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you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you alright good morning everybody welcome to Verity Baptist Church take out your bulletin here today and our verse of the week is Daniel 3 verse 1 the Bible reads Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold whose height was threescore cubits and the breadth there of six cubits he set it up in the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon usually I say that's a great verse but this is a verse about idolatry it fits with the sermon that's what I'll say ok I'm not promoting the verse or the picture but anyways 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 no eating during the services maintain a professional atmosphere and keep the children from running and making noise during the church service on the next page we have our weekly service times listed our first service is at 10 am and then we have a short break in our 1130 service Wednesday evening Bible study is at 7 pm soul winning time is listed 5 pm on Wednesdays meeting at the church building Saturdays all day soul winning 10 to 12 then lunch provided by church and then 2 to 4 and then this afternoon we do have soul winning at around 2.15 pm Salations are listed there here for not including this past week for here in Manila as well as our other churches and Bible study fellowships birthdays and anniversaries are also listed there as well on the next page our Bible memorization challenge and so basically you can pick any verse in the Bible any chapter any passage you want to memorize so if you are older than 11 you have to memorize a chapter perfectly 8 to 10 7 verses perfectly and the 7 verses they don't have to be in a row but just 7 verses in your Bible and below the age of 8 you have to memorize 1 verse perfectly so we just got our son started on this you know he my daughter was very envious like why does he get a snickers bar and I don't right but even at the I mean my son is just 4 years old he memorized Genesis 1 1 so you know by all means get the kids involved in this at a young age and you know it's a great challenge for all of us anyways upcoming activities so we do have choir practice coming up so March is a bit of a kind of a down month no soul winning marathons that I'm aware of April Easter is April 17th this year we're going to be having our choir performing during Easter and so probably starting on March 13th will be our choir practice and let's see current and upcoming series we're in the book of Daniel and also principles of competition and then Genesis is available via live stream on Tuesdays and information on our group chat then on the back there is a place for notes for the sermons here today so I believe that's it for announcements we'll have brother Marlon lead us in another song let's turn our hymns to hymn number 55 let's sing a song when the role is called up yonder hymn number 55 when the role is called up yonder on the first altogether ready sing when the trumpet of the Lord turns out in time to be no more when the singing breaks eternal bright and clear when the sea of birds shall gather over on the other shore when the role is called up yonder I'll be there when the role is called up yonder I'll be there when the role is called up yonder when the role is called up yonder when the role is called up yonder I'll be there when the day of Christ shall arise and the glory of his friend will make him clear when the spirit wants to guide him to near hope beyond his name oh the chorus when the role is called up yonder I'll be there when the role is called up yonder I'll be there when the role is called up yonder I'll be there for the last verse we are going to sing it dresses On the last verse, ready, sing. Let us labor for the master from the dawn till the setting sun. Let us talk of all his wondrous love and care. Then when all of life is over and our work on earth is done, and the role is called up yonder, I'll be there. When the role is called up yonder, I'll be there. When the role is called up yonder, when the role is called up yonder, I'll be there. Great singing, let's take our opera. Amen. For scripture reading, please open your Bibles to the book of 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 9. 1 Corinthians chapter 9. And as our custom, we will be reading the entire chapter. 1 Corinthians chapter 9. Please say amen if you are there. Amen. 1 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 1. Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Or not he my work in the Lord? If I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you. For the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord. Mine answer to them that do examine me is this. Have we not power to eat and to drink? Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles and as the brethren of the Lord and Cephas? Or I only and Barnabas have not we power to forbear working? Who goeth a war for any time in his own charges? Who planted the vineyard and eateth not of the fruit thereof? Or who feedeth a flock and eateth not of the milk of the flock? Say I these things as a man, or saith not the law the same also. For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Let God take care for oxen, or saith he it altogether for our sakes. For our sakes, no doubt, this is written, That he that plougheth should plough in hope, and that he that freshest in hope should be partaker of his hope. If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things? If others be partakers of this power over you? Or not we rather? Nevertheless we have not used this power, but suffer all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ. Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple, and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar? Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel? But I have used none of these things, neither have I written these things, that it should be so done unto me. For it were better for me to die, than that any man should make my glorying void. For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of. For necessity is laid upon me, yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward. But if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me, what is my reward then? Verily that, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge, that I abuse not my power in the gospel. For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain them more. And then unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews, to them that are under the law as under the law, that I may gain them that are under the law, to them that are without law, as without law being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ, that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak. I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. And this I do for the gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you, knowing not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth a prize. So run that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the master is temperate on all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly, so fight I, not as one that beateth the air. But I keep under my body, and bring it unto subjection, lest that by any means when I preach to others, I myself should be a castaway. Blessed be we to God's word, let us pray. Lord God, in heaven, we thank you, Lord, for the state that you've given to us, and I pray that you would also bless us, Lord, this day. Bless your preaching, and I preach our real word, Lord, this day, and give us good weather for our soul winning and fellowship later on. We love you, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, we're here in First Corinthians chapter nine, and we're continuing our series on principles of competition, or principles on competition, and last week we looked at just an introductory sermon on competition, and this is just a three-part series. Today we're going to look at sore losers, and next week we're going to look at ungracious winners. Now, you might think, well, Brother Stuckey, why is this important for me? I'm a grown adult, you know, like, why is this important? I understand it's important for the kids, but I think we're going to see during the sermon that it applies to all of us, and whenever the word of God is preached, it's helpful for all of us, okay? Point number one, why do we have to talk about sore losers? Well, point number one, most of life is losing. Most of life you do not win. Most of life you lose. Let me show this to you in First Corinthians nine, verse 24. The Bible reads, Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run that ye may obtain. See, the Bible says if there's a competition, there's one winner, right? We've got this mentality today where everybody deserves a trophy, everybody deserves a medal, whether you're first or last. That's not a biblical concept. See, life is about competition. What the Bible says is there's one person that receives the prize. There's one winner. Look, second place is first loser, right? Third place is second loser. That's the way it works. Nobody remembers who won the silver medal in the Olympics. Am I right? Nobody remembers who finished second in the NBA Finals. What they remember is who won. You say, why? Because one receiveth the prize. That's what the Bible teaches. Go to Matthew chapter seven, Matthew seven, Matthew seven. And look, I don't want to go on too big of a rabbit trail, but this idea that everybody deserves a trophy I think is ridiculous, because competition is a good thing, and I'll say this, that if everybody gets a trophy, it's offensive to the person who actually won. It's like, what's the point of winning if I get the exact same prize as everybody else? Look, the prize is part of what motivates you to compete, and when everybody gets the same prize, it's like, well, what difference does it make? And it's not very realistic, because life has competition. Life has battles. We need to learn how to properly compete in life. You say, what are some examples of this? Well, how about soul winning? Most of soul winning is losing. Matthew seven, verse 13. Enter ye in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat, because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find you. And few there be that find it. Now, that word that you see there, straight in your Bible, this is not a makalumang spelling for S-T-R-A-I-G-H-T. What it's referring to, straight means actually narrow, and what you see is the Bible says in verse 13, wide is the gate, broad is the way. You're using synonyms to describe the same thing. So straight and narrow. Obviously, that's the way it's written. You know, grammatically, it makes sense. Straight, it's like the bearing straight that gets its name for being very thin. What I'm saying is, straight is the gate and narrow is the way, few people end up getting saved. And isn't it true that when we go soul winning, most people we talk to don't get saved? Most people aren't interested. I mean, we had between our churches 116 salvations on Friday. Praise the Lord for that. Let me tell you something. A lot more than 116 rejected the gospel or didn't want to hear it. I mean, the few end up getting saved. And look, if you have this mentality that once you lose a little bit, I'm just going to quit, we're never going to do anything for God. Right? We go soul winning and 90 plus percent of the doors, they're not going to get saved. And if you just quit because you fail once or you fail twice, you're never going to succeed. Look, most of life is losing. Most of life is not winning. Go to Psalm 75, Psalm 75. You say, Brother Stuckey, if most of life is losing, then why do we even do it? I mean, I'd rather just not lose. Well, you can take that mentality, but let me explain to you some basics in math. Let's say that when you knock on a door, they have a 10 percent chance of getting saved and a 90 percent chance of not getting saved. So if you knock on two doors, what takes place is you multiply 90 percent times 90 percent, meaning there's an 81 percent chance nobody's going to get saved. Then you've got a 10 percent times 10 percent, a 1 percent chance both doors will get saved, and then an 18 percent chance, 1 percent times 9 percent plus 9 percent times 1 percent, 18 percent chance that one of those two doors, somebody's going to get saved. So now you're at a 19 percent chance at least one person gets saved. Well, you knock on another door, 90 percent times 90 percent times 90 percent is 72.9 percent. Basically, you got a 27.1 percent chance at least one person got saved after three doors. If you knock six doors, you have a better than 50 percent chance of somebody getting saved if you have just a 10 percent chance of getting somebody saved at each door. What I'm saying is this. Yeah, most of life is losing. You fail, you fail, you fail, but eventually over time you succeed a little bit through the failure. That's the way it works. You can't just give up because most people don't get saved. And look, a lot of people do this. For us that are soul winners, it's not a foolish thing to even preach, but I've known people, they go out soul winning, they don't get anybody saved. I quit. It's like you're going to quit because you didn't get somebody saved one day? Right? Look, when we approach somebody and try to give them the gospel, most likely they're going to reject it, but it's worth it even if it's just a one percent chance that they get saved. What about applying for jobs or getting promotions? Look, when you apply for jobs, most jobs you don't get the job. There's a hundred people that apply for a job and they're only going to hire one person. Your chance of getting that job is pretty low. Your chance of them reading your resume is probably pretty low. Don't tell me they read all 100 of those resumes. It's probably just randomly picking out 15, all right, let's see who we want to interview. Right? But here's the thing, a lot of people take this mentality, they apply for jobs for a couple weeks, oh man, I didn't get a job, I'm just going to quit. Right? Well, you're never going to get hired then. Most of the jobs you apply for you don't get. Psalm 75 verse 5. It says, Lift not up your horn on high, speak not with a stiff neck, for promotion cometh neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south, but God is the judge, He put it down one and seteth up another. Now, I don't think this is necessarily promotion as in a job promotion though you can apply it. I don't think it's necessarily getting hired for a job, but I certainly think you can apply it because you're talking about God putting down one and setting up another and the Bible's saying that God can promote us to success. Go to 1 Kings 19. 1 Kings 19. 1 Kings 19. Now, this seems very basic, but let me just give you an example of a great character in the Bible that was a bit of a sore loser when he failed a little bit. And I'm looking at the character of Elijah in the Bible. And you look at a character like Elijah and you read 1 Kings 18 and if you're like me, I read these characters in the Bible and I feel like I'm reading about Superman or something. Like, nothing could ever stop these guys. That they're larger than life. They're not even human, right? But, you know, I personally love chapters like 1 Kings 19 where you see, hey, you know what? He struggles just like I struggle. And if he can overcome his problems, then I can too. Because in life, when you're serving God, you're going to fail sometimes. You're going to get depressed. You're going to get down. You're going to get, you know, kind of quit a little bit. And you know what? Everybody goes through that. 1 Kings 19, verse 1. And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and with all how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger onto Elijah saying, so let the gods do to me and more also if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. So Jezebel threatens the life of Elijah. And when he saw that, he arose and went for his life. Now here's a man who stood against hundreds of false prophets. He was on top of the world. The next chapter, he's just kind of down a little bit. He gets persecuted. He runs for his life, right? Anyway, isn't that true in our lives? Sometimes you do something great for God. You're motivated. You preach the gospel to a coworker. You get him saved. Then the next day, you're scared as can be to just talk about what you believe about the Bible, right? We have ups and we have downs. And it's interesting because, you know, when you have ups, if you're like me, I feel like, man, nothing's ever going to get me down. Then it's like the next day, it's like, wow, you know, I'm a terrible Christian. What's wrong with me, right? But see, Elijah dealt with this too. And in this room, I'd imagine every single person deals with that as well where you have ups and you're really motivated, you have downs as well. He runs for his life. Then it says, and came to Beersheba, which belonged to Judah and left his servant there. So notice, he runs to flee for his life and then he leaves his best friend and his servant and his helper behind. Basically just isolates himself from everybody. And this is what people do when they're depressed. When people are depressed, they don't come to church, they isolate themselves. That's the worst thing you can do. You need to be around people. Look, when you're depressed, when you're down, I understand you don't want to be around people. I feel the same way when I'm depressed. That's when you need to be around people. You need people to help motivate you and pick you up. You need a good church that's going to help motivate you and lift you up. Otherwise, you're going to stay depressed. Otherwise, three months down the road, you're still going to be eating ice cream off your chest and just chips and pop and just, man, it's like, I've gained 50 pounds this last month, right? It's like you need to be around people and stay in that routine. Otherwise, you're going to get very depressed and we see that here because verse number four, But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a juniper tree, and he requested for himself that he might die. He asks God to kill him. Now, look, to me, this is about the most ironic verse in the Bible because in verse three, he runs to save his life. The next verse, I just want to die. Why don't you just go down as a martyr, right? I mean, if you're going to die anyway, just go down as a martyr in verse number three, but he runs to save his life and then all of a sudden, he doesn't even want to live anymore. Then it says this, And he requested for himself that he might die and said, It is enough now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am not better than my fathers. Now, he makes an interesting phrase here where he says, For I am not better than my fathers. What Elijah's telling you is that before this event, he felt in his own flesh like he was better than all the prophets that came before. He felt like I wouldn't get watered down or get depressed or backslidden like Moses and all these characters. It might not be something he'd say audibly, but that's how he actually felt, and I can't really blame him. You're against all these false prophets of Baal. I feel like, man, nothing can stop me. I can stop rain from coming from the sky and everything, and he feels larger than life, and then all of a sudden, he gets persecuted a little bit. He gets down. He has a little bit of a loss. He fails a little bit, and then he just wants to give up, right? Now, I don't have time to develop this, but I do like how God responds because God does not rip him apart when he's down. What he does is he tries to build him up because Elijah's already broken. He knows that he messed up and everything, and he just says, Arise and eat. I still need to use you in a big way, right? Now, turn in your Bible to Esther 5. Esther 5. Now, I didn't think about this, but somebody told me this yesterday after the sermon. They said that they've done studies on losing, and they say people would prefer not to finish second place. They'd rather just lose earlier because you get so close to the victory, and then it's just like you lose, and it's like, man, you know, you're really depressed, and I was thinking about it. I was like, that makes sense, right, because, you know, the first chess tournament we had here, I lost in the finals. I finished second. I was very upset. Last time, hey, I lost earlier. I was like, man, this is great. I just get to watch, relax. You know, I'm in a good mood. I'm doing well, you know, no big deal. Franklin knows my pain now, right? You reap what you sow, right? But, you know, the reality is that losing is a part of our lives, and nobody does more winning than losing. You're going to do more losing than you are winning in your life, and we need to know how to deal with that. Now, look, for kids, this is a big struggle. When kids fail at something, they want to give up, right? Give your kids an assignment to do, and then they have trouble with it for a little while, and then they're just like, oh, Dad, just do it for me. Isn't this true? You give your kids a small little thing to do. They struggle. They don't know how to do it, and they want to just give up, and look, all of us that were adults, we were the same way as a kid, right? We need to teach our kids it's okay to fail, and you learn through that failure. You don't give up when you struggle with it, because if you give up every time you struggle, you're going to fail completely in life, because life is about struggles, difficulties, competition, and if you just give up, you're never going to succeed in life. Esther chapter 5, let me show you a great example of a sore loser in the Bible, the character known as Haman, and notice what it says in Esther 5 verse 9. Esther chapter 5 verse 9. Now, Haman was the second most powerful man in the world during this time period. King Ahasuerus, or Xerxes, is the most powerful person. He promotes Haman to being number two. Esther 5 verse 9. Then when Haman forth that day joyful and with a glad heart, but when Haman saw Mordecai in the king's gate that he stood not up nor move for him, he was full of indignation against Mordecai, and we see that Haman is the second most powerful man in the world, all the money in the world, success. One person doesn't bow down and worship him, and then he's angry, right? I mean, something this small gets him down, right? You know, I mean, we're never gonna be like Haman that powerful, but just imagine, you know, you're going through a drive-thru at a restaurant, and, you know, you order something, and they mess up your order. It's not that big of a deal. Just eat what they gave you, right? I mean, it's not that big of a deal if they give you Coke instead of Pepsi or they put ketchup on your burger or whatever instead of, you know, no ketchup. It's not that big of a deal. Something that small to get you down, and then Haman, this small thing gets him down. Everybody worships him. One person doesn't, and then he's angry. Something that small makes you angry? This is why it's foolish to envy rich and powerful people because they get upset over everything. I mean, you can be happy in life with a lot less, and then you look at someone who's very powerful. One person doesn't worship him. Oh, I just want to give up. I'm mad. I'm upset. Verse number 10, Nevertheless Haman refrained himself, and when he came home, he sent and called for his friends and zarashed his wife. And Haman told them of the glory of his riches and the multitude of his children and all the things wherein the king had promoted him and how he advanced him above the princes and servants of the king. This is your friend that always brags about himself. It's like, let me tell you about all the great things that I've done and my success in my life, right? Someone who always talks me, me, me, I, I, I. Verse 12, Haman said, Moreover, yea, Esther the queen did let no man come in with the king unto the banquet that she had prepared but myself, and tomorrow am I invited unto her also with the king. And so in verse number 12, Haman is literally telling his friends and his wife, I am better than anybody in the world except the king. It's like he's telling his friends, I'm better than you. This is an obnoxious person, and what you see is sore losers and ungracious winners, they go hand in hand. The same person who's a sore loser is an ungracious winner. The same person that makes excuses and complains when they lose is going to be the same person that's arrogant and obnoxious when they win. They go hand in hand. Haman is a sore loser. He's also an ungracious winner. Look at all the success I have. Look at how great of a winner I am, and he's the same person complaining because Mordecai is not worshiping him. Verse 13, Yet all this availeth me nothing so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate. I don't care how rich I am and how powerful unless Mordecai dies is what he says. Talk about a sore loser. That alone is going to get you down because one person doesn't worship you. Go to 2 Corinthians 11. 2 Corinthians 11. So why is this important? Because most of life is losing. Look, when you start something new, you're going to start losing before you win. Nobody just steps out their first time doing something, and they're the greatest basketball player in the world. Actually, you learn by missing layups, and eventually you learn how to make a layup. Then you make the shots a little bit further back. You learn how to make a jump, or you learn to dribble a little bit better. I mean, when you first start, though, you're terrible. Right? When I was a kid, I would try just about every sport. You know, I played pretty much every sport that I could in the U.S., and I remember playing basketball, but I didn't have a basketball hoop, so I never shot a basketball. Nobody in our neighborhood had one. So I remember I played one year, and I was the worst player on the team. Right? I remember I had one time I was on a breakaway, and it's just like I completely missed a shot. I couldn't make a layup, and it came right back to me, and I missed it again. I'm like, terrible. Right? You say, why is that? Because if you don't have practice at something, you can't do it. You learn through failure. Look, the people that are really great at something, they didn't start out great. They learned through failure. Right? And even exceptions, even the Mozarts that are really talented at the age of 8, they still, when they first started, it's not like the first time they touched the piano, they were like the greatest ever. They still learned by making mistakes, and they learned through those mistakes. Most of life is losing. Most of life is failure. 2 Corinthians 11, verse 24. Here's an example of Paul the Apostle, the greatest missionary, greatest evangelist, wrote half the New Testament, and yet we see that most of his life was losing. 2 Corinthians 11, verse 24. Of the Jews, five times received I forty stripes save one. So five different times he got beaten thirty-nine times. Now, from what I understand, the reason why it was thirty-nine is because there was a law that you couldn't go above forty, so they would try to stop one early in case they miscounted. Because if you're whipping someone, you could lose count. Right? If you do something like you're doing push-ups, you lose count as you go on. You could be off by one, you don't remember. They'd stop at thirty-nine times because the law was you could get up to forty, and if you went over, then you got beat. So it's like, okay, I'll stop. I'd stop at like thirty, you know, just in case I was way off. But five different times he got beat thirty-nine times. So 195 stripes that he got these five times combined. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep, and journeying's often, and perils of water, and perils of robbers, and perils by mine own countrymen, and perils by the heathen, and perils in the city, and perils in the wilderness, and perils in the sea, and perils among false brethren. And peril means like great danger. Okay, big danger is what that's saying. In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Look, we think of Paul as being such a winner and such a succeeder, and yet when you read these verses, you see everywhere he met, he went, he got met with rejection. He failed. He lost. He got stoned, he got beaten, I mean these things took place to him. Now he had a lot of great winning along the way, but here's the thing, he had more losing than he had winning. And if you want great winning, you have to be willing to lose. Everybody wants to become great at everything and succeed without failing along the way. Isn't this true? Look, for people that know how to preach the gospel, here's the reality about the first time you preached the gospel. You walked up to someone, hi, my name's Matt, just want to invite you to church, right? This is the way it starts. I mean, I remember the first time I was so scared the first time I talked to someone, so scared just handing them an invitation. I didn't even try to give the gospel because the group I was at didn't really do that so much, but I was even scared just inviting someone to church. And then you do that, you're like, oh, actually that wasn't that bad. But here's the thing, the first time you do it, you're going to make mistakes. You're going to misquote Bible verses. You're going to forget where to go. You're going to realize afterwards, oh, I shouldn't have said that. I accidentally got involved in a debate. I wasted my time. You learn through failure. And if you're not willing to learn through failure, you're never going to succeed. Nobody starts off at something good. You start by losing. You start by failing. That's the way it works. Turn in your Bible Romans 12, Romans 12. I've got a list here of the biggest losers in the history of the NBA for a couple different lists. The first list we have is the most turnovers in NBA history. Now, we're going to make this an interactive sermon. We're going to let, you know, some of the people guess if they want to. Who has turned the ball over more than any player in the history of the NBA? Any guesses? Nope. Not Michael Jordan. What's that? I didn't hear the second. No. Anybody? LeBron James. Turn the ball over more. Of course, I'm going to use LeBron James as a loser. I'm a Michael Jordan guy, right? LeBron James. Turn the ball over more than anybody in NBA history. In fact, here's the top five. Number two, Carl the Mailman Malone. Number three, which obviously two-time MVP, Hall of Famer. John Stockton. Number three, I mean, John Stockton was known as the greatest point guard ever. I mean, he took care of the ball. He has more assists than anybody, and yet he turned the ball over more than anybody. Because to get assists, you're going to get turnovers along the way. Number four is Russell Westbrook. He'll probably be number one, you know, before he's retired. And number five, Kobe Bryant. I mean, those are some pretty big guys. All of them are Hall of Famers or future Hall of Famers. How about a list of the most field goals missed in NBA history? Number one, any guesses? I heard a lot of guesses. Michael Jordan retired early, so he's not going to be near the top. That's the reason why he's not near the top, because he retired very early. He didn't play that many seasons. Kobe Bryant has missed more shots than anybody in NBA history. Number two, John Hablecheck. Number three, Elvin Hayes, Hall of Famers. Number four, LeBron James. And number five, Carl Malone. And these are some of the greatest players that ever played. Right? But see, if you're going to have success, you're going to have failure along the way. Look, the more shots you make, the more shots you miss as well. Right? The greatest NBA players miss more shots than anybody. You say, why? Because they're the ones giving the ball because they're trusted. Here's a quote from Michael Jordan. I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life, and that is why I succeed. And I'm not here promoting the NBA or Michael Jordan necessarily. I'm just stating, here's a quote from the greatest NBA player in NBA history, and he's saying, I succeeded because I was willing to fail. I mean, that's a guy who got rejected from his high school basketball team. Right? I mean, he failed. Wouldn't it be easy to say, man, I didn't make it on the high school team. I give up. Right? And isn't this what a lot of people do? They fail a little bit along the way. They just give up. It's not worth it. It's too difficult. It's too hard. I don't want to lose. Right? Look, most of life is actually losing. And you have to learn how to lose if you're going to win because it starts with losing. I mean, you see this quote. He said he missed 26 game-winning shots. Now, here's the thing that's interesting. If you have great success, nobody really remembers the failures. I mean, I think, I mean, for those that actually watch basketball, you remember the shot over Craig Elow where he hung in the air for like, you know, 50 seconds and did that weird double pump thing? And the game-winning shot versus the Utah Jazz, all of these game-winning shots ended up and yet he himself said, I missed 26 game-winning shots. You say, why? Because if you're going to have success, you're going to have failure along the way. Paul the Apostle, we think of him as a succeeder, great success, great man of God, and yet he failed more along the way than anybody. Romans 12, Romans 12. So point number one, why is this important? Because most of life is losing. Point number two, why is sore losing such a bad thing? Because it's offensive to the winner. When somebody's a sore loser, it is extremely rude to the person who actually won. This is what it says in Romans 12, verse 15. Rejoice with them that do rejoice and weep with them that weep. Look, if you're going to strive to live for God, you know what the Bible tells you is, you know what? If somebody else is rejoicing, even if you're not doing well, even if you're depressed, you should rejoice with them. Make them feel good. And look, let's say you walk into church and you're doing great today. Everything in life is awesome and somebody else is weeping, you should actually weep with them rather than rejoicing. And look, if you're the loser and you're weeping, so to speak, hey, rejoice and congratulate the person who won. It's offensive to the winner when you don't do that. Look, when I played soccer, the protocol in soccer is both teams line up after the game, line up, and you just kind of hit hands, good game, good game, good game, good game. Anyway, you do that whether you win or lose or draw. You do that whether you expect to win and you end up losing or whether you got unlucky or whatever and you say good game, you don't make excuses, and you congratulate them. But, you know, there'd always be a few people that are just too myabung or too big of a loser and they refuse to get in line to shake hands. They just refuse to do it because they didn't want to do it. And look, this is not just kids we're talking about. Grown adults do this. Look, you know, the famous example in sports was 30 years ago with the Detroit Pistons. For people that are my age or above, you know, the Detroit Pistons, they won the title a couple times and then they finally lost to the Chicago Bulls. Instead of shaking their hands and saying congratulations, it's your time to shine, they walked off the court and refused to shake hands. To this day, that's one of the biggest events in NBA history when Isaiah Thomas and the Pistons refused to congratulate the Chicago Bulls. It's like you're a grown man and you're a sore loser. It's like you already won a couple titles, just congratulate them. Look, it's okay to lose. Everybody loses. It's not the end of the world. Don't be a sore loser. Just congratulate the winner. Turn to Philippians chapter 2, Philippians 2. Look, I'm not saying it's fun. I mean, when you lose, nobody wants to lose, right? Especially if it's something you're good at or you expect to win and then you end up losing. It's really hard because inside you're thinking, I should have won that. I was the better person, but you end up losing. But, you know, the Bible says, you know what, you should rejoice with them that rejoice. If somebody beats you, just congratulate them, right? Now, we're going to apply this toward the end of the sermon to our spiritual life, you know, quite a bit. But, you know, just in general, we have a lot of competitions around here because I think competitions are fun. I think they're great. Me personally. Now, of course, you don't have to enter these if you don't want to. It's perfectly fine whether you do or not. I enjoy competition. Look, we've had a lot of competitions around here at this church. I've lost most of the competitions I entered. I can only think of one competition that I won in church. I won the push-up competition a while back, right? I lost the arm wrestling, but on a Wednesday night, there are people here that can confirm that. I think it was Wednesday. I did win one, but, you know, most of the competitions I've entered, I've lost. And that's true for everybody in this room. If you entered a bunch of these competitions, even if you won a couple, you lost most of them. Nobody's the best at everything. That's the way it works, okay? Philippians 2, verse 3. Philippians 2, verse 3. The Bible reads, Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also in the things of others. The Bible says that instead of being so concerned with your own things and what you want, be concerned about other people, right? Jesus Christ, he gave us a perfect example that when he came here, his life was about other people and not about himself. Look, if somebody beats you at something, just congratulate them. It's okay, especially as adults if you're raising kids, because if you're a sore loser, what more with your kids? Kids don't like losing. They hate losing, right? It's like the biggest thing we're training my son right now because he's always like, you know, I win and Christabel loses, I win. I'm like, what are you competing at? It's just like, of course you outrun, ran your little sister. You're older, right? It's just like, but it's tough for kids. They don't like to admit that they lose. You know, I wrestle with my son sometimes and, you know, sometimes I let my son win. Sometimes, you know, I don't let him win. And then when I beat him, he's like, it's a draw. It's like, it's not a draw. It's like you're on the ground, on your back, I'm on top of you giving you a nuggy. It's like I'm pretty sure I won, right? But kids don't like losing. I mean, this is reality. Kids hate losing. They have to be trained how to lose. And look, when you start competing in life, you're going to lose. And look, if you don't train your kids at a young age, they're really going to struggle later in life when they get met with rejection and failure and they lose a little bit. They're going to want to just give up because they're not used to it. They need to realize at a young age, you know what, it's okay to lose. By all means, it's good to win. Try to win. Strive to win. But if you don't win, it's okay. It's not the end of the world. Turn to First Corinthians chapter 12. First Corinthians 12. Look, people hate sore losers. If somebody loses and they start making excuses, I mean, it's the most annoying thing. And look, if you're a sore loser, everyone's just going to laugh at you. It's going to be ridiculous. Right? You know, the worst that I've seen in life are like pro fighters. Pro fighters are the worst because what they'll do is they'll interview fighters after the fight. And they'll interview a fighter who got knocked unconscious and he's like, I wasn't unconscious. It's like, well, let's look at the video. And let's say it's like your eyes are shut. You're like, it looks like you're out. He's like, I wasn't out. I would have come back and won. It's like there's video evidence. It's like, what are you talking about? It's obvious you were out. Or a guy gets in a submission and then he's like, you know, tapping. I didn't tap. Well, what was this? That's called I give up in fighting. When you're being choked, you do three taps, I think it is, or a couple taps, and then the fight's over. And it's like they have video evidence and they're like, I didn't tap. Right? Or they'll just say, well, the other person, he gave up during the fight. It's a 12 point. And it's like they look through the video. It's not there. It's like, well, you know, it's there. I felt the tap. It happened. It's like that's the Mandela effect. You're trying to like change things, you know, to fit your scenario or whatever. Look, people don't like losing it. Look, it's something that adults struggle with as well. First Corinthians 12, verse 25, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care one for another, and whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it, or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it. Look, when we do competitions around this church, you know, what, I think most of us, we enjoy competition. We don't take it too seriously. We realize it's okay to lose. It's just fun and everything. But look, when somebody wins a competition, everybody wants to just congratulate them. Well done. Right? Make sure you don't have this attitude, well, you know what, they got lucky over me. Just congratulate them. It's like, well, you know, the food I cooked was better. I don't know why they voted for someone else. Just congratulate them. It's okay. Right? It's like, well, I only lost because of the, it's okay. It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. I lost because of the, it's like, just congratulate them. Rejoice with those that rejoice. Okay? Turn in your Bible to 1 Corinthians 9. 1 Corinthians 9. Point number one, most of life is losing. Point number two, being a sore loser is offensive to the winner. And point number three, honestly, the biggest problem with being a sore loser, I believe, is this, that if you're a sore loser, you're never going to get better. You say why? Because a sore loser makes excuses, right? And if you lose at something and you say, well, I was better. I just got unlucky. You're not motivated to get better, so it doesn't happen again. Because in your mind, you're already better. See, the problem with having a sore losing mentality is you're never going to get better. If you lose at something, you've got to just admit, hey, I lost because I wasn't as good. Now, look, I understand last week I talked about the best doesn't always win, but we also talked about what the Bible shows is the more work you put in, the more likely luck will go your way. And look, if you lose at something, you're certainly not unbeatable. So obviously you need to get better if you're not going to lose in the future. See, the problem with being a sore loser is you'll never get better because you have the idea you're already better, so I don't need to get better. But if you use that as motivation to get better, actually losing can be a good thing. It can cause you to achieve more and realize, hey, you know what? I made mistakes. I won't do this in the future. Look, you learn through trial and error. That's the way it works. Right? You know, when people ask me, you know, what's the secret to being, you know, quick at doing math stuff? It's called guess and check. You guess, and when it's wrong, you guess again. Isn't that right? Guess and check. Right? When you got X and Y, it's like, yeah, I know there's a way. You can just, you know what, just guess numbers and eventually you'll find the right one. Try one. It doesn't work. Try two. And that's usually quicker. Right? Guess and check. You learn through failure. You realize, well, it's not one. Let me try two. Let me try three. Right? 1 Corinthians 9, verse 24. 1 Corinthians 9, verse 24. Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth a prize. So run that you may obtain. You know, live your life in a way, spiritually speaking, to win that gold medal to achieve something great. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now, when it says striving, it basically means fighting or competing. Mastery means to become a master or to get the gold medal or succeed. And it says is temperate in all things, meaning you set other things aside. So if you're trying to achieve something great in life, you have to set aside things that will prevent you. Right? I mean, if you're training for the Olympics and you're trying to win a gold medal and you're trying to run, you know, a race, you know, you really can't eat junk food. Right? I'm not saying junk food's a sin or anything like that, but it's going to prevent you from winning the gold medal. Don't think you're going to run a race. I mean, it doesn't matter how many steroids you pump in your body. If you eat junk food, you're not getting that gold medal. Right? It's like you got to set things aside. If you're trying to strive to get anything, you got to set things aside. I remember when I was a kid, because I've always been a very competitive person, and my sister is a couple years older than me, and my sister, as I've said before, is literally a genius. Her IQ is probably 160 plus or whatever, extremely smart, skipped a lot of grades in school. So when you're the younger brother, and I was in public school and elementary school, this is how it works. Oh, wow, you know, we remember your sister. She's so smart. It's like, thanks. Right? Are you as smart as your sister? It's just like, I play sports, okay? But I remember my sister, you know, she read like eight hours a day when she was a kid, and she competed in the spelling bee in second grade, and she got second place. That was the first time they had the spelling bee. And so I was a little brother, and a couple years later I was going to be, you know, in second grade, and so I said, you know what? I'm going to win the spelling bee. And what they do is they give you a list of like 10,000 words, and all you have to do is memorize them, right, if you're willing to put in the time, even if you don't know the words, you know, even if you don't read books for eight hours a day or whatever. And I just remember the neighborhood kids were coming around like, hey, let's play some basketball. I was like, I can't. You know, I'm memorizing words right now. I said, hey, the spelling bee is in a month. After that, I'll start playing sports again. They're like, you're memorizing words? It's like, because all I did was play sports all day. After school, you just play backyard football, baseball, basketball or whatever, and before the days of everyone playing video games. And so I said, I can't do that because, you know, I'm memorizing these words. And so here's the thing, what I'm saying is on a small scale, it's like, you know what? I decided I'm going to set things aside. You say, why? Because I was striving to get first place. Right? I wanted to win that competition. Now, it meant a lot to me as a kid. Now, obviously, I look back and I say, I could have done a lot of things more productive than memorizing words or winning a spelling bee, but the reason why I strove to do that is because I wanted to win. And look, you can use competition as a means to get better at something, right? Strive to get better at something, but if you're going to do that, you have to set some things aside. Right? And it says, now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible, right? I mean, it's a very corruptible crown. You get a medal, you get a trophy, you get a gold medal. I mean, in the end of the day, it really means nothing. But spiritually speaking, what the Bible is saying is when you strive for success, you get an incorruptible crown because your rewards never pass away. They're never going to be gone. So let's apply this spiritually because you say, Brother Stuckey, I don't need this sermon. How does it apply to me? Well, let me ask you, why is it that some people in our church are failing and losing at reading the Bible? Why are you losing at it? You say, well, you don't understand, Brother Stuckey, my schedule is just so busy. I don't have time. Well, what I understand is this, you're making excuses for losing. Which is basically point number three. Use losing as a motivation to get better. Don't make excuses because the sore loser makes excuses. Look, if you're not reading the Bible every day, you're losing. You're failing the spiritual competition. You're not succeeding, and it doesn't matter what excuse you have, it doesn't change anything. You're losing. You say, Brother Stuckey, you know, you don't understand, my schedule is so busy, it's so hard. Hey, all those things might be true, but you're gonna keep losing until you cut out the excuses and make some change. You got to do something different if you're failing in life. Right, why is it that some people, they never pray? They don't have a prayer life. Their prayer life is, when I really want something, I'll talk to God, but on a daily basis, it's not part of my life. Ask yourself individually, why are you failing in your prayer life? Because it's too difficult, right? It takes time. It takes efforts. This is exactly what I'm talking about. Competition is hard. It's difficult. You're in a spiritual battle, and when you fail, you just give up. Right? Turn to Proverbs 24. Proverbs 24. Proverbs 24. I mean, you can ask a number of questions. Why are you failing, you know, at living a separated life? Why are you living a worldly life? And look, I'm applying myself as well, because look, I'm not perfect. I sin, I struggle, I make mistakes as well. Why are you failing at memorizing the Bible? Right? Why are you failing at, you know, being a regular soul winner? What is stopping you from succeeding? Because if you're not succeeding at what you're doing, you're not winning the competition, then you're losing. That's the way it works. Right? And look, your excuses very well may be true, but it doesn't change at the end of the day. God says, read the Bible every day. Maybe your schedule is more busy than me and other people at church. You still need to read the Bible every day, because that's what God says. Look, you can have excuses, and they can be real, but it doesn't change anything. Now, just a secular example, because a lot of people at our church, you know, it's not just here, but also in Pampanga, chess is like the game now everyone's playing, right? But here's the thing, everyone who has played chess before has been winning a match, and they're doing everything right, they're ahead, they've castled, their king's protected, but they didn't move those three pawns on the back rank, and you're winning, you're not paying attention, the other person brings his rook down, checkmate, you lose. I mean, has that not happened to everyone who's played chess before? I mean, that's so annoying, right? You're winning a match, you've got it, you're saying, okay, I'm gonna checkmate him in two times, checkmate. It's like, what? Now, is it true that you only lost because you made a blunder? Well, yeah, it's true. But here's the reality, you made that blunder because you're not good enough. That's the truth. Look, everybody makes blunders in chess, even the greatest players in the world, but guess what? We make them more than them. You say, why? We're not as good. What I'm saying is, your excuse might be a valid excuse, that might be the reason, but the reason why you failed is because you're not good enough. That's why it happened. Yeah, maybe the basketball team got unlucky because they kept missing their three-pointers, but maybe if they were better shooters, it wouldn't happen. Maybe you control most of the game, but hey, if your shot's not falling, that's the way it works, get better at your shot. Don't make excuses for why you lost. And at the end of the day, it doesn't change anything, you still lost. Proverbs 24 verse 10. Proverbs 24 verse 10. And the Bible says in Proverbs 24 verse 10, If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small. The Bible teaches that if you give up when things get difficult, it's because you're weak. Thy strength is small equals weak. Right? Now look, when I was growing up, the biggest insults you could could say to a young boy was calling them, you know, bakla, soft or weak. Right? When somebody made a sort of comment like that, it's like, okay, those are fighting words. Right? And that was like the big insult you could give to someone when you're playing basketball or football or sport or whatever, or someone starts saying, hey, you know, you pretty boy or whatever. It's like, alright, let's just throw off the gloves. Let's start fighting now. Right? It's like as a guy, it's like, you know, when they call you soft, they try to tell you that you're not tough. There's nothing that gets to you more than that. Right? Now, I'm not saying it's the same with ladies. That's the way guys are built though. Somebody calls you, you know, soft or a homo or whatever. Now in our modern day, I've heard kids outsold and just making jokes about calling others homo, and then apparently it's not a big deal anymore. I mean, when I was a kid, it's just like that was a big deal. I mean, if somebody called you that, it's just like, you know what, I would have disqualified myself from the ministry. Right? It's like someone to make an insult like that, that's a big insult. Somebody calling you soft, someone calling you weak, someone calling you pretty boy, someone calling you a homo or something like that. There's no bigger insult that they could give than that. Right? But what the Bible says here is that if you give up when it gets hard, it's because you are weak. It's because you are soft. It is because you aren't tough enough. And see, look, when you get, when you deal with adversity in life and you fail and you struggle, if you give up, let's use some common sense. You weren't strong enough to win. Imagine a fight where what happens, the corner throws the towel into the ring, it's like fight over because basically they gave up. And you see that sometimes, you know, boxers will quit in the middle of rounds. I know here is the fight Pacquiao versus De La Hoya, where De La Hoya just kind of quit after seven and eight rounds. And look, obviously there's your personal health you got to consider if you're getting beat up really bad. So I'm not saying fight till the death in a boxing match. I mean, it's, but what I'm saying is this, when you deal with adversity in life and you just give up, it's because you're not strong enough. It's because you're weak. Look, it's okay to lose. And losing is what causes you to get better. You make a mistake and you learn, okay, I'm never going to do that again. I got to get better so I can win, right? Verse number 16. Verse number 16, for a just man never falls. Is that what the Bible says in verse 16? The Bible says, for a just man falleth seven times and riseth up again, but the wicked shall fall into mischief. See, the difference between someone who's really serving God and doing great things in their life versus someone who doesn't, it's not that they never fail. It's not that they never lose. It's called when they lose, they pick themselves back up and they learn from it. They correct the mistakes. They don't give up. Look, there's a lot of people, they start the Christian life, they're excited, they're excited. Man, this is great. And then a couple months later, they quit. Why? They dealt with some failure. They dealt with some rejection. Maybe their parents made fun of them for their beliefs. Maybe their sister or their cousins made fun of them for their beliefs. And then they just give up because it's too hard, right? Look, the difference between someone who succeeds in life versus someone who fails in life, the person who succeeds is willing to fail a lot more times in order to succeed. Right? I mean, that's the way it works. Why is it that all these basketball players we mentioned, we know them as the greatest players? Because they have more points and more field goals and more everything than everybody else, more MVPs, but they also have more misses. Why? They're willing to fail in order to succeed. That's the way it works. If you want to get good at something, it doesn't happen overnight. This is the way people are. They get motivated just with a new hobby or whatever. They're like, man, I want to become really good at the guitar or whatever. Okay? Whatever hobby that you decide to pick up. And then all of a sudden you start and then a couple weeks later you give up because you're not getting any better. Right? When you lift, the way lifting works is when you start, you skyrocket in strength. I mean, it's crazy how much strength you put on. The first time you bench maybe 135 pounds or whatever, like a month later you're at like 160. And then all of a sudden you're thinking, man, I'm going to be like Arnold Schwarzenegger in a couple months. Then all of a sudden you plateau. And then you're not getting any stronger. And every time you go to the gym, you're not lifting more weight. And what ends up happening with lifting is you've got to basically kind of trick your body. Where basically you change your routine. Because your body learns, okay, you do 12 reps at 135. I need enough strength to do this. Well, now you've got to start doing more weight and less reps, do pyramid system, all these different things. Basically you've got to trick your body. But what I'm saying is this. A lot of people, they just give up. You say why? Because now it's hard. When it started, it's like, oh, this is great. Now I'm not getting better. I quit. You've got to be willing to fail in life if you want to succeed. So what do we look at here today? Number one, most of life is losing. Number two, when you're a sore loser, it's offensive to the winner. And number three, instead of making excuses, use losing as a motivation. Now to us that are parents, though, we need to teach our kids these things. This sounds very basic, but I'm telling you, kids do not know this at a young age. They do not like losing. My son hates to lose at a young age. And you know, the reality is the kids at our church, it's not like they're learning good manners from kids outside of our church. I mean, we had our son at the playground the other day on Friday when we went soul winning. And I mean, some of the other kids were just so obnoxious. Because, you know, I teach my son, hey, you know what, don't walk past somebody, you know, cut in front of them, you know, on the slide or whatever, cut in front. You know, basically take your turn. And then all the other kids are just shoving my kids out of the way. And it's just like, man, it's like none of the kids have any manners. And then what happens is, you know, I teach my kid, you know, because we walk up the stairs, I've told my son many times, hey, don't cut in front of me when I'm walking up the stairs, it's rude. If somebody is in front of you, let them stay in front. But you got to teach your kids these things. But what I'm saying is this, we teach our kids these things and they're applying these things and doing a good job, but then all of a sudden they're out in the world and they see all these other kids doing something else, guess what the kids start doing? They start doing what everybody else is doing. Isn't that the way it works? Your kids learn through repetition. They just follow the pattern of all the other kids. We need to teach our kids at a young age, you know what, it's okay to lose. Don't give up when you lose. Get better. Use it as a motivation. Don't make excuses. Let's close in a 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 help all of us in this room, not just kids, but us as adults, help us to be good losers, that when we do lose, we congratulate those who win, and not to make excuses, but just try to get better at what we do, God. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Sweetly, Lord, have we heard Thee calling, Come, follow me. And we see where Thee good winds falling Need us to be. Good Prince of Jesus, Let me come back, we go. We will follow the stance of Jesus Where'er they go. Though they lead o'er the cold, our fountains seek Meekness, sheep. For alone I see no one's fountains Helping the weak. Good Prince of Jesus, Let me come back, we go. We will follow the stance of Jesus Where'er they go. Good Prince of Jesus, Let me come back, we go. We will follow the stance of Jesus Where'er they lead o'er the cold, our fountains seek Meekness, sheep. For alone I see no one's fountains Helping the weak. Good Prince of Jesus, Let me come back, we go. We will follow the stance of Jesus Where'er they go. Good Prince of Jesus, Let me come back, we go. We will follow the stance of Jesus Where'er they lead o'er the cold, our fountains seek Meekness, sheep. We will follow the stance of Jesus Where'er they go. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.