Text: Isaiah 28:3-4

 3 The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet:  4 And the glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley, shall be a fading flower, and as the hasty fruit before the summer;  which when he that looketh upon it seeth, while it is yet in his hand he eateth it up.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday, 30^th September 2024 Midnight Encounter

DANGERS OF DRUNKENNESS

Text: Isaiah 28:3-4

Memory verse: Joel 1: 5 Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.

How many woes has God pronounced against this sin. Isaiah 28:1, "Woe to the drunkards of Ephraim!" Joel 1:5, "Howl you drinkers of wine." Drunkenness excludes a person from heaven. 1 Corinthians 6:10, "Drunkards shall not inherit the kingdom of God." A man cannot go stumbling to heaven. King Solomon makes an oration full of criticisms against this sin, Proverbs 23:29-30, "Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has babbling? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes? Those who linger over wine!"

"Who has strife?" Excessive drink breed quarrels. "Who has babbling?" When one is drunk, his tongue runs; he will reveal any secrets of his friend. "Who has bloodshot eyes?" Bloodshot eyes come sometimes from weeping, but too often from drinking; and what is the outcome? verse 32. "In the end it bites like a poisonous serpent; it stings like a viper." The wine smiles in the glass, but stings in the conscience!

Drunkenness is a sin against all the ten commandments.

1. Drunkenness casts off the true God. Hoses 4:11, "Wine takes away the heart"; it takes the heart off from God.

2. It makes the belly a god. Philippians 3:19. To this god, the drunkard pours drink-offerings; there is a breach of the second commandment.

3. The drunkard in his cups takes God's name in vain by his oaths.

4. The drunkard makes no difference of days. He is seldom sober on a Sabbath. On that day, he worships wine.

5. The drunkard honours neither his natural father, nor the magistrate, his civil father. He will be drunk, though the laws of the land forbid it.

6. The drunkard commits murder. Alexander killed his friend Clytus when he was drunk, for whom he would have given half his kingdom when he was sober.

7. The drunkard's wine proves lust. Augustine calls wine the enflames of lust. Jerome said, "I never believe a drunken man to be innocent,"

8. The drunkard is a thief. He spends that money upon his drunken lust, which should have been given to charitable uses. So, he robs the poor.

9. The drunkard is a slanderer. He cares not, when he is on the beer-bench, how he defames and contradicts others. When he has taken his full cups, he is now fit to take a false oath.

10. The drunkard sins against the tenth commandment, for he covets to get another's estate, by circumvention and extortion, that he may be the better able to follow his drunken trade. He sins against the ten commandments.

If this sin of drunkenness is not reformed, I pray God, the sword is not made drunk with our blood. And, whereas some will go to shift off this sin from themselves, that they are no drunkards, because they have not drunk away their reason and senses, they are not so far gone in drink that they cannot go. He is a drunkard, said Solomon, who tarries long at the wine, Proverbs 23:30. He who sits at it from morning to night, who drinks away his precious time, though he does not drink away his reason. Habakkuk 2:15, "Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbours, pouring it from the wineskin till they are drunk."

Do not be like the serpent, lovers of wine. This, I fear, is one cause why the Word preached does so little good to many in this city. They drink away sermons. They do as the hunted deer. When it is wounded, it runs to the water and drinks. So, when they have been at a sermon, and the arrows of reproof have wounded their conscience, they run presently and drink away those convictions. They steep the sermon in wine. The bar bell does them more harm, than the sermon-bell.         

You may not be the one that is involved but let the danger of drunkenness inspire you to pray for drunkards in your family and your environs.

 

CGDS HYMN 8; SS&S 379:

HAVE YOU BEEN TO JESUS FOR THE CLEANSING POWER?

1. Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power?

Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?

Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour?

Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?

Refrain

Are you washed in the blood?

In the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb?

Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow?

Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?

2. Are you walking daily by the Saviour’s side?

Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?

Do you rest each moment in the Crucified?

Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?

3. When the Bridegroom cometh will your robes be white!

Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?

Will your soul be ready for His presence bright?

And be washed in the blood of the Lamb?

4. Lay aside the garments that are stained with sin,

And be washed in the blood of the Lamb;

There’s a fountain flowing for the soul unclean,

And be washed in the blood of the Lamb.

 Prayers 

1.  LORD God Almighty, let your holy Spirit take over every spirit of drunkenness in me, my husband my wife and every member of my family in Jesus ‘name. Amen.

2.  1 Peter 4:3 For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties and abominable idolatries. Lord destroys the appetite that drives me and every member of my family into drinking and restore us to your glory in Jesus’ name. Amen.

3.  LORD God Almighty, deliver your Children oh Lord from every connecting (fornication, adultery, smoking and hard drugs) sin to drunkenness in Jesus’ name Amen.

4.  Isaiah 5:11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may pursue strong drink,

Who stay up late in the evening that wine may inflame them. LORD God Almighty, deliver your children from all the curses on drunkards in Jesus ‘name. men.

5.  Lord Jesus, fill me with Your Spirit and take away my desire for wine.

6.  LORD God Almighty, make every sinful pleasure distasteful to me, but put in me the desire for Your will in Jesus’ name. Amen.    

7.  Habakkuk 2:15 “Woe to you who make your neighbours drink, who mix in your venom even to make them drunk So as to look on their nakedness. You may not be a drunkard but get people drunk, the bible says you are not excepted. God have mercy on me and forgive me. I promise I will not give them drink again, have mercy Lord in Jesus’ name Amen.

8.  No drunk is ever responsible. The spirit of drunkenness has a way of making men and women useless. It has a way of destroying the value of their victims. When the spirit of alcoholism traps a man it ruins his personality, it strips him of his dignity and turns his glory to shame. Lord God Almighty, have mercy and restore our shame back to your glory as we repent in Jesus’ name. Amen.

9.  Drunkenness have taken a lot of people to their early graves.  Many people have been poisoned through alcohol. So many accidents that have taken so many lives through Alcohol. Lord, deliver us all from every influence of alcohol, drugs and drunkenness in Jesus’ name. Amen.   

10.  Every evil deposit place on my life and the life of my loved once to condemn us into the life of drunkenness be flushed out in the name of Jesus Christ.

11.  Every evil coven of witches and wizard where my destiny and the destiny of every member of my family have been caged in drunkenness, we break loose by fire in the name of Jesus Christ.

12.  Lord God Almighty separate all addicted children of my family extended or nuclear from the cup and bottle in Jesus’ name. Amen.  

13.  Lord God Almighty disconnect me and every member of my family extended or nuclear from   every evil Association causing us to engage in alcoholism and hard drugs in Jesus Christ name. Amen.

14.  Every spirit of alcoholism from my father’s house be destroyed now in the name of Jesus Christ .

Make these declarations

Almighty God, deliver us from every attraction from wine and hard drugs in Jesus’ name. every woe that is attached to drunkenness and those that offer their neighbours strong drinks Lord destroy it in Jesus’ name. restore every lost glory to drinking in Jesus name Amen. Fill them OH Lord with the Holy Ghost that will convict us to repentance in Jesus’ name Amen. Lord, disconnect me and every member of my family extended or nuclear from   every evil Association causing us to engage in alcoholism and hard drugs in Jesus Christ name. Amen. Every evil deposit place on my life and the life of my loved once to condemn us into the life of drunkenness and hard drugs be flushed out in Jesus’ name. Amen.