 It's your skin, so glorify God with it. Is it wrong to have a tattoo? And if it is wrong to have a tattoo and I have one, well then what should I do about it? Should I remove it? If I'm thinking about getting one, if it's not a sin, is it okay to still get one? Well let's go ahead and look at that because obviously if you look around, there are a lot of people with tattoos. And so let's be honest, there are people who have gotten tattoos, especially younger folks who maybe they don't realize this yet, but in most cases you are going to regret either all of the tattoos or at least some of the tattoos. Some of them you didn't like the way they were looking, the way that you, the way that they grown over time. You don't like what they say, you move past that particular phase in your life. What have you? So we want to deal with this issue of tattoos. What does the Bible say about it? And then before I even get going, what do I think about tattoos? Now, I don't have any. I've never felt the need to get one. When I was younger, I thought about getting one, but at that time you didn't have a lot of people with tattoos. And so it was just never, it was kind of a cool thing to do if you got one. But even then the tattoos that you would get from a friend or someone, it went all that good anyway. But I never thought about getting one because I didn't feel like I had a need to get one. I didn't think that it would do anything extra for me. And then there are many people nowadays, especially as they're getting to their older years in their 50s, 60s, 70s, and they're looking back and thinking, I don't know what I was thinking. I think this is just me personally. This is not the Bible that's done anyone else. But I think personally that a tattoo represents a momentary lapse in judgment. It is a permanent expression of a temporary feeling. You may disagree, which is fine. I'm not saying that you are in sin or anything like that, but just to me, I personally think that all of you with a tattoo, I think you look better without it. That's just me. But rather than focus on my opinion, what does the Bible say? Well, the Bible doesn't say a whole lot about it, except there's one passage in Leviticus. Let's look at it and let's see if it governs us going forward. This is to the Jews. He says, you shall not make any cuts in your body for the dead or nor make any tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the Lord. Now, that's what the question is, one, what does this mean? Is this something for the dead or specific markings that you cannot have? Or does it mean just no tattoos, period? Well, that's kind of up in the air, but I think the greater point from this is that this is something that was given to the Jews just from Israel under the law. And so does that govern us going forward? Well, no, it doesn't. But then there's another passage that was brought up recently, I guess about a year or so ago. I never really addressed it from Joyce Meyer. And listen to what she said. We're going to talk about tattoos for a minute. Isaiah 49, 16. Behold, I have indelibly imprinted or tattooed a picture of you on the palm of each of my hands. You hear the people in the background cheering, clapping. Presumably these would be the people that have tattoos. And so they're probably sick and tired of someone telling them that you don't need one or it's a sin or demonic or anything like that. Just to get something that kind of tells them and makes them feel either not so bad or make them feel good about it, well, then they're going to cheer for that. But let's go to that passage and let's see, matter of fact, we already know because it's coming from who was coming from. That's not what the passage says or means. So in Isaiah 49, 16, the passage that she references, behold, I have inscribed you on the palm of my hands. Now hers is made a tattoo or what have you. I'm not sure what version she's reading out of, but it says your walls are continued before me. This word for inscribed, this word here, from the word cacoco cacoti, which is to inscribe, you can say to imprint. Does that mean that God literally has an actual imprinting or tattoo of us on his hands? No. And that's the problem that she makes. She gives the impression that God literally has a tattoo because we use words in English to try to convey what's said in another language so that we can kind of understand. And so no, that's not what's happened. This is really idiomatically. First of all, God didn't have hands like that. He didn't have physical hands in that regard. And there are no markings on it. The close thing that we can get to a marking that's just like God. If we want to do what he's done and resemble him, which I wouldn't if I were you, the close thing we can get to is Jesus. Jesus does have some marks on his hands. I would recommend you not get those same marks on his hands. And then also, do not look for passages to justify what you've done, whether what you've done is sin or what you've done is not sin. Don't look for passages to say, this is the right reason for me to do so. If, because what it comes across as is, you're not totally sure about what it is that you've done. I'll come to that in just a second. So, but I think that's a good rule of thumb, whether it's dealing with tattoos or anything else. Long story short, two weeks ago, I got tattooed on my shoulder. Nice little cross back there. And it says I belong to Jesus. And just for good measure, I put love on my foot and me to walk in love. Why you do something is just as important as that you did something. And so to put a tattoo on your shoulder or wherever it is that reminds you that you belong to God. Well, that's not what you need. That's not what's going to remind you. First of all, you can't see it. That's the other thing. Oftentimes we put tattoos on our body because you look at where they typically are, you don't even get to see them. You don't get to show them off for you to see. It's for others to see. And so if the tattoo or whatever it is, it's for others to see. Well, then that gives an indication as to the motives. Then also, she says she had one on her, on her ankle, on her foot to show that I'm walking with God. Well, no, that's not how you're walking with God. Obviously, your walk is going to show up in what you do, what you say, how you behave, not some tattoo. No one has ever. And let me just be clear about this. No one has ever in the history of mankind placed their faith in Christ because of a tattoo. I think that, I think it would be pretty safe to say so because that's not what God uses now. Could someone see something and they get triggered by it, reminded of, of the goodness of God, I guess that's possible. But that's not how the Lord works in terms of someone's heart. Again, would a person who had, would a person who placed their faith in Christ, would they do so without a tattoo? Well, sure. And that goes back to the motive. I think that's very important for us to look at the motives of what it is that we're doing. Paul says in 1st Corinthians 1031, which is one of my favorite passages, whether then you eat or drink whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God. Give no offense either to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many so that they may be safe. Notice a couple of things he says to do it, to glorify God, whether you eat or drink, but guess what that would also include everything, whatever you do, even tattoos. Do it in order to glorify God. Well, but of course I've got these scriptures on my arm or my hands, these pictures of Jesus on the cross and so forth. That's to glorify God. But is that really what he's speaking of? Now, notice what he says also in the passage is this, give no offense either to Jews or to Greek or to the church of God. So even if your attitude is, let's say you think that this is going to glorify God, which I can promise you guys, that's not what he's looking for. That's not how he would prefer you to glorify him. But even if you think that that's okay. Well, what he's stating here, though, in doing so, whatever you do, give no offense to someone else. And so whatever you might do, you've got to also think about the next person, the person that would see it. Is it possible that if someone were to see the tattoo that they would have a negative view of you or the Jesus that you're representing, you're an ambassador, is it possible that what you tattoo on your body would give them the right mess or the wrong messes? Those are things you have to consider. So I can promise you this, no one is going to judge you for not having a tattoo. And then secondly, some of your tattoos are right beside other tattoos that aren't so godly. Now, one of the issues that came up in the early church is the issue of eating certain things before people. And so Paul's response is this in Romans 14. Let's start in verse 21 says it is good not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything by which your brother stumbles. In other words, if it's going to cause your brother to stumble, then don't do it. The eating is not a problem. But if it's going to be a problem for your brother, just don't do it in front of him. Right. Verse 22, the faith which you have as your own conviction before God, happy as he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. And so if there's something that you do and you're not condemned by it, well, then amen, go ahead and do it. However, look at the next verse, but he who doubts is condemned if he eats because his eating is not from faith and whatever it is is not from faith is sin. So if you're eating something and you're not too sure about it, there's there's there's some some doubt, then don't do it. If you're not fully convicted, you're not fully sure of whatever it is you're doing, whether it's eating, whether it's drinking or whether it's getting a tattoo. If there's doubts about it, well, then just don't do it. You should be you should be at ease, comfort in your mind, in your spirit. Now, does that mean that you could never get one? Well, I guess if you ever overcome this this uneasy feeling, but again, I would submit to you that it'd be kind of difficult to say that what you're doing is for the glory of God, because remember, to glorify God is not to do it the way we want to. There are some people who would do a sin, commitment that we know is a sin and say they do it to honor God. No, you glorify God in the way that he wants you to, not going against what he not going against what he does want you to, and you don't glorify God, while at the same time trying to glorify yourself, make yourself look good at it. So my caution is, if you if you're considering to get one, my recommendation is not. But if you do, I can't point to a past that says that it is sin, but again, you've got to think about how someone else might see it. But now what if you've got tattoos and you're not too sure if you should keep them, you want to remove them? Well, then hey, hey man, go ahead and move them. Do I think that you have to go ahead and spend all this money to get get them removed? No, I'm not saying that either, because I think people are at a point now where they see that a person might have one and they're not going to most folks won't judge you, but there there might be some. But if you think that it's an issue and you think that removing them would help you to glorify God more so or not be a stumbling block for other people, well then, amen, praise God. Because what it would prove is that you're looking out for the interests of others. You're not going to be an offense or a stumbling block to someone else. Maybe someone maybe the person is less mature. They're still growing. Even still, they matter too. So, but again, the point is, whatever you do, do it all to glorify God. And if what you do, you feel glorifies God with an amen.