When Jack Daniels Met John 3:16

WHEN JACK DANIELS MET JOHN 3:16

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR

A mother was assisting her elementary school son on his project for the science fair. The subject of his project was, "The Harmful Effects Of Alcohol." The mother, who had never taken a drink of alcohol in her life, nervously went into a local liquor store to purchase the needed supplies.

She said to the clerk behind the counter, "Give me the cheapest, hardest vodka you have." The employee answered, "Is this for you, ma'am? If so, I might recommend something that's only a little more expensive but much smoother."

"No, that's okay," the mother stammered without thinking. "It's for my nine-year-old son!"

B. ILLUSTRATION

1. The manufacturers of a well-known brand of beer never knew whether their parade in Waco, Texas, helped their cause or hurt it. The parade was the beginning of a five-day appearance of the eight immense Clydesdale horses, and was planned with all possible advance publicity. The horses led the parade, pulling the giant wagon of dummy beer cases.

2. But the parade had a surprise ending. A trailer truck bearing a demolished car, with ketchup-splattered young people hanging from its windows, followed close behind. Placards proclaimed that beer and automobiles equal death. For three hours, as the parade wended its way through Waco's business district, the deadly reminder of highway deaths followed the beer advertising. As thousands of people paused to admire the horses, they gasped in horror at the view of havoc caused by drunken driving. Following the float were a string of cars carrying signs telling of the devastating effects of alcohol.

C. TEXT: Prov. 23:29-35

29 Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes? 30 Those who linger over wine, who go to sample bowls of mixed wine. 31 Do not gaze at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, 31 when it goes down smoothly! 32 In the end it bites like a snake and poisons like a viper. 33 Your eyes will see strange sights and your mind imagine confusing things. 34 You will be like one sleeping on the high seas, lying on top of the rigging. 35 "They hit me," you will say, "but I'm not hurt! They beat me, but I don't feel it! When will I wake up so I can find another drink?"

D. THESIS

1. Today we’re talking about alcohol use. For those who don’t know, “Jack Daniels” is a famous American whiskey that people have been getting drunk on for over 75 years.

2. The thesis of this message is, when we get saved, things like Jack Daniels should be left behind. We’re going to look at the disastrous effects of alcohol, wine use in the early church, and nine reasons Christians shouldn’t drink.

I. A PLAGUE ON OUR NATION

A. STATS ON ALCOHOL ABUSE

1. Alcohol and alcohol-abuse annually cost the US $100 billion.

2. Alcohol is the number one drug used in the US. There are 65 million drinkers, of which 13 million are problem drinkers or alcoholics. In addition, 3.3 million young people ages 14-17 are problem drinkers. For every heroin addict, there are 15 hard-core alcoholics.

3. Alcohol-related deaths may run as high as 200,000 per year, equaling of the Vietnam war in two years! Half of all traffic fatalities, one-third of all traffic injuries and one-fourth of all suicides are alcohol-related.

4. It costs law officers an in excess of $100 million annually for the arrest, trial, and jailing of alcohol abusers. Half of the 5.5 million arrests yearly are alcohol-related.

5. It has resulted in the break up of many marriages, the impoverishing of many families, and the abuse of many wives and children.

6. Two-thirds of domestic violence involves alcohol; 40% of rapes; 70,000 students in 2002 who were raped, the incident involved alcohol; 480,000 children are mistreated each year due to a caretaker’s alcohol use.

B. IS THIS A TIME FOR DRINKING?

1. Most of us have heard these sad statistics before. But I want to address this morning, the critical area of Christian drinking. Some Christians justify moderate drinking on one of three pretexts:

a. Drinking one glass of beer/wine won’t send you to hell;

b. Some Bible verses seem to speak of consuming alcoholic beverages as okay;

c. Christians in some parts of the world or in certain denominations think drinking is okay (not that we know if they’re really Christians).

2. I think any Scriptures that convey that moderate drinking is okay, were spoken to a perfect world, where everyone was a Christian/righteous and no one would abuse alcohol. In such a world, maybe people could have a glass of wine with dinner and their freedom would not cause others, who are not as strong, to stumble. But that's not the world we live in.