Jacob: Wrestling with God

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Jacob Wrestling with God
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Our Wrestling with God

• Do you think you can wrestle with God?
• Have you and/or do you wrestle with God?
• How can you wrestle with God?

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Our Wrestling with God

• Ignoring your Bible and Prayer
• Overuse of the Internet/TV/Video Games
• School Course Load, Grades, Graduation
• Relationships - Family, Dating, Friends
• Anxiety, Stress, Worry (Car Problems)

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Jacobs Life of Wrestling

• The babies jostled each other within her
• (Genesis 2522)
• But Jacob said, Swear to me first. So he swore
  an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob.
  (Genesis 2533)
• Jacob said to his father, I am Esau your
  firstborn (Genesis 2719)
• Then the lord said to Jacob, Go back to the
  land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I
  will be with you. (Genesis 313)

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Jacobs Life of Wrestling

• I am unworthy of all the kindness and
  faithfulness you have shown your servant.
  (Genesis 3210)
• But you have said, I will surely make you
  prosper and will make your descendants like the
  sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.
  (Genesis 3212)
• So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with
  him till daybreak. When the man saw that he
  could not over power him (Genesis 3224-25)

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Jacobs Life of Wrestling

• Then the man said, Let me go, for it is
  daybreak. But Jacob replied, I will not let you
  go unless you bless me. (Genesis 3226)

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Jacobs Response to Trouble

• Jacob took his family and sent them across
  the stream. And he sent across whatever he had.
  Then Jacob was left alone (Genesis 3223-24a)

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Jacobs Response to Trouble

• Jacob took his family and sent them across
  the stream. And he sent across whatever he had.
  Then Jacob was left alone (Genesis 3223-24a)
• We tend to go inward
• We tend to isolate
• from people God

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God Picks a Fight with Jacob

• Then Jacob was left
• alone, and a man
• wrestled with him
• until daybreak.
• (Genesis 3224)

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God Picks a Fight with Jacob

• Then Jacob was left alone,
• and a man wrestled with
• him until daybreak.
• (Genesis 3224)
• God is keeping Jacob
• engaged with Him
• rather than allowing
• Jacob to get lost in himself.

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God Picks a Fight with Jacob

• A man wrestled with him until daybreak. When he
  saw that he had not prevailed against Jacob, he
  touched the socket of
• his thigh so the socket of Jacobs thigh was
  dislocated while he wrestled him.
• Then he said, Let me goBut Jacob said, I
  will not let you go unless you bless me.
• (Genesis 3224-26)

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Gods Goal of Wrestling Jacob

• Then he said, Let me goBut Jacob said, I
  will not let you go unless you bless me.
• So he said, What is your name?
• And he said, Jacob.
• He said, Your name shall no longer be Jacob,
  but Israel for you have wrestled with God and
  with men and have prevailed.
• (Genesis 3226-29)

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Results from Wrestling with God

• Transformation of Jacob into Israel (Genesis
  3228)
• Recognizing of God in a new way
• (Genesis 3229-30 3320)
• A visible change in Jacob (Genesis 3231)
• Trusting in following God (Genesis 3317-20)

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Church Participation

• On the Prayer section of the contact card
  (inside the bulletin) please write
• 1 or 2 areas that you are wrestling with God
  right now in your life that we can lift up in our
  prayers.
• Please fill out the rest of the info on the card
  and put it (and any tithes) in the baskets when
  they are passed.