Sermon Title: GODISNOWHERE
Scripture: Genesis 28:10-17, Genesis 32:22-21 (NIV)
2 Encounters, 3 Lessons
God Encounter #1: Stairway to Heaven
God Encounter #2: The Wrestling Match
Clues to the identity of Jacob’s opponent:
Clue #1: Power Move
Clue #2: Get away before daylight!
Clue #3: Name Searching
This God encounter teaches us…
1. Blessing comes on the other side of struggle.
2. God’s blessing often comes through our pain point.
What do we learn from Jacob’s God encounters?
We learn that Jesus doesn’t point to the stairway to heaven. He is the stairway to heaven.
Bottom line: God relentlessly pursues us and promises to never leave nor forsake us. This means, we can stay and trust His tory for our lives!
Additional Notes:
Genesis 28:10-17 (NIV)
10 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. 11 When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. 12 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 There above it stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. 14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. 15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
Genesis 32:22-21 (NIV)
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.”