Cancel Culture with Pastor Clayton Tyner

Welcome to the MetaCurch Podcast.

My name's Clayton.

I'm the pastor here at MetaCurch.

And my hope is that today's podcast finds you at the perfect time in your life that God uses it to inspire and enlighten you.

I hope that you enjoy today's message.

Hey MetaCurch, it's so good to be back with you guys.

If you're new with us for the first time, my name's Clayton.

I'm the lead pastor here at Meta.

And man, I want to thank Pastor Lee Wong, a good friend of mine, for jumping in last week and just absolutely bringing it.

You know, when we started MetaCurch, we thought, what are a handful of values, ways that we can live, that if we really put them into practice in our life, would lead us to this God-given purpose that we're always talking about.

We ended up with seven how we live.

And one of them, Lee really dug into last week.

It's this idea of a pilgrim's perspective.

And here's really what we mean by pilgrim's perspective: it's the idea of living with heaven always in view, living with eternity always on the horizon of your thoughts and decisions and relationships.

You know, one of the best leadership books of all time is The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Individuals.

Stephen Covey wrote these seven habits, and if you applied them into your life, you'd become an incredible leader.

And one of them is to begin with the end in mind.

We agree with this, except we're not talking about the end of a project or the end of the quarter or the end of some milestone in your life.

We're talking about all the way to the end, like the end of your life and what's on the other side of it.

A pilgrim's perspective is the recognition that as believers in Jesus, we are new creations, that we are in the world, but we're not of the world.

We're living for our real home, which is yet to come.

We live with heaven always in mind.

We live with the end in mind.

This is so critical.

And when I first talked to Lee about coming in and preaching for us, and I just appreciate City Tribe Church for letting us borrow him for a week, we started talking about different messages that he might want to put in front of us.

And I was talking about messages that I had coming up, and we decided to do these two weeks where we continue to drill down onto what it means to have a pilgrim's perspective.

And I want to talk about it today through a little bit of a different lens.

We have so much going on in the world right now.

Of course, it's been months now since we've gotten to actually meet in our venues on Sunday morning.

We moved from meeting together and moving together to this season where we're still streaming together and serving together.

And of course, that's because of this global pandemic that's going on, and everyone's still trying to figure out how to manage.

And on top of that, now we have just like this societal upheaval.

We have the controversial election coming up, we've got racial unrest, all of these things going on.

And in order to find a way forward, the one thing we have to be able to do is to dialogue.

We've got to be able to talk, we have to be able to take opposing positions on difficult topics to end up coming to the best solution.

And yet, even that most fundamental principle of conversation, dialogue, even that has been brought into question by something that is a new normal in society.

Today I want to address it head on and talk about why it matters for us and why it matters for our movement as followers of Jesus.

The title of my message today is Cancel Culture.

Would you pray with me?

Father, we love you.

We come to you, God, I just lift up heavy hearts.

This is a difficult season, God.

For many of us, this is the most difficult season we've ever lived through.

God, we just we want to go see friends.

We want to travel.

We want to sit in our offices again.

For many people, they want their job back.

They want to get off of furlough.

God, for some they're watching as they have sick loved ones, friends and family.

It's so difficult.

And so, God, we look to you.

And I pray that this time is encouraging as we come together and we worship you through singing and lifting our voices, and we worship you through getting in your word.

And so be with us today and just show us a way of living life, of adding this pilgrim's perspective, God, taking every single day and acknowledging the fact that this world is not our home, that there is a God in heaven who loves us and who has secured our future.

And I pray that we can take a step towards that today.

We love you, and we pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

My message today is called cancel culture.

If you're unfamiliar with this term, here's a simple working definition.

Cancel culture is the practice of withdrawing support for or canceling public figures, companies, or even individuals after they have done or said something that is considered objectionable or offensive.

After they've done or said something that is considered objectionable or offensive.

Now, this definition begs a couple of further questions.

The first question might be what exactly is objectionable or offensive?

We've got to know that if we're gonna avoid it and not get canceled.

The question beyond that is even more important, which is who exactly gets to decide what we do and say and whether or not it is in fact objectionable or offensive.

Whoever gets to decide that holds an incredible amount of power.

Because if they decide that your thought, your truth, your belief is in fact objectionable or offensive, it means they now have the power to cancel you.

This is almost too soft of a definition.

It's a definition I found.

I Googled it.

I Googled cancel culture, right?

I didn't dig real far for this.

It was just an easy working definition.

But I'll be honest, it doesn't quite have enough teeth for what I'm observing in the cancel culture that we're living in.

It sounds honestly a little bit more like a boycott.

Now, I grew up Southern Baptist, like traditional Southern Baptists, like organ on one side and piano on the other, and suits and ties and drums are from the devil.

Really traditional church experience.

And as a Baptist, man, we boycott people all the time.

Growing up, we were just waiting for the next boycott.

I was trying to think of a few of them.

And I was, I could get along, but what it really meant when you boycott is that something that you you like to eat, or a place that you like to go, or a product that you like to use, you're not going to get to use, do, or go to anymore.

That's what a boycott meant for you as a kid.

One time we we boycott, uh, our church boycott Proctor and Gamble.

I don't know if you know Procter and Gamble, this massive company.

You know what they make?

Everything! They make everything, they make the soaps and the toothbrushes and the washing machines, everything in your house is Procter and Gamble.

And it was like, that's fine.

I can do that.

I can handle Procter and Gamble.

I can brush my teeth with dirt, like whatever we've got to do here.

I guess we're taking a stand.

We want to make a difference, we want to see some change.

But I had to put my seven-year-old foot down when they came to boycott Disney.

I will do whatever you want, but don't take my Disney channel, man.

We boycott everything.

And maybe they sound similar like this boycott culture, cancel culture, but there is a distinct difference.

You see, a boycott seems to be applying pressure or withdrawing support in order to see change.

It is a peaceful way to create a change that you want to see.

That's not what I'm seeing.

What I'm seeing in cancel culture is that people are canceled in an effort to destroy their life or their company.

It's vicious.

And whoever gets to decide what is offensive gets to decide who gets canceled.

And if you get canceled, you may never recover.

I started thinking a lot about this, so I was like, why is this so scary?

Why is it such a scary thing?

And we don't think about it a lot, but uh I believe it might go to an individual level.

On a personal level, we all know what it's like to be left out societally.

We know what it's like for the people around us to have a secret, and we're the one person who doesn't know it.

Maybe you know what it's like to sit at the wrong table in the cafeteria and wish that you were with the cool kids.

Maybe you know what it's like to just know that you've earned a promotion, but that promotion got canceled and given to someone who knows how to work the political system of your office a little bit better than you do.

We all know what it's like to feel lonely and rejected and ostracized, broken up with, maybe, maybe asked on it, uh asking someone on a date and them just giving you the hard no, the hard pass.

Maybe it's something really painful, like a spouse leaving you or kids who have grown up and have now just kind of left you behind, don't ever check in, don't ever come to see you.

We all know what it's like in these very little individual ways to feel canceled.

And if we know what it feels like on this micro level, what would it be like if an entire cultural group or an entire society decided to cancel us?

It bears a lot of weight because it uses fear.

And fear is the most powerful lever to pull and controlling and manipulating people.

No one wants to be canceled.

Second, I think that it is scary specifically for us as followers of Jesus, and here's why.

You probably know this already, but the group that gets to decide what is offensive or objectionable, the group that gets to decide whether or not you will ultimately get canceled is our culture.

And our culture, it takes five seconds on social media to see, is progressively moving further and further and further away from a Christian worldview.

What that means is that as followers of Christ, we hold deep, real truths, deep-seated beliefs that are important to us.

They matter, they're how we live out our God-given purpose.

And as time goes on, if you haven't already, we will run into a situation where our beliefs, rooted in the truths of Scripture, will become the very things that are objectionable or offensive to our culture.

And when that happens, you'll be met with a choice.

The choice will be conformity or cancellation.

Will you be willing to give up on your beliefs, to massage them, change them, manipulate them?

Will you be ready to lay down the truths of Christ in order to fit in to the culture?

Conformity or cancellation?

And the question is, when that moment comes where your truths collide with culture, what will you do?

Last week, Lee did a great job of introducing us to the Apostle Paul and the life that he was living.

And this dude was canceled everywhere he went.

And I'm not talking about people sub-tweeting him, I'm not talking about nasty comments on his Facebook, I'm not talking about not buying his tents anymore, boycotting his products.

This dude was stoned, he was shipwrecked, he was whipped, he was imprisoned multiple times.

The list goes on and on and on.

And yet, Paul continued to live right in the center of the truths he held on to.

He continued to live right in the grip of his God-given purpose, he continued to live a life that ultimately changed the world.

And in a culture that was hell-bent on canceling Christianity, Paul was able to persevere.

And today, I want us to see how.

It could cost you everything.

And yet, many people hear about a God who loved them enough to leave heaven and come to earth to die the death that they deserved, who had the power of life to be raised again, and who was calling them to a different perspective, a pilgrim's perspective, to be in this world but not of it, to begin living a life with the end in mind.

Many people responded to the gospel.

We have one of the letters that Paul wrote to the church in Philippi.

We call it the letter to the Philippians, and we're gonna start at the end.

In Philippians chapter 4, verse 9, it says, Do what you've learned and received and heard from me and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

Philippians 4:9

Paul says, I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, because once again you renewed your care for me.

You were in fact concerned about me, but lacked the opportunity to show it.

In verse 11, he says, I don't say this out of need.

For I have learned to be content in whatever circumstance I find myself in.

Content.

Isn't that really the heart of what we would love for our lives and our homes, our families and communities to be surrounded with?

Isn't that what's really missing from the world right now?

Do you see any evidence of contentment in our society?

What would that be like?

Content in pandemic, content in political unrest, content.

Paul says, I am content in cancellation.

I have learned the secret to be content in whatever circumstance.

In verse 12, he says, I know how to make do with little, and I know how to make do with a lot.

In any and all circumstances, I have learned the secret of being content, whether well fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need.

Now we just skip to the end of the book.

I'm asking you to live with the end in mind, a pilgrim's perspective.

We're gonna start at the end of Philippians.

This is the answer, the secret of contentment of whatever he has in whatever circumstances he's in, the ability to be okay.

I want you to see that it's possible that Paul is living exactly how Paul wants to live, which coincidentally lines up exactly with how Christ wants him to live.

He's living a significant life, he is living right on the path of his purpose, and living that way has put him through hell.

And he says, I'm good.

I'm canceled, but I'm content.

And we've got to learn this.

We've got to learn this.

And let me tell you why.

Because as soon as culture knows what to cancel in your life, they now have the leverage to get you to conform.

There was nothing the world could throw at Paul that would make him abandon his truth and his path of purpose in order to conform.

There was no way to cancel him.

The question is, how?

So we saw last week that the starting place is a pilgrim's perspective, living every day with heaven in view.

And now I want you to see it in this letter to the Philippians.

We started at the end in chapter four.

Now I want you to see how he summarizes chapter one, back to the beginning of the letter.

He says in chapter 1, 27, just one thing.

He's gone through 26 verses and he says, Let me summarize just one thing.

As citizens of heaven, live your life worthy of the gospel.

As citizens of heaven.

This is a big idea.

They are in a Roman province, and in Rome, citizenship is the path to everything, the path to affluence, the path to upward mobility, the path to success in business, the path to marriage.

Your citizenship is vital to you living a good and prosperous life.

And now, Paul says, you're no longer a citizen of Philippi, you are no longer a citizen of Rome.

As a matter of fact, you're no longer a citizen of the planet that we call Earth.

You are now a citizen of heaven.

What does that make you?

A citizen of heaven, but you're here on earth.

You're just a pilgrim passing through.

And here's what a pilgrim's perspective does.

The first truth we learn is that a pilgrim's perspective gives us a new passion.

A pilgrim's perspective every day, using the end, the fact that you are an eternal being who is headed towards eternity with God, using that as the filter for your life, will give you a new passion.

He says, as citizens of heaven, live your life worthy of the gospel of Christ.

He says, then whether I come and see you or I'm absent, I'll hear about you that you're standing firm in one spirit, in one accord, that you're standing firm, that when your truths and your beliefs are found offensive, you are standing firm.

That when culture objects to how you are living your life, that you stand firm in one spirit, in one accord, contending together for the faith of the gospel.

This does not sound like Paul is calling us to conformity.

Hey, listen, these truths that I taught you, all this stuff about Jesus, it's gonna make your life really, really hard.

They're probably gonna wanna kick you out of your business.

No one's gonna buy from you because they think the emperor is God, and you say that God is God, and so no one's gonna buy from you.

But listen, I mean, you can just kind of like you can give in a little bit, you know, you can do like one, like like hail Caesar, and then people will buy, but in secret, you know, in secret you'll really be worshiping Jesus.

You can give in just a little bit.

This isn't a passage of conformity.

He says, contend for the gospel.

This is a new passion.

I wonder what you're passionate about.

I'm a pretty passionate individual.

I don't really do things halfway.

If I'm gonna become a reader, like I got into reading like five years ago, and I was like, I'm going all out.

I'm gonna read every book I can get my hand.

Like, I'm not gonna do something halfway.

If I'm gonna do CrossFit, I'm gonna go all the way in.

I mean, I've got to temper it because I can get obsessed.

And what happens when I get obsessed about my earthly passions is it always comes at the same time that I begin to lose my view of my future.

What is your passion?

I think it's good to have passions.

Maybe your career is your passion, maybe you're really doing something that you love.

Maybe your career is just how you make money and you've got some stuff on the side, you got some hobbies on the side.

Man, I hope that your family is your passion.

I hope you're passionate about them.

I hope your marriage is full of passion.

But what is your ultimate passion?

You see, a pilgrim's perspective adds something into the mix: something bigger, something grander, something greater, something that is out there.

It is one supreme passion to now filter all of your passions through.

You have to remember that with the gospel as your passion, and the gospel is like a churchy word.

And I don't like using a lot of churchy words, and so let me just try to break this down.

Gospel means good news, and the good news is that Jesus came, he died in your place, he rose again, he's coming back for you someday, and he has called you to live a life, joining with him for the redemption of all of mankind.

The gospel says to go into all of the world to preach that gospel, the good news of Jesus.

This is how we say it at MetaCurch.

We do whatever it takes to get people to Jesus.

What if that is the supreme passion of your life?

Not one of your passions.

I love fishing, I love hunting, and I and I love the gospel, and we put it in this list where they're all the same.

What if it's the supreme passion?

What if when you take people from work hunting, it's not just to drop a buck, you gotta drop some money and you gotta drop a deer.

That was on accident.

It's not it's not just to get the latest kill.

What if when you take them fishing, it's not just to get on the water?

What if you're looking for spiritual opportunities?

What if it's a part of building equity for when the bottom falls down on their life and they don't know where to turn, they will.

Turn to you, and you actually have the answer because the hope of Jesus is inside of you.

That's a pilgrim's perspective.

It's a new passion, a supreme passion that everything else gets filtered through.

And if you live your life that way, if you live a gospel-led life, I can promise you that at some point you will run into the culture.

You will be offensive because the gospel is offensive.

And the question will be conformity or cancellation?

How you respond, and I know how I know how you want to respond.

I'm not conforming, I'm not dropping my values, I'm gonna hold on to Christ.

I'm not I know that's how we all want.

We want that, but if we're not in the practice of living with a pilgrim's perspective, my fear is conformity will be our answer.

The first thing a pilgrim's perspective does is it gives us a new passion.

But it's not the only thing it does.

A pilgrim's perspective also gives us a new priority, a new passion, a new priority.

I want you to hear Paul's priorities.

In verse 7, he says, but everything that was a gain to me, chapter 3, verse 7, everything that was gain, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ.

Now, Paul was an impressive dude.

Paul was highly trained, he was the top of his class.

He rose through the ranks in Judaism like no one had seen before.

He was taught by the scholar of all scholars, he was put into the best schools, he knew the law backwards and forwards, he had a zeal and a passion for the Jewish religion.

As a matter of fact, when this new thing called Christianity sprung up, he was so zealous and so passionate that he took it upon himself to put an end to Christianity.

Paul set out to cancel Christianity, and on his way to canceling Christianity, he met Christianity's Christ.

And it changed his life.

And all of this gain, all of these accolades, all the advancement, all the education, all the admiration, all the influence, all the status that Paul had, and he had it all in spades.

He says, Everything that was gained, I now count as loss.

This is the power of living with the end in mind.

You see what happens when every single day you look up to heaven, you look up to eternity, you look up and realize that you are in this world, but you are not of this world.

You are an eternal being who for now has this suit of flesh on that one day it will pass away, you will live on, and everything else in this world will pass away with it.

It's all pointless if it's not pointing to something greater.

What are your priorities in life?

Like, really?

Like, really, what are your priorities in life?

What are your goals?

What are you trying to achieve or attain?

This is an important question.

You know, Jesus said that where your treasure is, there your heart is also.

What are you investing in?

If it is just things of this world, if the things that you invest into aren't pointing to something greater, a supreme passion, a supreme priority, a passion and a priority rooted in eternity, then you have set yourself up for the culture to cancel you.

If your greatest priorities or temporary are temporary things that are rooted in our current reality, then you have displayed the very thing that the culture can leverage to force you to conform.

If your supreme passion and your supreme priority are things that can be taken away right here in the physical realm, then when that moment comes, when that moment comes that your truth is not lined up with the culture, then you have something that can be canceled that will be detrimental to your existence.

Where are your priorities?

If your treasure is in heaven.

Everything that actually matters in your life is already being stored up on the other side of this life.

If you're a believer in Jesus, you're an eternal being, you're gonna spend forever and ever in a perfect eternity with God.

It's already there.

The way you live your life, it's already accruing interest on the other side of eternity.

And if that's where your priority is, if that's where your passion is, then you have set your life up in a way where nothing you have on earth can be canceled and you don't have to conform.

I'm not saying not to live life.

You want to make money?

Great, maybe you're good at it.

What are you gonna do with your money?

How are you gonna make your money?

If you are stepping on people to make your money, then you are trading eternal opportunities for temporary riches.

What do you do after you get the money?

How do you use it?

How do you use it for your passion, your supreme passion?

How do you use it to fund your supreme priority?

How do you use it for a gospel-led, purposeful, powerful, significant life?

I want you to see Paul's passion in chapter 3, verse 8.

He says, More than that, I consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.

That's it.

All of it, anything and everything the world could offer him, he sees as nothing compared to knowing Christ and living out his purpose as a part of Jesus' movement.

He says, Because of him, because of Christ, I have suffered the loss of all things and considered them as dung so that I may gain Christ.

Some of you need to read scripture.

You didn't know it said that.

Some of you have your kids in the room right now, and you're like, We're not gonna talk like that.

We're not gonna talk like the Apostle Paul.

I've got bad news for you.

I've got really bad news for you.

Because every once in a while my staff watches me preach, and I get so fired up that they get worried.

I'm gonna let a word slip and we're gonna lose half of our attendance.

They get a little bit concerned because I get so passionate sometimes, and I need you to know, I need you to know this in the Greek, that word is not dung.

We have translated it that way so that it's more biblically appropriate.

But what Paul actually said is this is BS.

That's what Paul said.

That's the passion that he had.

Everything in this world, forget it, forget it.

Can you imagine being in Philippi and getting a letter from your apostle?

Like he just said, What?

All the riches, all the fame, all the influence, all the status, all the things we're living for, they're nothing, they're nothing.

Paul has a new passion, he has new priorities.

And if we can really get this, if we can get so good at practicing a pilgrim's perspective that the greatest things that the world has to offer are dung in comparison to the purpose we've been called to live, then we can align our priorities.

We can, like Lee taught us, when we're knocked down, we can get back up because we know we're living for a greater day.

We can live a life that is so earth-shattering, that is so world-changing, that is so rich in purpose and significance, we can live the life that we were created to live.

A pilgrim's perspective gives us a new passion, it gives us a new priority.

And finally, a pilgrim's perspective gives us a new prize.

A new prize.

In chapter 3, verse 12, Paul says, Not that I've already reached the goal or I'm already perfect, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus.

That's a powerful verse.

He's saying, This this life, this purpose, this reason I'm here on earth, man, I make every effort to grab it, to live it because I've been taken hold of.

I want to take hold of it because I've been taken hold of by Christ Jesus.

Do you want to be taken hold of by Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, the King of all kings?

You've got to see him every day.

Lift your eyes away from the temporary just nonsense of this world and see where you're headed.

Live with heaven in view, live with the end in mind.

Jesus has got you.

Jesus has got you.

He purchased your life on a cross, he's got you forever.

He has your soul, he wants your life, he wants to take hold of you.

Can you see him?

In verse 13, he says, brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do, forgetting what is behind.

I've got a new passion.

My passion is no longer to dwell on all of the things that I've gotten wrong.

My priority is no longer to become some great, big, bad, better than everyone, to make up from some insecurity that I picked up along the way in my past, forgetting what is behind me and reaching forward to what is ahead.

I pursue as my goal, a pilgrim's perspective gives us a new prize.

I pursue as my goal, the prize promised by God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus.

And when you read the writings of Paul, what you realize is that number one, he was sure of where he was going.

He knew that someday he would spend eternity with God.

But when you read the writings of Paul, you also know it is indisputable that he believed how he lived right now on this earth mattered for how he would experience eternity later.

And people don't like to talk about rewards.

We've done a whole series on it here because I think it's so important because God has something for you, and how you live your life matters.

And what Paul knew is that one day we would all stand before Jesus, we'd give an account for our life.

And let me tell you what that means.

It means that you will see every moment of your life.

Yes, that moment that just came to mind, the most embarrassing, most shameful moment, the things that you have done in the dark that you wish no one would ever find out about, all of it will come to light.

And in that moment, when all of our life is laid out and we've spent so much time thinking we're so good and so blessed and so righteous, and I mean I screw up a little bit, but at least I'm not like that guy.

At least I'm not like her.

At least I'm I'm not divorced five times, only three.

At least I'm not on those drugs, at least I'm not in that kind of debt.

We always do this comparison to make ourselves feel like we're living a pretty good life.

Let me tell you, when you see it all, you'll see it all.

You'll see it all.

And you will realize in that moment just how badly you needed a savior.

And in that moment, you will look at the savior who died for you.

And you will see the nails that left marks in his hands and in his feet.

And in that moment, when you see just how badly you needed a savior, you will see the savior and all that he's done for you.

And in that moment, your greatest desire will be to have some kind of way to say, Thank you.

People don't understand rewards because they're like, if I'm in heaven, why do I need some crowns?

If I'm in heaven, why do I need some jewels?

If I'm in heaven, why do I need this?

You know what Revelation says?

It says they took their crowns, they took their rewards, they took their wreaths, they took their jewels, and they cast them at the feet of Jesus.

And the way we live our life today is building up our capacity to say thank you tomorrow.

And Paul's like, I know who I was, I was a bad dude.

And I'm telling you right now, I know who I am, and I've been a bad dude, and I still have my bad dude days.

And I know someday that when I see my Savior, I will have wanted to have used as much of this life as possible to bring him glory.

Paul knew that day was coming, and that was his prize.

He said, I don't have all of it, I'm not there, I'm certainly not perfect, but forgetting what is behind, I'm moving forward and I'm doing everything I can in life.

Listen, Paul says, I have a new passion, a new passion, I have a new supreme priority.

There's a new prize that I'm pressing forward to.

Verse 18, he said, I've often told you, and I say again with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.

Their end is destruction, their God is their stomach, their glory is in their shame, and they are focused on earthly things.

And he says it again, verse 20, but our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The culture is focused on earthly things.

And I'm telling you, believer, I'm telling you, Christ follower, that if you have put your hope in the things that are on this earth, then when the culture comes for you, they can cancel you because what you have is right here in front of you.

It will happen, conform or cancel.

It is coming for all of us.

And Paul says, I'm not living for today.

My passion, my priorities, my prize is in heaven, and so you can come, you can cancel my career, cancel my influence, cancel my wealth, cancel my relationships, you can cancel everything I have because you cannot cancel my calling.

My life is beyond this world.

I'm just a pilgrim passing through, and whatever the world brings at me, they can bring.

You can't cancel someone whose citizenship is in heaven.

Jesus said, I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

You can't cancel the church, you can't cancel the movement of Jesus because the world is just borrowing us.

We are ambassadors sent from our home in heaven.

Ambassadors pleading for more of the world to believe in our Jesus.

A pilgrim's perspective gives us a new passion, a new priority.

It gives us a new prize, a new reason that we're living our life.

And we are in the world, and we're gonna work jobs, and we're gonna make money, and we're gonna have relationships, and we're gonna get married, and we're gonna have kids, and I think all of those things bring joy to our God.

But that alone is not enough.

Is our job and our money and our relationships and our marriages and our kids and our hobbies and our gifts and our talents, are they pointing at something greater?

Our passion keeps us from believing that we've arrived.

It allows us to let go of the past and focus on the future and realize that every day is another day to make a difference.

Our priorities largely determine the direction of our life, what we invest in with our time and our energy and our resources, and we're gonna have priorities and we're gonna make decisions, but what if all those priorities and decisions were being made through the grander lens of how it affects our eternity?

Our prize says what we're ultimately living for, and we all have something we're trying to attain.

There's something that's driving all of our motors, there's something that is waking us up in the morning.

And if it's not God, if it's not eternity, if it's not your purpose in Christ Jesus, listen to me now.

Whether you're a believer in Jesus, whether you're agnostic, atheist, different background, you just don't know, you're spiritually curious, wherever you're at, whatever your prize is, if you attain it, if you get there, get that job, get that girl, whatever it is, it will not be enough.

I hope you remember this moment on this camera.

I hope you remember this moment when you get it and it's not enough.

Because there's only one thing that can fill this void of significance in our life, and it is Jesus Christ.

If you get there and you realize it's not enough, I hope you'll come back.

I hope you'll remember.

I hope you will seek the one thing that is greater than this life because it is beyond this life.

A pilgrim's perspective makes us to where culture can't touch us.

And here's really what we're called to do.

As believers in Jesus, we are not called to give in to cancel culture.

You are called to cancel culture, to cancel the influence and impact that the culture around you is having on your life, your relationships, and your decisions.

I'm asking you to cancel culture.

And if you can cancel the culture, cancel its impact, cancel its immediacy, cancel its influence on your life, then culture can never cancel you.

How can it cancel us?

We're not living for it in the first place.

New passion, new priorities, new prize, and you will live a new purpose.

Would you pray with me?

God, we love you and uh we thank you.

God, we thank you in the midst of pandemic.

We thank you in the midst of a mess, God, uh of just anger and hatred.

Everywhere we turn and everywhere we look, we thank you because you are still God.

You are constant, you are never changing, and God, our purpose has stayed the same.

We are still called to do whatever it takes to get people to Jesus.

Lord, your word shows us that for us to do that effectively, we have got to keep our eyes on you.

I pray we would learn to live with a pilgrim's perspective.

God, I pray that when your truths in our life come into conflict with the culture around us, that we would have the ability to move forward, not to conform to not to conform.

If they need to cancel us, let them cancel us.

Because God, you have got us.

We love you.

We pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

For those of you who have joined us, we're not just streaming together, we're also finding ways to serve together.

And so make sure you follow us on social media, we're on Facebook and Instagram.

If you're a part of MetaCurch, please be doing your part to help fund this movement.

This, in your giving, is part of how you show your financial priority as something beyond this world.

So make sure you're helping to fund this movement.

You can give online at metachurch.tv or through the MetaCurch app.

It was so good to be back with you guys.

I love y'all.

Y'all stay safe and continue to be the movement.

Thanks so much for listening to the message today.

If this was helpful to you and you want to help us get the word out, you can subscribe to this podcast.

You can rate and review or share it with your friends.

If you want to get connected further with what MetaCurch is doing, you can go online to metachurch.tv.

There you can learn how to take next steps.

You can learn where our different venues are at if you ever wanted to visit, and you can also give financially to help push this movement forward.

And I love you guys, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.