In this sermon, the speaker begins by expressing gratitude for the opportunity to gather and hear God's word. The theme of the conference is the testimony of Jesus Christ in His church, and there are three speakers who will each share on different aspects of this theme. The first speaker discusses the revealed pattern of the church from a biblical viewpoint, emphasizing the importance of knowing the Lord in our inner lives. The second speaker explores the historical perspective of the church and the footsteps of the flock. The third speaker focuses on the concept of body life, highlighting the need for obedience to God's commandments and the consequences of rebellion. The sermon references the book of Acts and the Old Testament to illustrate the spread of the gospel and the importance of staying connected to God.

qǐng wǒ men kàn yǐ fē shuǒ dì yī zhāng Can we turn to Ephesians chapter 1? yǐ fē shuǒ shū dì yī zhāng Ephesians chapter 1 wǒ men chóng shì wǔ jí niàn dào èr shí sān jǐ We will read from verses 15 to 23 wǒ xiān yǒng zhōng wén niàn yì biàn rǎng hòu wǒ qǐng wǒ de dì xiōng yǒng yīng wén niàn yì biàn I will read it once in Chinese and I will have my brother read it in English once. yīng chí wǒ jì tīng jiàn nǐ men xìng chóng zhǔ Yē shū qīng ài zhōng shèng tù jiè wèi nǐ men bù zhù de gǎn xiè shén dào gāo de shì hòu cháng tí dào nǐ men qiú wǒ men zhǔ Yē shū jīdòu de shén yóng yào de fù jiàng nā shì rén zhī huì hòu qí shì de lín shǎng gèi nǐ men shì nǐ men zhēng zhì dào tā bìng qiān zhào míng nǐ men xīn zhōng de yǎn jīn shì nǐ men zhī dào tā de ān zào yǒu hé déng zǐ wàng tā shè shēng tù zhōng de de jī yè yǒu hé déng fēng shēng de rǒng yào bìng zhī dào tā xiāng wǒ men zhè shìng de rén shuǒ xiǎn de néng lì shì hé déng hǎo dà jiù shì zhào tā zè jīdòu shēng shàng shuǒ yùn xǐng de dà néng dà lì shì tā zhōng shí lǐ fù huó jiào tā zè tiān shàng zuò zè zìjǐ de yǒu biān yuán chāo gǒu yìqì zhìzhèng de zhǎng quán de yǒu néng de zhǔ zì de hé yìqì yóu míng de bù dàn shì jīng shì de lǐ léi shì de jiào huì yǒu dòu shēng chào gǒu liǎo yǒu jiǎng wàn yǒu fú zài tā de jiǎo xià shì tā wèi jiào huì zuò wàn yǒu zhì shǒu jiào huì shì tā de shēng tǐ zhì nǎ chōng mǎng wàn yǒu zhǒu shǒu chōng mǎng For this reason, I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus, which exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you while making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might, which He brought about in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, in every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Let us bow with a word of prayer. Lord, our hearts are full of thanksgiving and praise unto You. It is Your hand that has led us here. Lord, we gather today in Your name. Lord, we thank and praise You, because You had promised us once, wherever two or three are gathered in my name, I will be in their midst. Lord, we believe that You are here. Lord, we are indeed upon holy ground. Lord, we want to remove our sandals and prostrate before You and say, Lord, Lord, what do You have for us? Speak, Thy servants here. Lord, may You through Your Spirit that You may enlighten Your Word that Your Word may enter each one of our hearts according to Your promise that it will become spirit and life. Lord, we give You all the glory in Jesus' precious name. Amen. We thank the Lord for gathering us before His presence. I deeply believe that in these last days God has given us this super or extra grace that we can still have the privilege to hear His Word and to receive His grace. The theme of the conference this time is the Testimony of Jesus Christ in His Church. We have three speakers. Our brother Lance Lambert will share with us the revealed path which is the concept of the Bible. Our brother Christian Chen will share with us the footsteps of the flock and look at this theme from a historical view. My responsibility is to share on the body life to look at the theme from a practical viewpoint. In the past conferences we repeatedly share on this matter of the testimony of Jesus Christ because we deeply feel that the whole Bible reveals our Lord Jesus Christ. We remember that our Lord Himself once said this. He spoke to the disciples on the way to Emmaus that through the book of Moses and the prophetic books He was speaking about Himself. Not only that that evening He showed Himself to the disciples and once again through the law of Moses the prophetic books and also the Psalms He shared everything regarding Himself to His disciples. So we know that the whole Old Testament is a testimony of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Old Testament reveals our Lord Jesus. We thank the Lord that our Lord was the Word that became flesh and came to this earth. In His life in the flesh He was a testimony for His Father our God. God the Father also testified of Him because the Father and the Son are one. Our Lord died, He was buried and He rose again and then He ascended into Heaven to the right hand of the Father. Then the Holy Spirit was given and through His church, His body, His mysterious body to continue that testimony. All the epistles speak of this testimony. And when you come to the end, to the book of Revelation So we know that in the beginning of the book of Revelation it speaks about the testimony of Jesus. God continuously testifies of His Son. So we know that the whole revelation of the Bible is the testimony of Jesus. This is God's eternal purpose. God wants us to pay attention to His Son. God wants us to know His Son. God wants us to know His Son just like He knows His Son. Dear brothers and sisters our understanding and knowing of our Lord Jesus Christ is so superficial. Often times we only know Him in our minds in our knowledge of Him. But to know Him in our inner life in the depths very few of us know Him that way. But this is the heart of God. So the Bible tells us that we have to truly know Him. To truly know Him it needs revelation. Because when we come upon the spiritual things if we want to touch eternal things man is hopeless. According to our own intellect or our own wisdom we can never completely come to know our God, our Lord. So you see that Paul had this prayer in Ephesus to give us wisdom and revelation. To teach us to truly know Him. So brothers and sisters as we gather here from the depths of our hearts we have a prayer. We admit that by ourselves we will not come to know what is the testimony of Jesus Christ. We cannot receive this truth and enter it into the reality. We must come with a humble spirit before God. We have to look upon our Lord that He may give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation. What is wisdom? Wisdom is what is in the heart of God Himself. It is what God is thinking about. It is what He wants. This is also the eternal purpose of God. Now this wisdom needs God's revelation to us. We thank and praise the Lord. Our God is a God of revelation. We remember that in the book of Galatians it is told us God desires to reveal His Son in us. So we know that our God desires to reveal His Son in us. This is the heart of God. Now how can we receive such a revelation? We need to have a longing heart because the Bible tells us that those who are seeking will receive. If we have a longing heart then it pleases God to reveal the testimony of Jesus Christ to us. Even though the theme this time is the testimony of Jesus Christ in the church but the focus this time is upon this matter of the church. But don't misunderstand. The church is never the center. The center is always our Lord Jesus Christ. If we really see Christ Jesus if we truly understand what is the testimony of Jesus Christ then very naturally we will see the church. But the church is never the center. We cannot exalt the church above Christ. Christ is forever the purpose of God. In order to complete Christ then there is the church. So I hope that brothers and sisters will not misunderstand because we have many times spoken of the testimony of Jesus Christ. So this time we want to look at the testimony of Jesus Christ in the church because the church is the vessel for the testimony of Jesus Christ. So God has entrusted the testimony of Jesus Christ into the hands of the church. The church is the fullness of Christ and the expression of Christ. So this is what we hope brothers and sisters can see at this conference. My responsibility is on this matter of the body life. Because I have three times to share so today I would like to share on this vision of the body. Tomorrow we would like to share on the law of the body. And then the last day we will share on the body living. We have already spoken. The church is the body of Christ. Because in Ephesians chapter one when you come to verse twenty three it says the church which is his body the fullness of him who fills all in all. So in the Bible it shows us that the church is the body of Christ. And this ought to be the fullness of him who fills all in all. In other words he wants to through this body express himself. Through this body he wants to testify of himself. Strictly speaking you cannot separate the Christ and the church. Just like the head and the body cannot be separated. Because when the head and the body separate that is death. So you can also say that the body is an outgrowth of the head. All the fullness of the head is encompassed in the body. And then through this body it is expressed, it is lived out. So the church is the body of Christ. We know that in the Bible God often first shows us the facts. Then he gives us revelation. Because God's revelation is always based on facts. So when we speak about the church being the body of Christ we must first look at the facts. In John chapter 1 verse 14 it says the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. It is full of grace and truth. God's Son, our Lord Jesus, He is the Word. In John chapter 1 verse 1 it says In the beginning was the Word. Our Lord Jesus is that Word. It is the Word of God. He is the expression of God. He expresses God to us. But thank God one day this Word became flesh. He came into this world and like a tabernacle He tabernacled among us full of grace and truth. Our Lord when He came upon this earth He took upon flesh. Through His flesh He spoke, He did things. And in His flesh then He expressed the Father outwardly. Because no one has seen God at any time. But the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father He has explained Him. So when the Lord was upon this earth He expressed God through His body to tell us what kind of God is our God. He is not just a theory. But in His flesh He expressed God in reality. So the Lord said, when you see Me you have seen the Father. Because His body fully expresses the Father. When He was on the earth He spoke many words. He did many things. So no matter if it was His words or what He did His Word is truth. What He did was grace. So you saw that there was not just truth but also grace. We remember when the Lord Jesus was lastly with His disciples. So His disciple Philip asked Him He said, if you show us the Father then we will be satisfied. So this actually saddened our Lord greatly. He said, Philip I have been with you all these years. You are still saying show us the Father? Don't you know that the Father is in me and I am in the Father? When you see Me you see the Father? So brothers and sisters in the body of our Lord Jesus He completely expressed the Father. When you see Him you understand who God is. Without any, any deduction. In His body He completely expressed the testimony of the Father. As He testified of who the Father is is also a testimony of Himself. Because He and the Father are one. We thank and praise the Lord that in order for Him to complete this work of redemption how He went to the cross for us He is the Lamb of God He came to bear our sins because He shed His blood on the cross His blood before God washed away all our sins because on the cross He broke His body for us and then He set forth and forth His life through the Father through His death and resurrection imparted the life of God and forty days later He ascended into heaven. This speaks forth how in the flesh our Lord Jesus expressed the Father and expressed Himself. On the day of Pentecost 120 saints gathered on the upper room of Mark's house and there they prayed together for ten days. On the day of Pentecost all of a sudden there was a sound from heaven. It is the sound like someone breathing deeply. God was there breathing then the Holy Spirit descended upon these 120 These 120 were then baptized into one body This is spoken of in 1 Corinthians 12 They were baptized one spirit into the body and then they also drank from the same one spirit Dear brothers and sisters On the day of Pentecost what happened? Many people pay attention to the sound and the commotion of the Pentecost So when people pay attention to this great wind that filled this room and made this great sound and the Holy Spirit came upon the 120 like fire In tongues they spoke of the power of God So people will say that the Pentecost is nothing but a bunch of noise and fire But these are all but external things What is the true meaning of the Pentecost? What did God do on the day of Pentecost? This explanation is found in the epistles In 1 Corinthians 12 and 13 it says this That in one spirit they were baptized into one body Whether Jews or Gentiles they all drink of the same spirit So what is the Pentecost? The Pentecost is our Lord Jesus the Ascended Lord Jesus that He made for Himself a body a spiritual body made up of 120 members So from Mary's womb He took upon Himself flesh and upon His own flesh He lived 33 1⁄2 years Now He died He was buried He also rose again He also ascended Now He has sent the Holy Spirit On this earth He took for Himself another body He has become the head of the church He took this 120 and baptized them into one body This is the beginning of the church The church is the body of Christ Our Lord took for Himself a corporate body of 120 In that body He continues to speak and continues to do So we see in the book of Acts In Acts 1.1 Luke said this On my first account it of course refers to the Gospel of Luke I showed you all that Jesus did and what He spoke of And then that's where He began to speak, to teach and to do Now He's going to write a second book and that is the book of Acts So what is the book of Acts? The book of Acts is nothing but our Ascended Lord taking this corporate body to continue to do and to speak, to teach So we see this that the testimony of Jesus Christ is now in the church Now it's in His corporate body Brothers and sisters, we all know that in the Old Testament God entrusted His testimony to the people of Israel The rest of the world were worshipping idols So the glorious God appealed to Abram to leave his own relatives, to leave his own country to go to a place that God prepared for him Through faith, Abram submitted to God From Abram there descended the people of Israel So God brought back the people of Israel from Egypt brought them to Mount Sinai gave them the Law because the Law also speaks about Himself The Law shows us that our God is a righteous and just God So He entrusted His testimony to the people of Israel He wants them to be His testimony throughout the earth Brothers and sisters, when we come to the New Testament we see this Our Lord Jesus Christ, after He ascended He entrusted His testimony to the church, which is His body But this entrusting is different from the entrusting in the Old Testament Because in the Old Testament God entrusted His testimony to the people of Israel This testimony was to give the Law to the people of Israel The people of Israel obeyed God's commandments Then they are being a testimony for God on earth If they do not obey the commandments of God then they lose the testimony of God This is an external relationship So you remember that in the book of Hebrews there is a phrase In Hebrews chapter 8 it says this How God led the people of Israel led them with His hand forward Just like a mother leading a child But this child was looking back and forth He saw something that was fun to play So then he let go of the hand of the mother and ran away So in the Old Testament it's such a thing God led the people of Israel forth But they let go of God's hand But thank God in the New Testament When Jesus entrusted His testimony to the church This is not an external entrusting It's not to give the commandments to the church If the church obeys these commandments then there is testimony If they don't obey these commandments then there is no testimony In the New Testament it always is internal It is always something of life So you see this When our Lord Jesus entrusted His testimony to the church It's not to give the church a commandment It's not just to give some truth to the church Or not just some methods He has given to the church His own life So this entrusting is an entrustment of life This giving is a story of something happening within It is something spiritual Thank and praise God It is no longer something outward But it's something within Why? Because the church is not an organization But the church is an organism It is a body This body receives the life of the head And will receive the fullness of the head completely The book of Colossians tells us All the fullness of the Godhead dwells in our Lord bodily And in Him we are completed So dear brothers and sisters We thank and praise the Lord The testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ is in the church But this is not something outwardly This is a union in life If in life we can come to know our Lord much more Then on earth we can be a more complete testimony for Him But in life if our unknowing of Him is limited Then our testimony will be incomplete So dear brothers and sisters May we remember The testimony of Jesus Christ in the church is a story of life In life we have to know our Lord much deeper Because what is the heart of God? The heart of God is that we may know our Lord just like our Father knows Him So we all have to know our Lord Jesus Christ To know who He is To know all His works If we know our Lord deeply It is not just in our heads or in our knowledge But if we can express it in our daily living Then this is the testimony of Jesus Christ in the church Because of this truth Acts shows us a truth Acts shows us that even though Christ has ascended into heaven And He has become head over all things But it is for the church On the earth there is His body And this body is full of Himself And this also expresses Himself to the world Remember how our Lord had a prayer before He died And that is in John chapter 17 The Father is in me and I am in the Father You are in me and I am in you This way the world will know that the Father has sent me How can the world know the Lord Jesus Christ? How can the world see our Lord Jesus Christ? He needs to see it in the church Because the Lord is in us We are also in the Lord So when people see us They see the Lord Jesus Christ This is the testimony of the church Strictly speaking The church does not have a testimony of her own The testimony of the church is Christ Didn't Paul say this? We do not preach ourselves We preach our Lord as Lord Today the church has no words of her own The words of the church are the words of Christ The church does not have a testimony Because the church does not testify of herself The church only testifies of our Lord Jesus Christ So it is a shame We see the condition of Christianity As if we just see the church and Christianity But we did not see Christ This is how the church has lost the testimony of Jesus Christ So thank and praise God Today the testimony of Jesus Christ is in the church It is in the body of Christ This is such a glorious entrustment Think about it God is willing to entrust the testimony of His own Son to us It is such a glorious thing But it is also a great responsibility If we have not entered into our responsibility If we want to enter into our responsibility It is not that outwardly we have a lot of activities But that in our inner life We can know our Lord more This way then we have a testimony Thank and praise God So in the book of Acts We thank God We saw how the church on the earth We saw how this corporate body How our Lord was speaking there continuously How our Lord continuously did work there Starting from Jerusalem To Judea To Samaria To the ends of the earth In thirty odd years The gospel was preached all the way to Rome Rome at that time was the ends of the earth In that short period of time We see how the testimony of Jesus Christ spread forth Many people Whether Jews, Gentiles They all came to the Lord And they all stood up to be a testimony for our Lord Jesus Christ This is indeed a glorious testimony And this testimony is already there So now We want to look at this revelation In other words We have already seen the reality of the body God already did a work On earth he has already received for himself a body And he placed himself in this body And this body started the work of testimony As he was there testifying Then he encountered many difficulties Just like our Lord when he was on this earth When he came from heaven to earth He was a testimony for our God But this world did not receive him Because he was completely different from this world The world rejected him Crucified him They did not know He came to this earth was to save the world But the same way We see the body of Christ on this earth As he is there testifying for our Lord Jesus Christ And also encounters many oppositions from the world Among those who persecuted the church The most famous one was Saul We see this Saul He was a great man Because by himself He received all the best education in the world According to his birth He was born among the tribes of Israel He is a chosen person of God Not only that After he grew up He learned at the feet of Gamaliel He became a Pharisee The Pharisees were those who studied the law and obeyed the law He received the best religious education Many Gentiles at that time Became part of Judaism Because they felt that the teaching of Judaism was so pure Saul received the highest teaching of Judaism Not only that We see he was born in Tarsus Tarsus was a Gentile city It was one of the centers of the Greek culture So he received and absorbed all of the Greek culture Not only that He was born a Roman citizen He experienced the greatest right under the Roman rulership This young man was a great man Many young men If they had such a great environment They probably would go into the world to want to receive a high position But this young man, he pursued spiritual things He let go of the world Because he knew that the world was temporary He was a person who pursued eternal life But it was a shame Because he did not have revelation He had the best heritage He had the best tradition But he felt that our Lord Jesus was a rebel So he felt he had a responsibility To persecute those who followed the Lord Jesus To destroy everything related to believing in Jesus Then he would be serving God So brothers and sisters you see this He was a zealous man He was a powerful man He believed that by doing this he was serving God He was completely in darkness How many people live under tradition Even believers today live under tradition We lack spiritual understanding But thank God God examines hearts He examined his heart and knew his heart was pure So God remembered him When he went to Damascus to persecute the church When he went to do this All of a sudden there was a light that shone It was brighter than the sun He was struck down by this light He heard a voice He said, Saul, Saul Why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goats Brothers and sisters Saul did not know Jesus He misread Jesus He felt that he should destroy the Lord Jesus But our Lord knew him He said, Saul, Saul Why do you persecute me? This voice was not a reprimanding voice This voice was a voice of compassion Why are you persecuting me? You don't know what you are doing You are kicking against the goat You know that in the olden days If you were there tilling the field Whether you use an ox or a horse And then you would put a yoke upon him And then you would take this yoke and this ox And move him forward to till the land But the ox or the horse has his own thoughts So when he sees something good to eat on the side He will try to take a detour So now if you till the field Then it will be crooked So then the farmer would take a goat on his other hand It's a long stick with a sharp edge And then he would prick on the leg of the ox or the horse He didn't want to hurt him Just to warn him To remind him, you have an owner They are working for somebody You can't do what you think you want to do But this horse and this ox, he has his own thoughts Then he would want to kick against that goat And when he kicked, he would get hurt Then he would get really hurt After a few times, they would learn This is what the Lord said to Saul Don't forget you have a Lord All of us created beings have a Lord We were created for God Not for ourselves But we forgot The Lord was reminding us We have a Master We have to do His things We cannot disobey Him If we rebel against Him or fight against Him, we suffer So that's why the Lord said to Saul For you to kick against the goat, it is difficult When Stephen was stoned to death He saw the heavens open He saw the Lord Jesus there welcoming him When he died, he prayed Father, do not put this sin upon them Don't you think that the conscience of Saul was bothering him? God was using the goat to prick his conscience Once, twice, three times He went to capture Christians Men and women And then condemned them To make them blaspheme He is a gentleman He is a Pharisee He is a moral person To do such things, doesn't his conscience bother him? Of course But he went against his conscience And he even more so went and persecuted the Christians He wanted to suppress that voice in his conscience But God loved him The Lord said, it is hard for you to kick against the goat Then Saul said, Lord, who are you? The Lord said, I am the Jesus whom you persecute Dear brothers and sisters On the way to Damascus Saul saw a vision What is that vision? First, he saw the Lord The Bible tells us It pleases God to reveal His Son in me He not just looked at the Lord physically But because this light struck him blind His inner eye opened He saw the Lord Jesus He saw not the Jesus of Nazarene that was persecuted He saw that Jesus was Lord He is the God above all He is the Son of God He saw the Lord He saw how God saw His Son When God sees His Son, He is one of honor Now he sees that Jesus is the Son of God God sees His Son as the Lord of all Now Saul also saw God sees His Son as the King of kings and Lord of lords Everything is under subjection to His feet Saul also saw it When he saw this Then he gave up all He said, Lord, what do you want me to do? But brothers and sisters He not only saw the head, Christ Why? Because the Lord Jesus said Saul saw Why do you persecute me? Saul was a Pharisee Pharisees are best when it comes to logic According to logic Saul could respond to the Lord You are in heaven, I am on earth How can I persecute you? I did not persecute you But Saul did not say this Why? In his spirit, he saw it When you touch any of the members of the body You have already touched the head He was there trying to capture Christians Killing Christians Persecuting them Now the head was speaking Why do you persecute me? Dear brothers and sisters On the way to Damascus He saw the body of Christ He not only saw Christ He saw the body of Christ So from that time on There was a great change in his life He was originally a high person His name has been passed from Jerusalem to Damascus But God used a person named Ananias A no-name person And then laid his hand upon his head He said, Brother Saul God has opened your eyes And you will be filled with the Holy Spirit Do you see that? A great man Now was there being laid hands upon by a small member of the body He learned to be a member of the body Now you are Brother Saul Dear brothers and sisters If we see the vision of the body That vision will reduce us We will see that we are but one member in the body We need our brother to lay his hand upon us To be united with our brother Then we can become the body of Christ So brothers and sisters Ever since he received that vision It not only changed his work for the rest of his life It also changed his living for the rest of his life In all of his daily living Even though he was a great apostle Even as he wrote the epistles He always would bring a Timothy or a Silas to write it with him He didn't say, I, Paul I don't need the others You can see that in his work He always cooperated with others He was not alone And in his life He always sought for fellowship In Damascus he received grace Then he would go in and forth Forth and back with the saints When he came to Jerusalem He wanted to have fellowship with the saints of Jerusalem But everybody was afraid of him Because they know of his past They dare not approach him But thank God Through Barnabas God brought him amidst the apostles So then the Bible says that Paul went forth And back with the people of the church in Jerusalem No matter where he went He was seeking for fellowship Because he was living in the body So dear brothers and sisters What we need today Is the vision of the body We have to remember The vision of the body Along with the vision of Christ Is one vision You cannot separate the head and the body If you truly see Christ You must see the church If you see the head you'll see the body Because it's one revelation If we truly see this revelation In our living In our work There will be a great change So dear brothers and sisters Today our need Is to ask the Lord That we may truly receive A spirit of wisdom and revelation To know Christ And to know the church Christ is the head All the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him You cannot find anything Outside of Christ Everything is in Christ At the same time Today we want to have a testimony for our Lord Jesus Christ In the body we have to have a testimony We cannot do it solo All our work Is not our work But it's the work to build up the body This is according to the heart of God May the Lord have mercy on us Let us have another word of prayer Our Lord we thank and praise you Because you are willing To entrust yourself to the church You are willing to entrust your testimony To your body May we admit We owe too much We are willing to repent Lord we want to repent before you Lord we look to you to reveal more of yourself to us That we may be a more complete testimony for you on earth We think about how your coming is so soon Yet your testimony is not yet complete Lord may you raise up Raise up many of your children May they enter into your testimony And to be a testimony for you in these last days We pray in Jesus' precious name