 Do I drink? And should you as a Christian drink? We're going to talk about that today. Hey guys, what's up? It's Isaac David and this is The Daily Disciple where I hope you follow Jesus daily. But I wanted to talk a little bit today about drinking alcohol. Why I, well I put in the title, I don't drink, but I'm going to tell you a little bit of my kind of stance on it. Whether Christians should drink a little bit of theology behind it. I think it's going to be an interesting video and maybe it'll give you some food for thought. And I'm going to bring up some things that a lot of people don't talk about when they talk about drinking alcohol, especially in the Christian context. So it may be interesting to you. So stick around. So first a little bit on me. I grew up in a Christian homeschool household where alcohol was not present at all. Like my parents didn't drink, not even like, you know, wine within or anything like that. So that was just not part of the culture that I grew up in. It's not like we were like Southern Baptists and we're like, Jesus turn, turn water into grape juice and all that. Like we weren't in that space, but it was just kind of part of our family culture that we did not bring alcohol in. So as a kid, I growing up, I just didn't see it happening. And I kind of always related drinking with kind of when I went to football games. And when I would go to football games, I'd always be like, man, it smells like bread. It smells like bread. And it was just because of the beer, the barley or wheat or hops or whatever it is in the beer that makes it smell like bread. As a kid, I'm like, what's all this bread around here going on? But as time went on, obviously came in more and more contact with alcohol and began to kind of form my own perspective and opinion about it. Here in Canada, you can actually drink at 18 as opposed to the United States. Well, maybe some places in the United States are like that. But here in Canada, it's pretty like 18 years old, you can go for it. Number one, I was so unfamiliar with it that it was just kind of like something that I just kind of stayed away from out of pure like, I don't know what that is. Well, if I drink like a little sip, does that mean I'm drunk? Because I know in the Bible, look, hey, we're not supposed to be drunk. That's pretty clear throughout the whole, the whole scriptures. But every time Jesus is talking about alcohol, if he's talking about drunkards, it's never a good thing. It's not like Jesus like, get turned up, guys. No, he's like, don't get drunk. Okay, so that was pretty apparent to me. I'm not going to get drunk. God, it Jesus, I'm not going to do that. So I kind of stayed away from it just because I was a little bit unsure. Then when I did try some, I actually was like, okay, I don't like this very much. But one of the key things that kind of played into my abstaining from alcohol in general is just because I struggle with anxiety and depression. So when I hear about stories that people use alcohol as a coping mechanism, right? They come alcoholics or they become dependent on it, they consume alcohol to make themselves feel better or to drown themselves in the, you know, alcohol when they feel sad or they're disappointed or they're anxious or they're depressed or those kind of things like, I didn't ever want to introduce another possibility of another coping mechanism, or something that I could get addicted to or something that I would really like, and it would make me feel better. And then I would need that constantly because I knew that this thing could bring me, you know, emotional stability in some way, as you might not think alcohol as being that thing. But people use it as a coping mechanism. Maybe it doesn't help them on the outside, but maybe it does on the inside, numb some of the pain. So it's like, I didn't want to introduce something in my life that would give me the ability to do that. So just kind of my general thoughts was like, I'm going to stay away from it. When I think about like Christianity in general, and should we be drinking alcohol, I think it's in doing some research for this video, I found it interesting, a lot of the verses in, in kind of mentioning alcohol and wine, who's always in the context of celebration, right? So when I was talking about the coping mechanism, people are having it, like when they're really at the lowest moment, right, as kind of a something to fall back on, like I should have a beer because I'm feeling sad or whatever. But in the Bible, talks in context of celebration, like, you know, have good wines and good foods and enjoy life and that kind of thing. And so I think that's something to keep in mind. If you are okay, like, I have nothing against you if you want to have alcohol, right? And obviously, like I mentioned before, I think being drunk is wrong, according to the Bible. And being a drunkard is something that's not good. But if you're just going to have some alcohol, I think that's completely acceptable. But you want to make sure it's in the right context, I don't think you should be going to it. If it's like a pick me up, like, Oh, man, I'm feeling so sad. Now I should have this and will make me feel better. Because then you're, you're using it as a coping mechanism, right? But in times of celebration, I think it's cool to be able to fully enjoy the good gifts that God has for us. And I've been at church events where people have cracked open beers and stuff like that in celebration, and I have nothing against that. What I want to do, honestly, is normalize abstaining. It doesn't need to be a thing where like, if I say, Oh, I don't want it, right? Now you're getting all offended, or you're like, Oh, you're judging me or like, you think I'm insane. I'm like, Oh, no, no, it's okay. It's just my personal preference. I just don't think it's going to do me that much good. And if you're, you know, you're mature enough, and you're stable enough, where that's not going to be an issue for you. If you're like, there's no concern whatsoever of it becoming a, you know, coping mechanism, or getting addicted, or yeah, using it as a fallback, like if you're just secure in that, great, go for it. But honestly, I would recommend if you're younger, and like, I would just be careful, right? Anything we introduce into our life that is addictive, like even like, it shouldn't stop at alcohol, alcohol, right? It should go to all spheres of our life, social media, right? Watching TV, all these things that we use as coping mechanisms, we should be aware of the damage that they can do to us if we let that get out of control. And so if you're not as mature in the faith, or mature in general, honestly, I would just be really aware about how much alcohol you're consuming, because I've seen it get out of hand. And so yes, we want to be open to our freedom in Christ. And yes, Jesus turned water into wine of, okay, that's great. But honestly, there's some important place for wisdom here. And just saying, hey, it's totally okay to just say, Hey, I'm not going to, I'm not going to go there right now. Maybe I'm not totally against it. And this is how I feel. I'm not totally against it. But right now in my life, I just don't need it. I just don't need that extra complication or that extra temptation in there right now. You know, it kind of makes me sad that young adults, they feel like you can't actually have fun. A lot of them feel like you actually can't have fun without alcohol, without being a little buzzed, without being a little drunk. Like, that makes me sad, because I've had so many great fun times with my friends. And we're not drinking alcohol at all. We're having a lot of fun. It's goofy. It's whatever. And I feel like, man, you if you can't have a good time without alcohol, you it's not the alcohol that you're missing, you're missing the personality, you're missing your comedic, you know, ability, you're missing all like the wittiness and all that stuff. Like, man, I think we got to we got up our game in terms of finding entertainment and conversation and being together with people completely sober and aware of what's going on. Like, that is so fun in the conversations you can have. And if you live in a world where you couldn't comprehend having a good time without alcohol, maybe that's a good sign to take a step back and really evaluate has this taken a hold of my life. That's pretty much all I have to say. Thank you so much to everyone on Patreon that supports me. I am so thankful continually that you support me on there. And it's my dream to one day do this full time. But because of your support, I can already do it part of the time, which I am so thankful for. And I just appreciate being able to share my thoughts and heart with you guys here. And once again, no judgment if you do drink, that's all good. I just wanted to share a little bit of my experience and just trying to establish some wisdom in this conversation. Thank you so much for watching, guys. And I will see you next time. God bless.