Should I Feel Conviction for Being a Christian Tattoo Artist?

Should I feel conviction for being a Christian tattoo artist? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Well, hi there.

Happy Friday. This is Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. And this is the radio program where we answered. If you're ready to answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life, you can call us right now. In fact, for the next 25 minutes or so, our phone lines will be open. Here's the number. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Now, you can also email us your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, let's go to Adrien calling in from St. Louis, Missouri.

Adrien, what's your question for Adriel? Pastor Adrien, how you guys doing? We're doing well. How are you? How are you doing, brother? Doing good. It's Friday, like you said.

I'm happy. Amen. So question, 2nd Chronicles 7, 14, it says, And my people who are called by my name, they humble themselves and pray, seek my faith and turn from their wicked ways. Then while I hear from heaven, give them all their sins and heal their land. I know it's talking about the Israelites back then in the Old Testament, but is that reference to us today?

And how would you reference that? So, absolutely, I would say that there's an application for us today. Of course, the context here is the dedication of the temple. And so the temple is now up and operational. The Spirit of God is there, present.

It's been dedicated. Verse 11, Thus Solomon finished the house of the Lord and the king's house, all that Solomon had planned to do in the house of the Lord and in his own house he successfully accomplished. Then the Lord appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him, I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain or command the locust to devour the land or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. And so this is a call to repentance for the people of God. Hey, when you're experiencing calamity, set your face to seek me, to draw near to me here in this place of worship, and I will hear you.

And that reality, Adrian, is something that's true for us today. In fact, James in the book of James and James chapter four said, verse eight, draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double minded, be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to morning and your joy to gloom.

Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you. And so this, this principle of repentance, of humbling ourselves before the Lord, of drawing near to him and him drawing near to us that we see there in second Chronicles chapter seven, 14 is verse 14 is true even today. Now that verse is misapplied, I think, you know, sometimes you'll see that verse quoted and you got a picture of American flag in the back and, you know, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, where I think that can get confusing is if people think that, you know, the United States of America, for example, is like Israel was under the old covenant in covenant with God that America is God's people. Well, that gets confusing.

That's not true. That's a misapplication of this verse. Israel in the Old Testament was a type of the church today, the covenant, the covenant people in the church today isn't associated with one particular nation. It's Catholic or universal, meaning it's, it's in every tribe, tongue and nation, right?

It permeates the whole world. And we, the people of God are called to humble ourselves and, and to repent and all people truly are called to this. But the, the, the proper way of understanding that versus is to see it as a word given to the covenant people, encouraging them to turn to the Lord and reminding them that when they do, God listens, God, God, God hears our prayer. And that's certainly something that we cling to even today. Thanks, Adrian.

Adrian, thanks so much for your call and Adriel, just a follow up question for you. The flip side of that, if a nation becomes so corrupt and so far from God, is it possible then that he could lift his blessing, lift his protection from that nation? I mean, I mean, you reap what you sow, right? And so, and certainly God judges evil and iniquity.

But, but again, we reap what we sow. And so the idea, however, that X nation is in covenant with God, like Israel was under the old covenant. Or you think of the mosaic covenant. I think that's where things start to get confusing. We have to, we have to understand where we are in the flow of redemptive history and what Israel in covenant with God in the Old Testament, you know, under the old covenant, what, what they were a type of.

They're really foreshadowing the church of the Lord Jesus Christ in covenant with God through the new covenant. And so a lot of times, you know, people confuse and can confuse the church and the secular state, the common kingdom of this world. And so that's, that's where the trouble comes, but certainly all nations are accountable to God's law, to his word, to his truth. And when, when people reject that, when they just reject common sense, frankly, the natural law, that sense of right and wrong that God has placed in each of our hearts, there is quite truly held to pay. I mean, it's, it's, it's, I mean, we see the fruit of that all over the place in terms of what, what society rejecting God turns to. And, and it doesn't lead to blessing, it leads to pain, it leads to death, it leads to confusion.

And ultimately it leads to judgment. And so we call all people everywhere that turn to the Lord and to experience his grace and forgiveness. And we as the church are called to be salt and light in the world. And so that's, that's what I would say, Bill, sorry for going a little bit longer there, but really, I think a great question that we got from Adrian.

Great word. Thanks for that, Adriel. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Maybe you have a question about doctrine or theology, something at your church that you're kind of confused about.

We'd love to hear from you. Here's the number. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to Kevin calling in from Lincoln, Nebraska. Kevin, what's your question for Adriel?

1587. Hey Kevin, are you there? Yes. I'm going to have to call you back. Thanks. No problem, Kevin. Thanks.

All right. We'll hear from Kevin in just a bit. Let's go to a voicemail from one of our listeners.

This is Jared from Tennessee. The question I have is, Jesus says for us to give to everyone that asks of us, but practicing discernment is also crucial. What does it look like for that in the Christian walk, and who do we not give to, and is there any limitation to that command that was given in the Sermon on the Mount? Thank you. Yeah. An excellent question, right? Of course, you're walking down the street, and you see somebody who's asking for money, and you feel this sense of guilt. You want to help an individual, but you also don't want to enable someone who might take this money and use it to buy alcohol or drugs or contribute to their addiction. A couple of things. First, I think we want to be careful. Jesus says a lot of really strong things in the Sermon on the Mount that I think it's easy for us to minimize that.

To say, well, he didn't really mean what he said there. We don't have to be that generous, but I think we have to challenge ourselves and let those words fall on us as they were intended to fall on us. I was just talking about this with my congregation last week. The Sermon on the Mount ends, and it says in verse 28, when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority and not as their scribes. That word astonished means to lose your senses. Quite literally, if you think the contemporary talk of today, we might say that they heard this sermon and their minds were blown because he was saying things like, hey, be generous and be generous in this way. Love your enemies in this way.

People had just never heard that, and he was preaching with authority. Does that mean that we should enable someone to continue down a pathway of destruction? Absolutely not.

No, I don't think so. I also don't think that we should just assume the worst about everybody. I don't give to anybody because they're not going to use the money wisely, that kind of a thing.

No. I think we have to take a genuine interest in the people who are around us to be good neighbors and to be willing to be generous and to help relieve the needs of those who are around us. This is what the ancient church referred to as almsgiving, that willingness to relieve the need of my neighbor.

What does that look like? It looks like they need to be clothed. It looks like they need to be fed.

It looks like they need to be sheltered. Well, the church ought to have a real concern. We as individual Christians have to have a real concern and a willingness to give to those who are in need, to give to the poor. I think just saying that and saying we have to examine our own hearts. It's so easy for us to be greedy, to be stingy, to justify why we're unwilling to help a person who is in need. Well, it's their fault and so forth. I think we can afford to be more generous, but if we know that what we're giving to is leading to the destruction of an individual, well, then I don't think we have to feel guilty about not giving because in that sense giving would really be hurting the person. This is where, again, we need to be more intentional about investigating, about asking questions, about really coming alongside of individuals to care for them properly so that we might be able to see where the needs really lie.

Of course, there are the physical temporal needs that people have, but also the deep spiritual needs which we should also be willing to supply for those around us. Thank you for that question. Good word. Thanks for that, Adriel. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Maybe there is a passage of scripture that's always kind of stumped you. You'd like some clarification on it.

Hey, Adriel, I'd be glad to dig into that with you, or maybe there's some kind of struggle you're going through in your Christian walk. Give us a call. Here's the number. It's 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673.

I think we have Kevin from Nebraska back on the line. Kevin, what's your question for Adriel? It doesn't really matter what the particular sin is, but I have a friend who is essentially daily doing the same thing over and over again. We got into a difficult conversation about the idea that God's love is unconditional. And I said, you know, I think there's a dramatic difference between unconditional love and unconditional forgiveness. I don't find the scripture that says you get unconditional forgiveness.

So what I wanted to make sure that I was not off track on that. Okay, so a couple of passages come to mind. First, of course, you mentioned you have someone in your life, a brother, a sister in the Lord, maybe, maybe not, but who is doing something that's hurtful, sinful maybe, towards you every day, and you're wrestling with extending forgiveness. Of course, I mean, my mind goes immediately to the discussion that Jesus was having with Peter in Matthew chapter 18. Peter said to him, Lord, how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him?

As many as seven times, that's verse 21, and Jesus said to him, I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times. And then he tells the parable of the unforgiving servant, highlighting the fact that, look, God has been so merciful to us in Christ. Man, God has forgiven us a great big mountain of sin that we could never deal with.

It was crushing us. And he calls us, out of that generosity that he's given to us, he calls us to forgive others. And Jesus is, I mean, he's pretty strong on this. In Matthew chapter 6, in the Sermon on the Mount, he says, after introducing the Lord's Prayer, if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Forgiveness is really at the heart of the Christian life, insofar as we receive the forgiveness of God, but it's also something that God calls us to. It's a sign of the fact that we have indeed received the grace of God, that we're willing to give forgiveness freely. But we distinguish, I distinguish between forgiveness, reconciliation, and restoration. You are called, we are called as Christians to forgive.

Brother comes to you again, sister comes to you again, and says, I'm sorry, I've done it again, I just, I need help. Well, we want to be gracious, we want to extend forgiveness. If a person doesn't do that, we're still called to forgive, but we really can't reconcile until they own the fact that they've sinned. And sometimes owning the fact that you've sinned looks like, right, though there is a real change.

You might say I'm sorry, but you've actually, you're intentionally doing this, there's some manipulation here. And so distinguishing between forgiveness, which we're always called to extend, and reconciliation, that's where the relationship is made whole again, if you will, and that reconciliation can only come through repentance. The person who's sinned against us at least recognizes that they've sinned, they're confessing it, and they're seeking the Lord.

And beyond that, there's also restoration. Sometimes, you know, an individual might sin against you, and there's reconciliation because they've repented, they've confessed their sin, but that doesn't mean that the relationship is immediately restored to what it was. There's healing sometimes that needs to take place, and that's okay. You think of somebody who's stolen something, maybe, you know, an employee who works behind the cash register, and they take everything, and they claim to be a Christian, and their manager is a believer too, and the manager says, okay, you know, you're caught, the individual says, I'm so sorry, please forgive me. And they truly are remorseful and sorrowful, and they're forgiven, and there's even relational reconciliation, right? Okay, we're going to shake hands, but does that person need to be restored to working behind the cash register right there? Is that the right course of action?

Not necessarily. And so you can have true forgiveness and even reconciliation without immediate restoration. And so some of those categories might be helpful for you as you think about this, but I would just encourage you as you wrestle to forgive someone who sinned against you, just to continually be reminded of Jesus's great forgiveness in your life, how merciful he's been to you to meditate upon that, and to say, Lord, help me to be generous in forgiving others too. Thanks for your question. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. If you've got a question about the Bible or the Christian life, we'd love to hear from you. Here's the number. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. I want to mention that we have a great resource available to you. There's been so much discussion about abortion in our culture recently, and a lot of times as Christians, when we're talking to somebody who's on the other side of the issue, we don't necessarily know how to respond. We want to give this devotional to you because it really will give you a biblical understanding of the sanctity of human life. The devotional is called Fearfully Made, and it's yours for free over at corechristianity.com.

You can just go there right now and download it. It's an excellent resource on thinking through the issue of life and the dignity of life from a biblical perspective. Once again, that's corechristianity.com.

Look for the devotional called Fearfully Made. Well, we do receive emails here at the Core. You can email us anytime.

Here's the email address. It's questions at corechristianity.com. Michael emailed us with an interesting question, Adriel. He says, I'm a tattoo artist. Should I feel guilty for doing tattoos on my Christian brethren? Michael, I'm going to answer this briefly. First, I don't think you need to feel guilty for being a tattoo artist or for tattooing your Christian brethren. On the other side, I've answered this question before.

Is it a syndicated tattoo? I said, no. It's an issue of personal liberty, conscience.

Is it the wisest thing? That's a separate question. There's nothing wrong with it, though. Are there things that people put on their bodies, tattoos that people put on their bodies that can be dishonoring to the Lord?

I think yes. The real question is, what is an individual, what are you putting on another person's body? Is it something that could, in fact, be sin? That's where you have to exercise wisdom. I imagine that that would make your job difficult in many regard. If you say, actually, I can't put that thing on your...

I just couldn't in my conscience do that. That might create issues, but generally speaking, there's nothing inherently wrong, I would say, or sinful about you doing this as an artist. I just think that you have to make sure that what you're doing is... that you're exercising wisdom. Appreciate the question, and may the Lord give you a sense of freedom in the work that you're doing, but also discernment as well. God bless.

Taylor Swift's name on my bicep, you're cool with that? I know you got that when you were younger, Bill. I figured you'd come around by now. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adrian Sanchez. Give us a call if you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life. Let's go to Josh calling from New York. Hi, Josh, how are you? Hey, I'm doing well.

Thanks for taking my call. How are you? Doing well.

Great. Well, I have a question just in general, and I guess understanding the biblical precedence here for the obligations of the pastor as far as his relationships with the congregation, specifically members. Is it expected for him to be sort of in close relationship and discipleship individually? I have a pastor who says constantly, you know, discipleship is me preaching for the pulpit. It's any group gatherings we have afterwards and things like that, but he's pretty closed off and pretty sort of with his limited group.

Just wondering if I am having misplaced feelings or thinking that I'm left out and expecting a closer relationship. Yeah. Hey, Josh, God bless you, man. And this is a great question. What is what should we expect from our pastor in terms of discipleship to now, if discipleship is defined as one on one meetings at a coffee shop, going through a book or something like that? Well, it would be really hard for your pastor. I mean, unless he's pastoring a church of 20 people, it would be really hard for your pastor to be able to do that. And so a part of it is, it's not that it's just preaching and teaching.

I mean, that's important. That's central to the ministry of the word. And so that's one of the ways that discipleship happens within the body of Christ.

But I think cultivating the sense of community across the church, because each of us are gifted in different ways. And so the pastor is an individual. Me as a minister of the gospel, I don't make disciples. Jesus is the one who makes disciples through the church under the ministry of his word.

And as everyone is coming together, bringing the gifts that God has given to them, the body, the church is built up in love. And so Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12, in Ephesians 4, and so I think if the expectation is the pastor needs to, he needs to be discipling me personally. And I'm defining that as that sort of one on one relationship meeting. I want to have that close friendship with the pastor.

I think that's just going to be hard. I know that there are some pastors, and even me at various points in pastoral ministry, you try to do that as much as you can. You do engage with people, you meet with people. I know some pastors are more relational than others, and maybe just as a family they have that gift of hospitality, where they just have their doors open more frequently. If a pastor doesn't have that the same way maybe another one might, of course hospitality I think is a part of qualification for someone who is an elder.

But I just think we want to be careful with the expectations because we have to be realistic. So the pastor is not going to be able to be everyone's close friend or best friend within the church, and it doesn't sound to me like that's what you're expecting, Josh. So that would be asking for too much, but I think wanting a pastor who knows you and a church and church leadership that is conscious of the struggles that you have, wants to encourage you, is willing to meet when there is an issue, so that if you were to reach out it's not like, no, I don't ever meet with people. And I realize, me, I pastor a church that's not more than 200 people, but if anybody wants to meet or get together and grab coffee and talk about theology or is going through something difficult, we make it happen. And I know that there are other churches where they're much larger and that's just not possible. So you have to think about the five of your church, you have to think about the kinds of ministry opportunities, discipleship opportunities that are there, and pray that God just helps you in that. How big is the church that you're attending, Josh? Members about 60 or so, but just regular sort of goers every week about 80 or 90.

Okay. Yeah, so not a very big church. And I think it's okay to say, pastor, I need help with this or that, and I want to be encouraged in this way. And hopefully, again, that's not all on the pastor.

I think healthy churches are able to cultivate community, environment where we are encouraging one another. So it's not all on the pastor, but he's helping to facilitate that under the ministry of the word. And so I hope, Josh, that as you continue to grow there under the ministry of the word, that you are encouraged and that you do have a sense of, man, I'm being discipled, not just by the pastor and by the word, but by my brothers and sisters who are gathering with me here to worship the Lord. God bless you, brother. Thanks for calling. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's word together.