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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. And number twenty said, A pilgrim was I, my first. A pilgrim was I in a one tree. In the cold night of sin I did go. When Jesus got my shepherd from me. And now I am on my way home. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life. With a sore at my soul when I'm feeling in here at least day by day. He leads me beside the still waters. He guards me each step of the way. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life. One, two, three. When I go somewhere deep my Savior will walk with me there. And safety is great and will be clear. With a patience is God to prepare all the earth. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life. And it goes well in the house of the Lord forever and as it is the day will spread free. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life. Father we thank you Lord for this wonderful day that you've given to us. We thank you for God who has put us together here. I pray Lord that we can worship you in spirit and I pray that you would help us be attentive with the sermon, remove the distractions Lord and I pray that you would bless and guide Brother Stuckey as he preached to us the sermon this morning and I pray Lord that you would use him to edify the people Lord. I pray O God that you would also bless our fellowship this afternoon and also the rest of the activities that we have Lord and especially the soul winning this afternoon. We're asking all these things in Jesus' name we pray, Amen. For our next song let's turn to the number 121. Let's sing the song Like a River Glorious. On the first Like a river glorious is God's perfect peace over all victorious in his mighty peace. Perfect yet in flowing cooler every day. Perfect yet in growing deeper all day. Spade upon Jehovah hearts are fully blessed thriving as he promised perfect peace and rest. Eaten in the balloon of his blessed hand. Ever hope and follow ever tapers hand not a surge not a surge of glory not a shade of care not a blast of fury watch the spirit stay up on Jehovah hearts are fully blessed finding as he promised perfect peace and rest. Every joy or trial fallen from above praise upon our diet by the son of God He may trust him fully all for us to do He who trust him fully find him to stay up on Jehovah hearts are fully blessed finding as he promised perfect peace and rest. Alright, good morning everybody. Welcome to Verity Baptist Church. Take out your bulletin. And our verse of the week is James 1 verse 3 the Bible reads knowing this that the trying of your faith work with patience. That's a great verse there. We are a family integrated church meaning children and infants are welcome during the services. We do have a mother baby room back there for your convenience as well as the ladies comfort room. The men's comfort room is up here in front. Remember though, eating during the church services, maintain a professional atmosphere and keep the children from running and making noise during the church service. On the next page are service times listed. First service is at 10 a.m. then we have a short break in our 1130 service and Wednesday evening Bible study is at 7 p.m. Soul winning time is listed 5 p.m. on Wednesdays. Saturdays we have all day soul winning in the morning. Lunch provided by church in the afternoon. Of course we do have soul winning this afternoon as well. Salvation and baptism are listed there. Birthdays and anniversaries for April. We do have a lot of anniversaries coming up just within three days. Well four days. Five, six, seven, eight. But three anniversaries within four days is quite a bit. But anyways on the next page announcements and upcoming events. And so our Bible memorization challenge. So if you're able to memorize a chapter age 11 and above you do get a prize. We do have I think we have snickers left but also we have the chips there as well on the table. Ages 8 to 10, 7 verses perfectly. Ages below 8, 1 verse perfectly. And as a reminder you can pick any chapter you want. So obviously I'm preaching through Daniel right now and Daniel is very hard to memorize. I'll just warn you about that. But you can pick whatever chapter. It could be the last chapter in Esther which is like I think three verses or whatever. Whatever you want to pick. Whatever motivates you. But anyways upcoming activities. We do have a lot coming up so we do have choir practice here today. I'm preaching a sermon today on the Lord's Supper. We're going to take the Lord's Supper next week. This is something we do once per year at a church and there's very specific reasons why. So it's an important sermon to hear and then of course next week is an important service to be at because we only take it one time per year. Then Easter Sunday is in two weeks and obviously Easter is an important service as well. And we do have our men's preaching service that day. Of note our soul winning events coming up April 13th through 16th. So that's Wednesday through Saturday. And you know last year our biggest week we've ever had soul winning was last year an Easter week because we had soul winning pretty much every single day. And so we're kind of making the same push this year. The church will provide lunch for the people that go soul winning. So if you're looking to host an event during that time period you know let me know. And next week I'll give you money ahead of time to pay for that. I'm sure in Bullockon Brother Raffi I will do some soul winning there and Cavite Brother Juno and then Ask Brother Ehrman for Metro Manila. Obviously Metro Manila is very big so we might have multiple events but try to make it out at least one time though during Easter week because we would like to set a record for attendance and also number of soul winners. That's kind of the goal. But anyways that's coming up here in less than two weeks. And we're going through the book of Daniel but we are taking a break from that for a little while. On the back there is a place for notes for the sermons here today. So I believe that's it for announcements. I will just say I know people are obsessed with chess but I walk up here there's a chess board on the ground. I was like man it's like everywhere I go everyone's playing chess all the time. But anyways we'll have Brother Martin lead us in another song. And for the next one let's turn to hymn number 124. God will take care of you. God will take care of you. True every day or all the way. He will take care of you. God will take care of you. He's all day. When nature will take care of you. You all over the bay we will take care of you God will take care of you all you may need we will provide God will take care of you nothing you ask will be denied God will take care of you God will take care of you through every day or all the way He will take care of you God will take care of you no matter what may be the test God will take care of you leave me one upon his breast God will take care of you God will take care of you through every day or all the way He will take care of you God will take care of you Let's take our offering Amen for scripture reading please open your Bibles to the book of Job Job chapter 1 Near the middle of your Bible Job chapter 1 and as our custom we will be reading the entire chapter Job chapter 1 Amen Job chapter 1 verse 1 There was a man in the land of Oz whose name was Job and that man was perfect and upright and one that feared God and eschewed evil and they were born unto him seven sons and three daughters his substance also was seven thousand sheep and three thousand camels and five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred sheasses and a very great household so that this man was the greatest of all the man of the east and his sons went and feasted in their houses every one day and sent and called for the three sisters to eat and to drink with them and it was so when the days of their feasting were gone about that Job sent and sanctified them and rose up early in the morning and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned and first got in their hearts thus did Job continually Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan came also among them and the Lord said unto Satan, Once comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord and said, From going to and fro in the earth and from walking up and down in it and the Lord said unto Satan, Has thou considered my servant Job that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect enough upright man one that fear God and is true with evil? Then Satan answered the Lord and said, Let Job fear God for naught has thou not made an edge about him and about his house and about all that he hath on every side? Thou has blessed the work of his hands and his substance and his grace in the land but put forth thine hand now and touch all that he hath and he will curse thee to thy face and the Lord said unto Satan, Behold all that he hath is in thy power only upon himself put not forth thine hand so Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord and there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house and there came a messenger unto Job and said, The oxen were plowing and the axes feeding beside them and the Sabians fell upon them and took them away Yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword and I only am escaped alone to tell thee While he was yet speaking, there came also another and said, The fire of God has fallen from heaven and hath burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them and I only am escaped alone to tell thee While he was yet speaking, there came also another and said, The Chaldeans made out three bands and fell upon the camels and have carried them away Yea, and slain thy servants with the edge of the sword and I only am escaped alone to tell thee While he was yet speaking, there came also another and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house and behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness and smote the four corners of the house and it fell upon the young men and they are dead and I only am escaped alone to tell thee Then Job arose and ran his mantle and shaved his head and fell down upon the ground of worship and said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb and naked shall I return thither The Lord gave and the Lord had taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord In all this joke did not nor charge God foolishly Blessed be the God's word, let us pray Lord God in heaven we thank you for the prayer this day has given to us and I pray that you would bless the Lord for this day with the good weather and for the soul winning later on and I pray that you would also bless the preaching and the preacher of your word Lord, we pray this day. Amen Alright, we are in Job chapter 1 and the name of this sermon is No Pain, No Gain No Pain, No Gain and let me just read you what this phrase means No Pain, No Gain Probably most people are familiar with this It's a very common phrase when it comes to working out and exercise But No Pain, No Gain is a proverb used since the 1980s as an exercise motto that promises greater value or rewards for the price of hard and even painful work Under this conception, competitive professionals such as athletes and artists are required to endure pain, physical suffering and stress, mental, emotional suffering to achieve professional excellence and the idea is in the setting of working out if you're going to work out and you don't have any pain it's not hard, it's not difficult you're not going to get stronger, you're not going to get in better shape I mean if you're running like this and you're not tired at all you're not going to get better cardio The only way to get the gain is to actually go through the pain It's a requirement for the gain Now, we're here in Job chapter 1 and look I'm not preaching a sermon on exercise I'm using this as an example because it's very fitting the physical explaining the spiritual but there's many ways we can apply this and one thing is this, point number 1 the pain itself is not fun When it comes to No Pain, No Gain the pain is not fun Look, I tell you I love working out but the truth is I hate working out I hate the pain I enjoy the gain I hate the pain though, right? And it's the same thing in all areas Number 1, when it comes to this point think about going through trials in your life There's an example where the pain is not fun and in Job chapter 1 we have this great example of this great man Job and he goes through all of these trials and all of this suffering Look, I promise you the pain, the suffering, the trials, he didn't enjoy it Notice what it says in verse 14 And there came a messenger unto Job and said The oxen were plowing and the asses feeding beside them and the Sabians fell upon them and took them away Yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword and I only am escaped alone to tell thee While he was yet speaking there came also another So basically this man is speaking to Job and says basically all of your animals were destroyed at least the ones I was in charge of and while he's saying this another guy walks up Now I'd imagine if you're Job you're just like Oh no, what is this guy going to tell me? And this is what this guy tells him in verse number 16 While he was yet speaking there came also another and said The fire of God has fallen from heaven and hath burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them and I only am escaped alone to tell thee While he was yet speaking there came also another and said The Chaldeans made out three bands and fell upon the camels and have carried them away Yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword and I only am escaped alone to tell thee Now, I don't know, maybe I wouldn't have reacted this way if I was Job but I feel like I would just run away when the next person comes up to try to tell me something because I wouldn't want to know what it was Verse 18 While he was yet speaking there came also another and said Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house and behold there came a great wind from the wilderness and smote the four corners of the house and it fell upon the young men and they are dead and I only am escaped alone to tell thee Obviously verse 19 would be the most painful thing hearing about how all of your kids just instantly died So he lost his money, he lost his kids in a moment of time Look, Job handles this situation well, but he didn't enjoy the pain Right, when you're going through trials in your life, it's not fun Nobody enjoys that, right? Turn your Bible to Isaiah 58 Isaiah chapter 58 Look, I'm not going to try to convince you if you're going through trials that you ought to be really excited that, you know, your life is miserable, right? That's ridiculous Obviously when you're going through trials, it's not going to be fun You're not going to enjoy it, right? The pain itself is very basic, but the pain itself is not fun, okay? When it comes through trials, there's pain involved when you go through trials And there can be a gain on the other side, but the pain's not fun Another example is this How about the preaching of God's Word? Look, when the Word of God is preached, if you're actually preaching the Word of God it's a bit painful to the people listening, right? If you're guilty of something and the Word of God hits you, that doesn't feel good, right? In this room are a group of people that love the preaching of God's Word You want to make changes in your life, but you cannot tell me that if you're getting preached against and I'm preaching on your sin you cannot tell me that it's fun while that's happening Now you're thankful for it, but the actual preaching against you at that moment, it hurts You don't enjoy it, right? Isaiah 58 verse 1 Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet and show my people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sins You see, in Isaiah 58 verse 1, it's very clear their transgression, their sins and the idea is preaching should be applicable to the people you're preaching to If I just stood up here and said, hey, I don't care what anybody says, sin is still bad in 2022 I didn't say anything Preaching has to be applicable, their sins, you can't be vague in preaching Right now I'm not saying intentionally calling people out for a specific sin but I'm saying you've got to cry aloud and say exactly what the sins are and you know what, then it will hit close to home to some people if what I'm preaching about is something you're guilty about, right? Go in your Bible to 2 Timothy 4 You say, Brother Stuckey, I love hard preaching Yeah, but you don't love it when it's hitting home to you Now I'm not saying that you're not thankful for it in the long run but when it's actually hitting home to you, you don't enjoy that Nobody does, right? I never enjoyed getting preached against Hearing sermons where I was guilty of something Now, look, when the pain came, I made changes in my life but I didn't enjoy the pain Who enjoys getting stabbed with a sword? Because that's the analogy the Bible gives I mean, who wants to have a sword inside of them just boom, you know Nobody enjoys that, right? The pain itself is not fun 2 Timothy 4 verse 2 The Bible reads Preach the word, be instant, end season, out of season Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine Now the Bible says be instant, end season, out of season and the idea is that basically when it's popular, it's end season and then out of season is when it's not popular So, for example, think of just like the weather and, you know, here in the Philippines it's a bit different because it's always hot but, you know, during the wintertime where I grew up that's when you wear the big coats During the summertime, though, you're not wearing like a big heavy coat because it's out of season, right? There's no purpose to wear it at that time and when it comes to the preaching of God's word certain things are popular, certain things are not popular The idea is this 50 years ago, a sermon on Genesis 19 was in season, right? Because everybody was against the homos but that's certainly not in season in 2022 but you preach the word of God whether it's in season, in popular or out of season, unpopular and what the Bible says in this verse is Reprove, rebuke, exhort Look, reproving is negative, rebuking is negative, exhorting is positive The idea is preaching should be two-thirds negative and one-third positive Now, I do believe you should try in every sermon to have an exhortation at the end Basically, preach against the sins, the changes people need to make and here's the strategy to fix the problem, okay? But here's the thing, the reproving is not fun The rebuking is not fun I mean, rebuke your child for something they do wrong They're not happy about it They're not thankful When you tell your son or your daughter, no, they're not happy, right? Turn your Bible to Proverbs 9 I'm not trying to convince you here today that you should love getting rebuked while it's happening Of course, that's not fun Nobody enjoys that I think you should appreciate that preaching and we'll see why in Proverbs 9 But nobody's going to say why you're getting preached against for a sin you're guilty of that it's enjoyable I mean, if you listen to rock music and I'm preaching against rock music, that's not going to be fun to you, right? Getting pierced with the word of God, it's not fun Proverbs 9 verse 8 You know, a lot of people don't like a church like this And it's really because of this point because they don't like the pain when they get preached against Because the Bible says they're a scorner, right? They're basically a fool Because the opposite of a fool would be a wise man See, if you're a wise person, you should appreciate a church that's going to preach against your sin Why? Because you want to make changes Look, if you're not getting preached against, you're not going to make any changes Just think about this logically Let's say you have a headache Well, you might start drinking water or eat something or take Tylenol, paracetamol or whatever to try to get rid of the headache But if you didn't have the headache, you wouldn't do that But because of the pain, you decide to try to make a change, right? Because of the pain, you make a difference, you try to make a change Without the pain, you're not going to make a change It's the same thing with the preaching of God's word If you never feel any pain when the word of God is preached, why would you make any changes? When I stopped listening to worldly music, it was because of a sermon and I felt very guilty I mean, it hit hard and I was like, man, I'm guilty of this And I just went to my CD collection It's like 25 Aerosmith CDs in the trash, 10 Led Zeppelin CDs in the trash And I just threw it away just instantaneously because the pain basically got me to make a change I already knew it was wrong to listen to Stairway to Heaven It's got the word heaven in it, it's still a bad song, right? I knew it was wrong to listen to some of this music, but I still listen to it anyway Because my flesh enjoyed it, but the pain caused me to make a change And at these other churches where they don't preach against anything, why would anybody ever make a change? See, people don't like the pain, and I understand that because the pain is not fun But the pain is a good thing I mean, if every single week you leave church feeling like you're the greatest Christian in the world, there's a problem You say, why? None of us are Job, none of us are Paul the Apostle I mean, maybe you are, I'm certainly not, right? And it's like if you never feel guilty, I mean, are you perfect? Because you should feel guilty sometimes because we're not perfect And see, church is meant to help you make changes in your life And if there's never any pain, you're not gonna make any changes Turn in your Bible to Genesis 3 I mean, think about it, you get a toothache and what do you do? Well, you stop eating sweets, stop drinking pop, right? Because you're like, man, I don't like this pain Obviously, you know, there's something wrong here, I gotta make a change But, you know, if you don't have the pain, then you're gonna keep eating the sweets, keep drinking the pop But because of the pain, that's why you actually make a change, okay? Pain is actually a good thing that God has given to our bodies to help us make changes You know, in America, there was this big case like 20 years ago from this doctor who got arrested And there was these Olympic athletes that were training for the gold medal It was in the Winter Olympics And, you know, some of these athletes had these major injuries And they were not able to compete because they had too much pain And we have a lot of pain, it prevents you from actually being able to do something Your body prevents you or stops you For example, when I tore my ACL and had surgery You know, the big thing you're trying to do is lift your leg off the ground And it is incredibly difficult, right? Brother Martin, did you have to do that too? Is that not hard? It's like you got so much pain in your leg and you're looking at your leg like lift off the ground Lift off the ground And the pain prevents you from being able to do it Because here's the thing Post surgery, I didn't have the pain because I had medicine for basically 18 hours And I was able to lift my leg off the ground Then all of a sudden I wake up in the middle of the night screaming It's like, wow The doctor was right, this is gonna be the worst pain you've ever felt in your life And I could not lift my leg off the ground And I tried and tried and tried And eventually you're able to do it But the pain prevents you But see the pain is actually a good thing Because it's your body signaling that something is basically impossible You need to stop yourself, you can get hurt This doctor got in trouble because these athletes had these major knee injuries And he injected something into their bodies where they did not feel the pain So basically they competed in the Olympics Didn't have the pain, they were able to compete The problem was they had permanent injuries after that People that basically lost their ability to walk Because the pain was there given by God to prevent them from doing real damage to their body Look, don't be upset at pain because pain is actually a good thing Imagine if your hand was on the stove And you did not realize it because you had no pain And it's just burning and burning And then all of a sudden you look over and your hand's on fire Well you got a real problem Now nobody likes the pain Look, I've burned myself before It doesn't feel very good, does it? But that pain is a good thing Because it signals to you there's a problem And look, pain is not a bad thing, okay? The pain of God's word being preached That is not a bad thing because it causes you to make changes Genesis 3 Genesis chapter 3 Another example is hard work Right, working hard is not something that's really enjoyable when you're doing it I think we all naturally want to be lazy Right, we all want to just kind of relax But working hard is actually a very good thing to make success in your life Genesis 3 verse 17 And unto Adam he said Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife And hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee Saying, Thou shalt not eat of it Cursed is the ground for thy sake And sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee And thou shalt eat the herb of the field And the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread Till thou return unto the ground For out of it wast thou taken For dost thou art And unto dost shalt thou return The Bible says here in verse 19 That basically you're going to provide your physical needs You're going to get your food via hard work In the sweat of thy face Now look, I believe in working hard I preach about it But I cannot tell you that in my flesh I enjoy it while I'm doing it I enjoy afterwards because you realize you accomplished something But not during it, it's not fun I think all of us in our flesh If we could just have money rain down from the sky to us We would want that Now we're not fools So we would reject that because it's going to destroy your life But in my flesh, of course Nobody's just born as a hard worker You say, give me proof of that Look, when you have your kids And they're a few years old And you want them to start putting things away To get responsibilities They make a mess They put away like one thing And you have to keep telling them No, every single toy They put away one more Ten minutes later Hey, there's all these toys on the ground You say, why? They don't want to work hard Naturally, they want to be lazy They don't want to do anything In our flesh We don't naturally want to work hard Right? Now you say, brother Stuckey I enjoy hard work No, no, no You enjoy after you completed it You have that sense of satisfaction Not during it though Turn in your Bible to Proverbs 6 Proverbs 6 Proverbs chapter 6 Now when it comes to this idea of no pain, no gain I would say in my opinion At least for me When I go to the gym with my friends Or I did in the US I did enjoy it because you're fellowshipping And having fun But I'll be honest It was more enjoyable When I was not the one lifting And my friend was lifting You're just telling jokes I'd have my friends working out I would always try to get them to laugh While they're working out Which I was often successful at But when you're the one working out And you're going through that pain I mean it's not like it's fun during that pain It's when you complete it And you're happy Because you set a new PR Or you know, whatever You feel a sense of satisfaction And you're happy But not during it The pain itself is not fun Okay Proverbs chapter 6 verse 4 Give not sleep to thine eyes Nor slumber to thine eyelids Deliver thyself as a roe From the hand of the hunter And as a bird From the hand of the faller Go to the ant thou sluggard Consider her ways And be wise And the Bible tells us You know, don't give sleep to your eyes Be wise like the ants Look, ants work very hard Okay And the Bible says We ought to be like the ants Now look Every single one of us When we wake up in the morning If your alarm goes off You naturally just want to sleep in bed For a while longer Right? It's that fight first thing in the morning Am I going to get up Or am I going to hit the snooze You know, 55 times Right? It's funny because, you know And I don't know if you've ever said this But I've heard a lot of people say this before They're like Oh, you know, sorry I wasn't able to wake up Because my alarm didn't go off No, no, no You hit the snooze Don't say your alarm didn't go off Right? You hit the snooze button And you chose not to wake up Don't say Oh, my alarm didn't go off It's like This has happened five times this week What are you talking about? Get a new alarm then Right? Nobody wants to wake up First thing And they're really tired I mean, it's a fight in your flesh to do that Right now And you can ask my wife about this I'm a huge advocate of very little sleep But I do enjoy sleep It's just I choose or try to choose not to sleep Right? I woke up today at 4.30 in the morning And the reason why I do that is I start my memorization I start reading the Bible I know that if I don't wake up really early I'm just not going to accomplish it Look, I understand people are different People sleep different amounts of time But I'm just saying this That if you just want to every single day Just hit the snooze And sleep for 12 hours You're not going to accomplish anything It's not fun to go on little sleep But see No pain No gain Turn in your Bible to Proverbs 24 Proverbs 24 And you can ask my wife about this When we were first married I would wake up at 4 in the morning And go running in the dark And then I'd get back Take a shower And I'd go to work And study for my actuarial exams For a couple hours Do memorization And then I started work And worked all day And I would basically go to sleep At around 11 o'clock at night Because I was trying to memorize the Bible And stuff like that But it's just like The reason why I did that Is not because I enjoyed it It's because like Well I want to make sure I have my personal time with God Right? But for my career I had to pass those exams If I wanted to advance And get a gain So I was just like Well I guess I'm just going to go without sleep And look That's not fun Many people are like that I mean when I preach I see people all the time like Right? They're yawning They're tired and everything So look I know other people know the feeling But the reason why You're going on little sleep Is because you want to accomplish something But look All of us would love To get a good night's sleep Right? All of us would love To sleep longer But you know what You wake up at that alarm Because you want to accomplish something And look I mean I hope you have goals And things that you want to accomplish Now look I'm not telling you You have to try to go on Very little sleep or whatever But I'm just saying If you're busy And you have a lot of things You're trying to do To be successful You do have to make some changes And part of it is just Not sleeping as much as you'd like to Right? Turn your Bible to Proverbs 24 Proverbs 24 Another thing Which is kind of similar To the preaching of God's word But is the rebuke of God Being rebuked by God Is not a fun thing And I'm talking more so About the idea of basically God Giving us the spiritual spanking So to speak Basically God disciplining us When we do wrong And that pain is not fun Ask any kids in this room That are under the age of five If they love that physical spanking And the answer is going to be no But that pain Is a good thing for those kids To make changes in their lives Right? Here's what it says in Proverbs 24 verse 16 For a just man falleth seven times And riseth up again But the wicked shall fall into mischief And the Bible says A just person It's not that they never fall It's that they rise up again Okay? The idea here is Think of a boxing match Think of two fighters fighting And one guy gets punched And he hits the deck And he's got basically ten seconds Or a ten count To get back up Right? And the ref starts counting Anyway there's often times Those boxers can get up But they just choose not to And look I'm not really blaming them Because you're going to get some permanent You know Health problems just getting Punched in the face You know all the time But I'm just saying It's like it's a fight To try to get back up And a lot of people just choose To stay down Right? Has anybody in this room Ever been knocked unconscious before? Just like knocked out You got a big concussion And anybody? Am I the only one? It's like the same thing yesterday I mean I've been knocked Unconscious before You know in a soccer game And I can tell you It's not fun Right? I went up for a header And one of the guys on the other team And my mind Has blocked this out I have a huge block in my mind I never remembered what took place Because when you have painful memories Often times your mind blocks them out Because of like trauma And so basically I went up for a header And a guy headbutted Me on the side of the head Right here And this is where I got the nickname In high school spot Because I had this I look like I got beat up For like several weeks Right? But I got hit on the side of the head But this is not where I got the concussion Because you don't get a concussion From this You get a concussion When you land on the back of your head On the astroturf field Because even in the UFC It's illegal to hit the back of the head Because it's a very weak spot Of your body And so I landed on the back of my head And I don't know if you've ever seen A boxing match Where a guy gets knocked out But sometimes they get knocked out And then they're still like this And it's like their natural body reaction So I got knocked unconscious I don't remember this But apparently I stood back up And moved around And just like hit the deck again So the ref thought I was faking it It's like he thought I was just trying To get the other team in trouble Or whatever And I was just unconscious On the field And my coach ran on the field And there's like this Huge situation and everything Look It wasn't fun It wasn't fun Waking up every day And icing my eye open Because I'd go to sleep at night Both eyes open I'd wake up like this Every single day Just putting ice on my eye To wake it up for 30 minutes Not fun Right And here's what I'm trying to tell you The pain is not fun Getting chased by God is not fun Nobody enjoys the pain Okay Falling seven times That's not fun Go to Hebrews 12 Hebrews 12 Hebrews 12 What's kind of interesting about that situation Is that the two guys that knocked me out Because one guy undercut my legs from me And so the other guy Kind of like going up for a rebound And somebody goes underneath you Which is what made me lose my balance And then the other guy headbutted me Well these guys I was playing in the fall league And they were on my team in the spring league And they were two of my best friends on the team And they're the guys who knocked me unconscious But anyways proper worry Hebrews 12 Hebrews 12 verse 11 Notice what the Bible says Now no chastening for the present Seemeth to be joyous Right The Bible is saying there The pain is not fun When you're being disciplined When you're being chastened by God That's not fun No chastening for the present Present tense Now While it's happening It's not fun So look When we're saying no pain no gain I'm not trying to convince you That the pain is fun That's ridiculous I'm trying to convince you The pain is worth it To get the gain I'm not trying to convince you The pain is fun Look if somebody's going through Major trials in their life It would be foolish to go up to them And say well you know what You should be happy You know praise God You get to you know have all these problems In your life That's ridiculous I mean obviously they're not going to enjoy it Obviously Job didn't enjoy it In Job chapter one The pain itself is not fun Point number one The pain is not fun Point number two The pain is a requirement for the gain Without the pain No pain No gain Right When it comes to working out If you work out And it doesn't make you tired It doesn't you know It's not difficult You don't sweat at all You're not getting any gain from that Right And I understand people have various goals Some people they reach a point They don't really necessarily want to get any stronger But if you want to get stronger You got to up the weight You can't just stay at the same amount And expect to get stronger It doesn't work that way You got to push yourself to the point Where it hurts Where it's difficult And your flesh doesn't want to do it Because if it's easy There's not going to be any gain You have to have the pain You have to have the difficulty In order to have the gain And this is what it says In Hebrews 12 verse 11 Now no chastening for the present Seemeth to be joyous But grievous The pain is not fun Nevertheless Afterward It yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness Onto them which are exercised thereby So what this verse says Is because of the pain You go through that pain There is the peaceable fruit of righteousness There is the gain What the Bible is saying is No pain No gain Without the pain You're not going to get The peaceable fruit of righteousness Look, when you look at the Bible Look at David He doesn't make a change Until he's rebuked Right? Once Nathan rebukes him That's when there's a change It's the same thing with us in our lives We do things that are wrong all the time And we feel like no big deal But once you know you're being chased by God That's when you actually make some changes Because you're afraid of what might come next Same thing with our kids Right? You spank your kids You discipline your kids And you know what? It puts them in fear To basically get in trouble again You say brother Stuckey I don't think you should parent like that Well do whatever you want I was raised on spanking It worked for me There's generations of kids raised on spanking It worked for them Go ahead and just listen to whatever on the TV And just say well I'm not going to discipline Because I don't believe what the Bible says In the book of Proverbs Go ahead and do whatever you want What I'm telling you though is The pain actually causes a change It causes the kids to realize You know what? I don't want to do this Because I don't want the pain Right? Turn to John 15 John 15 Anyway what's crazy to me is like Baptist churches take this mentality On a side point about spanking Because I used to preach at junior church At my church in West Virginia And it's like you know I came to the pastor many times About problems with the kids About how I was like you know What do you want me to do pastor? I mean there's like literally a kid Who was running on the chairs And throwing stuff in the room I said Bunch of kids want to hear the sermon And this one kid is screaming And breaking stuff And he's like Would you try giving him more candy? It was just like That's not going to work And in fact that's what causes the problem Where basically you know Every time they act up Well let's just reward them And just well Eventually you're going to have to Make a change there Because it's just going to get worse and worse Right? The pain is actually a good thing John 15 verse 1 Here's another example I am the true vine And my father is the husband Now let me just say this about John 15 Because this is a very misunderstood parable And people argue about this And people try to use verse 6 to say You can lose your salvation Let me say this This is not a salvation parable It is a soul winning parable It's a parable about holy living Okay? It's not about whether someone's saved or lost I mean we're talking about people that are saved Okay? It is not a salvation parable They are already saved What this parable is about Is about making changes in your life And God purging you And the reason why it's very clear Is when it talks about burning It's using a physical example It's like if you're working in a field And all these branches fall off the tree And these leaves You gather them together And you burn them afterwards Because they're basically You know in the way of everything And you know you think of a tree And if you have branches in a tree That are not producing fruit They're actually causing damage Because they're sucking up the nutrients From the tree And doing nothing with it And the idea is You'd be better off just getting rid of the dead branches And there be more nutrients for the rest of the tree It's not that they're not producing anything They're actually preventing From having more fruit produced And the idea is That if you're not a fruit producing Christian Then you're not doing anything And look I'll be honest I preached that once in Sacramento And it was like the most offensive sermon Not to people at the church But online listeners How can you say That if I'm not a soul winner Then I'm doing nothing And not right with God That's what the parable is about I mean read John 15 verses 1 through 6 That's what it's about I mean I can try to sugar coat it as much as possible But I'm not the one that said Basically just remove the branches That are not doing anything That's what the Bible teaches And look the Bible teaches That you know what If you're following God You will be a fisher of men Not that well you know what If you're following God You might decide to go soul winning You might no Follow me and I will Make you fishers of men That's what the Bible says That's what John 15 is about But notice what it says in verse 2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit Is taken away And every branch that So basically being taken away Is basically the person who's not producing any fruit And every branch that beareth fruit He purgeth it That it may bring forth more fruits And see what the Bible says The branches that are actually successful God actually purges Think of making Purging things out of your life Getting rid of problems in your life The idea is If you're serving God God still wants to make changes in you Why? So you produce more fruits Here's the thing The purging's not fun You say what does that mean brother Stuckey It means God wants you to get rid of your worldliness He wants you to quit watching the things you watch He wants you to quit listening to the things you listen to He wants you to start reading the Bible more Be more dedicated and motivated And meditate upon God And here's the thing He does that by purging you Don't be upset at the purging Because here's the thing The pain The purging is a requirement for the gain The result is you bear more fruit But you know what That's a good thing the pain Because that is what causes you to make a change Go to 2nd Corinthians 1 2nd Corinthians 1 You say brother Stuckey At my old church You know what I always felt like You know I was very right with God and everything And I'd leave church And feel like I was really spiritual And ever since I started coming here It's just like man I feel guilty all the time And you know you're ripping on all these sins And I've never felt this feeling That's a good feeling Don't be upset at the hard preaching That is a good feeling If you always feel right with God And you always feel super spiritual Ask yourself a question Were you reading the Bible a lot when you felt super spiritual? Were you going soul winning a lot? Because it's interesting that these churches You don't really do much And yet you feel very spiritual Look the average Baptist in the Philippines Has never read the Bible cover to cover They've never read the Bible cover to cover And you know what Here's the thing They don't feel that motivated to read the Bible cover to cover Because it's not preached to do it And then all of a sudden you say Well I came to this church And now I'm reading for 30 minutes a day And I still don't feel like I'm doing enough Yeah because you realize At the end of the day As you get closer to the light I still have a lot of problems that I can see And in fact When the light shines very bright You start seeing more and more problems Isn't it better to know there's problems though? Look if you got a lot of problems in your house You've got all kinds of you know EPs and snakes and mice running around You know what Nobody wants to find that out But it's a good thing to know Nobody wants that But it's a good thing to know Otherwise you know Who knows what's gonna happen right I mean those are good things to know Even though you don't wish it to happen What's the same thing with God's Word The preaching shines a light on the problems in your life And don't be upset when all of a sudden You find out you need to make changes God is trying to purge you Because he wants to use you in a big way 2 Corinthians 1 verse 3 Blessed be God Even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ The Father of mercies And the God of all comfort Who comforteth us In all our tribulation That we may be able to comfort them Which are in any trouble The Bible says in verse 4 Because we go through tribulation And God comforts us As a result We can comfort those that go through something similar The idea is That if you've never gone through a trial in your life How can you help somebody out With the same trial And the thing that they're going through If you've been through something though Then you can kind of give some pointers On basically Hey you know what This is what I experienced Right The best thing you can do If somebody goes through a trial And you cannot relate to it Is just say I'm praying for you You don't have to pretend Like you fully understand Because if I was Job's friends I couldn't sit here and say I know how you're feeling No you don't Right They don't know how he's feeling What they can say is I'm praying for you You can't go wrong with saying I'm praying for you Right And so if you don't know what somebody's going through Then just say you're praying for them You don't have to pretend Like you fully understand it Or whatever But what the Bible's saying is When we go through tribulation The result of that is We can actually comfort those Who go through something similar By the comfort Wherewith we ourselves Are comforted of God Verse 5 For as the sufferings of Christ Abound in us So our consolation Also abounded by Christ And whether we be afflicted It is for your consolation And salvation Which is effectual in the enduring Of the same sufferings Which we also suffer Or whether we be comforted It is for your consolation And salvation Go to verse number 8 For we would not, brethren, Have you ignorant of our trouble Which came to us in Asia That we were pressed out of measure Above strength In so much that we despaired Even of life And what Paul the Apostle's saying is You know we went through so many difficulties So many trials It came to the point You know we didn't even want to go on We despaired of life We hated what we were going through We did not enjoy the pain But here's the thing What Paul's saying is Hey I can comfort you Because I know what it's like I know what it's like I know what it's like to be beaten I know what it's like to be thrown in jail I know what it's like to have these problems in your life And nobody enjoys that pain But yet Paul the Apostle could comfort those And he does In the New Testament To go through similar things Why? Because he went through the pain See the pain was a requirement for the gain Otherwise he couldn't comfort Because he hasn't been through it Turn your Bible to 1 Peter 1 1 Peter chapter 1 1 Peter 1 I'm not trying to convince you to enjoy the sufferings that you go through in your life What I'm saying is That can actually be a beneficial thing And one way we can look at this Is that if we go through major problems in our life Remember that the Bible says We know that all things work together for good To them that love God To them that are called according to his purpose I'm not saying that when you're going through the trial You're supposed to enjoy it Nobody enjoys that Nobody enjoys the pain But one thing we can do is just think that You know what? If I'm right with God I mean because sometimes you're being chastened or disciplined by God But other times you're just going through trials You didn't do anything majorly wrong And you're just going through trials And you can look at it and say You know what? God is using this for his purpose You know in the end All things work together for good Of course it's not fun But that's one way you can look at it Because that's what the Bible teaches All things work together for good 1 Peter 1 verse 6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice Though now for a season If need be You're in heaviness through manifold temptations And you know what? This is the way our lives are You know you're rejoicing at some times Things are going great The preaching The soul winning And everything's great But then if need be You're in heaviness through manifold temptations We go through storms We go through ups We go through downs We have our good days We have our bad days We have our good weeks Our good seasons And our bad seasons You know since we've been here in the Philippines I can say I've had Sundays that I'm here And everything's great And I'm on an up stage And then there's other times where you're down here And look Over the course of a year You're going to have ups and downs You're going to have trials And at times we rejoice And things are great But if need be You're in heaviness through manifold temptations And those things actually If need be Are necessary In order to make changes And basically God is purging you And there's sometimes things that happen in your life And God is using that to help you make differences And changes in your life Turn your Bible to James 1 James 1 James 1 I mean that expression No pain no gain The reason why people say that expression When it comes to working out Is because they're acknowledging the pain is terrible It's not fun Right and you know pain doesn't even go away You wake up the next day You're like oh man I'm so sore From the workout that I did Right But you realize the pain is a requirement to make changes The pain is a requirement to make gain Look when I played soccer You know Soccer is like my favorite hobby by far to do I love playing soccer But you know what I used to really train Because my goal in life The half of my life Was to be a professional soccer player That was my goal growing up I wanted to be a professional soccer player And play for the US And the World Cup and everything like that And to be a professional soccer player You obviously can't just go and show up to the game You have to actually train outside of the games To get better Right And I remember being a kid And you know I was like Six or seven years old And one of the things you want to do Is develop your foot skills Your ball control So basically you know I was trying to juggle a soccer ball Right Nobody can do that The first time they do it The first time you try to juggle a soccer ball It just hits off your foot And you fail And you fail Over And over And over It's very hard to do When you first do it And then eventually You get better at it And I could Even today If I had a soccer ball I could just sit here And just juggle it For a couple minutes Without a problem But when I started It's like a couple seconds And it's frustrating And you fail And you fail And you fail But see That wasn't fun though I didn't enjoy juggling a soccer ball To try to get better at it What I enjoyed was having ball control During the soccer game And being able to use that Right Everybody enjoys playing the basketball game Everybody enjoys playing the soccer game But it's not like you enjoy Sitting there shooting jump shots For three hours to get better You do that So in the game You can make the jumper The actual training Is not the fun part though Same thing with working out Same thing with studying for exams Or whatever It's not like the studying for the exam is fun It's not like memorizing all these words is fun What you're thankful for is afterwards And you get a 95% or whatever Then you're thankful And that's actually point number one Point three I should say Point one the pain is not fun Point two the pain is a requirement for gain Point three happiness comes after completion Happiness comes after the completion James 1 verse 2 My brethren, count it all joy When you fall into diverse temptations Knowing this that the trying of your faith Worketh patience But that patience have her perfect work That you may be perfect and entire Wanting nothing The Bible says You can go through difficulties And have joy When you realize the fact These things make you perfect They make you entire They make you better The pain's not fun But actually getting to the end of it As you become a better Christian That is what gives you a sense of enjoyment The pain's not fun But the gain at the end That's what makes you happy Turn your Bible to James chapter 5 James 5 James 5 Let me give you just a very basic example Just kind of a secular example When I was a kid I played video games Super Nintendo most specifically You play various games Some games are very easy And some games are very hard Certain video games you know You easily beat the game It only takes you a few hours And you're done Well here's the thing When you're playing a game You know nobody likes to die in the game Like for example Mario's probably The example people understand Nobody likes to jump in that empty space Where you're just like forever falling Or whatever happens You know I'm just trying to remember The doo doo doo doo doo doo Or whatever Nobody I can't remember the tune when you die I forget But anyways Nobody likes it when they miss the jumper They miss jumping on the mushroom Or the green pipe or whatever And then fall into the empty abyss or whatever Nobody enjoys that But here's the thing I've played video games that were very easy And when you get done There's not really much happiness Because it wasn't hard There's no sense of happiness at the end Because it didn't take any difficulty Now nobody enjoys dying while you play the game But if you play a game That is really hard And you lose And you lose Aren't you more happy in the latter end Than a game that's very easy? Right The example I know from growing up You know one of my favorite games was Metal Gear Solid And I don't know if this game is still in existence Apparently it is I see people are like Yeah you know I know Metal Gear Solid It goes all the way back to Nintendo I remember the one for PlayStation though That is like the hardest game In the history of the world It's the only game I remember Where you die within the first 10 seconds You get right there You're trying to figure out Okay what are the buttons doing You're already dead It's like what? Because usually the games start off easy Right They start off easy And they get progressively harder as you go You learn to jump and move Not Metal Gear Solid If you've ever played that game You die immediately Right at the beginning of the game Over and over and over and over again And you know you want to quit But you don't Because you're not going to give up that easily But see here's the thing That game is like impossible But I remember beating that game And I was just so happy at the end You say why? Because you know what? It was hard And what I'm saying is this Going through something painful or difficult I'm not saying it's fun while you do it But there's more enjoyment afterwards Than if it was really easy If you go running for just 500 feet There's not much excitement at the end When you finish How about if you run a marathon When you get done with that marathon You're going to be pretty happy You say why? Because it was hard You had to put in effort You had to put in hard work And you get done And there's a sense of completion to it Right? And here's what I'm saying You know what? The pain It's not fun But going through the pain It's going to give you a sense of joy And happiness When you get done with it The pain is not a bad thing James 5 James chapter 5 The Bible says this in verse 10 James 5 verse 10 Take my brethren the prophets Who have spoken in the name of the Lord For an example of suffering Affliction and of patience Behold we count them happy which endure Ye have heard of the patience of Job And have seen the end of the Lord That the Lord is very pitiful And of tender mercy And the Bible says in verse 11 Looking at Job We count them happy which endure And if you get to the end of a trial And you last through it And you serve God faithfully There's actually joy on the other side If you endure through it But see here's the thing A lot of people they don't like the pain So they just kind of quit This is why a lot of people quit working out Because they don't enjoy the pain Everybody wants to get in better shape Everybody wants to get stronger and faster And have better cardio and all these things Everybody wants the gain But not everyone's willing to go through the pain To get the gain Right? You know I'm just using an example You know you could do the same thing with schooling I mean everybody wants to get 100% on the exam But do you want to study to get the 100%? Right? Everybody wants the gain at the end I'd love to be great at everything I would love to be able to play the piano And the guitar and all these instruments But I'm not willing to go through the pain to do it To be honest And I get it You know we only have so much time You got to pick what you're going to do in life Obviously But I'm just saying Everybody would love to be amazing at playing instruments But It doesn't mean that we're willing to go through the effort to do it Right? When I was a kid I had a desire to play the piano I think it's a really cool instrument And what? I never really learned You say why? Because I wasn't willing to put in the time I was more interested in just juggling a soccer ball You know mindlessly for hours Something that I don't even use now Right? But turn your Bible to Job 42 Job 42 Let us see the end of Job As it talks about we count them happy which endure See what I'm trying to convince you is to set goals in your life What you want to achieve And you want the process of achieving it Is not going to be fun But instead of deciding if you're going to keep doing it Based on how much you enjoy the pain or the effort Instead of that Ask yourself Is it going to be worth it in the end? Right? Is it worth going through it? I'm not going to convince you the pain is fun because it's not fun I mean if you enjoy pain there's something wrong with you If you enjoy burning yourself there's something wrong with you Right? I mean I think the term is a masochist is a term It's bizarre It's weird Nobody should enjoy pain Right? Nobody enjoys pain When you get injured it's not fun Right? But what I'm telling you is going through suffering Going through difficulties It actually can make you better And instead of focusing on the pain Focus on the latter end Job 42 verse 10 And the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends Also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before By the way this is aside from the sermon But people say verse 10 is a major Bible contradiction And I'll explain why they say that here in a second Then there came unto him all his brethren and all his sisters And all they that had been of his acquaintance before And did he bread with him in his house And they bemoaned him in comfort of him For all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him Every man also gave him a piece of money and everyone an earring of gold So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than the beginning For he had fourteen thousand sheep and six thousand camels And a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand sheasses He had also seven sons and three daughters So they say it's a contradiction because they say Well the Bible says twice as much and he has twice as many animals But he only has ten kids which is what he had before He doesn't have twice as much Here's the thing though He didn't lose his kids because they were saved They went to heaven So it is twice as much because ten plus ten, twenty is twice of ten Okay, it's not a contradiction Verse number fourteen And he called the name of the first Jemima And the name of the second, Keziah And the name of the third, Haranhappuk And in all the land where no women found so fair as the daughters of Job And their father gave them inheritance among their brethren After this lived Job in a hundred and forty years And saw his sons and his sons' sons even four generations So Job died being old and full of days The indication is the rest of the life of Job is pretty good Right, he went through a major trial He lasted through it Lived a long life Got to spend time with his kids and grandkids and had a good relationship Look, the suffering wasn't fun But you know what, we can use the example of Job in our lives now Because no matter what we're going through We're probably not going through what Job went through Right Turn your Bible to get stoned They think he's dead and then he gets back up You know, it's not like it was fun when he got stoned Then you get back up and it's like, well, you didn't kill me yet Right, I lasted through it There's going to be happiness There's going to be joy Right When you go through trials in life The trials are not going to be fun Right But if you last through it There's joy on the latter end Ecclesiastes 7 verse 8 Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof And the patient in spirit is proud The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit The Bible says better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof And look, when you're going through difficulties in life You know, this is a verse to kind of keep in mind And memorize or have it locked into your head Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof And as you go through something it's not going to be fun But when you get to the end There's success on the other side There's many things in life that you know what If you're going through it, it's not fun But if you don't complete it It's a complete waste of time You have to get to the end Otherwise, it's pointless I mean, what video game is worth playing if you don't end up beating it? What's the purpose of playing it? What's the purpose of learning an instrument if you only get halfway and you can't play anything? There's no purpose Better is the end of a thing than the beginning Right? You have to actually get to the end of it And when it comes to suffering and trials and things you're trying to get better at You got to last through it Otherwise, it's a waste of time Look, just this idea, this motto No pain, no gain People have this goal I want to start working out and getting in better shape But then they quit because of the pain It's like, well, there's no point of starting If you're not going to complete it Right? You need to actually last through it Turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 11 We'll close off Ecclesiastes 11 Ecclesiastes chapter 11 Ecclesiastes 11 Ecclesiastes chapter 11, verse 4 Ecclesiastes chapter 11, verse 4 The Bible reads Now, this is a verse you can kind of understand here in the Philippines I think you can understand it better growing up in America But imagine if you're waking up in the morning And you want to accomplish something or do something You want to go for a run, let's say But it's really raining outside Right? Well, I mean, here's the thing If you wake up and it's raining And you basically observe the wind that's associated with the rain And you regard the clouds The clouds are dark and it's raining Basically you're not going to do it Because you're focusing on the obstacle The idea is focusing on the obstacle is going to prevent you The reason why it really applies in the U.S. Is because for several months it's dark and cold And there's snow on the ground And when I played soccer I would run an hour plus a day So basically you'd wake up in the morning And this verse would have been very helpful for me as a kid Just quoting this verse because you put on your snow gear And just go running out in the snow for an hour It wasn't fun It wasn't enjoyable But I just said to myself I have a goal of running to get in better shape To be a better soccer player And it's like He that observeth the wind Shall not sow And he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap He that observeth the pain He that regardeth the pain He that goes through a difficulty and says It's too hard It's not worth it I don't like the pain Of course you don't like the pain Nobody likes the pain It'd be foolish to get up here and say You need to learn to enjoy the pain That's ridiculous Even Jesus Christ didn't enjoy the pain of being crucified If it's possible let this cup pass for me Right it's not an exact quote But you know the reference I'm talking about He didn't want to go through the pain Nobody enjoys pain But the question is Is it worth it to get the game It's not about whether it's worth it Whether you enjoy the pain The question is Are you willing to Do you want to get the game Is it worth it at the latter end Look Studying and working hard for something And going through pain And difficulties in trials It's not fun You have to realize That even though the pain is not fun The pain is a requirement for gain You don't get better at something Just via osmosis You just kind of wake up And then man You're amazing at something It doesn't work that way You get better by hard work You get better by putting in effort And look the effort The hard work The pain It's not fun But here's the thing No pain No gain Let's close in word of prayer Dear Heavenly Father Thank you for allowing us to be here today And getting to see your word on this topic And ask you to help all of us set goals And dreams and visions for our lives God and things we want to accomplish And help us be willing to endure the pain Including myself and my family Help us be willing to set big goals But actually be willing to go through the pain In order to get the gain at the latter end We pray this in Jesus' name Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen