(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Yeah, I know. Where is she? I don't know. Is she there? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. We're going to step in. I guess we're going to go to the factory. We're going to have to do something like this. It's hard to come close. We've got bad news. Here. Give me some water. We're going to do something like this. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. 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I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. Happy birthday dear Rebecca. Happy birthday to you. Alright. It's like I'm never coming to church on my birthday ever again, Pastor Burzins. Thank you so much. Alright. Congratulations on your anniversary. And that is I think that's it for our announcements. Um. I am still planning on having the sign up sheet for the gingerbread house making activity. And I'm going to try to print off a bunch of things really quick for the activities coming up. If you wouldn't mind before you leave this evening, I'll put them by the front door. Okay. If you're going to attend any of the events that we've got listed here that I'm going to have on a printout, please sign up for them. It's going to help me out tremendously. The gingerbread house making thing, we're buying houses now because they're being sold. And they sell out pretty quick. So we like to try to make sure that we have as many, you know, all those things stocked up. In advance, ready to go. Obviously it'll be a week or two before they're actually like sold out. But it doesn't take long for them to go through them. Especially when you've got me coming through. And people always give me funny little like, you know, what are you doing? I've got a big old flatbed just loaded up with gingerbread houses. It's kind of fun. So anyhow, it helps us out a lot. Let us know. I understand if you can't make the 100% commitment, like yes, I'm absolutely going to be there right now. But if you're planning on it and you're going to try to make it, you know, let us know that you're intending on being there. All right. That's it for announcements. Brother Peter, come on up and please lead us in our next song. Yes, sir. All right, thanks. Turn to song number 31. Hymn number 31, he lives. Hymn number 31. All right, let's sing this classic out on the first. I serve a risen Savior, he's in the world today. I know that he is living whatever men may say. I see his hand of mercy, I hear his voice of cheer. And just the time I need him he's always near. He lives, he lives, Christ Jesus lives today. He walks with me and talks with me along my stairway. He lives, he lives, salvation to import. You ask me how I know he lives. He lives within my heart. In all the world around me I see his love in care. In all my heart will fear me, I never will despair. I know that he is leading through all the stormy past. The day of his appearing will come at last. He lives, he lives, Christ Jesus lives today. He walks with me and talks with me along my stairway. He lives, he lives, salvation to import. You ask me how I know he lives. He lives within my heart on the last. Rejoice, rejoice, oh Christian, lift up your voice and sing. Eternal Hallelujah to Jesus Christ the King. The hope of all who see him, the help of all who find. The daughter is so loving, so good and kind. He lives, he lives, Christ Jesus lives today. He walks with me and talks with me along my stairway. He lives, he lives, salvation to import. You ask me how I know he lives. He lives within my heart. Amen, church. Great singing. At this time I'm going to collect our Sunday evening offering. I ask for Lindsay to take a bow for us. And while the offering plate is being passed around, I'd like to open up your Bibles to the book of Leviticus, chapter 19. That was the book of Leviticus, chapter 19. And as we do customary here at Stronghold Baptist Church, we're going to read the entire chapter. And that's Brother Devin, if he can please do that for us. That was Leviticus, chapter 19. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. Ye shall fear every man his mother and his father, and keep my Sabbaths, I am the Lord your God. Turn ye not unto idols, nor make to yourselves molten gods, I am the Lord your God. And if ye offer a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Lord, ye shall offer it at your own will. It shall be eaten the same day ye offer it, and on the morrow, and if ought remain until the third day, it shall be burnt in the fire. And if it be eaten at all on the third day, it is abominable, it shall not be accepted. Therefore, everyone that eateth it shall bear it, Therefore, everyone that eateth it shall bear his iniquity, because he hath profaned the hallowed thing of the Lord, and that soul shall be cut off from among his people. And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest. And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard. Thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger, I am the Lord your God. Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another. And ye shall not swear by my name falsely, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God, I am the Lord. Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbor, neither rob him. The wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning. Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind, but shalt fear thy God, I am the Lord. Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty, but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbor. Thou shalt not go up and down as a tailbearer among thy people, neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbor, I am the Lord. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart, thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him. Thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, I am the Lord. Ye shall keep my statutes, thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind, thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed, neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woolen come upon thee. And whosoever lieth carnally with a woman that is a bondmaid, betrothed to an husband, and not at all redeemed, nor freedom given her, she shall be scourged, they shall not be put to death because she was not free. And he shall bring his trespass offering unto the Lord, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, even a ram for a trespass offering, and the priest shall make an atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering before the Lord for his sin which he hath done, and the sin which he hath done shall be forgiven him. And when ye shall come into the land, and shall have planted all manner of trees for food, then ye shall count the fruit thereof as uncircumcised. Three years shall it be as uncircumcised unto you, it shall not be eaten of. But in the fourth year all the fruit thereof shall be holy to praise the Lord withal. And in the fifth year shall ye eat of the fruit thereof, that it may yield unto you the increase thereof, I am the Lord your God. Ye shall not eat anything with the blood, neither shall ye use enchantment nor observe times. Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard. Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you, I am the Lord. Do not prostitute thy daughter to cause her to be a whore, lest the land fall to whoredom and the land become full of wickedness. Ye shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary, I am the Lord. Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards to be defiled by them, I am the Lord your God. Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head and honor the face of the old man, and fear thy God, I am the Lord. And if a stranger is sojourned with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him, but the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself, for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt, I am the Lord your God. Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meat-yard, in weight, or in measure. Just balances, just weights, a just ephah and a just hen shall ye have, I am the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt. Therefore shall ye observe all my statutes and all my judgments, and do them, I am the Lord. Let's pray. Brother Lindsay, can you pray for us, please? Alright, so this evening, I'm gonna be preaching on the subject of mutilating your flesh. What are you talking about? Well, there's a few things that will fall into this category, and essentially it's a similar sermon, so like last week I preached a sermon on gambling, right? And it's a sermon I preached, because a lot of people have questions about it, and it's not something that necessarily is specifically mentioned and laid out in the scripture, saying thou shalt not gamble, right? But I went over all the reasoning behind that, and the principles we use from the Bible to apply it, and say, look, this is a sin. It's sinful, you shouldn't be gambling, and here's the reasons why. Well, this evening is similar in the sense that, you know, some of the things we're gonna be talking about aren't necessarily specifically mentioned. Now, they are in some cases, and the first one I'm gonna be talking about here, where you're destroying your flesh, is in tattoos, because you are making modifications, and you are literally getting cuttings and markings and everything else when you get a tattoo, okay? Now, let me just also state this, for sermons like this, you know, anything, I'm preaching on sins, you know, if you have sins of the past, like, this isn't necessarily to shame you and make you feel bad, because you got a tattoo 20 years ago or something. Now, look, you ought to recognize it as something, at least by the time I'm done with the sermon, if you don't know, recognize it as something that you shouldn't have done, as something that was sinful, but it's not something that just has to hang over your head all the time, I mean, you can move on, just like any sin that you commit, get right with God, confess and forsake, and move forward. But I really like preaching these sermons for the people who haven't done these things yet, most importantly, or people who may consider continuing to do something like this, like, look, don't do this anymore. Don't, you know, just don't. I'm gonna show you why from scripture, and, you know, it's not all the stuff's cracked up to be anyways. People get tattoos and similar things because they see other people with them. Oh, that's cool. Oh, that looks so cool. Oh, that guy looks so tough because you got to do tattoos or, you know, whatever. Like, whatever is going on in your mind, it's because you see someone else, you just think that's cool, for the vast majority of people, okay, except it's extremely short-sighted, first of all, and not a very good, I mean, just, oh, that looks cool. That looks cool, so I want to permanently put that on my body that's gonna be there, like, forever until the day I die. You gotta think about that first, and usually it's a lot of young people get tattoos because they don't think about things in a long-term sense, okay, but you ought to. But, okay, regardless of all of those reasons of just, like, worldly reasons why, hey, it doesn't even make sense, you shouldn't do this, you're gonna be stuck with this, what happens, you may like it now, you think it's cool now, but then in 10 years or 20 years or 30 years or 40 years, it might not be as cool anymore, right, because things come and go, and what's cool today isn't gonna be cool tomorrow or next week or next year or whatever, right? Oh, man, with how fast the culture changes and is getting worse and worse and worse, things that were real popular and worldly, you know, 10, 15 years ago, now it's like, you're gonna get canceled if you say anything like that. Imagine getting a tattoo of something that was totally acceptable and fine 15 years ago and now it's like, you know, I mean, just for things like that, it's like, come on, you know, this world's changing. Don't be following the world to go after this stuff, but regardless of all those things, all good reasons, the Bible teaches not to get this done to yourself, okay, and I'm starting with tattoos, we're getting into some other things as well, but if we look at Leviticus chapter 19, look at verse number 27, the Bible says, you shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard, you shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you, I am the Lord. So when it comes to things that are, you could at least as closely as possible say, this is probably talking about a tattoo, it's gonna be in Leviticus 19, Leviticus 21, okay, we're talking about cuttings in the flesh, which it could just be a cutting, right, but in order to get a tattoo, you have to get cut in order to get the ink under the skin, like to get that to stay on your body, if it's not just some like topical thing that kid's getting washed away, if you're actually gonna get something that's gonna stay, you have to make a cutting of a sort to get that to stay in your body, okay, and then now that says, nor print any marks upon you, I mean printing of marks, like come on, how much closer can you get to saying this, I mean this must, what else is it gonna be talking about if it's not talking about a tattoo, you're printing marks on your body, you're making cuttings in your flesh, I would say this is obviously talking about that, tattoos aren't new, I mean they've been around forever, right, as long as people have been around, probably didn't take very long for people to get the bright idea to say, hey look, if I could put this dye or whatever in my skin, then I can make it stay there forever, whatever, right, Leviticus 21, 5 says this, it says, they shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard, nor make any cuttings in their flesh, so it's just another reference to that. Now, if you say, well Pastor Burzins though, this is all like Old Testament, who cares, yeah I know, we should just throw it out, right, I mean just, none of this should matter, so when we're looking at Leviticus 19, where it says, thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart, thou shalt in any way rebuke thy neighbor and not suffer sin upon him, we should just get rid of that, right, I mean it's, not hating your brother in your heart, that's terrible, like that's Old Testament, we don't need to follow that anymore, or how about, let's see, what are some other really bad things in here, thou shalt not defraud thy neighbor, neither rob him, that's pretty bad, thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind, yeah, that Old Testament stuff, why do we have to follow that anyways, right? You shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, yeah that's terrible, we don't want to, look at that, look, the reason why people don't want to look to the Old Testament, is because there's something that they want to do, that the Old Testament says, don't do it, so bottom line, you know, accept it, get right with God, and look at it and say, yeah, you know what, I could look at this and say, I'm not going to do this, because God said no, and just be done with that, but we're not done with that, I'm going to keep on preaching, right, so if you could be done with that at this point, amen, all right, now you can start saying amen to the rest of the sermon, right, there's nothing new under the sun, these things have been around for a long time, tattoos, piercings, now I want to point this out too, because you say, well Pastor Burns, I'm still not convinced, there's, you might say, okay, well the context of this says, you know, not to make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, and that's the problem, is because it's for the dead, but any other cuttings are fine, and any other types of printing marks are fine, because it's only for the dead, that's the only thing that God doesn't want you doing that for is for the dead, I don't buy that, okay, now we're going to get other reasons, that if you did walk away with that interpretation, and try to understand, and try to make it only specifically for getting tattoos for the dead, we'll debunk the non-sinfulness of getting tattoos anyways, there's plenty of other reasons not to do it, but I don't even accept that, I don't think this is only talking about that, the reason why I think it's bringing up the dead, is because, how many reasons should there be, at least, for printing something permanent on your body, like it makes sense that someone may have the urge to make a memorial for a person who has passed, by printing a mark on their body, and that's common even today, right, you will see people who have tattoos, with a birth and death year of somebody, and just have their name or something to that effect, right, very common, why, because it's a memorial, because if you're going to go through the effort of printing something on your flesh, I think an assumption should at least be, you're going to do something that has a lot of meaning to it, that's going to stay there, because it's going to stay there forever, so a memorial would probably be the most common thing that someone might want to do, to have that memory of all the time, right, and just because it's so common for that purpose, I think is why we see it's like, yeah, don't do this for the dead, okay, because you don't want to forget someone or whatever, but that's not the way to do it, memorialize people and remember them and do other things, don't do it by making the marks on your flesh. Now, if it were okay for other reasons, just think about this, and I don't like arguments from evidence that doesn't exist, but it would at least make sense, if there was a reason to print anything on your mark, you would think like maybe printing scripture on your body would be, if anything is acceptable by God, I would at least think that that would be, if it's ever okay to print a mark. Well, turn to Deuteronomy chapter 6, if that would be something that God wanted you to do, of all places, I think Deuteronomy 6 would at least mention something about that, because when we read Deuteronomy chapter 6, I mean, it's pretty, you know, explicit on how much God wants you to have the Word of God with you like at all times, right? And what better way than just printing the marks upon you? Oh, except God said not to print marks upon you. I mean, let's start reading here in verse number 6 of Deuteronomy 6, the Bible says, And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. The importance of the Word of God, right? The importance of these teachings. They ought to be in your mouth all the time. You should be teaching them and talking about them all the time. When you wake up, when you go to bed, teach your children, just have it always be part of your life. And then he continues in verse 8, and thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thy hand. I mean, that's talk about bringing it with you, but binding would be like using a rope or a string or something, you know, like you're attaching something to it, you're not printing the marks on you. But I mean, wouldn't it be a more sure way? Well, how about if I just print it on there, then I don't have to bind anything. Well, no, because God doesn't want you mutilating your flesh. Thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thy hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. He wants it in front of you all the time, to the point of even in verse number 9, and thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house and on thy gates. Have the Word of God everywhere in front of you all the time. If getting a tattoo or printing this on your body would fall anywhere in Scripture, I would think it would be a place like this. If that's something God would want you to do. And I've seen plenty of people who have Scriptures tattooed on their bodies, and they think that somehow that's glorifying to God, because it's the Word of God, right? But it's a zeal misplaced. It's a zeal not according to knowledge. And I'm bringing this up just because I don't want someone to be out there ignorantly doing something that they think is going to make God happy when actually it's not. Okay, let's look at the things that God said for you to have His Word with you, and you'll not see printing tattoos as being one of them, because it never says that to do that. How about the best one is, starting in verse 6, the first one we read, these words recommend you say, Shall be in thine heart. That's how you take the Word of God with you. That's the best way is putting it right here. Memorizing it. Put it right here. Commit it. Consume it. Have it in your head. Have it in your mind, not in your flesh. I mean, hey, the Apostle Paul said, I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. He must not have had any Scripture tattooed on him, right, because... Anyways... Sorry, that's not my strongest argument, but... Turn and flip over to Deuteronomy chapter 23. So, you know, the Bible doesn't talk a lot specifically about tattoos, but it does bring up, and I do believe Leviticus 19 and 21 are specifically talking about tattoos. But what more do you need, right? God definitely wants us to have His Word with Him, but it never even says to do anything like that. Now, not only do people do tattoos, but they also do piercings, right? Now, I'm not going to get too far in depth on this. There's a lot, well, not too much, but there's definitely something to be said about piercings and jewelry on women versus on men and making changes to your body. And I didn't spend a lot of time on this aspect because it's not as far as I wanted to go on this, but you see women receiving jewelry in Scripture, and not a bad thing. You see Abraham's servant, right, putting jewelry on Rebekah. You see things like that where it's not in a negative sense, and it looks okay. But when you see, for example, the earrings coming out of people, whenever men are listed with the earrings, it's never a good time or a good anything that's going on. When the men are giving up the earrings, it's like to make their golden calf or to do these other things. And it may seem not extremely clear, but you kind of start putting the picture together. It's like the people tend to be a little bit more wicked when the guys are walking around with earrings, okay? And I think naturally as men, you can kind of just know that, right? I mean, I don't think it's just a cultural thing. I know growing up as a teenager and stuff, I mean, if a guy had an earring, it was like, what are you, a fag? I mean, I remember that, and I remember people saying, oh, no, no, that's only if it's in your left ear, you're right here. I'm like, I don't care what ear it's in. You look like a fag. Like, girls wear jewelry. Guys don't. Okay, but then on top of that, you know, so I don't want to get into the details of like, well, is it sinful to put a hole in your ear? Like, if you're a woman and you want to have an earring, that's one thing, but these days, what you see a lot of people doing is just having these piercings, like, all over their body, okay? And they're having holes put in places where it's like, I didn't even know you can put a hole there. Like, why would you put a hole up by your eyebrow? And like, I've seen people put them, like, in the bridge of your nose. It's like, are you going to put a bone in there or what? Are you going to look like some caveman? It's like, what are you doing? Okay, these things are not godly. And nowadays, even worse, like, body modification is a thing, where people want to look like creatures and animals and add just horns and like, weird things. That stuff is perverted. It's weird. The people doing it have a serious problem. I mean, like, I'm not joking. They have problems, right? People who are doing that stuff to modify their bodies and their flesh because, for some reason, they think they need that to either... At some point, it's like, not even look cool. It's why they're so twisted in their head. They think that, like, that's part of them or something. I don't know. I mean, I don't fully understand it, other than it is just a perversion and something that God would never ordain for you to do, to be manipulating your body and changing yourself to such a degree and for no purpose. And it doesn't stop there. Now we have people, you know, trying to change whether they're a man or a woman and going through surgeries and literally mutilating their bodies to try to change who they are. And at the end of the day, they're trying to change how God made them. And when it comes to that severe, you know, body modification, there is actually a verse in Deuteronomy 23. Look at verse number 1. The Bible says, He that is wounded in the stones or hath his privy member cut off shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord. There's guys that want to go through... And that should just be enough where you can apply that now to all these other weird manner of mutilating things like... And honestly, I think the reason why this is in here isn't even because of the weird stuff that we have today. I think it's in there for what you might consider to be a more, I don't want to say acceptable, but like a normal use or something of doing something like that. It's never been right. It's always wicked. But the extent of perversion today I just think is so extreme. It's just kind of like, man. Like there's a reason why men were made eunuchs, okay, back in the days where people wanted to have them over certain business and be able to trust that they're not going to do anything that they shouldn't be doing, okay. And that was their solution to that problem. So there's a logic there that you can see. Yes, it's twisted. Yes, it's wrong. Yeah, of course, no one should ever be doing that. But you could sort of just... Okay, well, I guess I could see how someone would do that. But what's going on today? Like what? That's ridiculous. Now, maybe this type of stuff was going on back then too. Who knows? Probably. But it just seems so perverted. We have this verse here. Look, you got your privy member cut off. You're not going to enter into the congregation of the Lord. Okay, this is not everyone welcome. But flip over if you would to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. We're going to see a lot of the principles now. Like those are some specific things. You're going to be able to apply this to a lot of other specific things, okay. But what you're doing, anytime you're making these modifications, whether you're printing the marks, you're adding ink, you're, you know, getting all these piercings and just doing this stuff to your body, what you're doing is you're destroying the temple of the Holy Ghost. If you're a saved individual, you are destroying the temple. You are modifying and changing that appearance from the way that God made you into something else. And it's not right. Look at verse number 15 of 1 Corinthians chapter 6. The Bible says, Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Your bodies are the members of Christ. Your body and how you present your body and what you do to your body are the members of Christ. It matters. Don't think that God doesn't care and God wants me to be me and I need to let my true expression come out and I'm going to get these tattoos and I'm going to do all this stuff. No. If you are born again, know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. Now this is the context. It's sleeping around and whoremongering and going around and laying with whores. But that's something that you would do one time or whatever. That's something that only lasts a small amount of time. What I'm talking about, things are going to last for the rest of your life. Maybe a piercing the hole will close up or something, but the rest of this stuff, you're getting tattoos. Well, I could just always get the tattoo removed. Have you ever seen a tattoo removal? A lot of scarring, a lot of damage. It's not like an eraser with a pencil where you can do it enough and be like, oh yeah, look, it's all gone. That's not how tattoo removal works. Let's keep reading here. Verse number 16. What know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body, for to sayeth he shall be one flesh, but he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit? Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body, but he that commiteth fornication sineth against his own body. What know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price. Our body's not ours. Our body houses the Holy Ghost. It is his temple. Okay? We are not our own. We're bought with a price. God has redeemed you with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. That's the price. That's what he bought you with. You belong to him. Body, soul, and spirit all belong to God. You are the steward of the flesh that God gave you that you reside in as well, but don't forget the Holy Ghost is residing there too. So since you're bought with a price, the Bible says, therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. Glorify God. How are you going to glorify God in your body when you're printing marks, when you said not to print marks? How are you glorifying God in your body when you're adding a bunch of holes to your face and to your body and making yourself look weird when God never told you to do that? How does that glorify God? How does it glorify God when you're drawing attention to yourself by doing these weird things and body mutilations? Look, everybody sees and everybody looks when the guy with the horns walks in. That's attention-grabbing. You know what that is also? That's immodest. It's immodest because modesty is humility. It's meekness. It's not about me. Don't need the focus on me. It's not the attention at all. See, the reason why women who wear low-cut tops or really high bottoms, why is that immodest? Because it draws all the eyes to that area of the body. It's immodest. You're drawing all that attention to you. That's why you should be wearing modest clothing to cover up, to say, oh, don't draw the eyes. Well, there's a lot of other ways that eyes are drawn, too. That's why the Bible says also, we're going to turn to it a little bit later, about the costly apparel and the gold and pearls and embroidered hair. All these different things, all the flashy stuff that's going to make people look at you is immodest. So making these modifications and, I mean, let's face it. If someone has a tattoo, you're just like, what is that? It's like advertisements inside. I mean, your eyes just get drawn to this stuff. It's there, right? It's something that grabs your attention and grabs your eyes. You see that, oh, I wonder what that's like. You can't even help yourself, probably, just seeing these things. You're just drawn to it. And that's why people put it on there so that it could be seen, right? I mean, that's usually why. I guess some people, I don't know why then. I never understood. Why do people put tattoos in places that no one will ever see or like on their back? Like, they're not even going to see it. Who sees that? Like, in these weird random places? I don't know. It's like, I just wanted to have a tattoo. Why? So you could be like everyone else and be unique? Oh, I want to be me. I want to be unique. Yeah, you be unique like everyone else that has a tattoo. Flip through the book of all your options of tattoos, right? I want this one. That's kind of unique. It's in the book. Someone else has it. Sorry, it's not very unique. How about you're already unique? Because God made you a certain way. Okay, so principle number one, why tattoos are not good, your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost, okay? While this is specifically bringing up in context fornication, I think you could easily apply this in many ways when you treat your body as the temple of the Holy Ghost, you shouldn't be gluttonous. You shouldn't be doing drugs and drinking and smoking cigarettes and doing all the things that are going to destroy your body. Hey man, it's the temple of the Holy Ghost. Show some respect to God who's going to be housed in your body. Let's clean up the body, not make it all filthy. Including whoring around and getting some disease and whatever else. Flip over to Psalm 139. We're going to read some passages just about God making you. See, oftentimes the piercings and tattoos and body modifications, all these other things, they come from people who want to change their appearance because maybe they don't like something about them or they're trying to add something to who they are or what they are, but I'm telling you, you don't need that. I don't want you to feel like you need that. You ought to be confident in how God made you. How God made you special, God made you unique already. Okay, there is not another one of you in existence. Everyone is a unique soul, unique creature, unique being that was made and formed and fashioned by God. God made you. God made you the way you are. Be happy with how God made you. There's no reason not to be happy. You may not have some things that someone else has, so what? If you follow that line of thinking, you won't be happy anyways. If you think that the modifications and the mutilations or whatever else you're doing is going to be, well, this will make me happy. It doesn't. There's a reason why very few people walk around with like just one tattoo because they get one and it's maybe kind of cool or whatever and then they get another one and then they get another one and then they get another one and then they got to have the sleeve and then they got, you know, it's like it just goes on and on and on because you're never going to be satisfied. Do you think that's going to satisfy you? No. It just keeps going. Look at Psalm 139, verse number 13. For thou hast possessed my reins, thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance yet being unperfect. The building blocks of your life. God knows everything from where you came from and how you were made before you were even completely formed and fashioned yet being unperfect and in thy book all my members were written which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there was none of them. God already knew you were going to be before you were even made. They're already written down and you weren't even in existence yet. How precious also, verse 17, are thy thoughts unto me, O God. How great is the sum of them. That's a great comfort for anyone who's doubting themselves or think they need something else to draw attention to or make themselves feel better or beautify themselves or whatever the reason you'd be thinking about mutilating your flesh God's thoughts are on you and how great is the sum of them. God cares about you, God loves you, and God made you. He made you the way you are and He likes you the way you are as far as the way that He made you. Right? Now if you're doing things that are sinful, He doesn't like that, change that. But those are your actions, those are the things that you do. But who you are physically, you don't need to change that. Verse 18 says, If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. Those are the thoughts that God has towards an individual. I would say towards every individual. Trying to count the amount of thoughts that God has towards people, towards an individual, He says they're more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with thee. God's so big that it doesn't matter how many billions of people are on this earth, He could have that many thoughts towards every individual. And it's not a problem. And you still get personal thought devoted to you from God. You were made. You were made. But there's seven billion people, they were all made. Yeah, they were all made. It's amazing. And we have the honor and luxury of being able to still have thoughts that we can say, God thought about me. Now if you're upset with the way that God made you, maybe you have some challenges in your life. Don't get beat up. Embrace the way that God made you, maybe you have some challenges in your life. Don't get bitter against God and don't think that you need to change those things. Embrace the way that God made you and be content with how you are, with how God made you. Now, obviously there's room for if there's some type of birth defect or something that can help you function the way that God made mankind in general, like you're born with a stump or something instead of a full leg. I don't see the problem with adding to make it like a normal mold of a human being to do something to that aspect. But to change your appearance and your looks just because you don't like the way you look in that regards, it's vanity and God made you the way that you are. The Bible says in Jeremiah 1.4, you have to turn there, turn if you would to 1 Peter chapter 3. Jeremiah 1.4 says, Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee, and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee and ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. God formed Jeremiah in the belly as well as everyone else. Exodus 4.10, the Bible says, And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant, but I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue. So Moses is kind of given some reasoning why he doesn't think he should be the one to do the job that God has for him. Like, look, I can't really speak that well. I got a slow tongue. You know, I kind of stumble over my words. I'm not really good with speaking. But God answers them in verse 11. And the Lord said unto them, Who hath made man's mouth? Like, you're going to tell me that you're slow of tongue? Who do you think made your mouth, Moses? Or who maketh the dumb or deaf or the seeing or the blind? Have not I the Lord? I make people that way. And don't think that that's even always a detriment. It may be a challenge for you, but God has put people in different situations for different reasons. Even with some, you know, so-called disabilities, the deaf, the blind, you know, things like that, God may have a special purpose for you that you don't even realize. And instead of being so focused on something that you don't have, how about you focus on serving God and just saying, God, well, you made me this way. So what can I do for you and how can I serve you in this capacity? And we don't know the big picture of the things. And sometimes we don't even know what we can do. God knows what we can do and God knows what he wants us to do. And if we seek him, he'll direct us and he'll guide us into doing what it is he wants us to do. But we got to start by not getting angry at God. We got to start by accepting where we're at and not being so focused on some of these other things and just say, you know what, I'm going to be content with how God made me. And besides, what is on the inside is what matters the most anyways, right? Not your external appearance. Now we've seen in many cases that God does care about your external appearance. He cares about your body. He wants your body to be holy. It's not your own. But what matters the most and what you should be most concerned about is what's on the inside. 1 Peter chapter 3, look at verse number 1. The Bible says, Likewise ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, and if any obey not the word. They also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives, while they behold your chaste conversation, coupled with fear. Who's adorning? Now it's talking about the wives. Who's adorning? Let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair and of wearing of gold or putting on of apparel. He's like, that's not what you should be concerned with. Don't concern yourself with all these external appearance factors of how you're going to look. If you're going to adorn yourself with something, it says, But let it be the hidden man of the heart, the inside. Something that goes down to your soul, who you are. That's what God wants you adorning yourself with. That's what God wants you working on and improving and making better and any changes that you need to make to become more godly on the inside. Don't be so focused on these external things. Well, I've got to get a tattoo and I've got to get more piercings and I've got to get these other things. Look, don't worry about that stuff. Worry about what's on the inside. Let it be the hidden man of the heart and that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit which is in sight of God of great price. God loves to see godly women who have an ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. That's what God likes. He likes to see that. And that's how He wants you focused. Focus on those things. Don't worry about all the external stuff. You spend five hours of the day focused on how your external looks and it's like you spend five minutes of the day focused on your internal. You got it backwards. Seriously. Flip over to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Just more reasons why you shouldn't be making any adjustments to your outward appearance by mutilating your body and mutilating your flesh. You know, we house the Holy Ghost. That's a pretty big one. With tattoos, God's word literally says not to do it. We see that God's the one who formed and fashioned us. We should respect that and understand, well, hey, if God made me this way, then maybe I shouldn't just be so bent on trying to change the way I look. God made me this way. God gave you your voice. God made your tongue. God made all these parts about you. See what He wants you to do with it. Instead of worrying about changing it all. How about this? You're a new creature. You're born again. Verse 17. The Bible says, Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, behold, all things have become new, and all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. So because you're a new creature, you've got a new job. You're born again. Now you've got a new job. What's your job? Well, He's putting you into the ministry. The ministry of reconciliation. What does that mean? To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Reconciling people to God. Verse 20. This is important. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ's stead be ye reconciled to God. Now, knowing that you are an ambassador, what's an ambassador? A representative of God here on earth. If you let that sink in and think, well, how can I be the best representative of Jesus Christ, since Jesus Christ is no longer walking on earth, how can I represent Him the best? I know, I'm going to get these holes right here, and it's going to make my eyes stand up, and I'm going to do these crazy... No. No. You're not representing Christ very well. When God said He's setting apart Himself a peculiar people, that's not what He meant. He's not talking about you doing all kinds of weird, crazy stuff. I know I'll be an angel and I'll attach wings to my back. No. No. Be an evangelist by preaching the Word and being that ambassador, and don't make yourself look goofy and weird by modifying your body. The reason why you're going to be peculiar and set apart is because you're going to be behaving a little bit different than the world, not physically looking different, because you're destroying your flesh. We're ambassadors. And you can apply that in so many ways, just having that understanding. Even with your actions, you're an ambassador. What happens when ambassadors or people who are in political office or whatever, they get caught doing wicked things? That's a dishonor. That's a shame. Well, these days, very little seems to be shameful anymore, unfortunately, but for people who have any morality to them, yeah, it's a shame. When you see people, you represent ... I mean, if you send someone out to represent you, and they're out doing some drugs or something and then going to meet up with someone that you need them meeting up with, you're going to be angry with that person, right? You'll be like, you're not representing me at all. Get out of here. We're representing Jesus Christ. We're representing Christ on this earth. Colossians 3, turn, if you would, to 1 John chapter 2. It's the last place I would turn. 1 John chapter 2. Colossians 3, 23, the Bible says, And whatsoever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord, and not unto men. Everything that we do, it ought to be just sold out for God. You're an ambassador for Christ. Hey, do that heartily. Take it seriously. And honestly, this is one of the reasons why I wear a suit and tie to church everywhere I go. This is why. This is one of the reasons why. It's because I look at passages like this. If I'm going to be an ambassador for Christ, then you know what? I want to try to make sure that I'm doing the best job that I can, and what you wear matters, and the way that people treat you, it matters. Talk about someone who I wear a suit and tie. Anytime I wear a suit and tie, and I'm out because I'm coming to church or whatever, and I go to a grocery store, or I go somewhere else, everybody treats you different than when I go out in a t-shirt and shorts. It's a fact. Okay? So if I'm going to be representing Christ and acting on behalf of Christ, hey, I want people to be paying attention and giving me their best because I'm trying to bring my best for Christ. That's just one example, right? This is one of the reasons why you're going to see me. And look, we don't have a dress code. You do what you want. Some people, one, can't afford to have a dress code. You have certain types of clothing, and that's fine. And I don't think you should be spending tons of money on fancy clothing either. I don't spend very much money on the clothes because, again, you don't want people then looking at, oh, what brand is that? You're like, now you're missing the point. Now you're not, you know. The point is to look good, look clean, come well-kempt, don't come all disheveled and everything else. You know, bring your best. Be a best representation as you can. And don't do things to make people not want to listen to you. And just as much as there is a difference in the way people will treat you and talk to you, the way that you're dressed, when you're all tatted up, that makes a difference too. It absolutely does. A person's impression of you, right or wrong, doesn't matter. It's a fact. And like I said, if you already have it, there's nothing you can do about it at this point. But for the people who haven't done it, think about that. We want to be as respectable as possible to be that good ambassador. And at the end of the day, I mean, these tattoos and piercings and body modification stuff, isn't it really just the way of the world anyways? I mean, honestly, isn't it just the world that promotes this stuff? Like if something's just worldly, isn't this world? This is not something that is coming from God at all. Even if you're going to say that the passage we turn to in Leviticus has nothing to do with tattoos, even if that were to be true, it's not of God to get tattoos. If you say, well, it's not sinful, it's not of God to get tattoos. It's not. I mean, there's nowhere in the Bible that's instructing you to do anything of the sort at all. I think there's plenty of evidence showing us whether it be applications of principles or literally Leviticus 19 and Leviticus 21, okay? But it's of the world. And the Bible says in 1 John 2, verse 15, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him, for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world. You're modifying your what? Your flesh. You've got the lust of the flesh, you've got the lust of the eyes. Why? To be seen. And the pride of life, oftentimes we will get tattoos and such and do these things because they're proud. Oh yeah, I want to look tough. I'm going to get a big dragon tattoo. Okay. Yeah, you're bad. No one's going to mess with you now because you've got ink on your skin. Whatever, right? It's stupid. It's stupid. Don't do it. All right? Any of you kids, you think it's cool? It's not cool. Well, everything is cool now. It's not going to be cool. It's not, you know, the people that get those tattoos and they get emotional, when you're wrinkly and old, it is not going to look cool at all. You're going to wish it wasn't there. You're going to look back and be like, why did I ever, ever do that? I've seen some stupid tattoos in my day. I'll tell you, and I remember seeing some friends and other people that got them and just thinking like, I think that's stupid now. And you think that's going to be cool in the future? I thank God I never went down that path. Some people did, but it never seemed to make sense to me. But hey, if you did, like I said, it's done. But if you're thinking about anything in the future, you know, just don't do it. Be wise. Don't have to learn by experience on this one. Apply the principles. God made you who you are. Embrace that. OK? Thank God for that. However you are, God made you the way you are. And he put a lot of thought into you when he made you. Just remember that. That's my word of prayer. Dear Lord, we love you. Thank you so much for making us the way that you made us. It is truly unique. It is truly special because you formed every single one of us individually, dear Lord. You've given us our strengths and our weaknesses and the things that we have. And God, thank you for all of those things. And Lord, help us to use what you've given us to the best of our ability. Help us to represent you properly here on this earth and that we could. In both our inside and outward appearance, just be pleasing to you and be useful to the cause that you have us here. Lord, we love you. I pray to please keep all of us safe as we go our separate ways this evening and just bless our church. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen. I do have one more request and one quick announcement before I turn the service back over to Peter. Anyone that has a little bit of extra time after service, if you can help pitch in and do a little bit of cleanup, I'd really appreciate it. The people who are scheduled for today were not able to make it because of illness. So anyone that can just do a little bit here and there will help me out quite a bit and I'd appreciate it. All right. Thank you. All right church, if you can open up your hymnals to song number 364. Song 364, Standing on the Promises. Song 364. All right, let's sing this out. Standing on the promises of Christ my King, Who eternal ages let his reigns be free, Glory in the highest I will shout and sing, Standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing, Standing on the promises of God my King, Standing on the promises of God my King, Standing, standing, I'm standing on the promises of God, Standing on the promises that cannot fail, When the house warm and out of fear does sail, By the living Word of God I shall prevail, Standing on the promises of God, Standing, standing, Standing on the promises of God my King, Standing, standing, I'm standing on the promises of God, Standing on the promises of Christ the Lord, Out to him eternally my love strong, Overcoming daily when the Spirit's sore, Standing on the promises of God, Standing, standing, Standing on the promises of God my King, Standing, standing, I'm standing on the promises of God on the last, Standing on the promises that cannot fall, Listen every moment to the Spirit's call, Resting in my Savior as my own way long, Standing on the promises of God, Standing, standing, Standing on the promises of God my Savior, Standing, standing, I'm standing on the promises of God. Amen church, great singing, thank you so much for coming you guys. Amen. Amen.