2 Timothy 1:7 says, “For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind!”
If you’ve got a tattoo, relax it’s not that kind of sermon!
A lot of people have gotten tattoos and some have wished that they wouldn’t have!
Somebody said that a tattoo is permanent proof of temporary insanity!
I want to talk to you about this permanent ink called: tattoos that have to do with our spiritual life.
I think the strategy of Satan can be summed up in this approach… he is a master in drawing us into SIN, and once he manages to do that, then he labels that person and makes them accept inwardly the failure, the shame, the condemnation, the guilt, the criticism, and the embarrassment and tattoo (permanently ink) these images into their brain… and be mined full of their sin and mess ups and live a life of shame and regret!
Then you hear that voice saying, you are beyond help… you are beyond hope…. You are worthless…. You should be ashamed…. You are not good… you never amount to anything… you are a failure…. You might as well just give up… you might as well just kill yourself…. And many other thoughts and negative voices inside!
Part of the devils tactic is to accuse us, attack us, and condemn us over and over and over again… why? He wants to get permanent ink in your brain, so he tattoos your brain… to you see yourself a person of shame, and failure that would be impossible to fix…. This is the scheme of Satan over our lives!
I’ve been ministering over a few years now and I’ve met many people like that! People both believers and unbelievers… Satan has tattooed their brain with these lies and believed this untrue image of them… the sad thing is that they have accepted this lies and believed it inwardly…. And this has sabotaged everything they do or say outwardly! The bible said, “for as he thinketh within himself, so is he”.
They feel like they are born losers! And their mind set is… if anybody fails I’ll be that one, if anybody loses I’ll be that loser, if anybody is going to mess up I’ll be that person! That’s who I am and that’s what I do best because I was born to lose!
You’ve got to surely be tattooed when you take drugs over and over again, that is a permanent ink in somebody’s thinking… this is all you ever going to be, you don’t have any reason not to take these drugs, they are good for you, Marijuana is a plant that God made therefore it’s for your own good… take it!
You’ve got to be surely tattooed when you drink alcohol bottle after another, day after day, sexual relationship one after another, ending in a crash and burn…. Something happens in the brain for people to act that way!
But you don’t have to be born a loser! Because Jesus heals the mind, heals the hearts, he heals the spirit, he cleanses the inwards, and reveals the truth which will set you free!
In 1886 Walter George was a nineteenth-century British runner from Calne who after set numerous world records… he ran a mile in 4minutes and 12 seconds.
Then in 1922 another athlete broke the record in 4minutes and 10 seconds (it took 36 years to shave off 10 seconds)…
In the 1930’s 2 men were living in the Middlesex England, both were diagnosed in the same hospital by the same doctor with the same disease… that disease said: they will never walk again and they will be confined to wheel chair for the rest of their lives, one of them accepted what the doctor told him and was confined to the wheel chair and never walked… the other man didn’t accept what the doctor told him and made a statement saying: not only will I walk, I will run!
After many thousands of attempts to get out of that wheel chair failed, but he kept trying over and over again, until his body submitted to his desire and started to walk and then run… and history records that in may the 6th 1954 in oxford England roger Bannister broke the record in less than 4minutes (3mnts.95sec.59of a sec)!
He inspired other athletes in the world, they had been tattooed in their mined that no one could run faster than a 4-minute mile! Only when he broke the record this thought had been broken along with other world records!
They were permanently inked with these lies and were taught that it’s impossible and couldn’t be achieved, year after year!
And that explains why nobody was able to break the 4-minute mile record…. But that tattoo was removed when roger Bannister did it! And in the next 4 years 25 runners broke the 4-minute mile!
In 1999 one man broke that record in 3mnts and 43 sec, this shows you the power of the mindset!
But let me go back to the story, later the doctor who diagnosed the 2 men went back to the hospital, he examined roger Bannister after the win and verified that he absolutely had the disease that he couldn’t walk!
But he didn’t accepted and became the fastest running man in history, when he examined the other man who became confined to a wheel chair, he said… I’m truly sorry but you didn’t even have this disease because I made a mistake with diagnosing you! And all these years he sat in that wheel chair because somebody had put that thought in his mind, which he accepted! And became permanently tattooed with a lie or a mistake!
Don’t be overcome by the devil’s tattoo on your brain, he will tell you that you can’t live for God, it’s impossible, you can never be free, you can never be anything, you’re a loser born loser, your daddy is angry and you’re going to be one, your daddy was poor and you’re going to be one, your good for nothing…etc.
But you have to learn to refuse the devils tattoo and understand that if “any man be in Christ he is a new creation”, and God will remove that permanent tattoo for you!
The blood of Jesus Christ turns us from losers to winners!
The blood of Jesus Christ turns us from complainers to climbers!
The blood of Jesus Christ turns us from failures to overcomers!
Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
You must practice that renewing of the mind! When you come to church you’re shampooing your thought with the word of God! You’re cleansing and renewing your mind; if you see yourself as that man confined to the wheel chair… then you’ll never get up, and if you see yourself through God’s eyes then you will take His word and run with it!
As you begin to claim your mind back from the enemy, he will not want to give up the place that he’s had. You will have to do battle with his lies and confusion.
Your first step is to declare out loud that you will not allow any outside force to do your thinking–no man and no spirit. There are spiritual laws that demons must obey. They cannot stay where a man wills them not to stay. Your power is in the Name of Jesus, the Blood of Jesus, and the Word of God. Ask God to give you discernment of the lies of the devil.
Think about what you are thinking about. Doubt back the doubt thoughts! As you recognize a lie to your mind, always defend yourself out loud. That means speaking against Satan and the evil forces out loud, binding them in the Name of Jesus, and forbidding them to lie to you and to use your mind.
When you catch a lie to your mind, use this prescription regularly–and you will regain peace, your memory, restful nights, and the ability to concentrate and comprehend.
I thought about Moses when his mother said to him over and over again, YOU ARE NOT AN EYGIPTIAN!
They will look after you in that palace and raise you as a pharaoh but you are not an Egyptian! One day he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew… Moses went and slew him and ran for his life for 40 years in the wilderness… I’m sure that the devil tried for 40 years to permanently ink his mind with bad thoughts saying: you’re a failure, you’re a loser, it’s too late, your 80 years old now, your too old, God has forgotten you, God can’t use you, you’ve messed up, NOW ACCEPT IT!
But when he spent time in the burning bush, there was fire but he wasn’t consumed! While talking to that bush… God started erasing his tattoo on his brain, God started to give him a new vision to see, God installed in him a new positive spirit, and God appointed him as a deliverer for Israel and sent him on a mission before pharaoh with these words…. I AM SENT ME AND SAID: LET MY PEOPLE GO!
If the enemy had told you that you are too old, God can’t use you, it’s too late, you are a loser… God has sent me to tell you that He has good stuff coming your way, don’t accept these words from the devil…
The prodigal son in Luke 15, ran out of money and famine came, and that’s what happen when someone leaves God... It’s just a matter of time before famine comes!
The enemy tattooed his mind and was eating from the pig’s Roth! 17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, 19 and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.”’
See how the devil tattooed his mind… your less than a servant, you are a looser, you will perish with hunger, you’re not even worthy to be in the family, you are a filthy sorry thing!
He comes back home filthy, but his father covers him with the best robe and the best shoes and gives him the best ring… the father restored him fully back to the family!
Don’t allow the devil to tattoo your mind when you sin and turn away from God, because when you go back to the father he will fully restore you into the heavenly family no questions asked! You’re not just a servant, you’re not just a stranger… you are His child whom he loves dearly!
How do I remove a tattoo? Laser remover!
There are 2 things required to remove a tattoo,
1- a bright laser light goes into the tattoo which burns the tattoo on the outside but that’s not enough….
2- 2- when it hit the skin it starts to work on the blood that’s under the skin.
It takes the 2… the light that’s coming from the outside and the blood coming on the inside…it’s an expensive procedure! The blood cleanses it from the inside and the light cleanses it from the outside and bit-by-bit the tattoo gets erased by both the light and the blood!
Psalm 1119:105Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path. The word is knowledge, the word is light, and the word is working on the outside and hitting that image saying that you’re a born loser, and you’re a failure!
But the blood is working on the inside, its saying let me help too… you can’t fix it by the law, you can’t fix it through the knowledge only, because it takes the act of mercy and grace… Jesus shed his blood and then he said father it done!
Jesus’s blood on the inside and Emanuel on the outside working together… there goes the shame, there goes the guilt, there goes the self-hatred, there goes the image of being born a loser, Therefore, if the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed.
You are in a battle–you are not alone–for all of God’s people fight the same fight (Ephesians 6:12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.).
Make up your mind not to give up! According to Colossians 3:2, set your mind on things above and keep it set! As you begin this battle, it will seem worse than ever. The reason is… that the demonic powers are fighting to keep their place in your mind (and in your thinking).
Call upon God’s grace in the Name of Jesus, and He will give you the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome every evil tendency.
Remember, regaining your mind is a process. We all fail at one time or another. God knows our weakness; that is why He gave us 1 John 1:9. Just ask for forgiveness and see the Blood of Jesus washing away your sin. Don’t give up! Continue claiming what belongs to you (your mind and your thinking belong to you), and Jesus will help you overcome and erase this permanent tattoo.
Proverbs 16:6 In mercy and truth…Atonement is provided for iniquity; And by the fear of the LORD one departs from evil.
Mercy is the blood and truth is that laser light... you put the 2 together SIN will be purged out of you!
Phil3:13 I do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and made it my own [yet]; but one thing I do [it is my one aspiration]: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward. 15 So let those [of us] who are spiritually mature and full-grown have this mind and hold these convictions; and if in any respect you have a different attitude of mind, God will make that clear to you also.
Paul… you can’t talk, you held the coat of people that killed Steven!
In closing
The true story of a bear in the 12 feet cage!
They came to conclusion that the prison or cage was in his mind!