All right, dreams for the new year.
What are you dreaming of for the new year?
What are you? What are you?
Well, that's right. Go ahead.
What are you dreaming of for the new year?
I'm. Dreaming that for the new year
that everybody's blessed and everybody never gets hurt and
nobody dies in. Crash OK, that's a good dream to
have for the new year. There's a lot of dreams we can
dream when we're looking ahead. One of the dreams that seems to
be a very significant dream for people.
You know, it's tempting to say younger people, but I think it's
really all people to some extent is a dream of being popular, of
being liked by folks around us, of being mired and respected.
And and there is a very real sense in which popularity
matters, but there's also a very real sense in which popularity
is a trap. And we're going to talk about
both of those things today, plus how we can avoid that trap.
The proverb says this fear, the fear of people becomes a snare.
But whoever trusts in the Lord will be set on high.
And, and that that kind of sums up the message in one sentence
there. But we're going to take that
sentence apart as we walk through it.
What does this have to do with with Wicked?
Right. I told you this was originally
part of the series Wicked for Christmas.
Well, think about Glenda and Alphabet, and if you haven't
seen the movies yet, you'll have to just imagine Glenda.
And well, you'll have to imagine them regardless, but you have a
harder time imagining them if you haven't seen it.
Glenda and Elphaba were roommates, and Elphaba was not
popular at all. She was one of the least popular
people in all of the Kingdom of Oz.
Glinda was probably the most popular person in all of Oz,
with perhaps the exception of the Wonderful Wizard himself.
And Glenda and Elphaba at first loathe each other.
But as they began to be friends, Glenda as a good friend might
started asking yourself what can I do to help my new friend
Elphaba? And what Glenda decided Elphaba
needed most were lessons on how to be popular.
Glenda was popular. People loved her.
They admired her, they respected her, they followed her lead.
And, and, and you know, who wouldn't want that?
Who wouldn't need that? How, how, how couldn't it make
Elphaba's life better if she just became popular?
And so she, that was so important to her that Glenda
wrote a song. Actually, she didn't write the
song. Someone else wrote the song.
But Glenda sang the song Popular.
And that's what Paisley is going to come up and sing for us here
today. At this point in the sermon,
Paisley Partlow sang popular. She did a beautiful job with the
song and I wish I could include it here, but due to technical
limitations, I could not get a good recording of her singing.
You can, however, find Ariana Grande's version on YouTube and
all major music platforms. Now back to the sermon, Great
job, Paisley, can I give you a hug?
You did a great job all three services today.
Thank you so much. You have, you were just saying
you were dreaming that everyone would be blessed this year and
you have blessed folks in all three churches today.
So thank you. Thank you very much, Glenda.
Understood what? What kids in every school,
everywhere understand that popularity matters.
Adults often use the phrase it's not what you know, it's who you
know. And that's another way of
acknowledging that popularity matters.
What people think about us matters.
It it can affect things we get asked to do, invited to do in
school, leadership roles we get invited to take in school.
It can it can affect the quality of the references we get when
we're when we're applying to colleges or jobs.
It can affect the jobs we get, the promotions we get or don't
get. It can affect the influence and
does affect the influence we may have in the community around us,
popularity, what people think of us, whether people admire us and
respect us or think little of us and negatively toward us.
So, so the, the notion that we can just tell ourselves or tell
our kids, hey, don't worry about it.
It doesn't matter if you're not popular.
It does matter. It does matter, and it's not the
most important thing that matters, but it does matter, and
we can't pretend that it doesn't.
If we pretend that it doesn't, we're we're likely to fall into
the trap of popularity, if in fact that trap is there.
Whether we think popularity matters or it doesn't matter,
the trap of popularity, the thing that we really, really
need to avoid is if we make popularity the focus of our
lives. It's one thing to say popularity
matters. It's another thing to say, I
need to be popular in order to succeed, in order to be happy,
in order to have a good life, in order to get the things that I
want, I need to be popular. And once we reach there, we've
gone to a place where we're now trapped by popularity because as
soon as we need to be popular, at that point, we become slaves
to the opinions of the people that we want to like us.
Right now, there's a lot of different examples of that.
In this day and age, popularity is nothing new.
We're going to see that they were talking about this all the
way back in Old Testament days. So, so the popularity and the
popularity trap are nothing new, but it's, it's because we live
in a world of social media where things that happen in one part
of the world are instantly known all over the world.
The the issue of popularity is, is amplified, if nothing else.
And there are people out there today, they make their living.
Their entire livelihood is built simply on popularity.
And and that's not just movie stars and music stars and
celebrities and TV stars. It's, it's the social media
influencers that are out there. It's in the wannabe social media
influencers who who need more likes and more views and more
plays and more clicks in order to get more sponsors, in order
to get more ads, in order to get more revenue, in order to to
have more influence and more impact in the world around them.
And so their entire goal becomes how can I be popular?
How can I get people to like me and follow me and admire me?
And what do I have to avoid doing in order for so folks
don't hate me or reject me or cancel me?
Now that issue is there. Now, it's been around for a
while. The, the, the, the problem and
the trap here, I think is easy to see in the life of someone
that I suspect everyone here, Well, maybe not everyone.
I forget we have a lot of young folks in here.
Anyone here not know who Michael Jordan is?
Michael Jordan, not now. Michael Jordan, greatest
basketball player of all time. My humble opinion, no one cares
about my opinion on that matter. I still think Jordan's the
greatest basketball player of all time.
Jordan has been great at at least two things in his life,
playing basketball and selling tennis shoes.
And he has sold a lot of Air Jordans.
He's gotten very rich. He's helped, he helped make Nike
into a powerhouse shoe company worldwide by selling tennis
shoes. Way back in the day when Jordan
was still playing basketball professionally and and he was
one of the most popular people in the world, there happened to
be a presidential election going on.
And I think it was a presidential election.
It was a national election, I think presidential election.
And, and Jordan was getting a lot of pressure from people
around him to come out vocally for the Democrat candidate and
the Democrat platform. And I'm not getting partisan
today. I'm just talking history right
now. Come out vocally for the
Democrat platform in the Democrat Party, and he wouldn't
do it. And he got pressured.
And he got pressured from a lot of different angles in a lot of
different directions, personally and socially.
There was no social media at this time, so that wasn't a
thing. But he was asked one time, why
won't you do this? And Jordan had a very simple
reply that kind of pulls the cover off the popularity trap.
And his reply was, I'm not going to do this because Republicans
buy sneakers too, right? Popularity.
You take a stand on an important issue that's a divisive issue,
and you lose customers, you lose clicks, you lose popularity.
And that's what Jordan did, Jordan's decision, he made a
business decision. And you can argue that from a
business standpoint, that was the right decision to make.
If you look at it from a, a, a social influence perspective,
people will say that's the wrong decision to make.
You should make that decision even if it costs you popularity.
You should pick a side on important issues like that.
We're not Michael Jordan's judge.
I'm not Michael Jordan's judge. He can sort all of that out with
God later, whether that was a problem or not a problem.
But for our purposes, it illustrates the trap of
popularity. If we base our life on being
popular, then we are bound to we are bound to please the people
in our audience. That becomes the goal.
Their opinion guides all of our major decisions.
Even more so today, I think, because even private decisions
today don't stay private very long.
In the world in which we live. The trap of popularity, we
become slaves to the folks that we need to please.
And they become our focus and they become our fear.
And they guide what we say and what we don't say and what we do
and what we don't do and, and, and how we act and how we don't
act. The trap of popularity.
So how do we avoid the popularity trap?
How do we stay free from being bound up in this quest?
Simply to seek likes from people and admiration from people.
One of the ways we do it is we do what Jesus did.
Followers of Jesus live for an audience of 1.
Jesus lived for an I jumped too far ahead.
I left a slide out. How did I do that?
It was in both of the others and I just copied and pasted.
That's very strange. Oh no, I didn't.
I just put him later. Followers of Jesus live for an
audience of one. That's what Jesus did.
And that audience is God. God sees everything clearly.
God calls out what's real and God holds us accountable in a
way that no crowd or no culture can.
We live for an audience of 1. So we can say, does this please
God or does it not please God? And if it pleases God, no matter
how unpopular that makes me with people around me, I still need
to do this. If this does not please God, no
matter how popular it would make me with people around me, I
cannot do that. I should not do that.
I must not do that. Do we treat God as our audience
of 1? Practically speaking, that's
what we're doing. Or at least that's that's one of
the major points and intentions and purposes of weekly worship
is to reset our perspective on this.
Then we take at least one hour a week and devote it to focusing
on God to remind us that God is our audience of 1.
The rest of the week when we're out in the world doing the stuff
that we do that's messy and and confusing sometimes, that God is
our audience there just like he is here.
See here, the popularity trap. It can come to pastors and other
people upfront, whether it's, you know, pianists, organists,
pastors, worship leaders, the folks that are upfront.
It can fall into the popularity trap and we can think of
ourselves as performers and you all as the audience.
And our job is to please you because if we please you, then
you'll invite more of your friends and, and there'll be
more people here. And that helps our career and it
helps the offering plate and it helps all of those things.
And, and it, it, it, it, it makes us just feel better when
there's more people that like us.
That's a trap because I'm not a performer and you're not the
audience, right? The other trap, the trap for you
guys is to think of me as a performer and yourselves as the
audience. Because if that's if that's how
we think when we're sitting in the pews now we're in the
customer mindset. And then we get to evaluate.
Well, that sermon, I didn't like that one very much.
I was out of the music. I can't believe we sang that
song this week and we didn't sing those songs.
And why are we? And we start thinking about how
the things that we do on Sunday morning please us or don't
please us. And it's the same thing.
It's just the other side of the coin.
We think of the people up front as performers and we think of
ourselves as the audience and the we are the ones to be
pleased. Well, the simple fact is we are
all the performers and God is the audience.
And, and what we do here is not for me and it's not for you and
it's not for Anne. It's not for the kids, it's not
for the adults. What we do here is for God to
give ourselves every week a mental reset to remind ourselves
this is how I need to be living my life.
When I'm not here, when I'm at work, when I'm at school, when
I'm with my family, it's still not about me.
I'm not. I'm still not the performer
trying to get the audience, and I'm not the audience trying to
make sure the performers please me.
I'm performing for an audience of one who is God, and God's
opinion is the only one that really matters.
That's how we avoid the popularity trap.
The Bible offers us a lot of different examples of this.
John read one of them a little bit ago.
I'm going to read it again briefly and then several others
as as a way of sometimes when I do a lot of short scriptures,
what I'm doing and I don't, I've never asked.
I don't know whether biblical scholars would agree with me on
this or not, but one of the ways I weigh how serious an issue is,
is how many times it gets repeated in Scripture.
And this issue of popularity of people pleasing versus God
pleasing is repeated over and over and over and over again in
the Bible. And, and I just have a few
examples, some from the old and some from the New Testament.
Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount at the very beginning says,
blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you,
falsely, say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven.
For in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were
before you. When we're pleasing God, even if
that leads us to displease other people to the point of being
insulted and persecuted, this is a blessing, not a curse.
It's God's approval, not human approval, that matters.
John 12 a few verses there. Anyone who loves their life will
lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will
keep it for eternal life. Someone who is who loves their
life. A real good indication of
someone who loves their life is how popular they want to be.
If you really want to be popular, if that's driving a
person, then then they're looking entirely at loving this
life and their life in this world.
It's about me and how many people like me.
That's what gives me a sense of self worth.
Jesus says not so much. Whoever serves me must follow me
and where I am, my servant also will be.
My father will honor the one who serves me.
We're going to come back to that principle later because that's
echoed in the proverb. It's an echo from Proverbs, and
Jesus was very clear about this. Or the writer of the Gospel of
John, it's very clear about this because he said at the same
time, many, even among the leaders believed in Jesus.
But because of the Pharisees, they would not openly
acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the
synagogue. For they loved human praise more
than praise from God. That desire for human praise
more than praise from God, kept people from doing the good and
right thing of acknowledging Jesus as King and as Savior.
Paul said this in First Thessalonians.
You know, brothers and sisters, that our visit to you was not
without results. We had previously suffered, have
been treated outrageously in Philippi, as you know, but with
the help of our God, we dared tell you His gospel in the face
of strong opposition. For the appeal we make does not
spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to
trick you. On the contrary, we speak as
those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel.
We are not trying to please people, but God who tests our
hearts. And then finally, Proverbs 2925.
The fear of people becomes a snare, but whoever trusts in the
Lord will be set on high. The fear of people is a snare.
Seeking after popularity is a snare.
But those who trust in God, those who are treating God as
our audience of one, those will be settled high.
That phrase settled high has a dual meaning.
Part of it is, is that sense of being lifted up, honored.
Another place in the Scripture it says, God says, and I think
it's in Deuteronomy. God says those who honor me, I
will honor, will be lifted up, will be exalted.
Those who hate their lives will gain it.
Those who deny themselves and take up their cross and follow
me, they will receive life. And it's that same kind of
thing. Those who those who fear God,
who seek God, who keep their focus on God, God will lift up
and God will honor. But that lifting up means
something else. And it's a very specific,
concrete thing there. That word, when it's used in the
Old Testament, almost always means put up high in a strong
tower. It's a military term and and
high and a strong tower means you're in a position of safety
and security. And so God says if you spend
your life seeking the popularity, seeking praise from
others, you will always be at their mercy.
You will always be insecure because there's always a danger
that you will mess up, mess up, you will slip, you will fall,
you will stumble, and all of those people who have been
praising you will turn their backs and judge you and condemn
you. If your safety depends on your
popularity, if your security depends on your popularity, you
are always unsafe and always insecure.
But if you fear God, if you honor him and keep him as your
focus, then God will keep you safe.
Now as followers of Jesus, we always need to remind ourselves
as well that God keeping us safe doesn't mean free from bodily
harm at all times, doesn't mean free from persecution and
rejection and condemnation. Jesus already said, if you get
those in my name, that's a blessing.
Keeping us safe means even if we're rejected, even if we're
hated, even if we're killed, God will give us our lives back and
preserve us for all eternity. That's avoiding the popularity
trap. And now we can consider Jesus.
More specifically, Jesus gives us one of the greatest examples
of avoiding the popularity trap in all of history.
He's out in the wilderness. He's near the Sea of Galilee.
I think he's teaching, He's preaching.
He has become very popular. If you look just at the numbers,
arguably this was the high point of Jesus's popularity.
Thousands of people are around him.
They didn't bring any food or they didn't bring enough food.
They run out of food. Jesus multiplies some loaves,
multiplies some fish and feeds. According to the Bible, 5000
men, not counting women and children, which means there were
men, women and children there. There were 5000 men.
If you add in women and children, it's you get a
reasonable estimate of anywhere between 10 and 20,000 people
that were there. As a lot of folks.
If I were to go out in the wilderness today and say hey,
I'm going to be preaching, I wouldn't get 10,000 people come
out to listen. We'd probably probably not.
Yeah, no. Jesus.
Very popular and and it was around in this time.
I can't, I cannot, I should have checked this.
I can't remember. This was right at this time.
It was around in this time. The people were also trying to
make Jesus king. He's like, no, you're not going
to make me king. You're not going to make me
king. If you make me king, then you
can unmake me king. My kingship doesn't depend on
you. I'm not living for popularity.
And so Jesus sneaks off at night to get away from the 10s of
thousands of people that have come to follow him.
He sneaks off, people wake up in the morning, they discovered
that Jesus is gone. So they go looking for him.
That's how popular he is. And they find him.
And when they get there, Jesus turns to them and says, you know
what, you guys, the only reason you're following me is for the
free food. That's what he said.
You just want me to make more bread for you.
And then he said, if you really want to follow me, if you're
really serious about being my follower, you need to eat my
flesh and drink my blood. That did not sit well with the
people and they left. They all left.
Almost all of them left until five 10s of thousands of people
walk away from Jesus at that moment.
And the only ones that are left are the 12.
And Jesus says to the 12 are you going to leave me too?
That's how unconcerned about popularity Jesus was.
His mission, his mission was to change the world, to save the
world, to help the people of the world be reconciled to God.
Most people in this day and age, if they had that kind of mission
in mind, they would be so focused on how many people can
we get, how popular can we be? Because the more popular we are,
the more influence we'll have, the more good we can do.
The more people we attract, the more money we attract, The more
money we have, the more good we can do, the more money we have,
the more people we can attract. Let's get more people and more
money. And Jesus turned his back on
that entire mindset. He said I don't need to be
popular with people to do the mission God has given me.
I just need to be faithful to God.
That's all I need. I don't need to be liked.
I don't need to be loved. I just need to do what God has
given me to do. His disciples were getting it by
this point. They didn't get it completely,
but they were getting it. And Jesus said to him, are you
going to leave too? And Peter said, you know, no,
you're the only one that has the words of life.
They were getting it that there was something different about
Jesus. There was something special
about Jesus. And it wasn't the goodies that
he had to offer that kept in there.
It was the life that in Jesus was that life that they wanted,
and that life that they wanted they were beginning to see had
nothing to do with being popular, nothing to do with
crowds of people approving or pleasing them, and that they
would learn the same thing. The mission that God had given
them was not a quest to become popular and to gain influence by
by getting people to like them. It was to be faithful to God and
love and serve and share as God had told them to love and serve
and share. Jesus gives us that example.
Followers of Jesus need to discipline and train themselves
to be more concerned with what God thinks of us than what other
people think of us, and to seek God's honor and esteem rather
than the honor and esteem of others.
That's how Jesus lived with his attention on God.
He said at one point, I don't do or say anything that my father
has not taught me to do or say. And Paul tells us we need to
have the same mind of Jesus. And that includes on this area
that our focus on God, be more concerned with what God thinks
and seeking God's honor and esteem, not the praise and
esteem of other people, Mary and Joseph.
That was the Christmas slide. I'm going to skip over that one
and jump to the end here. One of the challenges in the
world, particularly with a group of people that has a sense of
mission, we need to accomplish this there.
There's evil. Part of our baptismal vows in
the United Methodist Church is that we will resist evil,
injustice, and oppression. And whatever forms they present
themselves. The world tells us we need two
things to do that. We need money and we need
popularity. We've got to have the resources
and we got to have the people. And so the way to make an impact
in the world is to be as attractive to as many people as
possible and get as much money as possible.
Then you can make a difference. Jesus by his life and his
example and his apostles by their life and their example.
Give us a different message, they say, if you want to make an
impact in the world and keep your focus on God and be
faithful to what God tells you to do, no matter what the cost,
no matter what the cost. And that's the way to have an
impact. Because the impact then is not
the impact of how popular we are, but it's the impact of
God's Holy Spirit working through US.
Jesus would not allow the people to make him a king.
If his kingship depended on the people, then he was a slave to
the people who voted him in his king.
Jesus was already king, made by God, his king.
So he knew no matter what the people thought of him, he would
still be king. He would still be king even if
he died. Our ability to make a difference
in this community, in this world, depends not upon our
popularity, not upon our wealth, but upon our faithfulness to
God. So as you're dreaming this year,
I hope you're not dreaming of being popular.
If not, call Paisley. She'll sing the song for you and
you'll remember. All right, can you do that?
All right, awesome. We got it.
Let's dream of being faithful. Let's dream of making God the
one member of our audience, the one person we're trying to
please in Jesus name. Amen.