Gambling in Australia | Ben Broadfoot

Australia has the highest participation rate in gambling in the whole world. 80% of us gamble in some way.^[1] Each year Australians gamble just under $20billion, and $12billion of that is on poker machines.^[2] Last year Australians spent around $400M at the Melbourne cup.^[3] 500,000 Australians are what the government calls ‘problem gamblers’.^[4] That means they and 5-10 other people experience ‘significant harm’ from their gambling. The figure is astonishing, that 500,000 Australians experience ‘significant harm’ from gambling, and impact 5-10 others. Not all gambling is motivated by greed. Sometimes it’s motivated by social factors, or as an escape from life’s pressures. But in a group of 100 people, we should have roughly 2 problem gamblers who are significantly harming themselves and impacting 10-20 people. Perhaps not on account of greed, but still significantly harmful. This is Australian culture.

What is gambling from God’s perspective? I want to make the case, very briefly, that most gambling is sin. Sin just means abuse. Sin is when we abuse or mistreat God, or when we abuse or mistreat other people. So what I’m saying is that most gambling is abuse, it’s sin.

Let’s think about this idea under two different biblical categories. We’ll use the two categories Jesus gave us when he told us that the right way to live is to love God and love our neighbours.^[5]

Love for God

First we’ll see that most gambling is sin because it fails to love God. This is because most gambling happens because people believe in chance. People gamble because they believe chance, luck, or probability rule the world. This is how the pokies work, but even card games and sporting matches use odds and probability. But if we love God, we’ll believe him when he says rather than chance ruling the world, instead God rules the world, even things that appear to be random. We can see this from Proverbs 16:33:

The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.

Casting lots is an old equivalent to tossing a coin, or drawing straws. It’s a way of taking a decision out of my hands. But while it may take a decision out of our own hands, it doesn’t put the decision into the hands of chance, but every decision is God’s. Most gambling calls God a liar and says that chance determines the outcome. So most gambling is sin against God. It’s mistreating or abusing God.

Love for our neighbours

Second, most gambling is sin because it fails to love our neighbour. The gambling industry thrives on greed. When we win, we don’t actually win profits away from that industry. The money we win is just a small fraction of the money our neighbours have gambled. When we gamble, a group of people essentially put their money together, and the gambling industry takes most of it, but gives a little bit to a small number of other people. It’s a method of getting rich (or a method of leisure or escapism) that takes money from others without working for it. Those others tend to be, in Australia, the poorer and less educated people in our society. We prey on our financially vulnerable neighbours for our own benefit. But consider how Jesus would have us think about our neighbours and money, as in Ephesians 4:28:

Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labour, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.

God has given us a way to earn money so that people are benefited from our work. Those who are benefited from our work pay us. With that pay we can both pay other people for their work, and be generous to those who don’t have the money that they need. The way of receiving money that God has given us benefits all of society. But the way of receiving money that gambling gives us benefits a small number of people, by taking money from financially vulnerable people.

These two areas aren’t all of the thinking that can be done about gambling, but enough to show us that most gambling is sin, because rather than loving God and loving our neighbours it is abusive towards God and our neighbours. So when you have an opportunity to join a sweep this Melbourne cup, I’d recommend saying something like “I don’t want to support that industry. Jesus has given me a better way to use my money.”

The reason I’ve said most gambling is sin, rather than all gambling is sin, is that the bible doesn’t, as far as I can tell, explicitly label gambling as sin. It is conceivable that someone could gamble in such a way that is not abusive toward God or their neighbours, but most gambling doesn’t fit Jesus’ command to love.

If you’re guilty of failing to love God and love your neighbours, this is a sad, but not unusual part of life in a broken world. God has promised that he’ll forgive us, so trusting him isn’t a gamble at all, his promises can be trusted.^[6] If you’ve got a problem with gambling it’d be great to let other people at church know so they can help you deal with that problem, whether you’re in financial distress, or need help stopping gambling. One of God’s great gifts to us is one another, so make sure you share that burden with others, remembering God’s forgiveness.

^[1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6313083.stm

^[2] http://www.problemgambling.gov.au/facts/

^[3] http://www.suncorpgroup.com.au/sites/default/files/pdf/news/311014_Asteron%20Life%20Risky%20Nation%20Report_0.pdf

^[4] http://www.problemgambling.gov.au/facts/

^[5] Luke 10:25-27.

^[6] 1 John 1:8-9 and Luke 7:36-50.

Partnership at Church? | Hui Shin

Well friends, on Sunday 1st November we are going to have a Partner’s Day. Initially we had it down as the 25 October but we had to change it because of venue issues. But this will be a day for all our current partners in 9am church to get together to be reminded from God’s Word about what we are on about as a church as well as welcoming new partners to come and join us and celebrating together with a nice lunch afterwards.

But if you are fairly new to our church, you might be wondering what is partnership? What does it mean to be a partner at Church@9?

Well, to answer that question, I want to take us to Paul’s letter to the Philippians because as he writes to the Philippian church he thanks God for their partnership in the gospel. He says in Philippians 1:3:

‘I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.’

One of the worst investment decisions that I’ve ever made was when I was a university student when I decided to invest a modest amount of money in some Telstra shares. I think as soon as I bought them their value almost halved. But being a shareholder is a fairly easy thing isn’t it? You know you invest some money and then you can sit back and the company will do all the work and you can expect to derive some return for your investment.

However, it’s a different story when you enter into partnership in a business isn’t it? I know some of you run businesses and you are partners in a business. But being a partner is very different to being a shareholder because if you are a partner, you can’t sit back and let others do the work. You can’t be a spectator. You need to be the one who gets up and does the work. You are the one who gets anxious when things don’t go right. You are the one who personally invested in the work.

Christian partnership is a little bit like that. Partners are the ones who are so committed to the gospel that they actively get involved in the life of the church in order to see the gospel growing. In fact the word for partnership in the original language is actually the word ‘fellowship’. I’m not sure whether you’ve watched the Lord of the Rings Series. But the first book or movie is called ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’ isn’t it? It’s about a motley crew of Hobbits and Elves and Dwarfs and Men who come together with one purpose and one mind and one goal that is to throw the Ring into the fires of Mount Doom and so destroy the evil forces of Sauron.

Now the meaning of the word fellowship in Christian circles has been watered down considerably these days. People think that having coffee and biscuits with other Christians is fellowship. But what fellowship really is, is working together to see the gospel growing. In the case of the Philippian church, they were committed to the gospel by evangelising. They were committed to the gospel by praying for Paul and the progress of the gospel. They were committed to the gospel by financially supporting the ministry of Paul and caring for him while in prison.

In one sense, partnership is not some special thing that extra keen Christians sign up to. All Christians are called to be in partnership with each other to see the gospel growing. For it is impossible to follow Jesus as a Christian person and not be concerned for the growth of the gospel.

Now in many ways, the thing that matters is not whether you have a tick against your name in our church database identifying you as a partner. But the thing that is really important is whether you are actually a partner with us and taking part in the ministry of the gospel here. However, at the same time, we want to make partnership a formal thing as well because it just gives us a way of expressing our desire to see the gospel growing here. And it also acts as an accountability thing so that we can keep on encouraging each other not to slacken off but to keep on working hard to serve Jesus together.

So we would love for everyone who is a Christian here to be a partner with us. We don’t want to see Christians coming to church for years and not growing and being wishy washy and selfish and just doing the Sunday thing. We want to see Christians growing and serving Jesus and the gospel.

Now just to make it a bit more concrete, I like to speak of 4 things that we would like all our partners to be committed to:

1. Gospel commitment

Firstly, partners are those who are committed to the gospel of Jesus. In other words, we want you to be a Christian person and to be clear on what it means to follow Jesus before you sign up to be a partner. If you know that you are not a Christian yet or you are unclear on what that means, we’d love to be able to help you to understand the Christian message. But we think that it’s important that you make that commitment first before signing up as a partner at Church@9.

But of course if you are someone who is committed to Jesus, then you will be someone who is committed to telling others about him and committed to praying for the growth of the gospel and committed to living as a Christian in every area of your life.

2. Gospel presence

Secondly, partners are those who are committed to gospel presence. Typically this happens in our Sunday meetings as well as our Growth Groups. But partners are people who want to be present for one another. Partners are those who are keen to meet with other Christians at every opportunity to help others grow in their Christian faith.

3. Gospel service

Thirdly, partners are those who are committed to gospel service. Christians are those who have been rescued from our former life of sin so that we might serve God with our lives. And so partners are the ones who serve in our music team and in our tech team and in our welcoming team and by reading the Bible for us and leading us in prayer. In fact partners are those who don’t really need to be asked to do things but they are the ones who just look for opportunities to love and serve others and then take the initiative to meet that need.

4. Gospel giving

And finally, partners are those who are committed to financially contributing to the work of the gospel here.

I know many of us are already committed in this way and it’s a great joy and privilege to serve Christ together with you as partners of the gospel. But if you are not already a partner and you want to be a part of the ministry of the gospel here, then I invite you to come and chat with me or any of the leaders in this church and we can welcome you as a partner on 1 November.

Mike Taylor’s Tips to Evangelism!

1Tim. 4:16 “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.”

• Need to have firm gospel convictions and a godliness and holiness of life to be effective in evangelism
• Prioritise walk up as roughly 70% of people in Sydney don’t know a Christian and only if you go outside your friends network to meet strangers will these people be reached.
• We are all to evangelise – imitate Paul who says woe to me if I don’t preach. Also 1 Cor 4:11-21 we have this ministry of reconciliation also great commission, also nature of praise is to declare gods deeds, psalm 66:16 and 1 peter 2:9.
• Romans 10:14-17 how can they believe without hearing…”How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’ But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?’ So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”
• “Love neighbor” – most loving thing is the gospel saving them from hell.
• Lie of satan is that your beliefs are private – secularism – conviction is all need to repent because time is short and Jesus is judge 2peter 3
• Jesus says you will suffer for him if your really a disciple and so one test of how your going following Jesus is whether your willing to look silly for Jesus and be ostracised because of Jesus.
• Read newspaper and listen to someone like Albert Mohler to think of how you can turn popular contemporary topics toward the gospel.
• Live differently: assumption of people asking you to give a reason for the hope you have is that you have in your heart set apart Christ as lord. 1 Cor 9 is about giving up rights but not falling into sin. It is often how we are different that attracts people.
• If you don’t know any non Christians do intentional things to make friends with them or meet them- sport hobby work.
• Do evangelism in packs don’t always be a Lone Ranger – Naremburn gospel dinners chat about topic and bring it to the gospel or talk about Jesus and ask questions with friends.
• Book yourself in to do it with someone – this keeps you accountable as satan always gives you a reason not to.
• God works through your weakness so trust him even when you think you stuffed it up, Paul 1, Cor 1-2
• Don’t moralise – it is not the gospel
• Personal testimony – not about you but Jesus. Not most powerful thing but gospel is power.
• You will be surprised as most people are actually willing to have a conversation from what I’ve found. Especially the people you first look at who don’t look like they will want to talk.
• Try and find something you both agree on to find some common ground and to help them get onside – like justice or something wrong with the world or church abuse.
• People try and avoid Jesus- Always being it back to Jesus
• Try and smile
  Make eye contact
  Listen and repeat back what they have said in summary – these show that you care.
• Don’t try fall into the trap of spending all your time talking about apologetics as this doesn’t save.
• Often people use common objections as reasons they don’t believe – gauge through conversation whether or not they really are a barrier- if not change topic back to the gospel
• Remember people’s problem is always sin not apologetics so don’t be fooled
• Always remember that God is sovereign and will save his elect…
• Read the bible with them- get them to read it
  Leave them with a bible
  Try and get there number to follow them up
• If you get asked a question and you don’t know how to answer it that’s ok. Tell them you will look up the answer for them and get back to them. Start writing this stuff down for future use.
• Get to know churches in Sydney and which ones are solid and which are not so you can send people to good churches. If they say, oh, Hillsong is down the road- don’t just be like oh good go there. Tell them where s good church is somewhere near by.

Jireh’s Blog #1 | 21 July 2015

Sitting in between two couples, in a café at Strathfield, I was reminded of an extraordinary truth about the Church I am part of.

On the one side sat a couple, both looking at their phones and sipping their coffee.

On the other side sat a couple, both looking at their Bibles together and sharing notes on the passage.

Both couples were strangers to me.

And yet I know I am in deep relationship with one of them.

They were gathered around the Word of God and it was my joy to witness their gathering. I was built up by their faith in God’s Word. I was thankful to God for the encouragement.

Although I don’t know them, I know that we are gathered by our God. It is by the blood of Jesus that all three of us were saved. Gathered together we now look forward to the return of our King and preach Christ crucified to the world.

Although I don’t know them, God knows all three of us.

I am not sure whether I should say something to them. Maybe I should let them know that I am encouraged by them and share a prayer. Maybe I should shake their hand and ask them their names? Or maybe I should just go? I don’t know haha! Maybe it would be too awkward…

I remember the passage we went through at Church. The writer of Hebrews encourages us to see Church as more glorious than any one earthly meeting of mortals.

As those saved by the blood of Jesus:

‘…You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.’ [Hebrews 12:22-24]

God has gathered His people around His King into His Kingdom.

And although I may not see that couple ever again in this life, I know that in the next, we will all be gathered in the throne room of God, stand together side by side praising God for all eternity, because the Church that I am part of, is God’s Church that we are all part of.

Thanks be to God that His Church is more glorious than what we see each Sunday.

Same-Sex Marriage Article

Here is a really helpful article published in the SMH in 2012 by former Anglican Archbishop of Sydney Peter Jensen discussing the problem of the slogans used in the same sex marriage debate: ‘marriage equality’, ‘marriage won’t change’ and ‘it’s inevitable’.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/stylish-samesex-campaign-glosses-over-real-issues-20120615-20f6e.html

For us Christians this is a very important topic to be engaged in as it affects quite deeply in what we believe.

 

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