04-07-24 - HIA Sunday - Look at Us - The Search (Ari Patchen)

Look at Us Ari Patchen | Together Church OKC | April 7, 2024 | Sermon Manuscript | Series: The Search (HIA Day) Open with Slide - Look at us * Together Church, thank you for your continued intentionally, your continued consistency your continued support in serving the men of Hope is Alive now for many years. Please do not stop!! While you may not always see the fruit. You are planting seeds of compassion and love for the men in the HIA program to take with them for generations. * Thank you Pastor Brandon the opportunity to come and speak today. Your leadership, guidance and special portion to this Church community, your family and HIA is priceless. * Thank Speakers by name...for speaking from a place of transparency and vulnerability...thank you for your commitment to helping others... The Title of our time today: Look at us... UnSTUCK: The Search for Freedom As I was preparing to speak on a completely different subject...The Lord was clear...ARI speak on your experience of God setting you on a journey to become UNSTUCK...Speak on your experience of being stuck in that HOLE and how God brought you out. Speak on your experience of how the Lord Jesus used others to free you. And how He is using you now to do the same. So much of my history the last 39 years has been defined by what I call my time in the HOLE. What I have defined as being STUCK. For decades that HOLE, that feeling, kept me in complete bondage to a chemical addiction...for so many years nothing I did, others did, God did was EVER good enough. I lived in a world of unmet expectations...I lived in a world of complete dependence to drugs and alcohol and escaping my emotions. I was Stuck...Sin, addiction, selfishness, lying, manipulating, shame, guilt, the past and stuck listening to the voice that I was not enough and the drugs and destructive lifestyle were my only way to cope with life. It was not for lack of trying to escape that I was stuck. There we so many Attempts, time after time, I would make THAT decision, this is IT...this is the very last time....I will not break my families heart, I will not lie, steal, manipulate them, I will keep this job, I will just have one drink...I wont watch that adult website yet again.... and my plea to God I cannot do this again to my family, friends, I cannot lose this job...God I wont do this again...God you must stop this chaos...yet the years went on and on and on and I was still stuck... I had been searching for peace, Since I was a little boy I just wanted rest in my soul...I wanted the negative self-talk to stop...I wanted to love myself...I wanted to not hurt my family and be a father... i wanted to feel safe and comfortable in who God created me to be...Yet I was stuck...the hole of addiction was just too much for me... For so many years I was so so angry with God...how could HE allow me to choose so poorly...How could I keep making these mistakes...how could I keep hurting those around me...why did He not make things right...the way I wanted Him to. Ephesians 2:4-5 "But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our wrongdoings, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)," Today it is all I can do not to jump off this stage with Praise...my story did not end in that hole...I have been UNSTUCK! I have found freedom the God of the Universe, the creator of EVERYTHING! the one who holds all things in His hand...this God has had mercy on me...HE has freed me from my hole of bondage to addiction, of poor life choices....He has given me a path so that I would finally be living as He designed. He has given me a community of other believers, He has given me a heart to care for people, He has given me a wife and child, He has allowed me to be a leader of men...and in return I am giving Him the first place in my heart. I share all this with you because I know... no matter who you are...no matter what you have been through, are going through...or will go through in your future...we all have had these moments...we have all had these moments...of being STUCK! Of asking what do I do? I am gonna be direct for a moment...close your eyes...if you can relate to anything I just shared...with your eyes closed...I want you to go to that place...It maybe painful...hard...you may even think its pointless...but just for moment...stay there...feel it...allow it to be ok Prayer ...Lord I need YOU I need your l mercy on me in this situation...regarding this person, place, thing...Lord I believe you will free me...I trust you Lord...I love you Lord...I will wait on You Lord... If you have a bible lets take a moment to open to Acts 3 Slide Acts 3:1-11 This is the story of the lame man... "Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer. And a man who had been unable to walk from birth was being carried, whom they used to set down every day at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, in order for him to beg for charitable gifts from those entering the temple grounds. When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple grounds, he began asking to receive a charitable gift. But Peter, along with John, looked at him intently and said, "Look at us!" And he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, "I do not have silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, walk!" And grasping him by the right hand, he raised him up; and immediately his feet and his ankles were strengthened. And leaping up, he stood and began to walk; and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God; and they recognized him as being the very one who used to sit at the Beautiful Gate of the temple to beg for charitable gifts, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. While he was clinging to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them at the portico named Solomon's, completely astonished." Point 1 Slide: 1.) the temple gate * the environment God uses before He invites us to walk through the gate into the temple Slide "Acts 3:2 And a man who had been unable to walk from birth was being carried, whom they used to set down every day at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, in order for him to beg for charitable gifts from those entering the temple. Lame from birth...we all have story...of painful things we have had to go through or are going through...but just imagine never...ever being able to walk...now imagine that physical limitation in that period of history thousands of years ago. Now consider how exhausting that would have been to just stay alive... Acts 4:22 says this man was 40 years old at this time...so not only was he unable to walk...he had to be carried...he was completely dependent on others for his physical survival...he had to beg...and he had been that way for 40 YEARS... What struck me about this was that EVERY DAY...in some versions it says DAY after DAY...he was placed at the gate to beg...this was this man's way of life...in fact this was his life...this was his identity...but not only was he dependent on others placing him at the gate to beg...he was dependent on those who were entering the gate to be generous... I can really relate to this...my life being dictated by my external environment...by my circumstances...my past...my fears...day in and day out....stuck in a situation I did not want to be in... So my question to you again...what is keeping you stuck at the gate...you see this man never entered into the temple... day in and day out...he was only ever existing at the temple gate So what is keeping you from entering the temple...what is keeping you stuck...if you are not a believer in the Lord Jesus right now...what is holding you back from fully believing into Him..to fully knowing what the Savior has done for you. The Mercy he has waiting for YOU! Slide of me in addiction This is a man who was stuck...Bondage...enslaved...to a drug so powerful death was more inviting than living...this was me at the end of my active addiction....Weeks before I entered HIA and a life of sobriety.... Slide - LOOK AT US While I cannot relate to what it feels like to be lame from birth. I know what it feels like to be stuck in a circumstance, an environment, a situation, an outcome that you wanted so desperately to see changed...Day after Day...being on the verge of entering something Beautiful...of entering the temple...but falling short...settling day after day for the entrance but never getting to go inside...I can relate to this man feeling different...not agreeing with your condition...questioning GOD...why me...why can I not escape this hole...yet day after day being stuck...being so dependent on those around you that without their help you would die... The last year of my active addiction I relate more to this man than ever before. I had been living on the streets in a vicious cycle of trying to escape a hole I could not see the top to. I started to believe that I did not want God to save me out of my condition. I had done this to myself...I had turned my heart from God...yet again...and the HOLE was enough for me...I would surrender to it. I had been through 8 treatment centers, dozens of sober livings...after 20+ years I had found my identity...I was a chronic relapser and I would die that way There were no more attempts for me...this time I was done...I had no more to give to sin, to addiction, to 12 step groups, to family, to God, to myself...I had no more failed attempts... the enemy had me believing that the God I had given my life to so many years before wasn't going to help me... Just like the lame man in the story...I was content to be placed on the temple gate...I was content to beg...I had found my identity...and I was welcoming my story to end... But GOD BEING RICH IN MERCY!!! This was not the end of the story for this man...or for me...or so many in the room today Praise God He will provide a way to fully enter the Temple! Point 2. Look at us Slide 2.) Look at US!! * the people God uses according to His will and timing, so we can walk according to His will full of strength to praise and Glorify Him i want you to see that Gods timing is absolutely perfect! For some content In acts 2 we have Pentecost, we see Peters first Sermon and the forming of the early Church as a community. For some context about Peter and John in this story they had lived with Jesus for 3.5 yrs...they had experienced Him in the flesh...they saw him killed...saw him resurrected...just gone through Pentecost...the Spirit being released...were leading thousands to the Savior...they were speaking boldly....they were on the forefront of the forming of the early Church...they had gladness and sincerity in their heart...all their needs were being met...God was doing something deeper in them...Just as He is doing in so many of us here today...because God was going to use them...just as God will use us... Slide Acts 3:4-6 4 But Peter, along with John, looked at him intently (some versions say GAZED AT HIM) and said, "Look at us!" 5 And he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. 6 But Peter said, "I do not have silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, walk!" Stay with me...Peter and John were doing something they had done before...verses 1 says they were going to the temple for prayer and they were passing the same man they had passed many times before... and I shared all that to make this one point... you never know when the Savior...will move to free you from your condition of being STUCK...and on top of that...you never know when the savior will use you to free someone from there condition of being stuck... Something else that struck me here...Why does verse 4 just not simply say they looked at him...or they went to talk to the man...or the saw the man and decided to help him...why these specific words?....they looked at him intently. They gazed at him...I believe it is because here...in this moment... the Holy Spirit was moving...the Spirit is intentional...the Spirit is precise...the Spirit is detailed...the Spirit draws our attention out of ourselves... of walking through the gate to the temple...past the beggar...like we have done so many times before... to GAZE at...to intently see others and their situation...their environments with a different perspective...with a new vision...not of ourselves... Gazing at him intently - LOOK AT US! How often is a look from the Savior all that is needed...to be seen...to have our attention drawn to HIM...and in doing that...in looking to the one calling us...He can respond to our need...not our expectations...in a way we never EVER could imagine... This man was expecting the same thing from peter and john...a few crumbs to make it through the day...a gift of some sort...could be that they had given to this man in the past...I don't know...but today would be different. Today HE was met by men filled with a living that Glorified God...everything he knew for his entire life was about to change through these words...Look at us!!! It was as if the Lord was saying I wont give you what you expect - "I do not have silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, walk!"" In relating this to my life....For more than a year there was group of Christian's in Wichita praying for me by name. They new my situation was bad...that every day I was out on the streets I was getting closer to death...they new I was Stuck.... the Lord used an HIA Church day just like today...and one of them heard a story much like my own...this man wanted to know more and so he got involved... just like Together Church on Sunday nights...he came to every Monday night for Bible study....and then the Savior used him...this man found me on the streets...he found me at the gate...HE said Ari - LOOK AT Us!!! I saw him and with all my expectations and I tried to push him away...But he declared Look at ME!!! "I do not have silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, walk!" This man had nothing more than his faith to offer me...and to declare WALK. That day was March 4th of 2020. I have not used drugs since that day... I entered the HIA program on March 10th of 2020 but this time was so different...I was not stuck at the GATE...I was being walked hand in hand into the temple Because this time I had been met by the ONE who told me to Look at Him and to Walk. I look back now four years and I can see so clearly...at the right moment...in the right environment...with the right person...the Lord provided me a right hand, a hand to grasp me...to raise me up....to bring me to Hope is Alive to a faith based program...a biblical community...a life skill developing curriculum that brought me to full health... Today I stand before you recovered from a hopeless state of mind and body I have recovered from decades of trauma, poor decisions and emotional immaturity through the love and support of the HIA staff, 12 step fellowship and sponsorship, through living in a community of fellow residents, friends, my church community, my wife and TRUSTING my Savior and His name without reservation...I AM no longer looking to run away..that HOLE has been filled in and covered up... Point 3 Slide 3.) Your Freedom is not just for you. * the story God used to draw others to Himself through the story He was writing in you! Slide Acts 3:7-11 "And grasping him by the right hand, he raised him up; and immediately his feet and his ankles were strengthened. And leaping up, he stood and began to walk; and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God; and they recognized him as being the very one who used to sit at the Beautiful Gate of the temple to beg for charitable gifts, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. While he was clinging to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them at the portico named Solomon's, completely astonished." What a moment...40 years...and then the Savior moved...40 years...this makes me so so happy...this mans struggling was not in vain...this mans healing brought those around him to run together to learn more...this mans story was used to bring those around the city to learn about the Lord Jesus...after 40 years...You never know when the Lord will use you...you never Know when the Lord will move for you...You never know how your being unstuck will impact those around you in such a way they want to know more... As I have been entering the temple with those around me...others are being impacted...Praise the Lord...my long journey to freedom...full of pain...of misery...of losing my family...of deep regret and sadness...was not in VAIN...it is being used to draw others to hope... just like this lame man who could now walk...those around me want to know how this homeless...lost...near death broken man is leaping full of joy and freedom!! These are some of the promises God has gifted to me... Slide of 4 years Slide of Ari with Guys Slide of Community Group Slide of wedding Slide of Family SLIDE LOOK AT US As we close...I want to speak to someone here directly...stay with me as this is important...I want to speak directly to those who have never asked the Lord Jesus to become real to them...to become the Savior to you to be Lord over your life....I want to humbly invite you to do so...right NOW... You see the rest of the story in ACTS 3 is Peter speaking to a group of people who had that chance...they had the chance to believe...they saw Jesus in the flesh...they saw the miracles firsthand...they heard his speaking in person...they saw people believing and being healed...changing there way of life...to be happy and filled with JOY..and do you know what their response was.... Instead of believing you are the Messiah....the Savior...the one we have been waiting for....instead they went to their enemies..they went to Rome to give them a convicted murderer to free...they went to ROME pleading with them to brutally beat Jesus and crucify HIM to death...cheering his death and taunting and spitting at him... I have been there...as you just heard most of my life was spent in rejection of the one who loved me to the point of death on a cross...to the point of freeing me from my sin and giving my heart freedom... So in this moment...this judgement free moment...in this moment with everyone's eyes closed and head bowed...in this moment where it is just you and your creator... In this moment Repeat out loud with me... Lord Jesus...I no longer want to be without you...i know longer want to question whether you are real or not. I repent of my sins...I repent of keeping you outside of my life...and in this moment I invite YOU in...wash me clean from my sins...i give my life to you...wipe my sins completely away through Your death and Your resurrection. I believe Lord Jesus...I need you...I love you...amen. Thank you for the opportunity to come and speak with you today...I know Pastor Brandon has some words for us...If you are struggling or you have a family member struggling with addiction...there is HOPE...HIA exists to intentionally help you... 2