The Over-Exposed Heart - A Man After God's Own Heart Series

So, they’ll wear blouses that allow them to expose their Belly buttons.

· Skirts/dresses that girls have to continually tug down so they don’t show too much

· String bikinis at the beach

· Slinky outfits at the dance

And the list could go on

I’m not so sure every girl who dresses this way deliberately go out of their way to make men sin. But I think many of them really believe that they are simply getting some guys’ attention.

Girls in our culture are being taught that it is normal to appeal to a man’s sexual desires

Everything from Britney Spears to Shania Twain, to “Desperate Housewives”, to Soap Operas, to MTV, to those magazine that leer at you from the checkout aisle…

They all preach the same doctrine:

You gotta be sexy to get the man you want

You gotta be immodest to attract their attention

But God says NO!

God says, if you love Me… you’ll not dress like that

1 Timothy 2:9 tells us that God wants “women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety.”

Peter wrote: “Your beauty should not come from outward adornment…. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.” 1 Peter 3:3-4

ILLUS: When I was in high school, there was one girl who wasn’t particularly attractive. She didn’t dress provocatively, she was a modest, pleasant girl to be around. And the boys liked being around her. Why do suppose that was? Because she had a pleasant “inner self”, a gentle and quiet spirit… and lots of the boys liked that.

As I was working on this part of the message, it occurred to me that most of our women don’t dress like that. Most of you are very modest and decent in how you present yourself. However, it occurred to me that some women might have a different kind of a problem. You might see some young lady dressed inappropriately and become upset.

You might be tempted to deal with such a girl/ woman in the old Southern Gospel mindset: “That hussie! Dressing like that! She’s going to go he-yell!”

Now, as you may notice, I made fun of that attitude. And I did that for a reason. You don’t want to go there. You don’t want to have that attitude.

James 4:11 warns us “Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it.”

By contrast, Galatians 6:1 tells us how we should deal with women who dress inappropriately “Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin (they’re dressed provocatively) you who are spiritual (you noticed the problem and that means you are spiritual enough to see it is wrong) should restore him/her (how???) gently.”

In other words, we are not called to pound (I emphasized this by repeatedly pounding my fist into the palm of my other hand) into the minds of others that they are doing terrible things in their lives… instead we are to “gently” reach out to them. Pointing out not only the dangers of that type of conduct, but also emphasizing that we are telling them this because we care for them. We care what happens to them, and how they might represent Christ.