"Single drink is one too many, warn health chiefs"
The above headline from the Times (read the article here) regards an issue being discussed in Britain today after the latest official guidelines on drinking had been released:
Men and women should limit their alcohol intake to less than a bottle-and-a-half of wine across three days a week to minimise health risks, the first official guidance for 20 years has declared. For the first time, the advice says there is no such thing as safe drinking, with every regular sip of alcohol increasing the risk of cancer.
I haven't preached on alcohol and other drug use and abuse at MWC. I am aware that part of the rules regarding the use of our building stipulate that no alcohol is to be consumed on these premises. Why do you think that is? I can't find a policy document regarding our position on the consumption of alcohol and other addictive recreational drugs ... but I would certainly hope that if we don't believe you should use them on this property that our belief would be that you shouldn't use them anywhere else either. We should either have a Yes to alcohol and other addictive drug consumption, or a No to alcohol and other addictive drug consumption.
Many churches encourage people to live alcohol- and drug-free lives ... and let me make quite clear that such churches do not say that you can't be a Christian and a drug consumer at the same time. We're not saved by whether we do or don't consume addictive drugs ... we are saved by faith. But that doesn't mean that the church does not speak out on these issues and help people come to informed decisions about these things.
Many churches encourage people to live alcohol- and drug-free lives ... and let me make quite clear that such churches do not say that you can't be a Christian and a drug consumer at the same time. We're not saved by whether we do or don't consume addictive drugs ... we are saved by faith. But that doesn't mean that the church does not speak out on these issues and help people come to informed decisions about these things.
I know this is a thorny issue and becomes tied up with ideas like, is it a
sin to drink, is smoking wrong, surely my recreational drug use in the privacy
of my home over weekends is my business……and what about things like moderation
and frequency……I only get drunk once in a while, I’m not as “bad” as the person
who gets drunk or high every week or every day.
The Guardian published a list of the most dangerous drugs in the UK based on the number of deaths directly related to these drugs (all of which are addictive). This is the list, in no particular order: Heroin, Cocaine, Barbituates, Street methadone, Alcohol, Ketamine, Benzodiazepines, Amphetamine, Tobacco, Buprenorphine, Cannabis, Solvents, 4-MTA, LSD, Methylphenidate, Anabolic steroids, GHB, Ecstasy, Alkyl nitrites and Khat.
The
two most deadly and destructive drugs in the UK (like most other Western countries), based on cause of death
and cost to the economy, are addictive drugs quite freely available……alcohol and nicotine. No other drugs come even close to the
destruction of these two: according to the office of National Statistics, alcohol causes 10 times more deaths than heroin, (8724 deaths directly attributable to alcohol, 897 to heroin). The most freely available drug in the UK is also the most deadly, namely nicotene (more than 100 000 people per year die as a direct result of that recreational drug).
I encourage you, our
children, everyone, to commit to a lifestyle of total abstinence, and I encourage those who
recreationally use these drugs to consider stopping and to those in the
addictive grip of these things I offer the power of the Holy Spirit so that you can become
overcomers.
Our
reading from the Old Testament takes us back to the first vineyard, the first
drunk, and the first of many families to be torn apart by alcohol.
The
story of Noah is a tragic one because this is the last we hear of Noah –
paralitically drunk, passed out naked in his tent for all to see, then waking
with a huge hangover, cursing Canaan, the son of the son who had seen him naked
and passed out (does that make sense?) ....and the affects of that curse continue
to play out in the Land of Canaan (the modern Middle East) today!!! As an aside, Noah also introduces the first act of slavery into the world.
The
first mention we have of alcohol in the Bible makes it clear that it is a
destructive substance with the ability to destroy the individual......destroy families.........and to become a generational curse.
The
next time alcohol is mentioned in the Bible is in Genesis 19 when two desperate
daughters have sex with their father when he is too drunk to notice who he is sleeping with, in order to have
children.....not a pretty picture.
Now,
it is true to say that Scripture does not condemn alcohol per se, but it does
in no uncertain terms condemn drunkenness (Ephesians 5:15-20) and nowhere in
Scripture is alcohol ever mentioned as an essential element of the born-again
lifestyle, hence my encouragement to stay away from it all together:
abstinence.
Many churches, as part of their witness to an alcohol free lifestyle, never use alcoholic wine, we offer grape juice as our remembrance of the blood of Christ. What we do, of
course offer, is Christ, the true and only
source of comfort, joy and peace. Nothing and no-one else can give what Jesus freely gives……no-one.
So
if alcohol has you in its grip, please know that Jesus has conquered all things
that enslave us and in Him can be found the strength we need to be overcomers……cling
to this truth from Scripture:
“I can do all things through Him who strengthens
me.”
Maybe
alcohol doesn’t have you in its grip (yet) but you’d like to stop or cut
down. Please know that you can ask Jesus
to help you ... and I encourage you to just that while we sing our last song.
You may be afraid of what your friends or family will think of you if you suddenly decide to stop drinking ... I encourage you to ask for the strength to overcome that fear while we sing our last song.
Maybe
alcohol isn’t a part of your lifestyle but it’s a problem for someone you
love. Please know that there is strength
for you in Christ and know that you can pray and pray and pray for them.
There
is hope in Christ for all of us.
We close with: We are no longer slaves
