1 – Today’s contest will require strength and courage for us to finish the day with a victory.

2 – Strength and courage are character qualities required for all of life and especially for competition.

• Joshua 1:9 (read the text aloud).

3 – Be strong

• Strong of mind (focus well and tune out crowd noise)
• Strong of body (prepare to finish the contest strongly)
• Strong of soul (to deal well with momentum swings)

4 – Be courageous

Chapel – Attitude

1 – Attitude:
• It can be our greatest asset.
• It can be our greatest liability.
• Your attitude will affect how you perceive your teammates, your coaches, your opponents, the officials and your team’s support staff.

Chapel – Adversity

1 – The events of these last days are those which try men’s souls.
• Disappointment
• Failure
• Loss
• Illness
• Injury

2 – How we deal with adversity is a strong indicator of our character.
• Will we bounce back or will we wilt?
• Will we encourage or will we criticize?
• Will we accept responsibility or will we shift blame?

1 – How does a competitor demonstrate genuine love for his teammates?

• In the book about Coach Joe Ehrmann, “Season of Life” it says that the coaches’ job is to love the players and the players’ job is to love each other.
• Over the last …… months you have done that.
• Let’s continue that in today’s contest. 
• Such love and sacrifice could be the key to a victory today.

2 – This is a great scripture on this theme.  I John 3:16-18 (read text aloud)