Episode Transcript
[00:00:11] All right, so Proverbs 23, the whole book of Proverbs, most of which is written by King Solomon. As Austin said last week, the whole book of Proverbs can really be summarized in one verse. And it's in Proverbs chapter 1, verse 7.
[00:00:26] Solomon says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Okay, so I've been asked this since I preached on that verse many weeks ago. What does that mean? Like, what does the fear of the Lord mean? Which is always an encouraging thing for a preacher to receive that. I'm like, I preached a whole sermon on that, but I'm not always as clear as I think I am. So what does the fear of the Lord mean? Well, the Bible talks about, on one hand, that perfect love cast out fear. So there's a kind of fear that's not appropriate for the Christian, and it's a fear that has to do with punishment.
[00:01:00] So if you and I think of God, if we perceive of God as Christians, if you're a follower of Jesus as one who is only your judge and nothing else, he's only looking at your life in terms of what you do good, what you do bad, and he's going to judge you on the basis of that. If that's the way you're thinking about it, you're not fearing him in the right way. You have been liberated from that. You're no longer under the law. You're in Christ. There is no condemnation for you, you in Christ, because Christ has taken it all on your behalf. Does this make sense so far? So fear that has to do with punishment is. There's no place for that in the life of the Christian friend. You've been freed from that kind of fear. The fear of the Lord.
[00:01:42] That's a good kind of fear, is a. It's a filial fear. It's a familial fear. It's a reverence and an awe of who God is and how big and majestic he is, and how that big, majestic, holy God is now just your Father.
[00:01:59] He's your Father. So we don't fear punishment from him. We fear in the sense that we revere all of who he is. He becomes so big and so beautiful and so magnificent and so awesome in our life that all lesser fears begin to dissipate as we gaze upon who God is. That's the fear of the Lord.
[00:02:18] And Solomon says that, that fear, if you and I will devote ourself to growing in that fear, then you and I will grow in wisdom.
[00:02:31] People who, by God's grace grow in that kind of fear, that kind of love and delight in who God is.
[00:02:39] Don't commit adultery.
[00:02:45] They don't devote themselves to a life of gambling. They don't do all of these different things that we see. And it's not because they're like, hey, don't commit adultery. It's because they're so enthralled by who God is. And Solomon saying that, that is the beginning of wisdom.
[00:03:03] The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And this is the impetus behind the whole book of Proverbs.
[00:03:10] He talks about a lot of different things. He's a little bit ADHD in the way that he writes. He's like, let's talk about marriage, let's talk about money, let's talk about whatever. Parenting, all these different things.
[00:03:21] But it all finds its anchor, if you will, in that statement. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So if you walk away with anything today, walk away with clarity that this is what the Lord wants you and I to be about.
[00:03:37] The fear of the Lord is clean.
[00:03:40] It produces joy and delight and obedience in our life when we consider the awesomeness of God and how awesome he is, even more so the reality that he's our Father.
[00:03:53] So this is kind of where we've been with the book of Proverbs, and today we get to the issue or the topic of alcohol. And as a pastor, you learn this over, like, one of my favorite things in the world to do is to be a pastor and then to get to preach as a pastor, because you kind of get a gauge on the room as you get to know the people in the church a little bit. Right. So we all come in with. With different experiences as it pertains to alcohol.
[00:04:19] Some of us think about alcohol in a very negative light because of bad past experiences. Maybe there's alcoholism in our family, alcohol abuse. There certainly is in mine.
[00:04:30] I've shared some of my family tree with you guys, and it's like me getting more specific than I've already been with. You would make me blush to talk about just the ragamuffins that are in many ways my family. Okay, so we all have different experiences. Some will not touch it because you've seen it abused, and it's been destructive. It's been destructive for you. It's been destructive for people that you love and care about, and so you won't touch it.
[00:05:01] There are some who enjoy alcohol liberally but do not abuse it. That's a category.
[00:05:07] And there are some who Abuse it. I think I read a statistic earlier this week that says something like one in eight Americans struggle with alcohol abuse.
[00:05:16] That means, statistically speaking, there are people in the room who struggle with alcohol abuse.
[00:05:22] And we'll talk about that in just a moment.
[00:05:25] So this isn't an easy thing to talk about, but the Bible, and again, I mean, this is the word of God. The spirit of God has breathed out through human authors the words on these pages.
[00:05:37] Okay?
[00:05:39] The Bible, for thousands and thousands of reasons, is the most profound book in the world because it takes something like this topic, and it just adds a ton of color to something that you and I might otherwise, on the basis of our experiences, see as black and white.
[00:05:58] And that's why it requires wisdom to know how to approach this thing called alcohol, because it's not a black and white issue. It's not a do it or don't do it issue necessarily. And so let's talk about.
[00:06:08] Let's talk about some of that. So this is where he starts in verse 29.
[00:06:15] So Proverbs 23, verse 29, he says, who has woe, who has sorrow, who has strife, who has complaining, who has wounds without cause, who has redness of eyes?
[00:06:37] And so Solomon begins this particular section of the Proverbs. Not so much as a prophet in the sense of, you know, prophets are typically black and white. This is what you should do. This is what you should not do kind of a thing. Many of us function or think about things from a prophetic lens, right? Wrong. Do this, don't do that. Okay? But he comes at it as more of a sage.
[00:07:06] And the way that we know. And when you think about a sage, think about. I think Austin mentioned this last week. Think about an older man sitting beside a campfire, maybe with a pipe or something like that. And he's lived through a lot of life. He's lived through a lot of experiences, a lot of sin and suffering. And he's. He's inviting you into the living room and he's saying, let me talk to you a little bit about the complexities of life. And one of the ways we know that he's doing that, that that's the approach he's taking, is because he starts with a series of questions.
[00:07:33] Who has this? Who has this? Now, granted, these are rhetorical questions. He knows the answer to these questions, but nonetheless, he invites us in through a series of questions. And here's how he begins the answer to those questions in verse 30. And we're just gonna kind of take this verse by verse verse 30 says, those who tarry or linger long over wine, those who go to try mixed wine, who has redness of eyes, who has sorrow, who has strife, who has wounds without cause, it's those who linger long over, or those who tarry over, those who run after much wine.
[00:08:17] And you would think from the onset that this is how the whole Bible talks about alcohol, right? Don't do it, don't touch it, because it's gonna result in these kinds of things. But if you were to think that, friends, that would not be objectively true.
[00:08:34] So again, for those of you, and I sympathize with this, for those of you who have had terrible experiences with alcohol, both me personally and in my family, those who have had terrible experiences, who want to just run the other way and paint it all as bad, you have to be willing, as with anything when it comes to worldview issues, to go to the Bible and say, what does the Bible actually say? Okay, so what does the Bible actually say? Well, the first thing that we'll talk about this morning and then we'll get into the rest of the text, is that alcohol is described in the Bible in many places as a blessing, as a blessing, as a gift.
[00:09:15] In one case, alcohol, wine in particular, obviously, Scotch and whiskey and these kinds of things weren't around back then. But wine in particular was normative in Jewish life.
[00:09:29] It was normative in Jewish life. And I'm just going to give you a bunch of texts today to illustrate these points. So Genesis 14:18 talks about this mysterious priest, Melchizedek, who was a foreshadowing of Christ, Melchizedek, King of Salem, and brought out bread and wine to Abraham. This is a normative thing in the life of a Jew.
[00:09:52] 1st Samuel 16:20 says, and Jesse took a donkey laden with bread and a skin of wine and a young goat, and sent them by David, his son, to Saul.
[00:10:00] We know that the Levitical priests, the Nazirites, the Rechabites, and John the Baptist in the New Testament all abstained from wine. But those were exceptions, not the norm.
[00:10:13] So wine, the use of wine, the celebration of wine, was seen in Jewish life as a gift from God, as something to be enjoyed, as something to be celebrated.
[00:10:26] Alcohol was not only normative as a common drink in Jewish life, but it was enjoyed at meals and celebrations, and it was used medicinally as a gift from God. Psalm 104:15 says, God, he makes grass grow for the cattle. That's an amazing thing to maybe ponder this afternoon when you look at your grass. He makes grass Grow for the cattle, and plants for people to cultivate, bringing forth food from the earth, wine that gladdens human hearts, oil to make their faces shine, and bread that sustains their hearts. So when God created grapes, he knew what humans could do through the production of those grapes.
[00:11:06] He knows that that doesn't surprise him. It's not like he turned his back and he's like, oh my gosh, you pagans. Like, I create a grape and then you create this out of the grape. Like, that's not the way that he does things. God knows all things. He's the Creator of all things. And Psalm 104 says, not only is he the creator of these things, but he actually created wine to gladden human hearts.
[00:11:29] Meaning that there is a use of wine by which God delights in the fact that it makes our hearts more merry.
[00:11:39] Proverbs 31, verse 6 says, Give strong drink to one who is perishing, and wine to those who are in bitter distress.
[00:11:48] John, chapter 2, verses 9 and 10, talking about Jesus first miracle says they did so. That's the disciples did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. This is what Jesus did for his first miracle. He doesn't. People say this all the time, but it's true. He didn't turn it into Welch's grape juice like Jesus took the water and he turned it into actual wine. But it wasn't just everyday wine. Listen to what the text goes on to say. It says, then he called the bridegroom aside and said, everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink, but you have saved the best till now.
[00:12:24] Jesus took water and he turned it into the best wine.
[00:12:31] Matthew 11:19.
[00:12:33] Jesus says, the Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, look at him, a glutton and a drunkard.
[00:12:41] Jesus was accused by the Pharisees of being a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. And yet Jesus goes on and says, yet wisdom is justified by her deeds. Look at the outcome of my life because my deeds justify that. I am the embodiment of wisdom, is basically what Jesus is saying there. 1 Timothy 5, 23 Paul tells Timothy, no longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments. Martin Luther says this. I don't endorse everything I'm about to read. This is Martin Luther. Whenever the devil harasses you, seek the company of men, or drink more, or joke and Talk nonsense or do some other merry thing. Sometimes we must drink more sport, recreate ourselves, and even sin a little to spite the devil so that we may leave him no place for troubling our consciences with trifles. I don't agree with that last part, by the way. Everybody gets real silent and, like, awkward, like, I'm endorsing sin. I'm not telling you to go sin. Luther said that. And if Sidney was in the room, she would say, like such a stinker, like, he's probably a stinker.
[00:13:46] Calvin, more serious than Luther, said, it is permissible to use wine not only for necessity, but also to make us merry, provided men forget themselves, drown their senses. And in making merry, those who enjoy wine feel a livelier gratitude to God.
[00:14:09] Wine reminds us of God's past and future grace.
[00:14:14] Past and future grace. Luke 22:20, Jesus served wine at the Lord's Supper.
[00:14:22] Luke 22:20 says, and likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, jesus saying, this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. The bitter, sweet, gentle burn of wine reminds us that over 2,000 years ago, the Son of God took on human flesh and died on a cross in your place, for your sin and for mine, both bitter and sweet. And wine reminds us of this reality, that this is what God has accomplished for you and for me through Jesus Christ, his life, death and resurrection.
[00:15:02] Wine also reminds us of God's Future Grace.
[00:15:06] Matthew 26:29. Jesus says, I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until the day when I drink it new with you. In my Father's kingdom, there will be wine in heaven.
[00:15:19] And somehow, I don't know, I was thinking about this this week, and it's just amazing to think about, like, somehow on that day, you and I are going to be able to partake in wine and have zero desire to get drunk off of it.
[00:15:35] Because the longings in our heart that draw us to more wine, to the point of drunkenness, will be totally satisfied in the person of Jesus Christ.
[00:15:47] We'll be totally satisfied in his presence.
[00:15:50] So much so that there won't even be a conceivable thought to get drunk off the wine he's offering us on that day.
[00:15:58] And so in many places in the Bible, despite maybe some in the room who really struggle to see it as anything but a curse, describe wine as a blessing.
[00:16:12] But that's not all the Bible says.
[00:16:16] Okay, so Cindy and I moved from a church in West Texas where it was just bad, bad, bad. Bad.
[00:16:26] Don't think about it. Don't do it.
[00:16:28] Alcoholism was a significant problem in my life before I came to faith in Christ at the age of 21.
[00:16:35] Abused alcohol like crazy. I was a drunkard.
[00:16:39] And then Jesus saved me and slowly began to just kind of change my desires.
[00:16:45] And so we're in this context where it's just totally unacceptable to even talk about it, much less do it. And then we move to Fort Worth and. And Christians all over the place are drinking, and we're like, what is happening?
[00:16:56] What do we do with that?
[00:16:58] These people, even Christians, I don't know what to do with that.
[00:17:01] And so we had to kind of enter into this new place, maybe like, deconstruct some previous things, enter into this. What does the Bible actually say? Well, again, the Bible is wonderfully multifaceted, and it requires wisdom to understand what's being said. So the Bible doesn't just talk about wine being a blessing.
[00:17:19] It also talks about.
[00:17:21] It acknowledges the reality of how powerful of a drug alcohol is.
[00:17:27] And you don't a foolish person take something that is so powerful of a drug as alcohol. And it is a drug. So is caffeine something that's so powerful of a drug and treats it like It's M&Ms?
[00:17:47] There ought to be a respect for it.
[00:17:49] And it requires wisdom. So what are some of the dangers that the Bible talks about as it pertains to alcohol? 1 Corinthians 6, 9, 10. I promise we're getting to the text in just a minute. 1 Corinthians 6, 9, 10. Paul says, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?
[00:18:06] Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor. Nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy nor drunkards will inherit the kingdom of God.
[00:18:24] That's a stark warning, friends.
[00:18:33] Proverbs 23.
[00:18:35] The rest of our passage goes on to describe in five different ways.
[00:18:41] And I'm getting this from. From an author that I read earlier this week who did a really good job of just kind of breaking some of these things down. Five different consequences of drunkenness.
[00:18:52] So let's look at those together.
[00:18:54] Verses 31 and 32. Proverbs 23 says, do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly.
[00:19:07] Okay, so again, Solomon speaks as one who understands he's done it before. This isn't just a guy telling you, hey, be careful about this thing. Though he's never experienced it Himself. It's like he's talking as one who knows, hey, it goes down smooth and it sparkles in the cup.
[00:19:26] It's very enticing, beautiful even.
[00:19:32] Almost like it makes his mouth water when he's talking about it.
[00:19:36] He's saying, don't look at wine when it's red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly.
[00:19:46] It says in verse 32, in the end, it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder.
[00:19:57] So what is initially very enticing, and we see this throughout the book of Proverbs, he talks about this a lot. When it comes to the promiscuous woman, he's warning his son. He's saying, hey, I know that her words are flattering, I know that she's beautiful on the outside, but in her house are filled with dead man's bones.
[00:20:21] I know it looks beautiful. I know it looks appetizing, I know it looks delicious.
[00:20:27] But if you give your life over to this, it's going to end in destruction.
[00:20:33] It's going to bite you like a snake.
[00:20:36] It can quickly turn deadly.
[00:20:39] He says earlier in Proverbs 21, wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.
[00:20:55] So what are the five consequences of drunkenness that he lays out in the rest of the text?
[00:21:00] The first one is in verse 33, and it's this that drunkenness distorts reality.
[00:21:09] Drunkenness distorts reality. He says in verse 33.
[00:21:14] Your eyes will see strange things.
[00:21:18] Your eyes will see strange things. And we know for anybody in the room who's ever been drunk before, you know that this is true.
[00:21:28] Maybe not always to the point where you are seeing things that aren't actually there, but the things that are actually there are distorted physically in your sight.
[00:21:41] You see things as more appetizing, more fulfilling, more beautiful than maybe they are in real life. It distorts the way that you see reality.
[00:21:54] Luther defines drunkenness as the tongue on stilts.
[00:21:59] Drunkenness leads one to see a distorted version of reality, seeing things as they not actually are. You see an example of this in Genesis 19:36 with Lot, says this Lot's daughters. So they made their father drink wine that night also, and the younger arose and lay with him, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.
[00:22:23] Thus both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father.
[00:22:30] Wine distorts reality.
[00:22:33] The first thing that the Author of Proverbs 23 is telling us, your eyes will see strange things.
[00:22:42] Number two, Drunkenness lowers one's inhibitions.
[00:22:47] Look at the second part of verse 33. Second part of verse 33 says, and your heart will utter perverse things, so your eyes will see strange things, and your heart will utter perverse things.
[00:23:02] Drunkenness lowers our resolve, friends, to resist temptation and kill sin.
[00:23:09] And again, this is something that we know experientially to be true. Some of the greatest regrets I have in my life.
[00:23:16] Okay, anybody? By the way, this is a side note. Like when people say, no regrets. That's not true.
[00:23:23] You do have regrets, and so do I.
[00:23:27] We will die with regrets. I'm sorry. Like, we're just. We're gonna. We're gonna die with regrets in our life. Praise God, that Christ, through his blood, has washed them all away, right? So we have hope. That's amazing. But we will have regrets. And some of the greatest regrets in my life, some of the most devastation I've caused to other human beings and to myself happened because in my drunkenness, my inhibitions were lowered, my convictions were taken away.
[00:23:58] You just enter into this state of mind that's like, that's not that big of a deal. Feels good right now.
[00:24:04] So all common sense and reason kind of goes out the window. And then you make a decision that has the potential to ruin your life.
[00:24:13] It lowers one's inhibitions. We see this in the life of Noah. Again, we're in good company here, friends.
[00:24:21] Noah, the man who built the boat, says he drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent. This is following God's miraculous rescue of him and his family through the flood, sees this amazing act of God. I mean, beyond anything you and I can. I mean, I just. I can't even imagine what that would have been like, to live through that and get on the other side of that. And Noah's like, yeah, I need a drink.
[00:24:48] And he has too much to drink.
[00:24:52] And then he gets naked, and his son uncovers his nakedness. It's just. It's. Somebody asked me, they're like, why? Why is there so much drama in the Old Testament? I'm like, because that's our life.
[00:25:06] Because the Old Testament's true. That's why there's so much drama in it.
[00:25:11] So it lowers one's inhibitions.
[00:25:15] Number three, verse 34.
[00:25:18] Drunkenness makes one unstable.
[00:25:22] It makes one unstable. Verse 34. He says, you will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, like one who lies on the top of a mast.
[00:25:32] So he's being, I think, humorous here, a little Bit. So if you can just imagine in your mind's eye, one, a sailor who has a responsibility for his ship and for the men on his ship lying on top of the mast.
[00:25:48] He's totally abdicating his responsibility for what God's given him in order to lie up, lie down on the most unstable part of the ship.
[00:25:58] It's a ridiculous scene to think about.
[00:26:02] But in essence, what he's saying is, in drunkenness, you and I, brothers, sisters, who have a responsibility for people to live out our purpose in Christ by the power of the Spirit, who have a responsibility, completely abdicate that responsibility and become totally unstable.
[00:26:28] I mean, if you're a husband and I, again, by God's grace, I am growing in the awareness of how little time I actually have on this side of heaven.
[00:26:41] Like, we don't have a lot of time you might not even have tonight.
[00:26:48] And we're just. It's so easy to waste time and to do things that make us fruitful for the people who depend on us.
[00:27:02] I think this is why in more than really anything, the Bible warns leaders against the overuse of alcohol, sometimes even telling leaders, hey, it's better to just completely abstain because you have a great responsibility.
[00:27:17] People depend on you.
[00:27:19] If you're a parent, people depend on you.
[00:27:24] Not telling you not to drink. I'm just telling you to weigh the consequences when it comes to this kind of thing. And recognizing that anything in our life that leads us to abdicate the great and profound and wonderful responsibility of parenting, of leading other people in any capacity shouldn't be entertained.
[00:27:47] If it's a problem for you and you find that it's making you more of an unstable person, you should stop doing it. Friends, it's not worth it.
[00:27:58] They're worth it. Those people, those kids, your spouse, the people you lead, the people you have influence over, they're worth it.
[00:28:09] So again, if you can do it to the glory of God, do it to the glory of God responsibly.
[00:28:13] But if you find that it's making you an unstable person, you should stop doing it.
[00:28:24] Drunkenness makes one unstable.
[00:28:26] Number four.
[00:28:29] Drunkenness numbs but does not heal.
[00:28:35] And again, I'm learning this, not necessarily with alcohol. I'm learning this about a variety of other things in real time.
[00:28:41] And this is a quote that I read from a gal who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. And her doctor said, hey, the one thing I'm going to tell you to do is stay away from alcohol.
[00:28:51] And so she writes this article in response to that, and she says in the article, she has this line and it was just so profoundly helpful to me.
[00:28:58] Numbing is not the same thing as healing.
[00:29:02] It feels good to be numbed from pain. It feels good because we hate pain.
[00:29:11] But it's not the same thing as healing.
[00:29:17] Drunkenness numbs, but does not heal. Verse 35 he says, they struck me, you will say, but I was not hurt.
[00:29:25] They beat me, but I did not feel numbs. You. It's a depressant.
[00:29:35] That's what the biology is. The pharmacology is whatever behind what alcohol is doing in your body. It's, it's a depressant. It's numbing the pain. It's not healing the pain.
[00:29:51] Over time, excessive drinking can numb you to this pain. This is her quote.
[00:29:57] She says, the drink has no voice to soothe us for numb isn't the same as healed.
[00:30:04] Wine offers no rescue for disorientation isn't the same as freedom.
[00:30:12] We seek in the glass what only the God of all comforts can supply.
[00:30:17] The all satisfying love of our living hope, Jesus Christ.
[00:30:26] So friends, don't equate a numbing effect with the healing of your soul.
[00:30:35] Drunkenness numbs, but it cannot heal. Only one can heal.
[00:30:43] Jesus Christ can heal.
[00:30:47] He really can.
[00:30:49] He can really heal that area of your soul that's in such pain that you want to run to this to fix it.
[00:30:57] He can bring healing to a soul that's been traumatized through sexual abuse. He really can.
[00:31:07] Whatever the wound is in your heart, he can bring. It doesn't mean that you're not going to have pain because of that thing, maybe for the rest of your life. But here's a hard truth that we all just need to be reminded of.
[00:31:18] Sometimes you and I need to learn to ride the pain on this side of heaven.
[00:31:26] I hate it. I hate pain. I want it to go away as soon as it comes into my life.
[00:31:32] But you'd be hard pressed to convince me that there isn't a more clear lesson in the New Testament other than the primary way that God makes you and I more like Jesus Christ is through pain.
[00:31:45] It is like the way.
[00:31:48] It doesn't mean we ought to go looking for pain. That's not the way we live our life. It just means that we recognize the reality of pain in life in a fallen world.
[00:31:58] And as Christians again unlike any other people group in the world, we can say with complete confidence that our pain is not meaningless.
[00:32:07] There is a purpose behind every ounce of your pain.
[00:32:13] Every millisecond of it is being used by the Hands of a good and gracious Father who loves you, who wants your joy.
[00:32:24] He's working for your joy.
[00:32:27] And so sometimes we need to learn in these moments of temptation, when we feel pain and we want to run to something to alleviate that pain, we need to learn and ask for the grace of God to help us ride it a little bit. Sometimes.
[00:32:47] The final point to be made is drunkenness can lead to futility.
[00:32:53] So in verse 35, the final part of verse 35, he says, when shall I awake?
[00:33:00] I must have another drink.
[00:33:03] When shall I awake? I must have another drink.
[00:33:07] This is a search for satisfaction, contentment, and wine, believing that just one more drink will give him what he needs.
[00:33:19] So he searches for it again and again and again and again.
[00:33:28] When shall I have another drink?
[00:33:30] I want to close our time by thinking about two different passages of Scripture and then getting you to just consider a question with me, if you would. Because as I was thinking about this and again, it's like any topic that we talk about as a church.
[00:33:49] Conversation around alcohol, alcohol abuse, drunkenness, finding, trying to find an alcohol what only you can find in Jesus. It does apply to some people in this room. And I'll talk to you in just a moment, but for others in the room that this doesn't apply to, it could be a host of other things.
[00:34:11] Jeremiah 2:13. God says this to his people.
[00:34:18] He says, for my people have committed two evils.
[00:34:23] Hear this from the voice of a loving Father.
[00:34:26] My people have committed two evils. Here's what they are.
[00:34:30] Number one, they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters.
[00:34:40] So God describes himself as a fountain of living waters.
[00:34:46] And he's saying, evil number one.
[00:34:49] My people have forsaken me.
[00:34:52] They've turned away from the fountain of living waters, the thing that actually can satisfy your soul, bring you comfort in the midst of pain, give you purpose, forsaken me.
[00:35:14] And hewed out cisterns for themselves.
[00:35:19] Broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
[00:35:24] Fountain of living water.
[00:35:27] Reject it.
[00:35:29] So I'm going to come over here and I'm going to build a well of my own making.
[00:35:35] But the problem with this well is what, friends.
[00:35:39] It can't hold water.
[00:35:41] It's a leaky well.
[00:35:43] Do you see the illustration here of what God's articulating to us?
[00:35:51] Alcohol can't do it. That's why you have to go back again and again and again and again and again. It can't do it.
[00:36:01] But it's not just alcohol.
[00:36:04] It could be food, it could be spending, it could be Social media, it could be sports.
[00:36:19] None of these things are inerrantly sinful things, just like alcohol.
[00:36:26] Alcohol is not an inherently sinful thing.
[00:36:29] You do have freedom in Christ if you're a Christian, to drink. Alcohol, drunkenness is a sin.
[00:36:38] None of these are inherently sinful things. I think the question that I want you to consider with me this morning.
[00:36:44] What well are you drinking from?
[00:36:49] What well are you drinking from?
[00:36:54] What's the thing for you?
[00:36:59] What's the thing in the moment of stress that you run to believing in your heart? Maybe you're not going to say this out loud because maybe you think it's embarrassing or whatever, but, man, welcome to the club.
[00:37:13] That you're believing in your heart. If I just have a little bit more, it's going to satisfy me. What is that thing?
[00:37:21] And then can I invite you, friend, to lay it down at the cross of Christ today?
[00:37:29] Christ has already paid for that.
[00:37:33] He knew you'd run to that well again and again and again and again.
[00:37:38] And he loves you.
[00:37:41] That propensity that you have in your heart to run to that broken cistern that will never satisfy you is the very thing that compelled him to leave heaven and come to earth in the first place.
[00:37:52] He loves you and he's offering you something better.
[00:37:59] He's offering you himself.
[00:38:04] John, chapter seven.
[00:38:07] An amazing example of Jesus pointing to himself and showing how he's the fulfillment of all Old Testament scripture and prophecy says this.
[00:38:23] On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out, if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink, the one who believes in me, which is how you drink from Jesus, by the way, is by believing in him, trusting in him with all of your heart and leaning not on your own, understanding in all your ways, acknowledging him, trusting that he will make straight your paths. That's drinking from Jesus, the one who believes in Me. As the scripture has said, we'll have streams of living water flow from deep within him.
[00:39:07] Jesus is the better well.
[00:39:12] And that invitation is available to you today.
[00:39:17] It begins with confession.
[00:39:20] This is my broken cistern.
[00:39:23] This is the thing. This is the thing that I've been running to in moments of pain, in moments of fear, in moments of stress or anxiety or uncertainty.
[00:39:34] This is the thing. This is the broken cistron that I've been running to. It begins with confession. You don't have to confess that to me. You don't even have to confess today to another person, though. I think that'd be really helpful.
[00:39:46] But begin by confessing it to Jesus, this is the broken cistern. And then heeding his invitation, he knows about that, and he said, hey, come to me and drink.
[00:39:59] Come to me and find life.
[00:40:03] Last thing I'll say.
[00:40:05] There's a practical question here of all right, what about the next time I'm tempted to go to that cistern? What do I do next time I'm tempted to run to that thing, whether it be alcohol, whether it be food, or whether it be whatever, what do I do? My encouragement to you, friend, would be to see it as an opportunity to ride the pain in that moment and to open your Bible.
[00:40:28] Here's the difference. One difference. You're not going to feel an immediate dopamine hit every time you open this book, as you would be if you opened up YouTube.
[00:40:41] But what I can promise you is what Jesus promised you.
[00:40:45] Rivers of living water will well up deep within you as you and I begin to train in these moments to run to the well that really will always satisfy.
[00:40:58] And trust this. Hey, one day, hopefully soon, Jesus is going to come back and you're going to see his face and you're never going to feel unsatisfied again.
[00:41:10] There's never going to be another experience of, well, I don't really feel it, but I know I should feel it. You're just going to experience it forever in his presence.
[00:41:20] Be the greatest day of our life. And it's only going to get better for all of eternity. Amen.
[00:41:25] All right, let's pray together.
[00:41:26] Father, we love you.
[00:41:29] Thank you. That God, again you have allowed us, you are allowing us to be here and be reminded that you're not a broken cistern.
[00:41:44] You're not a bottomless well.
[00:41:49] And so, God, I do pray for myself, I pray for us as a church that God, you would disciple us and shepherd us to come to you in these moments, teach us, God, how to be satisfied in you that we would come to experience more the rivers of the water of life dwelling deep within us and overflowing out of us into the lives of other people.
[00:42:23] So, God, I pray that as we consider this question over the next two to three minutes, as we prepare to take communion, as we sing that spirit, you would do the work that you're so faithful to do, that you'd reveal what needs to be revealed and that you would lead us to the foot of the cross once again, we pray this in Jesus name, Amen.
