Charger Nation,
For those
of you that are new to our program, every Friday I send out an email that I
hope challenges us all in our relationship with Jesus Christ. I love football but it is not who I am. Football is not my identity. Football is not why I exist. I exist to honor and glorify God and enjoy
him. My calling is not to win
championships but rather to build Champions.
A Champion is a person who lives their lives surrendered to Jesus
Christ. I believe we are Champions for
Jesus Christ when we give our absolute best to maximize the talent God has give
us for his glory and his purposes. I
look and see many worldly champions that are pursuing excellence in their jobs
but are doing it for their own glory and fame.
Their lives and the things that are important to God are crumbling
around them. We were not created for own
glory and fame but rather to reflect the glory of Jesus Christ.
OPERATION R122
“Do not be conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern
what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:2
A football season is a microcosm of
life. In life there is joy, sadness,
striving, failure, success. Many
different events cause many different emotions.
We often find ourselves struggling to continue to put one foot in front
of the other. Life is a battle and a
grind. Of course life is so much more
important that a football season but I think a football season can teach young
boys how to deal with the many different events and emotions they will feel in
life and deal with in life. Another
reason why I love football is I think it is a parallel to the Christians
life. As Christians, God calls us to be
transformed people here on this earth.
He tells us to die to our selves and live in Christ (Galatians
2:20). But this process does not happen
over night. This process goes on our
entire lifetime. It is called
Sanctification. Sanctification is just
being consistently transformed in Christ.
I called these boys to put on pads
and go to work August 1st.
Much work had been done before then but the actual repetition of
football plays in pads began August 1st. Offensively and defensively we have a few
things we want to do really well. The
problem always is it takes a long time to get good at doing those few
things. As I write this today, August 14th,
we are much improved from August 1st. However, we are nowhere near where I want us
to be. We must continually improve and
get better each day. Everyday is
imperative to our success at the end of the season. What I do today will impact my success
tomorrow. It is important that everyday
we are transformed a little bit so that we will become the team we want to
become in November and December. You see
and hear me say, “Win the Day,” all the time.
Today matters! If I am not
transformed a little bit today, then there will be no big transformation later
when we look back on our season. **This
is why you can’t skip practice!!
This is exactly how our life in
Christ works. He first calls us and we
surrender our life to Christ. I sure do
wish that when he calls us we instantly became fully transformed with 0 sin and
corruption. But that isn’t how it
works. God calls us to pursue him daily
and put on Jesus Christ. We are slowly
transformed into new creatures in Christ daily.
As we pursue Christ and seek him He reveals to us our corruption and
need of Him. He doesn’t condemn us of
our sin to shame us. Condemn is the
wrong word because for those in Christ there is no condemnation for those in
Christ (Romans 8:1). He opens up our
eyes to sin and commands us to flee from sin because sin destroys us from being
what he created us to be!! God hates sin
because it destroys men—His creation!
As we surrender our life to Christ,
we have Christ but we also have the wretchedness of the flesh and our evil
desires lurking around. We have Christ
but are still wrapped and strangled in the cords of sin. But once Christ calls us he slowly starts to
transform us and break the cords and bonds of sin that entangle us. He empowers us to overcome the sins of the
flesh, the pride of life and the schemes of the devil that so easily enslave
us. It’s a battle but he is constantly
transforming. He never gives up on us as
He is making us more and more like him: “Do not be conformed to this world, but
be transformed by the renewal of your mind.”
Chargers I
am excited about tonight but I hope what you see tonight is not what you see 14
games from now. Tonight you will see the
first draft of what we hope will become a masterpiece. We will have a lot of things to clean up and
improve upon. We will have lots of areas
that will need transformation. We will
watch film and work diligently to fix all of these areas next week.
In the same
way I look up on my life now at 36. I
can see growth from 23 when I fully surrendered all to Jesus Christ. However, I see many problem areas where sin
plagues me but I look forward to God continuing to transform me to become more and
more a man of Jesus Christ. I hope that
what I am today in Christ pales in comparison to what I will become in Christ
at 40. I find great joy in worshiping a
God who loves me in spite of my sinfulness and is committed to helping me
destroy my sin, which enslaves my soul, and grow in Jesus Christ. I rejoice in the fact that Jesus Christ does
not condemn me and cast me away but instead became condemnation for me on the
cross. I rejoice in that Jesus Christ
continually works to transform us by and through his great love for us!
Win the Day!
Wholly for Christ,
Coach Gess
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