The Shechems in Our Lives: A look at the significence of biblical locations & how God restores and redeems the driest of places

Welcome

But before we dive right it, we’re gonna take the scenic route to get to our destination. There are some places we have to visit, to pull over and park and stare at for a minute, so that when we make it to Mark and our Kingdom Seeds conversation, it’s even sweeter.

How many of y’all know that when taking a road trip with friends, sometimes the scenic route is the best route? It’s just worth it. Think of our time together as a road trip…get your snacks, and let’s go ladies!

First, Just like packing a suitcase for a trip, we don’t want to forget the essentials (story: kids not packing undies), and sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know—like this family I heard about – traveling, gets to their resort and there’s no luggage because they thought all-inclusive meant someone was going to pick up their suitcases at their house and bring them to the resort.

So we’re going talk about packing some essentials before we get started…

What I call essentials…are *Things to Remember about Reading and Studying the Bible | (SLIDE)

I have 10 listed, although I’m sure there’s more—but these are the ones I keep in mind and encourage the ladies at my church to keep in mind when reading and studying the Bible.

1. The Bible was written FOR us but no TO us (we’re not the original audience; listening in to an ancient conversation)

2. Pray before reading (ask the Holy Spirit to help you understand, stay awake and focused)

3. Read it in context, with the culture in mind, audience, genre etc.

4. The Bible is about God | Many books telling one story

5. We read the Bible to "Get God"; to learn more about Him, who He is & What He's like; there’s a temptation to go to the Bible like it’s webmd for our problems

6. Read it in community; Alone is awesome, but read w/others; iron sharpens iron

7. Let scripture interpret scripture

8. When we read the Bible, --"What does this text teach me about God?" and then, “How does God want me to respond or apply this to my life?”

9. Read it start to finish

10. Read it over & over

Now, we’re ready to start…sort of…

Let’s get out our maps…

Tonight we’re briefly looking at a famous story in the New Testament—the Woman at the Well, but we’re going to zoom in on the location of where this encounter took place and its experience. I can barely stand it, and girls…its just so good…if you’re ready go ahead and crack your knuckles and say, “let’s do this!”

Got your maps?

Biblical locations are significant; remember how the Bible was written to a people? They were familiar with these places, it meant something…like when we say certain cities or states we get a sense of their culture, things that might have happened there good or bad, the food, maybe even festivals…

For example, I’m from Kentucky…

What comes to mind?

What about New Orleans? New York?

It’s the same with biblical locations; there’s meaning behind the location that the original hearers/audience would have caught and understood well, but you and I can miss it because we’re not from that time or that location.

Example: Jerusalem; that’s a big one, kind of easy though; we can pick out the significance there—it’s like the heart of the story,

The Wilderness or Desert/

Another Example: Mt. Sinai/

So whenever you cross a location in the Bible, think “Hmmm…what happened there, and why is it significant?” Moving on.

Jacob’s Well —located in Samaria, that’s in the West Bank in modern day Israel; go ahead a make those notes on your map.

Sychar—in Samaria, where we meet the woman at the well, but Sychar is also known as Shechem in the Old Testament; it’s just got a name change. On your map you can write Sychar/Shechem.