Addressing Deconstruction and Cancel Culture - Part B

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. When we face things in our world like cancel culture, we often want to shy away.

But when you really think about it, it's an opportunity. Today on Connect with Skip Heizig, our special guest, author and speaker Shawn McDowell, shares how you can respond biblically to the cancel culture we see today. Right now, we want to tell you about a resource that will encourage you in your walk with the Lord. Skip Heizig left Southern California in 1982 to head for the desert of New Mexico. The goal was starting a Bible study in Albuquerque. Let's just say it worked out okay.

So I'm moving two states away, going back east, going to New Mexico. And I think it was in a place in the Jesus movement where that was not unusual. And I thought I'm going to go out here, spend a few months, maybe a year, and see if the Lord's going to do anything at all. 40 years later, Skip is celebrating the great things God has done. To invite you into the celebration, we're offering our radio friends a free copy of Skip's book. You can understand the book of Genesis. No cost, no obligation, just a way to say, wow, what the Lord has done from Calvary Church. Order your free book by Skip Heizig by calling 1-800-922-1888, or go to connectwithskip.com slash free book.

Get your free copy of You Can Understand the Book of Genesis by calling 1-800-922-1888, or go to connectwithskip.com slash free book. Now, let's join Sean McDowell for today's teaching. I remember a conversation like 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 okay 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 sacrifice their life. 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 in 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 my camp are wrong and divide and demean, can we humble ourselves and listen and at least try to find common ground? Friends, whichever side you take on that, what struck me is here's two evangelical Bible-believing Christians with very different experiences that shape the way they think about this issue.

And this is within the church. No wonder we have a canceled culture. We have hurting people, mental health epidemic, and we are more divided on issues. In fact, I was talking with the pastor and ate 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 canceled culture is because of smartphones. Look, I love technology. I'm 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 hurting generation. A hurting 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 canceled culture. So what do 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 we began of Acts, you have Jesus ascending, you have the Holy Spirit come down in Acts two and 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 five, 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 canceling us, or do we fear God? Do we fear God and 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, did 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. 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.

Oh, fear God, not man. If some were your US women's soccer fans, you might recognize the name Jaylene Hinkle. A 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 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 falling after God, and she became a marked woman. Booze and jeers when she played because of this and attempt to cancel her on social media. Well, 2017 shoes 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 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. I mean, 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 convicted in my 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. Oh gosh, operating 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 up again, that's okay.

Maybe that's a part of his plan and that's okay. 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 one, 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? And Peter said, we must obey God. Step number one is obedience. Step number two, 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 canceled. It's 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 given 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 and goes, dad, you won't believe what happened. I said, what happened?

He said, I tried to get 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.

I 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 one, 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 seven of a woman who the culture was trying to cancel. And listen to how Jesus responded. Luke chapter seven, 36 through 50. It says, one of the Pharisees asked him, Jesus, to eat with him.

So Jesus goes into the Pharisees' 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, it 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 reclining at the table of the Pharisees, how it 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 the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with ointment. Now, in the Pharisees who invited him, I mean, 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's almost, it might feel like a pathetic scene, although there's a beauty to it. The Pharisees 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 canceled her, not loved her. Jesus tells a story in verse 41. It says, a certain money lender had two debtors. One owed him 500 denarii and the other 50. When they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both.

And which of them will love him more? Simon answered, the one I suppose, for whom he canceled the larger debt. And Jesus said, you have judged rightly. Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, do 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 wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss. But from the time I came, she is not kissing my stop kissing my feet. You did not annoy my head with oil, but she is annoyed to 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 was 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 who's covered in just tears and who her identity is a sinner and the fairest in 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 was 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.

And 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, who were trying to help people navigate whether you go to a same-sex wedding or not, or whether a baker should 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. 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, when things get 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 canceled, 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 the sadly increasingly divided and dark times. Amen. Friends, if it's helpful, there's two books back there. Pastor Skip asked me to bring.

And here's one thing I found. You know one reason we Christians get defensive in 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 of people deconstructing their faith. Let's take a step back and say what a 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 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.

That's our special guest, Shawn McDowell, here on Connect with Skip Heitzeck and a message from our series, Hunting Giants. Right now, we want to let you know about a special opportunity you have to pursue biblical studies in a way that works with your schedule. If you're ready to study God's Word beyond going to church and personal Bible study, you're ready for Calvary College. Take your learning and your life's purpose to the next level with an education in biblical studies.

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