Hebrews chapter 12 verse 28, the Bible reads,
"Wherefore we receiving a kingdom
which cannot be moved,
let us have grace whereby we may serve God
acceptably with reverence and godly fear."
Acceptably with reverence and godly fear.
Now, the Bible teaches that
we are going to receive a kingdom one day
known as the new heaven and the new earth
and having this understanding,
having this knowledge
that we're going to receive a kingdom
knowing that this world is going to be dissolved
and all the elements therein.
The Bible said that we should serve God right now
with reverence and godly fear
and serve God in a way that's acceptable.
Now, there's many ways that we can serve God
that's acceptable.
I want to dial it in to one point
and it's by the way we dress,
our dress code, our dress standard.
If you would, turn in your Bibles to Exodus chapter 28.
Exodus chapter 28.
So, the Bible said...
So, the way that we should serve God
in an acceptable way, like I said,
is by our dress code, our dress standard.
Now, the title of my sermon
is Dress Acceptably to Church.
Dress Acceptably to Church.
Now, this sermon is important because a lot of times
if you're not raised in the fundamental Baptist church,
you might not know how you should dress to church,
how you should appear to church.
You know, I remember when I first got saved
and I started going to church,
I would just wear a t-shirt,
flip-flops, some shorts,
and I've had, you know, older brethren tell me,
hey, man, why don't you get yourself a suit and tie,
go get you a nice shirt, a button-up.
And you know what, I'm glad that they told me that
because you have to understand that the work of God,
church is one of the most important factors in your life.
And you should take it very seriously,
it's not something that we should just play around with
and just go through the motions.
Now, I kind of feel hypocritical now
because I thought about the sermon yesterday
in that conversation at the table.
I'm like, man, I got a t-shirt on, but you know,
but we're going to fake it today, all right.
I got a dress shirt on,
just imagine I have a dress shirt on.
So, you know, dressing is, you know, who here, you know,
has a dress code when they go to work?
Raise your hand if you have a dress code when you go to work.
Yeah, most people will have a dress code when they go to work.
You know, if you ever go to a job interview,
you know, you should dress in a suit and tie
and dress very professional, very formal.
One of my first job interviews
I've ever went to when I was about 19 years old,
I literally went in some cargo pants,
a t-shirt without a haircut,
and thank God the boss, he was feeling good that day,
and he would say, hey, look, man, go get a haircut,
go get a change of clothes, come back tomorrow.
So, I went home, got a haircut, got a change of clothes,
and I never made that mistake again.
I always make sure that every job interview I go to,
I'm dressed to the tee, and you know what?
That's one of the most important things,
but how much more important it is going to church
than a job interview?
That's carnal and doesn't really matter.
Now, look what the Bible says in Exodus chapter 28 verse 3,
Exodus chapter 28 verse 3,
it says, "And thou shalt speak unto all that are wise-hearted,
whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom,
that they may make Aaron garments to consecrate him,
that he may minister unto me in the priest office."
So, the priesthood,
they were responsible for the services of God,
and God actually wanted them to have a garment
for them to serve the Lord in.
You know, He didn't just say, hey, just come as you are,
dress however you like, come do the services of God,
come do all the sacrifices with a t-shirt and a flip-flop.
No, He actually had them have an entire garment
that they had to serve God.
Why? Because it showed that they took the work of God seriously.
You know, how would a pastor look if you're going to church, like Pastor Polkadot, and he's just preaching a sermon in flip-flops.
You're not going to take this guy serious when it comes to your finances, when it comes to your marriage, when it comes to rearing up your children.
You're going to think this guy is taking this thing lightly, and we should not take the work of God lightly.
So we are a spiritual priesthood, so when we come to church, we should dress to the night.
We should put our best outfit on, our best clothing, our wife.
So we can show not only our family, our wife, our children that we take the work of God seriously,
but also when we have guests coming to the church, they see, wow, this church takes church seriously.
This is not a game to them. This is something that they mean business about.
If you would, turn to 1 Kings chapter 10, 1 Kings chapter 10.
You know, the Bible talks about how we're ambassadors of Christ.
You know, if you have the ambassador of the United States go to a country and flip-flops,
they're going to take this guy as a joke.
You know, he's going to go there dressed professionally.
He's going to fit the description.
You know what?
And we're ambassadors of Christ, and we need to do the same exact thing.
Go to church, wear some, you know, a nice outfit, a nice suit.
Now, one of the things that, like I said, is important because, you know,
when we have visitors or guests come to church, we want them to see that we take church seriously,
even though we're friendly and nice, we're trying to be, you know, good Christians.
But the Queen of Sheba, when she went to see Solomon and his kingdom,
and she wants to see everything that she's heard about Solomon,
one of the key elements that would make her in awe about the kingdom of Solomon
was actually how they dressed.
Look what it says right here in 1 Kings chapter 10 verse 4 and verse 5.
It says that when the Queen of Sheba has seen all Solomon's wisdom
and the house that he had built, and the meat of his table,
and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers,
and their apparel, and his cupbearers,
and his assent by which he went up into the house of the Lord,
there was no more spirit in her.
And we have visitors come check in our church,
come to our church, and they see our apparel.
Wow, these guys are dressed nice, these guys have Bibles in their hands,
these guys have nice haircuts.
Like, grooming is a very important thing.
Don't come to church with your hair all over the place,
have your hair all chopped up everywhere, looking crazy.
Look, I know how to cut hair, so if you need help,
come to me and I'll help you out, you know what I mean?
But, don't go to church with your hair chopped up, looking crazy.
Now, obviously, you know, in this verse here,
the Bible says that we're going to receive a kingdom
and we should serve God acceptably with reverence.
You know, it's very respectful when we come to church
dressed appropriately, but more important
than dressing physically is dressing spiritually.
Now, we don't want to sew a bunch of fake leaves upon ourselves.
We want to be clothed with the robe of righteousness.
We want to make sure that we have, you know,
the coats of skin covering our sins,
and that's how we can really, truly serve God acceptably,
is number one, getting saved, and then from that point on,
once you clean the inside of the cup,
then you can work on the outside.
But with that being said, make sure you guys come to church tomorrow,
dressed to the tee, looking nice, looking sharp, looking spliffy, alright?