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124. Freedom In The Church - Dress Attire · 4-Freedom Podcast

• 0:04
  Welcome to the For Freedom podcast.
• 0:10
  I found my freedom of you. I found a joy I can't lose.
• 0:19
  Thank God it's true. You wrapped your arms around me
• 0:24
  and heaven broke through from the moment she found me.
• 0:28
  I found my freedom in you. This podcast exists to bring the
• 0:35
  freedom of the gospel for everyday Christians with
• 0:38
  everyday issues. Now here are your hosts, James
• 0:42
  Seyfried and Brett Martin. Welcome back to the Four Freedom
• 0:49
  Podcast. It is a blessing to be back in
• 0:52
  the hot seat, be back in the hot chair with my man Brett and
• 0:57
  recording today. And man, these last couple of
• 1:00
  episodes have been fantastic for me.
• 1:03
  Man, who'd have thought we would have been able to interview Bob
• 1:05
  Coughlin? Man, I just thoroughly enjoyed
• 1:08
  that conversation with him and the conversations coming up in
• 1:12
  the future. We've got Marcus Merritt coming
• 1:15
  on, we've got Brian Edwards coming on.
• 1:18
  We've got a couple other guys that we're trying to work on to
• 1:21
  get in here and we are excited about the next couple of weeks
• 1:25
  and months of this season of the podcasters we're talking through
• 1:28
  in the church. But Brett, how are you doing?
• 1:31
  How's your family doing? Good to be able to see you again
• 1:35
  and got some future things coming up as well.
• 1:39
  We had such a good response from the last episode with Bob
• 1:44
  Coughlin and I just want to say before we move forward that, you
• 1:48
  know, I enjoyed that thoroughly. So glad we got a chance to talk
• 1:53
  to him. Brought so much to the table,
• 1:55
  gave us a lot to think about. But man, life is just life has
• 2:00
  just been good. You know, things are busy here
• 2:02
  and we're we're getting geared up.
• 2:05
  We've got some mission trips in our church coming up and then on
• 2:08
  that sign and then on the other side, the kids have been busy
• 2:12
  and we've had beta club meetings and shooting sports meetings
• 2:16
  and, you know, teen activity meetings and all this stuff.
• 2:20
  So busy, busy season of life. But I would much rather be busy
• 2:24
  than sit at the house, You know, he's already doing stuff.
• 2:28
  Just went to an evangelism training last night at the local
• 2:32
  First Baptist Church in our county.
• 2:34
  Don Lum. He's the evangelism director for
• 2:37
  Mississippi Baptist Convention Board for State of Mississippi.
• 2:41
  And he came and and did some evangelism training last night.
• 2:45
  Took note, took note after note after note, page after page.
• 2:49
  Got a lot of good stuff that we can apply to our church and our
• 2:52
  community. Looking forward to implementing
• 2:54
  that. But man, life's been good,
• 2:56
  Ministry's been good, and I've got no complaints.
• 2:59
  Love it. Yeah.
• 3:00
  And I'll, I'll echo what you said.
• 3:02
  I I've loved the feedback from the last couple of episodes and
• 3:05
  continue to reach out to us on our social media platforms.
• 3:09
  If you go back to episode 30 or 40 or something, I've got my
• 3:12
  cell phone number on there. You're welcome to reach out to
• 3:15
  me via that way and it's been great.
• 3:18
  I actually had a I'm supposed to be having an interview, a talk
• 3:21
  with a lady of a podcast that just recently started.
• 3:26
  She's been able to share her story a little bit on there and
• 3:29
  looking at people that have been out of our world, out of the ISV
• 3:33
  to be able to come on and talk about where they're at and what
• 3:36
  they went through. So excited about that.
• 3:38
  And then Brett, I didn't even tell you this.
• 3:40
  I had a guy that called me and he is starting a podcast and he
• 3:46
  just said, hey, can you give me some help, some advice on how we
• 3:50
  can do a podcast? Like how?
• 3:51
  How? Not me and him, but how him and
• 3:53
  some friends are going to do a podcast and just some basic
• 3:56
  things. And this Friday coming up, man,
• 4:00
  tomorrow when this thing comes out, I'm going to be at a local
• 4:03
  high school in the area, W Wilkes High, and they're having
• 4:07
  me come in and do a seminar on podcasts and podcasting, how to
• 4:12
  get a podcast started, how to how to begin the process of all
• 4:15
  that. So man, I'm, I'm just excited.
• 4:18
  Originally it was going to be public speaking.
• 4:20
  As a pastor, you know, how do you get up and do public
• 4:22
  speaking? And then it sort of morphed
• 4:24
  into, hey, why don't you come and do because it's a, it's a,
• 4:28
  it's called a who world of opportunities.
• 4:31
  And so they bring in people from all different shapes and sizes
• 4:34
  and areas of expertise. And so apparently I'm an
• 4:37
  expertise in podcasting. I don't don't know how that is,
• 4:40
  but I'm going to come in and and bring in all my recording
• 4:43
  equipment. And so it's going to be a great
• 4:45
  time in the community of just being able to share, you know,
• 4:48
  for me it's it's going to be an opportunity for me to share the
• 4:51
  gospel with these kids. You know, how we are able to
• 4:54
  share the gospel through the the microwaves, radio waves,
• 4:58
  whatever you want to call podcasting these days, Internet
• 5:01
  waves, I don't know. And so it's going to be great.
• 5:04
  I'm looking forward to it. Very cool, very cool.
• 5:07
  I lost a battle against a slushy last night.
• 5:13
  Oh, so I have a root canal and a crown scheduled for tomorrow,
• 5:19
  which, yay. And then last night, I just
• 5:22
  like, You know what I'm I've been doing really good on the
• 5:25
  diet that I've been on and I thought I'd treat myself.
• 5:28
  So I got me, went to Sonic and got me a slush with Nerds.
• 5:33
  And so I'm chomping on those nerds.
• 5:36
  And then when I get done with the drink, my I look up and half
• 5:39
  my tooth is broken off of the tooth that I'm supposed to get a
• 5:43
  root canal on. So I'm glad that's scheduled
• 5:45
  tomorrow. So but that's cool about, you
• 5:50
  know, podcasting. I mean you are the expert
• 5:52
  podcaster and I think that's great, but that is a good
• 5:56
  opportunity. You know, you think about the
• 5:58
  culture and this generation, you know they're they eat stuff like
• 6:01
  that up and it's it's it's a great opportunity for you.
• 6:05
  So that's really good. Well, I heard a stat this
• 6:07
  morning, Brett, as I was driving around listening to one of my
• 6:11
  favorite podcast that you got me hooked on.
• 6:13
  But they made a statement that said in the world of podcasting
• 6:18
  and in the world of Patreon, Patreon is a a company that you
• 6:25
  can register with and have exclusive things for your
• 6:28
  podcast. Everything.
• 6:30
  I think they said there's over 250,000 Patreon accounts.
• 6:35
  Wow, that's on Patreon. That's that's a quarter of a
• 6:37
  million organizations that are saying, hey, we're doing a thing
• 6:41
  and we want you to be a part of it and can you give in this,
• 6:44
  this way or that way. And so the world podcasting is
• 6:48
  huge. And so we just have a little
• 6:51
  sliver of just being able to share hope and help for the
• 6:54
  gospel. And through Galatians 51, where
• 6:57
  we are able to give hope and help and freedom through the
• 7:01
  gospel because Christ has set us free.
• 7:05
  Amen. So what What we got going on?
• 7:08
  We got a couple things coming up.
• 7:10
  June, We've got some things in November.
• 7:14
  We've got some things in March of next year.
• 7:16
  What's going on, man? All right, The next thing we
• 7:19
  have on our agenda is the going to the National Southern Baptist
• 7:24
  Convention, and that's going to be in Indianapolis, Indianapolis
• 7:28
  this year. And we're going to be close
• 7:31
  enough to the Holy Land to go pay homage and burn incense at
• 7:35
  the mausoleum of Jack Hiles and OfferUp a El Amigo burrito.
• 7:39
  Shout out to my fellow Highlanders and, but no,
• 7:43
  seriously, we're going to be there at the Southern Baptist
• 7:45
  Convention and we're going to rent a house and record an
• 7:48
  episode. Hopefully be able to record an
• 7:50
  episode with our wives and want to get them on there and look
• 7:54
  excited, excited about that and ready to get that done.
• 7:58
  And then after the Southern Baptist Convention, we have, I
• 8:03
  think we've got Catoosa, right? Yeah, Catoosa in November and
• 8:08
  looking forward to the RFP meet up.
• 8:10
  I've been able to meet more and more of the family and I'll be
• 8:13
  able to hang out with some of those ones that were in
• 8:16
  Asheville and some of those ones that were in even Danville.
• 8:21
  And you know, every single one has been different, different
• 8:24
  people, different groups of people may have just met new
• 8:28
  people, people that I see their names but didn't really know who
• 8:31
  they were. And so that's one of the cool
• 8:34
  things about our meet ups that we do is just being able to be
• 8:36
  around like minded brothers and sisters and be able to share our
• 8:40
  stories with each other. And as I'm looking forward to
• 8:43
  that and then March of next year, Brett one year away almost
• 8:47
  well exactly one year to the date will be in Israel next year
• 8:51
  at this time. Man I'm so excited.
• 8:54
  Just had my Israel interest meeting for our church had 10 or
• 8:59
  12 people there. Several of them interested in
• 9:02
  going, others interested in going that wasn't able to be
• 9:05
  there. But man, I'm I'm so excited
• 9:07
  about going back. Been able to just see some
• 9:10
  things are going on seeing the pictures behind you as I'm
• 9:13
  sitting here decorating my office and and pulling out some
• 9:16
  of those things. Man.
• 9:18
  I'm just so excited about being able to be back in the holy
• 9:20
  lands be back where Jesus walked man.
• 9:23
  Just giving that that talk in that presentation again and and
• 9:27
  just sort of reignited some of those memories that I had,
• 9:31
  reignited some some questions that was asked to me and I was
• 9:35
  able to talk through some things, man.
• 9:37
  It was just an awesome, awesome time.
• 9:40
  Man, just think about it. If it, if it wasn't for, you
• 9:44
  know, unmitigating circumstances and the war and such, we would
• 9:47
  be in Israel right now. I thought about this Sunday
• 9:50
  morning as I was preaching. It's like we would be in Israel
• 9:55
  right this very second. So yeah, it does give me a
• 10:00
  little, you know, a motivation. I'm excited about next year.
• 10:05
  I think next, the the next trip we've got planned a year from
• 10:09
  now is going to be even better than the one that we planned for
• 10:13
  this year. And I think I've already had
• 10:15
  more interest in IT. People are chomping to get back
• 10:19
  as soon as they're able, soon as they open tourism back up in the
• 10:24
  country. People are chomping at the bit
• 10:27
  to get to get back and so can't wait for that.
• 10:31
  But I do need to address one thing before we move forward,
• 10:35
  and that is what we did have an issue with one of our episodes.
• 10:41
  We've had some criticism. We've had some pushback and it
• 10:46
  is something that I, I, you know, we do need to address and
• 10:50
  I want to publicly come on here and address it.
• 10:53
  We got some pushback because we like because we mentioned
• 10:57
  Casting Crowns. We got some pushback because of
• 11:02
  because we mentioned Creed. 3 Doors Down.
• 11:05
  Come on now, I. Mean they just they just don't
• 11:07
  understand what good music. Is they don't, man.
• 11:10
  I I was after that episode. We recorded it.
• 11:13
  Brett on the way home. I've got a 25 minute ride on the
• 11:16
  way home. I listen to Creed and three
• 11:17
  doors down the entire way home like it was I it was remote.
• 11:22
  I was reminiscing of being back in my teenage high school years
• 11:26
  of rocking out to three Doors down and Kryptonite and let me
• 11:30
  be my oh man, it was, it was, I was.
• 11:32
  I was a great time. Yeah.
• 11:33
  I was. I was back.
• 11:35
  Yeah. It was great.
• 11:36
  Yeah. Well, good stuff, good stuff.
• 11:39
  So we Is that everything we've got coming up?
• 11:43
  I think so, yeah. We've got some those things
• 11:45
  coming up and got some great interviews lined up for the
• 11:48
  future, but we'll let you guys spill on the edge of that a
• 11:52
  little bit. So, Brett, what's, what are we
• 11:54
  talking about today? Give us the intro.
• 11:56
  We are in. We are steering our still in our
• 11:59
  series in the church. And the subject we're going to
• 12:03
  be dealing with today is clothing is dress in the church.
• 12:10
  And this is an area that, you know, especially for me for so
• 12:16
  many years, I was taught wrong. I was.
• 12:19
  I was taught the wrong thing. And I was taught that you had to
• 12:23
  dress a certain way and you had to honor God in a certain way.
• 12:28
  And if you didn't wear these clothes to church, you know, God
• 12:31
  wouldn't approve of you and and God wouldn't love you and and
• 12:35
  you didn't measure up and you didn't tick off the rules.
• 12:38
  And there were so many things, rules we had to abide by in
• 12:42
  certain ways we had to address. And we were kind of, you know,
• 12:47
  ostracized if we didn't obey the rules.
• 12:50
  And you know, it was just so confusing for us.
• 12:54
  And my wife, for instance, my wife, you know, until just, you
• 12:57
  know, just a few years ago just always wore dresses and
• 13:01
  everywhere she went she had to wear skirts and and things like
• 13:05
  that. And then man, for years, I I
• 13:08
  didn't even wear shorts until just recently.
• 13:10
  And so we're kind of still coming out of this.
• 13:14
  You know, we were started coming out of this IFB legalistic
• 13:17
  mindset of of the way you should dress and we just had a wrong
• 13:21
  thinking. And, you know, as we're putting
• 13:23
  this thing together, we're thinking so many other people
• 13:26
  out there just like us, they're coming out of this legalistic
• 13:30
  mindset. They're coming out of this
• 13:33
  church culture where you have to tick off all the boxes and you
• 13:37
  have to look a certain way and you have to dress a certain way
• 13:40
  in order for God to approve of you.
• 13:43
  And we want to put some material out there.
• 13:45
  We want to put some content out there that addresses what does
• 13:49
  the Bible have to say about how you should dress in church,
• 13:54
  because it's a big issue. Our culture has made it a big
• 13:58
  issue and it's something that that's needed to be addressed
• 14:02
  and I'm glad we're addressing it right now.
• 14:05
  Yeah, I'm it's the topic, man. Brett, we have, we can see the
• 14:09
  analytics of the different episodes and the things that
• 14:12
  have been put out. And to this day, the number one
• 14:15
  episode that we've ever released is with Amy Miller on modesty of
• 14:18
  dress. And so it's it's a topic that
• 14:21
  people want to talk about, they want to hear about.
• 14:24
  And we're going to discuss it today in a different sense of
• 14:27
  what we discussed with Amy. Amy sort of gave her testimony
• 14:31
  and and talked through that. And you can go back and listen
• 14:32
  to that episode if you want. But man, what a what an awesome
• 14:36
  opportunity for us to be able to discuss this because so often we
• 14:41
  have said things, We have done things that were unbiblical, we
• 14:47
  have done things that didn't line up with scripture, and we
• 14:51
  were just saying things because people had said it before.
• 14:53
  We're going to talk through that in a minute, but I want to share
• 14:55
  just a a personal story with me. I've shared this before when
• 14:59
  I've been preaching, and so it's nothing new if you've listened
• 15:02
  to me before, but we grew up in a moderately IFB.
• 15:08
  People today call it IFB Light. We didn't have a big strong
• 15:12
  standard on dress. Men and women could.
• 15:14
  We could go swimming together. We went to the movie theater
• 15:17
  like there wasn't a lot of legalism that was going on.
• 15:19
  And our pastor had left. There was some things that went
• 15:22
  on. We got a new pastor in and I
• 15:25
  was, AI want to say, a senior in high school listening 3 Doors
• 15:29
  Down. You know, it was just just the
• 15:31
  best days of of our lives, right.
• 15:34
  And so we, I, I was at football practice.
• 15:37
  It was in the summer, went to football practice, left from
• 15:40
  football practice. We were decorating for Vacation
• 15:42
  Bible school. I don't know if y'all decorated
• 15:44
  for vacation Bible school like this, but we had these massive
• 15:48
  cardboard like 10 foot by 5 foot panels and we would paint them.
• 15:55
  We would put a projector on them and trace different things and
• 15:58
  we did these massive scenes down the wall with them.
• 16:01
  As a kid we had a lot of wall area.
• 16:04
  We would decorate the stage with them.
• 16:05
  And so as a teenager, you know, there's a lot of, like, prep
• 16:08
  work that needed to be done. We didn't have the money to buy
• 16:11
  these stage designs that people buy these days.
• 16:14
  And so as a teenager, I would volunteer and I was helping.
• 16:17
  And so one day I left from football practice, was hot,
• 16:20
  sweaty, and I had to go to work just right down the road from
• 16:24
  the church. And so I thought, you know, I
• 16:26
  had some friends that were there painting and getting things
• 16:28
  ready. I'm going to stop in on my way
• 16:30
  to work help give some, you know, an hour or two hours of
• 16:33
  painting and then had to work and and you know, just keep on
• 16:36
  going. And so left football press, had
• 16:39
  my football shorts on, do AT shirt on.
• 16:42
  I knew I was going to paint, so it didn't matter what clothes I
• 16:45
  had on. And I went to walk into the
• 16:47
  church and there were two entrances.
• 16:49
  And as I got out of my truck and was walking in, the pastor came
• 16:53
  out from the front door and, you know, I was, hey, pastor and
• 16:57
  excited about being there. And he grabbed by the shoulder.
• 17:00
  And I'll never forget this as far as I can remember.
• 17:03
  And he grabbed by the shoulder. He looked me in the eyes and he
• 17:06
  said, how dare you think you're going to walk into God's house
• 17:12
  wearing that clothing? And I just sort of stepped back
• 17:16
  for a moment and was like pastor, I won't say his name.
• 17:21
  I said pastor. I said I'm just coming from from
• 17:23
  football practice. I'm about to head to work and I
• 17:26
  said we're coming to paint. I said, do you want me in a suit
• 17:28
  right now like I'm coming to paint and get dirty.
• 17:31
  He was like, how dare you disrespect God by walking in his
• 17:35
  house dressed like that. I was like, all right man, well,
• 17:39
  whatever I said I got work to do.
• 17:41
  Like I got, I got things to be done, walked on past him, went
• 17:44
  on the end deal what I had to do for a couple hours then went to
• 17:46
  work. But, but that whole day, even
• 17:48
  like after that, I'm thinking was I wrong?
• 17:51
  Like what was I? Should I have been dressed
• 17:54
  nicer, like I was going for a work day, like I was going just
• 17:56
  to help? Should I?
• 17:58
  You know, as an 18 year old boy, 17 year old boy, this thought
• 18:03
  of, was I wrong was was was I living in sin?
• 18:07
  In that moment was I doing something that God looked down
• 18:10
  upon and said you're wrong, you should have been dressed like
• 18:13
  this because the pastor just told me I was wrong.
• 18:16
  And so that was one of the the 1st and really the only
• 18:18
  experience in in dress wise that someone ever said something to
• 18:22
  me in a hard manner. And we want to address some of
• 18:25
  those things. But Brett, that's sort of where
• 18:28
  I was at. And and like I said, our church
• 18:30
  wasn't like that. But he came in and sort of made
• 18:33
  the church like that. I can just one Your story
• 18:38
  reminded me of something not that bad that happened to me.
• 18:42
  But I remember I was at a camp and I had already started to
• 18:46
  preach by this time. And I remember one of the
• 18:49
  leaders, one of the pastors at the camp, telling me that I
• 18:53
  needed as a past, as a preacher, I needed to dress a step above
• 18:58
  everybody else. He said #1 doesn't matter if
• 19:02
  everybody wears AT shirt. You should always wear a collar.
• 19:05
  If they wear a polo, you wear a button up.
• 19:08
  If they wear a button up, you put on a shirt and a tie.
• 19:11
  If they put on a shirt and a tie, you put on a suit.
• 19:14
  And you always had to be a step above the people that you were
• 19:18
  ministering to. And reading over some of the
• 19:21
  scripture we have today, reading over some of the points we're
• 19:24
  going to bring out today, that logic is so flawed, and it it
• 19:30
  it's a travesty what happened to you there.
• 19:32
  But it's a symptom of a bigger problem that's not just in IFB
• 19:37
  churches. No, it's not.
• 19:39
  There there's Even so many Southern Baptist churches that
• 19:43
  are very legalistic in this area and it it I'm just glad we're
• 19:49
  addressing this today. Yeah, that step above reminds me
• 19:52
  of Jesus in his dress and how he presented himself here on this
• 19:56
  earth. Exactly.
• 19:57
  Yeah. So I just don't know why we
• 19:59
  don't get back to the as as biblically historic as we can
• 20:03
  and just walk around naked all the time.
• 20:05
  You know, I've got a three-year old boy who turns 3 in a couple
• 20:07
  weeks and he's like, dad, why can't I be naked all the time?
• 20:10
  Like I just want to run around naked and and you know, he's
• 20:13
  just, he's trying to be biblical.
• 20:15
  He's trying to be like his great, great, whatever, Adam and
• 20:18
  Eve who ran around naked all the time.
• 20:20
  So I mean he's he's trying to, he's at least he's trying to
• 20:22
  follow the Bible. So I love it.
• 20:24
  Exactly. So I think how we should kick
• 20:28
  this off is I'm going to ask you a question and then you bring us
• 20:33
  into our kind of comments, notes that we have for today some
• 20:39
  things. And the question is, James,
• 20:41
  should we wear our Sunday best or should we have the attitude
• 20:49
  come as you are? Because this is the big debate,
• 20:53
  is it not? What do you think about that?
• 20:55
  Yeah, absolutely. And some of these things were
• 20:57
  getting from christianity.com. There was a article put out.
• 21:00
  So we thought some of the things were really good.
• 21:02
  But one of the things, the question that that gets asked us
• 21:07
  off to. My brother is going to be at
• 21:08
  church this coming Sunday at my church.
• 21:11
  He's coming in, he's bringing his camper from Charlotte.
• 21:14
  He texted me yesterday Brett and said this.
• 21:16
  He said hey, jeans and a polo that are right to come to church
• 21:19
  in. And this is my my response.
• 21:22
  It's more than OK. I said I have multiple men and
• 21:25
  overalls every Sunday at church. I said, I said why does it?
• 21:28
  I didn't say this to him. I said, but in my mind I'm
• 21:30
  thinking why does it matter? Like just come to church.
• 21:33
  Like I don't care what you're wearing, just come to church.
• 21:36
  And so you're wearing that to church.
• 21:39
  Sort of the question that gets asked often.
• 21:42
  Children and teenagers across the world have heard the
• 21:45
  question asked them on countless times.
• 21:48
  It's one of the most common stereotypes.
• 21:50
  Well, I can't come to church because I don't have anything
• 21:52
  nice to wear. I don't have anything fancy to
• 21:56
  wear to church. My with my mom and dad got
• 21:58
  married. My mom got pregnant with my
• 22:01
  sister, my oldest sister, my dad was working at a place called
• 22:05
  Hercellanies Cosa fiber. It's been like 25 different
• 22:09
  names. And one of the guys, they're
• 22:11
  actually their their house, their their trailer they lived
• 22:13
  in butted to the church. It was a fence.
• 22:16
  And then the church was on the other side of the property and
• 22:18
  massive church at the time and they were invited to church.
• 22:22
  And this is what my dad said to my my dad said to the guy that
• 22:24
  invited him. My wife's eight months pregnant.
• 22:27
  She doesn't have anything nice to wear to church.
• 22:30
  This is his response. Just put on some clothes and
• 22:33
  come to church. So he came home and he said, hey
• 22:36
  honey got invited to this church.
• 22:39
  They're right here. Literally we can walk to it like
• 22:41
  we're not burning gas. Do you want to go?
• 22:43
  Her response was, I don't have anything to wear to church.
• 22:45
  And he said, he told us that we can just come as we are like
• 22:48
  wear whatever you got, like it's, it's OK.
• 22:50
  And so they next Sunday, they put on their clothes, They went
• 22:53
  to church because they didn't, you know, they were just, they
• 22:56
  felt like they could do that. And and all of a sudden we get
• 22:59
  to this point where we have this phrase, wear your Sunday best,
• 23:03
  wear your Sunday best. I'm going to put on my Sunday
• 23:05
  best it. This phrase is used in the
• 23:08
  culture today to athletes and basketball players in the public
• 23:13
  school. They'll say, OK, today me and
• 23:15
  you're going to wear your Sunday best because it's game day.
• 23:18
  What does that mean? You put on a shirt and tie and I
• 23:22
  know of lots of almost every high school that I've been a
• 23:25
  part of in in ministry. Their boys, when it's time for
• 23:28
  game day, they'll wear a shirt and tie to school that day and
• 23:32
  they'll dress up every. They'll be dressed up for the
• 23:35
  whole day of school because it's of the mindset of where we're
• 23:39
  serious today. We're not just going to be
• 23:41
  playing around, but the Bible does say a lot about what we
• 23:45
  should wear. And so where did this idea come
• 23:48
  from, Brett? Where does the idea that we
• 23:50
  should wear our Sunday best come from?
• 23:53
  Well, there's a few different areas that something like this
• 23:57
  comes from, and I think the first area we need to talk about
• 24:01
  is tradition. Now I want to say that this
• 24:05
  reminds me a lot of a story that Nathan told on the RFP podcast
• 24:10
  about how he invited this family to church.
• 24:14
  And then when they showed up he was wearing a three piece suit
• 24:18
  and they just like felt so out of place and and never, you
• 24:21
  know, they never come back because of that.
• 24:23
  And the reason why I remember that story that Nathan told was
• 24:28
  because I've experienced that so much when I used to, you know, I
• 24:32
  used to invite people to church and then come to church and I'd
• 24:35
  come out and I'd see them and I'd be in a suit and tie and I'd
• 24:38
  get that look and you know, so many times.
• 24:42
  So I I felt that what Nathan experienced, I've definitely
• 24:45
  felt that so many times, people feeling out of place because of
• 24:49
  the way I dressed in church. But I think tradition is is
• 24:54
  probably one of the first places that this idea comes from.
• 24:58
  Because the probably the most common reason why churchgoers
• 25:01
  dress a certain way is because of tradition.
• 25:05
  Because their grandparents did it, because their parents did
• 25:08
  it, because that's the way they used to do it in the 1950s.
• 25:12
  And that's the way that that they were taught.
• 25:15
  And and it's this case, it's, it's common for no one to really
• 25:20
  know why they wear certain clothes, you know, like suit and
• 25:24
  tie for men, dresses and skirts for women.
• 25:27
  They do it just because they've always done it.
• 25:31
  It's it's ingrained in their mind.
• 25:33
  It's how they were raised. You know, from their memories
• 25:36
  going back as kids, they just always saw people dress up.
• 25:40
  You know, we've got pictures in our Church of, you know, people
• 25:43
  that came to church in the, you know, the 30s and the 40s and
• 25:46
  the 50s and they had the suit and the tie, the hat.
• 25:49
  The problem with this approach, you know, of tradition, it
• 25:53
  doing, doing it just because we've always done it this way,
• 25:56
  is it shallow and it's superficial.
• 26:00
  And then in the cases when you have somebody that that breaks
• 26:03
  that tradition, oh, they're they're seen as a rebel, they're
• 26:06
  automatically looked down on because they're not dressed like
• 26:11
  everywhere else, even if their hearts in the right place.
• 26:16
  You know, I've seen bikers that are closer to God than men that
• 26:21
  are wearing suits and ties, you know, and anyone that break,
• 26:25
  they could break this tradition that, you know, maybe they're
• 26:28
  new and they've never been taught the tradition or maybe
• 26:31
  they don't own the right clothes.
• 26:33
  You know, sometimes you go into places and they don't have suits
• 26:36
  and they don't have ties and they don't even own slacks.
• 26:40
  And the only thing that have the, the best thing they have to
• 26:43
  wear, you know, is a pair of blue jeans.
• 26:46
  And and in many churches the tradition of wearing certain
• 26:50
  types of clothes to worship service, it's kind of an
• 26:53
  unspoken expectation like like for instance, your pastor told
• 26:57
  you that. But in in in a lot of cases just
• 27:00
  kind of this unspoken rule, you don't wear anything else but
• 27:05
  this to church. And if you do, you get the
• 27:08
  eyeballs and you get the Sinai and people are going to look at
• 27:11
  you. And so it's this unspoken
• 27:15
  expectation. If somebody, you know, breaks
• 27:17
  that tradition, you know somebody's going to call them
• 27:20
  out. Or the the pastor might sense
• 27:23
  say something passive aggressively from the pulpit,
• 27:27
  which I've seen tons of time that the pastor wouldn't call
• 27:31
  somebody out, point somebody out, but they would say
• 27:34
  something passive aggressively from the pulpit.
• 27:37
  And everybody knows who they're talking about.
• 27:40
  I remember my church growing up, I used to hear all the time I
• 27:45
  was turned away at that church because I wasn't wearing a
• 27:48
  dress. I was turned away at your church
• 27:52
  because I was wearing pants. They told me not to come in.
• 27:55
  And for so many years, while I never personally saw that for so
• 28:00
  many years, I defended my church like, no, they don't do that.
• 28:03
  They don't do that. But over all the years and all
• 28:07
  the different people that if I've heard say that, you know, I
• 28:11
  I give credit to it and I wouldn't put it past them.
• 28:14
  Yeah, I I've told you this story before and then we'll go on to
• 28:17
  the next one. But there was a change.
• 28:20
  This one kid, I remember there was a kid in church and my buddy
• 28:26
  had invited him on this on the church bus and been working on
• 28:30
  this teenager and working on this teenager and trying to get
• 28:34
  him to come to church. And finally this teenager
• 28:36
  decided to come to church. He goes into church, he sits in
• 28:40
  the Pew and he's got a hat on. And you know, it's, you know,
• 28:44
  the unpardonable sin to wear a ball cap in church.
• 28:49
  And there was a man in this church that went to this kid,
• 28:51
  snatched the hat off of his head, threw the hat in his chest
• 28:55
  and said, boy, we don't wear hats in the church.
• 28:59
  And you know, that's just asked me if that kid ever came to
• 29:02
  church again. The kid never did.
• 29:04
  He never darkened the door of of a church again.
• 29:07
  Then you have these traditions where the pastor has to has to
• 29:11
  wear a tie and if he's not wearing a tie he's not doing his
• 29:15
  job and and so this idea you know, you know wear your Sunday
• 29:20
  bass. Why you wearing that to church
• 29:22
  It a lot of it comes from tradition.
• 29:25
  Yeah. And I'll, I'll go a step further
• 29:26
  and say, you know, the church that you're talking about, in
• 29:30
  the church that I was at, they may have never preached, you
• 29:33
  know, wear a certain type of dress from the pulpit.
• 29:38
  And they may have never even called out one of those women or
• 29:41
  men that was dressed like that. But women have this really,
• 29:44
  really weird sense of intuition that when someone's looking at
• 29:48
  them a little weird or someone's talking about them, they can
• 29:51
  sense it. And it was often times where
• 29:54
  those women that said, yeah, it was, it was, it was preached
• 29:58
  together talking about. They just knew that they saw and
• 30:02
  they felt the women of the church were judging them because
• 30:06
  of what they were wearing. And that's the sense that we've
• 30:09
  got to break down those things we've got.
• 30:11
  Jesus didn't look at the woman that came to him with an issue
• 30:14
  of blood who had been bleeding for seven years or however long
• 30:18
  it was and spent all of our money and went to all the
• 30:20
  doctors and came to him and and was going to reach the the edge
• 30:24
  of his garment. He didn't stop, turn around and
• 30:27
  say whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait, wait, no, no.
• 30:28
  You need to be dressed right before you can come and touch
• 30:30
  me. No, he he's he turned and with
• 30:34
  love in his eyes like that's when Jesus addressed people was
• 30:38
  with. He met them where they were at.
• 30:41
  He didn't say, you know go get fixed up and and never we hear
• 30:45
  that no where ever we hear this that that once we get saved
• 30:48
  we've got to begin to dress a certain way or you know we've
• 30:52
  we've heard that from people that have preached is once they
• 30:55
  get saved, they'll start cutting their hair.
• 30:57
  Once they get saved then they'll start dressing.
• 31:00
  Right. I don't see that.
• 31:01
  I don't see that in scripture and we'll talk to a bunch of
• 31:04
  scripture here in a little bit. But the next thing we look at is
• 31:07
  culture. Another reason for a certain
• 31:10
  dress code for church services is because of culture.
• 31:12
  For example, the cultural roles of the church might be a three
• 31:16
  piece suit, it might be business casual with slacks and an Oxford
• 31:20
  shirt with the robe, and certain colors and patterns might be a
• 31:25
  biker garb, A4 length dress with a bonnet, or any other specific
• 31:30
  style. Cultural standards for dress in
• 31:33
  church services are found all across the world.
• 31:35
  They often coincide with normal standards of dress and
• 31:40
  appearance of specific culture, which makes complete sense.
• 31:43
  You know, you think about it, Brett.
• 31:44
  If a woman in a certain culture always wears a dress when
• 31:48
  they're out in public, then it makes sense for them to continue
• 31:50
  that same trend while they come to church, because it's out in
• 31:54
  public. It's the normal thing for them
• 31:55
  to do. However, the confusion and even
• 31:58
  frustration for someone, especially someone younger,
• 32:01
  especially someone who barely is making enough to provide for
• 32:05
  their family, they're barely making enough for them to get
• 32:08
  by, comes to a church with a much different set of cultural
• 32:11
  expectations then when they are at church than during the rest
• 32:15
  of their life. Now all of a sudden they've got
• 32:17
  to go out and they've got to buy a whole new set of War Rd. just
• 32:20
  to come to church. They've got to sacrifice in
• 32:22
  other areas where they they may not have to.
• 32:25
  It's not an area of sacrifice that the Bible tells us to
• 32:27
  sacrifice in for our clothes and then all of a sudden the church
• 32:31
  if they're not careful. This cultural reason can easily
• 32:35
  turn into pride as one of the attendees tries to outdress
• 32:38
  someone, out style someone and even out accessorize other
• 32:43
  people because they're trying to draw attention to self of look
• 32:47
  at how spiritual I am. Look at how I have become so
• 32:50
  much different than the world because I'm dressing this way
• 32:53
  and the world is dressing another way, and the world is
• 32:57
  the way they're dressing Monday through Saturday.
• 32:59
  But yet when they come to Sunday, they dress a completely
• 33:02
  different thing. It's almost like Jesus when he
• 33:05
  said you're hypocrites because you're like whitewashed tombs.
• 33:09
  You just get dressed up on the day you're in public, but every
• 33:13
  other day you're like dead men's bones on the inside.
• 33:16
  It's like that's what Jesus is telling the church today.
• 33:19
  Every other day of the week you dress one way, but then when it
• 33:21
  comes Sunday, you just transform into this whole different person
• 33:25
  because you want this sense of spirituality to come over you
• 33:30
  because you're dressed in a certain way.
• 33:32
  And so culture has this massive, massive influence on the way we
• 33:36
  dress, you know? You say that about, you know,
• 33:41
  spending money when you don't have the money.
• 33:43
  It reminds me that when I was at Hiles Anderson, the big thing,
• 33:49
  the big popular thing was floor shine dress shoes, black
• 33:55
  polished to a mirror shine Military, right?
• 33:59
  And that was because Jack Hiles wore floor shimes.
• 34:04
  So if you didn't have floor shimes then you were, you know,
• 34:09
  you weren't cool, you had to have the floor shimes.
• 34:13
  And I remember I spent my last $100 on a pair of floor shimes.
• 34:18
  My buddy was so mad at me because we were driving home and
• 34:22
  we didn't have money to eat on. But I had my 4 chimes and those
• 34:27
  were some of the most uncomfortable junkie shoes.
• 34:30
  Didn't even last me a year, taught me a valuable lesson.
• 34:34
  But you know, we're growing up. We were called Baptic Castles at
• 34:39
  our church. Oh, that's the church where with
• 34:41
  the skirts and there was, there was a stigma about our church
• 34:45
  and it turned people away. And and you're right about,
• 34:49
  especially at our church. I mean it was the thing.
• 34:51
  It was a standard. Once in a blue moon, my pastor
• 34:55
  would preach on it, but he would never like, preach regularly on
• 34:59
  it, especially if we had a lot of visitors in the church.
• 35:03
  I remember this one time we had, you know, we had grown a little
• 35:06
  bit. We had some families in the
• 35:08
  church, some visitors and a preacher boy got up and said
• 35:12
  something about women wearing pants and the pastor said Amen.
• 35:16
  And then after that service like three or four families left the
• 35:19
  church. You know, it's just one of a
• 35:21
  popular thing, but it's still they still believe to it.
• 35:24
  And part of the reason for that is our our third idea where this
• 35:29
  comes from is scripture. You know, another reason why
• 35:33
  some people think that Christians should dress up for
• 35:36
  church service is because of their or understanding or
• 35:40
  misunderstanding of scripture. You know, it's been a common
• 35:44
  approach for many years to look at, you know, the ordinate dress
• 35:49
  code of the priests in the Old Testament, especially when they
• 35:52
  entered the Tabernacle. I mean, we're looking back in
• 35:55
  Exodus 28 for this and then cook up some kind of doctrine for
• 36:00
  their church that requires everyone to wear extra nice
• 36:05
  unique clothing. And if not everyone, the upfront
• 36:09
  leaders, the leaders of the church.
• 36:10
  That's kind of where that step above thing came from that I was
• 36:14
  taught growing up. And because of this, you know,
• 36:18
  churches, some churches spend a lot of money buying their
• 36:21
  pastors, design suit, designer suits, expensive shoes.
• 36:26
  You know, I can't tell you how many times I've been in kind of
• 36:29
  a larger church. And for his birthday, the church
• 36:32
  would get the pastor a suit and get him some shoes and all this
• 36:37
  kind of stuff or maybe even unique robes in some other
• 36:40
  churches. But the problem with with this
• 36:43
  reason, however, is that making a modern application of an Old
• 36:48
  Testament law is is out of context.
• 36:51
  It's something called isagesis and and what that is, is when we
• 36:55
  apply our own meaning to a text, OK, we're no longer in Old
• 37:02
  Testament Tabernacle or temple worship because of what Jesus
• 37:08
  did for us. We're all priests before God and
• 37:12
  and there's no, there was no precedent set by Jesus or any of
• 37:15
  the apostles in the New Testament to dress any certain
• 37:19
  kind of way. We don't see that.
• 37:21
  In fact, it it seems that Jesus normally dressed down to the
• 37:26
  point where he stood out in the crowd because of what he was
• 37:30
  wearing, Not because it was some ornate thing like the Pharisees,
• 37:34
  but because, you know, these Jesus and his apostles, they
• 37:37
  were nomads. They they would go from, you
• 37:40
  know, place to place to place, you know, I know that.
• 37:45
  I don't think I told you this. Maybe I have.
• 37:47
  But both colleges I went to, Howes Anderson and tri-state,
• 37:53
  both colleges Tony Hudson criticized me for what I was
• 37:57
  wearing in Chapel both times, same tan shirt.
• 38:03
  The first time I did it because I didn't know he would say
• 38:06
  anything about I'm wearing a tan beige shirt.
• 38:08
  He walks by and says, son, if you put a little bleach on that,
• 38:12
  it can turn white. Well, that was at House
• 38:15
  Anderson. When I went to Tri-state, I wore
• 38:17
  the same shirt to Chapel to see if if if he would make the same
• 38:22
  joke. And while he didn't crack the
• 38:23
  same joke, he still eyeballed my tan shirt and shook his head.
• 38:28
  Just, you know, just. And what that comes from is that
• 38:31
  that priestly garb out of context, extra biblical
• 38:35
  nonsense. You know that, You know they're,
• 38:38
  you know, they're mixing their fabrics, you know, So you can't
• 38:41
  they're just pick and choose what verses they want to justify
• 38:44
  this kind of stuff. Yeah, absolutely.
• 38:47
  And and that's where the, the the fearfulness of always making
• 38:51
  sure we're staying as close to scripture as we can.
• 38:55
  It is is so, so protective to us because if not we get to this
• 38:59
  point where we're able to say whatever we want and however we
• 39:03
  want and take whatever scripts we have and twist it and turn it
• 39:06
  into whatever we want. You did make one statement and
• 39:09
  you you mixed up your words. I just want to clarify.
• 39:11
  What you were saying was that it seemed that Jesus normally
• 39:15
  dressed down to the point that he never stood out in the crowd.
• 39:18
  You said that he dressed so that he stood out in the crowd but.
• 39:21
  But he never stood out. Yeah.
• 39:22
  Yeah, he was. Hey, Jesus was, was.
• 39:24
  They said that he would look like a commoner.
• 39:26
  You couldn't just say, oh, Yep, that's that's the Messiah right
• 39:29
  there. No, he walked with the crowds
• 39:31
  and no one noticed him until he began teaching and preaching and
• 39:35
  doing miracles. And it was his actions that were
• 39:40
  causing the difference not necessarily what he was wearing
• 39:43
  last thing and and and I'm Brad, I'm going to do the the first
• 39:45
  portion of this and then flip it over to you and then I'll get
• 39:48
  some things on it. But the last one here is, is
• 39:49
  respect. So we've we've looked at
• 39:52
  tradition culture scripture but then respect the a lot of people
• 39:57
  will say well I'm going to dress a certain way for church service
• 40:00
  because it's respectful. It's the right thing to do, and
• 40:03
  depending on who you ask, it might be respect for the church
• 40:06
  building. In similar ways, where someone
• 40:09
  might say, well it's respectful of a library, when you go into a
• 40:13
  library to be quiet and and to be respectful and others will
• 40:16
  say, well, it's the same thing I'm respectful toward God.
• 40:20
  However, while this is reasoning of respect might be noble and
• 40:24
  come from a heart of wanting to obey, the church building is not
• 40:27
  just a building since the actual Church of the people that are
• 40:30
  gathering. And so you got to begin to ask
• 40:33
  yourself, the people that are gathering within is the church
• 40:38
  itself. You meet in a small group of the
• 40:41
  church in someone's house and you go over for dinner.
• 40:44
  Are you going to wear the same attire that you wore on Sunday,
• 40:47
  your three piece suit with your dress shine shoes to that
• 40:51
  person's house or are you going to sort of dress down a little
• 40:53
  bit? It's still the church gathering
• 40:55
  where two or three are gathered in my name.
• 40:57
  Again, that's talking about the context of of the church
• 41:01
  discipline, but it is the same context here of the church is
• 41:05
  gathering. And so when the church gathers,
• 41:07
  you should, if you're going to take the sense of respect, then
• 41:10
  you should dress in that same way anytime you're around.
• 41:13
  Believers are the same thing. And so of course, when I say,
• 41:16
  for example, they, they respect the building and what it stands
• 41:19
  for, which probably takes us back to the scripture of
• 41:22
  tradition. So we've got to look at this and
• 41:26
  say maybe as we go, when we look at the respect of God through
• 41:30
  the tradition of what the priest wore and and we're
• 41:33
  representations of the priest now because what Christ has done
• 41:36
  for us, I'm going to give an exterior, an external side of
• 41:41
  what's in my heart. God told Prophet Samuel, the
• 41:45
  Lord sees not man, not as man sees man, but the Lord looks on
• 41:49
  the heart. And so it's not necessarily what
• 41:51
  we have on the outside, but it's how our actions are on the
• 41:54
  inside. Many times someone dresses a
• 41:56
  certain way to church and to the services because it's what
• 41:59
  others think, which can lead to a very bad reason or even a good
• 42:03
  reason. Explain like this, some pastors,
• 42:06
  God told Samuel to look at the heart.
• 42:08
  He also explained that man looks on the outward appearance.
• 42:11
  It's no surprise that why this whole issue of dress leads to
• 42:16
  tension between pride and humility, standing out versus
• 42:20
  blending in the tradition versus rebellion that we just looked
• 42:24
  at. Yeah, the point that there is
• 42:26
  just dress, I'm sorry. And and the point that here is
• 42:29
  not just dress of what people want to expect you to dress, but
• 42:33
  to begin to develop an environment in our churches
• 42:36
  where everyone respects each other to the point that no one
• 42:39
  dresses to offend or distract others.
• 42:42
  But I'm gonna read one more thought here and then turn it
• 42:44
  over to you. We get a a picture of this
• 42:47
  mentality from Paul's lettering Corinthians.
• 42:50
  He told the Corinthians, the Christians at Corinth to have a
• 42:54
  separate issue, referring to a separate issue, and he took
• 42:58
  great care in our rights or freedoms not to call someone to
• 43:02
  be a stumbling block to the weak or to the weaker brother.
• 43:06
  And so brother, most truths over to you, because what does this
• 43:09
  mean to us? To be a stumbling block to a
• 43:11
  brother that's weaker than us. You know, forcing someone else
• 43:17
  to adhere to your personal conviction is it's it's
• 43:22
  legalism. It's a violation of their sole
• 43:26
  competence. It's a violation of their sole
• 43:30
  liberty. You know you are not to Lord
• 43:34
  over somebody else. You're not the Lord over
• 43:37
  somebody else. You know you're not their
• 43:39
  mediator between them and Jesus. You're not to.
• 43:44
  You know if Jesus is the Lord of your life, let Jesus be the Lord
• 43:51
  of their life too. They may have, you know,
• 43:54
  stronger standards than you. Well, that's not, that's not for
• 43:58
  you to pass judgment on their opinions.
• 44:01
  And but you're also not supposed to wound them with your liberty
• 44:06
  at the same time. So there's a balance when it
• 44:10
  comes to this thing of personal conviction.
• 44:12
  Listen, I was consumed so much that went with what everybody
• 44:18
  else was wearing. I I you know my tie.
• 44:20
  I had to have the tie just right.
• 44:23
  I had to have the special knot. I can't tell you how many times
• 44:26
  I spent re tying the same time over and over and over where it
• 44:30
  would hit in the right spot. And then if I didn't have the
• 44:34
  right kind of shirt on, my collar would flip up and I was
• 44:37
  just so consumed with what I was wearing that that it was just
• 44:43
  taking over. And I was coming to church not
• 44:46
  concerned about worshipping God, but I was coming to church
• 44:50
  concerned with what other people saw me wearing.
• 44:55
  And listen, when it comes to this subject of, you know, being
• 44:58
  a stumbling block to the weak, if we're not careful with this,
• 45:02
  we will sin not just against our brothers or sister, but will sin
• 45:07
  against Christ as well. The idea of respect is also why
• 45:11
  Paul tells his understudy, Timothy to instruct the women in
• 45:17
  his church to dress not with braided hair or and gold or
• 45:21
  pearls or costly attire and instead wear respectable apparel
• 45:26
  and dress. Dress with modesty and
• 45:28
  self-control and put the emphasis on good works instead
• 45:33
  of good clothing. You know, respecting others
• 45:36
  might mean that in some settings men wear jeans and AT shirt and
• 45:42
  in other settings they may wear dress pants and a a Sport coat,
• 45:46
  or it might mean that women wear dress and with a hair up or they
• 45:52
  might wear normal pants with a blouse and their hair down.
• 45:56
  You know, respecting others also means that we begin to care less
• 46:00
  about style and color and fabric and what we wear, and instead we
• 46:08
  care more about not being a distraction to others, not
• 46:11
  showing off our wealth, and not making others uncomfortable by
• 46:16
  dressing immodestly or sloppily. Yeah.
• 46:19
  And you know, Brett, thinking through that, a couple of things
• 46:22
  came to my mind. A couple things I shared with
• 46:24
  you before the show. But then one just came to my
• 46:27
  mind. Just a minute ago, I was
• 46:28
  listening to a podcast on John MacArthur and like him or not,
• 46:32
  he's been in ministry for over 50 years at the same church he's
• 46:36
  done. He's preached to the entire New
• 46:37
  Testament. You may not agree with him
• 46:39
  theologically or where he stands, but his faithfulness and
• 46:42
  enduring the ministry is something that I look forward to
• 46:46
  and won't in my ministry as well.
• 46:48
  But one of the things that was mentioned was, you know, he's
• 46:52
  he's an old school. He wears suit and tie every
• 46:54
  Sunday. But they said that when he was
• 46:57
  doing youth meetings and he was preaching in camps, he didn't
• 47:01
  wear those shirt and ties to the camps.
• 47:03
  He would wear a ball cap and he'd wear a polo shirt.
• 47:07
  He'd look, he looked like he was going on the golf course, still
• 47:09
  nice dressed, but he just dressed down to the appropriate
• 47:13
  setting of where he was at. And a pastor or friend of mine
• 47:16
  who would preach in Hawaii every year when he would go to Hawaii,
• 47:20
  he would wear Bermuda shorts and a Hawaiian silk T-shirt because
• 47:25
  everyone in that culture wears that.
• 47:28
  And he said if if I were to wear a suit and tie, I would stand
• 47:32
  out and and it would be to the point of detriment because
• 47:34
  people would be like who is this crazy guy?
• 47:37
  It's 8790° with 100% humidity and he's got a suit and tile.
• 47:42
  Like why would he wear that? And then the the most personal
• 47:47
  one for me, Brett. I went to mission to India when
• 47:51
  my son was born 10 years ago. And in India whenever they enter
• 47:55
  any type of worship house, Buddhist temple, a Hindu temple,
• 48:00
  again they believe in reincarnation.
• 48:01
  So they would take their shoes off because if they stepped on a
• 48:04
  bug and they would be committing murder to maybe an ancestor that
• 48:08
  got reincarnated, whatever that is.
• 48:10
  But it was their culture of any time they were in a place that
• 48:15
  was of holy reverence to take their shoes off.
• 48:18
  Even though they weren't worshipping the bugs and and
• 48:20
  reincarnation it was still ingrained in their culture.
• 48:25
  So I get there and it was time for us to go to one of the
• 48:27
  services and Justice Benwell, the the man that was in the the
• 48:31
  guy that planted these churches, he took us into a church.
• 48:35
  When I say a church it was about as big as my office right now
• 48:38
  and there was no windows no doors.
• 48:39
  It was just an open air building.
• 48:42
  And we went to walk in and and all the shoes of everyone were
• 48:46
  outside the the the walkway and I said justice why do they have
• 48:50
  their shoes off? And he said, well, he says
• 48:52
  culture. He says what they do here.
• 48:55
  I said, do I have to take my shoes off?
• 48:56
  He said no, no, no, you don't have to.
• 48:58
  He said. But when you get up to speak, if
• 49:00
  your shoes are on, they won't listen to you.
• 49:03
  I said, what? He said, yeah.
• 49:05
  He said the culture here is that's how they show a sign of
• 49:09
  respect. That's how they show their
• 49:11
  reverence to the one they're worshipping.
• 49:13
  And of course they're worshiping the ones who God know where in
• 49:15
  scriptures and said they have to do that, but it's their way of
• 49:19
  worship. And he said, so you, you're
• 49:21
  welcome to do whatever you want, he said.
• 49:23
  But just know, if you want them to listen to what you have to
• 49:25
  say, you probably should take your shoes off because it's
• 49:29
  going to relate to them. You're going to show that you
• 49:31
  care about their culture enough. And I say all that to say this,
• 49:35
  It's not that we come in to change the culture of the people
• 49:38
  around them. We come in to share the gospel
• 49:41
  and allow the gospel to change their heart.
• 49:43
  Allow the gospel to change their mindset of what they view and is
• 49:48
  it. Is it wrong for me to take my
• 49:50
  shoes off? No.
• 49:51
  Is it wrong for me to wear a floor length if I'm a woman?
• 49:55
  To wear a floor length dress? No.
• 49:57
  But it's your own personal standard of conviction and
• 50:01
  holiness as you begin to go through your life.
• 50:05
  Practically speaking, God does care what we wear to church, not
• 50:09
  because it affects him, because it affects his other children.
• 50:13
  And he's saying here, listen, if if what you're wearing is going
• 50:16
  to cause your brother or sister to be distracted, then don't
• 50:19
  wear it. If you're what you're wearing is
• 50:21
  going to cause your brother or sister to think differently, be
• 50:25
  the more mature Christian and wear what is appropriate.
• 50:28
  I have no problem with wearing Crocs and shorts and a polo to
• 50:32
  church on a Wednesday night, and most Wednesday nights I will.
• 50:35
  But if I've got a brother that comes up to me and says pastor,
• 50:37
  I just, I can't, I can't think of you as pastor and shorts.
• 50:41
  I would probably rethink what I was doing until I can bring them
• 50:44
  along to say, listen, we're we're just knowing people
• 50:47
  serving a God that that loves us and doesn't care.
• 50:50
  I'm going to adapt to those things because I want to not be
• 50:54
  a stumbling block, and that's what Paul was saying here, Don't
• 50:57
  do things that's going to cause yourself to be a stumbling
• 50:59
  block. Practically speaking, you know
• 51:01
  if we're showing off too much of our of our body or we're wearing
• 51:04
  overly tight clothes that catches attention.
• 51:07
  You know this is even we say that but even in in men's
• 51:10
  culture, you know, skinny jeans and and different type of
• 51:14
  clothing. You know Brett, I'm a I'm a
• 51:15
  little bigger boy. I don't, I don't wear skinny
• 51:17
  jeans on purpose, OK. I'm not going out and buying a
• 51:20
  pair of skinny jeans. And so if we're wearing those
• 51:23
  things, we're trying to simply wear things so people who will
• 51:27
  talk about us, oh, you've got on those Air Jordans, look at, look
• 51:30
  at the money you spend on those. And all of a sudden people are
• 51:32
  talking about our clothing and they're taking the attention
• 51:34
  away from Jesus. And that's the reason we come to
• 51:37
  church is to worship him. Not to bring the people back to
• 51:42
  where we're at, but to bring the people to where Jesus is at.
• 51:46
  One scripture as we go into this bread, I'll I'll share because I
• 51:50
  think it's so fitting. Is is James Chapter 2, verses 2
• 51:53
  through 5. James says this is a very
• 51:56
  familiar passage of scripture. We're going to begin looking at
• 51:58
  some scripture and talking through this.
• 52:00
  The the last part of the episode here says, if a man wearing a
• 52:04
  gold ring and fine clothes comes into your assembly, and a poor
• 52:08
  man and shabby clothes also comes in, and you pay attention
• 52:12
  to the one who wears fine clothes.
• 52:13
  And you say, here sit in the good place, while you say to the
• 52:16
  poor man, you stand over there, or you come sit at my feet.
• 52:20
  You have not made the distinction among yourselves.
• 52:23
  And because I'm sorry, have you not made the distinction among
• 52:26
  yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
• 52:29
  Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are
• 52:33
  poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs to the Kingdom
• 52:37
  which has promised of those who love him?
• 52:39
  James was dealing with the same thing that we deal with in
• 52:42
  today's society 2000 years later he was saying, listen, you're
• 52:46
  giving partiality to the ones that come in and are dressed
• 52:49
  right because they look nice and you think they have something to
• 52:52
  benefit you. The church is not here to have a
• 52:55
  benefit toward one another. The Church is here to glorify
• 52:58
  God, to grow together, to love Jesus supremely, and to show
• 53:02
  love towards other people. And so when we begin to think
• 53:05
  through this, it's Are we doing these things to let other people
• 53:09
  think better of ourselves, or are we doing them because we are
• 53:12
  simply wanting to glorify God? Brett, what's your thoughts?
• 53:16
  Well. Let me say one thing about your
• 53:18
  illustration where you talked about the man you wearing
• 53:23
  shorts, the man's talk and you about respecting you as pastor.
• 53:26
  And so you would rethink, you know, it's our liberty in
• 53:30
  Christ. As long as we're not dressing
• 53:32
  immorally, it's our liberty in Christ to you know where you
• 53:38
  know what we want to what makes us comfortable.
• 53:41
  What? What reflects?
• 53:41
  Culture. We'll get into that as we move
• 53:43
  forward. But when your liberty wounds a
• 53:49
  brother or sister, it becomes sin.
• 53:51
  And that that's in Romans 14. And that goes back to, that does
• 53:56
  go back to this discussion on personal convictions versus a
• 54:01
  weaker and stronger brother. But when you you brought us into
• 54:04
  James Chapter 2, verse two through 5, and you know, we see
• 54:09
  two types of people here. We see, you know, the rich get
• 54:12
  the preferred seating. They're in the fine, nice
• 54:15
  garments. Then we have the poor, they
• 54:18
  they've got the bad seating. They're in the Nosebleed
• 54:21
  sections because they look poor and they don't, you know, don't
• 54:24
  have the fine garments. Listen, the Bible allows for
• 54:29
  people to dress down and worship.
• 54:32
  And I mean, you look in this verse and and you know, in James
• 54:36
  and you notice that they go to worship wearing shabby clothes
• 54:40
  and that's totally fine. In fact, James says they should
• 54:45
  be accepted. They shouldn't be rejected
• 54:47
  because of what they wear. In fact, the people who were
• 54:51
  wrong in this passage, I believe is more than just the church
• 54:55
  leadership that gave the, you know, the rich gentleman dressed
• 55:00
  in the fine clothes and the three piece suit and the floor
• 55:02
  sign, slang shoes gave him the preferred seat.
• 55:07
  But who's also in the wrongs, the rich gentleman who allowed
• 55:11
  this to happen? You know, we should never look
• 55:13
  down on somebody who comes to church and and what we don't
• 55:17
  think and what we don't think is traditional church attire.
• 55:22
  You know what, James? A stripper visiting a church is
• 55:26
  probably going to dress like a stripper.
• 55:29
  A drug dealer visiting a church is probably going to dress like
• 55:34
  a drug dealer. But those are the people you
• 55:37
  want in the church. They're not an inconvenience.
• 55:40
  They're not an eyesore. They are the mission.
• 55:44
  They are the people we want to reach.
• 55:47
  And once Jesus is in their heart, the Holy Spirit will
• 55:51
  convict them and they'll change. Their life will change from the
• 55:57
  inside out. But here's what we do.
• 56:00
  Here's the idea that we have. We have the idea that we can
• 56:05
  change people from the outside in.
• 56:09
  It's like if we force our personal convictions on other
• 56:11
  people, we force people to wear suit and a tie to church, and
• 56:16
  that's what we used to do. You know, when somebody gets
• 56:19
  saved, you know, instead of discipling them, we used to take
• 56:24
  them to the Goodwill and buy them a shirt and tie that they
• 56:26
  can wear to church because we would think that is the most
• 56:29
  important thing. It's like if we force them to
• 56:32
  wear a suit and tie to church, it's going to magically change
• 56:35
  their heart. And listen, your dress code is
• 56:39
  not the Holy Spirit. Your dress code is not going to
• 56:43
  change anybody. The Holy Spirit changes from the
• 56:48
  inside out and as the inside changes, and then the outside
• 56:54
  will begin to reflect that inside change.
• 56:57
  Now another scripture that we're going to look over in the New
• 57:02
  Testament that has to do with dress is Matthew 625.
• 57:07
  And it says, Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about
• 57:11
  your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about
• 57:16
  your body, what you will put on. It's not life more than food and
• 57:22
  the body more than clothing. You know, people worry too much
• 57:27
  about their clothes. Like it, it can become James.
• 57:30
  It can become their whole identity.
• 57:33
  You know, like I said earlier, I used to instead of focusing on
• 57:36
  what I was preaching, when I'd be preaching, I'd be focused on
• 57:40
  worried if my tie was straight or if my, you know, if my collar
• 57:44
  was flipped up and or if I was wearing the same clothes as
• 57:47
  other pastors, was I wearing the popular shoes and all the other
• 57:51
  pastors were wearing. That was what my mindset was.
• 57:56
  We have to get out of this mentality that that just because
• 57:59
  you've got a pressed, clean white dress shirt, bless God,
• 58:04
  Amen. You've got the floor shine shoes
• 58:07
  polished to a fine gloss that means you respect God more.
• 58:12
  Let's look at the Pharisees. OK, the Pharisees were some of
• 58:16
  the best dressed people in the 1st century, but guess what?
• 58:21
  They had the dirtiest hearts, Jesus said.
• 58:25
  They were whited sepulchres on the outside, but on the inside
• 58:29
  they were dead men's bones. And on the other hand, you've
• 58:32
  got Jesus and his disciples over here.
• 58:35
  They're nomads who didn't have a home.
• 58:39
  They were homeless. They lived in the wilderness or
• 58:42
  on the street. They were at the mercy of of
• 58:44
  other people's generosity and probably the only regular
• 58:48
  washings they had is when they had to take a ceremonial bath
• 58:52
  and a mikvah before going up to the Temple Mount.
• 58:57
  But here Jesus said don't worry about what you're going to put
• 59:01
  on. Now the context of this verse is
• 59:04
  you know, don't worry, I'll give you clothes to wear.
• 59:06
  But he also said look, just don't think about it, don't let
• 59:09
  it enter your mind. He said Your life is more than
• 59:13
  clothes, don't make clothing your life.
• 59:16
  If when I walk into a church and the first thing I'm worried
• 59:20
  about is what is everybody else wearing, or how do I look at
• 59:25
  what I'm wearing, then I've I've made clothing, my life and I
• 59:30
  miss the point of this verse. Yeah, absolutely.
• 59:34
  And we often can get struggle, get caught up in those those
• 59:38
  situations so much in our day and age which transitions into
• 59:42
  our next passage of Scripture. And I'll give some practicality
• 59:45
  to this as well. First Corinthians 11/4 and five.
• 59:48
  It contrasts men and women here, says every man who prays or
• 59:52
  prophesizes. Basically, if you're speaking in
• 59:54
  public and you have your head covered, you dishonor your head,
• 59:57
  you're dishonor in who you are. But every woman who prays or
• 1:00:01
  prophecies with her head uncovered dishonors her head.
• 1:00:04
  So. So there's this distinguishing
• 1:00:06
  here of, well, man, you shouldn't have your head
• 1:00:08
  covered. And women, when you get up, you
• 1:00:09
  should have your head covered. A friend of mine was telling me
• 1:00:12
  a story at his church where he had a group of people that came
• 1:00:16
  in. And they were wanting to be a
• 1:00:18
  part of the church and they joined and the the women were
• 1:00:22
  very orthodox and they would have their head coverings on to
• 1:00:25
  the point where they were so legalistic about it that they
• 1:00:29
  would not go anywhere without their head coverings on because
• 1:00:31
  of this verse. Now the husbands were abusing
• 1:00:34
  their wives. They were being, I mean just
• 1:00:38
  just horrible husbands to their wives.
• 1:00:41
  But bless God, they're going to wear their head coverings
• 1:00:44
  because that that's that's what they were told, that's what they
• 1:00:46
  were taught. And then they take this verse
• 1:00:48
  and they say, well, listen, she's not been dishonored
• 1:00:50
  because she's got her head covered.
• 1:00:52
  And I'm not being dishonored because my head's uncovered.
• 1:00:55
  And all of a sudden we begin to pick and choose.
• 1:00:56
  We begin to take things out of context.
• 1:00:58
  And this is where it begins to say, listen, you are putting so
• 1:01:01
  much emphasis on what's covering your head than you are what's in
• 1:01:06
  your heart. It doesn't matter what's over
• 1:01:09
  your head, doesn't matter what what you have on the outside, it
• 1:01:12
  matters again to your heart. And this begins to corrode away
• 1:01:17
  at these man made ideologies that scripture is talking about
• 1:01:22
  here. So let me say about this
• 1:01:23
  scripture so that I want to say what I get from First
• 1:01:26
  Corinthians 11 is there should be a distinction amongst the
• 1:01:30
  genders, you know? And I got to be real careful
• 1:01:33
  about when I say this because I don't want to sound legalistic.
• 1:01:38
  Every culture and society has what women wear, and they have
• 1:01:42
  what the men wear in society. In this society, the men, you
• 1:01:47
  know, who had head coverings in the church, it was, it was
• 1:01:50
  discouraged, but the women were expected to wear the head
• 1:01:54
  coverings. This was a this was a cultural
• 1:01:57
  thing in our culture, James, women wear pants, OK?
• 1:02:02
  Women's pants are made different than men's pants.
• 1:02:07
  I mean they're they're, they're cut different.
• 1:02:09
  Some of them, the zippers are different.
• 1:02:11
  There are some shirts where the buttons are on the opposite
• 1:02:14
  sides of the shirts. You know, so I I am not here
• 1:02:18
  saying that women should have to wear dresses and skirts but, you
• 1:02:22
  know, wear clothes that a woman should wear.
• 1:02:25
  Like, for instance, James, you're not going to come to
• 1:02:28
  church next Sunday and preach in a sun dress, right?
• 1:02:31
  You don't think your people? They didn't plan on it.
• 1:02:34
  Brett have not planned on that one yet.
• 1:02:36
  OK, but but take for instance, I say that they look, look over in
• 1:02:40
  Scotland, OK. In their society it's OK for men
• 1:02:44
  to wear kilts. OK, so there's nothing wrong
• 1:02:47
  with that because that's how men dress in their.
• 1:02:50
  So the next scripture we have here was First Timothy 29 and
• 1:02:54
  10. This is likewise also that women
• 1:02:57
  should adorn themselves in respectable apparel with modesty
• 1:03:01
  and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls
• 1:03:05
  or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess
• 1:03:09
  godliness and good works. Now I do want to take a moment
• 1:03:13
  here and and talk about modesty. This this doesn't mean that you
• 1:03:19
  know you can't wear shorts or, but you can't wear shorts that
• 1:03:23
  are barely shorts at all. Now, I I I will admit that in in
• 1:03:29
  one sense, lust is the problem of the person lusting.
• 1:03:35
  I am not going to blame a man's lust on a woman and say it's the
• 1:03:40
  woman's fault that the man is lusting.
• 1:03:43
  You know, we've had too much of that in the church, where we
• 1:03:48
  make the man's sin the woman's fault.
• 1:03:51
  But at the same time, in another sense, if you dress immodestly
• 1:03:55
  and you're showing too much skin, you're taking attention
• 1:04:00
  off the Lord and putting it on you, you know?
• 1:04:03
  That's why when I get to preach, I don't wear Bermuda shorts in
• 1:04:07
  the pulpit. You know, I don't want women in
• 1:04:09
  the church lusting after my white legs.
• 1:04:12
  You know, that's. Right, that's right.
• 1:04:13
  Now, this verse doesn't say that you can't braid your hair or
• 1:04:18
  wear nice clothes. That's that's not the point of
• 1:04:20
  it. You have to read this verse in
• 1:04:24
  context of the 1st century. These gentile women, they would
• 1:04:28
  spend hours and hours and hours of their day weaving their hair
• 1:04:35
  into these intricate patterns, some of them that would weave
• 1:04:39
  their hair into like the shape of a bird's nest or the shape of
• 1:04:43
  a vase, and they would weave gold and pearls into their
• 1:04:47
  hairdo. And they spent so much of their
• 1:04:49
  their doing this, their life actually became that they had
• 1:04:54
  pride in their hair because they took so much time.
• 1:04:58
  They wanted people to see it. Now you go, and that's what this
• 1:05:02
  verse is talking about. You go look at the Proverbs 31
• 1:05:05
  woman and you can see that she dressed very well, she she cared
• 1:05:10
  about her appearance, but at the same time her life wasn't
• 1:05:14
  consumed with that, and I think that's what this verse is
• 1:05:17
  speaking to. Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:05:19
  And it continues on. Peter says like this, do not let
• 1:05:23
  your adorning be external. The braiding of hair to put it
• 1:05:26
  on a gold jewelry. Men wore gold jewelry in this
• 1:05:29
  time as well. So he's not just talking about
• 1:05:31
  the women here. Men had longer hair at this
• 1:05:33
  time. So he's talking about the same
• 1:05:34
  thing, or the clothing you wear, but let your adorning be the
• 1:05:38
  hidden person of your heart, with the imperishable beauty of
• 1:05:44
  a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious,
• 1:05:51
  He begins to say. Listen here you guys, you're
• 1:05:53
  you're putting so much emphasis on what's on the outside, you
• 1:05:56
  don't even care about what's on the inside.
• 1:05:59
  God doesn't care about the outside.
• 1:06:01
  He cares about how your heart is.
• 1:06:03
  Are you been redemptive? Are you showing mercy?
• 1:06:05
  Are you showing love? Are you are you able to be
• 1:06:08
  corrected? Or is your spirit so evil that
• 1:06:11
  you're just covering it up and you're just trying to go out and
• 1:06:14
  you're just trying to take a card that's being beat up by the
• 1:06:17
  storm and you're just trying to put a fresh coat of paint on it
• 1:06:19
  so it looks nice. Or you dealing with the problems
• 1:06:22
  of the inside. And that's where Paul is coming
• 1:06:24
  from here. I'm sorry, not Paul.
• 1:06:26
  Peter is coming from and he says do not worry so much about the
• 1:06:30
  external, but worry about the internal.
• 1:06:32
  Brett, I never heard that preached like that first.
• 1:06:35
  Peter was never really used in our culture in our growing up
• 1:06:38
  because that goes against what they're trying to preach and
• 1:06:42
  teach. Exactly.
• 1:06:44
  We have to remember you don't worship God with your clothes.
• 1:06:48
  You worship God with your heart. People take this, you know, all
• 1:06:53
  the all this time into in an effort into dressing to a tee,
• 1:06:58
  they get their hearts are filthy, they're living in
• 1:07:00
  rebellion against God. They think that their their
• 1:07:04
  clothing is their righteousness and they're not concerned with
• 1:07:08
  the heart attitude because that's but that's what God is
• 1:07:11
  concerned with. The Bible over and over and over
• 1:07:15
  again says that the Lord sees not as man sees.
• 1:07:19
  For you know, man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord
• 1:07:22
  looks on the heart. Our next passage here is First
• 1:07:28
  Corinthians Chapter 9 and verse 20 and 22.
• 1:07:32
  And it says to the Jews I became as a Jew in order to win the
• 1:07:36
  Jews to those under the law. I became as one under the law,
• 1:07:40
  though not being myself under the law, that I might win those
• 1:07:45
  under the law to those outside the law.
• 1:07:47
  I became as one outside the law, not being outside the law of
• 1:07:51
  God, but under the law of Christ.
• 1:07:54
  That I might win those outside the law to the week I became
• 1:07:59
  weak, that I might win the week I have become all things to all
• 1:08:04
  people. That by all means I might save
• 1:08:07
  some. That is one of my favorite
• 1:08:08
  passages of Scripture. Absolutely our clothing, James,
• 1:08:14
  should be missional, OK? We shouldn't try and strive to
• 1:08:20
  dress like church people. We should actually strive to
• 1:08:24
  dress like those we're trying to reach, with the exception of
• 1:08:30
  being immodest. I mean this, this means, look,
• 1:08:33
  if if you're out in the country with a bunch of country boys who
• 1:08:37
  like to hunt and you're out there with a bunch of farmers
• 1:08:40
  who like to farm, well, maybe that's how you should think
• 1:08:43
  about coming to church. I mean the people in your area
• 1:08:46
  that wear boots and flannel shirts.
• 1:08:49
  Maybe you should wear boots and flannel shirts to church if it's
• 1:08:52
  jeans and AT shirt, wear jeans and AT shirt.
• 1:08:56
  Now, me personally, I don't wear ties unless it's a special
• 1:09:00
  occasion. I'll wear a tie on the Lord's
• 1:09:02
  Supper. That's about it.
• 1:09:04
  Most of the time I don't wear ties when I preach.
• 1:09:07
  I just, you know, know, especially I do wear slacks.
• 1:09:10
  I do wear a button up and most Sundays I do put on a Sport
• 1:09:14
  coat. There's one very simple reason
• 1:09:17
  for that is because I'm comfortable preaching in those
• 1:09:21
  clothes. I'm not comfortable wearing a
• 1:09:23
  tie. I'm just not going to do it.
• 1:09:25
  But if I wanted to show up next week on a Sunday morning to
• 1:09:30
  preach in jeans and a polo, I would have no issue with that,
• 1:09:34
  and I might do it soon just to prove a point.
• 1:09:38
  Now if if you have a personal conviction, you know that you
• 1:09:42
  should wear, and I want to say this, you could have your own
• 1:09:46
  personal conviction that you honor God by wearing your best
• 1:09:51
  to church and bless God. If that is your personal
• 1:09:54
  conviction, you do it to the glory of God.
• 1:09:57
  OK, I'm not gonna Lord over your conscience.
• 1:10:00
  Don't violate your conscience because of what I'm saying on
• 1:10:03
  this podcast. But what I you know but what I
• 1:10:06
  am I'm, I'm thoroughly personally a proponent of come
• 1:10:10
  as you are. If that is your personal
• 1:10:13
  conviction to wear your Sunday best to church, that's fine.
• 1:10:17
  But don't push that off on other people.
• 1:10:20
  Don't, you know, Lord over somebody else's conscience?
• 1:10:23
  Don't enforce your personal convictions on somebody else.
• 1:10:27
  That strays into the area of legalism.
• 1:10:29
  For the most part, I promote a come as you are, you know, be
• 1:10:34
  all things that, and by all means, you may save some.
• 1:10:38
  Yeah. And then I I love that.
• 1:10:40
  And one of the things I'll close by saying as we wrap up this
• 1:10:44
  episode is we're preaching through right now our core
• 1:10:48
  values in our church. And one of the core values that
• 1:10:51
  we're on this is going and serving.
• 1:10:53
  And one of the things I said a couple of weeks ago was this,
• 1:10:56
  people should be able to tell that you're a Christian without
• 1:11:00
  you telling them. Going to go a step further,
• 1:11:03
  people should be able to know you're a Christian without you
• 1:11:04
  wearing a certain attire to demonstrate that you're a
• 1:11:07
  Christian. And I'll illustrate it by this
• 1:11:10
  If being a Christian means I dress up and I wear my Sunday
• 1:11:14
  best, and my Sunday best for a man is a suit and tie, does that
• 1:11:18
  mean every lawyer is a safe, born again believer?
• 1:11:21
  Does that mean every judge? Does that mean every Senate,
• 1:11:24
  every House of representative? That's their attire for their
• 1:11:27
  work? If that's the definition of
• 1:11:30
  being a Christian and being a being someone that's on the
• 1:11:33
  right track because of their dress, that means every single
• 1:11:36
  one of those people are born again, believers and love Jesus
• 1:11:39
  because that's the standard that we've set.
• 1:11:41
  Or is it more about our actions and about our heart than it is
• 1:11:47
  about our external appearance? And we've got to ask ourself, Am
• 1:11:50
  I doing what I'm doing because it's the right thing to do and
• 1:11:53
  it's because I legitimately have a God-given conviction about
• 1:11:57
  this? Or am I doing because someone
• 1:11:59
  told me I should do it and by doing this I'm going to give the
• 1:12:03
  appearance that I'm a Christian and that's the difference that
• 1:12:07
  we have to ask ourself? Exactly.
• 1:12:10
  You know, separation from the world.
• 1:12:12
  It it means separation from the sin of the world.
• 1:12:17
  You can't, you know, cut yourself off completely.
• 1:12:20
  We're called to be ambassadors in this world.
• 1:12:24
  And what does an ambassador do that goes to another country?
• 1:12:28
  They learn the customs, they learn the culture as to not
• 1:12:32
  offend the the country that they're in, not to change who
• 1:12:36
  there are. They're still citizens of say,
• 1:12:39
  the United States of America, but say the ambassador to China,
• 1:12:42
  they're going to learn the culture.
• 1:12:44
  They're not going to want to offend the people that they're
• 1:12:48
  trying to reach or the people that they're sent to.
• 1:12:50
  And in the same sense, we need to, you know, learn the culture,
• 1:12:55
  the people that we're in, You know, we want to change the
• 1:12:58
  culture, but at the same time we want to be all things to them so
• 1:13:03
  that we can give them the gospel.
• 1:13:04
  This is all about, you know, you know, spreading the gospel,
• 1:13:08
  being a witness for Christ. We can do that without, you
• 1:13:13
  know, we can do that through our attire and what we wear and and
• 1:13:17
  not ostracize people and turn people off from that.
• 1:13:20
  So I agree with you. Until next time to God.
• 1:13:24
  Not the pastor. Be the glory found.
• 1:13:28
  My new name. Found that good grace.
• 1:13:32
  Found that healing. And the tears fell down my face.
• 1:13:36
  When I found my beginning. That has no ending.
• 1:13:38
  Found that second chance. Found my best friend.
• 1:13:40
  Found my forgiveness. Found my happiness.
• 1:13:42
  I've been singing ever since I found my freedom.
• 1:13:59
  Thanks for listening to the For Freedom podcast.
• 1:14:02
  If you enjoyed our content, do us a favor by liking,
• 1:14:05
  subscribing, or sharing our podcast on whichever podcast
• 1:14:09
  platform you use. Be sure to join us next time for
• 1:14:13
  the For Freedom podcast.