Have you ever thought that it's weird that you can feel people's eyes? You ever thought that's weird? Like how is it that when someone is staring at you, you just kind of know it? Right? You feel it. You don't just feel it. You can feel the direction it's coming from, right? Isn't it kind of weird that whatever that is happens, and you turn, because you know someone's looking at you, and then you're like, oh, there they are. And then there's that moment. Are they going to look away really fast, or are they just going to stare at you? Are their eyes going to get bigger? Right? You're laughing, because all of us, we've had that experience before. Now, well, if there's anyone who should feel the feeling that someone is watching them, It should be Christians, right? Whether we like it or not, we're being watched. If you're going to identify as a Christian, you're going to be watched. It's going to be your spouse, your kids, your kid's friends, the other kids at school. It's going to be coworkers, family members. They're going to watch you. They're going to keep their eyes on you to see, are you consistent? Are you really living for this Jesus you talked about? You're being watched and there's nothing you can do about it. Now, Paul knew this, so he writes this letter to his associate Titus to make sure that he lived knowing that people were watching and so that he could help other Christians know that people are watching. Now, if your goal is to write a letter to encourage everyone that reads it to say, hey, people are watching you to live a godly life, where would you start? Would you start with a story? Would you start with, I don't know, a common experience like people staring at you, for instance? How would you start the letter? Where would you begin? Interestingly, verse 1, Paul begins with himself. Look at those first words. Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Christ Jesus. Now, on the one hand, it's a typical way you start a letter in the first century. Who wrote it first? Who gets it second? Some kind of blessing, and then you get on with what you have to say. Now, it was normal for Paul to add some details about himself at the beginning, and there's no difference here. He explains who he is before he gets into what he wants to say. And he kind of takes his time. Did you notice how many periods are between verse 1 and verse 4? How many periods do you see there? See, we all have different Bible translations here. I go from, I preach from the ESV, so you should have that one. But anyways, um, There is one period in verses one to four, just one in the Greek texts. There are 65 words in this sentence for the Bible nerds here. That is the third largest longest opening verse in the new Testament. Galatians has 75 Romans is 93 nerd moment over. Okay. So. As you read verse one, you might be thinking, I thought Titus and Paul knew each other. So why is he identifying himself as an apostle? Titus and Paul have known each other for about 30 years at this point. So why does he call himself an apostle when Titus already knew that? Answer, he wasn't writing this book just for Titus. Look at chapter three, verse 15. Let me remind you that the end of this book is two words, you all. Because all the Christians on the island of Crete were to read this, and so were all Christians of all time, including us. There's no reason for them, and there's no reason for us to pay any attention to this book unless you know who's writing it in the first place. Now, what he does is he explains who he was, but when he explains who he was, we get some pretty clear ideas about who we are. And so that's what we're going to see today. Even though it's just the opening 11 words, we're going to get some insights into how to be a Christian this morning from these opening words, from these words, we're going to learn how to be a Christian. Notice I said, learn how to be a Christian. I didn't say how to become a Christian. We talked about that last week, right? At that time, we said, you know, I said, a Christian is not someone who's trying to pay God with their good works, you know, to give them some kind of access to heaven. A Christian believes in Jesus. He trusts in Jesus and Jesus alone to save him, not their good works, not some organization, not some man, but Jesus alone, that's who they're trusting. And so there's, now, there's a bunch more to it, but humanly speaking, That's how you become a Christian. You give your life to Christ. And I trust most of you here have done that today. And if you haven't, then maybe you're here today for this reason to hear what I'm about to say. Give your life to Christ today. Trust him. And all the Christians right now start praying. Trust him and him alone to save you. You have sinned against God and you are under his wrath and you need someone to rescue you. You're in trouble. And that's what Jesus is all about. He came to rescue and save from your sins. And so give your life to him, trust him, believe in him, submit to him and you will be saved. And for those of you here today who are already Christians, the issue is how are we supposed to be now that we are Christians? There's so many people out there saying, well, this is what it means to be a Christian. This is how you're supposed to be, how you're supposed to live as a Christian. Much of it is half truth and a lot of it is just pure nonsense. These opening words in Titus will teach us how to be Christian. So let's look at the first word. Ready? Paul. Stop right there. Lots of Paul's in the world. So why are we looking at the words of a guy named Paul from some like 1956 years ago? Paul is no ordinary man. He's no ordinary man at all. He turned to Acts chapter 9. Keep your finger here. Turn to Acts chapter 9. If you've got a Bible from an usher, that is page 1016. Page 1016. I don't know what your story is about how you were saved, but I guarantee it was not like this. Acts chapter nine. Here's Paul's story. Acts chapter nine, verse one. But Paul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, verse two, and asked him for letters to the synagogue at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the way, that's Christians, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Verse three. Now, as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. and falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, who are you Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, but rise and enter the city and you'll be told what you are to do. Notice Paul wasn't in a church service. He was traveling to Damascus to shut down some church services. Right. He hated Jesus, wanted nothing to do with Jesus. But Jesus came after him. The story doesn't stop there. Look at verse 10. Now, there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias, he said, Here I am, Lord. And the Lord said to him, rise and go to the street called straight, not the house of Judas. Look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. For behold, he is praying and he's seen in a vision, a man named Ananias. Come in, lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight. But Ananias answered, Lord, I've heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name. But the Lord said to him, go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine. That's key. Chosen instrument of mine. And he's got a mission to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel, for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name. So Ananias departed and entered the house and laying his hands on him, he said, Brother Saul, The Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy spirit. And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized. So he goes from belligerent to blind, to believing, to baptized. That's an incredible story. I don't know about you, but I, I didn't go from blind to supernaturally getting my eyesight back. When I got saved, I was just in a room with kids getting ready to go to the mall and just boom, God saved me. Now, Paul explains what happened here. Like, like, what is this all about for that? We got to turn to Galatians chapter one, Galatians chapter one, page 10 74. If you got those blue Bibles, Galatians chapter one. Now there's a reason we're going slowly through this first word. This is very critical for us to understand what the Bible is when it comes to how to be a Christian. So chapter one, verse one, book of Galatians, notice how he introduces himself, Paul, an apostle, not from men. nor through men, but through Jesus Christ and God, the father who raised them from the dead. So he's an apostle, not from any man. God made him an apostle. That's key. Okay. And let's keep going. He makes it even more clear. Look at verse 14. He says, I was, I was advancing verse 13. He's going to destroy the church of God. Verse 14. I was advancing in, in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people. So extremely zealous was I. for the traditions of my fathers. But when he who had set me apart before I was born, more on that next week, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his son to me in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles. I didn't immediately consult with anyone. Now look at verse 16. I read that, but I'm not sure we picked up on what he said. Look at that carefully. God was pleased to reveal his son to me. Notice why. Not to save him, but to what? So that he would what? So that he would preach. I went through all of that stuff in Acts 9 in here. He's saying, not to be saved, but to be an apostle. He was saved and he was given a mission to accomplish with his life. And that mission was right there. He's revealed his son to me so that I could preach him among the Gentiles. That was his job. That was his role. So he's an apostle, which means he's a representative. Why are we studying Titus? Because Paul was an apostle. And apostles were special. They were representatives of Jesus, witnesses of Jesus, and they were given the authority of Jesus. So when apostles spoke or when they wrote, what they produced was the word of God, and it carried divine authority. And what Jesus did was before he died, he pre-authenticated their message. He said, hey guys, I've got something to say to you so that what you write, what you say is going to come back to your mind so that what you say is my words. Listen, this is John 14, 26. the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name. He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I've said to you." Now, that's a great promise for us by application, but for the meaning of this text, this was Jesus saying, what you write and what you say are going to be my words. As a result of this, Paul can say something like this. First Corinthians 1437 quote, if anyone thinks he's a prophet or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I'm writing to you are a command of the Lord. So people want to be spiritual and prophetic and all that. But if they do not come to the Bible and recognize that the words that Paul and the other apostles wrote are the words of God, they are not spiritual. Paul also says this, 1 Thessalonians 2.13, quote, we also thank God constantly for this, that when you receive the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it, not as the word of man, but as what it really is, the word of God. So when you were saved, okay, when you became a Christian, you entered into something, humanly speaking, started by the apostles and prophets about Jesus. Their words collected eventually became what we have in our New Testament. The New Testament is the word of God, and as his word, it has many of his characteristics. So God is good, so this book is good. God is truthful and trustworthy, so this book is truthful and trustworthy. And if that statement strikes you a little, ah, like, hey, how do you know that, preacher? Are you just saying that? Like, you got any proof for that? Well, I did, but I preached on that a couple months ago. So go back and look at a sermon called, Why You Should Trust the Bible. Now, since God is the king, and he rules over each molecule of the universe, he rules over his people through his word. So, being a Christian, point number one, means being submissive to your new authority. Be submissive to your new authority. When you became a Christian, the writings of the apostles, as set down in the New Testament, became your authority. Now, the Sunday school superstar out there is gonna be like, hey, what about those books not written by apostles? Quick answer to that those were prophets like Isaiah Jeremiah and Ezekiel I want to dig in a little bit to this idea of an apostle though, because there is a lot of confusion out there about this out there. My job as a pastor is not just to explain the text to you, but my job is to give you discernment so that when you're out and about in the world, you know, watching something, your friend sends you on YouTube or, or some books and coworkers like you should read this. It was amazing that you would be able to have discernment to go, this is good. And this isn't. And a lot of discernment can come from this one idea. You listening? There are no apostles today. None. Zero. No apostles like the Apostle Paul. Okay? In fact, there can't be any apostles today, and I'm talking about this because many false movements depend on there being apostles like Paul, and it has caused false teaching, unchecked authority, and thousands being spiritually abused. So why do I say so emphatically there are no apostles today? Because the New Testament has criteria for those. which makes it impossible for anyone to be an apostle today. Aside 1 Corinthians 5.8, which says Paul was the last apostle, there are four qualifications for an apostle. And these four qualifications were so important, I didn't want anybody here to miss them, so I put them in your notes. So you can see them there in that little text box. Let's go through those quickly. To be an apostle, first, you must be an eyewitness of the resurrected Jesus. Let me say that again. To be an apostle, you must be an eyewitness of the resurrected Jesus. Jesus ascended to heaven 2000 years ago. So unless you're 2000 years old and you were in Jerusalem at the time, you cannot be an apostle case closed, finished that seals it. But there's more. Second, an apostle had to be appointed as an apostle personally by Jesus. We know this about the 12. And then you have Paul who we just read about, right? Damascus road. This wasn't a vision. This wasn't a dream. This was a personal introduction of Jesus to Paul to say, I've got a mission for you. He was personally appointed as an apostle. Third, an apostle could show he was an apostle by doing miracles. Their miracles were even called, quote, the signs of an apostle in 2 Corinthians 12, 12. That means that these miracles were proofs that God was at work in them, doing something that only God can do through them. And fourth, according to Ephesians 2, 20, the apostles, along with Jesus and New Testament prophets, like Mark and Luke, are called the foundation of the church. Now think about that metaphor for a second. Only a really bad builder is gonna build the foundation, start building on top of it, and then start building the foundation some more, right? You start with the foundation, you get that set, and then you start building on top of it. It's simple, everybody, even if you've never built anything like me, you know that, right? Foundation first, that's done, we start building on top of it. Well, like I said, Ephesians 2.20, the apostles are part of the foundation. Translation, their writings are communication from God and all the rest of us are attached to this whole structure that they started when we believe in their words. So the New Testament is the authority for the Christian. because it was written by apostles. There's no adding more apostles today. This was never meant to be a perpetual office. It was the foundation. You don't, yeah, you don't keep building to the foundation after it's built. Now, as apostles, their writings had authority. As we just saw, they wrote the word of God. Now I call the New Testament our new authority because before becoming Christians, we had another authority, right? It may have been an influential person. It may have been a powerful organization. Whatever it was, typically those are a mask for the real authority in our lives, which is us, right? Becoming a Christian included surrendering to Jesus as Lord. Being a Christian means submitting to his rule over your life through his word, the New Testament. This is a daily sacrificing of what you want to do for what he wants you to do. Right? That's the Christian life. That's what you're learning to be as a Christian, submissive to this new authority in your life, the rule of Jesus through his Bible, through the New Testament. This is also what makes the Christian life so difficult, right? Because you have an authority battle raging inside of you between what you want to do and what Jesus wants you to do. And that's a war. But what you find if you're a Christian, it's like having a war with gravity. You don't have a chance. You're going to lose that one. And that's the same with the God of the universe. What he wants is stated here in black and white in the Bible, and our job as Christians is to obey that. That's not legalism. That's recognizing that as a Christian, Jesus is Lord. He's King. He's in charge. Which means that we're not Lord anymore. Jesus is. We're not the king or queen of our own lives. He's the King. He tells us how to live our lives. He tells us how to treat our spouses. He tells us what to do with our money, what to believe, what is true, what's not true about the world, about ourselves. He determines how we treat our parents. He determines how we do our jobs. He explains history, the afterlife, God, Satan. He explains it all. And our job is to submit to that. And that's what we see. If we turn back to Titus chapter one, That's what we see in the very next word. Well, the second word, not the word A, but the word servant. Servants of God. We're halfway done and we've only looked at one word. That's good. So Bible nerd time, again, this phrase servant of God, this is the only time Paul calls himself that. Typically he calls himself a servant of Jesus Christ, but you see how cool that is? He could interchange servant of Jesus and servant of God, he could interchange those things because he knew that Jesus was God. So that's kind of cool, nerd time over. So this phrase, servants of God, if you are familiar with the Old Testament, you know this has a rich history. Because servants of God was a phrase used for some of the heaviest hitters in the Old Testament, like Abraham and Moses and Caleb and Joshua and David and Job. This phrase, servants of God, it means somebody that has this very special assignment to accomplish something very special. And so by using this phrase and applying it to himself, Paul is placing himself in that line of leaders. He reckoned like, there's only a handful of us apostles, and so he's in that category. But that word servants is also very interesting because it refers to the lowest level on the social ladder in the first century. Those who were identified by this word right here belonged to somebody else. They were another person's property. They had no rights. Their lives were not their own. They were dominated by the desires of somebody else. Their one purpose in life was defined by what that person wanted them to do. They were to do what they were told, and that was it. No thoughts of their own, no desires of their own, no plans of their own, nothing. Just like the fruit from a tree belongs not to the tree, but to the person that owns the tree. So the profit off of their lives did not belong to them. It belonged to the one who owned them. They had no life of their own, will of their own, goal of their own, plans of their own. Every thought, word, decision was determined by somebody else. And it's crazy to think Paul, think about him, the scholar, the leader, the apostle, the receiver, preacher, and writer of God's word. Crazy to think that he identifies himself with the word slave, but that's what he does. And that's because that's what he is. So point number two, being a Christian means being humbled by your new identity. Be humbled by your new identity. When you became a Christian, this is one of the things you became. a slave to God. Paul transforms this most negative concept into a most positive identity for the Christian. In fact, Christians are called slaves or Christians are compared to slaves far more than we're called Christians, disciples, saints, sons, or friends. This is one of the many, but it's also one of the main metaphor God wants us to think about when we think about ourselves as Christians, as slaves. I want you to think, let's walk through the New Testament a little bit with this idea of slavery. Starting out, we are slaves to sin, Romans chapter six. We're owned, controlled, living to do what sin wants, living to do what we want with no hope of freedom, no hope of release, resistance was futile. By his death, Jesus rescues us from slavery to sin. But listen, 1 Corinthians 6.20 says, now, he says, you are not your own because you were bought with a price. He purchased you out of slavery to sin. Romans 6.22, having been set free from sin, you have become slaves of God. So he rescues you out of a slavery that will kill you and sets you into a slavery that sets you free to follow God and love him with your life. In the words of Titus 2 14, we are a people for his own possession. So as God's slaves, we now belong to him. We now do what he says. Our thoughts are to be his thoughts. Our ways are to be his ways. Our desires are to be his desires. Our lives are his. Our time, our talent, our treasure belongs to him. And I want you to think about this. If you pray the Lord's prayer and you pray those words, your kingdom come, the first place where his kingly rule comes is to your heart, where he becomes the king. And if he's the king, what does that mean we are? We're the subjects. When we pray, your will be done. It starts with his will being done in our lives because he's the master, he's the Lord, which means we are the slaves. Jesus said it this way, Matthew 6, 24, as slaves, we cannot serve two masters, right? If it's Jesus, we will live for him and do what he wants. If it's us, we will live for us and do what we want. But, Paul says, a slave, 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 9, we make it our ambition to do what? To be pleasing to him. That's what we want to do. So if you inside your heart, like, I want I want to please Christ with my life. And it's because your identity has already been transformed. You are a slave of Christ. In the words of 2 Corinthians 5, 15, slaves, quote, no longer live for themselves, but for him who, for their sake, died and was raised. And as slaves, we will give an account to our master. When you talk to Christians and they think about that moment when they stand before Jesus, they hope to hear what? Right? Am I hearing it? Well done, good and faithful servant, right? That word servant is the same word here. Well done, good and faithful slave. How do you be a good and faithful slave? You have no will of your own, no words of your own, no plans of your own, no desires of your own. You do and think and say and live to please the master. And I put new identity there because this couldn't be any more opposite of our American culture, and this couldn't be any more opposite than our sinful rebellious hearts. We are free. We will not be ruled by anybody. We do what we want. We say what we want. We live however we feel like living. Nobody tells us what to do. Nobody is the boss of me. That's not Christian. Like a person in the witness protection program, you got a new identity when you were saved and living the Christian life is used living in that new identity. Yes, you are a Christian. Yes, you are a disciple. Yes, you are a son of God. And being a Christian living day to day as a Christian also means being submissive to the New Testament by embracing your new identity as a slave. Is that how you think about yourself when you think about yourself in your everyday life? I am a slave to Christ. So many will be offended by this idea. It is beneath their dignity. But that goes back to point number one. Christ is either the Lord or he's not. We either are submissive to what he says or we're not. So when we're humbled by this idea that you're a slave of Christ, if you're a Christian, if that hasn't happened, this idea could not be any more offensive. And what happens is people think insanely that somehow God exists to do what we want him to do. Like we're the king and he's the slave. Ephesians 6, 6, Christians are to do what Jesus says, quote, from the heart. Our struggle in the Christian life is between, is God gonna be our master or am I gonna be my master? Am I gonna do what I want or am I gonna do what Jesus wants? That is the every second struggle of the Christian. And that is because when you became a Christian, you became a slave. You were set free from sin, you were purchased by Jesus so that you have no thoughts, words, or desires of your own. Think about it. Paul was not shy to identify himself as a slave of God. And I wonder, I wonder if we would be embarrassed to identify ourselves that way. I look back at Titus 1.1. Paul explains who he is with one more word. As a slave, the assignment he received from his master, verse one, is to be an apostle of Jesus Christ. So we talked already extensively about what that means to be a capital A apostle, only maybe 12 to 14 of those. However, the word apostle is used with a lowercase a, to refer to other people in the New Testament, and even to refer to Christians in general. It refers to one who is sent. It's rare in the New Testament. Typically, the word apostle is used for this 12 to 14 people, but it is used to identify lowercase a apostle, people who are sent. Hmm, people who are sent with a job to do. So while there are no capital A apostles, in the very real sense, there are a lot of sent ones with jobs to do. So being a Christian, living the Christian life, means point number three, being committed to your new mission. Be committed to your new mission. Beyond saving you from your sins, there is a reason you were saved. You are not saved to sit. You were saved to be sent. Your mission is this, make Jesus look good by being his slave. And by so doing people will be drawn to him through your life and through your words and be saved. This is what the letter of Titus is all about. Christians live in godly lives. So the ungodly world around them will see Christ in their lives and say, tell me more about this Jesus and be saved. rather than the opposite, Christians living lives that repel non-Christians. And I want you to see this, turn to Titus chapter 2. So why should young women live the godly lives described in chapter 2, verses 4 and 5? Because, verse 5, so that the word of God will not be reviled. The word reviled, I don't know if you use that word very often. The Greek word is blasphemeo. Sound familiar? so that the word of God will not be blasphemed, ridiculed, slandered, because the lives of the people that are calling themselves Christians is not godly. Look at chapter two, verse eight. Why should church leaders be models of good works? So that an opponent, and that's a non-Christian, so that an opponent may be put to shame. They're put to shame because they're trying to discredit Christianity, but it says there they have nothing evil to say about us because there's no evil coming out of the Christian's life. And then look at verse 10, why are Christian employees supposed to be the best employees on the job? Look at, so, quote, that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God. That word adorn is the Greek word cosmeo, cosmeo. It's the word that we get our English word cosmetics from. So our godly lives make God look good to those who aren't Christians yet. We don't make God beautiful, we enhance his beauty. Our godly lives bring out what is beautiful about him to those who are watching our lives. And I put new mission because our old mission was living to make who look good? Us, right? If we're honest, it was us. It's to advance our names, to advance our goal, advance our desires. One of the main ways, if you read through the book of John in particular, and if you don't, that's gonna be the next book we go to at some point, someday. And so, but when we get to that book, you're gonna see over and over again that one of the main ways Jesus identifies himself is the one the father sent, right? Well, John 17, 18, Jesus is praying and he says this, as you father sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. Most of us here are gonna be sent to another community to plant a church or not to another country to be a missionary, but all of us have a mission and all of us have a mission field. You thought you were moving here to maybe escape the cold winters, but God sent you here on a mission to the people that you know now. You thought you chose that college because it had a program that was perfect for you, but God sent you there to people. with a mission. Your mission is them. You thought you were moving here for a job, but God sent you for the people that you work with. They're your mission. You thought you bought a house because it was, it was just the right neighborhood. It was such a great deal, but God sent you there for your neighbors with a mission. But all I do is watch my kids all day. God, put those kids in your life to be your mission, to show them Christ, to show them what the Father's love looks like through the way you treat them. Listen to how Paul puts it, the Apostle Paul, Romans 10, he says, everyone who calls in the name of the Lord will be saved. That's the mission, that's what we want, right? The people that we know and love at our jobs, our families, wherever, we look out at them and we're like, God, help me, I wanna see them saved, right? If you're a Christian, you have that desire inside of you. that they would call on the Lord and be saved. Well, how does that happen? It happens through what he says in verse 14. How then will they call on him? That's Jesus in whom they have not believed in order to call on them. They got to believe in him. And how are they to believe in him if they've never heard? So to believe in him, they got to hear about him first. And how are they to hear without someone preaching? It's already here and believe and be saved. They've got someone needs to preach to them about Jesus. And how are they to preach? unless they are sent. So sent to preach, to hear, to believe, to call on the name of the Lord and be saved. And then he says this, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news. See, preachers know that we can guilt you out with evangelism and prayer easy, but notice how Paul encourages evangelism. He says, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. Think about it. If you were if you were good friends with some nerdy scientists who figured out how to cure something incurable like Ebola and he's like, I get kind of nervous. Could you tell everybody in the world about that? Would you be like, oh, no, I mean, I mean, that's a chore. I'm not sure I can do that. You can be excited. Maybe not Ebola, let's say cancer, AIDS, whatever you like. I want to tell everybody about this. We have a mission, that is. far more incredible than telling people about the cure for cancer or Ebola or AIDS. And the question is, are we committed to that mission? Are we committed to that? And reading this of all these three, this, I mean, all of these caused me to struggle and go, Oh God, help me. Oh God, give me grace. Now, In the end, these are three points that touch on some of the most fundamental things about, really about who we are as people. Think about it. It touches on what we live by, who we are, and why we're here. See, Christianity is more than just a set of personal beliefs. It is a comprehensive world and life view that answers some of the most basic questions, like is there a God, and is the universe all there is, and what is a human being, and where do I go when I die, and is there right and wrong, and does history have some kind of purpose or not? And part of those worldview questions include the things that we talked about today. So the first one, who's in charge? Who are you living for? What ideas are driving you? Gets to the question of authority. Well, most people won't answer that question. Who's the authority in your life will answer what? Me. Right? I'm in charge. I live for myself. I think what, I think what I want to do should drive me. I'm the authority. But being a Christian means that your authority has shifted from you to the book. And when your authority is the book, your authority is Jesus because this Jesus, this book is how Jesus exercises his authority over our lives. The battle is submitting to it instead of yourself. We also want answers to the question, who am I? And most people will say things like an evolved animal, a useless eater, a pointless waste, a dormant God, or they answer it based on what they do. I'm a dad, I'm a mom, I'm a teacher. I am my sexual orientation or something else. I'm an alcoholic, I'm depressed. However, being a Christian means that your identity is shifted from all of those things to a number of things, one of which is, not that's two, one of which is, I'm a slave of God. I'm His servant, I'm His subject, I'm owned by Him, living for Him. So His will, His ways, His thoughts are mine. And finally, we also have questions about why am I here? And most in our culture are gonna say, I'm here to be happy. Parents teach their kids that, some kind of conflict, tension in their responses. I just want you to be happy. Or the answer was some goal I want to be then fill in the blank, rich, famous, beautiful, loved, admired, respected, whatever. Or the answer was something altruistic. I want to leave the world a better place or I want to make a difference with my life. Remember, being a Christian means that our reason for being is wrapped up in this mission that God has given all of us to do. Make him look good through what we say and how we live so that people see our lives and hear our words and say, I want to give my life to Christ. This is not how you become a Christian. That's trust in Jesus alone to save you. This is what it means to be a Christian. A slave of God submitted to the word of God, living for the glory of God. Let's pray.