Get Behind Me, Satan!

Two little boys were the best of friends. As they grew up, their friendship only deepened. One became a preacher and the other a priest. And they would meet each week for coffee at the local Starbucks, no matter what else might be happening.

After one such meeting, they shook hands and started to part ways. One was parked in front of the store and the other behind the store. They went to their cars and when one of them came around from the back, the other was turning from the front … and they collided. There they were, stuck in the street with both cars smashed up.

After making sure the other was safe, the preacher begged the priest that this incident would not hurt their lifelong friendship. The priest agreed, reached into the glove box, and pulled out a small flask of whiskey and two communion cups. He poured one full and handed it to the preacher and said, ’Here, let’s drink to our friendship.’

The preacher said, ’Here’s to our friendship,’ and turned it up and drank it. As the priest put the whiskey back in his glove box, the preacher asked him if he was also going to drink to their friendship and the priest said, ’Yes, but I am going to wait until after the police leave first.’

So much for true friendship.

Today’s message may not be for all of you, but the Holy Spirit has led me to believe it is for some of you. And if it isn’t for you, it is probably for somebody in your family or some you know. So I invite every one of you to listen very carefully to every word I speak today, because these words are God inspired. And they cover nearly ever American.

America has many problems that we must face on a day-to-day basis. Some are financial and some are much worse. Some go to the very core of who and what we are as humans.

And then there is the problem in America with addictions. No matter what you can put into your system, it seems someone is addicted to it. What do you think the number one addiction in America is?

..... Marijuana?

..... Meth?

..... Heroine?

..... Cocaine?

..... Tobacco?

Would it surprise you to find out that none of these are the number one addiction? No, the number one addiction far surpasses all of these combined in number of people who are addicted to using it.

It is alcohol. And the alcohol industry has such a strong political lobby behind it, that there is no warning label on any of it. I don’t understand that because everything else has warning labels on them.

But the number one hazard to the human life has no warning label at all. Alcohol. It is devastating physically, psychologically, financially, medically, and ever other way possible.

Yet people justify why they drink as if it is perfectly fine to do so. We get married and we raise our glasses in a toast of how wonderful our marriage will be. We have a baby, a perfect little gift from God, and we raise our glasses in a toast of how blessed we are.

I am of the opinion that when something great like that comes into our lives, instead of raising our glasses of alcohol to exclaim how lucky we have been, we need to raise our Bibles and exclaim how blessed we have been.

What does God’s Word say about indulging in alcohol?

PROVERBS 23:29-32

‘Who are the people who are always crying the blues? Who do you know who reeks of self-pity? Who keeps getting beat up for no reason at all? Whose eyes are bleary and bloodshot? It’s those who spend the night with a bottle, those who consider drinking a serious business.

Don’t judge wine by its label, or its enticing aroma. But judge it rightly; by the hangover it leaves you with, and the splitting headache and the queasy stomach.

Do you really prefer seeing double, with your speech all slurred, reeling and seasick, drunk as a sailor and looking every bit the idiot you are?

You will say, ‘I got beat up, but I didn’t feel anything because I was numb from drinking. I need to hurry and get sober so I can get another drink.’

Alcohol results in more deaths than any other substance. Nearly 60% of all traffic deaths are attributed to alcohol. It causes hardening of the arteries, liver problems, and heart problems.

My oldest brother was an alcoholic, and just before he died, they operated on him to see if they could save him. They said his insides were totally eaten away by alcohol, and they just closed him back up. He died 3 days later at the young age of 55.