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Now, this really, this whole chapter had a lot of scriptures in it that have to do with what I'm going to talk about tonight, but I just wanted to focus on a couple of those scriptures. Look at verse 20, if you would. The Bible reads, A faithful man shall abound with blessings, but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent. And then in verse 22, the Bible reads, He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye, and considerth not that poverty shall come upon them. These two scriptures talk about someone making haste to being rich, and there are all kinds of scriptures in the book of Proverbs that warn us about people who are in a hurry to get rich, or they want to get rich quick, or they want to take an easy way instead of what the Bible calls diligence, and the Bible talks about earning your money through hard labor and so forth. But what I want to preach about tonight is a subject that I've never preached a whole sermon on this subject, but this is a sin that is very dangerous, and it's destroyed a lot of people's lives. I've actually known people personally who this sin has destroyed their lives, and I've also known other people who've told me a lot of stories about the destruction of this, and that's because gambling. You know, I've never preached a whole sermon on gambling, and part of the reason why I've never really preached a whole sermon on gambling is because the Bible really doesn't have much to say about gambling in general. But if we use the principles of the Bible, it's easy to figure out pretty quick that gambling is not something that God wants us to do, even though he never specifically brings it up and mentions it. See some things the Bible just explicitly prohibits us from doing, and he just tells us don't do it. Other things, although the Bible doesn't expressly tell us not to, if we use the principles from the Bible, we can see that that activity is not compatible with how the Bible is telling us to live our lives and the way that our mentality should be as believers. I've never heard a whole sermon on gambling. I've heard preachers touch on this and talk about this, and some of the things that they've said have made sense, and some of the things that they've said have made less sense. For example, I've heard preachers say, you know, gambling is wrong because it's the love of money, because it's hastening to be rich, and I think that that is a very valid point. Because you know, people who gamble, and look, by the way, buying lottery tickets is the same exact thing, it's still gambling. Just because you're not going to a casino and pulling the lever or putting money down on the roulette wheel or the blackjack table, you're still gambling because you're paying money hoping for that big payoff. You know, you're buying those scratchers or you're buying those lotto tickets, and what is the point of buying the lottery tickets? What is the point? Because you're waiting for that big payoff. You're trying to find a shortcut to riches and a shortcut to wealth. Instead of by working hard and just letting God bless you and give you the pay that he sees fit for the work that you're doing, you want to just get free money. You just want to just get lucky and just strike it rich with the lotto or gambling or whatever it is. And so I think that's a very valid point. I've heard another preacher criticize gambling by saying, well gambling's wicked because they gambled over Jesus' clothing while he was hanging on the cross. Now, that doesn't make any sense to me, I'm just being honest, because they weren't gambling, because they didn't have anything to lose, they didn't have anything at stake. They found his garment and they cast lots because they couldn't divide his garment, so they cast lots to see who was going to get to take it home. They're basically just flipping a coin, okay, who's going to get to take this? That's not gambling because they didn't take any of their own money and put it on the table. And even so, just because someone did something doesn't make it wrong in and of itself. That's not even an example of gambling. And so I think that what we should focus on when we think about what's wrong with gambling is the motive behind gambling, the mentality of gambling, and if you would go to chapter 13. We already saw a couple scriptures in chapter 28, they're talking about people hastening to be rich. And the Bible says, he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent, meaning that anyone who is in a hurry to get rich is going to commit sin eventually, they're not going to be innocent, they're going to do wrong. And then in verse 22 it said, he that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye. What does it mean to have an evil eye? Obviously he's talking about the lust of the eyes, he's talking about covetousness, he's talking about them desiring things that do not belong to them and that they don't deserve, that they haven't worked for and earned. And he said that that same person considerth not that poverty shall come upon him, that he's eventually going to be poor. It says, and you know, you've heard the saying, easy come, easy go. You know, when you work hard for your money, you take a little better care of it. When you don't work that hard for it, easy come, easy go. Proverbs 13 11 says this, wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished, but he that gathereth by labor shall increase. What's he saying there? You go out and you work hard for your money, you're going to keep increasing your wealth. But if you go out and just get money by vanity, whether it's through the lottery or maybe you're a child actor, child superstar, you know, you look at these people who win the lottery, who win at the casino, who just strike it rich by being an entertainer or something like that, and often they're in debt. I mean, I have more money than Michael Jackson right now, okay? Why? Because he's in debt, millions, or he's dead, but you know, whatever. He's in hell. But anyway, his estate, I have more money than his estate. His estate was millions of dollars in debt. I don't, you know, my negative number is not as extreme as his, okay? No, I'm just kidding. Just kidding. I'm just kidding. Although I do have a mortgage on my house. But anyway, it says in verse 11 here, wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished, but he that gathereth by labor shall increase. Go to 1 Timothy chapter 6 in the New Testament, 1 Timothy chapter 6. So we see that it's a love of money, it's a desire to be rich, it's the wrong motive. Not only that, but gambling is a waste of money because chances are you're going to lose. No matter what gambling you're doing, you have to wonder where the fancy building comes from and all the advertisements and the fountains and all, look, somebody in there is making money somehow and it's not on the cheap, you know, buffet of shrimp and steak. They're making money because the house has the advantage when you're gambling. Now look, they don't give the house a huge advantage because then people wouldn't even want to play there. They'd play against their friends. But the house has a slight advantage and that slight advantage is how they make literally billions of dollars. Now they don't have a huge advantage but just that little tiny edge that they have, that's what gets you sucked in because you go in there, you feel like you're winning, you feel like it's fair, you feel like it's 50-50. But there's just a slight example. For example, you know, and I don't know much about gambling, I've never gambled in a casino. My only experience with gambling is when I was a kid, we would go dirt bike riding in Nevada where gambling was legal and there was no gambling where I lived in California and so we'd go on dirt bike riding trips in Nevada and, you know, we'd stop at the gas station and, hey dad, can I have a quarter to put into the slot machine in the gas station? You know, I put it in a couple times and guess what? It just sucked in my quarter and I didn't get anything back. So I didn't continue with that, you know. So I don't really have a lot of experience with gambling. I don't know a whole lot about gambling but I know the basics of the fact that when you play, for example, roulette, you know, that's the one where you spin the big wheel. Now my understanding of that game is that, you know, you got the reds and the blacks and you got numbers 1 through 36, you know, so if you put your money on one particular number, you know, you have a 1 in 36 chance that that number is going to get chosen. But they're also paying you 36 to 1 odds so it seems really fair. I mean it seems like it's just the law of averages if I play 36 times but here's the way it works though. They have these two little green ones, the 0 and the double 0, okay? And just those two little numbers, I mean you got all the 36 but it's all about those two little numbers, the 0 and the double 0. That's the house's advantage because now you have a 1 in 38 chance of winning but they're only paying you 36 to 1. Now maybe you might take me aside after service and say you don't understand roulette at all and I don't know, maybe I don't. Can anybody raise their hand and say that I'm right? All right one person, my wife, all right? Who thinks I'm wrong? Who says, who thinks I just explained it wrong? All right well nobody thinks I'm wrong so we just have a church of people who don't gamble. But you say well why would you preach on this if nobody's gambling? Because I'm preaching on this so that you don't start gambling and so that the children don't start gambling because honestly this is very common. There are casinos everywhere in this area and they are huge and I'm going to tell you something. I do a lot of driving and I drive by a lot of casinos and let me tell you something about casinos. Seven days a week, 24 hours a day, they are packed. I mean it doesn't matter if it's Thursday afternoon at 1 o'clock or a Friday morning at 7 a.m. or Saturday, Sunday, they are packed 24-7 and it's a multi-billion dollar industry. But look, it's a waste of your money. When you're buying lottery tickets, you're wasting your money. When you're gambling, you're wasting your money. The Bible says he also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster. The Bible is saying there that the type of people who waste money are lazy people. They're the type of people who don't work hard. And you see a lot of the laziest people in our society are the ones at the gas station buying lottery tickets, the derelicts, the ones who have the least money. And then those are the same people who are going to say, God's not providing my needs. They're the same ones who call our church, can you help me with my rent? Can you help me with my utilities? As they flush money down the commode buying lottery tickets. So look, it is not right for you to take the resources that God gives you. God gives you the power to get wealth, the Bible says. He gives you the health and the energy and the strength and the job to make money. And then you're going to take that money and just throw it away. Why don't you use it for something that matters? You know, why don't you give it to someone who is in need or something? You know, why don't you buy something nice for your family? Why don't you put it in the offering plate? Why don't you buy healthier food instead of eating the junk that you eat? Oh man, I can't afford this good food. I should eat ho-hos. You know, I have to go buy junk. And as you're throwing money away on gambling, it's a waste of money. Look, I don't think anybody just has all this extra money laying around. Does anybody here just have a ton of extra money and you just don't know what to do with it? Then what are you doing buying lottery tickets? What are you doing gambling, right? Okay, but look at 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 9. It says, But they that will be rich, meaning they that want to be rich, they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into 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. The Bible is talking about here that even believers, when they start getting wrapped up in the love of money, they end up going into a bunch of other foolish lusts and they end up erring from the faith, piercing themselves through with many sorrows. Look, it's the root of all evil. And if you think about it, when you're gambling, you're desirous of money. What's to gain? Money. You get excited. And the reason that people like to gamble is the thrill and the excitement about who here has ever gambled before in a casino? Okay, yeah, lots of hands are going out of you. Pretend like you don't know how roulette works. You guys were at the blackjack table or whatever. But anyway, lots of hands are going out. You know, you like that excitement of winning. But what are you doing? You're getting a thrill from getting money. So it's just the love of money just getting all excited. Why don't you get excited about something righteous? Why don't you get excited about the things of God? But you know, it just teaches you and trains you, oh, money is the funnest, coolest thing to get. So it's the love of money. But look at 1 Corinthians chapter 6, flip over to 1 Corinthians 6. So you know, some of the things that we've seen so far against gambling is, you know, number one, we need to be faithful and diligent and work hard, not just want to just get money for nothing and just get rich and get lucky. The Bible says if we're like that, we're not going to be innocent. The Bible says if we get our money without working hard for it, we're going to lose our money because basically what God's telling us there is easy come, easy go. The Bible tells that the love of money is the root of all evil and obviously gambling is an excitement and affection and love toward winning money. The Bible talked about the fact that wasting our money is a sign of laziness and not appreciating where the money came from. It's a waste of the resources that God gave us. So we can see even though the Bible isn't specifically mentioning gambling, can we see how it's against the principles of the Bible to go gamble, okay? He says in verse 12 of chapter 6 here, it says, All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful for me, watch this, but I will not be brought under the power of any. So the Bible said that we shouldn't be brought under the power of anything. Now there are a lot of scriptures that talk about people becoming the servant of sin and becoming in bondage to sin. And let me tell you something, gambling is one of the most addictive things out there. Gambling is extremely addictive. Now a lot of people will look at gambling as an addiction and they'll say, come on Pastor Addison, gambling is, there's no chemical addiction there. You know, there's no physical dependency there because they'll say, you know, okay, I can see being addicted to alcohol, you know, because you're putting a chemical into your body and your body begins to crave that chemical. I can see getting addicted to drugs because, you know, you're putting that drug and that chemical into your body and you're developing a physical dependency or maybe with nicotine, with cigarettes. Okay, I can see that, but gambling addiction, how do you become addicted? Just quit going down there, just don't do it, but let me explain some of you. Gambling dependency is a chemical addiction. It's just chemicals that are being released in your brain, but it is just this chemical. Just like when a person takes drugs or shoots up heroin or, you know, smokes a cigarette or drinks a beer, all of that is causing chemical reactions in their body and especially chemical reactions in their brain. It's releasing dopamine in their brain, it's triggering the reward center of the brain. And so something like gambling can be a physical chemical addiction of just that rush, that feeling, that excitement of being down there and gambling. Gambling is an extremely strong addiction and that's why that casino is packed every day because they're addicted to it. Now we used to have a lady at our church who worked at a casino. She had just gotten saved, just gotten baptized, and she worked, she was a Native American, and so she worked at the casino on the reservation and she didn't have to pay any taxes or anything and she made really good money. I mean she would make several hundred dollars a night tax-free. And she was a dealer of blackjack and she said that she just watched people's lives being destroyed as a blackjack dealer. Now you know at first she was doing it, she wasn't saved. After she was saved, it started to bother her more, you know, her conscience bothered her more about doing it and she talked to me about it and she said people would come in and they're happy, they're having fun, they're having a good time, and she just slowly over the months, and she said you'd get to know them, I mean that you knew them by name, you'd talk to them about their personal lives, and you would basically just watch them go down a downward spiral until eventually they're coming in, they're angry, they're upset, and eventually she said the last stage was when they were dragged out by security. First they were her friend, they loved her, they were friendly. She said in the end they would all eventually be dragged out by security screaming and yelling that she was cheating and that she had defrauded them. And when they had no money and they were just in debt up to their eyeballs and couldn't borrow any more money, they'd be dragged out of the place, literally. And I think she worked at the one over on Wild Horse Pass, just 10 minutes from here. I think that's the casino that she worked at. And she would tell the story. But let me tell you another story. This is a story that I read about a woman who became addicted to gambling and there's so many lessons in this story and I've got a lot of Bible scriptures 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 10 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 a 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, 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 tattlers 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, 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 Harris. Eventually she racks up $20,000 of debt to Harris in addition to what she borrowed from her parents. So finally, she, 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 Harris, 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 Harris. 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 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, Harrah's 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 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 dollars 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's legal, and basically take her to another state so that she can gamble at an era'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 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. You see, 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? Gambling. Playing blackjack. Okay, she literally, one night she loses $60,000 in one night, $60,000, because remember she inherited like a million bucks, okay? One of these trips to Vegas, she went with $100,000 and came back with nothing. She 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, her 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. Even 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. 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. Just 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 signed over her house to them, and she owes them $125,000 and she, 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. But anyway, 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, you know, 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 mil 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 spend $10,000, spend $20,000 to get them through the door, limo to Mississippi? No problem. And the lesson that we can take from that story, probably the biggest lesson, is that we think we can play around with sin, and that it's not going to hurt us. We think that we can handle it. We think we have it under control. I know other people get sucked in or get addicted, but I can handle it, Brother Anderson. I know my limits. I know when to stop. And you know, there are a lot of scriptures that deal with that. You know, just the idea of thinking that we can take hot coals into our bosom and not be burned. And this is the last place we'll turn. Go to Proverbs 6 where that's found. Proverbs chapter 6. And you know, everybody thinks, oh, I can handle one beer, I can handle a couple cigarettes, I can handle a little bit of pornography, I'm just going to look at it once and I'm just going to, you know, move on. I can handle a little bit, you know, I can skip church for a while, I can get out of church for a few months, I'll get right back in. You know, we think we can play around with sin, and honestly, I mean, sin always takes you further than you want to go. And it always keeps you longer than you wanted to stay, and it always costs you more than you would have been willing to pay. And we think we can play around with it. And God says, look, just stay away from these people. There are people out there, like these evil men at Harrah's, who they just, they don't care who they hurt, they love money, and they just want to suck the life out of you. And you know, you may think it's cool or fun, and look, just as sure as I'm standing here, there are people out in this room that basically at some point, this temptation is going to be there. You're going to be tempted to just, you know what, come on, where does the Bible say it's wrong? Where does the Bible, you know, just come to the casino with me one time. It's not a big deal. It's just a night of fun. Let's go over to action Harrah's in Maricopa, you know, and get in their computer database. And let's just play it one time, but you know what? They are expert psychologists down there. They literally hire, they hire expert psychologists. Even Target, you know the store Target? Did you know that Target keeps a profile on everything you do there? Unless you go there and just pay cash, if you don't pay cash, they track everything you do. Target, if you run a credit card, or if you just use a coupon that they mailed to you, or if you use, you know, your little Target rewards card, or if you use even just your normal credit card, they track everything about you. That's how they know when you're pregnant. That's why all of a sudden you're pregnant, you start getting ads for prenatal vitamins. And then you have a baby, you're getting diaper ads, you're getting formula ads. Why? Because they spend literally millions of dollars, they have expert psychologists, and they have statisticians and mathematicians just constantly figuring out who is pregnant. And they know you're pregnant before your friends and family even know you're pregnant. They brag about this, like literally. Now they don't want to make it too obvious because they don't want to freak you out. So they purposely, they'll send you a flyer with diapers and a crib, and then they'll put it like a lawnmower. You know, just something, just so that you don't think it's too obvious. And you think that all your neighbors are getting the same mailer that you're getting, you're getting a mailer that's specific to you. I'm not kidding. And that's just Target. Let alone online. Let alone Google. Let alone, and this is not some conspiracy theory, Target has a huge department that basically every customer, they assign them with a number, and they track you and they figure out what you like and that's what they send you coupons for. They figure out, oh, you're buying cereal but you're not buying milk? That means you're buying the milk somewhere else. We're going to send you a milk coupon. We want to sell you milk. So they're experts at this. And you know, the people at Harrah's are psychological experts. They want to break you down. They want to just pick you up by your feet and shake you like this until all the money falls out. And they don't love you, they hate you, they don't care, they just want your money. They're evil people. And you know, you think you can just fool around with these things, but we need to stay as far away from sin as we can. And don't just sit there and say, oh, well the Bible doesn't say gambling's wrong so I'm just going to fool around with it one time. Look, it's very dangerous and it is against all of the principles of the Bible as we saw. But look at a great scripture on playing with sin, Proverbs 6.27. Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals and his feet not be burned? He's saying, you know, you just think you can just play around with sin, like well I'm not going to get burned, I'm just going to run across the coals really quickly. I'm just going to play with the hot coal really fast, bounce it around like a hot potato and throw it out. It's not going to hurt me. If I just touch it really fast, it's not going to hurt me. Look at the next verse. So he that goeth in to his neighbor's wife, whoso what, toucheth her, shall not be guiltless. So this is the person that thinks that they can just kind of play with sin. You know, they're just going to touch her. You know, just, just mildly, just barely, but it says they're not going to be innocent. They're going to commit adultery. You know, you start touching your neighbor's wife, next thing you know, you're committing adultery with your neighbor's wife. And so what God's saying here is don't play with sin. Flee fornication. Don't even touch adultery. And look, if you're smart, you'll stay away from the bar, you'll stay away from the casino, you'll stay away from all these sinful dens of iniquity, there's nothing good that can come of it. Many people's lives have been destroyed. I could name people that I know whose lives have been destroyed. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word and God, this tragic story of a woman who squandered all the money that her parents had earned over a lifetime. She wasted it and squandered it because of just a foolish gambling addiction. Help us to never mess around with gambling or to think that we can play with it and that, help us not to play with any sin and help us to realize that there are people out there in Hollywood and Madison Avenue whose whole goal is to make us sin. Their goal is to make us false. Satan wants to trick us and he knows how to entice us. He knows what we're going to be tempted with. Help us not to be ignorant of his devices. And especially when we're depressed or down, that's when he knows we're the most vulnerable. Help us to be sober and vigilant of him, especially at those times, and not turn to the bottle for comfort or to anything for comfort except you. Help us to get our comfort from the comforter and in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.