Ask the Pastors S7 E7: “Is sports betting a sin?”
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Welcome to Ask the Pastors a segment of the West Hills Podcast where you have the opportunity to ask your questions and receive biblically grounded, pastorally sensitive answers from our pastoral staff. My name is Brian. I'm your host and one of the pastors, and I'm joined by our lead pastor. Will. Hey. Hey. And Pastor Thad. Hello. We've got a great question from Dalton.
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I'm excited for this one
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On
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It is a great question. I got excited when he sent it. I'm excited about it now.
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Yeah, there's got to be many people wondering about gambling.
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Well, interestingly, anyway, we'll get to gambling. I would say Dalton, I would say gambling is not even
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I'm super pervasive.
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Well, I would say it's not even, not really the main thrust of his question, which his question is I would say a subset of gambling. Read it. Yeah, let's read it. I think that's something we need to distinguish.
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Sounds good. Due to recent legalization in the US it is wildly pervasive gambling every game.
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Sports betting,
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Sports betting.
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That's what he references in his opening. He was talking about sports betting, right?
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That we cut Yes,
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In the email. Okay,
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Got it.
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Sports betting is wildly pervasive. Gambling is too, but
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Every game and sports TV show is showing betting lines odds and offering promos to sign up for their services. Missouri voted to legalize sports betting this year and when services such as FanDuel and DraftKings go live here in Missouri in December 1st I have had every intention of signing up and playing. So all that to say what does the Bible say about gambling would've fall under the New Testament idea that we are now free in Christ to not be adherent to the law and that we can partake so long as one, my gambling is not a stumbling block to other Christians, and two, my gambling is not causing me to sin. And upon my further research, I can't find anywhere that Paul writes about or mentions gambling with sins. The main principles I can find that would relate to gambling more so condemns the love of money and greed and that we should not dishonestly obtain money. Reference Proverbs 10, two or Micah two, one to two. I know that we are stewards of the money that God has blessed us with and that Jesus's parable of the talents shows that those who misuse what they have been given will be punished. But is there any difference in gambling and losing some money for a thrill versus spending money on other pleasures like tickets to events, good restaurants or other personal hobbies? I know that was long and probably rambling, but it seems very culturally relevant these days.
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I do think it's very culturally relevant and especially now the past what week or two weeks, I think it was last week or two weeks ago when the FBI, Kish Patel made the announcement about the ongoing investigation into current and some former NBA players and coaches over this sports betting kind of scheme thing. So it's been, I think especially in the news lately, but certainly to Dalton's point, been all over commercials and just ramp it sports betting in particular. Now to go back to, before we even read the question, the point I was making is Dalton mentions both, he mentions so all my rambling to say what does the Bible say about gambling? But then I think he too kind of subtly distinguishes between gambling more generally and sports betting specifically. And I do think those are two different things. Arguably we could even do two separate podcasts about it. Maybe we'd just go ahead and try and touch on both of them here I guess. But I take the main thrust of his question to be more so about the sports betting. I mean that was the instigating factor for Missouri legalizing sports betting him come December 1st, whatever, maybe looking forward to engaging in that unless we convince him otherwise here or something like that. And I think it's important, I was kind of looking it up a little bit. Gambling literally just in the dictionary is defined as to play any game of chance for money
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And then betting or a bet as a pledge or forefoot risked on some uncertain outcome or wager. So you still have that idea of uncertain outcome obviously in both. But to me the maybe single biggest difference between the two and with sports betting as I guess you could argue maybe a subset of gambling or maybe it's completely different, is that idea of chance with gambling. It seems like, again, intrinsic in the definition, you're playing a game of chance for money. And whether that's something as and with any game, I mean this goes down to board games or sports or anything with any game, there's always some combination of skill and chance I think and the best board games or whatever, it depends on what your kind of desire and threshold for skill. I mean you can go all the way to the really super high nerdy kind of games where it's like there's not hardly any chance.
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You're not rolling dice, you're not. It's all kind of a skill and the best player is pretty much always going to win or at least the best player on that day versus the relying on the role of, so with something like gambling lottery tickets for instance, I would argue zero skill. I would, some people, I don't know what else. I'm sure somebody has some crazy idea about there being some skill involved in picking numbers on your lotto ticket or whatever, or roulette. The roulette table is different than black Jack involves a little more skill, hit me or sticking. And it's kind of a very simple though game versus something like poker where it's like, okay, now the best poker players are not just kind of, I mean the odds. I mean you can watch poker tournaments on ESPN now and they're going to show you in real time as soon as the rivers and the turn and the flop, what the probability of this player versus this player winning the hand.
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And so you're constantly, the best players are going to excel at math and probability and know all of that. But even that poker, there's a lot, I would argue, less skill with something like poker than there is let's say with sports where, yeah, I mean on any given day the bounce of the ball or your star player gets sick, there's differing things I guess that you could argue chance sneaks in. But why am I spending so much time on this? Because I do think it really matters whether we're talking about something where, what degree of chance are we discussing when we're making a sort of a biblical case or against gambling versus sports betting. And here's kind of what I get at with all of that is to the extent that, and we were actually joking before the question coming from Dalton and I was like, I bet Dalton would actually be really good at sports betting. I think I've discussed this with him before, just like I know he follows a lot of sports, he plays sports, he has a, I think, good gut instinct for those kinds of things.
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So then there's that skill involved and some of what it boils down to me, for me there is at a certain point of lots of data points that go into me making this bet and think this is a wise investment of money. I've done my homework, I am planning to make money by betting on this in this way or something like that is, I don't know how you can really argue that something like sports betting is substantively different than playing the stock market, than investing your money financially in various stocks or bonds or whatever. Now I say that, and I'm not a stock trader, I don't really know how all of that works per se, and I know sometimes you're just bundling and you're betting on the entire stock market. Even then it's like you're betting, I mean you're still betting on the US economy to succeed and businesses to grow more than fail whatever, or you're betting on specific companies and I want to invest my money and get shares of this company. I think it's a winner. And which to me is how is that really any different than betting on the Kansas City Chiefs this weekend? I think they're a winner.
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I wouldn't have bet on them just saying you
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Wouldn't have. Yeah, Bill's fan. Yeah, so don't bet on that. Don't bet on blockbuster. But I mean same principle, you're betting on companies, you're betting on the economy or you're betting on a sports team in a game. So to me that is different. There is so much skill involved with sports now I think obviously we're not talking about the specific context of all the Terry Razzi and the whatever, the trailblazers Chauncey vs stuff. Obviously everybody who's a sports fan should hate what they did in terms of manipulation. Now rigging games and cheating, and I mean that's, I think all the people reporting the news have wisely made the comparison to insider trading on the stock market, which again is a perfect comparison because it's like, okay, you work for this company or you have lobbyists that you're friends with that can give you inside information on this company and we're about to make a big change of CEO or close a bunch of stores or open or whatever product, new product launch, and so now's the right time to buy or to sell this company.
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I think it's obviously same thing when yeah, I'm going to set out this game or hey, we haven't announced it yet, but LeBron's hurt. He's not playing. Okay, well now you have information betting on this. So all of that is illegal, that's immoral, shouldn't do it. But I think there's a lot of overlap in this conversation to me, and I think it's important that Dalton also does give the context of recent legalization in the US and Missouri just voting to legalize sports betting this year. And I think there's a lot of overlap then with this question. And the one we did on marijuana and Christians, should, Christians ever in any case smoke marijuana because it just got legalized. So now for the longest time, you could obviously make the argument Romans 13 and one Peter three and everything, honor the emperor serve, don't disobey the law of the land.
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That's not the case with sports betting anymore. It's legal I guess in the US and legal I guess in Missouri. And so it's no longer that issue. So certainly now you're looking at personal conscience, you're looking at, like Dalton said, being a stumbling block to another brother or sister you're looking at like Dalton also mentioned, my gambling is not causing me to sin. So what would that be? I think that would obviously entail to me, I think of one Corinthians six 12 being a really key verse where Paul's sort of quoting the Corinthians back at himself and anticipating what they're going to say. Well, all things are lawful for me. And then Paul says, yeah, but not all things are helpful. Just because legal
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Now
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To smoke marijuana or to bet on sporting events doesn't mean it's helpful. You should do it and all things are lawful for me, but I will not be dominated by anything. And
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So Paul's kind of twofold litmus tests there in my mind is actually very different than Dalton's because Dalton says, well, as long as I'm not causing someone else to sin stumbling Glock, as long as I'm not actively sinning, that's kind of like wolf we're, where my mind goes with this question is, well, is that really where we want to set the bar is just making sure I'm not explicitly sinning versus Hey, how can we Ephesians five redeem, make the best use of the time, make the best use, stewarding our finances, those kinds of things I think is not just avoiding the negative but positively making wise choices decisions and specifically like Paul says here, things that are helpful that build me up, that bring me closer to Jesus and that don't dominate me. And I think that's a big one just in both of these conversations. The previous one we had about marijuana and then now this one with sports betting is like we know that these things are inherently addictive, obviously something like marijuana on a chemical level, but gambling, sports betting, it certainly, yeah, I mean it hits those dopamine release receptors, whatever, brain science. And so there's a reason that gamblers anonymous exist. I mean, it is inherently addictive. Again, that doesn't mean everybody's going to get addicted just like alcohol.
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They flash warnings on the advertisements,
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Say,
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Hey, if you need
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Help's
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A number,
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The reason they have to do that legally. And so yeah, I think just knowing going into it, okay, this is a pursuit, this is a activity that in its very nature has a higher propensity to dominate you. And Paul's saying, I'm not going to be dominated. So again, that doesn't mean don't do it, it just means you do have to think probably twice and three times and be really, I think probably thoughtful prayerful about am I the kind of person that as an addictive personality that tends to get dominated by stuff. Is this a good Pandora's box that I want to open or whatever? I'll pause for a minute and let you guys jump
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In. Yeah, I think a couple just supportive pieces and even data point from some of the articles that I read about sports betting in particular versus gambling as a whole, that 48% of men ages 18 to 49 have sports betting accounts. More than half have chased a losing bet with another one. One in five have struggled to meet financial obligations as a result of this. And I think what that data points to is that sports betting has been marketed, how it has been marketed as a fun communal way to further advance your enjoyment of something like watching football, baseball, basketball, any sort of sports friendly competition. You used to do this between buddies of like, Hey, I'll bitch 20 bucks that whoever wins, and that's the end of it. But now it has been marketed on a much larger scale where people are oftentimes moving less from the, this is a friendly competition to now I'm actually seeking to gain something else.
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And so draft gangs, FanDuel, all of those things, they make it easy to start just two taps and you've already got it. We'll even give you however much money first 50 bucks, free first 50 bucks free, you're in with that. And so again, I'm not stating my position, that's just data to counteract some of that would be what does scripture say about love of money in particular about a desire for gain. I would put this question as a whole under a wisdom issue as you've laid it out of we can't make a prescription for all Christians, but we can present here is wisdom within scripture that you have to between you and the spirit. Some
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Would though
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Say some
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Christians would say, this is a black and white,
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Which
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Again, I disagree, but yeah, you're about to give us
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Some. So yeah, Proverbs 28 20, whoever hastens to be rich
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Will not go unpunished. Proverbs tend to, ill-gotten treasures are of no value. One Timothy six, nine through 10, those who desire to be rich fall into temptation for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Again, some of those verses people will use as like, well, that's completely out. I would argue that the majority of that 48% of men are looking to gain riches quickly. It's moved past a position. Again, not all I would argue most probably of a, this is just something fun that I'm doing versus I'm trying a get rich quick scheme to which I've had friends who have lost lots of money because they've gotten into sports gambling, sports betting, and they've thought, well, if I just win this and they've fallen into well with just this click, I can now get up on top, which is this click. I can now find myself in a better situation. So that's again, data points to support just the abundance of caution to begin of the addictive nature and how there is an effect in our economy. There is an effect with your coworkers, with your family that you probably know someone who is doing this in some capacity. I'm not saying whether they're fully in some sort of unhealthy pattern with money, but you probably know people engaging with it, which is another reason for us too. Address this question,
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Address it. And all those passages came up for me too. I had in my notes here, certainly like you said, one Timothy six 10 and others, if you're talking about a love of money type of thing where you find yourself becoming more and more obsessed with the number in the account. Yeah. Again, I mean going back to Paul's vice list from Galatians five 19 through 21, which was the context for this question, for this question, just in case you're listening to this later, we're preaching through Galatians, and so Dalton had emailed about he, I guess misheard or I misspoke. I don't know about gambling being one of those things. I think where I would mention gambling actually if I didn't, is in sort of the list of the last couple sort of vices that Paul mentions in Galatians 5 21 that works of the flesh. You're supposed to avoid drunkenness and orgies and Tim Keller pointed out, and JD Greer, I think I quoted too, just like that, the Greek word for orgies isn't necessarily sex orgies. You're really talking about anything like this that is addictive in nature, that is feeding on that dopamine release and trying to fill that sort of insatiable void desire in your heart, that craving, that longing for something, for a hit to feel alive. And so I think, yeah, if it's that, then it's a problem. Certainly all the things you said about get rich quick scheming, I mean that absolutely would kind of really be an even more specific form of
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The
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Love for money is like love for quick money or pursuit of quick money. I think that's certainly problematic. Then I think one of the things that you got to think about is with any of these kinds of questionable gray area things, whether it's something like marijuana, whether it's something like gambling or alcohol or we could probably list a dozen more examples of gray areas morally is like, what does it mean? Even if it's not sinful for me and stumbling block kind of whatever for me, what does it mean for me to participate in and therefore support and help prop up this particular industry knowing and system knowing that it is problematic for so many, maybe even the data would show the majority,
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Even if I'm not addicted to marijuana or gamma sports betting or alcohol or whatever. And again, I'm not saying that automatically rules it out. I'm not saying that for me, I'm not hypocritical to even suggest that I drink Alcoholism is a problem for a lot of people, I could say, and I'm sure some do. I'm sure there are people out there that say, you know what? I enjoy drinking. I can do it responsibly, but I don't do it because I just know too many people who have problems and I just feel like it's all interconnected and I don't want to be a part of an industry that preys on folks that have that struggle and that addiction. So we know certainly with gambling, yeah, I read a focus on the family article on gambling, and it's interesting. They say they make it a black and white thing, number of fundamental scriptural principles come into play. We'd suggest that first and foremost is the emphasis Jesus places on love. Love your neighbor as yourself. The truth is that gambling isn't as innocuous as you might suppose. It's predicated on the losses, pain and suffering of others. For one to win at gambling, others must lose. So it's that
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Zero sum game. And so even when I do win, the house loses or you someone lose, have to lose. The chiefs lost the game. So the chiefs, the people that bet on the chiefs or whatever, and so they're saying that is inherently problematic. I mean, I don't know how much you could say that about all of sports. Should we not play any sports then? Because I mean, someone wins, someone loses. So is that unloving that my soccer team beat? Actually we lost, but my following ball team beat the incarnate Word team on Saturday or whatever. So that's unloving to play sports. I don't know about that, but they do go on sometimes. The biggest losers are the gamblers, closest loved ones families touched by gambling, addiction, increased risk for negative outcomes, divorce, bankruptcy, child abuse, domestic violence, crime, suicide, gambling. Praise upon, and this is the system part that I was talking about, gambling also exploits and praise upon the desperation of the poor. The National Gambling Impact Study Commission found that those with incomes of less than $10,000 a year spend more on lottery tickets than any other group. High school dropouts spend four times as much as college graduates. This is clearly at odds with the biblical ethic. Scripture exhorts us to look out for the poor, the disadvantaged issue, strong warnings against those who take advantage of their plight. So I mean, that is something that I think you really have to
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Weigh, weigh with this one in particular with gambling, maybe frankly more so than something like alcoholism or even marijuana is it does seem to target a, whether you want to say a target effect, a specific subset of the population, the more poor you get, the more of that temptation there is to look for that get rich scheme and oh, I can turn it around. So yeah, I think that you have to definitely factor in more when you're making that personal determination about the ethics of whether or not I ought to participate in this system and help prop it up. Is it a net positive on the whole for society? I think that's something that Christians can't just, well, all I can do is worry about myself. It's like, no, no, you're called to. That's the way that Kane thought. Am I my brother's keeper? Yes, yes you are. You are your brother's keeper. You care for others in society. You need to think about how your actions both explicitly and indirectly affect others. So I think that's a huge factor. And then the last factor for me that I want to mention, well actually y'all want
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Anything on that or anything else?
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I'm just personally still chewing on how gambling can be in the same boat as investing. I really never thought about that before, but I see your argument. It's like, well, either one, you could get rich quickly, either one, you could have the love for money. Yeah, I dunno. I just never thought about that before
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I made that argument. I think in high
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School, my IRA is so slow, I don't think I'm going to get quick, quickly, rich,
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You're not. I'm just,
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But people that are good with their money and they're investing a lot, man, I could see that totally
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Become a love
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For money
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Depending. Never
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Thought about that on
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How risky your investments are. That's your financial. Yeah, could be losing everything.
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Risk averse. Exactly. And I remember making that when I made that argument with my dad and sort of debating this in high school, I think it was my mom took us to Las Vegas on spring break or something, questionable parenting choice. Anyway, but we played the slots. I did, I put a quarter in a slot machine just to say I did it. Who knows? A one quarter. And I don't know, I think my dad gave me grief or something, and I like, you got money in the stock market, who are you judging? How is that any different? And he's like, well, there's skill involved you make, there's skill in picking which companies and whatever. I'm like, okay, well maybe again, slot machine. Maybe I should have put a quarter on the poker table. I don't know, but better chance, I don't know. But I do think that's a factor. I think that's a factor
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Skill
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I think. Yeah, personally for me, in terms of thinking through it, I think that makes sports betting a little bit more morally acceptable than just go into the casino every week and pull on the slot machine. So yeah, you were about to jump
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On. Yeah, I was going to mean cards on the table when sports betting was on. I voted no simply from the data points of just how much havoc it does reach that, I think you framed it up well in the sense that it tends to really prey on the poor
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And
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This idea of love of neighbor that even if one could do it without personal addiction or greed, the industry as a whole does prey on those who can't. And so there's a question of is my participation a matter of I'm being complicit with this? That's a real question that Christians in particular need to be thinking about in relation to this of not just is it sinful? Because we could say there is no explicit command, no ban for some of the way it's been framed. Is it more unwise than anything else that I would make the argument that not all wagers are wicked, which none of us have made that. I'll make a bet with my children about ice cream for whoever wins something. There's really, it's something that I want. It's low stakes, it's not a moral violation. I think you can do things like that where wagers are not moral violations, where it comes more into the wisdom issue, how to think about it of a habitual money, money-based gambling shifts from it makes that move, that pivot from this is entertainment and enjoyment to now this is enslavement and enticement. Those are counterbalances to how we are personally thinking and weighing through thinking about sports betting.
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And for me, I really guess I agree. And the last thing I would say in that vein too is just to bring it back to and repeat what I said before. That to me is maybe the most important point in the whole discussion, which is the difference between those two kind of qualifications that Dalton put in his question to us about if it's not a stumbling block for someone else, and it's not a stumbling block sin issue for me, which again to me is just sets a pretty low bar for, is that really what Jesus calls us to aim at is make sure you're not explicitly sinning kind of thing versus, I mean those are good biblical principles. I'm not calling Dalton out for mentioning them. I mean that is certainly a minimum bar is not sending.
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But I think he calls us to so much more than that in terms of not just not sending, but proactively, positively doing good, pursuing what is best. I mentioned in the context of the fruit of the spirit and goodness in particular, the connection there with Philippians four, eight, whatever is true, whatever is good, whatever's pure, what is noble, whatever is praiseworthy, what is commendable? Think about these things. Do these things, does this fit? Does it check those boxes? Good, true, pure or noble, praiseworthy, I don't know. But yeah, to me, and the last thing in that same vein that I wanted to say is I really to read the fuller verse again, one Corinthians six, 12, I just think it's so helpful on this one is all things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful, but we should not be dominated by anything. And I just think dominated is, I think it's a relative term. I mean when we talk about spiritual or psychological enslavement,
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Domination, addiction is a sliding scale. I mean, some are more enslaved and caught up bound than others, but I just think about almost for me, the bigger issue for someone like Dalton or maybe myself with something like this, I referenced Ephesians, I think it is with Paul saying, redeem the time, make the best use of the time. The days are evil. We don't have many days here in this evil fallen world we're called to be salt and light, to be ambassadors of the kingdom, to bring light to the darkness and all of that. Is this the best to most efficient way to do it? And it seems like, again, you could say that about, I mean, you could go overboard and none of us would be on any of the streaming services. None of us would be on any social media, probably not have a smartphone.
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We could all just be the Essenes and go out in our caves and never interact with people of the world at all. But Jesus didn't do that. I don't think he calls us to do that. So how are we in the world, but not of the world. It's all the same things we're always thinking about. But I do think that just in terms of making the best use of the time and all of that and not getting enslaved and not being dominated, it's like I think to be really good at something like sports betting to where, or poker for that matter, to the point where you can morally within your own conscience be like, yeah, no, this is not just a blind chance gamble kind of thing. This is a pretty, not necessarily a sure thing on every hand or a sure thing on every game, but over the long haul, I have the right to be confident that I'm going to come out on top. I'm going to make money doing this, not lose it because I've done my homework, my research, or I've played so many hands or I've so good at math or whatever it might be that I have that level of confidence. Basically what I'm saying is to get there, you have to spend so much time
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Doing it, researching it, caught up in it that at a certain point, I'm not saying I know where the threshold, the bar is, where it turns into being dominated by and stops being helpful. All things are helpful, but it's like I think you're probably talking past that bar, that line. And so to me it's not like we were talking about when I made the comment about Dalton probably being pretty good at this, and you're like, I don't know his
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Seen as fantasy football team, his fantasy
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Football team, and that's another one. My mind, I wanted to bring that in because I would make this same argument that I'm making, I think against mostly sports betting with something, again, not a black and white, you're in the league. I'm just saying for me, and I have an addictive personality, so I have to know that. But I would say for most people, the vast majority of people I know who play something like fantasy football or whatever, fantasy, anything, they just go overboard. And I think it's built for that purpose. They want you to, I mean, it's right there in the term fantasize about, man, what if I was the owner of a football team? Who would I draft trade? Who would I play this week? These, I mean seriously. And I played it for a year or two in seminary and I was like, this is not good for my soul. And I would honestly make the same case about most of sports watching, just the viewing and again, addictive personality. But I had to come to Jesus moment many years ago where I was like, man, I'm spinning all day Saturday watching college football and then all day Sunday watching pro football. And it's like,
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What would Jesus do? Would Jesus spend 20 hours in a single weekend just in front of a screen watching a game that the outcome of which has zero eternal impact at all? And certainly when it got to the point where it's antisocial, where it's like, I'm not with the guys,
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It's not communal anymore, it's
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Not. I'm building friendships around this or whatever. It's like, this is just me and a screen. This is just, I have this. So anyway, I just think for a lot of people
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It's doing more harm than good. Paul's like, yeah, but is it helpful? It's like, is it bringing you closer to Jesus? Is it bringing you other people closer to Jesus? Is it, I think for most people, a lot of those things, your obsession with college, basketball, football, whatever it is, is your life would be better without it, honestly. I mean, so much of your identity is caught up in your team and your fandom and this and that, and it's like, I don't know, it's fun. There's a lot of the communal, but at what cost? And it's like, yeah, okay, I guess team Mizzou, but what about team Jesus? Do you get as passionate? I've mentioned that in sermons. Where did you amen as loudly on Sunday as you did yesterday when your team scored the winning touchdown? And what gets you more excited? I don't know. I think these are all just things that for me, I had to, and I'm not a paragon of virtue, it's just I am trying to be honest about my own kind of struggles that I've come to grips with in some ways and certainly need to, there's always something just because I might not be as dominated by the spirit of football or whatever as someone else might be. We've all got our struggle. So anyway,
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I think that's all very relevant to this conversation. So anything else?
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I was going to say, to summarize your point, we can always bet on Jesus,
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Yeah, you cannot invest too much in the Jesus market stock. Be too excited about that. Bet your life on him.
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Yeah, that's good. And your point, Wal said that our motive matters. The heart behind it matters. The question, where does your affection lie in this? And doing that kind of self-evaluation with whether it is fantasy football or Mizzou or the chiefs or whoever, regardless of sports, moving it outside, you could put it on anything is where is your heart most strongly drawn? Is it towards Jesus or is it towards something else? Yeah.
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Okay, so can we end with one word answer to the question of the podcast?
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He's a little bit more, but
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There is more in his question. What else did want
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He kind of thrown out the parable of the talents, asking if there's any difference between gambling and losing some money for a thrill versus spending money on other pleasures, like tickets to events, good restaurants or other personal hobbies, extravagance in personal living, spending money on a nice dinner versus spending $50 on FanDuel.
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That's right.
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Show me your bank statement and I'll show you what you love. I heard that on a Sunday. Sermon sometimes said that once.
(43:10):
I think Dalton makes a fair point though, and I read that in another article. I came across as like, well, is this really that different? Putting 20 bucks on the Chiefs, is it really that different than spending $20 on a matinee and a thing of popcorn, which is probably at least what it costs these days, even for a matinee, I don't know. I don't go to the movies either, but entertainment in general, I mean, is all entertainment the same? Is spending that money on entertainment? I mean, you can go overboard with any of this, like I said, and say, all of our money should be going to starving kids in Sub-Saharan Africa, and how dare you ever go out to it. We had a nice dinner together on Sunday. It was expensive. It's like we didn't have to go to a place that fancy. So you can go overboard.
(43:59):
Should have gone to McDonald's. You
(44:00):
Can go overboard. No, that's sinful. I mean, there's also a minimum where it's like, that's not food anymore. To put that in your body is sinful. Your body's a temple. So no, I think it's a fair enough point. One person's movie and popcorn is another person's sports bet. Maybe as far as entertainment, I guess just balance of all the caveats, there's a balance within moderation, et cetera, et cetera. Can we, anything else? Can we end on, I got a two o'clock meeting. Can we end on a one word meeting, a one word answer to our summary of the question in the title? Is sports betting a sin
(44:56):
For me or for Dalton
(44:58):
In general, just period, either period. Is it a sin
(45:01):
For all of Christian Numb?
(45:02):
Oh man,
(45:02):
Yes or no?
(45:05):
Oh, no. One word.
(45:07):
One word.
(45:07):
Okay. Yeah,
(45:11):
Probably
(45:11):
That's the word I was going to say.
(45:13):
I was going to say maybe, but that seemed too weak. I like
(45:15):
Probably, I think I was thinking
(45:16):
Probably I lean towards, yes.
(45:19):
I think it's probably going to be very hard for it not to be a sin for Dalton. Might be the one like thread the needle. I don't know.
(45:28):
Probably if we're doing personally,
(45:30):
Yeah,
(45:30):
It would be a sin for me too. Easily addicted. Too much a desire for making more money and
(45:38):
Personalities.
(45:39):
I don't care about money, but I care about winning and it would for me. Yeah, for sure. And dopamine, it would be sinful for me, but yeah.
(45:50):
Yeah. Cool. Thanks for the question, Dalton. Thanks Dalton. That's it for this week's episode of Ask the Pastors. Remember that you can submit your questions by visiting the info bar at West Hills by submitting them online through our website@www.westhillt.org. If you enjoyed this week's episode, hit that like button catching, subscribe and share it with a friend. Thanks so much for listening, and Lord William, we'll catch you right back here next week.