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Psalm 101. I said last week we were going to

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do the whole psalm, and we made it through one

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verse. So I'm not going to say we'll do the whole

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psalm tonight. We won't. But we might finish

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it at some point. Psalm 101. We'll read verse

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1 and verse 2, and then we'll pray. I will sing

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of faithful love and justice. I will sing praise

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to you, Lord. I will pay attention to the way

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of integrity. When will you come to me? I will

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live with a heart of integrity in my house. Let's

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pray. God, we come to you. We thank you for your

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good word. And I pray, dear Lord, that you would

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help us to be men and women of integrity. that

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we would have the same heart as David here, that

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we would seek you, that we would long for you,

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that we would desire to walk for you and not

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walk in the ways of the world. I pray that your

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Holy Spirit would be among us tonight, God. I

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pray that these couple of little verses we look

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at would just, we'd get something from them.

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We'd grow in you. I pray, God, that you would

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hide me behind the cross, dear Lord, that I would

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preach and teach in a way that brings glory and

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honor to you tonight. And I ask these things

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in Jesus' name. Amen. We see that this psalm,

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we talked about it a little bit last week in

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this first verse. This is a praise to the Lord.

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David here is praising God. He's praising God

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for his faithful love, for his justice. We talked

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about what those things meant last week. We won't

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go back into that again. But really when we get

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to verse 2, we begin to see kind of what the

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main theme of Psalm 101 is. And that is integrity.

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What does David say? He says, I will pay attention

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to the way of integrity. He says it again at

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the end of the verse. I will live with a heart

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of integrity in my house. What does it mean to

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be a man or a woman of integrity? Well, integrity

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is doing the right thing. It's doing the right

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thing. But maybe a better definition of integrity

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is doing the right thing when nobody's looking.

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That's really what integrity is because we'll

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all do the right thing when somebody's looking,

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right? Somebody's looking and you know what you're

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supposed to do, you're probably going to do it.

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But what do you do behind closed doors when nobody's

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watching? Say it's your job if you still work

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or maybe in the past. When the boss is there,

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it seems like people work a little harder than

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when he's not there. When the boss is not there,

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people may lollygag, people may take a few more

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breaks, but when the boss comes in, guess what?

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Things change. Everybody sits up straight in

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their chair, and the breaks cut down, and the

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bathroom breaks cut down, and the work increases

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a little bit, right? And that's kind of what

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we are tempted to do, and if we're honest, we've

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probably all done that some in our work. We kind

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of slack. But integrity is doing the right thing

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even when nobody's watching. Now, we can sit

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in this room tonight. We're going to do the right

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thing. Ain't none of us going to say nothing

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off the wall, say nothing crazy. Everything's

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going to be good. We're not going to be looking

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at nothing that's inappropriate on our phones.

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But what are we going to do tonight when we go

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home when nobody's watching? What are we going

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to say? What kind of mouths are going to, I mean,

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words are going to come from our mouth? What

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kind of things are we going to be? Bringing in

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to our body, are our eyes going to see, are our

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ears going to hear? What kind of thoughts are

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going to run through our mind? Oh, we got a good

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attitude here. We smile. Everything's good. How

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you doing, brother? Good to see y 'all. I hope

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you're having a good night. But then, does our

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attitude change when we leave? If we're a man

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or a woman of integrity, we'll be the same when

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nobody's looking as we are when people are looking.

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And that's what David desires to be. He desires

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to be a man of integrity. A man who says, I have

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done the right thing. That should be our desire.

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That when we get to the end of the day every

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day, that we can look back at our day without

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any regrets. That we can know that we've done

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the right thing. That we've done what we're supposed

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to do. And here's some cool thing about it right

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here. When we do what we're supposed to do, we'll

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sleep a lot better at night. Some people have

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trouble sleeping at night. Me too sometimes.

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And sometimes I wonder maybe the reason why I

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have trouble sleeping is maybe because of something

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I've done or hadn't done. Sometimes there's stuff

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going on in our life that's not right and we

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don't have any rest in our soul because we haven't

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been men and women of integrity. But David desires

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to be that here. He's praising the Lord. He says,

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God, I praise your faithful love. I praise your

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justice. God, I rejoice in you. and I desire

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to be a man of integrity for you, Lord, not just

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for me, but for all in my house, so that I'd

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be a man of integrity, and that my wife would

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see that, and that my children would see that,

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and that my friends would see that, and that

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my community would see that, and that his whole

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kingdom that he was king of would see that he

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was a man of integrity. Now, he had the desire

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to be a man of integrity, but sadly, he was not

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always a man of integrity. It'd be great if we

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looked through the pages of Scripture and David

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was what he wanted to be, but he wasn't. There's

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plenty of times where David did not do the right

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thing, and neither do we. We may genuinely have

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that desire to be a man or a woman of integrity,

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but sometimes we fail, and perhaps we need to

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echo David's words here in the middle of verse

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2. When will you come to me? Lord, I need you.

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Lord, when will you come to me? God, I want to

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be a man of integrity. I want to be a woman of

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integrity. God, I need your help to do that.

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And that's our desire and that should be what

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we strive for. But we also know that we fail.

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But praise the Lord, there was a better king

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that was coming. Now David started a kingship

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way back when he was appointed king. And guess

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who was eventually going to come through the

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line of David? It was going to be Jesus Christ,

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the King of kings and the Lord of lords. One

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who could be a man of perfect integrity. So praise

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God. We seek to live for Him. We seek to do what

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is right. And sometimes we fail. And that's not

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an excuse. We shouldn't just say, oh, I failed.

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It's okay, you know. No, we're going to fail,

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but we should never be okay with that. Our sin

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and our failures, they bring about some burden

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on us. But praise the Lord, Jesus Christ can

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take that burden. That even though that we fail,

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Jesus Christ never did. And so we need to seek

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in our life to be men and women of integrity.

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We want to do the right thing. You might have

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had some opportunities today to do the right

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thing and you didn't do it. You're probably going

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to have some opportunities tomorrow to do the

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right thing. Are you going to do it? Are you

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going to do what God wants you to do? Are you

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going to do what's right or are you going to

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slack? Got the opportunity in front of all of

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these people, man and woman of integrity. What

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about when you leave this place? If you just

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do the right thing when people are watching,

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you are not a man or a woman of integrity. You

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are a hypocrite. Jesus talks about this very

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idea at the end of Matthew chapter 24. He talks

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about those who were supposed to be doing the

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master's work, and the master delayed his coming.

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And so instead of being diligent, and when the

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master would find the worker at work, instead

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the worker was out living for himself. And then

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the master comes back, and what's happening?

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The worker... is not being a man of integrity.

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And Jesus says, you are a hypocrite. So what

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about us? Are we doing the Lord's work? The Lord's

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always watching. I don't see what you do. You

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don't see what I do. But the Lord sees what all

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of us do. And we need to remember that. And that

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needs to be what drives us to Do what is right

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in our life. And the choices we make and the

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things we do and the way that we treat people,

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we need to do it with integrity. Let's pray.

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God, we thank you for this simple word, but a

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powerful command it is to us, dear Lord, and

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help us to look at our own life because maybe

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there are some areas in our life where we have

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not been men and women of integrity. Maybe...

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Maybe we are hypocritical in some way, dear Lord.

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Maybe we look good when we come up here, but

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maybe behind closed doors we know our life is

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a wreck and we need to change the way we act,

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change the way we treat others, change the way

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we speak, change the things that we look at,

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change the things that we do. Help us to be those

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who do what is right, dear Lord, that we would

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seek your word to know what is right. Your Holy

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Spirit would lead us, that we would follow those

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convictions of the Holy Spirit, God. We know

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we fail, and we don't want to fail. But I pray

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that you help us to have that desire to do what

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is right. And we pray that you'd give us grace

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when we fail and strengthen us to help us grow

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in those times through Jesus Christ. We thank

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you that he was a man of perfect integrity, and

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so it is him we seek now. And I ask these things

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in Jesus' name. Amen.