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As has been said, until the SBC does something about their fat bellies, Lexus’, and ten bedroom homes multi-million dollar homes for 3.5 children, and the enormous outlay on assundry entertainments within and without the church, then really the next post has a clear teaching on just whose prayer will be answered.

Surely, it isn’t the finger licking Falwell’s Fried Chicken types.

This brings us to the question: Isn’t there something more enterprising than centering on such a banal issue as gambling. If it is addiction, that is another matter. But, playing the lottery is much like drinking alcohol. If you can’t do it without a dirty conscience then don’t, but be careful that what you are feeling is not the quilt heaped upon you by Pharisaical pietists who will spend thousands on golf clubs so as to get an advantage on the pastor in the next city at the next pastors tourney when beside the clubs there will be airlines tickets, hotels, rental cars, and fine dining. Maybe a motor-cycle collection? Maybe guns, hunting for sport and not supply, sports, vacations and all manners of entertainments not employed for life or the furtherance of the Gospel.

Why not, rather than keeping a laundry list of other people’s sins, the word taught in its fulness. Sure, you can label TV, or videos, or video games, with the same distain as inbibing anything to excess. You can make everything sin, if you want. But what a waste of time. Now that is a sin for which we will all give an account.

And actually Tim, people who want to see how our lives look are looking at the wrong thing, and if that is the means you use to evangelize, be assured your sin will find its way to their ears and eyes because those who look for such things are not looking for reasons to believe but to doubt your message. And, unless you are perfect, your outward man will always provide the ammunition to shoot down your testimony. If it is the outward appearance and not the inward man that you have been made to be, you present yourself and not Christ crucified because of the sin you still manifest. Preach Christ, and not yourself, or just become a Mormon, for their message is the works of the flesh and how good they look validates their message. Some how, we have got to get away from the results orientation. Even among the Reformed, the pietistic bent is as deadly to the Message of Christ crucified as any Arminian school.

“1 Corinthians 8:12-13  And so, by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble.”

That being said, let me address some issues already brought up, with a thought too ponder.

Is not investing our money gambling? You risk losing it all, and we ask these companies to make higher returns for us. We look to invest in those that have the best returns don’t we? Do you think they accomplish this by treating their workers better, or sharing the profits?? Don’t fool yourselves. So is that really good stewardship?

It is always easy to condemn what the other guy is doing, but do we really think about what we oursleves are doing?

When you deposit your money into a bank. You are in a certain form of gambling. You are gambling that you will get all of your money back plus a small intrest when you decide to take it out. It might not be there to take out. This is gambling and people don’t even know it.

Back to my thoughts. This real life example above is dishonest gain or usery. So using the examples in some of the posts above that say instead of gambling on winning the lottery. This is sinful because the money indorses and promotes poor people to spend money they don’t have to spend. Well isn’t it just as sinful giving the banks your money knowing they are using it for dishonest gain?
I use banks because of convienience. I don’t worry about if it will be gone tomorrow or not.

I believe that the REASON behind playing the lottery is the sinful versus non-sinful behavier. If your heart is greedy and looks for a lottery to satisfy that greed. That is sinful. If you play the lottery just for entertainment like playing crossword puzzles (Which you have to buy sometimes)or bingo. Then that is entertainment.

The argument can be made both for and against playing the lottery.

How about people that buy lottery tickets to give to people at Christmas time for gifts because they cannot figure out what to get them. In someone’s eyes it would be very sinful because it promotes gambling. But what about the billions of Christians each year that buy worthless, rediculous gifts and give them to others at Christmas time and in reality, They have squandered good money that could of been used for God’s purpose.

Heres my reason for not playing the lottery even though I have recieved lottery tickets as gifts in the past and even have bought a few over the years.

Just like drinking that can or cannot be sinful. It’s the example we give to others that make the difference. If a young teenager sees a Christian drinking and even smoking for that matter. He sees it’s OK to do it also.

When people see Christians buying lottery tickets and acting like it is what they live for. This also gives false hope to non believers or even fellow believers.
I don’t want to give that influence to others.

In short, people don’t want us telling them what to do or not to do. They want to see how we live our lives and then they are more apt to follow these actions rather than words. 1st John 3:16 and following

Tim

Personally, I think that was a wise pastor.

Phil Johnson has done a really good message on gambling called “Is Gambling Ok? Don’t Bet on It!”. You can find it here: http://www.thegracelifepulpit.com/philsermons.htm.

Search for “gambling” on the page (Ctrl-F to find it).

I sometimes wonder how matter this figures into so many other things I see so-called Christians doing these days, from playing poker to fantasy football leagues.

I think another aspect is that of our Christian example in a lost and dying world. It may be true that some matters fall into a “gray area” but then how do we stand out as different if we excuse our practices because they’re not explicit in Scripture and thus we are doing the very same things the lost do?

Both the chocolate bar and lottery ticket are related to wants not needs.

However, with the chocolate bar you get $1.00 worth of chocolate bar for your $1.00 investment. That’s a 100% return on your want fulfillment.

With the $1.00 lottery ticket you get a worthless paper idol that you purchased over trusting in the provision of God. Anyone who trusts in an idol over God can expect a negative return on their investment whether they win or not.

‘For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.’~ 1 Timothy 6:10