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Gateway Chapel | Fall '25 | Drew Cunningham

Gateway Chapel | Fall '25 | Drew Cunningham

Oct 16, 2025

Series: Fall 2025 Chapel Series

Category: Chapel

Keywords: god, strength, jacob, wrestle, self-reliance, wrestling match

Summary:

Drew Cunningham, lead pastor of Santa Cruz Baptist Church, gave a message on wrestling with God as Jacob in Genesis 32. "Then as daybreak is approaching, look what happens. Verse 25, 'When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.' Do you see it? This isn't that Jacob was too strong for God and somehow won the the wrestling match. God proves that that's not true when He severely injures Jacob with just one touch. God can't be defeated or damaged in any wrestling match. When it says that He, God, did not prevail against Jacob, the text is referring to Jacob's self-reliance. God wore Jacob out, all night, with this wrestling match, graciously holding back His own power, like a dad might do in wrestling his 3-year-old son. But Jacob stubbornly, wouldn't relent. How often are we just like Jacob? We think we can get our own way with God as He patiently and graciously wrestles with us. But sometimes, God has to take drastic measures to truly get us to submit."

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