All right, well I certainly do appreciate the opportunity to get to preach tonight, and I'm thankful that Pastor would ask me as he's gone. Brother Scott was laughing about Pastor and the traveling and everything, but how many of you, you've been on vacation for a week or so, and you feel like you need a week to recover from your week of vacation, all right? I want you to think about what Pastor has been going through this week, and he hadn't been on vacation. He's been in South America, traveled for two days, and then worked for two days, and traveling back tomorrow, but you pray for him. He's worked all week long, and he'll be back in his place this weekend serving. time to rest and recuperate from being in South America. So you pray for him and ask that the Lord would give him strength as he comes back. And like I said, he'll be in his place this weekend serving the Lord. We're so thankful for that. Thankful for what he does. You'll be finding your place tonight in the book of Titus chapter two. Titus chapter two. And we'll be there here in just a minute. Think about what's popular these days. actors, musicians, athletes, entertainers, politicians, and other celebrities that have achieved a lot of media exposure. We're kind of a media society these days, so we always seem to know what's going on with everybody. But these people who are in the public eye all the time gain a lot of exceptional media exposure, popularity, success. A lot of times these people are called stars, and if they're really good, they're called superstars. But because they've risen to this great prominence in their field, whether it be, again, some type of entertainment field or athletics or whatever, they stand out brightly in the eyes of the world as being popular or being famous again. sometimes called stars, and they get a lot of fame and a lot of attention. But often these stars, while they shine very brightly in the world's eyes, they're very dim in the eyes of God. I want to read a verse before we get into our text tonight. Daniel chapter 12, verse 3 says, And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever. God is looking for people to be his stars that shine in the brightness of the firmament in the dark world in which he lives. We don't need more superstars, more celebrities that gain and get our attention and get our eyes and our attention off of the things that God wants our attention to be on. for his people to be stars who are gonna shine brightly in the world in which we live. It's not difficult to see. We live in a time and we live in a world that's clamoring for our attention. Again, we talked about that just a minute ago. And the world has a way of kind of creeping into our lives if we're not careful, and creeping into the lives of our families. And to be honest, we live in a very self-centered world today. And it's not easy to live a life that's God-centered in a self-centered world in which we live. But the Apostle Paul's letter here to Titus has some really powerful insights to help us to really see this and how to deal with it. And that's what we want to talk about tonight. And Paul, as he's writing to Titus as he did with others, had a burden for some of the young churches there. Titus, this little letter was written to Titus there, pastoring. and helping these young churches on the island of Crete. And he sent Titus to help them work through some of the problems that they had in these young churches. And from reading this short letter to Titus, it's obvious that really some of the same problems that was going on in these churches are problems that we recognize in our churches and in our Christian lives even today. And Paul's instruction to Titus is to teach the believers in those churches to keep their eyes open for the subtle things, for the subtle teachings and lifestyles that would contradict a God-centered mindset and a God-centered life and ministry. And really, as I said, he dealt with a number of things in this particular book. He dealt with a number of church-related topics. He talked about people who were basing their eternal life on works. And he dealt with those that, for one reason or another, just wanted to argue about everything and cause strife and controversy in the churches. And he had to deal with those that were teaching lies and bringing confusion to a lot of young converts. and there in those churches. And he's also writing to Titus about encouraging those who were believers to be spiritual leaders and instruct them to live their lives free from hypocrisy and selfishness. So a lot of these things we would say, yeah, that's exactly what we need. And those are some things that we face even in our church. But what I wanna focus on tonight is just really some familiar verses from Titus chapter two that summarizes really the theme of the whole book. Titus chapter 2, we'll start reading in verse 11. Titus chapter 2 verse 11. It says, For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purified to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works. These things speak and exhort and rebuke with all authority Let no man despise thee. Really, I want to focus the majority of our attention this evening on verses 11 and 12. Look at those verses again. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly, in this present world. I want to see what God's word teaches us tonight about living a God-centered life in a self-centered world. Let's pray. Lord, thank you so much again for just giving us this opportunity to stand before your people, Lord, and to look into your word. And I pray, Lord, that you'd help us to learn something. Thank you for the truths that you've taught me, Lord. looking into this passage, Lord, and I pray that you'd help me as I preach tonight. Lord, help me to communicate, Lord, effectively those things that you've laid on my heart and help us, all of us, our hearts to be tender and open to what your Holy Spirit wants to teach us. Lord, it's so important that in a self-centered world in which we live, Lord, that our focus is God-centered. and help us to see that tonight from your word, and Lord, how that can be a reality in each one of our lives. We ask these things in your precious name, amen. Really, as we think about this, we're always gonna look inward, and we understand we don't need to spend a whole lot of time talking about the world in which we live, because it's obvious. It's obvious what we see and hear every day, but really, one of our greatest enemies is ourselves. We're selfish individuals living in a self-centered world with self-indulgent people who lack self-control. And that's just, like I said just a second ago, that's just the reality. Modern day philosophers say that we live in what's called a post-modern society, which simply means that whatever people choose to believe becomes truth to them. They have no standard of absolute truth. Some people also refer to it as relativism, which means that truth is whatever you want it to be. In other words, everybody wants to do what is right in his own eyes, whether or not it violates scripture. If you were here Sunday evening and you heard our missionary that came and spoke for us in his video, in his video presentation, he interviewed some people there in the streets in Boston, asked them just some some basic spiritual questions, and I'll pull some of those from the video for some that, just to kind of remind us of what some of those folks said, because it completely illustrates, completely illustrates what we're talking about tonight and where we live, but there may be some that weren't here. One of the questions that was asked is, he probably interviewed, I don't know, five or six people. He says, do you have any spiritual beliefs? One person said this, I think there is something out there that holds everything together, but we don't have to worship it. Another person said to that question that she was very spiritual, but I don't believe in a particular religion. Another question, very important question that Brother Stelzig asked was, who is Jesus Christ to you? One person answered, just a religious leader who had certain beliefs that were revolutionary at the time and achieved a great following. Another person answered that question by saying he was a great guy, but his stories were exaggerated. That's how storytelling went back then. And then a third question that he asked is, do you believe in an afterlife? One guy in answering this question, he said, being able to judge right from wrong, that's the way to an afterlife. I don't really believe in it anymore. We're all going to be underground just hanging out. Another person answered that question by saying, by living in a virtuous manner, by living for our fellow man, that's how you achieve the afterlife. And then finally, a person said, the afterlife is doing well. Not necessarily what any one religion says, but following what you think is moral and what is good will hopefully lead you there. We have to recognize that that's where we live. That's the moral relativism in which we live, but we also know what God's word says. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. We live in a self-centered world, but God says, in this self-centered world in which you live, I want you to live God-centered, a God-centered lifestyle. And those people, they were being completely honest. They were being completely honest. They didn't believe in any absolute truths that put any demands on what they thought. They didn't want any demands on what they were to do, how they were to live their lives, or what they said. And in fact, a lot of people fight against anything that has to do with absolute truth. It's a whatever works for me mentality. And as we think about ourselves, You know, we may never actually say that as believers that we live by a whatever-works-for-me mentality. We would never say that, at least I hope so as believers. But we must certainly be mindful that every single day of our lives as believers, Satan is at work to push that philosophy on our lives. to push that idea on us through the influence of the world in which we live. And we have got to be on our guard for this. We can't, as we live our lives and believe, we have to recognize that that's a real thing. And every single thing that we do, every place that we go, we have to recognize that Satan's at work to push that mentality of whatever works for you is gonna be okay. We've got to be careful about that. And how do we avoid being influenced by that self-centered attitude of the world. Well, we know by staying close to God and His Word, being where God wants us to be in His Word. And the Bible doesn't teach a self-centered existence. The Bible teaches a God-centered lifestyle. And true godliness is being dependent on God and being devoted. at verse 12. Verse 12 says, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. Verse 12 begins by saying, teaching us. So we want to stop there. Before we go on and look at what it is that we're being taught, A question that comes to us is, okay, if something is being taught, who's the teacher? Who's doing the teaching? Well, look up at verse 11, okay? You can't have anything being taught without a teacher. Well, verse 11 tells us who the teacher is. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. Grace is our teacher, and grace is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Grace hath appeared, the grace of God hath appeared to all men. Just as Jesus' disciples, I want us to think about this. Think about, just picture in your mind, think about Jesus' disciples who called him master, who called him teacher, and they sat at Jesus' feet, and they listened to him, and they learned from his teaching, and maybe they didn't understand every single thing that he was saying, and the far-reaching aspects of everything that he was saying, but they were learning from him. Think about that picture in your mind. As we sit here, every single day of our lives, we have the opportunity to do the exact same thing that Jesus' disciples. Because God has given us his word, and we have the opportunity to sit at Jesus' feet, so to speak, and to take in the teachings of God's word and God's son, Jesus Christ, as much as we want. As much teaching from Jesus as we want, we have it at our disposal. And that's what the Bible is telling us when it says it, verse 2, teaching us, well, Jesus Christ, through God's Word, is doing the teaching and we've got the written Word of God and the living example of the Son of God and His life and His Word are the lessons from which we learn. So what is it? What is it that he teaches us about living a God-centered life in a self-centered world? Well, first of all, he teaches us what we need to reject. You see that it says, denying ungodliness and worldly lust. First of all, The Bible tells us that we are to deny or reject ungodliness. So what do we mean when we say ungodliness? Okay, that's kind of a general word, but what do we mean by that? Well, first of all, we need to learn as believers in a self-centered world, we need to learn to say no and not yes to selfish, ungodly thinking. Our mind is Satan's battlefield. And Satan is at work, as we talked about just a little bit ago. Satan is at work every day to capture our mind. That is his battleground. His goal is to change or to influence the way we think about God. and the place that God deserves in our lives. And we need to be careful as believers that we are not fooled either because while Satan may not be able to influence us to completely reject God's word, If He can influence us enough to alter our thinking enough so that God's Word is not the final authority for the way we live our lives and everything we do, then He's won. Satan wins when he alters our thinking and that's why it's so important where he says denying ungodliness and part of denying ungodliness is to deny or to reject ungodly thinking. Anytime we hear something or something that some philosophy or whatever it may be that we hear and that doesn't really sound like what the Bible teaches us. That's something that ought to be brought to our attention and we need to recognize that. Hold your place in Titus 2, and I want you to flip real quick to 2 Corinthians 10. 2 Corinthians 10. Talk just a minute here about, look at these verses that Paul wrote here in 2 Corinthians 10 about dealing with these ungodly thinking and how to deny ungodly thinking. In 2 Corinthians 10, look at verse 3. He says, For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God till the pulling down of strongholds. Now look at verse 5. Casting down imaginations. That word imaginations refers to reasonings and even more specifically false reasonings. Every single day, as I said, Satan is bombarding us with false reasonings, false thoughts about who he is and how good God is. We talked today, some of the men from Brother Jesse Padrero's class, we had an opportunity to go spend some time with him today. And he's hurting, but he said, God's still good. God's still in control. And there's going to be things that God chooses to bring into our lives. There's going to be things and trials and difficulties that by God's divine wisdom chooses to be a part of our lives. But in all of it, God is still good. And as we think about that and we look at what God's Word says, Satan is going to attack us and say, you know, God is not good. Look at what's happening. You're trying to serve God and look at what he's doing. He's ruining your life and all these other things. Let's go back to the passage here. Casting down imaginations of these false reasonings and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ, and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled." God's Word tells us when those thoughts come into our mind, cast them down. Cast them out. Let's not focus on those things that are gonna lead us to disobedience. He says, bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Every sin that we ever commit begins with a thought. And the more we entertain the thoughts in our lives, the more likely we are to fall into some sin. And we need to recognize that. Philippians chapter 4 verse 8 says, Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those are the things that we ought to focus on, that our minds ought to be on. These things that God's Word tells us are true and honest and just and pure and lovely, good report Those are the things that we need to be thinking on. So denying ungodliness means not only that we say no to ungodly thinking, but another part of denying ungodliness is we need to say no to wicked or irreverent ungodly people. You know, I know all the kids are gone out of the service tonight, but even as adults, there may be friends, we may have coworkers, we may have acquaintances, family members even, that try to pressure us into sin. And we need to recognize that as part of living a God-centered life in a self-centered world, as Titus tells us, denying ungodliness or rejecting that, that we need to recognize those things and not allow those influences into our life. Think about this, you don't have to turn there, just listen, in 2 Timothy chapter 3, verses 1 through 5, Paul again in his teaching to young Timothy says, this know also that in the last days perilous times shall come for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, Lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof, the last part of these verses say, from such turn away. from such turn away." I wouldn't take the time tonight to go back through that list of all these things that Paul mentioned, but he said, as believers, all these things that Satan wants to bring, all these kinds of people and influences that Satan is working day in and day out to bring into your life from such turn away. Turn away from those people. Psalm 1-1, you know this verse, You know, I recognize this as well. It's not always easy to separate ourselves from ungodly influences. I recognize sometimes it's a family issue. Sometimes it's a work issue. And it's not always a very comfortable situation. But while it may not be easy, it is necessary. And it's important that we, in a self-centered world in which we live, in the day in which we live, that we identify ourselves as God's people. And that we distinguish ourselves and that we're careful that we don't allow those ungodly influences into our lives. Somebody once said, the company you keep will determine the trouble you meet. And that's such a true statement. That's such a true statement that we realize that. Now, not only is it saying here in verse 12, teaching us that denying ungodliness, not only are we to deny ungodliness, but second, we're to deny worldly lust. Now the word lust is just simply an intense passion or desire, often something that God never intends for us to have. You may be familiar. 1 John 2, verses 15-17 says, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." Think about those things, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. God never intended us to have any of those things. And we know by looking at the example of the Lord Jesus Christ as he was tempted there by Satan, He said no to all those things. All those things that we mentioned in 1 John 2 verses 15 through 17, those were things that Jesus himself were tempted with. And God never intended those to be things that were a part of our lives. And let's think about what these verses are telling us. We cannot be God-centered and self-centered at the same time. We can't have it both ways. If you picture in your mind a circle, okay? You see, in your mind, you probably see a circle. In your mind, okay, you see a circle. I can put as many points as I want inside of that circle, but that circle is only gonna have one center. I can have points all over the place, but there's only going to be one place that's the absolute center of that circle, and it's true in our lives. We can do a lot of godly things. We can do a lot of spiritual things, but God must be the center. We can't have self-centered and God-centered at the same time. It's one or the other. The Bible tells us that Christ even said, talking about laying out for yourselves treasures on earth, you can't serve God and mammon. You choose one or the other. And that's the life that we have to recognize. Paul tells Timothy in 2 Timothy 2 verse 22, flee also youthful lusts, but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace with them that call on the Lord out of the pure heart. The Bible tells us, we know we need to say no to ungodly influences and worldly lusts. The Bible says how that's done. Galatians 5.16, this I say, then walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. We understand, I keep saying this because it's so important, the influences are coming. The influences are coming. We better prepare ourselves for what we know is coming. We understand that we're in a battle every day. And Satan is attacking us every day. So we know that it's coming. So what are we doing to prepare ourselves for that battle that Satan is waging on us day in and day out? And God's word tells us. Walk in the Spirit and you won't fall. Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. And when God gave us this salvation by His grace, that same grace began teaching us how to deny ungodliness and how to deny these sinful desires. Don't overlook the word either, okay? When He says here in verse 12, teaching us that denying ungodliness, He doesn't say avoid it. He doesn't say just turn your head and just don't look at it. He says deny it. And there's a big difference. Denying something means you completely reject it. You say no. You stand up and you say no. And it's important that we recognize that and that we are completely rejecting and refusing these things. So we see grace manifested to us in the person of Jesus Christ. Grace is our teacher. Jesus Christ is our teacher and he's teaching us about living this God-centered life in a self-centered world. And he teaches us first, as we've seen in verse 12, what we need to reject. We need to deny ungodliness and deny worldly lusts. Second, he teaches us how we need to react. He goes on to say in verse 12, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, he says, here's what you need to do. We should live soberly, righteously, and godly. Soberly, righteously, and godly. First of all, he says live soberly. This just simply means to have a sound mind. As we live our lives as Christians, we need to have a sound mind. We need to be tempered. We need to be discreet. We need to have restraint in the kind of life that we live. We're to live with a mind under control. We talked about how our mind is the battlefield. We need to have those thoughts that are pleasing God. As we read from Philippians chapter 4, think on these things. It's not always easy, but it is possible as we discipline ourselves to put in God's Word and to put out the selfish things of the world. What we put in, what we take time with, that's what we're going to get in our lives. Romans chapter 12, Verse 3 says, For I say, through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. So he says, first of all, here's what you need to do. Here's how you're going to react. You need to live soberly. Number two, he says, we're to live righteously. Living soberly deals with the believer's relationship with himself and how we deal with things on our own. But living righteously deals with the believer's relationships with others. Someone who is righteous is someone we can use the word honest, someone who is just, someone who is fair, someone who is not one-sided, who is not, for what we've been talking about tonight, who's not selfish. And, you know, living righteously means that you can always be trusted. And many of you know that some of you are, your job or what your profession is in some type of management or leadership, and you understand that this issue of honesty is something that follows you for the rest of your life. And if you have a good reputation, if you have a good name for being an honest, just, and righteous person, that'll follow you. And on the other hand, it's true too. If you have a reputation for being dishonest or if there's been issues, then that will follow you for the rest of your life wherever you go. And so that is so important. He says not only live soberly, he says live righteously. And then 30 says to live godly. Godliness is more than just doing godly things. It's a complete mindset. It's a complete way of life. Godliness is God-centered living. That's what godliness is all about, is God-centered living. And a godly life is that which is devoted to God. and someone who is dependent on God and everything that he does. And it's the complete opposite of a self-centered attitude, which is totally wrapped up with self. In the book of 1 Peter, in chapter one, Peter's writing to Jewish believers who are scattered abroad there due to the first century persecution of Christians. And he's writing to them and encouraging them and giving them some exhortation and things as well. But Peter says in 1 Peter 1, verses 15 and 16, he says, But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy. Now, as believers, there should be a clear distinction between the old life before becoming a Christian and the new life that we have in Christ. And we move, when we come to know the Lord, we move from a self-centered lifestyle to a God-centered lifestyle. Pastor actually on Sunday morning, his message from Ruth alluded to this as he was talking about how sometimes believers kind of have a sad or dejected attitude sometimes because the Bible says that we have to live a holy life. But let's think about this, okay? Let's think about what God's Word's teaching us. Holiness is not isolation, all right? It's not simply just, okay, I'm a believer, I can't do all these things, okay? It's not just separation from certain things. Think about this. Holiness has more to do with the things of God that we put into our lives than it does with the things of the world that we keep out of our lives. Someone who is constantly learning more about God and putting more of the things of God in his life is naturally going to be a holy person. It's just going to work out. That person is going to naturally separate himself from the things of the world because he's putting more of God into his life. Holiness is a God-centered approach to life as opposed to a self-centered approach to life. So first of all, we see that the Lord Jesus Christ, he's teaching us of what we need to reject, denying ungodliness and worldly lust. He's teaching us what we need to react, how we should live. We should live soberly and righteously and godly. And then finally, tonight, he teaches us where we reside. Look at the last part of the verse. Let me just start with the beginning, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust We should live soberly, righteously, and godly. And he says, in this present world. In this present world. We understand everything that we see every day. We understand that certainly there are issues in our world today. But it's God who's placed us here. It is God who's placed us here. has placed us here for a reason. You know, like I said, there's no question that we live in a world where it's not easy to be a Christian. And the modern day philosophy that we mentioned earlier, it seems to dominate our government, it seems to dominate our education and our schools. and our society as a whole. However, we need to understand that while the opposition that we face today and the things that we struggle with dealing with as Christians today, while they may be different, they're not unusual. These things, this opposition is not unusual. God's people have faced extreme opposition in this present world throughout human history. Take Titus, for instance. He was not living in a little house on the prairie place, okay, as he's ministering here in Crete. Look at verse, in chapter 1, look at verses 10 through 12, okay. Just real quick, you can see some of the people that Titus was ministering to. Chapter 1, verse 10, For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not. for filthy lucre's sake. One of themselves, even a prophet of their own said, the Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies, meaning lazy gluttons. This is what they were saying, okay? These people of Crete were a self-centered group of people. And the island was inhabited by mercenary soldiers and traders and pirates who lived for self and self alone. That's the epitome of a self-centered world in which he was ministering. But these were the people that God sent Titus to minister to. Just as in the world in which we live, this is the world that God has placed us in this present world. This is where God would have us. And these people needed faithful, competent spiritual leaders to help ground them in God's truth and to be models of godly living. There are people all around us, people that we see every day, people that we work with, our family members, that need us to live a God-centered life for them. They need us, all right? God is using us. He's placed us in this present world for a reason and God has called us to live in this present world without being conformed to it and the world's philosophy. And then we know that as we read the Old Testament, God placed a number of specific and special guidelines on his people so they would be set apart from everybody else that lived at that time, so they would be unmistakably his. So everybody would know those are God's people because they could tell. Today, in this present world, God's people are still to be set apart to be unmistakably His. And, you know, look at verse 14. We're familiar with this verse. "...who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto Himself a peculiar people zealous of good works." Peculiar doesn't mean odd. It doesn't mean strange. It means that we are God's special possession set apart for God's special purpose. That's who we are in this present world. Jesus told his disciples in Matthew chapter 5, you're the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid, neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. God has put us in this present world to minister and live a God-centered life to the people around us that need to know. To these people who are in Boston who have no sense of who God is and what eternity has in store for those people. I was reading a little story. as I was putting some thoughts together for this message. And there was a story about a sculptor who had this solid piece of stone, and he fashioned with this solid piece of stone a magnificent sculpture of a lion. And it certainly was a sight to behold. And when the sculptor was asked how he had accomplished such a wonderful masterpiece, He replied, it was actually very easy. All I did was chip away everything that did not look like a lion. God's word teaches us how to live a God-centered life in a self-centered world. And what we need to do is to chip away everything in our lives that don't look like Christ. Anything in our lives that doesn't look like God, what His Word says, like the Lord Jesus Christ, chip it away. Chip it away. And God's Word reveals that to us. We won't take the time, but in James chapter one, it talks about looking at God's Word like it's a mirror. God's Word shows us who we really are. And as God reveals to us who we really are, we say, that's not like Christ. That doesn't please God. I need to chip that away. I need to chip that away. we need to see in living this God-centered life in a self-centered world. We see what we need to reject and how we need to live our lives and that we live in this present world. Let's just think for ourselves and we have to answer for ourselves. We've had the lesson from the school of grace And if we were to rate ourselves on a scale of one to 10 where one is self-centered and 10 is God-centered, where do we place ourselves? Where do we place ourselves on that scale? If we're not living a God-centered life, let's ask God to help us chip away everything that doesn't look like Christ. Let's bow for a word of prayer.