De-platformed. Blocked. Facebook Jailed. Canceled. These terms that didn’t even exist ten years ago have not only become common language; they have become things that make us angry, fearful, and reluctant to speak out. In the age of social media, it can be easy to think that if you were to be canceled, your voice would be gone. We believe nothing we say or do matters once we have lost access to the world’s platform for being heard. It is not just celebrities that are fighting to have one another canceled, but average folks too.
Social Media Is Not Where We Live
We place too much emphasis on what the world thinks and the platforms where we have access and have our voices heard. The truth is that generations after us will look upon sites like Facebook, TikTok, and Twitter as some weird thing that old people used to do. They will eventually end up irrelevant and unimportant.
Matthew 10:29-31 NIV Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
Scripture teaches us that we are clearly incapable of being canceled. As children of God, and co-heirs with Christ, there is no force on earth that can silence our voice or cause us to lose hope, meaning, or purpose.
Our voice is heard in our homes, our neighborhoods, our workplaces, and God can take these small interactions and change lives eternally. He has been working that way since the beginning of recorded history.
We Are Chosen
The establishment thought that they had canceled the prophet, Jeremiah. .
Jeremiah 38:4-6 NIV Then the officials said to the king, “This man should be put to death. He is discouraging the soldiers who are left in this city, as well as all the people, by the things he is saying to them. This man is not seeking the good of these people but their ruin.” “He is in your hands,” King Zedekiah answered. “The king can do nothing to oppose you.” So they took Jeremiah and put him into the cistern of Malkijah, the king’s son, which was in the courtyard of the guard. They lowered Jeremiah by ropes into the cistern; it had no water in it, only mud, and Jeremiah sank down into the mud.
But God had other ideas.
Jeremiah 1:4-5, 9-10 NIV The word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”
Jeremiah was a chosen instrument of God, sent to proclaim a very unpopular message. Jeremiah was a bearer of bad news. You might even say that his message was politically incorrect.
Jeremiah 27:16-17 NIV Then I said to the priests and all these people, “This is what the Lord says: Do not listen to the prophets who say, ‘Very soon now the articles from the Lord’s house will be brought back from Babylon.’ They are prophesying lies to you. Do not listen to them. Serve the king of Babylon, and you will live. Why should this city become a ruin?
This kind of preaching got Jeremiah ‘canceled’. The words he wrote were shredded and thrown into a fire
Jeremiah 36:23 NIV Whenever Jehudi had read three or four columns of the scroll, the king cut them off with a scribe’s knife and threw them into the firepot, until the entire scroll was burned in the fire.
Yet the words he spoke came to pass, and are written down for us to read to this day.
Like Jeremiah, the words we speak that are true, and point to Christ, can never be taken away no matter who rejects them.
We Matter to God
It doesn’t take much to make us feel like we are insignificant. In a world with billions of people, there are so many shouting to be heard! Social media is the most obvious medium that can make us feel that our thoughts don’t matter. It is also the main place where we can get ‘canceled,'’ whether we are blocked from the platforms or simply ignored.
Yet God says that before we even have a thought, he knows it. He intimately knows the words we speak, the way we feel, and cares deeply for us.
Psalms 139:1-4 NIV You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely.
Even if speaking the truth of the gospel seems to turn the whole world against us, we can know that the one who made and sustains us not only hears but celebrates us for who we are in him.
Zephaniah 3:17 NIV The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.”
People worked to silence Jesus and the apostles too. Each time those attempts served to further the purpose and message of God. As believers, our words will not go unheard, our voices will not be silenced, and no matter who tries to ‘cancel’ us or the gospel that we preach, the Word of God will continue to grow and flourish as it always has.
1 Peter 1:24-25 NIV For, “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever.” And this is the word that was preached to you.
Isaiah 55:10-11 NIV As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
Social Media Is Not Where We Live
We place too much emphasis on what the world thinks and the platforms where we have access and have our voices heard. The truth is that generations after us will look upon sites like Facebook, TikTok, and Twitter as some weird thing that old people used to do. They will eventually end up irrelevant and unimportant.
Matthew 10:29-31 NIV Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
Scripture teaches us that we are clearly incapable of being canceled. As children of God, and co-heirs with Christ, there is no force on earth that can silence our voice or cause us to lose hope, meaning, or purpose.
Our voice is heard in our homes, our neighborhoods, our workplaces, and God can take these small interactions and change lives eternally. He has been working that way since the beginning of recorded history.
We Are Chosen
The establishment thought that they had canceled the prophet, Jeremiah. .
Jeremiah 38:4-6 NIV Then the officials said to the king, “This man should be put to death. He is discouraging the soldiers who are left in this city, as well as all the people, by the things he is saying to them. This man is not seeking the good of these people but their ruin.” “He is in your hands,” King Zedekiah answered. “The king can do nothing to oppose you.” So they took Jeremiah and put him into the cistern of Malkijah, the king’s son, which was in the courtyard of the guard. They lowered Jeremiah by ropes into the cistern; it had no water in it, only mud, and Jeremiah sank down into the mud.
But God had other ideas.
Jeremiah 1:4-5, 9-10 NIV The word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”
Jeremiah was a chosen instrument of God, sent to proclaim a very unpopular message. Jeremiah was a bearer of bad news. You might even say that his message was politically incorrect.
Jeremiah 27:16-17 NIV Then I said to the priests and all these people, “This is what the Lord says: Do not listen to the prophets who say, ‘Very soon now the articles from the Lord’s house will be brought back from Babylon.’ They are prophesying lies to you. Do not listen to them. Serve the king of Babylon, and you will live. Why should this city become a ruin?
This kind of preaching got Jeremiah ‘canceled’. The words he wrote were shredded and thrown into a fire
Jeremiah 36:23 NIV Whenever Jehudi had read three or four columns of the scroll, the king cut them off with a scribe’s knife and threw them into the firepot, until the entire scroll was burned in the fire.
Yet the words he spoke came to pass, and are written down for us to read to this day.
Like Jeremiah, the words we speak that are true, and point to Christ, can never be taken away no matter who rejects them.
We Matter to God
It doesn’t take much to make us feel like we are insignificant. In a world with billions of people, there are so many shouting to be heard! Social media is the most obvious medium that can make us feel that our thoughts don’t matter. It is also the main place where we can get ‘canceled,'’ whether we are blocked from the platforms or simply ignored.
Yet God says that before we even have a thought, he knows it. He intimately knows the words we speak, the way we feel, and cares deeply for us.
Psalms 139:1-4 NIV You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely.
Even if speaking the truth of the gospel seems to turn the whole world against us, we can know that the one who made and sustains us not only hears but celebrates us for who we are in him.
Zephaniah 3:17 NIV The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.”
People worked to silence Jesus and the apostles too. Each time those attempts served to further the purpose and message of God. As believers, our words will not go unheard, our voices will not be silenced, and no matter who tries to ‘cancel’ us or the gospel that we preach, the Word of God will continue to grow and flourish as it always has.
1 Peter 1:24-25 NIV For, “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever.” And this is the word that was preached to you.
Isaiah 55:10-11 NIV As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
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