Did you hear the story about a cowboy walked into a Texas bar, ordered three bottles of beer, and sat down. He took a sip out of each bottle in turn, and when he finished them, he came back to the bar and ordered three more.
The bartender told the cowboy, “Beer goes flat after it’s opened, so it would taste better if you drank one at a time.”
The cowboy replied, “Well, you see, I have two brothers. One is in Australia, the other is in Dublin, and I’m here in Texas. When we all left home, we promised we’d drink this way to remember the days we drank together. So I have one for each of my brothers and one for myself.”
The bartender admitted this was a nice custom and left it there. The cowboy became a regular in the bar and always drank the same way.
Then one day he only ordered two bottles. All the regulars took notice and fell silent. When the cowboy came back to the bar for his second round, the bartender said, “I don’t want to intrude on your grief, but I wanted to offer my condolences on your loss.”
The cowboy looked puzzled for a moment, then a light dawned and he laughed and explained, “Oh, nobody died, my brothers are just fine. It’s just that my wife and I joined the local Baptist Church, and I had to quit drinking.” Then he paused and continued, “But it hasn’t affected my brothers.”
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Ed Rowell, Preaching Today