Do You KNOW Him?

I'm flippin' over tables! I am in the mood to flip some tables People think I'm rude, don't give a hoot about your labels Jesus got the whips, I think our country needs the cables Get on the frontline, you know I'm dyin', flip some tables I am in the mood to flip some tables People think I'm rude, don't give a hoot about your labels Jesus got the whips, I think our country needs the cables Get on the frontline, you know I'm dyin', flip some tables Flip it upside down Good evening, welcome to Celebrate Recovery, the best place to be on a Tuesday night, right? Yes, I'm so glad to see everybody. Will you help me welcome our online community and our correctional facilities, all our brothers and sisters who are watching online? We're so glad to call you part of our Celebrate Recovery family. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Katie Hawk. I'm a grateful believer in Jesus Christ. I celebrate recovery from shame, brokenness, fear, and other things in this world. And I am so, so blessed to be a part of CR. For those of you who've never been here before or don't really know what Celebrate Recovery is, we are a 12-step faith-based program. We're very similar to other programs, except for we don't just have a higher power, we have one higher power, which is who? Jesus, absolutely. We believe that you can heal and that Jesus wants to help you get there because it's by turning to him, putting your faith in him, and allowing him to heal the deepest wounds that we have from our past. That's what allows us to actually heal from those things, instead of just stuffing and then dealing with the results of that, right? We want you to heal, and we believe that you can.

And so it's through his power that we get there. You may be new and think, wow, I just heard her say we're in correctional facilities, a whole bunch of them, right? And maybe you're like, well, I'm not going to come forward then. I don't want everybody watching online to see me if I need to pray or if I need to talk to somebody or I want to come up front and worship. And I just want you to know that anything that happens at these altars is not being streamed, right? Nobody online can see you. So you have full anonymity here. Nobody has to even know that you're here. However, we love to celebrate milestones. We love to celebrate healings and changes, and we really love celebrating our chips, right? Whether it's one day, one week, one year, right, one decade, we want to celebrate that with you. So at the end, we're going to do our chip ceremony, and if you're getting a chip, maybe a blue chip, it's your first night, or you're celebrating a big milestone, we do want to give you an opportunity to take pictures, and we're going to take some pictures of that too. But if you don't want those pictures shared with anybody, that's cool. Like, we're totally fine with that. Or if you see someone take a picture of you, or someone else maybe, and you're in the picture, you can be like, please, please delete that, and we are happy to do that because we want this to be a safe place for you, okay? But we want to love you, and we want to celebrate with you, and we want to walk you through your trials, whatever we can do to point you to Jesus, right? Because that's why we're all really here. So tonight, we have a really exciting night ahead of us. We're going to pray. We have awesome worship tonight. We have a speaker, and many of you have not heard him speak because it's been a minute since he was here. But I know that you are going to be so incredibly blessed by him. How many of you know Mr. Alan Clinton?

Yes, we are so excited. He works with True Purpose Ministries, and he was here last year. Last year, he brought a pizza, so I don't know if he has any props this year, but it was so good. So you guys are definitely in for a treat there. Before we pray, I know we didn't do birthdays last week, so I just wanted to check. No one told me it was anyone's birthday, but do we have some birthdays? Ms. Sharon's like, yes, it is. OK, Mel, is it your birthday? Come up here. Oh, we got a guy. Come on. Your friends are calling you out over here. You better come up. Steve? Steve Hardesty? Oh, somebody back here. OK, come on. Oh, wait, there's a guy coming. I think that it's his birthday, too, so you won't be all by yourself. Anybody else? Last chance. We want to sing you happy birthday. All right, well, he's making his way up here. Tell everyone your name and what day your birthday is. Mel, tomorrow. Yay, happy birthday. All right, your name and when your birthday is. Steve, it was March 21st. Oh, happy birthday, you guys. So we're going to sing. It doesn't matter. Why? Do you have a birthday this week? Get up here, Tanya. Come on. So we only do birthdays like every two or three weeks, so if you're even close, we want you up here. All right, tell them your name and your birthday. Tanya, it's March 27th. All right. OK, so with two, I was going to have you try to remember names, but with three, I think it's easier. I'm going to say happy birthday, dear everybody, OK? So will you guys help me sing them happy birthday? Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear everybody. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday. All right, while they're making their way back, would you all please stand?

We are going to do the Lord's Prayer. Yeah, never done that before. All right, together we start with whose father? Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. Amen. All right, you may have a seat. Those who are doing the 12 steps can start making your way up here. In the meantime, I just have a couple of announcements to make. Who has signed up for the 5K? Okay, I see some hands. I want to see more hands. Okay, volunteer is good. Walk, run, jog. And, you know, if you forgot to sign up, that's okay. You can come the day of the event and still sign up. And remember, if you wear a Hawaiian shirt, you can be on our team, right, the coconut cruisers or whatever we decide. But you have to wear something Hawaiian if you want to be on our team. Otherwise, wear whatever you want and come join us, whether you're on a team or not. We just want to raise awareness. And, you know, we're raising money to help people get into programs that can't afford programs. And how many of you know money should not be the reason that someone can't get help, right? And so we want to help fund that so that those who can't afford to get the help, get the help that they need, okay? And so we also want to raise awareness to the community

and bring other people in to partner with us in our recovery journey. So it's an awesome, awesome event. We're going to have some booths set up. I have a booth there. So if you don't want to be on my team, that's cool. But you can come to my booth and get something that I'm giving away for free. And I'm going to set up a camera and give people an opportunity to share a little piece of their story. So if you feel like doing that, come. So it's going to be so much fun. Also, there's a QR code. like to register on a QR code? Nope. So you can still register. Or like I said, if the day of gets here, and you're like, man, I wish I'd signed up, just come and join us, OK? Other thing, how many people like kids? Yeah, like kids. They're OK. Yeah. Sometimes I'm like, uh, depends. But we have an amazing children's ministry here for our little ones, where our goal is to make it so that those kids never need their own celebrate recovery, right? So we want to reach them young, and share the love of Christ with them, and just give them some safe places to be kids and to learn about the word of God. And so we have a great children's program

called Celebration Place. But we need some helpers. Because believe it or not, not everybody's called to help kids. And a lot of people would rather be sitting in the service, which is great, because it's amazing. But we really need some people that are willing to even give one night a month that could go over there and help teach those little ones about Jesus. They do prayer journals back there, and activities, and crafts. Tonight, they're doing a craft about a fiery furnace, and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And so it sounds awesome. So we need some other people that are willing to step up and help in that. If that's you, please let me know, or let Cat know. That would be great. All right, did I get all the announcements? All right, here you go. Thank you, I appreciate that. Hello, everybody. My name is Tanya. And I celebrate recovery from myself. I've been here a year now, so I have really enjoyed getting to know a lot of you guys. So thanks for having me. And I'm Christy, and I celebrate recovery from drugs. She's a little nervous.

Y'all cheer her on for me. Just remember those 743 correctional facilities. They are enjoying us. I know some of them. I'm saving them a seat. Exactly. All right, so we're going to do the, that is awesome, yeah, we're going to do the 12, yes, the 12 steps in their biblical principles. All right, get started, Miss Christy. OK, we admitted we were powerless over our addictions and compulsive behaviors, that our lives had become unmanageable. Know that nothing good lives in me that is in my sinful nature, for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. Romans 7, 18. We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to fulfill his good purpose. Philippians 2, 13. We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God. Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. Romans 12, 1. We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord. Lamentations 3, 40. We admitted to God, to ourselves, and another human being, the exact nature of our wrongs. Therefore, confess your sins to each other, pray for each other, that you may be healed. James 5, 16. We were entirely ready to have God remove all defects of character. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. James 4, 10. We humbly asked him to remove our shortcomings. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1, 9. We made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to all of them. Do unto others as you would have them do to you. Luke 6, 31. The golden rule, yeah. We made direct amends to such people whenever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift at the altar, go and be reconciled to your brother, then come and offer your gift.

Matthew 5, 23 and 24. We continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful you don't fall. 1 Corinthians 10, 12. We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, praying only for the knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry it out. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Colossians 3, 16. Having had a spiritual awakening. As a result of these steps, we try to carry this message to others and to practice these principles in all our affairs. Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore that person gently, but watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Galatians 6.1 See, it wasn't that bad. This was a first for both of us, so thank y'all. Now, if I can have the people that are serving the people, alright guys, tonight we're just gonna go to the Lord in prayer before we take up this offering, and if you can and are able to give, that's great. This is a wonderful ministry, and I personally have seen a lot of people's lives changed from it, and everybody sitting in this room's lives have been changed. So anyway, dear Heavenly Father, we come to you tonight, Lord, and we thank you for the ability to be here, God. We thank you for the ability to be able to offer something back to you, Lord, because it is all yours to begin with. God, we just ask that you take this and you multiply this, you use this, only that you can, God, to change lives and to do that in your name.

It's in your name we pray, amen. No props tonight, no props. My wife is pretty sick, unfortunately. Last night she was projectile vomiting, which was horrible for me. I'm sure it was pretty bad for her too, but thankfully I was under the covers and I only heard it, but I started to do one of those fake snores and pretend like I didn't hear any of it, but the joys of walking with a pregnant wife. So Father, we just honor you. We thank you for being amazing. We thank you that, God, even in the middle of our mess, you don't run away. Even when it's nasty, you don't back down. Even when we don't have all the answers or any of the answers, Lord, even when we don't know what the question is, you're faithful. So Jesus, we just honor you tonight. We love you and we thank you, in Jesus' name. They were singing a song saying, you are my one thing, Jesus, you are my one thing, and I felt like the question I was supposed to ask tonight is, do you know Jesus? Do you know Jesus? Many of us know who our president is. We know his name, right? We have accepted, for the most part, most of us have accepted that he's our president, whether you agree or disagree with his rulings, you know his name, you know his office, you have been affected probably by some of his decisions, again, whether you agree or disagree, you acknowledge who he is and you know who he is, but if I were to ask you what did he have for dinner last night or what did he wear a week ago, you wouldn't have that answer because you know of him, but you don't actually know him. And there's times in our walk with Jesus that we know of him. We've even been saved by him, a lot of us have given our life to him, but do you know Jesus? There's times in the Bible where it'll say that a man knew his wife and then they ended

up becoming pregnant. It means to know them intimately to a point where something is produced. Have you allowed yourself to know Jesus to a degree where something is produced inside of you? It's not just something that you think up here. I know him, I've heard of him, I've gone to church, I've heard his name, I know more about the holidays, I love Christmas, but do you know Jesus? So who is this Jesus? And John 8, it says, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and placed her in the midst. They said to him, teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such a woman. So what do you say? This they said to test him that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger. finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone. At once more, he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones. And Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you still here? No one, she said.

Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more. So who is this Jesus? He's one that when you're in the midst of your mess, he's not upset with you. He's not angry with you. He doesn't do like I do and stand across the bed and hand the towel. He actually comes over and gets in the middle of it with you. Because sometimes we have an idea that we think we know who Jesus is. We think we have an idea, but in all actuality, it's just stuff we've heard that we've just adopted as our own. But do you know Jesus? It says, now a certain man, this is in John, a certain man was ill in the village of Mary and his sister, Martha. It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. So the sister sent to him saying, Lord, the one you love is ill. But when Jesus heard it, he said, this illness does not lead to death, for it is the glory of God, so that the son of God may be glorified through it. Now, Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick,

he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. One of the sometimes frustrating things about getting to know Jesus is you'll find that sometimes he doesn't do things the way you expect him to. Sometimes we'll have an idea of how Jesus should move. We have an idea of the timeline in which he should act. We have it all figured out in our mind of how he should operate. And when he doesn't, how often do we just pull back? Frustrated, angry, afraid, worried, all these emotions because we've trusted in people before and they've let us down. We've trusted in people before and they've hurt us. We've trusted in people and they told us they were gonna take care of us. They were always gonna be there for us. They were gonna guide us, walk with us. They were gonna love us forever. So when he begins to move in ways that sometimes we don't recognize, it can be frightening. But a lot of times when he begins to move, he actually begins to pull up some of the things in us that he's wanting to deal with. And we get so caught, unfortunately, sometimes in the situation that we don't recognize that he is moving even when it doesn't make sense to us. Sometimes we think we know what's best for us, but the truth is we don't even know us. So how can I know what's best for me

when I don't even know me? How can you know what's best for you when you don't even know you? Can you name all the bones in your body? Can you name all the organs in your body, but you know what's best for you? That was a hard lesson that I had to learn. Now, when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus has already been in the tomb for four days, and many of the Jews had come to Mary and Martha to console them. Now, when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet saying to him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come also with her were weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled, and he said to him, where have you laid him? They said, Lord, come and see. And Jesus wept. He wept. And sometimes we don't recognize that Jesus cares about the things we care about. We have this idea that he's just up in heaven ready to get angry at you, Ready to say something when you don't get it all right. Ready to pounce when you're not perfect. But it said Jesus wept. He cares about the things in your heart. He cares about those wounds in your heart.

He cares about that past that you have, the decisions that you made that may not have been the best, the decisions that people made against you. He cares. Do you know this Jesus? Or do you just have an idea of who Jesus is? Then Jesus deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave and a stone lay against this. Jesus said, take away the stone. Martha, the sister of the dead man said, Lord, by this time there will be an odor for he has been dead four days. Jesus said to her, did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God? So they took away the stone. I know there's been seasons of my life where alcohol was a big issue in my life. There were seasons where I remember I would wake up and the first thing I would do is feel my pants to see if I peed on myself because I got so drunk the night before. But Jesus wasn't afraid of that odor. He wasn't afraid of some of the nastiness that we've gotten ourselves in. He's not afraid of some of the nastiness that other people have put us in. Sometimes we think, man, I've done this. I've been there. If you only knew some of the places

and the situations that I've been a part of. The odor that I still carry from some of the decisions that I made. My family's still not wanting anything to do with me. My finance is still in a mess. My kids don't even know who I am. The odor of my decisions still lingers. But Jesus said, just roll away the stone. He didn't take a step back. He actually took a step closer. Do you know this Jesus who wants to step closer to you when you're in the middle of your nastiness? Who doesn't get frightened when you mess up? Who doesn't get angry when you mess up? He gets angry at the enemy. He gets angry at the things pulling you away from him. He's not disappointed in you. Do you know this Jesus? So they took away the stone and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on the account of the people standing around that they may believe that you sent me. When he said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus, come out. The man who died came out, his hands and his feet bound with linen strips and his face wrapped with a cloth. And he said to him, unbind him and let him go. Do you know this Jesus that will not only get

in the nastiness with you, but will revive some things in your life that you thought were too far gone? That relationship with your family that you thought could never happen again. That dream that you buried underneath some of your decisions that you thought you'd never have a chance to walk out. Do you know that Jesus? Matthew 27, it says, then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back 30 pieces of silver to the chief priest and the elder saying, I have sinned by betraying innocent blood. They said, what is that to us? See to it yourself. And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed and he went and he hung himself. He hung himself. Are you at a place where you feel like there's no answers? Maybe you've been contemplating suicide. Maybe you know somebody who has already committed suicide. Maybe you feel like there is no answer, there's no way out. If that is you, one, I want to encourage you to please, please speak with somebody. But also I want you to know that Jesus is not running from those thoughts and feelings. He's not ashamed of you because you feel defeated. This didn't have to be Judas' end. He ran from the very solution he was seeking. Because sometimes life gets like that, where it feels like there's no answers, there's no way out, there's nowhere to turn.

But do you know the one who wants to come in there with you? Who's not going to condemn you, who's not going to turn you away? Do you know that Jesus? So as we go through this last story right here, I felt like there was a couple places where the Lord was going to open the door for us to give us the gift of repentance. So if you feel at any point that there's an area you need to repent for, you don't have to stand up, you don't have to come up here, you don't have to make a big deal out of it. I just felt like he wanted to offer that gift. So Father, we just, at the beginning of this story, we just repent for the times where we have felt like we are a better judge than you are, that we are a more righteous judge than you, the times where we felt like we have to punish ourselves because we're not worthy. Father, we repent for being in charge of judgment. It says, now Jesus stood before the governor and the governor asked him, are you the king of the Jews? Jesus said, you have said so. But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he gave no answer. And Pilate said to him, do you not hear how many things they testify against you? But he gave no answer. Now the feast the governor was accustomed to was to release to the crowd any one prisoner whom they wanted. And they said, and they had then a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. So when they had gathered, Pilate said to him, who do you want me to release, Barabbas or Jesus? For he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up. The governor said to them, which of the two do you want me to release for you? And they said, Barabbas. Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ? They all said, let him be crucified. Let him be crucified.

So Jesus, we just repent. I just repent for any time that I've picked something above you. Father, for the times that I've picked relationships over you, for the times where I've picked sports over you, for the times that I've picked convenience, my comfort over you, for the time that I've picked my preference over you. Father, we just repent. So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing but rather there was a riot that was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd saying, I am innocent of this man's blood, see to it yourself. Then he released for them Barabbas, having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified. So, Father, we just repent for the times where we've cared more about the opinions of others than you. For the times that we've cared more about the opinions of those we're trying to impress above you. The times where we've allowed the words and the opinions of others to guide us instead of allowing you to guide us. Father, we just repent. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor's headquarters and they gathered the whole battalion before him and they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him. Saying, King, hell, hell, king of the Jews, and they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put on his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him. Father, we just repent of any time we've ever mocked you or mocked Jesus. Any time that we've said we're a follower of you, but we've actually been a follower of ourselves, a follower of our own, our own mindset, our own will. Father, we just repent. So also the chief priests and the scribes and the elders mocked him saying he saved others, he cannot save himself. He is the king of Israel, let him come down now from the cross and we

will believe in him. And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way. Basically, they criticized and they insulted him. Jesus, we just repent of any time that Jesus, we just repent of any time that you've moved in a way and we didn't recognize it or we didn't understand and we criticized you as if we know better. Father, sometimes faith is tough. Sometimes it pulls things up out of us that we didn't even know were there, but we repent. We repent for any time we've criticized you. This is about the ninth hour. Jesus cried out loud with a voice saying, Eli, Eli, lama, sabat, sabat chana. That is my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He was quoting Psalms 22. And some of the bystanders hearing it said, this man is calling Elijah. And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on the reed and gave it to him to drink. But the other said, wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him. And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. And in the version of Luke, it says that he says, forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do. Because in this moment, it said that if you read some of the other writings concerning the crucifixion, it said that they had beat him so badly that he was unrecognizable. So he's unrecognizable, beat, laying or spread out naked on a cross in front of his mom, those he loved, broken, but willing to forgive. Because some of you, there's been people who have done some things to you that has been hard to forgive. Did he deserve this? No. Did he do anything to put himself in this position to warrant it? No. There are some of you that somebody's hurt you before. Somebody that you trusted hurt you. Somebody that you loved hurt you. Somebody that you thought was a friend violated you to a place to where now sometimes you may not even recognize who you are. But even in that, he offered forgiveness. Do you know this, Jesus? The one that when you were at your lowest, when you turned your back on him, when you violated him, when you hurt him, he forgave you. Does it mean it's easy? Does it mean that the pain just goes away? There's a difference between forgiveness and healing. We still sometimes have to walk through healing and sometimes that healing can feel more painful for a while than the actual situation.