Wrestling with God

Wrestling with God

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Wrestling with God
by Mark Labberton
Text: Genesis 32
Topic: How to receive God's blessing
Big Idea: Only God will wrestle with our old nature in order to bless us with a new one.
Keywords: Ambition; Blessings; Selfishness; Wrestling with God.

Introduction

• Illustration: Labberton recounts an argument when he and his wife were newlyweds over the placement of a china plate.
• The motive behind most arguments is just wanting our own way.

We all want our own way.

• The story of Jacob is the story of a person we desperately wants his own way.
• Like Jacob, we have learned how to insist on having our own way without sounding like it.

We are all seeking a blessing.

• For Jacob, "getting my own way" looked like seeking a blessing.
• The blessing in Jacob's family carried much higher stakes than most.
• Jacob's coercive, conniving nature was reflected in his name.
• There were consequences for Jacob's selfish striving—and there always are for us, too.

We all seek an identity

• Illustration: After 40 years of service, a therapist was able to say that all his clients were asking the same question: "What must I do to be saved?"
• As the second son, Jacob had to fight to get the inheritance.
• The identity Jacob desired was not the blessing God had planned for him.
• The stories of our lives are about struggling to find the people who will bless us.
• Illustration: One man found it hard to believe that God might have something greater in store for him than the approval of his parents.

We must wrestle with God.

• Jacob wrestled with a divinely appointed man, who may have been God himself.
• The two men wrestled for the whole night—they were very much engaged with one another.

We must receive a new identity.

• The man asked for Jacob's name and gave him a new one.
• The new name gave Jacob a new set of values and an affirmation of who he really was.
• Wrestling with God, and the reality of who we are, will change us.
• God gave Jacob a physical reminder of the >encounter, demonstrating his power and blessing.

We must know God.

• Jacob asked for the man's name but was blessed instead.
• God is the only one who will stay with us, let alone bless us, in our selfish state.
• Big Idea: Only God will wrestle with us, give us a new identity, and give us a reminder of the change worked in us.
• God longs to bless us, and will do so when we encounter him.

Conclusion

• Will we wrestle persistently with God to receive the blessing he alone can give?