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1 Timothy 6, the Bible reads, But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment, let us be there with content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil, which, while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. And the topic I want to preach to you about this morning is the topic of gambling. The hope is, I don't suspect that there's anybody in the room this morning that has a gambling problem, but let's keep it that way. If you are one that's gambling, you need to stop. And if you're not, you don't ever want to start. Gambling is a sin, we're going to get into that. The Bible is warning us here in 1 Timothy 6 about the dangers of desiring to be rich. And really that's why a lot of people gamble. A lot of people, I remember I worked with one guy, he would go to the casino every so often, and his hope was just to win a million dollars. He just wanted to play the lotto, he didn't want much, he didn't need to win the mega millions, he would be content with just a cool million, just to take the edge off. A lot of people have that mentality, they think, well it's not such a bad thing if I just want to win a little extra money playing lotto, doing my scratch off tickets. But what's going on there is that it's a covetous spirit, it's a desire to be rich. And notice what it says there in verse 9 of 1 Timothy 6, it says, they that will be rich. So it's not all people that are rich or wealthy or are well to do are inherently wicked people. We kind of have that misconception sometimes. We say, oh this person has wealth, they must be a very wicked person. When in fact there's some people that are doing quite well financially that are very godly people, and that give to the work of God and help the work of God to go forward. But it's when we get into this trap of not being rich and desiring to be rich. Now if we through hard work and honest means, you know, do well for ourselves and make a good living, that's fine. But it's the love of money, it's this desire to be rich, the will to be rich, the want to be rich above all else. That's when the people fall into what the Bible calls a temptation and a snare, a trap, that's what a snare is. And in many foolish and hurtful lusts. You don't have to look very far to see people who have made gaining material wealth their life's ambition and they end up falling into foolish and hurtful lusts. They get into all kinds of different sins. Because quite frankly there's some sins that are just not accessible to the common man who doesn't have a lot of money. But when you come into a lot of money, suddenly all these other doors can begin to open up to you, to now you can afford these other sins that might come into your life. And the Bible says there that these sins, these hurtful lusts, these drowned men in destruction and perdition, they drown them, they're overcome of them. For the love of money is the root of all evil. So I want to preach to you about the practice of gambling and the fact that gambling is a sinful habit that God's people should not participate in. Now of course this is Super Bowl Sunday, is that right? This is Super Bowl Sunday, right? Okay, I thought I had it right. Now here's the thing, 26 million people are expected to bet on the Super Bowl today. 26 million people are going to put down some money on who's going to win the game. And I was reading some articles about this, you can bet on all kinds of crazy things when it comes to these sporting events. The coin toss, what kind of hairdo the halftime show is going to have, there's all kinds of goofball things that people want to bet their money on and get different odds for. So there's going to be 26 million people that are going to put down some money today and try it, and why? Because they want to gain more, they want to get more than what they already have, their covetous. Not the Bible, but this study that I read, of those 26 million people, 4 million people are going to bet in a sports book, 5 million people are going to bet online. This is what's expected. And it's expected that 16 million people will place bets with a bookie in some kind of a pool, not a literal pool, they're not going to go down in a pool and make a bet. They're going to, you know, like a pool at work, you know, the people get together, they have like those, you know, they do their brackets, that kind of thing, or, you know, they'll have all kinds of different, you know what they are. If you've been in any kind of a workplace where there's a lot of people that get together, you know what I'm talking about. They're going to bet casually with friends, or with family even, they'll just make, you know, these little bets and things like that. You know, and those things might seem harmless, you might say, well what's the harm in that, you know, what's the harm in putting down, you know, 20, 100 bucks, or whatever, just having a fun, a friendly little bet. Well, you never know, because what that might lead to. You know, the thrill of winning might go to your head. You're like, wow, I put down 20 bucks and I'm walking out with 500. Now that's 500 bucks I wasn't expecting to have, I wonder if I could take, you know, a little portion of that and maybe go down and place another bet somewhere. You never know where these things lead. You know, there's a reason why there's so many casinos today. There's a reason why there's, you know, 26 million people that are going to be placing bets today. Now before I get into it, you know, let me just confess to you that I was a gambler in my past, you know, and I gambled on football. When I was about 14, 15, junior high age, I would put down 25 cents, sometimes even 50 cents with my stepfather, I called him that, they never married, but I called him that. You know, Dean, we put down some money, you know, never got up to a dollar, okay, but I put down a couple quarters on Monday Night Football and it was completely uneducated. You know, I just, I would look, whichever side he picked, I of course was left with the opposite side. Now, you know, I did well, you know, every now and then I'd be able to go to school the next day and get a candy bar, you know, but sometimes I lost and I learned the hard way. But I did that. You know, I also, I've been in a casino before I was saved, 18 years old. You know, because here's the thing, gambling isn't going to be a problem for everybody. You know, there's probably going to be some people in the room this morning and walk out and say, you know, I really didn't glean a lot from that sermon. I already kind of figured out that, you know, gambling is not something that you should be doing. I kind of already knew all this. You know, you might run into somebody down the road who has a gambling problem or you might see somebody, a brother or sister in Christ, a family member, whoever, a co-worker start to dabble in this, you know, you might want to kind of pay attention this morning and say, hey, you know, that is dangerous and not just brush it off, maybe reach out to that person before they go down that road. When I was 18 years old, I had a boss who took me down to a casino and we went in there and within a half hour I lost 50 bucks. I think it was playing blackjack. And then he was like, well, you know, that went quick. Here's another 50 bucks out of his own pocket. And within an hour I'd lost that. So that was my one experience with the casino. Now, you know, again, that was before I was saved. That's not, I'm not trying to glorify that, but I'm just saying I've done that. I went in there and I walked out of that place thinking this is the stupidest thing in the world. Why do people do this? Why do people go in there? Because I worked hard for that 50 bucks. That was like almost a night's wages of work, you know, I said, why am I going into this place and just handing over money to these and getting nothing out of it? Now, I understand that if you knew what you're doing, you might actually be able to win some money, but you know, that leads into a whole nother host of problems. So that was kind of my brush with gambling. That's about the extent of it right there. You know, after I got saved a few, just a few years later, I got in church and started reading the Bible, listening to preaching. You know, one thing I figured out pretty quick is that gambling is a sin, you know, and some people do struggle with this. They say, well, does the Bible explicitly call gambling a sin? It doesn't. It doesn't come out and say thou shalt not gamble, okay? But it does say thou shalt not covet. And really that's what's at the heart of gambling is covetous, and we'll get into that in a minute. But you know, I understood that at a young age, that gambling, you know, is not only stupid but that also it's sinful and it's a waste of time and money and resources, but that it's also sinful. You know, and even the unsafe world will look at gambling and say, hey, this is bad. This is not good. They'll have recovery programs. You know, they'll have signs up, gamble responsibly, you know, just like drink responsibly, because they understand, you know, gambling can become every bit as much of a drug as any, as heroin or crack or alcohol or any other list of drugs that are out there. It can be just as addictive because when a person's winning, they experience that rush, you know, the dopamine and the endorphins being dumped into their bloodstream and getting that high, that winner's high, and they chase that. You know, they're always having to bet bigger and bigger bets to get that high. So, you know, even the unsafe world understands this, that there's a real danger to gambling and they consider it a vice to be avoided. You know, they'll tell you it's okay to do, you know, they'll say, they'll liken it onto like casual drinking, you know, it's okay to have a little bit. We know the Bible condemns that. So, you know, and more so in the past. More so in the past, you know, gambling was something that was a little bit more low browsed and a little bit more frowned upon. It's something that wasn't very widely accepted in society. Unlike today, unlike the world that we're living in today, where casinos just are littered all across this country. I mean, they're just everywhere. You could, you know, especially down here in the Southwest, they're just, I've noticed an abundance of them. But even where I'm from in Michigan, I used to have, I had a great aunt. I would see her every summer at my mom's because she was in her 80s. Her and her husband would get in the car and they would drive up one side of Michigan and down the other and they would stop at our house along the way. And this whole trip was just them going from casino to casino-casino. And they were playing like the penny, you know, one-armed thieves. The, what do you call those things? The slots. Yeah, they were, you know, they were just playing the penny slots. You know, but it was acceptable. It was like, oh, that's kind of cute. That's nice to do. And there was just all these casinos for them to do it. You know, they could go everywhere. And we have casinos everywhere today. And in fact, I saw kind of the, you know, the inspiration for the sermon was actually an ad from a casino. It was from Gila River Casino. And it says this. It was a guy kind of, you know, looking at it all well-dressed, you know, and looking at the camera and just it had this quote next to him and it said, come take what's yours, Gila River Casino. Come take what's yours. Now that, when you start to think about that, that is very loaded. You know, first of all, you can look at it, well, come take what's yours. First of all, it's not yours. You know, that's the whole problem with it, you know, is you're coveting something that's not yours. You're not gaining it through hard work. You're putting up money that you did work for, but you're putting it up with all the high likelihood of losing it and it going to the house and you never seeing it again and maybe not paying bills or whatever it might be. You know, going into debt, and we'll talk about that here in a minute, the ends that people go to to supply their gambling habit. But this phrase from Gila River Casino is come take what's yours. You know, first of all, it's not yours. It's not like the casino's got this money for you with your name on it and they're just waiting for you to come win it. You know, that's allure. But then I started to think a little bit more about that. You know, some guy with a gambling habit would probably look at that and go, yeah, they have my money. They took what was mine and they're challenging me to come back and get what's mine. You know, I thought to myself and I was with somebody and I was like, that has got to be the worst ad for a casino ever. Come take what's yours because we got it. Because we've got it. You used to have it and now it's ours, but you know what I mean? Like, they're challenging you to come back and try to beat the house again. So, I thought that was just a terrible ad that kind of inspired the sermon. But I want to just read some other proverbs, some other just quotes from the world, just to show you that people have understood the dangers of gambling for a long time. There's this German proverb that says this, a pack of cards is the devil's prayer book. Ooh, right? A pack of cards is the devil's prayer book. Now, what do they mean by that? You know, if you're going to be playing cards and putting money down, you're going to get into trouble. You know, you're playing a dangerous game. Now, I'll say this. I don't think if you go home and play a few hands of rummy with your family or whatever or you play poker with some colored chips or something that you're in sin. And I've heard people get up behind pulpits and say you shouldn't even touch playing cards. And I've always scratched my head at that. I don't understand why. Because it's just a game. The problem is not the cards themselves. It's when you start to put money behind the cards. You know, my mother-in-law is coming to town in a few weeks. Pray for me. No, just kidding. She's coming to town. She's a great lady. I love her. And you know what? We're going to sit down and we're going to have a couple of rounds of cribbage. We both like to play cribbage. But you know what's not going to happen? I'm not going to put any money down. She's not going to put any money down. It's just going to be a friendly game. Is that sinful? Is that something that's wicked? No. What's the difference in playing that and playing Monopoly? They're just harmless board games. So, you know, I don't want people to get this idea because that does go around in Baptist circles a lot. You know, if you even have a deck of cards. And I came up in a church like that. I remember, you know, there was one elderly couple that would, they would play cards. And it just drove this other guy in the church nuts. And he would always get up in Sunday school and he would preach at them. You know, those are the devil's tickets that you're playing with and go on and forth. And the whole thing is, you know, because they say the playing cards are pagan, you know. And that's, you know, you could, that's a rabbit hole I just don't want to go down. Because everything's pagan. I've heard him say, you know, ties are pagan and everything's pagan. So, I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with cards, okay. If you want to go home and play goldfish with your kids, you know, the earth is not going to open up underneath your feet and swallow you. Go ahead and do that. Enjoy that. But the pack of cards is the devil's prayer book, you know, when it's, when you're playing it down at the local casino. You know, when you're getting together with your buddies to, you know, drink whiskey and smoke cigars and gamble real cold hard cash, you know, you're probably in bad company and up to no good. And it'd probably end up, you know, biting you in the end. Here's another, here's a French proverb, okay. We're going to tour the world a little bit in proverbs. Gambling is the son of avarice, which is, you know, extreme greed for material wealth and gain, and the father of despair. He's saying, look, gambling is the father of despair. The father of despair. It is not going to bring anything good in your life. Even the world understands this, folks. Even the world knows that gambling is a dangerous thing and that it's ruined people's lives and families and homes. Lottery is attacks on people who are bad at math. That's, the author is unknown. I love that one. Lottery attacks on people who are bad at math. I mean, playing the lottery has got to be one of the dumbest things in the world. You know what your chances of winning the lottery are? Well, you don't play if you don't, you can't win if you don't play. Look, you can play all you want. You're not going to win, buddy. And, you know, people who have won, that usually does not turn out well for them. People have been abducted, murdered, you know, beat up, robbed after winning the lottery. Bad things happen. The vast majority of people end up worse off after winning the lottery than better. Because they don't know how to handle that money. One day you're just, you know, average guy just making a living in the world. You go into the convenience store, you put in a few bucks, I don't even know what it costs to play the lottery. And the next day you win and you come into millions of dollars. Most people, the vast majority of people can't handle that. I would say probably 99.9% of people that just came into a huge amount of wealth just overlight like that would destroy them. You know, that's why a lot of times we have to wonder why is God, maybe God keeps us a little lean financially is because God knows we can't handle that money. It would ruin us. You know, it would cause, it would open up doors to, you know, all these other sins in our lives. In a bet, this is another proverb, in a bet there is a fool and a thief. Those are the LMT players, I love that one. Gambling is a sure way of getting nothing for something, right? Of getting nothing for something. You want to get nothing for something, you should go gamble. Now I'm just reading these quotes to you just to show you that even the world gets this. That even the world without the Holy Spirit, without the Bible, without preaching, they understand the dangers and the foolishness of gambling. Now the problem with gambling is that gambling can become an addiction. It can become, you know, what's known as pathological gambling, compulsive gambling, or a gambling disorder. So people, they can develop an impulse that cannot be resisted just like any other drug. I mean, you look at some drug addicts, man, they'll be down in the gutter, they'll be, life is just a mess, but their whole life is just about the next high. Getting their next fix, doing whatever it takes. And it's like they can't even control themselves. They're just, they can't resist the impulse to go and take more drugs. The same thing can happen with gambling. You can get to the point in gambling where you get so addicted to that high of winning or just the experience of going through that. You get just so caught up in it that you're just going to be impulsively going back there. And people will even, they'll know what's wrong. They'll know that they shouldn't be doing it. They know there's going to be severe consequences and they do it anyway. And why is that? Because they have a disorder, because they have an addiction, because they have a pathological problem, because they are compulsive and impulsive and it cannot be controlled. The problem with gambling, it can become an impulse that can't be resisted and it begins to negatively affect the gambler and those around them. We've all heard the sad story of the dad who went and spent the grocery money on blackjack or whatever and the family isn't eating that week. Or rent's not getting paid, utilities are getting turned off, things are getting repossessed, the family is suffering because someone in the family has a gambling addiction. People are starting to steal from their own family members to feed an addiction of gambling. This kind of thing happens. It can negatively affect not only the person who's participating in that sin but also those that are around that person, who are associated with that person in their immediate sphere. They will begin to gamble regardless of the circumstances or the consequences. People can be down and out, but they're going to gamble anyway. They might be able to scratch up just a few more dollars and instead of feeding themselves, instead of taking care of something that needs to be taken care of financially, they're going to go gamble again. And even full well knowing that if they lose, all these problems in their life are going to persist. They're going to gamble regardless of the circumstances they're in. They're going to gamble regardless of the consequences that they're in. Those are what you would categorize as people who have a pathological problem, people who are compulsive, or they have a disorder, is what they would call it. They're addicted, right? In the world, they even have this classification of people who aren't quite there yet, but they have what's called problem gambling. And this affects a lot more, far more, greater amount of people than just being... I think it's like two or three percent of the population struggles with gambling addiction, which is still significant. I mean, that's millions of people that are dealing with a gambling addiction. But then you have people who have just a problem with gambling, just not necessarily addicted, but gambling is still disrupting their life to some degree. These are people who would have kind of a preoccupation with gambling. They're always on their mind. They're just waiting. Can I get there next week? Can I get there next month? They're skipping out on other life events. They're not going to make the kid's soccer game. Can't be in church that day. Sorry, got to go gamble. It overrides other priorities in their life. They're preoccupied with it. They're always thinking about it. They might not be always getting there whenever they'd like, but it's always on their mind. That's what they're looking for to do in life. So the amount of time they spend gambling increases. The amount of money they spend when they go gambling, that goes up. These are people that are developing a problem with gambling. When they begin to chase losses, they say, well, I've got to just get back there and win it back. They go out. They think, oh, I'm just going to have a good time gambling. They gamble more than they expected to and now they've lost a significant portion of money. And they're thinking, well, before the wife finds out, the husband finds out, before so-and-so finds out, I've got to get back there and earn that money back so they don't know anything happened. They begin to chase losses. That's when you develop what's called problem gambling. So the frequency of gambling is not a factor so much when it comes to problem gambling. They haven't gotten to the place where they're just compulsively going to be in there. If they find a quarter on the sidewalk, they're heading straight to the nearest slot machine that they can find. But it's not necessarily the frequency, but it's starting to affect their life in negative ways and they're still persisting in it. Gambling is a problem when it starts to cause problems in their life. That's what problem gambling is. You have a gambling problem when being able to afford it does not negate it. When you say, well, I can't afford to gamble and you do it anyway. That's when you've developed a real problem with it. Now, obviously, a lot of people are going to be able to go to the casino with some loose cash, go on holiday somewhere and blow a few hundred bucks, whatever loose cash they have, walk out of there and just be fine with that and move right on with their life. That doesn't make it right and do we really want to see whether or not we're those people? Do we really want to test those waters and find out? Let me see if I'm a person who has a problem with gambling or not. Let's just not find out. That doesn't make it right. Just because somebody can hold their liquor doesn't make drinking right. Just because somebody can be a high-functioning stoner doesn't make that right. Just because you can go blow a thousand dollars in a casino and move on with your life doesn't make it right. When you have a problem is when you can go in there and you start to lose this money, you start to chase it and then you get to the place where now I can afford to go gambling. I don't have loose cash to just go blow at the casino but that's not going to stop me. That's when you have a real problem with it. When you start to develop consequences besides just the financial loss. When you start to see gambling affect your life besides just your bank account, when your relationships become strained, when the spouses are trying to do the budget, where's this thousand dollars at? Oh, I spent it. You did that last month. You did that the month when we can't afford your gambling. That begins to affect relationships. Why isn't mom around? Why isn't dad around? They're always at the casino. They're missing out on life. When you start to run into legal problems, people will lose their job because of gambling. People will start to develop mental health problems from gambling. It's a serious problem. They'll start to become depressed. They'll start to experience anxiety. Some people even go so far as to commit suicide because of gambling. They just look at life. They say, I've gotten so far in the hole. I'm so far behind. I'm such a shame onto everybody around me. I can't even stand to look myself in the mirror. They end up taking their own life. Why? Because of gambling. Because of all the casinos that are out there and their problem with it. You say, well, gambling, that's just for people. People who have problems like that, they're just weak individuals. They're just weak. They have a strong enough will. I can go in there and I can put my money down and I can walk out of there, win or loss, and I'm fine. But that's really not what it comes down to. It's not just a matter of people having a weak will because people who have gambling problems or develop even gambling addictions, they come from all kinds of backgrounds. People who are very successful, very driven, very motivated people who have accomplished things in their life in terms of the world, they develop gambling problems. People that are coming from lower incomes, maybe less educated, they develop gambling problems. Housewives, professionals, gambling addicts come from all walks of life. So it's not just one certain type of person that develops a gambling problem. It can affect anybody. So what are some signs of somebody having a gambling addiction? When the people start to be secretive about it, when they start, they don't want anybody else to know about it. They're making up excuses. Where were you? It doesn't matter. They're lying. They're going behind people's back. Inability to control it. They can't walk away. They can't say that's enough. They'll put more down. They can't walk away from it. They're coming back. They're chasing losses. They're trying to gamble every dollar they have to win back whether they lost. These are people that have a problem. Regardless of the consequences, they have no money. When you start to borrow or steal or you start selling things, now they're going down to the pawn shop and hawking things so they can go down and try to win money back or feed this addiction. These are the type of things that gambling leads to. It's estimated that 50% of problem gamblers, not even the addicts, just people who have a problem with it, they commit crimes to support their addiction. 50% of them. They'll start to rob people. They'll start to steal things and hawk them so they can fuel this problem that they have. Friends and family, when someone comes to you and starts to express concern, whether it's over sin, any kind of sin, the sin of gambling, whatever it is, if there's some sin in your life and someone has to come to you and say, you know, we've noticed this about you and we're concerned. And I'm not saying they're just coming to tear your head off and jump down your throat, but they're coming out of a place of love that they want to see you stop doing that for your own good and those around you. That's when people really need to step back and go, whoa, I have a problem here. I need to deal with this. And that's usually what happens to these people. And when that happens, they deny it. They say, no, it's not like that. Well, no, it is because you stole the radio out of my car and sold it. You broke into my house and took change out of my... You took 30 bucks and change out of my house to fuel this addiction. You have a problem. You need to fix this. No, no, it's not like that. I'll pay you back as soon as I win. I'm borrowing that. I didn't steal it. I'm borrowing it temporarily. Denial starts to creep in. And despite all these dangers, despite all these problems that gambling can bring into a person's life, 80% of Americans gamble every year. 80% of Americans, forgive the pun, they roll the dice with gambling to see if that's, you know, whether they're just doing it casually once a year and maybe the vast majority of them can handle it, but others can't. Three out of five, three to five out of every 100 people struggle with a gambling problem. Three to five people, or excuse me, three to five percent of people struggle with a gambling addiction. And you might be sitting here this morning saying, well, I don't. Well, maybe it's just because you haven't gone gambling yet. Maybe it's because you haven't walked through a casino and seen all the bright lights and all the fancy carpet and all the neat sounds and all the fun games and people walking out want all this money and seen all the pictures of people just as static as they're holding up all this money Maybe you just haven't had a taste of it yet. And maybe when you get a taste of it, you're going to end up like one of these three to five percent of people that are going to have a problem with this. Do we really want to find out? 750,000 young people, that's ages 14 to 21. I mean, the vast majority of them aren't even legal to go gambling. What's the gambling age? Is it 21? 18 or 21? It was 18 when I lived down in St. Croix. You could go there at 18. Does anyone know what it is? You guys are so separated. Don't even know. You might want to find out before you go in there. I'm just kidding. I think it's 21, right? Anyway, the vast majority, certainly not 14. It's not 15. I know it ain't 16. It can't be 17. And you're telling me that age group 750,000 of them in America. Can you imagine your 14 year old having a gambling problem? Your 15 year old? Your 16 year old? Any age would be a tragedy, but I mean, especially that young. I mean, that's going to be a problem for the rest of their life they're going to have to deal with. And you know, if you've ever been around somebody that has a problem with gambling, it's scary. I mean, they'll look you right. You'll tell them and say, look, this is a problem. They'll acknowledge it and say, yep, you're right. But they're compulsive. They can't stop doing it. Even though they know it's wrong, they're suffering the consequences, and they're still going to do it. And it's sad. It's unfortunate. It's like you're just watching that person you're just watching them nosedive in life. They're just going down, crash and burn, and they just can't pull out of it. You're like, you know, eject, eject! And they're just like, ahhh! Because they have this problem. And again, maybe that's not you this morning, but do you want to see if it is? Do you want to go find out? Maybe that is you. So we see that the world, they've got all these classifications, a compulsive gambler, what makes an addict, what makes a person who just has a gambling problem. We've read all these quotes from different cultures that they've got all these anecdotes about gambling. So the world gets it. The world understands it. And I'll tell you what, the casinos definitely understand it. Multi-billion dollar a year industry. I don't have the figures here, but tens, if not hundreds of billions of dollars they're making every year. You think they don't know the powerful effects of gambling? I mean, they design those places. The carpet is designed to keep your eyes up, and they make it with all those patterns and stuff so that it's kind of hard to look at so that you'll look up all the games to play. They think about all this stuff. Human psychology, sociology, they think about all the human behavior, what happens to a person when they win. They play the odds and the house always wins, right? Even if a person gets a lot of money, they'll pursue that person. Some people, they win a lot of money. They'll win millions of dollars, hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of dollars. You think the casino's just gonna let you walk out with all that money? I mean, they're not physically going to stop you, but they're going to be sending you stuff in the mail, they're going to email you, any contact information, hey, come on back. We've got this big suite for you that we've already paid for. It doesn't cost us anything. We've already paid for this thing. So we're just going to give you this suite to come stay here for a weekend, and we're going to put you at the high rollers table. They want that money back, and they know the power of it, and the world does, but really what it comes down to, even if you want to disregard all of that, is that gambling is a sin, period. Period. Whether I don't care what quantity of money you're talking, I don't care what context you're talking about, desiring that which is not yours is covetousness, and that's gambling. And I've heard Christians struggle with this, like, well, is it really a sin? Of course it is. They'll say, well, it doesn't address it directly. But the Bible doesn't have to directly address something, specifically call out a sin for it to be a sin. I mean, we could all think about sins that are like that. You know, the sin of pornography. Does it specifically say that? It says, but, you know, whosoever shall look upon a woman to lust hath committed adultery already within his heart. That would include it. The sin of smoking. Does the Bible say thou shalt not smoke? No, but it does say that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, and you shouldn't do those things. And gambling's the same thing. Gambling is not specifically addressed in the Bible, where it says thou shalt not gamble. But the concept is there. The principle that we should not covet things is there. And you can't tell me gambling isn't covetousness. That's all it is. Greed, covetousness, desiring that which is not yours. So if you would, turn over to Matthew chapter 6. We'll start to look at a few scriptures here. Matthew chapter 6. You know, the Bible does not directly condemn gambling, but it does condemn it in regards to the consequences and the motivations behind it. It might not go at it directly, but the consequences are condemned and the motivations are condemned. The consequences that come with gambling are condemned in Scripture. The motivations that come along with gambling are condemned in Scripture. You know, not all sins need to be specifically named in order to be condemned. The Bible doesn't do that, but it does condemn the motive, the consequences, the principle that's there. Now, any addiction is sinful because it competes for our time and devotion. You know, video games. Are video games inherently bad? I mean, is Mario is Mario World that bad? No. It's pretty harmless. I'm sure somebody would say it's pagan, right? But is Tetris that bad? Is it really? It's a puzzle game. I mean, you could play that on a tabletop, practically. Or you could play it on a screen. Is the game itself that bad? No. Is getting addicted to Tetris a bad thing? Yeah, because now it's competing for your time and devotion. It's competing for time. It can become an idol for people, and video games do that. Anything that begins to compete for your time and devotion is sinful. And gambling does that for a lot of people. The Bible, it says there in Matthew chapter 6, look at verse 24. No man can serve two masters for he will either hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. He cannot serve God and mammon. You know, there's certain things in life where we have to decide this is more important to me than, you know, you have to say, you know, God is more important to me than X, Y, and Z. You know, the time that I'm going to spend in church, the time I'm going to spend soul-winning, the time I'm going to spend reading my Bible, the time I'm going to spend studying the scripture, or fellowshipping is more important to me than whatever, sinful or not. You know, whatever it might be. You can't serve both. You've got to pick which one is more important. And when things begin to compete for our time in church, for our Bible reading, for our prayer, for all these devotions, for all these things that need to make up the basis of our Christian life, we start to trade those things off for whatever it is. You know, whether it's sinful or not, you know, that's when it becomes a problem. Go over to 1 Corinthians chapter 10. What begins to happen is when we give away our time that should be devoted to God, is we're saying, okay, this becomes my master now. You know, tonight we're talking, or this morning rather, we're talking about, you know, gambling. You know, I know I should be in church on Sunday, but I'm going to be in the casino because I love to gamble. You know, I know I should, you know, that's, you know, this 10% is the tithe is the Lord's, but today it's going to be wild horse passes. Today it's going to be Gila Rivers. You know, I'm going to give it unto them. You know, that's God's. And now you're saying, well, I'm going to serve them now. I'm going to serve them with my time, with my money, with my resources, with my energy. You know, we're talking about gambling specifically, but you could apply that to anything today. It says in 1 Corinthians 10 verse 21, you cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils. You cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and the table of devils. You can't have it both ways. You know, sometimes in life you have to choose what's more important to you. What's more important about how you're going to spend your time? Well, you know, what's more important, what's the more important thing you're going to spend your time on? The things of God or the things of the world? You know, living holy and righteous and godly in Christ Jesus or some sin in your life. You know, you're going to make that decision. 2 Peter chapter 2, if you go over there. Because when we start to give our affection, our time, our resources, our energy into these other things, what happens is we're brought into bondage of those things. That's what we're talking about this morning. Gambling, addiction. People start to give themselves over to that stuff and the next thing you know, it becomes their master. Oh, I've got it under control. I can handle this. Whatever addiction it is. Oh, just a little bit. I'll just dabble. I understand this is the Lord's table, but I'm just going to take a peek over at the devil's table just for a second. I'm not going to belly up and have a full meal. I'm just going to walk by and try a little bit. I'm just going to have an appetizer. I'm just going to see what the devil's serving up over there. Just a celery stick and a little bit of ranch. And the next thing you know, that's pretty good. Maybe what else has he got? I'd like another one. Maybe I'll have a little bit more. The next thing you know, you are sitting at that table. And you're brought into bondage. That's what it says here in 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 19. While they promised them liberty, they themselves are the servant of corruption. Look at that latter part there. For of whom a man is overcome of the same as he brought in bondage. That's just the facts. That's just the truth. If you're overcome of somebody else, if somebody else defeats you, we could talk about the field of warfare or even a sporting event or martial arts would be a good example. That's when it comes to mind. The submission game. The jiu-jitsu guy or whatever. When he overcomes you, you're brought into bondage. You're not getting out until he lets you go. Now you're his. He's got your neck. He's got your arm. He's going to do whatever he wants with it. People get in that position sometimes, don't they? We're talking about physically. Same thing can happen spiritually. We spend too much time over there. It started out as just a taste. Next thing you know, it's a full meal. Now the devil's just got us right under his thumb. He's not going to let us go. What did we read in 1 Timothy this morning? They fall into temptation and a snare. He's got us. He's got us. He's just toying with you. It reminds me of a cat. You ever see a cat catch a mouse and it doesn't kill it right away? It just plays with it for a while. It thinks it's going to get away and then just brings it right back. People end up like that in life with sin. They want to get away. They want to get let go. But it's just got them there. It's just playing with them. That's the problem when we start talking about how we can overcome a person and bring them into bondage. And what lies at the heart of gambling, though the Bible does not directly condemn it, what lies at the heart of gambling is covetousness. And it can take over a person's life. Go over to 1 Corinthians chapter 5. Covetousness is what lies at the heart of gambling. That's what makes it inherently sinful. You know, that 25 cents I bet on the New York Giants back in 1992, whatever, on Monday Night Football, that was out of covetousness. It wasn't because I was hoping the guy I was betting would win and he could get 25 cents. I wasn't just trying to fill his pocket. I felt that way. I could have just given him the money. I didn't have to make a bet to do that. No, I was trying to get something for myself. People don't go to the casino to be generous to the casino. Well, you know, I just want to help the casino out by letting them take my money. They're going in there because they want to win. Because they want to walk out. They want that cool million to take the edge off, like that one guy would always say. They just want that little bit more than what they need just so they can sit back and relax and take it easy. It's covetousness. Desiring that which is not yours. You know, desiring that which you can... Wanting to gain something without having to work for it. You want to just come easy to you. It's covetousness and leads to all kinds of things. The Bible says in Romans 7, I'll read to you, it says, What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Yea, had not known sin but by the law, for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. I mean, it's the Ten Commandments, folks. Thou shalt not covet. You know, you should not covet your neighbor, or his wife, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is thy neighbor's. You know, you shouldn't covet these things. You know, that's a big sin. So covetousness basically is just desiring that which is not yours. So look here in 1 Corinthians 5, verse 9. I wrote unto you an epistle not to company with fornicators, yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters, for then must he needs go out of the world. What is he saying here? He's saying, look, I told you not to company with fornicators. He's talking within the context of the local church. He's saying, look, if I were to tell you you can't company with any fornicator, you'd have to leave the world, because the world is full of these people. So he's not referring to us, you know, accompanying with unsaved people. Now again, they should, I've preached sermons about this even recently, about not being equally unweekly yoked with unbelievers, but what he's saying is, you know, these are the type of things that you should not be said of a brother in Christ, a person within a local church. Look at verse 11. But now I have written unto you not to keep company with any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or extortioner, with such a one know not to eat. Now we're real familiar with the fact that the people, we shouldn't company with people who are fornicators, and, you know, we like to talk about that. We preach about that. That's important. That's a big sin, especially in the world today. Or drunkards, right? Drinking is a big problem today, but sometimes we kind of skip over the covetous part. Sometimes we don't really, you know, pay that one as much attention as maybe we should. Am I saying, you know, if somebody comes in here, you know, little Billy comes in, and he looks at Johnny's new toy, and he wants it, and he goes over and takes it, we have to say, whoa, he's not welcome here. No, obviously not. There's a line here, a degree of covetousness that has to be taught. Just like every person who has a couple of beers in the fridge is not a drunk, okay? So, but there is a line of covetousness. Now, I believe if a person is, you know, if a person's going to the casino, you know, every once in a while, and they're just, they don't have a problem with it, that sin, I don't approve of it. I think they should stop. They're playing a dangerous game, because you don't know where to lead. Is that person worthy being kicked out of the church? Probably not. I mean, obviously we have to take everything on a case-by-case basis. But if a person comes in here, and they have a problem with gambling, where all they want is to just get money, or even if it's not a gambling thing, it's covetousness is showing up in another form. All they ever talk about is money. All they ever want, you know, they're coming in here, and they're just trying to push their business or sell you something in church. You know, they're coming in with the Pampered Chef catalog and the, what are all the things that people, those groups that people sell things, you know, like Pampered Chef. What's the makeup one? You know what it is. Well, it's probably all ladies. They don't want to say anything. But, you know, Mary Kay, that's it. You know, the Mary Kay groups and all that stuff. Avon, thank you. You know, these things are not sinful in and of themselves, but if you're coming to church and that's all you're about, this is your next Avon meeting, your next Pampered Chef meeting, your next, you know, pyramid scheme or whatever that you want to get all your church members in on, that's covetousness, and you're going to be asked to leave and not come back until you get it right. Until you can show up in the house of God and just let it be about the Bible and fellowship and the things of God. So, you know, a person who's, you know, have a problem with gambling, they would be asked, you know, my opinion, obviously, you know, I'm sure our pastor would agree with this, would be asked to leave the congregation until they got it right and say, hey, look, you can't come in here if you've got this blatant, you know, problem with gambling. Just like you wouldn't, I mean, we wouldn't let a fornicator in. You know, somebody we know everybody knows, those two are living together, unmarried, and everything that comes along with that, they'd be asked to leave. And obviously there's time, there's a space where people need to be taught these things and instructed, but once they know them and they've been warned and they've been told, then they're accountable and it's like, all right, well, you either need to get this right or get out. That's the options. So you can see how covetousness, or gambling even specifically, can have a devastating effect on your life to where it would even, you know, cause you to be cast out from the local church. Now some people, that might not be a big deal. They might say, well, if I get kicked out of church, big deal. Look, to me, that'd be a huge deal. If for some reason, and you know, I don't know of any reason, but if for some reason I were to get kicked out of the local church, I mean, I would be in a tailspin. I mean, I wouldn't know, obviously something's gone horribly wrong in my life. You know, I've been in church for a long time now and I would say, it's like just a part of who I am. I would say, what's going on? You know, and that should be the attitude we all have. You know, if we're getting into something that can get us kicked out of church and we find ourselves kicked out of church, it ought to wake us up and sober us up. And praise God that, you know, it works. I've seen a lot of people get kicked out of church for all these different sins and then get right with God and get back and they're serving God today in a local church. And I'm glad for that. But covetous is one of those things. You know, and that's the problem with gambling is that it's a sin and it'll destroy your life if it gets out of hand. And even if it doesn't, even if you can be a responsible gambler who just wants to, you know, or just feels extra generous towards Gila River Casinos and resorts, you know, then it's still a sin because it's still done out of covetousness. No one's walking in there, you know, just trying to help out the blackjack dealer. You know, they're in there to win. They're in there for one reason. And gambling, now here's another serious danger with gambling is that it is closely associated with other very wicked sins. When you get in this gambling culture, this blackjack poker kind of culture, there's a lot of other sins that come along with that. It's like a scene. And a lot of sins are like that. You know, a lot of culture, a lot of things people do, they get into, it has a certain culture that goes with it and it's filled with a lot of other sins. You know, you think about like, I remember the testimony of this guy who got saved who was trying to make it big in country western music. Now is country western music sinful? Yes. Okay. What it really is, and the lyrics are wicked, most of them, I mean, everyone complains about how filthy the rap songs are. You ever listen to some of those country music songs? It's all about getting drunk and fornicating and cheating and running around. It's just as wicked. But they try to get into it and next thing you know, they're getting involved in all the drinking that goes around, all the running around that goes along with that, and gambling's the same way. It has a whole culture that's centered around it. And of course, alcohol is a big part of that. And you know, the one time I ever went in there, all the alcohol was free. Do you think that's a coincidence? Here comes this guy with a big pocket full of money. Do you want that guy, if you're the casino, do you want him sober or drunk? Do you want him to walk up to your table with his wits to try and beat the system? No, you're going to give him free alcohol. You're going to get him nice and stupid so he can get up there and you can just take him for all he's got. So now he's uninhibited. You know, he walks in sober. I'm only going to spend 500 bucks tonight. They pour a few drinks down you. Well, what's another 500? I'll just work some overtime next week. Next thing you know, it's 1,000 bucks. Next thing you're waking up in the morning, you don't even remember what happened because the casino gave you so much free alcohol that now you go look at the bank account and you can't even get a cab ride home or whatever. That happens to people. It's no coincidence that alcohol, and at least as far as I know, it's free in most of these casinos. Or if it's not free, it's there, you know, and people are drinking it. Here's another one that goes along with it, prostitution, which is one of the most just disgusting, vile things you can get involved in, whether you're the one soliciting it or you're the one providing it, it's wicked. And they call it escort services. It's prostitution. You can put whatever name you want on it. It's prostitution. And casinos, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it legal in Las Vegas? I'm pretty sure it's legal there. You know, to go to Las Vegas, you can gamble, you can drink, and you can participate in prostitution. And it's tolerated, it's indulged, it's encouraged, it's wicked. That is a wicked, disgusting, filthy sin that goes right along hand in hand with this casino culture, this gambling culture. You know, and then of course you get into other drugs. Cocaine is a big part of gambling. You know, that goes right along with that culture. You know, you gotta stay alert. You gotta counteract all the free alcohol they're giving you. You know, you gotta keep your wits. You gotta stay up longer so you can play more. So you gotta take cocaine. Now you're a coke addict. You know, now you've got some kind of disease from the prostitution. Now you're gambling away all your money. Now you're drunk. Here's one that some people don't think of. How about the violence and even murder that comes along with debt collection? People who get into it with the wrong people, you know, they borrow a little too much money from the wrong guy. The game doesn't go the way they expected. That hot tip doesn't turn out to be so hot. And now, you know, Gambini or whatever, some mobster, some loan shark wants his money and you don't have it. And now he's gonna hire somebody to go, you know, the heavy to come around with his Louisville Slugger and, you know, maybe take a kneecap. You know, maybe rough you up a little bit. Where's my money? You know, people who lend out money like that, they want it back generally. And, you know, I was even, you know, heard an interview of a guy who was in this. Like, people who would, you know, would have money, they would get into these debts, even just small time loan sharks would pay a guy 150 bucks to go spend 30 seconds roughing some guy up and get his money. Most of the time they had the money. I mean, if I'm, let's just be honest, if I'm looking at it from a bookie's perspective, if all these guys owe me money and I know they got it and they don't want to pay me, you know, maybe the debt didn't go right their way or whatever, but they've got this money or they're going to get that money, you know, and I can just pay a guy a few hundred bucks and I'm going to get my thousand back? Of course I'm going to do that. And I'm not even going to have to get my hands dirty? Somebody else is going to go do that for me? Be the bad guy? That's another part of gambling a lot of people don't think about. Getting into debt with the wrong people, you know, and not to mention everything else that goes along with it. The drinking, the prostitution, the coke, you know, just the late nights, destroying your family with just throwing away all your money, your hard-earned money. It's a wicked sin, folks. We need to stay away from it. And you know what? And I'm not, you know, zeroing in on the Super Bowl and saying, you know, that's the problem today. I'm saying, you know, it's just a good example. All the gambling that's going on in a day like today, you know, should open our eyes to the fact that there's a lot of gambling that goes on in this country every day. These casinos are operating 24-7, 7 days a week, raking it in because 80% of Americans are out there at least once a year just, here you go, take my money, and a lot of them are walking out with problems. A lot of them are going in there, oh, it's just a casual night at the casino, first time there, and it's leading them right down a path of, you know, all these problems for some people. It's a shame. So here's the thing. If we have a history with gambling, you know, this is something we've gotten out of in our life, praise God, but you need to guard your heart against it and stay far away from these things. You know, people who have opened these doors in the past, they have a proclivity go back into them very easily. You know, those of us that have struggled with certain sins in the past, we should be extra careful to avoid those things. The Bible says to not, in James 1, every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then, when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. But it all starts when a man is tempted of his own lust, the things that are already there in our own hearts. You know, we need to work hard to bring our bodies into subjection, you know, and to not make provision for the flesh, the Bible says. You know, if you've got a gambling problem or you have in the past, or you think you might be a person who's prone to that, man, go the long way. Don't go, you know, stay away from the casino. Don't go in there. Don't go near it. You know, and maybe we don't have any history with that. Maybe it isn't a problem. Maybe we don't know that about ourselves. Don't assume you're immune to it. Don't just assume, well, this doesn't apply to me. You know, I've never had a problem with that. Just, you know, make sure that it stays that way. You know, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. So we don't want to get caught up in the sin of gambling. And really, we could apply this to so many other different sins. We were just talking about one this morning. You know, there's a lot of sins that people get addicted to, caught up in, and it starts to cost them dearly. And as the saying goes, you know, sin will take you farther than you wanted to go. It'll keep you there longer than you wanted to stay. And it will cost you more than you wanted to pay. So let's just stay away from these things and guard our hearts. Let's go ahead and pray.