{"id":41589,"date":"2015-02-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-02-09T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/christians-give-up-alcohol-out-of-love-for-neighbors\/"},"modified":"2015-02-09T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-02-09T00:00:00","slug":"christians-give-up-alcohol-out-of-love-for-neighbors","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/christians-give-up-alcohol-out-of-love-for-neighbors\/","title":{"rendered":"Christians Give Up Alcohol Out of Love for Neighbors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a <em class=\"citation\">Christianity Today<\/em> article, a 30-year-old Christian named D.L. Mayfield describes how her and her husband made a decision to abstain from alcohol: <\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Our first shock when we moved into [a low-income neighborhood] was the amount of substance abuse that surrounded us &hellip; I would go to get my mail and find a man blocking the stairs, passed out and unresponsive at 11 in the morning. We have neighbors who eat raw chicken when they are drunk and get terribly sick; others who suffer from alcohol-related psychosis and bang symphonies on the trees outside our window at all hours of the night &hellip; Empty vodka growlers line the living room of one&hellip; There are people in our building who die because of alcohol&mdash;cirrhosis of the liver, asphyxiation from their vomit, slow-sinking suicides everywhere we turn.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>And suddenly, alcohol is no longer fun. Instead it is a substance that changes my friends and neighbors, making them unpredictable and unsafe &hellip; There are other neighbors here too, people who are in various stages of recovery &hellip; They shake their heads and tell me they don&#8217;t touch the stuff anymore. They find that every sober day is a gift.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>After a year of living among them, I gradually just &hellip; stopped. I dreaded going to the liquor store, imagining the faces I would see there. I saw my neighbors get off the bus with a 12-pack in each hand, and I was less likely to get a beer the next time I was out. Eventually, I realized I could abstain from alcohol entirely, that it could even be a spiritual discipline for me&mdash;a way to pray and identify with my literal neighbors, who could not stop &hellip; Since so many were caught in the cycle of stumbling and picking themselves up again, it became good for me to not drink, as a way to stand with the brothers and sisters I was learning to love.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3380,3404,3405,3511,3644,3831,3961,4395,4661,4669,5007],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-41589","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-addiction","tax_ctp_tags-alcohol","tax_ctp_tags-alcoholism","tax_ctp_tags-body-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-community","tax_ctp_tags-drunkenness","tax_ctp_tags-family-ministry","tax_ctp_tags-love","tax_ctp_tags-poor","tax_ctp_tags-poverty","tax_ctp_tags-social-conditions"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Christians Give Up Alcohol Out of Love for Neighbors - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/christians-give-up-alcohol-out-of-love-for-neighbors\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Christians Give Up Alcohol Out of Love for Neighbors - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a Christianity Today article, a 30-year-old Christian named D.L. 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