 If you have your Bibles, would you please turn with me to Matthew's Gospel, chapter 12. Matthew chapter 12. Heavenly Father, we're thankful for this opportunity now to dive into your word and we ask God that your Holy Spirit would minister to our hearts today, that you would strengthen our faith, that you would lead us into the truth, God. Lord, have your way here with every person we pray, and it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well, as you read through the four New Testament Gospels, it's easy to see that Jesus claimed to be more than a good teacher or a spiritual leader or a prophet. He claimed to be the Son of God, equal with God the Father in nature. That was a radical claim. But of course anyone could make that claim, and Jesus knew that. So Jesus backed up his claims by proving that what he was saying about himself was true. How did he do that? Well, he opened the eyes of the blind. He healed lepers, he unstopped the ears of the deaf, he caused the lame to walk. He walked on water, he stilled storms with a word just to mention a few of his miracles. But for his critics, these kinds of things were not enough. Look there at your Bibles. Matthew chapter 12, verse 38, if you don't have a Bible, I'll put it on the screen for you. It says, then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered saying, teacher, we want to see a sign from you. We want to see something miraculous. Well by this point in Jesus' ministry, he had already performed several miracles. And the Pharisees had already rejected those miracles as being wrought by the power of the devil. Verse 24 says there in Matthew chapter 12. So it appears by this point that they were really interested only in seeing a miracle for the sake of entertainment. Well, Jesus, knowing what was going on in their hearts, answered them in verse 39 and said to them, an evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given it or to it, rather, except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Jesus here graciously told them that he would provide them one more sign, one more proof that he was who he said he was. And that would be his resurrection from the dead three days after his death. Well, as you Bible students know, a short time later, Jesus was handed over to Pontius Pilate by the religious leaders and executed, just as Daniel chapter 9 and Isaiah chapter 53 had prophesied six to seven hundred years earlier. Jesus' crucifixion was no accident. It was part of God's providential plan for Jesus to receive the punishment you and I deserve for our sins so that we could be forgiven and reconciled back to God. But then an amazing thing happened. Three days later, Jesus' tomb was empty. Jesus rose from the dead, just as he, David and the prophet Isaiah had foretold. Jesus' resurrection, of course, was a monumental event for help to prove that Jesus was indeed the long-awaited Savior, the prophesied Messiah, that that Savior that God said he would one day send into the world as a way of providing forgiveness to sinful humanity. And it also proved that God the Father had accepted his death on the cross for our forgiveness. If he had not accepted that death, he could have left Jesus in the tomb. But he rose him back to life and that put his stamp of approval on Jesus' death. And this is why millions of Christians all over the world celebrate the resurrection every year. And of course, we'll be celebrating that next week. But can an intelligent person living in the 21st century really be confident that Jesus rose from the grave 2,000 years ago? I believe the answer is yes. And because we're just a week away from celebrating the resurrection in our time together this morning, I'd like to lay out for you five reasons I believe Jesus' resurrection actually took place. Five reasons I'm confident in the resurrection and five reasons I believe you can be confident as well. If you'd like to recall any of these reasons in future conversations with people, you can remember them with the acronym RISN, R-I-S-E-N, each one of those letters will remind you of one of the five points we'll be considering here this morning. The first reason I believe Jesus' resurrection is a fact of history, this would be the R in our acronym, the rise of Christianity in Jerusalem. The rise of Christianity in Jerusalem, what am I talking about? Well, it is an accepted historical fact that the Christian faith, a religion built upon the preaching of the resurrection of its leader, originated in approximately AD 32 right in the very city of Jerusalem where Jesus had been publicly crucified and buried. Now this in itself is a good piece of evidence that the resurrection actually occurred. Why is that? Well, because a message calling people to repent and put their faith in a risen man could never have gained any substantial following amongst the Jews if the tomb had not actually been empty and had the Jewish people not seen Jesus alive after his crucifixion. The message of a risen man could not have been maintained for even a day in Jerusalem if the grave was still occupied. However, Jesus' disciples did not run off to Athens or Rome to preach that Christ rose from the dead where the facts could not be verified. They went right back to the city of Jerusalem where they would have been quickly exposed and disproved if what they were teaching was false. The critics could have said, hey, here's the grave and here's Jesus' body and that would have squashed the whole movement and Christianity would never have spread. But that never happened. And not only did Christianity originate in Jerusalem, it thrived there. Luke, whose writings have been confirmed by numerous extra-biblical writings and archaeological discoveries tells us that 3,000 people believed the first post-resurrection sermon preached just a few minutes' walk from the tomb. Luke talks about that in Acts chapter 2. His credibility in the first century would have been immediately discredited if his estimates regarding the size of the church weren't accurate. By Acts chapter 4, just two chapters later, Luke declares that there were 5,000 believers comprising the early Christian church in Jerusalem. That would be considered a mega-church even today, here in Southern California. And there were more converts coming in. By Acts chapter 6, verse 7, Luke says the number of disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, apparently by that point they had lost count. And not only did Christianity originate and flourish in Jerusalem, it went on to triumph over a number of competing ideologies and eventually overwhelmed the entire Roman Empire. By the early 4th century, when the Roman emperor Constantine converted to Christianity, historians say there were around 30 million Christians. Question for you. Is it reasonable to suppose that thousands of people within those early days following Jesus' death were actually deceived into believing a man rose from the dead? I don't think so. The best explanation for the immediate rise of the early church right in the midst of the community that had witnessed his crucifixion is the resurrection. People had seen Jesus. Acts chapter 1, verse 3 says that Jesus presented himself alive after his suffering by many convincing proofs appearing to them, appearing to people over a period of 40 days. That's how you explain 5,000 people joining the church in Jerusalem within such a short time of Jesus' crucifixion. The miracle-working Messiah, who many people had already become familiar with, had conquered their death and hundreds of people had seen Jesus with their own eyes after his crucifixion. The first reason you can be confident Jesus rose from the grave is the rise of Christianity in Jerusalem. It flourished in the very city Jesus was publicly put to death in. That's an indicator that the resurrection actually took place. The skeptic of Jackson says, hold on a second here, Charlie. Islam came on the scene 600 years after Jesus and grew rather quickly. Well, yes, it did. But Islam's growth had absolutely nothing to do with people witnessing something miraculous. The Quran itself makes it clear that Muhammad was not a miracle worker. How did Islam manage to grow so quickly then? While Islam was forced upon tens of millions of people by military conquest, it is an undeniable fact of history that Islam spread by the sword. This is far different than the spread of Christianity. Christianity spread over the first three centuries through the simple preaching of the gospel, calling upon people to repent and place their faith in a resurrected Savior. In fact, it was often the Christians who were being put to death as they sought to get that message out. And that leads me to a second line of evidence for the resurrection. Number two, if you're taking notes, the eye in our acronym Risen reminds us of the incredible persecution endured by the disciples. The incredible persecution endured by the disciples. When Jesus was arrested and led away to be crucified, the gospels tell us that his disciples fled in fear and went into hiding and had even lost hope. A short time later, though, we read that something amazing happened. These same fearful men went through a dramatic transformation. Within a few weeks of Jesus' crucifixion, the same men were standing face to face with the people who had crucified their leader, boldly telling them to repent and that Jesus was alive. Well, to prevent this belief from spreading, the same authorities who had Jesus crucified threatened the disciples, flogged them, beat them, imprisoned them, and forbade them to speak the name of Jesus. You've read about that in the book of Acts. So what did the disciples do? Well, they didn't back down. They told these leaders we must obey God rather than men. There are times when it's right for Christians to stand up, to government officials and disobey their mandates and even their laws. For example, when government officials would try to prevent us from doing something God has commanded to do or when the government would seek to force us to do something God has commanded us not to do. The early disciples knew this and they told the officials that we must obey God rather than men. I love their courage. I'm inspired by their commitment to get the gospel out, even though often it met imprisonment and persecution. But their courage had a cost. Flavius Josephus, Eusebius, Tertullian and other independent early non-biblical sources record for us that many of Jesus' earliest followers, including the apostles, suffered intense persecution and even death for their ongoing belief and preaching that Jesus was Lord and was risen from the dead. We are told in these historical sources that Matthew, the author of the gospel of Matthew, was slain with an ax in Ethiopia. We're told that Mark, the author of the gospel of Mark, died in the city of Alexandria in northern Egypt after having been cruelly dragged through the streets of that city. We're told that Luke, the author of the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts was hung to death on an olive tree in Greece. We're told that John was tortured and then banished to the island of Patmos. We're told that James, the brother of John, was beheaded in the city of Jerusalem. Luke refers to this as well in Acts chapter 12 verse 2. We're told that Philip was hung up against a pillar in the city of Hierapolis and then stoned to death. Bartholomew flayed alive. Jude shot to death with arrows. I think you guys are studying through the book of Jude here. That's how his life came to an end. He was willing to lay down his life so that you could study the book of Jude and learn what he had to say. Andrew, bound to a cross and left to die. He was one of the 12, Peter's brother. Barnabas, we're told, was stoned to death. We're told that Thomas was run through the body with a spear in Southeast India. And we're told that Peter was crucified in the city of Rome upside down. In his letter to the believers in the church at Rome, Paul described what was going on like this in Romans chapter 8 verse 36. He said, for your sake, for God's sake, we are being put to death all day long. We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered. And not too long after pinning those words, Paul himself was beheaded with a sword in the city of Rome. What these men endured to get the gospel out is pretty sobering, isn't a question for you? Is it reasonable to think these men invented Jesus' resurrection? I have a hard time believing that. But someone might say, Charlie, people make up crazy stories all the time. Big, big lies. And yes, they do. For some sort of financial gain, some sort of benefit, maybe even, or to get out of trouble. There's usually that kind of a motive going on as to why people would lie and make up stories. But what the early Christians said about Jesus didn't get them out of trouble or result in any kind of benefit. The things that these men said and wrote and preached about Jesus got them in trouble. What they received was persecution, rejection, torture, and martyrdom. Hardly a list of perks. That, to me, is compelling evidence that these men were telling us the truth about Jesus and his resurrection. So the first reason you can be confident, Jesus rose from the grave, the rise of Christianity in Jerusalem. Number two, the incredible persecution endured by the disciples. A third line of evidence for the resurrection, the S in our acronym is the shift in beliefs and practices by thousands of Jews. The shift in beliefs and practices by thousands of Jews. What am I talking about? Well, shortly after Jesus' death, thousands of Jews in Jerusalem and the surrounding region began abandoning at least five cherished beliefs and practices. The beliefs and practices they abandoned had been taught to them from childhood by their rabbis and parents. There were beliefs and practices that had given them their national identity and allowed them to be accepted by society. There were beliefs and practices that had even given them a supposed right standing with God. What beliefs and practices did thousands of Jews begin to abandon? I'll quickly mention two. The first one, the practice of bringing sacrifices to the temple. The practice of bringing sacrifices to the temple. Thousands of Jews whose families had for centuries been going to the tabernacle and later temple to sacrifice animals as a way of having their sins covered suddenly stopped. Why? What would explain such a major shift in behavior? Well, here's what the explanation was. They realized Jesus was the Lamb of God, who for once and for all takes away the sin of the world. They realized that all those Old Testament sacrifices were only a shadow, only a dim preview of the good things to come, Hebrews 10 says, a foreshadowing of what God would accomplish through his son's death. They heard of the veil that had been ripped miraculously from the top down there in the temple. They remember that Jesus had told them that the temple was even going to be destroyed. And so they realized things had changed. They realized that they were living under a new covenant with God, the one Jesus had told them about on the eve of his crucifixion. If they were mistaken, abandoning the sacrificial system would jeopardize their well-being socially and spiritually and yet thousands of Jews began to do that very thing. And they didn't stop there. Thousands of Jews began to change, here's a second example, their Sabbath day worship from Saturdays to Sundays. They changed their Sabbath day worship from Saturdays to Sundays. For the Jews, the Sabbath was not only a day they were to rest from physical labor. It became a day when they would meet together in the synagogue, worship God together and study the scriptures. They had been doing it on the seventh day of the week, Saturdays for some 1500 years. But now, almost overnight, thousands of Jews began meeting on a new day. The first day of the week, a day they began to call the Lord's Day. The Lord's Day, why did they call it the Lord's Day? Well, because that was the day of the week Jesus rose from the dead. So thousands of Jews, including the disciples making up the early church said, let's start meeting on that day in commemoration of our risen Lord. And the book of Acts chapter 15 tells us that they even opened up their gatherings to Gentiles, something they had not done previously. This was a huge change. These Jews who made up the early church believed that the coming of the Messiah, along with his death and resurrection, cleared the way for a new relationship with God, one that was based not on bringing sacrifices to the temple or on keeping the mosaic law, but on the sin-bearing, life-giving help of a resurrected Savior. The fact that so many Jews are willing to abandon their previous beliefs and practices is a third evidence that Jesus' resurrection really took place. Now there's more examples of those practices and beliefs that shifted after the resurrection. I don't have time to get into them this morning. If you wanna do a deeper dive into that, you can go to our website at alwaysbeready.com. We've got an A to Z menu there on our homepage. You can go down to the R's, click on Resurrection, and you'll find several articles on this subject that will take you deeper. But let's quickly recap the first three. Number one, the rise of Christianity in Jerusalem. Number two, the incredible persecution endured by the disciples, and number three, the shift in beliefs and practices by thousands of Jews. But we can strengthen our case for the resurrection with number four, the E in our acronym Risen, the evidence for the trustworthiness of the Bible. The evidence for the trustworthiness of the Bible. The account of the resurrection was not passed down to us in a supermarket tabloid or via a long chain of people playing the telephone game, thankfully. It was passed down to us in a sober-minded collection of historical documents that were written by eyewitnesses of Jesus' life in the first century AD. This collection of documents making up the New Testament has been corroborated by extra-biblical, historical writings, and dozens of archaeological discoveries, just to mention a couple of the evidences that point to its reliability. In fact, non-biblical historical sources have confirmed more than a hundred details recorded about Jesus in the New Testament. For example, consider the writings of Flavius Josephus. Josephus was a historian for the Roman Empire in the first century AD. He mentions more than a dozen individuals written about in the Gospels, including John the Baptist, Herod the Great, Pontius Pilate, Caiaphas the High Priest, and Jesus. Notice what Josephus said about Jesus. I'll put it on the screen here for you. He said at this time there was a wise man who was called Jesus and his conduct was good and was known to be virtuous. And many people from among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. And those who had become his disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They reported that he had appeared to them after his crucifixion and that he was alive. So here in this one quote, we have verification for us outside of the Bible that Jesus was a real person in Israel in the first century. He was known to be virtuous. He had many followers. He was put to death by Pontius Pilate, but then he was reported to have conquered death by his followers. Pretty astounding. I've talked about some of this kind of evidence for the trustworthiness of the Bible. The last time I was here, so I won't rehash it this morning. If you weren't here for that previous teaching or could use a refresher, I'll point you to a couple of my books that are available out at the gazebo. Scrolls and stones there on the left lays out 10 different lines of evidence for the Bible. And then there's a book on archeological evidence for the Bible that has about 100 color photographs in it of these kinds of artifacts and evidences for the Bible, if that might be helpful to you. All right, let's consider a fifth line of evidence for the resurrection. This would be the N in our acronym Risen, and that is this, none of the skeptics theories for the empty tomb are convincing. None of the skeptics theories for the empty tomb are convincing. Even skeptical scholars today acknowledge that Jesus' tomb was empty. As I mentioned earlier, there's no way Christianity could have spread if Jesus' tomb was still occupied. The Roman authorities or Jewish leaders could have just gone to the tomb and paraded the body around downtown Jerusalem for everyone to see and squashed the whole movement. So the tomb was empty, that's widely acknowledged by historians today, but critics have come up with some other theories to explain the empty tomb, none of which are convincing. Let's briefly walk through a few of these. The first theory is that Jesus is a myth theory. Some critics of the Bible say the reason why the tomb was empty is because Jesus never even existed. The whole story about him was just invented by some clever deceivers 2,000 years ago. Well, the claim that Jesus is just a myth may be popular out there on the internet today, but it is a ludicrous position to hold to. And one of the reasons why I say that is because more than 30 non-biblical sources mentioned Jesus within 150 years of his life, including first century historians like Josephus, who I just mentioned, Cornelius Tacitus and Suetonius, both of whom were Roman historians. The Jewish Talmud mentions Jesus as well. So the evidence that Jesus was a real historical person is very strong, so strong that even Bart Ehrman, one of the most zealous critics of the Bible alive today, acknowledges that Jesus was a real person. In an interview in The Huffington Post sometime back, actually it was an article he wrote for The Huffington Post, he said this, and I was happy to see him say this because he's not friendly to Christianity, but he got so tired of his atheist friend saying there's no evidence Jesus existed. He wrote this article mainly for them. So they'd stop saying that. Here's a quote, he said, there is no scholar in any college or university in the Western world who teaches classics, ancient history, New Testament, early Christianity, or any related field who doubts that Jesus existed. With respect to Jesus, we have numerous independent accounts of his life, sources that originated in Jesus's native tongue and that can be dated to within just a year or two of his life. Historical sources like that are pretty astounding for an ancient figure of any kind, the claim that Jesus was simply made up falters on every ground, end quote, Bart Ehrman. So the Jesus is a myth theory utterly fails as an explanation for the empty tomb. Surely he did exist. A second theory to explain the empty tomb is the stolen body theory. This theory suggests that the tomb was empty because Jesus's disciples stole the body. But the stolen body theory raises some difficult questions. How could the disciples have stolen the body? That would have required sneaking past an armed and trained detachment of Roman soldiers, breaking the Roman seal that was put upon the stone, then moving a two ton stone away from the entry to the tomb without being detected. Certainly the Roman guards that pilots put on guard at the tomb to prevent this kind of thing from happening would have heard something and quickly put an end to the attempted thievery. Roman soldiers were highly trained in the art of defense and killing. A band of fishermen against Roman soldier detachment, that's kind of like a suicide mission. They would have been more than capable of protecting the tomb. And I find it hard to believe that the disciples who fled in fear when Jesus was arrested would risk their lives trying to steal a dead body from the very people who executed Jesus just three days earlier. Another difficult question, the stolen body theory brings up is this, why would the disciples steal Jesus' body? What benefit would come to them for doing that? Is it reasonable to believe the disciples stole Jesus' body only to suffer for preaching a message they contrived? I have a hard time believing that. And if they had a dead body on their hands, how were they able to then convince thousands of people in Jerusalem that he rose from the grave? Maybe prop him up for a press conference? But then answer all the questions for him? Sounds preposterous, right? That would work. So I find the stolen body theory utterly unconvincing. A third theory for the empty tomb is known as the lost tomb theory. The lost tomb theory, some years back, the Discovery Channel aired a documentary called The Lost Tomb of Jesus. It claimed that the tomb that contained Jesus' bones had actually been unearthed by archeologists. The primary evidence for this radical conclusion was the discovery of six bone osheries, like this one, found in a grave in Jerusalem. The osheries dated back to the first century and had the following names engraved on them. Jesus, son of Joseph, Mary, Matthew, Joseph, another Mary, and Judah, son of Jesus. Well, those names sound familiar, don't they? And so the Discovery Channel documentary concluded that these osheries belong to the very persons mentioned by those names in the New Testament. And thus the whole story of Jesus' resurrection, the Discovery Channel said, is just a farce. He was actually married to Mary Magdalene, had a son named Judah and was buried in a grave with the rest of his family. Happy Easter. They aired this just a couple days before Easter, like they always do. They always time these attacks on the Bible right around Christmas time or right around Easter. So happy Easter, we found Jesus' body, all deceived who celebrate this. Well, there are several reasons why the Discovery Channel's claims should be rejected. We've listed maybe 10 on our website. I'll quickly share with you two. First, the names inscribed on the osheries found in the tomb in Jerusalem were very common names in Israel in the first century. In fact, Joseph was the second most popular male's name in Israel in the first century. Jesus was fourth. Matthew was the sixth and among women, Mary was far and away the most popular woman's name. The New Testament mentions six different Marys. It's hard keeping them straight. Have you ever had a problem? Like, what Mary is this? This is Jesus' mom Mary or Mary Magdalene? There's six different Marys in the New Testament. It's a testament to how popular that name was in the first century in Israel. Well, that being the case, a tomb with some osheries in it that mention of guiding Jesus and Joseph and Matthew and Mary is not sufficient proof that the cave was the burial site of our Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth. Archeologists have pointed out that there are more than 900 buried tombs just like the alleged Jesus tomb within a two mile radius of where this tomb was found. And of these tombs, 71 of them bear the name Jesus. And the name Jesus, Son of Joseph, has been found on three or four different osheries. So these were very common names. That's one strike against the supposed discovery. Another blow to the documentary's conclusions is this. If Jesus' disciples were making up a religion and basing it on a fabricated resurrection, they wouldn't bury his body in the very city he was put to death and then inscribe his name on the outside of his oshery and then bury the other members of his family in marked osheries in the same grave. That would be foolish. I was never part of the mafia but I think you would get rid of the body, right? Not many of you nodding. No one wants to look like they're an expert dealing with dead bodies, right? But that's what you would do. You would invent a religion on the resurrection and then mark his grave and put all those family there. No, that's not how you'd pull that off. So those are just a couple of problems with the lost tomb theory. A fourth and final theory I'd like to respond to briefly to explain the empty tomb is what's called the hallucination theory. The hallucination theory suggests that the early Christians were just hallucinating and only thought they had seen Jesus alive after his crucifixion. Well, this theory is not convincing either. Hallucinations for non-drug users are very rare. And the things people see and experience while hallucinating are wildly different. You never hear of a large group of people having identical hallucinations. So to suggest that hundreds of Jewish people in the first century who were not known for their drug use. To suggest that hundreds of Jewish people had hallucinations wherein they all saw and interacted with a resurrected savior is very problematic. And another problem with the hallucination theory is this. If the disciples were just hallucinating the religious leaders in Roman authorities could have dragged Jesus' body out of the tomb and exposed the fact, but they could not do that because the tomb was empty. So this is the fifth reason you can be confident. Jesus rose from the grave. None of the skeptics' theories, rather, for the empty tomb are convincing, none of them. Friends, at this very hour, the ashes of the body of Siddhartha Gautama, now known as the Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, lie in a grave at the foot of the Himalayan mountains. Muhammad, the founder of Islam, is buried in Medina, Saudi Arabia. Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, is buried in Navu, Illinois. Charles Darwin is buried at Westminster Abbey in London. Karl Marx buried at Highgate Cemetery in North London. These men are all dead and their graves are all occupied. Only Jesus Christ proved that what he said was true by rising from the dead. Amen. What a great reason to rejoice this week. Christian, your shepherd, your savior is alive. You're not following the teachings of some dead man. No, you're walking through this life with Jesus, the true and living God who can be known, called upon, and trusted daily. So I urge you to do that. If you haven't yet placed your faith in Jesus Christ, I want to encourage you to do that today. A day of judgment is coming. The Bible says you will stand before your maker one day to give an account for the things you've done in this life and you want to make sure that when that day comes, your sins have been washed away and forgiven, lest you end up being judged for your sins and cast into hell. And the Bible says there's only one way that can happen and that's if you put your faith in Jesus Christ. God did all the work on the cross. Jesus died there in your place, the Bible says, bearing the punishment for your sins so that you could be forgiven and reconciled back to God. But he rose from the grave three days later and now he offers all of humanity the free gift of everlasting life, forgiveness of all your sins and peace with God. What a gracious offer. God has made humanity. How do you lay hold of that offer? Jesus said whosoever believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life. That's it, God's done all the work. He just wants you now to place your faith in Jesus and what he accomplished on the cross. And you can do that today. God is a prayer away. You can call it to him this morning before you walk out of the doors of this place and I would encourage you to do that and just pray something like this. God, thank you for loving me. Please forgive me for my sins. I trust in Jesus Christ to save me. Come into my life, be my Lord and Savior. If you'll call out to the Lord like that, the Bible says whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. So do that today, stop putting it off. For the rest of you, let us not be ashamed of the gospel. This is news that's too good to keep to ourselves. I encourage you this week to be praying about who to invite to Easter service. There are a lot of people who are actually willing to go to church if someone will invite them and this will be a great opportunity this next week. David's going to do another message on Good Friday and then on Easter Sunday talking more about the ramifications of the resurrection. Maybe God would use you to bring a non-saved friend to church. So be praying about that. Amen.