Church Rejects 600,000

I just read an article from firstcoastnews.com about a church rejecting a $600,000 donation which was being given from a man's lottery winnings.

Here is an excerpt.

ORANGE PARK, FL -- After Robert Powell hit the Florida Lottery jackpot last month and took home more than $6 million, he thought of his church.

And he offered to drop his tithe, around $600,000, in the collection plate of First Baptist Orange Park.

But the church and Pastor David Tarkington politely declined and told Powell they will not accept the lottery winnings.

Many churches do not approve of the lottery and gambling but on the other hand Pastor Dr. Lorenzo Hall of the El-Beth-El Divine Holiness Church says $600,000 can do a lot of good.

"I'm against the lottery, but if one of my members won the lottery, I wish and I hope he would give 10% to the church, we could do a lot of things with that money," says Hall.

What are your thoughts?

Commentary from gotquestions.org

"Many people claim to be playing the lottery or gambling so that they can give the money to the church, or to some other good cause. While this may be a good motive, reality is that few use gambling winnings for godly purposes. Studies show that the vast majority of lottery winners are in an even worse financial situation a few years after winning a jackpot than they were before. Few, if any, truly give the money to a good cause. Further, God does not need our money to fund His mission in the world. Proverbs 13:11 says, “Dishonest money dwindles away, but he who gathers money little by little makes it grow.” God is sovereign and will provide for the needs of the church through honest means. Would God be honored by receiving donated drug money, or money stolen in a bank robbery? Neither does God need or want money that was "stolen" from the poor by the temptation for riches."

My issue with the lottery/gambling. It is/becomes an idol of the heart. Idolatry is a sin. How? $5 on the lottery can easily become $10 and so on and so on. Many then move to place their hope and desires in something other than God. And it is basically covetness. Which the Bible calls a sin.

Here is an interesting commentary from, Tim Gray. " Basically, gambling is covetness. There is a pool of money out there and we don't trust that God will give us a sufficient amount of it to be able to live in Biblical contentment (or it is greed because we think that we deserve to live better), so we attempt to increase our material ability without Him. God does not use gambling to issue His wealth. He will always choose solid distribution methods."


So again, what are your thoughts? What would you do?