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All right, welcome back everybody to Sure Foundation Baptist Church's Second Service. Where I derive the title of this message is actually found in verse 4. Look back in Deuteronomy chapter 9 verse 4, it says, Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the Lord thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the Lord hath brought me in to possess this land, but for the wickedness of these nations the Lord doth drive out them out before thee. The title of this message this afternoon is simply Body Modification. Now it's pretty self-explanatory what that is, it is modifying our bodies. Now God built us and created us, He formed and fashioned us in the mother's womb, right, as it says in Ecclesiastes 5. And when God built and fashioned us, He made us perfect the way we are. Everyone is different, colors, shapes, sizes, and everything in between, and body modification is basically saying that God didn't do well enough, I need to now modify my body to do better. God, the way He wanted me to look was not well enough, I can do better than that. And we need to understand as Christians we need to be sanctified and separated from the world. And notice the Bible says in Deuteronomy, I'm not putting you Israel in the land of Canaan because you are good, I am putting you there because they are bad. Now obviously as you study your Bible and you look into the law of God, you see a lot of practices that the pagan nations around them, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Jebusites, and all these people groups were practicing pretty much the things we see in the law and worse. I bet there are things that they were doing that are not found in the Bible that they simply did, but we see the compare and contrast to don't do this because that's what they do. It's time to create a model nation that is to bring honor and glory to the Lord. As it could be said, there is a people that is nigh unto God. And then he tells the children of Israel, when you go into the land and possess the land, don't do as the heathens do, don't do what they do because you're going to be mingled with them. Elsewhere it teaches, when Solomon began to reign, he eventually had multiple wives and those wives led him astray, and Israel was split into two after that moment. It became into the northern and southern parts of Israel and the kingdom of Judah. But we're not going to go into that, I'm specifically just talking about body modification. And the Bible is very clear in the New Testament that we need to honor our bodies. The body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in us, therefore we ought to glorify God in our body and in our spirit. So everything that we do in our day to day life and how we function in society should ultimately bring honor to God, how we live and how we look. So people say, it doesn't matter how you look in the sight of God, in the New Testament, Jesus Christ said, I did not come to bring peace on earth but to vision, he said, I've come not to destroy the law and the prophets but to fulfill. Jesus Christ didn't die on the cross so that you are able to modify your body. That's always been morally wrong, it's always been absolutely wrong. And we're going to see the different types of body modifications that we need to avoid like the plague. And the simple first one that I want to go into is tattoos. Now turn to your Bibles if you would to Leviticus 19. In the law, and understand this, a lot of this message is going to be in the law. We're going to be in the Old Testament and the first five books of the Bible, you know, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. We are going to go other places but the reason why we're going to stay in this section of the Bible is because this is God telling him, don't be like these people because, and then he tells us the rest, Leviticus 19 verse 28, the Bible reads, ye shall not mark or make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you, I am the Lord. It could not be any clearer that we are not supposed to be engaging in tattoos. Now notice it says, make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you, I am the Lord. Now understand this, I have tattoos. You cannot see my tattoos. I'm here to tell you that had I known what the Bible taught about tattoos before I got it, I would have never have gotten them. And any right Christian, any person who understands what the Bible teaches on this subject, as we just heard Ryan preach earlier this morning, we need to forget those things which are behind and press towards the mark of the high calling, which is in Christ Jesus. There are things and sins in our lives that we have done throughout our lives that are obvious to men and not obvious and tattoos are one of those sins. Tattoos are something that anyone in the world can look at and say, that was a mistake that they made in their life. They printed upon their body, they marked their body up, some people try to make it seem like, oh well, I'm just designing the tabernacle, I'm just trying to make more graphics on it. You're trying to say God's perfect image of you is not good enough? You think you can do better than God and add to the temple and try to make it look better? You are beautiful and good looking the way God made you and that's what people are not understanding. Are you using tattoos to try to do better than? Well I want, and all of it ultimately comes down to, and you can follow tattoos in every ethnic group in the world, any cultural group, there are tattoos that go far back into their history. And I believe that if you follow the history of tattooing, you're going to find yourself in the Bible, right here in Leviticus. The reason God told them to do this is because the heathen did this. This was a practice that pagan, ungodly, devil-worshipping people have always done. Don't mark upon you or make cuttings for the dead. Now we live in Hawaii, right, so I have to emphasize and point out the elephant of the room that the word tattoo that we even use today, did the Bible use the term tattoo? It never came from the Bible, why don't we just say markings on the body or cuttings on the body? We even find the word tattoo because it comes from Polynesian culture. That doesn't mean it started in Polynesia, it just means that as we look into, I'm going to show you some sources of just the origins of the word tattoo, it obviously comes from Tahiti, Samoa, the Hawaiian term would be kakao, the Tahitian word would be tatao, but we then translate that to tattoo. So that's where you even get the word to print upon you marks for the markings of the dead. This was a practice that people have done throughout all time. Hawaiians are no exception to this rule, and who here has heard the term of the amakua? This is your spiritual ancestor, this is a spiritual person that follows in your life, that is either a guardian over you or is trying to help guide you through your life. That's never found in the Bible, as a matter of fact the opposite is true, the Bible teaches that the men once to die and after this, the judgment. When people die, they don't sit in the plane of existence to be looking out for their loved ones, they go to heaven or hell, that is what the Bible teaches. So turn if you would to Mark 5, this isn't just Old Testament understanding, this is New Testament teachings as well, and Mark 5 is the example of the man who is full of demons, everyone knows the story as the man full of legions, and the legion is just some thousand groups of demons that was embodied in one person. Don't mark upon you any print for the dead, this was a practice that pagans did because they are trying ultimately to open themselves up to demonic influences. Notice what it says in Mark 5 verse 1, it says, and they came over unto the other side of the sea, into a country of the Gadarenes, is this a Christian nation? This is the people of the Gadarenes, and when he was come out of the ship immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, this is someone who is demon possessed, who had his dwelling among the tombs and no man could bind him, no not with chains, because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broke in pieces, neither could any man tame him, and always night and day he was in the mountains, in the tombs, watch this, crying and cutting himself with stones. This person who was full of demons was in the tombs, around the dead, cutting himself with latches and rocks. We all know and have heard of people who go to school and cut themselves, they have demonic influence on them, but you get a tattoo, what do you think you're doing? You are taking a needle, pressing an inanimate object, ink, into your body. You cannot remove a tattoo, I don't care what anyone says, I attempted to remove a tattoo that is on my leg, and understand this, that when you are creating a tattoo, you're ultimately creating a scar. Dermatologists know this, people who study skin, tattoo artists know this, when you look at the tattoo machine, don't call it a gun because they get offended, it's a tattoo machine, it's blasphemous, whatever it is, before they used to take a rock with teeth and they would just smack it with a hammer and punch that ink into your skin. They're ultimately dragging a needle through your body and putting inside of it, through a certain layer of your skin, ink, that will not allow itself to leave after the skin is dried over. This is what tattooing is, if you somehow can remove all the ink out of the body, you're gonna have a scar of that image on your body, no matter what, of course there are people who have thicker and thinner skin, but nevertheless, I don't care what any laser surgeon tries to tell you, we can get it 100% where you can never see it, that is a blunt-faced lie. How about just don't get a tattoo, period, God clearly taught us in the law, don't print upon any marks for the dead, oh, I'm not getting a tattoo for the dead, I'm getting a tattoo of flowers, I'm getting a tattoo of loved ones, I'm getting a tattoo of a baby, I'm getting a tattoo of a cross. Does that make it right, because you tattooed a Bible first on your arm? That is still wrong, you know, most tattoos ultimately point us to idolatry, whether it be worshipping of sun, moon, stars, whether it be worshipping of any type of, anything outside of God, but a Christian can try to find themselves justifying tattoos and say, I'm going to get a Christian tattoo, I'm going to get John 3.16 on the top of my forehead in thick black bold lettering, what are you stupid, you're bringing a shame under the cause of Christ, Jesus did not come into the world so that you can put a Bible verse on your neck or a cross on your arm, you know, we need to understand that the Bible clearly teaches, and there are Christians, and I'm going to call them out, Jeff Durbin, who is a straight Calvinist, who is in the island of Kauai right now, the island that I am from, left Arizona to start a ministry on the island of Kauai, and how do you think he's trying to fund this ministry? Through tattoos, he's trying to tell people to get tattoos to help fund his church in Kauai right now, and that is ridiculous and blasphemous, he needs to study his Bible a little more, and to understand that it is absolutely wrong to try to print upon you any marks, I don't care what it is you're putting on your body, don't do it, that is what God said, we need to honor the temple, we need to honor our bodies, so that's the first sin that is very obvious, it's very obvious what the Bible says in the law, not to print upon you any marks of the dead, this is a practice of devil worshippers basically, you see another example of that, you don't need to turn there, but it says in 1 Kings 18, 27, this is the story of Elijah on Mount Carmel, and it says, and it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, the prophets of Baal, Baal, Beelzebub, the devil, and said, cry aloud, for he is a god, lower case g god, either he is talking or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or preadventure, he sleepeth and must awake, and they cried aloud and cut themselves after their manner with knives and latches till the blood gushed out upon them, so this is not hard to understand, tattoos should be easy for us as Christians to look at and be like, yeah that's wrong, but I'm not down on you if you've already had a tattoo, don't go and get another one, you know, and we were just talking this morning about some people who come to this truth later on in their life, you know, they were in the midst of getting a sleeve, and it's partially done, or they're in the midst of getting a big tattoo piece, there are two philosophies that you can follow into this, once you find out what the Bible says about hate tattoo, you should not do this, some say finish it up and stop, I say stop, period, the unfinished worked on your arm, that's what you get, once you realize, because what does the Bible say, right, it teaches for instance, him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin, now let's say you have a tattoo of something gruesome, something, a gang tattoo, or a tattoo that is vulgar and nasty and disgusting, naked, women, any type of horrible tattoo that people get, yeah, black it out, I would say, black out that tattoo so that it cannot be seen, and that's what I mean, there are people who are convicts that were ex-gang members that have a shlokshaka on their chest, or a bloods tattoo on their arm, and they say, I'm just gonna black this thing out, honestly, I would say that's the better way to go, but if you have a tattoo that is a sleeve of design, don't finish it, just let it die, and ultimately you gotta realize, when you're an old man, your tattoo is gonna be warped and faded and nasty, you're gonna be this old decrepit young lady or old lady or old man, and you're gonna have saggy skin, and it's just gonna look like a black blob on your body, look, like I started to say, I have tattoos, so I'm trying to tell you not to get tattoos, cause I don't want you to make the mistake that I made, I wish someone could have grabbed me and shook me and said, don't get a tattoo, look at what it says in Leviticus, and I would have never done it, so that's a simple easy one to understand, but the next one that I want to get into is piercing, body piercing, now, I'm gonna tell you what I believe the Bible teaches on piercing, and then just a good rule of thumb that the Bible clearly emphasizes, because, you know, when it comes to piercing, I would say that it is sin, period, absolutely, now I'm gonna go into my reasoning and why, but nevertheless, we need to understand that before I ever say the Bible says something, and I'm, you don't ever want to try to force the Bible on your opinion, but if you study to show yourself approval, workman, a man, and he's not, I'm gonna butcher this statement, to be approved, rightly dividing the word of truth, when you study your Bible, you're gonna maybe see what I'm saying and why I say this, but ultimately, some would say, well men should not have piercings, and some would say, well women should have piercings, and some would say, all varying types of reasonings of why they say piercings are good or bad, I say they're absolutely wrong, and let me show you why, number one, God says, I'm putting you in this nation, because they are bad, don't be like them, don't do what they do, they mark their bodies for the dead, they pump, they cut holes in their body, and they cut themselves, so, obviously, a piercing is just taking a rod and piercing it through any part of your body, now, understand this, turn if you went to Genesis, when it comes to the study of this subject, I prayed and agonized for a week, I didn't want to force my opinion on this word, I will never say the thus saith the Lord that the Bible teaches, till I am very confident or sure on the matter, and nowhere does the Bible say, thus saith the Lord, do not get a piercing, as a matter of fact, we see something different, but let me help you to understand that passage, first thing is in Genesis 24, look down at your Bible, at verse 15, it reads, and it came to pass before he had done speaking, that behold, Rebekah came out, who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, with her pitcher upon her shoulder, and the damsel was very fair to look upon, a virgin, neither had any man known her, and she went down to the well, and filled her pitcher, and came up, and 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 haste, and let down her pitcher upon her hand, and gave him drink, this is, I'll just pause really quick, just so if you didn't know the story, this is the story of Rebekah, this is Abraham's niece, ultimately, this is of Nahor, as it says, and Abraham is about to die, and he tells his servant to send Isaac, his servant to find a bride for Isaac his son, of his kid, of his people, and he keeps going to say, and when she had done giving him drink, she said, I will draw water for thy camels, also, until they have done drinking, and she hasted, and emptied her pitcher into the trough, and ran again into the well, to draw water, and drew for all his camels, and the man wandering at her, held his peace, to with whether the Lord had made his journey prosperous or not, and it came to pass, as the camels had done drinking, that the man took a golden earring of half a shekel's weight, and two bracelets for her hands, ten talents of weight, of gold, and said, whose daughter art thou? Tell me, I pray thee, is there room in thy father's house for us to lodge in, and she said unto him, I am the daughter of Bethul, the son of Milcah, which she bear unto Nahor, and I'm going to end the story there, we just got to understand, Abraham's servant was sending Abraham to go to the land of, where is Abraham from? Does anyone know where Abraham is from? Us or Ur of the Chaldees, the land of the Chaldeans. Was that a godly nation? Was that a nation of patterned people trying to follow the Lord? We understand the nation of Israel, he's told Abraham, I'm going to take you from your people and bring you to another land, and you will become a people. We only know who Israel is, because Abraham is the father of faith. Abraham was told to leave Ur of the Chaldees, to go start a nation. Now, when Abraham's servant went to Rebekah and gave her what's known as a dowry, referring to jewelry and necklaces and earrings and these things, was that right of him to do? Some would say yes, it's a dowry. You know, obviously back in the day when people wanted to get married, they'd go up to the father-in-law of the father and say, I'd like to ultimately marry your wife. What is expected of me? We see in the Bible with King David trying to marry his first wife, that he says, I want the foreskins of so many Philistines. Now that's a pretty intense dowry, but nevertheless, this was the dowry given to Rebekah. Earrings. Now, did God tell Abraham to tell the servant to do this, or is this just something they did? Where did they learn this practice? I believe that they learned this practice in Ur of the Chaldees. Nowhere do we see up until this point God say, pierce someone, or something like that. Nevertheless, let's say you do all the piercing. Is it wrong to wear an earring? That would be the next question, because if you already have a pierced ear, or nose, or something like that, this was for adornment. This was to put a dowry, and to beautify, and to make someone look good. Nevertheless, does that make it right? I would say no, but we do see examples of God symbolizing Israel as a woman and giving Israel jewelry to glorify Israel. Now that's obviously symbolic and spiritual. It's not physical, but if we see an example of God spiritually giving Israel a woman neck earrings and things like that, can we say it's wrong to wear jewelry? I cannot say for sure that it is. And as a matter of fact, I'd venture to say, if you have a pierced ear, there's nothing wrong with you wearing an earring. There's nothing wrong with you wearing a nose ring. There's nothing wrong with you wearing an eyebrow ring. That's kind of strange. I've seen people wear the ring on their eyes. It's kind of strange. But what does the Bible teach in the New Testament, for instance? The Bible teaches in the New Testament, referring to how women should be adorned with modest apparel. Women need to be modest in their appearance. We shouldn't be wearing super expensive, fancy, flashy looking apparel, because what does that draw attention to? You, as a person. We need to give honor to God in all ways, in every way. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. All things will be added unto you. And then in doing this, when you try to make the world look at you, you are no longer being modest. So it's one thing to have a gold stud. It's another thing to have a flavor-flavored chain hanging around your neck. That's a clock that's five inches wide. Okay, there's a difference. We can find a happy medium of what is considered modest apparel. But we see another example of this in Exodus. Turn if you would to Exodus 32. Earlier when I had you read Deuteronomy 9, it referenced this story in Exodus 32. The children have just left Egypt and they're on the way in the wilderness. Notice what it says. In verse 1, it reads, And we know the rest of the story. We just heard it earlier. They take all those golden earrings and rings, which they got. Where did they get these jewelries from? Where did this all come from? Egypt. Egypt patterns in the Bible the world. The world. When they were leaving Israel, I'm sorry, when they were leaving Egypt, God put it on the hearts of the Egyptians to give them jewelry because they'd be in bondage for 400 years. And as the Bible teaches that once someone is a bondman, you need to let them out with something to be able to survive on their own. And God swayed the hearts of the Egyptians to give them some jewelry. Then they get out of Egypt and they're in the wilderness. And Moses goes up to Mount Sinai to get the law of God. So God never told them to pierce their gears. They learned this in Egypt. They learned that in Ur of the Chaldees. But then they have all these earrings and stuff. They give it to Aaron. And Aaron, the funniest part of the story is when Moses comes down from Mount Sinai with the law of God, the Ten Commandments in his arm, he throws the Ten Commandments down and looks at Aaron says, What just happened? Why are they worshiping a golden calf? And they said, Well, I mean, you know, I took all this stuff and out came this calf. Hello, obviously formed in the fashion of God, this multitude. He says, Here is your God, Israel. Worship this. Worship gold. Worship pearls and silver and precious array, which came from Egypt. Hello. We need to understand that though it is not absolutely wrong to wear a piercing, should we be like the world is? Should we try to do what they do? Or should we be sanctified and separated and different in the world? The Bible clearly teaches us as Christians that we are not to be, we are to be in the world, but not of the world. So we understand that Abraham's servant giving Rebecca earrings wasn't necessarily wrong because she probably already had pierced ears. Another argument you can make is we don't know she had a pierced ear or a pierced nose. You ever see those rings that kind of just sit on the ear? Other than that, we don't know. It's more likely it was a punctured part in her ear or nose. But nevertheless, it already happened. She already had it. Don't get another one. Just wear what was given you. Be modest. Don't try to draw attention to yourself or rather bring attention to God and how you live your life. We see the children of Israel leaving the land of Egypt, representing the world, taking all the gold and jewels that they were given, and then they create a molten image. This is once again the concept of the adorning of themselves, looking at me rather than looking at God. But another example we could see of actually God telling us to get pierced is found in Exodus 21. Turn, if you would, to Exodus 21. Because like I said, if I'm going to sit here and tell you that getting your ears pierced is absolutely wrong, I'm saying it's sin. But God actually commands people to get their ears pierced. Now, does it make it sin or not? I'm going to tell you what I believe the passage is saying. Some may disagree with me on this, but I'm going to just say it anyways. I believe that God told this specific group of people to get their ears pierced, and it is not sin for God to have told them that. But let me ask you this. Is divorce and remarriage sin? The Bible teaches, except for be the form of fornication, don't divorce. It's for the hardness of your hearts you may disallowance. I believe, let me ask you this, is the coming together of a man and wife sin? What about outside of marriage? The action between husband and wife, it's in the bedroom, is sin outside of marriage. It's fornication. It is, God says, there's nothing wrong with this action in marriage. Outside of marriage, this is wrong. This is sin. That's what I see the passage is telling us about the all in the ear of the servant who wants to become a permanent servant to the Lord. How often do you think this occurred? Let's take a look. In Exodus 21 verse six, it reads, actually, let's start in verse one. Now there are the judgments which thou shalt set before them. This is God talking to Moses. If thou by an Hebrew servant, six years, he shall serve and go in the seventh. He shall go out free for nothing. If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master have given him a wife and she have bare him a son or daughters, sons or daughters, the wife of her children shall be her masters and he shall not go out by himself. And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife and my children, I will not go out for free or I will not go out free. Then his master shall bring him unto the judges. He shall also bring him to the door or into the post or door post and his master shall bore his ear through with an all and he shall serve him forever. So this is what's known as someone becoming a permanent indentured servant. Obviously we believe the Bible teaches on any matter, any subject. Some people say slavery is wrong no matter what. They're trying to make their political opinions see what the Bible says. We believe that the Bible is God's word and it is right in every way. The certain slave I think is found once or twice in the Bible. Outside of that, it's always known as a servant. Now there are servants that are known as enemies of war that if you go and conquer another nation, those people were becoming your servants. But not only that, notice it says if thou by an Hebrew servant, if there's a person who's called a brother, goes into servitude under someone and decides to stay with their master because he marries the wife of another servant and they have children together. That servant was to go to the elders, they're to put him on a wall, take what's known as an awl, basically a rod and puncture his ear. Now some may say oh this is inhumane, this is cruel. This is God's law. This is the creator of the universe telling us that that's what's to be happened under this very specific situation. Should everyone get all in through the ear? No, this person. Why? Because this symbolizes Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ came into the world right and he became the indentured servant. He was the one who paid the price. What was happening to his side? He was pierced through. This piercing of this servant pictures as it says in Philippians 2, he being in the form of God saw it not robbery to be equal with God but made himself as a servant. He served us, was willing to be pierced through for us. This servant pictures Jesus Christ in the New Testament. Now if this servant has a hole through his ear and he decides to put a rig in it, then that's up to him. But I do think it's strange that men have earrings. I'm just going to say that. It's a feminine attribute. The New Testament teaches that if there be one that's feminine, that's sin. Feminacy is sin. Men should not try to adorn themselves, look beautiful as men. Metro men, men who shave their brows or cut their brows a certain way and look, there's something wrong with grooming yourself but there's a difference between trying to draw attention to yourself as a man. And I know a brother at Faithful Word Baptist Church who was a tattoo artist and would create earrings and gauges for people and he has these fat holes in his ears that he had these gauges that were like the size of my phone that would just sit there and saggy skin and he almost never wears his gauges because he was ashamed of what he did. But nevertheless, we don't judge him for that. He came to Christ that way. Now that he's done it, he doesn't get any more gauges. He's not trying to rip it even bigger. And there's so many other types of body modifications that I can go into and I'm not going to go into. I'm just going to touch on a couple of them. But let's just recap really quick just so we understand. Number one, tattooing is absolutely wrong no matter what period end of discussion. Leviticus 19 makes it very clear. Don't do this. That's a clear passage in the Bible. Piercings. I believe that the Bible is telling us that you should not get a piercing because that is what pagan nations did. They tried to modify their bodies. Now, we do see God piercing a very specific person but that doesn't mean everyone gets one. It means this. How often do you think it happened where a servant of a Hebrew brother becomes a servant, marries a maid, and then stays that master servant forever? I'm not saying it didn't happen. Obviously, it happened. That's why he wrote it. But I bet you it was a small minority. Divorce used to be a small minority group. He said, I don't want you to divorce. In the beginning, God created man and woman and a man shall leave father and mother. These two shall be one flesh and from the beginning it was so. This is how marriage is supposed to be. Till death do us part. But if it is found for the cause of fornication, this is how you go about it. And that's what the Bible teaches. So, if you have a piercing, don't get another piercing. If you have a piercing, wear a earring. Wear a nose ring. But don't put a bleeding, gold, fat, thick, tension drawing jewelry on you. Because that is no longer modest apparel on the side of God. It's one thing to wear, you know, simple jewelry, but it's another thing to be trying to draw attention to yourself. So, tattoos, absolutely wrong. Piercing, I would say is wrong unless you're going to be a permanent servant to your master. Is anyone trying to do that here? Didn't think so. And not only that, but it also pictures Christ. If even you were to say, well I'm getting my ear pierced because I want to symbolize that. I'm going to be a servant unto God. I'm going to be a permanent servant unto God. New Testament says make no vows. Don't vow a vow. Because if you don't keep it, that's horrible. You need to look out for that. And not only that, Christ was pierced. We don't need to be pierced. He was pierced for us. I don't need to get into split tongues. Hello? You look like a dang lizard. You ever seen people that split the tongue and they get the horns and the like, what do they call it? It's like nubs all over their head. There's like, these are what pagans do. If I went to a random tattoo shop and you see that lizard man with a split tongue and horns around his head and tattoos all over his body, would you see there's a servant of God. Now here let me tell you this. If that person's heart was not completely darkened and hardened and he came to Christ and God said, you need to look past that. It'd be hard to. It'd be hard to sit the guy in the church and be like, Hey brother, John looks like a lizard man. You know, like, how are you doing? We do need to forget those things which are behind, but you know, that's what I'm trying to say. Body modification are those sins that can be seen forever. My friend who has that gauge deer and he has a floppy saggy ear lobe sitting there for the rest of his life. I'm going to have black ink all over my body as an old man. When I'm walking around on the beach, it's going to look weird. Nevertheless, you know, don't even get me into the transgender subject of body modification. These are people who are trying to say, God messed up. I was not supposed to be this sex. I need to be the other sex. I'm going to change my, I'm going to mutilate my body so that I can be what I want to be. You want to sit there and talk about demonic entities and demon possessed people. I mean, I'm not even going to go into that subject. That's a whole nother message for a whole nother time. But the road of getting a tattoo may lead you into the road of becoming a transgender. I don't say a transgender. I say a free, a child of the devil. Because if you are going to mutilate yourself in that matter, there's something wrong up here. You are probably given over to a reprobate mind. You are a child of God. I mean, sorry, a child of the devil. Don't quote that. But yeah, what's the conclusion of the matter? Turn if you went to Romans. Actually, you know, before I conclude, let me just end on this one last thought. Because you have those people groups who do do the body piercings, who do do the tattoos, who do do the lizard face and the demon face and all these people. And they go, well, you know what? God said to modify your body in the Old Testament. He told men to get circumcised. See, why didn't he just leave you to not get circumcised? God told you to be modified. But you know what? That's right. God told men in Israel to get circumcised. If you don't know what that is, ask your parents. It's basically a sign. It symbolizes something. There's symbolism behind this. And now let me ask you this. In the New Testament, what does the Bible constantly say in the New Testament? If you be circumcised, Christ profits you nothing. Obviously someone could be saved today and he circumcises, circumcises their children and be safe. Truly. But are they right with God? That's debatable. Because if someone decides to do that, someone would say, well, that's barbaric. That's wrong to do. God told the children of Israel to do this. It's not barbarism. God was the one that told the servant only to get the piercing, the hauling into his ear. But as New Testament Christians, we do not practice circumcision physically. We do obviously believe in the circumcision of that of the heart. Which once again, it says in Romans, I hope I had you turn to Romans. I was a little overzealous in where I was going. But Romans, it talks about this. Romans 2. Look at verse 25. It says, for circumcision barely profited, if thou keep the law, but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision. Therefore his uncircumcision kept the righteousness of the law shall not his son circumcision be counted for circumcision and shall not uncircumcision, which is by nature, if it fulfill the law, judge thee who by the letter and circumcision does not transgress the law. For he is not a Jew, which is outwardly, neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew, which is what inwardly circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God. Circumcision pictured a servitude life of God and circumcision hurts and so does serving God. So that's what I want us to understand. Never though God told body modification for specific people group, never did he tell us to go into other disgust gruesome types of body modification. He laid them out. He says men who want to be Israelites need to be circumcised. Men or women who wanted to serve the Lord or wanted to become permanent servants to their master all their year through. So this is the conclusion. God cares about how we look on the outside. Turn if you would to Matthew. We see an example down in Matthew. Some people think as New Testament Christians it doesn't matter how we look. And look, like I was saying, if you are coming from that lifestyle and you have a thick neck tattoo that's, you know, all over your face, teardrops, whatever it is, I'm not judging you. I got no beef with you, but don't go get another one. Don't tell your children to get another tattoo. I would even venture to say don't tell your daughters to pierce their ears. In Latin American culture it's like big part of their culture to pierce their daughter's ears at like two years old. My wife who had her ears pierced as a baby, that's part of Latin culture. But does that mean you do it? To him that knows to do good and do it to Matt, to him it is him. If your mom, ladies, has an earring, has their ears pierced and you want your ears pierced, you have your ears pierced, mom, I want an ear pierced, or blah, blah, blah. You know, mothers, try to not try to flaunt that around your daughters. Don't try to appeal to that and don't go ahead and allow them to do this. Say, I made a mistake, if you understand that with the Bible teaches on the matter, and at the end of the day, you and your house, you're going to serve the Lord as you see fit best. But as for me and my house, if I ever had a daughter, guess what they're never getting? Tattoos, piercings, or anything. Because I want her to be known for her good works. I want her to not be adorned and outwardly in that of the flesh. I want her to be adorned in the sight of God by her good actions, by soul winning, by reading her Bible, by being a good person. But in Matthew, the Bible teaches, chapter 23, in verse 24, go ahead in Matthew 23. Verse 24, it reads, ye blind guys would strain an anat and swallow a camel. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you may clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within there full of extortion excess. Thou blind Pharisees, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Jesus Christ is making a very strong point by calling out the Pharisees, because outwardly they looked good. They didn't have probably piercings, they didn't have tattoos, they are being good people, but inwardly they are full of dead men's bones. They're blind. Now, like it says, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter. We need to first clean our hearts and conform ourselves to the words of God. Let it tell us, let it transform us on how we are to live our lives, how we are to look. Cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside may be clean also. Brother Isaac told me just this morning, and I've heard this story before, he was ready to have the biggest, giantest back tattoo piece. He had goals, he was ready to do it, it was going to look epic. Praise the Lord, he never did that. And I honestly got to congratulate you on that. It's hard growing up in Hawaii and not getting inked. It's such a common practice and so expected of cultural ethnic Hawaiian people. Oh, you're going to get your kakao? You're going to get your tattoo? You're going to get your own hua on you? You know what I mean? This is part of Hawaiian culture to get a tattoo. What do you think that tribal art means? They all have significance. And I forgot to go into this, but let me just point this out really quick, because this came from a Hawaiian tattoo artist. I forget his name, but this was a claim that he made. In Hawaii, your amakua is your guardian spirit or family protector. According to Hawaiian mythology, this powerful god known as an amakua has appeared to many families in the form of a shark, an owl, a pig, or even plants. Polynesian tribal tattoo should never be regarded as decoration. It is a deep cultural roots. It connects the soul of the man that possesses it. There is no better comfort than walking through life having your guardian spirit fused in your skin. In Waianua, an island of Kaua'i, there's a warrior group of people known as the black legs, which ultimately, like I said, depending on the artist, the tattoo artist, they all have different interpretations of their art. Hawai'i didn't have a written language pre-contact, pre-missionary contact, but they did. We just don't know that lost language type. It's called tattooing. The stories of their tattoos tell the stories of their past. Hula is another form of how they spread their history. Tattoos is one of those on one, so depending on the artist, your tattoo actually has meaning and depth of your ancestors, of all the pagan gods of Pele and Kanaloa and Kane and all these other pagan gods. That's ultimately what they're trying to do, to script in your tattoo. Whether you know that or not, so many Caucasian people move to Hawaii to get tribal tattoos and they don't even realize, for all they know, you are getting the most horrible, wicked story printed on your body and you can't translate it because you can't read tribal art. That doesn't mean it's wrong, you already have it. Put behind those things which are behind and look forward into those things which are to come. The black leg warriors that I was telling you about in the island of Kaua'i, the white little warriors, each triangle represented one of the people they killed and some people had triangles that climbed up their leg all the way up to their face. So for however many warriors they killed. And not only that, we need to be counter-cultural. You ever heard that term, counter-culture? There used to be a surf company back in the day they called CC, counter-culture. My friend was sponsored by them and it ultimately says, I want to be different. I want the world to look at me different. I want to be unique. I want to get a tattoo. I want to get a piercing. I want to dye my hair green. I want to do all sorts of things. Split my tongue, gauge my ears, do all these things. But in today's world, you want to be counter-cultural? Leave your body the way God designed it. It's more common today to walk around in the streets to see people with body modification than those who don't. The minority group today is people who have not modified their bodies. Praise the Lord, brother Isaac, that you never fell into the trap of body modification. I do want to praise you in that. Oh, I never realized that, but either way, you know, I just wanted to ultimately say, you children, if you don't know these things and you hear this, be different. How? Surf God with your lives. Choose to be adorned with your works. Don't you want people to look at you? Number one, you need to point them to God. You need to point them to Jesus Christ. You know, I must decrease and He must increase. Don't look at me, but if you've already made a mistake in your life, as I have and many others, use it as a form to bring people to the gospel. You know, it is true that if I have tattoos as a service man, other tatted up, rugged ghetto people are more likely to walk up to me because I look like them. They're like, hey, you seem like a normal guy. You got a bunch of tattoos. You're not like a judgmental type. You must be cool. Use that as a way to bring them to gospel and say, yeah, I wish I never had these tattoos because they're stupid. And that's what I want us to know. That body modification is something we need to avoid, like the plague. Let's be counter-cultural. Let's be sanctified as God's people and be separated as the Bible teaches. Let me leave you on one last thought. Turn, if you would, to Philippians 3. We read that earlier for the rhyme, but it says in Philippians, in verse 13, brethren, I count on myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth into those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God and Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded, and if in anything be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same things. Brethren, be followers together of me and mark them which walk, so as ye have us too, for an example, from any walk with whom I have told you often, and now tell you even, weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destructive, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who minor through things, for our conversation in heaven from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile bodies, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. When we are given our new body, when we are finally redeemed physically, we will be given the new body, the tattoos will be gone, the piercings will be gone, your split tongue will be gone, your African neck lengthening will be gone, your gauges will be gone, you will be formed in fashion as he is to be perfect. Let's look forward to that, let's look forward to the renewing of our bodies, and if you haven't ever gotten any body modifications, don't start. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Dear heavenly father, thank you so much for this afternoon, thank you so much for our Christmas, thank you so much for sending Jesus Christ to be the savior of the world, thank you for sending him to die on the cross, to be buried and raising again. Help us in our week and in the new year to continue the vision that brother Ryan set out for us in 2020, to if it be your will find us a building that is suitable to you, and help us to make sacrifices in our lives, continue in the service, and be there for us throughout our week to honor and glorify you. In Jesus name we pray, amen.