I would also like to read the last verse of our second text in the Amplified Bible, so that we clearly understand what God is saying here:

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I do not have a tattoo, nor have I ever had a desire to receive one. The closest that I ever came to getting a tattoo was in my high school days when my best friend and I one day discovered very realistic-looking, fake tattoos at a service station and came into the house and about gave my mother a heart attack with them!

My father was not always a preacher and did not come to the Lord until he was an adult. During his Army years, one night he got a little drunk and -- in that frame of mind -- decided to get a 7 inch, black and white, "Felix the Cat" tattooed onto his top forearm. It was shortly after my father accepted his call into the ministry that the cute "Felix the Cat" had the dubious honor of becoming the first ever cartoon character to star in a pornographic film. My dad quickly began to be bothered by his skin art. When I was a small child, he had a very painful skin graft procedure done to remove the tattoo and still bears the scar today on his forearm. I quickly learned from his story that tattoos have one major drawback: they tend to be forever and tend to be things, unfortunately, that the people who get them tend to regret. And as time goes by, people change and so there is a very booming business in the still painful and expensive area of tattoo removal. That reason alone would be one main reason why I wouldn't recommend you getting a tattoo any time soon. If you have a tattoo today, modern studies show that if you don't already regret getting it, you will probably eventually in your life reach a place of remorse.

Of course, there's always that other reason to also not get a tattoo: the scriptural reason. There's nothing new under the sun, and people have been getting tattoos a long, long time. Back during the days of the Old Testament was when the art of tattooing began, and it started out as a by product of idol worship. The Egyptians and other idolaters would tattoo themselves with images that represented their loyalty to their gods and countries. They would also sometimes cut the surface of the skin to leave marks and this was closely associated with tattooing. These marks were meant to forever identify themselves as worshippers of whatever god they happened to worship. Such marks, signifying idolatry, were naturally forbidden by God for His people. But some of the Jews began to copy the tradition and get "religious" tattoos in their bodies such as scriptures or Jewish signs or holy things. There are some devout Jews today who still get such markings in their hands and arms whenever they visit Jerusalem for the first time. But God was not and is not pleased with such practices and that is why He clearly commanded in the Word of God:

Why no tattoos, even religious ones? Because "I am the Lord." In other words, the same God that said "don't worship idols of any type even of things in heaven or of me," also did not want His people bearing the marks of idolatry in their bodies. He wanted His chosen people to dress different, act different, and live different than the idolatrous nations around them. Because of that, certain style clothing, certain haircuts, and even certain ways of wearing their beards were forbidden to the Jewish people.

I understand that a Christian does not have to remove their tattoos before God saves them and there are many of you here today who have such marks. I'm not trying to make you uncomfortable or even really preach to you about your existing tattoos. I don't think that you have to have them removed to get to heaven, if you have obeyed the rest of the Word of God about salvation. Chances are, if you are really saved, that you have already regretted getting such marks, and whether or not you ever get them removed is between you, God, and your finances. But I don't think that a saved Christian that is full of the Holy Ghost and baptized in His name and thus has the mark of the blood of Jesus Christ upon their life, has any business going and getting a new tattoo. If you go get a non-religious tattoo, then you are getting something that identifies you with a group of this sinful world that is probably not interested in following Jesus. Whether you like it or not, tattoos identifies you with a particular culture which is not really that godly. If you get a religious tattoo, then you are disobeying the Word of the Lord in the scripture that we read above.

When you were baptized in the name of Jesus, you were "spiritually circumcised" (see Colossian 2:10-11) and there was a mark placed upon your spiritual man of being separated from your past sins through the power of the blood of Jesus. You are forever, then, spiritually marked and that mark -- the mark of salvation -- is all the tattoo that you will ever need! Whether you realize it or not, there is a mark of God placed upon you at your water baptism that is easily and clearly seen in the spirit world. You bear the mark of a blood-bought, born-again, child of God and it shows that you fit in with a certain element: those who will one day inherit eternal life and those who trust God completely!

With that in mind, I guess I need to change my first statement: I DO have a tattoo and it's much more important than any mark this world can give me or that mark that will one day be handed out by the Antichrist: I have Jesus' name imprinted across my life and I am marked as being a child of the king!

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Now that hopefully I will not confuse anybody into thinking that they need to go pick out a needle and ink design, let me get to my point today: God has a tattoo. Actually, He has a couple of them, and they are our subject today: God's Tattoos.

He mentioned His tattoo clearly in our text in Isaiah:

The nation of Israel was in captivity because of their idolatry. Because of their sin, God had let an evil king come and drag them off into another country. At the same time, the temple of God had been destroyed and the walls of Jerusalem had been flattened. It was not a fun time to be a Jew. And the children of Israel were moaning as they slaved away in a foreign land. They were saying stuff like "our houses are destroyed, our city is destroyed, the walls are gone, and God must have forsaken us and forgotten about us." They felt that way because of what their "today" looked like. Everything appeared to them to have fallen through and their worst-case scenario of their life had taken place.

But into their mumbling and grumbling God sent the prophet Isaiah with a special message from the Lord. Through this prophet, God said "you are all saying that I have forsaken you and forgotten about you, but can a woman forget her own child?" "Even if some mothers may go against nature and turn away from their child, I will not and have not forgotten you, Israel." And then in verse 16, to really bring the point home, God says "I haven't forgotten you Israel or the town of Jerusalem and it's people, in fact, 'the walls are continually before me.' " "I have a picture and diagram of the walls of Jerusalem tattooed in the palms of my hands!" In other words, God was saying "I have a permanent reminder of the walls of Jerusalem and your home engraved into my palms!"

Now, I understand that God is using a figure of speech. The scripture very clearly teaches that God does not have literal hands or feet except that of the flesh that He became, the body of Jesus Christ. I understand that God does not have a literal, flesh and bone hand upon which ink has been placed. Instead, He is using something called "anthropomorphism." He is using a humanly figure of speech to help us to understand a spiritual concept.

I want you to realize what God is saying here. He says "the walls of Jerusalem are continually before me." But wait a second, God: the walls of Jerusalem are in actuality flattened. How can you say that they are "ever before you?" The answer lies in the fact that God looks at things differently than you and I. He doesn't look at things like they are and just leave it at that. But He looks at something and sees how it WILL be. He looks at something in the present and sees the future. He is looking at Israel's situation, and where they see flattened walls, He looks down at His hands, His all-powerful ability, and sees what the walls will be if Israel will simply trust in Him! Where man saw destruction, God saw His plan to make it better. Where man saw flattened walls, God envisioned a rebuilt Jerusalem with the Messiah walking through it doing miracles. Israel was saying "we're depressed because the city is flattened" and God is saying "you are depressed because you are looking at how things are now, but when I look at Jerusalem, I have a picture of what Jerusalem will be ever before me! And so I see the potential and what I can do if someone will just trust me.

The scripture says:

The language of faith is not based upon what you see now, but what you see that can happen. God moves within that realm. He views things not as they are but what they have the potential to be. God had said that the wall was going to be rebuilt. He had already promised it. But He was waiting on somebody to get their eyes off of their current state and situation and look at it like God sees it. When God promises something, He views it as done. He does not look through the eyes of the present, but through the future!

Where we see problems, God sees possibilities.

Where we see sicknesses, God sees the opportunity for a healing.

Where we see distress and trouble, God sees a miracle in the making.

Where we see failures, God sees people whose life can be changed so that they will become mighty in His kingdom.

Where we see fear, God sees an opportunity for peace and victory.

And so God looked at the Jew's situation very differently than they did. Where they saw an old broken down wall, God looked down at His hands and saw the blueprints of a new, stronger wall engraved there. Where they saw destruction and heartache when they looked at their life, God was looking into His hands at an image of what He could do with it, if someone would yield to Him! God's tattoo, you see, is the blueprint of what is possible if you turn to Him and trust Him!

So, does God have tattoos? Well, yes, He does in the spiritual sense. For every thing that you view as bad or hard or hopeless, God has the imprint of how it could be upon His hands! It's time to see our situations not as they appear to us right now, but to view them as they would be in the hands of God! Get your eyes on the hands of God working in your life: you will find there a tattoo; you will find the image of how God sees your life!

I don't care how hopeless the situation, put it in God's hands and you will see that He has a plan for you to be able to get victory in it! I don't care how bad it gets in your life, within His hands there is the ability to turn it around "to the good" of those who trust Him (Romans 8:28)! Even in the extreme cases: God's hands hold the answer!

-- High walls of Jericho, when placed upon God's hands, become a tremendous testimony of victory!

-- The Red Sea blocking the people's way, when placed upon God's hands, becomes a way to destroy the entire enemy army!

-- The fiery furnace heated seven times hotter, when placed upon God's hands, becomes a way to get a pagan king believing in and worshipping Him!

Fill in the blanks with your hopeless situation:

-- Where I see _______________________, then when placed upon His hands, God sees __________________!

There is always hope, but we must be like Elisha's servant and view things as God sees them!

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God views more than situations this way. He also looks at men's lives much differently than you and I.

Consider the story of the man named Saul. We read about his conversion in our other text. No one was more feared by the Christians than this man named Saul. He was a Pharisee, who decided that it was God's will for his life to kill people who believed in Jesus Christ. He zealously began to persecute the church of God. History joins in with scripture to tell us about the horrible things that Saul did. When Stephen was stoned for saying that Jesus was God, Saul offered to hold the coats of those who were throwing the rocks. He caused the church of Jerusalem to scatter throughout the world in fear of him by going into homes and dragging entire families to prison. He would have the children executed in front of the parents that refused to deny Jesus Christ and then take their lives too. He was given authority to take away homes and land from the Christians and to persecute them as he wanted. Everybody feared this unholy zealot named Saul. Even Peter, James, and John were afraid of him. If you had asked the Apostles to make a list of the hardest people for God to save, Saul would have been number 1. If you had asked the Early Church to make a list of the top million or so people in the world that would become the greatest Christian missionary that ever lived, Saul wouldn't have even been close to making the list!

But where everybody looked at in the present and said "there's no hope," God saw hope. While everyone was running for their lives and praying "God kill this horrible man" God was looking into his hands and seeing a blueprint of what Saul could be. Remember that God's Tattoo is the blueprint of what a situation can be if we will yield to Him! I'm sure more than one Christian prayed for fire to fall from heaven to kill Saul, and yet God didn't answer their prayers, because when He looked at Saul, he was looking at him through the imprint of what Saul's life could be if he would ever step into those hands!

So when Saul gets permission from the authorities to travel way up to the town of Damascus to persecute more Christians, God meets him on the way. Just as Saul is a few miles from the city, a bright light shines down and blinds Saul. A voice calls out from heaven "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" And Saul -- stunned by what is happening -- asks "who are you, Lord?" And his heart sinks when he hears "I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest!" Revelation shook that young Pharisee. This Jesus, whom he had been trying to destroy, was none other than the God in heaven whom He worshipped!

Meanwhile, a good Christian saint is praying in town. His name is Ananias, and all of a sudden, God speaks to him and tells him to go meet Saul of Tarsus and pray for him so that he can receive the Holy Ghost and be baptized. Ananias can't believe his ears. "Lord, I've heard about this man, he's killing Christians right and left. If I go pray for him, he's liable to tear my head off. Surely you must be joking saying that he wants the Holy Ghost. Haven't you heard God how hopeless the situation is in Saul's life?" But look what God says:

Where everybody else saw an evil enemy, God saw the greatest missionary that would ever live! Where everybody else saw the greatest threat to the kingdom of God, God saw the greatest preacher and Bible-study teacher! And Saul became Paul and that feared persecutor of the church wrote two-thirds of the New Testament scripture that you and I are reading today!

While Saul was doing everything that he could do AGAINST the will of God, God looked down at his hands and saw an image engraved there of what Saul could be in the kingdom of God. God's hands held an image of what Saul should be if he would only yield his life to the Lord!

Let me preach hope to someone today. Why did God use such language in Isaiah as the image of "tattooing?" Why would He use such a figure of speech? Because in those days, there was NO method of removal for tattoos. Once you received one, there was nothing that could be done to remove it! When Israel was whining and complaining at the hopelessness of their situation, God said "it's not that way at all, because I see it as it can be." But He didn't say that it's just a temporary image that will be here one day and gone tomorrow. Rather, God said "it's engraved upon my palms." Or in other words, "it's tattooed upon my hands!" In other words, I don't care how bad the situation looks or how unfaithful you have been, I still have an image before me of what it can be like. Despite your unfaithfulness, my plan for what you can be is still the same!

The devil has lied to some of you that your situation is hopeless. That you cannot receive the promise of God. That your family is too far gone. That they have passed the point of no return. That you cannot have your miracle. That you cannot receive the Holy Ghost. That you cannot see whatever the storm is in your life come to an end. That nothing can ever be as it should be in your life. But I'm here today to tell you that engraved into the palms of God is what your life can be with His help. And it's not written in an ink pen that has been rubbed away through years of use. It's not a temporary image drawn when you were at a spiritual high but that has been removed because of your mistakes. No, my friend, your potential in God is tattooed into His hands. Nothing that you have done in the past has taken away what God has envisioned for your life. You may see a hopeless situation. You may see a destroyed life. You may have wasted many years. You may feel as if there is no hope, but God's view of you has not changed: He is still looking down at His hands and seeing hope at what you can be! You can still realize your perfect potential!

But you must place yourself in His hands. Only by placing yourself in His hands and trusting Him with your life will His tattoo ever become reality! God has a future for you and a plan for you and an image of how great you can be. But to see it move from the future to the present, you must place yourself within the palms holding the blueprint. The scripture says:

The truly wise and righteous are those who place themselves in the hands of God! Those who look beyond what the situation appears to be through natural eyes and see it as God sees it: a possibility for a miracle! Those who get their eyes off the past events of their life and realize that they still have a future in God! His blueprint for you and plan for you has not changed! The image engraved upon His hand of what your life can be is still the same! Yield to Him and allow Him to put the pieces back together! Put your life in His hands and see what God sees become reality!

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I close with this. Jesus said:

That's quite a statement! But we know from other scriptures that it is possible for a person to backslide and to be lost after being saved. So exactly what was Jesus saying? As long as you remain within His hands, then nothing can tear you away from Him. You can willfully choose to walk away, but if you choose to have faith in Him, then nothing can keep you from gaining your potential in God. Nothing can keep your will from coming forth in His life. IF you choose to place yourself within His hands!

God's hands have tattoos. And in them He has the image of what CAN be if you will just trust Him! He has marks within His flesh too. But they are not the self-inflicted wounds of someone trying to draw designs upon their skin, but rather the scars left from nails that were driven through His hands as He died for you! The hands upon which the very image of what you can be is engraved is also scarred by the memory of Calvary! But unlike so many people today, there is no remorse over receiving those marks within His hands. He does not regret receiving such images. He was not drunk when He got them, but chose to suffer within His right mind! And if He had it all to do again, He would receive those marks again. You see, the marks and the tattoos of hope within His hands cost Him dearly, but He did it out of genuine love for you. He did it so that you could have a blessed future. He did it that you did not have to remain the same, but that you could forever be changed into what you were designed to be. When you gaze upon the engraved plan of God for your life and then you see the scars that remind you of how dearly it cost Him, how can you not place yourself within those hands?! Thank God for His tattoos, and thank God for the marks within His palms! Because of them, there is hope!