What Does God Say About Gambling?

Sunday, June 13, 2004

Rev. Ronald Burcham

Typed from audio transcript

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

If you read the newspaper this week, if you've watched the news, you know the moratorium on gambling has been lifted in Iowa. And they say, by 2006, there will be more casinos and more gambling opportunities for us in this state. That means we have counties all around the state jockeying for their position so they can get a riverboat or they can get something to have that infusion of income into their community.

Now for us in Polk County and Dallas County, we don't really have to worry too much about that because, if we want to gamble, it's pretty close by to us. Fifteen minutes away and we can be at Prairie Meadows. About forty-five minutes away, we can be down in Osceola. About an hour, maybe an hour and a half, we can be at the Meskwaki Tribe and have all the gambling we want. In fact, if we don't even want to go that far, we can just hit Hy-Vee on the way home or maybe the local Kum & Go and we can buy any number of a variety of lottery tickets there and we can gamble that way. It's all around us.

You switch on the television station and you start cruising through the channels. What's the latest thing you'll find? The World Poker Tournament. That's what you'll find. It's one of the biggest crazes around. People are watching other people play poker and gamble for the money at the pot there. If that's not enough for you, well then you have the office pools that are going on. If that's not enough, when you go out for a friendly game of golf, why don't we make it interesting and play it for a buck a hole?

The fact of the matter is gambling is all around us, and the way it looks for the future it's only going to get larger and there's only going to be more of it. Therefore, we have to ask the question, "What does God say about it? What does God have to say about gambling?" Now I wish there was a quick and easy answer, a definitive black-and-white answer from scripture and I could point to one verse and say, "Well, there it is," and everything is done; but that's just not the case. It's not going to be that simple. This morning, I'm going to challenge you. Challenge you to wrestle with this along with me and to ask some very tough questions, tough questions of yourself. "What does God say about gambling?"

Well, the first thing we need to point out is this. There is no biblical mandate against gambling. There's no biblical mandate against gambling. In other words, I can't point to chapter and verse that specifically says, "Thou shalt not gamble." You won't find it from Genesis to Revelation. You will not find it in the Ten Commandments. You won't find a commandment that says, "Thou shalt not gamble." It's just not there. Now that's important because we're a church that believes in scripture alone and only on God's Word. Therefore, we will not say something is definitely good or something is definitely wrong unless we have a clear directive from scripture, a clear passive, a clear teaching from God's Word. That clear directive is not there. That clear word specifically about gambling is not there. So, therefore, it's impossible to say, based on God's Word, that every instance of gambling is a sin.

It's also important to point out that, for many people, gambling is simply entertainment and that's what they'll tell you. Gambling is something they do as a pastime. It's something they do as fun. It's no different than going out to dinner or going to a movie. We say, "Well, you can lose money when you gamble." "Well, you lose money when you go out to dinner. You pay money for the meal and they serve it to you and so, therefore, gambling is just simply a form of entertainment."

The third thing I want to point out to you is that, for 90% of people gambling, it's not a problem for them. For 90% of the people who gamble, it never becomes an addiction for them. It never becomes a source of problems in their life. So if you wrap all of that together and if you say to yourself, "Well, there's no biblical mandate that says every instance of gambling is a sin." And you say, "Gambling is viewed by many people as simply entertainment." And also then you look at the fact that, for 90% of the population, gambling is not a problem for them. Well, then you're wondering, "Well, Ron, then why are we talking about it this morning? Case closed." It's not quite that simple, though, is it?

We could stick our heads in the sand and pretend that everything is well and good and everything is fine and since we don't have that clear, direct biblical mandate, we can just sort of ignore all the rest of the things that are happening. But we're not going to stick our head in the sand and we're not going to ignore the fact that, although there is no biblical mandate against gambling, certainly there are many dangers that are associated with gambling and many detrimental things that can happen both to your spiritual life and to your physical life. Just because we have freedom in an area doesn't mean we should exercise that freedom.

Galatians 5:13 says, "You, my brothers, were called to be free but do not exercise your freedom to indulge in the sinful nature." In other words, just because God has given us some freedom in this life, it doesn't mean we should jump in and indulge in that freedom and, therefore, welcome sin in our life or put ourselves into a position where we could fall prey to sin and all kinds of temptation. That's where it is with gambling. With gambling, we have to ask some very tough questions. There may not be a biblical mandate against it, but certainly God's Word talks about some of the dangers and some of the snares that surround gambling, some of the things that can entrap us.

This morning, we need to wrestle with some of those questions. And you need to wrestle with those questions, and you need to be honest with yourself and look inside your heart and ask the tough questions. The toughest question may be this: Is gambling just good fun or is it greed? Is gambling just good fun? Is it entertaining or is the basis of gambling greed, namely your own greed? I think we need to look at gambling itself. Gambling, what is it? Gambling is wanting to get something that somebody else has. It's a wager. It's putting something down. It's taking a chance. It's having a risk, but the whole risk is and the whole hope is that you'll get something back that belongs to somebody else, right? You want the casino's money. The casino wants your money. Nobody goes into an office pool hoping they lose. Everybody puts in their $5.00 or $10.00 hoping they will win. That's part and parcel of gambling. That's what it's about. It's putting money in and wanting more money back out. It centers around gaining more wealth or gaining more possessions.

My friends, we're playing with fire whether we want to admit it or not. Did you pay attention to the lesson from 1 Timothy? Paul is writing to a young pastor. Do you want to look at that with me? End of the second line says, "People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil." Now I don't want you to misunderstand me here. God is not saying if you have a lot of money, if you have a lot of wealth, if you have riches, somehow that is wrong or that is sinful. That's not what scripture is saying. Some people have been blessed with a lot of wealth. Some people have been blessed with a lot of possessions. That's not something inherently wrong in that. What scripture is telling us is that when we have a love for money and a love for possessions, if that takes over for us, if that's the focus of our life, if that's the driving thing in our life is to gain more money and to have more possessions, scripture says you're on a one-way road that leads to destruction and ruin because that love of money is one of the roots of sin. It opens us up to all kinds of temptations where we can fall. If the focus of gambling is based upon greed and a love of money or possessions, we have opened ourselves up to destruction.

You have to ask the tough question. When does it cross the line from being good fun to greed? At what point does that happen? I've heard plenty of people say to me, "Well, you know, gambling really isn't that important to me. It's not really the money that's involved there. I really don't care whether I win or whether I lose." Then why do it? Then why? Why does it make the game more interesting to play a buck a hole? Nobody gambles to lose. You gamble because you want to win. When do you cross the line from a good time to greed? Hand in hand with greed, then, is coveting. It's when we covet what somebody else has. Ninth and tenth commandments tell us that we're not to covet anything that is our neighbor's. Coveting is that sinful desire to have something that belongs to somebody else. In gambling, aren't you desiring to have something from somebody else? And at what point does it turn over into a sinful desire to gain something from somebody else? Now I've heard the argument. The argument goes you have two consenting parties doing this here, so it's different. It's different than wanting to steal something from your neighbors. It's different than coveting something which is his because, in gambling, well he's coveting something which is mine. So you're sort of in agreement on that. There's a mutual consent between the two parties as you enter into this and you take the risk. So as long as you both consent to it, then it must be okay. There's a counter argument. When two people have an affair outside of marriage, they both consent to that relationship. But it's still adultery, and it's still wrong. You cannot excuse coveting.

When do you cross the line? When do you cross the line and now it turns into something which you covet? When do you cross the line and it turns into greed? You need to wrestle with that. Struggle with that question in your own heart and in your own mind, because it's a very real danger.

The second danger of gambling is that we shift our reliance off of God and His providence in our life. In other words, we look to some other place other than God for what we have. Scripture says godliness with contentment is great gain. There's only one problem. There are very few of us who are content. Most of us are not content with what we have. The world tells us if you have more possessions, if you have more money, then you will be content. Now that can take the form in that you want more possessions or you want a larger portfolio so you can feel more financially secure but, whichever way it is, the world says if you have more, more money, more possessions, then you can be content. Now it's a lie because contentment doesn't come from possessions and money, but it's a lie most of us, at least at times, will buy into. Well gambling is a quick fix to that. Gambling says instantaneously you can have security. Instantaneously, if you win the jackpot, you have financial security for the rest of your life. Instantaneously, you can pay off the house. Instantaneously, you can buy the car you've been wanting, the stereo you've been desiring, all the other things. It is that instantaneous, all of a sudden, I believe with this now I can be content. All of a sudden, the focus is shifted off of reliance upon God and reliance upon luck or chance. It probably helps explain why percentage wise, statistically, it is the poorest people in society that gamble the largest percentage of their income. It's because they're looking for a way out. They're looking to escape that poverty. They're looking to change their life. And instead of relying upon God and the God-given ability for them to work, they fall into the temptation of relying on luck and chance. I probably don't need to point out to you the odds are not in their favor, and they're not in your favor either.

The second tough question you have to ask yourself are you looking at gambling as a way of making you content? Are you shifting your trust over from God and to chance and to luck so you hit the big one and now you can be secure? Only you can answer that question. Only you can search your heart and know.

The third danger of gambling is gambling is addictive, and there's not one person who is addicted to gambling that thought it would happen to them. They're convinced it wouldn't. There are thousands upon thousands of stories of families that have been ruined and relationships that have been torn apart because of the addiction of gambling. I probably read 20 or 30 of them this past week. I'll pull out just one as an example. It was written by a gal named Debbie out in Colorado. Debbie said when they opened up a casino about an hour away from their home, they were kind of intrigued by that because she'd never been to a casino and wanted to know what it was all about. So her husband and she made the hour trek and went over there, and they had a fun night. It was entertainment for them. They had a great time. A couple of days later, they went again. It was fun again. But, pretty soon, after a couple of trips, Debbie says the novelty wore off for her and she just didn't have any interest in it anymore. Unfortunately, it didn't wear off for her husband. And her husband starting visiting the casino four and five times a week. And Debbie got the shock of a lifetime, after three months, she looked at the books and realized they had to declare bankruptcy. Every penny they had had been spent on gambling, and he had racked up $40,000 in debt. She said he was a completely different person. He used to be a loving and supportive husband. Now he was combative. He was detached. He wasn't the same person. It led to their eventual divorce. I don't know what happened to her husband, but I do know this. The latest statistics I could dig up were 1997; but, in 1997, 7.5 million Americans were addicted to gambling and 15 million people were at risk. Now that's 1997. We have seven years since then. You know how the gaming industry has increased in those seven years. Those numbers have to be staggering at this point. But I promise you that every single one of that 7.5 million, each and every one of them, said they would never be addicted to gambling, yet every single one of them is.

I would guess that a good portion of you know someone or some family that's struggling with this. It's torn about relationships. It's been financial ruin for them. I also wonder how many of you this morning sitting there right now are struggling with this addiction. I'm talking about the people that I don't know about. Is this an issue in your life?

Gambling is all around us. We can stick our head in the sand if we so choose, but it will not change things. It's only going to increase in the years to come. We have to ask the tough questions. What does God say about gambling? Yes, there is no biblical mandate that says every time there's a gambling incident, that is a sin. But there is certainly plenty of biblical evidence that talks about the dangers surrounding gambling. Every one of us needs to look in our hearts, and we need to ask the tough questions. And if you come to the conclusion that you've succumbed to greed, that you've succumbed to coveting, that you've succumbed to trusting in chance or luck other than God, there's only one solution and that is to hit your knees and to confess that sin to God and know that through the blood of Jesus that sin is forgiven and it is forgotten.

And this morning, if you're coming to a realization that you have a more serious problem, that you have an addiction problem, then the time to deal with that is today, not tomorrow and not Tuesday, today. Know that God is going to walk with you hand in hand. He's going to be there to support you and encourage you. He's going to be there to put those relationships back together, and God is going to be there when you pick up the phone and you call 1-800-BETSOFF because you have to do that. You have to get help if you're going to break the addiction. And if you're struggling with that this morning, I'm serious, it ends today and you have to start today and you have to make that phone call today. Don't let it destroy your family, and don't let it destroy you. Because it's that serious. And all of us need to come to grips with that.

I knew this morning before I stepped out that I wasn't going to make friends today. I knew I was going to ruffle feathers. But my job isn't to make friends. It's to challenge you with the Word of God, and this is a challenge for us because it's pertinent. It's happening now. You need to struggle with it. God doesn't give us a clear mandate against it, but God certainly talks about all the dangers that surround it.

Ask the tough questions, and come up with the godly answers. Amen.

Copyright 2004 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church