Moderation and Abstinence

And one of the most, dangerous lies floating around our society, today is the lie that promotes moderation as a virtue. Moderate person is a virtuous person. The old adage, moderation in all things. You hear that? Moderation in all things suggests that so long as you don't overdo something, it's okay.

It won't harm you. Of course, this lie is usually encouraged by those who want you to try something that is bad for you physically or spiritually, but they want to camouflage the danger in the cloak of moderation. In other words, if you only do it or take it or swallow it in moderation, then it's okay. The truth of the matter is that there are some things that no amount of moderation will make right. For example, how about just a little moderation in adultery?

Just a little. Just like once in a while. Does moderation work in adultery? I think none of us here would say that. Moderation in adultery doesn't work at any time, not even one time.

How about moderation in idolatry? Just little statues. Not big statues to get down in front of your knees and, you know, bow down. Let's just get some little statues and do that. Again, you know, I'm being ridiculous here to make my point, but you know, no one would say, Well, that's not okay.

And so, moderation is an important habit to cultivate. I'm not against being a moderate person. But I think our motto should be, moderation in all things that are good and acceptable. I think that works a little better. Moderation in all things that are good and acceptable.

Now, the reason for this is that, if we are moderate in good and acceptable things, those things will retain their full enjoyment and their productive value. That's why moderation in all things good and acceptable. We We don't overdo it in all things that are good and acceptable. Because if we do, they'll hurt us. In other words, when we do bad things, they hurt us.

When we overdo good things, they hurt us too. So we need even moderation in things that are good and acceptable. Now, as I said before, there are times when abstinence and not moderation are called for. Because the action or the thing in question is wrong and not good for us. Now, some of these are easy to figure out.

You know, like I said before, I should abstain from illegal drugs. You know, that's a pretty wise thing to do. I should abstain totally from illegal drugs. Or I should abstain totally from dishonest activity. In other words, I should cut down on my bank robbing.

You know, no, you should just eliminate that altogether. I should eliminate stealing from my employer. Some things are easy to understand that we need to abstain from sexual sin and so on and so forth. But there are some other things that are a little more complicated and the debate to be moderate or to abstain is quite difficult. One of these is the question of alcohol.

Oh, he's going to melt today. I just, I almost hear it right there. What should a Christian do? Well, in the world, among unbelievers, the hands down favorite answer to alcohol is to be moderate. Drink responsibly.

Be mature and safe about the consumption of alcohol. I mean, even the beer companies put commercials on that say and encourage, Oh, you ought to be responsible, responsible drinkers. That's the hands down favorite answer. In the church however, there is an equal body of opinion that says, abstinence is the way to go when it comes to alcohol. And you know what?

There are arguments on both sides of this question among Christians. Even among our own members here in the congregation in Choctaw, some of you drink alcohol in moderation, I hope, and some of you abstain. And both of you use passages of scripture to defend your position. I mean, I know because I've heard it. I've had discussions with some of you that use scripture to defend your use of alcohol, and I've been with some of you that use scripture to condemn the use of alcohol.

You know both of them? We all go to the same church. Now, like many of you, I also have had to come to grips with this issue of moderation or abstinence when it comes to alcohol. You know, I don't come from Oklahoma, you know that. I don't come from a home and a family where drinking socially was unacceptable.

I mean, it was the reverse. In my family, drinking was acceptable. My father drank, my mother drank, my uncles drank, everybody drank. And at parties, you know, or family gatherings, so on and so forth, there was a special. They would make a special and allow me to drink, you know.

It was like an adult thing to do. Now my mother said, Now be careful. Just give them a little bit, Tony. You know, just one beer. Or at a wedding, you know, I'd be all grown up and I could drink a glass of wine along with my parents, you know, and we'd go to a I mean, if you've ever been to an Italian wedding in Montreal, that was a wedding.

It would go on and on and on and on, and you'd eat and eat and eat and drink and drink and drink. And as a concession, you know, my parents would say, Well, let them have a glass of wine and, you know. And I come from a culture where the drinking of wine with meals was considered normal. So this was a very real issue for me personally. It wasn't just something I picked up from my parents, you know.

I didn't grow up in the bible belt where drinking alcohol was considered a no no, like many of you did. I grew up in a family and in a society where there was no big deal. But in the end, as a Christian, I chose to abstain from drinking alcohol in any form and I did it for several reasons. I didn't do it because somebody else told me. I did it because I studied about it and thought about it and prayed about it and made a decision for myself.

And I want to share that decision with you. I'm going to give you a couple of reasons why I chose to abstain. First of all, I'll give you 4 social reasons. First of all, alcohol is damaging to your health. That was the number one reason.

Let's face it, alcohol is a poison. That's what it is. Food and Drug Administration considers it a poison. If you take too much too quickly, you're going to die from alcohol poisoning, as a young college student recently did. You read about that in the paper.

They were just having big parties, binge parties, and I've worked in a college setting. And I can tell you that that one got reported. It made big news, but it was no news to anyone who's ever worked at a university. It's no news for anyone who's ever gone to a university that guys nearly die from alcohol poisoning every year, and some do. But they hush it up and they make it quiet because it doesn't look good for the college.

Now the reason for the moderation argument, as far as alcohol is concerned, is that alcohol is a dangerous substance to the human body. You have to take it in moderation or else you're gonna be sick, or maybe even die. Now it's dressed up with snappy advertising. It's made edible and digestible by disguising it with various flavors and colors. It's made to look harmless or even fun by fancy packaging.

But in the end, it's simply a poisonous substance. God designed alcohol to be a medicine to be used sparingly for certain things. There are uses for it in the human body, but to ingest it for recreational use is dangerous to the body. That was the number one social reason why I decided not to drink. Another reason, another social reason, alcohol leads to addiction.

You see, the power of alcohol, the reason that it is so alluring, is not its flavor, it's not its look. The allurement of alcohol is the effect that it has on the brain. Period. Aside from adversely affecting the liver, and the kidneys, and the heart, alcohol changes the chemical balance of the brain. Now, you know, I mean, we could get into all the big scientific and complex, you know, alterations that take place, but I'm no scientist, and I don't think this is the place for that.

Basically, the net results of consuming alcohol are the following: First of all, alcohol serves as a depressant to lower the inhibitions and anxiety, And it gives a false sense of well-being. You know, people drink because it's pleasant. I mean, if it wasn't pleasant, they wouldn't drink. It's nice to get off. Stoned, bombed, jerked, whatever you want to, you know, there's so many terms.

It's great to get blasted. It's great. It feels good. And why would people do it if they didn't? It also impairs reason and the ability to make proper judgments.

That's why you're a lion when you're drunk. You're a tiger. You're just a tiger. And it also lowers your motor skills and your reaction time. And we laugh at this, you know.

This comes out as all the drunk stories, you know. Oh man, I'm so blessed. You should see what I did, man. I forgot my clothes. Now these combined effects are quite pleasant to experience at first.

You know, the Bible says, The pleasure of sin for a season, at first it's great. And persons who feel this way want to repeat the experience over and over again. Why not? I mean, a couple of blasts, and you're off, and it's great. You have a glow, you're feeling good, no problems.

But after a while, the desire to repeat the experience grows stronger and stronger, and it becomes a dominant need, or what we call an addiction. In full blown alcoholic addiction, living without alcohol is much too painful to bear, and the primary goal of life becomes consuming alcohol. Just like any other addiction, the pleasure is gone, it is replaced with pain, and the only thing that takes the pain away is more. It works like that for alcohol, and it works like that for drugs. You know, I never met an alcoholic who wanted to be an alcoholic when he or she started.

And I won't ask you to stand, but we have alcoholics in our congregation. And if I asked them to stand, they would amen me at this point. Every alcoholic began as a moderate drinker. That's why I prefer to be a non drinker because I never want to be an alcoholic. Thirdly, alcohol reduces earning power.

There are more could have beens, should have beens among alcoholics than any group. You know, the government says that 1,000,000,000 of dollars are lost every year because of alcohol related work problems. You know, people are sick or they lose their jobs because of alcohol. Their work is ruined because of someone else's addiction. These numbers are kind of impersonal.

They don't impress people. Let me make a story personal. Let me tell you about my uncle. His name was Paul, Paul Vayeux, he's a French Canadian. He was an artist, and he was extremely creative.

And he started as a window dresser for a large department store. And he rose to the position of being the manager of the whole department store and they called him to different places to make displays and so on and so forth. This guy could do anything. You gave him just some colored paper and some paint and he could create anything. He was a genius.

And he was my favorite uncle. Uncle Paul was my favorite uncle. What a nice guy. What a great guy he was. You know, just so friendly, you just love him.

He was such a lovable guy. And he had a beautiful wife, my aunt Madeleine. And they had 2 beautiful children and they had a home and a car. He had a bright future with a large corporation. You know, he had it all.

But there was one problem, he was an alcoholic. He could never give up his drinking. He started when he was 12 or 13, the way most French Canadians start, you know, at weddings and at Christmas, and everybody having a good time, sneaking a beer out of the fridge, and then, you know, same way everybody else starts. He died in a welfare hospital with nothing. His wife divorced him, neither of his children ever went to college.

He lost everything. I went to see him, I went to see him a week before he died. He weighed 80 pounds He was nothing, he was a skeleton, he was horrible looking. He had bone cancer. And he had other problems, you know, alcoholic related problems that were causing his sickness.

And I said to him, uncle Paul, if you could do it all over again, if you had another chance, if God just and I wasn't a Christian then, but I believed in God in that sense. And I said, if God could just kinda do a miracle and and bring you back immediately and make you okay, what would you do? And he said, if I was well again, I would go out and buy a bottle of whiskey and I would start to drink because I love it more than I love life. And he died the following week alone and lost. Drinking alcohol moderately is expensive.

Drinking alcohol excessively ruins your earning power and being addicted to it destroys your life. And then the 4th social reason is this, alcohol leads to legal problems. You know, it's been reported that half the violent crimes committed were done so while under the influence of alcohol. Most date rapes occur while, there's use of alcohol. 50% of traffic fatalities involve drunk driving.

Family disputes leading to violence and arrests involve alcohol to a large degree. Whenever a woman gets beaten, most of the time, there's alcohol in the, in the closet. 60%. I mean, these are these are I didn't guess these, I've researched these. 60% of inmates in penitentiaries today were drinking while they committed their crimes.

And while under the influence of alcohol, you will say and do things that you would probably never say and never do while sober. Now at first, that's why people like to drink. It loosens them up, it relaxes them, it helps them get over their inhibitions. But eventually, we lose the ability to control ourselves and we not only make fools of ourselves, but we also begin hurting ourselves and other people. In 1995, here in Oklahoma County, 16 teenagers died in car crashes as a result of alcohol.

16 teenagers just in our county alone. Over 300 teenagers were put in jail because of public drunkenness in 1995. And that's just teenagers, we're not talking about adults here, just the teenagers. The criminal courts, the family courts, the emergency rooms, the school counseling offices, the ministers' offices are filled with people who are in trouble because they use alcohol and this leads them to making bad choices, Or worse still, not caring at all about the choices they make and the legal consequences of these decisions. Now, I've given you 4 social reasons that I chose not to drink: A health reason, an addiction reason, a financial reason, and a legal reason.

Let me finish my lesson this morning by giving you 3 spiritual reasons. Now, if that's not enough, should be, but if it's not enough for you, let me just finish out with 3 spiritual reasons why I chose. And believe me, I chose, no one forced me, I chose to abstain from consuming alcohol. First of all, as a Christian, I want to avoid every appearance of evil. 1 Thessalonians, chapter 5, verse 22 says just that, Avoid every appearance of evil.

Now, in the world, among unbelievers, the great freedom cry is, I don't care what other people think. This is my life. This is my body. This is my choice. It's nobody's business what I do with my life.

What's mine is mine. But in the church, however, we do care what other people see. We do care what other people think about us because we are ambassadors for Christ. We are trying to win men for Jesus and his kingdom. 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 verse 20.

I mean, it is true that alcohol is associated with some innocent pleasures. You know, it's true that alcohol is associated with some innocent pleasure. A small glass of wine with a good meal, there's an innocent pleasure. A toast at a wedding, there's an innocent pleasure. But for the most part, alcohol is associated with immoral behavior.

It's associated with partying and carousing. It's associated with suffering and death. It's associated with illegal behavior. It's associated with the world. You know, last week, was it last week, it got real quiet in here when I said to you, you might drink, and you might smoke, and you might dip, and you might chew, but you wouldn't want your preacher to do that.

And it got real quiet here at that moment. Well, it's the truth. If you came to see me in my office, and the ashtray was full, and my cheek was bulging, and I had my spit can on my desk, would you want to spill your life out to me and have me pray over you? No, you wouldn't. What makes you think you don't have the same responsibility to the rest of the world?

Who said I had to carry all that on my shoulders? Nobody. Sometimes, brothers and sisters, there's one flower in a field filled with mud, but in the middle of that field of mud there's one beautiful flower that comes out. I want to ask you, is it worth getting all dirty to just go and pick that one flower? Non Christians are not impressed or motivated to follow Christ when they see Christians who are moderate drinkers.

In their mind, a Christian who's a moderate drinker is a lukewarm Christian. They expect that the disciples of Jesus aspire to a higher level than they do when it comes to alcohol. Secondly, as a Christian, I refuse to be enslaved to anything. Hebrew excuse me. 1st Corinthians chapter 9 verse 24, Paul says, Do you not know that those who run-in a race all run, but only one receives the prize?

Run-in such a way that you may win. And everyone who competes in the games exercises self control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run-in such a way as not without aim, I box in such a way as not beating the air, but I buffet my body and make it my slave, lest possibly, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified. Now Paul says that even for Christians, the danger exists that we can become enslaved to something or other if we're not careful.

Well, I wanna tell you something. If it has been proven over and over and over again that alcohol is the number one enslaving drug of all time, why would we, as Christians, risk our soul even being associated with such a thing? You know, I'm trying my best to serve my Lord, Jesus Christ. Why would I introduce something into my life that has the dangerous potential of ruining that relationship? Would moderate drinking be the thing that you would exchange for your soul?

Is that what you want to exchange? And then finally, as a Christian, I want to do my best. I want to do my very best for Christ. Paul says in Colossians, chapter 3, he says, If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not things that are on earth.

For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Brothers and sisters, we don't always know how or what the best thing is to do. You know that. I know that. Sometimes because of circumstances or limitations, we can't do the very best thing.

As much as we want to, we can't do the very best thing because we're limited, because we're weak. But drinking alcohol is pretty clear. It's a worldly thing. It's a habit of the flesh. It's associated with sin and suffering by the world.

It profits absolutely nothing to the spirit. Abstaining from it is clearly an effort to seek the things which are above and hanging on to it, even in moderation, I say, is a concession to the flesh, to the things that are below. You know what? You don't need any excuses, you don't need any explanations, you don't need any justification if you abstain from alcohol because you are a Christian. If someone says, In my family, when I go there for years, they've offered us and offered us and offered us alcohol.

And we say, No. No, thank you. Thank you very much. You guys go ahead. We say, You guys go ahead, I'll have a Coke or I'll have 7 up, whatever.

We don't have to make excuses. They understand. They say, Well, you know, because of they understand that because of our faith, we've made this choice. And to their credit, they respect that. Well, we don't have to make any excuses.

The only Christians who argue or defend alcohols are the ones who use it. They're the ones that have to make the defense. I'm not condemning them for this. Not condemning you for it. What I'm saying to you is this, you can do better.

You can do better than that. Being a moderate drinker is not being your best for Christ. And my appeal to you is why not step up? Why not let go something that has the potential of dragging you down? Why not begin seeking the things that are above instead of the things that are below?

Well, after this lesson, some might say, well, you know, does God really care? Man, did I brave the elements this morning? Did I get into my cold car and come here just to hear a lesson on alcohol? Does God really care about this issue? I mean there's so many more important things to talk about.

And I agree with you, there are more important things to talk about and discuss. And you know what? Come back next week and I'll talk about those things. Come back tonight and I'll talk about those things. And I'll talk about them Wednesday, next Sunday, and every week for as long as God gives me breath.

But I'll tell you something, God does care about this and he cares about every issue that threatens our lives and our families and especially threatens our souls as alcohol has shown repeatedly to do throughout history. I believe God does not want us to be moderate drinkers. I believe that God wants us to be zealous abstainers for his sake. If you have a problem with alcohol, if you have a problem with any substance that is endangering you physically or spiritually, I want you to come to Christ for forgiveness. I want you to begin the process of healing this morning.

And if you're a Christian and a moderate drinker, then I appeal to you to reconsider your position based on what you've heard. And I would be glad to discuss it with you. I mean, call me up and say, you know, I I take issue with what you say. Hey, let's talk about it. And if you're a non drinker, I beg you, please don't ever start.

The road to alcoholism begins with the first drink. Don't start and you won't ever have to stop. If you need to come to Christ for any reason or to identify with this church, don't be afraid, don't be proud. Please come as brother Johnny leads us in a song of encouragement.