In this sermon, the speaker begins by painting a hypothetical scenario of succumbing to temptation and committing a murder. He emphasizes the guilt and fear that would accompany such an act. The speaker then transitions to the story of Peter and the apostles being imprisoned for preaching about Jesus. Despite their circumstances, an angel miraculously frees them and instructs them to continue spreading the message of eternal life through Christ. The sermon concludes with a challenge for believers to live in a way that reflects their faith, so that if they were ever persecuted for it, there would be enough evidence to convict them.

Incorrigibly happy, utterly unafraid, and nearly always in trouble. In the United Bible Classes, in the Bible hour preceding this morning hour of worship, some of us began to explore in the book of the Acts, not the Acts of the Apostles, but the continued Acts of the Lord Jesus. We reminded ourselves in that hour that the author of this book, the Acts, was the one who authored Luke's gospel. And he wrote about what the Lord Jesus began to do and began to teach in Luke's gospel. And then in the book of the Acts, he continues to tell what the Lord Jesus continued to do and continue to teach. And we have recognized that the only essential difference was the humanity with which the Lord Jesus, in both cases, the one in action, clothed his activity. In the first instance, Luke's gospel, he clothed his activity with the body the Father prepared for him at Christmas. Bethlehem. In the book of the Acts, he clothed his activity with that body that the Father presented to him at Pentecost. And, of course, Christmas was designed to produce Pentecost. When he, the risen Lord Jesus, might come in the person of the Holy Spirit and re-invade the humanity of boys, girls, men, and women, reconciled to God, and cleansed in that blood that was shared at Easter. That's why, of course, you can't detach Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, the one from the other. We've tended to do that. We've thrown them into a church calendar, and we get, you know, Christmas off our chest, and hang around until the Easter eggs come along, and then we get Easter off our chest, and then it's time to come to church again. It's works. But the Christian life isn't a church calendar. It isn't simply a celebration of certain historical events in the past. The Christian life is Christ, 24 hours a day, in the present. Our lives in whom Bethlehem must be perpetuated. For as once the Lord Jesus was born of Mary, now he's born in us. That's a greater miracle. His humanity now is no longer detached from those in whom he is born. We are his body. And, of course, Pentecost isn't just an event in the past. Pentecost has got to be our contemporary experience. The fact that the Lord Jesus, once crucified, risen from the dead, has come by his Holy Spirit, not only to invade, but to monopolize our humanity, so that he, the Lord Jesus, by the Holy Spirit, within the human spirit, having access to our human souls, may teach our minds, control our emotions, so direct our wills, that step by step, moment by moment, he might govern our behavior. And so demonstrate the fact that at Easter he not only died for us then, but rose again to live in us now. In all the fullness and power of his divine indwelling, imparting to us that divine dynamic that sends us spiritually into orbit to accomplish those divine ends for which, having first made us, he has now redeemed us. And this is the story in the book of the Acts. We saw earlier on, some of us this morning, that they were men and women who were sent and went, and because they were sent and went, they were put, because if you're sent and went, you're put. And if you know who sent you, you know who put you, and if it's God who sent you, you know it's God who put you, and if it's God who put you, nothing can frighten you. Even when he slings you into jail, you say, thanks Lord, let's have another song. And this is where we're going to pick up the threads, because the sequence will be consecutive in the unfolding of the story that we're going to explore together. We shall pick up the threads of this exploration into the early church tonight, and then each evening, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, the lunch hour meetings will also be consecutive. There'll be a separate entity, but naturally integrated, because there's only one thing to talk about in the Bible, and that's the one of whom the Bible talks about, Jesus Christ. The Bible really is only telling us two things about Jesus Christ, and you wonder why preachers take so long telling you what the Bible says about Jesus Christ. The first is that he died to redeem him. If you want to be redeemed, you let him. The second is that he rose again from the dead by his indwelling Holy Spirit to share his life with you, live that life in you, and communicate that life through you, and if you want him to do it, you let him. That isn't very complicated, but that's the whole doctrine of the Christian life in a nutshell. We demand what he did because of what we've done, and we need who he is because of what we are, and you can only be the Christian you have become on the base of who he is living in you. That right which is his now because of what he did for you, because it's only Christ living in you that gives you the power to be in the process of time, what his death for you gave you the right to become in the crisis of the moment. So you become because of what he did, and you're able to be because of who he is. That's glorious, because it's of him, through him, as we have already reminded ourselves, and to him, to whom alone be glory. So there's only one person to be congratulated in the Christian life, the one who is that life, Jesus Christ himself, to whom the Father has given total and exclusive preeminence, and this is what the early Christians, of course, initially had to learn, as we shall discover. But the story recounted for us in the book of the Acts is quite exciting because it's the story of those who, at least in measure, not to perfection, but in measure, learned that the Christian life is simply being a healthy member of that body of which Christ alone, exclusively, has the right to be head, so that our supreme preoccupation is to be in that sensitivity of relationship to Jesus Christ that actually allows him, as God in the man, to call the shots, to be the one who ultimately is the final explanation for all that we do and say and are. So being in jail, the angel came by night, opened the jail doors and said, as we saw this morning, go stand and speak to the people all the words of this life, this life in the here and now, not just the life to come, pie in the sky when you die, but this life, that quality of life that lifts a man out from among the dead, even while still in the body, so that on earth he shares the life of his creator on the way to heaven. Go, said the angel, and tell them all the words of this life. Go tell boys, girls, men and women who, as the fallen heirs of a fallen Adam, were born dead, that they can come alive, that they can enjoy a spiritual resurrection, a divine invasion, because the Christ who died for them, being risen from the dead, is waiting on tiptoe to reoccupy their humanity and add them to himself as members of his new body. And when they heard that, we're back now in Acts chapter 5, when they heard that, being let go in the 21st verse of Acts chapter 5, they entered into the temple early in the morning and they taught, what did they teach? All the words of this life, the message of the gospel, a message of resurrection. But the high priests came and they that were with him and they called the council together and all the senate of the children of Israel and they sent to the prison to have the prisoners brought. But when the officers came and found them not, in verse 22 of Acts chapter 5, when they found them not in the prison, they returned white as a sheep, beads of perspiration on their brow and bursting into the presence of the Sanhedrin. They said, the prison truly found we shut with all safety, the keepers standing without before the doors, but when we had opened we found no man within, they'd gone. And the high priest nearly died of a heart attack. And the captain of the temple, when they heard these things, they doubted of them whereunto this would grow. Things were going from bad to worse. And hardly had they got over the shock before another individual came breathlessly into their presence. Verse 25 and said, behold the men whom you put in prison, they're standing in the temple. They're not only loose, but they're teaching the people. And the high priest nearly had another heart attack. We saw this morning that the early church was quite an exciting program. Then went the captain with the officers and they finally arrested the prisoners and brought them without violence for they feared the people. For remember the man in the street, recognizing much of the hollow hypocrisy of contemporary religion had recognized in these transparent genuineness, even though they did not join themselves to them, they held them in high regard. Finally, when they were brought and set before the council, the high priest asked them, and this was the arraignment. Did not we straightly command you that you should not teach in this name? Went you under a categorical prohibition under no circumstances anywhere to preach in the name of Jesus. Behold, you have fulfilled Jerusalem with your doctrine and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us guilty or not guilty. And they were very happy to plead guilty. The point of fact, they were delighted to plead guilty. They were guilty men. They were guilty of filling the whole city of Jerusalem with their doctrine. I wonder how guilty you are this morning of that charge. You see, the whole city of Jerusalem was agog with the news. It was the supreme number one topic of conversation. Any little group of people discussing earnestly with each other and others excitedly or visit a home and the topic of conversation would be one thing. The news that was being propagated throughout the city by this handful of men and women, just supposing if you could, that this church was suddenly surrounded by the police as it might be in another country and we're all carded off and arraigned for filling the whole city of Colorado Springs with the doctrine of Jesus Christ. Would there be enough evidence on the basis of your behavior last week in your school, your office, to convict you? Or would the judge have to say, let them go, they're harmless. This city is never, ever likely to be rocked by that bunch. Let them go. These were guilty men. They were dangerous to the enemies of Jesus Christ and his cross. They had filled the city of Jerusalem with their doctrine. What do you imagine would be the doctrine with which they had filled the city of Jerusalem? Well, I suppose we might piously suggest Jesus Christ and him crucified, which would be wrong. Because that wasn't quite obviously the doctrine with which they filled the city of Jerusalem for two very good reasons. The first would be, it would be totally unnecessary. Everybody was there when it happened. Nobody in the city of Jerusalem needed to be told that Jesus Christ was crucified. They were there. They were milling around that Roman gallows. They were amongst those whose voices were mingled to cry, crucify him, crucify him. We will not have this man to reign over. They knew he was dead. No disciples, no apostle need to stand up and say Jesus Christ has been crucified. Do you remember how the Lord Jesus finally, risen from the dead on his way to mass, bumped into the two disciples who looked so miserable? He said, what's your problem? Why so sad? And they said, are you the only stranger in the city of Jerusalem that hasn't heard the news? Are you the only person that doesn't know? And then they began to tell their risen Lord about their dead Jesus had been crucified, whom they thought should have been the Messiah. So quite obviously that wasn't the message that startled the city of Jerusalem that he, God's incarnate son, had been crucified. They were there when it happened. The second good reason, of course, why that was not the doctrine with which they filled the city of Jerusalem was that nothing would have been in the better interests of the scribes of the Pharisees, the captain of the temple, or the high priest himself, than that the disciples of the Lord Jesus should have gone everywhere telling everybody else that Jesus was dead. Nothing, nothing could have been in their interests. After all, they engineered his death. And they were the ones who wanted above everything else to perpetuate it. That wasn't what scared them. What scared them? Because the message that was being proclaimed by these early Christians was that this Jesus, whom they had crucified, God had raised from the dead. They said, Jesus is alive. Peter and the other apostles answered and they said in verse 29 of that fifth chapter of Acts, we ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a savior, for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are his witnesses of these things, that this Jesus, whom you crucified, God raised from the dead. He's alive. And not only that, we are his witnesses, so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him. By the presence of the Holy Ghost, we on earth, with our feet on the ground, share his resurrection. You couldn't kill him, and you can't kill us, so you don't frighten us. That's what scared them. Have you ever been tempted to shoot somebody between the eyes with a .38? I have, many occasions. One thing, I've got four sons. I'm happy to tell you that till now I have resisted the temptation. But could you imagine if on some occasion you failed to resist the temptation, and with the connivance of a friend, you actually shot an individual between the eyes and he dropped dead, stone dead, you feel. And with the assistance of your friend, you take the body into a lonely wood, dig a hole, put it in, cover it up with dirt and leaves and twigs to look as least disturbed as possible. I imagine that you wouldn't sleep too well that night. I rather fancy that every foot fall outside your home would give you the creeps. The sight of a policeman would make you go as white as a sheet. Well, could you imagine if three days later you were in your home with the door bolted and chained. There's a knock on the door. And you peep through the curtain. It's your friend. He's looking very, very serious. So you go to the door and you quietly open it and let him in. You shut the door again, ram back the bolt and fix the chain. And you say, what's wrong? He says, you know the man you shot? Yeah. You know where we buried him? He says, I've just been round there. And the hole is empty. The body isn't there. I'll tell you something else. I just met him downtown. And I'll tell you something else. He's on his way here. Wouldn't that give you the creeps? That's what frightened the Sanhedrin. The whole city of Jerusalem was agog with the news that this Jesus, whose death they had engineered and whom they had crucified, this Jesus was alive. And he was in town. And I'll tell you something. That same Lord Jesus, whom God then raised from the dead, is in town today, at this moment. When they heard the testimony of these apostles, utterly unashamed, utterly unafraid, enjoying the dynamic of his divine indwelling in the person of the Holy Spirit, that co-equal member of the triune Godhead, through whom you and I, as they then, are privileged to share the life of Christ on earth, as by that same Holy Spirit, he then, as our Lord Jesus, God incarnate, walking this earth, clothed with our flesh and blood, enjoyed the life of his Father as God in him. Because that's what it means to be a Christian. When they heard that, verse 33, they were cut to the heart. And they took counsel to slay them, imagining misguidedly that if only they could silence them, who were his disciples, they could silence God! A stupidity that has continued to be perpetuated all down human history. But as they took counsel together to slay them, there stood up, we're told, verse 34, one of them in the council, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, Dr. Gamaliel, a man for whom I have the profoundest respect, about whose ultimate salvation, his genuine conversion to Christ, I personally am in absolutely no doubt, because he was a very, very, very intelligent man. And a man who was that intelligent couldn't fail to get saved. Because all genuinely intelligent people get saved. He stood up, a doctor of the law, had in reputation among all the people. And he commanded to put the apostles forth a little space. He said, put them out. And then addressing himself to his colleagues in the Sanhedrin, the national council of the Jews, he said, what's the panic? He said, why are you behaving like a bunch of kids? He said, why don't you grow up and try to be adult? He said, you men of Israel, verse 35, take heed to yourselves what you intend to do is touching these men. For before these days rose up Theodos, boasting himself to be somebody. To whom a number of men, about 400, joined themselves, who were slain. All as many as obeyed him were scattered and brought to naught. He reminded them this individual, Theodos, who had launched some kind of enterprise, gathered 400 around him, who died, and all his followers immediately scattered. And said, Dr. Gamaliel, to the Sanhedrin, does Theodos scare you? Do his followers scare you? He's dead. And after this man, he continued, verse 37, rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing. He drew away much people after him. He had his followers. He perished, said Dr. Gamaliel. He died. And all, even as many as obeyed him, were dispersed. Theodos said, Dr. Gamaliel is dead, and his followers are scattered. Judas said, Dr. Gamaliel is dead, and his followers are scattered. Does Theodos frighten you? Does Judas frighten you? Theodos is dead. Judas is dead, and said Dr. Gamaliel. Jesus is dead, and his followers will scatter, if he's dead, if he's dead. I say unto you, verse 38, refrain from these men. Let them alone. For if this counsel or this work be of men, of human origin, as it was with Theodos and Judas, it'll come to nothing. If it's of God, and this Jesus, whom you say is dead, is actually alive, you cannot overthrow it. You won't destroy him. He'll destroy you, lest happily you be found even to fight against God. And of course, Dr. Gamaliel was right. That's why 2,000 years later, on this Easter Sunday morning, we're gathered here in Colorado Springs. Dr. Gamaliel was right. If this thing be of God, and this Jesus, whom we crucified, he raised from the dead, you cannot fight against it, unless you can fight against God. Marvelous to think that all over the world today, in every nation, kindred, tribe and tongue, and race and creed, and class and color, there'll be boys and girls and men and women celebrating two millenniums later the fact that Dr. Gamaliel, Dr. Gamaliel was right. It's my privilege to minister in about 60 different countries in the world. Within the last two months, I've been right round the world, ministering to folks of different cultures, different nationality, different mother tongue, different color of skin. But no matter where you go, you'll find those who cleansed and the shed blood of our once crucified, but now risen Lord, indwelt by his Holy Spirit, added to his body corporate, live in the power of his resurrection. Who can say, to me to come alive is Christ, to me to stay alive is Christ, to be alive is Christ. Dr. Gamaliel was right. And to him, though somewhat reluctantly, his colleagues on the Sanhedrin agreed, overwhelmed by the sheer logic of what he had to say. And when they had called the apostles and beaten them, they couldn't deny themselves that particular luxury for the bullies that they were. They commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let him go. So totally ignoring the prohibition, in defiance of the ban, these disciples, verse 41 we're told, departed from the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. Counting it all joy that their humanity could be placed on earth at the disposal of their once crucified, now risen Lord, to whose body corporate they had been added as members in particular. That he in and through them might continue to do and continue to teach the things that he had begun to do and begun to teach in his own humanity. Rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name daily, daily in the temple, in the public place of worship. You can hardly say that the temple there was a hotbed of conservative evangelical truth. Today they would have been condemned by association. But if people are gathered together to worship God and have been left in abysmal ignorance of the truth, looking for bread, they're given stones, wanting fish, they're given scorpions. That's the place to go and tell them the good news that was communicated by the angel to these disciples, I'm alive. Of course, that was the obvious place to go. Go where sincere folk, trying to find God, have been long since starved of the knowledge of salvation through God's incarnate son, so daily in the temple. But as also in every house, home to home, face to face, man to man, they cease not to teach and preach. But Jesus was the Christ, that is to say he was the anointed one, the promised seed of faithful Abraham. Prophet, priest and king, a greater prophet than Moses, a greater priest than Aaron, a greater king than David, David's greater son, they cease not to teach and preach. And of course, both are indispensable to the exercise, teaching is an intelligent explanation of the fact, preaching is an exhortation to mix those facts with faith. In other words, not just to give mental consent and an academic knob, but act on the assumption that it's true and let God prove it. They cease not to teach and preach. They said, this Lord Jesus, God's incarnate son, walked this earth in perfection to his father's total satisfaction, as the last Adam, the second man, as man for man to die. So that for his dear sake, who bore in his person the consequence of your guilt, as the one who died in your place, the father God in heaven can accept you back as a forgiven sinner, if you will let him. So that's the facts, now mix those facts with faith, that faith that makes him the object of your faith and therefore the origin of the redemptive transaction. And not only that, he having paid the price of your redemption, his blood having been shed that cleanses us from all sin, reconciles us to a holy God. He rose again from the dead, but by the Holy Spirit he might come re-invade your humanity, impart his divine dynamic and by his Holy Spirit recapture your mind, your emotion and your will. Every moment of every day, so that he from within the man might become the origin in you of his own image, the source in you of his own divine activity. The cause at all times without exception of his own effect, the dynamic of his own demands. And if you want him to, let him. Those are the facts, that the one who died for you then, rose again to live within you now. If you want him to redeem you, let him. If you want him to live his life in you and communicate that life through you, let him. Teaching and preaching that Jesus was the Christ. Introducing to that new dimension of living for which the Lord Jesus came to this world who said, I'm come that you might have life and have it more abundantly. And an entirely new dimension. In that dimension of living for which man was made, who was the creature, was designed to be inhabited by his creator. That superlative quality of living that is constantly described in the superlative in the New Testament. It's a joy, says Peter, unspeakable and full of glory. It's beyond all human articulation to express. There's no known language that's adequate. It's a joy unspeakable and full of glory. It's a peace, says Paul, that passes. Understanding it baffles the neighbors. They scratch their heads. They can't understand it. There's no possible explanation but God in the man, Christ in the Christian. It's to reign in life by one Christ. It's not just get by, be more than conqueror through him that loved us. This is the superlative quality of life for which you and I were created and which may be restored the moment we recognize that the one who died for us then is the one who rose again to live in us now. And the Christian life is Easter every day sharing his resurrection. Here are two beautiful verses with which we might well conclude this morning for this is the sum of the matter. Found in the fifth chapter of the first of Paul's two epistles to the Thessalonians. I want you to notice them. It's the Thessalonian epistle, the first and the fifth chapter and the ninth and the tenth verse. God hath not appointed us to wrath, to judgment. That isn't God's appointment. God has appointed us to obtain salvation. If you don't obtain salvation, you've missed your appointment. God made up his mind before ever the world was because the Lord Jesus is the lamb slain before the foundation of the world. He was born into the world according to the scriptures. He lived on earth in the sinlessness of his humanity according to the scriptures. He was crucified and died upon a cross according to the scriptures. He rose again from the dead according to the scriptures. He ascended from the Mount of Olives to be glorified at his father's right hand according to the scriptures. And very soon, sooner than anyone of us would dare to believe, he's coming back again according to the scriptures. I don't believe that Jesus came into the world the way he did because the Bible says he did. And I don't believe that the Lord Jesus died upon the cross because the Bible said he did. I don't believe that he rose again from the dead because the Bible said he did. I don't believe that he ascended to be with the father because the Bible said he did. I've got better grounds for believing than that. I believe that the Lord Jesus came the way he did and walked this life the way he did and died upon the cross the way he did and rose again from the dead the way he did and went back to heaven the way he did not because the Bible says he did. Not because the Bible says he would in the Old Testament. The New Testament simply tells us that he did what the Bible said he would. Dead on schedule. Because God writes history in advance. God made the appointment long, long since before ever the world was. He has not appointed us to judgment. He's appointed us to obtain salvation if you don't miss your appointment. How? By our Lord Jesus Christ. God hath not appointed us to judgment but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. But don't misunderstand the term salvation. Don't emaciate it as we have done in our popular concept of evangelism today. Salvation isn't knowing your sins are forgiven. Happens to be included and I'm glad it is. Salvation is simply knowing that you've escaped hell and you're on the way to heaven. I'm glad that's included too. I never had any ambition about going to hell. But that isn't salvation. Salvation isn't a change of destination. Heaven when you're dead, that isn't salvation. Salvation is a million times more exciting than that. God has not appointed us to judgment but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. Who? Verse 10. And it tells you how you can obtain this salvation. He died for us. That's the redemptive act. That's what he did 2000 years ago. That's the cross on that lonely hill outside a city wall. But he died for us to this end. Verse 10. This is salvation. He died for us. The redemptive act that whether we wake or whether we sleep in the body or out of it. Physically alive or physically dead. Whether still on earth or already in heaven. Whether in time or eternity. Whether it's now or then. Whether it's here or there. He died for us that whether we wake or sleep. A matter of total irrelevance. We might live together with him. Where you share that life of his. Whether on earth or in heaven is totally irrelevant. Salvation is the restoration of the divine life to the human soul. Which is imperative to the restoration of the character of God to human behavior. Salvation is to be indwelt by deity. Your humanity once more in time or eternity. In this corruption or incorruption. In this mortality or in our immortality. It's to live together with Christ. To live every moment of every day. Knowing that the one who died for us then and who rose again from the dead. Indwells our humanity to share his life with us now and then forever. That's salvation. So there's not a single situation in which you can enter without knowing. That the creator who threw the universe into space. And the stars into the far corners of the night. Who upholds all things by the word of his power. That he himself is in residence within your humanity. Tell me this. If you want to tell the neighbors you're a Christian. You're telling them that the God who created the universe lives in you. That all he is at your disposal. That you can draw upon the limit of the resources of deity. And there's no situation in your life that can ever arise. For which he as God living in you could ever be less than big enough. That's what you're telling them when you say I'm a Christian. I'm sharing the life of Jesus Christ. As he walked this earth once in his body. He Christ lives now in my body. I am a Christian. That's what we're saying. That's what you're saying. I say. If it's true that Jesus Christ as God creator lives within your humanity. And for every situation you can draw upon his illimitable resources. Don't you think the neighbors might notice it? Do they? Living together with Christ is normality. Knowing that nothing less than deity is available to you. In your humanity as once the father's deity was available to him. In his humanity. So the Christian life is sharing his life on earth. On the way to heaven. The only life you will enjoy in heaven which is eternal. Is that life that became yours in the moment that claiming redemption. Your humanity was reinvaded by Christ through the Holy Ghost in spiritual regeneration. You'll have no other quality of life in heaven than that which you receive now. In the moment of your new birth. And you and I should get so accustomed to sharing his life on earth. That when we get to heaven we won't even know we've arrived. We'll simply look around and say I don't think I've been here before. That's what Easter is all about. Said the Lord Jesus because I live you will live also. Because in that day that I by the Holy Spirit come to invade your humanity. As I have made mine available by the same Holy Spirit to the father. You will know that as I am in the father and he is in me. So you are in me and I none other am in you. Say how wealthy can you be? How wealthy can you be? To know that your humanity is the temple on earth of the living God. All you got to do is let him lose. They said this Jesus whom you crucify. God is raised from the dead. And we share his resurrection through the Holy Ghost whom he has given to them that obey him. You couldn't kill him. And you can't kill us. That's why you don't frighten us. More than conquer us. Through him that loved us. Now let's pray. We want to thank you again loving Savior. For the sheer adventure that is ours in sharing your life on earth on the way to heaven. The privilege that you've given that we make our flesh and blood. Available to be that humanity in which we incarnate. In the true church the invisible church of the redeemed. You continue to do. And continue to teach. The things that you began to do and began to teach so many years ago. Thank you for the privilege of stepping out from this building. In the conscious enjoyment of your divine indwelling. To know that you're alive not just in heaven but in us. That no need, need ever again be our problem only your opportunity. So that every step is the adventure of letting God loose to demonstrate. In deity. His overwhelming all-sufficiency. To say and know it's true to me to come alive, stay alive and be alive. It's Christ. In your own dear and precious name. Amen.