Now, the part of the chapter that I wanted to focus on there in Philippians chapter 2
is right toward the beginning there when the Bible says in verse number 3,
Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in the lowliness of mind, let each
esteem other better than themselves.
Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
And of course, this is an important passage on humility, about esteeming others better
than yourself and about treating people well.
And what I want to preach about tonight is the subject of being respectful to people
and which people biblically we should be respectful to and how we should treat people.
And I think that being disrespectful stems from a person who is very prideful.
People who are prideful are disrespectful to others.
People who are humble treat other people well and address them as they should be addressed.
First of all, go to Leviticus 19.
Let me show you one group that should be treated with respect and how we should respect
them.
Leviticus chapter 19, third book of the Bible, says in verse 32,
Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honor the face of the old man, and fear
thy God, I am the Lord.
Now the hoary head is talking about white hair.
And so the Bible says here to rise up before the hoary head.
That means when someone who is elderly enters the room or enters your presence, you should
stand up as a sign of respect.
Now if we were to go back in time in our nation, that was part of the culture that if a lady
walks in the room, you stand up, or an elderly person walks in, you stand up in order to
show them respect, just in order to be polite to them.
But today we live in a society where these type of manners are going by the wayside.
And people are not very respectful to each other, they don't treat each other with the
same courtesy and dignity that they once did.
Go to Ephesians chapter 6.
So first of all we see that we should be respectful to the elderly.
And a lot of times people today that are elderly are viewed as a burden upon society, they're
not really treated the way that they should, by their children, by their grandchildren.
Now ideally, people should have a lot of children, or at least as many as God blesses them with,
they should have children, and then their children should have children.
If people would have children, and their children would have children, then there would be plenty
of people to take care of the elderly.
I think of my grandma down in Tucson.
She has 30-some grandkids or something like that, so it would be pretty easy to find somebody
to take care of her, somebody to help her out.
We obviously love our grandma, and we wouldn't want to just think of her as a financial burden,
but we love her and would want to take care of her, and there are plenty of her descendants
that would do the same thing.
We should respect elderly people and treat them well.
They're weaker than we are as young people.
A lot of times elderly people, you see them, they can't really walk very well or they have
a lot of bad health problems, so we shouldn't just see them as a nuisance or a burden.
We should visit them, help them across the street, whatever, help them carry things and
treat them with dignity and respect as they get older.
Look at Ephesians chapter 6, the Bible reads in verse 1,
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
Honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may
be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the earth.
So another group that we should give honor and respect unto is our parents.
The Bible says that if we do it will be well with us and will live long on the earth.
Now today we see children being very disrespectful to their parents.
You see children mouthing off to their parents and not treating them with the respect that
is due unto them as parents.
I've started teaching my children to say yes sir and yes ma'am to my wife and to myself
because the way that we talk to people and the way that we address people will affect
the way that we view those people in our heart and children today need to talk to their parents
with respect, not to mouth off to them, interrupt them, cut them off, or here's one of the most
disrespectful things that I've seen.
When you give a command unto a child and they just don't answer you.
They just walk away.
They just don't say anything.
And the Bible actually deals with that in Proverbs when it talks about a servant will
not be corrected with words, you know I'm going to turn there because I don't want to
misquote it.
I believe it's Proverbs 29, somebody help me out if you know where I'm going with this.
I want to say it's in Proverbs 29, here we go verse 19.
It says a servant will not be corrected by words for though he understand he will not
answer.
And this ties in with child rearing because it says in verse 21 he that delicately bringeth
up his servant from a child shall have him become his son at the length, you back up
to verse 15 and it says the rod and reproof give wisdom but a child left to himself bringeth
his mother to shame.
So in this passage in Proverbs 29 verse 15 he talks about using the rod to discipline
your children and then he talks about a little bit later a disrespectful child or a disrespectful
servant will hear a command, they'll hear a directive and they won't answer.
It's a mild form of rebellion.
They're not going to mouth off because they're afraid of what's going to happen but they
just ignore you, just won't say anything, just kind of walk away.
When I give a command unto my children I expect them to acknowledge that and not to just ignore
me.
But it's a very disrespectful thing when we ignore people when they give us a command
when they tell us to do something we just walk away, don't say anything.
Now calling someone sir or saying yes sir, no sir is actually very biblical terminology
and I don't even have time to read it all but I looked up all the times that sir is
used in the Bible, I think it was used about 19 times.
All throughout the Bible I found it over and over again.
You know Genesis 4320 they said, oh sir unto Joseph we came indeed down at the first time
to buy food.
Matthew 13 27 the householder's servant said unto him, sir didst not thou sow good seed
in thy field.
Chapter 21 verse 30, children said unto their father, I go sir and yet they went not.
So we have children calling their father sir.
All throughout the Bible we see sir but even more often than that, in fact I counted over
a hundred times where people referred to someone as my Lord, which is even a little stronger
than sir, it's kind of a similar meaning, but even a little bit stronger over a hundred
times someone other than God in the Bible is referred to as my Lord.
Just a sign of respect, just showing them respect by addressing them as sir or my Lord.
Usually today in America we don't use the term my Lord, that would be pretty antiquated
to say that, but we do use the term sir and I think it's very polite and respectful to
use the term sir in addressing people.
Are you still in Ephesians 6 there?
Go back to Ephesians 6 if you're not there where it talked about children honoring their
parents.
It says in verse 4, and ye fathers provoke not your children to wrath but bring them
up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Verse 5, servants be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh with
fear and trembling and singleness of your heart as unto Christ not with eye service
as men pleasers but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart with
good will doing service as to the Lord and not to men knowing that whatsoever good thing
any man doeth the same shall he receive of the Lord whether he be bond or free and ye
masters do the same things unto them forbearing threatening knowing that your master also
is in heaven neither is there respect of persons with him.
In Ephesians 6 here we can see kind of a two-way respect even between the employer and the
employee or the master and the servant because the Bible is clear that the servant is to
be obedient unto his master with fear and trembling, to have a healthy respect and reverence
for the boss and to treat him as such, but then the Bible also talks about the master
treating the servant with respect, forbearing threatening.
So we as bosses should treat our employees respectfully and the employee should treat
the boss with respect.
If you're smart at your job you won't just walk up to the boss, just start calling him
by his first name, acting like he's your buddy.
I was talking to a friend of mine and they said that a guy at work was making fun of
the boss's shoes because the boss had some kind of different shoes and he was mocking
and making fun of the guy's shoes and this person was telling me that they felt like
this person was just on the verge of getting fired, just for joking about the guy's shoes.
There's a time to joke around, but joking around with the owner of the company, joking
around with the boss, you better have some fear and trembling and be respectful to the
boss, but it's like people just haven't been taught this today.
It's like this is just a foreign concept and it probably starts when they're a little kid
and their parents just allow them to talk to them however they want and mouth off to
them, their children can hit them and talk back to them and mouth off.
I remember I was at the neighbor's house when I was a kid and the neighbor kid told his
parent I hate you and I was thinking to myself if I ever said that to my parents they would
literally kill me.
I would never say that, I would never have the guts to say such a thing, but today kids
are growing up without discipline, they're not being spanked, they're not learning respect
of their parents, so then they transfer that into other areas of their life.
They get a job, they don't treat the boss with respect.
If they ever have employees, they're going to be disrespectful to their employees and
so forth.
And so we see that this is an important subject in the Bible.
Go to 1 Timothy 6, while you're turning to 1 Timothy 6, I'll read for you from Malachi
1 verse 6, the Bible reads, a son honoreth his father and a servant his master.
If then I be a father, where is mine honor?
And if I be a master, where is my fear?
Sayeth the Lord of hosts unto you, O priest, that despise my name.
And ye say wherein if we despise thy name.
Look at 1 Timothy 6, 1.
Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor,
that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed.
And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them because they are brethren,
but rather do them service because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the
benefit.
These things teach and exhort.
If any man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our
Lord Jesus Christ and the doctrine which is according to godliness, watch this, he is
proud, knowing nothing.
So where does disrespect come from?
Where does an employee who doesn't treat his employer with respect, a servant that does
not give honor unto his master, where is that coming from?
The Bible says he's proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strife of words,
thereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmising.
A lot of strife could be avoided if we would treat people with respect.
When we're disrespectful to people it can cause animosity and anger.
The Bible says a soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger.
Who else should we treat with respect?
You're in 1 Timothy 6, flip back over to 1 Timothy 5, just one page back.
1 Timothy 5 says this, rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father and the younger
men as brethren, the elder women as mothers, the younger as sisters with all purity.
So the Bible's teaching us here how we should treat people in the local church.
Treat an older woman in the church as you would treat your mother.
Isn't that what it says there in verse 2?
Treat the elder women as mothers, and then he says treat the younger women as sisters.
Treat them like you would treat your sister, but he says with all purity, because he wants
to make sure that you don't get too buddy-buddy with young women in the church.
Obviously we as men should be primarily friends with other men if we're married.
Now if you're a single guy, by all means, talk to single women for crying out loud,
but if you're a married man you don't need to have female friends.
I have one female friend, my wife, and that's the only female friend I need, and you're
just opening yourself up to temptation, you're opening yourself up to adultery and falling
into sin when you start building close friendships and being buddy-buddy with women that are
not your wife.
There's no reason for it.
Your friends should be men if you're men.
Now when I was single I had all kinds of female friends.
When I was a teenager, when I was young, I had female friends, but you know what, as
soon as I got married I ended all those relationships.
As soon as I became married those friendships were over.
They were done.
I had no need for them anymore.
And we need to realize, and people might not like that, and by the way it goes the other
way too.
If you're a woman you don't need male friends.
Well he just really listens.
When I go with Carl, when Bob and I go out for lunch, he's just a really good listener.
You're opening yourself up to temptation.
And if you're single, no problem.
Having male, female friends, of course.
But once you're married, you need to be careful with those kinds of relationships.
They're not going to help you at all.
Now that's why it says the younger, treat them as your sister but with all purity.
Always being careful not to cross the line, always being very pure in your conduct toward
one another.
Look at verse 1.
It says, Rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father.
Now the elder there is talking about the pastor.
The words elder, bishop, and pastor are used interchangeably in the Bible.
And when it's saying rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father, we understand
that nobody's perfect and that the pastor is going to be wrong about something from
time to time or make a mistake from time to time and there's nothing in the world wrong
with somebody coming to the pastor and telling him, you've made a mistake, you've done wrong.
Nothing in the world wrong with that at all.
In fact, if we were to have an atmosphere where no one can ever tell the pastor that
he's ever done anything wrong, that can become kind of a dangerous, almost like a cult-like,
when you have a guy that can just do no wrong.
Now again, we don't need to just correct people, I'm just going to prove that I don't worship
Pastor Anderson so I'm just going to find something to correct about him.
I'm going to find something wrong with him and tell him about it just to show him.
Obviously there's no point in just correcting people for the sake of correcting, but look,
if I do something wrong, if I say something wrong, then you should be able to come to
me and tell me that and tell me, look, you've done wrong.
Now if I've done you wrong personally, you should be able to come to me and say, hey,
you've done me wrong personally.
I'm offended.
Or if I've said something wrong in my sermon or if I've made a mistake and said something
unbiblical.
You know, I've said things in my sermons that weren't accurate, I've made a mistake, obviously
I'm a human being.
I remember one time somebody wrote me an email and they said, you know, you said this thing
in your sermon that was inaccurate.
Now I feel like I can just never listen to you preach again because, you know, how do
I know whether what you're saying is right?
But, you know, because you made a mistake one time, now you've lost all credibility
with me.
Well, if that's the standard, then you can't listen to anybody.
And the whole point of you bringing your Bible to church and reading your Bible every day
is to verify that what's being preached is right and not to just blindly believe what's
being preached.
So, we shouldn't correct the pastor just for the sake of correcting him, but if I say
something that's inaccurate, if I say something that's wrong, or if I do something wrong,
then there's nothing in the world wrong with correcting me, but you should never rebuke
me.
And you say, well what's the difference?
You know, what does it mean to rebuke someone?
Well, a rebuke is a stern admonishment.
It's a harsh admonishment.
You know, it's somebody coming to you and saying, hey, you're wrong!
That's a rebuke.
It's somebody saying, you know, you completely blew it.
You know, you are way off the deep end.
No, the difference between rebuking an elder and entreating him as a father, either way,
you're pointing out an error in the pastor.
If you entreat him, you're still coming to him and saying, look, let me show you something
here.
I don't think that you quite got that right.
Let me just show you something in the Bible to consider.
You know what the difference between the rebuke and the entreaty is?
It's just a different level of respect.
That's the only difference.
Either way, you're coming to the pastor with a concern, you're coming to him and you're
showing him something that he's an error on or that you think he's an error on, but the
difference is that you're being respectful and God says, rebuke not an elder.
Meaning, you know, it's a sin to just start mouthing off to the pastor.
But it's not a sin to point out where he's wrong.
But you do it as an entreaty, not as a rebuke.
And there's a difference there.
It's just a difference of being polite and respectful unto the pastor.
And then it says, the younger men as brethren.
Treat the men of the church as you would treat your brother.
Now obviously, the pastor should be respected.
That's why I encourage people to call me Brother Anderson or Pastor Anderson, not Steve.
Now it's not because I'm trying to put myself up on a high horse here, but there was a time
in our church where most people called me Steve and I noticed that people just started
being really disrespectful to me.
And I started to realize, wait a minute, this isn't working.
Because I'm not trying to be some kind of a dictator here, but at the same time, I can't
just have everybody just running the show here.
There has to be one person that's running the church.
Christ is the head of the church, but I as the pastor, I'm the under shepherd to make
sure that things go right.
This church is not a free for all.
Now a lot of people disagree with that, and a lot of people think that it should be a
free for all.
I mean there are people out there, and I call it the gainsaying of Corey.
That's what the Bible teaches that it is.
But there's an attitude out there that says that church should be an open mic and a total
free for all and there should be no authority and nobody should be in charge.
But that simply doesn't work.
First of all, the Bible does say that the elders that rule well should be kind of worthy
of double honor.
The Bible does say submit to them that have ruled over you, that have spoken unto you
the word of God.
Obviously, it's not my job to rule over your personal life, but I do rule over the house
of God.
Meaning that you can't just bring in whatever preacher and put him behind this pulpit.
I decide who goes behind this pulpit and who doesn't.
And I decide what kind of music we sing, and I decide what Bible we use, and it's the King
James Bible only.
But see, if we just had an open mic, if we just had an anything goes policy, then we'd
have all the Bible versions coming in, we'd have all kinds of music coming in, we'd have
all kinds of doctrine coming in.
I mean, do you see where that would be a problem?
Somebody's got to be there to be the guard, to be the watchdog, to be the bishop or overseer,
and to say, look, this is the program we're on, to be a leader, and to say this is the
preaching we're going to do, this is the soul winning we're going to do, this is the doctrine
that we believe, and so I'm not for this pastorless church movement, this movement of not having
a pastor.
I don't believe in it.
And pastors should be treated with respect, and not rebuked but entreated as a father.
Who else should we respect?
Go to 1 Peter chapter 3.
So far we've seen that we should respect the elderly, treat them with respect, call them
sir and ma'am, and help them carry their groceries up the stairs, help them across the street.
Treat them well, don't act like they're a burden or a pain in the neck because they
can't do things for themselves.
Be ready to help them and to support the weak and to love them.
But not only should we respect the elderly, of course children should respect their parents,
and speak to them with respect, not mouth-op to them, interrupting them mid-sentence is
disrespectful, not answering them when they give you a command is disrespectful, you know
call them sir, call them ma'am, and whatever you do don't call them by their first name.
My children have never tried this, I don't think they ever will, but don't call your
parents by their first name.
And I teach my children not even to call adults in the church by their first name, to call
them brother so and so, sister so and so, mister, missus, whatever, but just to use
terms of respect.
Look at 1 Peter chapter 3, here's another group that should be respected, the Bible
says that wives should show respect under their husbands, it says in 1 Peter 3.5, for
after this manner in the old time, the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves,
being in subjection under their own husbands, even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him
Lord, whose daughters ye are as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement.
Again, this goes back to the concept that we've seen that the way that you address people
and what you call them does change how you feel about that person in your heart.
And when you call people sir and ma'am, you'll be more respectful to them.
When you call the pastor, Pastor Anderson, you'll deal with him differently than if you
call him Steve.
If you call your husband Lord, obviously that's going to show how you view him, especially
given the fact that Sarah actually called him Lord in her heart, because you don't have
to turn there, but back in Genesis 1812 it says, therefore Sarah laughed within herself
saying, after I am waxed old, shall I have pleasure, my Lord being old also.
That's something that she said in her mind.
In her mind she thought of him that way, that's what she called him, and what we call people
does have to do with how we treat them.
Now look at verse 7, and we see respect that should be had by husbands for their wives.
You see, even though the boss at work is definitely the boss, the Bible taught that the servants
or the employees were supposed to be respectful to him, but then the Bible also taught that
he was supposed to be respectful to the employees.
Now obviously it's a different kind of respect because there is a chain of command, but respect
does go both ways.
Now if you're an employee and your boss does not treat you with respect, you should still
be respectful to him anyway.
It's not like, well, if they're not going to treat me with respect, then I'm not going
to treat them with respect.
That's not biblical, because the Bible says that servants should be obedient to their
masters not only to the good, but also to the froward, the Bible says.
Even bad bosses, we should treat with respect and be obedient to them.
So respect is a two-way street, but we should never use another person's lack of respect
as an excuse for us to be disrespectful.
Now in verse 7 we see the other side of the coin in marriage that the husband should treat
his wife with respect, because it says, likewise ye husbands dwell with them according to knowledge,
giving honor unto the wife.
Now I keep using the word respect, right?
But that's because I'm speaking in 2014 American English vernacular.
The biblical word that keeps coming up is what?
Honor.
You know, it's talking about honoring people that are elderly, honoring those that are
our parents, honoring the boss, honoring the pastor.
Modern day though, I'm just using the word in our vernacular which would be respect.
Treating them with respect.
We could just as well say give them honor.
But the Bible says giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel and as being heirs
together of the grace of life that your prayers be not hindered.
So just because the husband is in authority, does that mean that the husband should treat
his wife poorly or be disrespectful to her?
No, he should treat her with kindness and dignity and respect and give honor unto her
as unto the weaker vessel.
Now feminism will teach that having a biblical view of marriage and the roles in marriage
will somehow degrade women, but nothing could be further from the truth.
The Bible teaches that we should give honor unto women.
The Bible teaches of the virtuous woman, the virtuous wife, because it's talking about
finding a wife in that passage.
The virtuous wife, the Bible says, her children arise up and call her blessed.
Her husband also and he praises her.
So biblically speaking, the husband should praise his wife when she does well.
She should be praised by him.
She should be treated with honor.
She should have dignity and respect, not be treated poorly.
So we don't want to confuse what the Bible is saying that because husbands are in charge
that means that they have the right to treat their wife with disrespect and to not give
her her dignity.
That's not what the Bible teaches anywhere.
Now again, this is a two-way street of respect, it's a different kind of respect because there's
a clear authority structure in the home, the husband is the head of the wife, but still
the husband should show respect unto his wife and give honor unto her as unto the weaker
vessel and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered.
What's that saying, being heirs together of the grace of life?
He's saying you're both children of God.
You both have that same value of being a soul for whom Christ died.
You will both have been purchased by the blood of Christ.
We should realize that men and women both, although they're not equal in the sense that
it's a 50-50 relationship or something like that, of course it isn't, but there is an
equal value in the sense that they're both children of God.
They're both just as important.
God loves them just as much as the other, men and women.
And so the Bible teaches that men should treat their wives with respect.
And by the way, we should treat women in general with respect.
And again, this is something that our society used to embrace and throughout history in
America women were treated with respect.
For example, you'd open the door for a lady.
Or if a lady has a big heavy box to carry, you'll carry it for her.
You'll step in and do that for her.
But today you see this has gone completely out the window in many cases.
Somebody didn't like the way that my wife was driving the other day and flipped her
off.
And a man flipping off a pregnant woman with seven kids.
It just shows how low our society has gone.
And then something was being delivered to our house this week.
And this guy shows up with the delivery of boxes in the back of the truck.
My wife comes out clearly pregnant and he just kind of looks at her like, so who's going
to unload this?
And he would not unload the boxes into the driveway.
Usually when you have something delivered to your house you assume that they're going
to take it off the truck and put it on the doorstep at least or sit in the driveway.
And he said, well it's not in my contract, I'm not going to unload it.
That's pretty lame man.
I mean good night.
Even if it wasn't your job, even if you're just walking by, you'd step in.
I mean look, we as God's people should esteem other better than ourselves.
We should be humble, we should be ready to help people, we should treat people with respect
and especially those who are weaker, those who are more fragile, ladies, the elderly,
children, treat them in a way that is appropriate.
For example, you see somebody who is elderly struggling with some load.
I mean wouldn't you just step in and help them out, help them carry, some old lady drops
something.
You're going to reach down, if you have any decency, you're going to reach down and pick
it up for her and put it in her hand.
Thank God I was only a couple minutes away so my wife called me and I came home and unloaded
the boxes off the truck for this guy, along with the help of my children.
But this guy didn't want to do it.
It's funny, you were just telling me this Paul, but he heard a conversation between
a few ladies and one of these ladies was one that wore skirts and dresses all the time
and the other one wore pants all the time.
The one who wore pants was complaining, men just don't open the door for you anymore.
When you're out in public, when you're at the grocery store, men just don't open the
door for you like they used to.
The woman who wore skirts and dresses all the time said, I don't know what you're talking
about because people open the door for me every day.
You told me that a couple days ago, so I asked my wife today, out of nowhere, I said, honey,
I said, how often do men open the door for you when you're out in public, when you're
at the grocery store?
She said 99% of the time, men open the door for her.
But yet this woman who wears pants all the time, nobody opens the door for me.
Here's why though, because when you're a lady that's wearing a skirt or a dress, you
know what that says?
Class.
And when you are respectable and honorable, people will treat you with more honor and
respect.
Now obviously there's always going to be, well that guy that flipped her off, she was
in the van so he couldn't tell whether she had pants or a skirt on, that explains that.
But anyway, there's always going to be that guy who won't unload the truck for the pregnant
lady, no matter what you're wearing.
But in general, we should try to be honorable and respectable, then we're going to get more
respect.
Now I'm starting to feel like I'm the only preacher who preaches this anymore against
women wearing pants.
Like I'm just the only one.
Like I'm some rare dinosaur that's going extinct.
I'm entering some new ice age or something.
But anyway, obviously I don't believe in any of that, it's only about 6,300 years old.
But anyway, I don't understand why I'm the only preacher who believes this anymore.
Because it seems like every pastor I know now, it's like his wife's in pants, his daughters
are in pants, and then there are these big Bible colleges where they have the rule that
they must dress a certain way, but they never preach it, they never teach it from the Bible,
it's like you never hear it anymore.
But I honestly, I'm still standing on it.
And I'm going to continue to stand on it.
My wife is not allowed to wear pants, okay?
And you know, oh you're going to lose people, okay?
Ask me if I care, okay?
Because you know what?
Our church keeps on growing, every year our church keeps growing, and people who are offended
by that, they can go find some little sissy britches preacher down the road whose big
Bertha of a wife in pants beats him up every night, but you know what?
This man right here wears the pants in this family, both figuratively and literally, and
I'm going to keep preaching what I believe and what the Bible teaches, and I don't care
whether it's popular or in season or out of season.
And if you're looking for a church that won't talk about it, there are plenty of them.
And the reason that I believe that, it's not just because I'm some old fat, I'm stuck in
my tradition and I'm a Pharisee and a legalist, no it's because the Bible commands that the
woman shall not wear that which pertaineth to a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's
garment for all that do so are an abomination unto the Lord thy God, okay?
So the Bible says that men need to wear men's clothing and that women need to wear women's
clothing.
That's what the Bible, God is not for, a unisex clothing.
In the future, on all these sci-fi movies, everybody's just going to be wearing a jumpsuit.
We're all just in the same space suit.
We're all in the same jumpsuit.
No, I believe that there should be different clothing between men and women.
I think there should be different hair.
The Bible says that men should have short hair and that ladies should have long hair.
It should be a difference.
It shouldn't be the same.
Now you say, well Pastor Anderson, I just don't agree with you that pants are men's
clothing.
Right, but you don't think anything's men's clothing.
And therefore you're not making any sense.
See I'm up here making sense right now because there's a verse in the Bible that says the
woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man.
That means there's some clothing that's men's clothing that women aren't supposed to wear.
And then it says neither shall a man put on a woman's garment.
Now here's what's so ridiculous about this.
If I were to ask you what does the Bible mean when it says for a man not to put on a woman's
garment, what's it telling him not to put on?
Someone would say it's a skirt or a dress.
And what I want to ask all the men that are okay with pants on women, are you okay with
men in skirts?
Are you okay with men in a dress?
Because if you're okay with men in a dress then it's time to find a new church.
But just think about it.
It doesn't make any sense.
They're not making any sense because it's like, well no, I mean a man in a dress, that's
queer, that's just, okay, why?
Because a dress or a skirt is women's clothing.
Okay so what's men's clothing?
And nobody knows.
Because if pants are not men's clothing then what is?
Socks, t-shirts, turtlenecks, sweaters, hats, I mean what is it?
In order for the Bible to be making any sense there has to be some article of clothing that's
a man's clothing and women aren't supposed to wear it.
What is it?
If it's not pants then tell me what it is and I'll give you a fair hearing.
Now the Bible, and people say, well, you know, Pastor Anderson, pants were invented in the
1700s.
Are you insane?
Somebody told me pants were invented in the 1700s.
People are like, oh man, they hadn't even invented pants in Jesus' day.
First of all, the Bible mentions pants five times.
Always on men.
First of all, number one.
It calls them britches.
Like have you ever heard of somebody being too big for their britches?
That's what it is, okay?
And it talks about men wearing britches and people say, oh yeah, everybody in Jesus' day
just wore a toga.
Everybody was just wearing a robe.
Yeah, you know, I've worn a robe before.
When I got out of the shower, for example, you put on one of those robes, right?
Who goes out of the house like that?
Just robe and nothing under it.
I mean, you know, try that in the park in the middle of the night and see if you don't
get arrested.
You know what I mean?
Just going out of the house and just a robe with nothing under it.
I mean, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard.
Yeah, a robe, you know what a robe is?
A robe is like a long coat.
You know, the Bible calls it like a mantle or a robe or, you know, your garment and it's
an outerwear, okay?
It's not something that you just wear by itself.
Under it, you have a pair of pants underneath it, okay, if you're a normal person.
You know, you might wear a coat, but I mean, who just goes out to Walmart at 2 a.m. with
just a coat?
Well, bad example, but, you know, you don't just put on a coat with nothing under it,
you know, and they'll say, oh, people didn't wear pants back then.
It's a lie.
You know, I read a book a long time ago, I read a history book about the Battle of Thermopylae,
which was a major battle between the Persian invaders and the Spartans, and it's a pretty
well-known battle, it's a pretty well-known event, and this book is a really long book
that went into great detail about all aspects of the battle, all aspects of what went into
it, and it went into great detail about the clothing on both sides, you know, and the
Spartans were a bunch of queer homos, by the way.
I don't understand why any Christian school would have their mascot be the Spartans.
Okay, the Spartans were just the filthiest sodomite, disgusting culture, you know, I
think there was a movie that glorifies them lately, or people think they're cool, but
they're not.
Okay, the Persians were actually a lot more civilized, by the way, than the Spartans,
but anyway, the Persians, in the historical account, and we're talking about hundreds
and hundreds of years before Christ, all the Persian men wore pants down to their ankles,
okay, and the Spartans made fun of them for wearing pants down to their ankles because
the Spartans are basically in their underwear, you know, they're in like a Speedo, and they're
battling against the Persians who are in pants down to their ankles, so don't tell me pants
hadn't been invented, look, nobody invented pants, okay, it's not like a guy like Thomas
Edison had to come along to figure out pants, I mean, it's a piece of fabric on each leg,
it's not rocket science, you know, like, I guess everybody just thinks everybody just
threw a sack over them and put a couple holes, the people who built the pyramids and the
aqueducts, they were just throwing, they were just putting three holes in a sack and putting
it over them because they hadn't figured out pants yet, and by the way, throughout history,
the working man has always worn pants, your job probably requires pants, I mean, I know,
when I had my first alarm job, they didn't even allow shorts, it was like you had to
wear pants, and you had to wear steel-toed boots, why, it was just a safety thing, because
anybody knows that when you're working and you're doing carpentry, you're doing plumbing,
you're doing electrical, you know, you need pants on, you're not going to do it in a skirt,
you're not going up the ladder in a skirt and climbing through attics in a skirt, it
doesn't make any sense, and when you look at these old pictures of people in togas and
just these weird tunics and robes and togas, they're not working people, it's like the
aristocrats that are running the government and everything, right, it's like these wealthy
people who sit around doing nothing all day, the working man has always worn pants, pants
have always existed, they were not, you know, invented, in the 1700s no less, okay, so I
don't even know where people get this stuff, but to sit there and say that, well in Christ
day, everybody was just wearing the same clothes, men and women dressed the same, then
why does the Bible say for men not to wear women's clothes and women not to wear men's
clothes?
You say, well, they just don't want them to wear men's pants, what's the difference between
men's pants and women's pants?
Well, the women's pants are more tighter and form-fitting, yeah, that's modest apparel.
There is no difference.
Pants are men's clothing, and it's funny because this is what people will say when you try
to preach that women should wear skirts and dresses because it's female clothing, you
know what they'll say to that, oh, but then they can't do anything, I mean, if they're
in skirts and dresses, you know, how are they going to do anything?
How are they going to play sports?
How are they going to do all this stuff?
And these are the same people that tell you, you can't do anything in a skirt, they'll
tell you, oh, everybody wore a skirt in Jesus' day, how'd they function?
They're telling you, well, how are you going to ride a horse in a skirt?
Oh, but Jesus' disciples were all in skirts.
Like how does this make any sense?
Is anybody listening, I mean, think about it, it's like, okay, so in Jesus' day, everybody's
wearing a dress, right, and they're riding horses, they're fighting wars, they're building
buildings, they're running, they're doing everything, but then today's women, it's like,
oh, but if you make her wear a skirt, she can't do anything.
See how these people just throw logic out the window, it's just they want to wear pants.
And by the way, it says something about what's in your heart when you're a woman who cuts
her hair short and puts on pants, it shows that you want to step outside your role there.
Or maybe society's telling you to step outside your feminine role.
In reality, biblical Christianity exalts women and embraces femininity and actually doesn't
tell women that they have to dress and act like men in order to have value.
Feminism says if you want to be a real woman, you're going to dress like a man, act like
a man, go to work like a man.
Christianity says, you know, celebrate womanhood.
Give honor unto the wife as the weaker vessel.
Don't just keep telling her, no, you're just as strong.
You go girl, you're as strong, you can do it, you know.
Pants, put on pants, cut your hair.
He says give honor unto her as under the weaker vessel, what does that mean?
It means that it's honorable to be feminine.
It's honorable to be the weaker vessel, you don't have to take steroids and become like
a man, you don't have to dress like a man.
It's honorable just to be who you are and to be who God created you to be as a woman.
So I thought that was interesting just how women, the way that they dress, they get treated
differently in public.
Because when you see a woman that's in a skirt or a dress, it's like just this instinct kicks
in, open the door, treat them with respect.
You know, a woman with pants doesn't always elicit that same reaction, you know, because
she's basically trying to, you know, I guess, you know, make it in a man's world or something.
It's like, well, open the door for yourself.
I open the door for women no matter what they're wearing, obviously, okay.
But that's just because that's something that I believe in.
Everywhere I go, you know, I always try to get there and open the door for them.
The other day a woman opened the door for me, I thought that was pretty weird.
But anyway, you know, I try to open the door for women, I try to open the door for elderly
people, it's just being respectful.
We should respect women, and we should give honor onto their feminine role and exalt,
and we should think it's cool to wear skirts and dresses as women.
That should be our culture, not a culture that says pants are cool, and oh, skirts and
dresses, that's, you know, that's archaic, or that's all that, no, it should be in style.
That should be our style.
And you know, skirts and dresses are always in style anyway.
And nobody's saying you have to dress like Little House on the Prairie and wear those
kind of weird nightgowns.
You can wear normal skirts and dresses and still be in style and still be feminine and
still look good.
You don't have to dress like the bag lady.
But while we're in First Peter chapter 3, let me just take a quick little commercial
break here, okay, on what the false versions have done to this passage, okay.
Because you know, a passage like this, First Peter chapter 3, this is a pretty politically
incorrect passage, wouldn't you say?
When it says in verse 6 that Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord.
Wouldn't you say that's probably a little bit politically incorrect today?
I mean if I told the average Christian even about a wife calling her husband Lord, oh,
that's abusive, that's horrible, wouldn't they?
So of course some of the modern versions have tampered with this, okay.
So listen to this, you look at your King James Bible there in First Peter 3.6, listen
to what the message says.
You know the message Bible?
Which is a pretty popular Bible, I mean it's not even a Bible, it's a paraphrase.
But here's what it says, Sarah for instance, taking care of Abraham, so notice instead
of obeying Abraham, it becomes she took care of Abraham.
Now is that different?
Big difference, taking care of him, obeying him, two different things.
It says Sarah for instance taking care of Abraham would address him as my dear husband.
Now that's a pretty big difference between calling him my dear husband and calling him
Lord, because what does Lord mean?
Boss or master, that's a big, big difference, okay.
But let me keep on going, you're following along in the King James Version, the message
says you'll be true daughters of Sarah if you do the same, unanxious and unintimidated.
Verse 7, the same goes for you husbands.
Be good husbands to your wives, honor them, delight in them.
As women they lack some of your advantages, but in the new life of God's grace your equals.
Treat your wives then as equals so your prayers don't run aground.
So again it's these little buzz words, these little modernistic buzz words, hey your equals,
she doesn't have your advantages, what are you disadvantaged?
Like women are handicapped or something, I mean that's what the message is saying,
like disadvantaged children or something.
What does disadvantaged mean?
I mean a disadvantaged child means they're poor or they're handicapped or something.
Like to them being a wife is like being handicapped or poor.
It's not a disadvantage, there's nothing wrong with being feminine, with being weaker, men
should be stronger and masculine, it's just the way things are, it's not a disadvantage.
Even the New Living Translation says this, she may be weaker than you are but she's your
equal partner.
By the way I hate that stupid word partner.
It's my wife, I'm her husband, we're not partners.
Partners sounds like a couple of queers, isn't it?
You know I hate it when I get something, you and your partner, I'm like what in the world?
I don't have a partner.
I have a wife but everything is getting all gender neutral, you're equal partner.
And then you go back to Genesis 18 and 12 and the message, because the message took
out the calling him Lord.
So I went back to where she actually calls him Lord to see what she says, instead of
calling him Lord she says within herself, an old woman like me get pregnant with this
old man of a husband?
So instead of calling him Lord, she calls him this old guy, this old geezer I'm married
to.
So you say oh well these new versions are just a little easier to understand.
And I know the message is kind of out there as a version, but the New Living Translation
is a pretty mainstream version, in fact it's the fourth most popular version.
And although the New Living Translation doesn't take out the part about her calling him Lord,
it makes husbands and wives equal partners.
And that's a mainstream version.
So this is something that we need to be aware of.
Go to 1 Corinthians 11 quickly and I'll move on to my final point.
First Corinthians chapter 11, just I'm finishing up here with marriage.
So so far we've seen what?
Being respectful to the elderly, being respectful to our parents, being respectful to the boss
at work, being respectful to the pastor.
Wives need to be respectful to their husbands, and husbands need to be respectful to their
wives.
First Corinthians 11 gives a little bit more teaching on this.
First Corinthians 11, 3, but I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ
and the head of the woman is the man and the head of Christ is God.
Every man praying or prophesying having his head covered dishonereth his head.
Now who is the head of the man?
According to verse 3, Christ.
So in verse 4, if the man prays or prophesies having his head covered, who is he dishonoring?
He's dishonoring Jesus Christ because he's dishonoring his head.
Verse 5 says this, but every woman that prayeth or prophesyeth with her head uncovered dishonereth
her head.
What is she dishonoring according to verse 3?
Her husband.
For that is even all one as if she were shaven.
For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn.
But if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.
And if you jump down to verse number 12, you know he explains, verse 13 actually, he explains
what the covering is.
He says, judging yourselves is it comely that a man or that a woman praying to God uncovered
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 you might think, oh Pastor Anderson was way out to lunch a few minutes ago when he's
talking about women getting treated better when they wear skirts and dresses and being
treated differently and acting differently, but here he uses hair.
Long hair on a man, shorter on a woman, and he says that a short haired woman dishonors
her husband.
So we can see that our appearance and the way we talk can have an impact on our respect
that we show or disrespect that we show for the people that we ought to respect, or honor
or dishonor to the people we ought to honor.
A wife is dishonoring her husband when she has short hair.
You know, a wife is honoring her husband when she calls him Lord, and so forth.
So we see here that it does have an impact, the way that we dress, the way that we look.
And people can huff and puff about it and say that I'm the Taliban and I'm a Muslim
and I'm old fashioned and I'm telling people to wear burqas and everything.
But at the end of the day, ladies, if you want to be classy, if you want your husband
to treat you better, if you want to have a better attitude yourself, if you want to be
feminine and godly, you'll wear a skirt and a dress.
And when you're putting on a man's garment, I mean think about it, let's say if I'm right
because you think I'm wrong, but let's say I'm right and that pants really are men's
clothing.
Let's say the bathroom door was right all along.
Let's say the universal sign of a man and a woman, actually there was something to that.
Then that means that when you wear pants you're an abomination.
And that means that when a man wears a skirt or a dress, he's an abomination.
That's what Deuteronomy 22.5 says.
That's pretty serious.
But not only that, it'll just help you to have a better relationship with your spouse
if everybody's in their proper role.
If you're in one of these gender neutral marriages, it's going to fail.
These queer looking gender neutral 50-50 marriages where the husband and wife dress the same,
act the same, live the same life.
You know what?
You're going to have to go out and commit adultery or something because you're going
to sit there and think to yourself, oh there's nothing for me at home.
And they go out and commit adultery because their marriage is so stupid.
And you know what the number one way not to commit adultery is?
Have a good marriage.
Number one way not to commit adultery.
And obviously there's no excuse for adultery.
Even if you have the worst marriage in the world, if you commit adultery the Bible says
you should be put to death.
But let me tell you something.
People today have these weird 50-50 marriages, that's why they keep getting divorced and
committing adultery, because you can't have an exciting relationship with your spouse
if you have this queer looking 50-50 relationship.
So it's not going to happen.
The more, look, women are attracted to men.
Men are attracted to women.
The more feminine the wife can be and the more masculine the man can be, the more successful
that marriage is going to be.
Just remember that.
And with all the things that are working against us in society today, with all the things that
are attacking our marriage, with all the cultural and societal pressures that are harming our
marriages, it couldn't hurt your marriage just for your wife to start looking like a
woman and for the husband to start looking like a man.
It can't hurt at all.
And the more manly you can be guys, the better.
Get off this metro kick and dress like a man, talk like a man, act like a man.
You know what, it would cut down on divorce, it would cut down on adultery if people would
stay in their proper roles, if men would be men and women would be women.
We ought to be respectful to women and allow them to be feminine.
We ought to be respectful to men.
Lastly, we need to be respectful to strangers.
So not only should we respect our parents, the elderly, we should respect the pastor,
we should respect our boss at work, wives should treat their husbands with respect.
How they dress, what they call their husband.
And you know what, you think that it's crazy for a wife to call her husband sir or to call
him lord, well you know what, then the Bible's crazy.
If you're not comfortable with that, well get comfortable with the Bible.
We need to as husbands though, be loving and gentle and caring and respectful to our wives
and not abuse our power as husbands.
But lastly this, we should be respectful unto strangers.
You know even just when we're in our daily lives and we meet new people, we should treat
them kindly and with respect and not be rude to people and disrespectful to people.
Now my biblical example of this, I already went over it last week but just quickly turn
those to last place we'll turn, Genesis chapter 18, there are so many examples of this, I
found over a hundred examples like this of just God's people and men of God just being
very respectful unto just strangers, unto just people that they meet, just treating
people with respect.
And we're living in a disrespectful society, we're living in a society where people are
just rude to one another and especially to people that are in authority over them and
it's not biblical, it's not Christian.
And by the way, when some TSA agent's trying to strip search you at the airport, you don't
have to be respectful to him.
And people will try to say, oh you wouldn't let them grope you at the airport?
You're being disrespectful to authority.
Okay newsflash, the TSA agents are not in authority over me.
And let me just explain this to you, in our country we don't live in a Nazi Germany style
dictatorship yet.
So therefore we actually live in a free country.
Which means that we are not total slaves, I mean who thinks that we are just total slaves
in America?
We're just complete slaves.
We have no freedom, we're slaves.
Anybody believe that?
Okay, who thinks that Barack Obama is the king of the United States of America?
Okay who thinks that we are living under a complete dictatorship, we are complete slaves,
we are vassals to the feudal state?
Anyone?
Okay, so I just don't want people to misunderstand this.
When somebody wants to grope you or put you through a naked body scanner or arrest you
for no reason, I don't believe that you have to be respectful to some scumbag jackboot.
You know what I mean?
That's not an authority figure.
It's funny, the Bible tells you to obey magistrates.
Here's a clue, the minimum wage TSA worker at the airport is not a magistrate.
And some cop that wants you to lick his boots, pulling you over for no reason, sorry, not
going to be respectful.
Now I'm not going to be respectful to homosexuals.
You know what I mean?
Some homosexual tries to talk to me in public, I'm just like, get away from me.
Some faggot is behind the counter at Trader Joe's, I can help you over here, no thanks,
I'll wait for a straight cashier.
Okay so you got to understand, but look, 99% of people, just hear me out here, 99%
of people out there are not homosexuals, are not government jackboots trying to steal our
freedom and turn us into the Soviet states of America.
So therefore we should be polite and respectful to 99% of people.
And people sometimes get the idea that I'm a disrespectful jerk because there are videos
of me being disrespectful to enemies of the US Constitution, domestic enemies, domestic
enemies of freedom that want to enslave me and my children, put me through a naked body
scanner, grope me, take away my freedom so that I won't be able to spank my children,
so I won't be able to preach the Bible, so I won't be able to go soul winning, so I won't
be able to live a quiet and peaceable life.
You know when these enemy thugs, I mean look, what if a gang member came up to me and put
a gun to my head and wanted to rob me?
You didn't treat him with enough respect.
And these guys are operating outside the law.
Now sometimes you should probably be respectful to them just because if you don't they'll
literally kill you.
You know, so sometimes even if some gang member came up to me and put a gun to my head I might
be respectful to them just to get out of there alive.
So I'm not telling you to just be disrespectful to these people and necessarily get yourself
killed or tasered or whatever, but I'm telling you that the reason that there are plenty
of videos on YouTube of me being disrespectful to these jackboot thugs is because that's
what they are, jackboot thugs.
Because they're evil people working for an evil government, evil, satanic, bankster driven,
you know, I don't have any respect for that.
But I don't want you to misunderstand that because 99% of people don't fall into that
category and that's why 99% of people we should be very respectful and kind to them and treat
them very well.
You know there are some times when you need to get in somebody's face.
There are times when you need to rebuke somebody.
There are times when you need to defend yourself, defend your liberty, defend your family, defend
your freedom.
That's a different scenario.
99% of the time, are you listening, 99% of the time you should be very polite and courteous
and respectful to people.
Even strangers, look at Genesis 18 too.
He lifted up his eyes and looked and lo three men, he doesn't know who these guys are, three
men stood by him and when he saw them, this is Abraham, he ran to meet them from the tent
door and bowed himself toward the ground and said my lord if now I have found favor in
thy sight, pass not away I pray thee from thy servant.
Now Abraham's a very wealthy, powerful man and yet he calls himself their servant and
he calls them my lords.
Why?
He's just being very respectful and courteous.
Genesis 19 too, flip over to this one page, 19 too it says and he said behold now my lords
turn in I pray you into your servant's house.
Notice he calls himself their servant.
He calls them my lords and tarry all night and wash your feet and you shall rise up early
and go on your ways and they said nay but we will abide in the street all night.
Go to Genesis 23, we're just looking at a few quick examples of this.
Genesis 23 says hear us my lord, thou art a mighty prince among us in the choice of
our sepulchres, bury thy dead, none of us shall withhold from thee his sepulcher but
that thou mayest bury thy dead.
Verse 11, nay my lord hear me, verse 15, my lord hearken unto me.
See how polite these people are being and how respectful they're calling each other
basically sir?
And then in Genesis 24 last place says in verse 17 the servant ran to meet her and said
let me I pray thee drink a little water of thy pitcher and she said drink my lord and
she hasted and let down her pitcher upon her hand and gave him drink.
Don't turn there but I'll read you one more verse in Matthew 5 46 it says this, for if
ye love them which love you, what reward have ye?
Do not even the publicans the same?
And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others?
Do not even the publicans sow.
So notice that phrase, if you salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others?
Do not even the publicans sow?
Be therefore perfect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
So doesn't the Bible teach that we should salute people other than our brethren?
So I think that what that's saying is that when we're out and about we should actually
say hi to people and acknowledge people and greet people.
And today people will walk right by you and they don't say hi to you, they don't wave
at you, they don't acknowledge you.
Now especially that shouldn't happen at church.
I mean when people come to church you need to say hi to everybody who comes to church
and salute them.
Salute means what?
Just greet them, say hi to them.
And you know when we're out and about saying hi to people, being friendly to people, calling
them sir and ma'am, being nice, being respectful.
These should be things that characterize us as God's people.
We should not be known as people that are rude, people that are unfriendly.
We should be very respectful, courteous, and treat people with lots of respect.
Are there some wicked people that we should not respect?
Are there certain situations where someone's trying to rob us or enslave us or steal from
us?
Sometimes you might want to just try not to get killed in that situation.
Seems like every day there's a story in the news about the cops just shooting someone
because they didn't smile big enough or something.
They weren't nice enough to them or whatever.
But we ought to be respectful to people that we meet in public.
We need to think about the way we talk to our parents.
Think about the way you talk to your wife.
Think about the way you talk to your husband.
Think about the way that you talk to your boss.
Think about the way that you talk to whoever it is in your life and even just the way we
deal with strangers.
Let's practice being friendly and saluting those with whom we come into contact and being
a good representation of Jesus Christ.
It starts with a heart of humility.
We think we're so important, we think we're so cool, and then we talk down to people.
We should rather get a humble attitude and treat people with respect and esteem others
better than ourselves.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, please just help us to put this message into practice, help us to be very respectful
of people that are in authority over us or even just strangers, even just people that
are maybe elderly or disabled or just help us to treat people with dignity and respect
because they are human beings made in your image and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.