Another Chance
Isaiah 29:13-16 John 4:1-26

Have you ever been in a situation in which you really wanted something to work out but it didn't, and you felt like, if I just had another chance I know I could make this thing work right? Well sometimes, another chance is just what we need, but there are other times, when we need something more than just another chance. Sometimes we need a change.

Come journey with me as we meet Lisa. Lisa is a very attractive young lady. It appears she has just about everything going her way. What the girls wouldn't give to have her beautiful eyes, her gorgeous hair, etc. Lisa' voice seemed as though it could melt the guys heart, and if she asked them to do something, they were eager to do it. What guy wouldn't want to be with Lisa. As soon as she was old enough to get married, the proposals were streaming her way.

One day Robert descends into her life. Lisa is sure, this is the man of her dreams. They get married. It's a disaster. There's a divorce. Lisa is determined not to make that mistake again. James comes upon the scene. He promises her the world. She goes for it. For the second time she walks the aisle. It doesn't work out. She finds herself divorced again.

Then there was Reggie. Good looking and sweet talking Reggie. Lisa decides to walk the aisle again. The family members, are saying, "why is that girl getting married again?" The wedding takes place. Something happens during the marriage,and Reggie is history.

Everybody was saying, three strikes and you're out. But then when John came into town and saw Lisa. He knew he had to have that good looking woman. Lisa's hoping this is going to be it for a lifetime. They get married. It too doesn't work out. This fourth husband is now gone.

Lisa decided if she got just one more chance, she would be in a marriage that would last the rest of her life. When David came a calling, she took her time with him. All the women were already talking about her, putting her down, and hating on her. She had gone through more husbands, than many of them had boyfriends. She agreed to marry David. It started well, but whatever it was that led to the collapse of the earlier marriages, led to the downfall of this one.

After five husbands, Lisa decides, that's it. I'm not going to get married again. But then Ronald shows up. Ronald's not interested in getting married. He does not want to be tied down. He's just looking for a woman to meet his needs as he calls them. Lisa decides to move in with Ronald. They're just living together. Lisa is the gossip in her little town of Sychar. The other women do not want her around them and they certainly do not want her around their men. What do you think God thinks of Lisa's behavior? What do you think God thinks of Lisa?

Now we find Jesus about to make a journey from the southern part of the country Judea, to the northern part of the country Galilee.

Verse 4 says: John 4:4 "Now he had to go through Samaria." Let me give you some background on Samaria. When Israel was split into nations after King Solomon, you had the nations of Israel in the north and Judah in the south. All the people were still called Jews in each nation.

The Jews of Israel in the north were quick to disobey God, and God used the nation of Assyria to defeat them in battle. The king of Assyria, moved most of the people out of the country of Israel and settled them in a far away lands. He took people from far away lands and settled them in the country of Israel.

Now these people came into Israel with their own gods. But they started to intermarry with some of the Jews who had not been sent away. The Jews were not suppose to intermarry with foreigners, but they did anyways. The people who were the result of the intermarriages, eventually became Samaritans, because that part of the country was called Samaria.

A hatred and hostility developed between the Jews and the Samaritans. The Jews saw the Samaritans as outside of the promises of God because they were half-breeds in their eyes. The Samaritans despised the Jews for always putting them down. This hatred grew so strong, that they stopped having anything to do with each other. It was racial prejudice at its worse. A good Jew would not even travel though Samaria to get home. He would take the longer route of crossing the Jordan River to the east, and go down through Perea, and then cross the river again to get back on course.

Now Jesus is having some huge meetings with the crowds. The large groups that use to run after John the Baptist are coming after Jesus. But we see that Jesus left the crowd, because He had to go through Samaria. Jesus went to a town called Sychar. There was a piece of land there, that a few thousand years earlier, Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Now Jacob was the father of the 12 children who had become the twelve tribes of Israel. Joseph was the guy who almost became ruler of Egypt. So this piece of land was sort of like a holy site in the mind of the people living there.

There was a well on the land, called Jacob's well. This well was very important to the Samaritans, because it was their proof, that they could trace their history back to Jacob, who was the son of Isaac, who was the son of Abraham, who was the father of the Jewish nation. Now Jesus had reached this parcel of land with Jacob's well on it. He was tired because he'd been traveling for two days. He had sent the disciples ahead into the city to buy some food. Maybe they were going to have a picnic near the well when he got back.

This passage shows us that Jesus was human and God at the same time. As a human being, Jesus had grown tired and weary from the long journey. It was noontime, which means it was the hottest part of the day. Jesus was sitting there by the well, but there wasn't a bucket nearby so even though he was near water, he couldn't get a drink.

You do recall Lisa. Lisa, is a Samaritan who lives in the city of Sychar. Things were not going that well between Lisa and Ronald. I can imagine her praying, God, would you please give me another chance to get my life back on track. She is on her way to Jacob's well to get her water for the day. Since she is the source of a lot of gossip, she tries to go to the well when she knows there would not be a lot of others around.

As she approaches the well, she sees there is a man there, and not just a man, but a Jewish man. She figures she has nothing to lose, because no Jewish man would talk to her anyways. So she goes to the well, ignores the man sitting beside it, and drops her bucket.

Jesus sees this Samaritan woman, going about her business as if He wasn't there. Jesus then does one of the most radical things He has done in His entire ministry. He speaks to this woman. He says to her. "Will you give me a drink?" Lisa, cannot believe this Jewish stranger spoke to her. In shock and disbelief she responds, "Man you are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman, How can you ask me for a drink."

Lisa is letting Jesus know He is out of line on three issues. First, a Jew would not speak to a Samaritan, second a Jewish male would not speak to a Samaritan woman, and third a Jew would not drink from a Samaritan's cup. How many of you know today, God is not impressed or depressed because of who you are, what your sex is, or what you might have to offer him. Jesus came into the world to save those whom God loves. Lisa was at a stage in her life where she had voluntary reduced herself to the status of prostitute by living with Ronald.

And yet God wanted to give her another chance. It's amazing that out of all the thousands Jesus had been ministering to, God said, He had to go through Samaria. The reason Jesus had to go, was Lisa. God wanted to reach a woman that nobody else wanted anything to do with.

Have you ever thought about, some of the unloving or unpopular people that come into your life, may be there because God sent you to have contact with them? Are you willing to be like Jesus to them and at least speak and affirm their presence, even though they do not affirm yours? Do you have any idea of what God has been willing to do, to try to give you another chance?

Jesus did not try to debate her on the Jewish/Samaritan conflict. Instead He begins to educate her on Him. We begin to see not only the human side of Jesus, but the fact that Jesus is also fully God. 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." John 4:10

Jesus is letting us know, He can offer to us far more than we could ever offer or give to Him. When you come to know Christ, the reward that you gain is far greater than the sacrifice you will have to make. But it has to be done on God's terms.

Lisa has heard too many lines from too many men to be impressed by what Jesus has to say. She takes one look at Him, and said, "buddy, you don't even have a cup to get yourself a drink of water. Where are you going to get this living water. Are you greater than our religious leader Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself? When we look at Jesus from simply a human perspective, we are tempted to think, there's not a thing Jesus can do for me. It is only when we look at Jesus with the eyes of faith that we can receive what He has for us.

Jesus says, "Look, this water here that you all drink, is fine, but after you drink it, you will get thirsty again. But whoever drinks the water that I give will never thirst again. Indeed the water I give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

That sounded real good to Lisa. To be able to get water without having to come all the way out of town to avoid the gossip of others sounded mighty good. Lisa is still thinking of Jesus as only a man. Jesus is talking about the Spirit of God coming into a person's life, but Lisa's mind is on water.

Jesus is letting us know that whatever we crave for in life, does not really satisfy us even when we think we have it. As human beings we crave for love, food, sex, security, money and approval. Even when we get these things, they do not give complete satisfaction. We simply thirst again.

Lisa tells Jesus, "Sir give me this water so that I don't have to come again." If Jesus would just give her what she wanted, she would not care about ever having to see Jesus again. Let me ask you this. When you ask God for another chance: Is that chance going to lead to a more faithful walk with God, or will you just be content with whatever it is you want from God?

You know God has a way of exposing ourselves to ourselves. Jesus is about to reveal to Lisa, that He is God. I can see Jesus smiling as He tells Lisa, "Go call your husband and come back." Now if you were Lisa, how would you respond to this request.

I thought for a moment, Lisa falls back into her old nature. She's thinking, "all of this talk from this man was to find out if I was married or not." Well she still has the good looks, and the relationship with Ronald was going bad. She doesn't know who this Jewish guy is, but she kind of likes what she has seen of him so far. I can imagine her shifting her voice, into that seduction tone, that seems to mesmerize men and her eyes batting as only you women can do. I can hear her saying, "I have no husband."

But Jesus immediately puts her back in check, by saying to her John in 4:17-18 Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. 18The 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."

Now how would you have felt, if you were trying to lay a line on some stranger and the stranger immediately exposed your past major failures in life and your current list of sinful activities? How many of you would have turned and ran in the opposite direction? How many of you would have changed the subject?

She immediately recognizes that Jesus is a man unlike any other man she has ever known. In her embarrassment, she re-evaluates the situation. She says, "Sir, I can see that you are a prophet, now our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem." She wants to get off the subject of her and her sin as quickly as possible and turn this thing into a debate about worship.

Isn't it interesting how Lisa knows about the teachings of God, but she will not let teachings affect her lifestyle. She's trying to be in a relationship with God, while at the same time compromising with sin. But you know something even more amazing, is that God in His mercy still is going to give her another chance to turn her life around before its too late.

When you look at prostitutes, or addicts, or thieves, or thugs, or the person who may seem to have it altogether, don't ever think there's no way God can be at work in their lives. If God was at work in us before we got saved, how come God cannot be at work in others?

Now Moses had told the children of Israel, when they went into the promised land, they were to gather on Mount Gerazim and proclaim God's blessings in Deuteronomy 11:26-29. But when David became King, Jerusalem was chosen as the place where God was to be worshipped at the temple. This was another cause of the friction and tension between Jews and Samaritans.

Let's look at John 4:21-24 Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23Yet 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. 24God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."

Jesus says look, "the Jews and the Samaritans have both missed God on this issue. First, it's not the place that God is interested in when it comes to worship. Second you have to know what you are worshipping. Third, genuine salvation is only coming through the promises made to the Jews. Fourth the hour is already here for those who want to worship the true God in spirit and truth."

God is looking for people who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. To worship God in spirit means to worship God on the inside of you. We can clap our hands, dance, and sing praises, but fail to worship God if the inside of us is not involved. Worship involves cleansing out the inside of our lives to prepare us to receive the Spirit God within us with a type of oneness.

Worship begins with the prayer, "search me oh God and know my thoughts, and show to me what is blocking my spirit from uniting with you." As long as we allow unconfessed sin to dwell freely in us, worship of God can not take place in our spirit. We sing the song, Lord prepare me to be a sanctuary. The preparation is a cleansing process.

Lord forgive me for how I treated my parents, my kids, my spouse. Lord forgive me for doing, for saying, for acting, for thinking,. Lord give me another chance to be what you want me to be. Now, Lord let my spirit enter in with your Spirit that I might worship you. Once the spirit is activated, the soul engages the body into the outward forms for worship.

There is no worship apart from truth. Our worship must be genuine in the way God has called us to worship. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Without Jesus Christ, our worship of God is always going to fall short and be incomplete. Like the Samaritans, we will be attempting to worship what we do not know. Our life of worship begins with the truth of knowing who Jesus Christ is. If we have the Son, we have the Father. If we do not have the Son, then we do not have the Father.

When Jesus spoke of a day coming, Lisa responded, "I know that when Christ, the Messiah comes, He will explain everything to us." Jesus did something He rarely does in the bible. He comes right out and tells her. "I who speak to you am He." Why of all the people, does Jesus reveal to a woman whose living the life of a prostitute, that He is the Christ, the Messiah? Because He wants us to know, that none of us are beneath His love and His concern in wanting to give us another chance.

Whereas the world looked and saw a prostitute, God looked and saw one of the great evangelist He had called. This woman went and turned a city upside down for God. Many of the people believed in Jesus because of her testimony about Him. She knew what it was to begin to worship God in Spirit and in truth. What will happen in our lives, when we discover who Jesus truly is and what a difference He wants to make in using us?

Now to those who may question, the names have been changed to protect the innocent. In other words I gave the names to make it more personal for it is not mentioned who they are except what was mentioned in God's word as the Samaritan Woman or woman at the well who has been married 5 times and living with one.