The Dangers of Strong Drink : Wisdom on Cravings and Discipline

This morning we’re continuing our series. We’ve got this message and one more that we’re going to be doing out of Proverbs. And Proverbs, the reason I’ve been so interested and encouraged to preach out of Proverbs, because the whole message of Proverbs for us as Christians is now that you’re saved, here’s how we walk that out. In other words, we can’t just say, well I went to the altar and gave my heart to Jesus and God did something spiritual in my life, but it doesn’t have anything to do with my relationships, my finances, my eating habits, or anything about the way I live. Friends, that is truncating the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you’ve come to Jesus and you’re saved and you’re walking with him, God wants to be a part of every area of your life. So this morning the title of the message is The Dangers of Strong Drink in Proverbs, and our message is going to be out of Ephesians chapter 518, or really the heart of it. I’m going to be a little bit of everywhere in the scripture, but be filled with the Spirit. Let’s begin by reading Proverbs 31. I’m going to read verses 4 through 7. Proverbs 31 verse 4. It is not for kings, Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, not for rulers to crave beer, lest they drink and forget what has been decreed and deprive all the oppressed of their rights. Let beer be for those who are perishing, wine for those who are in anguish. Let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more. I’m going to turn in my Bible to Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 5 verse 18. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead be filled with the Spirit. Amen. Lord, thank you for your goodness to us. Thank you for how you lead us into life, and you lead us into health, and you lead us Lord, not to be mastered by fleshly things, but you lead us to be led and controlled by the Spirit of God. And so Lord, I pray this morning that somebody would get a breakthrough, somebody would get a new insight in their life, Lord, as it regards to their food and their, as it relates to their food and to their drink and to their daily behaviors, Lord. We pray that we would not only be set free spiritually, but you would begin to change every area of our life so that we can glorify and honor you in everything we do. Lord, bless this message, we pray. May there be a special anointing on your word today in Jesus’ name. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. There are many stories in the Bible regarding wine, or if you look closely in your scripture, what will be called strong drink. Most of the stories in the Bible are negative stories, teaching us about the dangers of intoxication. The effects of alcohol are demonic and destructive. Intoxication produces, and this comes right out of Proverbs 23, verse 29-35, intoxication produces bloodshot eyes, blurred vision, a confused mind, perverse and deceitful words and actions, sorrow and strife, physical harm and addiction. It’s not anything that someone would sign up for when they take their first drink. It’s like if I knew that the end result was going to be all of those things listed in Proverbs 23, it’s like, no, count me out. The story of Noah and wine, going back to Genesis chapter 9, verse 20-27, after the flood Noah planted a vineyard and became drunk on wine. The result was a curse on Canaan. The result wasn’t something good. Noah’s drunkenness demonstrated his depravity and led to negative outcomes for his family. Another story in the Old Testament comes from Genesis 19, the story of Lot and his daughters. It’s really kind of a strange story, but basically his daughters were concerned that there were no other men on the planet. They were living in a cave after fleeing from God, destroying Sodom, and so they got their father drunk so that they could get pregnant. And I know the laws of incest had not yet been given in the law of Moses, but the story highlights the negative impact of drunkenness. Now we do have a positive story as it relates to wine in the New Testament. John’s Gospel tells us about the wedding of Canaan and how Jesus turned water into wine, and it is a very positive story about the importance of joy and rejoicing. And I love that story because it reminds me that Jesus loves a party, and I can party without dishonoring God. And I think that’s an important message for our kids today. There are ways. We need to teach our kids that walking with God is the most joyous and rejoicing thing you could ever do. And when you have freedom and you don’t have to get up the next morning with a headache, or you don’t have to get up with the next morning wondering, am I demon-possessed or am I just totally blasted? It’s fun to walk with Jesus. And Jesus loves a party, but I don’t have to get wasted in order to have fun. The Levites in the Old Testament, the sons of Aaron, they were commanded to abstain from wine and ferment a drink, Leviticus 10, 1 through 11. And it happened right after Nadab and Abednehu, after they had offered strange fire. We don’t know exactly what happened there, but they were struck dead because they offered strange fire at the temple. One of my favorite stories in the Old Testament, I would imagine you might have never heard of this story, it comes from Jeremiah chapter 35. It’s a story about the family of the Rechabites, who Jeremiah, God directs Jeremiah to use them as an example of how the people of God have been unfaithful. But look at the Rechabites, they’ve been faithful to what their grandfather had commanded them to do. And one of the things their grandfather had commanded them to do was completely abstain from wine or ferment a drink. Now there’s many dangers to what I call and what the Bible calls strong drink. We see it throughout the Bible. Number one, strong drink is connected to folly and sorrow. We see this throughout the book of Proverbs and in the Bible. When we participate in strong drink, we should expect folly, not wisdom. We should expect sorrow, not gladness. Secondly, strong drink is connected to drunkenness, which is condemned as foolish and destructive. It’s condemned in the Old Testament, it’s condemned in the New Testament. There also are a number of woes or warning. Woe to those who prefer strong drink to being strong men. That comes from Isaiah chapter 5. Wow. Woe to men who would prefer to pursue strong drink than just being a strong man. Young person, I want you to know it’s not easy to be a Christian. It’s not easy to, Jesus taught us, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. It’s going to take some spiritual grit. The world’s coming against you. The devil’s coming against you. Everything in this world wants to trip you up and cause you to fail and say there’s no God and there’s no reason to serve him. It’d just be a lot easier just to be like everybody else, at least in the beginning. But the end of it is misery. And so Isaiah says, woe to those who prefer strong drink to being strong men. Lord, we need strong men. Woe to those who prefer strong drink to sound judgment, Isaiah 28. Strong drink produces addiction which destroys health and life. I want to pause there just for a minute. We’re going to get to our text in just a moment. But I did a little research on the psychology of addiction. The psychology of addiction centers on the hijacking of the brain’s natural reward system, replacing healthy motivators with compulsive substance use or behavioral habits. And by the way, this includes food. Come on church. We can misuse food. This can be alcohol, it can be video games, it can be pornography, it can be sexual lust, it can be… See, because you’re wired in your brain and in the way God made you that when you are attracted, let’s say, to something, you have a compulsion and you go and you follow through on that, the brain releases dopamine to reward you. Then you want to go back to that again. You want more of that until you’re hijacked and you’re addicted. So once a person is addicted, they are chemically trapped in destructive behavior. And psychologists talk about the four C’s of addiction. Number one, craving. Number two, compulsion. Number three, loss of control. And number four, consequences. I want to go back to craving. God has wired you with cravings. God has wired you. No matter how spiritual young person you get, no matter how much you put God first in your life, no matter how many church services you go to, no matter how many times you hear preaching, no matter how much you study the word of God, you have a physical part to you that has cravings. It’s called your flesh. That’s what Paul calls it. Calls it in the New Testament, sarx. S-A-R-X is the Greek word. You have a fleshly part of you, and that fleshly part of you has impulses and cravings. Those are natural. Those are good. Many of those are good cravings. It’s what keeps you from starving. It’s what causes you to drink water when you’re thirsty, right? Many of those cravings and impulses are good, but here’s what we know from Scripture. If you don’t surrender those cravings and submit them to the Lord and to his word and invite the Holy Spirit into your life so that you can deny yourself and take up your cross and follow Jesus, you will be mastered by your cravings. This is true in the area of finance as well, and I know I’m not preaching on finance this morning, but you drive down the road and you see someone with the $70,000 bass boat and the $80,000 Denali GMC, and you look over at your son and you say, wow, that’s a really nice boat. That’s a really nice truck. And then you say, I sure hope they own it. I sure hope they own it, but you know most of the time that guy, that gal, they don’t have that much money. The bank owns them. They’ve allowed their cravings, they’ve allowed their impulses to master them. And so now they are deep in debt, stressed, out of control, all because they wouldn’t discipline their urges. Church, I’m speaking on strong wine or strong drinking wine this morning, but this also applies to sexuality. It applies to finances. It applies to food. I learned a lot about myself as a 50-plus year old guy the last three months when we did this diet. I learned that in my midlife, not midlife crisis, there’s no crisis here. Come on, Jesus. There’s no crisis, just midlife. But I learned even me who has never been challenged with food, I’ve realized in my 50s, you know what I do with food? I eat when I’m actually not hungry. I’m eating because I’m stressed. I’m eating because somebody just irritated me in a phone call or I had an interaction that day. You know what? I’m going to Dairy Queen. Come on, see, you know what I’m talking about. You know what I’m talking about. And I praise God, Dairy Queen is a gift from God. Amen? Amen? I mean, it is a good thing from the Lord. It is good. But even, Church, here’s what I’m trying to say, even good things, if you don’t discipline your cravings, even good things become bad things. Because Dairy Queen is good, you know, once a week. But three times a day, what’s going to happen? Well, you’re going to get sick. You’re going to get very unhealthy. And so this morning, we’re talking about the dangers of cravings and addictions in the area of drink. But it applies to so many areas of our life. Watch out for your cravings. Watch out for your impulses. Jesus taught us in Matthew 16, 24, we’ve got to deny ourselves and take up our cross. Galatians chapter 5, verse 22, self-control is one of the fruit of the Spirit. And so, young person, I want you to hear me say this, there will never come a day in your spiritual walk with Jesus where you will just get so spiritual that you won’t need discipline, that you won’t need to say no to that thought or to that urge or to that craving. You see, this side of heaven, all of us as Christians are going to have to discipline ourselves and follow Jesus. I want to share with you this morning six truths regarding food and drink. Number one, everything God created is good. I love this verse. First Timothy chapter 4, verse 4 through 5, everything God created is good. For everything God created is good and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving because it is consecrated by the Word of God and prayer. And in that passage of Scripture, I believe it was in Ephesus and Paul is now writing to Timothy and there’s some in Ephesus who are coming and saying marriage is bad and food is bad and everything’s bad and you just need to kind of stop having any desires and any participation in physical things. And Paul says, no. Paul says, God made this world and it’s good. And so, just make your list right now. Let’s just take a minute. Let’s just rejoice. Fishing is good, man. It’s fun. And those potato chips aren’t that bad either when I’m going fishing, right? Just make your list and give God thanks for how many good things you have in life. I mean, a walk in the afternoon after work with my wife, I’m telling you, it’s good. I never thought I would enjoy walking so much. But I love going for a walk with you. It’s fun. We get to talk and think about the day, pray for our kids. Sometimes I do wine and vent a little bit. I’m working on that to not do that so much. But there’s so many good things in life and we need to rejoice in that. Food is good. Sex is good. Marriage is good. Financial stewardship when you actually end up getting to a point in your life and you’re like, yeah, I’m not feeding five kids. Hey, I’ve got a few extra quarters to rub together. That’s good. And there’s so many good things that God gives us. And when we consecrate it by, and what I really believe that means there, Paul is saying when you take the good things of God and you line them up with the Word of God and with the Spirit of God, that’s when you begin to see in your life joy and rejoicing. Joy and rejoicing in your life. Amen. So life is good and God has given us good things and we should celebrate that. A second general truth about food and drink. It may be permissible, but it’s not beneficial. It’s a very important biblical principle that we see in the New Testament. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 12. Here’s what Paul says. And he’s really quoting from someone else, but he’s using it to make a point, right? So he says, I have the right to do anything you say, but not everything is beneficial. I have the right to do anything, but I will not be mastered by anything. Oh, yeah. I love that. That’s a great principle to live by. Young person, don’t allow your cravings to master you. You see, if we give way to our cravings, they become compulsions and then we lose control and then we have to pay the piper. We have to pay the consequences of our cravings. And what I’ve learned, even in dieting recently, is that a lot of my cravings go away very quickly if I just choose to do something healthy. Go for a walk, drink some water, pray through that stress, and then suddenly you actually, you’re good to go. Don’t allow your cravings to become compulsions so that you lose control. Paul gives us this really important Christian principle. It may be good, it may be permissible, but is it really beneficial for your walk with the Lord? Is it really beneficial for what you’re trying to build in your life, to honor God and to build your household, to build your family? I’ll share just one story from my own family when I was a kid and in my own journey of faith. We got into the Assemblies of God in Lafayette, Indiana, and we were attending a Presbyterian church, good church, and I’ve always joked that my older brother got a Bible and I didn’t, and that’s left me very hungry for the Word of God all these years. So we kind of were leaving the Presbyterian church and started to go to the Assemblies of God church, and my mom had gotten saved and filled with the Spirit, and it was at a women’s group in Lafayette, Indiana, back in the 1970s. And the pastor challenged my parents to become members. And so he sat them down and gave the different requirements if you want to be a member. And part of the membership requirement there at Lafayette, Indiana, first Assemblies of God was you couldn’t drink and you couldn’t smoke. And in those days, well, my dad was honest. He said, well, I have a beer in the evening and I eat cheese and crackers and smoke a pipe occasionally. And by the way, dad, I remember that because I used to eat his cheese and crackers and every once in a while he’d give me a sip of his beer. I think that’s the very last time I ever drank anything except when I would go to your church when we were dating because at the Episcopal church, when you took communion, it was real wine. Always tasted horrible to me, but anyways. But I’m so thankful that my parents went home and they prayed and they thought about it. And they made a decision in alignment. I don’t know if they knew this scripture then or not, but they really made a decision in alignment with 1 Corinthians 6.12. It may be permissible to have a beer in the evening, but is it really good for my family? And so my story, what I’m testifying to, I’m giving God glory and saying, thank you, mom and dad, that you made some sacrifices that you said, this is not that big a deal. I don’t really need that in my life, but I sure don’t want my kids ending up having a problem with alcohol. And so my mom and dad said, yes, we’re going to be members and we’re going to give up smoking and we’re going to give up drinking. And I’ve never touched this stuff ever. And that’s, that’s the glory to God. And if you knew my extended family, and I love every one of my uncles and one of my uncles listens on YouTube every Sunday. And so uncle John, if you’re listening, I’m glad you’re listening. But every one of my uncles at some point in their life have had huge struggles with alcohol. And so genetically, I probably come from genes that if I was drinking, I’d have some big problems. But by the grace of God, I stand before you this morning, and I’ve never drank, I’ve never been drunk, and I’ve never had a problem with alcohol. That’s Jesus. And that’s the church challenging people to say, hey, is that really beneficial? It may be permissible. But do you really need that in your life to walk with Jesus? A third really important truth that we see in the Bible is strong drink is foolish and can destroy your life. Here’s Proverbs 20, verse one, wine is a mocker, it will mock you. And beer a brawler. Whoever is led astray by them is not wise. So strong drink, we see this throughout scripture, strong drink is foolish and can bring destruction into your life. A fourth truth Christians feed the spirit and not the flesh. And I want you to think about that as it relates to your your eating habits, your drinking habits, to your financial habits, to all of our behaviors. As a believer, if I’m following Jesus, and I’m in Jesus, and Jesus is in me, and I’m walking with him, then I’m living according to Galatians 516 that says, so I say walk by the spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Now I want to I want to be real real. When you’re young, you’re going to have different cravings than when you’re old. And so for our young people here today, I want to be careful not to gloss over this and just say, oh, you know, it was easy for me. I was walking with Jesus, and I never struggled with anything. No, the the truth is, if you’re going to walk with the Lord, you’re going to have struggles. The Bible says a righteous person, though they fall down seven times, gets back up. And so there’s going to be times where you’re battling with lust, and you’re going to lose. But you know what? By God’s grace, get back up. There’s going to, amen, there’s going to, there’s going to be times, young person, where you may be struggling with some food habits, and it may really get you down emotionally. You may feel like, well, I need to lose a lot of weight, and everybody else is like, you don’t need to lose any weight. You’re looking great. You’re doing fine. You’re healthy. And so you may be going through life, struggling with these different things, but you know what? If you fall down, just get back up. By God’s grace, and just keep walking, because it is a struggle. It is a battle. And so, young person, being a Christian is not an easy road. But I would tell you, living for the devil is not an easy road either. Getting to a place where your cravings become compulsions, and then you lose control, and then you have to pay all those consequences. You can go to our prisons and see people that are that are living out the consequences of what? Not being able to say no to something. There was an interesting study done a few years back, where they took kindergartners, and they would bring them into a room one at a time, and they would set something like Oreos in front of them, or a cupcake, and say, if you will not eat that for five minutes, we’ll give you another one, and you can have two. And actually, there were very few five-year-olds that had that much self-control. But they followed these kids out 20, 25 years later, and they wrote a whole study on how to predict those who are going to be successful in life. You know what they discovered? Children, even at the age of five, the ones who have the ability to control themselves, to control their cravings, they do much better in life. Now, I don’t know where you are on that spectrum, but I want you to know I have hope for you, and I have hope for me, because whether you would have eaten that cupcake, I think I would have eaten it. I think I would have eaten it, and then I pray I wouldn’t have lied about it. Can you just see that five-year-old? He’s like, I don’t know where it went. James, somebody took it. That’s probably where I was when I was five years old. But wherever you are on that, you might be sitting out here and saying, yeah, bless God, I’m really disciplined. Or you may be sitting there going, Pastor, there’s no hope for me because I’ve got no self-discipline. I want you to know there’s hope in Jesus Christ. When you turn your ship in the direction of the Lord, and you begin to fill up your life with His Word, and His Spirit, and His grace, He begins to grow the fruit of the Spirit in your life, and He will grow self-control. He will give you discipline you didn’t know you had. He will give you a desire to say no to things that you need to say no to, and yes to things you need to say yes to. There is hope in the gospel. There is hope in the Word of God. And so run to the Word of God and flee these cravings that can destroy your life. A fifth truth is Christians are to set an example for others in the way they live, in our food, and our drink, and all of our behaviors. That’s what we’re called to in Scripture. And as we set an example, there’s at least two places, I think three in the New Testament, that caution us, even though I may be free to say that, do that, or enjoy that, but if it causes my brother or sister to stumble, I shouldn’t do it. Romans 14, 13, therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. And you see, that’s where we just leave it between you and the Lord, right? I can’t preach enough messages on Sunday to try to tell you, you know, well, how long should your sleeves be? Or, you know, can you drink this or that? You’ve got to trust the Holy Spirit. You’ve got to let the Holy Spirit speak to you about what He wants for your life. But the principle is clear. However you live as a Christian, we need to be concerned about those around us. We need to be making sure that our liberty is not causing someone else to stumble in their faith. A sixth and final general truth, Christians seek to glorify God in everything they do. I’ve always loved 1 Corinthians 10, 31. It’s also in Colossians 3, 23. So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. What a litmus test. So you’re about to make a big decision. Will it glorify God? Will this honor God? You’re about to spend a big amount of money. Will it glorify God? You’re about to make an investment. Will it glorify God? You’re about, you’re considering a move from one place to another. Will it glorify God? Is the way I’m living right now and the decisions I’m making, is it glorifying God? You see, if you’re a believer, if you’re walking with Jesus, if Jesus is in you and you’re in him, you want to glorify God. I want to wrap up our message this morning just going back to the passage of Scripture that we looked at before. Chapter 31 Proverbs are the sayings of King Lemuel. The chapter begins like this, the sayings of King Lemuel, an inspired utterance his mother taught him. And of course we looked at the wife of noble character on Mother’s Day, but now we’re looking at some other advice that a mother gave to a son, looking again at verse 4 through 7. And the first thing we see is that we need a new perspective. We need a whole new perspective. Look with me at verse 4. It is not for kings, Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, not for rulers to crave beer, lest they drink and forget what has been decreed. So the first thing we see here is that kings, it’s a very interesting passage of Scripture, kings and rulers are advised by this mother, yeah you don’t need to be imbibing, because you got a job to do. You’ve got a rule, you’ve got a lead, you’ve got to you’ve got to administrate justice so that oppressed people aren’t harmed. And that’s what we see is is the sad result is when a ruler does imbibe, when they do get involved in behaviors that affect their judgment, then they forget things. And one of the things they forget is God and God’s justice, and then other people are harmed. So the advice here is it’s not for kings and rulers to drink or imbibe on on strong drink or wine. Strong drink, if you read into verses 6 and 7, who is strong drink for? Strong drink is for those who are perishing so that they can forget their poverty and their misery. That’s a sad portion of Scripture, isn’t it? But here’s the perspective shift. I want to ask you that question this morning. Are you a king or are you a miserable one? You see, so many people today in our culture live in that victim mentality of, yeah, life’s just horrible, and I’m no good, and life’s no good, and life’s never going to be no good. And you know what happens is sooner and later you talk yourself right into all of these behaviors that just make things worse. And so what we need as a believer is we need a perspective change. We need to start saying to yourself, as a Christian, I’m a child of God called by His grace to live a new life empowered by the Spirit of God. God’s not calling me to be a miserable one. There’s a very famous play musical that became a movie, and it’s in French just called Les Miserables. It’s just called The Miserable Ones. And that, if you’ve never seen it, you need to. It’ll make you cry. It’ll make you laugh. It is just a powerful story of redemption in the midst of misery. You see, as a Christian, I’ve been called to something higher. God’s not calling me just to sit around and be miserable. Come on, church. God is calling me to rule. He’s calling me to reign. He’s calling me to have dominion. He’s calling me to have an impact. And no, you may not be king of a city, state, or nation, but you’re king of your own household. You’re queen of your own house. Every single one of us, we have an area of influence where we’re ruling and we’re leading, and we have influence on those around us. And so let’s change our thoughts and change our minds. We are not destined for misery. We’re destined to rule and to be a king. And so what Proverbs is telling us is that, well, then strong drink is not for you. It’s not for you. See, verse 5 makes it clear. Strong drink causes us to forget. Lest they drink and forget what they, lest they forget what has been decreed and deprive all the oppressed of their rights. I prayed this morning that the Lord would give me a special anointing for this message. I don’t know whose toes I’ve stepped on, but I know in a church, even our size, there’s a lot of different choices and behaviors every day that you’re making. And you don’t have to live just like me. That’s not what I’m saying. I do hope you’ll dig into the Scripture and allow God’s Word to speak to you. Allow the Holy Spirit to lead you. But what I am trying to say is there are cravings and impulses because we have a physical part to us, and if we just give way to that, we’re gonna end up living life based on compulsion, not on the Spirit. And so I want to close again with Ephesians 5 18. I’m gonna turn back there. Worship team, would you come? Ephesians chapter 5 verse 18. I’m gonna go back and read verse 15 where it says, be very careful then how you live, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, Paul says, but understand what the Lord’s will is. And then verse 18, do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. And so I would encourage all of us today, as we go from this time of worship and prayer and spending time in in the church with the Lord, I’m praying that you’ll go from this meeting with a sense of, Lord, I want to ask you, is there anything in my life that needs to change? Is there any area of my life, something I need to let go of, something I need to stop doing, maybe something else I need to start doing? You know, I’ve found that when I talk to the Lord and ask Him to talk to me about my behaviors, my attitudes, I’ve found that if I listen, He will talk to me. He will tell me. I don’t have to tell, I don’t have to have the pastor tell me how to act or what to say. God will tell you. God will talk to you. I want to live a life that honors God. I want to live a life that builds up my household, builds up people around me. Will you stand with me and we’re gonna pray. The choices we make and what we eat, what we drink, who we hang out with, decisions related to sexuality, finances, all of these areas of our life influence who we are and who we can become in Christ Jesus. I’m praying for you today that God will help you to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Jesus, especially in this area of food and drink. Lord God, we come to you this morning and we we pray that you would speak to each person, especially the young people here today, Lord. Give them the strength. Give them the courage, Lord, to walk with you, to say no to the world, to say no to the flesh. But Lord, for all of us, regardless of our age, Lord, we pray that you would set us free from our cravings. Lord, thank you for the good things that you’ve given us. And Lord, we rejoice in your goodness. We rejoice in your creation and we want to honor you with our choices, Lord. We don’t want to live or be mastered by our cravings. We only want to be mastered by you, Lord. And so I pray that you would work in each and every heart today. In Jesus’ name, amen. I’m Pastor Tom Ragsdell. I’m Pastor Ellis Benus. And we’re from Columbia First Assembly. We are a church that’s on mission with Jesus. Our vision is simple. We want to make Jesus famous in your heart and in our community. Absolutely. Thank you so much for connecting with us online. We would also love to connect with you in person. We are located at 1100 North 7th Street, right in the heart of Columbia, Missouri, right across the street from Hickman High School. So if you’re in the central Missouri area and you’re looking for a home church, come hang out with us. If you’re just connecting online and you’re nowhere near us, then please connect with us in the comments. If you have a prayer request, if you have a question, if you’re wondering anything about the Lord or Christianity, please let us know and we’ll be happy to engage with you in the comments. We believe God’s doing something special at our church and we want you to be a part of it. We’re a multi-generational church. We have people from all different backgrounds. We’re a church of the Word. We’re a church of the Spirit. We believe Jesus can transform your life. That’s why we’re on mission with Him. And we want to help you know God. We want to help you grow in God. And we want to share hope in our community. So connect with us and we want to connect with you. Awesome. Have a wonderful and a blessed day.