| THE BIG 3 SPORTS | ~Sports Levels: HS, Community, Sandlot
~HS: 1) Football, 2) Baseball, 3) ??? The Mystery Sport (NOT Basketball) ~COMMUNITY: Football, Little League Baseball - NO BB Leagues ~SANDLOT: Baseball, Catch, Fielding and Batting; Football; NO Soccer; NO Basketball, just HORSE; We were almost always playing the Mystery Sport. |
| THE MYSTERY SPORT IS… | ~And the Mystery Sport is ...Wrestling!
~No, not beating each other with fold-up chairs or jumping off ropes onto each other: Scholastic Wrestling ~ Wrestling was HUGE in our area We wrestled each other year round As grown men on construction sites, we'd wrestle |
| WRESTLERS | ~ You knew wrestlers on sight from a distance
They were lean, many of them small guys.- Mini-gorillas
You cannot have undeveloped muscles in wrestling. Some guy laying across your chest trying to pin your shoulders and you bridge up against his weight and strength using your neck and shoulder muscles?! ~ Incredibly Disciplined, fasting to make weight class. What teen-aged boy can give up food for 2 days? |
| WRESTLING IN THE OLD TESTAMENT | ~ Jacob - Facing his estranged brother's approaching army, Jacob encounters a
Mysterious Night-time Wrestler
~ Mysterious Wrestler cannot prevail Jacob refuses to let go unless he's blessed ~ THE MYSTERIOUS WRESTLER: "What is your name?" (Who are you?) JACOB: "Jacob" (Jacob = supplanter, replacer, schemer) ~ THE MYSTERIOUS WRESTLER: "Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have prevailed with God and with men." (Israel = Prince with God) |
| WRESTLING IN THE NEW TESTAMENT | Eph 6:12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. |
| INVITATION | 1) God wants to start a wrestling match with your soul.
2) He wants you to face up to who you are? 3) He wants to rename you, make you a NEW YOU. |