By David Feddes


Chemical culture

  • Constant advertising makes drinking look witty, sexy, and fun.
  • Alcohol is often considered essential for airline flights, business events, private parties, dates, and weddings.
  • Alcohol, weed, and other drugs are often ticket to acceptance by peers.


Is alcohol evil?

Wine is a mocker and beer a brawler; 
whoever is led astray by them is not wise. (Proverbs 20:1)

God makes wine that gladdens the heart of man. (Psalm 104:15)

Jesus changed water to wine.

Wine is a gift of our Creator but becomes a curse when misused.


Misusing alcohol

Getting drunk: grouped in Scripture with sins such as idolatry, witchcraft, swindling, homosexual acts, and orgies. (Gal 5:19-20, 1 Cor 6:9-10)

Getting others drunk: Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbors… till they are drunk, so that he can gaze on their naked bodies. (Habakkuk 2:15)


Proverbs 23:19-21, 29-35

23:19 Listen, my son, and be wise, and keep your heart on the right path. 
20 Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, 21 for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags. 

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


Drunkard’s harm

  • Spiritual sin
  • Physical damage (23:29)
  • Intellectual distortion (23:33-35)
  • Financial ruin (23:20-21)
  • Emotional woes (23:29)
  • Relational conflict (20:1; 23:29, 35)
  • Vocational failure (31:4-5)


Vocational failure

It is not for kings… to drink wine, not for rulers to crave beer, lest they drink and forget what the law decrees, and deprive all the oppressed of their rights. (31:4-5)

Priests and prophets stagger from beer and are befuddled with wine… they stagger when seeing visions, they stumble when rendering decisions. (Isaiah 28:7)


Two kinds of drunkards

  • Party animals think it’s fun and funny to get drunk. They sin and risk harming themselves and others.
  • Addicts are controlled by craving and use alcohol/drugs to cope. Their misuse of alcohol is not just a sin to repent of, but a disease to be treated.


Higher risks

  • Do you come from racial/ethnic group with high rate of addiction?
  • Do you have an addicted close relative?
  • Have you had previous problems with alcohol or any other drug?

If so, it’s wise to avoid alcohol totally.


Serving others

  • At private parties, don’t serve alcohol if you know a struggler will be there.
  • At larger public celebrations, such as wedding receptions, serve no alcohol or just enough to toast the event.
  • If you choose never to drink alcohol, don’t judge those who enjoy a drink.


Warning signs of alcohol addiction

  • High tolerance
  • Blackouts
  • Preoccupation
  • Use to relax
  • Drinking alone
  • Gulping drinks
  • Protecting supply
  • Loss of control


Crossing the line

If it fills the empty spaces, if it is the essential part of any successful gathering, if it is what you look forward to at the end of a grueling week or day, if it is the thing that relaxes you, lubricates you, frees you, steadies you, prepares you, then you have crossed the line from responsible to irresponsible drinking.


Denial

“They hit me,” you will say, “but I'm not hurt! They beat me, but I don't feel it! When will I wake up so I can find another drink?” (Proverbs 23:35)

“Come,” each one cries, “let me get wine! Let us drink our fill of beer! And tomorrow will be like today, or even far better.” (Isaiah 56:10-12)


Addictive behaviors

  • Denial: “I only use once in a while.” 
“I could quit any time.” “Life’s okay.” “My troubles aren’t from drinking.”
  • Dishonesty: Lying to hide habit, get approval. Stealing to pay for habit.
  • Manipulation: Getting your way by playing on others’ fear, guilt, and pity.


A family disease

  • Enable addict by lying and fixing
  • Denial of reality, self-deception
  • Worry over addict, bills, family
  • Obsessed with curing addict
  • Nagging, accusing, empty threats
  • Anger at addict for wounding you
  • Blaming self for addict’s problem


Under the influence

Drunkards will not inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 6:10)

We do not belong to the night or to the darkness… those who get drunk, get drunk at night. (1 Thess 5:5, 7)

Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. (Ephesians 5:18)


Step 1

We admitted we were powerless over our addiction—that our lives had become unmanageable.

I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate… Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? (Romans 7:15, 24)


Step 2

We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

Power belongs to God. (Psalm 62:11)

Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord. (Zechariah 4:6)


Step 3

We made a decision to turn our lives and our wills over to the care of God.

If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. (Luke 9:23)

Your will be done. (Matthew 6:10)


Step 4

We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:23-24)


Step 5

We admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

I acknowledged my sin to you… And you forgave the guilt of my sin. (Psalm 32:5)

I know my transgressions. (Psalm 51:3)

Confess your sins to each other… that you may be healed. (James 5:16)


Step 6

We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus… Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God. (Romans 6:11, 13)


Step 7

We humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow… Create in me a pure heart, O God… grant me a willing spirit. (Psalm 51:7-12)

Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. (Psalm 19:13)


Step 8

We made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

Any man or woman who wrongs another … is guilty and must confess the sin... They must make full restitution for the wrong they have done, add a fifth of the value to it and give it all to the person they have wronged. (Numbers 5:6-7)


Step 9

We made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

If you… remember that your brother has something against you… go and be reconciled to your brother. (Matt 5:23-24)

If I have cheated anybody… I will pay back four times the amount. (Luke 19:8)


Step 10

We continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:8-9)


Step 11

We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me. (Psalm 25:4-5)

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. (Colossians 3:16)


Step 12

Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we try to carry this message to others and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Tell how much God has done for you. (Luke 8:39) Freely you have received, freely give. (Matthew 10:8) Continue in what you have learned. (2 Timothy 3:14)


Twelve steps

  1. Admit inability
  2. Believe in Power
  3. Surrender to God
  4. Moral inventory
  5. Confess wrongs
  6. Ready for change
  7. Ask God for change
  8. List those you hurt
  9. Make amends
  10. Keep doing all this
  11. Pray and meditate
  12. Help other addicts

 

Modifié le: jeudi 25 avril 2024, 11:34