A Fresh Start Series

The Journey of Life – A Fresh Start

Slide

This is an exciting time for Hickory Creek.

This new facility provides a perfect opportunity to make a fresh start in our ministry.

It is an opportunity to minister to new people and begin new ministries.

It is exciting to have these opportunities to start fresh.

Have you ever felt like making a fresh start in life?

Slide

I am sure you have.

Probably some, if not most, of you made a commitment to a fresh start to start the new year.

This year is going to be different.

I am going to stop some bad habits

I am going to lose weight.

I am going to find a new job.

I am going to be a better person

I am going to be a better father

I am going to be a better wife.

The problem however, is that while

our intentions are good,

our will and our ability are not,

and we to often fall back into

the same habits,

the same actions,

the same pattern

that brought us to where we are at in the first place.

When that happens enough times in our life, sometimes we feel like our situation becomes hopeless.

Well, whatever your situation, today, on this day that we

dedicate our new building and

look forward with hope to new ministries and new people to minister to,

I want to offer you the hope of a fresh start.

Turn with me to John 4:4 (P. 752)

Slide

We are going to read the story of the woman at the well that Jesus meets on his way through Samaria. I want us to see this story from this woman’s point of view today,

So I am going to take some of the cultural manners and customs that were prevalent at the time and weave them in this story to be able to get a fuller picture of this woman’s point of view so we might better understand

the offer of hope,

the offer of a fresh start,

that is made to each of us through this Scripture even if we feel we are in a hopeless situation

So let’s begin in

John 4:4-8

4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" 8(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

Now a couple of things as we begin to look at this story.

First,

Physically, Jesus did not have to go through Samaria.

He could have gone around Samaria, because that is what most Jews did.

They did not get along with Samaritans, these half breeds.

They avoided them.

But the text tells us He had to.

Jesus had to go through Samaria because He had a mission to accomplish.

Secondly,

Now it says it was about the 6th hour.

That would make it around noon time.

Hot and not a time that women would normally go to get water.

Why is this woman getting water at this time?

For a moment, I want you to think about this woman going to get this water at a time when she thought there would be no one else around doing what she needed to do. I want you to think about what she may be feeling and experiencing as she goes to get some water.

She is in her room.

She picks up her clay jar.

She opens the door and the heat of the day hits her in the face.

Taken back for a moment, she exits and looks up and down the dusty street.

It is relatively quite.

It is not really a good time to fetch water. In fact it is not a good time to be outside.

The sun is at it’s peak and it is beating down on her.

She could go later, when it is cooler, but that would mean facing the other women there.

That’s why she is going now. She doesn’t want to face the other women there.

She is the town “bad girl.”

She is sleeping with a guy whom she is not married to.

She has already been married 5 times and none of those relationships worked out.

She has tried for a fresh start before by trying to change her circumstance.

Each of those 5 times she entered with the hope of having a different life.

Each time she vowed that this would be different.

Life would be better.