There are all kinds of preachers now that teach that drinking is okay.
In moderation, they'll say.
And they'll say, "Hey, it's okay to have one glass of wine.
It's okay to have a beer.
It's no big deal."
And then this is what they'll say, "If you can't handle it, then don't do it.
You're a weaker brother, but I'm strong enough to handle it."
When people hear that, you know what?
They're all thinking, "Well, I don't want to be a weakling.
Pass me a beer, because I don't want to be a wimp, be this weak little brother that's
like, 'Oh man, I can't do it.'"
Hey, let me say this.
There are people in this room on every campus and maybe watching online right now that you
should never, ever pick up a glass of wine or a beer or a drink of liquor.
You know why?
You have a proclivity towards alcoholism.
You can't have a drink.
Every time you have a drink, it winds up you have a lampshade on your head within an hour.
Okay?
You can't do it.
You cannot enjoy a drink.
So they, and you know, they try to make it seem like they're mighty to drink wine.
I think I read a verse like that.
Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink,
which justify the wicked for reward and take away the righteousness of the righteous from
him.
Alcohol isn't the problem for the alcoholic because if you take away alcohol from this
person they'll go get addicted to something else.
But what's so stupid about that is that alcohol is so destructive and so damaging to people's
lives that even, listen to me, let me just make it real clear and it's a whole nother
sermon of itself, I do not believe that it is ever okay to have a beer or have wine and
things like that.
The only exception I would say to that is if someone were in like a life or death situation
where they had to have their leg chopped off.
You know like in the olden days when they were going to chop somebody's leg off or something
and they'd basically drink themselves into unconsciousness.
You know where it'd be at that point it'd be like an anesthesia or something where you're
actually putting someone unconscious.
That's the only time that I would ever drink alcohol is if I'm having a limb chopped off
because I don't think I'm going to be beholding strange women or uttering perverse things
at that point when I'm getting my leg chopped off because of gangrene.
You know, I believe that would be the only legitimate use of alcohol or any other drug.
By the way, same thing with the drugs, the prescription drugs.
That's what they're for.
They're for trauma and things like that.
They're not for recreational use ever for any reason.
And let me tell you something.
I don't believe, I believe God prohibits alcohol.
He says don't even look at it.
That's where I stand.
That's where I've stood.
Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his color in the cup, when
it moveth itself aright.
At the last, it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder.
Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things.
Alcohol, your view on alcohol probably depends on your denominational background, right?
Hey, Catholics and Episcopals drink in church.
I used to think that was the coolest thing in the world.
I want to go to the church where the people drink.
And then I went and they told me I couldn't have communion one time, so I got a little
upset and didn't go back.
Presbyterians don't have a problem drinking.
Most of them don't.
Methodists, Baptists, they don't like it.
It's not for you Lemuel to drink wine.
Give it to the guy who's ready to perish.
Let him drink and forget his poverty and remember his misery no more.
The derelict in the gutter.
What'd she say?
Drinking is for derelicts.
Drinking is for losers.
It's not for princes.
It's not for kings.
It's not for God's people.
It's for losers.
And let me tell you something.
If you drink, you're a loser.
There, I said it, you're a loser.
If you have to drink to have a good time, I say you're a loser.
I don't want to be around you because you're boring.
You're boring and stupid.
I want to hang around with somebody who's interesting to be around.
Because if you have to get drunk to have fun, it shows that you don't know how to have fun.
And the most simple-minded, imbecilic, stupid people who have nothing to live for, they
don't know the Bible, they don't talk about Genesis, they don't want to talk about Exodus,
they don't want to talk about Leviticus, they don't want to talk about family, they don't
want to talk about righteousness and godliness and peace, they want to say stupid things,
and so they have to get drunk so they can forget how stupid they are.
They have to get drunk so they can forget how ugly they are, and how ugly their spouse
is, and how ugly their friends are, and how they all get up and sing karaoke and they
all sound like garbage.
They sound like a cat that's being strangled.
And they have to forget, we're stupid, we're in a building that smells like piss.
We're drinking, we're partying with a bunch of losers and derelicts and deadbeats and
we have to pretend that we're having a good time.
So let's get so drunk that we don't even know where we are.
We don't even know what we're doing.
Let's just drink and forget it all.
Baptist, I don't like it because what you think about continually, you will do eventually.
What you think about continually, you'll do eventually.
Do you know there's people in this room that are addicted to alcohol and you don't know
you're addicted to alcohol?
But let me say this, even if a person did believe, "Oh, it's okay to drink a little
bit in moderation," which I don't believe, but even if a person did believe that, what
a foolish thing to go around telling people that when you're going to be destroying people's
lives and putting stumbling blocks everywhere left and right.
Some of y'all might need to start drinking because of that.
How stupid that is.
I mean, there's all kinds of people that struggle with that sin, former alcoholics, people that
drink.
And listen, when a pastor gets up and says, "Hey, it's okay to drink a little bit," the
people in the auditorium who've struggled in that area, it's just a green light to them.
Oh, we can, oh, great.
And then they go out and get drunk.
And by the way, I've never met one of these moderation drinkers that didn't get drunk.
They all get drunk.
And you know what?
You know what?
I've never loved Jesus more than I love him right now.
So can you be a Christian and smoke and drink and watch a rated R movie?
I think so.
Because I love Christ.
If you love me, keep my commandments.
I mean what?
You see how stupid that would be to just go around broadcasting that?
So look, if you have something where you say, "Well, I don't agree with Pastor Anderson
that that's a sin.
I think it's not a sin," you know, then you better do that privately because you're going
to mess up other people's lives.
But again, I believe even if you do it privately, it's a sin.
I believe it's a sin to touch this stuff.
But how much more wicked it is when you lead other people down that dark path?
Oh yeah, I didn't even tell you why I brought up New Spring.
It's because the pastor was just fired for being an alcoholic.
Do you know there's people in this room that are addicted to alcohol and you don't know
you're addicted to alcohol?
Okay, now here's the thing about this.
He taught social drinking is fine.
Turns out he's an alcoholic.
I mean, he's being a stumbling block to people even to himself.
You know, I mean, here's a guy who teaches, "Hey, it's okay to drink in moderation."
He's an alcoholic and they tried to warn him and they tried to warn him.
Finally, they had to fire him from the church because he just wouldn't stop drinking.
Wouldn't stop drinking, drinking, drinking, drinking, drinking.
I mean, unbelievable, isn't it?
I mean, what kind of a stumbling block when the pastor's a drunk?
That's why he even says in the qualifications the pastor is not given to wine.
Don't be that guy that drinks and you're a pastor.
It's wicked.