TO BE UNPOPULAR WITH THE WORLD IS TO BE POPULAR WITH GOD!        DO 2426          3/88

         1. SHE'S REALLY GOT THAT CRAVING, THAT YEN FOR POPULARITY, that yen to be well-thought-of, respected in the community, reputable, of good reputation.--And she's never going to have those things as long as she's what she is & we're what we are!
         2. WHEN OCCASION PERMITS IT, MAYBE THEY CAN REMIND HER THAT JESUS SAID, "If you are ashamed of Me & My Name"--she's afraid of the name "Christian," she's afraid of the Family appearing to be too religious--He said, "I'll be ashamed of YOU before the Heavenly Father & all the Holy Angels!"--Mk.8:38. That's a pretty serious condemnation! And He said, "Beware when all men think well of you!--WOE unto you!"--Luk. 6:26.
         3. SHE'S QUITE POSSIBLY NOT EVEN FAMILIAR WITH SOME OF THOSE SCRIPTURES. She obviously doesn't know too much about how the Lord works or Christian fundamentals or many of His teachings. He was real specific about that, that "they that live Godly in Christ Jesus SHALL suffer PERSECUTION!", "Beware when all men think well of you!", & you're not to worry about when you're cursed or misused or whatever.--2Tim.3:12; Lk. 6:26. He says, "Rejoice & be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in Heaven, for so persecuted they the Prophets which were BEFORE you!"-Mt.5:10-12. In other words, YOU'RE a Prophet TODAY so they're going to do the same thing to YOU that they did to the Prophets in the past!
         4. SHE SEEMS TO KNOW THAT, & THAT'S WHAT SHE FEARS THE MOST. If there's anything that the Orientals seem to value the most, it's the opinions of men. The Japanese people as a whole are geared to being very concerned about what each other thinks of each other. Nobody wants to step out of line, nobody wants to be different or be called attention to, everybody wants to conform. They are the most terrific conformists I think I have ever heard of in any nationality! They all apparently want to be the same, a bunch of little duplicates, & they're scared to death to be different or to step out of line. They really fear each other's opinions.
         5. ON THE MATTER OF BEING DIFFERENT, THEY REALLY ARE CONCERNED ABOUT SAVING FACE. Well, saving face is nothing in the World but saving PRIDE & being concerned about APPEARANCES! Your face is your APPEARANCE, & they want to save their appearance, literally their REPUTATION, what they're reputed to be or supposed to be. They want to save face, save their reputation, save what men think about them. They're MEN-PLEASERS. The Lord is really AGAINST that manpleasing spirit! She wants to please everybody & make everybody happy.
         6. MAYBE IT'S SOME KIND OF A COMPLEX BECAUSE IN THE PAST SHE'S BEEN UNPOPULAR & SUFFERED FROM THAT. So now she's trying to earn or buy or in some way obtain popularity so that everyone will think well of her.
         7. THEY'VE GOT TO GIVE HER THAT SCRIPTURE, "BEWARE WHEN ALL MEN THINK WELL OF YOU!"--Luke 6:26. I remember when I was reading the Bible as a young fellow I was concerned in some ways because I wasn't as good-looking & big & handsome as my brother, I wasn't popular, the girls didn't chase after me at all, & I was too shy to chase after them.
         8. BUT I'LL NEVER FORGET THAT I WAS REALLY COMFORTED BY THAT VERSE, because a lot of people hated me in school because I was good, I was a preacher's kid, I made excellent grades, everything just the opposite of what most of those big bullies were. And they tried to beat me up, give me trouble, tease me, do everything they could. I mean, the Devil HATED me then & his minions really tried to give me TROUBLE!
         9. SO I WAS ANYTHING BUT POPULAR. I was maybe the most UNpopular kid in school! I was a real LONER, it just forced me to be a real loner, & that was GOOD for me because it drove me to the LORD & to stay close to Him. HE didn't care whether I was popular or not. In fact, I think He was glad I was UNpopular with that kind of people!
         10. BUT THAT IS ALMOST HER MAIN SIN.--Wanting to be well-thought-of & wanting to be popular. I think she really fears persecution for one thing, she's got a persecution complex or phobia. But you've got to remind her, "Don't worry about some people hating you & that they don't like you; the Bible says BEWARE when they think WELL of you, REJOICE when they DON'T!"
         11. SO PRAISE GOD, SHE JUST NEEDS TO LEARN. She's somehow gotten the idea that if you're a good Christian, everybody will think well of you, & that if you're real good & righteous like she is, real SELF-righteous, that you'll be very popular. She's got to be shown that it's just the OPPOSITE, that she's bound to be very UNpopular & having most people think ILL of her! "Beware when ALL men think WELL of you!" You're safer if all men think ILL of you, it shows you're DIFFERENT!
         12. SHE REALLY NEEDS TO GET THAT MESSAGE ABOUT THIS BUSINESS OF POPULARITY & WANTING TO BE WELL-THOUGHT-OF! That's her problem down at the clubs there, she's so afraid somebody's going to be offended, afraid that somebody's not going to think well of her because she's religious. To her, religiosity is a kind of an unpleasant yoke that's hanging around her neck that she has to bear as her cross or something because it doesn't make her very popular!
         13. SHE'S GOT TO GET THE POINT THAT SHE CAN'T BE POPULAR WITH MEN & GOD AT THE SAME TIME! The Apostles made that very clear! "We ought to obey GOD rather than MEN!"--Acts 5:29.
         14. JUST REMIND HER, "YOU'RE NEVER GOING TO HAVE ALL THOSE PEOPLE THINKING WELL OF YOU! You're ALWAYS going to have enemies! And the more religious you are & the more you do & the more you're a WITNESS & the more well-known your School becomes & the more people that go there to see it & everything else, the more the neighbours are going to hate you! They're going to blame you for everything, disturbing the neighborhood, dragging strangers up into their nice cozy `thou, thee, me & no other' cliquish little club!"
         15. SHE HAS JUST GOT TO GET THAT THROUGH HER HEAD THAT SHE IS IN A VERY UNPOPULAR BUSINESS IN THIS WORLD! "For the World HATETH you," God's Word says, Jesus said! "If ye were of the World, the World would love his own, but because ye are NOT of the World, but I have chosen you OUT of the World, therefore the World HATETH you!"-Jn.15:19. Does she want to be popular with God or not? "Choose ye this day!"--Josh.24:15. "Who are you going to worship?--Man's opinion? The Devil's people? The opinions of men? Popularity?--Or the LORD?"
         16. SHE JUST ALMOST SLAVES AWAY FOR POPULARITY, TO BE WELL-THOUGHT-OF, not to offend anybody, to make big friends. To me it IS sickening, & I'm sure to GOD it's sickening, because His attitude is just the opposite. I mean the more popular you are with the WORLD, the LESS popular you are with GOD! He said so!
         17. ALL THOSE QUOTES ARE STRAIGHT FROM THE WORDS OF JESUS, & I remember they were a great encouragement & blessing to me when I was a young fellow in school & greatly hated, never popular. I was only popular with my teachers--my teachers LOVED me, because I made the best grades in the class & I was always obedient, I was wellbehaved & quiet & I studied. Some of my teachers were just almost crazy about me.
         18. SO I WAS VERY POPULAR WITH MY TEACHERS, & that was really who it was important to be popular with. That was the kind of popularity that counted & got me through school with good grades and helped me to LEARN something and store something in my noodle that was to be needed and good for me and you for the rest of our lives! The teachers, in a sense, represented God & what was right & the knowledge I needed. I was popular with my teachers, but the more popular I was with the TEACHERS, the less popular I was with the CLASS. "Teacher's Pet!"--that was one of their favourite names for me! "Sissy!" I was cursed and maligned & called more names!
         19. POPULARITY IS A CURSE! The best thing to the Lord is to be UNpopular with the WORLD & popular with GOD! Jesus said, "Beware when all men think well of you. The World HATES you, because it hates ME! If you were of the World, the World would LOVE its own, but because you are NOT of the World, therefore the World HATETH you, because it hateth ME!"--Luke 6:26; Jn.15:18-20.
         20. IF THERE'S ANYTHING SHE NEEDS, IT'S TO KNOW THAT IT'S NO CREDIT WITH GOD TO BE POPULAR WITH MAN! In fact, the Lord has a lot of things AGAINST men-pleasers & men-pleasing. (See Jn.12:42,43; Eph.6:5-7; Col.3:22-24.)
         21. I FOUND OUT THAT I WASN'T CONCERNED ABOUT BEING POPULAR WITH THOSE WORLDLY PEOPLE. I didn't like them anyhow, why should I want to be popular with them? I didn't like their kind. I would have been SICK of being popular with THEM! But I must admit, it helped to draw me closer to the LORD, I really wanted to be popular with the Lord, & as a result, I know I'm a whole lot happier.
         22. THANK GOD WE'RE NOT POPULAR WITH THE WORLD! It does cause us a lot of trouble sometimes, but it does us a lot of GOOD with GOD! PTL? Amen? If we were popular with the WORLD, we could look forward to trouble in HEAVEN, "everlasting shame & contempt"!--Dan.12:2.
         23. I WANT TO TELL YOU, POPULARITY IS AN EVIL WORD!--It SHOULD be to US! We have been popular once in awhile, but it always came to an end. Byron or Shakespeare or somebody said, "Fame & riches are fleeting!" They both have wings, the Bible says. So she needs those verses, just to explain to her why Christians are NEVER going to be very popular, especially OUR kind!

         24. Scriptures on popularity/unpopularity with the World!:
         "The World cannot hate you, but Me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil."--Jn.7:7
         "Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on Him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God."--Jn.12:42,43.
         "Ye adulterers & adulteresses, know ye not that the FRIENDSHIP of the WORLD is ENMITY with GOD? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the World is the enemy of God!"--Jam.4:4.
         "And be NOT conformed to this World but be ye TRANSFORMED by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, & acceptable, & perfect, will of God."--Rom.12:2
         "God hath chosen the FOOLISH things of the World to confound the wise; & God hath chosen the WEAK things of the World to confound the things which are mighty; And BASE things of the World, & things which are DESPISED, hath God chosen, yea, & things which are NOT, to bring to nought things that are. For I think that God hath set forth us the Apostles LAST, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a SPECTACLE unto the World, & to angels, & to men. We are FOOLS for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are WEAK, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are DESPISED."--1Cor.4:9-10.
         "That which is highly esteemed (popular) among MEN is ABOMINATION in the sight of GOD."--Lk.16:15.