Gambling: Don't Bet On It – Part 1 of 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. From lottery tickets to river boats, gambling spells big trouble, taking money from those who can least afford it, those hoping for a big break. You say, I'd never gamble, yet the lure of fast cash leads all too many Christians into serious trouble. 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, isn't betting on the stock market really a form of gambling?

Dave, the answer is no, and here's why. When you invest in the stock market, if you do some research and you discover stocks that have the possibility of growing, that's very different than the throw of a dice. When it comes to matters of gambling, of course it is entirely based on chance, it is not based on rationality, but I have to say this, the house is always against you, it will always win. I can't tell you the number of stories as a pastor that I have heard about people who have lost money in gambling. Okay, here's a woman in our church many years ago, she was telling me that she and her husband went to a river boat to gamble, they brought cash just $500, and a few moments later, having lost it all, they sat around for the rest of the evening drinking their Coke.

You have to say this, gambling is evil, and it's evil because as you already mentioned Dave, it takes money from those who can afford it least, most often it does that, and it gives it oftentimes to those who are wealthy and those who are interested in scamming you. I've written a book entitled Seven Snares of the Enemy, Breaking Free from the Devil's Grip. I can't tell you how deeply I feel about this book, because to me it represents the very issues, the very sins, the very struggles that many people face, and this is a book of hope, for a gift of any amount we're making it available for you.

Here's what you can do, you can go to rtwoffer.com, that's rtwoffer.com, or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337. Let us listen carefully to God's word. Perhaps you heard about the pastor whose church was in debt, and he was praying about how it might be met, and he began to dream everything in triplicate, everything came in threes. As a matter of fact, as he sat down at the table, he somehow noticed that even the dishes were organized like triangles, like a trinity, and he began to think, God, you're trying to say something to me, but I don't know what it is. He went to the door and found the newspaper and noticed that it was the three-star edition. He opened it to the third page, the third column, and noticed that the topic was horse racing, and he thought to himself, you know, maybe God is in this somehow, and as he read, he noticed that the third horse mentioned was trio. Now he knew for sure, so he got his board together and he convinced them to liquidate all of their assets so that they could finally win some money, and they put it all on trio.

Well, you've probably already guessed it, trio came in third. Now, you know, they smile at the story, but it does bring to mind two important concepts. First of all, that gambling is something that is a temptation to everyone that could be a temptation to pastors as well as to parishioners. Gambling is widespread. Secondly, it seems that in gambling someone else always wins.

You're not the one who wins, someone else does. Gambling, of course, is taking that which is of value, usually money, and through chance, hoping that it will produce greater value, more money. As you know, this is a series of messages titled Seven Snares, and as a result of that, we are looking today at gambling, which of course is a snare that millions and millions of people in our society have fallen into.

This message is intended to answer four questions. The first question is, why should we be concerned about it anyway? I mean, after all, can't people do with their own money whatever they want? If they want to gamble it away, it's their money, let them. Why preach on the topic? There's a second question, and that is, is gambling a sin or is it only a habit that potentially could be bad? Or is it actually a sin? There's no eleventh commandment that says thou shalt not gamble, and so people have said, maybe it isn't that bad, maybe it's something we can do.

In fact, there are churches that do it from time to time. Third issue that we're going to discuss is we're going to take a brief tour into the mind of an addict and look at the world through his set of glasses. And then finally, we're going to answer the question, is there a way out for those who are addicted to gambling or for that matter, what is the way out for any addiction that might be spoken about today?

The first question, why bother? My dear friends, I want you to know that the effect of gambling on our families and on our society is devastating. Did you know that children today are targeted and according to one report, about two-thirds of teens have gambled?

In Massachusetts, forty-seven percent of seventh graders have played the lottery. Also, among those students, one in twenty has been arrested because of gambling-related charges. Gambling, as we shall learn, never happens in isolation.

It always brings with it a cluster of other sins. For some, it might be alcoholism, for some it might be despair, for others it might be suicide, but very seldom does gambling ever act alone. What we also find, for example, in Michigan, forty-five percent of male college athletes admit to gambling on sports. Many people were surprised when it happened at Northwestern University, but that actually is a microcosm on what is going on throughout the whole country because gambling has become such a deep part of our society.

Students are gambling their tuition, gambling their allowance, gambling, gambling, gambling. Christianity Today had an article on gambling, gambling away the golden years, speaking about how casinos are deliberately seducing and targeting the elderly. For example, some are giving a twenty-five dollars worth of coins, free, if you just show up, with the knowledge that among those who come, there will be others who will finally be hooked, which is what the gambling industry so desperately, desperately wants.

Pat Fowler, the executive director of the Florida Council on Compulsive Gambling, says, who else will pick you up and take you to an engagement in an exciting activity in a safe environment, give you lunch, call you by name, and make you feel important. Casinos have fifty percent discounts on many things that they sell and even for drugs for seniors, that is prescription drugs, if only they gamble in their casino. Literally millions and millions of seniors are being bussed to casinos, particularly on Sundays. One casino has a card that people use to keep track of their wins and losses so that they can reward you if you've made many, many investments. The lure of gambling. Did you know that the gamblers are not subject to truth in advertising like other companies?

They can say pretty well whatever they wish. Let's go to the south side of Chicago. There was an ad which ran that said, this could be your ticket out.

This could be your ticket out of the ghetto. A number of years ago our mayor had an ethics commission to study the feasibility of gambling and I had the opportunity to speak to that commission. I pled with those men saying to them, look, why appeal to the very basest of all motives in order to pay taxes? I said, I don't gamble, but I should be paying my fair share of taxes. It isn't right that other people are going to be paying more than I because I do not gamble and they do. And there was an alderman present who said that on the days when the social security checks arrive and on the days when you have the checks coming in, the paychecks, he said 100 and now he's speaking from Chicago south side, $100,000 flows out of my community.

The community that can least afford it. Money that should be used for clothes and tuition and food and rent is being gambled away. You know, of course, that the government used to just tolerate gambling.

There were certain laws, they tolerated it, and now we live in a society in which the government is taking the lead. We'd be surprised if the government would take the lead in the pornography business and say, now we're into pornography to raise the level of revenue in the state. And yet they're into gambling and the effects are essentially the same and just as devastating. As a result, in 1997, Americans lost $50 billion in legal gambling, primarily casinos, of course, and also in the lottery, $50 billion. About 4% of Americans are addicted to gambling. Millions upon millions upon millions gamble, but about 4% are addicted. Gambling is a parasite that feeds on a community.

It destroys, it debilitates, it appeals to the most base of all motives. Yes, we have to be concerned and as individuals and as a church, we can do something about it. And the gambling industry is shocked that they're not hearing anything from the churches.

The church that used to stand against gambling now is silent. Listen to what's happening even in our own state legislature these days. You find opposition coming only from those groups that say it should be in our community. Where are the voices who say this is wrong? This is wrong. Of course, we should be concerned. Let me give you another reason, and by the way, the statistics and the information could go on endlessly.

I've had to cut this message down and pare it down so that we could get it all in today. Secondly, is gambling a sin? Is it a sin or is it only a potentially harmful habit? The new Roman Catholic Encyclopedia says that it is not a sin, only if it is inconsistent with your duties and obligations. And so, as you know, in many churches today, there is gambling and gambling becomes a means of revenue and people accept it and they say, well, it's fine because it's fun and it doesn't hurt anybody as long as you don't get into it too deeply.

So is it a sin? I prefer to agree with Augustine who said, the devil, the devil invented gambling. And that could be true because the devil took the first gamble, as it were, against God thinking that he would receive more than he would as God's servant, so he became God's enemy. And the results, of course, were disastrous. Let me give you four biblical principles that are violated by gambling.

The first is the biblical work ethic, the biblical work ethic. You have to understand the gambling industry derides and depreciates. It takes work and it turns it into something that the gambling industry thinks should be derided and demeaned. Listen to this advertisement in Massachusetts. It says there are two options on how to make millions. Plan A, start studying when you are seven years old, real hard, get a good job, get up early each day, crush the competition, climb over your coworkers, be the last one to leave every night, avoid having a premature heart attack, by the time you're ready to retire, you should have your money. That's plan A.

Plan B, play the lottery. Fat chance. Those are my words, by the way, fat chance.

Those that was not part of the advertisement. Now let me simply say this, friends, and I pour out my heart to you today. This is a disaster.

It's an unscriptural disaster. Listen to what the Bible says about work. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you brothers to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching you receive from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone's food without paying for it. On the contrary, we work night and day laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. We did this not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to make ourselves a model for you to follow.

For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule. If a man will not work, he shall not eat. We hear that some among you are idle. They are not busy, they are busy bodies. Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the bread they eat.

And as for you brothers, never tire of doing what is right. What the Bible says is that work is a gift and it is commanded. Now, biblically, there are other ways that you can earn money. There is, first of all, work, there is inheritance, there is investments, and there is a gift.

Those are the only legitimate ways. All others would be excluded from that. And please don't call gambling an investment.

It does not have the qualities to be able to call it that. You know what gambling really is? It is stealing by mutual consent. You say, well, yes, but they are consenting to it.

But just because they're consenting to it, it doesn't make it right. You don't take money from others and then you give it to all one person. That is not biblical. You're supposed to be motivated by a day's pay, by a day's work, and that opulent life that the gambling industry tends to paint. It is worldly and it is just plain wrong. First of all, gambling is contrary to the biblical work ethic.

Secondly, it violates the principle of stewardship, of stewardship. You see, the Bible is very clear about the fact that all that we have has been God-given. Do you remember that parable of the king who went out and he gave all of his servants a mina?

That's a talent of money. And then it says he sent for the servants to whom he had given the money in order to find out what they had gained with it. The first one came and said, sir, your mina has earned 10 more. And he said, well done, my good servant. His master replied, because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of 10 cities. The second came and said, sir, your mina has earned 5 more. He said, you take charge of 5 cities. Then another servant came and said, sir, here is your mina.

I have kept it and laid it away in a piece of cloth. I was afraid of you because you are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not sow.

And so he gave the one talent that he'd been given, the one talent or mina, back to him. Listen to what his master replied. I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant. You knew, did you not, that I am a hard man taking out what I did not put in and reaping where I did not sow?

Why then didn't you put my money on deposit so that when I came back, I could have collected it with interest? Now, folks, I want you to think about this parable in this way. Here is a man who was very strongly rebuked by the king for just giving back what he had been given. The king said, why didn't you use it to earn more money for me? Imagine what the king would have said if this man would have said, I lost the one mina that you gave me because I never even hid it in the dirt. I gambled it in the lottery. My friend, you are responsible to God for your money.

Who of us wants to stand before the Lord having lost it because we gambled it away? And this, by the way, is very, very important. A number of years ago, a man called me from the hospital. He had been hospitalized. He was a well-known Christian leader.

If I mentioned his name, many of you would know him. And he called to say that when he was in the hospital, his wife discovered something. He had been secretly gambling, primarily the lottery, some casinos. And he had racked up, catch this now, $30,000 worth of debt on credit cards. And he'd been hiding it from his wife. But because he was in the hospital and the creditors began to call and the bills began to come in, he had to confess to her his terrible snare, that awful, awful secret. Now, this is a Christian man.

He's a Christian leader. Imagine him standing before the Lord and the Lord saying, what did you do with all that I gave you? This was my money. This is not your money. And he has to say, I gambled it all away and we have to sell our house in order to pay our debts. And here we are facing retirement with nothing.

Tragedy, double tragedy for a Christian. You know, this, by the way, I think is the answer finally to that question that people always say, say, well, you know, I do it, but I'm not addicted to it. I buy two lottery tickets a week and that's all I buy. I go to Las Vegas once a year, a friend of mine says, I take $1,500 or $2,000 with me and if I blow all that, then I come back and blow all that they do.

You did hear, did you not, about the man who went to Las Vegas in a $30,000 Cadillac and came back in a $300,000 greyhound bus. That's the story of many of those folks. But they say, I'm not addicted. I just spend so much and it's fun and that's the end of it. My dear friend, I know that there are millions of people who fall into that category, but that money that you have quote fun with, that's God's money too. I believe that gambling is wrong in principle. In principle it is wrong and it's only a matter of degree.

It's a matter of amount, but in kind it still is the same. Gambling, God's money is still gambling and contrary to stewardship. Third, it violates the principle of being satisfied with God's provision. You see, God has given us certain gifts.

He's given us certain challenges. He's given us certain ways to get money and as we begin to think about his provision, Paul says, my God will supply all of your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. You 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. I have to say that as a pastor, my heart is grieved when I see advertisements for gambling because these advertisements, they promise so much with the possibility of people being scammed and of course, people oftentimes think that they can get rich quickly.

Occasionally it happens, but the odds are against you. I feel very deeply about a book I've written entitled Seven Snares of the Enemy. Gambling happens to be number two.

The first is Greed, The Heart Revealed and of course, they are related. Now for a gift of any amount, we're making this book available for you and this would be a great book even if you don't need it, you know someone who does, someone who's going to be helped. For a gift of any amount, we're making it available for you. Here's what you can do. Go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Now because I believe that this book is so important, I'm going to be giving you that contact info again, but I want to let you know that today we live at a time when there is so much deception. So many issues are against people and gambling is certainly one of them. Recently, my wife and I were in Colorado and as we were driving along the highway, we saw this huge casino and I said to my wife, let us remember that this beautiful building was built by losers.

Once again, that contact info, go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. And I believe very deeply that when we invest in the gospel of Jesus Christ, it is not a gamble. God takes his word and does with his word whatever he pleases.

Thank God for his word. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60614. People watching lottery winners on TV say, someday my number will come up, just buy a few more tickets. Gambling is a shortcut bypassing honest labor. So why do people start gambling in the first place? Next time on Running to Win, do not miss an expose of the psychology of the gambler and how to find freedom from this addiction. Thanks for listening. This is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.