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.
It never was though.
Now she had
given up on marriage,
given up on really living,
because she had given up on hope.
Now she was just existing from day to day.
Living the Life of a Shadow
You see,
Living Life without Hope is only a Shadow
Slide
David, describes a life without hope as like a shadow.
1 Chronicles 29:15
Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope.
Our shadow’s exist, but they don’t live.
Are you living life on earth like a shadow?
Are you living life without hope, only existing?
You go from day to day doing what you need to do.
You try not to dwell on the past because there are a lot of hurts and bad choices in the past.
Why did I start smoking or drinking or using drugs.
Now your addicted.
Why did I give into peer pressure
Why didn’t I go to college
Why did I get divorced
Why, Why, Why?
The past is too painful. Don’t think about it.
But the sad part is that you don’t think much about the future either, because you don’t think there is one for you.
Instead, you just exist.
You don’t really live.
You only live a shadow of a life.
You get up and
work another day
do another load of laundry.
Make dinner
Make another sales call.
Don’t think about the past and
don’t think about the future.
Just go and do what you need to do.
Exist but don’t live.
That’s what this woman is doing.
So she goes to draw some water from the well.
The story continues… A Man at the well
But as she nears the well, she notices someone there.
It is a Man, a Jew.
Whew, she thinks.
He won’t speak to her.
Men don’t speak to women and
Jews certainly don’t speak to Samaritans.
Her mind drifts for a moment.
In fact, nobody ever speaks to her.
They may talk about her.
They may even talk at her, usually calling her a name, but
nobody speaks to her anymore.
Her sins and her lifestyle have made her an outcast.
The only ones who speak to her are guys who want something from her.
Then she is jarred back to reality by a voice.
The Man asks her for a drink.
But He asks in a pleasant way.
It has been years since someone has asked her a question in a nice way.
For a second she lets herself begin to hope.
Hope to be able to have conversation with people.
Hope for a different life.
Hope for a future.
Hope for a fresh start.
She stops herself.
Back to reality. Don’t hope. To hope means to be disappointed again.
“Who is this Man,” she thinks. “Does he need to be reminded of the situation?”
John 4:9-10
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."
Living Water? What is this Man talking about? He has nothing to draw even this water with. How can he get living water?”
John 4:11-14
11 "Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"
13 Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
Eternal life?
I would like to have any life.
What is this water He is talking about?
I would love not to come to this well anymore.
I wouldn’t have to risk seeing others here.
Hope begins to surface again.
John 4:15-16
15 The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water." 16 He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back."
His command brings her back to the reality of her situation.
She doesn’t have a husband and she is sleeping with a man who is not her husband.
Oh yes, she thinks her life is a mess. But no need to tell this man everything.
Just tell part of the truth.
John 4:17-18
17 "I have no husband," she replied.
Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true."
Who is this Man?
While a few moments ago, she was beginning to hope, the pain of the woman’s choices and her sins begins to hit her smack in the face.
This conversation is getting scary.
You see, While living life without hope is only a shadow of living,
Living life with Hope can be Scary
Slide
It can be scary because if we hope and we are wrong, we can be disappointed.
So many times we are disappointed in life.
We are disappointed by people
We are disappointed with circumstances.
We are disappointed with ourselves.
We are afraid of being disappointed.
So we don’t put ourselves in a position to hope.
We think it will be better not to hope
We think it will make life easier to live.
But as we live a hopeless life, we don’t really live.
We only exist.
We are shadows.
Continuing…
So the woman thinks to herself, change the subject.
Get off of me and on to something else.
John 4:19-28
19 "Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."
21 Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
25 The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."
26 Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he."
27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, "What do you want?" or "Why are you talking with her?"
28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town …
Rushing back to the town, so many thoughts are rushing through her head.
This Man, could He be the Messiah?
Being a Samaritan, she believed that the first 5 books of the Bible were the word of God.
And in those books, she would have known the words of God to Moses in
Exodus 3:14
14 God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ’I AM has sent me to you.’"
This Man at the well just claimed those words as who He was, I Am.
Could He be the long awaited Messiah?
Could He be God in the flesh?
Her blood was coursing through her body now.
She felt her heart beating.
Her palms were sweaty and not from the heat.
She was scared and excited.
She was feeling alive.
If this was the Messiah, If this was God, then God was willing to speak
to her,
to someone like her,
a sinner.
Someone who made the choices she had made.
Someone who lived as she lived.
Someone who was living life as a shadow, existing but not living.
Did this mean that there was
hope for even her?
Hope to start fresh?
This was not a hope that would just be a change in her circumstance.
This was a hope that she would be changed.
A Hope to really live and not just exist.
Hope was coming alive in her.
She was beginning to experience it already.
While living life without hope as she had done for these years was only existing, and while living life with hope can be scary,
Living Life with Hope is Real Life
Slide
She was starting to really live because she believed in Jesus as the Messiah.
The One who is Savior of the World.
Where our hope is matters for everything.
Paul tells us in
Romans 5:5
Romans 5:5
5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
When we hope in the wrong things we get disappointed.
When we have our hope in others, we get let down.
When we have our hope in circumstances, we get let down.
But when we put our hope in the Living God who loved us and sent His Son to die for us to save us from our sins, we will not be disappointed and we will truly start to live.
Live in this life and live for eternity.
John 10:10
I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
The story Continues…
She made it back to the town.
No longer
thinking of what people are thinking of her or
afraid of them speaking at her.
No longer
mad at the people of this town who for so long treated her as an outcast.
She had been given hope while she may have still have had a past with 5 different men as husbands and a future that was uncertain, she was really living now because her hope was in God, who came to meet her where she was at
She believed and told the towns people.
John 4:29-30, 39
29 "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, "He told me everything I ever did."
He knew my past.
He knew my present.
And He spoke to me anyway.
There is hope for a fresh start no matter what your past, no matter what is going on right now.
God gives hope to start fresh.
John 4:40-42
40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers.
42 They said to the woman, "We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world."
Do you have hope today?
Do you want to live a life of hope?
Understand though that
Living Life with Hope means Living Life with God
Slide
When Israel was in the midst of 70 years of captivity, they felt hopeless.
God, through the prophet Jeremiah offered them hope.
Jeremiah 29:11-13
11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
Are you ready to seek after God?
Are you ready to live a life of hope that won’t disappoint you?
Only a life lived with God can be lived with real hope.
All of the other things we hope in or hope for will disappoint us.
In your mind you are here today because someone invited you are you wanted to checkout this new facility, but the fact of the matter is you are here today because God wanted an encounter with you just like He did with the Samaritan women at the well.
He wants to offer you hope and the opportunity for a fresh start on this journey of life you are on.
Listen to me.
A fresh start is not found in a new husband or wife, job or activity.
A Fresh start is found in a relationship with Jesus the Messiah, the Savior of the World, God in the flesh.
He gives us a fresh start by making us a new creation.
Paul tells us in
2 Corinthians 5:17
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
Being “in Christ” means being “in relationship with Christ.”
Living Life with God.
To do that we need to receive Jesus as our Savior and believe in Him and the work He has done on the cross for the forgiveness of your sins.
John 1:12
12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God- (from New International Version)
God loves you and wants to give you a hope and a future no matter what your past has been, no matter where you find yourself today.
He can give you a fresh start by making you a new Creation
Are you ready for a fresh start?
Are you ready to Receive Jesus and believe in Him for the forgiveness of your sins.
If you desire a Fresh Start then repent and confess to God and receive Jesus as your Savior.
Tell God you know you have sinned and that you know Jesus is the Messiah, and that He died for you sins.
Enter into that relationship for a Fresh Start.
The worship team is going to come up and play a song,
Knowing You.
It is about being in relationship with Jesus Christ and recognizing that all that we think is going to be able to bring fulfillment and a fresh start is nothing next to what truly can bring that fulfillment, a relationship with the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
Let’s stand and sing and if you want to pray and have that fresh start you can pray right where you sit, of if you would like myself or Andy or Jim Coyle to pray with you for something, feel free to come up while the worship team plays.
Knowing You
We are so glad you were here today. If you have any questions about what was talked about today feel free to come up and ask me about it after the service.
If you are intrigued by some of the things you have heard today and would like to hear more, we invite you back for the next several weeks as we continue this series on the Journey of life talking about what the next step is, and how to continue on the journey through pain or suffering and how to finish this journey well.
Parts of the story line of this message are based upon a message by Rocco Naude – A New Beginning (http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon.asp?SermonID=43085&Sermon%20A%20New%20Beginning%20by%20Rocco%20Naudé)
