Gambling: Don’t Bet On It Part 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. People who watch lottery winners on TV say, someday my number will come up.

Just buy a few more tickets. But gambling is a shortcut bypassing honest labor. Trouble is, for a Christian, it violates all God stands for. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, gambling is one of the seven snares of the enemy you are dealing with in our current series. Is there a way out for people addicted to getting a fast buck?

Well, Dave, yes, of course there's a way out, and that is to call on God. But also I think that people need the support of the body of Christ. They need accountability because the addiction to gamble is powerful.

I've met people who are addicted. And they keep telling themselves that I will win next time. But of course they don't. And so what we have to do is to warn people, don't go in that direction. And you know, during this time of COVID, we're under a tremendous amount of economic pressure. There are people who are listening today, I have no doubt, who have lost their jobs. They're wondering where their next dollar is coming from.

They are filled with fear. And I can understand that. You know, I've given a lecture entitled COVID-19, the economy and our future. It can be yours either as a DVD or a CD. Your choice.

For a gift of any amount, here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Let me explain that I gave this lecture that we might have a Christian perspective of what is happening in our economy as we see uncertainty all around us.

rtwoffer.com, call us at 1-888-218-9337. Today is the last day we are making this offer. And now we go to the pulpit of Moody Church where once again we hear about the dangers and the warnings regarding gambling. See, the problem is, if I might be clear here, gambling appeals to greed. It is what Bill Hybels calls the monster of the more.

Give me more, give me more. It's the itch to be rich. And that's what drives people. People would never gamble just for a few dollars. But as the stakes go high, and by the way, the gambling industry knows that in order for them to keep everybody pumped, they have to sometimes have such things as a Powerball lottery that will go to a couple hundred million dollars because then people just lose all sense of reality and they begin to purchase tickets by the hundreds of thousands per minute throughout the United States. And they are doing that because people aren't satisfied with winning a couple million anymore.

It has to be 250 or 290 million, like one of those Powerballs. My dear friend, that is contrary to everything that we find in the scriptures, and the Bible warns about the desire to be rich. And you can take the message that I preached last time on greed and all of its implications and you can put it right here under this point. Could I say also, number four, it violates the principle of God's providence? You see, God's providence governs our lives. We are not governed by chance, by the roll of a dice, by the twirl of a wheel. You say, well, yes, of course, God could govern the way the dice turns out, most assuredly. In fact, some people justify gambling because in the scriptures they sometimes cast lots. But let me be very clear that the casting of the lot had to do with a decision that had to be made, whether it was point A or point B.

It had nothing to do with getting money that didn't belong to you, I can assure you of that. My dear friend, the whole principle of chance, let me talk to you about chance for a moment. So many gamblers misunderstand this.

You know what they think? They think that the longer they play the lottery, the better chance they have to win. Now, of course, if you buy more tickets in a particular lottery, you have a better chance of winning than if you buy a few.

That's certainly true. But once that drawing has been made and the next one starts, you do not have a better chance than anyone else who is just beginning the spiral of gambling. Your odds are not any better. I've heard people say, well, you know, I've been gambling now for 30 years and I figure that it should be my turn. Well, let's look at the possibility of it being your turn.

Let's look at yesterday's newspaper. Ultimately, the factor that determines whether odds are acceptable is risk versus reward. Chances of winning the Illinois Lottery, in which six winning numbers must be picked from a grid of 52, are 1 in 20,358,000.

I'll also add the 520. Now, the odds, if you're going to play Powerball, is 1 in 76,000,000. You say, well, you know, God could control it so that I could win. My dear friend, I hope that he doesn't let you win.

Because you know what that means. Somebody else loses. As a matter of fact, he couldn't possibly control it so that everybody would win. That's contrary to the whole gambling philosophy.

He couldn't possibly control it so that it would be beneficial to everyone because, you see, the whole idea of gambling is that there are some people who give their money in order that you might be rich. Do they give it gladly? Do they give it as a gift and say, oh, you know, we just like that person in Virginia so much that we're going to spend $3,000 on Powerball? No, they're greedy, they're grudging, but they're giving it because they want it. The Bible is clear that our lives are not up to, you know, the turn of a dice or the twirl of a wheel. We believe in God's providence, in God's provision. How can I summarize all this except to quote the verse of Proverbs chapter 12 verse 11, he who works his land will have food, but catch this now, he who chases fantasies lacks judgment. And that's what gambling is.

It is the chasing of fantasies. Now let's take a little bit of time and let's look into the, let's look at life through the eyes of a gambler. And I'm talking about now an addicted gambler, and what I have to say is going to apply to all addictions.

And when we talk about alcoholism as we will next time and sexual addictions, we're going to have to repeat some of this, but also take it just a little bit further. You'll never understand an addict unless you realize that his particular addiction gives him a mood change. He actually begins to see things differently.

And it's the mood that he wants to recreate. Somebody's gambling on a football game and he believes that his team is going to win by six points. He puts a lot of money on it because he thinks to himself, if I win, just think it'll justify gambling.

I'll be able to pay my mortgage finally. And all the excitement that's leading up to the game is his euphoria. It is almost like a trance for the addicted gambler. Now, remember this also, at that point he begins to build all kinds of protective devices around himself so that he will not have to change his lifestyle. He begins to shape the truth. He begins to lie.

Over here he begins to borrow because he's losing money. And yet he must at all times maintain the possibility of that euphoria. The thought of going without it is to him incredible and no one knows the extent and the urgency of the need that he has for that experience.

And now we come to something very important. He begins to use, you see, gambling as being something that he can depend upon. His friends won't be there for him. His church won't be there for him. His wife won't.

His kids won't. But thank God there's that bottle that will always be there. Or there's that gambling. Or there's that pornography.

It'll always be there and he can always count on his high. But as he uses these objects to satisfy him, what he begins to do is to use people the very same way that he uses those objects. They're there to be manipulated. They are there so that they fall in line with the way in which he views the world. And by now he's beginning to see all of reality with a bent lens and that's why you can't argue with him.

I mean, you can, but you don't get anywhere. It's because the way in which he sees the world now is permanently changed apart from some miraculous deliverance. He believes that no one understands him. He believes that life with all of its difficulties, his difficulties, are the fault of someone else. He believes that everyone else around him should really exist to help him to get that euphoria and that's really the purpose and the sense of fulfillment in life that he pursues. Now what happens, of course, is every time he's into this, the cycle of despair comes again and again. He has his euphoric experience but then there's sadness because he loses his bet or he sobers up or whatever and the despair is deeper and now he's already been alienated from people but he needs, there's only one thing that can help him.

Only one thing and that is to have that euphoric experience again. By now his friends have cut him off so he drifts into his isolation into that trance world and he goes from the world of trance to the world of reality and he finds that he can go back and forth though ultimately he spends more time in the world of euphoria than he does in the world of reality and pretty soon there's only one thing that matters, only one and that is the next fix and he's addicted and you can't help him with argument. You can't go there armed with this information and say, read this book on gambling and then you'll change. The facts are irrelevant. I was trying to think of an illustration, it would be like glasses that cut out all color, all that you see is black and white. So you, of course, who live in the real world, you see greens and yellows and reds and you say to him, can't you tell the difference between red and green? Notice it. He doesn't see it.

He doesn't see it. For him it does not exist and his world of reality is shaped and skewed and it will not be changed until, until there is radical, radical deliverance and how does that come about? I want you to take your Bibles for just a moment and turn to one of the most amazing passages that Jesus gives to us. I read the Bible, of course, regularly and I'm constantly amazed at how accurate the Scripture is.

You know, those of you who are skeptics out there who think that the Bible isn't the Word of God, its analysis of human nature is so breathtakingly accurate. Jesus said in John chapter 8, John 8, and I'm picking it up in verse 31, to the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, if you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and notice this, and the truth will set you free. They said to him, well, we are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves to anyone. How then can you say we shall be set free?

But Jesus replied, I tell you the truth. Anyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now the slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the son, if the son sets you free, you'll be free indeed. I speak to those of you who are addicted not just to gambling but other kinds of addictions, and of course there are levels of addiction.

I speak to all of us. How are we set free? First of all, we're set free by the truth.

That's why the experts will say you can't change a gambler, you can't change an alcoholic until he bottoms out, until reality sets in and he has to admit something that he has not been willing to admit all the lies that have been built around him, all the manipulation to get money, all the stories, all the promises to reform which he's used a thousand times, and of course it's never helped. What is the truth that he needs to know? First of all, that he is indeed a servant and not a master. If you commit sin, you are the servant of sin. Servants don't wake up in the morning and say, I'm going to tell the master what to do. No, the servant does whatever the master says. If the master says, drink, the servant drinks. If he says, gamble, the servant gambles. Because what he has to do is to realize that he is no longer in control.

He is simply doing what his desires now dictate and they drive him in this world of oblivion and isolation and moral darkness. And he has to admit that. You say, well, yeah, how do you get them to admit it? Oftentimes, all that you can do is wait and then stop being an enabler. You know, an enabler is somebody who lies for the alcoholic. An enabler is somebody who gives money to the gambler so that he can continue his gambling.

And an enabler is somebody who is willing to accept these people without rebuke, you see, and so you encourage them in their misbehavior. Sometimes what you have to do is withdraw lovingly and pray and ask God to bring them to the point of reality. This is a painful thing for addicts to do, absolutely painful, because it has to shatter all the lies and the shell in which they are living.

And what do they have to admit? That they are hooked, that they are servants and not masters, that indeed they need divine help. Seneca cried, oh, that a hand would come out of heaven and deliver me from my besetting sin. That's the second thing they have to learn, is that Jesus Christ has to now be the substitute for their addiction. This is a very difficult, what shall we say, a difficult chasm for them to get over, because remember that their addiction promises everything that Christ does. The reason they got into it is because of the natural desire that all of us have for happiness, the natural desire that all of us have for fulfillment. And these are the things that the addiction promised. You'll be rich, you'll be happy, and you have that euphoric experience. And so all of the things that the scripture promises are promised by the addiction. And what he needs to know is to say, realize that all those promises are flawed and they are lies. As a matter of fact, for every euphoric experience, there are going to be a thousand trips to despair. They need to understand that and open their lives to the one who is able to Christ, who now becomes the substitute, Christ who is able to forgive them so that that shame, can you imagine the shame?

That's why it's so secretive. So that shame is taken away and that he can speak you clean and he can say, thou art forgiven. And if the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling to the unclean sanctified to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

His consciences collapsed. And I urge you, those of you who are bound, come to Christ. You say, well, Pastor Luther, yeah, but I'm so bound, I don't know that I can.

Come bound, but come. You don't have to clean yourself up before you come to Jesus. You don't have to say no to the bottle before you come to Jesus. You don't have to say no to gambling before you come to Jesus. You come as a gambler, you come as an alcoholic, but you come because if the sun, therefore, shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.

There is a hand from heaven that has come. After that, of course, what is necessary is accountability because the temptations will come again and again and again. And when the desire arises, somebody has to be there for you who say, no, you do not have to do this. And then, of course, there is acceptance of a whole new lifestyle, the acceptance of debt.

A plan has to be worked out whereby the money that has been gambled away and the debts that have been incurred somehow need to be paid. And you need help for somebody to work you through the process because that's actually going to be the means then by which you finally understand and accept your new way of life. You say, but Pastor Lutzer, it is so, so hard, so hard. The burden that you are, just for some people, the very thought of leaving this world behind with its mood swings and its euphoria, the very thought of saying no to it and saying yes to Jesus is difficult.

But don't let the difficulty stop you from coming to the one who can make you free indeed, the Scripture says. I find it very ironic that some time ago in our newspapers, as you well know, this was national news of great sort, a group of senior citizens, their bus overturned on the way to a casino. You remember the story.

I think over 20 were killed. And the headline in the newspaper that we're getting at our home these days said this gambling bus overturns. And as I looked at that, I thought, well, here are 22 people who did not know. They thought they were on their way to the casino. They did not know that they were on their way to eternity. It dawned on me, I said, I wonder how many of them, since they're gamblers, I wonder how many of them were gambling with their souls. Jesus said on one occasion, what shall it profit you, he says, if you gain the world but lose your own soul? Imagine winning the Powerball lottery. What was it?

$295 million? But at some point, your bus is going to overturn. If the bus isn't going to get you, cancer is going to get you. And if it's not cancer, it's going to be heart disease. And if it's not heart disease, it's going to be tuberculosis. Or if you live in Chicago, somebody is going to shoot you, something is going to happen. I don't know if that was funny or not. If you gain the world but lose your own soul, of what profit is it to you?

What profit is it to you? Jesus said, if the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. There are some of you listening to this message who need to pray, but you also need to go to somebody.

You need to go to those from whom you have been hiding this addiction to whom you have lied. You need to be so desperate that you come out from under the shadows and you come to the one who's able to forgive you and cleanse you. And the people of God are able to help you and to say, look, it's time for you to walk on a new path because your view of reality has been so skewed. You have to accept truth, truth, the truth of the world and the truth of Christ.

I urge you to come to him. And if you will, let us pray. Father, as we look out over the congregation, only you know the people to whom this message was specifically targeted.

Because we don't know who those are who buy lottery tickets, who are involved in casinos or a hundred different other forms of gambling, gambling on the internet, and many of whom are racking up debts and some of whom have won something and it's only made their plunge into gambling greater. We pray today that you will help your people to come clean. And for those who do not know Christ as savior, Father, living in their despair and their shame and their loneliness, may they come to him that they too might be set free and that Jesus might be the replacement for their gambling habit. Now you talk to God in whatever way in which he has talked to you.

Whatever he's talked to you about, you talk to him right now. Father, please set your people free from these snares. Please, Lord, we ask because we know the despair and the loneliness. We've talked to them. We know the devastation of families. We know the deaths. God help us. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, this is Pastor Luther.

And yes, if I had time, I could tell you many stories of where gambling has led people to deceit, to lying, and to poverty. You know, today is the last day that we are offering a lecture I gave entitled COVID-19, The Economy and Our Future. Let me explain the reason for this lecture is that we might have a Christian perspective of what is happening around us. As a matter of fact, the subtitle is Five Economic Effects That I Believe Will Continue as a Result of What We've Been Through. I'd love for you to have this.

I think it will be an encouragement and it will put us back in the scriptures to help us to understand all that is going on. Here's what you can do. Go to RTWOffer.com. Let me give that to you again.

RTWOffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Ask for COVID-19, The Economy and Our Future. Thanks in advance for your gift, for your prayers, because together we are making a difference. We are committed to helping Christians make it successfully all the way to the finish line.

You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60614. Drunk drivers, every day they kill more of our kids. Alcohol, it's the tolerated drug. Alcohol abuse is costing society billions in lost productivity, lost relationships and lost lives. And all too many Christians misuse what they feel is their freedom to drink by drinking one too many. Next time on Running to Win, the unvarnished truth about alcoholism, quitting tomorrow. Thanks for listening. For Dr. Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.