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fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong, and what I want to preach about today in honor of Father's Day is the subject of manliness or being a man, and this is something that the Bible explicitly tells us here in 1 Corinthians 16 that should be an attribute that describes us. He says, watch ye stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, saying behave like a man, be a man. Go back if you would to 1 Samuel chapter number 4, 1 Samuel chapter number 4, and as you're turning to 1 Samuel chapter 4, I'll read for you from 2 Samuel 10, 12 where the Bible reads, be of good courage and let us play the men for our people and for the cities of our God and the Lord do that which seemeth him good. Look down at your Bible there in 1 Samuel 4 verse 9, it says, be strong and quit yourselves like men, O ye Philistines, that ye be not servants unto the Hebrews as they have been to you. Quit yourselves like men and fight, and you say, well, that's the Philistines talking. Yeah, but in the New Testament, God commands us, quit you like men, be a man, act like a man, play the part of men. This is a theme that comes up over and over again in the Bible. Of course, in 1 Corinthians 9, you don't have to turn there, but turn to Isaiah chapter 5 if you would, but in 1 Corinthians 6, 9, the Bible reads, know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abused of themselves with mankind. So the Bible commands us, be a man. It commands us, do not be effeminate, and what is effeminate is a man who acts like a woman or a man who has feminine attributes. Now before I get into what the Bible teaches about what it means to be a man, because that can mean different things to different people, you know, if you say be a man or be manly, different people have a different definition of what manly is, but before I get into the biblical definition of what manliness is, I want to talk about the world's definition of manliness that is not correct, because a lot of the ideas that the world has about what manliness is and what being a man is are not biblical ideas. First of all, this is kind of a throwback to last week's sermon, but if you look at Isaiah chapter 5 verse 20, the Bible reads, woe unto them that call evil good and good evil, that put darkness for light and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. So notice, these are people who are mixing up different adjectives and attributes here. They think sweet's bitter, they think good is evil, they got everything backwards, okay? And look what he says here in verse number 21, woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight, woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink. And look, God just finished saying these are people who have things backwards, they think that drinking alcohol, getting drunk is manliness, that it's mighty, that it's strength, when in reality it's weakness. It's not strength. God looks down and he sees drinking and drunkenness as weakness, the world portrays it as strength. Okay, so when we look at manliness and being a man, we want to make sure that we understand that the world has a wrong view of manliness. When they portray manliness, drinking is a part of it. You know, if you drink a lot, if you're one who can really hold your liquor and do some hard drinking, you know, you're a really tough guy, you're a really manly guy. Another thing that the Bible, go to Exodus chapter 22, another thing that the world will promote as manliness is fornication. You know, a man who basically is a womanizer, who has a lot of different women that he's involved with, the world will say, that's being a man, that's manliness, that's being a tough guy. Well, the world has a double standard, okay, because when a woman acts that way, they call her dirty names, you know, and says, oh man, this woman is sleazy and whatever, because she's fornicating with all these different people. But the Bible doesn't have that double standard, okay, the Bible refers to the man who's with a lot of women as a whoremonger, okay, and not only that, the Bible is harsher upon men who fornicate than upon women who fornicate. I mean, both of it's sin, both of it's ungodly, but here in Exodus chapter 22 verse 16, the Bible says, and if a man entice a maid that is not betrothed and lie with her, this is talking about a man who fornicates with a woman, it says, he shall surely endow her to be his wife. And it says in verse 17, if her father utterly refused to give her unto him, he shall pay money according to the dowry aversion. So here, God is saying, look, if a man fornicates with a woman, he has to marry her, whereas the woman doesn't have to marry him. So God is even taking a harder line against men who fornicate in this verse here, and so the world teaches that it's manly to drink, it's manly to fornicate. These things aren't manly, these things are sin, and when God's telling us to play the part of men to quit ourselves like men, he's not telling us to live a sinful life. Okay, he wants us to live a godly and righteous life. Another thing that people will often confuse with manliness is being a brawler. You know, someone who goes out and gets into a lot of fights, they'll say, oh, that guy's a very manly individual. Well, the Bible commands us not to be a brawler in 1 Timothy chapter 3 and elsewhere. Also being a bully is often seen as being manly, somebody who pushes people around. Even these bullies are wearing uniforms, you know, and people think, oh, yeah, they're so manly. Yeah, it's so, it's so, these cops that push people around, they're so manly, aren't they? When there's 12 of them and one of you, and they're all armed and you're not, okay? But you know, a lot of people look at you, oh, yeah, these guys are really manly, they're really tough. Being a bully on the playgrounds, not manly, growing up and being a bully is not manly, pushing people around, making fun of people, trying to make people feel bad, to lift yourself up, that's weakness. That's not strength, that's not manliness. And the Bible says in Romans 15, 1, we then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification. So the Bible teaches that strength is when we care for the weak and when we are unselfish and put other people first. So it's not manly or strong to put ourselves first, to put everybody else down, to push people around, to be a bully, but rather to care about others and to lift up the weak is what the Bible teaches. Oftentimes people will see someone who's very prideful and arrogant as being manly, somebody who thinks very highly of themself. And yet the Bible says the fear of the Lord is to hate evil, pride and arrogance and the evil way and the froward mouth do I hate. So God's not telling us to be proud. He's not telling us to be arrogant. Another thing that people often confuse for manliness is people buying a lot of expensive things and they think that that somehow makes them manly. You know, to buy a monster truck and that, you know, you're manly now because you drive the giant truck. You know, I'm not against driving a giant truck, but that don't make you manly, you know, just because you spend a bunch of money on expensive toys. And the Bible says, take heed and beware of covetousness for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of things which he possesseth and your manliness and who you are as a man is not determined by what you're driving and what kind of boats you have and what kind of goodies you have in the garage, okay? So there are a lot of false ideas about manliness. Now some of these ideas about manliness, they do have some kernel of truth in them. Most lies have a little truth in them. It's just twisted. You know, so if you look at, for example, the lie that says, oh, being a brawler, that's manly. Well sure, it is manly to be willing to fight if necessary, to be willing to defend yourself or your family, to have the strength to do so, but going out and picking a fight, you know, that's just stupid. Or for example, you know, the Bible does teach that courage is a manly attribute, but then a lot of times people will confuse just being reckless and putting yourself into needless danger as being manly. You know, just going out and doing things that are unsafe just for the sake of just being unsafe, oh wow, that's so manly. You know, for example, you know, you see people that might, you know, go bungee jumping or sky diving. I'm not against those things. If you're doing them for fun, if you think that's cool, no problem. You know, I'm not saying that I'll never do it someday. I'm just saying, you know, that's not really biblical manliness. You know, I'm manly because I did this dangerous thing, you know, that makes me, or I ride my motorcycle without a helmet, hence I am manly. Now I grew up riding, and again, if you ride a motorcycle without a helmet, I'm not preaching against you. You can do whatever you want. But you know, I grew up riding a motorcycle, I've ridden hundreds and hundreds of hours on a motorcycle. I personally would never ride a motorcycle without wearing a helmet because I think it's not safe. I'm just saying, it doesn't make you any more or less manly because you're just putting yourself in danger, not wearing a helmet, okay? What I'm saying is that the world has ideas about manliness that are not right because they get everything backwards, they mix everything up. Let's go to the Bible and let's see what real manliness is. It's none of the things that I just listed. None of those things make you manly, okay? Also, the world has some false ideas about what it means to be a sissy, you know, the opposite of being manly, being effeminate, being a wussy, being a sissy. You know, often they'll say, well, you know, if you're a musician, if you play music, well, you're a sissy. Well, nothing could be further from the truth because the manliest guy in the Bible, one of the baddest dudes in the Bible is David. And he was also the greatest musician that we see in the Bible that wrote the Psalms and did a lot of music. So just because you play music, that doesn't mean that you're not manly because he was a very tough guy. He's the man who said, he teaches my hands to war so that a bow of steel is broken by my arms. He doesn't sound like a weakling to me. He doesn't sound like a wimp at all. You know, we look at the men of the Bible that were musicians, a lot of the prophets that were musicians, and they were very tough guys, they were very manly individuals. Also some people will say, well, you know, anyone who ever weeps or cries is not manly. Now, obviously like I said, there's some truth in all of this, but we know Jesus wept. You know, David, again, the tough man wept more than anyone else in the entire Bible. It's recorded that David wept. All the prophets wept and they were very strong, very tough. But see, when we think of a man weeping, you know, yeah, if you scan your knee and you're crying, yeah, that's not manly, okay. But obviously, you know, if someone dies or, you know, you're weeping over lost souls, I mean, the Bible commands us to weep. You know, the Bible tells us, he that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. Jesus three times wept. And he was a very manly individual. There's plenty of evidence for that. We know Elijah wept. We know David wept. We know Jeremiah wept. These were great men. So the world has it all backwards. And then, you know, the world will look at you and if you're a Christian and you live a godly and a righteous life, they don't think that's manly. But I'll tell you why. Because TV, and turn if you would to First Peter chapter three, let's look at real manliness according to the Bible. TV has brainwashed an entire generation to believe these falsehoods, especially when it comes to the roles of men and women and what it means to be manly and what it means to be feminine. You see, the way that they do this is very subtle. And a lot of people fall into the trap of thinking, you know what, TV and movies are fine as long as there's no cussing, as long as there's no nudity. And they even sell these devices that you can put on your, you know, your DVD player that'll cut out all the cussing, you know, and it'll cut out all the nudity. But what's not cut out is the subliminal messages which are the most dangerous part of Hollywood and Madison Avenue. It's this messaging that just brainwashes you to think a certain way by always portraying strong manly individuals as whoremongers, as fornicators, as drunkards, you know, the James Bonds of this world who are just with a different woman every single movie, every single week, every single month. And then they show the family man, they show the guy who's married and who has children as a weakling, as a wimp. And then whenever they show a religious person, he's always soft, he's always queer looking, he's always effeminate, and whenever you see a preacher on TV, it's like that preacher on Little House on the Prairie, that wimp, what was it, Reverend whatever his name is. What's his name? Reverend Alden, you know, and he's this watered down, soft, liberal preacher and then they do a Jesus movie and Jesus is all soft and long haired hippie and whatever and they always portray godly people, clean living people, family people as being weak, effeminate, queer, and sissy and then they show the sinful people, the brawlers, the drunks, the fornicators, the adulterers as being tough and manly and strong. And when you see those images your whole life, it's subtly brainwashing you whether you know it or not, just to think that way and to get this false view of what manliness really is. Let me give you some attributes of true manliness from the Bible. Let me start with the most obvious attribute of manliness and that is the attribute of strength. Strength is the attribute of a manly man, being strong. And the Bible tells us in 1 Peter 3 verse 7, it says, Likewise ye husbands, this is talking about husbands and wives, it says, Likewise ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as unto the what? The weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life that your prayers be not hindered. You see, according to the Bible, men are stronger than women. And you know, that's not really that hard to believe, is it? You know, and again, I'll issue the challenge right now that I've issued many times. Any woman who disagrees with me right now is welcome to come up and arm wrestle me right now, and I will win. Not because I'm the strongest man in the world, but because I'm a man and you're a woman, I will win. Okay? And I've had many, I think I've had about four or five take me up on it over the years, and I've always won. Okay? Needless to say. Very quickly. But anyway, men are stronger than women. And when you're weak as a man, that's not a manly attribute. You're starting to get closer to the woman end of the spectrum when you're very weak. And so strength is a manly attribute. Now this can have two different aspects to it. This can be a physical strength, and then there's also a mental strength, an emotional strength or a spiritual strength. You say, well which one are we talking about? I say let's talk about all of them. Let's just as a man be strong all the way across the board. Let's not be an emotional basket case, an emotional roller coaster. Let's not be weak physically. Let's not be weak spiritually. Let's just have strength be an attribute that permeates us, body, soul, and spirit. We're just a strong individual. That's what it means to be manly according to the Bible. That's why when the Bible said in 1 Samuel 4 to quit yourselves like men, he said be strong and quit yourselves like men. Those two things are associated together. The Bible says in Proverbs 24-5, a wise man is strong, yea a man of knowledge increaseth strength. The Bible says be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. You see as men it's very important for us to be strong, not to be a weakling. Now you know obviously which one's more important? You know spiritual, mental strength, or physical strength? Obviously the spiritual is always more important. You know the Bible says for bodily exercise profiteth little. He said exercise thyself rather unto godliness, meaning that godliness is more important than physical exercise. You know if I have to choose between am I going to read my Bible and pray today, or am I going to work out today? Obviously it's more important to keep the spirit and the soul right, but at the same time we as men should not be just a complete and utter physical weakling. Now throughout the Bible we see men who showed the attribute of having great physical strength. The great men of God throughout the Bible were men of physical strength. I mean we could go through the Bible right now, we could look at all the great men of God from Genesis to Revelation and they all or most of them at some time are pictured as using physical strength. You know why that is? Because they were hard workers and the way that you get strong is by working. Now when you sit around and you're lazy and you do nothing, that's how you get weak. Now today I understand a lot of people have jobs that are more of a mental job and a more sedentary job, but it is still important to maintain some level of physical strength as a man in my opinion. I think that it's important. Now I'll get more to the hard working aspect of being a man in a moment, but first of all we see the obvious attribute of strength, being strong, not being weak. Weaker vessel, that's a womanly attribute. The next thing is courage. Go to Joshua chapter number 1, Joshua chapter 1. And while you're turning there I'll read for you from 2 Samuel 10, 12 again where it says, Be of good courage and let us play the men for our people. Another manly attribute is having courage, not being afraid, not being cowardly. Now the Bible says in Joshua 1.7, only be thou strong and very courageous that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded thee. Turn not from it to the right hand or to the left that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. So according to Joshua 1.7, it takes courage to live for God and to obey the Bible and to serve God. You know why it takes courage? Because the Bible says ye and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. The weak man is afraid of persecution. The weakling is afraid of being attacked. He's afraid of being criticized or mocked. The manly man is sure enough of himself. He has confidence enough in the Lord. He's trusting in the Lord and the power of his might that he's willing to take a stand for God and he's willing to be persecuted and attacked for it and he's strong enough to handle it. The weakling just goes with the crowd. The weakling won't swim upstream. He's too weak to do it. So he just goes with the flow. He just goes with the crowd and there's nothing manly about just going along with what everybody else is doing. No, manliness is a strong man that's courageous enough to be a leader and to be different and let me tell you something. When you're living a righteous and godly life, you're different than the people around you. I mean you say oh I want to be different and then you go out and just live a sinful life. That's what everybody's doing. A man has the courage to do what's right. The Bible says it's going to take courage to do according to God's laws. It's going to take courage to lead and to stand up and say you know I don't care what anybody else is doing as for me and my house we will serve the Lord. That takes great courage and remember some of the false views of manliness they kind of have a little basis in truth. You know the world thinks you're manly if you take all these risks. You know you do all this dangerous stuff. You know and again it's just meaningless risk. It's just mindless risk of just hey let's go out and pick a fight with a complete stranger and I might get my rear end kicked but you know this is showing how much courage I have and how much boldness I have. But it's just stupidity. It's just vanity. It's just meaningless. But you know real manliness says you know I have the courage to do something that actually needs to be done and I have the strength to defend myself and to fight if necessary for a righteous cause not just for zero cause for no reason. But courage is a part of manliness. Number one is strength. Number two courage. What's the opposite of courage? Fear right? Cowardliness. You know when you see someone who lives their life in fear and weakness and so forth you know that's not manly. That's not something that we want to emulate as men. But not only that go to Genesis chapter 3. So we see that men are number one strong when they're acting like men. Number two they have courage. They have boldness. And you know part of that is that they're not always worried about what everybody thinks all the time. They are bold enough to be themselves to stand on their own two feet and not have to worry so much about oh man I wonder if people are going to like the sermon that I'm preaching right now. You know I wonder if people are going to like me. You know manliness says I don't care what you think. You know and again this can often be confused with pride and arrogance. But we're not talking about pride and arrogance. Pride and arrogance is when you think more highly of yourself than you ought to think. It's when you think that you're better than the people around you then you tend to become a bully. But rather confidence is good. Pride and arrogance are bad. The Bible talks about confidence as being a good thing. Confidence is when you say you know what I'm on the Lord's side. I know I'm doing what's right. I know I'm living my life according to God's word. Let the chips fall where they may. I don't care what anybody thinks. I'm going to do what this is what God said I'm going to do it. That's different than exalting yourself and thinking that that you're all that and so forth. But look down at Genesis 3. Here's another attribute of a man. The Bible says in Genesis 3.19, in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground for out of it was thou taken for dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return. Here Adam is being told by God that he's going to spend his life working by the sweat of his face. The Bible says over and over again in the Old Testament, six days shalt thou labor. Labor's talking about working hard. He says in 1 Timothy 5.8, but if any provide not for his own and especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel. Let me tell you a manly attribute is being a hard worker and a provider for your family. Being a hard worker, okay? Men were made to work. You know when God's lining out Adam and Eve there, he tells the man, you know, you're going to work by the sweat of your face all the days of your life. And then he says unto the woman, he says, you know, you're going to bring forth children all the days of your life. Okay? We see that primarily in the Bible, and this isn't popular today, this isn't what our world teaches us, but primarily in the Bible the woman's responsibilities are domestic responsibilities of childbearing and child rearing. And the Bible says that women should be keepers at home and, and, and guiding the house. You know, women have domestic responsibilities primarily and men primarily have a job to go out into the world, out into the fields, out into the harvest, out into whatever their vocation is, and to work and bring home the bacon. That is our job as men. And let me tell you something, manliness is, is partially the fact that you are a hard worker. And you know what? When I see a man who does not work hard, what's the opposite of being a hard worker? Lazy. You know, when you see a lazy man, that's not manly. You see a guy, and look man, you say, why are you even preaching this sermon? Because we live in a day where we've been brainwashed on what manliness is, number one. Number two, we live in a day where manly role models are hard to find for our young people. It's hard to find examples of people we can look at and say, hey, this is a manly person, this is somebody that you can look to as manly. And number three, God is commanding us to be manly, therefore if we know biblically what manliness is, this should be a checklist that we work our way down and say, you know what, I don't want to be like this sissified world that we live in. I don't want to be a weakling and a wimp and a wuss, I don't want God to look down from heaven and say, didn't you read that verse about playing the part of men? Quit yourselves like men. Didn't you read the verse about a feminist? You know, if we as God's people in 2013 are going to be pleasing to God, we as men need to use this as a checklist and say, you know what, I'm not going to fall into the trap that the devil has laid for men in 2013 to weaken them and to soften them. I'm going to follow God's advice for how to be manly as a man. You know, we could preach on women on another sermon being feminine, but that's not what the sermon is about. It's about men today being manly. And let me tell you something, these are things that if you lack these things, you need to work on these things. And when I look at somebody who's a lazy worker, that doesn't spell manliness. Because part of the identity that we have as men is as workers. We're created to work, okay, and to be strong and to work hard. So one of the things is you see the way that people walk. And you can usually get a feel for if they're a lazy person or a hardworking person just by the way that they walk. Now I remember my boss, before I was in business for myself, the boss that I worked for for years, whenever we would hire new people, and sometimes they didn't have a lot of experience, and they didn't always know what they were doing. You know, and you're training them and they have to learn and so forth. And I remember he would always give them this advice and he would always tell me to tell them. Because I was kind of the second in command at the company. So he would tell me to tell them, you know, that when they're on a job, one of his rules was that the way they need to walk, always, even if they don't know what they're doing, even if they're confused and they have questions and they need to make a phone call to ask what to do, to always act like they know what they're doing, number one. But he said, number two, he said they need to walk with authority. And he said look, if you're, and this is what he would always say, if you go to the bathroom, you know, he said walk to the bathroom with authority. He said walk to that port-a-potty like you're going somewhere. You know, you need to go out to the car and call the boss and figure out what you're even doing. Don't walk out there with a confused look and slow, and you know, you see people walking like this. The Jehovah's Witnesses. You know what I mean? I mean look, when you see Faithful Word, Faithful Word Baptists out soloing, we're going somewhere. We're walking with authority. You see the Jehovah's Witnesses and it's like. And you know what, you see men walk that way. And you know, I'll be driving around and I see men walk that way. It's like they're not going anywhere. They're just pulling up their pants that are sagging, you know, down to their knees. You know, not going anywhere, not busy, not hard working, but rather just lazy, just dragging through, you know. And look, I understand sometimes you're tired, right? But when you're always tired, there's a word for that, lazy. Because see, some people, you know, they're just, every day they're tired. Every day, oh I'm so tired. Every day. No, you're lazy. Now, if you're tired on one day, you're allowed that. But you're not allowed to be tired every day or you're just lazy. And so we need to watch out that we don't emulate these people who walk around like they're not going anywhere and they're slovenly and they're slow and they're just slogging along through the day. When you go to work, man, walk with authority. Do your job quickly. You say, well, you know, I don't want to work myself out of a job. You know what? Get the job done. Work as fast as you can and then find something else to do. And you know, sweep the floor, take out the trash, do some cleaning, whatever you say. Well, that's not my job. But you know what? Working hard all the time and staying busy all the time, you're going to get paid more. It's that simple. You slog and slouch and just, you know, slump your way through the day, you're not going to get paid. I mean, you're going to get, you're going to stay at the bottom. That's the way it is. So being a man, what is it? Number one, it's being strong, it's having strength all the way across the board. Spiritually, mentally, physically, emotionally. Number two, it's courage. It's having the guts to do what's right and confidence to not always be looking for everyone else's approval all the time. You have confidence in the Lord. You have confidence in what He has told you to do and what He has called you to do. You're not always looking for man's approval or worse yet, are you one that always has to get your wife's approval for anything you say or do? That is not manly. I mean, when you cannot make any decision, and look, I understand running things by your wife, I understand asking your wife, maybe she knows about something, but you know, when you just every single time have to ask your wife's permission before you do or say anything, that isn't right. Who's the boss in that home? You know, and it's manly when you have leadership and when you don't just always need everyone else's approval, you actually have confidence in your own decision making based upon the Word of God and based upon how God has led you. Another aspect of manliness besides strength, and you know, you say, man, some of these are hitting kind of close home for me, but if they are, if any of these hit close home for you, just thank God that you're going to a church where your needs are being met. Because if any of these hit kind of close home for you, you should be thankful, man, I'm so glad I came to this sermon so that I could learn something that I can work on. Something that I can work on to be a better man, to be more manly, to act the part of a man. This is great because I'm learning something new. I mean if you went to a church that just pats you on the back all day for stuff you're already doing, you're not growing, you're not learning anything, you're not getting anything out of it. Why did you even show up? You show up to be challenged. And if something hits close to home, good, fix it. That's why you're even in church. But number four, not only strength, not only courage, not only being a hard worker, but also leadership. Being a leader is a manly attribute. And really if you want to find these attributes, one of the things you could look at is the differences between men and women. You know, men are made the leader in the home. The Bible says the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. The Bible talks about the husband being a leader. Leadership is manly. But then not only that, fifthly, manly appearance. You say well the outside doesn't matter. The appearance doesn't matter. Well you know what? The Bible says in Matthew 23, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. And so God does care about our appearance. Now what's more important, the inside or the outside? The inside. But does that mean that the outside has zero importance? I mean what's more important, spiritual strength or physical strength? Spiritual. But does that mean physical strength means nothing? No. And so we need to make sure that we have balance in our lives. Yes we have priorities. Yes we believe that the inside is the most important. But let me tell you something. Your outside does matter and the proof of that is that God gives us commandments about the outside. Go to 1 Corinthians 11 for example. And the Bible tells us that we as men should have a manly outward appearance. While you're turning to 1 Corinthians 11, I'll read for you from Deuteronomy 22.5. The Bible reads, the woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment, for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God. Look, God's saying it's abomination for you as a man to put on a woman's garment, and then you're going to tell me the outward appearance doesn't matter? He says look, you better dress like a man. Look like a man with the way that you dress. And then not only that, but in 1 Corinthians 11 another aspect of our appearance is addressed when he says in 1 Corinthians 11 verse number, let me find my place here. Verse number 14, does not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him. But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given her for a covering. So right there we see that men are commanded by God, look, it's a shame even nature itself should teach you that if you have long hair as a man it's a shame, but for a woman it's a glory to have long hair, showing that there should be a difference in the appearance of men and the appearance of women. Men should have a manly appearance, and two specific areas that he brings up are the hair and the clothing. And you say well, but how short is the hair, and you know, what exactly is a woman's garment? Well, I'll say this, I understand that there are many haircuts that are different than mine or longer than mine that are still considered short hair, no question about that. But I will say this, I don't think we should just strive to see how close to a woman's garment we can put on and still technically be wearing men's clothing. I'm not trying to see how close I can get to that line, you know, in 2013 with all the weird gender-bending garbage that's out there, we ought to get farther away from that line than ever, you know. And again, I'm looking around the room, I don't see a single man in the room that has long hair, you know, point them out if they're, no I'm just kidding, but anyway, I don't see a single man in the room that I would consider as having long hair, in my opinion. Everybody in here has, but let me tell you, if there were I'd still be preaching the same sermon and I've done it many times, you know, I never add it, this is my rule, I never add to or take away from the sermon. So if somebody walks in that fits the bill of what I'm preaching, I won't take it out of the sermon. But if somebody walks in, I won't add it in either, you know, just to burn them. Now I'm not, you know, because obviously I don't ever want to set out to offend people, okay, but sometimes the truth defends. I never add it, I never take it away. You know, I look around, I see a variety of haircuts, but everybody's got short hair. But look, we shouldn't just strive to just get it as long and shaggy as we can to where we're saying, well, is this really long hair? I mean, are you, you know, who are you to say, I mean, it's kind of short in a way. You know, let's just not get right up to the line with it. And by the way, ladies, you shouldn't be getting right up to the line with it either. Make sure you got plenty of hair on your head, okay? Keep it long. The Bible teaches that our appearance does matter. But I will say this about a man's appearance. Part of manliness is that you're not constantly wrapped up in your appearance. Now look, it ain't that complicated to have short hair and a pair of pants on. That ain't complicated, okay? So I'm not saying, man, you need to really worry about your appearance and stare at yourself in the mirror all day. That's not a manly attribute. Because that part of confidence is that you're not just sitting there, you know, when you see a man who's constantly primping and preening himself and looking in the mirror and fixing and, you know, get over yourself, man. Be a man, you're not, you know, are you dressed, are you wearing pants, is your hair short? Let's go. You know, you're done. Done. You don't need all this primping and preening of yourself as a man. And when men are overly concerned about their appearance, that is not a manly attribute either. Confidence, strength, courage, being a hard worker, exhibiting leadership, okay? Being a manly appearance in your hair and clothing. Not being one who obsesses over your appearance and is sitting there filing your nails and worry about, you know, exactly how good you look. One who's in their proper role as a husband. You know, not the henpecked, you know, I gotta go ask the boss, I gotta go ask the old ball and chain type of relationship with your wife. But one where you're actually taking the lead, where you're actually being in charge, where you are the boss, having a proper role. You know, there's nothing manly about reversing roles with your wife. And again, this makes people mad and it offends people. I'm not trying to offend you, but you know what, when you reverse roles with your wife and you're going to stay home and breastfeed the baby and be a house husband, and your wife's going to go to work while you stay home and take care of the kids, well why not? What's the difference? Why not? Because God said no, that's why not. Because God said women are supposed to guide the house to be keepers at home. He said the men should go out and work all the days of their life. But I don't understand what the difference, it doesn't matter whether you understand it or not. That's what God teaches. That's what the Bible teaches. That's what people have done for thousands of years. But yeah, we have the house husband. The house husband. I mean, how can you look at yourself in the mirror in the morning? But anyway, again, I'm not trying to hurt your feelings, I'm trying to scare you straight here. Trying to slap some sense into you this morning. You say well she can make more money than eat rice and beans and be a man. Pull up your pants, tighten your belt, put on your work boots, go to work and be a man and eat rice and beans and thank God for it and quit saying oh my wife can make more money. You know what, I would, and here, let me just give you some advice man. The one who's paying the bills is the boss. You start, your wife starts paying the bills, she's going to become the boss. She's going to start thinking she's the boss. Whoever pays the bill is the one who makes the rules. That's how the world works. And so you want to make the rules, you better pay the bill. I mean that's the way it works. When you're paying, you have authority. When you're relinquishing the responsibility of paying the bills, you're relinquishing authority with that. So we've gotten into what it means to be a man. These are all biblical attributes of being a man, not worldly. But let's talk about the opposite. Let's talk about sissy attributes. So these are the things we should strive for. Let's work on getting stronger. Let's work on being bolder, having more courage and calm. Not pride and arrogance. You know, be careful not to get into pride and arrogance, confidence, boldness, work on being a hard worker, working by the sweat of your face. And you know what, if you have a job that's not a physical job, you could still be a hard worker. You still do a good job. You could still give it everything you got and that's manly. Even if you're not digging a ditch, I mean, it might be in front of a computer, but are you working hard? Are you giving it everything you got? Are you bringing home the paycheck? That's manly. Leadership. Be a leader, not just one who just swims with the crowd, floats down the stream. You know, swim upstream. Be a leader. Do what's right. Serve God. Manly appearance. You know, shop at a manly store, put on manly clothes, have confidence, be in your proper role. The attributes we should stay away from. So those are things we should strive for and work on. What about the things that we should stay away from? Well obviously some of them are just opposites, but you know, weakness and softness. Being soft. You know, being just this softy. You know, you say what does that mean? Well you figure out what that means, but you know, whatever it is, don't do it. But don't be soft, don't be weak, don't be in girly clothing. And let me just get specific about the clothing. Skinny jeans. Okay. Go if you would to, you say, well preach the Bible. Okay, go to Song of Solomon 5 verse 15. Now Song of Solomon is a great book and you know, there's only so much you can pack into one sermon, but really the book of Song of Solomon is a great book on manliness. It's a great book on manliness and it's a great book on femininity. And you know, we could go through and read the whole book of Song of Solomon and see a lot of manly attributes about Solomon and a lot of feminine attributes about his wife. And it's really a great book. Here's one of the things that we see about King Solomon or him being the iconic man here. It says in Song of Solomon chapter 5 verse 15, his legs are as pillars of marble set upon sockets of fine gold as countenances as Lebanon, excellent as the sea is. Now does that say his legs are as pillars of, you know, spaghetti? Does that say his legs are, you know, as pillars of, you know, grass, wisps of straw? Now look, I understand that different people have different body types. There are people that are taller than me, there are people that are shorter than me. There are people that are bigger than me, there are people that are smaller than me. There are those who are skinny than me, then there are those who are thicker than me. I understand God made us all different. I understand that not everybody has the same body type. I understand that we're all fearfully and wonderfully made and the way that God made us is the way that He wants us, but when you're going around and glorifying, listen to me, when you're glorifying as our culture does, just how little you can eat, how you can just eat as little as possible and do as little physical work as possible to just allow your legs to become as skeletal as possible. You know, because the Bible talks about, I mean, look, the strength of the legs of a man. I mean, just allowing yourself to just get as weak as you can and as skinny as you can to just have the most skeletal leg so that you can put on the tightest fabric you can to look like, you know, a bird walking around with your little bird legs. And look, this is the skinny jeans movement in a nutshell and it's not, there's nothing manly about it. And you say, well Pastor Anderson, are you getting on me because I'm skinny? No, look, I grew up being very skinny. I grew up, you know, I'm still relatively thin, but you know, you're not going to see me finding the skinniest part of my body that I can and then let's seek to accentuate that and just glorify how little muscle I have on my leg. You know, and here's how you get muscle on your legs, working, doing something, you know, but these guys that have this skinny jean movement, it's effeminate, it's weak, and you know what? I'm against it. My children will never wear these tight-fitting pants on their bird legs. I hope that they don't even have bird legs in the first place, but if they do have bird legs, I hope that they'll be at least decent enough to, you know, get the next size up or whatever, you know, and not just advertise, hey everybody, look at my skinny, weak, sissy bird legs. I mean, it's ridiculous, but just the idea that our society says, that looks cool on a man, just shows you how effeminate our society is becoming, that glorifies weakness. Now look, I understand, not everybody is as strong as the next. There are many men I'm sure that are stronger than me, there are many men that are weaker than me, that's fine, everybody's where they're at, but you know what? Glorifying weakness is not manly. God glorifies strength. And so when you're walking around and just in bird leg skinny jeans, it's not of God, it's not manly, and I've got Song of Solomon 515 to prove it. But anyway, another one, laziness, we talked about that. You know, the slumping walk. What about feminine mannerisms? You know, we as men need to not pick up feminine mannerisms, and you know, what am I talking about? The limp wrist. One time I heard a preacher one time, and this guy was the most effeminate preacher I've ever heard preach, I'll just name him because he's such a phony, Rocco De Peace, you know, when I was in Bible college, this guy was so effeminate, this guy was just such a sissy, and he literally, one time I was watching him as he preached, he literally watched, he literally walked from one side of the platform, and this was a huge platform, I don't know, it was probably 100 feet long, he literally walked from one end of the platform to the other. He was watching his hand, is that wrist ever going to strengthen? And he literally walked, as he's preaching, he walked from one end of the platform to the other with his wrist like this all the time, giggling. Okay, look, that is not manliness, that is not a manly attribute, and we as men need to decide, we're not going to follow the world on this one, because we look around and we see a lot of effeminate men, and when you start hanging around with the effeminate men, you could pick up their mannerisms without even wanting to or being aware of it. And we see the men, and you know, men with a limp wrist, I mean that is so effeminate it's not even funny. So you know, as men, don't have these feminine attributes of, you know, the limp wrist. You know, you're flopping around, you know, get some control of your joints and ligaments, would you? Have some strength, I mean are you so weak you can't even keep your hand extended? You know, and look, if you're like the guy in the synagogue that had a withered hand, I understand, but when you're an able-bodied man, and your limp is, your wrist is limp like this, that isn't manly. Quit the limp-wristed garbage, okay. Number two, we see another feminine mannerism, is obviously the giggling like a schoolgirl. You know, man up. But honestly, and I'm going to demonstrate this, I don't approve of sitting like this, I don't care what anybody says, okay, I don't approve of this for a man. I don't approve of it. I don't. If you're a man, sit like a man, you know. If you have to cross your leg, cross it like this at the ankle, men don't, I mean it's hard, you have to contort yourself. It's not even natural. But men who sit like this, I don't approve of it. And I'm only doing it for demonstration purposes. Because sitting like that is feminine. I remember the first time I saw a man sit like that. I was nine years old. And I was nine years old, and I saw a guy sitting like that, and you know, I'm elbowing my sister, that guy's sitting like a girl. You know, it was in church. I said, this guy's sitting like a girl. That guy's son is a homosexual today, true story. Now he wasn't. He was a normal guy. That guy's son is a homosexual, okay. I mean, you say, are you drawing a connection there? I'm just telling the story, okay. You make the connection, you figure it out. You make a decision. Maybe that means nothing. Maybe it was a coincidence. I'm just telling you, the first guy that I ever saw who sat like that, his son is a sodomite today. You know, you decide whether you think that means anything or not. But that is traditionally a way that women sit. Anybody agree with me on that? Put up your hand if you agree with me. That's traditionally, okay, well all in favor say aye, it's carried, okay. So we voted as a church, we voted that in as an inappropriate sitting position for men. And you know, we could go down the list but honestly, you know, you may agree, disagree with points in the sermon. You know, I hope that I showed you enough Bible to where you see where I'm coming from here. And let me tell you something. We as men, we can't rely on what the world's showing us because they're showing us a lot of mixed up, backward roles. Let's get in our Bible. Let's decide, you know what, we're going to be men. I'm not saying to be a drunk. I'm not saying to be a womanizer and a fornicator and an adulterer. I'm not saying be a brawler and go to pick a bar fight. I'm not saying, you know, to drive across the freeway, you know, backwards with no helmet on on a motorcycle at 120 miles an hour just to show your fearlessness. But I'm saying be fearless when it comes to standing up for what's right, standing up to sin, standing up for the Lord, following his commandments. Yes they're going to be persecuted. Yes they're going to endure afflictions. But yes you're going to have to maybe work harder on the job in order to earn the respect of people around you. But you know what, a man is strong enough, courageous enough, confident enough, bold enough, a hard enough worker to get it done. And we ought to look, talk, act, dress, and be men, body, soul, and spirit. Let's pray. Father we thank you so much for the godly examples you've given us. We didn't even have time to look at the lives of great manly men in the Bible. Men like Jacob, men like Elijah, men like Jeremiah, men like David, Jesus, John the Baptist. I mean the manliness throughout the Bible would fill up so many sermons that it couldn't even be preached in one Sunday. But Father please help us to at least take a few of these things and let them sink down into our ears. Help us to teach them to our children and help us to make sure that these things describe our lives as far as manliness. I'm sure that everybody could improve in a certain area here. That's why God tells us to quit ourselves like men. It's something that we need to take heed unto. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.