Morning Message Texts: Genesis 32: 22-31 & 2 Timothy 4: 1-5
Jacob Wrestles With God
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.”
31 The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip.
A Final Charge to Timothy
1 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge:
2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.
3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
Morning Message:
God has called us into a relationship with him through Jesus. What does that mean? What does that look like in our everyday lives? I ask these questions this morning because I believe that a lot of us Christians have a relationship problem when it comes to God. Now I am not necessarily saying that you have not accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior. What I am saying is we have stopped working on our relationship with God. Now, I am sure that I have probably lost all of you men already with this message. Just like you, the last thing I want to hear is that I need to work on a relationship. Oh no, this sounds like torture; I don’t want to spend time talking about my feelings and be told how bad I am at communicating. Stay with me guys, this is not about your human relationships, it’s about your relationship with God. There are a lot of similarities though between our relationships with one another and our relationship with God. The most basic things that we must do to nurture our human relationships are the same things that we need to do to draw closer to God. We must spend time with, talk to, and listen to others in order to grow together. How can we spend time with God? Through worship and prayer. Do you talk to God? I know that most of us have designated prayer time, but other than that planned time, do you talk to God? You wouldn’t say to your spouse or your children or anyone that you are close to, I’m only going to talk to you at certain times. Why not talk to God all the time? One of the most important things that you can learn to do in a relationship is listen. Do we listen to God? Are we reading scripture and listening for what God wants to say to us?
I am going to suggest something to you this morning that most of us probably fail to do in our relationship with God. This is something that is so important to the health and growth of a relationship. When we are in a relationship, we don’t always agree with one another. When we are in a serious relationship, such as a marriage, there are decisions to be made together. Sometimes very difficult decisions and choices must be made together. You know the real important things in life, like where the children will go to school, or whether or not to change jobs or move. In a marriage you would never dream of making these decisions without consulting your spouse, and you will not always agree on which path to take, so together you work it out, you wrestle with it. It is important to our walk of faith that we wrestle with God. God welcomes our disagreements and doubts and when we care enough to prayerfully strive with God we grow. One of the reasons that people stop coming to worship is that they have stopped wrestling with God.
Jacob was a character to say the least. He knew God but he lived a life of deceit and lying. He cheated his brother out of his birthright, deceived his father, and now, knowing that his deeds were catching up to him, he sends his family ahead to possibly face the consequences while he stays behind. Jacob needed a change in his life. He knew that he had not been living according to God’s will, and now he needed to find the right path. He wrestles with God. God wrestles with him. You can look at it either way. God could have defeated Jacob in this match without even lifting a finger, but instead, he engaged with Jacob to change him and make him into the man that he needed to be. Listen, don’t get caught up in this word wrestle, this was an intimate, soul searching, encounter with God. Jacob was forever changed, not just physically, but more importantly, spiritually. How long has it been since you really wrestled with God about the way you live your life? I believe that Christians stop wrestling and striving with God and eventually that causes us to lose interest.
So, what happens to us when we stop struggling with God and growing in our faith? We become stagnant, unproductive, and eventually we lose interest in the things of God. When that happens, we are in danger of the world seeping into our lives and our thought process. We start looking for solutions to our problems in other places. The world starts to look better and better to us. God’s word losses its importance in our lives. And then, our ears start to itch; we want to hear that things are going well; we start listening to the voices that say pleasant things to us, and we begin to put our faith in the world rather than is our Savior. The things of this world become so important to us that we turn from the truth and turn to all that the world has to offer. It becomes easy to stay in bed on Sunday morning. We take the easy way out when it comes to activities being scheduled on the Lord’s Day. We get to the point where we no longer feel guilty over missing worship and not practicing our faith. We used to shake our heads at the myths and the falsehoods of this world, but now they make more sense and seem true. All because we stopped wrestling with God. It seems to happen so quickly, but before we know it we find ourselves so far from God and turning from the truth. The world is in serious trouble. Our nation has lost its senses and turned away from God. How did we get here? How is it that our leaders seem so confused and downright ungodly? When the church weakens a nation crumbles. When we stop wrestling with God and make decisions about our leadership based on our own feelings, this is what happens. Pay attention to what is happening to your nation, wrestle with God and turn back to the truth.
In Christ’s Love and Peace,
Pastor Bob
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