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Grace, mercy, and peace
be yours from God our

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Father and from our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ.

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Amen.

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Dear brothers and
sisters in Christ, there

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is a story that my
mom likes to tell about

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how I became a pastor.

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I was only five years
old so I'm not even

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sure if what I envision
in my mind are the

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actual details and
the memories or if they

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were just put there by
my mom who likes to

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tell the story.

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But apparently it goes
something like this.

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We were at the dinner
table of my grandparents

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and my brothers were
there and my sister and

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probably a few extended
family members as well.

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And little five year
old Jeremy, the

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youngest, was
asked to say grace.

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So I did.

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So we all bowed our
heads and we all closed

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our eyes and little
five year old Jeremy,

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he gave the most
earnest, most heartfelt,

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most spiritually intense
prayer you've ever

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heard prayed by a little
boy at the dinner table.

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At least that's what my
mom has always said.

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And what her father
apparently said to

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her was something
along the lines of,

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Mary, if you don't make
that boy a preacher,

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I'm going to come
back and haunt you.

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And apparently
she believed him.

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So she likes to say that
she prayed me into ministry.

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And who knows?

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Maybe she did.

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Prayer is a good thing.

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And in the church that
I serve, we pray a lot.

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Linda leads an online
prayer ministry that

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she spends time
collecting these prayers and

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sending them out even daily.

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And then she pours over
scriptures and devotional

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materials so that she
can accompany those

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prayer requests with
just the right word

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from God to assist
us in our praying.

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Martha has just
gathered an army

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of volunteers at our church.

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So we subsequently
trained and used to help

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launch a ministry of
confidential one-on-one

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prayer that now
follows each and every

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worship service on every
weekend of my church.

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Tony has just spent
days praying beside the

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bedside of his father
who has now died, but

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that he might receive
Jesus before he died.

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Ron likes to pray
around the dinner table

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at night about the
ministry expansion plans

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going on at the
place where I serve.

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Like I said, at the church
where I serve, we pray a lot.

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I bet that's true of all
of your churches too.

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There's a lot of praying
going on in James 5 today.

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Seven times.

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Seven times James
brings up prayer today.

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Apparently, if you're
suffering or cheerful

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or sick, James says
that praying is a good

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thing to do.

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He also says that if
you are sick, you should

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call the elders of the
church and have them

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pray.

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He says that the
prayer of faith is

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going to help the
one who is sick.

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And he says that we
should confess our sins

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to one another and
pray for each other.

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And finally, James
says this, the prayer of

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a righteous person
has great power as it is

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working.

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Sometimes, I don't
really like to admit it,

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especially here in
front of you, sometimes

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I guess I wonder about that.

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Again, I don't like that I
do, but maybe you do too.

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See, I don't know if
you were all prayed into

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the ministry or not,
but I know that you all

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gave up a lot to
pursue this ministry.

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You might have left
careers, occupations,

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and locations
that you truly love.

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You may have
left behind family

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members and
support structures.

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You chose the hard
path of being a theological

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grad student and
you did this so that you

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can pursue a
career in ministry.

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Some of you
chose to work here,

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some of you
chose to teach here.

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You might have
left more money on

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the table elsewhere
to be here.

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It'd be easy to think
that if God is going

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to listen to the prayers
of anyone, well then

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it's going to be us.

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You know, the righteous ones.

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The ones who
have done all of this.

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The ones who have
chosen the hard path.

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The ones that have left
it all behind to follow God.

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And then when things
don't work out like we

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think they should, when
our prayers may even

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seem to fall on deaf
ears, when our transition

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to the seminary hasn't
been altogether smooth,

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when our family
continues to struggle and

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sometimes they express
wishing to pack their

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bags and go back
home, if ever we feel like

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our prayers aren't being
answered, we might

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begin to wonder, why
isn't God listening to me?

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Why is my life
right now so hard?

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Why is my family struggling?

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It doesn't make any sense.

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If God is going to
listen to the prayers

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of anyone, then
it's got to be me.

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It's got to be you.

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You know, the ones
who have done all this.

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The ones who have,
again, chosen that hard path.

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The ones who
have left it all behind.

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You know, the righteous.

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Only thing is,
all this activity

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doesn't make us righteous.

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We're not the righteous
ones, the more deserving

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ones, the closer to God
ones who deserve to

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have our prayers
answered by Him.

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More than all the
other ones, our prayers

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aren't righteous or
effective because of the

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pious activity that consumes
our days or because

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of all the papers and
Bible studies and sermons

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that we write so
very late at night.

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We're not closer to
God than anyone else,

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and we're sure not
righteous on our own.

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You know this.

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It's not how it works.

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We are righteous, of course.

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That's all because of Jesus.

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He is God's gift to us.

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The one who
chose the hard path,

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who did what no
one else could do.

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Listen to how Peter puts it.

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He says, for Christ
suffered for sins.

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Once for sins.

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I'm sorry.

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The righteous for
the unrighteous

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that He might
bring us to God.

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And Paul says, for our
sake, He made Him to

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be sin who knew no sin
so that in Him we might

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become the
righteousness of God.

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You see, it's Jesus.

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Of course it is.

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It's always Jesus.

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Through His death on
the cross for us, for our

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salvation, through His
subsequent resurrection

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by our baptisms and
by our faith in His name,

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this gift of righteousness
has become our own.

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And you see, our
prayers aren't heard

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because of the many
good works we have done

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or because of everything
that we've given up.

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But it's simply because
of what He has done.

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Because He has
done it all for you.

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Because He loves you.

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And you see, now that
you've been loved like this by

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a God like this and traded
in your unrighteousness

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for a righteousness
like this, now you pray.

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You pray like this.

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We pray like this.

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And these prayers that
we now pray in Jesus'

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name, they have great
power as they are working.

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These prayers that
we now pray put

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forth an earnest
spiritual energy.

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It sounds a lot like the
Syrophoenician woman who

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was not ashamed to beg
and humbly knew her place.

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These prayers, they sound a
lot like the man who knocks on

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the door at midnight and will
not take no for an answer.

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They sound like the
persistent widow who keeps

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on crying out day and
night to the unjust judge

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who won't give
her any satisfaction,

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but you listen to
what Jesus says.

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He will see that she
gets justice and at once.

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These prayers,
they sound a lot like

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Elijah who was
a man just like us.

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And he prayed fervently
that it might not rain.

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And for three years
and six months

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it did not rain on the earth.

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And then he prayed
again and the heavens

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gave rain and the
earth bore its fruit.

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So don't stop praying.

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Even when it's hard.

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Even when things don't
seem to be going your way.

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Even when you don't feel
like there's an answer coming.

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Keep on praying
because you have

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been made righteous by Jesus.

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Been made righteous
in God's eyes.

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He the just traded in His

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righteousness,
gave it all to you.

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And because of
Jesus, these prayers

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have great power
as they are working.

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Amen.

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And now may the peace of God
which surpasses all understanding

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guard your hearts and your
minds in Christ to life eternal.

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Amen.

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Please rise and confess
our Christian faith

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today using the words
of the Nicene Creed.