What Does God Say About Modesty?

Mr. D. Certainly thank Andrew for that lovely special music. Very talented young man. Certainly also, as was brought out by Alex, happy to have our young people here participating in the service today. Brethren, today I want to address a controversial subject. It's as old as mankind itself. The issues that drive this topic are not minor. They happen to be in my estimation major.

They very definitely affect your relationship with God and your fellow man. Let's take a look at Matthew 22 to get us going here today. Matthew 22, verses 37 through 40. Actually, we'll start in verse 36. Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?

And Jesus said to him, verse 37, You shall love the Lord God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind. This is the first and the great commandment. The second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments, hang all the law and the prophets.

So obviously, we're going to look today at an issue that shows how we love God. The issue will tell us how much we love our fellow man. And we see here that Jesus Christ Himself said, these are the two most important things in life. Now, some might think that the issue we're going to go through here today is a physical issue alone.

I don't think it's just a physical issue. I think it is partially a physical issue. But it is also an issue of the spirit, an issue of the mind. Let's take a look at Proverbs 23. Proverbs 23. And verse 7. Proverbs 23 verse 7. For as He thinks in His heart, so is He. As He thinks in His heart, so is He.

How do we think about the subject I'm going to bring up? Well, you don't know what subject I'm going to bring up quite yet. But I want that to kind of linger in your mind as I bring up the subject. What are our thoughts? What are our intents? What are we going to be doing with this subject today?

Today I want to ask a question, hopefully to some degree answer the question. If you want to take notes, you might want to drop this question along the top edge of your paper. The question is this. What does God say about modesty? What does God say about modesty? Again, some can view this as a strictly physical subject. I don't. Obviously, there are physical aspects to it. But I believe it is a matter of the mind as we see here. As he thinks or as she thinks in his or her heart, so is he.

We certainly want to honor God and man by understanding what God has to say about modesty. Now, a few qualifiers. Today, when I'm talking to ladies, I mean everybody who's female. I don't want to say ladies in some cases and girls or women and girls. I don't want to say females. That sounds kind of clinical. So when I say ladies, that's the one side. When I say gentlemen, that's everyone, either men or boys. Okay? A little bit of a qualifier. Now, it's not my intent here to establish some sort of rigid dress code. That simply would not be something I'd want to do or should do.

It's not my intent to offend anybody or hurt anybody. I don't know how. I've not looked at how everybody walked in the door today. But I want us to try to think about this subject the way God thinks about this subject. And most certainly, I don't want our ladies to think this is a subject just for you.

This is a subject for everybody. This is a subject for the gentlemen as well as the ladies. It's a subject for everybody. We want to be balanced with regard to this subject. We're going to be looking today at some godly principles that deal with the subject. But we're also going to take a look at a very interesting survey. As a matter of fact, I've got a one sheet of paper on the information table with this web address for you. Let me give it to you. If you don't get it here, I've got a nice big print.

Don't take that one sheet off the information table. But if you want to look at it, there's a survey at www.therevolution.com slash modestysurvey. And modestysurvey, they run at both those two words together. If you don't get it here, you can get it at the back of the room.

Because the survey is really a very interesting survey. And I'm going to quote fairly liberally from the survey. The modesty survey was not intended to serve as a scientific measure of what the average man thinks about modesty. In one sense, it's not even a survey. It's a discussion between people in the outside world who refer to themselves as believers. They are not necessarily in our Church of God culture, but they are people who call themselves believers. In this discussion, over 200 girls, or ladies, submitted their questions. And in less than 20 days, in January of 2007, over 1,600 guys gave what they thought about the questions that the young women asked. There were 25,000 text responses. And I want to read you fairly liberally from a number of these text responses today.

And we certainly want to take a look at what the Scriptures have to say. That's obviously the most important thing. Now, the survey was presented in a traditional five-point agreement-disagreement type survey. A number of you have had those surveys where you either strongly agree, you agree, you're neutral, you have mild disagreement, or you strongly disagree. And it went like that. Now, the various categories-and I don't have time in the sermon today to go extensively, because there were just so many questions, so much, and it was really quite detailed in a lot of places.

But they had a general category for things that they couldn't quite make a category for. They had a category under swimsuits. They had one under undergarments. They won for shirts and dresses. One for layering. A different category for pants, shorts, and leggings. They had one for skirts. They had one for posture and movement. There was one for makeup, jewelry, hair, and shoes. And then there was an open question category for people who just wanted to discuss the general topic. So again, the people, the gentlemen and the ladies here, were quite specific in what they had to say.

And I think that you'll find it to be quite interesting. To get the ball rolling, I want to talk to both the ladies and the gentlemen here, just to kind of show you some of the things that were said. Under the general category was this statement. It wasn't in the form of a question, it was a statement. Here's the statement. Despite rampant immodesty all around us, girls who choose to dress modestly do make a difference.

The girls wanted to know how the guys would respond to that statement. Despite rampant immodesty all around us, girls who choose to dress modestly do make a difference. How did the guys respond? Ninety-two percent of the guys, of the gentlemen, agreed or strongly agreed. Let me give you a couple of examples. They didn't give names, even first names, they just gave the person's age who responded. Let me just read a few of the comments here.

This first one comes from a person of age 30. Here's the comment. They distinguish themselves. Modest women distinguish themselves. The very thing the immodest girls are trying to do. All girls have curves. To a guy looking for more than that, showing curves doesn't tell him anything new. He knows you're a girl.

He knows you're a girl. He wants a lady. Hmm. Interesting, huh? He wants a lady. Here's one from a person aged 16, a fella aged 16, talking again about girls who dress modestly. Yes, they make me think. That's the kind of girl I want to marry. Not only that, but their courage inspires me to be pure. Their courage inspires me to be pure. To our sisters, I think this, you know, we always want to be able to make a difference in somebody's life.

In one sense, I don't know if we've ever thought much about the fact that just by going to our closet and what we pull out of the closet and put on, can help somebody want to be pure as a fellow.

The gentleman by the age of 21 said this, talking about modestly dressed women. He says, they make a difference to me because they showed me there's something out there worth saving myself for. They give me hope and prove they are a princess worth valuing. Now, I'm sure society would poo-poo this idea of being a princess. But, you know, I think if you and I think about the wonderful world tomorrow, what God would want for our women and how we should treat them and value our women, a princess worth valuing, I think, is a tremendous statement to make.

So that's, you know, a comment that the girls made, wanted to find out how the guys would respond. Under the open questions section, here was something for the guys. It said, as a guy, what is your responsibility? What is your responsibility in this area? What is your role in guarding your eyes and mind as opposed to the woman's role in dressing modestly? So, again, this is not just for the ladies. This is for the gentlemen. This is for the guys as well. Comments. First one comes from somebody age 23. The ultimate responsibility is absolutely my own.

No matter how a woman is dressed, it is my responsibility to treat both her and myself with respect and to honor Christ with all my actions. If I ever feel that I might not be able to control myself or my thoughts, it's my responsibility to leave the situation. Guys who blame women for their own bad behavior are a major problem.

Furthermore, it's my responsibility to dress and act modestly as well. Women have their own God-given sexuality as well, and if I ask them to help me control my libido, I am honor-bound to do the same to help my sisters in Christ. Boy, it's nice to know there are some fellows out there like that.

Somebody who wants to take full responsibility is not willing to point fingers at somebody else. A fellow here is saying it's his responsibility to dress modestly, to act modestly, to think modestly. Here's another comment from somebody aged 17. I think it's my responsibility to keep myself pure for marriage, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally. Just as the same as other areas of my life, my purpose in life is to glorify God, and this is one of the ways I can do just that by treating girls the way Christ would.

I'm really enjoying reading some of those quotes. Keeping himself pure for marriage. Do I dare use the V-word? Virginity? You know, in our society today, if a person is a virgin, they are almost laughed at in our society today. And yet, virginity is one of those virtues that with each passing day that you remain a virgin, it is more and more valuable. It's more and more beautiful. People in the world will tell you every day you remain a virgin, there's something wrong with you.

There's something ugly about that. It just shows Satan's society. There's nothing more beautiful than two people on their wedding night who are both virgins, giving themselves fully to each other. Here's a young man that's saying, it really helps me.

It helps my thinking when brothers and sisters in the human family are dressing properly to glorify God, and it helps him to keep himself pure. Now, this next individual is 28. He's got a little age on him, and he's going to use points. So that kind of got to my thinking immediately, and I saw points. Talking about a man's responsibility.

A man's responsibility, he's got six points here. Bear with me. Avert his eyes from that which might lead him to lust. Number two, avoid those places, whether physical or virtual, obviously talking about the internet or what have you, where seductive images abound. Number three, praise modesty wherever he finds it. I think we can all do a better job with that, can't we? Praise modesty wherever he finds it.

Number four, demonstrate modesty in speech, action, and clothing. I would add the internet. I would add that we don't want to do sexting and all those sorts of things, and the very modest pictures that show themselves on the internet or Facebook or wherever. Number five, not look down on those who are immodest, but to treat them with dignity. Not to blame his stumbling on the immodesty of another. So that's somebody aged 28. You know, over and over again, as I was reading the very internet, there were hundreds of comments. I mean, you'd have to go to the website and look at it, look at each section, and just kind of go through the commentary. But over and over, from the fellow's point of view, one of the things that I picked up very quickly is the fellows want to view— the fellows who've got a proper mindset, the fellows who really want to be Christians in every sense of the word, they have the mindset that they very much wanted to get to know their other women, the girls around them, the ladies. On the other hand, if they are approached by a lady who dresses so provocatively that every moment he's with her, he's got to guard his thoughts about the obvious way that she's coming across as a sexual object, well, he can't think about her personality. He can't think about a conversation he might have with her. He's too busy trying to, as a Christian, trying to blot out all the things that are slapping in her face and wanting to get his attention in the wrong way. And so many of the guys—and I'm kind of summarizing a number of comments— they said, you know, when a woman dresses modestly, then I can get to know her. I can ask her about her life, and we can develop a relationship. And it goes so much better when the other thing is not there just kind of beating me up. So just some thoughts there, ladies, for us to consider. Now, I just quoted some of those to show you the value of what fellows in the world who call themselves believers think. And I'm sure that our young men in this room, I'm thinking—think the same things. And I'm hoping that our ladies are wanting to think the same things and are thinking the same things. We want to do what's right by God. Let's take a look at what the Scriptures have to say. Let's take a look at what God says here in 1 Timothy 2.

You know, I designed this sermon because I knew our teens would be here, but this is not just for teens.

Just this morning, I turned on the computer and got a couple of sermonettes that Eric Snow had given over the years.

I already had my notes done, but I read both of his sermonettes. They were good sermonettes. And he was remarking that he went to a feast site—I'll not name the feast site. It was a warm-weather feast site where people could go swimming.

And when he was at this warm-weather feast site, the ladies in the church were wearing bikinis.

Now, I would submit to you, in a public setting, how was a bikini ever proper?

Call me what you want to call me. But how is that ever—a woman, a lady with her husband and the privacy of their own home is one thing.

But in a church setting where there's different couples who are singles and marrieds, and there's a church activity at the Feast of Tabernacles, and our ladies in our church are wearing the bikini. How is that ever justifiable? Now, maybe I'm stepping on some toes here.

And if I am, so be it.

I get paid to step on toes from time to time.

So, that having been said, this is not just a subject for—and the people Eric was talking about were not—I believe were not teenagers. They were people in their 20s and passed that. So this is not just for teens. This is for everybody in the room.

First Timothy 2, verses 8-10.

Now, there is a lot in verse 9 and 10 there. There's an awful lot there in verse 9 and 10. It talks about women adorning themselves in modest apparel.

Unless I forget, ladies, I do know—my daughter will be turning 27 next month. Less than a month from now.

I do know—I've gone shopping with her. I do know how many stores I used to have to go to to find her something that I wanted to see her in.

I do know that we can't find that kind of clothing. We may have to hunt and hunt and hunt, but I do know it's not easy. I know today and today's society will talk a little bit about fashion and a little bit toward the end of the sermon. But I know it's difficult. So you're thinking—some of you may think, well, you're a guy. You know, you wear your black shoes or your brown shoes, and you wear your suit. You're all set, fella. It's tougher for us ladies. I know it's tough for you ladies.

I do realize that. That doesn't mean we can't comply. It doesn't mean we can't comply. But here it talks about dressing in modest apparel. The word modest here in the original means to dress with decorum. Decorum. What's the word decorum mean? It means to carry ourself with dignity. We are to dress in a dignified manner.

As professes, women of God.

We are to dress not only modestly. It says here we are to—with propriety. Propriety. Which means we need to cover ourselves. We'll talk about that in a moment. Properly covering ourselves. I'm not standing here saying that, you know, starting next Sabbath, all ladies should be wearing gunny sacks. I can say it. It's not going to happen. But I'm not saying that. But, you know, there's something else here that we don't want to get the wrong impression. Verse 9, where it talks about not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing. Is there something wrong with this? Is there something wrong with women taking care of their hair? Absolutely not. The whole concept between verse 9 and verse 10 is let's not just do something for the wrong reason. But if we're going to be, you know, women who are godly women, we want to take what God has given us and look the very best we can. I'm sure other fellows would say what I'm about to say, I've known women, ladies over the years, who may have been very plain ladies, if you looked at their face. But they would take tremendous care of their hair. And somehow, in my thinking, and I don't think I'm a stranger to this, but in my thinking, that elevated them to being someone who otherwise might be thought of being plain to being quite attractive, simply as a result of what was being done with the hair. When we talk about braided hair or hair with gold or whatever in it, the idea is not to overly do things from a vanity point of view, but to be the very best that God gives us to be. Is there something wrong with gold or pearls or costly clothing? Of course not. Again, it's a matter of the mind. If our mind is that God has blessed us, we have sufficient income, we can buy very nice clothing, buy the nice clothing. We don't do it to show off or to one up somebody else. We do it because we want to come and we want to please God. We want to please God. That is always our thinking. Now, with that in mind, I want you to turn to Ezekiel 16. Because here we see an example where God Himself is going to talk about clothing for Jerusalem. He's going to use an analogy here. Ezekiel 16. I want you to note the language that God uses. He shows Himself to be a bridegroom, or Jesus Christ, giving His bride Jerusalem clothing. Notice what is said here. Ezekiel 16. Ezekiel 16. When I passed by you again, I looked upon you. Indeed, your time was the time of love. So I spread my wing over you and covered your nakedness. So we can be dressed modestly, but be dressed very well. Yes, I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you. And you became mine, says the Lord God. I washed you in water. Yes, I thoroughly washed off your blood. I anointed you with oil. I clothed you in embroidered cloth. Nice clothing. And gave you sandals of badger skin.

I tease our ladies. We guys, we've got a pair of black shoes, brown shoes, we've got a pair of tennis shoes, I've got a pair of golf shoes. But you walk into our bedroom at home and I see all kinds of shoes. Well, here we have sandals of badger skin. This was something that was very, very nice. I clothed you with fine linen, covered you with silk. So God is not against nice clothing. I adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets on your wrists and chain around your neck. This is not some old metal chain. This is probably, you know, silver or gold, something very beautiful, something very nice. I put a jewel in your nose, earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head. So God is not against, as we understand, God is not against looking great. But we want to do so in a way that pleases God. We want to do so modestly. So 1 Timothy 2, verses 8-10 talks about modesty, talks about propriety, talks about how we should be dressing ourselves. And remember the comment we've already read about? The one fellow said that if our ladies dress this way, they are a princess worth valuing. Let that just kind of cascade in your mind for a bit. A princess worth valuing. Titus 2, verses 4-5, Notice there in verse 5, To be discreet means to be careful about what you say or do. It means to be a person who is self-controlled. Just because the fashion people in New York or Los Angeles say, This is what's on, ladies, for this spring, doesn't mean we're going to necessarily do that if it's an immodest thing to do. We're going to be so reminded, we're going to be self-controlled, we're going to be careful, we're going to be discreet about what we do.

Listen to a young man age 14, and what he has to say about discretion. Quote, Now he's quoting Proverbs 11, verse 22. He's quoting the Bible there, because that's exactly what Proverbs 11, 22 says. Here's a young man age 14, who's talking about the need to be discreet. To be chaste means to be decent, to be modest in our nature or behavior, to be restrained and simple in style. The word implies chastity and innocence and absence of seductive influences. If we are addressing in such a way that the fellows around us feel they're being seduced, then that's improper.

1 Peter chapter 3. 1 Peter chapter 3. Verse 3.

Now we already saw there's a balance. We're not against beautiful clothing and jewelry. And we certainly, ladies, are not against you being as beautiful as you can be. To be modest doesn't mean to be ugly. No one's saying that.

No one is saying that. Here in 1 Peter chapter 3, the idea here is to adorn ourselves with a meek and a quiet spirit. And this is a big part of what modesty is. It's not just what we put on our bodies. It's what we have between the ears. It's what we have in our minds. It's what we have in terms of an attitude. In the survey, in the general category, was this statement.

The ladies presented this statement. They wanted to see how the guys would respond. Here's the statement the ladies presented. A modestly dressed girl can still be a stumbling block because of her attitude and behavior. So even if we dress modestly, we can still be a stumbling block. And so some of the girls are probably saying, well, let's just get rid of all the guys. That said, just get rid of them. No. A modestly dressed girl can still be a stumbling block because of her attitude and behavior.

How did the guys respond? 94% of the guys agreed or strongly agreed that a modestly dressed girl can still be a stumbling block because of her attitude. Comments. The first comment comes from somebody age 18. Quote, A modestly dressed girl can still be a stumbling block when she is moving and acting in ways that make it clear she is not modest at heart.

This can inspire thoughts in my mind that tempt me to sin, even though her body is covered.

A young man in age 15 says this. Quote, The Scripture says in the Proverbs that a woman can lead ministry with her eyelids, implying that her actions can speak even louder than the way she dresses. Amen. True. And he's quoting Proverbs 6 and verse 25.

So obviously, it's more than just dress. It's what's between the ears. It's what's in our minds. It's what's in our hearts. That's why we have to look at the Word of God. We have to be people who are convicted as a way of life that this is what we want to do.

Now, are we free to just do whatever we want to do? Let's go to James. We were talking about James in the announcements. Let's go to the book of James, chapter 1.

James, the half-brother of Jesus Christ.

An apostle. The pastor of the Jerusalem church.

James, chapter 1, verse 25.

But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

He who looks into the perfect law of liberty.

I'm hoping that what I'm saying today is not construed in any section that I'm trying to restrain you from something good.

We are going to look into the perfect law of liberty. We're going to be free to live as God would want us to be free and to live appropriately.

Now, let's combine this idea with what we find over here in Galatians, chapter 5.

With freedom, as Americans we understand, with freedom comes responsibility. And as Christians, the same thing is true. With freedom comes responsibility.

We have freedom within God's law.

But that doesn't mean we can do whatever we want to, can we?

Galatians, chapter 5, verse 13.

For you, brethren, have been called to liberty, only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

You know, going back to that feast site where the ladies were wearing those bikinis, how was that serving our brothers in the faith?

How was that, you know, wouldn't they be wearing that kind of clothing if, you know, they got to the site where they were doing the swimming or snorkeling or whatever they were doing?

And it just so happened that Jesus Christ was there.

Well, Jesus Christ is always there. Jesus Christ is always there. And we need to appreciate that, and not just feel we need to cover up in case, you know, somebody in authority.

Christ is always there. God is always there.

In the book, The Road Less, traveled by M. Scott Peck, he's a doctor, he states, and I quote, Mental health is an ongoing process of dedication to reality at all costs. The reality in this case is that all males are stimulated by sight, and many are stimulated to lust by provocative clothing.

I think our ladies all understand that. But we need to, from time to time, state that. Because I think maybe from time to time we may forget what we know along those lines.

Romans 14.

Talking about liberty, the right kind of liberty, how we should act as Christians, as believers, and every one of us in this room is a believer.

We may not all be baptized, but we have people here in this room who have come to church all their lives.

I certainly wouldn't call them an unbeliever. I'm thinking of our teens. God is working with you right now.

Later on, God will be working in you. After you're baptized and receive God's Holy Spirit, right now you're in the same category that the apostles were. The disciples were prior to the Day of Pentecost.

God is working with you. Working powerfully with you.

I appreciated the fact that God called me when I was 15. I know God was working powerfully with me. When I was 15 years of age, I wasn't baptized. I was just shy of my 21st birthday.

I was two months shy of being 21 when I was baptized. But I didn't know for a fact that God answered prayer and God was with me every step of my life.

You can go through the Bible and see God working with David as a teenager, Daniel as a young person, Jeremiah as a young person, Jesus Christ.

Just because you're young doesn't mean God's not with you.

Romans 14, verse 13.

Therefore, let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this. Not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's way.

Are we by our dress doing that? Are we causing a stumbling block to be in our brother's way? Literally, our brother's way?

What should Christians see when we see one another?

Should we see someone trying to tempt and lure others? Is that what should be in our mind?

Or should we see clothing that represents a man or a woman of character? Someone who's discreet? Someone who carries himself with proper decorum?

Do we see somebody who has the fruits of God's spirit either in them or with them by what they're wearing?

We must remember that modesty is truly a matter of the heart.

And here's a simple rule, and let's be honest about the rule here. For all of us, if you and I can't see beyond the clothing, there is an issue.

If you're looking at somebody and you can't get past what they're wearing, there is an issue. Who has the problem? Maybe both have the problem.

Our clothing does say something about us, whether we like it or not.

There is a question in the open questions category. This is from the guys, to the gals, to the ladies. The question is this. Ladies.

Or actually it says from the guys. If you could say one thing to your sisters in Christ about modesty, what would it be?

If you could say one thing to your sisters in Christ about modesty, what would it be? First person here, age 16. I quote.

Please don't take modesty lightly. As your brother in Christ, I value the relationship I will have with my wife someday.

What I am tempted because of you, I lose a part of myself I am trying to save for her.

What I am tempted because of you, I become that much more accepting of the perversions in the world.

When you remain pure and modest, my life is made so much easier.

Instead of watching to ensure I don't sin, I can focus on you as a person and fellow follower of Christ.

I appreciate modesty more than you'll ever know. Please show respect for yourself and me and be modest.

That's a powerful statement for somebody 16 years old. I mean, that is well thought out. That's well thought out.

Don't give up on it. We all know we're living in Satan society.

We're living in something very akin to the days of Noah and the Flood. We understand that.

Don't give up on it.

Another comment. This person is age 26.

I included this one for, I think, obvious reasons.

In high school, the place of greatest temptation toward lust was in my church.

Girls wore things to church they thought were fashionable and dressy, but they would not have passed the dress code in my public high school.

Church should never be a guy's greatest source of temptation in any way.

Please be especially careful when picking out your dress clothing for the church and make sure they are modest when sitting and kneeling, if you kneel in church, not just standing in front of your mirror at home.

Questions to ask about clothing.

Let's ask a few questions about clothing as we are narrowing our focus down here.

When you go...and again, I know it's not easy to buy clothing if you're a woman, if you're a lady, not easy at all.

That doesn't mean your clothing can't be stylish. That doesn't mean your clothing can't be flattering to you personally in the way God has designed you individually.

But we don't need to be wearing things that just shout out to everybody around us, Hey, I'm sexy, take a look.

Questions to ask. Am I buying this because I want to attract sexual attention?

If we're buying something for that reason, that's a heart issue. That's a heart issue.

Am I trying to be more like the world and less like Christ?

Again, that's a heart issue. That's an attitude issue.

Let's take a look at some good old-fashioned Christian living scriptures and let's see how they apply to modesty.

Romans 12 Romans 12 Verse 1 Interesting. A living sacrifice. Have we ever thought about the scripture in relation to modesty?

Present our bodies a living sacrifice.

Holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

It is reasonable for us to be people of modesty. It is acceptable to God to be people of modesty.

Verse 2 You know, what the current in style is.

So here's a standard right from God's own word. We don't typically think of these two verses in long lines of modesty, but they work.

They're true. We want to make sure our minds are properly calibrated with the idea of godly modesty in mind.

We want to transform our mind. We want our mind to be renewed.

Not to be thinking like, you know, our peers in high school or wherever, junior high or middle school or whatever.

We read Romans 14. Let's go back. There's another verse. Romans 14. Want to look at...

Another Christian living verse here. Romans 14. It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak.

Let's think about that Scripture along the lines of modesty.

You know, if we love one another, we're going to avoid doing things that cause our brothers to stumble.

We are going to sacrifice, as we read there in chapter 12.

We're going to renew our minds and recalibrate our thinking so that we align ourselves with the thinking of God the Father and Jesus Christ.

First John, chapter 3, verse 18.

First John, chapter 3, verse 18.

My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

Let us not give lip service to the subject we're talking about today. We want to actually respond. We want to be people of modesty. Not just talk about it. Not just be wishing and hoping, but to actually be doers of the Word.

And speaking about doers of the Word, return to James, chapter 3.

James, chapter 3.

James, chapter 3, verse 17. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and notice what I want to like to underline for this sermon, willing to yield.

Willing to yield.

We must be willing to yield to God's standards.

God's standards are that we dress appropriately, that we dress with the quorum, that we dress with dignity, that we dress modestly.

We must yield. We must recalibrate our thinking as we saw in Romans, chapter 12.

We must avoid the stumbling blocks we saw there in Romans, chapter 14. All these at work together, these are all beautiful scriptures we put together with the subject of modesty.

Now, let's approach this from another point of view.

Under the general category in the survey was this statement, Girls can dress attractively without being immodest.

Girls can dress attractively without being immodest.

Now, the world will tell you, well, you've got to be revealing to be attractive.

Girls can dress attractively without being immodest.

The guys agreed, or strongly agreed, 97%.

97%!

Let me give you a few comments here. Both of these will be people aged 19.

And I quote, Girls can be beautiful, noticeably beautiful, and guys can notice it, without their being immodestly or lust involved. And this is the good design of God.

Jacob, for example, clearly thought Rachel was beautiful in Genesis.

But there's no hint that Rachel dressed immodestly, or that Jacob lusted after her. Don't allow the devil to make us think that the enemy is beauty.

The enemy is manipulation, the very ugly forces of lust and vanity in our hearts.

You know, I don't know about you, but I'm really loving reading some of these quotes.

These young people, I think, are really right on. The other individual says this, quote, When your views on beauty have been aligned with the Bible, you will be attracted to modesty.

You know, that could be a phrase that somebody might print out large, with large print in your computer, and just put on your mirror in your dressing room. When your views on beauty have been aligned with the Bible, you will be attracted to modesty. For example, now I'm much more attracted... This is a guy in 19. Now I'm much more attracted to a girl in full-length dresses than a girl in Daisy Dukes.

Obviously, the girl wearing her shorts is probably not the kind of girl I would want to raise my children. She's wearing clothes I wouldn't allow my daughter to wear.

To me, that's not attractive. It may turn me on, but it's not attractive, and there's a difference.

Some real wisdom from some of these fellows here.

So, ladies, what do we wear? Do we wear all black? You know, every inch of everything is covered from below your nose. Do we wear burkas? Is that what we do? Is that what we do wear burkas? There was an article that appeared many, many years ago. You young people were not even a twinkle in daddy or mommy's eye. This was written back in June of 1979. This goes back a long time. You tell me about fashion, but you tell me if this is not still a true statement today about fashion.

And I quote. This is from the Chicago Sun Times, June 8, 1979. Year after year, a handful of suspicious-looking characters who call themselves clothing designers issue their commands. Wear your dresses short and wear boots and look like a hooker. Now dress like a gypsy fortune teller. Now look like a farmwife. Now wear spiked heels. Now show your thighs. And every time the pimps of fashion give their word, all these enlightened female persons will be leaked trudge to the clothing store.

Is that not true today? Am I indicting you here? No. Is it true for you? I'm hoping not. But is it true in our society? Yes, it is. Yes, it is.

So ladies, I know that you've got an extremely hard in our society. And my heart does go out to you. Again, I have a daughter now who's turned 27.

I guess I'm like most daddies. I think my daughter is pretty. Thankfully, she looks nothing like me.

Thankfully for her, she looks like her mother. And I make sure I make it a point of letting her know that I think she's an attractive young woman in a nice way.

And thankfully, over the years, I say, watch what she wears now. She dresses modestly. And I'm thankful for that. Any father would not tell you anything differently. We all want our young princesses to dress properly because we love you so much.

So I know it's hard. I know it's hard. But it doesn't mean you can't look and look and look and find the right thing. You just have to look a little harder. Maybe you have to find somebody who actually sews.

You may need to learn how to sew. I mean, there's any number of ways we can approach that, but that's something for another message.

So what do we need to do as I begin to wind down here? What do we need to do?

Let's practice modesty and discretion in all aspects of our lives.

Men and women, this is not just something for the ladies today.

Men can be indiscreet.

When Mary and I were in Hawaii, walking the beaches, the lovely beaches, and looking at some of these guys with these speedos, please.

Please! I wanted to go hide!

I was thinking, oh man, literally, you know, somebody grab this person and take him out of here.

Why? Because it was so sexual, it was so gross.

You know.

So it's not just a matter for the ladies. It's a matter for all of us.

Men are very capable of being immodest. Men are very capable of conducting ourselves in a way that is provocative.

So I'm not trying to be sexist here at all. We think about this generally in certain terms, and I covered the issue from those terms today, but it's for everybody. Let's also set an example for others to see.

We had a wonderful sermon. I was not here, but Brian McGuire gave a sermon here some time ago talking about roles and what we should be doing.

We've got some really good women in the Ann Arbor and Detroit and all the other churches we work here. I don't know all the churches, you know, Lansing and all around Kalamazoo, you know, Flint.

We've got some really good, solid women in our congregations who've got their heads on right.

They are close to God. And you ladies, as Brian brought out in his message, you ladies, we have a responsibility. We have a responsibility to teach our younger women.

And I'm hoping we're doing that in our teen club. We have a responsibility as elders to teach the youngers and to appreciate the beautiful values that God has given to us.

You know, here today I've been reading all these different quotations from people not in our church culture.

I have been amazed and with wonderment as to the wisdom of these young people.

We should be thinking that along the same lines ourselves.

Incidentally, one of the other points I have here before we close is we don't need to be all dressing alike.

God doesn't want us all to be yellow pencils. You know, we can be modestly dressed, and we can dress with a certain flair.

We dress that is best for your particular body type, and so on and so forth.

All those things can be done dressing well and flatteringly and so forth.

We have our minds straight, and we can dress as individuals.

Some are one kind of dress, some are like other kinds of dress.

It doesn't mean we all have to wear some uniform.

In conclusion, let's not give up on modesty. Let's not jump into the world headlong and say, you know, I just can't compete with this.

I simply have to, you know, I can't find the right kind of dress, I can't find the right kind of clothing.

I've tried, but I can't do it. Well, we can do it.

So let's make sure that we are doing it.

Let's make sure that we are striving to be living in a way that would please God the Father and Jesus Christ.

Let's be modest.

Let's make sure that we are living in a way that would please God the Father and Jesus Christ.