Fantasy Sports, not long ago the province of a few die-hard fans, is now a multi-billion dollar a year industry that attracts more than 51 million American participants. Fantasy players spend an average of $465 a year on their fantasies, more than four times what it was just three years ago. Two leading fantasy companies, DraftKings and FanDuel, are worth an estimated $1 billion each. “In fantasy sports a participant creates his own team, selecting players from a real-world sports league like the NBA, National Football League, or England’s Premier League football. As real games are played, a fantasy team competes and is ranked against others based on the actual-game performance of its players” (“Like the real game, fantasy sports now worth billions,” AFP, Jun. 28, 2015). I don’t preach against sports in general, as there is some value to it at a certain level, but it is a dangerous thing that seems to easily capture the heart and become an idol. As for professional sports, there is no doubt that it is one of the chief gods of these end times. Professional sports are characterized by the lust of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is the exact definition we find in God’s Word of “the world” that we are not to love (1 John 2:15-17). There is a tremendous amount of misplaced enthusiasm, money, and time spent on the vanities of this life by those who profess the name of Christ. (Friday Church News Notes, July 3, 2015, www.wayoflife.org, [email protected], 866-295-4143) Comments are closed.
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