players will begin to understand how the plays complement each other which will make them more committed and determined than others to perform them as they’re designed. It’s like what we read in Second Peter. The more we add to our knowledge and the more we can put into practice what we’ve added, Second Peter 1:8 says, “For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Abound and fruitful in what? For the purpose of this message, producing the intended results in our lives as outlined in our playbook – the Bible. Now, the Coach and assistant coaches have been in control of the knowledge and the practice – up to a point. They designed the game plan. They led the classroom interactions regarding the plays and their intended outcomes. They have spent time with the players practicing the plays to put the players in situations where they can be successful. Next is the execution.
Execution. Please hear me clearly on this point - the Coach and assistant coaches are not in control of the players. They can’t control their belief that the game plan will work. They can’t control the determination they have to execute the game plan as designed. The control of the Coach and assistant coaches ends when the players hit the field and that’s where many in the church miss it. God has given us everything we need to succeed in this life. We have the playbook, the Bible. But so many of us have not thoroughly studied the playbook. We have not been like Jeremiah – “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart.” So, it’s kind of hard for the Coach to tell us what we need to do in a given situation when we have not studied the playbook. And since we have not studied the playbook, when we run the play, it is disastrous. Is that’s the Coach’s fault? Absolutely not! It’s the fault of the players for not thoroughly understanding the playbook and being committed enough to it to execute it as it’s designed. I want you to understand this. When we say that everything that happens in our lives is because that’s what God wants to happen in our lives, we are placing on Him the total accountability for the execution of His plan in our life! We are not accepting any of the responsibility for the decisions we make that influence the situations we are involved in.
Consider this for a moment: in American football the coach never runs out on the field and get into the game and plays alongside of the players. The coach never sits on the sideline and develops plays that allow for his quarterback to get sacked. The coach never develops plays where their offensive linemen miss blocks and fail to do their jobs so he can see how they respond to failure. The coach never develops plays where the defense allows the other team to score in an attempt to make the offense play harder. Do you see where I am going with this? The coach ONLY develop plays that he believes will allow his team, both offense and defense, to be successful. Now if an American football coach understands this, why do we think God does not? Why do we think God is developing spiritual plays to encourage us to fail? Why do we think God is responsible for how we execute His Playbook? He is not! We Are! God, the coach, cannot force us to pull out the playbook, to read the playbook, to digest the playbook, or understand the playbook. That is up to each individual player.
Before I close I want you give you a couple of examples of some key plays in God’s Playbook – the Bible. Remember what we read earlier in First Corinthians chapter twelve? First Corinthians 12:27-28, which we read earlier says, “(27) Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. (28) And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues.” What we read here are offensive and defensive positions (and plays) that are in our Playbook. A role that is proactive can be viewed as an offensive position or play while a role that is reactive can be viewed as a defensive position or play. Based on this thought, the apostles, prophets, and teachers can be considered offensive positions because those roles are proactive in moving God’s kingdom forward. They are in the heat of the battle proactively fighting against the other side. Likewise, the roles of miracles and healings can be seen as defensive positions because they are in response to something the opponent has done. When we are praying for the sick, we are reacting to what the opponent’s “offensive play” and so our response is one of defense. Whether offense or defense, we will not be able to operate in any position or assist with any play if we do not know the playbook.
Some of you are going to sit down this afternoon and watch a football game. If you do, I want you to look at the players. Notice what they do. Look at the coaches, notice what they are doing. Listen to the announcers and notice what they are saying about each player – their successes and their mistakes. The announcers always highlight the elite player. Those players are the ones on the field making something happen. Those players are the ones who have learned not only their playbook, but they also have a good understanding of how their opponents play. See how many times the quarterback adjusts the play he just called at the last minute after seeing how the opponent’s defense has lined up. That quarterback can only make that change by understanding what his opponent is planning to do. Are you playing on God’s team? Are you learning the playbook so that you can be an elite player? If your response is “I’m trying” I am forced to tell you it’s time to stop trying and start doing.
So let me close with what the Coach and Assistant Coaches say will happen when we have complete faith in the playbook and execute the plays as they are designed.
“(10) For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, (11) so shall My word (the playbook) be that goes forth from My mouth; it (the plays) shall not return to Me void, but it (the plays) shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:10-11)
“But He answered and said, ‘It is written (in the playbook), MAN (every player) SHALL NOT LIVE BY BREAD ALONE (his own plays), BUT BY EVERY WORD (every play that has been designed) THAT PROCEEDS FROM THE MOUTH OF GOD (The Coach).’” (Matthew 4:4)
The outcome of the games depends on each of us!
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
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