{"id":42661,"date":"2013-10-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-10-14T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/drug-dealers-close-on-sabbath\/"},"modified":"2013-10-14T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-10-14T00:00:00","slug":"drug-dealers-close-on-sabbath","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/drug-dealers-close-on-sabbath\/","title":{"rendered":"Drug Dealers Close on the Sabbath"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On April 20, 2013 NYPD officers raided a drug den in a Brooklyn, New York neighborhood. The police found a crew of five men in possession of 23,000 pills of oxycodone with a street value of $460,000. Apparently the men had used stolen prescription sheets to obtain the drugs. They were also accused of peddling heroin and cocaine and possessing a sawed-off shotgun.<\/p>\n\n<p>But there was an interesting twist to this story: the men routinely texted their customers that they were closed for the Sabbath. One text read: &quot;We are closing at 7:30 on the dot and will reopen Saturday 8:15 so if u need anything you have 45 mins to get what you want.&quot; That explains why police officers dubbed their year-long investigation into the group &quot;Only After Sundown.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p><em>Editor&#39;s Note: This story is not intended to disparage all devout Jews&mdash;who may have much to teach us about honoring the Sabbath. It shows one example of our human tendency to observe one part of our faith while we ignore other parts.<\/em><\/p>","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":[3802,3826,4199,4222,4264,4533,4767,4867,4977,5211,5215,5217],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-42661","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-disobedience","tax_ctp_tags-double-mindedness","tax_ctp_tags-hypocrisy","tax_ctp_tags-immorality","tax_ctp_tags-integrity","tax_ctp_tags-negligence","tax_ctp_tags-readiness","tax_ctp_tags-sabbath","tax_ctp_tags-sin","tax_ctp_tags-ungodliness","tax_ctp_tags-unjust-gain","tax_ctp_tags-unrighteousness"],"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},{"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>Drug Dealers Close on the Sabbath - 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\/drug-dealers-close-on-sabbath\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Drug Dealers Close on the Sabbath - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On April 20, 2013 NYPD officers raided a drug den in a Brooklyn, New York neighborhood. 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