This Is a Good Wrestling Match! Gen 32: 22-31 NIV

This Is a Good Wrestling Match!!!

Gen 32: 22-31 NIV

Purpose: After the listening to the sermon, we will understand that it is ok to come before God and tell Him everything in our heart, because God is not going to stop loving us or He is not going to cut us off from His blessings.

²² That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.

²³ After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions.

²⁴ So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. ²⁵ When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.

²⁶ Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”

But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

²⁷ The man asked him, “What is your name?”

“Jacob,” he answered.

²⁸ Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”

²⁹ Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”

But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.

³⁰ So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared [safe].”

³¹ The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip.

This is the Word of God,

For the People of God.

Praise be to God. Amen

 

This Is a Good Wrestling Match!!!

Gen 32: 22-31;  NIV

Purpose: After the listening to the sermon, we will understand that it is ok to come before God and tell Him everything in our heart, because God is not going to stop loving us or He is not going to cut us off from His blessings.

Outline

I.       Introduction

 Talk about the WWE and its story and the story of the wrestle as a  serious sport versus entertainment activity

II.      Authenticity vs. Fakeness

III.    Explanation of the text

IV.    Conclusion[s]

V.      Prayer

        Do you know what is wrestling??? Wrestling is one of the oldest form of combat.[1] According to Athnet, which is a company which recruit athletes around the world, it says about wrestling, "It was very popular in ancient Greece and it was a very important sport in the Olympic Games. It was developed by ancient Greeks as a way to train soldiers in hand-to-hand combat. When Greece was conquered by the Roman Empire, wrestling was adopted by the Romans but not with the same popularity that it had with the Greeks. During the Middle Ages, wrestling became popular even in the houses of royal families of France, Japan, and England.[2]

          Much later, American settlers from England brought the sport with them and by their surprise, wrestling became very popular among Native American tribes. Through the early years when America started developing and consolidated as a young country, recreational wrestling became very accepted in the county fairs, holiday celebrations, and the military exercises. Of course wrestling had several styles, but just the nowadays collegiate wrestling survives with some variations from the original.[3] Actually, what we know as a professional wrestling in the TV has evolved as a

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[1] http://www.athleticscholarships.net/history-of-wrestling.htm (Accessed on 9/24/2015)

[2] http://www.athleticscholarships.net/history-of-wrestling.htm (Accesses on 9/24/2015)

[3] http://www.athleticscholarships.net/history-of-wrestling.htm (Accessed on 9/24/2015)

 entertainment show for people. We keep just little of the wrestling that used to practice in the ancient times.

          In nowadays, one of the most popular and well-paid sports which has come from traditional wrestling, is what we know as the WWE World Wrestling Entertainment.[1] Are you familiar with Hulk Hogan, a famous American professional wrestler and actor. That means, in nowadays, wrestling has became fake, because the wrestlers do the wrestling more for entertainment, fame, and money than for the love of practicing the sport. In ancient Greece, very often, the Greek soldiers died through the training. It was how serious the training was taken. They were training with the same commitment,  bravery, and passion as if they were fighting in battle.

          Here in the biblical text, wrestling is also taking very seriously. Jacob is risking his life in order to get something from his opponent. However, the opponent is not training for battle as the Greek soldiers, the opponent is not training for the Olympic Games, or the opponent was not performing for fame, status, or money, because the opponent is God Himself and God takes very serious our personal encounters with Him.

          Also, I need to tell you something about Jacob's character. He was very dishonest and corrupted. Jacob tricked his brother Esau before his father Isaac in order to get the blessing of the family and in this way inherent the flocks, the land, the slaves, and the good name. It was by tradition that the oldest brother was going to inherit, however, once the father gives a blessing nothing or no one could take it back. That is, Jacob stole everything from Esau.

          Jacob is ready to face his brother after 20 years of separation, and in this part of the biblical narrative, we find that God took human form, other way, it was not possible that Jacob could wrestled with God, if He was not in human form. That means, God encountered Jacob to his human level. The Divine lower Himself to the level of the ordinary. The Creator came to a level of the creature. That proves that God is faithful in His encounters. He lowers Himself, because God could win easily. On the other hand,  Jacob proved himself to be faithful and committed to God. Very often, we don't know how faithful we are until we are wrestling with God. Consequently, Jacob has experienced a deep inner transformation. The rest of the narrative doesn't say anything about Jacob's deceitful character. Jacob had to be so engaged and close to God that he said to Him, "I am not going to let you go until you bless me." Jacob didn't know the kind of blessing that he was asking God for.  However, he, Jacob knew that he needed to be blessed and that only God was going to be able and was going to be willing to give him what he needed it. Only God is able and is willing to give good things to us, even when we wrestle with Him and we just know that we need to be blessed.

          The closeness that Jacob experienced in the wrestling with God made him changed his deceitful and cheating personality. The change in Jacob was so radical that God gave him another name, Israel. Jacob couldn't wrestle with God if He, God, didn't allow Jacob to wrestle. God engages with Jacob in the most vulnerable  and weak moment of his life. God comes to our encounter when we are in the most lower places of our lives. God is the Only One who can give blessings when at the same time, He enters in our trouble inner-self. Wrestling with God gives new life and new perspectives, because wrestling with God changes us for the good and in permanent way.

          Here, Jacob is an active participant even he is against his trickery and dishonest personality. In order to be in a wrestling match with God, we need to be honest, even when this honesty can hurt us. We have to give everything that we have. We have to be willing to die in the training match. God. To be transformed in a radical way, in the way that God likes to do things, is to die in the training. When we die in the training with God, then we are going to survive in the wrestling of life. God was training Jacob to be ready to face Esau. God is training us to face whatever comes to our encounter.

          On the other hand, when we don't want to wrestle with God, then we deny ourselves the opportunity to grow and to become more and more like Christ. If someone doesn't want to get engage in the wrestling training then what serious is this person in his/her Christianity???

          Also, I need you to notice that God took the initiative to come to the wrestling match. God didn't wait until, maybe Jacob was ready. God comes to our encounter and maybe we are not ready, but even there, God provides the enough strength to wrestle with Him. That means, that God is an active subject and active person in this fallen world. God. The wrestling matches with God are real and authentic. They are not fake matches like with Hulk Hogan.

          During the wrestling matches with God, God honors the relationship with Him. First, He honors our disposition to enter in a wrestling invitation to wrestle with Him and Him alone. Second, God honors our persistency and perseverance of not giving up in the middle of the match. We are a community of faith that doesn't leave God in the middle of the way of something, because we wrestling with Him until the breaking of the day.

          Let us pray,

          Dear and Good Father,

          Thank You for the invitation of wrestling with You. We want to wrestle to the point that You are going to change our inner selves and make in us be more like Jesus. Help us to never quit a wrestling match with You, to the contrary help us to complete the wrestling match until the breaking of the day.

In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen!!!   

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[1] http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2011/04/vince-mcmahon-wants-to-take-wrestling-out-of-the-wwe.html (Accessed on 9/24/2015)