Before I get started I want to congratulate our middle school for winning again Thursday. This makes them 2-0 on the season. It’s always good to win!
Tonight we have another big game against Whitewater. Whitewater is an AAAA school with a great tradition of winning in the past. They beat us last year and they had a great football team. They have struggled early this year but they also have played extremely good football teams. They will be coming in here tonight looking to get a win and get their season back on track. I look forward to the game, as I believe it will be a battle.
This week I want to share a message with you I gave to our team Monday morning. To the world this looks like a message of weakness but I want you to read it with these following verses in your mind:
“Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie.” Psalm 40:4
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.” Jeremiah 17:7
I also want to share this with you before I begin: I love to win! I hate losing! But I realize with this love of winning opens me up to the sin of self-confidence and trust in self. I daily must run to the Lord!
I love watching college football. I could sit around Saturdays and do nothing but watch college football all day long. As much as I love watching it, I grow more and more aggravated with all the talking that goes along with it. This summer a different preseason “hype” video would come out for different teams each day and coaches and players would constantly talk about having the best this or that. The media and even coaches try and create a buzz about certain programs. To make it even worse, the way in which schools have to promote their program through boasting and bold proclamations for recruiting purposes is almost shameful. The constant drawing attention to oneself and one’s program before any accomplishment has been made does not fit in to the Win the Day philosophy. **The Win the Day philosophy here at ELCA is straight from the Bible…it’s not mine!
As I set there watching college football on Saturday and all of the upsets that almost happened and the upsets that did happen I could not help but think that this is why you do not boast about what you are going to do and how you are going to do it. You do not boast in that your any good or that any of your players are any good. This verse was popping up into my mind:
“Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.”
Proverbs 27:1
You will not hear me talk about a state championship very much or even a region championship. You will not ever hear me say that we will win this game or that game. I humbly, by Jesus Christ working in and through me, approach each week not having a clue what God has in store for us that particular Friday night. I will not create hype in saying we will do this or we will do that. I will not create an arrogant atmosphere by saying this player or coach is the best this or that.
But what you will hear me say constantly is Win the Day. I have no control over tomorrow and don’t even know if God will let me see tomorrow. I humbly approach each day knowing that this is the day God has given me and he controls the outcome of my tomorrows. I will never boldly proclaim we will win this game or we will win the region or we will win state because I have no clue if we will do any of those things. But what I do know is we are going to work our tails off to Win this Day! All the opportunity lies in this day God has given us.
“This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24
Now, don’t get me wrong. I will quietly work behind the scenes to promote our players and our team but I will never do it in a public setting. For me to talk to a coach privately and boast about one of our players is much different than me talking to the paper and boasting about our guys. I want to be diligent never to create a culture of arrogance and pride. We want to maintain our culture of hard work and humility. A culture that trusts in the Lord to provide---not us to provide if that makes sense.
I have not always thought this way. Early in my career I thought I had to make bold proclamations that we are going to win state and we are going to be the best program in the country. Really stupid stuff was coming out of my mouth. The Lord has a way of handling arrogance, pride, and self-confidence because he hates it! It took a while and some hard lessons before I could humbly say: “I have no clue what tomorrow holds. I have no clue if we win region. I have no clue if we will win state. I have no clue if my players can get a D1 scholarship.” What happened is God striped me of my self-confidence and taught me how to make Him my Hope, my Trust, my Confidence.
I will not boast about tomorrow. I will not proclaim we are good and that we will win this or that. I will not boast in our past accomplishments. I will not worry about events and situations that are out of my control. I will boldly run to this day and work my tail off and push my players and coaches to Win this Day. Let’s be a state champion today! Let’s win Monday! Let’s win Tuesday! Let’s become the best we can become today…the day God has actually given us.
I will not boast about tomorrow and strive to make a name for myself. I will humbly submit to the will of God and his Sovereign control over all the events in my life. My confidence will never be in myself. My pride will never be in my accomplishments or my future accomplishments. My pride and my confidence will be in Jesus Christ. I will die to myself and live in Jesus Christ.
I will not boast about tomorrow. I will humbly set my eyes on Jesus Christ and work hard today. I will put building young boys into men for Jesus Christ as my top priority before ever winning a football game. I will enjoy the process of getting better each day. I will enjoy the process of giving my all this day to get a little bit better. I will boast in Christ and not self.
Chargers, this is a foreign word in the midst of a culture that embraces creating hype and the boasting of tomorrow. But if you buy into this and think this is the way to go you will only find yourself tomorrow with shattered dreams. You will become paralyzed in anxiety, fretting and worrying. You will fall into the trap of measuring yourself against another man and slowly embrace the sin of coveting which will just lead to bitterness. There is freedom in Christ. The chords of sin entangle us and we don’t even know that we are being choked by our sin of self-confidence, self-righteousness, and pride. I challenge us all to die to self and live in the freedom of Jesus Christ! Make the Lord your Trust and your Confidence!
“Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.” Proverbs 19:21
Win the Day!
Wholly for Christ,
Coach Gess
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