Introduction

Do you ever watch wrestling? If you do, are you afraid to admit that you watch it? I recently read that you probably watch too much wrestling if:

• You write on your resume, "I am the best there is, the best there was, and the best there ever will be."
• You get in fights with people who say wrestling is fake.
• You find someone smaller than you, beat them up, and then spray-paint their back.
• You clothesline people in the supermarket for no reason.
• You elbow-smash your dog and turn him over for the three count.
• Instead of reading a bedtime story to your kids, you just put them in a sleeper hold.
• Your king-sized bed has ropes and turn-buckles surrounding it.
• You hit your co-worker in the head with a chair while your manager is distracting him.
• You carry foreign objects in your underwear.
• You walk down the aisle at church giving high-fives as the people hold up signs and chant your name.

When I was a kid, I watched wrestling religiously. It was on TV every Saturday afternoon. The first wrestler I remember seeing was Dick "The Bruiser." I thought he was the ugliest, scariest man I had ever seen. He was the dirtiest wrestler on television, and he went ten years without being pinned. They called him "The Bruiser" because he made sure his opponents left the ring both bloodied and bruised.

For thousands of years, the nation of Israel looked for a bruiser. But they weren't looking for a wrestler; they were looking for a warrior. They expected him to be a bruiser because he was predicted to be one. When Satan caused the world's greatest tragedy by successfully tempting Adam and Even to sin, war broke out between good and evil, between God and Satan. The only hope for this world was that a warrior come, ...

James Merritt is the Senior Pastor of Cross Pointe Church. His media teaching ministry, Touchinglives, is broadcast around the country and throughout the world. Dr. Merritt is also the author of numerous books, including How to Impact and Influence Others.