"Drink of the Living Water" -Johnny Asevedo

Pastor Johnny shares a wellspring word on the woman at the well, breaking cycles and drinking from Jesus! Enjoy!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Destiny Church and Throne podcast. We pray this stirs you into a deeper relationship with Jesus and equips you to live a heaven-on-earth lifestyle daily. Enjoy. Popping pain pills, Xanax, all that. When I would have bad days, I would find my satisfaction or my peace at the end of a bottle. You guys follow me on this. Now, since then, I said yes to Jesus. I never looked back because I found the one that truly satisfied in Johnny's heart anything I ever wanted or ever needed. I knew that after giving everything to him that very next day, everything changed for me. And it wasn't because I was special or different from anyone else. It was just a fact of me saying, You satisfy, I know it, nothing else does. I'm done with it all. I'm making a choice to say yes to you. You see, the woman at the well, Jesus knew her cycles. Said, you had five husbands. And the one you're with now, you're not even married to. He knew her cycles. Husband, husband, husband, husband, husband. Sounds like a cycle. Divorce, divorce, divorce, divorce, divorce. Anybody in here know about a cycle that you're in right now? They used to use the old adage of every time I feel like I take two steps forward, I take ten steps back. You guys know that? We've all heard it. We've probably said it ourselves. But for some in this room, and you don't got to raise your hand, I want to talk to your heart for a moment. For in this room, you you're in cycles. You're in cycles. Jesus can look into your heart and he can say, You're in a cycle. You're going right back to the very same thing that you go to every single time you need satisfaction. This wasn't what I was going to talk about this morning, but I feel it in the room because I want to talk to your heart. We say in church, come as you are, but leave differently. No church can cause you to change. No church. I could sit here and share with you my testimony of nearly dying on many occasions, not knowing how I got home, the grace and the mercy of God all for over a decade of my life. I could share that with you. And when you leave this building, you can go right back to the very cycle and secret sin that's in your heart. Correct? You go right back to watching things you're not supposed to, saying things you're not supposed to, smoking things you're not supposed to, and everything else. I could share with you every detail of my life, every cycle, and every encounter that I had with Jesus. And you'll leave this place and you will be the same because you're choosing it. And let me show you biblically. The woman at the well, she encounters Jesus. She's at the well at the time she is because she is full of shame and guilt and doesn't want anybody else to see her. That's why she goes to the well at the time she does. She encounters Jesus, it's beautiful. He tells her the cycles of her life and he reveals to her that he is the Messiah. He reveals to her who he is. And so she runs back to her village and she tells everybody in that village who she just met and what just happened. And you know what those people say? Later they say, We believe, but not because you told us. We believe because we've heard for ourselves. If you want to see change in your life or cycles broken, it's not going to come from the preacher preaching to you. I don't care what church you go to. It comes from you and your heart with him. It comes to me and my heart with him alone, saying, Yes, Lord, I will submit and give you everything. And here's the beautiful thing about it: Jesus knows your cycles. He knows the secret stuff. He knows the things that you don't want to share with anybody because you're shameful. He knows the things that you would never share with anybody, or the things that happen in private. He knows all those things. And the woman at the well, she said, I need to drink from this water because he tells her, he says, if you drink from me, you'll never thirst again. And then she says, Oh, that's what I need because I don't ever have to come back to this well anymore. You see, she wanted living water because of all the shame, guilt, and stuff she was dealing with that she would never have to go back to a physical and natural place. But Jesus is like, What if it doesn't matter where you went, you were completely free? You see, what I could have said in my testimony with Jesus when he saved and delivered me, I could have said, Lord, thank you for bringing peace to my heart. Now I no longer have to drown myself in tequila every day. I could have said that. The motivation for my yes to Jesus could have been, oh great, now I don't have to be depressed and find myself at the bottom of a bottle anymore. But my yes to him had nothing to do with any of that. My yes to him came because he showed me who he was. He said, Johnny, it's not about you, it's not about where you've been, it's about me, it's about my love, it's about who I am. But I had to find that and search that out and live that out by myself. And so I runs inside and and I looked at my brother who's on the couch and I said, David, we gotta get saved. And something radical happened that night. And from that day forward, a part of my brother's testimony, he could have just said, Okay, yeah, Jesus, I love you, and just kept doing what he was doing, staying in cycles and being like, Well, God knows. God knows where I'm at. He knows why I keep finding a bottle, and he knows why I keep doing this. He knows, right? Because we oftentimes excuse our cycles to stay comfortable within ourselves. Amen. And hear me what I'm saying to you. What I'm saying to you is that Jesus knows where we are, where we are, he knows where you are, and he still says, I love you and I want you to drink from me. This is how good he is. I want to speak to your heart about the goodness of God. He did not look at me in my addiction and my brokenness and say, mm-mm. Here you go again. He didn't look at the woman at the well with five husbands and say, Oh yeah, and the one you're with, you're not married. Here we go again. This is gonna be number six and then number seven, and you're never gonna change. He doesn't say that, he points it out as a means to display who he is, and that's the beauty of God. That's the beauty is that he will expose things in our hearts to heal it.

unknown 7:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:24

That's what I love about the Lord. Yesterday I was doing some basketball practice, and uh I was there was this kid, and the coach, the head coach had told me, he said, he said, when you work with him, he's he's um he lacks confidence and physicality. And and and so uh I was like, okay, well, we're gonna work on that. And I told him, I said, if if you want to be, you know, if you play sports, we call them a dog on the field. You want to be a dog on the court. I said, if you want to, you know, nobody's gonna be able to put that in you. That's something that's gonna have to be pulled out. See what the Lord is wanting to do within where you are and some of the cycles that you're in. Look, I'm not here to like point fingers or just hear my heart for a moment because I was there. And by the grace of God, I've been broken free of those things. Do you hear me? It's not because, like, oh, yeah, he called you to be a preacher. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Just like you, a heart like you, and he's calling you much the same. He wants to pull out of you who he's called you to be. And a lot of times that starts with exposure. You ever talk to somebody that was stuck in something, and all they kept telling you over and over is, Oh, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know. It's like they know what to do, but they don't know what to do. Think about that for a second. Think about being in a house that is burning to the ground, and somebody says, You gotta run out the front door, and they're like, I know. I know I gotta get out of this house that's burning to the ground. I know. And they just stay there. The Bible says that the goodness of God leads men to repentance. Say that with me right now. The goodness of God leads men to repentance. If you didn't know, many are in here that probably do know, but if you didn't know, what repentance means it's a changed or transformed mind about a situation. There are many in this room who are cowboy fans that wish they could repent because they're cowboy fans. Lord, change my mind. I want to like another team.

unknown 9:19

No.

SPEAKER_00 9:22

Sorry, Mike. When you repent, what's taking place is a transformed or renewed or changed mind on a certain situation that you have. Here's an example. Here's a real life example. I'm gonna share with you my example. I used to run to the bottle, ask my brother, every day, all the time, no matter what. Okay? When I came to the Lord, I repented of the way that I was damaging my body, damaging my liquors, which by the way, I have two uncles that died before their time because of cirrhosis of the liver. They were alcoholics. And so, and so I repent. I said, Lord, forgive me of the way I was drowning my emotions, drowning myself in tequila all day, every day. Forgive me of that. Change my mind of that. I repent, I repent, I ask for your forgiveness to cleanse and wash me. And the Bible says He's quick to forgive us of our sin and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. So I repent and my mind is changed. So now I'm able to go into a bar and pray with people on that bar without even a moment of any sort of temptation. Now, I'm not saying that to you, I'm saying that to me. What happened? Repentance. When I used to see a bottle, when I was down and out, I would run to it. Now, when I see a bottle and I'm down and out, I run to him and I want to save anybody that's doing the same I was. I want to show them a rescuer. I want to show them a deliverer, and his name is Jesus. When you repent of something, you don't keep going back to it over, over, over, over, over, over again. That's called a cycle. You've not yet repented. You want to repent, but you've not allowed the Lord to change and transform your mind. You have repented, you have asked God to forgive you. Hear me what I'm saying, but what's taking place is you're not allowing Jesus to break the cycle of going back to it. I don't know anybody on the face of the earth that would want to say, Oh yeah, Johnny, where you were at as an alcoholic, that's where I want to be. I want to be you and I grow up. I don't know anybody that would ever say that, even those that are stuck in it. Most of the time, the people that are stuck in it, they want to be let loose of it. They just don't know how. Beloved, I'm sharing all this with you because I want to encourage you. Your change will not come from hearing my testimony. The woman at the well ran back to her village and told them, I met this man at the well who told me everything I've ever done. You've got to come see him. And as they're out there and they believe in him, they say, Lady, we didn't believe because you said it, we believe because we've heard from ourselves. You see, you can lead someone into a direction towards the Messiah, as you should, but you cannot lead them into a place of full submission to the king. That's their choice. That's your choice, that's my choice. But I will say this. If you feel like you've been in cycles, if you feel like there's life that's been robbed from you because of different choices, circumstances, or whatever it may be, here in a moment we have a chance to repent and ask the Lord to not just forgive and cleanse us, but Lord, help me to run out of this. You see, the woman at the well came to Jesus, and her hope was that, yes, Lord, I never I never want to come back to this well because of what she was being treated as the rejection and all that other stuff. But he changed everything for this woman. And in doing so, changed everything for a city, for a town, for a village. You know, we've been drink, we've been singing about drink, right? The town that Jesus stopped in at the well is a town called Sakar. You know what that word means? Strong drink. The town literally means strong drink. That's what the name of that town means. Your change, your deliverance, your breakthrough, your throwaway from your cycles is not going to come from somebody's testimony. It's gonna come from you and me being alone with him and encountering him for ourselves, and then making a choice to say yes, to not go back. One time I talked to somebody, and again, I'm not shaming anybody, please know my heart. And if you're new here, just know my heart. One time I was talking to an individual about cigarettes, they didn't see a big deal in it. And I was like, Are you kidding me? They're like, Well, you know, this, that, the other. And I asked him a question. I asked him, I said, Do you think because we all know it, and I'm just gonna single this out because I'm about to share a story. Just follow me. What is the pack? What is the side of a pack of cigarettes? And I smoked about two and a half packs of cigarettes a day. On the side of the pack, it says, Surgeon general warning, this may cause cancer. Please help me understand how the Holy Spirit will lead you into disease. Please. Well, no, but and I said, Okay, well, let me then share this. You're partnering your finances with something that is hurting the temple of God, and that changed everything for them. They said, Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a second. I never thought about it like that. I said, Yeah, you're partnering your finances with something that is causing sickness and is destroying the insides of your body. And that changed everything for them. I'm sharing that with you because I didn't say you gotta quit, blah, blah, blah, even though I would say that. Even though I kind of helped to lead them in that direction. Amen. But they made a choice themselves to stay free by saying yes and saying, Lord, cleanse me, wash me, forgive me. And that and that's a little thing, because it could be, it's something, and I say that because usually addiction is the thing that keeps us in a cycle. But I feel like the Lord is wanting to crush cycles that are in the house this morning. It's not gonna come from anyone laying hands on you. I believe in laying on of hands, all of that. We've got to get to this place where we are stewarding our relationship with Jesus individually. We come together to get discipled, to get taught. There's people here that will help you, that will talk with you. Don't mistake that. We are here for you. But there comes a time where you have to rest in who He is and allow that repentance to bear fruit in your heart. You know how I know that I bear the fruit of love? I'm gonna tell you this, and again, this is this is me. Is that when someone does me wrong, says something wrong, my immediate response is not, oh Lord, I wish I could say something. My immediate response is, Jesus, you love them. I'm gonna turn the other cheek. My immediate response. And I'm not saying that to be like, oh, well, we can't. I'm telling you that because you should be bearing fruits of repentance in your heart. I'm accountable to my walk with him just as you are. The goodness of God leads men to repentance. It is his goodness that would demolish cycles in your life. When you come to him, the Bible says that you put on a new nature. If you've ever played tackle football in the mud or any kind of you just went outside and played in the mud, you didn't stay in those clothes all day long. You changed. Right? You got under Yeah? I mean, unless you just walked around with muddy clothes all day, which is I guess could be cool if you're like six. You ever been in that place? Just take in that that illustration for a moment. You did what you wanted to do, you got muddy from head to toe. Better have not been with your new shoes on, and then you change. The Bible talks about us taking it, it talks about putting on our new nature. That new nature that is for sons and daughters, those who say yes to Jesus. And it is available to all. All through Christ. The Lord is here to remind you that He has a new nature for you. You're not who you once were. And though there may be slip-ups in that moment, don't beat yourself up, don't allow condemnation to come in. Though there may be moments where you feel like you're right back in the valley, don't be, don't be, don't be discouraged, don't allow disappointment to creep in. Just look to the Lord and remember to continue to put on your new nature. If there's something that you did and you're there by choice, meaning that you made a decision to do something, now you are where you are because of your decision, it's okay. Jesus will meet you there. After teaching on Thursday, Justin came to me and he shared a really cool nugget about that woman at the well, and he said that Jesus met her there in one of the hottest parts of the day. Because he will meet you where you are. Make no mistake about it. When he's on the cross and our Savior is there bleeding out. It's a beautiful example of the thief that looks over to him and says, Remember me. I believe in who you are. Remember me when you enter into the kingdom of heaven. Jesus will meet us where we are. He goes and finds Peter after his resurrection, doesn't he? Doesn't he go and find Peter? He doesn't like, bring Peter to me. He rejected me. He did everything I told him he was gonna do. He sinned, bring him to me. No, no, no, no, no, no. Jesus goes and finds him himself. The disciples, everybody they're gathered in this room talking about Jesus and what is supernaturally Jesus do. He walks through the wall. There is this understanding that nothing, and I mean nothing on this natural earth can keep you away from him. He will still come to you. Whatever wall you've got set up in your heart, he's not looking at it being like, mmm, man, that wall is just too thick. They've built up a great big wall. Oh, but you don't understand, Jesus. These walls and these strongholds and all these things in my mind are to protect me. Jesus says, He will meet you where you are. The woman at the well full of shame, condemnation, and everything else, not able to find a lover, can't find satisfaction in what she thinks satisfaction should be in. Jesus meets her. Where she's at. So every cycle that you're in, everything that you keep holding on to that you know the Lord is saying to let go of, but it's hard because it's like I can't imagine my life if I let go of this thing. Every area that the Lord has been speaking to your heart about it, and maybe even now you're like, man, I never even thought. Trust him. Because there's a testimony that's attached to it that you're gonna be able to share with others, and even though when you share that with him and what God did in your life, they look at you and they say, Hmm, I gotta know more. Lead them into a direction of encountering Jesus through what he's doing in your life. He wants to break the cycles, he wants to heal the hurts, he wants to forgive of the secret sin that just easily ensnares you. Remember those old cartoons? They put something underneath the box and move the stick? Gotcha. You know what I'm talking about? We are so easily ensnared by sins. Why? Because something else satisfies us. That's why I believe pornography dominates the church. Because in the church, there's a heightened awareness of intimacy with Jesus. In the church, there's a higher uh and so what the enemy does is he attacks that. And so there is an increase of porn addiction in the church because the enemy knows exactly where to attack. But we hold fast to those types of things, there's no account. There, there's no responsibility there. I just turn on my phone and I turn off my phone. Even those moments, even in those moments, the Lord is saying, even the one you're watching is not the one you're married to. And he's still there with you in that moment to say, there is a better way. To say, I can break this cycle. To say, if you drink from me, you'll never drink again. He is good. Come on, just declare that right now. He is good. He is good. He alone is good. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. You alone are good, Jesus. Your grace and your mercy and your compassion. You and you alone. This is what makes you a righteous judge. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And can I say he's not looking at you with disappointment? He's not looking at you angry and upset because you keep messing up over and over again. He's not waving his finger at you. People usually get church hurt because of people, not because of the Lord. He's not angry at you. He's not making your life a dumpster fire and trying to make it the worst of the worst. He said, That's not him. The lady, the woman at the well was where she was because of choices she made. Not because of things God did in her life. The choices you make will keep you in cycles. Boom, boom, boom, over and over and over. That's why we need our mind renewed. That's why we need our mind transformed. That's why we need to put on that new nature so we are no longer thinking the way we thought. When I'm feeling hurt, when I'm feeling sad, when I'm feeling pain, I no longer run to things that are but mere substitutes. I now run to him and get satisfaction in every area that I need. Because he satisfies. So before we stand up, before we pray, before we dismiss, before we do anything else, just really quick, for a moment, just for a moment. Ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart. You may already know right now the cycles that you've been in. If there's any sort of addiction that you find yourself in, cigarettes, pain pills, anything like that, it's not your portion to stay there. It's not. Don't let the enemy lie to you to say, oh no, no, no, it's okay, he's got you. No. You are partnering with something that is destroying you. If there's an addiction to food, if there's an addiction to self-image, if there's a self, if there's an addiction to people pleasing, you tell people what they want to hear to deflect so they don't actually think, oh my gosh, if I don't, they're gonna actually see who I really am. So all of us in this room, let's ask the Holy Spirit right now, what is what is in my heart? What is a cycle that I'm dealing with? I repent. I ask you to change my mind on that, Lord. Cleanse me. If there's something hidden deep in your heart that you just can't get free from, it's not that you need to go to a thousand hours of counseling. It's that you've got to come out of an agreement. And if you would see a reflection of your life, where's most of your time going to? Where's the treasure of your heart? Because it's one thing to say it's Jesus, it's a whole nother thing that Monday through Saturday you've never spent a single moment with him in intimacy or reading his word or diving deep into relationship with him. We don't want our lips to be close and our hearts far. So right now, over these next few moments, you don't gotta raise your hand, you don't gotta stand up, just ask the Lord to show you areas of your heart where you're in cycles or anything secret that's there, any area that the Lord is saying, I need you to let go of this, I'm calling you to let go of this, that you need healing. Let's just ask the Holy Spirit of these next few moments to expose and to bring healing in that. Thank you, Jesus.

unknown 26:29

Thank you, Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 26:36

Come on.