Is Gambling a Sin?

I don't always have the right answers, and I don't have a bunch of notes sitting in front of me. But what I what I have learned of the of the last several years of doing this. My goal really is to get you, mister questioner, missus questioner, is to get you thinking so that you could answer your own questions. Really, I guess I guess I should say that way. My goal is not to have a podcast that we go for twenty years and just try to exhaust every single

possible question that I could possibly answer. Really, the goal is if you listen consistently, I hope you do. My goal is that you go. I'm starting to see how Granger gets his answers from I like his answers. Maybe you don't like them all. Surely you don't like all my answers. That would be impossible. We all have different taste. But hey, I like a lot of the way Granger answers questions, and I'm starting to see how he gets his answers so that I could I could start answering

my own questions in that same way. So it's really more of of learning how to think, or learning how to think through a question. There's really even of these questions I always get to are very specific. There's only there's only seven to ten actual questions, and everything else is just caught in the details of it. Right, So let's get to the first one comes from Madison again.

She emailed podcast at grangersmith dot com. And I'm kicking off with Madison's question here because this is what I'm going to kind of base this little first break on. I'll show you what I mean. She asked us, Hey, Granger, it maybe that I can't recall from reading my Bible, or that it isn't something that is within the Bible at all, But how does sports betting align with the

Christian value system? I have friends within my community church that partake in sports betting, and more than anything, this is just a general thought. Is gambling a sin? That's your question? God Bless Madison. So yeah, her question is basically, is gambling a sin? It's in the context of sports betting, which I don't think there's an argument there that every kind of betting, every kind of betting that there is

is would be under the umbrella of gambling. So you don't have to be in a casino pulling a slot machine lever for it to be called gambling. You don't have to be in a back alley playing poker in some kind of shambly bar for it to be considered gambling. It could be just like, oh, and I should say this too, It doesn't have to be illegal. In fact, it would be weird to only consider the sin part

of gambling if it is a sin. We'll get to that if it's illegal or not, Because anything that's illegal would be considered a sin at some level, because you would be going against the authority at some level. We think that's a different question. Maybe someone else could ask that specifically and we could dive into that, But specifically, what I want talking about is legal gambling. Is that a sin? And that's basically what Madison's asking. She says, there are people in her church that do it, so

let's think about it. I think we should think about it in some ways, like alcohol. You know, it's a substance that you could certainly abuse. It's a substance that is, if used in the right way, legal, and yet in so many other ways it could be devastating to a life with gambling. I first, I think, I think my first thought I would go to considering it's legal, and can consider this too. Maybe never mind, let me start here,

as you could see, I make this up as I go. Y'all, let's let's let's start with make sure Madison that you understand that as we judge those Hey look, look, the Bible doesn't say don't judge period. In the story. The Bible says, be careful with your judging, because you'll be judged according to the same measure. So there are definitely some things that we should judge with with our brothers and sisters, we should we should judge them in it like,

don't don't misunderstand that we don't judge. We just like turn a blind eye to everything. We have no opinion. We're just like neutral robots. And we don't care what other people do around this. Don't judge. I see that sometimes on social media it's like, hey, don't judge. Well, that's not what the Bible says, that's not what Jesus says. It's it's it's the idea of don't don't judge unless you are willing to be judged according to the same measure and a lot of the same measures we want

to be judged by. Okay, so let's start there and say, let's be sure that you're you're you're you're not worried about the speck in your brother's eye, and you've got a log in your own eye. Let's make sure we're removing the log in our own eye. It is or Jesus, this is Jesus's idea that make sure when we're looking at other people, like, hey, those guys are those guys are gambling, and then you're going home and you're having it too many glasses of wine at home. You know, Hey,

those guys are gambling. What's wrong with those guys? As we're popping too many pain pills, Hey, those guys are gambling. As we're addicted to social media, cannot get our heads out of our screen. We're so addicted to it. Hey, those guys are gambling, and the list goes on and on. Make sure first before we say anything, let's make sure we remove the log from our own eye before we look to anyone else. Okay, now, let's talk about that.

There's also this aspect that I don't think there's anything wrong with someone in an innocent way saying, look, I legitimately like to go and bet on a sports team. It's legal, and I use twenty bucks. I like to say, hey, I like to bet on the super Bowl every year as a tradition. Hypothetically, there's a Super Bowl tradition I have in my family. I like to put twenty bucks on the team from the west of the Mississippi. I don't know. I don't know why you would do it.

I personally don't gamble at all, But I'm saying, let's think about the guy that goes. I like to put twenty dollars. It's a tradition I do every year on the Super Bowl, and there's no harm in it. I budget twenty bucks. You know, it's not like going to break the bank or anything. It's legal. I do it in a legal way. I do it in a setting of camaraderie. People around me, we do it together. Hey, nothing wrong with that, But let's dive into why it could be wrong if taken the wrong way, if seen

the wrong way in the wrong setting. First of all, gambling in so many ways has an underlying issue of a love of money or greed. Right. The Bible speaks thoroughly about this. Second, our first Timothy is six ' ten. The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Some people eager for money have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs or many pangs. That's tough, right, and we know this. Some people eager for money have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves

with many griefs. The Bible says that Paul speaking of Timothy here in his letter, he's writing a Timothy. But I don't think we have to go. I don't know, Paul, I don't know if I agree with that. All of us, non believers, believers, all of us go. Yeah, I see that. Let's see that everywhere. What about Proverbs twenty eight twenty A faithful person will be richly blessed but one eager to get rich will not go unpunished. That's interesting. So many times gambling is that the idea of it itself

just stems from a desire to quickly gain wealth. And trying to quickly gain wealth, that's reflecting a love of money, agreed, which the Bible condemns. It's dangerous. It's dangerous for you. The other issue I think about is poor stewardship. Poor stewardship. Now we're called to be faithful stewarts responsible and if you're using gambling, not the guy that says I bet once a year on the super Bowl for twenty bucks.

I'm not talking about that guy, but I'm saying, if this is something you're into all the time, or the people at the community church you're talking about, we would have to consider something like Luke sixteen to ten that says whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will

trust you with true riches? That's interesting. Once again, this is a thing that you don't have to go out don't believe that. You just look around you go, yeah, I get it. Man, If I can't trust you with a penny, why would I ever trust you with one hundred bucks. It doesn't You don't have to be reading the Bible to just see that played out inner world around us. So the Bible is always going to call us to be responsible stewards of our resources, knowing that

God gives us everything. So when you're risking money and gambling in a careless type setting, this is a way that could hurt your stewardship and could be better used in different ways. I think that's obvious. The other thing that gambling kind of brings up in my mind is a lack of contentment, right, a lack of contentment. Hebrews thirteen to five says, keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have because God has said I will never leave you, I'll

never forsake you. And so so many times you see gambling turn into something that is reflecting a discontentment in their current situation. It's like, man, I want to sit at this table a little bit longer, because if I can get this and this and this, I'm gonna be happy, and that's totally going to contradict what the Bible calls to be content. Here's an important one I think about two. What is the impact of gambling on others? And this is including the guy that bets on the Super Bowl

once a year. This is where I think this is dangerous for him as well. You become a stumbling box for others. Philippians two four says, don't look to your own interest, but each of you look into the interest

of others. I'm paraphrasing all these and if someone is struggling with gambling, or if they're struggling with any of the things lack of contentment, poor stewardship, the love of money, and greed, if anyone around you is struggling with these and they see you going, yeah, I like to gamble once a year on a football game, even if you know how to have self control about it, that might open the door to someone else that is struggling with all of these things I've listed, and that becomes dangerous

for them, and so you become a stumbling block for them, and that could just have endless repercussions on their families and their community. Financial strain, relational conflicts with their spouse. And so if we are truly, like the Bible says, considering others and the well being of others before our own desires, or at least equal to that, I think

gambling in many ways could be a stumbling book. And finally, I think, probably most importantly, I think we need to consider this the addictive behavior of gambling itself and what it can cause. Even to the guy that says I bet once a year on the Super Bowl, there is a sense, and we see this play out, that gambling becomes addictive, and there are certainly certain personalities that it's more addictive too. So maybe I could use myself as

an example when it comes to this stuff. I don't personally have a super addictive personality, but my brother Tyler does. He recognizes that and I recognize it. So that means Tyler has to be more careful around things that are traditionally addictive to other humans. If something has been traditionally addictive to people, Tyler's going to fall into it, not due to some extent, but not to the extent of him.

Meaning there's nothing there's nothing good or bad about me or Tyler in that aspect, except for this, just different personalities, and so knowing that gambling is one of these things that easily can become addictive, we need to consider that when we're considering if gambling is a sin. One Corinthian six twelve says, Paul's talking here. I have the right to say anything you say, but not everything is beneficial. I have the right to do anything, but I will

not be mastered by anything. Paul says. I will not be mastered by anything. He's saying in another way, I'm not going to be addicted to something. And that could be anything. It could be anything in life that masters you. It could be anxiety, or it could be poorn, It could be Instagram, or could be sports betting. There's there's an endless thing we can go through here. There's endless things that you could be mastered by that I could be mastered by. An addiction to relationships like I'm online

dating could be that could master you. Trying to be a good father, you know, that could be something that you become obsessive over and you can't stop thinking about it. You can't stop working to be a good father. Something that has such good intentions could could be something that ends up mastering you. So it's not just cigarettes or opioids. It could be something that inherently is good, but it becomes a master over you. An obsession, an addiction, and

gambling is for sure in that category. You don't have to argue that. No one's gonna argue that whatever it is about that neurologically it draws certain people in, if not everyone, at some level, there's just something about it that draws you in. And the Bible says don't be mastered by anything. And so this also goes to my

fourth point, the impact on others. If others could be more addictive than you to certain things and you're doing it and you have total self control over it, and someone else sees you and they say, I want to do what he's doing or she's doing. I'm gonna try it out a little bit, and as soon as they do, they realize they're addicted, not like the first person was. That's a problem, and you just cause your brother to stumble. So I hope when you hear these things, I hope,

I hope you can come to it a conclusion. You're like I said at the beginning, where I don't necessarily want to give you an answer as much as I want to help you think through things, and then when you think of all that and you go, yeah, it's probably not worth it, right, It's probably not worth it. I personally have played music in so many casinos in my life, so many I could never count how many casinos I've been and how many places in the world

I've been in some kind of casino atmosphere. I have zero, zero desire at all to gamble. I just don't. I don't like it if I lose twenty dollars at a blackjack table, I instantly think about what that twenty dollars could have bought, Like man, that could have been half of a really, really nice stake, and in my mind

I can't get over that. I know that there are definitely people that do it purely out of entertainment, and to those people, I say, Okay, consider the things that I've said here on this podcast, and to the original email, I say, hey, Madison, let's make sure that you're prepared to be judged on the same Measure'll move on. I wish y'all could have seen the very first grangersmith dot com. It was like two thousand and one, two thousand and two. I remember it said grangersmith dot com. You go there.

It has like a little Texas flag, like blowing in the wind, but it was like real, real bad quality, and it had like my tour dates and a couple other things. I definitely didn't sell anything. I didn't sell a T shirt or a hat. That didn't come till about two thousand and five. And my brother Tyler helped me with that. He's been with me every since as

my manager, and we started selling. We noticed quickly that selling is pretty hard online because you know, you got to have a little icon where they click the credit card thing, and then you got to figure out a back end way that they could get their credit card charged. And we just eventually we just gave it all to Shopify. And I think a lot of businesses do the same. We are better because it's so easy to sell things

with Shopify. Now, what is Shopify. It's a global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business. Whether you're just launching your website with the Texas flag or you're doing a lot of big numbers. Shopify is there to help you grow. It doesn't matter what you're selling, whatever widget or ee apparel. Shopify helps you sell everywhere, from their all in one e commerce platform to their

in person pos system. Wherever or whatever you're selling, Shopify has got you covered, and they helped turn browsers into buyers with their internet's best converting checkout that's thirty six percent better on average compared to other leading commerce platforms. You could also sell more with less effort thanks to shopify Magic, your AI powered all star. Hey, true story. I remember one time we got away from Shopify to go with a local commerce platform, and I mean it

was horrible. We lost a lot of numbers, we lost a lot of fans that were impatient with the checkout system, and then we went back to Shopify. Hey, if you've got a small business or a large business, join us like ten percent of all e commerce platforms in the whole US and go to Shopify. Also one hundred and seventy five countries around the world. That's because businesses a

around the world use Shopify. If you've got a business large or small, and you sell things on a website, listen sign up for a one dollar per month trial period at shopify dot com. Slash Granger all lowercase, go to shopify dot com slash granger right now to grow your business no matter what stage you're in shopify dot com slash granger. Hey, if you want to get a hold of me, go to cameo dot com slash granger Smith. You will find me there and from there I could

build you a video message. I get your notes and what you want me to say, like happy birthday, happy anniversary, a word of encouragement, congratulations, good job on the graduation, or why did you not make graduation? Whatever you want me to say. I'll read those notes and I pull out my phone and I record a video message and I say whatever you need me to say to whoever you need me to say it too, and I send

it right back to you. It's super simple. It's a great gift for the person that you don't know what to buy for. Again, go to Cameo c am eo dot com slash grangers. Next question comes from Jacob once again. Jacob emailed podcast at grangersmith dot com and you can too. Jacob says, Hey, my name is Jacob. I've got a brief backstory. I met my wife in high school and we started dating after graduation, and then I shipped off to the Air Force BMT. Two months later. We spent

four months four years excuse me long distance. After that, I was stationed in Georgia while she was back home in Ohio going to college, and once she graduated, she moved down with me. We're currently living in Virginia. We have a one year old son together, and we are constantly fighting. I know I'm not perfect. I make mistakes, but every time I make a mistake, she jumps to yelling and screaming at me. I get so defensive and it just rises from there. I start to see this

marriage not working out. But I know that the Bible says that divorce is only okay if there's been cheating involved. I'm just losing hope in this relationship, and she is too. We're tired of fighting and we don't want our son in the middle of it. Any advice prayers would be amazing. Thanks yee, Jacob, Jacob, I'm so sorry, brother. I hate to see this for you, and I know this is this is a tough spot. I'm gonna I'm gonna do some math here. Four years Let's see you date. You

dated in high school four years long distance? Did you say when you get married. I don't know. I don't know. I think I'm guessing. We're talking about five years marriage here and a one year old son together, constantly fighting. What I want to talk about here? I could get into the to the nitty gritty really of a relationship, and I have before on this podcast, and I don't. I don't think that's what you're looking for. I think you're asking me, Hey, is it okay if I just

divorce this woman? I think that's basically what you're saying. I don't. I don't see that there's a like a a need or desire to reconcile the relationship. I think you're more or less you're just like, hey, we fight. I'm tired of it. She's tired of it. I don't want my son seeing this. I want out. But I have one problem, Granger. The Bible says that it's not good to get a divorce. So what am I going

to do? I'm losing hope here. In fact, it sounds like Jacob, it sounds like you're saying, if it wasn't for the Bible, I'd just be out. It's what everyone else does, right, so the whole world does. It seems like so what I want to do, Jacob, I think this is so important. Instead of instead of me getting into the nitty gritty of your relationship, because honestly, I just don't know that much about it. Besides, you make

mistakes and she jumps you. I don't know. I want to talk about what it means about being a Christian and dealing with divorce. I think this is so often misunderstood and not talked about, but really, traditionally, this is how it should be, and this is how it has been, and this is what I want you to think about. I'm assuming. I'm just assuming, forgive me if I'm wrong.

I'm assuming you're not in a meaningful relationship with the church, a good, healthy church that has a proportionate amount of pastors to the amount of congregates or members or people that attend, so that if there were problems in the congregation, there is a personal relationship with one of the pastors, so that you could work through it. And you probably know where I'm going with this. My point is it's it's an amazing thought, and it's biblical, and it's true.

No Christian should deal with divorce alone. And better said, and more, this punches the gut a little bit more. To a Christian, divorce is not a private matter. It's crazy, right, I mean, that's what we're called to do. And for some reason in our culture, in today's age, divorce, family problems have become a private matter, something that we just keep behind closed doors, and it festers and it gets worse.

Shut the windows, shut the doors, put the kid in his room, shut his door, and let's fight it out. And then one day the couple emerges into the community and says, we're separated, we're now getting a divorce, and in the community goes, oh, so sorry, yeah, we're you know, we've already followed the papers. That's what that's what we say. That's not the way it's supposed to be for Christians. And it stings a little bit right when I say

that for a Christian, divorce is not a private matter. Instead, it is a community matter. It should be done in the community of the church, so that you don't have to email a podcast and ask about it. You don't have to email stranger, this former country singer that has the podcast and ask him advice. You don't even know him, He didn't know you, and he didn't know your situation and you don't have to think about it. Instead, it's

done in the community of the church itself. And today in this age, we hear that, we go, oh, that's nobody's business, this is my private issue, but it's not. You marry in front of the community, right, and everyone affirms you, in front of your family and your friends, and you stand up there and you make your vows under God with the preacher, and you say it in front of everyone around, so that they could all attest and they could affirm your marriage and your love for

each other. And they say by being there, by being in attendance of the wedding, they say, we will walk forward through sickness and in health, through happiness, through sadness, through grief. We will be there with you because all that stuff is coming, because you're a human on planet Earth, all that stuff is coming, and we will walk with you as a community through that. But then somehow we've

lost that idea. Later in the marriage, five years in you have problems and you close all the doors in the windows, and it becomes a private matter in the community. The church is no longer in it at all, until you emerge and you tell everybody. Then we've decided to get a divorce, and collectively, people don't say it, but they think, why didn't you, Why didn't you open up to us? Why couldn't we have walked you through this? Why couldn't we have been the ones to say no,

it's not time for that. We're gonna help you fight through. We're gonna walk through this with you. And here's we're gonna help you this way. We're gonna help you this way, and we're gonna tell her to stop that. We're gonna tell you to stop it, and we're gonna tell her to keep doing that. We're gonna tell you to keep doing that. But collectively, as a tribe, as a family, as a unit, as a community, as a church, which literally in its word means gathering, we come together and

we walk this with you. And then when I start slipping, I want you to walk with me and my wife. And then when there's somethings happened, when your boy, we want to step in. We want to help raise your boy with you, and something's happening weird with your girl. We want to step in as a community as a church and help you collectively raise this girl. Because we have women and old ladies that could help pour into your wife as she's wondering how to be a good

mother to a daughter. And we have men and all men and grandpa's that could help you so you don't have to be alone and learning how to raise a boy. This is how it's always been done in human culture until now. It's everything's private. It's a private matter. Don't tell anyone. Hush hush, sweep it under the rug. That's not the way it should be. It's not the way God designed it to be. Didn't design marriage to be private, which is why we do the ceremony of marriage in public.

So I want to encourage you to think more in that way that your problems, your marriage problems, your divorce pending, it's not private. Open it up to the church. Open it up starting with your pastor get people to pray for you. Get other couples to tell you how they made it through times that were tough, so that you could have an older couple that goes, yeah, I remember those days. I remember the one year old at home, I remember the father that travels, I remember the wife

grumbling about it. And this is this is what we did. We had the same problem guys, and this is what we did to walk through it. How could we help you walk through it as well? Because going through that divorce is not going to fix anything. You know that right, look around at culture. Going through the divorce itself. It's not gonna fix your own problems. The fact it just perpetuates the cycle. You get into another relationship and it happens again. You think at first, oh, this is great,

it feels good. Everything's right now. I finally found the right one. It's all I needed was to put the right puzzle piece in. And then you realize quickly, yeah, the same problems start coming up because you're still you I don't you don't. You don't have to take my word for it. You just got to look around and see, this is what happens in life, this is this is what we do. So that's my advice. I'm not digging

into the problems that you're having. I'm just saying, bring it to the church, bring it to your pastor walk through sit there and say what can we do to reconcile this. All I want to do is fix this. It's the best thing for your son, and it's the best thing for you. And listen, I'm not saying what I'm not saying. Don't hear me saying, stay together, no matter what it all costs, stay with this woman. I'm

not saying that. I'm saying. The decision whether or not you should or you shouldn't doesn't have to be all left to yourself. It could be done in community, just like it was done in the wedding ceremony itself. Next question comes from Ben, says he Grendarm. My name is Ben. I'm a dad to a five month old boy who means everything to me, and a husband to a wonderful wife. I was raised in the Southern Baptist Church, where my

dad has been the preacher my whole life. My wife was raised Church of Christ and feels firmly about her Church of Christ. Since we've been married, we've attended the Curch Church of Christ because that's where she wanted to go. But I still feel don't feel totally comfortable as to know what side I'm on, and frankly, I don't feel like I should be on a side. I just want

to honor God with my life and follow him. But this has caused some heartache in our home, trying to decide where we will raise our son and future kids at church. Any advice for navigating this decision? Things? All, right, Ben, interesting right back to back questions. It's interesting First of

all to people outside of this question. I will say that having the conversation about how how you'll raise your kids and what kind of church you'll go to, things like that, those are important things to work out before you get married, because in it it's a lot more difficult. Outside of it, you could work it out and you could go, hey, I don't think we could make this work, and this might be the end of our relationship because

of it. Right, So just work it out before. But when you're in it like you are been, you can't help that. Now. My first thought is for context, I am a Southern Baptist seminarian and my mother's family is all Church of Christ. So I in some way I have empathy for the situation. I understand, I at least understand it to some degree. Not I don't understand your life, but I understand the dynamic of Church of Christ and

Baptist Church Southern Baptist. So as we as we dive into this, I want to say, first and foremost, you are called biblically to be the spiritual leader of your household. This is not in some dominating, dominating way, This is not in some oppressive way. But you are called from the Bible to lead the family spiritually. And when you don't, when you don't step into what you were called to

do as a man, problems happen. And so then you come to the podcast and you say, look, I have a problem, and I want to make sure and that's okay, and we'll talk through it, but I want to make sure before I get into it. I want to make sure I'm showing you where the problem came from. Like here it is Ben, Look this, I want you to make sure you know where the source of the problem is.

The source of the problem. Is you not stepping into the spiritual leader of the household that the Bible has called you, not granger, not someone on YouTube, but what God has called you to step into as a man, as the spiritual leader of your house saying this is where we're going to go to church, this is how we're gonna pray, this is how we're gonna worship. And we've already gone down a road here that it feels

like that's in serious jeopardy, So here we are. I also want to point out second thing I want to say. And I hear this all the time. It's not your fault, but the idea of I don't want to pick a side. I just want to honor God and mote with my life and follow him. That sounds so beautiful, Ben, I'm so glad that that's how you feel. And I feel the same way. But when we start getting into the practical outworking of that, I have to say, well, okay, Ben, well what does baptism look like? And you say it

looks like this granger? And I say, well, what is taking the Lord's Supper look like? And you say it looks like this? And I say what does a band in a church look like? And you say this? And I say what does salvation look like? According to you? And you say like this. And by the time we answer ten or twelve questions, you're in a denomination, you know, And so you have to understand that, as much as it sounds amazing to just I don't want to pick

a denomination. That's what you're saying when you say side, I don't want to pick a denomination. I just want to follow God. And honor him with my life. I say, wonderful, that's amazing. But everyone has certain things that have a proclivity of being in a denomination. If you say I don't ever want drums in church, I don't think drums belong in church, then you've identified something in your personality

that's leaning somewhere. If you say baptism should be total immersion, or if you say baptism should be sprinkling babies, you've identified, either way some aspect of a denomination of people that you agree with. Now, let me say that there are four core fundamental elements pillars that you have to agree with. No matter what denomination you believe, you have to believe

four core things. Number one, you have to believe that God exists as one being and three persons one mind, three beings, excuse me be three persons, one being, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. That is the doctrine of the trinity. That is something we see throughout all sixty six books of the Bible. Over and over we see God has revealed himself in three persons, one being three different roles, Jesus and John seventeen is praying to the Father. He is

in a submitted submissive role to the Father. Jesus is, and Jesus is not the Father, and the Father is not the Son, and the Spirit is not either of them. But all three of them have the same essence. They are the same being. And we see this played out in many different ways. In the beginning was the Word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God, so we see. And then a few verses later and the Word became flesh. We see this played out in so many ways in

the Bible. We have to understand that the trinity is something we do not ever doubt or disagree with, or you are not a Christian. Number two, Jesus is fully man, fully God, fully man, full divinity, fully human. We have to understand the aspect of Jesus in his personhood was fully man and fully God. Number three, we have to we have to agree that you're saved in salvation. You're saved by grace through faith, not by works. That is fundamental. You're saved by grace and not by works. Ephesians two

eight is going to say, for it's by grace. You've been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It's the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no man may boast if you disagree with that it in any way. If you think that, well it it also has to do with what you do to get into heaven, then you're not a Christian. And then, finally, and this doesn't have to be in any kind of order, Finally, you have to believe in the inerrancy of the Bible,

and the Bible alone. The Bible is God breathed, all scriptures, breed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training and righteousness, that the Man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. The Bible is perfectly inspired by the Holy Spirit. It is God's word, and it is complete, and it's cannon that was passed down to us saw sixty six books. Those are the four main pillars. If you disagree with

any of the four, you're not a Christian. And so whenever we branch off from denominations, we have to understand that it's okay to disagree about drums and church. So it's okay to disagree about pews or chairs. It's okay, although kind of frightening to disagree about worshiping on Saturday or Sunday, heavily lean on Sunday. And there's a lot of things that would heavily lean on. You know, it's okay to disagree about baptism, sprinkling or total immersion. But

even though I totally would lean into total submersion. But but that doesn't jeopardize your faith as a Christian. It's it's within let me say it this way, it's within the bounds. It's within the boundaries of being a Christian. You could there is room to disagree with a lot of things, a lot of things, but the four pillars

you cannot, I'll say more time. The Trinity, the full humanity and divinity of Christ, the innerancy of Scripture, the Bible being the only revealed word of God and the only way we know truly how God has revealed himself to us, not through prophets, not through modern revelation, but only through the Word. And then lastly, salvation is from grace by faith alone in Christ. Knowing that, brother, I hurt for you that it's gone this far as you

have literally this is this is what's happened. You've submitted to your wife to make her happy. You said, I did it to make her feel comfortable. I submitted to her authority to make her comfy. And now you're going, uh oh, I think I'm messed up. So let's let that be known. That's where the problem originated from. And I promise you if it's the other way around, if

it's done biblically, she's so much happier. She's actually way more comfortable when you step into the role that you're called to be, and it allows her to step into the role that she has been called to be, and then both of you are just so much more comfortable. We see this played out all around us all the time. So I think I could leave it there, and I think I could say, brother, I wish you the best.

And I also would say this, let me finish with this, and probably shouldn't say it, but I'll say it because I have experienced a lot of experience with Church of Christ with my family. But they will say that they are the only church. I've heard Pentecostals say this as well. Of course Catholics say it, Church LDS says it. But if you hear people start saying things like this is the only church you go to, any other church, it's the wrong church. Everyone else is going to hell, but

this church. If you hear that, that becomes weird. Remember the four pillars. I told you the four pillars are what's going to matter and anything else. If you start hearing this is the only church, I start worrying about that. And the Church of Christ says that than Baptist Church does not ever say that. There was no way any of us should be so arrogant to say that we have the only right church as long as you're following the four pillars, Trinity, divinity, humanity of Christ, an erranty

of Scripture, and salvation through faith by grace in Christ alone. Okay, Well in there, Love you guys. If you have a question, email podcast at grangersmith dot com. And I have a lot more I could have gotten to today, but I think I hold it. I'll hold it right there and we'll see y'all next Monday. Thanks for joining me on the Grangersmith podcast. I appreciate all of you guys. You could

help me out by rating this podcast on iTunes. If you're on YouTube, subscribe to this channel, hit that little like button and notification spell so that you never miss anytime I upload a video, Yigi