"If he is not interested in your solution, if he expects you to act only as a banker for his financial difficulties or a nurse for his sprees, you may have to drop him until he changes his mind. This he may do after he gets hurt some more." (95:2, 'Alcoholics Anonymous')
Imagine a house full of flammable objects. Imagine a person addicted to the casual or malicious dropping of lit matches.
An ineffective sponsor runs around after the sponsee, installing fire extinguishers, hiding away flammable objects, putting out fires, and tending to the sponsee's burns.
An effective sponsor points out the connection between the dropping of lit matches and the subsequent conflagrations and waits for the call which says, "I cannot stop. Show me how."