 Well, you can't say the Bible's boring. That's quite a story here in 2 Kings chapter 9, I mean it's better than any adventure book you could read, it's better than anything they could put on the screen here, I mean there's action, adventure, treachery, you name it, especially this is a great story in the Bible, there's a lot to learn here, I'm going to ask you to keep your place in 2 Kings chapter 9, we're going to come back to this story about mid-sermon and I'll apply it to what we're talking about, but this morning, let me just tell you what the topic of this morning's sermon is, and hopefully this sermon doesn't apply to you directly this morning, but there's this mainstream thinking today on this topic this morning that I want to preach about, I want to preach a sermon this morning on the idea or the topic of marijuana this morning, and it's super irritating to me, this topic, because it is becoming very mainstream today, it's been happening for I would say in my life for about 15 years, maybe you could say 20 years, that this has just been getting more and more people are playing down the dangers of this, and you know just the consequences of marijuana over the last few years, and it's just getting really part of the culture today, which is really irritating, I want to preach on it, I want to talk about what the Bible says, I want to talk about actually that it is not something we should have in our culture, the culture today is teaching that marijuana is harmless, marijuana is, I remember maybe 15 years ago there was this idea that started being impressed that marijuana was actually better for you than alcohol, and all these different things, it's natural versus alcoholic things, and the thing is then it started in 15, 20 years ago about being a good medicine, it's a medicine that people can use, so that again pushed this culture of marijuana being this harmless thing, that actually it can be good at times, and I want to show you that that's completely false this morning, in Genesis after we turn to Genesis chapter one, I've actually heard the Bible used to justify marijuana, I've actually heard people that don't know the Bible, try to misquote a verse or two, mainly this one about marijuana and use this for marijuana, the Bible says in Genesis chapter one, in verse 29, the Bible says, and God said in verse 29, behold I give you every earth bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed, to you it shall be for meat, meaning you're going to eat it, right? First of all, then people are like, see marijuana, and you're just like, what are you talking about? First of all, this is before the fall, where people just did, it was before the fall, before there was like, before creation was cursed, right? I don't think that in the Garden of Eden there was poison oak, all right? That's not the Garden of Eden that I read about in the Bible, but that doesn't mean, I mean you think about after the fall and creation was cursed, this certainly doesn't mean you should go out and eat every mushroom and every opium plant and every poisonous, if you eat poison oak you'll die, you know, it'll probably kill you if you eat poison oak, it's so bad chemically that, you know, but so it's just stupid and wrong to apply this pre-fall, you know, verse two that you could just go and smoke weed, I mean it makes no sense at all. So, you know, somebody in my family asked me this week when I told them I was going to preach on marijuana, they said, well how is the sermon on marijuana going to be different than like an alcohol sermon? And I'm going to show you this, it's going to be very different. I said you just have to wait and see. But it's going to be very different this morning, but first of all, I'm going to give you three points this morning on, you know, marijuana and how the Bible says that we should not be anywhere near this and that the dangers and the effects of it, it is not harmless, okay? It is not harmless, it is much worse than alcohol, in my opinion. And, you know, I think the Bible will show us that as well. But first of all, it does have some application to alcohol. The Bible doesn't mention marijuana. The Bible doesn't mention, you know, even drugs. You know, the Bible does say that you should be sober though. And this is what the parallel with alcohol is, turn to 1st Peter chapter four, 1st Peter chapter four. So that the first point is a simple one and it is the exact same point of, you know, why no Christians should drink alcohol is that the Bible says that you should be sober. So yeah, the Bible has different types of wine. There's non-alcoholic wine. Sometimes it's talking about strong drink, you know, wine that does have alcohol in it. And the Bible is very clear that no Christian should be anywhere near strong drink or alcoholic beverages. But the Bible, moreover, the Bible clearly teaches that we should not be drunk, that we should be sober, clear minded, not under the effect of some chemical, you know, controlling our brains. Look at 1st Peter chapter four, verse number seven, 1st Peter four, verse number seven. This is the simplest point that we're going to get into the very specific points with marijuana this morning. But the first one is the Bible is very clear and saying, you know, be sober. And these are, I mean, we could read dozens of verses talking about this. I'm just going to give you a couple. Look at verse seven says, but the end of all things is at hand, be therefore sober and watch unto prayer. Now go to Galatians chapter five. So inevitably people say, yeah, when the Bible says be sober, it's just saying be serious. You know, it's not talking about, you know, not being drunk. So let me just prove that wrong for you. Look at Galatians chapter five and verse number 21. Galatians chapter five, look at verse number 21. The Bible says in Galatians chapter five verse 21, it's talking about these pretty serious sins here. It says envies, murders, drunkenness, revelings. So the Bible is clearly teaching against drunkenness. And the opposite of drunkenness is sobriety is being sober, being completely without, you know, the influence of something on your brain. Now turn to first Corinthians chapter five, and look at verse number 11. So now I want to point out something in the case of sobriety, how alcohol is actually not as bad as marijuana. Look, alcohol is bad. Christians should not drink alcohol. I'm not going to reprint, repreach that sermon. But the point is, look at first Corinthians chapter five, look at verse number 11. First Corinthians chapter five and verse number 11 is talking about six things that are so bad, they will literally get you kicked out of church. Now no church follows this today, except this one. Because I mean, you say, well, you don't, yes, we've done this here. People have been not allowed to come back to this church because of one of these six things. Okay, any of these six things, look at first Corinthians chapter five, look at verse number 11. The Bible says this, but now I've written unto you, not to keep company. That means they can't come to church these people. That's what that's saying. If any man that is called a brother, be a fornicator, covetous, or an idolater or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such in one, no not to eat. So the Bible, Paul is explaining to the church at Corinthians that at Corinth that these things cannot be allowed in the church. The whole context of the chapter was somebody that literally got kicked out, put out of the church because he was in fornication. And the Bible was saying, you can't have Paul is teaching, you know, the administration of the church here saying, you can't have these things in the church because they will spread to everybody else in the church. And the only way for these people to get right is to be put away, put out from their brethren. And the idea is that they would get better, that they would get that sin out of their life, and then they would be brought back. That's second Corinthians right there. They would be brought back into fellowship in the church. But notice a couple of things here. First of all, it says any man that is called a brother. So any man that is called a brother, meaning it's not like a first time visitor is going to come in here with his girlfriend and say, you know, he's high, how did you find out about the church? He shakes my hand after the church service. And he's like, oh my girlfriend and I, we live together and he kind of says they're in fornication which is completely normal today for the world. And it's not like we picked them up by the belt straps and chucked them out the front door, like their first time service. Any man that's called a brother, meaning anybody that is getting involved in the church that is becoming a regular, you know, to the church, and that's kind of my, I draw that line. You don't have to draw that line, I draw that line. And that line will be drawn. And these are not comfortable conversations to have. These are not things that no pastor enjoys doing, but these are things that if we're gonna have a biblical church, must be done. They must be followed. Or you endanger the other people, especially the children of the church. I mean I can stand up here and preach about drunkenness and, you know, fornication and covetousness. And then we have all this in the church and like it's gonna, the preaching would be a joke. That's why, you know, we cannot be hypocritical, you know, with the church. That's what Paul's teaching here. But here's the difference between marijuana and drunkenness. The Bible doesn't say, the Bible says someone that is a drunkard here. So somebody, look, I don't think you should ever drink alcohol, but somebody that, and this is a rare person in my experience in life, but somebody that goes home on Friday night and has a beer after work one time and has one drink after work is not a drunkard by any measure, okay? And look, that's a rare person in my life experience, but you can be someone that occasionally has an alcoholic beverage and not be a drunkard. The difference between marijuana and alcohol is every single time you do it, you get drunk or get high with marijuana. So there will be no person in this church that is a user of marijuana as far as I am concerned. So that is a, it's a different measuring stick because of the nature of that drug, really. So somebody that is an occasional user of marijuana, they're only doing it to get high. And I believe most people that drink alcohol are only doing it to get drunk. Don't get me wrong, but there is a different severity there in the case of marijuana or any drug, by the way. So the first one is the Bible clearly teaches be sober. All right, so the Bible clearly teaches that. So we could just pray and just, you know, start fellowshiping right away as far as the Bible is concerned. But we'll keep going, and I wanna show you some things where marijuana from the Bible, especially, marijuana is actually much worse than alcohol. Okay, we kind of see the one with alcohol and, you know, just that the level of sobriety there is already more severe, but turn to Proverbs chapter 20. So the first point is a simple one. It's the same point as why, you know, one of the reasons you should never drink alcohol is because the Bible says be sober, but turn to Proverbs chapter 20. The second point is this. The second point is this. So I'm gonna kind of give you some, I'm gonna give some bombastic statements here in the second and third point, but I'm gonna back it up with research and what the Bible actually says. The second point of why no one should be anywhere near marijuana is because it makes you an idiot. It turns you into a, well, what the Bible would say, if we're gonna use Bible language, it turns you into a fool. Turn to Proverbs chapter 20 and look at verse number one. Proverbs chapter 20 and verse number one. We'll apply a drink or a drinking alcohol, you know, application here, but the Bible says this, it says, wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. So the Bible is saying here, I'm just trying to prove the point to you right away from the Bible that you can make decisions in your life that will make you more wise or less wise. So you can literally do things that make you a fool. The Bible is clearly teaching here alcohol being one of those things. But what if this has a dual meeting? What if this has a dual meeting where it literally, what if this means that being not sober can literally make you stupid? I mean, that's another application of this verse right here. Is it being not sober, not being sober can literally make you dumb? What if that's true? Now let's look at some research from marijuana here. First of all, they're gonna use IQ as a test here in all these scientific tests. So what is IQ? IQ is, it stands for intelligence quotient. It's basically a benchmark or a test on how, what your cognitive abilities are, I guess is a good way of saying it. They measure, it's a measure of intelligence that's commonly used in scientific studies. So it's gonna be mentioned in the studies that I show you here. Now I have a mixed opinion about the actual mainstream idea of IQ and I'll tell you what my opinion is where it kind of differs from mainstream and I'm pretty sure that I'm right but you can make your own decision on that. But basically, there's such a thing as an IQ test and what they do, they test verbal comprehension, they test like visual spatial skills. If you've ever seen or taken an IQ test, they'll have like shapes that are being rotated or turned and all these different things and you have to like say, okay, here's a pattern of shapes and what it would be the next position of this shape according to this pattern. You know, visual recognition, fluid reasoning, memory is one of them and then just simply how fast you can do it is another one which just how fast you can figure things out. They'll give you simple little tasks and just see like how fast can you figure this out? So IQ tests are kind of a thing out there. Are they valid? Here's what I would say, yes and no. I would say that they are valid in the sense that turn to Proverbs chapter one and I'll show you from the Bible why I think this and I've also seen this in my life and with other people as well but turn to Proverbs chapter one. Are they valid? I believe that they are valid as a benchmark for a scientific test. I do believe that they are valid in that case but this idea that your IQ is your IQ is just simply false. You can increase your IQ. I've seen it, I've seen it happen. You can increase your IQ and by that same logic you can also decrease your IQ. You see where I'm going with this? All right, turn to Proverbs chapter one and look at verse number five. The Bible also teaches this by the way. The Bible also teaches that you can increase knowledge, you can increase wisdom or you can decrease it. It's up to you, look at verse number five. The Bible says this, it says a wise man will hear and will what? Increase learning and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise councils. To understand a proverb and the interpretation, the words of the wise and their dark sayings, look at this, verse number seven says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Meaning that's where it starts. Meaning that knowledge in your life can be much increased but where does it start? It starts with the fear of the Lord. So if you don't have the fear of the Lord you can't even get off the finish line. This is why you see so many godless people waste their lives looking for aliens or looking for black holes with dark matter, all this stuff. They just waste their complete lives on these silly things that produce nothing because they didn't start with that fear of the Lord. That's why so many great inventions, so many great things in the industrial revolution were invented by people. Look, I'm not saying they were saved but they had the fear of the Lord but they at least feared God. That's why you see these great things throughout history. It was people that feared the Lord. That's the starting line. So the point is, is this is kind of a biblical proof right here that you can increase or decrease your mental ability. All right, and look, I mean, it's true. It's true. I mean, just think about it, like there's a lot of chess games that get played here. Okay, and look, I've never claimed to be great at chess but I remember when we first started playing chess, like I sat down and played chess and I did pretty okay amongst, you know, I didn't beat everybody but I mean, I did pretty good and then the guys of the church, they just played chess for like five months straight and like I just sat and visited with everybody and I didn't play any chess. And I sat down last week to play chess. I got smoked. I'm looking at Brother Edwin, I'm like, what's happened? I'm like, what is going on? Your knowledge has greatly increased. But look, you can get better at things. You can get better at recognizing patterns and getting strategic and linear thinking. These are all things you can get better at how by practicing. I don't wanna give the sermon away but you can get better by practicing these things. Your brain is like a muscle. You do nothing but lay on the couch and eat Cheetos for five years and then try to get up and play football. Everything's gonna break. You're gonna hurt yourself. You gotta train, all right? But look, marijuana decreases your ability to think. And I'm gonna show you some scary studies, you know, this morning that prove this. Look, a large longitudinal study in New Zealand found that persistent marijuana use with frequent use starting in adolescence was associated with a loss of an average of six and up to eight IQ points. So I mean, at least it's a benchmark. I'm not saying, I mean, it's talking about a delta here. So I mean, I believe the study because it's talking about somebody who had an IQ at this level and I'm not saying they can't increase it or decrease it by something they're doing in their life, but what we know is that the delta from using marijuana was it dropped in this study, measured into mid adulthood. Now look at this, those who use marijuana heavily as teenagers and quit as adults. So they used it as teenagers and when they got over 20 years old, they stopped using marijuana. They did not recover the lost IQ points. It makes you stupid, it makes you dumb permanently. I'm telling you, I have seen this in my life. I have seen this in my life. So the Bible is clearly teaching you can increase knowledge and wisdom and the Bible gives advice on how to do that, but you can see here even from science that you can decrease it too. Marijuana decreases your ability to think is what this study is saying. Permanently, I mean that's scary. Now think of this for a second. 76% of doctors approve of medical marijuana use. You're like, what in the world? You know, you're gonna get, think of that. You're gonna give somebody medication that has permanent cognitive side effects. For pain relief? I mean, this is one of the reasons that I don't have much faith in modern medicine. Look at Proverbs chapter 31. The Bible's ahead of the curve on this medical decision too. Look at Proverbs chapter 31, look at verse number six. This is totally applicable to what's happening with medical marijuana today. Think of it, three quarters of doctors are just like, yeah, you know, you're having a little headache, here you go. Give yourself brain damage. That's what we're talking about. Just killing off your ability to think. Look at Proverbs 31 verse number six. The Bible says give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. Look, this is how marijuana should be used. The Bible is not, you know, you could apply this spiritually or you could apply this physically. But either way, whether you apply it spiritually or physically, it's not saying give unto him that is going to perish. It's saying give unto him that's ready to perish. Like somebody's just like on their deathbed. Somebody that's like, just like ready to just die. Hey, let them, it's like the morphine with the soldier on the battlefield. At least make him feel good. He's done. That's what the Bible's teaching here. It's saying that is the application for these things that destroy your brain. It's just somebody that is just, they don't have any hope anymore. Is that what's happening with all these kids? With all these young adults smoking marijuana, they just don't have any hope? Spiritually or physically? No, that's not what's happening at all. Even some middle-aged person that goes to the doctor, oh, I have migraines. Here you go. They're not ready to perish. Let's just get them drunk high and have them damage their brains. Now turn back to 2 Kings, chapter nine. So the first one is the Bible says, be sober. The second one applies more applicable to marijuana because of the permanent effects that it leaves on people. Look, and you will notice this with people that even used to smoke marijuana. Tell me that you do not see this. Tell me do they not talk different? Are they not slower? Are they not like moving in a, it's almost like they're in a different dimension. Some people that have heavily used marijuana in the past, in their lives. It's scary. Turn to 2 Kings, chapter nine. 2 Kings, chapter nine. The third point is this, and this is very specific to marijuana as well. The third point is it turns you into a loser. You say, what do you mean by that? I'm gonna get specific. Look at 2 Kings, chapter nine. We see this amazing story in the Bible. So the story, let me just summarize the story of what's happening here for you. There's a lot that happened before this and there's a lot that's gonna happen after this chapter. But basically you had this wicked King Ahab who came out of this dynasty, who's the third dynasty in the Northern Kingdom of Israel in this wicked King Ahab. Just God hates him, he wants his whole family gone. He wants Ahab's seed, every male child that is connected to this family wiped off the face of the earth. That's what God thinks of Ahab. But the problem with Ahab, and the reason it got so serious is because Jehoshaphat befriended Ahab. And Jehoshaphat was a good king of the lower kingdom of Judah. And what actually happened was, and you wonder, there's a lot of sermons you could do out of 2 Kings, chapter nine. But you wonder like, oh, why shouldn't I have friends that are kind of, I got this one friend and you know, I know there's a lot of problems, but you know all this, the danger's for your children. The danger's for the next generation because Jehoshaphat got right. Jehoshaphat, he got right. He almost died going into battle with Ahab. Like God spared his life and then sent a prophet to rebuke him. But his son married Ahab's daughter. So when it says, there's two kings in 2 Kings chapter nine, who Jehu is hunting down here. Jehu is hunting down Joram. And it's a little confusing because not only did they marry into each other's families, but they named their kids the same names. So there's more than one Ahaziah. There's an Ahaziah on each side and there's a Joram on each side. But what happens here is Ahaziah is going to visit his uncle, the King Joram of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. So it's not like they were just buddies. At this point, they're family. And God hires Jehu or tasks Jehu to become king to clean up this mess. And it is a mess that needs to be cleaned up completely. God wants this tie broken between these two kingdoms. He does not want so much for your, our diversity is our strength. No, God wants his people separated. God wants his people separated unto him. He doesn't want them with any ties to this wicked Northern Kingdom of Israel. And Jehu was picked by Elisha to be the man to take this task home. And he does it, and he does it. Now I'm gonna show you there's a reason he was chosen for this. Look at 2 Kings chapter nine. Look at verse number 16. The Bible says so Jehu. Now he's the king even though no one knows this. Jehu wrote in a chariot and went to Jezreel. This is the place where Joram lay there. And Ahaziah king of Judah was come down to see Joram. This is Ahaziah's uncle. He's coming to visit his family. The king of Judah and the king of Israel. And there stood a watchman in the tower in Jezreel and spied the company of Jehu as he came and said I see a company. And Joram said take a horseman and send him meet him and let him say is it peace. So he sees all these riders coming from the tower. And he's saying go and see what they want. And so there went on horseback to meet him, verse 18. And said thus sayeth the king is it peace. And Jehu said what has thou to do with peace? Turn thee behind me. And the watchman told saying the messenger came to them but he cometh not again. So you have, I mean you gotta understand the picture here. You got the guy watching from the tower. And he's watching the messenger go out to Jehu and Jehu's company. Jehu's Calvary or whatever he's bringing with him. And the watchman goes, or the watchman is watching the messenger go and the messenger all he sees, he doesn't see the conversation. We only get the conversation from the Bible. He just sees that the messenger goes there and joins him. I mean basically what Jehu said, he said what is it peace get thee behind me. He's saying get with me or I'm gonna kill you. Is what Jehu was saying. Then went out a second. So now he watches, we better send a second messenger. Something weird happened with that first one. All right. Which came to them and said thus sayeth the king is it peace. And Jehu answered and said what has thou to do with peace? Turn thee behind me. And the watchman told saying he came even unto them and cometh not again. So now they've, now we know it's not a fluke see. Now the watchman looks and say okay well maybe it was a traitorous messenger or whatever. They send another messenger, maybe a more reliable messenger this next time. And he joins Jehu as well. The watchman at the tower is going like we got a problem here. Is what he's thinking about. All right. And this is what he says. He says and he coming now he's reporting to the king. He said the second messenger didn't come back either. And he said and the driving look at this. This is the key right here. He says and the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimchi. Why? For he driveth furiously. Notice what he says here. Notice what he says. He says the driving is like Jehu the son. He's like I think it's this guy. He doesn't say it's Jehu and Jehu is driving furiously. He says I know it's him because of how he's driving. He says I know that it's this man because of the way, he's talking about the way he's coming at them. The way he's riding. He's not like I mean he is driving furiously. He is coming to accomplish a mission. He was literally identified by this. Meaning what? Meaning that this was Jehu's way. This was how Jehu was identified how he was riding his horse because he was like this all the time. He was like this in the things that he did. This is how Jehu drove always. And this is why God had Elisha anoint him. Because he had this Herculean task in front of him and he knew he needed someone like Jehu who drove furiously. He wanted it done right. Say what does it have to do with marijuana? Well let's go back to our scientific studies here. From psychology today. You know how much I love psychology today. Here's an article. Does long-term cannabis use stifle motivation? Habitual use of marijuana is linked to lower dopamine levels. What does dopamine? Dopamine is that chemical in your brain that makes you feel good. You just get done running two miles and you just feel really good. After you're done running two miles you just get done exercising and you feel really good. It's something that makes you feel good. And this is what drugs and alcohol does is it gives you those false dopamine hits in your head. All right but the study here is showing that researchers have found that levels of dopamine are lower in long-term cannabis smokers and those who began using the drug at a younger age. Lower dopamine in a part of the brain called the striatum is linked to less ambition and motivation. So what it's doing is it's giving you these fake dopamine hits but then it's actually just crushing your ability to even create dopamine in your head. Are things making more sense to you now? You ever met somebody that smokes marijuana? That has smoked marijuana for more than one time? That is like a regular user of marijuana? You run into these people and you will know them right away. You don't even have to see them smoking marijuana and meet one of these people and know you use marijuana. Why? It's because of this right here. This is the main reason. There's literally, let me read you another one from a UK study, or not the Bible. This UK study says this. The cannabis users in a study, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, researchers used pet brain imaging. It's the way they can scan your brain to look at dopamine production in the striatum of the brain in 19 regular cannabis users and 19 non-users of matching age and matching sex. The cannabis users in the study had all, now listen to this too, this is a side note. The cannabis users, 100% of them in the study had all experienced psychotic-like symptoms while smoking the drug. So the first thing, that's a side note right here. Cause everyone thinks that all marijuana just relaxes you and I've read this statistic in many of the different studies that brought up. Every single person that is a regular user of marijuana experiences psychotic episodes at some point. Every single one, it's like 100%. You say what is that? It says it's experiencing strange sensations or having bizarre thoughts like feeling as though they are being threatened by an unknown force. That's just an example of this study. So all of the marijuana users in this UK study had all experienced this psychotic 100% of them, at least occasionally. The second point is this. So what they were looking for is they thought that they would measure higher dopamine levels in the psychotic, in the regular cannabis users because psychotic episodes are usually with people that have high dopamine levels. Just for your information. Researchers expected that dopamine production might be higher in this group since increased dopamine production has been linked with psychosis. Instead they found the opposite effect. It was significantly lower. So it lowers the ability of the brain to produce dopamine, this reward center of your brain. There's actually a syndrome out there that you can Google and you can find that it's so common now. There is literally a syndrome describing, what I'm calling as point number three is it makes you a loser. And the syndrome is called a motivational syndrome. You could read for hours and hours and hours on a motivational syndrome. It's so common in our population today among people that smoke marijuana, they've given it a syndrome name. You say what is the, here's the definition of a motivational syndrome. Here's what it produces. So the scientific reason is that your brain loses the ability to produce this dopamine and then you get a motivational syndrome which produces this. Feelings of apathy or emotional numbness. Meaning what? You just, what's apathy? It's like you just don't care. Tell me this isn't the marijuana smoker today. They just don't care. They're emotionally numb. Nothing gets them excited. Feeling detached, indifferent or disinterested, that's kind of the same. Blunted or restricted emotions, that's kind of the same. Look at this one. Lack of motivation to complete tasks or engage in activities. Withdrawal from activities and routines. Routines like I don't know, getting out of bed at a certain time. Like I don't know. Going to work every day at the same time, at the same place. Trouble focusing and concentrating. I mean I would relate that back to point number two where it's just totally like jacking up your brain. Just totally just wrecking your brain. Problems with memory and short term amnesia. Which by the way, in people that started out as a teenager and smoked marijuana into their young adult years, they lose this permanently in many of these studies. Imagine just not being able to remember things. Not having short term memory, having damaged short term memory because of something you did when you were 16 or 17 or 18 years old. Becoming more withdrawn or less active, productive and social. The problem with point number three is it turns you into a loser. What does it mean? It robs your normal desires and your normal drive. And also as alcohol, it lowers testosterone men. And lowers testosterone and increases estrogen production. You know what I mean? This is turning men into women. This, look folks, this is a life killer right here. This aim motivational syndrome. This is why Jay who was chosen by Elisha, why he was chosen by God. The importance of drive in your life. Ladies, young ladies, you meet some young man that smokes marijuana, you run like the wind. You run like the wind because that is gonna bring you into a life of poverty and destruction. This drive, this motivation is necessary for anyone to have. Folks, look, in order to achieve any goal in your life, you need to have drive. You need to have motivation. I mean, the more, and the more of it you have, the more you will achieve. I don't care if you're talking about spiritual things or regular things. This is why so many people accomplish so much than others at this point right here. You wonder like, oh, I mean, I wonder, I see people that just can't accomplish anything. They can't get anything done. And I wonder, I'm like, don't they look around and see people that are able to accomplish things and think, hey, what's the difference there? It's not because they're taller and they're better looking and, you know, whatever. Or it's not even because they're faster. It's not even because they're smarter. It's because they're more motivated than you are. That is the one thing. It's because they drive like Jehu. And whatever they do, that's why people succeed at accomplishing goals that they set for themselves. You're like, well, you know, I just don't have any, I just don't have any drive. Some people don't. Some people don't have drive, but you know what? You know you can get drive? You know you can change the way you are and you can get to be a motivated, driven person. You know that that's possible? The Bible tells us that that's possible. You say, how can I get drive? I'm not driven in my life. I'm not motivated in my life. I'm not accomplishing any of the goals. See, people that aren't motivated usually have things that they want, goals. They usually have things like, oh, I wanna be here. It's just like they're just completely unmotivated and they just float around. They float around until they're 60 and they accomplish nothing. But you can get motivation, you can get drive. The first way is this, stay away from drugs and alcohol. Because it'll rob that, especially marijuana. We'll rob that from you. It'll steal it from you. I was in college my freshman year. I was in college my freshman year and I remember this specific person. I remember his name, I won't say it now. But he was one of the smartest people in our freshman engineering class. And I remember I transferred schools a year and a half later, two years later. And then I remember going back to visit that school my junior year. And I remember seeing him and I do remember him in the dorms. I do remember he smoked weed. And it was kind of surprising to me because nobody really from my small town really, it wasn't a thing that was common. Like alcohol was common. Marijuana was not common. And I remember this guy and his roommate were into smoking weed. And I didn't think he was a bad person or whatever. I was just like, oh, that's strange. And I remember I saw him as a junior. He was not in the engineering program anymore and I could not believe what I was looking at. He was one of the smartest people in the class and I saw him, he was just like, yeah, you know, bro, it's all good, bro. Just be you, bro. He was like, I'm just like, what's going on here? Who am I talking to? But that's what it is. You don't even meet these people out soul-winning. Met this lady, she's watching like six kids and she is high or has been high too much in her life. And she's just like, hey, hey, we're coming by. You be you, love you. She's just like, I mean, it's just like just everything's dulled down. Well, look, it's a life killer. How are you gonna be a good mom if that's your motivation right there? I mean, I walked away. I think I was with Garrett at the time. I walked away just appalled. I'm like, here's these little kids. They're walking around this house and their mom's just this dulled down, just high, all she cares about is drugs. And she's got no motivation to do anything much less be a mother is pitiful. But look, that can be taken from you permanently. That's the scary thing. You have to have drive. I don't care if you're a man, a woman, a young lady, a young man, you have to have drive in your life or you will fail at everything. Now the first thing is stay away from marijuana especially. Stay away from drugs and alcohol. You say, how do I get drive if I don't have any? I've met plenty of nice people that just don't have any motivation, just don't have any drive. But guess what? When you get married and you start having kids and then you don't have any motivation, you don't have any drive, I don't think you're a nice person anymore. I think you're a bum. That's what I think. So I'm such a nice guy. Yeah, you don't support your family. See what the Bible says about that. See what the Bible says. I don't care how nice you are in a conversation, you're not doing what you're supposed to do when you have those responsibilities. You're not a nice guy, you're a bum and that's what this marijuana will do to you. It'll give you, I mean, it'll take away your drive. You won't drive furiously in any part of your life. Say, how do I get drive? How do I get drive? Look at Proverbs chapter 16. Look at Proverbs chapter 16. The Bible teaches that you can train your body and your mind. The Bible very clearly teaches that. The Bible says this. Look, the Bible here is teaching in Proverbs chapter 16 in verse number three, the Bible is teaching that you can use head knowledge to become driven. Look at the Bible. It says, commit thy works unto the Lord and thy thoughts shall be established. Now look, we gotta look at some timeline here. Your thoughts are not established at this point. You're not driven. You're not motivated. What does the Bible say you should do? Commit your works. The Bible says, you know, it's perfect example with your spiritual life, but it works for every other part of your life. You say, I don't know how to be a hard worker. I don't feel like working hard. I get up in the morning and I just wanna continue laying there. The Bible here is saying is like, no, you need to commit your works. You know you're supposed to go and work hard so you have to do it anyway. You have to force your body to do it even if you don't feel like doing it. If you're driven by your feelings, you are going to fail in everything in your life. You have to commit your works before your heart is in it. That's, I mean, think about just an example of working out. Look, you're out of shape and you're overweight. You don't wanna work out. And all you do is eat junk food. You look, you gotta set a goal and then work out four times a week and you're like, well, I feel sick when I do it. You just need to keep doing it over and over and over again. And then guess what? Then it will start to feel good. Then your heart will be committed to it but you have to force the work at the beginning. That's how everything works. That's how you become driven. Tell me the Bible will not make you successful. The Bible's saying, commit your works first. I know you're lazy, the Bible is saying. I know you're a bum and you're fat and you don't wanna do anything but go and do it anyway and then your heart and your thoughts will catch up behind you. And then pretty soon, you're not gonna wanna eat the junk food and it's not gonna taste good to you and you're gonna just wanna go out and you're like, I gotta do this. And you're gonna start doing it five times a week. This is what will happen but you have to commit the works first. The Bible's saying, just do it and the heart will follow. I mean, all you really need folks is that beginning desire to get motivated and they just follow this path. Stay away, the drug will destroy you yourself and your thoughts will follow. Marijuana is a non-starter. It'll literally make you not get off the finish line because it robs the desire from you. I mean, 99%, think of this one, think of the spiritual application. 99% of the people in this world should be concerned that they're not saved. They should be concerned that if their next heartbeat doesn't come, they're gonna end up in hell but they're not. This is the problem today as we care more about people's salvation than they do. Well, this is what marijuana will do to your entire life on this earth. Marijuana is totally a tool of Satan, big time. It's an especially good one. Every area of your life you should be driving furiously. Every area, I mean, at work, at work you should drive furiously at work. You should go to work and you should drive furiously. You know what? You go to work, you drive furiously, especially in this day and age. You're gonna make people mad. You can't care about that. You can't care about that because the people that do matter will like that you drive furiously. The Elisha's and God himself will like it. The critics don't like those that strive valiantly. They don't like those people but the critics don't matter. The critics are not who matters. The people that do matter, they will like that you drive furiously. All the goals of me, think of young men and young women. Young men, you wanna get married? You have to drive towards that goal furiously. You have to understand, you can't just go flopping around in life and think that you're gonna get somewhere. If you're married, you should be pursuing your wife furiously. If you're a wife, you should be pursuing your husband furiously. You should be just studying, how can I be a good wife? How can I be a good husband? Why can I do this better? The answers there are in the Bible but once you know the answers, drive furiously. Everything is depending on how hard you drive towards these goals. And look, turn to Psalm 63 and we'll land the plane here but your spiritual life, you should pursue it furiously. Your spiritual life should be pursued furiously. Look at Psalm 63. You know, there's a trend. I like trends. There is a definite trend to some young man that can't get his life together to him being successful in the Christian life. I have never seen a young man and I mean, I'm being biased because I'm more, you know, I'm a man but I've never seen a young man who can't hold the job and can't get, you know, things right in his life and then just be totally successful in his spiritual life. I've never seen it. The spiritual life always follows that same trend. Why? Because they don't drive furiously at one thing so they're not gonna drive furiously at the most important thing. It just doesn't happen and that's why you see that trend. I mean, there's a definite, people that can't hold a job succeed at tasks. They just, they fall out of the Christian life. They may make it a year, maybe two years but eventually this is a killer for their Christian life. Look at Psalm 63. How should I pursue my Christian life? Look at verse number eight. Look at what the psalmist says here. He says, my soul followeth hard after thee. Thy right hand upholdeth me. That is how we are supposed to follow the Lord. That is supposed to be the drive that we not only have in our lives but especially in our Christian lives. And guess what? And guess what? If you're like, you know what? I don't know how to follow hard on my Christian life. Why don't you just do it? Why don't you just never miss a church service? Why don't you start reading your Bible every single day? Why don't you start putting some time aside in your life to have a prayer life every single day? Why don't you actually just start doing the works and see if the Bible's true and see if the thoughts and the heart follows those things. But people will never commit the works because they don't have the motivation for it. But the Bible's saying follow hard after the Lord. Drive furiously after the Lord. How the hell should I preach seriously? That's why you get up here and you preach and you see people work their lives. It makes me angry. It makes me upset. Because the word of God is being told to you, you have no excuse. Just commit the works. Look, I've seen that work so many times I can't count. Well, people are like, man, I'm just like, just do it. Just do it. And then they do it and pretty soon they love it. Reason like, this is what my life is supposed to be like. It's true joy comes from it. Even when you're being persecuted, you could experience joy in this Christian life. It's the weirdest thing, but it's true. The Bible says follow hard after these things. And guess what? You know what? Maybe if you figure out how to follow hard in one area of your life, maybe that'll spill over into the things that don't matter as much. Maybe that'll spill over into other areas of your life. Maybe it'll spill over into your marriage. Maybe it'll, I don't know, maybe it'll rub off on your kids. You're like, I mean, these people are just like, you're just gonna be a bum. And then you think, I'm just gonna raise awesome kids. Like, what in the world? You're gonna raise a bunch of bums if you don't have any motivation in your life. Marijuana is not harmless. It robs the desire to follow anything hard. It is super serious. And if you've ever met somebody, like I said, young ladies, you find somebody or a group of people that is into smoking marijuana, you get out of there. That is a life sentence for you. If you marry into that, as Jehoshaphat's kids married into that, it was a life sentence. I mean, he killed both kings here. He killed Ahaziah and Joram. It is not possible to drive hard at anything when you are doing this to yourself. So once again, folks, I hate to break it to you this morning, but the narrative out there is not true. The mainstream narrative on this is not a true one. If you follow this narrative in this area in your life, you will fail in all areas. It is not harmless. It is not something that you can use without consequence because it's natural. Why don't you just go eat a bunch of poisonous mushrooms? It's ridiculous. The whole thought process on that. And the idea that it's medicine is insane. Why don't you just go, you have a headache. Why don't you just go huff a bunch of gasoline and pass out and then you won't have a headache anymore. I mean, what's next? What's next? Are they teaching this in medical school? They're probably all high in medical school. It's extremely dangerous poison. It'll wreck your spiritual life. I mean, it'll get you thrown out of church. Think about that. It'll wreck your spiritual life. It'll take away all your motivation. It'll make you stupid. And the Bible says be sober. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.