Sober Up: The Devil Hunts the Drunk

Introduction: Who’s Really Hunting You?

This world is drunk—on liquor, pills, pride, and sin. But while you’re stumbling through life, there’s a lion on your trail.

1 Peter 5:8-9
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: 9 Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

He’s not just looking to scratch you. He wants to devour you. And if you’re not sober—spiritually, mentally, physically—you’re the next meal.

That bottle, that blunt, that pill isn’t just killing your body… it’s feeding the enemy.

Look, I know what happens out there. Someone is coming to church. They are doing better. And then they go back to marijuana or alcohol or worse. And then they disappear from church. I go to check on them. Marijuana smells. Maybe you don’t think anyone can smell it. Vaping smells. Cigarettes smell.

The Bible commands you to be sober. Right there. BE SOBER. That’s not hard to understand. And the Bible goes deeper. Why must you be sober? Look closely.

BECAUSE YOUR ADVERSARY THE DEVIL, AS A ROARING LION, WALKETH ABOUT, SEEKING WHOM HE MAY DEVOUR. He’s stronger than you. If you aren’t sober, you’re going to be destroyed by Satan. He walks around like a roaring lion. He doesn’t care about you. Destroyed and dead is what Satan wants you to be.

And that’s what’s going to happen if you won’t stay sober. The Bible tells you the truth. I’ll tell you the truth.

I. God Commands Sobriety for a Reason

Ephesians 5:15-21
See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,  16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.  17 Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.  18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;  19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;  20 Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;  21 Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.

Stop wasting time with the stupid alcohol and drugs. You don’t have a long life, and the more you drink and do drugs, the less your life will be. Understand the will of the Lord for you. BE NOT DRUNK.

You can’t be drunk with wine and filled with the Spirit. It’s one or the other. God doesn’t just suggest sobriety—He commands it. Why?

• Because alcohol and drugs dull the conscience.
• They destroy discernment.
• They make you vulnerable to Satan’s lies.

How do you avoid getting drunk and high on drugs? The Bible tells you right there. Instead of listening to trash music that makes you want to get high and drunk, the Bible tells you to speak to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart TO THE LORD.

God says to give thanks ALWAYS for all things unto God and to submit yourselves one to another in the FEAR OF GOD. Someone who drinks alcohol doesn’t fear God. You might say, “But I was on vacation.” I don’t care. STOP.

I will tell you again. Get rid of the trashy music out of your life. If you won’t, you’ll pay.

Romans 13:13-14
Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. 14 But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.

Walk honestly. Don’t lie to people. Especially don’t lie to me. I hate lies. Not in rioting. Not in drunkenness. Not in chambering. Not in wantonness. Not in strife and envy. What does this mean?

Wild partying, loud behavior, public disorder, being out of control, loud music, immorality, chaos, sleeping around with people, shacking up with people, fornication, adultery, hookups, unrestrained lust, shamelessness, lewd behavior, sexual sin, conflict, fighting, quarrels, disputes, jealousy, wanting what others have.

Alcohol and drugs lead to all those things. Do you understand this? And from there, it leads to jail and then prison and then death. Sometimes death comes first and fast. What do you do instead of drugs and alcohol? PUT YE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. Get your Bible out next time you want to do drugs. Throw the drugs out. Throw the alcohol out.

The devil hunts in the dark. Sobriety is your spiritual night vision.

Stop staying up all night and sleeping in the day. The devil is hunting you. If you’re up all night in the dark and asleep in the day, this is a sign you’re being hunted. Get things right. Work in the day. Sleep in the night. Bad things happen at night. Drugs and alcohol happen at night.

II. The Bible Shows the Fallout of Drunkenness

Let’s see some examples of not being sober within the Bible. And the devil hunts those people down.

Noah – A Good Man Who Ended in Shame

Genesis 9:20-22
And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard:  21 And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.  22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.

A righteous man, after the flood. But alcohol stripped him of his dignity and left him exposed. Alcohol turned victory into shame.

Hey, you don’t need alcohol to have fun. You don’t need drugs to have fun.

Lot – A Righteous Man in a Sinful Place

Genesis 19:33
And they made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose.

Lot didn’t even know what happened. Drunkenness opened the door to incest, sin, and generational destruction.

Things like this happen when you allow drugs and alcohol into your life. Don’t do it. Get it all out today. Get it right today. Throw it all out. Throw it all away. Take the cigarettes and throw them away. Don’t give them to someone else. Throw them away. Get rid of the pain pills. Throw them away. BE SOBER.

Nabal – The Drunk Who Died a Fool

Nabal was a drunkard who mouthed off to king David. Drunkards do this. They run their mouth when they shouldn’t be running it. Nabal railed on king David. David said, “Gird ye on every man his sword.” Abigail was kind and stopped David from killing Nabal the drunkard. But watch what happens. Look, I want you to hear me today. I don’t want you dead out there.

You might say, “Well I can handle it. I’ve been doing this a long time.” Hey, you might be able to handle it but God can handle you too. He holds your breath in His hands. Watch this closely.

1 Samuel 25:36-38
And Abigail came to Nabal; and, behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king; and Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken: wherefore she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light. 37 But it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. 38 And it came to pass about ten days after, that the LORD smote Nabal, that he died.

He was drunk, oblivious, and then God took his life. He died a fool. Just like that. His heart died within him. And make sure you don’t miss this either. Look closely again at verse 38. “The Lord smote or killed Nabal.”

So, I’m telling you today that the Lord God Almighty, YOUR CREATOR, is commanding you to be sober. Get all of the trash out of your life today. If you won’t take this serious, remember the warning I gave you today.

Belshazzar – Drunk at the End of the World

Daniel 5:1-2
Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand.  2 Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink therein.

This king is high and lifted up with his alcohol. That’s what alcohol does to you. You think you’re more than you happen to be. He wants to share his wine with God’s sacred vessels.

Daniel 5:3-4
Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem; and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank in them.  4 They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone.

This is what happens as you drink. You praise other gods. You worship Satan. That’s what you’re doing. You’re breaking God’s clear commandment. And watch what happens.

Daniel 5:5-6
In the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king’s palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.  6 Then the king’s countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.

A hand came and wrote a message on the wall. The king was troubled and afraid. He was so afraid that his knees were knocking against each other. Do you know what happened to him that night?

Daniel 5:30
In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain.

While drunk and mocking God, his kingdom was taken and he was killed that same night. Drunkenness blinded him to judgment. That’s what alcohol and drugs will do for you. You won’t make the right decisions. You won’t make the right choices.

So don’t come here to church and then go home and drink alcohol in front of your kids and others. You’re playing a very dangerous game. God isn’t playing your game, though. Remember that.

III. Alcohol and Drugs Open the Door to the Devil

Proverbs 23:29-33
Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? 30 They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. 31 Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. 32 At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. 33 Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things.

Drugs and alcohol lead to:

• Fighting
• Filthy speech
• Lust
• Confusion
• Addiction

Proverbs 23:35
They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.

That’s the cry of an addict. And that’s where the devil wants you—stuck, numb, and blind. You will be beaten. Do you understand this? It’s time to stop the alcohol.

IV. Christians Cannot Afford to Be Spiritually Numb

1 Thessalonians 5:6
Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.

2 Timothy 4:5
But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.

You can’t win souls or fight spiritual battles with a fogged-up mind. If you’re not sober, you’re a sitting duck. You might end up dead the day you decide to continue drinking or doing drugs.

V. Drunkards and Addicts Need the Gospel

1 Corinthians 6:9-11
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

That verse isn’t saying saved people lose their salvation. It’s saying lost people who die as drunkards go to hell—but they can be saved.

There’s hope for the addict in Jesus Christ. He is the only hope.

VI. Sober Up and Fight Back

John 8:36
If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

You are free from drugs and alcohol in Jesus Christ.

James 4:7
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

You don’t casually beat addiction. You submit to God and fight the devil. But if you’re getting high or drinking, you’re not resisting—you’re inviting the devil to join you. And if you know how scary he were, you wouldn’t do that.

If you knew how angry you’re making God by drinking and doing drugs, you wouldn’t do it. Drugs and alcohol are just the beginning of sin. From there, you’ll do many other things. So don’t start it. Don’t even look at it.

You won’t do the drugs and you won’t drink the alcohol if you won’t even look at those things. Remember this. Don’t look upon those nasty things. Instead, submit yourself to God. This takes effort. SUBMIT TO HIM. Do what God says. Don’t do what you want. Do what God wants.

Conclusion: The Lion Is Roaring

This isn’t just about a drink or a blunt—it’s about a lion that wants your soul. And God is telling you to SOBER UP.

1 Peter 5:8
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

If you’re not saved—you’re the devil’s target.

If you’re saved but backslidden—you’re helping the devil win.

If you’re saved and serious—stay sober and go fight for others.

Sober up. The devil hunts the drunk.

I want you to remember this. Don’t be hunted. Instead, be a soldier for Jesus Christ. Fight the good fight with us here at this church. Put those other things away.

The Bible says that drugs and alcohol will lead you to poverty, ruin, sorrow, regret, sin, addiction, traps, cloud your judgement, make you a fool, open you to destruction and God’s judgement, and drugs and alcohol are linked to witchcraft and sorcery.

You need to be very careful by putting all of the drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, vaping, pain pills, and more away.

Beer, wine, liquor, vodka, whiskey, tequila, bourbon, cigarettes, e-cigarettes, vapes, marijuana, weed, pot, cannabis, opioids, oxycontin, Vicodin, Percocet, morphine, codeine, fentanyl, tramadol, benzos, Xanax, valium, Ativan, cocaine, heroin, meth, fentanyl, LSD, acid, mushrooms, ecstasy, ketamine.

All of these things destroy your health, defiles the temple of God, opens you to spiritual deception, clouds your mind, and removes sobriety.

These are all tools the devil uses to trap, control, and devour people. God gave the commandment to be sober. If you’re on something that is causing you to not be sober, this breaks God’s commandment. Tell God you don’t want to break His commandment and you need His help.

And He will help.

Let’s pray.