1 Corinthians chapter 15, and we will be looking at verses 3 through 8 together this morning. This is the Word of God. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the 12. Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me." Amen, let's pray. Father. As we look to your word this morning that tells us of the resurrection of Jesus Christ according to scriptures and as seen by eyewitnesses, we pray that you would be at work in our hearts by your Holy Spirit to remind us, refresh us, establish us in the truth of who Christ is and what he has done that we might build our lives on nothing less but Christ and Christ alone. And to him be the glory we pray in his name. Amen. All right, you may be seated. I want to begin this morning by asking you what might sound like an unusual question at first, but it's a vitally important one. What is your one thing? What is your one thing? As I was preparing for this resurrection day, I realized that this year, it has been 1991 years since the resurrection of Jesus, which I believe the best date for that is the year 30. And so you take the year 30 AD and you add 1991 to it and you get 2021. So 1991 also just happens to be the year I graduated from high school, which means this is my 30th high school reunion coming up this year. But I thought back to 1991, and it was a good year. I graduated from high school, I started college, and there was a movie that came out that year that was one of my favorites when I was a young man, City Slickers, starring Billy Crystal. and featuring an amazing performance by Jack Palance as Curly, the older, wise cowboy in the West. It also featured, by the way, the on-screen debut of Jake Gyllenhaal, who was only 10 years old at the time, and for the kids, That's the guy who played Mysterio in Spider-Man Far From Home. So Jake Gyllenhaal made his on-screen debut in 1991 in City Slickers. Now, what's my point? Well, the takeaway from City Slickers, if you've seen that movie at all, the takeaway is that Billy Crystal's character, Mitch, is from New York City, he goes out west, goes to a dude ranch, goes on a cattle drive, and what he really learns through the whole process is that in order to have a fulfilling life, you have to have your one thing. You have to have the one thing that's most important to you, that is more important than everything else, and that you will sort of structure your life around that one thing. Now, unfortunately, what he doesn't learn in the movie is that it's actually really important what your one thing is, because you need to have the right one thing to structure your life around. Now, right around that same time, my senior year of high school, I began to really enjoy the music of Rich Mullins, who was a singer-songwriter who went home to be with the Lord now in 1997, so a number of years ago. But a song that he had written five years before City Slickers came out was one that became a favorite of mine right around the same time, right around the same time that I watched City Slickers, I came to like this song, and it's called My One Thing. And in this song, Rich sings, everybody I know says they need just one thing. And what they really mean is they need just one thing more. And everybody seems to think they've got it coming. Well, I know that I don't deserve it. Still, I want to love and serve you more and more. You're my one thing. Save me from those things that might distract me. Please take them away and purify my heart. I don't want to lose the eternal for the things that are passing. Because what will I have when the world is gone if it isn't for the love that goes on and on with my one thing? You are my one thing. And then he sings later, whom have I in heaven but you, Jesus? And what better could I hope to find down here on earth? I could cross the most distant reaches of this world, but I'd just be wasting my time because I'm certain already, I'm sure I'd find you're my one thing. Now, it probably doesn't surprise you to hear a pastor on Easter Sunday morning saying that Jesus should be your one thing and that Jesus is my one thing, but it's the truth. Depending on where you're coming from, you might say yes and amen to that. You might say, yes, I know, Jesus is my one thing. He is the anchor for my soul. He is the most valuable thing I have in this life or in eternity. There's nothing that compares to Jesus. Or you might be here and you might say, well, you know, I believe in Jesus. I'm here for worship on Easter Sunday morning because I believe in him, but you know, I don't wanna be too religious. I don't want to be like a super spiritual person. So, you know, Jesus is fine with me. Like, I think it was the Doobie Brothers who sang in the 70s, Jesus is just all right with me. Jesus is a whole lot more than just all right. Or you might be here and you might be saying, well, someone dragged me here and I don't want to be rude. But, you know, religion is just a crutch for weak people who need something to fill a void in their lives. And so I'm fine without it. Now, the interesting thing about those second and third responses, the response that says, I believe in Jesus, but I don't want to be too religious, or the response that says religion is just a crutch for weak people, the problem with both of those two responses is that I'm not talking about being religious. And I'm not talking about religion. I'm talking about Jesus, the man. who he is and what he has done, and whether or not he is the most important person in your life, my life, and everyone's life, and whether or not we should be building our lives around him, or just trying to fit him into some convenient corner of our lives, or just trying to shove him out of our lives so we can get on with our lives the way we want to. We're here this morning to consider the person and work of Jesus and the difference that he makes, not religion, or super spirituality. The Apostle Paul makes it very clear in his letter to the Corinthians that Christ, his death, his burial, and his resurrection are of first importance. That means these are the things that you build your life on. Jesus is the one thing. If Jesus is who he says he is, and he has actually done what the Bible says that he's done, there is nothing, there is no one who can compare with Jesus, and we dare not build our lives on anyone or anything else. I like the way C.S. Lewis, the famous British author who wrote the Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis put it this way, he said, Christianity, if false, is of no importance. and if true, is of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is of moderate importance. Jesus is either Lord of all, in which case he must be the Lord of your life, or he was a pretender to the throne and should be disregarded and ignored. C.S. Lewis also famously said, someone who said the kinds of things that Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic on the level of a man who thinks he is a poached egg, or else he would be a liar, or else he is the Lord of all. So don't come at him with this good moral teacher stuff. He didn't leave that option open to us. Jesus is of infinite and critical importance, potentially, because he is a man like no one else who has ever lived. No other religious figure, no other leader, no other person revered by a major world religion has ever even claimed to do the things that the Gospels tell us that Jesus did. A lot of people say, well, all the religions of the world are basically the same. They all give you some sort of statement of something to believe. They all give you some code of behavior to follow, and they all tell you if you believe this statement of faith, if you do this code of behavior, then maybe you'll earn your way to salvation. And you know what? As far as man-made religion is concerned, there's a truth to that. Because that's what people know how to make up. People know how to make up stuff that says, these are the important things to believe, these are the important things to do, and if you do well enough, you might get nirvana, or you might get heaven, or you might get your 70 virgins, or whatever the picture of salvation is for that religion. But that's not Christianity. That's not the gospel. If you're here and you think that the Christian gospel is basically believe in the apostle's creed and then do your best to keep the 10 commandments and maybe one day you'll earn heaven, that's not what Jesus came to do. You see, man-made religion says, if you do this, you will live. But in the gospel, Jesus says, I have done this so that you may live. Human religion says, do this and you will earn eternal life. Jesus says, I am eternal life. Believe on me and you will never die. And even if you die, you will be raised and live forever. No one else ever claimed that. Muhammad never claimed that. Buddha never claimed that. Confucius never claimed that. Moses and Abraham never claimed that. Only Jesus said the kinds of things that Jesus said. And only Jesus did the kinds of things that Jesus did. Jesus repeatedly and publicly performed miracles in front of a number of eyewitnesses. He fed 5,000 people, and then he fed 4,000 people from just one lunch each time. He healed a man born blind who everyone knew had been born blind. He healed a man who had been an invalid, unable to walk for his whole life, and everyone knew who this man was. He raised Lazarus from the dead when he had been in the tomb sealed for four days. And he did so not in a private corner, But he did so publicly in front of a number of eyewitnesses. What's interesting when you read the Gospels is that the enemies of Jesus, the ones who wanted to have him killed, the one thing you will not find them ever doing is challenging the claim that Jesus did great miracles. They never say, oh no, you never did any great miracles. Because they themselves had witnessed those miracles. And that is different from something that any other religion in the world has. So Jesus is unique in what he claims. He's unique in what he's done. He's unique in what he offers. But you could say, well those are just claims. Those are just words. There certainly have been crazy people who have come along in the history of the world and who have said, I'm the reincarnation of Jesus. If you believe in me, I'm gonna give you eternal life. It's easy to claim something. So what sets Jesus aside? Well, we already mentioned his miracles that were seen by eyewitnesses, including his enemies, but in today's passage, in the text we have in front of us in 1 Corinthians 15, the Apostle Paul does not say to the Corinthians, I delivered to you of first importance what I also received, that Christ Jesus died for our sins, that he was buried, and that he raised again from the dead on the third day, and you better take my word for it, because I know. He didn't say that. He says that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen. And then he lists over 512 eyewitnesses who saw Jesus risen again from the dead. So the Apostle Paul gives two very real and very substantial pieces of evidence to back up the claim. He points them to the scriptures of what we call the Old Testament, which had been finished 400 years before Jesus was born. And then he points to the eyewitnesses who saw Jesus alive again after he had died. So on the basis of the scriptures that were fulfilled by him, and on the basis of the eyewitnesses, the Apostle Paul says, investigate, and you'll find that it's true. Just to give you a little bit more about these eyewitnesses, sometimes we think of, oh, way back then in Bible times, or what's even worse, some people have been spreading rumors that the Bible was really written by the medieval Roman Catholic Church. It was some conspiracy with the Emperor Constantine to create this religion and to make up this Jesus guy. But that's not true. If you look at what the New Testament is, the New Testament is a collection of 27 books, 27 different books. They are letters and gospels and sermons And they are written by people who all were either eyewitnesses of the life of Jesus, or who themselves had spoken to the eyewitnesses of the life of Jesus. And they were all written within 50 to 60 years of Jesus' life, and they were all written more than 200 years before Christianity would even be legal, or before Emperor Constantine was even born. So it's not a made-up conspiracy theory. Just to give you a little bit of context, we're in 1 Corinthians, and 1 Corinthians was written about the year 54 or 55 AD. And Paul is making reference here, he says, I delivered to you as of first importance that which I also received. Paul says, I was with you, I delivered this to you in person. When was Paul with the Corinthians? Well, he was with the Corinthians from late in the year 51 AD through the year 52 and then a little bit into the year 53. And then he had left, and a couple years later, he writes 1 Corinthians. Why do I mention these dates? Well, because that places Paul in Corinth. And we know when he was there because Luke in Acts 18 mentions that Galileo was the proconsul of Achaia. He names the governor of that region. And in Roman records, we know that Galileo was the proconsul of Achaia early in the year 52. And so we can know exactly when Paul was in Corinth corroborated by a Roman source. That's 52, you realize, is only 22 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus. And now that he's writing this letter, it's only 25 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus. In other words, that movie that I mentioned at the beginning, City Slickers, in the year 1991, that was further back in history from where we are now than the death and resurrection of Christ was from the time when Paul wrote this. These are things that happened within just a couple of decades. How many of you remember Y2K? You remember all that craziness? I think it took a couple of moves for us to finally get rid of the canned goods that we had stocked up from Y2K. The distance from Y2K to where we are today is the distance from the time when Jesus rose again from the dead and the Apostle Paul was in Corinth proclaiming his resurrection. These are historical realities that you can verify from ancient sources. And I just want to make that clear so that you know that this isn't some religious book made up by people hundreds of years later concocting a mythology. All right, so let's get into according to the scriptures. Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. He was buried and he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures. How did Christ die for our sins in accordance with the scriptures and be raised again from the dead in accordance with the scriptures? Well, it's very common. around Easter time to go to Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53. And I would encourage you to do that. In previous years, I have preached on Psalm 22. I have preached on Isaiah 53 as Easter sermons or as Good Friday texts. But this year, I wanna do something different. I wanna go even further back. Because in Luke 24, when Jesus appears to the two disciples walking on the road to Emmaus, it says that he took them aside and beginning with Moses, he unfolded in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. So Isaiah 53 was written 750 years before Jesus was born, and it tells in great detail about his crucifixion and resurrection, and we're going to look at that in a few minutes. Psalm 22 was written a thousand years before Jesus was born by King David, and it gives blow-by-blow detail of the crucifixion of Jesus. But I want to go back even further in history. to an event that many people have misunderstood the point of, and it's recorded in the book of Genesis. Now Genesis is written about 1,500 years before Jesus was born, and Genesis 22 tells the story of an event that happens almost 2,000 years before Jesus was born. And it's the story of Abraham being called by God to sacrifice his son Isaac. So if you have a Bible, turn with me to Genesis 22 and follow along. If you don't have a Bible, you can just listen. And we'll hear God's word together. Genesis chapter 22. And we'll see the detail that God gives us in his word. After these things, God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham. And he said, here I am. He said, take your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you. So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place which God had told him. On the third day, verse four says, on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. Then Abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey and I and the boy will go over there and worship and will come again to you. So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac, his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they both of them went on together. And Isaac said to his father Abraham, my father. And he said, here I am, my son. He said, behold, the fire and the wood. But where is the lamb for a burnt offering? Abraham said, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son. So they both of them went on together. When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac, his son, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said, here I am. He said, do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place, The Lord Will Provide. As it is said to this day, on the Mount of the Lord, it shall be provided. Now this is a familiar story, I think, to many of us, but there's a lot of details that we miss. First of all, God called Abraham to go to Mount Moriah from where he was. And there's two key reasons for this. First of all, this is the mountain, Mount Moriah, where 1,000 years later Solomon would build the temple and where sacrifice and offering would be offered up to the Lord. It's on the same mountain. But even more importantly, in 2,000 years, it would be the place where Jesus would carry his cross up Mount Calvary. just as the wood was laid on Isaac's back and he carried it up the hill. So the cross was laid on Jesus' back in the same place 2,000 years later and he carried it up the hill. But the second reason why God sent him to Mount Moriah is that God knew it was a three-day journey. And the text explicitly tells us they arrived on the third day. because God had no intention of actually having Abraham sacrifice Isaac. What he wanted Isaac to experience is the feeling of the loss of his son, because he had committed that he was going to sacrifice his son, and then to receive back his son from the dead, as it were, on the third day. Secondly, notice that when Isaac asks Abraham about the lamb for the sacrifice, Abraham replies, God himself will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son. Now, Abraham had no human reason for saying this. He was fully intending on going through with the sacrifice. But he was being led by the spirit of God to say what was true. God will provide for himself a lamb for a burnt offering, my son." You know, even that day on Mount Moriah, when God spared Isaac, it wasn't because God provided a lamb for himself. He very explicitly provided a ram, different animal. And we know it's different because how does Abraham respond after all this is over? After all this is over, Abraham responds by saying, Abraham called the name of the place, the Lord will provide, as it is said to this day on the Mount of the Lord, it shall be provided. Abraham didn't call it the place where the Lord did provide. He called it the place where the Lord will provide for himself, a lamb for a burnt offering. To make it even clearer, the last part of that phrase, on the Mount of the Lord, it shall be provided, It actually uses the Hebrew word for seen, and in the passive voice, which is a little bit complicated grammar, but what that means is it's more literally translated as, on the mount of the Lord, he shall be seen, or on the mount of the Lord, he shall appear. I still remember third semester Hebrew class in seminary when we're translating this passage, and we're looking at it like, wait a minute, This is the word to be seen or to appear, which has the sense of being provided, but God's very intentional by what he uses. So here we have an event 2,000 years before Jesus comes, and we have the lamb, we have the third day, we have the mountain, and we even have the name of the Lord, that on the mount of the Lord he shall appear. That's just one example. You could go through the Old Testament and find example after example after example. Psalm 22 is another one. It's written 1,000 years after Abraham, 1,000 years before Jesus, and this is what part of Psalm 22 says. Many bulls encompass me, strong bulls of Bashan surround me. They open wide their mouths at me like a ravening and roaring lion. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. So when you're crucified, You're on a cross, and then that cross is lifted up and dropped into the ground, and the weight of being dropped causes all of your joints to fall out of joint, and it's like you're being poured out. My heart is like wax. It is melted within my breast. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws. You lay me in the dust of death, for dogs encompass me." And that's a Hebrew way of referring to Gentiles. A company of evildoers encircles me, just as Jesus was surrounded by a company of soldiers who were killing him. They have pierced my hands and feet. I can count all my bones. They stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots." So many very specific details in Psalm 22. And what's interesting is there's nothing in David's life that would reflect these events. Nothing like this ever happened to David himself, but he wrote these words. In fact, he's describing crucifixion, where they pierce your hands and your feet and your bones are knocked out of joint. He's describing death by crucifixion, which wouldn't even be invented as a method of execution for hundreds of years after he wrote Psalm 22. And of course, Isaiah 53 tells us why Jesus died. He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. There's a video I saw on YouTube a few years ago where a guy does a sort of man-on-the-street interview, and he finds random people at this shopping place, and he walks up to them and he says, I'm gonna read to you a passage of scripture, and I want you to tell me who it's talking about. And he reads them what I just read to you, and most people are like, oh, that was about Jesus. And then he says, do you believe the Bible is the word of God? And most of them said, no, it's just a religious book. He said, well, you just told me that what I read to you was about Jesus, right? Yeah. What if I told you it was written 750 years before he was born by the prophet Isaiah, and that we know it was written before he was born because in the Dead Sea Scrolls, they actually found an intact scroll of the whole book of Isaiah that predates the birth of Jesus, and it includes this passage. How could this have been if it's not the Word of God? One of the things people miss in Isaiah 53, and even in Psalm 22, is that after the death of the Messiah comes the resurrection, which is also foretold. In Isaiah 53, for example, It says, yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief. When he makes his soul an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied. It's resurrection to life again. One who was dead, one who was crushed, one who earlier was In verse nine, laid in the grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, is alive again and sees his offspring and prolongs his days and the will of God prospers in his hands. We also have Psalm 16, written by David, which says this toward the end, you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, nor let your Holy One see corruption. You will make known to me the path of life. Now, Psalm 22, David's writing about crucifixion, and he was never crucified. Psalm 16, David's writing about not seeing corruption in the grave, but being shown the path of life. Well, David died and was buried, and his body saw corruption in the grave. So he's writing about Jesus. Do you know what day the body sees corruption in the grave in the ancient world? If you know the story of Lazarus, You'll know the answer to this question. Lazarus was in the tomb four days, and by the fourth day, his sister said, Lord, there will be an odor because he will be corrupted by now. He'll be decaying by now. So the fourth day that he was buried, and then he rose again from the dead according to the scriptures. Yet Paul doesn't just point us to the scriptures. He also names for us the eyewitnesses who saw Jesus again from the dead. Thank you, guys. And he appeared to Cephas, then to the 12. Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. So beginning with Cephas, and Cephas is Peter's original Aramaic or Hebrew name, Beginning with Peter, Cephas, he goes through the 12, the more than 500, James, and this James is the half-brother of Jesus, and then to all the apostles, which would have included Jude and some others, and then last of all, he says, he appeared also to me. So we have here a list of 515 or more eyewitnesses, and I love the note that Paul adds in verse six. Most of these are still alive. I mean, it's only been 25 years. It's like he's saying, go talk to them. You know, send them a message on Facebook. They're alive. They can tell you this themselves. Now, some of them had died. Stephen, the first martyr, had already died. He was an eyewitness of the resurrection. James, the brother of John, had already been killed. He was an eyewitness of the resurrection. They were both killed for their testimony about the truth of Jesus, which shows us the reliability of these witnesses. These weren't just religious people who were trying to manipulate the masses and win a following for themselves. Christianity was a persecuted religion, and by speaking the truth about Jesus, they were putting their own lives in danger. The French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal said, I believe witnesses who get their throats cut. It's quite a graphic image. What does he mean by that? Well, what he means is it's easy enough to make up a story and peddle a lie, but when the swords come out, people tend to drop the lie and say, I was just kidding, please don't kill me, right? But that's not what the apostles did. The apostles said, I have seen the risen Christ. And they said, you better stop saying that or we're going to kill you. And they said, good, you'll send me to him. I have seen the risen Christ. Don't you get it? Death is defeated. You can't threaten me with anything anymore. And so Stephen was stoned to death. James was run through with a sword. The apostle Paul was beheaded. The apostle Peter was crucified upside down. 11 of the 12 apostles died bloodied martyrs deaths, but they did not waver from their hope in the resurrection because they had seen the risen Christ. And that's our confidence, is that Jesus died and was buried and rose again according to the scriptures written hundreds and thousands of years before he was born, and then he was seen by eyewitnesses. And the courage of those eyewitnesses leads us to our last question, and that is, so what difference does it make? What difference does it make that Jesus died and was buried and rose again? Well, for those apostles, it made all the difference in the world. Before they saw the risen Christ, they were cowering in fear in their rented upper room, doors locked for fear of the Romans and the Jews who might come for them next. But once Jesus came and appeared to them, and once the Holy Spirit descended on them in power, they went out of their upper room, they went into the temple courts, and they preached the name of Jesus to anyone who would listen. And the apostle Paul went on the most aggressive and energetic missionary journey that the world has ever seen, traveling by foot, traveling by ship, being stoned to death. At one point, one of my favorite stories, at the town of Lystra in present-day Turkey, the Apostle Paul was stoned to death. God raised him from the dead. He got up, dusted himself off, and went and preached the gospel in the next town. And then a few weeks later, he came back to Lystra to make sure that the believers in the new church were doing well. You see, what difference does it make? What is it that holds us back? What is it that causes us fear? What is it that holds us in bondage? Our sin? Our inadequacy? Our guilt? Our shame? Our fear of death? Jesus has overthrown all of that. He took all of our sin, all of our guilt, all of our shame, On the cross, he took it all on himself. And he gives us in exchange his perfect righteousness, adoption as the perfect and beloved children of God, clothed in him. We stand before God free. We have been given a clean conscience. We have been given real, complete forgiveness. We have been given peace with God. We have been given eternal life. And these are the realities that change everything. They show us beyond doubt. Listen, they show us beyond doubt that God is stronger than the darkness of this world and that God is for us. And they give us a hope that nothing in this world could ever offer and that nothing in this world could ever take away. And so knowing Jesus, makes life and eternity filled with light and joy and hope and peace, where without Jesus we are left in the darkness of our guilt and our death. Jesus died for our sins, according to the scriptures, and he rose again, defeating death forever, according to the scriptures and as seen by eyewitnesses, and that makes all the difference in the world. What difference is it making in your life today? Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the gift of your Son, our Savior. We have everything we need in Him. He is everything to us. He is everything for us. Apart from Him, we are lost and alone and guilty and condemned and facing death and judgment. But in Christ, we have forgiveness and righteousness and peace and hope and joy that overcomes the grave. We thank you for Jesus. We praise you for Jesus. And Lord Jesus, we praise you now and may we praise you forevermore. May every day of our lives be lived as an act of worship unto you. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Well, we're going to stand now and respond to God's word by singing a wonderful anthem of praise. Crown Him with many crowns, the Lamb upon His throne. Let's stand and sing together. Hopefully all the sound works okay.