Shane Idleman explores the theme of temptation in his sermon 'An Autopsy of Temptation,' drawing from Genesis 3 to illustrate how the enemy twists God's word and leads us into sin. He emphasizes the importance of understanding our struggles and the need for grace, reminding us that even Christians face ongoing battles with temptation. Idleman encourages believers to filter their choices through Scripture and to resist the devil rather than engage in dialogue with him. He highlights the dangers of pride and the necessity of humility in our walk with God, ultimately pointing to Christ's sacrifice as the solution for our failures. The sermon calls for a return to reliance on God's word and a commitment to spiritual growth amidst temptation.

The title is An Autopsy of Temptation. I'm in Genesis 3, and we've been going through the book of Genesis. Now this is great for your kids. What some parents are doing is they're reading through the Bible as a family, or they're reading through the Bible on their own, or with their marriage, in their marriage group, or in their marriages. Chapter one, chapter two, and it's pretty easy. One chapter a week, and kind of follow up with the sermon, jot down any questions, let us know if you have questions. It's a way to get this whole church through the Bible. Because the only way to get solid choices in unstable times is in the word of God. Everything is gonna have to be filtered through God's word. Now it might not mean you have clear direction on certain things, necessarily, but you will be able to discern God's heart, biblical principles, as you make that journey. This topic of temptation, isn't it an interesting one? I remember hearing a story about a boy who wanted to buy a baseball bat, but couldn't save enough money. And so his mom heard him praying, Lord, please help me save enough money for this baseball bat and please do not let the ice cream truck keep driving down our street. So I think we knew and know where his money went. J.C. Ryle, an incredible book on holiness, said the child of God, you, if you know God, you have two great marks about you. You are known by your inward warfare, as well as your inward peace. And that's why I don't think a lot of people understand, it's warfare and peace. And a lot of unbelievers look outside and go, look at all those hypocrites in the church. No, you're using the wrong word. You should say, look at all those people struggling in the church. And just because you become a Christian, you acknowledge God, you repent, doesn't mean the struggle's gone. So when you see someone fall, there should be a lot more grace. Because we're in this battle. I mean, from anorexia to bulimia to gluttony, from sexual addiction to substance abuse, people are struggling with things all the time. So when we see someone fall and temptation's got the best of them, that's not the time to necessarily point fingers. It's also time to realize if it wasn't for the grace of God, there go I. And then I love the people who come up and say, but Shane, I don't struggle with any of that. I don't know what you're talking about. I'm well-versed in scripture. I have a PhD in this. I've been a Christian 45 years and, well, let me tell you, sir, that's called pride and it's deadly. I'd rather be up front with my struggle and deal with it than be prideful and arrogant and condescending and have a judgmental spirit. That is very destructive as well. So are you ready for the autopsy? I actually was looking for some images and you put in the word autopsy. I'm like, this is not for me. I am not a doctor. I don't even like blood. So other than Christ's blood, of course, but just when someone gets hurt, it's like, Morgan, take care of it. There's a little cut there. Genesis three, Genesis three. Now I can't go back as much as I would like to and talk about Genesis one, two, how we got here. So that's why I wanna encourage you two things while we're doing this series through the Bible. Go listen to past messages if you miss them because it helps us set this into context, answers a lot of questions. And man was created, woman was created, woman was created. It's actually the word rib, from his rib, the word is like the word Tesla. It's spelled a little bit different, Tesla. It came, woman came from his side. So it's not necessarily the rib. I know that the translation uses it, but if you look up that Hebrew word, I don't know, like 35 other times, 20 some of those times it's used as the side. So woman was taken out of the side. Isn't that interesting? Not from the feet, not from the head, not side. Help me partner equality in many areas. And now we believe, we teach, we are completely equal in Christ. There's no difference. But there are different roles, right? When my daughter just recently was hurt, she didn't run to me. I'm like, come on, where are you going? To mommy. But if there's a snake in the front yard, daddy, see, different roles. And it's just, we bought into this lie that we have to compete with each other and I want to do everything a woman does except have a baby, right? I want to do everything. And it's, God doesn't design it that way. It's not about abusiveness or male dominism or show. It's just different roles and different ways that God has created us. Now that can enter in in the church, for sure. And God, people, I tell men this all the time. I used to speak at men's events. If you have to use scripture to define your role in the marriage, you are in the wrong already. Look at this, I'm the head of this house. No, you're not now. You just, I mean, you might be technically, but your attitude stinks. If you love Christ and you love your wife as Christ loved the church, that role fits very nicely. But it's when we use scripture against people. And anytime they do that, they've got 10 other scriptures looking them back in the face. And they cannot do that and go in that area. So Genesis three, now the serpent was more cunning. That word is wily, sly, crafty. Remember, the enemy, the devil is not, he's studied human history for many years. He's slick, he's wily, he's crafty. Normally how he does that is the same way a fisherman catches fish. They see this little lure in the water. Oh, look at that, there's some breakfast. And it's not, there's a hook in it. And they're designing temptation to where it doesn't look bad initially. Or we make excuses. Or if I do this, it's not really that big a deal. And then there's excuses going on. And so he's sly, he's crafty, he knows what will take us down. And he was even more cunning than all the beasts of the field, which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, obviously the serpent somehow said something to the woman. I'm just gonna speculate here. I mean, he had a donkey speak to King Balaam, the prophet. And so who knows the line of communication before the fall? Who knows what this exactly entailed? But I just take scripture for what it says. Somehow he said to the woman, through Satan, by the way, correct? Has God indeed said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? Now here's the first big red flag. If we talked about what we talked about last week, God didn't say that. He said this certain tree, and look what the enemy does. You can't eat of every tree in the garden. And we can glean something from that. It's an exaggeration. It's really a twisting of scripture. And so when we read things, we're like, well, man, that's kind of interesting where they'll support lifestyles out there that are not godly, certain churches. And they'll twist scripture in such a way and frame it to where, well, I know that's not true, but boy, that kind of makes sense. Or I guess I can see where they're coming from. And the enemy always twists the scripture, especially to people who are questioning their faith or even Christians or people thinking about Christianity, because you can't just come out and say, I'm pushing you off the cliff. I have to walk you down one step at a time, one compromise at a time. And he twists the scriptures. So you can't eat of every tree of the garden. But God said, accept of this one. Just really jumped out at me this week too. The enemy uses different ways to speak to us. The enemy uses different ways to speak to us through people, possibly through circumstances. What do you think fiery darts are? The Bible talks about fiery darts of the enemy. Could it be up here? Different ways. The enemy is not looking. He's not limited. He's looking for any type of thing that will, the main goal, I believe, because I don't believe that a person can lose their salvation and then maybe get it back and then lose it again. I think we're secure in Christ. And so what will often happen is the enemy will try to get us to fall and then we don't want to serve God. We don't want to, anybody been there? You don't want to read your Bible? You don't want to worship? You're actually very miserable. You're upset. You're irritated all the time. You can't, I don't want to come to morning worship. I don't want to come to church this week. I fell and I fell hard. I can't believe, and we just are, cannot be used of God because we get trapped in that cycle of sin, shame, defeat. And it's never ending unless we really ask God to break that. Here's what's dangerous as well. Did God really say dialogue with the devil is deadly? When you begin to die, God doesn't tell us to dialogue with the devil. He says resist and the devil will flee or he tells you to flee, flee anytime. So anytime you're like, you ever get in a dialogue because he will convince you. No, no, you say, no, no, I can't do that. I'm not going to go there. Then, you know, well, okay. Maybe I would love to tell the story, but it's about this lady who knew not to go by the grocery store and buy a certain item. And then she's dialoguing with the devil. Maybe it's alcohol. I don't really know, sugar, caffeine. I don't know, whatever. And she's driving, goes, okay, okay. I'll go down the street, but not look at the store. Dialoguing with the devil, right? Okay, I'll go down the street. I'll look at the store, but I'm not going to go in. You see where this is going, right? I'll drive down the street, look at the store and go in, but not go to the section. And then see, as you dialogue, as you compromise, eventually there's that hook at the end. The end result is failure because you're dialoguing when you should be running. And that's one key on this autopsy of temptation. That's one key point. Also, as noted up there as well, a half-truth is still a lie. A half-truth is still a lie. And I don't think people realize a lot of times when they tell people something or if they only give a portion of the truth to try to create a false narrative or to try to sway people and they only give them portions, that's still lying. It's manipulating. The truth has to be told the way it is. Now, I wanna cross-reference 2 Corinthians 11.3. It fits perfectly. But I fear, Paul said, lest somehow as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness so your minds might be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. So Paul, the New Testament, and Jesus also both talk about Adam and Eve. So is Jesus wrong that they weren't really historical figures? It was kind of like a story, it really didn't happen that way? Well, Jesus references it. You can be sure it is God's word. But he's referencing here, just as Eve was deceived, don't let your mind become corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. And it's interesting, that word is the basic elements of. In other words, you don't have to make Christianity complex and difficult. So many people do. And you see people walk away, it's too hard. Well, it's because you're not resting in Christ. You're going around, I gotta follow these rules, I gotta follow these rules, I gotta follow all these rules. Now, when you're a Christian, you should want to do that, but that's not out of following rules, that's out of a loving relationship. Big difference. For example, 99.9% of the movies at Cinemark, I don't go to. And I've had people tell me, well, that's boring. No, it's not. I don't want to lust after things I shouldn't be lusting. I don't want to watch these horror films. I don't want to be quenching, grieving the spirit of God. I love that. So to me, it's not drudgery. It's not difficult. And that when the Bible talks about quenching and grieving this Holy Spirit, it's ironic that those two words are used because one, quench has to do with fire. The fire of God, the passion for God, the desire for God. I'm filled with that fire, but with through sin and temptation, we quench that fire of God. And then also, we grieve. Can you believe? You grieve the spirit of God. Making kind of, the picture is making Seth, like I want to do so much more in your life. I want to work through you, but you're grieving me. And they go together. And that's why if you deal with this area of temptation, it is empowering. Now, I'm not teaching perfectionism. Don't want you to leave here. Pastor Shane just said we should never fall into sin. And it's a hard job of a pastor because you don't want to encourage it, correct? But you don't want to discourage others. There's people here that I know have fallen recently into some pretty big things. And the last thing they need to hear is this finger pointing in their face. You fell here. And how could you? But at the same time, we don't want to just never talk about discipleship and following God. So the bottom line about scripture is do not sin, fight sin, resist the devil. Even the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. And even if he falls, God will uphold him with his right hand. So we're called not to sin, but when we do, we do have an advocate. And so our heart should not be bent on sinning. It should be bent on following Christ. But in the midst of that, we pick ourselves up and we get back on track. We don't let temptation sidetrack us. And you're only gonna find victory by comparing your thoughts to the word of God. And I can, it happens more than we realize. We get caught up not really knowing what God's word says, or we think we know what it says, but we don't compare our thoughts through the word of God. And that's really where it must start. And here's how the enemy works. He threatens with loss, intimidation, fear. Is that what's not happening right now? I mean, I don't know, most of you realize this, but this is monumental on all these mandates and all these things. And I know there's, you know, it's gonna be hard for me to tippy toe on this type of message because as a pastor, I've got different political ideas in here. We've got different people. You know, the church is probably pretty much down the middle, 60, 40 on the vaccination. And so you have to leave it up to people's individual conscience, but you just see where a lot of this is going. And if it's gonna require booster shots every six months, how are you gonna get 150 million people on a regular schedule with a passport and they can't do this or do that? New York, I believe it, I'm double checking it, is now saying if you have a baby in the hospital, you can't pick up your child until you have your vaccine passport. Now, I hope it's not fake news. I got some fillers out there. It's on the media, not that that can be trusted, but you see where this is going and it's not going in a good spot. So the enemy threatens with loss. He intimidates with fear. And don't worry, I'm gonna talk about the issue more in a minute, I'm getting there. He tempts. He tempts us. What is temptation? It's a fulfillment of an immediate gratification, is it not? How many of you are fasting? You don't have to put up your hands. Oh, you could if you wanted to. What does temptation look like in your life? I want to fulfill this immediate gratification versus the pain of discipline that comes later. I'm sorry, the reward of discipline that comes later. So you either experience the pain of regret or the pain of discipline. So temptation is always working often on fulfilling something now. When you're tempted with anger, what's the fulfillment? To immediately lash out. When you're tempted with anger, when you're tempted with a lust, what's the issue? To immediately fulfill that lust. It's interesting, with lust, the lust of the flesh, temptation rises, but then it also falls. Once you can break and resist that, there is a downside that comes, and yet the draw is much less. And I just talked about that in a video I did yesterday, even with fasting, for example. Like I've got to eat, right? There's a hunger hormone. You actually have a hormone that regulates hunger. Isn't that nice? It's called ghrelin, something along those lines. And as soon as that hits a peak, I've got to eat, but after about 10 minutes, drink some water, it subsides. You're like, I'm not even hungry. How did that happen? So the key is it's those immediate high points when you don't cave in, that you allow to resist, pray, read, worship, and maybe remove yourself from the environment. That's a huge plus. And so that's how temptation works, though. Threatens with loss, intimidates you through fear, and tempts you. And the woman said to the serpent, in verse two, we may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat of it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die. Now, isn't that interesting? You shall not eat of it. Okay, isn't that enough? Or touch it. Now, I don't know. I'm just gonna speculate. I don't know if the touching is necessarily, even though it's wrong because God said not to do it, but the touch is going to open the door to the consuming. All right, if you don't touch it, you're just walking away, but you start, oh, what is this? Hmm, what is this? That looks pretty good. And you begin to dialogue with the devil. And as I told you last week, in case you weren't here, some people will say, and I've heard it said, that the Bible's not true because apples didn't grow in the Middle East. You know where I'm going with this? Do we know what kind of fruit it was? Hello? Exactly. My guess is a pomegranate, but who knows? Something good. But see, don't look at it. I mean, don't eat it. Okay, but don't even look at it. Why? Because that's where it starts. That's where the temptation begins to, when you begin to touch, it's one thing to run from, to get away. Okay, I can't have that. But can I just touch it? Because then it opens the door. Because really what it is, it's compromising. It's caving, you're losing ground in the battle. For example, one thing with men's conferences, with, pornography's a huge issue now, even for women. But the main thing is, when that temptation is coming, you don't go turn on the computer. You don't, what do you, you remove, you don't touch it. You don't, you remove yourself. So it's like, well, I'll just go on and look at some line. And things, these will build and build and build. You have to take precautions and use wisdom. These are serious times we're living in. So basically, flee sin, don't feed it. Take off, don't touch it. And dash, don't dialogue with the devil. How's that, I had them rhyme for you. Flee, take off, dash, get out of the way. Because the mind is either going towards the things of God or towards sin. People think, well, I'm just gonna hold this middle ground. Let me touch it. We're going one or the other. That's why flee in sexual immorality, the Bible says to flee it. You don't entertain it. And that's why temptation and overcoming temptation is actually very simple. But it's not easy. It's actually not hard. The thought comes in, that thought's not right. I turn from it, I flee. End of story. No temptation has overtaken you, but what is common to all men, but God will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able to bear. And with the temptation, he will make a way of escape that you may able to bear it. It's just the difficulties. But I've noticed the more you're filled with God's word, the more you're in worship and in the word and submitting and surrendering, the less stronghold, the less hold the enemy has on you. But here we go. The serpent keeps dialoguing. Then he said to the woman, you will not die. Here we go, twisting. For God knows. See, now he's challenging God, God's authority, who God is. God, like God's saying, don't do this because I'm fearful. God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, which was true, and you will be like God, not in one sense, but will be like God in the sense of knowing now right from wrong. Now they're gonna know what evil is and wickedness is and depravity is. So you'll be like God, knowing good and evil. Basically, the woman wanted to be wise. It will make you wise. And that's actually one of the weapons the enemy uses. You've heard me talk many times before, the lust of the flesh, what the flesh craves, the lust of the eye, don't hold the fruit, and the boastful pride of life. Anybody making mistakes because of pride? No, just me, nobody else out there? Maybe the 11 o'clock will be a little more honest. All of us have fallen into that trap of pride, and that's what the enemy is doing here. God knows in the day of the eat it, your eyes will be opened, and they were, but he's saying you're not gonna die. Oh, they will, spiritually and physically. And so he twists it. See, the enemy doesn't just come right out and just, that doesn't even make sense. He has it kind of make sense and draw you in and twist the word of God. So let's do an autopsy of this real quick. Did you know, or probably didn't know, some of you know, when they do an autopsy, there are some poisons that are undetectable. I'm not gonna tell you what they are, so. But there's something in the Christian life that's kind of hard to detect, pride. That's why it's called the issue of the heart. I mean, I can see people struggle with certain things in their lifestyle, right? The homeless guy, if he's alcoholic, and you can, I mean, there's certain things, and the whole, the list is long. Most sin, we can kind of see, we wear it on our sleeve, so to speak, but pride is like an untraceable poison. It's hard to spot out. And I need to define that for you because the temptation of pride is huge. Pride shifts confidence from God to yourself. Pride protects self, and it blames others. Pride thinks too highly of himself, and he takes pride in his knowledge. You know that person, pride, boastful? They love to debate, they love to quarrel, they don't wanna be the peacemaker. It's kind of like a self-promoter. It's, I'm putting confidence in me, it's about me, look at my education, look at my knowledge, and they're promoting themselves. So on this issue of pride, I wanna bring it home with some very relevant application from Romans 14, because a lot of what we're dealing with right now has to do with Romans 14, and we're really not aware of it unless we take a step back. Romans 14, accept the one who has weak faith, and don't quarrel with them or fight over disputable matters. One person's faith allows them to eat anything, but another whose faith is weak eats only vegetables. Now, this is not a debate on plant-based versus meat-eaters. People have tried to use that one before. The context, and we don't really see it as much here in America, but in different countries, if meat was sacrificed to an idol. So even today, if I went to a friend of ours we've known for many years as Hindu, and if I went to his house at Chiang, we'd just sacrifice his chicken to the goddess of whatever, and here she is, and I'm like, I don't think I'm eating that. My conscious, ah, no thank you, but now had he not told me? I mean, we don't know where the chicken comes from, necessarily, so what Paul's saying here is some of these people, I believe, were saying, I don't want to even eat meat, because the majority of the time it's sacrificed to an idol. I don't want to touch it, it's in the pagan rituals, not all the time, and so their conscience, right, you can't blame them, did not want to touch that meat, but others said, well, there's meat in the marketplace, I'm going to buy it for my family, I'm not worried about it. Now, if they tell me it was, I mean, that's something different, but I don't know, my conscience does not feel the same way yours does, does it ring a bell? Have you ever, I'm just not convicted about that. Now, if it comes, if it has to do with sin, that's a whole different story, but I'm talking about these questionable areas, so Paul's saying, if someone doesn't want to eat meat because they think it might've been sacrificed to an idol, they don't even want to go there, their conscience convicts them, give them that opportunity. They will stand before God, God is their judge, not you, and maybe if their heart is right and they feel good about that, that's great, but the person, actually, the word weak in their faith, it really should be, it could be stricter in their faith. You know, they don't, they're strict by the books, and this group that you want to eat meat, you guys can be the meat eaters over here, go for it. If you don't feel convicted about it, you don't know if it was sacrificed or not, so Paul said, stop arguing over disputable matters. I'm sorry, things that are disputed in Scripture mean they're not clear, and do you know a lot of arguments come in the church that are like, why are we even arguing about this? Why are we debating this? How many, here's the irony, is over the 10 years, I've seen a lot of people leave, even this church, over things that aren't even in Scripture. You have any examples? Yes, you're ready, aren't you? Well, because this is perfect, and that's what you can see up there, the one who eats everything must not treat someone with contempt who doesn't, and so it's basically, what can happen is, we go around as inspectors of their conscience, not sin inspectors, but like, well, I think you should believe this way, or I think you should believe this way, and then we become really, personal confession, I struggle with this. This has hit me hard, because, you know, with some of you, you're like me probably, right? There's not a lot of gray area. It's either right or wrong. You know, there's not a lot of gray area here. So let's talk about this for a little bit. With what is going on with the vaccine, because it's a very, I don't know of any more topic so relevant, do you? I'm dealing with at least two or three issues with people in their employment every single day, seven days a week. Advice, counsel, what should we do? Some people want, you know, how do I do a religious exemption? Other places, attorneys are saying, don't write the religious exemption, let your attorney fight for you, because then they can't deny it based on, and there's so much in the mix. Other people are like, I don't care, I'm not losing my job, give me the job. And these are hard, but I'm finding, though, that Christians are becoming judgmental. Because if someone is older, they've vaccinated their kids, they're in the military, they're vaccinated, and they have a strong conviction, like I've done my research on the messenger RNA, I see the ingredient labels, I feel that I need to do this. I know solid Christians. You can go on my Facebook page, me and my friend, who's my age, he's a PhD in cellular work and gene splicing and all this and knows exactly how it works, and he actually does some of the ingredients in the Pfizer vaccine, he actually uses some of those in his DNA work. And we talked about it, just as Christians, we still love each other, have different views on it, he seems to see it differently, but why am I gonna make that a dividing line, a dividing area, to divide, and that's exactly what Roman 14 talks about. And at first I wasn't sure, but because talking to so many Christians I respect on both sides, it can become a little confusing because like, well, the Holy Spirit's not divided, why are these people divided? Oh, could it have to do with Romans 14? Because here's the thing, both sides are saying they're trusting God and praying. Both sides are coming to different conclusions. Now I don't wanna get caught up in all the different scenarios there, but this I believe would fall under Romans 14, and that's why I've kind of just backed away a little bit, just say, Lord, I'm gonna take this time of October to fast, and pray, because it's coming down, it's coming down hard. And if you're gonna have to have booster shots every six months, you can keep putting that into your system, putting that into your system. And I know that I've got all the way to this side, there's the nanoparticles in it that register with the 5G network, and then Bill Gates is behind it, wants to kill the population. Okay, I got this. Now Bill Gates has said some things, he's gotta be careful with that guy. I got it. And then I got this side that, Shane, this is from God, and it's an answer prayer, it works great, from Christians. And I think why it's hard for me is, at being a shepherd, I wanna shepherd correctly. I can't say, well, I don't know, good luck, people. So I'm researching, I'm reading, I just happened to text my physician, 35 years, pro-vaccine physician. He said, Shane, I wouldn't take it, and I'm seeing the same amount unvaccinated and vaccinated in my office that are getting the same sickness. So what am I supposed to, what do you do with all this information? It's like we are drowning in information but starving for wisdom. So I've come to the conclusion, this has to follow under Romans 14, or I'm gonna lose my mind. Because, you know, and I think too, if somebody's older, they're a higher risk, and they think this is gonna work for them, and maybe it does, and I pray God it does, you can't tell a 27-year-old mom who's pregnant to do this as well, how to see different convictions. Now, the kids, that one you lost me on. So it's either an agenda, or it's, a lot of this, I think, is fear-driven. When you don't know who your maker is, when you don't know where you're going, a lot of people are living in fear, and they need us to help them, not hurt them. Now, I don't know how to do that just yet, because I ruffle feathers and step on toes, and I'm trying, and I want to love them where they're at, but at the same time, I cannot be intimidated to not speak the truth of God's word. I will not live under the fear of intimidation. And think about it now. I'm just waiting for Facebook to counsel us. Or you, I mean, I just live in that world. I'm waiting for the governor to call. I mean, it's like, you know, we had a, actually, one of the places, I won't say the name, we wrote a letter for this lady. The CEO of the company called our church and drilled us. He was agnostic. Are you telling your people not to get vaccinated? Absolutely not, twisting. I think people should do whatever they are free to do. That's the way it should be. Do what you do, and I pray it works. I pray people, that's what you should do. But then turns into an abortion question, turns it all, and then he fired the employee the next day. It's like, I just, the weight of that. I mean, just, it's just, so I get angry. And I pray, Lord, don't let my anger and frustration come out in my preaching. That's why I gotta come here for morning worship, because I'm fired up. I could say some other words that aren't good from the pulpit, but I'm ticked off. You know, this is, that is Mussolini. I mean, you cannot do that and force kids. I don't know the death rate of kids. I mean, it's so low, you can't, the numbers are so low, and then you're forcing something, even when they don't want to. But see, because there's so much fear, those who are not getting vaccinated are the problem. You see where this is going. You see where the divide is going. And so, for Christians, unless this has to fall under Romans 14, because I know of spirit-filled believers that I look up to, just this week, pastors, mentors, that see it differently. Now, they agree that the mandates are wrong. They agree that this, but they believe that the messenger, RNA, sends the right spike protein to the cell to send the right message to create antibodies to prevent them from not getting sick. Okay, that's your call. And so, I would just encourage you, maybe take it to the Lord, let it fall under Romans 14, because I don't think we can judge the conscience of others, because if a believer is seeking God, they're praying, they're fasting, they feel led to do this, who am I to say? Because the verse goes on to say, who are you to judge another servant? To his own master, he will stand or fall. And so, on these areas, we have to be very careful. Also, of course, at this point, the mask controversy comes up. Let people be convicted in their own conscience. If they truly feel something, allow them that freedom. And then, that way, we stay within the Romans 14. Another big one out there, too. Huge issue that's going down now is the move towards, do you know what cryptocurrency is? You'll see in the news, XRP, XLM, HBAR, Hashgraph, those things, you can tell I studied that a little bit, because it's interesting. I don't know where this is all going. But some people are like, absolutely not. Ah, that money's the devil's money. I don't know where that's going. Well, let me just tell you, every dollar that's in your pocket has probably been used for a drug deal. So, let's be consistent here. And this side is, like, I have no conviction at all about. I think if it's a good investment, I feel great about this, my conscience bears witness, I've been in prayer and fasting, and I want to do this. How are they divided? Romans 14. Because these are not clear-cut issues in scriptures, moral issues. So, it was just freeing for me to realize all of this falls under Romans 14. What about the debate on schooling? Private, public, charter, homeschool. Uh-oh, here comes the fights. Here come the fights. Romans 14. And I used to take a harder stance on this many years ago, but I realized I met families who can't get by without doing certain things. And a school has been a blessing to their child, it's been a detriment to others. So, you have to let Romans 14 fall under this category as well. I'll never forget this, because it was just mind-boggling. But there was a couple families who left a couple years into the church. And they were part, and they were upset at this issue. They were part of something called the Family Integrated Church Movement. Now, the movement is not, like, Votie Bachman would be probably part of that. I'm sure you've heard of his name. But they believe, and not a bad idea, all kids need to be in the service. No childcare, no children's ministry, no youth pastor, nothing. All the kids, now, we need to blow out a big wall over here. But, and there's some great points, right? Kids shouldn't just go into a separate building, and pizza, and skate parks, and, like, they're not part of the congregation, and they need to see the word of God, they need to see their parents worshiping. And I agreed with it. And I said, let those who wanna bring their kids bring their kids. But we can't put that on others. When I see the single mom who cannot wait for children's ministry to open, who needs that break and to spend time with God. You see, because, but it becomes judgmental. And I could not believe that people would leave a church over that. Shane, you have a youth pastor here? Don't you know that's not biblical? I don't know about that. Romans 14. Here's a big one coming up. You don't celebrate Halloween, do you? I could have fun with this one, but I won't go. But allow people, because most people who trick-or-treat, do their thing, they're not worshiping Satan, they're not part of the satanic rituals. So, now, if you're dressed up as ghosts and goblins, and you got skeletons hanging off your, you got issues, okay? We gotta talk about where your heart's at. You know, a skeleton, Halloween, and you got this witch coming and scaring the kids. Eh, that's not good. But if someone wants to go to a, do something with their family, that's on them. If somebody wants to say, nope, I don't even wanna go there, we've kind of shifted sometimes, like, let's just make it good over came evil day. But let's, it's okay to buy a pumpkin? I don't know, I mean, see? But see how we become so judgmental? It's just sad. I guess maybe I see it a lot more as a pastor. And I remember even early on in the church, I hope we're not having a harvest festival this year, pastor. That's a bad holiday. So, an alternative's not good? No. So, you can't redeem the theme of Halloween? No. Okay, somebody can go sacrifice in the desert, worship Satan, I can still worship Christ and give out some candy to kids. And just, I can already see the emails coming in. I can already see the email. But see, Romans, Romans 14. Do you know that, I know friends, there's people who don't even celebrate Christmas. They're convicted. Hey, I don't condemn them. Okay, maybe you got some, God's doing something. Here's the key, I just thought of it. Thank God, thank you for reminding me. Sometimes God is working in somebody's heart and they put that on someone else. For example, somebody, God is working on them. Like, you know, you're becoming too judgmental, you shouldn't do this. Okay, Lord, I need to give that to you. And now they think everybody else shouldn't do it. Correct? Man, God has convicted me to give up my wine habit every night, someone's saying. And then they need to go put it on everybody else. Now, I'm gonna get on the topic someday, but not today. But see, we have, or what about, what about if I said, look at my new tattoo? Oh, I knew he wasn't a Christian. I knew he wasn't solid. And so, you know, I have thoughts about that. I'm not putting shot in the ink in my body, for sure. It's just unhealthy. And for me, I don't, you know, how I was raised, it was like, let's be rebellious, let's get drunk in Bakersfield at 18 and let's get a tattoo. It wasn't anything worthy of getting it. So, different areas. A person, I don't know if you remember this name, James McDonald, was on the radio, Walk in the Word, big fallout in his church. A friend of mine, actually, is a good friend of his. And I saw him on Facebook, I didn't recognize him, because he has a big beard now, looks like a biker, he's got the tattoos and this. And I asked about it, he said, he's trying to reach those men now. That's part now, that's, I have thoughts on it, you know, but that's where he's at. So see, Romans 14 will really help you, at least it's helped me, not develop such a judgmental spirit on things that are just not real clear in God's word. And we also look through life with different lenses, correct, with this whole vaccine issue. If you're in the medical industry, you've seen the benefits of some medical breakthroughs and you agree wholeheartedly with vaccines, you're gonna look through it for a different lens and someone like me, who have I actually studied the polio outbreak and the measles and the mumps and how the vaccines and the ingredients in the vaccines and studying immunology and how the cell works and how I'm gonna look through it through a little bit different lens than you. I've seen doctors that I know just, they don't even know how the body works. They just, they recommend, hey, have a pot of coffee if you're a cardio patient on cardiac medication. I'm like, that's the stupidest advice you could ever give somebody. Or give you high blood pressure medication, why not get to the problem? Or just prescribe this for testosterone, not knowing that you can actually increase that. So there's just two sides, how the body works naturally, but see, they need both sides. You have to have medical professionals. They know a lot more than I do about a lot of things, but they can't lecture me on nutrition. Many of them are overweight, out of shape and don't know how to take care of the body. No, that wasn't meant to be funny, I'm just telling you the truth. They need help and they ask for help. I'm not gonna get into it, but I've helped physicians before and give them diets and exercise. See, they know it, but they don't apply it. And I think they get about four hours of schooling in all of their career, four hours on nutrition. And so it is a different animal there on how we look through life. And so I think I got through most of the examples. Another one, a big one would be, you don't see it here, but South African churches or up in the Midwest, head coverings. You ever see those for women? Read 1 Corinthians 11. People are convicted to wear head coverings, the women. Now the context is submission under the authority of the man. I think I talked about that last week. But what am I gonna tell them? It's up to them and God. Maybe God does want them to submit in this area and wear that covering and follow that scripture to a T. They see it more as not being culture-related, but a principle they need to follow in God's word. So I'm gonna let them go for it. And so see, there's so many areas in Romans 14. So I hope that helped a little bit. But what you're seeing also is why it's difficult is how I would approach, let's say, let's just, this topic of vaccinations while we're on it, how I would approach an individual, right? Grace, do whatever you want. Who knows, you could be right, either side. But how I handle the agenda of the government is gonna be different. I'm gonna be strong on this and supportive on the individual, just like with same-sex marriage. Grace and love on the individual, but very upset at the agenda trying to get into the schools. Do you see some of the books they're putting in the libraries at schools and some of the books they're trying to recommend? We crossed a line of debauchery years ago. Is that still a word? I don't know, okay. Those old King James, but it's so, that was my side, well, 20 minutes, oh, that was a long rabbit trail. But under this heading of pride, under this heading of relevant application, and I hope that helps you on this whole mask and viruses, and you gotta allow Christians to, hey, on these issues, there is freedom. And I think God allows it for a reason. How else do you develop patience if you're not tested by others? How are you gonna focus on unity if it's easy? See, we forget some of these things come naturally. They don't, they come supernaturally. So if I need to be slow to speak, I'm gonna be challenged by things to be quick to speak. If I need to, like, hey, I need to apply Romans 14, allow people their own conscience, I'm gonna have a disposition or a sinful impulse to wanna challenge them, I wanna be judgmental. Now, I'm not talking about speaking the truth because I believe, you know, we should speak the truth. Here's what I believe, here's what I think. I'm just really, really tired, though, of people saying the science supports this when it doesn't. We don't know what the science supports yet because we're in an experiment. And we need to be careful. Science is divided. I see massive videos on scientists saying the opposite about the vaccine and how to be careful. And then, but they can't say that, they're banned from YouTube. That should tell you something right there. See, that right there, you just wave the red flag for me. When you wanna silence the other voice, when you wanna silence opposing voices, it is exactly Nazi Germany to a T what we are doing. And you saw the pastor, it's been on, it went viral, they got arrested as soon as he got back into Canada off his airplane. A friend of mine, Todd, actually knows him. They text and he's gonna be on his program. He said they already had it set up because he left his church open and because he baptized his daughter. And they're arresting him in Canada. I think he's out now, of course. But we can see, see, there should be a righteous indignation. We should not let fear intimidate us. But we need to be very careful because this is the time to be more humble and gracious and broken and full of love more than ever before. But it's also a time to be filled with the Spirit like never before and not be intimidated and be bold. And finding that balance is going to be your biggest obstacle, biggest challenge because it's extremely difficult. Chapter three, verse six. So when the woman saw that the tree was, here we go, here's how the enemy's gonna come after you. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food. So the enemy is going to go after you something that is good. Taste fulfills a lust. When she's, oh, this is good for food. And it was pleasant to the eye. Oh, this looks good, looks good. I mean, that's one reason I think a lot of people don't eat broccoli. It just doesn't look good either. I mean, vegetables don't look good unless you can trick your kids. But this, the pleasant to the eye would be, ah, look at that new vehicle or that new house. Right, I opened up a few weeks ago. I saw the new Chevy commercial for the new Chevy truck with the tailgate that does, I mean, you can go halfway down, use a laptop stand, you can open it halfway. I'm like, that would be, like, I'll never use it, of course. Like, Morgan, I'll be outside on the back of my truck on my laptop. But you see all these things. It's like the lust of the eye. And with home buying, bigger, stronger, faster, look at more luxurious. And the eye, I mean, there's sometimes nothing wrong with certain things, but if the eye is pulling you, and I see this more than anything else on why young adults, especially, end up dating the wrong people. They don't say, do they have godly character? What do they say? Wow, exactly. He's hot. She's a hottie. Thank God I have teenagers at home. I can keep me up with all the lingo. And so the lust of the eye, because that's what you're drawn after. I don't care if they know the Lord. I just wanna know her or him. And it's a pull. But you gotta have both. You wanna be attracted to, you know, I guess, I don't know, I don't like, I'm not attracted whatsoever, but at least they fit the Proverbs 31 qualifications. You know, God, I believe when Adam saw Eve, it was, okay, this is not like me naming the animals. This is good. And so God gives that attraction for a reason, because it doesn't keep the marriage together, but it helps to solidify a love and an attraction. And you can be attracted to the inward beauty. I got it. And not always outward. I understand that, and I'm not saying that, but there should be some type. You got, everybody's laughing. I'm trying to be serious here. But there should be an attraction, correct? And I've shared this before. When I first saw my wife at the gym, I was like, oh man, I've got to meet her. And I was not thinking of Proverbs 31. But you have to, but then you have to, okay, okay. See, see, see, the enemy's coming in. And I made a commitment. I remember, Lord, she's gotta love the Lord. And so I overruled it with the word of God. And I went to church with her. I watched how she worshiped. Was she talking to guys? Was it real? And she was watching me, both at the same time. And so you can get through, navigate those waters, as long as God's word is the sift, the filter, that you're filtering everything through. But so many times I've heard, I know they're not a Christian, but. Now, in God's grace, many of you have married, or some of you are listening to, married of unbelievers, and God has worked through it. You're in a difficult relationship now, and God is in it. You've made a mistake, and some people are saying, Shane, I just got married six months ago, and they're not a believer, and did I? No, you didn't fail. God will work in the midst of your mess, and clean it up, as long as you give him your will, give him your life, because then it switches. Once you say, I do, now we gotta switch to 1 Corinthians, and other areas, where now you gotta stick to, I do. And you can't depart, unless in certain incidences, where I'll get to at some point. But so when the woman saw the tree was good for food, pleasant to the eye, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit, and she ate. She also gave it to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes, isn't this interesting? Then their eyes were opened. It's not like they weren't already opened. They could see everything, but it's a spiritual, I believe, some type of the veil covering. Now, we didn't know what evil was. We didn't know what wickedness was. We didn't know what nakedness was, and the shame there, until my eyes were opened, and then their eyes were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves coverings. I wanna just leave you with some encouragement, some of you for sure. It doesn't end there, because this is when death entered the human race. Now man was going to die. Now man was going to have a hard time tilling the soil. Woman and child bearing the serpent was cast down, and slithering on his belly from here on out, and eating dust, but even through all that, an amazing verse sticks out. For Adam and his wife, the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them. Isn't that interesting? They fell, and God said, I will clothe you. And what a foreshadowing of, it sounds like that the shedding of blood occurred to cover the sin. Right, what are the tunics of skin of animals, the first, here's the first sacrifice. The animal's life is given. God uses those skins to cover the sin of Adam and Eve. It's amazing, and I wanna do a whole message on this. I don't know if I will at some point, but I wanna tell you, don't let the cancel culture cancel you. Do you know what the cancel culture is right now? It's alive and well. No matter what you did in your past, we're gonna bring it up, and we're gonna cancel you. I guarantee, I guarantee there are people going back 10 years ago in my sermons, trying to find something, and to bring it out, and to cancel. Same with you in your life. Cancel you, so don't let the cancel culture cancel you, because shame doesn't stop you. Your past doesn't define you, and your mistakes don't disqualify you from being used of God. God doesn't call the qualified. He qualifies the called, and so yes, there's a disappointment in them falling, but God said, I will take care of you. I will make the final sacrifice, of course, with Jesus Christ, and not the shedding of blood of the innocent animals, but the shedding of the all-sufficient Savior, his innocent blood, shed on Calvary, and you come to the cross, you repent of your sin, and then God covers your shame and your guilt. If you only know the author of confusion, let me introduce you to the author of peace. And so two groups of people, obviously, this morning, those, I believe, who've fallen into temptation. You're in besetting sin. You can't seem to get your head up again, and you keep falling, and it's very disheartening. It's very discouraging. You feel like giving up. We would love to pray with you. And we don't have to get specific. We can just agree with you that God would break this into, out of your life. The enemy would not have a foothold anymore. But I've learned over the years, especially talking with people, is God can deliver and set free, but often, often, the problem is within. And we continue to make the same mistakes. Where God does do certain things, but he also calls us to flee. He calls us to step away. He calls us to say no. He calls us to let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, and focus on these things, and meditate on these things. And something that breaks my heart so many times over the years is seeing the prideful never come to repentance. Even Christians, even Christians, the pride-filled Christians never come to repenting of their pride. Why is pride so hard? Because we're already making excuses. Pride makes excuses, does it not? Well, that doesn't apply to me. That's for other people. And pride will prevent a mighty work of God's Spirit in your life. God is faithful. Always remember that. So don't trust on, I just gotta, I gotta do better. I gotta say no. It's all about me. That's the wrong thought either. God is faithful. He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you're able. With the temptation, He makes a way of escape, and you may bear it. So we do have to bear something. But God is a faithful one. So don't say, I'm faithful. I'm self-disciplined. I got this. Say, oh Lord, I don't got this. And then it's through your brokenness. As you, I don't know if we sang it, I don't know if we're singing it today, but this morning we pre-sang, I come broken to be mended. I come empty to be filled. And we come in that state of complete brokenness, and God begins to rebuild us. And then He says, listen, having done all, just stand, just stand there. Let me fight the battle for you. Don't go backward, but don't try to rush forward in your own strength. He told Moses, listen, just stand there. Having done everything, there's nothing else I can do. He says, that's good. Just stand there and have your loins girded about with truth and the belt of right, you know all the things, the army, Ephesians six. I got too many thoughts coming to my mind. Because I want to tell you that God will not fail you. He will not fall. He will not falter. He is a solid rock in which we can build our lives. So in these dire times, get your mind off of social media. There is so much fake news out there, it's appalling. I don't even know who to believe anymore, but I know who to believe ultimately is God and His word. And many times we won't have the answers. Am I gonna lose my job? I don't know. Am I gonna do this? I don't know. What's going, I don't know. But you take that to the foot of the cross, you get on your knees before Almighty God, and you begin to pray and worship like never before. If anything, what I like, what is coming out of this is finally Christians are getting desperate for God. Finally they're saying, nothing else can help me. And God will get us to these points of complete surrender. Think about it, if everything was good, everything's going great in our nation, we often become more prideful. But when God begins to remove all the securities from us, that's when we have to get on our knees before Him.