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For His glory and for our good, 
let's hear the word of the Lord 

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this morning. 
Christ is the image of the 

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invisible God, the first born of
all creation. 

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For by Him all things were 
created in heaven and on earth, 

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visible and invisible, whether 
Thrones or dominions or rollers 

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or authorities, all things were 
created through Him and for Him.

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And He is before all things, and
He is in Him. 

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All things hold together and He 
is the bot, the head of the 

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body, the church. 
He is the beginning, the first 

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born from the dead, that in 
everything he might be 

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preeminent. 
And then from Matthew Jesus 

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said, seek first the Kingdom of 
God and his righteousness, and 

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all these things will be added 
to you. 

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Paul in Galatians chapter 2. 
I have been crucified with 

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Christ. 
It is no longer I who live, but 

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Christ who lives in me and the 
life I now live in the flesh. 

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I live by faith in the Son of 
God who loved me and gave 

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himself for me. 
This is the word of the Lord. 

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Thanks be to God. 
The grass Withers and the 

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flowers say, but our word of our
Lord stands forever. 

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Amen. 
Please be seated. 

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There are few things as annoying
as a truly full blown 

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self-centered person. 
Most of you know somebody like 

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this, somebody whose world 
revolves around them and they 

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think that the world revolves 
around them, that every 

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conversation they have is all 
about them, that every we 

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thought that they think tends to
be about them. 

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They're just incredibly 
self-centered in all that they 

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tend to think about, and it 
shows in everything that they 

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do. 
And most of us are really 

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annoyed by that, with good 
reason, because where does that 

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leave us? 
If they have a world centered 

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around them, what does that mean
for everybody else? 

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They truly full blown 
self-centered person can be 

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incredibly annoying. 
I should stop for a second and 

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make a note here that at 240 
yesterday afternoon around 2:40,

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a group of your leaders here, 
the elders and some of the staff

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gathered together with the 
representatives from the 

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denomination, the Evangelical 
Presbyterian Church, and dotted 

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our last I and crossed our last 
T. 

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We are now formally part the 
EPC. 

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Now that's worth a whoop or two 
as part of that move. 

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As part of that move, what we 
want to do is try to go back a 

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little bit and reassert what it 
is that we believe. 

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Who are we as a church? 
We want to do that for two 

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reasons. 
One, we want to remind ourselves

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this is who we are. 
And two, we want to also express

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what we aspire to be. 
So as we talked about, hey, this

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is who we are. 
We know that we're only 

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capturing a picture of the 
reality. 

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We we are these things to some 
extent by God's grace, but we 

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also know that by the Scriptures
push we need to be these things 

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even more and more. 
And so I've come up with a quick

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little description here about 
what Hebron is Hebron in what we

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aspire to be. 
Hebron Church is a biblically 

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based, Christ centered community
of disciples, A reformed 

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classically evangelical church 
in the Presbyterian tradition, 

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worshipping, growing and serving
Christ in the East Hills of 

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Pittsburgh. 
Now my goal is to try to go over

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each one of these 
characteristics over the next 

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couple of weeks together, 
pointing out where it is that I 

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think that Heaven Church's 
satisfactory presently fulfills 

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this, but also to put forward to
us kind of a challenge that hey,

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we don't ever want to lose sight
of these goals. 

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We don't want to lose sight of 
these descriptors that kind of 

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describe who we are. 
And many of them are kind of 

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self-evident. 
For instance, last week we 

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looked at what it means that we 
are biblically based, and we 

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described how that is both in 
the present expression of Hebron

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Church and what we want Hebron 
Church to be. 

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And in part, what I trust is 
most people's connection. 

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A lot of you are biblically 
based, and yet all of us want to

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aspire to be biblically based. 
Today we're going to take a look

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at that second descriptor. 
They're Christ centered. 

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What does it mean to be Christ 
centered? 

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And I need to do a here like I 
did last week as well. 

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And to acknowledge that it'd be 
really hard, I think, to find a 

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Christian Church that wouldn't 
somewhere along the lines 

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acknowledge Christ as the center
of what they're doing. 

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Be to be Christ centered is not 
unique to Heber and it is 

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something that I think a lot of 
people identify with. 

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But I want to use the term kind 
of specifically and want to use 

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that illustration of a 
self-centered person kind of as 

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a corollary or kind of as a 
contrast to what we mean by 

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being Christ centered or a 
Christ centered church. 

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To be a self-centered person. 
Part of the reason why that's so

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annoying is because it manifests
itself. 

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It shows itself on the outside 
all the time. 

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The person's always talking 
about themselves. 

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They only think about themselves
every. 

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The world revolves around them 
and they show it to the outside 

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because let's face it, the force
of sin drives each and every 

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person in this room to be 
incredibly self-serving 

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self-centered. 
We all tend to be self-centered,

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but hopefully, by God's grace, 
we're all not that annoyingly 

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self-centered because we tamp it
down, we push it down, we hide 

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it a little bit. 
That's what we do with our self 

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centeredness. 
That is what I fear a lot of 

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churches might do with their 
Christ centeredness and by a lot

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of churches. 
What I'm scared about is Hebron 

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Church. 
It's easy to say, hey, Hebron 

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Church is a Christ centered 
church, but it's a challenge to 

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make sure that we're not tamping
that down, that that's not 

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drifting into the background, 
that that isn't just a vague 

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spirituality that kind of 
describes Heaven church. 

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Well, Heaven church is Christ 
centered. 

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Of course it is. 
No, I want it to be manifest. 

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I want it to show itself just 
like that self-centered 

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individual shows itself, 
manifests that characteristic in

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a bad way. 
So I want this self Christ 

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centered. 
Sorry, I want this Christ 

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centered character of Hebron 
Church to show itself to 

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manifest, to be on the outside 
all the time. 

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Now what do I mean by Christ 
centered? 

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I mean that the controlling 
focus and the driving force of 

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everything we do is Jesus 
Christ. 

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The controlling focus and the 
driving force of everything we 

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do is Jesus Christ. 
Picture this a little bit for 

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you. 
So let's take it on an 

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individual level. 
Let's put it on an individual 

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level for a second. 
Imagine your life, your life is 

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a big bubble. 
OK, imagine a big bubble that's 

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that's representative of your 
life as a whole. 

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So imagine a big bubble around 
me right now. 

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And inside that bubble are a 
bunch of balls. 

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And the individual balls are all
represent something very crucial

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in your life, something very 
important. 

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And maybe the size of the ball 
represents how important that 

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thing is to you. 
And so you've got a ball in 

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there for your job, your that's 
a big ball and your family and 

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that's a huge ball. 
You enjoy reading certain 

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things, that's a smaller ball. 
Your finances, that's a ball 

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that's in the church, your 
friendships, that's a smaller 

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ball. 
Your church is a larger ball. 

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You've got all these different 
balls inside this big bubble 

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that represents your life. 
What you put at the center of 

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the of the bubble controls 
everything else, handles all the

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rest of those balls and most of 
us try to stick ourselves in the

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center of that bubble. 
We're in the center of that 

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bubble and we're juggling all 
these different balls. 

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I have a real small talented 
juggling. 

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It's a small talents, but I 
can't keep 3 balls up in the air

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a little bit. 
At least I used to. 

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So I was planning on using this 
as an illustration. 

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I thought, oh, I could get up 
there and have juggle the balls 

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and stuff like that. 
So I asked Kelly yesterday, get 

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me three things that I could 
juggle and she get me three 

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things and Wham, they all went 
on the floor right away. 

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So hence I'm not going to 
juggle. 

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But the idea is that in the in 
this sphere, this bubble, the 

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thing in the center is holding 
everything up, keeping 

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everything else juggled in your 
life. 

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And So what we do is we 
recognize early on in our lives,

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if we have any sense of 
self-awareness, that sticking 

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ourselves in the center of that 
bubble is a bad choice, is a 

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failure. 
Now, the drive of sin, the push 

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of our own selfishness is to 
place ourselves in the center. 

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I know it true. 
I feel it every day. 

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I feel it every minute to make 
myself the center of my life, 

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the center of my world. 
But I wasn't created to be in 

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the center of my life. 
The center of my life is not set

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apart for me, nor is it set 
apart for my family. 

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Well, my family is incredibly 
important to me. 

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My wife is glorious in my life. 
All these things. 

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I love my kids most of the time.
I have this great appreciation 

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for my family. 
But to stick my family in the 

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center of that bubble is to 
collapse. 

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The bubble is to have that 
bubble shatter and break. 

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I love my church. 
I love my job, but to put either

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of those in the center is to 
invite the bubble to shatter and

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to break because they weren't 
created to carry that weight. 

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They weren't created to be in 
the center. 

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What goes in the center of my 
life, the core thing, the 

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driving focus and the driving 
force is Jesus Christ. 

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The controlling focus, the 
driving force is Jesus Christ. 

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He's in the center and by doing 
so he keeps. 

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Now translate that out then to 
our church. 

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What does it mean that we are a 
church that is a Christ centered

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church? 
We have a growing youth ministry

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and it's wonderful to see it 
growing and, and, and developing

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and the excitement that there is
with that kind of thing. 

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But if we're a youth ministry 
centered church, that bubble is 

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bound to collapse. 
We have a fabulous worship team.

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Don't we have a fabulous worship
team? 

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We have a fabulous worship team,
but if is it crucial as our 

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worship, is it crucial as they 
are in guiding us and leading us

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every day into God's presence? 
That can't be the center focus 

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of our bubble. 
If it is, our bubble will surely

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collapse. 
We do great global missions. 

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Jerry was talking about that 
earlier. 

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We have wonderful local missions
all over the place. 

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We do wonderful things with our 
70s and over 70s group. 

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We have a good fellowship time. 
We have growth groups and Bible 

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studies that help lead us into 
the church, into God's presence.

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All of these things are fabulous
and wonderful. 

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But if any of those things 
become the center focus of the 

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bubble, the bubble is bound to 
collapse. 

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It is bound to shatter. 
Now, why do you mention this? 

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The concern is that there are so
many wonderful things out there,

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there are so many wonderful 
opportunities out there, and 

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that the church is tempted to 
consistently slide into doing 

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this. 
OK, we don't want to be 

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self-centered. 
We want to be other centered. 

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We want, you know, that's a 
mantra that is recognizable in 

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this world. 
We don't want to be 

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self-centered. 
We want to be other centered. 

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We want to focus our lives out 
towards the other people, 

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etcetera, etcetera. 
And how easy it would be to 

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become a church that is other 
centered. 

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Goodness me. 
Don't we want to be focused on 

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other people? 
Of course we do. 

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Don't we want to pour our hearts
and lives in the ministry, the 

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love of God that He is blessed 
with us into other people's 

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lives and into the relationships
we have with other people? 

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Of course we do. 
Any sense that that is not a 

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mark of heaven, church is to our
shame and detriment. 

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But we can't be other centered. 
That's not what the church is 

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built to be. 
The church is built to be Christ

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centered and Christ centered 
alone. 

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Now you can pick this up a 
little bit in the text in which 

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we read the text that point to 
the source of all that we have 

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is Jesus Christ. 
The motivation that all we have 

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is Jesus Christ and the hope 
that we have is Jesus Christ. 

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The source of a Christ centered 
church is going to be Jesus 

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Christ. 
The motivation of a Christ 

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centered church is going to be 
Jesus Christ, and the hope of a 

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Christ centered church is going 
to be Jesus Christ. 

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You can see this if you have 
your text available in 

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Colossians chapter one. 
This is when I read it. 

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I hope you captured some of the 
majesty. 

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I stumbled through the reading a
little bit, but in in light of 

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that, I hope that you still 
captured the majesty. 

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This is one of those great 
passages about Jesus. 

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This is one that really 
highlights who He is. 

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Jesus is the image of the 
invisible God, the first born of

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all creation. 
For by Him all things were 

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created in heaven and on earth, 
invisible and invisible. 

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Whether Thrones or dominions, 
rollers and authorities, all 

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things were created through Him 
and for Him. 

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He is before all things and in 
all things hold together. 

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He is the head of the body, the 
church, the beginning, the first

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born of the dead, that in 
everything he might be 

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preeminent. 
Do you hear that? 

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That's the passage that should 
ring that that should capture 

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every thought in our every sense
of our imagination, every goal, 

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every pursuit in which heaven 
church is made-up of. 

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That should capture your heart 
and your desire as an 

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individual. 
What do we want? 

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We want Jesus Christ to be 
preeminent. 

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We want him to be lifted high. 
We want His Majesty and His 

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sovereignty and His supremacy 
held up before the whole world 

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and in front of our whole lives.
We want everything in our lives 

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to be shaped this way. 
How so? 

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This text highlights that He's 
before all things. 

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He's in all things. 
He. 

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All things exist through him. 
All things exist by Him. 

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He's a source of every aspect of
what it means for us to have a 

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Christ centered life. 
Now it'd be easy for us to sit 

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there and say this, OK, why do 
we have such a good worship 

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team? 
Well, because we have a great 

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bass player. 
That's why we have a great 

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worship team. 
Why do we have why are we so 

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fabulous at the Bible studies 
and youth ministry work? 

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Because we've got great 
volunteers that lead things. 

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Why is it that our, our local 
ministry work is so good? 

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What Look at our facilities. 
Think about what God has given 

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to us in the facilities in which
we operate in. 

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You have no idea the money and 
the manpower that the trustees 

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pour into in order to maintain 
this. 

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It'd be easy for us to identify 
all those things and every one 

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of those steps would be wrong 
because we'd be tempted to put 

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in the center the work of the 
trustees or our budget that it 

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enables us to financially do 
this most of the time. 

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If you haven't, by the way, kept
track of our finances in the E 

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newsletter, you should do that. 
You you should know where we're 

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at. 
And so and, and since the Lord's

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prodding to assist us in the 
ministries in which we do it, 

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it'd be easy to get distracted 
from the center core of who we 

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are and to be to place anything 
else in the center of of the 

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church's work in Jesus Christ 
and to identify the power and 

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the effectiveness. 
You know what if Jerry wasn't 

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all that Jerry was, so many 
things wouldn't happen around 

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the church if Dan didn't do what
Dan did, if we didn't have the 

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staff of all. 
That's true. 

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But all of that risks missing 
the source of what makes Hebron,

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Hebron, which is Jesus Christ 
and him alone the source of a 

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Christ centered church. 
Is Jesus Christ the motivation 

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of a Christ centered church, 
Matthew and Jesus. 

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Jesus says these things. 
Seek first the Kingdom of God 

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and his righteousness and all 
these things will be added to 

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you. 
What about all those other balls

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in the center of my bubble that 
are so important to me, that are

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so crucial to me? 
I don't want a single one of 

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them to drop. 
What about all the balls in our 

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church? 
We don't want a single one of 

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them to drop. 
We don't want the elderly in our

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church to feel uncared for. 
We don't want the babies in our 

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church not to have an effective 
nursery. 

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We don't want the youth ministry
or the adults, or we don't. 

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We want everything that we want 
all those balls to stay in the 

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air. 
How do they happen? 

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Only by keeping our motivation 
correct. 

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Do you get some of you who are 
older might remember the comic 

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strip Calvin and Hobbes? 
If you don't remember the comic,

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Sir Calvin and Hawes find it. 
It's fabulous. 

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But Calvin is a little boy and 
he has a vivid imagination, and 

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he imagines that this cardboard 
box is a transmorgifier, and a 

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transmorgifier is a machine that
turns them into whatever he 

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wants, and it turns them into an
alien or it turns them into a 

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dinosaur or robot or whatever 
like that. 

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I wish that we had a 
transmorgifier and the trans 

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morgifire would be every time 
anything happens in this church 

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where we ask the question, well,
what should we do about this or 

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how do we feel about this or how
do we think about this? 

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We push it through the trans 
morgifire and we come out with, 

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what do Christ do about this? 
What does Christ think about 

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this? 
What does Christ feel about 

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this? 
Now the crazy thing is that we 

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do have a trans morgifire and 
he's the Holy Spirit because 

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he's working that way in every 
individual Christian's life. 

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By God's grace, he's working 
that way in our church as well, 

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so that we have that motivation,
the motivation that focuses on 

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Christ as a center. 
Christ is the center by 

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recognizing he's the source of 
all things. 

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He's the motivation of all 
things, and He's the hope of all

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things. 
Listen to how Paul writes in 

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Galatians chapter 2. 
I have been crucified with 

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Christ. 
It is no longer I who live, but 

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Christ who lives in me. 
All right, now let's be in awe 

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of that passage in such a way 
that we don't take it silly. 

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Paul's alive. 
Paul is alive, but what he's 

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saying is that his hope, his 
expectations, his desires, 

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everything about him, the center
of his world, the center of his 

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bubble is so clearly the 
crucified Jesus Christ in his 

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grace, in his love, in his 
sacrifice, in His Holiness, in 

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his righteousness, that the 
center of Paul's life is so 

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completely and totally Jesus 
Christ that when you look at hit

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the bubble, the ball that is 
Paul himself is small and 

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disappearing so that the Lord 
Jesus Christ can reign in the 

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center of his bubble more and 
more completely. 

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That's what we need for heaven 
church. 

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Heaven church desires not just 
to be all of these things, but 

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to fulfill all these things. 
We need the finances to be able 

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to be faithful to the ministry 
God's called us to, but our hope

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is not. 
My hope is not in that you will 

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open your wallets, but go ahead 
and do so. 

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My hope is not that you will 
volunteer for the for the 

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ministries, but please go and do
so. 

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My hope is not that you will 
catch a global vision of the 

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Jesus Christ and that every 
single day you'll be driven to 

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your knees to pray for the 
church that is suffering 

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throughout the world, but please
do so. 

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My hope and prayer is for Jesus 
Christ to be the center of 

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Hebron Church and everything 
that happens here so that you 

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will automatically and always be
driven exactly to that kind of a

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state place where all the balls 
within the sphere of Hebron 

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Church are in order and 
functional as the center of the 

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church balances and juggles them
all. 

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So what does it mean for us to 
be a Christ centered church? 

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Well, one thing it means is that
don't ever take Jesus Christ for

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granted. 
Now, I say that to you guys, but

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I'm saying that as a challenge 
for you, for the leadership of 

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this church, if you ever hear 
us. 

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If you ever hear me talking 
about things where it's not 

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clear that it arises from the 
centrality of Jesus Christ, 

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you've got to call me on it. 
I guarantee you it's not because

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I've forgotten Jesus or I no 
longer love him. 

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But what happens is that I'll 
take him for granted. 

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This church could take him for 
granted because he's been such, 

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so good to us. 
He has blessed us in so many 

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ways. 
It would be easy to take him for

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granted. 
Please don't let us do that. 

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Please don't ever let ever let 
Jesus Christ become a means to 

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an end. 
Well, we need a great strong 

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youth ministry. 
Therefore, we're going to hang 

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on to Jesus Christ. 
No, we hang on to Jesus Christ 

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because he's the center. 
Now, out of that, we trust that 

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he will bring us as the source, 
as a motivation, as a hope. 

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He will bring us a strong youth 
ministry of vibrant 70s ministry

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and effective local outreach and
wonderful facilities that we 

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have going on. 
The good effective staff. 

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We trust all those things 
because we trust in the 

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centrality of Jesus Christ. 
But if heaven is going to be a 

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Christ centered church, I need 
you to be a Christ centered 

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follower. 
You need me to be a Christ 

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centered follower, which means 
not in just some vague, distant 

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behind the scenes implicit way, 
but incredibly explicitly in 

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your life. 
Why do you know that a 

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self-centered person is 
self-centered? 

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Because they show it all the 
time. 

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What do I need from you? 
What do you need from me? 

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You need me to be showing you 
all the time that Jesus Christ 

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is the center of my life. 
I need to see from you all the 

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time that Jesus Christ is the 
center of your life. 

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How does that happen? 
By our embracing Jesus Christ as

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the source of all we have and 
all we do. 

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By making sure that Jesus Christ
is the motivation for all we 

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00:22:09,160 --> 00:22:14,520
have and for all we do, and that
Jesus Christ is the hope that we

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hold onto for all we have and 
then for all we do. 

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And if there's anybody here that
tries to live that way and 

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consistently bumps up against 
their own inability because of 

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00:22:27,040 --> 00:22:31,080
our sinfulness, because of our 
self centeredness, because of 

403
00:22:31,080 --> 00:22:36,400
our struggles, let me encourage 
you that we have an advocate on 

404
00:22:36,400 --> 00:22:42,160
our side who is wanting to work 
that very life in your heart, 

405
00:22:43,120 --> 00:22:46,600
placing Jesus Christ on the 
throne, and that's Christ 

406
00:22:46,600 --> 00:22:49,120
himself, our Lord. 
Let's go to him in prayer. 

407
00:22:51,320 --> 00:22:54,080
Jesus, we are thankful for the 
blessings that you pour out into

408
00:22:54,080 --> 00:22:57,360
our hearts. 
We are thankful that you are 

409
00:22:57,360 --> 00:23:00,840
indeed the center of everything 
that happens here at Hebron. 

410
00:23:00,960 --> 00:23:03,800
We know that to be true, Lord. 
We want to manifest that more 

411
00:23:03,800 --> 00:23:05,920
clearly. 
We want to make that evident to 

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00:23:05,920 --> 00:23:09,680
everybody who sees that 
recognizes that we know that you

413
00:23:09,680 --> 00:23:12,400
are the source of all things, 
that you are the motivation for 

414
00:23:12,400 --> 00:23:14,960
all things, that you are the 
hope of all things. 

415
00:23:15,200 --> 00:23:18,840
Lord, we want that for every 
aspect of Hebron Church, and we 

416
00:23:18,840 --> 00:23:22,160
want that for every individual 
associated with Heaven Church. 

417
00:23:22,680 --> 00:23:26,040
And Lord, we are unable to do 
that on our own. 

418
00:23:26,560 --> 00:23:31,280
And so, as always, going all the
way back to our salvation 

419
00:23:31,280 --> 00:23:35,520
itself, we place ourselves in 
your hands, trusting in the work

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00:23:35,520 --> 00:23:38,720
that only you can do. 
Make it so through our lives, We

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00:23:38,720 --> 00:23:41,360
pray in Jesus Christ. 
We ask, Amen. 

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00:23:42,240 --> 00:23:45,240
My friends, if you would stand 
together with me and affirm that

423
00:23:45,240 --> 00:23:53,000
which we believe. 
Let me ask you, why is the Son 

424
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of God called Jesus, meaning 
Savior? 

425
00:23:56,960 --> 00:23:58,920
Because he saves us from our 
sins. 

426
00:23:59,920 --> 00:24:04,920
Because salvation is not to be 
sought or found in anyone else. 

427
00:24:05,400 --> 00:24:08,240
Christ alone is sufficient for 
salvation. 

428
00:24:08,800 --> 00:24:14,520
Why do we call him our Lord? 
Because not with gold or silver,

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00:24:15,040 --> 00:24:19,480
but with His precious blood, He 
has delivered and purchased our 

430
00:24:19,640 --> 00:24:25,040
body and soul from sin, and from
the tyranny of the devil to be 

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00:24:25,040 --> 00:24:26,160
his very own.