CHARGER NATION: State Championship Game

Charger Nation,

I praise God that he allows us to have competition.  It is so much fun.  We are all so excited today and have great anticipation because no one has a clue who is going to win.  I sit around worried, anxious, and excited.  It’s a really messed up state.  One second I can be paralyzed with fear of their quarterback and then the next second I’m excited about seeing our boys play.  What would life be without these feelings?  Competition is great.  It makes life so much more fun!  In fact, now that college football is coming to an end, I will be so bored on Saturdays.             

As we wake up this morning and get ready to head to the game, I know that both teams have great anticipation for this game.  Both teams desperately want to win and receive the trophy at the end of the game.  I know that boys from both sides sit around and think about the ring they will get if they win.  (**There will be no rings given at ELCA for 2^nd place!)  Being able to play in the Georgia Dome is a reward in itself.  Chasing after winning and the reward that awaits the victor makes life pretty fun and an interesting.

            “Every athlete exercises self-control in all things.  They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.”

                                                                                    1 Corinthians 9:25

           

            This morning I woke up with this verse in my mind.  In life, we all work so hard to achieve the perishable wreath.  Believe me, I do not think chasing after the perishable wreath is in vain or a bad thing.  God wants us to work hard and glorify him through our work.  However, it is when the perishable wreath becomes our God, or our Idol, that it becomes a destructive thing.  Because of the sinful pride that resides in us all, we chase after worldly trophies to glorify ourselves.  Whether it is a trophy, a wreath, money, or material possessions, we want these things to signify how great we are.  We want glory and we can never get enough of it.  Our trophies or our bank accounts prove how great we are.  We can’t get enough because we can’t enough of ourselves.  This is when the pursuit of winning, trophies, and money has become a destructive force.  When they own me they become sin.  When they become the reason I exist I have clearly begun to worship these things and myself. 

            I want the boys to have a great time today and I want to win worse than anyone.  But I also want the boys to understand that all of this is perishable.  With that verse on my mind this morning, I realize God was whispering to me: “realize on what is actually important.”  To win football games, to win trophies, to become rich: we do not exist for these things.  These things will not bring us everlasting peace and happiness.  They will give joy for a moment but it will be fleeting.  We will be chasing something else tomorrow.  I want the boys to understand that to pursue winning and to pursue success are not bad things, but they are perishable things: Do not build your hope on things that are fleeting and perishable. 

            As Christians, we can be sure that our pursuit of Jesus Christ is the pursuit of the imperishable wreath.  As a football team, we work so hard to try and win and receive the perishable trophy.  As Christians, we should be willing to pay the same price in our pursuit of Jesus Christ.  But Jesus promises it will not be in vain, for the victors in Christ will receive an imperishable wreath: Eternal Life. 

“The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord.”     

                                                                                                Proverbs 21:31

BEAT Fellowship Christian!

Wholly for Christ,

Coach Gess

CHARGER NATION 2016: GAME #13

CHARGER NATION: GAME #13

Charger Nation,

            It goes without saying that tonight’s game is a big football game.  Our boys are playing for the right to go to the state championship game.  So is the other team, they are ready too!  For the past five years we have been in semifinal games and every single one of them have been battles.  Whether we have won the games or lost the games, every single game has been decided in the fourth quarter.  The two we lost we have lost in the final minute of the game.  The three we have won have been holding on in the fourth quarter.  I’ve been telling our boys all week they are going to have to fight all game.

            Tattnall is a team that has 16 seniors and they are very good at the skill positions.  We are a team that has great team speed and usually teams do not match up well with our speed.  Tattnall is very similar to us.  You will not be awed by their size during pre game warm ups.  It’s their speed that makes them good.  They match up well verse us.  We match up well verse them.  It should be a great game tonight!

           

            “I PRESS ON toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”  Phillippians 3:14

            I talk about five different words that I believe are essential to a young man’s growth as a football player or any endeavor in which the commit themselves: Commitment, Consistency, Intensity, Execution, and Perseverance.  With the football team this week I have been discussing and coaching perseverance.  The boys have been practicing football since August 1^st.  They are tired and worn out.  Every team that is still playing is facing the same mental challenges of being tired and worn out.   Don’t get me wrong.  They want to play on Friday night.  But they have no desire to keep getting up for film and practicing.  The negatives ideas and thoughts to practice start to creep in.  They don’t say it but I can feel them saying this: “Coach I don’t want to practice anymore, I’m tired.”  I get it.  I understand.  Young man: “Persevere to the End!  Finish!  PRESS ON!”

            The bible tells us faith is the assurance of things hope for and the conviction of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1).  How can a young man persevere and finish?  He must have faith that his hard work and diligence will pay off.  He must have a prize he is after and that motivates him.  If there is not a reward or prize at the end that is motivating us, then it is hard to press on.   However, there is no guarantee that his hard work will get him what he desires.  But the young man must have faith that his hard work will pay off and this faith will fuel him to continue on the journey and finish.  You see, victory is not guaranteed tonight nor is a state championship.  I can’t promise those things.  But what I can promise is hard work, perfect effort, and making no excuses will put us in a great position to Win.  I have faith in our preparation.  I have faith in our process.  Young man: “Persevere and Finish.  Have faith that your commitment to working hard and perfecting the details everyday at practice will prepare you Friday night.  Do not grow weary.  Do not let your faith dissipate.  Press on.” 

            The boys I look at in the eyes everyday have won 20 games in a row.  I have never once during any of this time looked them in the eyes and been able to guarantee them a victory if they do all the things we ask.  All I have been able to say is if you do these things it will cause you to be much more likely to win on Friday night.  I have faith in our hard work and preparation, but it does not guarantee a victory on Friday night.  Nothing in this life is guaranteed.  We must have faith and hope in rewards, but none of them are guaranteed. 

            Winning tonight is not guaranteed.  Success is not guaranteed.  Good health is not guaranteed.  Waking up tomorrow alive is not guaranteed.  Georgia winning the SEC next year is not guaranteed.  Alabama winning it this year is not guaranteed (even those this seems real close to a guarantee).   My wife loving me tomorrow is not guaranteed (there are lots of reasons for her to grow weary with me).  We put our faith in those things.   We put our trust in those things. 

            Praise be to God.  The Faith and Hope we put in Christ is guaranteed.  Jesus wasn’t telling us to put our hope and trust into the false hopes and promises of this world.  He was telling us to put our faith and trust in the eternal God who came down to die on the cross for our sins that we may have eternal life.  Jesus Christ came down and delivered us from death.  He flipped the guarantee.  Death was a guarantee and now life is a guarantee.  Christ isn’t asking us to put our faith in something that may or may not happen.  He is commanding us to put our faith in something that has already been done.  Where we could not defeat and overcome sin, Christ came and won and overcame sin for us. 

            The words PRESS ON mean so much more in Christ.  Christ has a purpose for each of us here on earth and we must be diligent in our pursuit of Christ.  I don’t even really know what his exact purpose for me is other than to pursue him and be a light for him wherever I am.  Therefore, I set my eyes on the eternal life that is guaranteed to me with Christ in Heaven.  I set my eyes on this prize and this reward and it allows me to fight, persevere, and finish.  I PRESS ON in my pursuit of living a life for the glory of Jesus Christ. 

“Fight the good fight of the faith.  Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called.”  1 Timothy 6:12

I’m ready for this game tonight!  Our boys are ready!  Let’s go get this done!

“The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord.”     

                                                                                                Proverbs 21:31

BEAT Tattnall!

Wholly for Christ,

Coach Gess

CHARGER NATION: GAME #12

Charger Nation,

            Round #3 of the playoffs is here!  Tonight we get a rematch of an earlier contest against Wesleyan.  I felt like then Wesleyan was a school we would have to beat to win the state championship.  Often times, the two best teams get matched up in the quarterfinals.  I believe it has happened when ELCA plays Wesleyan tonight. It will be a good one.  We have worked hard this week correcting our mistakes from last game.  Our boys were focused all week and had great attitudes.  I could ask for nothing more of them.  They gave us their all.  The coaches coached them hard.  Now its time to go play!

            This is the seventh year in a row that we have been able to play on thanksgiving week.  Most teams never get to this point.  I told the boys yesterday that they really don’t know to be thankful for football on Thanksgiving because they know no other way.  There is no such thing as sweet if there is no bitter.  If you have never tasted bad than you will never truly appreciate what tastes good.  If one year we ever missed the opportunity to play on thanksgiving because we didn’t make the playoffs or lost in round 1 or 2, the following year the boys would have a new appreciation for the honor it is to be playing thanksgiving week. 

            In the same way, I imagine the man or woman who has tasted death in this life through overcoming a life threatening disease or injury, finds a little time on thanksgiving to be thankful for life.  For the person who has never faced a life threatening disease or injury, he or she probably does not even think to be thankful for life.   The man who has been sick is thankful for health.  The man who has never been sick does not even think to be thankful for health. 

            Before I surrendered my life to Christ, I never thought to be thankful for Christ on thanksgiving.  But when God opened my eyes to my wretched state due to my sin and revealed to me the hope I have in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior in my life, I find time on thanksgiving to praise God for his amazing grace in my life and in the life of other Christians.   I also pray that he would open up the eyes of those who do not know Him.  Before Christ opened my eyes to my sin, to the eternal death and punishment of my soul for my sin, and the bondage to sin I lived in my earthy life, Christ was just a man and never meant much to me.   Before Christ, I could not see the wretchedness of who I was.  I could not see the evilness of sin.  I did not understand how my flesh was enslaved to sin that lived inside of me.  I could not see that all I cared about was self and glorifying myself.  I was a dead man walking and did not know it.  But when Christ revealed this to me I then saw the sweet and the bitter.  Christ is nothing until the eyes of our hearts are opened to see our sinful state.

            Now that I have a full understanding of what sin has done to this world and to mankind; that the punishment for man’s sin is eternal death and punishment by a Righteous God, I have a new thankfulness for Jesus Christ every thanksgiving.  Here are four things I wrote down I praise God for each Thanksgiving Day:

1.)   We were dead in our sins and deserving of eternal damnation.  But God, being rich in his love and mercy, sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the price for my and your sin.  Jesus willfully came and became death for us.  He paid the price.  He reversed the curse of death on us and became eternal life for those who put their hope and trust in Him.  Praise Jesus Christ.

2.)   That is what Jesus did over 2000 years ago and God had that planned from the beginning.  But in my life, God opened my eyes to my sin at 23 and led me to surrender all to him.  That is the work of the Holy Spirit in my life.  God opened my eyes to my sinful state but I was not left hopeless.  As soon as I saw my sinful state I understood Christ was the answer.  The Holy Spirit working in my life opened my eyes to my sin and showed me Christ.  Praise Jesus Christ.

3.)   This started the process of growing in Christ.  A person in bondage to sin just does not break the chains of sin in a moment.  Through the work of Christ in my life, God is constantly molding me and shaping me into his image.  Through life in the Spirit, God gives us the power to overcome sin.  He didn’t just leave us in bondage hoping for a different life when we die.  He gave us the power to overcome sin now through living life in Jesus Christ.  Praise Jesus Christ.

4.)   He keeps me.  I mess up and screw up.  I am still a sinful man.  I still sin.  I am a sinner.  We will never be perfect this side of heaven.  We can strive and strive but we are always going to fail.  I don’t really understand why he can’t just make us perfect now.  But I also don’t understand why we can’t play perfect football each Friday night either.  We work really hard so we should be perfect on Fridays.  I want desperately to be sinless but it doesn’t happen.  I praise God that he does not reject me when I sin.  He keeps me.  He upholds me.  When I repent, He restores me.  He leads me to repent.  By the grace of God I do not deny my sin and find a way to be at peace with it.  No, God continues to lead me and uphold me in the better way.  He never stops loving me.  He never stops teaching me.   Praise Jesus Christ.  (**I hope in some fashion this is the type of coach I am.  I want to push them and challenge them hard.  I want a very high standard that is almost impossible to live up to.  But they know no matter what I will always love them.  Being perfect isn’t the goal in our program cause it will never happen.  But the desire to be perfect is the goal.  Give me your all!  In the end, I’ll never reject them as long as they stick to it.  Win or lose, they are my guys and when it’s all said and done, I am proud of them.   I love them.  That is the most important thing.)

And yes, of course I am so thankful for Dee, Uriah, my parents, my family, and the ELCA Football family on thanksgiving.  But you know what, all of those things mean so much more to me with Jesus Christ at the center of my life. 

Tonight before the game, at about 7:12, we will take a knee and sing 10,000 Reasons as a team.  The main lyrics below are exactly what I want to sing when thinking about Christ has done for us all:

Bless the Lord oh my soul

Oh my soul

Worship His Holy name

Sing like never before

Oh my soul

I’ll worship Your Holy name

“The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord.”     

                                                                                                Proverbs 21:31

BEAT Wesleyan!

Wholly for Christ,

Coach Gess

CHARGER NATION: Game #11

Charger Nation,

            It’s playoff time.  Our boys have maintained a focused mindset through the bye week and have had a good week of practice this week.  They are ready and prepared for the challenge FPD will give us tonight.  It’s hard to convince everyone of this but all the teams that are in the playoffs are good.  When you get to the final 16 you have to come and be ready to play.  FPD has good skill players and a huge line.  I told our boys all week to prepare for a battle like the Landmark game.  FPD is going to come up here thinking they can win and they have the talent to do so.  We must be on point!

            First Presbyterian Day School is a special place for me because it is where I first began coaching and a place where I really grew as a Christian man.  When I was in the Air Force in Macon, Dee and I started attending a church and the pastor’s name was Bob Veazey.  He loved football and coached the middle school team at FPD.  He asked me to help after work and I did.  It was one of those things where I said I would help but didn’t really want to do it.  But once I started working with the kids I loved it.  The next year, the head coach of the varsity program, Gregg Moore, asked me to coach the varsity offensive line.  I did it and I loved it.  This is when the Lord really starting moving in my heart to coach high school football.  The next year Coach Moore got me a spot at the school working so I got out of the Air Force and began my coaching career with FPD and Coach Moore. 

            I learned a lot of football from Coach Moore.  He is a very good offensive mind and a Godly man.  Formations, passing, wide receivers, strategy—the foundation of knowledge of those things came from him.  I will forever be grateful that God led me to work with the people at FPD and Coach Moore.  Being 24-26 years old and trying to figure out how to be a Godly man and husband, there was not a better environment in which God could have put me.  God is faithful.

            Playing FPD makes me think about the sanctification process.  Many people often strive really hard to figure out what God’s will for there life is.  Everyone tells us that we are made for greatness so we are always looking for the next big step to take because surely that is God’s will.  I am to become the greatest on earth and do great things for God so God’s will must be that I do something amazing next: “What do I do God?”  The Bible never says any of that stuff.  But it does say this: “For this is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thessalonians 4:3). 

            Sanctification is the consistent growing to become more and more like Christ.  It requires our pursuit of Christ and then God working in our lives.  If we don’t pursue Christ we don’t grow in Christ.  If we don’t grow in Christ we don’t become what God created us to be.  We then miss the will of God for our lives.  So often, people spend so much time chasing the will of God and trying to figure it out that they neglect the actual pursuit of becoming more and more like Christ.  In trying to find the will of God in their lives they have missed the will of God. 

            Win the Day is our sanctification battle cry.  From a football perspective it means pursue those things daily that are going to help you become everything you can become as an athlete.  Are we working hard in the weight room, are we mastering the fundamentals on the football field, are we keeping a great attitude and giving great effort at practice everyday.   If we do these things each day, if we follow the plan, then we will grow as football players and a football team over the course of the season and become all that we could have become as individuals and a team. 

            It is no different in our Christian walk.  Do not be consumed with God’s will for your life in your profession.  I don’t know if it is God’s will for us to beat FPD or not.  I don’t know if it is God’s will for us to win a state championship or not.  But I do know this, we wouldn’t have a chance to win this game tonight if we did not work our tails off each day: If we did not Win the Day.  In the same way, I do not know God’s will for me 10 years from now, 20, 30, etc…but what I do know is God’s will for me today is to grow in Jesus Christ and pursue him. 

            The Monday before the Landmark game or last year’s Monday before the state championship game, I had no clue whether we were going to win the game or lose the game.  But what I did know is that we better work our tails off that Monday to have a chance to win.  To be consumed with worrying about winning on Friday would take away the opportunity that actually would help us win on Friday: Doing everything right on Monday. 

            So what is my point?  I look back to when I was working at FPD to where we are here at ELCA now.  It was never about pursuing God’s professional will in my life.  The most important thing I have learned is to pursue Christ.  We must make it our life ambition to grow in Christ: To grow in Holiness, Godliness, Faithfulness and Righteousness.  We must reprioritize how we think.  It is natural to think about our career and our life and use God as a means to get there.  But this is not God’s will.  His will is our sanctification.  Pursue Christ with all diligence and do not worry about your life, trust God to order your steps exactly how He desires.  As we pursue Christ he transforms us and His will becomes our will.  He transforms the desires of our heart. Pursue Christ, Work hard and do not fret about anything else.  WIN THE DAY! “But seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.  Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.  Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”  Matthew 6:33-3

“The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord.”  Proverbs 21:31

Beat FPD!

Wholly for Christ,

Coach Gess