Trust God for Freedom | More Wisdom, More Life | Pastor Zach Weihrauch

As we continue our More Wisdom, More Life series, Pastor Zach explores Proverbs 20:1 and challenges us to consider what has influence over our hearts and decisions. He reminded us that wisdom begins when we recognize the things that compete for our attention, affection, and trust. While many things in life can be good gifts from God, they become dangerous when they begin to control us. Through Christ, we can find the freedom to live under God's leadership and experience the life he designed for us.

What is Christ Community Chapel?

Christ Community Chapel is a church in Hudson, OH, that invites people to reimagine life because of Jesus. Learn more about us at ccchapel.com.

Welcome to the weekend here
at Christ Community Chapel.

My name is Zach.

I'm one of the pastors here, and I'm
so glad we get to be part of your weekend.

You know, our theme
as a church for 2026 is More Life.

We take that from the Gospel of John,
chapter ten, verse ten, where Jesus said,

I have come so that you may have life
and life more abundant.

In other words,
Jesus says his mission is to give us life,

even more life as a church.

We're saying to Jesus that you're,

hey, if you have more life for us,
that is what we want.

We'll, we'll take it.

One of the things I love about
the summer sermon

series through the book of Proverbs
called More Wisdom,

More Life, is realizing
that when Jesus says more life,

he doesn't just mean in the eternal sense
or the theological sense.

He means in the nooks and crannies
of our lives,

in the regular every day kinds of areas.

And in fact,
I think it is safe to say that

there is no single area of our lives

in which Jesus does not want to breathe
more life.

The Book of Proverbs contains over
350 one liners of God's

wisdom on practical things,
because God cares about our regular lives.

So this summer,
we're looking at one proverb every week

and looking for more wisdom
so that we can have more life.

This week we're looking at Proverbs
chapter 20, verse one.

So if you have a Bible,

you could take it out,
open it to Proverbs chapter 20, verse one.

Of course,

it will also be on the screen behind me,
if that's your preference, no problem.

If you want to hold a Bible in your hands,
there are Bibles in the back of the pew

in front of you.

And here in the sanctuary and over in
our East service in the back of the room.

It's the same Bible that I use,
so I can tell you.

Proverbs 20 is on page 512.

Let me read it to you,
and then I'll introduce

the outline I'm going to use to
to guide our time together.

Here's what it says.

Wine is a mocker,

strong drink, a brawler,

and whoever is led astray by
it is not wise.

Three points

I want to use to guide our time together
as we look at this proverb.

Here they are.

I want to show you
that control is the issue.

Change is the sign
and challenge is the path to freedom.

Control is the issue.

Change is the sign,
and challenge is the path to freedom.

All right.

Let's start with the first one.

Control is the issue.

Wine is a mocker.

Strong drink, a brawler.

I've heard this verse a lot growing up.

Let me give you
a little background for me.

I've grown up in the church.

I have been going to church my entire
life.

Up until high school,
my family lived in rural North Carolina.

That's where I grew up,
and we were Southern Baptists.

That's the tradition that I was raised
in, and I actually am

super appreciative
for being raised Southern Baptist.

I they taught me many, many wonderful
things for which I am still benefiting.

I'm very grateful to them.

Of course, they also taught me
some things that I now know are not true.

In fact, it's ironic
because all my theological degrees

come from Southern Baptist schools.

So you might say they taught me just
how wrong they were about some things.

And one of those things is
I was taught growing up that drinking

alcohol was always wrong,

that drinking alcohol was a sin.

No one I knew drank alcohol.

My parents didn't drink
alcohol, their friends and drink alcohol.

I can't even remember how old I was
before I realized that drinking alcohol

was something people did not in movies,

because the only place
I'd ever seen anyone do it.

Nobody I knew drank alcohol.

I was told that it was wrong,
that it was a sin.

Of course, the problem with that is,
is when I went to school and studied

the Bible, I realized
the Bible just doesn't say that.

In fact,

there are many times the Bible actually
has something nice to say about alcohol.

The psalmist or Solomon
who wrote Ecclesiastes.

We'll talk about the gladness of the heart
that a glass of wine can bring Jesus's

first miracle,
and the Gospel of John is turning water

into wine to keep a wedding party going.

Tough to reconcile that with the idea
that drinking alcohol is a sin.

Of course, when I was growing up,

they said Jesus didn't
turn the water into wine.

He turned it into
really, really strong juice.

And when
you're a kid, you'll believe anything.

It's like, okay, got it.

Except for the problem is, later
in the Gospels, some of Jesus's enemies

want to discredit him, so they go around
calling him a drunk and a glutton.

Now, he was neither of those things,
but you can't really accuse a guy of

being a drunk if the only thing he ever
drinks is really, really strong juice.

You see the point?

The Apostle Paul will tell his protege

Timothy in the book of Timothy
to stop being stubborn.

Drink a little wine.
It'll be good for his stomach.

My point is, you just can't make the case
that the Bible says

that drinking alcohol is always wrong,
or that drinking alcohol is a sin.

However, the Bible many times

aggressively, unapologetically,
including here,

says that drunkenness is a sin.

That's
what is being aimed at in this verse.

Wine is a mocker, strong
drink is a brawler,

and whoever is listening to the language
led astray by them is not wise.

You see,
drunkenness is overindulging in alcohol.

You know, loving it so much, enjoying it
so much, needing it

so much that at some point
you actually give it control.

That's what it means to be drunk, right?

I mean, you're at church
at 915 on a Sunday, so

you've never been drunk,
but you know, people who have,

they probably come to our Thursday night
service, right?

Yeah. Yeah, you know it and I know it.

Right. So

but if

you've ever been in the room around
someone who has overindulged in alcohol,

you know that one of the ways you know
that is they are no longer in control.

They say and do things
they would never otherwise say and do.

They might get sad,
they might get mad, they might get silly.

But they're not in control.

By the way, behind
many of the Southern Baptist theologians

who taught me that drinking
alcohol was wrong were alcoholic parents,

which you totally get right
because they grew up with parents

who were not in control.

And certainly that was not okay.

But why do you think it is?

Growing up in the church that I was taught
that that drinking alcohol was a sin,

but no one ever taught me
that this verse is really about control

because you think about it.

You can be drunk with alcohol,
but you could be drunk with anything.

If the definition of drunkenness
is the love.

Something so much to want, something
so much to need, something so much.

You give up control.

You see, here's why I think they taught me
that drinking alcohol was a sin.

It was easier for them because nobody
in my subculture drink alcohol.

So if Proverbs 20 verse
one is about alcohol, we can just skip.

It doesn't apply to us.

We don't drink it. But here's the problem.

I had a lot of Southern Baptist pastors
who had control

issues with food.

Following the service.

I grew up in North Carolina in the 90s.

Following the service, the pastor
and all the deacons

would run to the front of the building
so they could chain smoke outside.

It was tobacco country.

They had given up control to cigarettes.

My first church that I went to
in seminary, I volunteered teaching

or coaching a kid's basketball team.

The senior pastor son was on my team.

He never came to a single game.

The games were in the church building
where his office was.

He never came. Why?

Because he had given up control to work.

You see my point?

This verse isn't about alcohol.

I mean, it is. And it isn't.

Alcohol to excess when it becomes

in control of your life is wrong.

But so is anything that becomes
so important to you

and I that it takes control.

It's possible to be drunk with work,
isn't it?

You can be an alcoholic.

You can be a workaholic.

When everything is run
through the filter of work, it's possible

to be drunk with physical fitness,
to be so preoccupied with being physically

fit that every decision you make in
life is driven through that lens.

It's possible,
I think, really to be a family of holic

or a sexy or a money a holic.

The point is
that what this verse is really saying

is that anytime we give anything control,

we get less life,

not more.

I wonder if you and I are

self-reflective
enough, humble enough, honest enough

to admit what we are tempted

to get drunk with,

what we are tempted to love so much,

to want so much, to need so much

that everything gets filtered
through that.

One of the things
that's just true about being human

is that it's easier to see
in other people, you know what I mean?

Like when you're around someone
and the thing that they are tempted

to get drunk
with just doesn't appeal to you.

And you look at them and you go, man, wow,
they're so out of bounds.

Their life is is.

So why are they making those choices?

Boy, they are going to live to regret
that.

Those kinds of things so easy to see.

But of course you must realize it.

Easy for them to see your thing that way.

What is it that you love so much,
need so much, want so much, have to have

that you're drunk with it.

Well, look, there's not a single person
in this room who's immune to this.

Which is why we all need Proverbs
chapter 20, verse one.

This is a proverb for all of us.

Control is the issue.

Now, if you're like me,
you don't like the idea that you're

controlled by anything.

You probably can feel yourself pushing.

Well, I wouldn't say.

I mean, maybe,
maybe I like it a little too much.

Maybe I want it more,
need it more than the average person.

But I'm not. I'm not controlled by it.

Well, if you don't mind,
let me push a little bit on that.

My first point is control is the issue of.

My second point is that change
is the sign.

Here's what I mean.

The writer says it
this way wine is a mocker,

strong drink, a brawler.

In the Hebrew.

What's being conveyed here
is that a person who is drunk with

wine will sneer at what is actually good.

A person who is drunk with strong

liquor will fight against
what actually is not their enemy.

The language here is is designed to convey
that when you are

under the control of alcohol,
your values change

so that you will start to say
what you used to say is good is bad.

What you used to say is bad is good.

What's up is down, what's down is up.

You get the idea.

If you've ever been in relationship
with someone who has an addiction

to anything, when you try to talk to them,
what do you get back from them?

You get anger even though you love them,
even though you're for them.

And what is happening is
their addiction has made it so that you,

a family member, a friend who loved
them, have become the enemy.

Because when

you give anything control,
it will change you.

It will change your values.

It will change
what you say is good or bad.

Like like that guy whose son I coached
in the kid basketball, like eight games.

He never came.

His son would look for him
every game. It was crushing.

I mean, that's why I remember it.

Do you think he held his son
in the hospital

the day he was born and looked at him
and said, oh, you're so beautiful.

I love you so much.

I'm so glad you're my son.

But just so you know,
I'm not going to come to

any of your stupid basketball games.

No, of course not.

Of course not.

In that moment, one of the things
he probably fantasized about was

when his son would grow up and love sports
the way he loves sports

and play basketball.

And they said, well, what changed?

Well, you know what changed?

Little by little,
he became drunk with work, to the point

that what used to be good, watching
his son play basketball became bad.

And he justified it
the way we all justify.

I'm busy.

It's just he's just nine.

He won't even remember it.

It doesn't really matter.
That's what we do.

That is drunkenness.

When a person is drunk

and they make the joke everybody knows you
shouldn't make when they get aggressive

in the way that we all know,
you shouldn't be aggressive.

What is weird in that moment
is that all of us who are sober

look at that person
and say, you're out of bounds,

but so am I.

Let me give you just a simple,
practical thing.

Do you know, one of the things
that threatens to control me is my phone?

Let me put it this way.

I have a nine year old son, Graham,
who I love.

We're very close and he is obsessed
right now with playing ping pong

and I love it.

We're playing like eight,
nine, ten games of ping pong a day.

Okay.

In the way the rules are, if you win,
you get to stand on one side of the table.

That's the winner's section, okay?

And whoever most recently won,

the other guy has to refer to him
as champ in all conversations.

Okay?

It's a kind of toxic environment
I'm building.

Okay.

And, you know,
if we play 20 times, I'm going to win 19.

But every every now and then, it's
like the spirit of the Lord anoints him

and it's like David and Goliath.
He can't miss.

I mean, I'm telling you, it's super human
and he'll beat me.

And then I have to hear about it.

And he says he have to call him champ.

And, you know, whatever.

I love playing ping pong with my son
when I get home from work.

I know that my little seven year
old daughter is going to hug me.

My teenagers

are going to kind of acknowledge me,
and my son Graham is going to come

rip it around the corner,
and he's going to want to play ping pong.

And I'm ready, man.

I'm excited
except for when I'm on my phone.

You know, I'm

the phone has so many rabbit holes for me.

You know, I'm a huge Browns fan.

And somehow, even though we're bad,
we're always in the news,

so there's always something to read.

You know, I do a news podcast.

I'm always reading about the news. Right?

It's so easy to justify
and and what will happen

is I'll be on my phone and this nine year
old kid will come around the corner

shirt off, always to intimidate me.

And he will say,

dad, I challenge you to the game of kings,

which somehow is ping pong.

And I'll say, not right now,

not right now.

And for what?

You know, for what?

Some stupid article about the Browns.

And in that moment, I know, I mean, I know
a nine year old son is more important.

I know I'll have more joy playing
ping pong.

I know there's a day coming.

When I say to him,
I challenge you to the game of Kings.

And he goes,
oh, dad, I'm not really into that anymore.

You know, I know, I know,
this is the moment.

These are the moments.

And I know that little boy
is the most valuable thing in the world

in that moment.

Except for when I'm drunk with my phone.

And I think when we

wake up and we go,

how did I become this kind of man?

How did I become this kind of woman?

This is not the dad I wanted to be,
you know?

It's not the father I wanted to be.

It's not the mother I wanted to be.

It's not the wife is not the marriage
we wanted.

You know, I've done so many marriages
over 20 years of pastoral ministry.

Nobody ever says, hey, pastor,
can we put in the vows

that we're going to give it a really hard
go for five years and then divorce?

How do we get there?

How do we end up there?

The answer is,
according to the writer of Proverbs,

is we give control to something
or someone or something and it changes us.

And what was good the spouse, the kid,
the the, the job, the joy becomes bad.

What was up becomes down.

And all of a sudden we're not free.

We're slaves,
and we don't like who we are anymore.

Is that you?

It's all of us at some point, right?

So, of course, that begs the question.

Then how do we get free?

Well, first let's just ask this.

Do you see how freedom from this thing

will lead to more life?

So how do we get it?

Well, that's my third point.

Challenge is the path to freedom.

I told you, I grew up in the church.

I've heard a lot of sermons and talks
and Bible studies about how to change.

And I don't mean to be offensive,
but I could boil them all down to

this basic thing.

Whatever it is you want to stop doing,
just tell yourself,

stop doing it, stop doing it,
stop doing it.

Stop doing it
until you don't do it anymore.

So if you're looking at a website
you shouldn't be looking at,

then you say to yourself,
don't look at the website,

don't look at the website, don't look
the website, don't look the website.

Of course, the problem with that, other

than it doesn't work, is that you're
you never stop thinking about what

the website.

It's like an alcoholic

who has the glass of bourbon
poured for them at the bar and sits there

and looks at it and says, don't drink,
don't drink, don't drink, don't drink.

What's the inevitable thing
that is going to happen?

The one thing on their mind
is the whiskey in front of them.

No one changes that way.

That is not a Christian way to change.

Instead, here's what the Bible says.

You don't change by saying no
to the thing that has enslaved you.

You change by saying
yes to the God who loves you.

In other words, you give him control.

Here's what the Apostle Paul says
in Ephesians five about this very topic.

Listen to what he says,
and do not get drunk with wine

or anything, for that is debauchery.

Listen, but be filled with the spirit.

You see what he's saying?

There's a whole theology behind
being filled with the spirit.

Here's what he's saying is
God loves you so much that even though

your relationship with him was broken
and it was your fault, it was my fault.

God sent his Son,
Jesus, who lived a perfect,

sinless life in our place,
so that on the cross

he could take on the sin of all of God's
people and and God

the Father could pour out his anger
and wrath and judgment unto Jesus

until there was no more left, and Jesus
would die under the weight of that.

And then three days later,
raised from the dead, and say to us,

if you will trust my life and my death

and my resurrection for your forgiveness,
you will be forgiven.

You will be made clean.

And because you're clean,
the Spirit of God can live in you.

See, what Paul is saying
is, stop giving control to your phone,

Zach,
and start filling your heart and mind

with the person and character
and love of God.

In other words, what he's saying
is don't say no to the phone.

Say no to God. Say yes.

I mean say yes to God. Say yes to
sorry about that.

Say yes to say he has to to both of them,
even for a little while if you have to.

Because here's what he's saying.

The more your heart
just want to say that again.

If you're
trying to stop looking at the website,

if you're trying to stop drinking,
you're trying to stop overeating.

You don't say no to that.

You say yes to God, even for
a little while, maybe saying yes to both.

But here's what Paul is saying.

Eventually, the experience of God

will make you not want that thing anymore.

So you don't have a problem
with your phone.

Zach, you have a deficiency of wonder

over who God is.

That's your problem.

I told you, I grew up Southern Baptist.

I'm so grateful for so many things,
including many of the songs

I grew up singing.

But there's a hymn that captures this so
well that I love so much.

It says this.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus.

Look full in his wonderful face,

and the things of this earth

will grow strangely dem

in the light of his glory and grace.

Friends, do you want to be free?

Do you want to be the man you want to be?

The woman you have, the marriage
that you know God wants you to have?

Have the family,
the joy, the freedom, the the passion.

The excitement
that you were meant to have.

Do you want that?

Run to God.

Let him control you.

And the good news about his control
is it leads to freedom.

It leads to calling good. What is good?

Bad? What is bad? Up. What is up? Down.

What is down?

See, we're created beings.

We're designed to be led by something.

The problem
is, we've gone to all the wrong things

and all the wrong places
and all the wrong people.

Freedom
is found in the kingship of Jesus Christ.

Let me pray for you, Father God.

It is not an easy thing to admit
we are drunk.

It is not an easy thing to admit.

We're under control of anything
that we've changed,

that we're the problem, that everything
that everyone's been saying

to us, that we have pushed back against
and made excuses about

and gotten angry over, is actually true.

So we're

going to need your help with that
this weekend.

I pray for the conviction
that comes from the Holy Spirit

for people to see,
maybe for the first time,

or to allow themselves to see

how enslaved we really are.

How changed we've really become,

in the hopes that in that

moment of desperation, the beauty

of the person and work of Jesus
Christ would shine.

And that this weekend
you would set people free

on a trajectory of freedom

with your wisdom
and more life than Jesus name.

We pray. Amen.