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But let me tell you another story, this is a story that I read about a woman who became addicted to gambling and there are so many lessons in this story and I got a lot of Bible scriptures that I'm going to point to that illuminate this story, but I read a story and this is a true story about a woman who became addicted to gambling. Now this woman was a housewife, she'd been married for over a decade, she had three daughters, and she was just a stay-at-home mom and her youngest of three daughters had just started kindergarten a couple weeks ago. So she's bored, right, because until then she always had little kids that she's dealing with. Well her youngest child starts kindergarten and two weeks later she's just bored out of her mind. I mean she's just sitting at home, she doesn't know what to do, she's got no kids to take care of, her husband's at work ten hours a day, the kids are at school, and she's just sitting there bored out of her mind, she doesn't want to watch the soap opera, she doesn't know what to do. And so she just sat there and just stared at the clock and just kept looking at the clock, just waiting for them to get home, and finally she taped a piece of paper over the clock to cover up the clock, just so that she wouldn't even think about it. And it was 1030 in the morning and she decided, you know what, at 12 o'clock I'm going to go somewhere, I'm going to go do something. So for the next hour and a half she sat there and racked her brain and tried to figure out where am I going to go, what am I going to do. So noon rolls around, she gets all dressed up nice, puts on a little makeup, and she decides to go to a casino that's 20 minutes from her house. So she goes to the casino and she gets the shrimp at the buffet, you know, she goes there and it's kind of a fun atmosphere and everything like that. And she goes to the blackjack table, didn't even know how to play. And she sits down and the dealer explains to her, okay, here's how the game works. And she sat down and she played and she only had 40 bucks in her wallet. So she took out the 40 bucks cash, she played until she lost all of it. She just played through 40 bucks, she didn't really know what she was doing. And so she played through the 40 bucks and she looked down at her watch and it had been two hours and it was time to pick up her daughter at school. So she left, you know, she spent 40 bucks, she had a good time, it was really fun and she thought it was cool. And so she went and picked up her kid at school and, you know, no big deal. So then she decided, she said she's just going to go once a week, every Friday, as a reward for making it through the week, doing everything she was supposed to do, you know, taking care of the kids, taking care of her husband. Once a week, every Friday, she's going to go to the casino. And she had really strict rules because she knew that, you know, gambling can be dangerous and can be addictive. So she decided, I'm never going to leave the house before noon and I'm always going to be done in time to go pick up the kids at school, which is just a couple hours later. And I'm only going to spend one hour at the blackjack table and I'm only going to just spend whatever cash is in my wallet. You know, I'm not going to use the ATM or credit card or anything, you know, I'm just going to, whatever cash is in my wallet, that's what I'm going to spend, it's just going to be entertainment. I mean, I'm just going to blow all the money. She's not trying to win anything, you know, she's just going to use up the money and go through it, no big deal. And she did that, she followed that for like six months. You know, for like six months she just went every Friday. Just really healthy habit of just, every Friday she plays for one hour and she's getting better at it, she's learning more, she's having fun, she's only going one day a week, no big deal. Now first of all, let me just stop the story for a second and point out some things about the story. Okay, number one, what was the original problem that led to this whole thing even starting? Boredom and idleness. Okay, and what does the Bible say about idleness? Well first of all, in Proverbs 30, you don't have to turn there, but in Proverbs 31 the Bible talks about the woman who is the homemaker, who is taking care of the household, and one of the things that it points out about her in Proverbs 31, 27 is, she looketh well to the ways of her household and eateth not the bread of idleness. See, if a woman is doing her job as a homemaker, she's not going to be that bored to want to just stare at the clock and, you know, watch soap operas and just not know what to do. First of all, if she'd been raising her own children instead of sending them to school, she'd be very busy teaching them, instructing, I mean, why would you drop your kid off to be taught by someone else and then you just sit there bored, I don't know what to do. Why don't you raise your kid, why don't you teach your child, okay? Not only that, but I guarantee you she's not cooking from scratch. I mean, she could have been grinding flour and baking bread and making some more complicated meals that probably would have been healthier for the family, okay, well that's boring. Okay, raise your kid, okay, cook, clean, plant a garden, with the fruit of her hand she planted the vineyard, well that's all boring, well whatever, that's life. And you know what, I don't think it's boring to homeschool your children. You could teach them all kinds of interesting things, you could teach them all kinds of interesting subjects, and you could cook all kinds of fun meals and do all kinds of things as a homemaker. And by the way, you could be reading your Bible. I remember when my wife and I were first married before we had kids, you know, my wife had a lot of excess free time. She volunteered down at the church. She went through my pastor's voicemails that had been racked up, oh man, if somebody went through my voicemails it would take years, but anyway, you know, she went through his voicemails and she would read whole books of the Bible. She'd read Second Kings and First Chronicles, you know, she was newly saved, so she did a ton of Bible reading, she'd go out soul winning, she's praying, she's volunteering at the church, she's cooking, you know, three meals from scratch. You know, idleness is not because there's nothing to do, because there's plenty of good things to do with your time. It's just we make wrong choices that lead us to idleness, and God here specifically talks about a homemaker that's a virtuous woman, that she does not eat the bread of idols. So that was the first mistake, right? You think about King David, why did King David fall into sin with Bathsheba? Because at the time of year when kings go forth to war, he stayed behind. He's not doing his job as king, he's not in the battle, he's letting someone else do his job for him, next thing you know, he's looking out the window at Bathsheba, okay? First Timothy chapter 5, go there if you would, first Timothy chapter 5. So she's playing blackjack every Friday just for an hour, well after about six months she's getting really good at blackjack, so she's not running out of money. You know, she comes in there with 20 bucks, 40 bucks, 60 bucks, she got to where she could make her money last a lot more than an hour, because she got better at playing the game, she started figuring out the odds and how to play and so forth, so pretty soon she decided to adjust her rules a little bit, you know, because, you know, one hour, she's not even going through any money, so she decided, you know, I'm going to adjust my rules, why not play for two or three hours? I mean, this is six months into it. Two or three hours because she could make the cash in her wallet last for at least two or three hours, okay. Look down at First Timothy chapter 5 there, verse 13, it says, with all they learn to be idle, talking about women who basically are not married or raising kids. It says, with all they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house, and not only idle, but toddlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not. I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully, for some are already turned aside after Satan. So do we see here how idleness can be a dangerous thing? We've got to stay busy if we're going to keep our minds and hearts right. I mean, my mom always told me as a kid, an idle mind is the devil's workshop. And so if you're, you might be a wife that doesn't have a lot to do, you need to find stuff to do, you know, read the Bible, pray, find friends to spend time and not tattling and being a busybody, but going soul winning or cooking or doing something productive, reading, studying, whatever. But do, you know, exercise, whatever, but do something productive and don't be idle. Do something to stay busy on good things. So she started playing for two or three hours at a time. So one day, she sat down with $80 in her wallet, and she walked away with $530. So she started out, she's just losing the money every time, slowly. But she got to the point where she's getting pretty good at playing blackjack, so she actually walked away with $530, so she's really happy. She was able to pay some bills, she was able to put some money in savings. She's really excited that she made $530. So she keeps playing, keeps playing, well, her parents started to become ill. Her parents were in another state and they started getting really sick and started needing help with things. So she would start flying out there like every weekend or every other weekend to basically help them out, you know, cook meals, clean the place, take care of things. Well, when she would come back to her house, you know, basically it was like she's gone on the weekend and then she's only home during the boring weekdays, her kids are busy all day, her husbands are busy all day. She's sad and depressed about the fact that her parents are sick because she was close to her parents. And then she's also just sad because it seems like when she's at home, nobody has time to hang around with her, and then on the weekends, she's gone. So she starts getting sad and depressed, so she starts gambling more because it's something fun that makes her feel better. She's really depressed and it cheers her up. So she decided to up it to two days a week. And then pretty soon, she upped it to Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Still following the same rules, you know, in at noon, out by 2.30, but she would only go, she would go three times a week now and it was something to cope with just being sad. Every time her husband would, you know, fight with her, then she'd go down there. You know, every time she'd get sad about her parents or the kids, she'd go down there as a way of feeling better, but still had it under control. Now right there, we could stop the story and see what's wrong with that. You know, how are we supposed to deal with sadness? Go to 1 Peter chapter 5. First Peter chapter 5, stress, anxiety, sadness, sorrow, depression, heaviness, whatever you want to call it. You know, the Bible says, be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication. With thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God and the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds to Christ Jesus. In John 14, Jesus talked about how he would send the comforter. He would not leave them comfortless. He said, I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you. And he talked about the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Look, you're in a dangerous place when you're turning to something other than God for comfort. You know, when you're getting sad and depressed and you're not turning to God, getting on your knees and praying and saying, God, would you please help me with my situation, would you please fix this, or would you please give me the strength to deal with this. You know, whenever you're turning to some crutch, whether it's alcohol, whether it's smoking, whether it's chewing tobacco, whether it's, you know, a casino, anything that becomes a crutch, and even if it's just entertainment, even if it's just a video game, you know, you need to get in a habit of, you know, when you're sad and depressed and sorrowful, turning to the Lord for comfort and getting your comfort from the Scriptures. The Bible talks about the comfort of the Scriptures, you know, the comfort of the Holy Ghost. In the book of Psalms, getting encouragement from God, encouraging yourself in the Lord like David did when he was depressed. But look at 1 Peter 5, I've never really noticed this connection before. Because these are two verses, verses 7 and 8, are two verses that are often quoted independently of one another. They're both very famous verses. Verse 7 is really famous, casting all your care upon him for he careth for you. Pretty famous verse, right? Verse 8 is pretty famous too. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour. That's also a pretty famous verse. But have you ever put the two together and said, wait a minute, if we're not casting our care on the Lord, that's going to be a vulnerable time where the devil can come in and devour us. Because he's seeking whom he may devour. And you know who he can devour the most sometimes? The one who is depressed, the one who's careful. Careful means they have a lot of worries on their mind, a lot of anxiety, a lot of things that are worrying them or upsetting them or making them sad. You know, those type of times are when you're the most vulnerable to the devil's temptation. You know, you start feeling down and depressed and that's when the devil can sometimes get an advantage of us. So basically, you know, she's getting better, she starts making money a little bit. You know, she's losing some of the time, she's winning some of the time. So she starts to realize that, wait a minute, if I play at the high stakes table, the odds of winning are better. And I don't know how this works, but apparently the casino designs it this way, where there's a little bit better odds at the higher stakes table. And at the lower stakes table, the odds are a little bit worse. So she starts playing at the higher stakes table. And so she starts wagering larger and larger amounts of money. She's there three times a week, a couple hours a time, and she's wagering more and more money. One day she comes home with $6,000 that she won, okay? I mean, that's like a few months' rent. I mean, that's, you know, she's got all, she's excited, she's got all this money to spend. And pretty soon, Hera's, because the casino that she gambled at was Hera's, and that's the one that's right down here in Maricopa, the Hera's action casino that's always packed on the 347 there. So eventually Hera extends her a line of credit to where basically that way she doesn't have to carry around a bunch of cash and chips and everything. They extend her a line of credit so that it's all just on paper. And so she keeps playing and she keeps gambling more and more. And her rules start to become a little more flexible. You know, the rules that she set, the really strict rules. Now that she's gambling with larger amounts of money, you know, like I said, one day she came home with $6,000. Another day she went home having lost $4,000 just in one afternoon. And you know, it keeps going, keeps going, well pretty soon she gets to the point where she has a power bill, she can't pay her utility bill. She's trying to keep this all secret from her husband, you know, that she's starting to lose money. So she can't pay the power bill so she borrows money from her parents. Her parents were very wealthy. So she borrows 2,000 bucks one month, 2,500 another month, and she's borrowing a few thousand here, a few thousand there, keeps playing. And remember she's got that line of credit from Harrah's? Eventually she racks up $20,000 of debt to Harrah's in addition to what she borrowed from her parents. So finally, I mean, she's just getting totally addicted to gambling now. You know, and for years she had it under control. I mean, for the first few years, remember how she'd just go there every Friday and just maybe twice a week? But she gets totally addicted to it. She starts getting depressed every day that she's not there, thinking about it all day, just wishing to be there, that's all she looks forward to. And when she finally racks up $20,000 of debt to Harrah's, you know, she finally has to tell her husband. So I mean, she finally breaks down and tells her husband, I'm in debt $20,000 to Harrah's. Okay, so obviously that's not what you want your wife to come home and tell you. Honey, don't ever tell me that. But anyway, you know, you don't want your wife to come home and tell you that. So you know, but it's still, I mean, is that really the end of the world, though? I mean, it's bad, but it's not the end of the world. Okay, so she says, alright, you know, we've got to figure out how we're going to pay this. And eventually they just decided to just go bankrupt, okay? But she decides she's going to quit gambling. She quit gambling, she realized, okay, I had a problem, I messed up, I'm $20,000 in debt. You know, I have to mention other money that she wasted out of her cash. But she's got this $20,000 debt. She bankrupts the debt, quits gambling, and for years doesn't gamble, right? Is the story over? No it's not. That was nothing, okay? Then three years later her dad gets really sick and dies. So now she's really sad and upset because her dad died. A couple months later her mom dies. Now both her parents are dead, who she was very close to. So the will is read and she inherits from her parents almost a million dollars. Parents are very wealthy. They left her in the will almost a million dollars. So you know, she didn't want to fall back into her old ways. So she takes that money that she inherited and she moves to a state where gambling is illegal. She moves to Tennessee because she doesn't want to fall back in with that. She changes her phone number because, you know, at this point the casinos are calling her, sending her coupons, you know, trying to get her to come back. So she changes her phone number, doesn't forward the address, she moves to a state where gambling is illegal, she spent, you know, I think about $250,000 of that money on a really nice house and you know, she put the money in some other places and you know, put the money away. And she's got this million dollars and she doesn't want to get back into gambling, right? It's been three years since she gambled. She's off the habit. Okay, so then she basically just is really sad and depressed about her parents dying though and just, you know, she wakes up in the morning and she's depressed about it and she's in heaviness. So one day, her and her husband drive back to where they had lived previously. I think it was Iowa where they started out with all the gambling. She's driving back to Iowa and she just starts having like an anxiety attack, a panic attack or whatever and she's just really upset, really depressed. Her and her husband are in the car, they were picking up some stuff from their old town and she just tells her husband, honey, please, it's just a one-time thing. I'm so upset right now, I'm so depressed, I'm panicking, I'm freaking out. Can we please just go to the casino just once, just one time, just to make me feel better? You know, and keep in mind, I mean, this guy just inherited, you know, his wife just inherited a million bucks, okay, whatever, right? Let's just go one time if you're freaking out and it's going to make you feel better. So they go to the casino, they walk into the casino and one of the managers right away recognizes her because she'd been in there, you know, every week for so many years and he takes her into like the lounge, the gamer's lounge or, you know, the high-level place where you hang out and he asks her, you know, where have you been, what's going on? And, you know, she basically breaks down crying and tells him the whole story about her parents dying and about the $20,000 and tells her the whole story, tells the manager the whole story. And then, you know, she goes over to the gaming table and, you know, plays blackjack and man, she felt great. I mean, panic attack is gone. You know, it just totally took her mind off the problems and so she's playing blackjack, everything's cool, everything was great and, you know, it was just a one-time thing, one-night thing. She drives back to Tennessee. Well, here's what she didn't realize, okay? Actually is a multi-billion dollar company and has a very, very sophisticated customer tracking system. And ever since they implemented this customer tracking system, they have increased their profits by billions and billions of dollars where every single gamer, they put a profile on them and they are to the point where they can predict, because they track how often they come, how often they play, and they can predict a certain lifetime number. This is how much we're eventually going to get out of this person. And they can even predict it sometimes to the dollar. They can predict it exactly how often a week they're going to come in, when they're going to start coming in more often. They have all this predictive software and they can tell when they've got somebody who's addicted versus somebody who's just starting out and then they, you know, they do everything to get that person that's addicted. They want that person to come in because they know that they're going to get way more money out of that person. So basically, when she told them all that information, the manager, he's acting like he cares, but in fact, Harrah's trains their employees to talk to the customers about their personal lives to gain information that will help go into those softwares and into those computer programs that will help them predict these people's patterns and what it is that's going to appeal to them and how they can get them in to spend more money. They already knew she'd bankrupted $20,000. They already knew that her parents died. They knew about the money that she inherited. They found out about the money that she inherited. They found out about all of it. So now they know, here's somebody who used to be addicted to gambling, lost $20,000 in debt, and now has inherited a million dollars. Now this is somebody that they want in their casino. So she goes back to Tennessee, well now they're able to track her down and figure out where she is. They're sending her offers in the mail, calling her, and literally, in turn if you would in your Bible to Proverbs chapter 4, they would literally call her up and basically offer to send a limousine to her house for free. This is all free. No strings attached. They offered to send a limousine to her house, pick her up, and drive her in a limo all the way across the border into Mississippi where gambling is legal, and basically take her to another state so that she can gamble at a Harrah's casino. And so this temptation just becomes too difficult to refuse. I mean she's got all this money in the bank, she's depressed, she's sad, and they're calling her all the time, they're sending her stuff in the mail, they're going to send her a limo, they're going to drive her to these places. In fact, they call her up and say, we're going to fly you and your whole family to Las Vegas, free of charge. We're going to fly you and your husband to Las Vegas, and she said, well I got to take my daughter. They said, we'll pay for her too. We're going to pay for all of your airfare, we're going to put you in a fancy hotel, we're going to pay for all of your food, no strings attached, and we're going to give you $10,000 in chips. No strings attached. No obligation. No, there really was no obligation though, here's the airfare, and they said we're going to put you in the front row of this rock concert to the Eagles. So you're going to go to the rock concert, free airfare, food, hotel, and just here's 10 grand handed to you. Here's 10,000 bucks. Say, how can they afford to do that? Because they're going to get way more than that out of her in the end. So they give her 10,000 bucks, I mean she just can't say no to that. So they fly out there, they go to the concert, they go to the dinners, you know, they spend the money, they do the gambling, and pretty soon she's just completely back into that cycle of just gambling. The limos are constantly picking her up, she's constantly getting on that airplane. She's just constantly gambling more and more. And when I thought about Harrah's, you know, just how predatory they are, I thought of this scripture, look at Proverbs chapter 4 verse 14. Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it. Pass not by it. Turn from it and pass away. Watch this. For they sleep not except they've done mischief, and their sleep is taken away unless they cause some to fall. For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. You see, there are people in this world who prey upon others, and look, what kind of a wicked person would you be? To know that this person has a problem, they're addicted, their parents have died, they're depressed about their parents dying, they've already messed up the finance of their family, they've already bankrupted $20,000, and you just want to milk them for everything that you can and just exploit their weakness. Obviously it's a wicked industry. And to use these computer programs to try to learn about people and figure out what they're going to do and just take maximum advantage of what they're going to be used for. So anyway, a friend of hers wanted to get married in Vegas. No problem. She picks up the phone. My friend wants to get married in Vegas. Okay. The casino flies them all out there, pays for everything, puts them in the fanciest penthouse, a hotel room with six bedrooms, you know, it's all paid for. And while she's there, what's she doing? Playing blackjack. Okay. She literally, one night she loses 60 grand in one night. $60,000. Remember, she inherited like a million bucks, okay? One of these trips to Vegas, she went with $100,000 and came back with nothing. Lost $100,000. You know, and then another time she won $40,000, another time she won $60,000. You know, she went there with a little and came back with a lot. But I mean, now we're talking about really big numbers. When you're losing $100,000 in one weekend on gambling, okay, then her dad, somebody in her dad, or I'm sorry, somebody in her husband's family, I think it was her husband's dad or husband's mom died. So that was depressing and then, you know, she wanted to just kind of clear her head a little bit before the funeral. So they went back to that home state where she was originally there and in one 12-hour period, one night, she lost a quarter of a million dollars playing blackjack in one 12-hour period in one night. Didn't tell her husband. Totally concealed it. Because you know, she's got her own bank account, she's got this inheritance that she inherited. She didn't even tell him. He doesn't even know that she's losing these huge amounts of money. And other times she's winning, but over time you always lose because the house has the advantage. And then she just got to the point where she just couldn't stop because she had to win it back. You know, and this is why gamblers, if gamblers win, then they think, yeah, I'm going to keep winning. And when gamblers lose, they say, well, I can't quit when I'm down. If I'm a smart gambler, I'll quit when I'm ahead, okay? So she started feeling like, this is insane, I've just wasted like most of my parents' inheritance. I lost a quarter of a million dollars in one night. You know, I've got to win this back. You know, I've got to keep playing until I win it back. So finally, in the end, on the last night of gambling, she spent all of her money, she got down to the last penny, spent all of the inheritance, I mean the million dollar inheritance is all gone. She mortgages her house. She signs a promissory note at the casino on the house that she had bought. And then in addition to that, borrows $125,000. And she has all, she starts, but she starts, you know, she borrowed that money and things are going real good. She hits a winning streak. The chips start stacking up on the table. A crowd gathers. She is just rolling. Then the dealer hits 21. She loses. He hits 21 again. She loses again. He hits 21 again. She loses again. But this streak of bad luck ensued. And she lost, she got to where she had no chips on the table. She lost everything. And then she asked Harrah's to loan her more money and they said, no, you're done. So now she spent all of her own money, she's signed over her house to them, and she owes them $125,000. And they won't give her any more credit. So she's done playing. Game over. She goes up to the hotel room and tells her husband, it's all gone. All the money's gone. It's all gone. And he says, well, honey, at least we still have the house. But they didn't still have the house. She didn't have the heart to tell him. I'm sure he eventually found out. I mean, isn't that horrible? And in the end, she'd lost like a million bucks in like a decade of gambling. Okay, and remember, do you remember back at the beginning of the story how she started? Just so moderate, so in control. I mean, strict rules. I'm spending one hour a week, I'm only spending the cash I have in my pocket, I know that people get out of control. And remember, this woman had never had a problem with drinking. She'd never had a problem with overeating. She'd never had any addictions or any problem. That's why she didn't see this coming, because she'd never been addicted to anything. And she started out, wasn't addicted, everything was fine. Real conservative, playing by very strict rules, being very careful. Fast forward 10 years, and she's given them a million dollars. And then, so she owed them $125,000, then they tacked on $375,000 in penalties and fees to where they were suing her for a half a million dollars. And she has no money, she has nothing. They've already taken a million of her dollars, and they're suing her for another half mill in the end. And they predicted all of it with their computer software. Why do you think they were willing to invest the money to fly her to Vegas, send her to the Eagles concert, buy her all the buffets? That was nothing. I mean, when you're taking a million dollars from somebody or more, you think that that's a big deal to just, you know, spend $10,000, spend $20,000 to get them through the door? Limo to Mississippi, no problem.