The End

The End by Betty Blake Churchill, December 30, 2007

In this message, Betty Blake Churchill asked us to look at plans for the new year in a new way by asking ourselves what needs are really behind what we hope to accomplish in the new year. We’ll get to asking that question here (and you’ll need some paper to answer) , but let’s start where Betty Blake started: the two kinds of people: those who make deliberate plans and resolutions and stick to them, and those that approach intentions with some hope but little resolve or action.

1. So which are you? A Tony Robbins person or a “whatever” person? Do you make new year’s resolutions or forget about it? Somewhere in between? Spend just a few minutes for everyone to reveal what sort of planner they are. (10 minutes)

2. Betty Blake used the story of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well to talk about Jesus and our needs (see passage from John 4 below). It’s was a great example of how we go for physical things and Jesus understands the spiritual needs behind them. She proposed a fill-in-the-blank exercise. Let’s try it. “2008 will be a great year if __________.” So, take some time to answer. Get some paper write down the most important things that would make 2008 a big success for you. Now, once you’ve got your list, pick ONE want and start linking it back to a deeper want by asking the question “WHY?”. Keep asking yourself why to each answer until you think you are at a core “want”. This will take some time, so don’t rush it. Go ahead and take 10 minutes or more to think through and write down each answer. Once you have finished the drill down of “whys”, pair off and talk about your answers with a discussion partner. (15 – 25 minutes)

3. While still in your pairs, talk through this: Is there either a spiritual dimension or spiritual analogy to the bottom-level “want” you identified? If so, discuss whether Jesus can satisfy that in any way. Suggest ideas with and for each other. (10 minutes)

4. In the group as a whole, go around and mention some of the different kinds of wants that came out of the paired discussions. Were any the same? Note any spiritual associations or ways Jesus can deliver on the “wants” that came out of your paired discussion. Were there wants that seemed like Jesus couldn’t provide for? Discuss that too. (10 minutes)

5. Close with some personal time to ask yourself the question Betty Blake asked of all of us: What do you want Jesus to offer you? If you have an answer for yourself, take a moment to talk to God about that. If you can, ask him to supply any spiritual need you have identified. Consider making that a new New Year’s resolution. (Also, take your list of 2008 wants with you to do any other “why” linkages that seem important to you.) (5 minutes)

Bible verses from the message:

Now he [Jesus] had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 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. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) 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.) 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." "Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 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?” Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 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." 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." He told her, "Go, call your husband and come back." "I have no husband," she replied. Jesus said to her, "You are right when you say you have no husband. 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." "Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem." Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 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. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." The woman said, "I know that Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us." Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he." 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?" Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?"
John 4: 4 - 29

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