Christianity is not a popularity contest [Sunday Message]

Ever felt lost in the sea of peer pressure and societal expectations? In this powerful message, Pastor Tom Helmich breaks down the challenges of staying true to your faith when the world seems to be pulling you in a different direction. Drawing from personal experiences (including some hilarious 80s and 90s fashion choices), Tom shares raw, honest insights about what it means to be a young Christian in a world that constantly tries to define you. He tackles tough questions like:

• How do you stay true to your faith when everyone else is doing something different?
• What does it really mean to follow Christ, especially when it's not the popular choice?

Key Quotes:
"Wisdom is following the shepherd, not the sheep." 
"Faith has the power to transform standing out into being outstanding."

Highlights:

• Real talk about peer pressure
• Biblical guidance for young believers
• Encouragement to choose faith over fear
• Practical advice for maintaining your Christian identity

We Hope This Message Inspires You To:

• Stand firm in your faith
• Seek God's approval over human validation
• Understand that your identity is rooted in Christ, not in what others think
• Have the courage to be different and live out your Christian calling

Whether you're a teenager, college student, or just someone searching for meaning, this message offers hope, humor, and powerful spiritual guidance. Join us as we explore what it means to be a disciple of Christ in a challenging world.
#ChristianFaith #YouthMinistry #SpiritualGrowth

Series: Dear Younger Me, Week 2

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction: Personal Reflections and Fashion Fails
• 3:30 Understanding Peer Pressure and Growing Up
• 3:30 Proverbs 29:25-26: The Trap of Seeking Human Approval
• 5:35 First Thessalonians 2:1-4: Pleasing God Over People
• 8:35 John 12:42-43: Courage to Stand for Your Faith
• 10:06 The Power of Faith and Choosing God's Will

Transcript

Tom Helmich: 0:02

Oh, yep, okay, this series is titled dear younger me. And yeah, I don't know if I really want to talk to younger me, because I was kind of a bit of a punk, but I made it. But thinking about this specifically, like high school, years younger me, I kept thinking about my kids. You know, I got one. My oldest is 24 years old. He survived that phase of life. My daughter's 21 she's survived that phase of life. But my youngest, who's probably still asleep right now, to be honest. So Logan, give him some trash about that. For me, he's 19 years old. Just graduated high school and going to college. So I'm thinking about, you know, kind of my experiences, but what do I want him to know going out into the world as he's he's finished high school, but let me tell you guys, when you finish high school, you may be legally an adult, but trust me, you're not quite there yet. I thought I was for about three or four years, and then I realized how much I wasn't. It gets easier as we get older, but peer pressure is a real thing. And a few confessions at one point in time, in the late 80s, I actually was sporting a rat tail. Yeah, luckily, there are no pictures of that that I'm aware of. I wore parachute pants. Anybody here know what those are? Yeah, yeah. The most embarrassing is I had these high tops with a ridiculously huge tongue and these bright neon one inch wide shoe laces, and I had two sets per shoe so I could get two different crazy neon colors. It looked more ridiculous than it sounds, I promise you. And then in the 90s, I remember tight rolling my jeans. I have no idea why we did that. Anybody know why we did that? I I've got no I spent a lot of time I should have been studying math trying to learn how to do that, a skill I did not need. It gets easier, but it never really goes it goes away. And I think, you know, God's got grace for our fashion blunders. But there are other things, deeper paths that temptation can take us down if we're not if we're not careful. So I got three readings for us today that I think we can help to lean on for wisdom that I'm hoping the young people in the church. And honestly, if it's good for the 1819, year olds, it's good for the 50 year olds too. Not that much changes. So we'll start with proverbs. Chapter 29 verses, 25 through 26 I'm going to read it on this because that just confuses me. I'm working on it the on it the fear of others lays a snare. But one who trusts in the Lord is secure. Many seek the favor of a ruler, but it is from the Lord one gets justice. So it says the fear of others, being fearful of others, lays a snare, is laying a trap. Think of a mouse trap. It looks like a nice, perfectly good, innocent piece of cheese, but in reality, it's something completely different. And that's what being fearful of other people gives us fearful of other people's judgment lays a trap for us because it's from God that we are judged only not our peers. It's about identity, not popularity. Fear of judgment cannot give us our identity. Our identity should be anchored in Christ, the identity of being a disciple of Jesus, that's way more valuable than popularity. It's hard to see when you're 1617, 18 years old, or even 14 through 19 or 45, or 50, but the approval of the fickle masses is very inconsistent. It changes from year to year. We should resist being tempted to trade our identity as a disciple of Christ for that just empty through an empty applause of the crowd. Had to throw an empty in there, otherwise it would be, you know, seem contradictory, but empty approval of the crowd. So now we'll go to First Thessalonians. And this is chapter two, verses one through four. And this is Paul writing to the church in Thessaloniki that he started. And he's writing a letter back to Him in verse. Verse one says, You yourselves, know, brothers and sisters that are coming to you was not in vain, but though we had already suffered and been shamefully mistreated at Philippi, as you know, we had courage in our God to declare to you the gospel of God, in spite of great opposition, for our appeal to you does not spring from deceit or impure, impure motives or trickery. But just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the message of the gospel, even so we speak, not to please mortals, but to please God who tests our heart, being our identity of being a disciple is part of that is that responsibility, as Holly said, to have that sphere of influence of us being a living witness of the gospel. We've been entrusted to this. We've been empowered for this through our faith, but we have to be careful about the idea the fear of judgment that makes us want to be silent rather than speaking out. Uh, where we're inspired by our faith to the people around us for the benefit of the people around us. It's about choosing to please God over choosing people. What's right should be more persuasive than what's popular, but making a decision about what's right. And this happens a lot as a teen, and we think, Oh, I did anyway and still do sometimes. What are people going to think about that? You know, the saying in the 90s was, you know, who cares what other people think? Well, guess what? Everybody cares what other people think. That's why I looked in the mirror before I left to make sure my hair was actually combed and I didn't forget to do that. It's why I made sure my wife saw me before I left the house to make sure my outfit was not completely ridiculous, because I'm not okay. I'm not good at that on my own. We care what other people think, sometimes too much, but we really need to think about what what God thinks. What would God want us to do? Which reminds me to another thing in the 90s that luckily was not embarrassing. I dug through every junk drawer in the house today looking for one. But there used to be these bracelets that said, WW, JD, what would Jesus do? I looked for like an hour this morning hoping to find one. I couldn't find. Oh, we had them. They'll turn up now, when we think ourselves, What would Jesus do? What would Jesus want us to do? What would God want us to do, rather than what other people are going to approve of us doing but that's hard to do. So now we'll go to John, chapter 12, verses 42 and 43 nevertheless, well, and in this right before this, it talks about the people's hearts being hardened against the gospel. So it says, Nevertheless, many, even of the authorities, believed in him, believed in Jesus, but because of the Pharisees, they did not confess it, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue, for they loved human glory more than the glory that comes from God. Man. That's so in here that uses the word doxa for the the Greek, which means glory and literally means it's what evokes good opinion, or that something has inherent or intrinsic worth, right then inherit and intrinsic worth of God. But the people valued the intrinsic, inherent worth of human opinion over that of God, and they're afraid of being kicked out of the synagogue, kicked out of their peer group if they follow Jesus. That's a strong temptation for a lot of kids, the most important thing to them is their peer group, and to stand up against their peers is a terrifying thing. To be rejected from that group is a terrifying thing as part of the purpose of the church, it gives us a group that we can always belong in and not be cast out of. Because faith takes courage. It's not easy to follow God's word when it's against public opinion, and public opinion leads to group I heard the term group think leads to group think. And group think is really just one person thinking and everybody just following along. You know, blindly, maybe a few people in the group kind of know what they're doing is wrong, but they just follow along anyway, and the others don't even care to even look and see what's what's right. That's even a harder force when that group is our friends, and in the the immortal words of Albus Dumbledore of Harry Potter fame, it takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. And sometimes standing up to our friends for what's right is not just right for us, it's right for them, being willing to be that strong influence, that Christian influence in our our friend group, is a huge and important thing, not only for us, but but for them. It's part of the Christian responsibility as a disciple, wisdom is following the shepherd, not the sheep. Wisdom stands in awe of God rather than in fear of popular opinion. Wisdom is standing in awe of God rather than fear of public opinion. Popular opinion is about perpetuating itself. The public opinion that group wants everybody to conform to it so it can continue to exist. That's the whole reason they want us to conform to them, so it can continue to be but God's will is about what's best for us as Christians, whether you're 19 or 91 because there's nothing we can ever do to benefit God. So you gotta look at where what the purpose is. God's will is for our own good and benefit for the plans God has laid out for us. Following along with the crowd is just to make the crowd look worth following after you. It, the crowd can't give us anything. It just takes. If you're looking at God's will in the one hand and then popular opinion in the other, God's Will has the promise of forgiveness of our sins and we will commit many of redemption and of of eternal life, popular opinion is nothing but an empty promise that benefits just the group and has nothing for us. It is an empty promise. The trick is to go through life and to choose faith over fear and insecurity. God's Will over empty approval of the masses, and courage over silence, courage to speak up for what you think is right, to speak up for other people, to speak up for ourselves and to not just go along with the crowd. Because the most important part of this is that faith has a power for us. Faith has a power for college students, high school students, for adults, faith has the power to transform standing out into being outstanding. It's the difference between standing out is different and being outstanding as a disciple of Christ standing against just the popular flow. It's about being a living witness to the promise and the power of the gospel for those around us, in fact, in a shameless plug here, and who here is in a life group. That's it. Come on, guys. We can do better than that. Who's here leading a life group? Anybody? Any leaders? Okay, we're going to work on that. That's part of my job. I got my work cut out for me. In this, we're reading this book a week in the life of Rome, and in this we're going to read about a guy who's dealing with living in a pagan Roman culture in the first century who's a Christian, and balancing public expectation and popularity with being a follower of Christ. And it's got some, some, some good points that I think are going to be related to our lives here now in Bentonville and Rogers, Arkansas in the 2020s so pray for our youth. Pray for the teens, because they're going out into a realm of a lot of public influence, a lot of, sorry, a lot of peer influence. That's kind of the the blind leading the blind. My 19 year olds getting ready to go dorm with another 1920 year old, a bunch of other teens. And I, in my mind, I can only picture it looking like a scene from The Lord of the Flies, because that's kind of what my college experience was like. And I pray he can come out of it without making too horrible of mistakes. And I pray that God will put people in his life that will guide him and bring him back to where he needs to be. I pray that God will put people in his life like you that will hold him accountable to the gospel and will help to keep him stay on that narrow path, if you'll pray with me, please, Lord, we thank you for your patience with us as we continue to grow into who you've called us to be. We pray that you'll guide our steps as you lead us through life, we pray that you place wise, faithful mentors in our lives, and especially in the lives of our teens and young people. Place in our lives people who will encourage us, guide us and point us back to Christ when the way is unclear, Lord, surround us with friends who strengthen our faith rather than weaken it. Give us strength to resist temptations of society. Give us courage to choose faith over fear and insecurity, to choose your will over the empty approval of others and boldness over silence when it comes to our witness and discipleship, grant us wisdom to make good decisions, decisions shaped by your word and guided by your Spirit. Lord, may our identities be rooted in Christ, our integrity be guarded by your truth, and our hearts be set on pleasing you above all. Lord. We commit ourselves into your hands, trusting in your mercy and the plans you have made for us, we pray these things in Your Son's name And all God's people said, Amen. Amen.