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, "Did 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, okay.
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, you know, I'm looking around the room, I don't see a single man in the room
that has long hair.
You know, point him out.
No, I'm just kidding.
Anyway, you know, 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, 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.
So 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 where, you know, when you see a man who's constantly primping and preening
himself and looking in the mirror and fixing it, 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.