You Don't Get A Vote

Hey, my name is Katie Hawk. I'm a grateful believer in Jesus Christ. I celebrate. Hi. Hi. I celebrate recovery from fear, shame, brokenness, rejection, and I have a lot that I want to say tonight. So I'm probably going to talk really fast, okay? So try to keep up with me. I want to start by telling you something. If you love Jesus, okay, or you want to know Jesus, you are welcome in my life. I don't care what you did. I don't care if you've been arrested. I don't care if you've been to prison. I don't care if you're sitting in a jail cell right now listening to this. I don't care if you used, sold, or relapsed last night. I don't care if you cheated on your spouse, you're in the middle of a divorce, or this is your third marriage. I don't care if you lost custody of your kids. I don't care if you stole from your own mother. I don't care if you've been in and out of rehab more times than you can count. I don't care if the things you've done you've never even told a soul about because none of it is bigger than what Jesus Christ did on the cross. I have had people sit at my dinner table who have done time, who have sold drugs, who have stolen from their families, people who did things that would make some church folk get up and move to a different pew. And every so often someone pulls me aside and they ask me a question. They say, "How can you have that person in your life, Katie? Do you know what that person did? Aren't you worried about that person?"

You know that guy's a felon, right? Right? Didn't they just get out of rehab again? Don't you think you should wait and see if it's real this time? What are people going to think about who you hang out with? I've heard every single one of those questions and some of them come from people sitting in the church. And here's my answer. Yes. Yes. I know. I know what they did. Sometimes I know exactly what they did and I don't care. Now hear me. I care about the people who get hurt, guys. I care about justice and I use wisdom, right? I'm not foolish and who I trust about what, but what I don't care about is whether someone thinks that your past is bigger than the blood of Jesus, because it isn't. Do you know who else got asked those same questions? Jesus. Luke 15, one through two says, "Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to him to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes complained saying, "This man receives sinners and eats with them." They meant it as an insult, but if I heard that, guys, that would be the best compliment anyone could ever pay me. So tonight in my message, I'm speaking to two people, okay? The first group. Some of you are looking at someone else's past. You've decided that they haven't changed enough, that they haven't repented enough,

that they haven't proven it enough, yet some of you are looking at your own past. You believe Jesus saved you. You just don't believe he did a very good job, and you still call yourself by your old name, like addict, criminal, felon, failure, divorce, disappointment. Both groups have the same problem. You've made the past the judge. And here's what I want you to know. If you are in Christ, you are righteous. Not someday, not when you've done enough good things right now. So if no one's ever told you this before, you are welcome in my life, and you are welcome in this room, and if you belong to Jesus, you are welcome in the Father's house standing before the throne of God, because he has invited you there. Now I want to talk to you about Matthew chapter 3, okay, and I'm just going to paraphrase it. Jesus walks down to the Jordan River, okay? He says right in early in his ministry, he walks down to the Jordan River, and he goes up to his cousin John, also known John on the Baptist, and he says, "I want to be baptized by you." And John's like, "Whoa, hold on. I need to be baptized by you, Jesus," right? You're coming to me, and Jesus says, "Yes, I am. Please baptize me." John baptizes Jesus, and verse 16 and 17 says that when Jesus was baptized and he came up out of the water, the heavens opened, and the Spirit of God came down like a dove, and a voice spoke from heaven, and it said, "This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased." I want you to look at the timing. Jesus has not turned water into wine yet. He's not healed a blind man. He's not preached the sermon on the mount.

He's not fed 5,000 people. He's not raised anybody from the dead. And as far as anyone knows, he's just a carpenter from Nazareth. And even the disciples said, "Can anything good come of Nazareth?" That was kind of a bad place to be from, but people were judging him by where he was from, and they were judging him by his background. Shortly after this, John sees Jesus walking toward him, and he said the words, "These are some of my favorite words in Scripture." He says, he points at Jesus, and he says, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." I want you to think about that. Nobody is following Jesus yet. Nobody knows who he is. He hasn't done a single public miracle. Nobody knows that he's the Messiah yet. John points right at him, and he tells everyone around him that's him. That is the one who is going to take away our sin. John didn't know that because of anything that Jesus had accomplished. He knew it because God told him who Jesus was. And John believed what God said before he ever saw the proof. When I get to heaven, I hope like, I feel like heaven's outside of time and we can go back and firsthand watch some of the events that happen in the Bible, right? And I wanna go back to that. And I wanna stand on the banks of the river and I wanna hear John say behold the Lamb of God. Gosh, I can only imagine that moment.

And when he said that the Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world, that was the sin in that moment, but that was the future sin too. So that includes your sin, right? So whatever is on your record, whatever your excess about you, whatever you did that nobody knows, the Lamb of God came to take it away. So if John, if John could point at Jesus and announce that he takes away the sin of the world, who are we to point at somebody and act like their sin is still there? The Father didn't wait for his resume before the miracles, before the crowds, before the cross. The Father said, this is my son. I love him and I'm pleased with him. You see, Jesus didn't do miracles to become the Son of God. He did miracles because he was the Son of God. Now we know that Jesus is the eternal Son of God and that he never sinned. And guys, in case you didn't know this, we are not Jesus and we do sin, right? So here's what scripture says happens to us. John 1, 12 says that everyone who receives him, Jesus, everyone who believes in his name is given the right to become children of God. Romans 8, 15 says we have received the spirit of adoption and we now cry out, Abba Father, right? We've been adopted.

When you gave your life to Jesus, you didn't get put on probation. God didn't hand you a case plan to say check back with me in 18 months and if you've stayed clean, we'll talk about letting you into the family. You were adopted and you got the name and you were given a seat at the table and the paperwork is done and it was signed in blood. So here's the order that I want you to get. You don't obey God to get into the family. You obey God because you're already in it, okay? So I wanna continue paraphrasing with Matthew 4, okay? So Jesus is baptized. It's awesome. The Father has just said, this is my beloved son and then this Holy Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness, okay? And for 40 days, he fasts. For 40 nights, he fasts. He's hungry, he's tired, he's alone. And guess who shows up? The enemy because he often shows up when we're hungry, tired and feeling alone, right? So he shows up and listen to the first words out of his mouth. He says to Jesus, if you are the son of God, command these stones to become bread. I think that's really interesting that he said if because God just said, this is my son. And the enemy said, if you are his son, right? And then he does it again in verse six.

If you are the son of God, throw yourself down. And then he does it a third time. If you are, right? This is not a new trick, this goes back all the way to something he did in Genesis three when the first thing we know the serpent said was has God really said, right? Did God really say that? If you are really his, it's the same snake, it's the same strategy. He goes straight for what God said. Now the way if is written in the original language, it can also mean sense. I believe Satan knew exactly who Jesus was. He wasn't trying to make Jesus doubt. He was saying, prove it. Turn these rocks into bread, show me, do something, perform. He was trying to get Jesus to earn on the devil's term what the father had already given him for free. But Jesus didn't take the bait. He didn't turn the rocks into bread. He didn't jump off a building. He didn't owe the devil a demonstration because the father's word was enough. Now listen to how that same voice talks to you. Have you ever heard him say, if you're really saved, why would you do that? If God really forgave you, you wouldn't feel this way. If you're a new creation, how come you're still making the same mistakes?

If God loved you, your marriage went to fall in a part. And then you start performing. And you start trying to prove it. And you serve more and you pray longer and you beat yourself up, harder hoping that maybe one day you'll feel forgiven. That's not humility, guys. That's taking orders from the enemy. Now I wanna talk to the other group that I talked about tonight. Those people that are sitting in a church pew, right? They're not worried about their past, right? When someone gives their life to Jesus and those people say, well, we'll see. We'll see if it sticks. We'll see if he actually changes. We'll see if he starts producing fruit. Maybe let him prove it first. Well, to those people that say that, I wanna ask you, whose voice are you using? I'll tell you what, it's not the father's. Because every time we say, we are doing the devil's job for him. And let me show you how close the church came to almost missing the greatest missionary who ever lived. In Acts chapter nine, you probably know the story. Saul's walking on the road to Damascus. He has an encounter with Jesus, right? And this is Saul who's been dragging Christians

out of their home. He's been throwing them in prison. He stood there and approved while Stephen was stoned, and he goes blind. And God tells us a believer named Ananias to go and pray for Saul. And Ananias basically was like, God, are you sure? Do you know this dude? Do you know what he's been? Do you know what he does? Do you know his background? And God says, go for he is a chosen vessel of mine. So while Ananias saw his rap sheet, God saw his calling. And then it gets worse. Saul, who goes by Paul now, goes to Jerusalem and tries to join the disciples. And verse 26 says they were afraid of him, and they didn't believe he was really a disciple. And the church didn't want him, but one man did. Verse 27 tells us that Barnabas took him, brought him to the apostles and told them the whole story. Barnabas put his own name on the line and said, I have seen what Jesus has done in that man. And that man went on to write a huge majority of the New Testament. So I have to ask some of the people in this room, if Paul walked through those doors tonight, would you sit by him? Would you invite him to dinner?

Or would you be one of the ones that was afraid of him? I'd rather be Barnabas. I'd rather be the one that says come and sit with me because I believe what Jesus did and you was real. None of you know who you're sitting next to. The guy fresh out of jail might be the one that God uses to reach 100 people that you could never reach. The woman in the middle of a divorce might be the one that God uses to hold someone else together. So who are we to keep calling somebody by a name that Jesus already took away? The enemy keeps saying if, guys, God never said if. So who does God send to tell you who you are? Now I wanna look at John chapter 16, okay? Jesus is about to go to the cross. And he tells his disciples that it's actually better for them that he leaves because then the Holy Spirit will come. And then verses eight through 11, he tells them what the Spirit will do. It says, and when he comes, he will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment, of sin because they do not believe in me, of righteousness because I go to my father and you see me know more of judgment because the ruler of this world is judged. Now that says convict and most of us hear the word convict and we think of a courtroom, right? Guilty sentence. Some of you have heard that word probably too many times. But the word here in Greek is a Lencho.

Okay, and it does mean to expose or convict, but it also means to prove something, to bring it into light, to convince someone that something is true. And look at how Jesus ties each one's sin because they do not believe in me. The root problem of sin is unbelief. The Spirit shows people that they need Jesus. That's why some of you are in this room because the Holy Spirit convinced you that you need a savior of righteousness because I go to my father, it says next. Why would Jesus be going back to the father and what would that have to do with righteousness? Well, Jesus only goes back to the father when the work is finished. Hebrews one three says that when he had purged our sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. He sat down. You don't sit down when the job is half done. The father raised him from the dead and welcomed him home and that was heaven saying payment has been accepted. It's been paid in full and the payment is your righteousness. Second Corinthians 5, 21 says for he made him who knew no sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him. You did not earn your righteousness. You received his. So here's what I believe in our think scripture backs. We have the Holy Spirit does not come to convince a believer that they're still condemned,

that they're still screwing up. Jesus already settled that when you belong to Jesus, the Holy Spirit's work is to convince you that the payment was accepted and that you're righteous because of it. The Holy Spirit isn't whispering in your ear that you're still that person that you used to be because Romans 816 says the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. He is testifying on your behalf and here is what he's trying to convince you of. He's trying to convince you that you are holy. Hebrews 10 says you have been sanctified, set apart through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ. Not when you clean up now. He's trying to convince you that you are clean. Jesus looked at his disciples and said, you are already clean in John 15. Isaiah 1/8 says even if your sins are like scarlet, they will be washed white as snow. He's trying to convince you that you are precious. You have been honored and I have loved you." He's trying to convince you that you are beautiful. Isaiah 62, 3 says, "You are a crown of beauty and glory in the hand of God." He's trying to convince you that you are his delight. Zephaniah 3.17 says he rejoices over you with gladness and he sings over you guys. The God of the universe is singing over you with gladness. He's trying to convince you that you are his friend.

Jesus says it himself in John 15, 15, "I have called you friends." He's trying to convince you that you are the temple. 1 Corinthians 6, 19 says, "Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, the same body you've abused, the same body you've been ashamed of is where God now lives." He's trying to convince you that you are royalty. 1 Peter 2, 9 calls you a royal priesthood, his own special people. He's trying to convince you that you are family. Hebrews 2, 11 says Jesus is not ashamed to call you a brother or a sister and he's trying to convince you that you are free. John 8, 36, "If the sun sets you free, you shall be free indeed." That's the only "if" that you need to listen to. This is what the Holy Spirit is saying over you. That is the voice that you need to believe. Will the Holy Spirit ever put his finger on something you're doing and say that has to go? Yeah, he will because Hebrews 12, 6 says that the Lord disciplines the ones that he loves and a good father always corrects his children but he corrects you as a son or a daughter. He does not interrogate you like a suspect and there is a world of difference between those two. So in John, Jesus talks about sin and righteousness but also about judgment because the ruler of this world is judged. The devil has been tried, convicted, incentenced and his verdict is in and I want you to think about the next time that he begins accusing you because Revelation 12, 10 says that the devil is the accuser of the brethren. So when you start listening to him, you're listening to someone who is already lost, right? Romans 8, 1 tells us therefore there is now no condemnation

for those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8, 33 says, "Who shall bring a charge against God's elect?" It is God who justifies. God has spoken, the case is closed. Now I want to also talk about the book of Ephesians because I love, love, love the book of Ephesians and it's six chapters guys so if y'all have never read it, I just read it, okay? It's beautiful. Paul starts the letter, okay? It's Paul writing to the church and Ephesus and he starts the letter by calling the people saints. Okay, Ephesians 1-1, saints, holy ones. Okay, he hasn't told them to do anything yet and he's calling them saints. And then he spends three whole chapters telling them who they are in chapter one. He says, "You are chosen. You are adopted. You are redeemed through his blood. You are forgiven. You are in inheritance. You are sealed with the Holy Spirit." And then in chapter two, he goes on, he says, "You were dead in your sins but God made you alive. You have been saved through grace. You are his workmanship, his masterpiece created in Christ Jesus for good works." Which he prepared for you ahead of time. He says, "You used to be far away

but now you have been brought near. You are not a stranger anymore. You are a member of God's household." And then in chapter three, Paul prays that you would grasp how wide and how long and how high and how deep the love of Christ is a love. So big it goes beyond anything you could possibly understand. Three chapters, not one instruction, just who you are. But then we get to chapter four, verse one. It says, "I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of your calling in which you were called." Do you know what he's saying in plain English? He's saying, "I just meant three chapters telling you who you are." Now start acting like it. That's the order. Your identity comes first and the behavior follows. Okay, and do you know who's writing this? A prisoner of the Lord. That's what he calls himself. Paul wrote this letter from custody. He was locked up. He was the man who used to throw Christians in prison. Now he's a prisoner himself. And from a cell he wrote the words telling you who you are. So if you're sitting in a cell tonight or maybe you're sitting in this room and you just got out of one, don't you dare tell me

that your location disqualifies you because some of the most important words in the Bible were written by a man in chains. Now look at what Paul tells him to do in the rest of chapter four. He says, "Put away lying. Don't let the sun go down on you." but rather let him labor. Who's he talking to? He already told us, he's talking to the saints. He's talking to the chosen, the adopted, the redeemed, the forgiven saints. And some of those saints were acting like thieves. And Paul didn't say thieves. Once you stop stealing, maybe God will call you a saint. No, he said saints, don't steal anymore. Saints, that's not who you are anymore. And that is the difference between living for an identity and living from an identity. So there's one objection I have to deal with 'cause I've heard this before. Someone in here is probably thinking, Katie, if you start telling these people that they're already righteous, then they're just gonna do whatever they want. That's a license to sin. Well, Paul heard that same question in Romans 6,1. He said, shall we continue to sin that grace may abound? Certainly not.

This is not a license to sin guys. It is the exact opposite. The reason I want you to know who you are is so that you stop living like who you were. I don't want you to drink yourself to death. I don't want you lying and cheating and stealing or tearing your family apart. I want you free. But years of telling a person how worthless they are has never said anyone free ever. People don't start new by staring at the old. If you genuinely could grasp and believe if it could truly sink in, that you are loved and you are chosen and you are righteous, then I promise you, you don't want to live that old way anymore. So grace is not permission to stay who you were. It is the power to become who God says you are. (congregation applauding) So one more disclaimer, and then I'm done, but forgiveness and trust are not the same things. Okay, forgiveness is a gift and trust comes over time. I can welcome you to my table, but still use wisdom about who drives my car. Okay, it has nothing to do with whether you're righteous before God. Your righteousness was settled at the cross. Trust is just two people walking it out. So don't confuse the fruit of salvation with the price of salvation.

Jesus paid the price. Your changed life is what the fruit is. If you've listened to any podcast you probably heard, there's a saying, I really like it. It says, facts don't care about your feelings. Y'all ever heard anyone say, facts don't care about your feelings. I want you to know that that is very true in this room tonight. The facts of who you are in Christ do not care about how you feel. Okay, you may say, I don't feel forgiven. If you're in Christ, you are forgiven. You may say, I don't feel righteous. If you are in Christ, you are righteous. Well, I don't feel like God could use someone like me. You are his workmanship created for good works that he has already prepared for you to do. Well, I don't feel like I'm doing enough. You were not saved by doing enough. Ephesians 2 says it is through grace by faith, not of works. So your feelings are real, but they are not in charge. God's words doesn't change because you had a bad week, okay? Now, back to those church people I was talking to a minute ago and I don't know that there's any in here, but I felt the need to address them, okay? When you say things like, I don't feel like he's changed enough. I don't think she's repented enough.

I just don't feel right about them yet. I don't feel like they're producing enough fruit. I don't care how you feel, okay? And I say that with love, I do. But since when did your feelings become the standard for whether or not someone is righteous? You don't get a vote. Romans 833 already told us who justifies God, justifies not you, not me, not the deacon board, not the people who remember what dude was like in high school. The righteousness does not depend on whether you are comfortable with their redemption, but neither does your righteousness. So how do you know what's true when you hear so many things? Well, if my feelings can't tell me who I am and other people's opinions can't tell you who you are, right? How do you know who you are? Well, I wanna go back to the wilderness, okay? When Jesus is in the wilderness and Satan is tempting him and Satan says, if you are the son of God, what did Jesus say? Jesus said it is written. And the devil comes at him again and Jesus says it is written. And the devil comes at him in a third time and a third time Jesus says it is written. Jesus didn't say, well, I feel like the father loves me. He didn't turn on a worship song and cry. He didn't call his friend to talk about how he was feeling. He answered with the word of God all three times. Okay, and here's what's interesting. Psalm 91 and he starts quoting it to Jesus. He knew the words. He just twisted them.

But if the devil knows the Bible well enough to quote it out of context, then you had better know it well enough to recognize when he does. Okay? I was in a Bible study once and this woman, dear woman, love her. She's awesome. But she said, "Well, as long as you're praying and listening to worship music, you don't really need to read your Bible." And I'm sorry, guys. I'm just going to say it. That is a whole bunch of crap. Okay? I love worship music. I love spending quiet time with the Lord. I love prayer. Okay? But neither one of them replaces the Word of God. Okay? You need to know what the Bible says about you because you can't fight if with a feeling. You fight if with it is written. So how are you going to know that you are chosen and adopted and redeemed and righteous if you've never read Ephesians? How are you going to know there's no condemnation for you if you've never read Romans 8? How are you going to recognize a lie if you don't know the truth? 2 Timothy 3 says, "All Scripture is breathed out by God and it is what equips you for every good work." So 1 19 says, "It is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path." Romans 12 2, "You are transformed by what? The renewing of your mind." Your mind does not renew itself. And some of you have heard the devil's version of who you are for 20 years and it is going to take more than one Tuesday night to replace those words. Okay? The Bible is not a book you pull out when you're in trouble. It's not a place to grab a verse for Facebook. It's not any of those things. It is the guide. It is the answer. It should be your life. Read your Bible. Stop letting the enemy tell you who you are when God already wrote it down for you. At the Jordan River, the father spoke first. He said, "This is my beloved son before he did anything, before there were any miracles." And he said that about you too. But then Jesus went in the wilderness and the devil tried to convince him if. If. Don't let the devil convince you if. Right? You answer the same way Jesus answered. It is written. As if you don't know Jesus, you are not too far gone. I don't care where you've been. I don't care what you've done. I don't care what's on your record. He is calling you right now to turn to him and believe in him. And the moment you do, the father's house opens up for you and you are given a new name. And that name is what God speaks over you. So if you're saved, he's speaking those same names over you, chosen, adopted, forgiven, washed, righteous, beloved. Stop calling yourself words that God doesn't call you anymore. Stop measuring yourself by your worst day. Stop trying to earn a seed at a table that you've already been invited to. And stop looking at redeemed people through the lens of who they used to be. If you do that, pull up a chair, be a Barnabas. You might be sitting across from the next Paul.

So the next time the enemy whispers, if you're really a son of God, you look him in the eye and you say, I don't have to prove anything to you. My father already spoke. It is written. I am his. Start acting like it. Lord God, thank you so much for who you are. Thank you for your word. Thank you for the example that Jesus set for us. Lord, thank you for your love and your grace and your mercy. Thank you for calling us. These amazing things that we sometimes struggle to believe. I pray, Lord, that every person in this room begins to believe those things. I believe that they can grasp how deep and how wide and how high your love is for them. Lord, God, and if they don't, I pray for radical encounters with you, Lord, God. I pray that they experience you and encounter you in a way that they never have before. Lord, I pray that when they look at themselves in the mirror that you whisper so loudly to them who they are and how loved they are and how precious and beautiful and holy and righteous they are, Lord, God, I pray that you use every single one of them to do mighty things in the kingdom. I pray that the enemy runs away scared every time one of these people walks into a room, Lord, and I pray that they have grace and love for the people that maybe aren't acting like the way that they should yet. God, we just thank you and we love you. And it's in the mighty, powerful, beautiful name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.