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you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you is seven 15 salvations for today. So no 16 16 salvations for today. So that's great Anything else to report are there any other salvations report other than today that I missed my miss this morning I was counting up. All right Excellent. Keep up the good work preaching the gospel Offering total is listed down there at the bottom of the page received through the month of November prayer requests got the update from Stephen Smith's father who went to the hospital I don't I'm still a little uncertain. I meant to talk to brother Jeff before they left this morning, but If you're in the prayer group on the whatsapp you saw that announcement yesterday So today said that the CAT scan was clear clean and The surgeon said the ER staff did a good job Joining the edges and it's more risky to open them up again. So no surgery They're probably gonna release him from the hospital. So that's good news. Obviously. It's he's pretty banged up I guess but thankfully it sounds like he doesn't need to stay in the hospital So that's always good news when they're willing to release people. So Please if you pray for him as he recovers from his injuries his accidents there I Feel like I need to add so there's something else I need to add did someone bring up a prayer request that did not get added or am I just Okay, well no one's saying anything right now. I have a bad habit sometimes of not getting everything down so Just let me know if there's anything that I missed later on and then on the next page we've got Oh before I even go any further Real quick note just a little bit of housekeeping when When we leave for good to go to soul winning it just be appreciated I know when I came in it looked a lot better than it did when I left I was one of the last people to leave for soul winning and there's a lot of water bottles all over the place a Lot of half-drunk water bottles just sitting around everywhere and I know we got a lot of kids in our church we have a lot of adults and I'd be a little hard-pressed to think that those are all children that are leaving all the half full water bottles and stuff around by the coffee maker, so Please Just pick up after yourself Especially because we don't know when we're gonna have visitors. I know it's a family. We're all comfortable here and stuff, but we don't want to just Let the place Go and get too messy. So You know if you end up wasting water throw it away. Okay, we just don't leave it sitting out on the counter I prefer that you drank what you take but you know if you if you don't if you can't whatever, you know Just don't don't leave it trash sitting around, please Not a big deal but just kind of just just look after yourself on regard to that much appreciated because we do want everything to look nice when we have visitors coming in it ought to look nice even for you coming in right we're going into a house of God and Sing praises to his name here as word preached. So let's Let's show some respect for the place We know it's not all about the building, but we do care about the operation of things that we do here. So Appreciate that continuing on here on the next page November challenge is a soul winning challenge. So Add one hour of time To your regularly scheduled soul winning. We are in a great time of year So hopefully it's not too hard to do that even though the time it gets darker a little bit earlier still Have enough time I think to get this accomplished without it being too Problematic for people I have a tendency to do less so winning in the evenings When it gets darker earlier some people does just get a little bit more irritated when it's dark outside and show up the door Even when it's not that late. So for me, it's just more Saturday soul winning time than anything but You choose to do it. However, you like to We've got a couple more weeks left of this month So so try to knock that out get that one extra hour in it'll help us towards our goal Especially of the Salvations for the year new church plant not anything new to report there It's being prayer for that gingerbread house decorating December 2nd is the date that's don't don't pay any attention to the fifth that I put down there But somehow don't know how that number got put down there, but it's the second Saturday It's gonna be a lot of fun. Please sign up if you haven't already Let us know how many gingerbread houses you would like to have yourself. Mrs Massa was nice enough to go through the boxes so we don't have a bunch of broken ones Sitting there and I did have five more that I just brought in from my van so I'll swap out those those broken ones and see if we get those returned and Get new ones for that. So if you haven't already again sign up so I know how many supplies we need We'll have a few extras on hand, but that's about it. So Don't count on those being there for you You Bible memory passage Hebrews chapter 10. It's a review week. So Somehow brother will was the sacrificial lamb that came into my office Requesting prizes. So any of you who I'm just I'm teasing anyways Here's when it comes to prizes first of all, you know, you're gonna get it eventually But so no one's gonna I haven't heard any complaints about that You will get you will get your prize, but I've been steering away from gift cards because I think they're lame in general I think if courts are kind of lame, but at the same time I'm not very good at thinking of good gifts That's why it always takes a long time for me to get the gifts for people to have prizes because I try to think of something cool and I can never come up with anything but it's been put in my ear that people would be more inclined to do the The the Bible memory if they had a gift of like restaurant gift cards ask and you shall receive All right we will get some more restaurant gift cards as prizes for some of these things and Whether or not I think they're lame doesn't matter. All right, if you're the ones getting the prizes That that's what you want Then that's what we'll get so you got one week now if you've been not been liking the prizes lately You got one week to get 22 verses memorized now because you're gonna it may not be the prize next time So you want that gift card then then memorize it this week and get it quoted. All right You should have been doing it by faith anyways All right, I'm glad you came into my office this evening that's great So Upcoming birthdays and anniversaries are listed there through the rest of the month of November upcoming events upcoming events, too I wanted to make a note of this We are having a watch night service so that was asked I thought about this yesterday I forgot I meant to put in a bulletin and I didn't watch night service New Year's Eve service so New Year's Eve is on a Sunday this year and we will be Basically having a normal service but then what we'll do is we'll have dinner After the evening service so church provided dinner That New Year's Eve and then we'll hang out. We'll play games and just kind of bring in the new year here That's everyone's welcome to join us and and we'll just we'll just have good fellowship. Maybe we'll have a little bit of preaching I don't know But it's a full Sunday already so so basically just bring some games your favorite board games and things like that and we'll have a watch night service that Sunday just continuing after the evening service, so That is the plan for that even though it's not written down here We have the Christmas caroling please sign up for that and then the movie and pizza night on January 19th, which is a Friday evening so I think I think that's about it for all of our announcements and With that I'll turn the service back over to brother Peter All right church if you can open up your hymnals and saw number 364 So I'm 364 standing on the promises I Hope you guys blast me back song 364 standing on the promises Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Being passed around That was a book of Genesis chapter one as we do customary here strong old Baptist Church Going to read the entire chapter Genesis Chapter one in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth and the earth was without form and void and Darkness was upon the face of the deep and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters and God said let there Be light and there was light and God saw the light that it was good and God divided the light from the darkness and God Called the light day and the darkness he called night in the evening in the morning were the first day And God said let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters and let it divide the waters from the waters And God made a firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament and it was so Then God called the firmament heaven and the evening in the morning were the second day And God said let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place and let the dry land appear and it was so and God called the dry land earth and the gather Gathering together of the waters called he sees and God saw that it was good And God said let the earth bring forth grass the herb Yielding seed and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind whose seed is in itself upon the earth And it was so and the earth brought forth grass and herb yielding seed after his kind and the tree Yielding fruit whose seed was in itself after his kind and God saw that it was good And the evening in the morning were the third day And God said let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night Let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years Let them be for lights in the firmament upon of the heaven to give light upon the earth and it was so And God made two great lights the greater light to rule the day and lesser light to rule the night He made the stars also and God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth in To rule over the day and over the night and to divide the light from the darkness and God saw that it was good In the evening in the morning were the fourth day and God said let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life and fowl that may fly above earth in the open firmament of heaven and God created great whales and every living creature that moveth which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind and every winged fowl after his kind and God saw that it was good and God blessed them saying be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas and let fowl multiply in the earth in The evening in the morning were the fifth day and God said let the earth bring forth living creature after his kind cattle and creeping thing and beasts of the earth after his kind and it was so and God made the beasts of the earth after his Kind and cattle after their kind and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind and God saw that That it was good and God said let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over the cattle and over all the Earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth So God created man in his own image in the image of God created He him male and female created he them and God blessed them and God said unto them be fruitful and multiply and Replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over every Living thing that moveth upon the earth and God said behold I have given you every herb bearing seed Which is upon the face of all the earth and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree? Yielding seed to you it shall be for meat Into every beasts of the earth and to every fowl of the air and to everything that creepeth upon the earth Wherein there is life I have given every green herb for meat as it was so and God sought everything that he had made and behold it was very good in the evening the morning with the sixth day Let's pray dear God. Thank you for this day and things. Let's all be here together in your house Thank you for this passage and let us be able to read it and study it I pray you would be with pastor burzins as he comes to preach fill him with your spirit and give him boldness and Help us to receive this well and Jesus name I pray amen You All right, so we're starting with the probably the most read chapter in the whole Bible Genesis chapter 1 and If you're here this morning, then you know that the the content or the subject matter I should say of the sermon for this evening. I titled my sermon drug use in light of the Bible So if you weren't here this morning, I think most of you were if you weren't here this morning It is important that it's almost like a two-part sermon where I preached on alcohol and and you know the science and the Bible and how it talks about alcohol and there is definitely a lot of Overlap when we talk about drug use and and you know thinking back I don't know if I've ever preached an entire sermon just about drug use in The scripture and there is a lot to Cover in the Bible believe it or not while it doesn't say any it doesn't use the word drug It still has plenty of principles and truths that I think we could very easily apply as to Why drug use in general should be avoided and not used and can even be deemed? Sinful But there there's a lot of a lot of subject matter to cover So I'm gonna try my best to cover as much as possible because when I'm talking about drugs Probably the most the first thing that might pop in your mind is illicit drugs or illegal drugs And those are definitely on my list of things. I'm going to be Covering and depending on where you live in the country, you know marijuana may or may not be included in that list But I'm covering marijuana today because regardless of the legality of marijuana It's still a drug and it's still a sin for Christians to be smoking pop Okay. Now whether or not it should be legal that's a topic for another day is really has nothing to do with my sermon I don't think it should be illegal. But that's that like I said, that's neither here nor there we're gonna look at the at whether or not things are sinful and what we should be doing as Believers whether something is legal or not illegal Marijuana heroin methamphetamine cocaine LSD magic mushrooms a psilocybin DMT and prescription drugs narcotics Other things. Okay, there's there's a lot to unpack here again. The legality shouldn't really Matter we should be looking to scripture to determine what's right And what's wrong and the way I'm gonna approach this I'm gonna answer a couple of things that I've seen some are gonna be more geared towards specific drugs than others Okay So we're starting off with some people that might make the claim about drugs and say but it's natural God made it now obviously some of the drugs in that list are not natural. They're synthetic They're made by mankind so that wouldn't apply to this argument But the number one and probably the one I might focus on the most would be marijuana Just because it seems to be the most common the most popular just like alcohol this morning is extremely Popular net deserves its own sermon in itself, but many of the arguments that you can use about being drunken Would also apply to being high Okay being in an altered state whether that's induced by the poison of alcohol Or by the poison that comes from some plant Or some derivative of a plant right like cocaine comes from the coca leaves So it still comes from a plant. It's derived from that and so so what right if that's what's causing you to be inebriated or to be Intoxicated and use some other poison that gives you some other type of experience It's it can still I believe all be encompassed in drunkenness So what I preached this morning about drunkenness about alcohol at least some of it would be all applicable I'm just gonna sweep that with a broad brush and say yeah Go ahead and consider that and consider drugs when we're looking at what the Bible teaches about drunkenness But let's answer some of these objections and see You know get a little bit of wisdom from Scripture here the person who's gonna say it's natural and specifically the marijuana but you could apply this to mushrooms maybe in some other things, but the Bible we started their reading in Genesis chapter 1 and I mean You may or may not believe this you probably do because our world's crazy anyways But people will turn to these verses that I'm that we're gonna look at this morning as a justification for why it's okay to smoke pot Genesis 1 verse number 28 the Bible says in God bless them and God said unto them be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that Moveth upon the earth and God said behold. I have given you every herb bearing seed and for potheads And look look here's some truth and some of you may not know this and and you know, it's God bless you if you don't know this But when people get into drugs Oftentimes they get all about the drug like it's a big part of their life okay, and At this point I'm gonna refrain from admitting some more of my faults as thoroughly as I did this morning with the alcohol Okay, but I'll just let it be known because it's not a full secret that I've had my own experiences and my own Sinfulness in these areas as well. Okay, so Which shouldn't matter but You can't pull one over on me and say oh, well, that's not really the way it is. I know how it is okay, whether by my experience or through experience or friends and people I've been around and and the Wicked lifestyle I used to be part of so when it comes to things like drugs people do get all into this stuff That's why I mean you'll see people who have posters of pot leaves up on their wall and they'll have like They do doodling and drawings and all this stuff about about whatever drug they're into it becomes like like at the forefront of their mind and so many things and If you again not not endorsing it Have you seen any of the movies that kind of parody or make fun of people who smoke pot? You know what I'm talking about and the reason why it's in the movies because it's a real thing Because people say a lot of stupid things and do a lot of stupid things and get focused on a lot of stupid things Hey, man, have you ever seen a dollar bill when you fold it together, you know, it's like Stupid stuff Stupidity and and and literally stupid because when you do the drugs Just like alcohol if you remember when I was preaching about alcohol this morning the cognitive skills It dumbs you down So much that when you're doing the drugs you think stupid things are really profound But you're really just dumb In that instance you are just much dumber than you were before you took the drug but all of a sudden it's like wow, I Understand life man. I understand the world man Can you believe how deep this is and you're really just getting a really stupid understanding of things? Conversation that I don't know if I was a part of I heard whatever Well, it was this great observation when someone was high on marijuana going Who here's really with the game of life? You ever play the game of life board game? Okay, most people right? No, I'm talking about. Okay, and I know there's a new version of it We played the old version of it that had revenge. It was way better than a new version of it I don't know why they just tried to destroy that game with with I mean you could play the stocks and do all kinds of other stuff stuff in the game of life the way it used to be Anyways neither here nor there the board game had like all these little pieces and you have little houses and the college you do the kind of looks like it and and This is just an example of how stupid it is and people talk about things. It's like oh our life. It's like a game It's like the game of life It's like no the game of life is supposed to be like life our life isn't like the game of life stupid But this is the profound thought like it's all like a game Look at that because your perceptions shit. Look at the building over there. It's just like a game piece And it's some profound thought like dummy. They made the game piece after the building like it's not profound It's stupid And we're just we're just playing this game and we're driving this you know It's dumb It's dumb, but for the people In the moment you have this feeling like you're understanding so much Okay, it's a chemically induced Feeling that you're getting but your cognitive skills have gone down It's I guess it's probably similar to the you know that phrase ignorance is bliss You kind of become more ignorant And you just can't understand things as well, and it's I guess it's bliss. I don't know but The these are the types of things and why am I even mentions why am I bringing this why am I bring up some of these? effects Ask yourself is that how God would have you to be living as? an idiot Saying stupid things now when people are just ignorant and especially as they're younger and they're growing or learning things Fine you don't understand some things you have to grow you have to learn that's not wrong wicked but when you're already the point where you should know these things or you already do know them and then you kind of revert back because You're putting some substance in your body in making yourself a fool in making yourself like an idiot. God's not pleased with that That's not a good testimony People make the claim well God made it God made every herb bearing seed and Israel where I got off on the tangent anyways Of people going like see look it says herb see look it says seed You think that's just talking about marijuana no, when all you think about and all you see is marijuana you're gonna see it everywhere, but no an Herb is a plant Right and and when you keep reading it says which is upon the face of all the earth and every tree and which is a Fruit of a tree yielding seed to you it shall be for meat Meat is like your food. No one's out there eating marijuana for the food Like what do you have for breakfast? Oh, I'm just gonna cut down this this pot plant and I'm gonna eat it and like no No one was doing that then and they're not doing it now there's one reason why people ingest it and it's not to satisfy the munchies Okay, it's not what it's for But People will look at this and say and say see look God if God made it then it's good and you could see in Genesis 1 here verse number 30 It's every beast of the earth and every fowl of the air and everything that creepeth on the earth where there is life I have given every green herb for meat and it was so and God saw everything they made behold It was very good an evening in the morning were the sixth day. This is Genesis chapter 1 before sin Everything God made in the beginning was very good and it was the way he intended on it, but Did things change or did they stay the same as exactly as it was in the Garden of Eden? No, they changed right the creation changed After Adam and Eve sinned look at chapter 3 Verse number 17 because even if you want to say well God made this plant Is the plant really that bad well for human consumption? Yes God made all the plants, but they're not all to be eaten They're not all to be smoked None of them should be smoked They have plenty of other uses some of them you eat They're called vegetables Yes, eat your vegetables that's a good thing Look at verse 17 in Genesis chapter 3 and unto Adam He said because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife and has eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee saying thou Shalt not eat of it Cursed is the ground for thy sake and sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life thorns also and Thistles shall it bring forth to thee this was not a part of the original creation God made it all good and Easier and it wasn't gonna be that difficult for Adam to provide for his household But because he sinned now the ground is cursed now You're gonna have to deal with the thorns and thistles now. It's not gonna be quite easy now You got to be toiling and sweating by the brow of your face in order to feed yourself. It's not all gonna be so nicely provided with a mist coming up and watering all the plants and and really Limiting the amount of work you even have to do to provide now, it's different now there's weeds They came up as a result of sin to make the job harder Amen, don't you hate those weeds? You got it. You got a garden. You've got a lawn You got whatever it is You're trying to do and those weeds just pop up there and they get in the way and they start Overtaking and ruining what you're trying to do. That's a result of sin this So when everything that God made was good until man screwed it up That's the way it was so you can't just look at all of creation and be like well if God made it then it must Be good for me to eat or smoke false Genesis 9 even kind of says the same thing It says every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you. This is after the flood Even as the green herb have I given you all things So see how many times about the green herb the green herb the green herb. It's got to be talking about marijuana No No, what about I mean if that's the way you view this if you think that well just because God made this plant Then it's okay to eat. It's okay to smoke. It's okay. What about hemlock? Anyone Familiar with hemlock you know what hemlock is it's another poisonous plant Go try eating some hemlock and tell me well God made it. It's good, right I mean I should just be able to eat this. No you use some sense use some common sense God yet that God give plants for us to eat. Yes. Did he give animals for us eat? Yes, but you know what you still shouldn't be going around trying to eat a puffer fish Right it's kind of a fool's errand to try to chop it up just right So you don't kill yourself trying to eat it. How about just leave it alone? I Don't understand that There's a fish if you don't know it's kind of it's it's I think it's more popular in Japan But like you can if it's prepared just right And for what I read about it the the the chefs have to go through like three years of training Three years of training to know how to cut up this fish because if you screw it up you can kill people I Mess with it like okay, I'll just that's not a risk. I want to take It can't taste that good The meat that's not tainted with poison, right? I Mean my fish doesn't really taste that much different. You got your tuna You got your salmon and you got your white fish That's about it Fish-o-fish now, they're going like Come on it's not it's not that much so God made it. Yes, but it's not just good for everything You can't just be like, oh, well, you know got God made grapes, too But he didn't intend on people getting drunk It's listed off as a sin Well, God made the the marijuana plant too, but he didn't intend on you smoking it and getting high You have to read that into scripture just to try to justify your sin which is what people do with with drinking It's just the same thing people want to use Genesis So you see look God made the herb and the herb bearing seed and also that must be done It's the same people said well Jesus turned about water into wine So it's okay for me to drink alcohol. No, there's plenty of other evidence against that. So I recovered that this morning I'm not gonna do that again turn if you would to 1st Corinthians chapter 6 One of the worst arguments for being able to justify doing drugs is well, I mean, what's a big deal feels good. I Like the way it feels and Some drugs some people might say well there really isn't any negative side effects now Depending on which drug we're looking at The side effects are very easy to point out but some of them are A little bit more difficult because there hasn't been a lot of research especially in the hallucinogenic drugs on The long-term effects of these drugs. So if you look it up and be like well, I mean there isn't anything really there It doesn't mean there's no harmful effects It just means this enough study hasn't been done to rule it out and Before I even get into this in 1st Corinthians 6 Specifically on those types of drugs Remember this morning when I brought up the serotonin and the dopamine You won't believe this but these drugs also affect the same chemicals the same brain activity The LSD the psilocybin the DMT all these different hallucinogenic type of drugs all All have an impact on the serotonin in your brain and you know What else has an impact on the serotonin brain if you're not familiar as much with those drugs? Maybe you've heard of them, you know they do but antidepressants also Effect the same thing because the amount of serotonin in your brain is gonna make you feel a certain way It's gonna make your mood feel a certain way So the less serotonin you have the the worse of a mood you might feel in and the more you have The better of a mood you're gonna feel at About I did I did a paper on this back in high school About Prozac that was the popular antidepressant of the time and Prozac contains serotonin reuptake inhibitors, okay The words don't I mean they mean something but don't worry about understanding every single aspect of the word all it means is that the reuptake of the serotonin in your brain is Is like the serotonin being consumed so that there's not as much of it in your brain and the drug Inhibits the reuptake which means it allows for more of the serotonin to be present Okay, that's all it means is it's a complicated way of just saying that It allows for more serotonin which then impacts your mood and it's an anti depressant because the more serotonin the more you're just gonna feel good and these drugs the dopamine and the serotonin are gonna also help to give you a Euphoric type of a feeling These good feelings and whatever based on the chemical activity in your brain But I'll tell you what just like when you deal with people who are taking illicit drugs that are also impacting these same areas of your brain You're gonna be dealing with a lot of foolishness Just as you do when you're talking to someone who's drunk It's a lot of foolishness and a lot of times people who drink never realized how dumb The conversations are until you stop drinking and then you're around other people who are drinking. You'll be like, wow, I Never would have thought that this was a dumb conversation until you kind of stay sober and you're like the fools It's the same thing with the drugs Like I was just saying with whether it be the marijuana or even you know, the LSD. Oh, man, I'm seeing things and here's the draw for this stuff and this is where it gets promoted, especially in the rock music and That was a big influence for me when I was a kid the classic rock all these these rock and roll bands doing the drugs and Singing about the drugs and it's so cool, man And you expand your mind And you want to see things and you want to know things and you want to understand things that you couldn't normally do it You take this drug. You're gonna see this up. This is how they pitch it to you. This is how they sell it to you But what what it's doing you can easily see and track in the brain the chemical reaction going on There is no extra understanding to it. And if it's doing anything at all, I would say this It's just opening you up to more devils and demons because if you're actually seeing people it's either a total figment of your imagination or You're seeing some some devils And And this is this is where it gets pretty scary action and your kids especially you ought to be scared to death to do something like this and especially those the hallucinogenic drugs Because you take that You are no longer in control of what's gonna happen in your brain You have no idea what's gonna happen. Oh The sky is melting and you see I just want to see these cool things. Yeah, but you don't know what's gonna happen. I was around a guy in college who was taking some of this stuff and He was talking to somebody having a conversation to someone that wasn't there in his closet and That thing didn't like me and he was telling me this and He was having a conversation trying to tell this other Creature that he was talking to that I was actually okay, and I wasn't a bad person that that thing was telling him How bad I was It's it's weird Okay now look could be a total figment of imagination with these chemicals going on in the brain or maybe not Either way, that's not something you ought to be messing with and People do people do all kinds of dumb things when they go on these trips because you get out of control And I don't like of all the things I don't like to admit and I hate I hate this I Really do hate this about myself because I'd rather be looked at as someone who could be a role model as opposed to someone who's Done a bunch of bad things in his life but the one instance that I will Submit of Taking a substance that should never have been taken and the moment I realized I should never do it again was a moment that I was sitting in my apartment and I looked out at my balcony it was on a second story and The thought crossed in my head going. Wow. I wonder what it'd be like if I jumped off the balcony And it was a legitimate thought It was Just as much of a thought as Hey, why don't we go down to the store and get some snacks? Hey, what would it be like if I just jumped off this balcony right here and it was high up I mean it was the second floor but it was it was a weird shape and it you know kind of went down at the bottom Next step would be just doing it and People on these drugs do things like that Because you end up being not so much in control When you take this stuff, okay that scared me Significantly when I kind of came to my senses a little bit going like whoa. Oh Hold on a second. I didn't sign up for this. I don't want to have these crazy thoughts That where that it might seem okay in any world to jump off a balcony for no reason whatsoever Okay I'm not proud of that at all. But look it's real and these are the types of things that happen. I have a family member Who's much older than I am When he was in college because he was in college in maybe the 70s He took some acid Got a bad hit got a bad dose Into this day. He's been screwed up ever since he's like an adult child His parents have had to take care of him his entire life He never came back to his senses So you think it's cool you think it's fun. Oh, these rock stars are doing it. Oh, it's not that big of a deal Oh, I'm just gonna expand my mind a little bit. Yeah, you don't know what you're taking Especially with these synthetic drugs. You have no idea what you're taking And you know people who love money and just want to sell drugs don't care about you at all They care about their money and if something's a little bit different if something didn't get cooked Right if something got some added substance to it. They don't care about you They didn't care about him And he's like Mentally like retarded Literally I'm not saying as a joke like like he's his brain is not right. It got fried from drugs And he's barely able to kind of live on his own But he needs some supervision and needs assistance and dealing with any important life tasks One time one time at a party going and doing that that's all it takes But But somehow you might want to just be like, oh no, it's not that big of a deal Where would the gut where would the Bible condemn that? Well, let's look at first Corinthians 6 6 I'm gonna look at verse number 19 now in this context This is talking about fornication and this should definitely speak to the stupid argument. Well, I like the way it feels it feels good Well, just because it feels good doesn't mean you should do it fornication could feel good too But it's wicked as hell to sin Verse number 19 what know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost? Which is in you which you have of God and ye are not your own for you are bought with a price therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's how does it glorify God when you're ingesting Poisons and ingesting chemicals to have these trips and to see weird things and to get this state of euphoria And act like an idiot and say stupid things. How does that glorify God? How does that glorify God in your body? Which belongs to God? You are not your own you don't get to just say like oh I'm gonna live for the flesh And I'm just gonna enjoy all this stuff and I'm just gonna do whatever feels good God owns you Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit if you're born again The Holy Ghost lives inside of you how dare you bring that poison and those substance into that temple and and on top of all of that maybe even seeing spirits and devils and communicating with them That is very close to the witchcraft and the sorcery The drug use and especially psychedelic drugs have been used in the past and all manner of heathen religions The voodoo religions people use the drugs you've got your shaman And your spiritual healer and guide it's all pagan heathen religion That worships Devils It's not cool Yeah, the door is trying to make it cool. Oh, I'm a shaman, huh? Let's get high. Let's take a trip It's not cool No, and then the parents Don't allow your kids to listen to that garbage because that's gonna entice them to want to get into the sin. I Wish that my parents would have withheld that stuff from me, but look that it wasn't a safe house. They didn't know any better They were ignorant It's stuff that they knew. Oh, okay. I know what that is Yeah, and it's wicked It's bad. It puts that stupid thought of the the curiosity in your mind Turn if you would to go to Ephesians chapter 5 a Very simplistic argument to when you're looking at something that may or may not be spelled out explicitly in the scriptures What is the fruit of it what is The character the spirit of it When it comes to drugs who are the people doing it what types of Circumstances and surroundings go hand-in-hand with this What is the general life of people who are involved with this stuff that alone should give you a really good? Indication whether or not it's of God or not whether it's something that a Christian should be doing or not Just in general terms without getting the chapter and verse of every single thing just kind of looking at it as a whole as a picture just being like huh People because people who do the drugs They're usually not just doing one thing right it goes hand in hand with alcohol and a whole host of other drugs and You know, I started preaching alcohol this morning because for almost everybody that's where it starts by the way All of these other drugs all these other things The vast majority of the time It may not be 100% the vast majority of time are coming as a result of I tried the alcohol I like the way that feels now. I want to know how this makes me feel. I like the buzz I like the drunkenness. Let's see what this does Let's see what this does and then they move on to marijuana because that seems to be the safest bet And then oh that was kind of cool But now let me try this and now let me try this and this is the way it works with people and the more you Have this this mind of wanting to try things So many times people will put up these boundaries say well never do that and then they do that They say well never do that and then they do that and I'll never do that. Right? It starts off with alcohol I'm just gonna drink some alcohol. I'm not gonna do any drugs and Then you lose some inhibitions and then someone brings marijuana around you're like, well, I'll try that Right, you've already become more stupid from the alcohol. So you figure why not right? They're all doing it. It's not that big of a deal. It's legal in some states. Who cares? And then you try that be like, oh, it's kind of cool And then you're like, well, that's all I'm gonna do. I'm not gonna do anything else I mean, I would never do like cocaine or something I'll give it a little bit of time keep doing it and then Someone brings out the cocaine. Oh Okay, maybe I'll try once And then you do that and you used to end up doing things you never would do before and you're crossing lines You never thought you would do I've never put a needle in my arm look people don't start off with the needle. I Don't think anybody does I've never heard of it before I've never heard of a person who's never drunk never smoked pot never did any other drugs and it's like All right. Let's get the heroin out buddy It doesn't happen It's not the way it works so you need to not get started in any of it I Maybe turn to Ephesians chapter 5 There's a few passages we're going to look at here and I preached on this recently about being walking as a child of light, right? and I Just noticed that in preparation for this sermon Every one of these passages also has a reference to being drunk and being in excess and having this this this this Contrast of walking in the spirit versus not being intoxicated So let's read through this look at verse number three the Bible says but fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness Let it not be once named among you has become its Saints It's not your place as a child of God as a saint as someone who's sanctified the blood of Jesus Christ Be going around and putting poison and putting drugs and putting these chemicals into your body that make you say and do stupid things That is not for you to do neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting which are not convenient But rather giving of thanks for this, you know that no whoremonger nor unclean person nor covetous man Who is an idolater of any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God? Let no man deceive you with vain words anyone trying to promote drugs. It's vain words For because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience be not ye therefore partakers with them For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord walk as children of light and The people who do the drug, I mean just just again from the real basic scenario The drinking the drugs it's all things that are done at night They're done in the party scenes. They're done at the raves or wherever now I don't even know what you know, but it's still being done at night. Whatever you call them the gatherings whatever whatever it is Like The vast majority you think about they're being done at night. You're a child of light You shouldn't be out in the darkness Doing the things of the darkness walk as children of light for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done to them in secret But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light for whatsoever doth make manifest is light Wherefore you say at the wake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light See then that you walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise People who are into doing drugs are fools Fools Redeeming the time because the days are evil Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is It's not God's will to be going on some trip some psychedelic trips And Be not drunk with wine Wherein is excess but be filled with the Spirit Speaking to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing making melody in your heart to the Lord You don't need excess of dopamine or serotonin either You don't need excess of alcohol you don't need excess of these other chemicals in your brains Turn if you would to 1st Peter chapter 4, I'll read for you from 1st Thessalonians chapter 5 1st Peter chapter 4 is where you're going 1st Thessalonians chapter 5 verse number 5 The Bible says ye 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 and be sober Sober watch and be sober that is not a word that is only applicable to alcohol Because people who are high on drugs are not sober The word has meaning Yes, it applies to alcohol because people who are drunk aren't sober But people who are high on drugs are also not sober and What is the will of the Lord that you be sober that you watch that you're vigilant that you're paying attention That you're aware of your surroundings that you know what's going on. Don't allow yourself to get in some condition where you're not sober You will fall For They that sleep sleep in the night and they that be drunken are drunken in the night 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 1st Peter chapter 4 Look at verse number 1 the Bible reads for as much then as Christ had suffered for us in the flesh Arm yourselves likewise with the same mind for he that hath suffered in the flesh had ceased from sin That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men But to the will of God and getting high is just a lust of your flesh All it is just like drunkenness. You just want to fulfill this lust in your flesh Don't spend your time in the flesh to the lusts of men but to the will of God for the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles when We walked in lasciviousness and this is talking about look how we were in the past Before we were sanctified before we came believers before we wanted to serve God before all these things in times past Yeah, we were like the ring bringing in the will of the Gentiles of the unbelievers. We walked in lasciviousness lusts Excess of wine. That's how the world operates the world does these things That's not for us the reveling the banqueting and abominable idolatries wherein they think it's strange That you run not with them to the same Excess of riot speaking evil of you who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead You will give account for yourself For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead That they might be judged according to men in the flesh but live according to God in the Spirit Look at verse 7, but the end of all things is at hand be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer The Bible commands over and over again to be sober It doesn't matter whether or not God made the plant if The plant makes you to not be sober then you don't partake of the plant stay sober or the pill for that matter and I don't care if a doctor prescribes it to you and it makes you not sober then you ought not to be taking those pills that make you not sober and There's plenty of psychoactive narcotics out there That do that very thing that also impact the dopamine and the serotonin in your brain So look into what the doctor prescribes you before you take it so you don't end up Ingesting things they're gonna make you not sober There are ways of treating pain that do not have to have that same Impact on your brain to make you no longer sober Now are there extreme situations where you might have to have a leg or arm amputated or something and and It's gonna make sense to Have a stronger pain Yes But that is not what we strive for and definitely not it, you know, the first should be the farthest thing from a recreational use I'm not gonna condemn somebody if you've got to have like an organ removed from your from your body And you end up having some pain medication that's going to like help you to get rest and heal But this is where we need to use a common sense Right, I mean seriously Just like the instance where the people who sent the spies away another way like Rahab the harlot She lied, but she saved life So it's not like well, I guess it's just okay to lie then no like like there's a situation where God's gonna gonna allow this and and and show respect to someone who's saving someone alive and They'll get credit for doing so but it's still not right to tell the lie It's not right to alter your mind, but in these extreme situation It's not like it's it's it's not the same thing You look at the greater good if it's gonna save the life of someone to be able to to Get the healing then that's what you do It's just like also if it's required of a of a man a married man to have to look on the nakedness of someone else in order to save their life like Look, we're not saying that it's okay to just do that and put yourself in that situation in general But if that's like a life or death situation, you know In general but if that's like a life or death situation then you just do it right because you're saving the life You're not gonna be like nope can't see that Now obviously those are rare situations Right. I mean it's not an everyday thing. It's not something that should be popping up very often at all First Peter look at chapter 5 And if this doesn't sink in I don't know what will verse number six Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time Casting all your care upon him for he careth for you be sober be vigilant When you're high, you aren't sober and you're not vigilant Be sober be vigilant. Why should I do I have to always be sober God? Why do I have to to be paying attention and be vigilant because your adversary the devil is a roaring lion Walketh about seeking whom he may devour The devil doesn't care about you. No, in fact, he hates you and he wants you dead he wants to devour you want to destroy you and When you're high on drugs that is gonna be prime pickings for the devil to attack you and get you in trouble and tarnish your name and smear your character and get you in a whole world of trouble and Entice you with other lusts of the flesh because you've already now you're not being very vigilant Because you're not sober you've opened up the door to all kinds of other things and When you open the door to sin you start I don't care what the city you start open up the door to sin It's that much easier to do the next sin And especially when it comes to a sin that's gonna alter your mind and lower your Inhibitions and make you more open to just doing things in general that feel good It's A lot easier when you open up the door to smoke and pot to get into gluttony People get I brought it I made a mention to it earlier the munchies you know people get they feel hungry This is why they try to use the marijuana to treat cancer patients or people who have a problem From other medications that cause them to not be hungry Because that's one of the things that this drug does is it makes people feel hungry even when they're not and Look, we could laugh about it. We can make jokes about it, but it's one of the things the drug does and If you're not eating for strength, then you shouldn't be eating You can just be living to indulge yourself and and and have I mean that's that's what the Bible teaches to it does it's not taught very commonly because too many people are guilty of it, but We shouldn't be like the Bible says eating for drunkenness Satan's out there like a roaring lion Looking who you want to devour and when he finds someone who's not vigilant and who's not sober Watch out You Can't afford as a Christian to not be in your right mind You can't afford it's just too much to lose It's too much to risk especially a Christian that cares about that loves Jesus and love God you're thankful for your salvation you care about the gift of Eternal life and you want to be able to share that gift with as many people as possible and have a positive impact and serve others and do the work of Christ You want to do all that stuff Well this the exact opposite thing that you should do The worst thing you do then or one of the worst things is just get involved in this other sins and these Drugs and and not being in your right mind because that is gonna destroy your testimony. It's gonna destroy your work One argument I've heard is the one that says well, there's no physical Negative consequences and though again more towards the some of the psychotropic drugs Well First of all, that's not established and I would say that's not true Because you may not know what you're taking. Those are all synthetic drugs And you're buying stuff from someone else. You don't know what you're taking. Also, you're being partaker with other men's evil deeds You're supporting someone that's that's making their money or making money selling drugs You really want to be someone who's a partaker with their evil deeds and whatever else they're doing Well, I'm only buying this from them. Yeah, but they're probably selling a bunch of other stuff, too. I Mean this goes on and on and then as a believer, you know, we're supposed to be blameless Well, these drugs are illegal Now you're risking, you know going to jail or getting getting arrested and getting these these crimes brought against you Why just to indulge your flesh? At the end of the day, that's all you're doing So you want to you want to comment about how well there's no physical negative consequences. Yeah, but there's lots of negative consequences from doing drugs And it's not even just about you. Anyways drugs are all about you Doing drugs is like the most selfish thing in the world people who do drugs and get drunk is the most selfish thing Self-centered not caring about anyone else thing that you can do Literally people are so wrapped up in themselves and as the people who want to solve their problem of all these problems What was me and I'm gonna take all these drugs to make myself not feel it All you're doing is just being self-centered and thinking about yourself How could you be thinking about someone else if you're allowing yourself to be in a state of mind That's not going to be conducive to actually being able to help other people Because you're high because you're on a trip because you're doing whatever the drug is meth and whatever it is. It doesn't matter They all impact your ability to think their ability to reason the ability to make decisions What about The family what about the the mom or the dad That has a child and shame on you If you ever let yourself be in a position To not be able to care for your child Whether it be booze whether it be drugs, I mean I couldn't that would that would scare me to death It does scare me to death that there are kids out there that have parents That For their own pleasure, they're willing to put themself in some messed up state of mind How do you know if your child isn't gonna go and and do something get injured or put themself in a position where they could Easily get injured and now you can't deal with it all because you're just stoned out of your mind. I Mean it could literally cause the death of a child Because you wanted to indulge and just satisfy and gratify the lust of your flesh And people do that when they get drunk. Oh, I need to take my son to the ER Oh, but I can't because I'm inebriated. I can't even walk straight let alone drive It's so selfish so selfish And what if you don't have any kids and say well what about some other loved one Someone called you go ahead and you get high and you take that drug and then someone calls you like man I need you right now. Can you come and help me out? No, because I just care about myself I'm not in a position to help you because I just decided to Get high You don't know when people are gonna need you and look as someone who's supposed to be a servant and a minister and Caring about other people we ought to be making ourselves available as much as possible right and definitely not doing these things They're gonna prohibit us from being able to do the will of God. I Mean it's so many ways in which this is applicable in so many ways where you should never be in that Situation and in that condition where you are just incapacitated I'll read for you from first Thessalonians chapter 5 turn if you would a second Samuel 13 The first Thessalonians 5 verse 20 says despise not prophesying So hey selfish person that just wants to indulge in your flesh don't despise the the preaching of God's Word Let it sink in Prove all things hold fast that which is good No one has been able to convince me about what is good about taking any manner of drug These you know, whether it be crystal whether it be cocaine whatever man Do you try to show me something that's good or any of the psychotropic drugs? nothing Abstain from all appearance of evil How about that one as a believer? Well, I don't think it's that big of a deal. Well, you know what like everybody else does Even our culture even our wicked culture today still is gonna view the drug use as evil How about you stay away from the appearance of evil I mean if nothing else, I mean it'd be hard pressed to think that you can't see the problems with the drugs But if nothing else, how about you just refrain from the appearance of evil? And the very God of peace sanctify you holy and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved Blameless under the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ At the end of the day you're not in control when you're high and you're also putting yourself at risk For for harm to even come upon you I brought up the instances where you might have to be relied on for somebody else but what about even just watching out for yourself and Being aware of what's going on When there is the plan against Amnon By Absalom, this is the last verse we're gonna look at verse number 28 and second Samuel chapter 13 He planned for it to be at a time when Amnon had been drinking At his house invite him over. Hey Look at verse 28 now Absalom had commanded a servant saying Markey now when Amnon's heart is merry with wine Watch out for him now when he's Indulging and he's had enough pay attention to him because when he's merry with wine And when I say unto you smite Amnon then kill him fear not have not I commanded you be courageous and be valiant He's setting him up Hey, we're gonna get him at his most vulnerable state when he's been just indulging and he thinks everything's safe He's at my house. He thinks everything's good That's when you go in and kill him and that's like your adversary the devil You don't want to put yourself in that condition ever To be abused to be killed for evil to come against you whatever the case may be I think one of the reasons I haven't really preached on this much is because to me It's just like it should just be common sense Even before I got saved I knew that this stuff wasn't good like it's just common sense that drugs are bad There's nothing good about it The only good is when people see is because well, I just want to feel a certain way and I want to gratify some fleshly lust That's all anyone ever gets out of that But for the believer for the Christian it's it should just be common sense we aren't supposed to be living to our flesh We're not supposed to be gratifying the lusts of our flesh. No matter what that lust is. You don't just give in to that lust It's not of God God gave us enough good things in this life to enjoy good wholesome godly things that aren't gonna change the way that you think and Lower inhibitions and just give you this artificial euphoria If you want to feel good go serve other people Go win a soul to Christ That will give you a good feeling That's way better than any drug Okay, and coming from someone who unfortunately has had some experience with this None of it's cracked up to what people want to make you think it is at all not even close It all pales in comparison to leading someone to Christ and I mean that from the bottom of my heart I'm not just saying oh, you're just a pastor. Oh, you're just trying to sound righteous Look, I mean that with all of my being it is a much Much much better feeling that you get when someone calls on the name of the Lord You've invested your time and you've shown them the gospel and they do that in front of you man Nothing compares to that that feels good And in any of this chemical induced feelings They all come with a price by the way, they all come with a price and I didn't even get into The bondage that these drugs will bring because so many of them are addictive And if they're not addictive physically, they're going to be addicted addictive mentally People say oh marijuana is not physically addictive. Yeah, but it's very mentally addictive. I Mean for all I know I've got friends I went to high school with that probably are still smoking pot to this day pathetic Pathetic decades And they wouldn't think about stopping I mean, I don't know I don't talk to him anymore it's not my crowd I'd separate from When the people are gonna live like that, it's nothing to do with me. I'm not gonna allow that to cleave to me, but It wouldn't surprise me one bit there's so many people out there like that and You know, we ought not to be brought under bondage To any sin I was gonna have a certain Roman six you could do that for homework and read Roman six yourself and Talk about being under bondage to the flesh and to sin We're freed from that Let's walk as children of life. Let's pray your Lord. Love you. Thank you so much for your word I pray that you please help us to be strong in our spirit. I pray that the children would Especially learn dear Lord that Not to ever go down that path of the drugs and alcohol and Lord, I guess one more admonition that I never mentioned was When it comes our flesh and being able to Fight against our flesh the more doors We open up the heart of the battle is going to be of having to resist those temptations in the future and Lord I pray that People here who have never gone down those paths will never go down those paths and be able to receive instruction without having to experience it for themselves so that they don't have to have that struggle for the rest of their life of Having given their their flesh a taste of some sin, but that they can be Much less likely to want to indulge these particular sins because they've never given into it dear Lord and I pray to please strengthen us in the spirit help us to Walk uprightly and walk as children of the day and not of the night Lord. We love you. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen All right, we're gonna sing one last song before we're dismissed for the evening brother Peter, will you please lead us Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh You