Salt For The Dung Heap

1. The high calling

• I was sickened by the amount of social media posts I saw over the holidays of the antics
• I’m not against all the holiday stuff. I like lights, cookies, santa decorations, etc. 
• I’m against MIXING those things with the world to try and attract people to Church
• What you get them with is what you keep them with. AND CANCELLING CHURCH 
• but if the salt has lost its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? Whats the minimum standard?
• Cancelling church services ‘to spend time with family’. 3 I personally know. 1 Ps C, research
• We have a high calling as Christians. Our life is not our own. There has to be a minimum
• Mt. 10:38 take his cross and follow after Me, Mt. 16:24 deny himself, and take up his cross, Mk. 8:34 deny himself, and take up his cross, Lk. 9:23 deny himself, and take up his cross daily, Lk. 14:26 hate his own life also, Lk. 14:27 bear his cross and come after Me, Rom. 6:6 our old man was crucified with Him, Rom. 12:1 present your bodies a living sacrifice, Gal. 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ, Gal. 5:24 crucified the flesh with its passions and desires, Gal. 6:14 the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world, Col. 3:3 you died, and your life is hidden with Christ, Phil. 3:8 count all things loss, 1 Cor. 15:31 I die daily.
• And honestly, being a Christian in America really isn’t that difficult. Its difficult because we don’t like the decrease in moral standards in America, but comparatively speaking we have it easy
• 5k killed last year, 15k properties attacked, over 300m experience extreme persecution
• Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya, Pakistan, Maldives, North Korea, China, Brunei, Malaysia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Somalia, Eritrea, Cuba. About 120-130m Christians who want to attend public worship services but are greatly restricted or forbidden to
• We have 334m in America of which about 70m (generous) attend regularly. 
• What do we say to those Christians? We have the opportunity, unscathed, and we make it the most diluted holy experience possible, pander make it short and sweet and then cancel it?
• We are the church and we are to meet publicly, regularly, and sacramentally. Center of the salt
• “It is neither fit for the land nor for the dunghill, but men throw it out.” If we can easily cancel, and infrequently attend, eventually it become fodder for the dunghill- has no value. It will die. 

2. Our History. 

• We meet on Sundays- that’s what we do
• Ignatius of Antioch (circa 110 AD) “Let every friend of Christ keep the Lord’s Day as a festival, the resurrection-day, the queen and chief of all the days of the week.” Justin Martyr (circa 150 AD) “Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Savior on the same day rose from the dead.” Tertullian (circa 200 AD) “We solemnize the day after Saturday in contradiction to those who call this day their Sabbath.” “it is the day when we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” Cyprian of Carthage (circa 250 AD) “The Lord’s Day is both the symbol of our resurrection and the beginning of our eternal rest. It teaches us to celebrate this day as sacred to the Lord.” Origen (circa 250 AD) “On Sunday, which is the day of the resurrection, we assemble ourselves together, distinguishing the day not only by abstaining from labor but by devoting ourselves to worship.”
• Why wouldn’t we? What else are we concerned with? We’ve been doing it 2000 years. 
• I’ll tell you- avg American 2 hr 21 min on phone checking 58 times. 16 hrs. 2hr 55 on TV
• Average. W 30 min drive time, Church is about same commitment as a movie. 2:30hrs
• Christians have been meeting together since the resurrection and the Jews even thousands of years longer than that. The people of God have been meeting weekly for thousands of years. 
• The seven-day week been around for thousands of years. Bible invented it. 
•  Romans adopted it in the first century AD and formalized it under Constantine in the 4th 
• But why do Christians gather on Sunday?  Jesus Rose on the First Day of the Week (Sunday)
• Matt 28:1: “Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn” Mark 16:2 “Very early in the morning, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb Luke 24:1: “Now on the first day of the week”, John 20:1: “Now on the first day of the week”
• The resurrection of Jesus is the cornerstone of the Christian faith, and this event happened on a Sunday. Christians gather to celebrate the resurrection weekly on this day. Every week. 
• Every Sunday is resurrection Sunday! We remember and celebrate and look forward to heaven
• We are forgetful people! People forget what people do for them all time. We cant forget!
• Deuteronomy 4:9 Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And teach them to your children and your grandchildren.
• The Early Church Gathered on the First Day of the Week
• Acts 20:7 Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread
• The First Day Was for Giving Offerings and Worship
• 1 Corinthians 16:2: “On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come.”
• There is Theological Significance first day of the week is associated with new creation. God began creation on the first day,  resurrection of Christ marks the beginning of the new creation
• 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
• represents the fulfillment of the Sabbath in Christ: Col 2:16-17 So let no one judge you …on Sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.”
• Christians celebrate the fulfillment of rest and redemption through the resurrection, making Sunday a fitting day to gather in worship. It contradicts Saturday– we are not jews at all. 
• It is The Lord’s Day Revelation 1:10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, 
• We’ve lost the specialness of the day of worship towards God, if we don’t protect it will die. 
• ‘all days are special” “God doesn’t care” “we’re under the new covenant” “don’t be legalistic”
• Those are all true. Except, the people who always say that aren’t the ones looking to do more for the Lord, less for themselves, more for others. Its not the sacrificial, holy called out types. 
• It’s the lackluster do nothing, do less, want less, lukewarm, easy beleivism types. That’s who. 
• Youth group as a kid in 7g. games, talk, slurpees. I tried so hard to convince youth leader to go to 7 eleven and do his talk. So boring. I could be drinking a slurpee. After saved-took notes. 
• Our history is worth preserving. Church is dying in America and making it LESS important isn’t going to preserve it. Our SALT can lose its saltiness and it can be tossed into the dungheap
• Its ok for you to miss church periodically, but its not OK for the church to weaken its witness
• Its ok to PLAN to miss church, just not skip or have no reason. Church needs to happen- if I died on the way to church on a Sunday, you better have church. If I die preaching, finish the service.