Holiness For Today - Part 2

We're going to be continuing on with part two. And I believe our ushers have some handouts for you guys. If you have those, you can go ahead and start passing those out. And while they're passing out the handouts, I I'm going to talk to you a little bit about when we talk about holiness. That's a word sometimes that can have a negative connotation in our world, especially in Christianity as a whole. Usually I prefer to use the term lifestyle conviction. When I think about what God has done for me and the sacrifice that he made that I can have an overcoming life, there's a part of me that desires to do all that I can. And part of living a life for God is trying to continue to deepen that relationship with him. And I think any relationship that you have that has any meaning to it is something that you're constantly trying to pour into. How many married folks in the room know that you have to continually work on your marriage? And for those married folks that didn't raise your hand, you probably need to see me after church so I can help you out there. Yeah. So, I'm going to try that again. How many married folks know you need to continually work on your marriage? Yeah, you do. You need to you need to do things to improve because life brings different seasons and with each new season life brings, you face things that you've never faced before.

So often times as you're going through that, you may react in a way or do something that your spouse has never seen and there there's a whole lot to that. So there's new seasons. Well, investing in that relationship is important. Investing in your relationship with God is important. >> Amen. >> It's important. So you got to work on that. I love that we are the family of God. >> What do you see inside a family? So even in my own family, we are my wife and I, Chassley, we are Allan, party of five. We have the two of us and we have three daughters that the Lord has blessed us with. They're 19, 17, and 11. But we're part if you extend one level out to our extended family. I have a brother who is married and has two kids. And then my wife has a brother and a sister and they're both married and they have children of their own. So, inside of the family unit that we're connected to, there's a lot of diversity in age and maturity. Now, I bring this up for a reason because inside a church, we see the same thing both physically, like in the room tonight, we have a lot of diversity of age. Most of our kids are over in the kidsville next door, but we do have our youth in here with us tonight. I'm excited you guys are here.

So, we have diversity of age, but more importantly where I'm trying to go tonight is we also have diversity in spiritual age. And it's important to spend just a minute talking about this because as I talk about lifestyle convictions and I talk about, you know, maturing in our walk with God because when I use the word and you hear me say this, I said it last Wednesday night, I'll say it tonight and I'll probably continue it throughout this series. There's a word called sanctification. Another word, another word for sanctification that maybe it's something you're more familiar with is the word maturing. You mature. As we develop our walk with God, we should always be maturing in that walk. So, inside a church, not only physically, but spiritually, we are at different walks. We're at different levels. Now, the reason I say this is because expectations are different based off of where you are maturely, where you are in your spiritual age. Just like in the physical age, in my own home, there are things that I expect out of my 17-year-old and my 19-year-old that I don't yet expect out of my 11-year-old. In fact, there are some days I have to remind them that there's only one 11year-old in the house. I'll leave that right there. And in the extended family, we have them from the oldest to the youngest. And our expectation is different based on their age.

there. There's some of my nieces and nephews who are younger, four, five, six years old that I'm not going to expect out of them, son. The same thing I would expect out of the one who's 19, 20, 30, whatever the case may be. That's just right. We understand this. You guys understand that principle? Well, that same thing goes into spiritual age. For those that are new to the church and those that are even new to this church, there are some things I'm going to talk about tonight that's part of the process of maturing in God that I'm not necessarily looking for you to be right on point with it. But there are some of you who you are spiritually old enough that these things are an expectation from pastor. You guys okay? I feel like it's important to say that from the front because sometimes people that are new or only been a part of this church for a short amount of time, you know, a year, year and a half, and we talk about some of these subject matters, and you be like, I don't know if I got my head fully around that. I want you to know I'm okay. And you and I can talk at another time if you want to, and I'd love to spend some time with you one-on-one to talk in more depth about this because even though I'm doing a deeper dive tonight, some of these subject matters require a little bit more time for you to fully get your head around.

So, I want you to know before you fully dismiss everything that I'm going to talk about tonight, why don't you give me an opportunity, if nothing else, one-on-one, for me to sit down and talk with you about some more of these things because I am a big believer that the longer I live for God, the more I will change into his image, >> the more I am becoming like him and the less I am in me. and as a part of that maturing process, there's a lot of me that continues to die off so that I can continue to become more like him. That's God's desire. And he he's a God of detail. Have you noticed that? It's hard to read this book and come away from any other conclusion other than he's very detailed in what he wants to do. Especially he's very detailed about where he likes for his spirit to live. If you've read through the Bible at all, especially in the Old Testament, if you think for just a minute how much time was put into him being very descriptive with the very first tabernacle in the wilderness, how many chapters and details went into being very specific of what type of wood was to be used and the exact measurements he was going to have there. Now, I'm going to ask you a question. What was the purpose of the tabernacle in the wilderness?

It's where his presence was going to dwell. God is always, listen to me, this is important to understand holiness. It's always important for you to know that God is always very specific about where he wants his presence to be. Now, having said that, let me also say this that as a part of the New Testament church, part of coming to God is you come as you are. But once you come as you are and you go through what we would term salvation, in other words, the death, burial, and resurrection, repentance, baptism in Jesus' name by being immersed in water, and the infilling of his Holy Spirit, evidence, speaking other tongues, as you go through the salvation process, from that point forward, you should start to change. All right? That salvation experience there is important. Now, as I talk about holiness and I talk about lifestyle standards and lifestyle convictions, I want you to know that lifestyle standards and convictions himself. That's not salvation. You guys okay so far? You with me? I'm just This is just my pre-flight check. All right. Those things are not salvation. Salvation is repentance, baptism in Jesus' name, and the infilling of the Holy Ghost. But as I want you to know, as you begin to mature in your walk with God, you will start to see that there are things that God desires of your life. He purchased you at Calvary and he paid a high price for flawed material.

That includes me. We belong to him. The word of God says you are not your own. You are purchased with a price. So as you come in, salvation doesn't cost you anything. It already cost him. But as I live my life and the longer I walk with him and the closer I get to him, the more I realize that there's more and more of me that he wants, that he desires, that he has a plan for. Now, here's the deal. Because sometimes people when we talk about lifestyle convictions, they will say, "Well, I mean, it seems like you're making this a salvation issue." Those things are not salvation issues. Okay? But here once you come to an understanding that God has his preference of how we are to live and then when you choose to not be obedient to those things okay when you make a choice once once it has been read once you discover once you dig and I encourage you you've heard me say this quite often here I don't want you to take my word for it I'm going to present the word to you and then what I would want for you to do is hopefully prayerfully you will take the word you will study this yourself and you will dive in and you will pray and say God I want to know is this what you want for my life that's what my desire is because that's what I did myself so that's my goal is to present this in such a way that you can take some time you can take these notes and handouts and you can spend some time in the scripture yourself and if you have questions and please reach out to me contact me I'll gladly spend some one-on-one time with you because here's the deal okay guys please understand this point and then I'll actually get to my message but I felt So important to talk about this.

This is important is once you see these things are there and then you choose to not do those things that's rebellion. And rebellion is a salvation thing. Y'all okay >> to rebel to simply say I see what it says but I choose not to do that. If you do that, then all of a sudden we have to go back and revisit salvation because the word of God says rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. Now that's the King James language. But one of the things I love about the King James Bible is it puts some words that are in italics. Anybody know what the italic words are in King James? There are things that were not in the original language that they've been added to so that the sentence is grammatically correct. If you look at that verse there in Samuel, it says rebellion, and you take the italics out, is witchcraft. Witchcraft is simply opening yourself up to the supernatural world on the evil side. So for you to rebel is to say, "God, I refuse to receive what it is you desire from me." Are you guys okay? Are you quiet? All right. I know it's a heavy subject matter. We're processing this, but I felt like it was important for me to lay this out. Couple things. I'm going to do a little recap here and then I'm going to get into the word.

All right. So, final check. This is where your seat belt. You got to click it and pull it over and ring your call light. Everybody Okay. Number one, if you've only been here a short amount of time with us or you're new to your walk with God, then I would talk to you in a different way. and I'll have some time if that's what's good for you and or anybody that's on the staff here, one of the pastors, we'd love to spend some time with you and talk with you about more detail. If you've been living for God for a while, some of this is maturity issues. Some of these matters we're going to talk about tonight are things that you should be settled in. And if you're not settled in, then I would encourage you to pray about this because these things are there. And part of us walking with God is that we should be spiritually drawing closer to him always. Always. Always. Here's the deal. None of you have arrived. >> Okay? You know how I know you haven't arrived? Because you're still here. >> Yeah. And if you're here, it means you're not there. There is heaven. And when you get to heaven, you have arrived. But we have not yet arrived. So, I'm in the process of being saved. You're in the process of being saved. We're in the process, better word, sanctification, or modern language, we are in the process of maturing.

All of us. All of us. Every one of us are in the process of doing that. So, having said that tonight, let's get to the word of God. One thing I wanted to say about this because I feel like this is a verse that you should pin out and study a little bit yourself. But Isaiah 4, I didn't give them this verse, so don't blame them. I'm just going to tell you to go to Isaiah 4:1. It says simply this. And in that day, women will take hold of one man, saying, "We would eat our own bread and wear our own apparel. Only let us be called by your name to take away our approach." which I feel like the spirit of the day and ages. Now, it was Isaiah talking about the time when Messiah had come and he set some things back in order. I encourage you later on, go back to Isaiah 4, study that a little bit more. He's talking about the branch that's to come and the things that are going to happen and holiness is going to be restored back once he gets the word is filth out of Jerusalem. But I want you to notice he said seven. Now, that seven there in my opinion has to refer to the seven churches that are in the book of Revelations. He's being prophetic and there's a lot of connections in there that I don't have near enough time to go into tonight.

But I bring that verse up for this reason. Pay attention to these words again. He says this that we will eat our own bread and wear our own apparel. The spirit of the day is like we will choose what we will consume, our own bread. The word of God is also oftenimes referred to as the bread, the bread of life. We will choose what we want out of the word and we will choose what we want to wear. only be married to us so that in name only you take away our appro reproach. There's a spirit in Christianity today that likes to have the name but wants to be selective in what part of the word that they want, what part of the apparel they want. I'm telling you, Isaiah was seeing this. He was probably there. Again, I don't have enough time to get in that tonight, but you theologians, I just threw you a nugget. You're welcome. Go study that out. Now to the message for tonight. 1 Timothy chapter 2 verse number 8 says, "I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting in like manner also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shamef facedness and sobriety." Another word for sobriety that would probably be appropriate for today would be attitude, not with broaden hair or gold or pearls or costly gray, but which becometh woman professing godliness with good works.

So tonight, we're going to dive in and we're going to spend a little bit more time talking about the ladies tonight. And then look, I'm not excluding the men, the men all next Wednesday. So if you come back next Wednesday, I'm just talking about the guys. And the guys got a whole lot of stuff very specific to men. But you I want I'm doing this one for a purpose because I want you to know that God purposely deals with men and women in slightly different ways because there are things typically I have to say it that way that women and men struggle with that are different. As I've said before, I ask again, have anybody notice there's a difference between a man and a woman? >> Yeah, we're not going to do a deep dive into that. all right with there's differences. So because of that, our great God who created us differently also comes in differently with his approach on how things are. Now my goal tonight is to come in and I want you to know I've spent a lot of time praying. I want to present this in a right attitude and right way so that we can receive what God has for us tonight. But tonight we're going to be talking about the some of the struggles that often times women have when it comes to holiness and lifestyle convictions. adornment which is adorning themselves with or not with apparel must apparel attitude which is the shamefaciness and sobriety.

This is not to say that you don't have other problems in other areas of life because that sometimes happens also or that men never have problems with apparel or attitude because men do. Again, tendencies only because of the distinct nature of the sexes there. For both men and women, holiness begins in the inside. But what's on the inside will absolutely will manifest itself on the outside. And not everything that looks right on the outside is good on the inside. Can I say that again? Not everything that looks right on the outside is good on the inside. Everybody ever bit into a rotten apple before. >> Yeah. I mean, it looked good. Everything looked apart and then you took a bite and blah. So, yeah, there are some, and I'll be very specific tonight because we're in an apostolic Pentecostal church. There are some apostolic Pentecostal people that from the look on the outside, it looks like everything's together, but inside they are rotten to the core. Amen. >> The Bible talks about the beauty of holiness and they make it ugly >> and it has absolutely nothing to do with what they're wearing but what they manifest from the inside out. Adorn means to beautify or decorate with ornaments. The Greek word here from which we derive the green the English word cosmetics. It comes from that root word of the cosmos which gets translated multiple ways whether it's world order or arrangement or even in this case decoration.

Just as the attractive and orderly arrangement of the stars adorns the world, humans they can adorn themselves. But the apostles make it clear that the way women often desire to adorn themselves can be in a direct opposition to the way God desires for them to be adorned. In our text that we read here tonight that opened up to you as Paul is talking there to young Timothy. Timothyy's involved in the ministry and he's telling him look there's a way things ought to be. There's a way things should be conducted very clear when it talks about adornment and apparel. Both Paul and Peter express similar admonitions. Thus the standard and we're going to talk about the first century apostolic. But I want you to keep something in mind. Okay. We think oftent times to live in the world we live in today where we have Nordstrom rack and we have all these other clothing stuffs that we can go to and they like well they just didn't have to deal with those things. I'm going to tell you right now first century had Rome and Rome was sharp. Rome was modern for the time. They had a lot of culture. They had a lot of things a lot in fact if you ever studied into Rome and at its height they were a very civilized nation. They had a lot of stuff and they believed in apparel.

They had a lot of high-end clothing for the day, right? A lot of stuff was there. So, don't be thinking in your mind for just a moment, well, they didn't have this or they didn't have that. Oh, oh, I promise you, they had it. And if you think we're living in a perverse world, you should read what they did in Rome. >> As Solomon said, there's nothing new under the sun. And there's I mean, there's stuff that it was rough. So, I say all that. So that you know that it it's easy for you and I to kind of distance oursel from what they were dealing with and think, well, they just didn't have all the stuff there. Okay, I'll give you one. They didn't have online shopping. They didn't have Amazon that delivered the next day. Okay, you I'll throw you that bone, but they had their own that they dealt with. So he's writing both Peter and Paul are writing to cultures who are understanding temptations just like you and I deal with in our life. So Peter says this in 1 Peter 3:1. Likewise you wives be in subjection to your own husbands that if any obey not the word, they may they also may without word be one by the conversation of their wives. While they behold your chase conversation, coupled with fear, whose adorning, let it not be that outward adorning of the plating of the hair, or the wearing of the gold, or the putting on the peril, but let it be the hidden man of the heart, and that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of the meek and quiet spirit, which again the attitude, right?

Which is in the sight of God, a great price. For after this manner in the old time, the holy women also who trusted in God adorned themselves being subject unto their own husbands. Now, there's words in there that are just inflammatory in our day. Be subject to. You can almost feel the rustling in the room. I felt it. I didn't look up for a reason. Ain't no man going to tell me what to do. Tell you right now. So, you got to be careful. God never intended for man to be superior to woman. But God also has a creative order of things. And we get in real trouble when we get things out of order. You don't believe that? Just put a put together a piece of IKEA furniture. Yeah. When you get things out of order, there's a price to pay. So, I'm going to do my best to talk about we husbands are never meant to lord over our wives. In fact, there's a real big responsibility I'm going to get into next week about what we should be doing. But for this moment, I want you to know there is a process that God designed for a reason. And when it's done right, it's complimentary. It's a beautiful thing how it goes together. No one's more important than the other. It's all meant to go together in this beautiful thing called life.

It's how God designed it. But let's get into adornment a little bit. Let's talk about in the Old Testament. Let's talk about jewelry for just a little bit. Okay? Again, I'm not trying to offend anybody in this room. I have no intentions. There's nobody in my mind. And I'm coming after you. I'm just going to bring to you the word of God so that you can process on this on your own. But jewelry in the Old Testament was originally given to Israel to the children of Israel as a blessing from God. I spoke about it a few Sundays ago and told you that they didn't have a bank. All right? They didn't go down to the local ATM and pull out cash when they wanted to. So, there was a way that they could carry funds with them. Typically, it was done in jewelry. And you see that God Abraham was a very wealthy man in silver and gold. Genesis 13 talks about that. And then Israel was actually instructed when they were being fixing to leave Egypt from their enslavement that God actually told them that they needed to go and they needed to get to take the jewelry that the Egyptians had to take it with him. What was he doing? He was giving them the ability to have some money to go along the way. This was God's blessing on Israel for it to give them currency to survive the journey.

Until this time, jewelry was viewed in a positive way because it had a practical function. However, if you've gotten yourself into Exodus, especially when you get to around chapter 32, I believe it is 33, this is when Moses is up on the mountain and God's given him a new covenant. He's writing the tablet of the New Testament or the he's giving him a the Ten Commandments and he's writing on the stones there. And this is when all this taking place. What were the children doing down in the valley while they were waiting on Moses? They just had them a party. It's some of the funniest scriptures in the Bible. We don't I love when it said we just fell Moses. We don't know where he went. I mean, you think at all that Moses has done, how's he just a fella? Yeah. We don't know where this cat went. So they look at Aaron and Aaron's having a complete and utter leadership meltdown. I mean he has failed. He is Barney and he is failing the job. So what does he do? He says, "Hey, give me the jewelry you got." Funniest line in the Bible in my opinion. Because when he gets busted, right? Because they take it and they make a molden calf and they out there and you know Aaron's like here here's your god that brought you out. Aaron, what's wrong with you?

You're a That is not who brought you out of Egypt. But he's trying to be a people pleaser. He puts him out there and of course God tells Moses, "Look, you're going to have to get down off them because them people that I just brought out of Egypt, they're down there worshiping a calf and I'm fixing to wipe them out." And Moses comes down and they're having just this big old party down there and they're, you know, scantily clad and the whole thing's going on and Moses throws down the tablets and we're like, "Don't break the tablets." And he broke the tablets and I know he regretted that later because he had to go chisel the stone out next time. you know, he was like, "Stupid people." The Bible's got a lot of funny stuff in it. So, this whole moment's going on right there. And then Aaron says, "Well, we didn't know what happened to the people were demanding all this, so we just took the gold and we threw it in the fire and out popped his cow." Literally, that's what it says. Out pop the cow. I want to show you something. I didn't give you this, but if you're quick on the draw back there, Patrick, if you'll go to Exodus chapter 33, he didn't have this. So, if he doesn't throw it up, it's not on him. This was just me.

Exodus 33. Then the Lord said to Moses, "Depart and go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt, to the land which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying to your descendants I will give it." Now, listen to what he says. Verse number two. This is after the party. This is after everything. This after there's been some death. And then Moses is like, "Look, you can't wipe them out. It's not a good idea." Look at verse number two. I will send my angel before you. So he told him in verse number one, I'm going to keep my word. Because he always keeps his word. He always keeps his word. But look, look what he's done. I will send my angel before you and I will drive out the Canaanite and the Amorite and the Hittite and the Preszite and the Hivite and the Jebusite and the Termite. I'll go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. For I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you on the way, for you're a stiff- necked people." And when the people heard the bad news, they mourned. And what did nobody do? Nobody. Nobody put on their jewelry. For the Lord has said to Moses, "Say to the children of Israel, you are a stiff- necked people. I could come up into your midst in one moment and consume you.

Now therefore, take off your ornaments that I may know what to do with you. So the children of Israel strip themselves of ornaments. From that moment forward, God never instructed them to have jewelry again. Now, here's the deal. We have it. They did have jewelry, but was never it was never mandated by God. Never. Because God realized right there, something I gave to you to be a blessing, you turned it into an idol, something that was meant to be a benefit to you. The moment I leave you alone for any length of time, you took a blessing and you turn it into an idol. And that's what oftent times can happen when it comes to adornments and jewelry. if it doesn't have a purpose often times it can be an idol. Now they had signant rings and they had crowns but they all had a purpose that was there and as you read through scriptures you follow this there was always a purpose behind it and that's what we believe here and that's what we teach and preach is that you know I wear waiting around in fact my one I my wife doesn't like it but I got this rubber silicone one on that I wear and I usually forget I got it on. I mean, to me, it's not about the value. To me, it's about the promise that I made to her that I belong to her.

She's mine and I belong to her. That's what this is. Now, I do have a nicer one that I get out every now and then, put on. But it has a function. We believe your jewelry should have a function. It should have a purpose that is there. I think you have to be cautious. Again, please know my heart. Everybody in this room, I'm not here to condemn anybody. I'm here to present you what I've found the word of God to say and to caution you that there are times when those things can consume you and you're not even aware of it what it can do to you. God's command to the Israelites for them to remove their ornaments before they went into the promised land. In other words, that was also a type of heaven. I believe in order for you to have some deeper spiritual experiences, there's some things that you just have to put off in your life. There's some more separation that's come. When God instructed Moses to take up the free will offering to construct the tabernacle, the long list of things that was suggested at the very top was gold. God was not forcing it from the Israelites, but he was suggesting the obvious. Why don't you take the very thing that you ended up worshiping and why don't we put it into the tabernacle, make something good out of it?

God eventually verbalized his hatred in Deuteronomy 7:25. The graven images of their god shall you burn with fire. Thou shalt not desire the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therein, for it is an abomination to the Lord thy God, neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thy house, lest thou be cursed thing like it, but thou shalt utterly distaste it, thou sh utterlyhore it, for it is a cursed thing. The Old Testament reveals a growing trend against the adornment that was there. You hear the term and hear the name Jezebel from time to time rather than a Bible character. It had more to do with a representative of a spirit that was there. For we see it return back in the book of Revelations in chapter 2 when it gets talked about the spirit that was there. There's something about that. Look at me. Look at me. Look at me. And we live in a day and age in a society where it's all about you. Everything's about you. Now, please, I believe, I believe in looking your best. I do. And I'm of the flavor of Apostolic Pentecostals that I believe that you can represent and be someone who can be respected everywhere you go. We're not on the other side of the tracks. You know, there's nothing wrong with presenting and making yourself look the best that you can without getting wrapped up in things that have the potential to consume you.

Are you guys okay? I don't believe we have to there for a while there was a stigma against Pentecost because it was just this and that and the less than and you know I heard one time a preacher compare women to barns and you want to put good paint on a barn. I'm going to tell you right now, if I went in and called my wife a barn, it would not be a good day with a baby girl. It'd be bad. Yeah. I wouldn't see her for a while. Then after my eyes started to open back up, swelling. To be connected with the spirit of Jezebel is the equated by God with the depths of Satan. You can read Revelations 2:20. Notwithstanding, I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest thy woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetus, to teach and seduce my servants, to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed to idols The Bible does not condemn all jewelry. It doesn't. We have scriptures that, but it was all jewelry that had a functional purpose and a use because the Bible does not condemn. Here's a here's an answer for you in your handout. these various types of functional jewelry in the Old Testament. We also maintain a balanced position by making allowances for a minimal amount of functional jewelry. While maintaining God's prohibition on jewelry for the sole purpose of endorment, I told you a few Sundays ago as I was preaching a message, I felt very convicted by the Lord to preach.

There are some things that I've seen come back into the apostolic Pentecostal churches that make me scratch my head. I don't understand some of these things while we at one point we're here and while we seem to be drifting back. And I go back to what I said at the beginning of this message. To me, there's something very powerful, something very powerful about the maturing process with God. You are maturing in your walk with him. There are things that I dealt with younger in my life that I seem to struggle with. They were stumbling blocks to me and I would try to justify them for all different reasons and there are things now that I look back in my life and I'm like that's crazy. Why did they even let that have any even a thought in my mind, but it's because I'm continuing to mature in my walk with God. There reaches a point when there should be some things that are just settled inside of you. Again, I'm talking about your spiritual age, okay? In your spiritual age, there should be some things you're just settled with. You you just move on. Because here's the deal, guys. You can't move forward in your walk with him. You can't get deeper with him. until you learn to mature. Some of this is just settling the issues in your life. And I that's why I encourage you to take what I'm bringing you tonight.

And I already realized that I have 10 pages of notes and I'm on page two and it's 7:42. So, we got a ways to go. So, you guys better buckle up. I'm not going to go fast. I promised I wasn't going to go fast. We may just have to continue into next week. But, I want you to get this. I want you I want you to take what I'm bringing to you and I want you to pray about it. And I want you to see what God lays on your heart. Again, I don't know everybody's walk in the room. I know some of you and some of you I spent some time with and we pray together and I help you through some situations and some of you I have a little idea. Some of you I don't have any idea where you are with God. That's why I'm saying I don't want to offend anybody tonight. I'm bringing you the word of God. I'm bringing you much time of study to say these things are here. What do we do with it now? What do we do with it? We can't just ignore it. It's there. What happened? Let's talk about it. Let's talk about adorment in the New Testament. We see Peter and Paul and they are even more explicit than the Old Testament commands because we seen here they contrast an inner adorning with a meek and quiet spirit with an outer adorning of the body by elaborate hairstyles and gold and plural and costly ray.

These the these they're not two modes of the same lifestyle, but they are two completely different things that have to be dealt with. Both Peter and Paul expect women to adorn themselves so long as it is a proper fashion. There to me it's impossible to walk through nature and see all of the beauty and all the diversity that God gives us and all the things that are there and to think that he doesn't enjoy that. He does. So I'm not he's not looking for a cookie cutter mold of everybody, right? that everybody's got the same, you know, top and bottom and shoes and no, that's not I don't believe that at all. That if that was the case, nature would look that way. Okay, you guys okay with that? Cuz I feel like sometimes that's what people think is, well, we all got to do this and this and this. I'm telling you, God loves beautiful things and he gives us a lot of diversity to look at, but it's choosing the things that are not going to have control over me. Because let's be honest, there's a lot of stuff that has the ability to latch a hold of us. And that's what Peter and Paul are talking about here is you need to be okay on the inside and let it manifest itself on the outside and be sure that you're okay with this.

There must be consistency, this is your next blank, between the inward life and the outward appearance of a Christian. To pretend to come humbly before God while we are adorned in a way we know he does not like is hypocrisy. Another blank there for you. There's no longer a negative connection associated with jewelry or makeup in our culture, but we seek to please God, not man. There's a whole lot that society says is okay. >> So, we can't allow society to be the one that dictates what's right or wrong. At some point I need something in my life that I know is settled and established and what I know and settled and established is his word. >> That's why regardless of what society does because let's be honest with you, it's running off the rails. >> Regardless of what culture says, I got to come back here and ask myself, what is he telling me? What is he telling me? I want to grow deeper with him. I want to have a deeper walk with my God. Society's acceptance of any practice does not change the way next blank god views it or the spiritual another blank reason for his prohibition. Jewelry so highlights sensuality at times encourages pride. It affects the wearer and the observer and it can teach a distorted value system as much as it ever has. Let's talk about apparel for a little bit.

This may be the last section I get into tonight for the sake of time. Deuteronomy 22:4, the woman shall not wear that which pertainth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment. For all that do so are an abomination unto the Lord. 1st Samuel 6:16-7. But the Lord said to Samuel, "Look not on his countenance, nor on his height of his stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord seeth not as a man seeth. For the man lookth on the outward appearance, but the Lord lookth on the heart. Does it matter how we appear on the outside if God looks at the heart? Does it? Absolutely it does. Absolutely it does. We are God's ambassadors. We're referred to that way in scriptures. In other words, we are his representatives everywhere we go. Quite often, you may be the only Jesus someone ever sees. >> And are you representing him or are you misrepresenting him? To me, that comes with a big weight. How am I doing that? How am I representing my God in the world that I live in? Because it's not about them seeing me. It's about them seeing him in me. If I'm to do all that he wants me to do and if you're to do all that God wants you to do, you need to be sure you represent him well. I'm not living a life for me.

I'm living a life for him. We all are. That's what he's called us to do. Man does look on the outward appearance. And some people dress to be admired, pleasing next blank themselves. Other people dress to be accepted to please others. We as Christians, however, should dress to glorify God. Now again, I want to say this because I feel it's important to say this. I'm not coming after anyone. Some of the things I'm fixing to talk about is not meant to make you be upset or for you to feel ashamed or you to feel like you're not welcomed or no one cares about you. It's not that I want everybody to feel welcome at this church. Regardless if you are embracing what I'm talking about right now or not, I'm just going to present to you what the word of God says, but I want you to know you are welcome here. >> You are welcome here. This is a this is a good church and we will do our best to love you. It is my job to do my very best to study this out to the best of my ability and bring it to you. That is my job and I'm going to do the best I can. So, I want to say I hope no one walks away thinking I can't be there. I can't be a part of that. That's not at all.

I just want to bring you what the word of God says and I want you to pray about it. >> And if you don't agree with me, it's okay. You can keep coming to church. >> You keep We're not going to kick you out. We don't kick people out. Okay? We don't do that. I mean, you got to be crazy for us to kick you out. Now, we've had a few crazies that we kicked out, but I mean, you got to be cray cray because I believe everybody needs an opportunity to get close to God. >> Okay? So, I hope you love me. We're going to move in. I'm going to present this to you the way God laid it on my heart. To dress modestly implies that clothing must provide sufficient covering. Now, here's the deal. And I'm going finish that up and for the body so that others are not tempted. All right. Here's the deal. Everybody, we live in a world today we live in and let let's this I'm going to ask the question. Does anybody think that we've carried things too far and what is allowed out in public for us? How much flesh gets revealed? Anybody feel like there's too much going on? All right. Now, here's the deal. We all have a standard. For example, and this is disturbing, but I think it's a good example. It's okay.

It's okay. But I can find out what your standard is by simply starting to take my clothes off up here. If I started taking my clothes off, we would I know my wife's like, "Oh my god, we're going to talk later." I know. I'm not doing that. I'm not doing that. But that we would reach and find out what the standard is, right? We would because eventually you reach a point everybody's like, "I got we got to go. We got to go. Now, in the world we live in today, there's probably not a day that goes by that you don't encounter something that you they're like, "What in the world?" Like, "Who? Lord, help. They don't have a mirror. Their mama should know better." You know, we have all that, right? I mean, just go to Walmart. I guarantee you won't get out there going, "What in the world? So they're society we can't let society go in then what do we do? Do we just reflect on ourselves because okay well I mean I know what is modest by I mean I know but how do we do that? I mean are you going to be the one? So if you're the one that knows are we going to let you stand up in front of everybody and say well you're the one that knows so you need to come tell all of us.

How's that going to work? Who's going to who's going to listen to that? Even if I say that like I mean I got a little bit of credit but even in me doing it be like so that's why we got to we got to establish where's the baseline who gets to say who gets the right to say what is permissible and what is not permissible in my opinion I think we should let God do it >> right he created us didn't he made it I think we got to look to what he says now again I know the world doesn't always say that but there he has a whole lot to say here and here's the We either have to say, "All right, God. I see what you hear. I know that may seem old-fashioned in the world I live in today, but I'm not going to be judged off of the standards of today. I'm going to be judged off the precedent that he set." Modesty must conform to God's opinion, not your opinion. In the Garden of Eden, mankind, right? They mess up in the garden. They eat of the forbidden fruit and it says their eyes were open and they realized they were what? >> Naked. They were naked. Now it says that in this realization that they decided to make some clothes and then God shows up and God says, "Adam, where are you?" All right.

Now, understand the words here with me for just a minute. Okay? Think about the story for just a minute. Those of you that know it, well, it goes this way. They realized they were naked. They made clothes. Then they hid. And then God shows up, okay? And he says, "Where are you?" And it says, you know, "Where were you at?" And he said, "We realized we were naked." They still think they're naked even though they made clothes. Right? Go look at the story. They're still naked. They know they're naked because they hid from him. You think they made clothes at that point. If you have clothes, most people think they're not naked, but they their clothes, they still fed naked. Now, if you go study out the words that are there and what happens between what they made, which is more of an apron that basically covered the groin, because that seems to be man's motto, right? Well, as long as you got your crotch covered, you're good to go. That's the world we're in today. I know. We'll talk later. That's the world we're in today. No different than THE GARDEN. NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN. But yet they knew. They knew. They knew that was not enough cuz even though they had that part covered, they're still what? Hiding. And then God come up and he makes for them a coat, a tunic.

He covers them because God's version is always different than man's version. Always. Always. I'm skipping ahead this a little bit, Patrick. Let's go to Genesis 3:21. And Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skin and clothe them. Nakedness was covered from the beginning by God to defeat the temptation it created. Nakedness is a moral shame. from Genesis through Revelation, Genesis 3 and 7 all the way to Revelation 16 and 15. Since God doesn't change, the principles of modesty and modest apparel haven't changed either. And God's big on gender distinction. I know our world's struggling with that right now. And I know for a 47 year old man, it makes me scratch my head. All right, I'm gonna say this again. However you feel about you, God loves you. Whatever you're struggling with, God loves you. Just come to God. He loves you. But if you do come to God, if you do move forward and you desire relationship with him, you will discover that he is very specific in what he wants. Historically, men and women have wore robes as a major part of human history. In Walmart, they still wear robes. Most important though even with the robe there was a gender distinction was not simply in what they wore but how they wore it. They were male and female way of utilizing their clothes. Firstly the priest wore breaches bre under their robes.

The word does not occur very often in scripture but in every case it is involving men's apparel. Exodus 28:42, Exodus 39:28, Leviticus 6 and10, 16-4, and Ezekiel 44:18. Women were not allowed to wear breaches. According to Hebrew lexicons, breaches meant trousers that extended below the knee. Later, the English word breaches developed its term, as did our modern concept of pants. Women in biblical times did not wear garments that went around their leg or crotched garments because it was not something that God approved of. Thus, pants were worn exclusively for men for the first 5,900 years of human history. Only in recent times has it become acceptable and impractical for women to wear something that belongs just to them. Let me ask you the question. You probably heard this before. Like even in the world of chaos right now when it comes to public bathrooms, which I I'll say this that Jeffrey and I were in Madagascar a few years ago and that was my first time I had ever been in a public restroom that was gender neutral. This is before it got crazy in our world here in the States. And I'll be honest with you, it took me back when I came out of my stall and a lady came out of her stall. My first part was, "Oh no, I have messed up." But then I looked down and there was urinal and I'm like, "Oh no, she's messed up." But then I realized there were more women in there than there were men.

And I'm like, I don't know who's messed up. I feel messed up. But across cultural barriers, how have you always been able to distinguish in most cases, because there's always exception to the rules, which one's the men's restroom and which one's the women's restroom, right? >> The woman has a dress on or a hoola skirt or whatever the case may be. The restaurants get creative. bloss and sheilas. It's universally understood. I know times are changing. I know times are changing. But has our God changed? >> Has our God changed? You got to be careful with wording. Okay, I'm getting close. I'm trying to wrap this up for tonight. We You just have to bring your notes back and I'll finish next Wednesday because I don't want to rush this. This is too important. I want to get our heads around. All right. But you got to pay you got to pay close attention. Are you guys okay? Everybody all right? >> Do I can I have about 10 more minutes, which means nothing, but can I have it? >> Got to be careful when there's words mentioned like abomination. You got to pay attention to those things, right? Those are not casual words. If God says something is an abomination to him, it's and I think I've said this before, it is so repulsive to God, it makes him want to vomit. He's repulsed by it.

Now, there were commands that are given in the scripture paid to Deuteronomy 22:5. The woman shall not wear that which pertainth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment, for all that to do so are an abomination. I want you to notice there's different commands for here for both men and women in this one verse. A man must not put on a woman's garment. That is the feminine attire itself which is distinctive in styling. It's enough of a command for him because usually there's exceptions and especially a lot of exceptions today in today's climate cultural climate but typically men don't struggle with the adorning process like women do. So he's addressing he says you shouldn't put it on but look what it says instructions get a little bit deeper for a woman because she often times struggles more in this area. says she's not to wear that which there's a new word there pertainth unto a man. Pertain means to relate or to have reference to be appropriate for. It's Latin root word which actually means literally to reach towards. In other words, she not must not allow her feminine apparel to reach towards or even slightly resemble men's clothing and is masculine bearing. Again, I I'm presenting this to you for you to study. Take your time. get you a Hebrew study guide and dive into the word yourself. Look, I spent the time doing it, but don't take my word.

You do it yourself. The word abomination occurs over 40 times just in from Genesis through the through Deuteronomy. The root word is disgusting, filthy, losome, or abhorrent. There are certain things that were merely abominations to Israel. One such thing was in Leviticus 11 and10 under the ceremonial law. But there are other things that were an abomination unto the Lord. Those were moral issues. And the reason that's important, and I know I'm taking some time here, but I want you to get your head around it. All right? There was civil law, there was ceremonial law, and there was moral law that was given to the children of Israel. Civil. They didn't have any laws. So when God gets him out there and he gives him the Ten Commandments and he's working with Moses and this was after the naked cow party thing. He says, 'Look, I got to I want to be your God. I want you to be my people, but in order for this to take place, I got to give you some laws because you don't have any laws. They had no civil laws. They had no moral law and they had no ceremonial, which is what God was trying to institute, what was proper and right worship. When Jesus Christ came at Calvary, he came and he was able to take away the ceremonial law that no longer do we have to take a lamb in there and offer it.

He became the lamb. Those things went away. But what never went away was God's moral law. When God says things are an abomination to him, those are specific things that dealt with morality. They were abominable to him. They have always been and always will be abominable. That's why I don't understand a lot of trends that are going on in mainstream Christianity right now when I'm like, we have black and white scripture that God says that's abominable to me. Like he hasn't changed his mind. Grace and mercy are there. I'm thankful for grace and mercy, but God's still disgusted by it. >> We have admonitions also in the New Testament. The word apparel used by Paul in 1 Timothy 2 that I read to you to start this off comes from the word castel which means long and flowing garment. The word reflects a style of garment for the Greeks called castl which is a loose fitting or flowing that covered from the neck to the knees. Paul refers and requires the same type of garment that God put out in Genesis 3 when he found them in the garden after they failed. The garment should cover. It doesn't have to be longer. But Paul wanted something specifically. If he wanted to go to the ankles, he would use a different word that was used, the same word potterus, which was in Revelations 1. But Paul doesn't say that.

And for the sake of tonight, when things are referred to as shamed or naked, if you go scripturally, it talks about the uncovering the bearing of the thigh. Make bear the thigh. Live in the shame. Live in the reproach that is there. Now, I know our world doesn't think anything about seeing thighs. Doesn't think anything about seeing a whole lot of stuff, but it's not about what the world thinks. It's what does God think here? We teach you should be covered. Your shoulder should be covered. Your neck, you from here to here, you should be pretty well covered. Now, that's what we teach and preach here. If you're involved in leadership and you're involved in ministry here, that's what we that's what we teach and preach. That goes for men and women, right? The men and women because in that case, we hold the same standard. Paul also teaches us that women's clothing should follow the principles of shame, facess, and sobriety. That is, she's responsible to dress so that she does not turn the eyes or the mind to attention. Because I'm going to be honest with you, some people can be covered from here to here, but it's so tight that I can read the label on your undergarment. Something's wrong. >> You may be covered, but you're covered in such a way that you are still provoking. Which always makes me want to ask the question, why?

Why? Why would you want it that tight? What is the desired outcome you have? What is it that you're looking for? These things are tough. I'm going to I'm going to bring it to a close night. So, I'm going to start on the next point. And my whole goal for this is I've felt and if you were here about three or four Sundays ago when I preached what I felt God laid on my heart for the church, you know, I told you that I've been wrestling with it for a while because I felt like God was in the process of a shift in what he was doing inside our church. In order for us to be ready for the new influx that's coming, we had to be prepared for it. I feel like there is a deeper spiritual move that's coming to center point. And I feel it because of the age and the day that we live in right now that our time is drawing close and God's desiring to do a great work in these last days. And I feel like we play a pivotal role in our region to do this in the apostolic world. But in order for us to fully embrace all that God has for us, we have to make sure that we are aligning oursel with what he desires for us to do. >> So, I'm coming back and I know I'm coming back to some foundational pieces again back to you.

But my goal is for us all to walk away with a new and fresh understanding of what God's desire is for our life. It's not meant for me to be mean or for me to hammer down on you or for me to be like, "You're going to go to hell if you don't do these things." Cuz I didn't I don't believe in that kind of stuff. My goal is to tell you this is what God's desire is. This is what his word says. This is something you need to be praying about. I My goal at the end of the day is to get you to heaven. That's my goal to fulfill the kingdom purpose and call he has for this church. So, it's going I'm taking some time to go slowly through this, but I want to be sure you get your head around it. And I hope you feel my heart. I love you. I want the best for you. I don't want to be mean-spirited in this. I want to have a right attitude. But it's important, ladies and gentlemen. It is so important. Our apostolic identity and our distinction and our lifestyle convictions are so important in this day and age we live in. as you stand with me tonight. Again, if you maybe tonight haven't seen things this way or there's something that you're like, I don't know. I'm not I don't I'm not sure about that.

I want you to know that even though I went slower tonight, I still covered a lot of ground in a short amount of time. And I know I I'm quite positive that there's some questions in the room. I'm open to answer any question for you. Please, please, I don't want anybody to walk away offended tonight. Please, you're welcome at this church. You don't have to you don't have to conform to all of this in order to come to church and be a part of what we're doing here. Now, there are certain levels of ministry that you and I would talk a little bit more about if that was a desire that you had. But my goal is to help you on your walk with God. >> We're all in the process of maturing. We're all in the process of getting closer to him. And we're all at different levels. So, whatever level you're at, I want to help you. I want to I want to be there to help you. It's what this church is about. We want to the staff, the pastors are on staff. We want to help you. At the end of the day, I promise you, there's not going to be one thing that you quote gave up that when you're on the streets of gold that you're ever going to think about. And if there's ever been a time for us to draw closer to him, I feel like that time is now.

Man, it's getting crazy out there. But here here's something I need you to know. It's exciting times. Never has there been a greater time to be the church >> than right now because the world is hungry for real and they're hungry for authentic and they're hungry for deep moves of God. >> And I'm so thankful we have that this church. >> Will you pray with me as we leave? Jesus, I love you so much. God, I thank you for the opportunity we had here tonight in this service. Thank you for the truth that is in your scripture. Lord, I pray God that you would be with every man and woman that is in this room right now. Lord, that you would give us the ability to process and understand what it is you desire for our life. Lord, I pray that everyone would feel your presence close and near. Lord, be with us as we leave this place tonight. Bring us back this weekend. In the mighty name of Jesus we pray and amen.