Cancelling Cancel Culture | Russell Siemer

Well, good morning, TC. How are you guys? Man, y'all look good. Can you look at somebody next to you and just say, you look good today. Now turn to the other person next to you and say, now you look good. Now turn back to the other person and say, now stop talking to me, leave me alone. I'm just kidding. Hey, if I haven't met you before, my name is Russell. And my family and I, for a season of life, had the privilege of serving alongside you guys in ministry here. And it's always a privilege to be invited to come back. And when Pastor Jeff reached out, it was an easy yes to come and be with you guys this morning as I have the privilege of bringing the word of God. But before we get into that, I want to ask you a question that might be a little off-putting. But when I say the name OJ Simpson, what do you think about? Oh, some of you guys are like, oh, oh, hold on, hang on. Most of us that are my age and younger, we think about the white Bronco. The glove didn't fit. Did he do it? Did he not do it? And if you're a little more seasoned, you know what I'm talking about?

Maybe you think about other things. And I didn't know this about OJ. All I knew is maybe he did it, maybe he did. I didn't know that he was actually a legendary running back who was the first NFL player ever to rush for 2,000 yards in a single season. He won the Heisman Trophy in 1968 at USC. He was a five-time All-Pro with the Buffalo Bills. And he was inducted to both the college and NFL Hall of Fame. However, his legacy will forever be tied to his greatest failure. And in this world that we live in of cancel culture, my fear is that none of us actually are willing to allow somebody to change. And we don't even realize it. And here's the thing about cancel culture. People are getting canceled for things that they did in a different lifetime. Like, they've changed their lives. They've tried to go on the straight and narrow. But they've done something in their past. And culture will cancel them, say that they can no longer be platformed. You should never listen to this person again. And you might be saying, are you sticking up for OJ? No, I'm not. But I'm just using a real-life example that we can all relate to of what cancel culture can look like and how his greatest failure, like forever, it'll never be about his accomplishments.

It'll always be about his greatest failure. And here's the thing. We have an adversary that tries to utilize the same thing against you and me, that we were maybe created to be the sum of our past mistakes, is what he tries to tell us. And his greatest tool and tactic that he uses is shame. And he will try to constantly remind you and me of who we used to be and what we used to do. And so I've entitled this message today, Canceling Cancel Culture. That as we take a journey, just a real quick journey from a moment in the garden to the cross of Calvary, hopefully we'll discover together maybe how we have had an incomplete view of what Jesus accomplished on the cross. We understand it, but I believe there's more. And so before we jump in, will you guys pray with me as we investigate the word of God together? Father, we're just so grateful to be in your house with your people. God, I pray that you would open our hearts and our minds to receive from your word today, that everything that you have for us, that we would be open and willing and available to receive it from you. Holy Spirit, I ask that you would come and do it only you can. That's to comfort us and convict us, to transform us and to change us. God, we're so grateful for your love in our lives.

We give these next few moments to you. And everybody said yes and amen, amen. So we're gonna begin this journey together in the creation account. I went through Bible school, and so I'm gonna mention something that maybe you've never heard of before, but this is actually really good for your own personal Bible study as well. There's something in theology known as the law of first mentions. And essentially what that means is that the first time that something was mentioned in scripture is actually how it was designed to be. This is why we can be confident in marriage. It's how God designed it to be. It's the first time it was mentioned between Ab and Eve. That's why we really shouldn't have any qualms or quarrels about it. This is why we can be confident in our created identity, that we were made in the image of God. This is why I believe that the root of all sin is actually found in pride. Humanity's saying, I know what's best for me. Think about the garden, Adam and Eve were like, God is withholding something good for me, I'm gonna take matters into my own hands. And if you look at the root of all sin, it's really just humanity saying, I know what's best for me. I know what this says, but I know what's best for me. But there's another first mention that I think

that if we just read past it, we will miss it. And after God has created the heavens and the earth, and he has created Adam, and he's created Eve. I wanna look at this one verse in Genesis 2, in verse 25. Watch this, now the man and his wife were both naked. Now, I lived in Kentucky for a while, so I don't say naked, I say naked, they were naked, okay? They were both naked, but they felt no shame. No shame. That you and I were created in communion with God to actually live a life where we feel no shame. But what's crazy about how the enemy utilizes shame against us is that when we are far from Jesus, how many of you guys see people that are living in the world and it's like, man, they ain't got no shame, right? But all of a sudden, you begin to approach God and try to get your life right, and now he flips the script on you and begins to throw shame and condemnation at you. He has distorted what God has always meant for good for you and me, that we were meant to live a life without shame, but shame was introduced at the fall. So in Genesis chapter three, starting in verse eight, we find that when the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden, and so they hid from the Lord God among the trees. Then the Lord God called to the man and said, where are you? Which is so interesting why he even asks that.

He's God, like he knew where they were, but he needed Adam to recognize what he had done. He replied in verse 10, I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked. And it goes on, and God's like, who told you that you were naked? Who told you? They begin to feel shame for the very thing that God actually created to be a gift for them. They begin to feel feelings of shame and condemnation, and in this moment, God had every right to be like, you know what, let's start over. Let's just take them out. Like, already, three days in, y'all blew it already? Let me start over. And a couple years ago, I was having a conversation with two friends of mine that I'm actually very close to, and they're both atheists, and I know that you might be like, oh my gosh, no, it's okay to be friends with people that know Jesus. How are they gonna know Jesus if you're not their friend? Anyways, their names are Chris and Kalou, and my students back in Santa Rosa Beach, they know Kalou, because I talk about Kalou all the time, but they both grew up in religious households. They both grew up in the faith, but as they began to, what they say, read the Bible for themselves, they began to deconstruct and walk away,

and Chris, during one of our very spirited debates that we would have often, where I would sharpen him and he would sharpen me and ask questions, he brought up something that I believe many in the church maybe struggle with. I know that I did when he asked this question. I'd never really thought about it like this, and he says one of his greatest contentions with the Bible is that he believes that God in the Old Testament is actually the opposite of Jesus in the New Testament, that if we're not careful, we'll read the Old Testament, and we're like, yo, this dude is vengeful, murderous. He is cosmically frustrated, chronically disappointed. He is constantly looking for ways to destroy humanity. He believed that it was impossible to reconcile the fact that Jesus could be God, because how could Jesus be God when he is so opposite of him? And at the time, I didn't really know how to respond to that, and it wasn't until I spent some more time on my own investigating the scriptures that I found in John 14, there's this conversation that Jesus is having with his disciples and specifically with Philip, and Philip is like, yo, when are we gonna see the Father? And Jesus is like, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. And like most of us, he doesn't get it the first time, and the conversation continues. He's like, yeah, yeah, that's cool, Jesus, but when are we gonna see the Father?

And he doubles down, when you have seen me, you have seen the Father, for I am in the Father, and the Father is in me, and I'm here to tell you, friend, that Jesus is the fullness of who God is, who God was. and who God always will be. That he came to reveal the heart of the father that has been there all along. Think about how many times that God could have just struck humanity dead. Over and over and over again, the Israelites blow it. And I find myself, like, I look at the Israelites and I'm like, dude, how did you miss it? And then I look at my own self, I'm like, okay, I get it. I get it. Yet in his unending love for them, he gave them chance after chance. He defended them when they didn't deserve it, freed them when they didn't earn it. So what we see in Jesus isn't the opposite of God, it's actually the fullness of his heart on display. And this perspective should transform how we view God in the Old Testament, that Jesus coming is Emmanuel, that it is fully God with us, that he's not the opposite, that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and he's always been patient. He's always been kind. He's always been merciful. He's always been loving.

And so look how God responds to Adam and Eve. In a moment where we're like, yo, he could have just struck them out and started over, he responds in Genesis 3 and verse 21, and the Lord God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife. And there are several theologians that would make this case and there's a Bible for it, but there's also not Bible against it, but they would make this case that it's possible that in this moment that he found a spotless lamb, and that the response to sin has always been the sacrifice of innocent blood, and he would cover their nakedness, and cover their shame in his loving kindness. He spared them. He had every right to be angry, had every right to be frustrated, yet in his goodness, from the beginning of time, sets up the plan of Jesus. And I want us to look at a well-known story in the Gospel of John in chapter eight, and what we're gonna see is canceled culture on full display, where it's actually trying to be two birds with one stone. The religious people have been trying to trap Jesus for months, even maybe years at this point, trying to get him to do something wrong or say something wrong. They're always questioning him and proposing things to him

and say, let's see how he responds. And so they find this woman. Let's begin in verse one. Jesus returned again to the Mount of Olives, but early the next morning, he was back again at the temple, as he often was, and a crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and began to teach them. And as he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery, and they put her in front of the crowd. Now, again, I'm not trying to be crass or provocative here, but she was very likely naked. The greatest display of, not only had she been caught in her sin, now she is wearing the greatest display of shame known to man, and she is naked in front of this crowd, feeling guilty and condemned. Verse four. Teacher, they said to Jesus, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses says, to stone her. What do you say? And here it is. They honestly could care less about this woman, because in their minds, no matter how Jesus responds, they've got him. If Jesus says, you're right, let's stone her, now all of a sudden, he's not this loving, merciful man

that he's been known to be. But if he says, no, no, no, no, no, let's spare her, now he's going against the law of Moses. They're trying to entrap him. Verse six, here it is. They were trying to trap him into saying something that they could use against him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger, as if he didn't hear what they said. He ignores them in this moment, and they kept demanding an answer. Like my son Franklin does, my goodness. I'll tell you, if you've got young kids, you know who I'm talking about. It's like, yo, I'm busy right now. Daddy, no, no, no, I'm busy right now. Mommy, no, go talk to your dad. I already told you no. Verse seven, they kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, all right, all right. I'm going to give you what you want. I know what you're trying to do here. All right. but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone. And then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust. When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. And I'll be honest, I've read this story a lot,

and I always thought that everybody was gone. But it was just the Pharisees and the teachers of religious law. Now there's this crowd beginning to witness mercy and loving kindness on full display. Verse 10. Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, where are your accusers? Didn't even one of them condemn you? No, Lord, she said. And Jesus says, neither do I. Now go and get your act together. Get your life cleaned up. Come find me. I'll be here again in a couple weeks. And if you can come with a good report that says that you haven't been doing that, that's not what he says. And isn't that how often we approach God? Well, let me get my life right. Let me get this thing figured out, and then I'll approach the throne. Let me go and stop sinning for a little bit, as if I ever had the ability to do that on my own, and then I'll approach God. Or you invite a friend to church, and you're like, yo, I got a lot going on in my life. Let me get some things figured out, and then I'll come. But no, in this moment, he says, I don't condemn you. Now go and sin no more.

It was from that place of forgiveness that gave her the ability. And I've always wondered, did she do it again? Did she mess up again? I mean, we don't have any scripture that says otherwise, but I like to believe that she didn't, that she fully accepted his forgiveness in this moment, and it transformed the way she lived her life, that in a moment where she deserved to die according to the law, she deserved to die according to her actions, she deserved to die based on the things that she did, there was a man full of grace, full of mercy, and full of love that brought no condemnation on her, that spared her life literally, and forgave her. And it was from that place that she had the ability to go on. It was different this time. You see, in the garden, God covered their shame, but Jesus was setting up what he was about to do for all of humanity, and that's the removal of our shame, the removal of our sins. And see, this is where I think many of us possibly have an incomplete view of the cross. You see, we recognize forgiveness of our sins, yes and amen. We recognize eternal salvation and that we have an eternal reward, an eternal home, that this life is but a vapor,

that we have another life to live in fullness of his glory. Like, we get that. But do we understand that it was more than that? That he doesn't just simply cover our sin and our shame and our condemnation, that he actually removes it. And here's where it becomes full circle. That if you've watched The Passion of the Christ, it's probably one of the best displays, at least in cinema, that we've seen of what Jesus possibly endured, but we have to recognize that that pales into comparison to what our Savior actually endured for us. And the one thing, and I get why they didn't do it, but the one thing that they missed is that Jesus was also very likely naked on the cross. That he returned back to the original position of humanity to remove the shame that was brought on by their sin. That he took the fullness of their sin, iniquities, all of our sickness, all of our disease, and our shame. That through his eternal sacrifice, Jesus restored the original intent of how we were designed to walk in community with God, and that is shame. Free. And I get it. It doesn't fully make sense. Like, again, we understand that he's forgiven our sins,

and we may have even taken it a step further. Like, we understand past, present, and future sins are forgiven, but you're like, preacher man, I. I still struggle, I'm still broken, I still walk through things, but there's a revelation that I'm trying to get you to see here this morning that when you can grasp it, when you can understand it, when you can unlock that thing in your mind, all of a sudden it transforms the way that you and I live. And it's high time that we stop allowing the enemy to constantly remind us of who we used to be, to constantly use our greatest weaknesses and failures as a weapon against us. And like when I mentioned the name Noah, we think about the ark and his faithfulness and 120 years building, no rain, and all of a sudden rain comes and he's faithful. None of us really, probably the first thing we think about is his drunkenness. We recognize God's goodness in his life. And when I speak the name of King David, we recognize he was a great king, he slayed Goliath, that he was the greatest king that Israel ever had. And maybe we think about Bathsheba and Uriah, but that's not the first thing because we recognize his goodness, then why don't we let ourselves off the hook? And it's possible it's because

we haven't forgiven ourselves. And we recognize his forgiveness, but until we can recognize that it's okay to forgive ourselves, we'll find ourselves marching around the same mountain. And I know there's some of us in this morning that just feel like there's these things in our lives, it just doesn't matter how hard we try, how much we do, it's like, my gosh, here comes that mountain again, I'm marching around this mountain again, think about the Israelites in the wilderness, we saw that mountain two months ago. Why am I here again? I recognize forgiveness, but why am I here still walking through this thing in my life? And I can only speak to you guys about this today because I've lived it, I've walked it. I've been a man who's committed great sins that shortly after I got married, my wife and I got married at 19 and 18 years old, and what do they say, young, dumb, broken in love, that's all I needed, I just needed her and Jesus, that's all I needed, I didn't have no money, I didn't have a great job, in fact, I worked night shift, she worked day shift for like the first six months of our marriage, we didn't even see each other. And it was great till it wasn't. You know that honeymoon phase, go by quick.

Don't forget, I'm looking at my friends Macy and Dawson getting ready to get married over there, don't forget, it's good, but then it's hard. And because of my inability to deal with patterns that I developed in my teenage life, where when I was dating, things got hard and I was like, yo, your boy's out, like, I ain't doing this, what is this? Yo, we kids, man, this is crazy. You know, and how it goes when people break up, it's never you, like, no, she was crazy, bro. He was crazy, like, you just said you loved him five seconds ago. And when things got hard, I was out. At 20 years old, I was gone. That I had developed a secret relationship outside of my marriage and I approached my wife and said, I'm done, I'm gone. And it was in that moment that I recognized that I wasn't just giving up on my marriage, that I was in fact turning my back on my family. And can I just, can I be real with you guys, is this okay? It was like a double middle finger to God, I was done with him too. I was gonna do me, I was gonna do what I thought was right, what I thought was good. So here I am living, doing my own thing. And about 10 days into this process, I found myself driving to work and I had about a 35, 40 minute commute to work.

And as I'm driving down the road, I'm not thinking about nothing. I gotta get to work, running a little bit late. And in a moment, love like I had never experienced before arrested my heart. And I'm driving and all of a sudden I begin to weep and I'm like, I can't see. So I pull over and I just begin to repent and I was so confused. God, I turned my back on you. God, don't you know what I'm doing right now? Don't you know how I've been living right now? And it was like in that moment, none of that mattered. And all of a sudden the love of God began to wash over me. So I got to work and I don't remember, I think I might have like taken a half day or something and I went home and I apologized to my wife, I repented and I called my family and I repented and we walked through a process of restoration and by the grace of God that was year one, we just celebrated year 13 and God has been gracious and faithful to us. But can I tell you what has followed me? See in that moment of restoration I understood that she didn't have to forgive me but she chose to and I understood that he didn't have to forgive me but he chose to. I understood forgiveness but the shame followed me for years and anytime we'd be watching a movie or a TV show or we'd hear a story about divorce or infidelity or anything like that, all of a sudden I'd begin to be broken and I remember there was a point where, you know, we're watching a show or a movie and Rachel looks over and I'm crying and she's like, baby, are you okay? And I'm just like, in a moment I was reminded of everything that I had done. She's like, no baby, I love you. We've moved past that. God has forgiven you.

But it wasn't until I went on a journey of my own and I began to investigate Scripture, which this is for free this morning. Everything you and I need for life and godliness is found here. But all the answers you're looking for, podcasts, they're great. Self-help books, they're great. Counselors are necessary. Therapists are needed. But if we neglect the very thing that God left for us, we can listen to all the podcasts, read all the books, go to all the counseling. But if we neglect the living word of God, we'll possibly miss it altogether. And I was tired of dealing with it. So I opened the book and I was like, Lord, I need you to speak to me. How can I get past this very thing? It was about seven years ago, I began a personal study through what is personally my favorite book in all of the New Testament, and that's the book of Ephesians. And I want us to recognize this language that Paul uses in Ephesians chapter two in the first five verses. Watch what he says here. Once you were dead because of your disobedience in any sense, you used to live in sin just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil, the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature, we were subject to God's anger, just like everyone else. But God. But God is so rich in mercy and he loved us so much that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead, and it is only by God's grace that you have been saved. He didn't just die to forgive our sins and give us eternal life.

He died to permanently separate us from who we used to be. In the book of Hebrews, in chapter one in verse three, Paul writes it, possibly Paul writes it like this, who being the brightness of his glory, the very reflection of the Father, in the express image of his person, his character, his nature, Jesus was all of those things, and upholding all things by the word of his power, he sustains and upholds everything by the word of his power, that's the sun, the moon, the stars, are upheld, suspended in space by the word of his power. When he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high, and this word purged here in the original language means this, eternally, permanently, decisively separated. That it's no longer just a covering, that it's a cleansing from the inside. That our sinfulness, our brokenness, our shamefulness, all the condemnation and the guilt has been removed from us, it's been purged from us, eternally, permanently, decisively separated, and so long as the moon, the sun, the stars, and the earth are suspended in nothingness, your sin has been purged from you. eternally, permanently, decisively, separated. I've always heard it said that Jesus died for us. But my friend, he didn't just die for us, he died as us. And if you've ever wondered why the people that were just shouting, Hosanna, Hosanna, have turned their backs on him, is because in that moment, when he is on trial, all of a sudden their eyes are opened, and what they see, they don't even recognize it, what they see is their brokenness, their sinfulness on this man, and they shout, crucify him, crucify him. But it was in his goodness, and his love and his mercy that he bore it all, took all of our sin,

took all of our iniquities, all our diseases, and all of our shame, and has made access for you and I to live a shame-free life. And like, I've been having a hard time over the past several weeks, as I've been chewing on this thing, even articulating, like, if you could just accept that and recognize that, all of a sudden it'll transform the way you live. And I know, I reached out to Pastor Mike a couple of weeks ago, and we sang that song, The Blood, and I say, hey man, have you guys ever sang that song? He's like, yeah, 6,000 times in the last three months. I said, can you please just sing it one more time for me? That I hope you didn't miss those lyrics, that it's never been about your performance. And this is why I honestly just, I have a hard time comprehending those that are like, yeah, I don't, this whole Jesus thing. In what other religion or way of life do you not have to prove yourself to be worthy? That it's in Christ, that actually the first step is actually recognizing your brokenness, and that you and I could do nothing to earn anything that He's done for us. It's never been about our performance. It's never been about our perfection or striving for acceptance. Let me tell you, friend, it is only by His blood. It's never been about deserving or earning. It's that gift that's freely given.

Let me tell you, it's only by the blood, which means the pressure to perform, the need to do enough or be enough is gone. And it's by the blood that you and I have been blood-bought, purchased with a high price. Your debt is gone. Your shame has been purged. Your sins have been eradicated. And the only way for you and I to fully walk in that is surrender. Stop trying to do enough, because it'll never be enough. Stop trying to measure up to some unrealistic standard. Jesus has met the standard. And that when we are in Christ Jesus, God no longer sees our brokenness. He sees Christ's wholeness over us. And it's in that recognition, it's in that understanding of who we are now that we find freedom. We are free now because of what He did. Then you and I are not the sum of our past mistakes. We're the byproduct of His grace. And I would be remiss to not mention that it's possible that some of us are carrying shame for things that we never even did. That we carry around words that people said about us. Ways that people treated us. Things that people did to us. Yeah, that shame is gone too.

That you aren't what that broken person said you were. That you don't have to walk around feeling like you'll never be good enough because of what something or someone did to you. That He removes the shame from the things that we did, but also removes it from the things that were done to us. And as we respond to the Word today, I recognize that there's very likely two groups of people in this place this morning. That it's possible that you're in this place, and you might be like, man, this is my first time here, this is my first time in a church in a long time, or maybe you've been hanging around for a little bit, and you're like, I'm gonna just, I'm gonna, you know, just check it out, I really know about this whole Jesus thing. But if I could give you the most simple presentation of the gospel, this is it. That while you were still yet a sinner, He chose you. That while you were walking around in your brokenness, He loved you and died for you, and made access for you, and made a way for you. That there was a man who knew no sin, that bore all of our sin, all of our shame, all of our disease, that died in our place, died the death that we deserved, because He loved us enough to create access unto Him, that you don't have to measure up, or do enough, or be good enough, that the Bible actually tells us that our righteousness is but filthy rags, that it's His righteousness, that it's surrendering to Him. He doesn't need you to have it all figured out, friend, before He accepts you, He accepts you now. And as you walk into Him, and walk with Him, all of a sudden your life will begin to transform and change, but it's only by Him.