Oddberg Born Again You Must Be

Sweetheart, would you bring my water for me, please? I left it right there. Thank you. Well, good morning. Good morning. As Quatro told you, my name is Michael Coghlan, and I am pastoring a church called, thank you, sweetheart, Covenant Bible Church.

This is my son, Wesley, and he has traveled with me. Excuse me. And I'm very glad to be here today, and I take it very seriously that I get to be here. And even though I stood in this same pulpit the last two days and preached a sermon from the Bible, I find it to be a more special thing to do that on a Sunday morning, even before the official worship service begins as a Sunday school. and so it's strange I do it with more fear and trembling than the last two days but what I want you to think about for a moment and then we'll look at we'll look at the scripture is I'm going to give you a scenario so I came here today and I met I met Oberg and he said he was a cattle farmer and I just want you to imagine for a moment that I told him that I was also a cattle farmer.

And I didn't. This is a made-up story. But I want you to imagine that I told him I was a cattle farmer and that when he started talking to me about farming cattle, I started talking about the joy I have in cutting off their heads and de-feathering them. And he would look at me if I had said something like that and he'd think, this guy doesn't know anything about farming cattle. but even though I told him maybe repeatedly that I farm cattle he would draw the conclusion that this guy's not really a cattle farmer he's something else that he would know because of the things that I said that I had no idea what cattle farming was and he would draw the conclusion that no matter how good my heart was about wanting to be a cattle farmer that I wasn't one the same thing happens to us regularly when you speak to people who say that they are Christians some of you in this room maybe are not Christian I like to say you're not Christian yet because I hope everyone in here will be but there's some of you in this room who have spent a few years even serving the Lord and you you know what it's like to labor for the Lord you know what it's like to watch the Lord Jesus Christ slowly and gently change you.

And with some of us, he has to be a little rough sometimes to teach us. We're a little stubborn. And you know what it's like to grow in the faith, and you've met people who say, oh, I'm a Christian too. And then you start talking to them, and they sound even less like a Christian than I did like a cattle farmer. And in case you're extremely ignorant, cattle don't have feathers.

All right? And buffaloes don't have wings, so I don't know how you get buffalo wings, but that's for a different session. Well, the reason this happens is that when you want to become a Christian, when you tell people you're a Christian, what you're actually telling people is that you believe that you've been born again. and that's a phrase that used to be very significant people used to use that phrase a lot in fact when I got saved which is the phrase we mostly use now in our culture I remember my Roman Catholic friend saying to me are you born again? and I remember when he said it I had to think about it and I said yeah I guess I am because I knew as a Roman Catholic I knew I wasn't born again and I didn't want to be and then when I became born again I suddenly realized yeah I guess I am And I'd never even heard the term in church yet.

I remember when he asked me that question. So if you look at John 3 for a moment, the first thing I want to talk about, and I'm thinking about doing like a who, what, when, where, why kind of deal with you. But so the first question you can ask yourself is, who needs to be born again? so in John chapter 3 we'll just start at the beginning there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus he was a ruler of the Jews and this man came to Jesus by night and said to him Rabbi or teacher we know that you have come from God as a teacher for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him Jesus responds and he says to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Now Nicodemus gets a little bit... I think he's being intentionally cheeky here. I don't think this adult man is legitimately asking this question. I think he's being cheeky about it and he's not understanding what Jesus is saying. and he says how can a man be born when he is old can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born he's being kind of sarcastic here like he's saying what are you talking about he took it so literally he wouldn't understand what was actually plainly taught throughout the old testament as well that a man must be born again and jesus then repeats himself in verse 5.

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God So the answer to the first question who needs to be born again is everyone Of course, when we say things like everyone, we're nearly always accepting the Lord Jesus Christ, who is so distinct from each and every one of us in so many ways that he didn't need to be born again. I add that, though, because there are people, and you may not have ever heard this before, and I don't know if I've heard of it, I've heard of it, not heard anyone say it, but there's people who teach that Jesus had to be born again. As if he was not conceived in perfection.

And I dare say that if you do not believe Jesus was conceived in perfection, if you deny the virgin birth, you're actually evidencing that you don't know who he is. Because that is essential to your belief. Now turn to Genesis chapter 2. nearly every doctrine that's important in the church has its root or at least beginning teaching somewhere in the first few chapters of the bible it's not always clearly stated and you may need a lot more of the bible's revelation to understand it and work it out.

But most of it starts there. This is one of the reasons why it's so important that we hold fast to the truth that God created the world in six 24-hour days, as he said he did. And that the history described in Genesis is not poetry, it's not some metaphor, it's not a neat story that ancient goat herders had to write because they didn't understand science.

It's the revelation from the God who not only witnessed creation, but is the one that made it. And we believe him because he's all-wise and all-knowing and he's trustworthy. But in Genesis chapter 2, God is describing the sixth day of creation, the day when he created man and woman, was created from man. and God says in verse 16 and Yahweh God commanded the man saying from any tree of the garden you may surely eat but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat from it for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die and then we see in Genesis chapter 3 verse 4 the serpent said to the woman you surely will not die for God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil and then Lord willing you all know this story they ate from the tree anyway now what did God promise them if they ate from that tree anybody they shall surely die that was the promise that God made so first of all I want to point out one thing many of us look at God's laws as these restrictions some people call them the cosmic killjoy he said you may eat of every tree of the garden except one if you for a moment imagine the abundance of goodness in a pre-cursed pre-fall world that was available for these people to enjoy and they had to eat from the one tree they were told not to and not only that god wasn't a cosmic killjoy at all he wasn't trying to take away something that was good for them.

He was forbidding them to do the very thing that was worst for them. And he was encouraging them to do the things that were good for them. And Adam and Eve in this pre-fall state decided to sin against God. And what I like to remind people of is we sit in our chairs here and in the judgment seats and we think, whoa, what a bad choice they made. I can't prove this scripturally but I think I could make a case for it the only difference between Adam being in the garden and you being in the garden is you'd have eaten the fruit faster than he did we trust the sovereign God chose the very best possible man to be the representative for the human race and the fact that sometimes you don't believe that he did is a problem with you, not with God and his choice but so Adam having represented each and every one of us in that garden sinned against God but the difficult part here becomes did they surely die because in that moment Adam and Eve still were walking and talking they went on to have several children and I think Adam lived 930 years and so people have tried to make arguments like well he just meant they would eventually die yeah that's true I think Adam and Eve died in that moment but when we think of death because we're carnal that means you're of the flesh I'm of the flesh we think about things in a very fleshly way everything has to do with our flesh Jesus in John 6 says you have to eat my flesh and drink my blood and they're like well how can we eat this guy we're not cannibals these people were very obtuse about things they weren spiritually minded well we need to be spiritually minded I believe Adam and Eve died They died spiritually They became dead, as the book of Ephesians describes, and we'll go look at it, dead in their trespasses and sin.

They now had no spiritual life in them to make contact to God. They did not have the holiness and the purity to approach a holy God. And then the symptoms of that death become the fact that they now sinned. And they would eventually have a physical death. So in some sense, each of us in this room is alive. You have a functioning nervous system.

There's a circulatory system. and there's all the scientific things that happen so that you're actually a sentient being right now. But whether or not you have spiritual life is a different question. So who needs to be born again? Everyone, except the Lord Jesus Christ. Why do we need to be born again? Well, because we're dead.

We're dead in our trespasses and sins. So you can turn back to John chapter 3. when when are people born again so we'll look at verse 7 John 3 7 and 8 this is the incarnate Lord speaking to Nicodemus we started in this section we're back there now and he says to him do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. One thing, when you read the scripture, I want you to read scripture every day.

And if you want to do a Bible in a year plan, there's a bunch of those and they're good and I think it's great. If you've been a Christian 20 years and you tell me that you know you've read the Bible 20 times, that's fantastic. I think that's neat. But sometimes what we need to do is just sit and meditate on just one or two verses. And we need to actually memorize these verses.

And one of the things it happens. When you say you're going to memorize a verse, you end up thinking about it all day long. I almost did a Sunday school about scripture memory. I think everyone should do that. But if you meditate on verses, you start to dig a little deeper into what they must be saying. How many of you use the word marvel anyway?

We don't use that word. Jesus is pointing out to Nicodemus, he says, do not marvel that I said to you, this is very instructional that Jesus is telling this guy who did not have Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, Corinthians, Ephesians he didn't have any of the New Testament teaching that we have on what it means to be born again and he looks at the guy like you should not be surprised by this because Jesus absolutely knew that anyone who had studied the Old Testament should have been aware of the fact that people needed to be regenerated by the Spirit of God And the phrase born again is just another way of saying that. Born from above is what it means.

But then in verse 8, Jesus tells us when people are born again. So now we know. He says, the wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound. But do not know where it comes from and where it is going. He says, so is everyone who has been born of the Spirit. you don't see the wind. What you see is you see the effects of the wind.

You see what something looks like. We'll take a tree branch. You see what a tree branch looks like when there's no wind. The leaf is hanging there, motionless. And then, suddenly you see the leaf start to kind of flutter along. and then you know there must have been wind. And then the leaf may go back to its place, it may fall off.

Jesus' point is that we can understand that something has had wind blow on it when we look at the effect of it. And it is the same way with being born again. we know that somebody has been born again by the effect that the spirit of God has had on their life. So when are you born again? Well it's when the spirit decides to cause someone to be born again.

Do you realize that there are people in this world that teach that at any given moment a sinner who is described in this book as dead in their trespasses and sins and that enmity with God to the point where God had to send His only Son into the world to a bloody death to atone for that person's sins and transgressions that that sinner can just conjure up the Spirit any time and say, Enter me! There's people that teach that. And I dare say, if you are that much more powerful over your God, you're the God and He's not.

The Spirit will blow when and where He wishes. But there will be a visible effect when it happens. That's right. Turn to Ephesians chapter 2. If you were inspired by Pastor Randall this weekend to memorize Scripture, or even just now as my mentioning of it, first ten verses of Ephesians 2 would be fantastic for you and there are people out there who have memorized scripture who will help you They will give you suggestions I don't recommend you find some random passage you don't even quite understand yet.

Just memorize. Memorize things that are important to you and help you as well. There are all scriptures God breathed and profitable, but some of it seems to be a little more applicable sometimes to us and takes a little less digging. Ephesians 2, the Apostle Paul writes, he says, and you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you formerly walked, he says, according to the course of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air.

And in case for a moment you thought, well, God's the ruler of the air, he says, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience, it's a reference to Satan. the audacity it takes to proclaim that people who follow Satan will suddenly one day decide, I'm going to follow Jesus without the Spirit of God having come into their life first and caused them to have that faith in Jesus is beyond comprehension. Nobody leaves the kingdom they love for another kingdom unless the other king comes and conquers first. But praise be to God that he actually delivers us from the slavery we're actually in to our wicked king, and I dare say our wicked father, the devil.

And he adopts us into his family and he makes us slaves of a good God and a loving God and a master whose yoke is easy and burden is light because he carries it for his people. All Satan does is bear you down with more and more and more. And Jesus says, I'll carry it for you, just follow me. So in verse 4, he says but God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our transgressions this has made us alive together with Christ so why we said why do you need to be born again earlier because we all need to because we're dead but why does he do it because of his love it says he made us alive do you realize there isn't a single dead person in the history of the world that's called 911 it's 100% true it still is we are not sick people who need a little bit of help we are dead people in our father Adam as taught by the book of Genesis and throughout the rest of the scripture who need to be revived and made alive.

This is why you can have the hope, though, that if you are born again, you're a new creation. You are actually objectively, and we'll use a little bit of a fancy word, ontologically different than what you were before. You're not the same person. That person is dead. That's why in Corinthians, the fifth chapter of the second book, He says, all things have passed away, all things have become new.

I remember one time my wife was lamenting my past because I have a past that would make a wife a little bit grievous sometimes, from before we met. And she brought something up about it. And she was actually kind of unhappy in that moment. I'll say she was upset. And all I can say is that guy's dead. I'm not that guy.

If I do something tomorrow, I need to repent and I maybe should feel bad for a little while about some of it. I'm not that guy that did the things that you're letting bother you from 20 years ago. I'm not criticizing her. These are hard things we've had to work through some of the stuff. And some of you will carry in this body the consequences of your sin and transgressions that you willingly swam in for years.

I think it was Mike this weekend, my friend, that said he was like a fish in water when he was living in sin. But praise be to God, he not only pulls you out of the water, but he changes you so you like the new environment. So turn to 1 Peter. Excuse me, turn to 2 Peter. 2 Peter chapter 1. So he said, who needs to be born again?

Well, that's everybody except the Lord Jesus Christ. And when I say everybody, we're talking about human beings too. Children of Adam and Eve. We're not talking about animals, trees. I mean, it sounds silly you need to say it, but there's people that think these kinds of things. We're not worried about aliens and another planet or anything strange like that.

Jesus came to die for sinful humanity and to save a bride for himself. And I'll give you a little hint. This might have bothered some people. But Jesus didn't come to pay the price for people who weren't his bride. Nobody in hell will be able to yell at God and say, but this is unjust, Christ paid for my sins. That's not how it works.

It wouldn't work in a court of law. I'd be the worst judge in the world. He had been paid and he still punished the guy. And God's a better judge than all the judges in the world combined. But in the book of 2 Peter, Peter who knew what it meant to be born again, Peter who had committed the same types of sin against the Lord Jesus Christ within the same few days as Judas, is exalted in the heavens right now while Judas burns in hell.

And the difference is that Peter was born again. and Judas wasn't. And that was evidenced by Peter's life of repentance and faith, even after being a failure. And while we sit in the judgment seat of Peter, whose failures are on bright display for us, I'll remind you that most of us should be pretty glad we weren't picked. Because not only is Peter forever etched in Scripture is having done some things that we've done worse things and they're not written.

But Peter suffered greatly for his love for Christ. And some of us will never have to go to the type of horrific suffering that Peter gladly went to for his Lord. But Peter, in his second letter, he calls himself a slave of the Apostle Jesus Christ. So if anybody in here for even just a moment thinks, a little bit, well, maybe Roman Catholicism ain't so bad.

Well, their first pope considered himself a slave. And in the previous chapter, a fellow elder, not a pope. I'm still Protestant here. Peter says, to those who have received the same kind of faith as ours, again, in case you thought the pope had special faith, right? Peter didn't. He says, the same kind of faith as ours.

He says, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. So the one that came in the world was born of the virgin. Not born again. Born one time. Perfect man. Sinless.

I would say Jesus was unable to sin. That's called impeccability, if you're interested in those things. There's people that think otherwise. I think Jesus was unable to sin. and he lived a perfect life that you could not live and then he died to death that sinners deserve he who knew no sin became sin for us so that we might what? yes, he didn't become sin for you so that you could do whatever you want but still go to heaven this is effectively American Christianity right now this is why you meet people who have a Jesus hat or they say they're Christian.

I like Jesus hats. I like t-shirts. I love that stuff. I'm not against those things. That's why you meet people that say they're Christian. They go to church or maybe they don't, but they say they're a member of a church.

And yet when you talk to them, you find they don't seem to have the same affection for the Lord Jesus Christ that you do. They seem to have affection on all sorts of things. It's not that they're unable to have enjoyments and affection. You just notice their affections are towards all sorts of other things. And sometimes they're not bad things. There's a lot of people in the world that don't do a lot of bad things.

They just ignore Jesus. and they focus on their work. Some of the most successful people in the world are people who basically don't spend time on Sunday worshiping. They get a little extra work done. Sow what you reap and make a little more money maybe. Now it's a bit instructive that Chick-fil-A is the most successful restaurant still in the United States and they're the only one that closes on Sunday. and they actually open on Sunday when there's disasters, in case you didn't know that.

They go to hurricane areas and things like that, and they give away free sandwiches, and they do acts of mercy on Sundays. But it wasn't the point. The point is is you meet people who are not outwardly sinful They not people that are going to the bar and getting drunk They not people who you know are frequenting establishments that they shouldn go into They're not men that you know are cheating on their wives.

These are not people that you think are dishonest in their business. You meet all sorts of people who are morally, outwardly good. and they don't have the same affection toward the Lord Jesus Christ that you seem to find when you go to church and you talk to other people who love him. And then you feel kind of judgmental. Like, well, I shouldn't judge their faith, you think.

I'm not the one that decides if they're saved or not. Well, let me ask you a question. How do you know who to evangelize? I mean at some point if you're going to be a person that tells people about the Lord Jesus Christ you have to start having some way in your mind of believing whether they know him or not I'm not saying it's an easy answer either but we all need to have some discernment in this area and if you believe Jesus' words which if you say you're a born again Christian it means you're telling me you are willing to believe all his words even the ones you haven't heard yet or understood if you believe Jesus' words in Matthew 7 in fact I want you to see it then we'll come back to 2 Peter 1 turn to Matthew 7 another very good section of scripture to memorize would be Matthew 5 through 7 or any even parts of it good morning but in Matthew 7 verse 22 Jesus or 21 we'll start there he says not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven well Romans says if I confess him as Lord and believe he was raised from the dead then I'm saved don't get your Christianity from fortune cookies don't pull one verse out of a large book and decide that verse is your life verse he says not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven he says but he who does the will of my father who is in heaven will enter and the will of the father is to believe on the one whom he has sent so you're dead in your trespasses and sins you need to be born again there are people in this world Jesus is telling us and he's not talking about Muslims he's not talking about Buddhists, Hindus run of the mill pagans Jesus is saying there's people who will actually proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord.

Who will stand before him one day and rather than be welcomed into the kingdom of heaven as dear children will be cast away as workers of lawlessness. These are the good people. The ones who outwardly are moral. The ones who probably do pop into a church once in a while and in some cases maybe even stand and preach in front of one. This is a scary passage.

Because what would be really nice is if everyone you talk to who would just even say the word Jesus in a polite manner, that you could just think, oh, well, they're good. I don't have to worry about their salvation. I don't have to evangelize them. And you know what? No matter what they're doing that I think is a little off, I don't even need to worry about them. one of the reasons you worry about your brothers and sisters in church who are veering away from what you think is what the right doctor would have them do is that that's their evidence that the wind is blowing them in a different direction.

Because if you believe that the Holy Spirit's power on a sinner's life is going to have the type of change that we're going to see in 2 Peter 1 on their life, then you going to be not only concerned that somebody doing something that can hurt themselves or maybe it going to lead their kids in a wrong direction and things like that But your brother or sister who you dearly love who you gone to church with maybe done ministry with Maybe you've spent a lot of time at their house. You've prayed with them. You were at their baptism.

You were there when they prayed for salvation. You may start to be concerned that they're actually headed for hell. if they are not living a life where the effects of the wind of the Holy Spirit blowing on their life and making them born again are clearly visible. So back to 2 Peter 1. In 2 Peter 1, the same context here. Of course, I can't find it. It's in the back.

I know that much. There we go. 2 Peter 1. In verse 4 he says, For by these, his divine power, mentioned earlier, but by his power and excellence, he has granted to us his precious and magnificent promises. He says, So that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. It's just that God has granted these things.

So you have promises from God. If you're a Christian, God has promised things. And one of the things about when God promises is they're guaranteed. And there's nothing sadder to me than a person that's actually a Christian that is not walking in the belief of his promises. Because they're all wonderful. and God wants his children to feel and sense the objective love that's been demonstrated in his son and one of the biggest concerns I have about Christians today not false conversion is I believe there's Christians out there that desperately need the assurance of God's love in their life and they're looking to their circumstances and their circumstances are not so good sometimes and they think, well, maybe God doesn't love me.

And there's pastors and preachers, I shouldn't call them pastors, there's false teachers out there that will tell you, well, if you're not enjoying all the blessings, then maybe God doesn't love you. Tell that to his son. Because he doesn't love anybody more than his son. And his son suffered more than you ever will and he did it in your place. So you might suffer too and I want you to be prepared for that.

And I want you to know when suffering comes in this world, particularly when it's persecution because you'll stand for Christ. It's actually as evidence of his love for you that he'd let you do that. He appoints our suffering, it says in the book of Philippians chapter 1. If you don't believe me, you can look it up. It's actually a gift from him as part of your salvation that you will suffer with him in order that you may be glorified with him.

In Romans 8 he tells us. It's actually suffering with Christ that is your assurance of his love for you. It's your evidence that you're his child. You're treated like one of his children by those that hate him. But Peter wants to give us a little practical lesson here. So this is my conclusion.

If you want to evaluate whether you're born again, which you ought to do, it's not as simple as going to the front of your Bible and looking at what date you wrote that you prayed the prayer, got baptized. Now, I absolutely think we should look to our baptism. in our 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith teaches us that. We should remind ourselves of that commitment we made too.

But Peter gives us some practical ways that we can ask ourselves, am I born again? Has the Spirit of God regenerated me and transformed me from a child of Satan, one who was in the domain of darkness, and has he transferred me to the kingdom of his Son? And the way I know that is by seeing some things here. In verse 5 of 2 Peter 1. He says, now for this very reason also, applying all diligence or making every effort.

It's not a passive thing. You're commanded to make the effort even though it's God working in you. This sit back and just do nothing because we'll just wait on God. that's not the way that God commands us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling although we're always trusting that it's his power and his grace that is what's effectual he says for this reason applying all diligence in your faith so it starts with faith Belief Simple belief in what God has stated He says, supply moral excellence.

You're supposed to add virtue. You're supposed to grow in virtue. You're expected to, because that's how we knew the Spirit entered you. Do you realize that the Holy Spirit is called the Holy Spirit? It's not an accident. And you think the Holy Spirit wants to dwell in you. and for lack of a better phrase, hang out while you engage in all the sin that you still love sometimes, I dare say he'll kill you if you're actually a real Christian and you refuse to repent of sin.

That's what he did with Ananias and Sapphira. But if you or someone you know is able to persist in unrepentant sin, yet say the Holy Spirit dwells in you, let's say you can add the unrepentant sin of lying to your life too. Because that's just not how He works. There is no assurance for those who live in sin. There just isn't. Let me clarify.

That does not mean I believe we'll be perfect. And that doesn't mean that everybody you know that's ever fallen into sin was not a Christian at the time. But the Bible promises that we will be granted repentance and seek it if the Holy Spirit indulges us. he says, add virtue. Then he says, in your virtue or moral excellence, he says, add knowledge. Continue to increase in knowledge.

Read the Bible. Show up at church. Study extra things. Read books that men have written about Christ and about the different doctrines. Add knowledge. He says, with your knowledge, add self-control. and with your self control steadfastness or perseverance these are the things we should be looking for in our life again never perfection but the trajectory of your life if you look back on it you should realize I have experienced growth in these areas he says along with your perseverance godliness, brotherly kindness or affection brotherly affection and love we should be the most loving people out there and just so you're not mistaken if there's one thing love is and it's tolerance of evil there's a lot of people that are going to tell you today well if you really love someone you just tolerate whatever they do no if you really love someone you would actually want to rescue them from the evil that's ensnared them but Peter says if these things are yours verse 8 and they're increasing your trajectory is in the right way.

He says they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the full knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. He says in whom these things are not present that person is blind having forgotten the purification of former sins. So make your calling and election sure he says here. Be diligent to do that. You must be born again. There's George Whitefield someone came up to him and said, why do you keep preaching over and over that you must be born again?

He said, because you must be born again. And so when you pray to the Lord in your private moments, you ask him to help you. Ask him to give you the eyes to see your own sin even. Ask him to put people in your life that will help you to grow in these qualities and virtues. and then you with humility approach your fellow man and try to discern whether the way that they speak of Jesus and the way that they talk about brothers and sisters and the way that they live their lives if you see evidence that the Holy Spirit of God has chosen to indwell that person and if not you evangelize them and you pray for them and you love them and you trust that God will do what he wishes when he wishes and we simply know that he will always do what's right so let me pray for us Father, we are nearsighted on such a regular basis open our eyes to the truths that your scripture has revealed and help us to be humble servants of a great God Jesus Christ our Lord Amen