(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Amen, so there in Titus chapter number two the first thing I'm going to point out there is in verse one where he says But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine So this is the things that he's telling Titus to speak he's saying speak these things and these are the things that become sound doctrine So everything that follows here, of course, you know that includes a lot of other different things in the Bible But specifically or in Titus chapter 2 he's saying these things that you're gonna speak Are the things that become sound doctrine and these are the things that he is charging him to speak So, you know as a preacher you would read this and think that's probably something I need to cover too You know if it's good enough for Titus if Paul is telling him Hey, these are the things you need to preach on This is the sound doctrine that you need to put the brother in remembrance of you know, that's probably a good, you know subject matter for a sermon and hence tonight's sermon and what is it that he taught him to To teach there. What is it the things that he commanded him to speak? He says verse 2 that the aged men Be sober and if you go through this list, you'll see that that is what he's preached Oh, that's what he's commanding him to to to teach here Is that all these different groups of people be sober and that's what I'm gonna preach to you about tonight That's the same thing that I'm going to speak. That's the sound doctrine that we're gonna go over tonight is this topic of sobriety? Okay, and sobriety obviously most of us understand sobriety simply just to be mean to be you know Sober in the sense that we don't we're not under the influence of drugs or alcohol and obviously that's a very relevant definition That's something that even the Bible talks about that We are to be free and clear of drugs and alcohol that we are to be sober minded in that sense But sober also means to be serious and I'm going to cover both definitions tonight In fact, you know if you just go to the dictionary the Bible says to be sober simply means to be serious to be salt Sensible to be solemn and to be sincere and we'll see that's how the Bible uses this definition as well It tells us to be a very sober person or what the Bible calls grave, you know We should be serious about our Christian life. We should be serious about the things of God We should be serious about how we conduct ourselves. We should take life seriously and not saying we should never Joke or have fun or anything like that Obviously, there's always a time and place for that but we don't want to be one of these people where everything's a joke where life's Just kind of a game, you know life is a game that you play I'm always giving our kids a hard time about that because they're always playing that game called life Right, and I'm always reminding them life is not a game Although it is okay, but you know what I mean? We need that's how we need to approach life Don't treat your actual life, you know when you put the board game away and put it back on the shelf It's time to get serious about life the actual thing that we live and then not to treat You know life like it's some kind of game that you're playing, you know, life is something they should be serious about It's something that you should be sober about. Okay, so that's one definition of the word serious to be Excuse me sober to be serious to be sensible to be solemn right to have gravity to be sincere And also obviously there's the the probably the more familiar meaning that we would use today to be free from alcohol Okay, and if you would go to keep something there in Titus, but go over to 2nd Corinthians chapter number 5 2nd Corinthians chapter number 5 And really to be serious or to be sober simply means to be in your right mind okay to be in your right mind to have to be sensible to be You know sober is to be in your right mind to not have your Thinking clouded and to not be at what the Bible says beside yourself Okay That's a that's a term that the Bible uses When it's trying to describe somebody as being crazy or someone who's not sober somebody who's not in their right mind Okay, they are described as beside themselves. For example in Mark you're going to 2nd Corinthians 5 It says of Jesus when his friends heard of it They went out to lay hold on him for they said he is beside himself and you say what does that mean? Meaning he's like beside himself like he's outside of himself He's detached himself from his mind and his body are you know, somehow detached. He's there. He's not a whole person He's beside himself. He's mad. He's crazy. That's kind of what the Bible is expressing there. That's what that you know that that phrase means It says there in 2nd Corinthians chapter number 5 look at verse 13 for whether we be beside ourselves So there's that phrase again. It is to God or whether we be sober it is for your cause so you can see how he's contrasting these two phrases With each other he's saying whether we be beside ourselves or what or whether we be sober So to not be sober means to be beside yourself. It means you're not in your right mind, okay? This is not what he's kind of expressing here That's what he's saying Look if we be beside ourselves it is to God or whether we be sober it is for your cause, you know If you think we're crazy, it's for God if you think we're sober it's for your case I'm just using this passage that that verse there to kind of Get the meaning across to get the definition of this word sober So we could see here from 2nd Corinthians 5 that to be beside yourself or to be out of your mind is the opposite of being sober Therefore being sober would mean mean that you are not beside yourself that you are in your right mind Okay, and look that's a very good definition because it here's the thing it fits it fits in with The definition of being free of drugs and alcohol, right because a person who's taking drugs and alcohol is not in their right mind You can't take some kind of a substance that affects your you know Your neurology your brain the way your brain functions and then say you're in your right mind Okay, you've just impaired that okay Another example of this go to 1st Thessalonians chapter 5 would be when Paul was testifying He said I am not mad most noble festus, but speak forth words of truth and soberness He's saying I'm not mad. I'm not beside myself. I'm speaking the words of what truth and soberness So I'm just using this again to get us a definition of the word sober Okay to be sober is to be the opposite of mad to be sober is to be the opposite of beside yourself To be sober is to be in your right mind Okay And that fits both definitions of both being a person who is serious and sensible and solemn and sincere It also fits the definition of a person who is free from alcohol and drugs Okay, you can see how that would fit both definitions because if you're beside yourself if you're mad You know, you're certainly not a serious person, right? What do they call, you know, and I don't mean this in a degrading way Okay, but what do you call people a lot of times would go to the insane asylum, right? You would call it the loony bin that they would say they would make fun of that You wouldn't say the people in there the way they're behaving are very serious people and I understand they have problems I'm not making light of it Okay, but I'm just trying to get the point across that this definition fits both Or this term fits both definitions be sober if you're not sober then you're not taking life seriously if you're not sober Then you know, you could be under the influence of drugs and alcohol. So it it fits both Okay, and it's important to understand both definitions Because people will go to the Bible and say well, I'm sober because I don't take drugs and alcohol Therefore I'm fulfilling this commandment. And again, this is something that Titus was commanded to teach Okay, this is the sound doctrine that he was to express to every group of people in the church So people, you know, this is an important thing for people and people might get just say well, you know I don't take drugs. I don't take alcohol Therefore I'm sober. Yeah, but are you taking life seriously, but are you serious about your walk with God? Are you serious about the things of this life? Because if you're not then you're not fulfilling that command regardless of whether or not of you whether you not take take drugs or alcohol Okay, so that you can't just check off one and ignore the other Okay So to be serious or to excuse me to be sober is to be in your right mind You're there in 1st Thessalonians. It also means to be alert Okay meaning not having your senses dulled and this would probably fall more into that second definition of Not being under the influence of drugs. Okay, it says 1st Thessalonians chapter number five He said you're not all you excuse me. You are all the children of light and the children of the day We are not of the night nor of darkness Therefore let us not sleep as do others but let us watch Okay, so here's you know the sense of being alert, right? Let us watch and be sober so you can see how being sober Is associated with being alert watching? Okay Then he goes on and he says for they that sleep sleep in the night and they that be drunken are drunken in the night So he's telling us to watch and to be sober why because some people sleep in the night and some people are drunken in the night So this kind of fits that second definition, doesn't it? Where you know if you're watching your then you're not sleeping if you're sober, then you're not drunken Alright, so again just kind of give us in the background on this term Okay to understand what that word sober means in the Bible and again It's important we understand it because it's something we're commanded all of us to do in our lives and to be This is in verse 8, but let us who are of the day be sober Putting on the breastplate of faith and love and for an helmet the hope of salvation So to not or to not be sober is what to lack Vigilance right to not watch to be drunken to be sleeping meaning you're not clear-headed, right? If you ever been around anybody who's been drunk like who's somebody who's under the influence of alcohol You'll notice they get that real kind of dumb look on their face, right? Their eyes get droopy You know their weight they shouldn't be you know, if they're driving their reaction it's like they're sleeping, right? In fact, they say that being drowsy on the road is just as bad as being drunk on the road. I don't see that's scary, right? but you know, so again you get this definition here of Of sober as to be as being you know Lacking the clear-headedness not being vigilant being perhaps even under the influence of drugs and alcohol So you can see how the Bible uses this term in both ways, right? It defines, you know being sober as not being Drunken and it defines sober as being serious about being people who are not mad or beside themselves people who are in their right mind you know again, this is important to understand because Sobriety is a necessity. It's something that we need to have in our lives. We need to be serious people Obviously, you know the Bible talks about us not being drunks, right? Being a drunk is something that'll get you kicked out of church and we'll look at it in a minute There's a lot of you know, very strong warnings Against alcohol in the Bible, you know, and here's the thing if it's kind of cover something like alcohol I mean, what is it about alcohol that makes it so bad? What makes it so sinful? Is it the way it tastes is? It the way it's delicious. Is it the fact that it comes in a bottle or Is it the effect that it has on you? It's the effect that it has on you, right? So it's so stupid when people say well the Bible doesn't say smoking pots of sin It just says it has a lot of strong warnings against alcohol. Yeah, but what is it about the alcohol that makes it so bad? It's the things that makes you do and the things that makes you the way it makes you behave, right? It's the fact that it dulls your senses, you know, and obviously pot does the same thing smoking weed does the same thing, you know Praise the Lord that God didn't have that God just trusted us to have enough common sense to figure these things out on our own That we didn't have to sit there and go okay don't do don't do alcohol don't use alcohol don't smoke pot Don't shoot up heroin. Don't take pills. Don't you know, just go right down like don't snort coke Don't do this Don't inject anything and it just do we really need God to sit here and hold our hand and tell us or as God given Us all enough, you know common sense to kind of be able to go to the Bible and say well The problem with alcohol is the effect that it has on your mind. It makes you not sober You know and if you're taking any kind of any kind of drugs or alcohol that are affecting You know the state of your mind you're no longer sober. You are no longer fulfilling the command in Scripture to be sober. Okay? It's a sobriety is something that is necessary. First of all, go to 1st Timothy chapter number 3 for the preacher, right? It's something that's necessary for the preacher. This is something the preachers commanded to be right? And obviously it's it says specifically here in 1st Timothy 3 that the preacher isn't supposed to be somebody who's a drunk Okay, but you know that goes for the church member to You know, the preacher can't be somebody as it says in 1st Timothy 3 Verse number 3 not given to wine, right? He's not given to wine No striker not greedy filthy luger patient not a brawler not but not covetous Verse 8 he says a bishop then must excuse me verse 2 a bishop then must be blameless the husband of one wife Vigilant, so there's that idea again of what it means to be sober Like it said back there in 1st Thessalonians 5 that they are we are to watch and be sober here He's saying that he's to be vigilant and to be sober That's what it is to be vigilant means to watch to have your eyes open to be alert and that's very important for the preacher Isn't it? It's very important that the person who is leading the church Be vigilant to see what's going on to know the state of his flocks to know To be able to see the wolf coming to know how to handle certain situations to be able to you know Look out for things in the church. You have to be vigilant. You can't be somebody who's just kind of you know Just going through the motions or just you know, not taking it seriously, right? Which would be the opposite of being sober that's the definition that we just established, right? It means to be in your right mind to be serious to be grave He has to be the husband of one wife vigilant he has to be sober he has to be somebody who is serious about The work that he's been given to do he has to be serious about the things of God again Why why is it commanded for the preacher because he is to be an example of the believers? He's been a sample to the flock You know that you could say yeah, that's good for the preacher. Amen Well, he has to be all these things so that he can you know, teach them for others to be that way You know, what's good for the goose is good for the gander Is that right gander it's not geese's right? Okay. Just making sure go over to 1st Timothy chapter 3 Look at verse 11. You're right there even so a must there speaking about the deacons there the deacons wives be grave Right meanings meaning sober or excuse me serious, which is sober not slander sober faithful in all things Okay, so even the deacons wives are supposed to be these things people that are gone into the ministry People that are gone into the ministry, you know, they have to be sober They have to be serious and it doesn't mean just free from drugs and alcohol And that's kind of a low bar for the ministry. Don't you think? Well, why should you be the pastor? Well, I'm not a drunk You know, I don't I you'll never find me out back smoking meth You know, I'm sober That's okay. Great, you know, but that's that's kind of like a pretty low bar You know, you need to be sober in the sense that you're taking the things of God seriously right serious about the work of God Faithful in all things go to Titus go back to Titus chapter number one We'll see that this is again something that is commanded for the preacher. This is the necessity of sobriety That's why it's important that we understand this term that it's not just free of drugs and alcohol But it also means to be serious to take things seriously in the Christian life and in life in general To not go through life just thinking it's just a big, you know funhouse, you know, life is serious you take it seriously First excuse me Titus chapter 1 verse 7 for a bishop must be blameless as the steward of God not self-willed Not soon angry not given to wine. So there's that definition, right? No striker not given to filthy lucre, but a lover of hospitality a lover of good men Sober right sober just holy and temperate another temperate meaning, you know, he has control of himself, you know He's temperate so that's kind of ties in with you know Being sober right having control over yourself people that are serious people that are sober They don't just give themselves over to every, you know, every impulse of the flesh You know If you're just giving if you're just giving in to every impulse of the flesh if you're just giving in all the time Just doing whatever you want whenever you want you're not living life seriously, you're not taking life seriously You know to be serious about life means you're going to deny yourself some things you're gonna deny yourself things You know that aren't good for you. Although they might bring pleasure to you immediately Although it might be something that you want to do and gratify yourself sober serious people say, you know what? I'm not gonna do that because that's not gonna do me any good in the long run. Okay, I'm gonna be temperate I'm gonna be sober. I'm gonna take life seriously, okay So obviously it's necessary for the preacher, okay But why is it necessary for the preacher? So that he can be an example to the flock go back to Titus chapter 2 because as we'll see here in just a second Being sober is something that is necessary for the people meaning the people that are in the pew right the church It's necessary for everybody from the preacher down to every single person in the church Sobriety is something that has to be a part of our life and it's more than just being free from drugs and alcohol It means you need to be serious about your life serious about the things of God Titus chapter 2 verse 1 where we began Speak thou this but speak thou the things which becomes sound doctrine that the aged men be sober grave Temperate so again, there's that term again temperate grave Sober sound in the faith in charity and patience so you can see how these all kind of are related You know to be sober means to be serious to be grave to have a lot of gravity, right? Someone's a grave person there. You would say that they're a serious person, right? And again, I don't want everyone to stand up after the sermon tonight and just walk around, you know frowning at one another like no more Joking, you know, obviously there's a time and place for that, you know a merry heart do with good like a medicine the Bible says Right, but you know, not everything's a joke all the time, you know There's a time and place to joke and to have fun and to and to kid then there's a time and place to be serious And it's kind of like I was preaching about this morning You know, we're living in a generation now in a time where nobody wants to be serious They just want everything to be a joke constantly They just want to constantly be stimulated constantly entertained and as I preached this morning, you know There's there's blessings and being bored, you know, it teaches you to be a serious person You know when you have some downtime, you know when you need to fill your time Maybe it's instead of you know, reaching for the video game controller or reaching for you know, some kind of digital device Right. I don't want to make everybody's already mad at me from this morning, right? You know rather than you know spending yourself spending your time and just some vain pursuit, you know Make the sober serious person would say hey, maybe I need to review that Bible verse. I've memorized Maybe I need to add to my Bible. So it doesn't sound very fun It's not but you know what it is. It's it's sober It's very sobering. It's a very serious thing to do to memorize the Word of God You know, it would show that you are, you know, somebody who's serious about the things of God if you actually did that, right? Maybe instead of just you know, reading some whatever some just vain stupid meaningless post somewhere or whatever You actually said, you know a sober person a serious person would actually sit down and read their Bible right now You know, that's that's the how you would fill your time if you were a sober person You know, you would be serious about the things that bring glory to God You'd be serious about the things that will bring you closer to God. Okay? So again, you can see how important this is this idea of understanding what sober is You know that it's not just well, I don't do drugs. Okay, but are you serious about the things of God? Are you serious about the Christian life? Okay? And it's not just for the aged men here. Okay goes on verse 3 the aged women now It doesn't specifically say that the aged women need to be sober But it doesn't mean that the aged women are getting off the hook right because it says that they are to teach the young women these things Okay, the aged women likewise that they be as in behaviorist become with holiness not false accusers not giving them much wine So in a sense there there's that definition of sober one of them right not giving too much wine They're not you know, they're not some day drinking mom or whatever Teachers of good things that they may teach the young women to be sober So, how are you gonna teach somebody if you don't know how to do it, right? Obviously if they're to teach the young women to be sober they themselves have to be sober You know, they have to be somebody who has some seriousness in their life and to be an example You know a lot of teaching is just done by example. It's just done by the way you conduct yourself. Okay? Also to love their husbands to love their children so we're covering everybody aged men aged women young women Look at verse six young men likewise exhort to be sober minded So we already saw in verse one He's saying hey speech speak those things which become sound doctrine that the aged men be sober right and then we get down here to verse six again, and it's like he's he's he's He's telling Titus once again to not just speak these things but to exhort the young men to be sober You know young men need to be exhort. We have to exhort you to be sober You know, you should take life seriously obviously it goes without saying at least it should in this church that You shouldn't be drunk You should be under the influence of drugs and I'd be shocked if anybody in this room was to be honest But what about the other definition of being sober minded about being serious about the things of God? That's something that young men need to be exhorted to be You know and again in the day and age we're living in and that you know It's all about fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun and all the fun I can go have and that's a philosophy That's out there Oh your 20s are just time for you to Experience, you know experiment and find out what you like and what you're into and just go out there and live it up And so you're wild oats. That's not Bible The Bible says that young men are to be sober Serious about the things of God serious about the Bible serious about what they're commanded to do in Scripture. Take it seriously You know, don't just go running off into the world. Just trying to live it up Like all these all these other yahoos that are out there I mean you see these guys that are out that are out there You could take one look at them and you could tell they're not serious about life You know when you're when you're driving around in public and you have And I'll just I'm just gonna say it as lightly as I can we have Japanime stickered all across the back of your car and I'm talking about some of this I'm not just talking like, you know cute little character. I'm talking lewd Japanime like I saw this week some 20-something year old driving around just plastered back across of his car a bunch of Japanime You know, I'm sitting there thinking this guy one. You're just basically telling the whole world. You're a pervert When you're look when you're putting lewd pictures on the back of your car, you're a pervert Okay It's it's it's like I look there's a term I don't want to use because I don't want parents to have to explain these things to the young children when they go home But you know what I'm getting at Okay, and when you're when you're some 20-something year old or whatever something or worse yet 30 40, whatever It's like good night. Are you ever gonna grow up you ever gonna be sober you ever gonna be serious about life and You're putting you know cartoon characters in the back of your car it's like You're not you're not a sober person. But look there's so many people that would look at that and go that's cute. Oh Let's pull over and talk about it. What's your who's your favorite character? There's whole chat groups, there's probably whole forums a bunch of you know, young dudes sitting around talking about You know some cartoon that some, you know, dweedy kid in Japan drew That's what you're into and that's what I just blows my mind about these people's like, you know, somebody drew that right Some other dude sat around and drew that and now you're all It's creepy man, it's weird. It's a strange sick perverted culture that you're living in it really is And if you're serious and if you know, you can laugh at it and I get it's kind of funny. It's awkward But look we need to be serious about these things and not fall into these these these these Pit, you know these pits that are out there these these pitfalls for young men young men need to be sober You need to be vigilant. You need to take life seriously And all things he says in verse 7 showing myself a pattern of good works in Doctrine showing uncorruptness gravity. There's that word again Sincerity There's another word that's synonymous with sobriety, right? So you're getting a very good idea what it means to be sober here How are you gonna how are you gonna show yourself? You know, how are you gonna show in doctrine uncorruptness if you're not serious about reading your Bible? If you're not serious about studying the Bible, how are you gonna live up to that command young men? You know, that's a command to young men, isn't it? I mean, I'm pretty sure that that's who that's commanded to it's obviously it's for everybody and all things showing myself a pattern Of good words in doctrine showing uncorruptness. Do you know why you believe what you believe? Why not? When are you gonna get serious about that? Sound speech that cannot be condemned that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed having no evil thing to say of you Don't ever let some preacher get up and use you as a bad example. Like I just did that guy who's driving around You know and that's only gonna happen if you're serious if you're sober if you're grave So we see that sobriety is necessary and if you noticed it was it was alliterated, right? It was necessary for the preacher. It was necessary for the people and now it's necessary for pugs named Oscar No, I'm just kidding You know, my daughter would love it if I threw that point in there But I just just thought I'd throw that in there for okay little little sugar to help the medicine go down this evening That's as sweet as it's gonna get though So we talked about the necessity the necessity of sobriety what sobriety is but what does sobriety look like in practice Practically, ooh, there's another one man. I'm getting better at this on the fly now. I'm alliterating, right? Obviously needs do not impair your senses through drugs or alcohol and look I know I've been kind of glossing over that but I'm gonna park it there for a minute because That is something we have to take seriously as well. You can't you can't just you know, because here's the thing. I Think sometimes people they there's these gray areas where they're like, well, it's not drugs and alcohol You know, okay, but if it's if it's affecting your mind, okay, then it's something you should probably not be taking It's probably something you should avoid if it's gonna affect how your mind works. Okay, and I believe that this is at any time for any reason, okay? Go to Proverbs chapter 31 Proverbs chapter 31 I'm sure we all know these verses in Proverbs, but we're gonna look at him again I'll just begin reading in verse 1 of Proverbs 31 the words of King Lemuel the prophecy that his mother taught him what my son and What the son of my womb and what the son of my vows give not thy strength unto women Nor thy ways to that which destroyeth Kings So she's gonna warn him that there's this way that destroys Kings Now typically a king when you think about a king you think of somebody who's probably you know Pretty serious somebody probably has a lot of power Somebody who's you know, a pretty influential person Okay a king, you know, especially back then it wasn't just somebody that you know You kind of just treated flippantly, you know, a king was a very serious person was somebody who had strength and power, right? Especially a king like, you know think about like King David, right? He was able to go in and to go out and to go in to come out Come in and go out and to make war, right? It wasn't just you know, it wasn't just you know, the the royal family over there You know that are just kind of a showpiece for everybody to write magazine pieces about these words like serious men But notice that what she's warning about is a way which can destroy a king. Okay? So if we're not, you know, we should take heed of this Okay, if it can get a king it could probably get us to it can destroy us just as easily and look that's that's probably one of the biggest mistakes young people make especially young men is They think that nothing can touch them They just go through life thinking. I'm six feet tall and bulletproof. I'm invincible, right It's not true It's not true You know, there's things that can destroy you and having that's not a sober way of thinking if that's not being serious You know, if you're serious, you'll realize if you're sober, you'll realize I'm not invincible There's a way that can destroy a king, you know, many mighty men have been fallen by you know The the the whorish woman, okay, she can drag you down Any one of us it is not for Kings the lingual is not for Kings to drink wine. Oh, is that it? Oh Is that though? That's the warning. That's what destroys King wine No problem nor for princess to drink strong drink Lest they drink and forget the law and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted You know, that's the strong warning about alcohol here, isn't it? That if we drink we're going to do what forget the law and pervert judgment You know, the law is not something you want to forget especially as a king when it was your job to enforce the law, right? But even just the idea of forgetting the law as you know, God's child You know, that's not something we want to have to be said of us You know, we don't want to get into some, you know bad situation through drinking alcohol and then say well, I didn't know Well, you know if you hadn't been doing what you're doing You know, if you'd been more sober and took in the time to find out you you wouldn't have that excuse. Okay? So You know at any time for any reason we should not we should be staying away from alcohol Obviously, you know Proverbs 31 goes on and on about this and some other things but go over to Proverbs chapter number 23 Proverbs chapter number 23, which is another very strong warning against the use of alcohol You say never use drugs or alcohol under any circumstance I'll say this people who are in severe pain You know, I could see where you would administer some kind of And I'm not saying like you woke up and stubbed your toe You know, you got a little migraine or something. Well, you know, let me take some oxycodone to numb this migraine Maybe let me ingest an opioid so I can you know not have such a such a severe migraine or something like that Obviously, you know if they're bad enough You know, okay, I bet I'm talking severe pain. Okay, you say well, why is that acceptable? Well, here's the thing what I mean, what does it mean to be sober? What was the definition to be in your right mind? Okay. Look if you're in severe enough pain, you're not in your right mind to begin with Taking some drug. It's actually probably gonna put you back in your right mind a little bit more, you know And I don't want to go on on on on on and on about it But anyone who's watched anybody go through like cancer You know, yeah at some point you know, you know, you're going to be in your right mind Cancer You know, yeah at some point give that person strong drugs to numb the pain that they're in and let them go out with some peace in their life But you know, I don't think that's anybody in the room You know I don't think there's anybody here that has an excuse to go out and be taking drugs of any kind whatsoever That I know of I mean, maybe you have some severe chronic pain that I don't know about, you know, and that's fine I don't need to know about it But you know, they're I believe there is an exception but it's a very rare exception because again to be sober is to be in your right mind if you have some debilitating disease, you know If you just had all four of your molars removed and they all got dry sockets and you can't even talk and you're just writhing And agony give that guy some drugs. Okay, because he's not in his right mind to begin with he's not sober to begin with You know the drugs have probably put him more back in his right mind get him get you know Get the pain out of out of the way. I'm not saying that's gonna make them perfect Hopefully you all understand that hopefully everyone gets that okay that I can I can move on here So obviously, you know the practice of sobriety, which is we're talking about is to not be under the influence of drugs now Call that's that's probably the definition that everybody understood when they walked in here tonight And we will take the time to look at it again. Look at verse 20 29 there it says who hath woe who hath sorrow who hath contentions who hath babbling who hath wounds without cause Who hath redness of eyes? Now put that on the Budweiser poster You know if this was you know, if it was Coors Light writing this, you know If it was, you know some alcohol distributor writing this it was some beer distributor of some hard liquor You know manufacturer they would word this differently who hath six-packs You know who hath babes on the beach? Who hath you know abundance of wealth and good looks? You know who who has all these great they would paint a different picture wouldn't they? You know, who's who's the cool guy at the party? Right. It's the guy who's drinking Bacardi or you know, whatever they have some clever little rhyme But that's not the picture the Bible paints at all. The Bible gives it to us You know real it's raw Who hath woe who hath sorrow who hath contentions? I mean, these are all different things Whoa, you know, you're gonna wake up and go whoa. What did I do last night? You know, whoa what happened and then you know, you'll live with consequences that are just gonna be Just gonna cause you to be in woe the rest of your life who hath woe who hath sorrow You know who has sorrow the guy that you know Got his buddy drunk and then let him leave the party and he went out and crashed into a telephone bowl and died in a blaze And you know and it went out in a you know, a fury of a flaming wreck of a car. I Know people like that People that have gotten drunk and stepped out in front of snow plows and they're just gone You know who has sorrow the guy that got him drunk. I imagine that'd be a hard thing to live with That you let had you through a party someone came to your house they got drunk you were drunk nobody was being serious about anything and He's I'm leaving. Oh, see you later, dude And then just he's gone and now you're at the funeral Trying to explain that to their parents and you got to live with that the rest of your life You get drunk get behind the wheel of a car and kill somebody Who has sorrow that person? Oh That never happens. It happens every day in this country in this world. It happens all the time Multiple times a day. I'm sure I didn't look up the stats, but it would it really surprise you if that didn't happen every single day Like more than once over the whole the whole world Multiple times people are waking from one day the next everything's fine. Now. I have sorrow continually because of alcohol Who hath contentions, you know who's gonna go and start the fight The Drunk guy, you know, he gets he gets all of a sudden. He's 10 feet tall You know, he started out this tall Then he drank a six-pack, you know and threw back a couple and now he's this tall in his mind And he doesn't like the way that guy's looking at him Right, except that guy really is that tall, right and it's not gonna go well, you know Then you're gonna go home, you know, you're gonna wake up the next morning. Go. What happened to my teeth? Where'd they go they're all they're they're in the back alley is behind some bar somewhere Where you know guys took you out back and beat you up. Oh That never happens. I know people that's happened. It happens all the time folks Well, the Bible is just being dramatic. Right the Bible is just making this up because God just really doesn't want us to drink alcohol because Well, he doesn't have a reason, you know, he's just making it up No The reason why he wants you to steer clear of these things is because this is what happens to people Who has babbling? Oh good night drunks have babbling don't they? It's so annoying. I remember when I used to deliver pizzas. I Hated having to go and deliver to drunk people or I'd have to go to a hotel and I remember there would be drunk people in the lobby they get in the elevator with me and They would just talk like you're not even there. It's like good night Or when I used to do rideshare, that's when I quit rideshare And I thought you know, I wouldn't go past 1030 So when I started doing ride shares I was like I'm done after 1030 because the drunks just got worse and worse as the night go on by two o'clock in the morning And all the drunks are coming out of the bar. It's you can't even take it Then the most annoying people to be around just leaning out your car window Just talking all kinds of nonsense just not making it they're just babbling they're idiots You know, and if you're that's why only drunk people can stand to be around drunk people Who hath babbling who hath wounds without cause you know, you didn't have to have your teeth kicked out You didn't have to what come on with that broken nose and that, you know black eye who hath redness of eyes You know the hangover who has these things first 30 they that Terry long at the wine They that go to seek mixed wine Look not thou upon the wine when it's red when it giveth its color in the cup when it moveth itself All right, it's talking about fermented alcohol at the last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder You know what you that's just imagine alcohol like that it's it's a in an adder it's a poisonous venomous snake. I Don't know too many people that would pick that up and hold it to their face You know, there probably are some people out there right? Are we going back to Steve Irwin now? No, I won't do the accent Promise Like a French accent comes up, all right, I'm not gonna do it I'm still want to try but I'm not gonna try My dad used to milk rattlesnakes Yep, I had a place in South Dakota called the reptile gardens It was a funny story. He goes out there to get this job. He goes out with his buddy This is my dad, you know, I have pictures to prove it But you know, you can never believe you never know if he's pulling your leg or not But he go his buddy's going out there and it to this it's like this tourist trap where they have like alligators and You know, it's in the middle of South Dakota. I don't know if you know this but alligators are not native to South Dakota All right, that's not really something you see there, right? So they have this this tourist trap for to get all everybody to come out and see the alligators and snakes and everything So his buddy's going out there to apply for the job. He's like, hey come with me So he's standing there a gift shop the guy's filling out the application the guy down the counter goes my dad Because my dad's you know, he's native. He looks like a like an Indian, right? So I guess the guy was and his buddy was white So the story goes that he thought he had more of the look he was going for He had that long black hair and everything. He's like, well, why don't why don't you fell in an application too? He's like, alright, he ends up getting the job So then we got pictures of him where he's milking rattlesnakes, but that's not something you typically do He's turned over alligators and things like that. Somebody had to pay him to do that, right? You know, we probably wouldn't you know, but people voluntarily go and pick up a bottle alcohol and guzzle the whole thing and they just get drunk But they you know, but we wouldn't go near some venomous, you know snake But isn't that what the Bible says about alcohol? At last it biteth like an adder the story goes this is where I think he's pulling my leg My dad is that after he quit that job his buddy that originally applied got it and lost a hand So, I don't know to an alligator, but I don't know, you know consider the source on that one That's all I got to say. It might be true, but you never know with with with paw But that you know, it's still either way the illustration serves this portion of Scripture well, doesn't it? You think oh, it's just playing with this with an alligator. It's just playing with the venomous snake. What could go wrong? You know, what could possibly go wrong, you know, what's the worst that could happen, you know or really bad like What could go wrong playing with an alligator? I don't know. What do you think might happen? You know or you know, what's the worst thing gonna happen playing with a venomous snake now I'd have to fall over and actually be dead right play dead. I'm not gonna go that far with it And we would say yeah, don't don't go near that diamondback rattler kid. Stay away from that poisonous snake But then when it comes to alcohol they're like drink up Aren't you gonna be a man real men drink right the Bible talks about people that are mighty to drink wine What they're really doing is there it's it's just like picking up that venomous snake and just hoping you don't get bit, right? What else is gonna happen verse 33 thine eyes shall behold strange women, right? And it's talking about women that are foreign to you. It's talking about adultery. Okay, and Nine, that's what it means by strange. Okay, and thine heart shall utter perverse things You're gonna say things that you better. Hope nobody's got is recording you Right, you're gonna say things that you wish you hadn't said Yeah, that shall be a see that lieth down in the midst of the sea or see that lieth on the top of a mast It's a perfect description of being drunk You know, you're curious about what it's like being drunk. Look here. All you got to do is spin around in a circle Right, just spin around sir. Obviously, you're not going to do the the babbling and all these other things but if you want the physical sensation just spin around until you feel like you're ready to puke and Then just imagine feeling like that constantly Like when you lay down it just feels like the whole room is spinning constantly now You don't have to wonder about it well If you get curious kids about what it's like to be drunk and I'm and I'm dead serious who would back me up on this right, I Shouldn't have done that but You know All you got to do is just spin around in a circle And tell you in fact spin around till you puke because that's what happens when you're drunk You end up barfing your guts out doesn't that sound like fun, you know, just go rest your head on a toilet I'm not kidding. This happens, you know that they they oh, she's such a nice friend She held my hair back when I puked at the bar I've heard people describe people like that. Oh, I like her. I was I was barfing and she held my hair back. Oh He's so sweet when I was yakking my guts out he held my hair back for me so I didn't get any vomit in my hair What's it like to be drunk just just gag yourself and then spin around in a circle and then just imagine that not stopping for hours, you're just like You know and then then you'll have you'll know exactly what it's like and that would be better because then you won't have what you Won't be saying all the perverse things You know, you won't be having the wounds without well You might end up with wounds without cause because you might fall over or something like that, right? But you know, that's one way to find out Verse 35 they have stricken me thou shalt say and I was not sick They have beaten me and I felt it not when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again Then you end up being an addict That's the craziest thing about this passage. I will seek it yet again To become an alcoholic to become an addict it's doing all these horrible things to you. I'll seek it again That's a miserable way to live your life. It's no fun What was this sermon about we asked sobriety The practice of sobriety, right? This is the the one we're probably more familiar with to not be under the Influence of drugs and alcohol. So, you know, we got the strong warning there But again, you will say yeah, I'm never gonna do that But are you take what's are you fulfilling the other command to be sober the other application to take your life? Seriously, obviously if you're doing this You're not taking life seriously, you know, you're gambling with your life pretty much at that point. You're just taking drugs and alcohol You're just smoking whatever's passed to you. You're just going down to the dispensary and getting this incredibly potent marijuana You're just doing hard drugs. You're not you're not fulfilling either commandment You're taking your life your mind your body in your hands and just rolling the dice Okay, and hoping it turns out and you know what it doesn't always turn out right for a lot of people Take your life seriously go to 1st Peter chapter number one. We'll run through this real quick and then I'll close I'll just begin reading in verse 13 of 1st Peter 1 it says wherefore gird up the loins of your mind Gird up the loins of your mind, you know the idea of girding up your loins You know, we would we would liken that on to like, you know, tightening your belt, you know pulling your pants up I'm doing these guys at sags. Okay, I'll be a sagger Look if you're sagging you're fagging. Okay People don't they can't believe you'd say that You know where that came from came from prison That's where that came from Put your pants down below your booty To let everybody know Okay, do I need to say it that's where that came from and if you're sagging you're fagging okay there I just coined it But you know, I don't know what that has to do with girding up the loins of your mind Oh, yeah, you know what I mean when these guys want to gird, you know, be serious Look, you got one of these guys that can't even run, you know, cuz he's got his pants so low. You're not very serious And I don't look at guys like that and think what a serious individual that person's really got it together You know, they've really they they're going places in life, I mean look how they can't even get their pants up on their hips They can't get even get up with their pants belong. They are so serious, right? But we need to gird up the loins of our mind Right to be take life seriously and to what be sober So you can see again how this idea of being sober is associated with being serious Okay Gird up the loins of your own mind Be sober and hope the end for the grace that has to be brought unto you at the salvation at the revelation of Jesus Christ as obedient children Not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance You know being obedient means you're gonna be serious about things, right? Look if you're if you're gonna obey if you're gonna do what you're supposed to do If you're gonna obey the Word of God, it means you're taking things seriously You're not just like yeah, I read Proverbs 23, but whatever. I heard what the preacher said, but whatever I'm not gonna obey that then you're not being sober and you're not girding up the loins of your mind He goes on and says but as he which hath called to his holy beat so be holy all manner of conversation Because it is written be holy for I am holy I'm not going to take the time to develop all that we're holy is talking about being separate being you know set apart Go over to first Peter chapter number four first Peter chapter number four You know, he says there at the end of first Peter that we are to be holy for I am holy That we were to be holy in all manner of conversation You know, if you think about somebody who's holy you probably think about somebody who's serious You know, holy people are typically people that are gonna take their walk with Christ seriously Because to be holy basically means to be separate to be set apart unto God, right? That doesn't just you know, obviously in salvation where you know We've received the anointing of the Holy Spirit, right? We have the earnest of our inheritance until the day of the redemption of the purchase possession Okay, we have that but as far as living this life, you know, we have to be holy we have to be separate That's something that we have to intend to do that doesn't just happen automatically You know, you don't just become a you know, a Bible believe, you know, or a godly Christian I guess I should say just de facto because you got saved You know, you know who the Christians are that live a holy life the ones who are serious about it The ones who obey the Word of God. Those are the ones are that are serious that are sober about their Christian life They're the ones that take it seriously, okay He's saying here look and I'll just read you from second Corinthians chapter 6 he's saying wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate sayeth the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you and Will be a father unto you and you shall be my sons and daughters sayeth the Lord Almighty You know God wants to treat us like a child like he wants to treat us as his son as his daughter We have to be separate. We have to not touch the unclean thing. We have to be holy Which takes intention which means you have to be serious about the things of God in order to do that, right? But notice what he's saying when he's telling them to come out from among them He's saying be separate and what touch not the unclean thing To not touch that which defiles right You know, we need to be serious about our Christian life. So we don't get dirty, right? We don't want to be filthy in the sight of God, right? We don't want to be that spiritual You know boy or girl that puts on their Sunday school You know their Sunday best and goes out plays in the mud puddle and their parents are all upset. What are you doing, right? We want to be people who stay away from the filth of this world And look it gets hard to do, you know because it the devil's just slinging it and he's just throwing trying to You know smear us every chance he gets with all the filth that's out there I mean, like I said earlier, you can't even drive down the road anymore without having to hear some lewd disgusting Music come out of somebody else's car I mean, I love it every day it happens to be coming down up and down Valencia with on the way home today from church I asked my wife because the window doesn't work on that side of the van. I said, can you please I don't think I said Please I'm sorry, honey. I just said roll up the window. I don't want to listen to that crap It's a crap from pulpit. Whoops You should have heard what was coming out of that car And it's like I can't repeat that from the pulpit I don't repeat that I don't want to think what I was hearing You know the same thing happened to me the other night the night before down the stream such a road people just blasting the just most vulgar Disgusting lyrics put in the most filthy disgusting things in their back of their car You know what you are you're rolling around in Satan's filth and Everybody can see it and everybody can hear it It's amazing to me how many people just they just they just get on their phones. They just get in front of their television They just open up their laptop They just do whatever They just put on the earbuds and it's like they just open up their brain and they just let the devil just barf into their brain And I know it's kind of a humorous, you know illustration But think about it. That's what's really going on there That's what the world does is just here Satan just barf into my brain all the filth you want And God says don't be like that be holy be separate touch not the unclean thing come out from among them You're only gonna do that if you're serious about the things of God. That's the only time you're ever gonna do that Because You know, it's our former lusts, you know want that they want to go along with the world enjoy everything that the world's enjoying But God the Bible says the Lord has set apart him that is godly for himself The Lord will hear when I call unto him stand in awe and sin not Commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still The Bible says we are in holy people in the Lord thy God The Lord thy God hath chosen it to be a special people unto himself above all people that upon the face of the earth That's what we are in Christ. We are God's people. We should be different We shouldn't just be rolling around in the same filth that the world's rolling around in. Okay We're only gonna be that way if we're serious, you know, so ask yourself do your actions reflect the holiness of God? Are you no different than the drunken sleeping world that we're surrounded by? You know and to be sober obviously means to be free and clear of drugs and alcohol Not taking things that are gonna affect your mind and and keep get you out of your right mind But it also means to take life seriously to be guard on guard against sin in your life How many times did we look at it tonight where it was be sober be vigilant? Watching, you know being vigilant. These are the things that are associated with being sober Meaning be on guard against sin in your life Because if you think that sin can't creep into your life you're wrong and you're not serious you're not thinking soberly Sin will creep into your life. We have to constantly be on guard against it in our lives constantly You know, we it's like it's that game like Was it whack-a-mole? Remember at the I don't know if anyone even go is it probably vast half the room But has never even been an arcade at this point All right But they used to have that thing where you took the mallet and all the things would pop up the holes and then you They still have that. All right, you whack them and then you get the tickets then you go get that cheap plastic ring or whatever You know, you get some stupid toy that cost you like eight bucks you could have gotten from 25 cents online or something But that's what sins like it's like that stupid game, right? It's like oh here comes that sin. Damn. Well, I got that sin down Well, you know what? This one's gonna pop up over here next You know, you don't want to be the Christians just sitting there with the mallet in his hand Just go look at that sin. Oh, yes, so you're not gonna get any tickets You know, you're not gonna be able to go to the to the to the counter in heaven and redeem those things You have to be you know, you have to be constantly On guard against the sin that wants to pop up its ugly head in your life But who's gonna do that? The guy that's sober The guy who's in his right mind The guy who's serious about the Christian life That's the guy who's gonna bother to take the time to pick up, you know, that whole thing You know that holy hammer so to speak and and get the sin out of his life when it pops up and it will pop up You know, I've been saved for 20 years There's been plenty of sins, you know, it's like oh I got that one right and then it's this one You know, it's the sins of the flesh then it's the sins of the mind. It's pride. It's arrogance It's all kinds of things that we because look paul said in my in in me dwelleth No good thing that is in my flesh How can you walk around in this flesh and not have to contend with sin every single day of your life? Well, I don't know if I really believe that you're not sober. You're not thinking soberly then You have to think soberly about these things first peter chapter four verse seven, but the end of all things is at hand Be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer The end of all things is at hand be sober watch under prayer So again this idea of being on guard being vigilant first peter chapter five I'll read it very quickly verse eight. We all know this one be sober be vigilant Why because your adversary the devil as a roaring walk a roaring lion walketh about seeking who he may devour Be sober be vigilant. Why? Oh just to keep you busy Just because god wants to give you something to do No, because you have an adversary Who's walking about as a roaring lion seeking who may devour You ever seen a lion hunt They're you know, they're pretty sneaky for being such a big animal, aren't they? Somehow they manage to take down these animals that are quite quick It seemed like they could get away But they sneak up on them. Don't they they prowl they get close and then when the animal isn't looking when they least suspect it That's when they pounce on them. I mean why I mean god could have used anything any animal He wanted to describe the devil, but he chose a lion One because I mean, I don't know about you, but i'm never going to take on a lion I mean dad might have wrestled alligators Okay But he never wrestled a lion There's a reason why they don't have you know, the lion wrestler at reptile gardens and it's not just because it's not a reptile It's because everyone would be walking around you'd be walking around a lot less than this You'd be like, I wish I could pull my head in right now, right What's the worst that could happen wrestling a lion? What could possibly go wrong contending with a beast twice my size? You could lose your head But that's the animal that god used here to describe the devil this formidable predator That you know, we don't really stand it. I mean I get it. Well, i've got a gun, you know, every analogy falls apart Okay But if it's just you if it's just mano el laino The great plains of sahara and you got nothing in your hand you're going down buddy You are not going to outrun it. You're not going to wrestle it. You're not going to scare it And the devil's the same way. Look the devil has seen people like me and you come and go for millennia And he knows just how to work on us And he knows just how to work on us He knows all the tricks. He knows how man operates. He knows what to do when he knows me and you In and out the devil is a worthy adversary that we cannot stand against on our own You know, all we need to do is to be sober and to be vigilant to be serious about the christian life Because we do have an enemy And if you're going to live the christian life and just think well, I don't have anything to worry about You're the next victim You're going out We have to resist him as it says they're steadfast in the faith Knowing the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world Look, so sobriety is something that has to be practiced It's something that has to be preached as i'm preaching tonight. We saw that But some also I want to close on this that being sober makes you a powerful threat against the devil think about this If you are serious if you are serious about the things of god, you know if you do Put on the whole armor of god if you have the shield of faith if you have the sword of the spirit now now you're armed Now you can't stand against the wiles of the devil now you can Quench all the fiery darts of the wicked if you're serious if you're sober You know if you're serious about you know, girding up the loins of your mind and being vigilant You know being sober isn't just going to keep you safe. It's actually going to put you on the offensive It's going to make you powerful for the lord It's going to make you a powerful threat to satan. Why do you think satan spends so much time? Trying to get people drunken Trying to get people to let down their guard Because he knows what a threat they can be to him And his intentions his will right he has a will, you know, he has things he wants things to go a certain way But you know if we're sober if we're serious about the things of god, you know, we can resist him You know the bible promises that if we resist the devil he will flee But who's the guy that's going to resist? The guy who's serious enough who's sober enough to acknowledge the fact that there is an enemy that there is an enemy to be resisted Not the guy who's just treating life like a game just kind of Whatever happens well, I guess maybe You know if you're sober if you're serious, you could actually be a threat against the devils. Go ahead and have a quick word of prayer