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Mariners Church Weekend Messages
February 8 - Does God care what I do with my body? Fitness, tattoos, plastic surgery—all the things - Christine Caine
00:36:55
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Welcome to Mariners Church Weekend Message Podcast. Inspiring people to follow Jesus and fearlessly change the world. Discover your purpose and get connected by visiting MarinersChurch.org or click the link in the show notes.
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Church.
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I am so fired up to be here today. Now because I'm Australian and we play real football in Australia. Like we don't wear helmets and we don't have pads. I just need. I'm fascinated, actually. I've learned a lot about our church this morning. Who actually here is like a Seahawks fan who's going for the Seahawks today? Okay, a few of you. How many are Patriots fans who really couldn't care less?
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Pastor Eric, that's our church. I am just like, wow, I don't blame you.
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I mean, if you played Aussie rules or rugby league, that would be great. But anyway, I am just throwing that out there because I still don't even understand American football. But I did. And this is what I do want you to know. This year, the year of the Lord 2026, I turn 60 years old this year. 60.
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And I've been telling our church all weekend, all of our congregations, all of.
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Our locations, because I want presents all year. I figure if you exist to 60, I am not just celebrating on the 23rd of September, I'm having a 365 day celebration of turning 60. And I decided this year I'm going to do at least 60 things that I've never done before. Now, some of them are big things and most of them are kind of small things. Like I'm not, you know, I'm eating stuff I've never eaten. I'm going to try things. So I was speaking at the Passion Conference in Dallas, Texas earlier this year, like on the 1st of January. And so I thought, I'm gonna do something I've never done. I've been to Texas literally hundreds of times. And they had in between sessions. I had driven past this a lot over the times I've been down there, but I've never had it. They had this thing called like Whataburger. And you know, now I know why it's called. Anyway, so it was like I thought, I am gonna try this because I'm gonna start on of the year, I am going to try something I've never tried. So I had a bite of a Whataburger. And all I'm saying is from now until the day I die, I am going into glory as an in and out burger eater.
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And nothing else in my life that was like a one and done.
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That was cool.
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Then we went up to Alaska and.
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I got to see the Northern lights because I haven't done that before and went dog sledding. And I'm trying to do a whole bunch of stuff I haven't done now.
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For me, it was a big to.
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Kind of go back into the snow because when I grew up in Sydney, Australia, it's a little bit like California in that, you know, there's mostly surfing and you have to go really far to go skiing and there's not a lot of it. And I also grew up in a Greek family. And you all have to know that Greeks are fatalists. And by that I mean for a Greek, it does not matter how bad things are, because they can always get worse.
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And so my mother would. This is how I grew up. My mom being Christina, don't go skiing because if you ski you will die. And there was like, no nothing in between.
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You couldn't like go skiing and ski, but you're gonna die. So when we moved to America, thank God, I was like a 14 hour plane ride away from my mother. And even though I was 45, I'm scared of my Greek mother and her Windex. And so I kind of was just making sure, you know, I can now do things that I'm away from. Mum. So we had friends from Louisiana and they five families and you know, I love them and very hard to understand their English, but, you know, when you first moved to America, I'm like, wow, okay. So they all came, Nick's best friends, and they wanted took us skiing in Colorado. I'd never been, and this was really exciting.
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Now the fact is, I didn't know.
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How to ski, but it was during the Winter Olympics, so I was so into it. I would watch the Olympics at night and then I would get up the next day and go, I am representing Australia. This is it. This is all for Australia. But I didn't know what I was doing. So I'm kind of on the flat green slopes with the three year old kids that are learning how to ski. And this one day, all the guys, we sort of call them, you know, the raging Cajuns, they're just like crazy people. And so they're going on these black double diamond suicide kind of runs. And I said to Nick, honey, I want you to come with me today. And so he took a deep breath and like every good husband, it's like, yes, you know, he's coming with me. And we're on the slopes, us and the three year olds and all his mates are up on the black double diamonds. And he said. I said to him, I go, babe, if you were with the guys today, you wouldn't be having any more fun, would you? And of course, any man in the room that's been married for more than 13 seconds, you know that if your wife ever asks you a loaded question like that, there is only ever one right answer. And if you wanted any, that's exactly what you would say to your wife.
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But so she. You know, my husband, being a man.
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Of integrity, this is what he says to me, full on. He goes, you know, Chris, if I was with the guys right now, I'd be having. He didn't just say more. He goes, I'd be having much more fun. Now, look at this personality type. That's like putting a red rag in front of a bull. So I turn around, I go, well, babe, famous last words. I go, well, babe, eat my snow. And I turned my skis downhill. And about 20 seconds later, I knew I was in serious trouble. On my second somersault that was not anticipated, and one of my skis went flying off. And then while I was upside down, I heard the loudest pop, pop, pop that you've heard. And I snapped my acl, tore my mcl, tore my meniscus, fractured my knee. I did it all. I mean, I was down. I couldn't move. You know, they got the ski patrol. You know how they put you in that coffin and they take you down the mountain and you, like, assume death posture. And so I was there, and I ended up having to have. I mean, I wrecked my knee. I had to have a hamstring graft.
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And mind you, my mother, she calls.
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I come straight out of surgery.
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Why my husband even brought the phone.
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Into the recovery room, I don't know.
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But he brings the phone in, and then my mother, he puts the phone to my ear. This is just so, you know, the.
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Kind of family I grew up in.
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My mother's like, christina, I am so glad you had an accident, because I told you, if you go skiing, you will die.
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Why am I saying that? So going back to Alaska just was a healing of the memories for me. But the deal is that it took me so long to recover and to go just through the rehab for that to happen. And it really impacted me for a year, and it impacted what I'm called to do. And really, what happens to your body is deeply impacting. Today's subject. We're talking on the table. Does God really care about what I do with my body, about my body? This is what the conclusion I've come to. And as I'm 60, it means even more to me. My mentor, who's now 85, said to me very early on, when I first stepped into vocational ministry, she said, christine, you better start eating healthy now. You better start exercising if you want to have longevity and go the distance. And especially we run a 21, so we deliver services in 22 countries around the world. I'm constantly doing laps of the globe, and the issue is for me to do what God's called me to do and to faithfully run my race and finish my course at this point of my life. Now, of course, this still matters, but less important is how much more anointing I get or how much more theological knowledge I get. All that is important, but the deciding factor about how far and how long I can go to do what God's called me to do really will be more the condition of my body. And as I go now into my sixth decade, it really matters. And I wish I had listened to my mentor even earlier, because, you know, when you're young and you're in youth ministry, you just think you can eat pizza, you know, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and you're gonna be fine. And she said this to me, which didn't make much sense to me back then, but at 60, it makes sense. She said, chris, start stretching early. I thought she was gonna say to me, like, pray more. Read the Bible more. You know, fast more. She's like, no. She goes, the only thing I really regret is that I didn't start stretching earlier. Can I just say, with all the plane flights I do, I now think that woman was onto something. And so if you get nothing else out of today, just stretch more. Okay?
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So the point is that it matters.
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You and I are embodied beings. We're not disembodied beings. Whether you're here or outside today, the fact is that I'm not talking to a bunch of kind of floating spirits, like, if the person next to you, like, please see someone.
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But the fact is that we are.
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Embodied people in bodies. I'm speaking to you from a body. You're in a body. Our bodies are not kind of supplementary or incidental to our humanity. They're actually part of us as human beings. In fact, in Psalm 139, it says, for it was you who created my inward parts. You knit me together in my mother's womb. I will praise you because I have been remarkably and wondrously made. Your works are wondrous, and I know this very well, God made us with intentionality. He created us with a body, not just kind of like a this sort of little suit that's going to be here. And it really doesn't matter. It really matters. God gave it to us. In fact, this is how important our body is. In First Corinthians, chapter 6, verse 19, it says, don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you? We could just pause and do a six week series just on that. That our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit of God, the same Spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead. This body is the container for that spirit whom you have from God. You are not your own, for you were bought at a price. Our bodies are in the redemption that Jesus purchased for us. So what? Glorify God with your body. That is a very sobering scripture as to the importance. Our bodies are not incidental. And of course there's various degrees of functionality and mobility and health and fitness in this room and in all of our congregations. That's not specifically what I'm speaking about, but we are all embodied people. And whatever state we're in, that body is very, very important to God. Romans 12:1. I love this because the first 11 chapters of Romans, I mean such rich, rich theology in there about Jesus and his atoning work on the cross and what that purchased for us and what Jesus did for us. And Paul comes to this culmination in.
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Romans chapter 12 and he says, because of all of this wondrous thing that Jesus has done for us.
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Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true worship. True worship is not just us singing our songs, which is so powerful, but it's a full on embodied experience. The way we live our lives in and through these bodies. What we do with our bodies is part of our spiritual act of worship. There are spiritual implications for that. And of course, you know, one day these bodies are going to go to dust. You know, I'm so pumped for those of you that want to have like even a seven pack, that's fantastic. But even that seventh pack one day is going to go to dust. But our new glorified bodies, I'm not quite sure about the mystery of it all, but they're actually going to be physical bodies. This is how important this is. Romans 8:11 says, and if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then he who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through his spirit who lives in you. So there is no doubt that our bodies are an integral part of our being human beings. Now from early church history, from the first century, there have been various heresies that have come to the fore that basically try to either dismiss or deny the importance of the body. We see it right down, particularly a movement called Gnosticism. And just very simply what these people believed was that basically everything physical is kind of evil, especially the body and everything spiritual is good. So they kind of tried to little bit New Agey, we tried to get on a higher spiritual plane by denying the value of anything physical. So of course where the heresy lied was that the Gnostics didn't believe in the incarnation, because of course they're thinking if God is going to come to earth, there is no way he's going to come in a body because the body is bad. And so you see it through monastic living, you know, doing and beating the body, or just highly valuing only spiritual practices like prayer and fasting and scripture and basically at the expense of any good wise stewardship of the body. Now you've seen this thread throughout history, it's almost split the church time and time again. And there are threads of that in different streams of the church around the place. I grew up in that more leaning direction, almost with a degree of legalism around it. But it has its roots in this kind of thinking that there is no way that you should do anything to draw attention to yourself and you should in no way enhance your beauty because you just should be committed to spiritual things and that's all that God cares about.
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And you know, some well meaning people.
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Too would pick up scriptures that are in the Bible that really speak to these things that are important. And Proverbs 31:30 says, Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord will be praised. That it's like, okay, so don't worry about anything external because these things are just going to pass away, they're not eternal. And then in First Peter, Peter writes, don't let your beauty consist of outward things like elaborate hairstyles and wearing gold jewelry or fine clothes, but rather what is inside the heart, the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit. I'm working on that which is of great worth in God's sight.
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And so these scriptures, you go, okay.
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Well Christine, it's obvious, you know, we shouldn't be enhancing our beauty and maybe we shouldn't be wearing jewelry or makeup because. But Peter was not saying this. What Peter was highlighting here was the priority of our spiritual formation and becoming Christlike. And the fact that our beauty does stem from the inside out. And also our value to God is not based on what we're wearing. It's based on what Jesus did for us on the cross. That's how valuable we are to him. It's got nothing to do with our external appearance and everything to do with the fact that we're created in his image. That is where our inherent value is. Now this is revolutionary. In 2026, you and I are living.
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In the midst of a marketing culture of $600 billion.
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Industry based on beauty. Now, I've been involved in youth ministry for almost my entire four decades of vocational ministry. And it has always been a great pressure for young people. But obviously since the advent of social media and what they see, young people are bombarded morning, noon and night, 24, 7 with images of this. This is, you know, what beauty looks like. And you wonder why we have unprecedented rates of anxiety and depression and body dysmorphia and eating disorders. Because they are just so pressured to look a certain way. You're only valuable if you look like this. You are only, you know, you can only have dignity if you wear this or if you weigh this much or if you have. Now, look, it's not just young people. I'm now seeing 60 this year. I keep telling you because I want presents.
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And so I'm just telling you that even in my age bracket, the amount.
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Of women I can speak on behalf.
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Of that anyway, that we have such a multi billion dollar anti aging industry that women are scared of getting old. It's kind of like the fact is I'm 60, I'm not 20, I'm 60, I'm not 30. And I keep saying my age cause it's great. I could be dead. I'm glad that I'm alive. And so I hope I make it to 70. There is nothing wrong with getting older.
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So the issue here is Peter is going really counterculture and saying because in these days, although they didn't have social media, there's the same pressure, especially on women, especially on women, that you gotta look a certain way, you've gotta weigh a certain amount. But Peter's saying beauty actually flows from the inside out. And that is all true because we all know people that maybe even externally measure up to the world's standard of what beautiful is. But man, they open their mouth and there's nothing full of love or joy or peace or kindness or goodness that comes out of their mouth. And you're like, man, doesn't matter how good looking you are. What a waste. Because you don't have the character of Christ on the inside and you have other people that perhaps don't measure up to what the world would say looks beautiful. And my gosh, you just want to be around those people because they exude an inner beauty that flows from the heart. I do want you to notice though, what Peter didn't say in that list when he talked about external adornment. He did not say don't wear makeup. He didn't say don't style or color your hair. He didn't say don't wear moisturizer. He didn't, you're getting nervous. Where is she going with this?
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He didn't say don't go to a tanning booth.
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He didn't say don't get a piercing. He didn't say don't get tattoos. He didn't say don't go a gym membership. He didn't say don't wear fashionable clothes or he didn't say don't do your nails or go to an orthodontist or get braces. He didn't say don't wear jewelry or don't use anti aging creams or don't get cosmetic surgery. Nowhere do you see that in First Peter. Although he was prioritizing our spiritual formation and Christlikeness, nowhere did he say, don't do these specific things. Now here is the deal. Some of you already are thinking, christine, are you serious? If God, if I'm created in the image of God, if I'm fearfully and.
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Wonderfully made in my mother's womb, we shouldn't do anything. Because I mean, seriously, how do you improve on perfection? If God made me like that, we shouldn't do anything.
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And I'm thinking, okay, could you please keep brushing your teeth and comb your hair?
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That'd be awesome. Others of us, we're thinking, well, Christine.
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You obviously don't read the Bible. Have you not read Leviticus 19:28 where it says you're not to make gashes on your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves? I am the Lord. Well, that's a given, Christine. So of course, you know, all tattoos must be just of the devil. We shouldn't do those sort of things. And still others might be thinking, well, you know, there's nothing wrong with using a bit of moisturiser because my skin's dry, but don't you dare bring you know, we shouldn't be putting any needles anywhere and enhancing anything else.
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And still others are going, chris, would you read the room? We're in Southern California, honey. This is what we do.
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And what you'll see is that this conversation about our bodies is extremely new, nuanced. It's complex. And we all bring our own presumptions and assumptions into a conversation like this. It is stunning. Often we think scripture says something that actually is not in the Bible. It might just be part of the religious tradition that we grew up in or just even what is really our personal preference. And then sometimes we ignore the seriousness of some things the scripture does say about an overemphasis on our external appearance because of the culture that we live in and how it's just the water that we swim in. Both are an error. And so what happens is that we often can confuse, when it comes to this, our own personal preference with spiritual principles. Now, the fact is, scripture does speak very clearly about certain things we can and cannot do with our bodies, and particularly when it comes to sex and gender. The Bible is very specific. They're non negotiable. But on kind of things I'm talking about today that are on the table, what you're gonna find. Most of these things fall into the category of a personal preference. And the fact is we all have our own personal preference. And it is amazing where we have the line. Some of us think, man, nobody should do that. But we have no problem with taking two hours to get ready in the morning or having X amount of outfits in our closet. I mean, where do you start drawing a line? Some of you have come to church.
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Thinking, could you just tell me if it's this or this or how much of this or this?
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But what I've discovered is most things are a matter of conscience between you and the Lord. And the bigger issue is the why issue, which we're gonna get to, but we all have.
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I'm a mother.
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I have certain personal preferences about, you know, my daughters and what I like, I don't like. But I don't ever want to confuse them with what their mother's personal preference is and what God's word says. They could be two different things, and I've gotta make sure that I don't confuse that. Now, as most of you know, I'm kind of pretty relaxed when it comes to things like makeup or whatever. But my daughters are obsessed.
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I think they came out of my.
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Womb putting on eyeliner.
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I'm like, who are you? I literally am like, what womb did you come out of? So it's just there are things that.
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Are just a personal preference and we have to be very, very careful that we're not judging one another because we have different preferences, particularly when it comes to this conversation. And I would say this pertains to most of our conversations in our on the Table series. I love the words of Paul In Romans, chapter 14, verse 22. He says this. Whatever you believe about these things, keep between yourself and God. This is what I would like to post on social media. To be honest with you, about most things in life, whatever you believe, honey, that's between you and the Lord. But that's okay. It says, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. When it comes to issues of personal preference, I'm not talking about where there is absolute biblical clarity, that's non negotiable obedience to God, but where it's areas of preference, then you know what, it's.
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Just, it's okay, you like that.
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And in the words of some great philosopher of the 21st century, you do, you boo. And so that would just be where it would go. So some of us are thinking, okay.
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Chris, what can I do?
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And how much, how much makeup can I wear? How much jewelry can I wear? How many new outfits can I have in my closet? Or you know, how fashionable can I be? Can I wear 2026 clothes? Or does it stop the anointing stop at 2023? You know, I don't know, how much grooming do we do? What enhancements can I do? How many and where? And if you saw the Grammys, there's a lot.
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And so which, how many tattoos and piercings? I mean, you could go on. Do I just eat organic food? Can I work out three times a week or six times a week?
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And how clean should my diet is.
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When we start breaking all this down?
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Most of this is just an issue of personal preference. But you've got to ask yourself some questions. Is what I'm doing glorifying God? Is what I'm doing taking away or adding to me becoming more Christlike? So can I go to the gym however many times? Well, great.
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But let's ask ourselves, according to our.
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Family budget or my own personal finances, however it might be, is this the best stewardship of my resources? If I'm going out five times a week, does that mean I'm neglecting going to my kids games? Or does that mean I'm not involved in any small group in any rooted Group in church or serving maybe the poor or the vulnerable. Am I still being generous? I mean, these are questions we need to ask ourselves because they play into everything that we're saying.
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Now.
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Remember, the priority is always the internal state of the heart. I love in 1st Samuel, chapter 16, verse 7. When Samuel's going to anoint David to be the new king of Israel, he first saw David's older brother, Eliab. And the scripture says he saw Eliab and thought, surely this is the Lord's anointed. And that's what most of us do. We scroll and we swipe through social media, and we're so trained to look at external standards that we think, okay, surely it's that a lot of us do that. You know, on our online dating. It's like we get onto Hitch and we think, oh, surely this is my new spouse. And then they come to dinner and you think it's lurch. There's like a disparity between what they've posted and the reality of what's happening. Cause everyone's just filtering everything they put out there. And we're just trained to do that. And sometimes that's how we come to God. We think, I've just got to put a filter on the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ Church. You don't have to put any filter on. He sees the heart. He can't love you any more than he does right now. No matter what work you get done, no matter what clothes you wear, you have to know nothing you do is going to make God love you any more or any less than he does. Because you are a child of God created in the image of God.
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And none of the things I'm talking.
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About have got to do with whether you're saved or not. Because what I do or don't do is not what makes me saved or not saved. What Jesus did at Calvary is where my salvation lies. It's what Jesus did.
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And so he says, but the Lord.
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Said to Samuel, do not look at his appearance or his stature, because I have rejected him. Humans do not see what the Lord sees, for humans see what is visible. Isn't that the truth in 2026? But the Lord sees the heart, but he doesn't just throw away the physical, because just five verses later, same chapter. So Jesse sent for him, talking about David.
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He had beautiful eyes and a healthy, handsome appearance. I love that the Lord threw that in. And I could give you a whole lot more Scriptures where the Lord alludes and makes mention of physicality at no.
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Point is he saying, well, just neglect it.
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Yeah, you'd have to think like I.
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Did in women's ministry, man, you had.
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To look unhappy and you had to.
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Look ugly and frumpy and just like.
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You didn't like God or life. And that made you spiritual. That's not what we're talking about.
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You do the best with what God's given you.
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And I hope you think your spouse.
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Is hot.
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And there's nothing wrong with that. Says David was handsome. Doesn't exactly explain what that means. So I think David must have looked.
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Like Nick, my husband. And I hope you insert your spouse into that. It's okay to think that. I used to think to be really spiritual, God's gonna make me marry someone.
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That I think is really ugly, and that's gonna make me spiritual.
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I mean, we think weird stuff and.
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Somehow that's gonna make me more holy.
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C
And God, that proves to you that I love you. And the Lord's like you an idiot anyway, so. But remember, when it comes to anything external for the training of the body, 1 Timothy 4, 8, Paul writes to Timothy has limited benefit, but godliness is beneficial in every way. The priority is godly. We don't neglect temporal physical bodies and fitness and health. We've got to be good stewards of this one and only body that God's given us to the best of our ability. That is not attaining worldly success, but just doing the best with what I've got that God's given me. It says, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. And then when, of course, it comes to plastic surgery. And I do want to make sure there's a distinction here between reconstructive surgery and cosmetic surgery. And of course, what I'm not talking about today, this is not. What's on the table is reconstructive surgery. And we thank God for our plastic surgery surgeons. I was just thinking, you know, things like cleft lip or palate repair or skin grafts for burns or breast reconstruction after a mastectomy. We ought to thank God for our plastic surgeons and thank God for all of the advancements that have been made in this field. I am so grateful seeing the work firsthand around the world of just the transformative power of this to restore something back to how it originally looked or functions. I'm not speaking about that. I'm talking about cosmetic surgery. And the issue is, again, since Scripture and in the New Testament, there is no obvious prohibitive thing against beauty enhancement. The question comes back to why am I doing it? And how much is too much? I often think of the case in 1964, you know, the Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart was trying to define hardcore pornography. It was like this whole case in Ohio, and he said these words. And I think sometimes when it comes, okay, Christine, what can I do? And how much can I do and what really happens and how big, how small, where and when and whatever. And is there too much? I just think he summed it up when he was got to that point about explaining hardcore pornography. And he said this. He said, I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced. But I know it when I see it. So if you're kind of going, chris, what's too much? I think we would all agree. We know it when we see it. We'll just leave it at that. And so the issue is the why am I trying to look younger? Am I trying to regain my past youth? Do I feel so unlovable that I think the only way anyone's gonna love me is if I get something done? Or am I so secure in my identity in Christ that, you know what? This is a friend of mine. I love what she said to me. She said, christine, God said that he's coming back for a bride without spot, wrinkle or blemish. So I just thought I'd help him.
- [31:36]
B
And so, you know, I'm like, that's okay.
- [31:40]
C
So you just think about cosmetic enhancements. And then finally, of course, tattoos and piercings. And a lot of people are like, well, okay, what about that scripture in Leviticus? Well, of course Leviticus 19. And it was written. And at that time, God was really warning his people, do not get involved in pagan practices. And you need to separate yourself and come apart from that. And then in ancient Near Eastern times, piercings, tattoos that were very much part of the culture, but tattoos in particular were really aligned with, you know, satanic. It was kind of demonic activity and worship and cutting had to do with, you know, dead spirits and provide. I mean, it was very superstitious, providing blood for dead spirits, and that's what they might need it. And then tattooing yourself was very much part of pagan, wicked, demonic rituals. And so the Lord's like, no, nothing to do with that. Now, of course, every Old Testament scripture is not for all people at all times. And Jesus himself came and fulfilled the law. So the question on the table for us is, under the new covenant in Christ, what does that mean for us? Like. Like, should we get tattoos or. Or shouldn't we get tattoos? And I think it's a very good question. Here's the obvious one. If it's demonic, Satanic, and got to do with occultic practices, I know this is why you came to church. The answer would be no. That's the only one I'm going to give you the very explicit no for. But I've got to tell you, I was walking past down 17th street in Costa Mesa recently, and I went past the Think Again tattoo removal shop, and.
- [33:19]
B
I thought I might go visit the.
- [33:21]
C
Dude in the Think Again tattoo removal shop. I knew I was preparing for this message, and I said to Mr. Think Again tattoo Removal shop person, I said, do you. Are you busy? He goes, I am. Flat out. He goes, this is so busy because so many people come in here with tattoo regret.
- [33:38]
B
I said, tell me. And he said, the people that have.
- [33:41]
C
Mostly tattoo regret are the people that got their tattoos younger. So young people, listen to me, because they are permanent and normal.
- [33:51]
B
The meaning of the tattoo changes from when they first got it. And so you know that the love.
- [33:56]
C
Of my life name that was tattooed.
- [33:59]
B
Across your chest, you know, five names.
- [34:03]
C
Later, we've got no more letters to change in that name. And he said, oh, they came in when they were under the influence of something, and this is California, so it could be anything. And it was really bad artwork that was done. So you just need to again, stop and think, am I glorifying God with this? Is it glorifying God? Because tattoo removal is both extremely painful and very, very expensive. And again, it's a stewardship issue. Think about these things. And so it's important to think about other people. They get stuff done. They go, man, I am glorifying God with this. This is what this tattoo means. Again, it's a matter of preference when it comes to piercings. Some of us were okay with our earlobes pierced, but get really weird about other parts of our anatomy. And after watching the Grammys, I'm weird, too. But I'm just saying that the issue is there's nothing inherently ethically more holy about just getting your elobe pierced and not another part. But again, have wisdom. Have wisdom. And if you're a young person, remember to honor your parents. Scripture talks about that as well. But let's also not legislate as something biblical that isn't biblical, but it's a personal preference. So summing today's talk up, what do I come down to in First Corinthians, chapter 10, verse 31, I think Paul summed it up beautifully, he said. So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do everything church for the glory of God. In Jesus name. In Jesus name.
- [35:34]
D
All right, extend your hands please and let me pray a prayer of blessing over you as we go. Jesus, I pray you'd bless your sons and daughters this week that you would remind them that you were gentle and approachable and that you love them cause your face to shine on them. I pray they will experience your mercy and your joy this new week. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen. Go in peace. Have a great week.
- [36:05]
A
Thanks for tuning in to the Mariners Weekend Message Podcast to support the ministry of Mariners Church. You can click the link in the show notes or download the Mariners app at your favorite app store. If you've been navigating God's wisdom with us through this year's annual read and would like to hear personal reflections from pastors in your community, check out the Gospel Everyday podcast. Imagine feeding your heart, mind and soul with the kind of practical wisdom that will change your life. If you haven't picked up the annual read yet, visit MarinersChurch.org or download the Mariners app for more information on where to find it.