{"id":759,"date":"2016-02-07T22:28:46","date_gmt":"2016-02-08T05:28:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pastormathis.com\/?p=759"},"modified":"2016-02-08T10:08:18","modified_gmt":"2016-02-08T17:08:18","slug":"super-bowl-sunday-is-a-day-of-dedication","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/2016\/02\/07\/super-bowl-sunday-is-a-day-of-dedication\/","title":{"rendered":"Super Bowl Sunday is a Day of Dedication"},"content":{"rendered":"

The streets are almost empty.\u00a0 Many restaurants are empty. Stores are closed.<\/p>\n

People are gathered together.\u00a0 Food is prepared. Schedules are rearranged. They are dedicated. They are focused.<\/p>\n

But it is not dedication and organization for worship on the Lord’s Day.<\/p>\n

Or rather, it is about worship, just not the worship of God.<\/p>\n

Where the heart is there its treasure will be.<\/p>\n

This is the 50th Super Bowl. And Denver is at the peak of their game. And the fans of the Broncos are at their peak dedication.<\/p>\n

When given a choice between the passing of the bread and wine and the passing of\u00a0 the pigskin, most fans choose the latter.<\/p>\n

Fans would rather hear the announcers preach the glories of football than the glories of God.<\/p>\n

The empty streets and empty stores harken to an era (only sixty years ago!) when (nominally) God’s Day was honored.<\/p>\n

Now, the effort it takes to avoid restaurants and stores, to gather food and organize time for worship is too much for too many.<\/p>\n

Unless it is for a worthy cause.<\/p>\n

Where our heart is there our treasure will be.<\/p>\n

Where our efforts lie is where our dedication is found.<\/p>\n

May God bring repentance to those who know better and enlightenment to the uninformed.<\/p>\n

(For a biblical defense of the Lord’s Day, listen to this sermon<\/a>).<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"reddit\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The streets are almost empty.\u00a0 Many restaurants are empty. Stores<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":760,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"twitterCardType":"","cardImageID":0,"cardImage":"","cardTitle":"","cardDesc":"","cardImageAlt":"","cardPlayer":"","cardPlayerWidth":0,"cardPlayerHeight":0,"cardPlayerStream":"","cardPlayerCodec":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[17,40,18],"class_list":["post-759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church","category-society","tag-christianity","tag-reformation","tag-sanctification"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=759"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":764,"href":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759\/revisions\/764"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastormathis.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}