The Dangers of Alcohol

00:00 Pray for our workers, our DNI workers that are around the globe, around the world. Pray that God would protect them, each one. So happens that we know some, we don't know others. And yet, as God brings you, brings them to your remembrance, 00:20 or you see those papers that come through in the bulletins or prayer guides, just stop and say a prayer for our workers. 00:30 All right. Going to shift gears here now. And I'd like to show a video clip. It's a short one. We won't show the music, the song at the end, just the testimony. And as we look at the Christian and alcohol, 00:52 and continue to look at that this morning as a part two from last Sunday's message. 01:18 And gospel music out of Tampa, Florida, with a group called the Rebel Quartet. Oh, yeah? You've heard about it? I always thought that was a strange name for a gospel group, you know? I guess they were rebelling against Satan and his forces. I don't know. But long story short, 1976, Dad got a call from none other than J.D. 01:39 Sumner, saying, "Ron, Bill, the first tenor had resigned from the group." He said, "I'd like for you to join the Stamps." So Dad went with the Stamps, backing up Elvis Presley. A year later, you know, Elvis passed away. Dad moved the family back to Tampa. He had been on the road all of our lives. At that point, we were still young kids, but he just wanted to stay home. 01:59 So he started his own paint contracting business. He had done that before. About three years went by. It really began to do very, very well. Started making a lot of money. And I had a foreman that ran his crew, which gave him time to take clients out to dinner and to the golf course and whatnot, to drum up new business, build relationships. But you know, he made the mistake of having a social drink. 02:22 One led to two, two led to four, four led to eight. It escalated until Dad became a full-blown non-functioning alcoholic in his 30s. In 1987, the IRS came and took it all. Everything. 02:37 The house, the cars, the business, everything that he and Mom had worked so hard for at that time for 24 years of marriage. But thank God the family stayed together. 02:51 In 1990, Dad heard of a place called Elam, Home for Alcoholics, where you could take your loved one there at no charge. And they would minister to the old man. It was sponsored by Thomas Road, Baptist Church. We took Dad up there. About three weeks went by. And one morning he got up and the director of Elam saw him. He said, "Ron," he said, "is there something bothering you?" He said, 03:11 "Brother Horsley, I've been praying for the assurance of my salvation. It isn't there. And it will not come." He said, "Ron, do you really mean business with Christ?" He said, "Yes, sir, I do." 10:31 a.m., October 31, 1990, Dad bowed his head and surrendered it all to the Lord Jesus. He's never had a drop since. 03:37 When he came back from Elam is when we started the Booth Brothers. What I've just shared with you, Dad stood in the middle of the stage for eight years he's retired now and told every audience that what God is doing for the Booth family, he can and will do for you. Is there a secret place in your life and that door is locked and you don't want the Savior in there? 03:58 Friend, invite him in. Unlock the door. He's not coming in to embarrass you. He's coming in to clean it up and to set you free. Let him in your secret place. 04:10 Okay. I don't know if you were seeing a video up here or not, but nevertheless, you got the gist of the audio. And the Booth Brothers are a Southern gospel group. And I just thought their testimony there of their father was so clear on the dangers, the dangers of Christians participating in alcohol. What we do know from Scripture, let's talk about that this morning. 04:32 Last Sunday, just by way of review, we looked at some of the Scriptural words. And we looked at the words for strong drink, which are clearly forbidden in Scripture. 04:42 We also looked at the word translated wine, which can be anything from some of the words can be anything from non-fermented fresh grape juice to fermented wine. 04:57 And yet, we looked at those and said that many of those things were 05:03 descriptive rather than proscriptive. We're not really encouraged to drink wine, although in some cases it has been allowed in Scripture. So we said when we look at the actual words for wine, it would be nice if we could just say, you know, this word that's translated wine, it's condemned. 05:23 It's always wrong. And we make a clear case from the clear words of Scripture. Now, we can't do that. The words are ambiguous. The culture was different. 05:36 And so we have to look, take a step back, and then look not only at what Scripture specifically forbids and allows to say what is wise and what does discipleship look like? What does it look like to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ when it comes to the use of alcohol? 05:54 And what does it look like from wisdom's perspective when you take a hold of that serpent and say, "I can use a little bit," and yet realizing that the flesh is weak and that the sting of the serpent, the sting of the adder, 06:11 the sting of the scorpion is the end result of alcohol out of control. So let's look at some things that we do know from Scripture in addition to last week's message. First of all, we know that for the priests on duty, the use of alcohol was forbidden. Leviticus 10:9 says, 06:32 "Do not drink wine or intoxicating drink, nor your sons with you when you go into the tabernacle of meeting, lest you die." And so here you have the priests in the Old Testament tabernacle and temple being forbidden the use of wine when they were entering into the to do their priestly duties. 06:54 It goes on to say, "It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations." It was also forbidden in the Old Testament the use of alcohol for a Nazarite. Nazarite, of course, you remember, was not to have contact with a dead body, was not to indulge in the fruit of the vine, and was not to touch, excuse me, was not to cut their hair. 07:16 Of course, the great Nazarite that we're all familiar with is Samson. But I believe John the Baptist was also a Nazarite. He was told not to drink any wine or any fruit of the vine. And the case can be made that John the Baptist was likely a Nazarite. Number 6:3 says this, 07:37 "He shall separate himself," that's the Nazarites, "from wine and similar drink. He shall drink neither vinegar made from wine nor vinegar made from similar drink. 07:48 Neither shall he drink any grape juice." And so this was complete abstinence from the fruit of the vine, "nor eat fresh grapes or raisins." And so that was an example to exemplify his separation from the world and defilement. 08:05 And then this went another step in Scripture where prophets and kings were told to abstain from the use of wine and alcohol. The Bible says in Daniel 1:8, "But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank. 08:27 Therefore, he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself." Now, you could say, well, the wine there was a defiled wine. And so that was part of the defiling along with the food. And so you can't make a case necessarily from the life of Daniel. 08:42 But when you put all of these things together, there is an interesting thing that emerges on this subject. Luke 1:15, speaking of John the Baptist, "He shall be great in the sight of the Lord and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. 09:00 He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb." Proverbs 31:4 and 5 has an interesting statement. "It is not for kings, O lame you all. It is not for kings, O lame you all. It is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes intoxicating drink, 09:20 lest they drink and forget the law and pervert the justice of all the afflicted." And so Proverbs there, 09:27 lame you all being admonished by the writer of Scripture, the one who's counseling him that kings should not drink wine because it skews your judgment and you can forget the law of God and how to make good decisions. So from this, 09:47 we can see that the priests on duty were not to indulge. The prophets were not to indulge or were encouraged not to, as in the case of Daniel and John the Baptist. And kings and Nazarites. Now, let me just ask you this question. And this is an inference in these Scriptures. 10:08 If you take the Old Testament and you look at the principles of the Old Testament and you apply those principles in the New Testament, who are the priests in the New Testament? The priests in the New Testament, well, specifically refers to our high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. But the Bible also says that we are kings and priests, 10:28 as the Lord has appointed us, his children, a kingdom of priests. And are we ever not on duty? We are always on duty. And are we ever not functioning in the presence of God? We are always functioning in the presence of God. We are to be separate from the world, similar to a Nazarite, 10:48 even though we don't take on that vow and let our hair grow long and not touch dead things and so on. The principle is there is that there is a separation between the child of God and the world. And then, of course, kings. Now, we don't necessarily look at ourselves as kings or prophets. But we are leaders. 11:07 We are spokesmen. And we are representatives of the kingdom of God. And so just throwing that in there and to put that into the mix here of what Scripture specifically says. Now, another thing that Scripture specifically says is that drunkenness is prohibited. Without question, drunkenness is prohibited. 11:29 We need to let your joy be the fruit of the Spirit, not the fruit of the vine. The fruit of the Spirit, not the fruit of the vine. "Be not drunk with wine," Scripture says, "wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit." You can be filled with too much wine. 11:51 You can never be too filled, too much filled with the Spirit. Amen? And where that takes you and where those two paths lead you is two different directions. Let the Holy Spirit control you and empower your self-control. 12:08 Let the Holy Spirit control you and empower your self-control. Now, I want to just challenge you with something this morning and on the subject of drunkenness. 12:20 Now, again, I want to just, I want to take a step back here and say that I'm going to present to you a number of different facets of the Christian and the use of alcohol. And you may say, well, any one of them in themselves might sound like a weak argument. 12:38 But when you take all of them together, there is compelling evidence that a wise person, a person of wisdom, and a person who takes his discipleship with Jesus Christ very seriously should abstain from the use of alcohol. 12:57 In fact, I have a list here. In fact, these showed up in your mailboxes, though maybe two, three years ago, I put them in every box. 50 reasons from a pastor who was an alcoholic, excuse me, who was an alcoholic. He says this, "I stopped drinking when I became a Christian 26 years ago. No one told me to abstain. I just knew it would be contradictory and self-defeating to my relationship with Christ. 13:19 I had given my life to follow Jesus and nothing was going to hinder my walk. For me, it was a no-brainer." And he came up with 50 reasons why I don't drink. And there are 50 reasons, good reasons. But you may look at those and you could say, well, any one of those might be a little bit of a stretch when it comes to social drinking. 13:40 But you put them all together and it presents a compelling case against the use of alcohol. And so really, that's what we're trying to do in the message last Sunday and the message this Sunday is say, you know, if you point to any one particular reason for total abstinence, maybe the case would look weak. 13:59 But when you put them all together, it's compelling for abstinence. So look at drunkenness like this. People will say, well, I can drink without becoming drunk. And so therefore, I'm within, I'm abiding within the realms of Scripture. 14:21 Where does drunkenness occur? What is drunkenness? Can anybody tell me what drunkenness is? How do you define what drunkenness is? At what point is a person drunk? And where is the line between when he's drunk and when he's not drunk? Well, if your alcohol limit, alcohol blood limit is over this. 14:42 No, that's the world's definition. I'm talking about a good biblical child of God definition. When is drunkenness drunkenness? Is it when you're passed out on the floor? Is that drunkenness? Is it when you start saying things that are out of control? Is that drunkenness? Where is drunkenness? 15:01 When do you pass from non-drunkenness to drunkenness? And so you might think you're within the realm of Scripture. But are you? By whose definition? Now, I used to have a little problem when I was in teaching school and when I was in school because as a teacher, 15:22 we would hand out demerits. And if you misbehaved, you were given a demerit. If you were misbehaved again, you were given another demerit. If you misbehaved the third time, you were put in detention. The next day, you had to stay after school or stay in from recess. 15:42 Which one of those three made a person have a detention? And so the people would come up and say, well, but Pastor Todd, Teacher Todd, I mean, do I have to have detention because of this? No, you don't have detention because of this. You have detention because of this. You see what I'm saying? 16:03 Had you not done one, you wouldn't have got to three. Had you not done two, you wouldn't have got to three. It is not the third one that gives you detention. It is all three. So where is drunkenness? If you want to use my crude illustration, where is drunkenness? You don't just pass from non-drunkenness to drunkenness. 16:24 It's a progression. So I'm challenged with the idea that if it takes five beers to make someone drunk, at the beginning, after the first beer, how drunk are they? 20%. You don't get drunk off the fourth one or the fifth one. 16:44 You get drunk off of all of them. So think about that. Again, is that compelling? Is that even good reason? I believe it is. I believe it's compelling. But you could pick that argument apart, I'm sure. 17:00 But when you take all of the reasons together and you put them all together, it makes for a compelling case. The third thing that we know from Scripture is that there is biblical injunction against being deceived by alcohol. Proverbs 20:1, "Wine is a mocker. 17:21 Strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise." Proverbs 23:32, "At last, it biteeth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder." Proverbs 21:17, "He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man. He that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich." Now, 17:42 again, that's just one Scripture of many. Those who seek after pleasure will spend their lives trying to find it and not be able to. So again, if you apply that to alcohol and riches, a case, another cog in the wheel, you might say, of reasoning. 18:03 Now, Isaiah 28:7, "But they also have erred through wine and through intoxicating drink or out of the way. The priest and the prophet have erred through intoxicating drink. They are swallowed up by wine. They are out of the way through intoxicating drink. They err in vision. They stumble in judgment." Interesting. 18:25 Kings, priests, prophets, 18:28 leaders in the kingdom of God advise not to be deceived, but to abstain. I'm told that there are more than 600 references to wine and strong drink in the Scriptures. There are more warnings, according to Drescher, this little tract here, 18:47 "The Most Preventable Cause of Suffering and Death." That's why I've titled the message, "The Death No One Has to Die." No one has to die from alcohol. That's a death sentence that nobody ever has to die from if we were abiding with an abstinence policy. 19:06 There are more warnings against alcohol in Scripture than adultery, stealing, or other of the worst sins of humanity, John Drescher says. Now, the symbolism is interesting of Scripture. 19:22 Revelation 14:8 and 10 and 17 and 18 and 16. Why don't you just page back to Revelation, a couple of those? I'm not going to look at all of them. But I want you to notice the symbolism, the symbolism that Scripture uses. 19:41 Okay, Revelation 14:8, "And another angel followed, saying, 'Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.'" There's a symbolism, and it's not a positive one. 19:59 It's not a positive one in the book of Revelation about wine. Now, again, I'm not going to make a case off these Scriptures. But when you put all these things together, a compelling case can be made. 20:14 Now, so in a number of places, the negative or the symbol of deception is being drunk with the wine of fornication and the wine of Babylon. 20:27 Verse 9, "Then a third angel followed, them saying with a loud voice, 'If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of his indignation.'" And so you have a number of places where that negative image, 20:49 imagery, the imagery, the picture, the symbolism of God's wrath being like wine. Now, you can counter that and you can say, well, but like in the book of Song of Solomon, symbolism is not like that. It's the wine of your love and of the love and romance of a husband and wife. 21:08 I understand that. That's why you don't make a biblical case off of unclear Scriptures. But you put them all together and see what is the overall message that's being conveyed. So the symbolism is a biblical consideration. 21:29 Now, so we've looked at some of the Scriptures here. Now, let's look at a wisdom approach to drinking, to social drinking. A wisdom approach is that it is unwise to drink. It's certainly unwise to be deceived by it. 21:50 And I will refer to this little pamphlet. So some of the statistics, this pamphlet is a few years old. But some of the statistics may not be exactly completely accurate today in 2019. But I doubt that it's gotten any better. If anything, it's probably gotten worse. 22:09 And so last Sunday morning, we opened with the fact and stating the fact that more 70 times as many Americans die per year from alcohol as did in the Vietnam War yearly, 70 times more. 22:26 In fact, in America, alcohol is killing people faster than the deadliest wars in all history. The executive secretary of the International Commission for the Prevention of Alcoholism noted that of the 6 million known alcoholics in America, 350,000 would be buried before the year is out. 22:48 The Vietnam War took 5,000 Americans per year. And we reject the Vietnam War as a terrible tragedy in our culture. Alcohol is the cause of 60% of teenage deaths on the highway and 50% of all highway deaths. It shortens the lifespan of one out of every 13 persons. 23:10 Alcoholics live 10 to 12 years less than non-drinkers. Half of the drownings are alcohol related. And according to a study of Johns Hopkins University, 50% of pedestrians killed in accidents had been drinking. Now, you say, "Brother Todd, you're talking about alcoholics. You're talking about alcoholics. We're talking about social drinking." Let me ask you, 23:31 how does alcoholics get to be alcoholics? They get by drinking. They started with a single drink. That's how they got there. Yet, okay, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism says its figures are conservative. 23:47 It points out there are 3.3 million problem drinkers among youths between the ages of 14 and 17. Well, you're not supposed to be able to drink until you're 21. Well, who pays attention to that? You can still get it. Between the ages of 14 and 17, 3.3 million problem drinkers. 24:07 This represents nearly one in every five in this age group. More than 60%, 62% of all seventh graders and 80% of all twelfth graders drink. Alcohol use among teens is up 90% in 10 years. 24:21 According to US News and World Report, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare Survey of fourth and fifth graders on the West Coast reveals that 45% consider themselves ongoing users of alcohol. Dr. Stephanie Brown, associate director of the Alcohol Clinic at Stanford University Medical Center, 24:40 says that alcoholism in adolescence develops rapidly, with some teenagers becoming alcoholics within six months of taking their first drink. Dr. Jean Kilborn, another expert speaking at Sweet Briar College on under the influence, 25:00 the pushing of alcohol via advertising. Dr. Kilborn pointed out that alcohol advertisements depict images of happiness, success, power, independence, confidence, masculinity, romance, and sexual fulfillment. These are images of what youths deeply desire. 25:19 But she said they are precisely the qualities and attributes that are destroyed by the alcohol user. So Satan puts it out there. It says, "This is what you can have." And then he sets the hook and pulls people into addiction. 25:35 $900 million a year spent in advertising to make alcohol look like the norm for all. Alcohol is involved in 80% of all crime. 80% of persons in prison are there because of alcohol-related crimes. Now, you add to this the whole aspect of drugs. And you've got another issue there, 25:56 which is the same kind of things. 25:58 Last Sunday, we said if you add drug use, which is one of my questions, will we now, because marijuana is becoming legalized more and more, will we now then have social marijuana use before the euphoria that we can get on a temporary basis? Now that it's no longer illegal in many cases, 26:18 it will become more and more socially acceptable. At what point does the church say, "Thou shalt not take marijuana"? It's not in the Bible. But the principles are. The principles are, and we're laying those out. One in every 10 persons who drinks alcohol will become alcoholic. 26:39 You want to beat the odds? You say, "Well, I'm sure I'm in that 90% group." Oh, you're sure about that? What about your child? What about your son? What about your daughter? Which leads us then to the next point of a wisdom approach, weaker brother concept. The weaker brother concept, 26:59 Paul said, "It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak. 27:09 The children and the youth suffer at the hands of the parents." I know a lady by the name of Vicky. She's been incarcerated. A very good friend of ours and of Gospel Echoes. In fact, if you go back to our year-end newsletter, you will find her picture on the front page and her testimony on the inside of that newsletter. 27:30 Her testimony started like this in her days, in her young days. She was a little misservant. She loved to serve. And she loved to serve her daddy and his buddies when they came to play cards in their home. And she came, and she would serve them their alcohol. I'm not sure that they actually gave her any. 27:51 But what they didn't realize was that they were presenting it to her through imagery. They were presenting it to her through availability and access. And she said she began, unknown to them, to drink a little bit and taste it. If it's good for the grown-ups, man, it must be something special. 28:10 And so she'd take a little bit and a little bit more and a little bit more and actually became drunken, and they didn't know it. She said she'd crawl into the table while they were playing cards and couldn't understand why she was sick and why the table was spinning over top of her. This is real, folks. This is not make-believe. It's real. 28:29 So we run the risk of offending the children, the youth, the alcoholic, the pre-alcoholic. Unbeknownst to me, I have known people. You have known people. I won't go into detail. But we have known people who have been alcoholics, and no one knew. 28:50 No one knew 28:54 except close family. 28:58 The known cost to the taxpayer for government services alone exceeds $15 billion per year in the United States. Alcohol depresses the function of the brain from the first drink and destroys thousands of irreplaceable brain cells with every drink. Dr. 29:15 Daniel Souter, who has given much careful study to the problem, writes, "As a neuroanatomist and a neurophysiologist, I believe the use of alcohol has very serious implications for the Christian." This is a quote. 29:32 "To me, it is extremely serious to voluntarily subject one's highest levels of intellect and emotions to the anesthetizing effects of a drug which has no food value to the body but rather irritates and destroys its tissues. It is estimated that 85% of all hospital admissions are alcohol-related. 29:53 This includes not only those who drink but also persons affected by them." Nearly all family feuds that result in serious injury or death are due to alcohol. The annual cost for when a husband, both husband and wife, drink can easily reach $3,000 per year and more. Alcohol is a major cause of family breakups. 30:14 And you can go on and on. The third point of a wisdom approach is a prohibition on addictions and a caution about addictions. First Corinthians 6:12, "All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. 30:37 I will not be brought under the controlling influence of anything. Be not controlled by drunkenness, but be controlled by the Spirit of God." And then discipleship. What does a faithful disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ look like? 30:56 Is a faithful disciple of the Lord Jesus one who is exercising his rights as 31:05 a looking at the 31:10 doubtful things in Scripture where we might say, "Well, Scripture is not totally clear. So I'm going to exercise my rights, and I'm going to indulge"? Or is a faithful disciple look more like one who says, "For the sake of the gospel, for the sake of the testimony, for the sake of my brothers, for the sake of wisdom, 31:31 and for the sake of discipleship and representing Christ well, I will abstain"? What does faithful discipleship really look like? I know what the Anabaptist said faithful discipleship looked like. This is what Drescher says. The Anabaptist confession, the seven articles of Schleidheim, forbade the patronage of drinking places. 31:54 Capito, the reformer of Strasbourg, noted that the Anabaptists restrained from drinking. Bollinger, Zwingli's successor in Zurich, stated in his 1560 work against the Anabaptists that they drank only unfermented sweet cider and water. Further, in those days, 32:13 it was custom upon entering an inn to drink to the health of the other guests. If a man came in and refused to drink, it was a dead giveaway that he was an Anabaptist. Interesting. Interesting. Michael Siphon Cider, Siphon Cider, interesting name. Siphon Cedar, 32:31 maybe it's pronounced, was discovered because of his refusal to drink in Vienna. He was discovered to be an Anabaptist because he wouldn't go with the flow. He was burned at the stake March 13th, 1536. Anabaptists were known for their abstinence. 32:54 Conclude this morning with several scriptures. There are woes associated with drunkenness and intoxication. "Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may follow intoxicating drink who continue until night till wine inflames them." Isaiah 5:22, "Woe to men mighty at drinking wine. 33:14 Woe to men valiant for mixing intoxicating drink." And Habakkuk pronounces a woe, a curse on those who give their neighbors to drink. "Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbor, pressing him to your bottle, even to make him drunk, that you may look on his nakedness." Story is told, and it's a true story. It's a true account of the Kennedy family. 33:33 Those of you that are old enough to remember the Kennedy family, and probably none of us remember prohibition. But during the days of prohibition, Papa Kennedy, the old man, made his money by bootlegging alcohol, bootlegging alcohol for consumption. And I'm told that during the day, 33:54 at the end of prohibition, of course, the Kennedys were very influential in in politics. 34:00 Prohibition was overridden and was again allowed, the sale and use of alcohol, that the Kennedys had ships waiting in the harbor, Boston Harbor, ready to import the alcohol as soon as Congress signed the deal. And they made their money. 34:20 They made their influence by the use of alcohol. You follow the curse of the Kennedy family, and they themselves have even said, "At times, it feels like there's a curse on our family." Where did the curse come from? I think it's Habakkuk, right, being fulfilled right in their family. "Woe to him who gives his neighbor to drink." Proverbs 31, 34:40 is there a positive use for alcohol? 34:43 Proverbs 31, "Give strong drink to him who is perishing." Perishing people need alcohol to numb the pain. Now, it can be used in a medicinal purpose when there was no other use for, not other meds around that could be used. And even today, people use morphine. 35:06 It can become addictive if you use it too long. Now, for a dying person, a person who's terminal with cancer, morphine, they're not going to become addicted. Addiction isn't the issue. It's because they're dying. And so the appropriate use is to give someone painkiller to numb the pain when they're dying. 35:26 "Give strong drink to him who is perishing and wine to those who are bitter of heart. Let him drink and forget his poverty and remember his misery no more." That's more than just people that are dying. It's people that are spiritually dead. Who are the ones who ought to be drinking? Those who are dead. It's amazing what dead people do. 35:47 Spiritually dead. They drink. They dance. They drink away their sorrow. They dance away their sorrow. They party away their sorrow. And they come right back to it and realize their sorrow is still their sorrow. And so they do it again and again and again and again until they have no more control over themselves. 36:06 Who of us want to be alive? Who have Christ to take care of the bitterness of our hearts? Who don't add to our poverty by abusing and misusing and mistreating substances? 36:24 And who remember that our miseries are taken care of at the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ? And so I submit these reasons to you this morning why we, as a church, take a position on abstinence, abstinence from alcohol and drug use. 36:46 By the way, one of the, when it comes to drug use, 36:51 one of the words in Scripture that describes those who go to hell, who are cast in the lake of fire, is the word where we get our word pharmaceutical. It is the use of drugs, drugs, 37:12 the illicit use of drugs 37:18 disqualify a person from heaven. There's a sorcery. There's a spirit of sorcery that is included in that illegitimate use of drugs. Now, that's why it's so important that when we are on medication, whatever that medication is, that we're very responsible. And see, this thing of addiction doesn't just go with drugs and alcohol, 37:39 illegal drugs and alcohol. People can be addicted to pain medication. 37:46 And if you ever find yourself in any of these conditions, don't feel so condemned that you can't come to the church for help. Oh, we deal with people all the time whose lives are broken and wounded and battered and scarred and destroyed by the use of drugs and alcohol. 38:06 I can't tell you how much that is a reality out there in the world. 38:13 Can't tell you how much it is. Don't go down that road. Just don't do it. But if you do find yourself in a situation where you're in over your head, over the top, please, please, please, don't just cry out to God for help. 38:32 Cry out to the church. Because some of these addictions, brothers and sisters, can only be broken when people walk alongside people. I'll tell you what. The drug addict, the alcoholic, the porn addict, you name it, if they could be free just by crying out to God, 38:52 would be free a thousand times over. And God does hear those cries. But He also then says there are specific things that you need to allow other people to help you in order to access the grace of God and experience complete freedom. 39:12 And so I submit this to you as counsel. The best I know as a pastor to warn, to counsel. I told the brethren this morning in our prayer meeting. 39:24 I said, "I would not want to be the pastor who stands before a group of young people or anybody for that matter and gives openness for drink and drugs and be the downfall of one man, one woman, 39:39 one young person who is in that 10% whose life will be destroyed." Let's pray. 39:49 Father in heaven, thank You that You have given us joy in Jesus. Thank You that the things that we need are met in Jesus and in relationships, relationships within the body of Christ. Thank You, Lord, that no matter how low or how bad or how far gone we might feel, 40:08 that there is hope in Jesus and there is hope at the cross and that there is a fullness of the Spirit that produces joy unspeakable and full of glory, that when a person's even in the depths of discouragement can still experience the height of joy. It's an unbelievable dichotomy, 40:30 paradox. And so, Father, may our joy be found in Jesus, not in substances. And Lord, for that one who may be under the addiction or affliction of something that is so shameful they wouldn't even want to talk about, let them know that there's freedom. 40:51 There's healing through humility, through coming to Christ, coming to the church, to others who can help. And we'll move heaven and earth to any degree that we can to get people help. It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. Shall we have a song? 41:11 Skyler, do you have a song for us? Thankful to these young men who are stepping up and leading some singing for us. And God bless you, Skyler. Shall we stand together?