Is Gambling a Sin?
by David K. Bernard
Podcast recording (no venue stated in the delivered transcript)
Kind: teaching
Scripture: 2 Thessalonians 3

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/david-k-bernard--is-gambling-a-sin
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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gambling is definitely against scriptural principles i think we can say gambling is a sin maybe not the worst sin but it is a violation of god's word historically christians of all groups have taught that or almost all especially conservative christians and that might be a little seem curious because you're right the bible never explicitly says gambling is a sin or thou shalt not gamble and i i suppose the number one reason in biblical times there really wasn't much in the way there there were games of chance and there was gambling but the kind of organized mass gambling that we think of was really not part of the ancient culture in any way like it is today and so it probably wasn't at the forefront of the average christian and probably the average christian of the first century not to speak of the israelites of ancient times that wasn't a burning issue shall i go out and spend all my money gambling first of all they didn't have much and second of all there wasn't much opportunity and that was probably not considered a very rational thing you know just from a practical standpoint i don't have the numbers with me but you're probably for any major reward as a multi-million dollar lotter lottery the odds of getting struck by lightning are much greater than the odds of winning so that someone had said that gambling is a tax on the mathematically challenged and there is a lot of truth to that because most the time there there are some who are who are attracted to her recreationally but most people who gamble seriously with serious hope of success or poor people or people in need and they desperately need this it's almost like they need a miracle but instead of trusting god they're trying gambling and so if it doesn't come to pass as it usually doesn't you're actually taking desperately needed resources from people and and so there are a lot of things wrong with gambling on a personal level 2nd thessalonians 3 gives you the biblical principle if any one does not work he should not eat so god's plan is going back to genesis you should work to support yourself if possible now obviously the elderly the retired the the children the the the handicapped the people who who lose a job and can't get one you know we want to make provision for all of those cases but the basic principles if you're capable of working you should work you should not seek something for nothing you should work and work hard to support yourself and in fact if you don't support your own family you're worse than an unbeliever you have a moral obligation to support yourself and to support your family that's god's plan i re i saw this vividly there was a man i pastored who wouldn't hold a steady job his wife had to support the family it was very sad because he was in church and claiming to be a christian and yet was not performing this basic responsibility one time i guess he had heard about how god had miraculously supplied a car to someone and so he came to me one day god spoke to me he's going to give me a brand new car i know he's going to do it well it never happened he got very angry because he felt like he was entitled for god to do a miracle well i try to explain to them you know what yes it is god's will to give you a new car if you go out and get a job and work hard god will give you a new car and one time i was counseling and i found out he was i was counseling because he wasn't paying tithes on whatever income he did have and uh other things too and he said well brother bernard i i am buying a lottery ticket every week but i promise you when i win i'm going to pay all the ties and i'm going to give to the building program and you won't have to worry about this new building that you're trying to build god's gonna supply i will give it to you i said brother i don't need to win the lottery to build a new building if everybody in the church will get a job and pay their tithes we'll have enough money for the new building god has a plan for giving us new building and god has a plan for supporting your family and you don't have to waste money what you're doing is you're actually taking the hard-earned  dollars of your wife and the things that your family needs and you're wasting it um and so number one it's violating the scriptural principle of working for to support yourself number two so you're trying to get something for nothing um number two is you're not trusting god to supply your needs so if you do have a need that you can't supply by means beyond your control you need to go to god you need to ask him number three it's not good stewardship because for the vast majority of dollars they're wasted and that's inevitably true why would casinos be multi-million dollar businesses if they're paying off most their stuff no they're taking most of the the money and only giving a small fraction the same way with lotteries so they're raking in millions of dollars as i said disproportionately from people who can't afford it so even if you do win the lottery you just took a million dollars from poor people how does that make you feel no you didn't rob a bank but basically you are willing to play a game hoping that everybody else will suffer for you to win everybody else has to lose something and especially poor people and people with families that need the money for for food and so you feel good about taking a million dollars because you just took it out of the pockets of all these other people so that's really not the way christians should operate um and of course then then you start talking about the practical side gambling is highly addictive it's highly destructive of families and in human lives even on a even on the law of christian liberty because we we do have liberty in christ even if we said you know what i'm not bound by the law i'm free to do this in in a responsible way but yet the danger it causes to a high percentage of people of addiction and financial destruction and family destruction means as a christian as paul said you know if meat would cause my brother to stumble and fall if if my eating meat would cause a brother to backslide i won't eat meat again the rest of my life well if gambling would cause a significant percentage of people to stumble and fall it'd be better not to gamble so even from a principle of christian liberty we're advised not to do such things that harm other people and harm our society and so yes i think we can say you know as a christian we should not gamble it's not the right thing to do and and i would say it's not just the people that lose but the people that win if you if you track the stories the vast majority of the people that win it turns out to be in a few cases yes they buy a new house they're able to retire and whatever but for so many people it becomes destructive of their own lives because they don't know how to handle that money and they they spiral into personal over-indulgence and addictions and and divorce and personal destruction or family and distorts all relationships their family and friends for now families are fighting now so-called friends are stabbing them in the back demanding this and banning that or people are coming to to take advantage of their naivete and in under the guise of managing their money and investing in the money they're stealing their money so in so many cases it turns out to be what seemed like a blessing turns out to be a disaster and i think goes back to because you're not following godly principles if god wants you to make a million dollars there's a way that you could work hard and invest hard and i will say responsible investment in the stock market and so on is not gambling because you're investing in something of value and you're trying and it does have a productive value to the whole of society to invest in business and you are trying to make a wise choice not random it's not luck it's not gambling but it's trying to uh to make a responsible evaluation and so just getting something for free like like a raffle where you're you go to some event and you're not paying for the chance but you're just giving a door prize that to me that's not gambling but when you're risking something of value that you didn't have to risk you're not investing it in something uh that's productive or it's not a matter of skill but it's simply a matter of betting your money on something then i think christians shouldn't participate in lotteries uh casinos or bets or other forms of gambling