[MUSIC PLAYING] (SINGING) I may never
smile the enemy, but I'm in the Lord's army. Well, I'm really excited to
welcome today's guest speakers, Sean McDowell. Now, as you know, I've been
teaching Hunting Giants, a series that focuses on
overcoming giant obstacles, like conformity, apathy,
and fear with godly courage. Sean is about as
courageous as they come. He has a PhD in apologetics
and worldview studies, and speaks internationally on
cultural, ethical, theological, and apologetics topics. He authored and co-authored
over a dozen books and study guides, some with his
father Josh McDowell. I know you're going to get
a courage boost from today's message about
something that I think has become a modern-day giant,
and that is cancel culture. Please join me in
welcoming Sean McDowell. [APPLAUSE] Good morning, church. I told Pastor Skip last night-- I said, man, you're just
the cool pastor, aren't you? Like to snowboard,
ride a motorcycle-- I said, man, when I get older,
I want to be just like your son. Two stories as we start off this
morning you might recognize, if you've been following
along in the news the past few years-- one is a former professor
at Evergreen University in Olympia, Washington by
the name of Bret Weinstein. He was targeted
at his university for disagreeing with
something a powerful group at the university wanted. You see, for years
at this university, they had something they
call the day of absence, where black faculty and students
and other minority groups would not show up on
campus a certain day to remind the rest of
the community of the role that they play. Well, in 2017, they
flipped the script. In 2017, white people were
told they were not supposed to show up on campus that day. Now, Professor Weinstein
found this appalling. Now, what he said is
asking people not to come is very different than
voluntarily having people choose not to come. So whether you agree
with him or not, he was motivated by doing
what he thought was actually best for minority students. So he reached out and sent an
email to the administration. Needless to say, all
hell broke loose. Protests continued
for about a week until finally, at
the end of a week, 50 students show up
outside his classroom, and essentially threatening
him, shouted at him, calling him a racist,
and intimidating him. You can see it online. Well, Bret Weinstein turned
and sued the university for not protecting him. When it was all said and
done, he and his wife, also a professor at
Evergreen, resigned-- basically, cancelled. Another story you
might recognize-- do you recognize the
name Jack Phillips? Jack Phillips is the owner
of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Colorado. You see, he started
this cake shop, this bakery with his family
to serve the community. And he called it Masterpiece,
because he considers each cake an expression of God, who's
the masterpiece, through him, showing his creativity
in a cake, and also an extension of his ministry. Well, in 2012, before same-sex
marriage was even legal, he was asked to bake a cake
for a same-sex wedding. Now, keep a couple
of things in mind. He had served gay people
happily for years, and he had also refused
to bake other cakes that violated his conscience, such
as cakes celebrating Halloween. So he declined to bake a cake
for the same-sex wedding. And by the way, there
was another bakery that would do this
within walking distance. The couple turn around and
started a lawsuit against him, and the Colorado Civil Rights
Commission turned around and put a lawsuit against him-- and interestingly
enough, compared him to a perpetrator of the
Holocaust, which Jack told me in an interview
was most painful, because he had family members
who fought against the Nazis in World War II. Apparently, not baking a
cake is akin to being a Nazi. Well, it went all the way
up to the Supreme Court, and Jack Phillips won
at the Supreme Court. [APPLAUSE] When I interviewed
him, I said, what was it like to win a case
at the Supreme Court? I'm pretty sure I will
not have that experience. And he described
how amazing it was. But shortly thereafter,
another lawsuit was opened up against him-- won it. Now he's embroiled
in a third lawsuit. What do these two
cases have in common? And by the way, shortly
after he declined the cake, he even got a call from somebody
who said, I am 10 minutes away. I'm coming to kill you-- threatened, attacked
his livelihood, his reputation because of
his position on an issue. What do the two of these
things have in common? Quite obviously, what we've
come to call cancel culture-- now, if somebody says the wrong
thing or has the wrong view, there will be a personal
and a private attack, and shaming, and an attempt
to silence you forever going forward. I actually looked up the
Cambridge dictionary. I was like, what's the
definition of cancel culture? Because we throw
this term around. Let's get some clarity on it. The Cambridge
dictionary said, quote, "a way of behaving
in society or group, especially on social media, in
which it is common to reject and stop supporting someone
because they have said something that offends you." So in other words,
if someone holds a position, right or wrong, true
or false, and it offends you, you stop supporting
them passively, but then actively
start criticizing them in an attempt to cancel them. Now, when it comes to cancel
culture, this affects you and it affects me. See, it's not like if
you turn on the news or you scroll
through a news app, and you hear about
a natural disaster in another city or another
state, and you think, oh, that's terrible. I feel bad for them. And maybe you're even
motivated to give to help those who are victims. But it feels out
there, doesn't it? Cancel culture's not out there. It affects all of us. We live in a cancel culture. And I want to know
how, as Christians, are we going to respond? Because there's two temptations. One is to live in fear
of being canceled, in fear for my relationships,
in fear for my reputation, in fear for my job-- option A, live in fear. Option B-- rather than being
afraid of being cancelled, join the club of cancellers. Jump on the bandwagon to
become that person that, when someone says something that
offends you, you cancel them. Last I checked, both of
those-- living in fear of being canceled and bullying
others and cancelling them-- is not an option for
a follower of Jesus. How should we respond? Allow me to suggest a way
through a recent experience that I had. One of my favorite things
to do at a church's school universities is what I
call my atheist encounter. I bring my atheist
glasses, put them on with a primarily
Christian audience, and I role play an atheist. I'll give a presentation
why I don't believe in God, and then I'll take questions
from the audience, who are Christians, and I'll
respond as an atheist might. Typically, after
about 30 minutes, the audience gets upset,
they get defensive, and they get angry,
because I'm pushing back giving better answers
than they maybe expected. Well, about six
months ago, I was invited to do my atheist
encounter at a Christian school in Florida. And when I showed up-- this is a Christian
high school-- the Bible teacher said,
hey, I actually roleplay with my students all the time. I think it'd be most
interesting if I introduce you as an actual atheist,
not a Christian role playing an atheist. I thought about it a little bit. I was like, you know what--
this would make it a spicier, more interesting conversation. Let's do it. So he introduces me to
this Christian school-- I don't know, maybe
300 or 400 students, if I remember-- as his friend
from UCLA, a philosophy professor in town for a
convention, who just swung by to talk about why
he's an atheist. We do it, we're done, and
I move on with my life, but then, over the next few
weeks in a couple of months, I start getting
a ton of emails-- almost entirely positive
of people-- saying, I saw your atheist role
play and I loved it. Thank you. So I'm wondering, wait a
minute-- why are so many people contacting me? Well, I've gone to
the website recently of this small Christian
school, and that YouTube video got over 2 and 1/2
million views-- blew me away. But then, all a sudden, one
day, everything changed again. All of a sudden, I
started getting dozens-- and I mean dozens--
of emails of some of the most vicious, ungracious,
personal attacks I've ever received before. You're a lousy atheist. You're a liar. You're this and that. I'm thinking, why
did this just start? Well, it turns out that
two atheist youtubers-- one who I knew, one who I
didn't-- and one who has a huge channel-- did a review of my
atheist role play, and they felt like I
misrepresented atheist when I was role playing an atheist. S Now. I'm getting piled
on by everybody. Well, at the same time, a
bunch of my Christian friends started text me
and they said, hey, come on my YouTube channel. Let's do a response. And I thought about
it for a while, and I thought, OK,
they criticized me, and I actually
thought they tried to do it in the right
spirit, even though they thought that-- what I should
do-- they gave me a suggestion. Don't role play an atheist-- bring in a real atheist. I thought, so am I supposed to
go on a channel, do a response, and tell them why
they're wrong-- they criticize Christians,
Christians criticize back? I thought about it for
a while, and I said, you know what, someone
needs to choose to communicate differently. So I reached out to
one of the atheists and I said, hey, I
actually think you and I have more common ground
than you might realize. Would you be willing to just
have a conversation with me off the record? He goes, sure. So we zoomed on a Friday. I had already created
a response video I was going to
post the following Monday, but a very
gracious one, inviting him to do something with me. We Zoom for an hour, friends. This young man is 27 years old. And all I did was listen,
and it broke my heart. He grew up in a
conservative Christian home and felt like, when he
started to question his faith and leave his faith, was
canceled by Christians. He said, I had a
pastor tell me, you're going to die alone and
burn in hell for eternity. He said, when I was
growing up, I had to-- I actually had to learn karate,
because I was being bullied so much I need to
learn to defend myself. He goes, the pain of
being bullied growing up paled in comparison to the
pain of how many Christians treated me when I started
questioning my faith. I said, have any other
apologists or evangelists reached out to you? He goes, one who
said, yeah, let's have a conversation, because
I'm going to bury you. I said, Monday I'm
releasing a video. At the end, I have
an invitation to you. Since you said I should
bring in atheists, I've got a suggestion for you. I said, here's my cell number. If you accept my
suggestion, call me. Video posts on Monday. And I walk through
and I said, look, they think I
misrepresented atheists and I should bring
in an atheist. Here's the deal--
I've actually been bringing an atheist to my
students for over 15 years. When I role play,
it's the arguments I've heard atheists make. So I've been doing this. They gave me a suggestion. I have a suggestion for you. Why don't you come on
my YouTube channel? Let's not have a debate. Let's have a conversation. I just want my audience
to hear what you think we as Christians could do better
to love our atheist neighbors. And he came on my
show for an hour, and all I did is listen to him. It was a powerful conversation. Why am I starting
with this story? Because there is a
temptation as Christians, as conservative Christians,
to other certain groups-- this other religion,
this other race, this other political group. And they're trying
to steal our freedom, and we respond in fear. There's a temptation to
say, cancel culture-- let's criticize all those people
out there who are cancelling people, rather
than first saying, have we done the same thing? How do we better
love our neighbor? Isn't that a Christian response? When Jesus said in Matthew 7,
judge not, lest you be judged, His point was not to-- His point was not to not judge. His point was take the
plank out of your own eye. Then you can see the
speck in a brother-- in other words, judge yourself
first, and then, like Jesus says in John 7, then you can
make a righteous judgment. What do you think Jesus
cares about principally, living rightly-- those in the wider culture
who don't call themselves His followers, or
those whom Scripture calls the bride of Christ-- which is you and me? Friends, before we
blame somebody else and cancel culture, let us look
within and humble ourselves, and say, how do we better
love our neighbors? Have we bought into
this cancel culture lie? And how do we get
our house in order first so we can better
love our neighbors? Can I get an Amen? Amen. All right, good-- I knew there were at
least a few Baptists here. Right, with that
said, one question I have when I hear this talk
about cancel culture is, why now? What is it that
we find ourselves in this moment where cancel
culture is all the rage, and it's captured our society? And I think of the movie
in 2000 The Perfect Storm that was based upon a 1991 storm
off the coast of Massachusetts. And it's called
The Perfect Storm because at least two
fronts that were themselves massive moved in the same
place, and the same time, and created a huge storm. In fact, in the movie,
it's about a boat that has this catch, and if they
wait through the storm, they won't make it home. So they rush through
thinking they can make it, but the storm is just
too big and too powerful. So a perfect storm is this
idea of certain things coalesce in the same
place at the same time, and create a certain phenomena. Well, I think we
have cancel culture because certain things
have been moving into the same place
at the same time. And in fact, when I
think about our culture, it makes perfect sense that
we have cancel culture. I'd be surprised if we didn't. So what are those
factors moving together that create cancel culture? I think there's
three of them, and I think the first one is
we have a mental health epidemic in America. [APPLAUSE] And by that, I mean we have
a lot of hurting people, in the Church and
outside of the Church. And COVID has only
exacerbated what was already moving, and
becoming a hockey stick exponential growth-- loneliness, depression, anxiety,
stress, suicidality, anger, fatherlessness. Friends, I heard
one teenager named Faith Anne say-- she
said, my whole generation is like a bunch of
little volcanoes. You know what that means. That means, right below
the surface, there's hurt, and there stress, and anxiety,
and they're about to explode. Pastor Rick Warren
said something I think of almost daily. He said, hurt
people hurt people. Why do we have cancel
culture taking place? Because we have a culture of
people who have been cancelled and who have been hurt,
and barring forgiveness and the power of the Holy
Spirit, human nature is, when we've been hurt, to turn
around and hurt other people. Cancel culture tells me we've
got a generation of people who are lonely, and
who are depressed, and who are stressed,
and are hurting, and don't healthy ways
to deal with this, so they turn and they
cancel other people because they've been cancelled
in their relationships and cancelled in their lives. I was doing a live
stream on YouTube, if I remember, maybe
8 or 10 months ago, at some time during COVID. Time just stopped
during COVID, didn't it? And I was having a discussion,
and I noticed the comments on the side of what
was taking place. Now, normally, I will have
somebody monitor the comments, because trolls will come in-- Christians and
non-Christians-- and just start creating unhealthy,
bad dialogue. So I usually have
somebody monitor it. But of course,
this time I forgot. Now, you're probably thinking,
why don't you just monitor it? Because I'm that guy--
like a lot of you, I can only do one
thing at a time. I cannot multitask. If I'm actually on the phone,
I cannot talk on the phone and cut onions at the same time. My wife thinks it's funny. She'll literally take
my hands like I'm five, put a knife in my hand,
give me the onions, and look at me
like, you can do it. I'm like, I can't. I'm talking. So the thought actually
hit me recently, when I was driving through
McDonald's-- this person is taking an order and
delivering an order. I was like, I couldn't
do nothing job. So I'm doing this live
stream to the world, and these comments are
starting, and it's starting to heat up and get spicy. And I see this person, who I
assume was not a Christian, criticizing Christians. And instead of the
Christians being gracious, being understanding,
trying to be positive, they just go right
back at this guy. And I'm seeing
insult after insult, and it's building, it's
building, and building. And finally, one
of the Christians says, well, why are
you here even speaking? What gives you the
right to be so critical? And I'll never forget
how this guy responded. He said, I served our country-- can't remember if he said
Iraq or Afghanistan-- I served our country overseas,
and I was injured and lost my sight. Don't tell me where
and when I can speak, given how much I sacrifice
for this country. And I saw that and
thought, oh my goodness. This guy has been
hurt physically, and he's angry at
God, understandably. And so he's turning around and
he's lashing out at others. The moment I saw that,
as best I remember, I just simply stopped. I was like, I can't let this go. I said, I got to pause the
conversation for a minute. I just saw a comment
from a man who lost his sight serving our country. I said, sir, I don't
know you, but I want to first tell you,
thank you for your service. I can't imagine what it's
like to lose your sight. I am so sorry that
this happened to you. I understand that you'd be angry
at God and angry at Christians. Please know that God loves
you, and I love you too. And there was silence. Why? When somebody's critical,
what's human nature? Get critical back. The Bible says a gentle
word turns away wrath. In Romans 2, Paul says
it's your kindness that leads to repentance. Proverbs 25:15 says a
soft word breaks a bone. Cancel culture says, ramp it up. Be critical. What does the Scripture say? Be kind. Be loving. Be gracious. I think we have cancel culture--
one big reason is we have hurting people, broken
relationships, broken lives, people who've been cancelled. So human nature is
to cancel others. That's the first
piece of the storm. But there's a second
piece of the storm, and it's that we now live
in a culture in which there are deeply clashing worldviews. There's always been
differences of beliefs, but now these
beliefs are apparent. And we're told
that all of us have to have an opinion
on these, and we have to state these opinions. So let me give you an example. Around the year 2015 was the
year of the Supreme Court ruling Obergefell
versus Hodges, which is when same-sex marriage
became legal in all 50 states. At Biola University,
where I teach, I helped host a conversation
with a local pastor, with a radio show host, and with
an influential gay-affirming Christian-- in other
words, somebody who says, I'm a follower of
Jesus, and I think the Bible is fine with certain
same-sex relationships. Now, we're having
this conversation about how the Church
is going to navigate this ruling that was coming. And I'll never forget what I
asked this Christian, who is, quote, "gay-affirming." I said, I need to have
some clarity from you. Are you saying I can hold on to
my theology-- in other words, that God designed marriage
one man, one woman, one flesh, one lifetime-- but need to be more kind and
gracious in my interaction with the gay
community, or are you saying, to be loving, I actually
have to change my theology? You know the answer was? If you don't change your
theology, you cannot be loving. Now, do you realize that? I'm not saying every single
gay-affirming person says that, but the narrative we
hear in our culture is, why do LGBTQ kids suffer? Because Christians and others
don't accept them for who they are. That's why they suffer. In other words, from
this perspective, your theology kills. That's a pretty serious claim. Now, where I sit, the Bible's
very clear about God's design for marriage. And Paul in 1
Corinthians 6 says those who practice homosexuality will
not inherit the kingdom of God. So somebody's soul is at
stake with how they believe and how they act, when it
comes to nature of marriage. And by the way, in case you're
sitting here going, yes, preach it. If you read 1
Corinthians 6, Paul also mentions certain
immoral behavior that would condemn all of us. But you see, the
point-- one side says, your conservative
theology kills. The other side says,
actually, you're misleading people about sin
and you're misleading them about salvation. Can we see the clash
of world views? If you were on the other
side and you believed that, you would look at us
probably with disdain, and probably want to
cancel us as well. But it's not just with the
larger Christian community and the culture-- we now have clashing worldviews
and issues dividing the Church like never before. So I was talking with
my wife before I left. I said, I got to mention
an issue in which we divide as Christians. And I started thinking,
but should I mention this? Because I might get cancelled. I'm not kidding. The thought went
through my mind. I'm like, this is one of my
all-time favorite churches to speak at. If I say certain things and the
pastors get enough complaints, they're going to probably
naturally not want to have me back. And then my next thought was,
why would I not speak something that's true and biblical
in a talk on cancel culture because the thought goes through
my mind, I might get cancelled? [APPLAUSE] So let me frame it this way. I remember conversation
with my grandpa, who passed away years ago. And I don't remember the
details of the conversation, but I'll never forget
the point that he made. My mom was a part of it. The idea was, is it OK to
burn the American flag? When I was a high school
kid I was like, yeah, it's free speech. It's just cloth. You stop allowing
people to burn the flag, it's going to lead
to totalitarianism-- that was my view. And my grandpa's
pushback was, son-- or grandson-- I served
in World War II. I was willing to
give my life, and saw many of my fellow
Americans do so. That's not just
a piece of cloth. That represents your
freedom, and even people who burn that flag
can only do it freely because of the
freedom given from those who sacrificed their life. [APPLAUSE] Look, that's my grandpa. So recently, on my
YouTube channel, I had a pastor friend
of mine from the South. He's African-American. And we were talking
about race relations. And I said, let's talk
about the issues that are dividing the Church. How do you have
a church in which issues like kneeling at
the flag so divide people? How do you keep unity
amidst such charged issues? So I shared that story
with him, and he goes, let me say a couple of things. First off, I thank God for
your grandpa on his service. He goes, Sean, it makes sense-- by the way, this guy
played in the NFL as well. He goes, it makes sense you
would see the world that way, given your experience. He goes, but can I tell you some
of the experience in my family? They went and served
in World War II, and then came home and
experienced entrenched racism in the country they
were willing to die for. Can you at least
see why some people see the flag differently? Now, friends, whether
you side with A or B, can we at least approach
conversations like this? Rather than taking
the easy route, which is I'm going to get my camp,
and those not in my camp are wrong, and
divide, and demean, can we humble ourselves,
and listen, and at least try to find common ground? Friends, whether--
whichever side you take on that, what
struck me is here's two evangelical,
Bible-believing Christians with very different
experiences that shaped the way they
think about this issue. And this is within the Church. No wonder we have
a cancel culture. We have hurting people,
mental health epidemic, and we are more
divided on issues. In fact, I was talking
with Pastor Nate backstage, and the irony hit me-- that a generation
before, we're told good people don't talk about
politics, religion, and sex. Now we're told, you're
not a good person if you don't talk about
politics, religion, and sex. Isn't that ironic? The third reason I think
we have cancel culture is because of smartphones. Look, I love technology. I am on Instagram, and YouTube,
and Twitter, and even TikTok, believe it or not,
because that's where this generation is. That's where this generation is. But if you step back
and think about it, we have a herding generation
more division than ever. We're all supposed to have
an opinion on something, and now we all have a
channel to the world. Of course, we're going to find
ourselves in a cancel culture. So what are we
Christians do about it? If I may humbly
suggest three things that I think we need to do--
and number one is be obedient, come what may. Friends, I did my dissertation,
my doctoral research on the fate of the apostles. Was Peter really
crucified upside-down? Did Thomas actually
make it to India? So I probed in the book
of Acts and beyond. When you read the beginning of
Acts, you have Jesus ascending. You have the Holy Spirit
come down in Acts 2. The apostles are doing miracles,
and they're preaching Jesus, but the religious
leaders of the day want to cancel the apostles. They threaten them,
and they beat them, and they throw them
in prison, and say, just stop preaching Jesus. One of my favorite
verses in the Bible-- in Acts chapter 5,
what does Peter say? He says, no, we must obey
God, rather than men. In other words,
what Peter says-- he says, I take my cues
from God, not from you. See, this whole
cancel culture thing-- it comes down to a question. Who do we fear most? Do we fear human beings
and what they can do to us, or do we fear God? That's the heart
of the question. Do we fear the mob and
people cancelling us, or do we fear God? In the times I've had
people try to cancel me, one of the only things
that brings consolation is, can I truly say
in my heart, God, that I do this with
a clear conscience, and I do it out of faith in you? If so, I can deal with the
criticism and the attacks. Who do we fear? Jesus said, don't fear
those who can kill the body, but those who can kill
the body and the soul, and send you to hell. Fear God, not man. If some of you are US
women's soccer fans, you might recognize the
name Jaelene Hinkle. Few years ago, she
was the best left back at her position in
US women's soccer. In 2015, around the same-sex
marriage Supreme Court ruling, listen carefully to what
she posted on social media. She said, quote, "I believe
with every fiber in my body that what was written in
2000 years ago in the Bible is undoubtedly true. This world may change,
but Christ and His Word never will." Now, that's bold. Now, notice, she didn't say,
I'm against same-sex marriage. She didn't say, I hate a
certain segment of people. She didn't even
mention the case. All she said is culture
changes, God doesn't-- I'm following after God. And she became a marked woman-- boos and jeers when she
played because of this, and attempt to cancel
her on social media. Well, in 2017, she was on the
US Women's National Soccer Team. Now, just think about this. If you're a soccer player,
think of the blood, sweat, and tears that went into making
the US Women's National Team. She was asked to do
something that called her convictions into question. Now, think about this. If you're asked to do something
you don't think is right and you're on the US
Women's National Team, couldn't you think of a
million ways to justify this? Well, if I leave, there's
no Christians left. I've worked so hard. God will forgive me anyways. We are really good at
justifying things, aren't we? And I put myself
in that category. It's human nature. In 2017, they were
required to wear jerseys that had the numbers
in rainbow flags to celebrate Gay Pride Month. Jaelene said, I felt so
conflicted my in spirit that it wasn't my job
to wear this jersey. I gave myself three days-- which is smart. When you get upset,
don't just tweet back. Take a deep breath
and give it time. Every time I tweet back, I
got to go back and delete it-- gosh-- operate in the flesh,
rather than the spirit. She said, I gave
myself three days to just seek, and pray, and
determine what God was asking me to do in this situation. If I never get another
team call again, that's OK. Maybe that's a part of
His plan, and that's OK. And listen to what she said-- maybe this is why I was
meant to play soccer, to show other believers
to be obedient. Friends, she gets it. I'm not playing soccer,
when it's all said and done, for the money,
for the fame, even for the pleasure
I get out of it. I play soccer because
I have a larger call of building God's Kingdom
and being an example to others. Step number 1, friends--
when it's all said and done, in our cancel culture, you
and I have to ask ourselves, am I being obedient to God? Am I living in fear of God in
a healthy way, or fear of man? Peter said we must obey God. Step number 1 is obedience. Step number 2-- the very
thing cancel culture lacks is the heart of the
Christian faith. What cancel culture lacks
is grace and forgiveness. And that's the heart of what
makes Christianity unique, that God has grace for you. You see, one of the temptations
of cancel culture is to live in fear of being cancelled. It human nature. None of us want to get
piled on on Twitter. Nobody wants to get personally
attacked on Facebook. Nobody wants to lose their
job or lose a relationship. It's human nature
to live in fear. So what happens is, when we
live in fear, we start saying, well, it's this political party. It's this religious group. It's this minority group. And we target them
and live in fear. What is the Christian
response to fear? 1 John 4:18 says, perfect
love casts out fear. We are not called to live
in fear of our culture. We're called to live
in love of our culture. You know what the number
one fear of Americans-- was at least before
COVID-- maybe it's changed. It's actually public speaking. More than heights, more than
death, more than enclosed spaces, more than sharks--
which I can't imagine is a big fear around here,
although it is where I live. Why? Because when you
speak, there's the fear you're going to say or do
something that embarrasses yourself before others. You see, fear is selfish. Love is selfless. The solution to fear is to
stop thinking about ourselves, and to turn and ask, how do we
love other people around us? Friends, when it's
all said and done, we have to be
obedient, but second, we are called to
live in grace, called to live in love in a culture
that doesn't have space for love and grace, because
we love, 1 John says, because Christ first loved us. I was speaking to my home
church on the topic of abortion and giving a pro-life talk. And what was interesting
is, when it was done, we had baby bottles that
were around the exits as people left. And we asked people
to take a baby bottle, put it at their desk at home,
and throw loose change in it. Our local pregnancy resource
center made over $30,000 in one year from people just
taking bottles, throwing their loose change in it. That's incredible. So I encouraged
people on the way out. I was like, grab a bottle. Just fill it up. When you're done,
bring it to the church and we can support the
pregnancy resource center. On the way, out my kids
were passing them out. And my son came
to me afterwards. He goes, dad, you won't
believe what happened. I said, what happened? He said, I tried to
give this lady a bottle. She says, I'm not taking that. I'm not supporting this
pregnancy resource center. If these women have sex
outside of marriage, I'm not stepping in now--
they get what they deserve. Heard that, and I thought,
what is happening? She walks out of
church and wants to cancel somebody who's at
their moment of greatest need. Look, you're not going to find
somebody more pro-life than I am in my writings, in my
talks, on my YouTube channel, in my classes, but I also know
that many, if not most women who have an abortion
do reluctantly, and they're hurting, and
they're not proud of it. And in that moment,
if the Church comes across judgmental,
rather than grace, number 1, we're failing the
Gospel, and we're failing those women who are hurting. Friends, it's grace, it's
grace that sets us apart. There's a story
in Luke chapter 7 of a woman who the culture
was trying to cancel. Listen to how Jesus responded. Luke 7:35-50-- it says, one
of the Pharisees asked Him-- Jesus-- to eat with him. So Jesus goes into
the Pharisee's home, and it turns out-- it says, and
behold, a woman of the city, who is a sinner-- now, many scholars think that
she was probably a prostitute, but the bottom line is
she's described as a sinner. So sometimes in the Bible
describes people like Goliath by his height, people from where
they're from, their profession. This woman's identity
is that she's a sinner. That's who she is. When she learned
that he was cleaning a table with the
Pharisee's help, brought an alabaster
flask of ointment, standing behind him
at his feet, weeping-- not crying-- weeping. She began to wet His
feet with her tears, and wiped them with a hair of
her head, and kissed His feet, and anointed them with ointment. Now, the Pharisees
who invited him-- can you see the scene? In one sense, it's beautiful. In the other sense,
it's probably dirty, because they didn't
have clean feet. And her hair-- it might
feel like a pathetic scene, although
there's a beauty to it. The Pharisee sees this. How does he respond? He said, if this
man were a prophet, he would have known
what sort of woman this was who's touching
Him, for she is a-- Sinner-- She is a sinner. That's her identity. You see, if Jesus had
known she's a sinner, He would have cancelled
her, not loved her. Jesus tells a story in verse 41. It says, a certain
moneylender had two debtors. One owed him 500 denarii,
and the other 50. When they could not pay, He
cancelled the debt of both. Which of them will
love Him more? Simon answer, the
one, I suppose, for whom He cancelled
the larger debt. And Jesus said, you
have judged rightly. Then, turning toward the
woman, He said to Simon, you see this woman? I entered your house. You gave me no
water for My feet, but she has wet my
feet with her tears and wipe them with her hair. You gave Me no kiss. But from the time I came,
she is not kissing-- stopped kissing My feet. You did not anoint
My head with oil, but she has anointed
My feet with ointment. Therefore, I tell you,
her sins, which are many-- third time we're told
she's a big sinner-- are forgiven, for
she loved much. But he has forgiven
little loves little. And then imagine these words. And then He said to her--
so He turns to this woman, who's covered in
just tears, and who-- her identity is a sinner, and
the Pharisee and the culture want to cancel her. And what does He say? He says, your sins are forgiven. Friends, do we identify
people by their sins and their shortcomings, which
is what our cancel culture wants to do? Or do we identify people
as beloved children of God made in his
image, whom God forgives? Are we a people of
grace and forgiveness? The very thing
cancel culture lacks is the very thing that
Jesus preached, and lived, and modeled for us. We must be obedient,
friends, but we must extend grace and forgiveness-- obedience, grace, and
number three, wisdom. We find ourselves in some of
the most thorny situations. Should I attend a gay wedding? Should I use a
preferred pronoun? These sticky, thorny,
difficult issues-- I always go back to Daniel
in Babylon being raised up by the king to be one of the
servants of the king's house. And all he had to
do is eat the food. But the food was not kosher,
so what did Daniel do? He found a creative way to
honor the king for the king to get what he wanted-- ultimately, it was not
just him eating the food, but it was servants who
could serve in his court-- without violating
his conscience, which was the creative
solution with vegetables. That's wisdom. The Bible says more valuable
than gold and more valuable than silver is wisdom. Solomon could have anything,
and he asked for wisdom. Friends, we need more
wisdom now as a Church than we've ever had before,
and part of that wisdom is learning what are essential
issues we divide over and what are non-essential
issues in which we show charity. We are not acting a lot of
wisdom that way in the Church, are we? Years ago, I wrote a
book on same-sex marriage with a friend of mine,
John Stonestreet. We were trying to
help people navigate whether you go to
a same-sex wedding or not, or whether a
baker should make-- bake a cake for
same-sex wedding, or a photographer should film or
photograph a same-sex wedding. A businessman gave us an idea. He said, why don't businesses
like this put a sign on the wall that says, we will
serve a same-sex wedding-- all proceeds from
same-sex weddings go to focus on the family. [LAUGHTER] I was like, that's
really creative and wise. Now, there's not always a
way out of sticky situations, but we need more wisdom how
to navigate thorny situations we're in than ever. Friends, obedience,
grace, and wisdom-- I happen to think that,
when I see something like cancel culture, it's an
opportunity for the Church to shine. It is. When things get dark,
things gets rough, we stop living in
our own strength and have to rely upon the Body
of Christ and the Holy Spirit. In a culture of people
afraid of being cancelled, if we're the ones who
show real love and grace, and lead with kindness, we have
an opportunity for the Gospel to shine in these sadly
increasingly divided and dark times. Amen? Amen. Friends, if it's helpful,
there's two books back there Pastor Skip asked me to bring. And here's one thing I've found. One reason we Christians get
defensive and conversation-- it's because we don't know
what we believe and why. We don't have a good
answer, so we get defensive. You want to love
your neighbor-- you got to know what you believe
and why you believe it so we're not threatened by
challenges to our faith. Wrote one book called
Chasing Love for Students-- How to Think About Sex,
Love, and Relationships-- I talk about sex abuse,
pornography, cohabitation, divorce, and how to love
our LGBTQ neighbors. Friends, Jesus is
the one who gives us the model how to do this. So it's a tool for you
to talk with your kids and your grandkids, and
help equip and train them how to think like Jesus did so
they can love like Jesus loved. Another one is for parents,
teachers, influencers. It's just called So the
Next Generation Will Know, and it's simply a guide-- as we hear about
all these stories that people deconstructing their
faith, let's take a step back and say, what does Scripture
teaches about positively how we pass on the faith
to the next generation? So if you have kids, or
grandkids, or young people in this church, it's a
practical guide that says, here are some things you can
do to love this generation. Friends, it's such an honor
to come here and speak. In our cancel culture, may
this be our finest hour. May we live in love. May we be obedient. May we have wisdom,
and show grace to a generation that
is hurting and broken, and needs the love of Jesus. Amen? [APPLAUSE] Father, thank you
for this church. Thank you for their
willingness to stand in the gap and stay faithful to Scripture. You get with the desire
to love their neighbor. I just pray, if
there's people here that are in one of these
thorny situations right now, God, give them grace, give
them humility, and just give them a heart to reach
out in love towards people who are broken, and see healing,
rather than more division. We are grateful in so many ways,
and pray this in Your Name. Amen. God bless you guys. We hope you enjoyed this special
service from Calvary Church. We'd love to know how
this message impacted you. Email us at
mystory@calvarynm.church. And just a reminder-- you can
support this ministry with a financial gift at
calvarynm.church/give. Thank you for joining us for
this teaching from Calvary Church.
