Shane Idleman emphasizes the intricate connection between the body, mind, and spirit, illustrating how our physical health impacts our spiritual well-being. He discusses the marvel of human creation as 'fearfully and wonderfully made' and highlights the importance of taking care of our bodies through proper nutrition and discipline. Idleman warns against the dangers of neglecting our health and the spiritual implications of such neglect, urging the congregation to recognize their value as beings created in God's image. He also addresses contemporary issues like the impact of societal beliefs on human worth and the importance of resting in God's sovereignty amidst life's challenges.

The title is Fearfully and Wonderfully Made, Body, Soul, and Spirit. And what I mean by that is a lot of people don't recognize this, and I think that's why God gave me a background in physical fitness and how the body works. And I like to study microbiology, believe it or not. It's hard to read sometimes, you have to re-read different things. Believe it or not, to some of you might not believe this, but a friend of mine is actually Dr. Rainbow at A.V. College, who teaches biology, and we email and ask him questions. He invites me to his classes, and so I just have a desire for the human body as far as fearfully and wonderfully made. Because when you begin to understand the cells and the microchondria and how autophagy works and cellular breakdown and fighting cancer, it's stunning. It is absolutely amazing. But I see the physical and the spiritual have parallels. When I'm taking care of the physical, I'm talking about those people who can, not the people who are bedridden or diseased. I understand that. But those who can, when we discipline ourselves, when we take care of our bodies and we just take care of it. I can go into a lot of detail there, but I won't. And spiritually, and they go together. It seems to be there's a harmony there, and you feel better. For example, if I this morning stopped at Jack's place and had a huge breakfast burrito and a few donuts and a big cup of coffee, I'd be saying, guys, we're going to stop today and just have a worship morning. I'll see you next week. Try getting four hours of sleep and eating terrible and see how you feel. You see the physical and the spiritual often correlate. And then we're not doing good spiritually. What do we do? We run back to our addictions. And it's the body, soul and spirit is interwoven. And I don't get too off target on that because you can get into places that aren't biblical. But I do know that they are connected. And I believe to me, you can maybe see there's hints of like the Trinity. God said not in you or in us, but there's the body, soul and spirit, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. And you see that we are made in the image of God. And I try not to obviously elaborate or take that too deep because I don't know all that how that works. But I know we have soul and emotion and intellect and we have a body that we live in. But those things are not eternal. It's the spirit, body, soul and spirit. So they are all affected. The last week I was talking about man is created in God's image. And I was encouraged to hear from others that were encouraged, reminding you that no matter how you feel, no matter what you're going through from depression, anxiety, that you are created in God's image. That actually God, the image that you bear is a reflection of whatever that means in scripture. Let us create man in our image, according to our likeness, that you are created in that image, that DNA, those chromosomes, that makeup that is you, that is the image of God. That's why we don't believe in abortion. From conception, when a child is conceived, that is the life God has created in my image and according to my likeness. Can you imagine the value? How do you put value on a human life? You can't. But when you begin to walk away from that, that's why, I mean, for example, sex trafficking. I can't even believe we, is this planet Earth? Am I in a nightmare? Were we trafficked young? I mean, or abortion? We're in the twilight zone. But the more depraved mankind will become, the more they reject God and they forget that they are created in his image. And how is evolution taught in the school? How is that okay? How is it taught that all of this just happened? It came from nothing. The cells knew how to divide. The bodies knew how to adjust. The heart, the liver, all these things that just happened to come together. And so you begin to, if you're taught that you're an animal, you're going back to the dust. Life is meaningless. It doesn't mean anything if that's how you're taught. You're going to live accordingly. And so what we're seeing, especially in our nation, is the byproduct of removing God. That's exactly what is happening. In chapter 2, 7, I want to bring this in. It says, The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being. So the reason I want to talk about that is because sometimes people will say, that's not literal. And one of those people who say that is William Lane Craig. But I actually would encourage you to watch his YouTube videos. He's an incredible apologist, debater. But he said this, I think the creation of Eve out of Adam's rib is almost undeniably figurative language. And God creating Adam out of dirt and then blowing into his nose seems to be figurative. Well, here's what I want to kind of teach you. We need to be careful, because you have to allow scripture to interpret scripture. And if something is, you know what figurative means, it doesn't really mean it's true. It's giving you an example, allegory, figurative language. Here's an example. God, in the book of Revelation, it says Satan is going to be bound with a chain. Okay, is it a literal chain? Two inch thick steel, you know, running thousands of miles long? But Satan's a spirit, not human flesh, necessarily. So is he bound by a literal chain? Is Jesus going to come back really riding a cloud like he rides a horse? You know, so there's some areas there where you see that the Old Testament writers would actually use a lot of figurative language, the clouds of darkness and clouds of God's judgment, and God swiftly comes on the clouds. Well, those are, especially then when they didn't understand weather patterns, when you would see a big storm coming in, didn't understand lightning. I mean, it's just like, you think the gods are upset, like the one true and living God, of course, but they would use this language. And so some things in the Bible, you have to look at the context. But in this case, I think it is a literal creation of Adam and Eve, just like the Bible says. In Genesis 3.19, for example, God said, by the sweat of your brow, this is after they fell, and we'll talk about that hopefully next week. The title I'm working with is an autopsy of temptation and looking at how temptation works and how Adam and Eve fell. But God said, by the sweat of your brow, you'll eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken. For dust you are, and to dust you will return. So when you take that in, it makes you, okay, I see the literal, because when God would grab, let's say he took from the dust of the ground, ironically, you have a lot of the same minerals in your body that's in the earth. Oh, coincidence. I don't know. And so if God formed, here's the form, he blows into that the breath of life. And now that person then becomes a living soul, becomes a living being, because God breathed into him the breath of life. And so to me, those things seem literal. I don't want to wade in the waters of figurative language, because where do you stop? Unless it's clear, unless it's clear that something is not the case. For example, when David, I think, talked in Psalms about, or the prophets, rivers of water ran out of my eyes, weeping over my people. Well, probably not rivers of water, but he expresses how broken he was. And so you can, and I'll talk more as we go, what's figurative, what's allegory. Allegory would be, it's a little bit different than figurative. And then metaphors, similes, and then literal translations. So I always err on the side of that the Bible is a literal translation, except when it becomes clear that it's not. In questionable areas, I try not to take a strong stance. For example, something that's very interesting. Many people talk about the thousand-year reign of Christ, which they call the millennial, correct? Well, if you look up the other seven, I think seven or eight times, a thousand years is used, it's never literal. A thousand years is but, a thousand years to us is but a day to the Lord. And other areas. So is it a literal thousand years, or is he giving an extended time period? Again, just food for thought. I don't take any hard lines on that, because reading it, well, it looks like there could be a literal thousand-year reign of Christ. But I have a lot of questions. Why is the temple rebuilt? Ezekiel talks about. Why are we sacrificing again? Or why are the Jews sacrificing again? If the sacrifices, they make this, they make the sacrificial system in the new temple seem okay. Where to me, it would seem almost blasphemous, because he's already, so there's lots of questions out there. So it's good to hold on to the non-essentials loosely. Because if you hold it tightly, and you make it doctrine, you become a Pharisee. Well, they don't believe exactly how I believe. Now on the essentials, there's no wiggle room. Jesus is the only way, the only truth, the only life is not figurative. It's not, well, maybe it's allegory. No, it's literal. It's true. All the truth, isn't that interesting? All the essentials are crystal clear truths about who God is and the nature of Christ. But the title of the message, Fearfully and Wonderfully Made, or Body, Soul, and Spirit, comes from Psalm 139. You created my innermost parts. You wove me together in my mother's womb. I will give you thanks, because I am awesomely and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works, and my soul knows it very well. Now the pulpit commentary, you can see it up there. I like his ending point. He said, it has been said that if we could see one half, one half of what is going on within us, we should not dare move. Sometimes stop and think about what is going on inside of us. Do you know you have, I don't know, somewhere around 96 billion cells, little tiny living things? You know, you heard the nucleus, the microchondria that produces the ATP, which is energy, and it's sending signals to this cell, and it's dividing, it's replicating, or it's becoming cancerous, and it's not healthy, and all these little things going on. I could kind of gross you out, but I won't, but there's something called microbiome in your gut, gut bacteria, all these little tiny billions of little things in your gut. You are basically a host for lots of little bacteria, and good virus, bad virus, and other things, and so that's how we were designed. It's so much going on. If we knew we would, can't move, my heart is pumping, my liver, my kidney, my body, the vessels, and we would just be astounded at how awesome God is. Even looking at the lyrics, I don't know if you noticed, but behind the lyrics was some aspects of the universe. It wasn't just made up fake stuff. You saw the stars. I mean, that is just, God hung those there. It's just amazing how many, you think the Milky Way is big enough, right? And now there's more universes. They thought there was 1,050 stars, 1,055 stars or so in 150 AD. They even wrote a paper on it. So you can't always trust, right? Lead-based paint, asbestos, DDT, want me to keep going? No? Cocaine and really Coca-Cola, that's how it originated. Did you know that? Cocaine was in Coca-Cola initially, and they thought it was great. Pregnant women should drink it. Pregnant women should smoke. You know, it's just we have to be careful. Sometimes science and the medical industry catches up to God. So Genesis 1, 29, and God said, see, okay, after he created man, okay, now what, God? Now what? I have given you every herb, basically the plant, those are plants that yield seed, which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed. So he's given us every yielding plant, every yielding tree, seed yielding, all of this shall be food. Now here's what's interesting. Food was designed to meet our needs. Now it meets our wants, right? We don't go for that nice organic apple. We go for Panda Express. Oh, 9 a.m. was a little more lively. This is going to be, this is a convicted group, because I know you're all going out to fast food after this place, and you're mad that, you're mad every time you pull up, and Chick-fil-A is closed on Sundays. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we were created to eat plants. You've heard that big, it's big right now, plant-based. And what they're finding though, of course, is things called phytochemicals. Phytochemicals are in the plants. Enzymes, digestive enzymes, nutrient value in the vitamins and minerals, and the fiber content, fiber of the plants. And that's why I'm a big proponent of eating the actual fruit versus juicing, because with juicing you get way too much sugar. You juice six apples, you're getting tons of sugar, and you're missing the fiber, the pectin, all the things. And all that fiber actually, what it does too, it slows down the absorption rate of the sugar, and your glucose doesn't spike as much as well too. So I'm not a fan of juicing. Now I know that a lot of people have had success, and they do it, that's fine. Just really think it through, make sure God is leading. And if you do it, make sure it's with greens that don't taste good, and not a lot of fruit. And you want to avoid that type of sugar if you're going to do some type of fasting. But God gave us all the trees, from sweet potatoes to regular potatoes, to all kinds of beans. This is the fuel for the human body. And then we are allowed to eat meat. Think about this, not after the fall, after the flood. 1,600 years after the fall of man, just about, depending on your reading of the scripture. Then God said, now I give you the meat to eat. Now, I don't know where to go with that one. All I'm saying is, I'd rather err on the side of eating what I was created to eat, originally designed to eat. If you like Doritos and Dr. Pepper, there's not any life-giving fuel in that. That is just, that's just factory-created, red-colored dye 40, three different food colorings, and additives, and preservatives, it's just junk. So I'm surprised we just don't fall over dead all the time. Because we're not, there is no nutritional value in these things. Even, oh man, I could go on a lot of different rabbit trails. But I'm not going to. Even like, for example, I might for a minute. But like, like, you know, we, we think, you know, we praise this, the pasteurization of milk, and there's benefits. But that basically kills all the good things, all the good enzymes, all the good bacteria. You're basically drinking sugar water. And if you're reading Proverbs, the Lord talks about goat's milk to, for health and healing, and, and to make you joyful. And there's a lot of benefits of, of raw types of dairy. I'm not promoting that necessarily, even though I am. But medical disclaimer, what happens is, is a cow is sick, and then obviously, you know, if something's raw, then you get sick. I've been drinking raw goat's milk for a long time, and I've never had any issues. But getting back to how God created things, how God made things, and the nutrient-dense foods. You hear the super greens, right? Why? Because it's nutrient-dense. It heals your body. It protects your body. It repairs your body. Your body's losing vitamins and minerals, all these things that it needs, and you're taking in food. That's why I said, I give you food to take in. There's an enjoyment there, of course, but it's also to repair the body. So you look at the standard American diet, right? Probably eggs that are dirty, bacon that's gross, and a big cup of Christian crack. And then, and, and orange juice is just purely sugar. You'll figure out what that is later. And then lunch, nothing but fast food or, or processed. But Shane, I buy some turkey meat. Well, if it's luncheon meat, sodium nitrates, no preservatives, no nutritional value. The bread has been enriched and depleted of all its nutrients. We just, it's just never-ending. We wonder why we're getting more overweight, more, why are we getting sicker? All health-related diseases are on the incline, big time. And so when we talk about our healthcare system, well, you need to first look at what's causing it. What's causing the problems, that's how you fix it. You don't just keep throwing more money at it. You, you, you look at what I, what you're eating. I saw something on Facebook that is kind of funny. It said, you're all worried about taking a jab, but not what goes in your mouth. Now, I know it's not the same, but it's pretty, that's pretty funny, if you think about it. Because natural immunity is your best, best thing against COVID. Without a shadow of doubt, your best, your natural immunity, when your body's highly immune, and you, let's say you get the virus in your nasal passages, your cells say, aha, foreign invader, and it begins to just create all these antibodies to fight that off. But if it's sick, and toxic, and depleted, and overweight, and listen, I'm not mocking that. I've, I can be overweight very quickly. I'm actually, I should weigh 30 pounds less, honestly, to be healthy, not 220 pounds. I should weigh 190 at my health to be, but you try losing 30 pounds, you know. I look like I'm getting sick when I get too skinny. But, and, and so, where was I? Oh yeah, your best defense is natural immunity. That's why, that's why the, the elderly are at risk, because as you get older, obviously your immunity suffers, and also the morbidly obese, or the obese. And the reason is, is because usually when you're in that state, fat carries a lot of toxins. So your body's in a toxic state. Your heart is having to work much harder. Your liver, kidney, the, the cleaning of the system has to work much harder. The lymphatic system has to work much harder. And it's toxic environment, so your body's fighting this toxicity fight. So basically, when you get a virus, now it's gonna, bam, nail you, because you're already at your wit's end. So eating healthy, taking care of your body brings in CIL Team 6 to defend and fight against this, the viral infection. And so on this issue, this is a funny question, but it does come up. I've given you every herb, so they say, aha, I can smoke marijuana. It's actually a, a weed. But also, that doesn't mean you go eat opiate, and you go eat, I mean, there's some things you just find out that aren't really healthy and good for you. Now, they ask, so can Christians use marijuana? I'm gonna talk about that in Genesis 9, so I'm not gonna talk too much about it. But remember, legal is not always lawful. Legal is not always lawful. Shane, haven't you heard about the medicinal effects of it? Absolutely. The oils, there's some benefits, especially for those with, with epileptic seizures and different things. But I don't think we have a medicinal problem. I think we have a recreational problem. Every single morning, without a shadow of a doubt, I kid you not, every time I go bike riding, what in the world is going on here? Everybody out back, just, just going, and my kids, I love my kids. Dad, what is that smell? I don't know, just keep riding. Just, just keep walking. Keep walking. I'm gonna have to get a blood test here and come back. There's trace amounts of what's everywhere, everywhere you go. Do you guys smell it at home too? I mean, come on. This is ridiculous. But to answer the question, can a Christian use marijuana? Todd Miles at Western Seminary said this, getting high on cannabis impairs your cognitive abilities, it impairs your physical abilities, and it impairs your moral judgment. The consequences are unhelpful. But, oh, okay, clap for that, I guess. Now I can tell he uses marijuana, who doesn't, by the claps. But, you know, this is actually a no-brainer. It's the same thing as alcohol, and I'll get into that in chapter nine of Genesis. It's, you know, if, if it impairs judgment, if it kind of, you know, Paul said, don't be drunk with this false spirit, be drunk, I mean, be filled with the Holy Spirit. What, what is guiding you? So when we give ourselves up to something like that, it, it's, it's, it's, it's something else is working in and through you. So it's hard to, it's hard to be on fire for God and do things for God when we're in an altered state of consciousness. And so, obviously, it would depend on how much, what type, the oils, all these different things. But I'm not going to talk about that right now. I think it's, it's pretty clear that if it's not helping, it's hurting. If it's creating problems, it's called an addiction. If it's, if it's, if your spouse says, you need to stop this, you need to stop this. If you're convicted, it's, that's a no-brainer. So to me, these things are kind of, even with alcohol, you know, people ask, I mean, somebody can enjoy a beer now and then, or a glass of wine? Okay. But it's always, you always ask me, it's the one who like to have a couple of glasses every single night, maybe a bottle every, and is it okay? Well, you tell me it's okay. Sounds like you have a problem. And so if that one drink opens up the door to more drinks, see, it all depends on where you're at. So you can, the Bible is not, is clear on that issue that, you know, if it's in moderation, and I'll get, I'll get into this a lot more. Do you have a lot more information, but something that a lot of people don't know, and what has been proposed, John MacArthur teaches on a lot of people. I, I agree from different Hebrew writings and, and historical accounts, but like the wine in Jesus's day was what made, much, much different than ours. Much less, was not as strong. You've got now 8% in IPA beers and 12%. I mean, that's a lot of, you're feeling pretty good. And, you know, the, the altered state there, and, and so if a person can enjoy one now and then, but it becomes a habit, and it's on the Facebook post, it's at all their events, and it's, that's, you might want to look at, you know, what's going on there. And so I'm not going to talk about that much now, but I thought you said you weren't. I am, I know. Revelation 22, look at this. On each side of the river, now this is a river flowing, flowing from the throne of God, stood the tree of life. So are we going to be consuming food in the future? Bearing 12 crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. Now, you can put this, you know, in the future, you can put this in different places, but I will say this. We know for certain that there's a lot of healing properties in the leaves, and the fruits, and the trees, and it's interesting that he said, for the healings of the nation. And it's always the plants are always, he was dying. What about when Hezekiah died? You want to remember that? Hezekiah, King Hezekiah, he was dying. God said, put your house in order, and he cried out to God, gave him, God gave him 15 more years. But he didn't just give him 15 more years. The prophet actually went and made this huge paste from figs, and put the figs on the boil. And it's interesting, my commentary Bible says that doesn't mean anything. It was just a step of obedience. I don't know. That's a healing type of paste has been known to remove and pull out toxins. And it can be, who do, how do we know that that healing properties that God didn't use, the healing properties of plants, which it does have. You've heard all the things, echinacea, elderberry, occlodial silver, all those things, they a lot of times are antiseptics, or what like echinacea will do. If you take echinacea, it sends in a, you take that, your cells have an immune response, and your immune system kicks up. That's why these things are healing properties that God has given us. God has given us wisdom to take care of our bodies. But what we like to do is give me the pill. For example, statin drugs. You heard of statins? Very popular. What they do is they tell your liver, if you have high cholesterol, which by the way, cholesterol is very good. It's needed in every cell of your body, on the cell membranes. It goes in and it's like a cushion. It's very good. Your body produces it. So if you have high cholesterol, which I have thoughts on that. I'm not going to get into HDL levels, high density lipids, low density lipids, triglycerides. I don't think that's causing a lot of the damage. I think poor nutrition is and different things. But anyway, let's just, this is for sake of argument. High cholesterol, to get rid of the high cholesterol, here take the statin drug. It's going to tell your liver to stop producing cholesterol. So to lower it. Well to me that just, why not just change your diet and lose weight? It makes no sense to me. You're going to tell your liver that's supposed to be making cholesterol to stop making cholesterol. It makes no sense. Or somebody, you have heart problems. Okay, well take Coumadin. Take this blood thinner. And so your blood's more like water. Okay, you know there's other natural remedies to get your heart in. I mean, so see the medical industry and we need the medical industry. There's nurses that go here. There's doctors go. We love them. We need them. We need each other. But a lot of times the medical industry doesn't understand how the body works. And then those on this side tend to disregard the medical. And we actually need both of them because sometimes there's a need for medical advice, medical pills and medication and things like that. I've never discount that. But we don't often just run to that. For example, I've told the story many times before. Our kids have been diagnosed with strep throat many times over the years. Have your kids strep throat? What's the go-to? Amoxicillin. Get that down their throat. Well, we've started many times with clodial silver, which is sprayed. It's a natural antiseptic to remove the sugar, clean diet, everything. And often within the day, the next day, next day it's cleared up. I would say, what, eight times out of 10? And we just, we have the amoxicillin in the refrigerator just in case. We're not stupid. You know, we're not naive, but rarely have we had to use it. And because the body can, especially if you're praying, you're seeking God, but sometimes we've had to use it to kick something out real quick. So I'm not against that either. But I've had my doctor who I don't go to anymore because he's a salesman more than I believe a doctor here in Lancaster. I'm not going to tell you where, but he wanted to give me two different high blood pressure medications in 2015. I said, okay, hold on. Did the nurse use the big cuff? He goes, well, I hope so. Why can't we double check? And she didn't. I mean, oh, you're fine. You're 120 over 80. Well, thank you very much. I almost walked out of here with two high blood pressure medications or testosterone level was low. Well, let me give you androgel. That'll spike it up. It'll also make me very angry because it produces testosterone. It's like a drug. And so just changing diet would fix that. Another time, my daughter, we went into an ear, nose, throat specialist. And he said, he was like, looked at me and my wife. She goes, she's like way up here above a 10. We need to get her to children's hospital. We need to do surgery. We need to remove her adenoids and her tonsils because she's having a hard time breathing at night. It was scary as like, you don't want to press it and say, okay, hold on, cowboy. Hold on. Number one, I'm thinking how much you get paid for referral fee, but no, I'm not going to go there. But in a nutshell, getting her on some natural herbs, letting her take a nap, getting her off of all sugar, all processed food within four days, she's breathing fine. Still has her adenoids, still has her tonsils. So that's what I'm saying. We need to be careful sometimes because the medical industry, what they do is prescribe. Prescribe, big pharma, the pharmacy industry, Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson, Moderna. So we have to be careful. It doesn't mean there's not good things coming out of there, but we just have to be careful here too as well. Use wisdom. Boy, that was a lot more than I planned on saying, but let me get back to this here. So the tree of life in Genesis 2.9 also, there's a tree of life. We hear about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but we rarely hear about the tree of life. What is that? Could it be that the fruit and would there be this tree that would actually allow Adam and Eve to continue to live? You might say, oh Shane, I don't know you lost me there. Well, did you know that before the fall, God actually said when you eat this fruit, you will die spiritually, but then also physically. Could it be? Because see your cells, did you know your cells divide and replicate, divide and replicate, divide and replicate, and you could keep, the cells could keep producing theoretically, but of course because of the toxic environment that doesn't happen, and they can keep their studies. You can research where they've kept chicken cells alive in a petri dish for years because they keep removing the toxic buildup. So the cells divide, live, they remove the toxic buildup. The cells divide, they live the toxic buildup. And you can look at, his name is Dr. Walter Longo out of USC. He's over research and development over longevity, and he's got a lot of material on this intermittent fasting. So this isn't just pie in the sky, and it's interesting. Let's example, let's just throw that example out there. This area of fasting, you know what they would say 30 years ago? That's where the word quack comes from. Oh, they're just, they're a quack. Now they're looking at fasting and many therapeutic uses. They're actually now recommending that people fast on chemotherapy. Look into it. It's amazing how they talk about how the cells are more protected, and how the body engages in something called autophagy, and it can work to help offset the effects of chemotherapy. And they're finding, see, that God's way ultimately works. And as we know, I've told you before, top diseases are often diet related. And you might say, well, what about meat now? Well, biblically speaking, meat is allowable. I can't get on those bandwagons of, you know, this diet only. God said, I give you meat after the flood. And many of you are going, praise God. But when it becomes your staple, junk food is your staple, meat's your staple, that's where we run into a lot of trouble. And the reason they think meat, for example, meat, why you have to have is you can't get B12 any other way, unless you want to eat a lot of seaweed, I believe it is, or yeast. Yeah, yeast. But your body actually does produce B12, but it's below the point of absorption in the colon. So you don't know how much the fall might have impacted things. All we know that is allowed, but if I were to err, I'm going to err on the primary fuel source being what we are designed to consume. And that's how important it is. And now think about this for a minute, every cell in your body was made from an already existing cell. Did you know that? So every cell in your body came from an existing cell already. So if that's the case, how is evolution possible? How did cells, they have to come from another cell? You can't just, well let me, let's produce the nucleus of the cell, now let's produce the mitochondria, now let's produce, it all had to happen when God said, let there be life. It's the only way possible. Now any thinking mind knows that. Even atheists, no, that's, I mean, come on. But because they don't want there to be a God, it has nothing to do with facts, has everything to do with what they're prejudiced to conclude, that there is no God. And so it's interesting that every cell in the body already comes from an existing cell. And I want to show you a few pictures. Kids, you know what that is? It's a cell. Trillions and trillions and trillions of these little tiny things in your body. You lose about 36 million a day. And the cells keep replicating, replicating. But this is interesting. This is fearfully and wonderfully made. It ties into the sermon, don't worry. This is in your body controlling your energy. The mitochondria is where the ATP is produced, your energy, that's where all your energy comes from. These little tiny things you can't even see. And this is the nucleus of the cell. Water can go in, but water's on the outside around, but it can't go in. And the nucleus is just so well made. It's got like a little ball on it with legs, and then some more legs, another ball, and they come together. That's the nucleus. This end likes the water, this side doesn't, and it keeps everything in. That's why things cannot penetrate the nucleus of the cell. Most things can't. Now, what about if a virus does get in? There we go. Bacteria. So it gets in, it signals here. Forget what this is called. I wrote it down earlier. Oh, the endoplasmic, yeah, the endoplasmic area. It creates something called the microchondria, and all these different things are produced to fight off this bacteria. And what you see the microchondria producing, ROS, reactive oxygen species. In other words, that would be like free radicals. Have you heard that word lately? Free radicals, radicals that are free. It's basically a molecule that is missing the, I believe it's the oxygen or hydrogen, one of those electrons. Anyway, it's a free radical, but they're not always bad. And what they're doing here is they're going to the phagosome, and it holds the bacteria and it consumes the disease, the bacteria. Right here, it's an execution chamber. This is how it kills the bacteria. How amazing is that? God designed it all. Now this is interesting. The lysosome is where the cell self-destructs. The cell kills itself. And this is why autophagy is so important. And autophagy is heightened during fasting. Autophagy is when your body consumes all the dead and decaying cancer cells, tumors, and fat during autophagy. Why doesn't your body go after your spleen or your liver? Those are some good fuel sources. Because you're wonderfully and fearfully made. It's amazing. And the membranes, all this, the cholesterol is all around here protecting you. This is producing energy. This is killing the virus. This is killing itself and then replicating into other cells. And just this is all in you. You can't even see it. Trillions of those. And let me put up the second picture. This will answer some questions for some of you on being fearfully and wonderfully made. What does this sound familiar? Uh-oh. Spike protein from the virus. And so what happens is that spike protein, what you'll see, the messenger RNA, this vaccine here that they're hoping works, it actually creates a response to the spike protein. That's what they're doing. So it doesn't give you a portion of the virus. It sends a message, the RNA, messenger RNA, to create the spike protein. Why? Then it goes into your cell. See how it's going into the cell here? How does it go in the cell, Shane? I thought you said it couldn't go in the cell. Well, that's why it's covered in lipid. Did you know the vaccine is covered in lipid proteins or lipid fat? Actually, fat molecules that are surrounding the vaccine. It goes into the human cell. It says, uh-oh, there's a spike protein. Now we have to produce antibodies to fight this off. It's immune response. This is a white blood cell. This is immune response. That's how fearfully and wonderfully made we are. Now, I have questions about the RNA. I'm not trusting that it's doing the right thing. Personally, again, this is my opinion. I've got a lot of questions on how it transfers the information, different things, but that's how it works for those who are interested. Fearfully and wonderfully made. So what they're trying to do is have your body produce antibodies for the spike protein without actually giving you the virus. That's behind the Pfizer and the Moderna. Johnson & Johnson is a approved for those who need the vaccine in October that actually gives you the portion of the virus in that vaccine that's coming out. Now, my personal belief is I don't like what are in vaccines. For example, the mercury, the aluminum, you've heard fetal tissue. The reason is all of those things stimulate the immune system, but also the vaccine can't get in the cell by itself unless it has like fetal tissue or something that's the delivery system into the cell. That's why the vaccines contain all this stuff that's not really healthy for the human body. And it also puts the toxins, the mercury, the aluminum, all these are toxins in the body. And what they also do is they break the blood brain barrier. So when they're in the brain, the blood, they can break through that blood brain barrier and go into your brain. And actually, that's what they're linking a lot of Alzheimer's and different things to. Degeneration of the mind is because of all these toxins building up. And so it's just fearfully and wonderfully made. It's incredible. I don't know if we have picture three and four. I'll go real quick and then I'll be done on the pictures. This is actually what a cancer cell looks like. Abnormal cell, see the chromosome is broken off here, a healthy cell. So what fasting does is it goes after these first, autophagy takes place. It says, what is disease? What is basically garbage? And I need to go after that first to break it down for fuel. And so that's why the fasting is so important. And the final picture, this is very interesting. You can read about this as well with Dr. Longo's information. This is a chromosome many of you know, but a lot of people aren't aware of telomeres. These are the ends of a chromosome and long telomeres lead to longevity and healthy life and healthy cells. But when those telomeres get really short as we age or through free radicals or through toxic environment, that's where aging and disease comes from. So guess what fasting does? Builds the telomeres and lengthens these telomeres. Why? Because fasting puts the body in a stressful state, especially if you've heard of dry fasting. That's interesting. It's where there's no water either. I wouldn't recommend that. But what happens is now there's no water, now there's no food. It's just breaking down the fat tissues like never before and the fat cells like never before to get the water, to get the nutrients. And it's even exploding in this area of stressing out the body. But it's a good stress because it's allowing all these other things to take place. Also, did you know exercise stresses the body? It's a good stress. Actually, exercise releases free radicals into your body. And do you know what comes against free radicals and helps you? Something called antioxidants. You ever hear of that? Antioxidants, that word is against oxidative stress, antioxidants. So those actually come and they fight against the free radicals that are destroying your body. Guess what's in the antioxidants? I mean, where you get those from? Well, let's see. Let's go over the list real quick. Doritos, Double Double, Chick-fil-A, Dr. Pepper, ice cream, Starbucks, Venti, Caramel, Moppa, Chino, Frappa, whatever. Chocolate pops from Starbucks. You know I'm kidding, right? No, no antioxidants. Actually, the free radical, worse stuff from there because your body says, what is this? I don't have to respond to 50 grams of sugar and all this caffeine. Your body's just... Where do you get these cancer-fighting phytochemicals? From plants. And that's why there's a big push, let's say, for organic because it's not sprayed with herbicides and fungicides and pesticides. And something now that is very dangerous, and you can google it and research it, is glyphosate and something called Roundup. So I tell my gardener, do not spray anything in my yard because that Roundup will stay around for years. And it's glyphosate. And glyphosate is cancer causes the carcinogen. Again, you can look all this up. Don't take my word on it. And now you're also hearing of genetically modified GMO. What they do, it's called Roundup Ready Produce. They've taken the genes, the gene splicing of the produce, and somehow have genetically modified it so the Roundup, when it's sprayed on it, won't kill the orange or the apples, but it will kill the weeds. It's genetically modified. And so I know there's a lot to it. I don't want you leaving here going, I can't eat or drink anything. Oh my goodness. I mean, you can get really carried away, but you don't want, you want to trust God and, you know, just make, ask Him wise decisions. I know the big reason out there, Ms. Shane, the food is too expensive, correct? But you know, if you cut down your Starbucks habit, you can save $150 a month. You want me to keep going? A.M. P.M. stops, McDonald's, it all adds up. And so we shouldn't be asking why is it so expensive? We should be asking why is cheap food, why is bad food so cheap? And so I think it's about stewarding our bodies. Don't get so carried away, and don't get crazy like some people, and just, just, okay, Lord, how do you want me to steward this body? And that's what people are maybe saying, okay, Shane, now what? I feel like fasting. I feel like doing some of these things or, or making some changes. First, number one, ask God for direction and set a target date. Ask God for direction and sense, okay, Lord, when do you want me to do it? How do you want me to do it? Give me a plan. I'm praying, I'm seeking you, and God will, I hopefully, I'm, I'm, I'm assuming as you step out in faith, we'll begin to bless that decision. Now, be warned, it's not easy. Do you know what the hardest part of fasting is? It's actually not fasting. It's not missing food. It's called withdrawals. I have to have my, you fill in the blank, I have to have my monster drink. I have to have, and these guys, I see them eating donuts and a monster drink. I'm like, can I, can I just give you some advice? Oh, man, I'm always, I can't sleep. I got insomnia. I'm just dealing with depression, man. I don't know what's going on. Well, three of those a day are going to That's what caffeine is. It's a central nervous stimulus, so you're always amped up. You're always ready to go. You're always in fight and flight. You can never get good sleep, but Shane, I sleep fine. No, you pass out because you're exhausted. Your adrenal glands are exhausted. That's why you're up more often. That's why you have to urinate quite a bit because it's caffeine-induced sleep insomnia, and so we see all these drugs working against. I'm just telling you the truth. I don't like any more than you do. I would love a good, big, strong cup of coffee, but it really messes me up. I turn into a jerk, Jekyll and Hyde, because you can tell. It's your fight. It's your fight and flight, and so caffeine, sugar, processed foods, and sodium nitrates, all these things are really causing havoc on the body, so what you need to do also remove the hindrance from within your home. Get rid of the stuff out of sight, out of mind. You know, I never do good when there's junk food in the house because it's calling me at midnight. Shane, we're lonely. So out of sight, out of mind. That's funny. Also, with media, any type of junk food, junk food up here, media things, remove these things. Get your life whole and healthy and focused on God, and God will begin to honor that, and then also fuel the completion of your fast by praying instead of eating, praying, reading, worshipping, and listening to things that motivate this completion of this project. Read about and do research on phytochemicals and cancer-fighting plants and all these different things and how the benefits of fasting, that keeps you fueled up instead of watching Netflix and grabbing a tub of ice cream, and see it's counterproductive. If you do that, fall forward, get back on track. Nobody does this perfectly. I sure don't. I know that. And have a prayer list available. All the things you're praying for, begin to journal these things as God is putting things in your heart. Begin to list prayers. Come to morning worship next morning, next Sunday, six to eight. We'll have the prayer room open. The lights will be on. You can study in there. You can read. You can come in here and worship. Go back in there. It's just a time of seeking God like never before. We have all these things competing for our time. We're not resting in God. And that leads me back to the closing point, Genesis 2, 1 through 3. God said, the heavens and the earth and everything, the host of heaven, were finally finished. God completed his creative work. And then on the seventh day, God ended his work, which he had done, and he rested. He rested on that day. Now, did God literally rest? Was he tired? Oh, Saturn was hard. And the rings and Pluto. And no, it's just that word has ceased from activity. He ceased from his activity. God ceased from his activity on the seventh day. And he blessed the seventh day. And he sanctified it. And he said, I have rested from all of my work on this day. And we're going to talk about the Sabbath in a little bit as we get into, as we keep going through the Bible. But something that really stood out is this aspect of, have you ever heard of resting in God? If we just rest in him, abide in him. And there's this interesting language in the Bible. But let me tell you this, it has to be targeted. It has to come from discipline. It won't come on its own. You have to make time to rest in God and to focus on him and to take time out of your day and to focus not only on him, but on his word and on prayer. I like first Peter five, seven, casting all your care upon him. I think we have it up there. Casting all your care upon him for he cares upon you. So all these things that we're going through right now, isn't amazing. Everybody, I'm fearful of the vaccine. I'm fearful of Biden. I'm fearful of China and Russia. I'm fearful of losing my job. I'm fearful of the nanoparticles in the vaccine that might react to the 5G networks. And I'm fearful of this. And I'm just fearful of this. And I'm fearful of this. And I'm walking around just fear-driven. I can't really get things done because I'm fearful. And what's coming next? And what's the conspiracy theories? And what are the ulterior motives? God says, give me all of that, please. Give me those fears. I mean, you have, the Bible says you have an advocate. So in other words, you might go to court, but you know the attorney. You might be in a storm, but you know the captain of the ship. You might be underneath ungodly leadership, but you know who the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords is. You might be going through valleys, but you know that the Lord is your shepherd. He shall not allow you to go down into the pit. He will walk you through the valley of the shadow of death. He will walk you through those valleys of difficulties. See, the Christian life is not a life of perfection. It's not a life of ease. It's not a life of comfort. And everything goes your way. I know just what Joel Osteen tells you, but the Bible is not quite, doesn't quite talk about that. Oh, I'm going to get in trouble again. But it's a lie. See, we got to prepare people for real Christianity. Pick up your cross and carry in Him. Though He slay me yet will I trust Him. Though I don't understand what I'm going through, I will trust Him. Joe Rigney wrote this article this week. He said, what devastates the halls of hell? He said, a Christian who feels abandoned by God. Have you ever been there? I have. And yet, yet he still believes. Yet he still prays. Yet he still loves. And yet he still obeys his Lord and Savior. Though he feels abandoned by God, he does not allow his feelings to dictate his relationship with his Creator. He puts that aside and he still believes. He still prays. He still presses in. He still obeys. And he says, like Job, though He slay me yet will I trust Him. And he rests in the sovereignty of God. I lay my life down willingly, Jesus said. And so we must also, Lord, I lay my life down. I don't know why I have this cancer. I don't know why I have this broken relationship. I don't know why the doctor's report says that. God, I don't understand what's going on, but my feelings cannot be trusted. But the King of kings and Lord of lords who's still on the throne, will never, never leave or depart you. He can be trusted. He can be counted in on. So I just want to encourage you this morning. Even the book of Hebrews talks about the Jewish Christians. We're trusting in the Hebrew Christians. We're trusting in the ceremonies. Trusting in their good works. And the Bible says something completely opposite. Trust in the Son. Trust in the cross. Repent and believe in the gospel. Nobody has enough good works. Our good works are about filthy rags in the sight of God. We can't trust in our spouse. Trust in where we went to school. Trust in our upbringing. Trust in the fact that I'm a good person. We have to deny all that and say, Jesus Christ, I repent and I give you my life. I confess my sin. You are my Savior. And that's a prayer God will answer. That's the only way to know true peace. There is no peace without the Son. There's no peace. There's no comfort. We'll never find it outside of Jesus Christ. Honestly, I don't know how people make it in this world without God. Can you, everything that's going on, can you believe, can you imagine if you just believe it all just happened and it's back to the dust someday? That's why there's so much anxiety and fear and confusion, is because we're not resting in God's sovereignty. And that's why, you know, this issue is hard to navigate. I mean, this last year and a half, pastors are retiring like never before. Nervous breakdowns. I get articles and stuff and just, they're quitting. It's like, this is unbelievable because you cannot please everybody in your audience. And with the vaccine mandates or the COVID guidelines, and so you've got to understand that we just have to rest in Him. And there's a lot of people, I'd say maybe half our congregation that have got the vaccine for their job, or they pray, they believed it was the right choice, and we have to allow them that freedom. And those who are not choosing to get it, allow them that freedom and resting in God's sovereignty and trusting God. And I know it's hard. That's why when God says develop patience, you're going to be tested. You're going to have to love those who don't agree with you. If everyone agreed with us, iron would not get sharp. We would not learn how to hold our tongue and be quick to listen, slow to speak. So all these things are hitting the church and hitting us as Christians. And we see divided lines and kids won't let their parents come see their grandkids without the jab. And it's just like putting people in positions that are very difficult and losing your job possibly. And so I guess maybe just a word of encouragement that God knows your heart. Don't live in fear. Take it to Him. See what He wants you to do. If it were me, personally, AV Hospital just reversed its course on Friday or Thursday. But they are requiring a huge thing stuck up your nose almost to your brain every week. So that's for testing. So I don't know how that goes. But just trust God. No matter what decision you make, we're not judgmental. I'm hoping things come out that things are going to work. And we just have to be careful a lot of times and wait on things. I don't know how many of you saw just Friday. The FDA actually did not approve the Pfizer booster because the new... I don't know if that's worth clapping for. I can tell who's vaccinated and who's not. But they didn't approve it because the variant has changed. And so they're recognizing that the initial Pfizer vaccine, the RNA messenger is... And the Johnson & Johnson is not an RNA messenger. It's something viral. It's some type of... It works. It puts the DNA of the virus in there. But you don't want me to go there, so I won't. But just say that the Pfizer one, they're recognizing, okay, that booster isn't going to work on this strain because the virus adapts to and it changes. And so that's why, in my opinion, natural immunity is what a lot of us should be seeking and desiring. Because as a side note, guess what's really, really good after you take a vaccine shot? Something called fasting. Why? Because you're removing... See, when the big thing about vaccines is you're putting in what they call adjunct agents or adjunct agents or the delivery mechanism. That's where the aluminum, the mercury, it's what they put those in there to stimulate the immune system. Oh, wow, what is this? And then the only way that the old type of vaccine, the only way it can get into your cell nucleus is with some type of delivery system, hence the fetal tissue. It grabs onto that and that fetal tissue gets inside the nucleus of the cell. They can't just inject the virus into your body. The cell won't receive it. And so there's a lot of things out there that we have to be aware of and understand. And what fasting and eating healthy, what it can do is it can help to remove those things, how God created us. There's a lot of things out there that are coming against us. But 1 Peter 5, 7, 9, I want to leave you with this, cast all your cares upon him for he cares for you. So all your concerns about the vaccine or taking or not taking or your job or what's going on in our nation, what is Biden trying to do or what is China trying to do? Lord, cast all your cares upon him because he cares for you. It does not mean you're going to avoid the storm. Actually, you might go to court, but at least you have an advocate. You might go through the storm. You might go through the storm, but at least you know who the captain of the ship is. You might go through difficulties and challenges. You might even be underneath ungodly leadership, but you know who ultimately sits on the throne. You might be going through something very challenging, but you know who holds a destiny in the palm of his hands. And see, that's a big, that's a big misconception in Christianity. We think everything's going to be good. No, the Bible doesn't say that. Everything's going to be challenging for in this world, you will have tribulation, but fear not for I have overcome that tribulation. You will have harassment. You will have the demonic attack, but fear not. He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. And we trust and we rest on that. Joe Rigney just released an article, I believe it was through Desiring God, John Piper's ministry there. He said, what devastates the halls of hell? What devastates the halls of hell? It's when a Christian who feels abandoned by God, and yet he still believes, he still prays, he still loves, and he still believes his Lord and Savior and trusts in him. No matter God, it feels like you've abandoned me, but I'm not trusting my feelings. I'm engaging my faith, and I'm resting in you, my sovereign God. Could it be that many of you are trying to rest in the wrong things? Checking the retirement every day? Gold, silver, cryptocurrency. You know, I'm resting in the wrong things. 401k and the housing market. Should I buy? Should I sell? What's going on? And we're resting in the wrong way. Or as many people who are not Christians are trying to find that rest and peace outside of God. And without outside of God, outside of Jesus Christ, there is no rest. There is no peace. You will not know true rest and true peace until you commit and repent and turn your life over to the Prince of Peace. That is the only way.