Well, fantasy sports gambling is a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States and a young man, a listener to the podcast who wishes to remain anonymous wrote specifically to ask about fantasy football gambling. "Hello, Pastor John. Thank you for the podcast. I'm a big sports fan and I absolutely love playing fantasy football as a hobby.

I started out playing one free season in an online league, but as of late, I've been playing daily fantasy sports games on DraftKings and FanDuel, a form of gambling which costs money in entry fees. The bets I place are rather modest at $20 to $50 per week. I have not found a lot of Christian resources on the topic.

Pastor John, is modest online sports gambling like this sinful?" Yes. I think online gambling in general, little or big, is sinful, whether you call it modest or exorbitant. And I've got seven reasons at least that I would encourage this young man to rethink the way he spends his time and his money as a Christian.

And it's the cumulative effect of these seven observations that caused me to say that what he's doing is sinful. But of course, he will need to judge according to the Scriptures and his conscience, because my words don't make something sinful. God's words make something sinful. So here are my reasons I would like to see him rethink his ways and devote his life to something vastly more important and use his money differently.

Number one, I would remind our young friend that he has one single life to live on this earth for the glory of Christ, and then comes eternity. He never gets a redo. Every day is invested well or is lost forever. Every breath you take, every minute of life you have is a free gift of God and a trust, a stewardship, which God says should be lived for his glory, for the magnifying of his Son.

Innocent games can be helpful. They can be a helpful refreshment to the mind. They can be a sweetening for relationships, especially with kids, I would say. It can be a taste of heaven and fellowship. But in themselves, in a fallen, needy, miserable, tragic, dying, hell-bent world like ours, they have very little significance.

Our friend calls himself a big sports fan. He says he absolutely loves fantasy football. He speaks of multiple avenues of playing. He talks about putting money on the line. I would say all this time, all this intensity, all this money show things are out of proportion in his life.

This to me looks like a tragic waste of a precious, God-given, gifted life. Number two, I would say that the degree to which a person is absorbed in an unreal world, to that degree, he needs to give an account for how his living in an unreal world is making his real-world impact greater for the good of people and the glory of God.

I think our friend should reflect on the fact that the Bible refers to the deceitfulness of sin, Hebrews 3:13. That should send off alarms in his mind, because deceit is essentially creating a sense that what is unreal is more to be desired than what is real. I would ask our friend, are you not finding thrills by investing your time and your emotions and your money in unreality rather than reality?

Is that not a problem? Number three, it seems to me that there is good evidence that our young friend has already entered a seriously blinding fog. When he calls putting down $50 a week modest gambling, he's lost touch with reality. This is not modest. A nickel might be modest.

This is serious. $50 a week is $200 a month, $2,400 a year. One half the world's population lives on $2.50 a day, which is $1,750 a week, which is below what he's gambling. Our friend is throwing to the wind up to $50 a week, calling it modest gambling. So there's good evidence he has lost touch with reality, and I would plead, wake up, friend.

Wake up. Number four, it is very difficult to believe that gambling $20 to $50 a week is happening simply to add an emotional buzz to the entertainment. That would be bad enough. But in fact, it is almost certain that his motive includes the desire that he would win and thus get more money.

The desire to get more money by putting other people's money at risk and doing no biblically warranted wholesome work is certainly the sign of at least an incipient desire to get rich, which the Bible says is suicidal. First Timothy 6:9, "Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation." That's what's happening.

Into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. "For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs." Number five, our young friend needs to pause and remember none of his money belongs to him, ultimately.

It all belongs to God. First Chronicles 29 14, "All things come from you, and of your own have we given you." And I would say quite bluntly and forthrightly and confidently, you have no right to risk God's money this way. Managers don't gamble with their master's money, period. Financial trustees may not gamble with the trust fund.

In the parable of the talents, Jesus says that he will take account for how we have handled his resources, which belong to him. To gamble with God's money on trivialities like this is a kind of embezzlement. Number six, gambling is a massive social sickness in our culture, bringing millions and millions of people to ruin, especially the poor.

It sucks on the poor more than anyone else, the people who can least afford it. I don't think Christians should be a part of the entire system of lotteries and casinos and online gambling of any sort. It is an entire structure of devastation for millions of people with no biblical warrant.

And finally, number seven, and this relates back to the third thing I said, there is a vastly better way for our friend to find joy in how he uses $50 a week. The lowest form of the argument would simply be this. If at age 25 you put away $50 a week into a well-invested stock fund, you will, with almost no risk, have $237,000 in the bank when you are 50 years old.

It's a house owned free and clear for what you are risking every week on games. But better—there's a better argument than that. The sons of this age are smarter than the sons of light. But better than that would probably be, since our friend seems to have so much discretionary money, what gloriously happy, helpful, good deeds could you do in people's lives as you creatively sought out—use all that fantasy creativity and excellence, seek out ways to invest $50 a week, $200 a month in the causes of justice and gospel spreading and relief of suffering?

Oh my goodness, how much fun that would be! Yes. Believe me, friend, it is more blessed to give than to receive or to invest creatively in the eternal joys of other people than to play with God's money in the dream world of fantasy football. Wow, that ended with a punch.

Thanks for your concerns, Pastor John. And this is our first foray into online sports gambling on the podcast. I'm sure there are follow-up questions to be fielded on this topic. We always welcome those follow-up questions on this or any other theme that you hear on the podcast. You can send those to us via email at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.

Thank you for listening to the podcast over at our online home. Explore about 1,300 of our past episodes. You can scan a list of our most popular ones, read full transcripts, even send us a question of your own there too. Go to desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn. And be sure to subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcast app as well.

Charles Spurgeon once said that "There is no joy in this world like union with Christ. The more we can feel it, the happier we are." That's a great quote. Union with Christ is one of the great prominent themes of the New Testament, but what exactly is it? We'll explore it next time on Wednesday, Union with Christ.

I'm your host Tony Reinke. We'll see you then. you you you you