Sermon Study Guide

Q1: Icebreaker: Would you rather have a comfortable life and remain status quo, or have a challenging life that forces you to learn and grow? Why? How does your prayer life reflect your answer to this question?

Q2: After 20 years, Jacob has to meet Esau again, the brother that wanted to kill him after Jacob took his blessing. Imagine you are Jacob, how would you feel? Imagine if you were Esau?

Q3: God had a plan and purpose for Jacob, and it involved building relationship with the living God. Before we are called to “what,” we are first called to “who.” What does intimacy with God look like for you? What does a life of prayer, of dialogue with God, look like?

Q4: In their wrestling match, the man asks Jacob his name. Jacob has no choice but to say his name and reveal his identity and life up to this point, a life led cunningly and sometimes deceitfully. How hard is it for you to acknowledge your inadequacies and weaknesses in your testimony to God? How encouraged do you feel knowing that God can still utilize you mightily despite your limitations?

Q5: God didn’t give Jacob anything “useful” after their wrestling match, and seemingly made his situation worse by giving him a limp. Rather, God gave Jacob a new name, Israel, the promise that God would fight on his behalf. How does this story impact you today, especially knowing God has sent Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit to be your Savior and help?

Q6: Jacob had the opportunity to follow Esau after their “semi-reconciliation,” but he didn’t and went his own way to Canaan. He had a new identity upon him, a trajectory that would lead him to become Israel. Do you view struggling or wrestling with God in a new light?

Q7: Which part of this message on Jacob wrestling with God resonated with you the most? Which part surprised you the most?