Welcome to Bible Believers Fellowship and the ministry of bbfohio.com. I'm Pastor Greg, and I welcome you to our study in Acts chapter 18, verses 7 through 11, titled, Be Not Afraid, But Speak. All right, so we're going to pick up verse 7, Be Not Afraid, But Speak, what we're titled from the text. Paul told the Jews in Corinth that he was through with them. And like, yeah. He said, from henceforth, I will go unto the Gentiles. Now that wasn't to all the Jews everywhere. That was to the Jews in Corinth. We'll see him go back to another synagogue when he goes to the next city. But he went, he's been going to the Jew first and then also to the Greek or the Gentile every time he goes in a city. And one after the other, the majority of Jews and most of the Jewish leadership are rejecting Jesus. But in this case, it's not quite that bad. There's actually some good reports here. But let's go ahead and read through it. Beginning of verse seven, I'll ask you to read the even verses with me. Seven through 11, so I'll begin in verse seven. And he departed thence, and entered into a certain man's house, named Justice, one that worshipped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue. And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house, and many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed, and were baptized. Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace. For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee. For I have much people in this city." And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. Amen? So Paul begins a Gentile outreach after saying he was through with the Jews in the synagogue there in the city of Corinth. So we will be introduced to Justice and Crispus in verses 7 and 8. Then Paul receives a night vision, verses 9 and 10. And then he'll begin what we could call an 18-month mission in verse 11. Now, last week we met a nice couple named Aquila and Priscilla. And someone said that when I referred to the joke about a kid going home and saying they learned about Elvis and Priscilla, that now they couldn't get that out of their head. Well, at least I know they were listening. Amen? Amen. But Justice and Crispus are two men. Last week it was a married couple. But there in verse 7, as I read, it says, and he, talking about Paul, departed thence. and entered into a certain man's house named Justice." Now, we are familiar with that word Justice spelled J-U-S-T-I-C-E, and that's Justice the name, J-U-S-T-U-S, here, and it says, Justice was one that worshiped God. And then it says, whose house joined hard to the synagogue. So, it's interesting that he's the Gentile next door. to the synagogue and we believe that's what this is referring to because the mention that he worshipped God is supposed to be an exceptional statement that as a Gentile justice you wouldn't expect that. But he really, remember we met Cornelius back in chapter 10 and there were Gentiles who worshipped God and most of them actually had some relationship with the local synagogue. wherever it was they lived as they worshiped God. But that means he was, justice was a proselyte is the word for him. That's kind of become a bad word. People will say, well, I don't believe in proselytizing. Well, you're not much of a Christian then. Jesus said, go ye therefore and preach the gospel to every creature. So we're going to preach the gospel and proselytize. They use another word out of, they don't use it correctly, called solicitation. You go into a place and I see a sign, no solicitation. And I walk up and start knocking on doors. And then somebody or the manager will come in and say, there's no solicitation here. I said, well, I'm all for that. What? What are you doing? There's no solicitation. I'm not soliciting. Look it up in the dictionary. I'm giving away gospel tracts and inviting people to church. I'm not soliciting anything. I'm just talking to people about Jesus. That's not solicitation. Solicitation would be, you know, I'm sorry Momo, I'm knocking on the door and driving him crazy. At least he's not barking. But, you know, you walk up to the door and you say, you know, every day 10,000 people drop dead. Would you like some more life insurance? That's solicitation. Or, ooh, your carpet looks like it could use a Kirby. You know, that kind of thing. That's solicitation. What we do isn't solicitation. You know, he's a proselyte. That's not a bad word. And that's great, but then the next verse tells us that the top dog, I use D-A-W-G, that used to be, I don't know if it still is. Recently that was a cool term to use about somebody who is a leader, like you're the dog, you know what I mean? So if that's not in use anymore, I apologize. I am totally out of touch. But the top dog of the Corinthian synagogue got saved. Look at that, verse nine. I'm sorry, verse eight, I got the wrong verse on the thing. And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house. It's really amazing, some of these people you read about, you know, they're Caesar's household. We'll read about people in Caesar's household getting saved. Well, Paul, you know, he was one of the top dogs in the Pharisees when he got saved. And we read where it said other of the Pharisees got saved. Nicodemus, I believe he's saved. What was he, a Pharisee? It doesn't happen a lot. Paul later himself says, not many noble, not many mighty, not many noble. But he didn't say not any. And so it's kind of like you look in Hollywood, you know, very, very few, but there are some believers. You look at it among sports and athletes. There's probably a greater percentage of believers among athletes than are actors. But then you see some, and you hope they're really saved, but maybe they make you wonder, but how many have seen like Alice Cooper? You know, he's made a profession. And he still does some of those shows and everything. But he says it's like being an actor and everything, and that's why he does it. I'll leave that between him and the Lord. I hope he's saved. But I'm thinking Ace Fraley from Kiss is another one that's supposed to have gotten saved. And I'm trying to think of some of the other big names in rock and roll. Yeah, and one of the members of Journey, I mean, I can't remember all their names, but I hope they did. I hope they're saved. But Crispus wasn't alone, by the way. Look at the rest of the verse there, actually verse 8. And many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed and were baptized. Many. So this was evidently mostly Gentiles, but it's great when you hear You know, I've heard about these revivals supposed to be taking place. You know, I'd like to believe they're revivals, but when you hear about it, it really just looks like glorified song fests. They sing, and they sing, and they sing, and then they have a time where people are supposed to go forward crying and carrying on and repenting or whatever. I always feel really strange about the day and age we live, and every one of these so-called revivals, and you never hear of anyone in the LGBTQ community repenting. And some of them, you find out later that they are embracing that. That's not revival, that's the opposite. So these days, I'm very skeptical of these claims of revival going on, but it'd be great to go into a place like Corinth. It'd be great to have a town so touched by a ministry that people just started getting saved. It'd be wonderful. So after a huge day in Corinth, Paul goes to bed, and he has a night vision. We've been talking about the bed of rest for the believers, the bed of damnation for the unbelievers in Isaiah 57. Just to throw this out there, you might be interested if you missed the Isaiah studies, I believe that even in heaven, we won't have to sleep, but I believe we'll all have mansions, and I believe we'll have beds, and I believe if we want to, we can sit down and just relax in the bed. We might even doze off. Not that we'll need sleep, but that's just something food for thought there. But in this life, no matter who you are, you need sleep. You need rest, amen? So even the Apostle Paul, of course we read about Jesus. He slept, he was sleeping through a storm in a boat. Master, while you're sleeping through this storm, we're all gonna die, you know, that kind of thing. Well, this is a little different. It says in verse 9, Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, and he speaks and says, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace. And it's only reasonable to believe that Jesus visited, was visited, I'm sorry, Jesus visited the apostle with this message because Paul was experiencing fear. Why else would Jesus give this vision? We'll come to verse 10 again. He says, for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee, for I have much people in this city. His whole message, there's nothing else there. His whole message is to tell Paul, don't be afraid, speak. Now, sadly, a lot of Christians take the apostle Paul and make him Superman. I mean, they envision Paul with a cape and a pea on his chest. And he wasn't Superman. He was just a man. He was filled with the Spirit. He was mightily used by God. But he was a man just like us. That's why when you read Paul's letters, don't put him on that pedestal. Put him right there next to you and realize he's addressing things that we ourselves are going to go through in life. Now I don't want to raise the hands, but how many of you have ever been afraid to do what you knew was right? I didn't want to raise the hands, but there you go. All right, a little humility there by willing to admit it. My hand had to go up too. There are many times where I have to fight the immediate impulse of fear. And it does no good for preachers, especially, to stand in the pulpit and pretend that we're Mr. I'm Captain Courageous. Never fear. You little peons, it's too bad you can't be like me. And that's how a lot of preachers present themselves. And I've known them. I've seen them in the pulpit and then I've gone out with them and saw how fearful they really were in real life. It's easy to kind of preach to the choir. That's why you go to a lot of churches and they don't really teach the Bible, but they're constantly just preaching sermons where they harp on issues. Why? Because they know it's going to get amens. And they don't preach on the issues that people need to hear, that really hit the ground level where they're living. They preach on this stuff. And certain churches, they all agree women should never wear slacks. So you go to those churches and almost every time they preach, and these women out here wearing their slacks, and they ought to be in dresses, ha, you know, that kind of thing. And then there's some churches, at least up until a few years ago, I don't see it very often anymore, even among fundamental baptists, no makeup on the women. And I like to preach, there's this, if the old barn needs painting, then I'm all for it, paint it. But you ever been, how many of you attended, you don't have to raise your hand again, but have you attended churches like that where you don't really learn the Bible, but they, week to week, there are issues, they'll change the issue, doesn't matter what they read in the Bible, it gets back to those issues. You ought to be in church. Amen. You ought to be giving. Oh, not as many amens, but we get some. You ought to be going to prayer meetings. You ought to be doing this. You ought to be doing that. You do this and that. Issue, issue, issue. And it's things they know they're going to get. Amen, amen, amen. As opposed to not just preaching things you're going to get amens about, but preaching verse by verse and dealing with things. And thank God that's how Jesus deals with us in real issues that matter to us. He shows up to Paul and doesn't just give him some flowery vision. He deals with an issue with Paul, fear. And I think it's an issue all of us, if we're doing the Lord's work, we're gonna have to deal with. Times you have to face your fears. Now, Paul was human, as I said, fear doesn't make you a coward. Only surrendering to fear makes you a coward. I've done many, many things that I was afraid. I had fear. I was telling Brother Brian this morning, there's times where life just was coming down on me so hard. And I called up my dad. I know most of you are aware. He passed away in February. I called up my dad one time back 25 years ago. And I said, Dad, I'm just so beat up. I just don't feel I can go on. And he said, well, Greg, the thing is, you got to. You have to. So just put one foot in front of the other and keep doing that. Don't think about it. Just do it. And so that's stuck with me ever since. I give that same advice over and over to people when they tell me that life's overwhelming them or they're afraid of what's happening. OK, that's fine. There's nothing wrong with having human thoughts and emotions and fears, anger, whatever it is. But you can't control that, really. But you can control your response to it. So when you're facing fear, what do you do? I have news for you. Probably none of you are going to get a visit from Jesus in the middle of the night. But we're told about how Jesus visited Paul because, by the way, Paul didn't have all this in your Bible. If you go to Matthew through Revelation in your Bible, you know, all that wasn't written yet. You have it. I have it. So what do we do? We don't have to wait for night visions. We get into the Word. That's why we teach the word verse by verse here, so that when you go home, you can read it and understand on your own, and God can speak to you, and He can tell you. And there'll be times where, out of the blue, you'll be thinking, oh life, oh this is so bad, this is horrible. But listen, don't expect that to happen if you won't do what you're supposed to do and be reading the book and memorizing scripture, thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee as we sang in that hymn. If you won't do that, don't expect God to miraculously, you know, put that in your head and heart. But if you will hide his word in your heart, you will read the word, you'll be going through something sometime, you had forgotten, you learned it, and the Holy Spirit will bring it to mind. And there's been numerous times where the Lord has brought scripture and the word of God to my mind at a certain point, and I'm like, where'd that come from? And I just thank him for it. Thank you, Lord, for helping me to remember that. Thank you for your word. At this point, it's verbal word of God that Paul's received from Jesus, but it's no different than if you get up in the middle of the night and open your Bible, and you read the word and the Holy Spirit speaks to you. No different. Same author, same author of that book, the same author of speaking to Paul in our text. Paul asked believers to pray that he would have boldness. Now why would he do that if he wasn't having problems with fear? Let's look at Ephesians chapter 6. Turn your Bible over there. Galatians Ephesians 6. We focus on the verses from 10 to 16, 17. The full armor of God. Great passage. Vacation Bible schools based on it. Books, movies, documentaries, sermons. And for sake of time, a lot of times, that's where that study stops. And then the next study picks up, verse 18, we'll say through 20. And he says, after you put on the whole armor of God, he says in verse 18, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, capital S, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. Now look at the first three words of verse 19. What are those? And for me, what does Paul pray for? Read 19 and 20 with me. And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds, that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. Two different times. One in each verse. Asking you to pray, you as in the church, to pray for him that he would have boldness. Boldly, verse 19. Boldly, verse 20. Now I'm not saying that Paul didn't speak boldly. What I'm telling you is, I believe that even though he did speak boldly, it wasn't in his nature. It didn't come easily. but he wanted to do it because he knew it was right, and he knew he couldn't do it in his own power, so he's asking for prayer that the Holy Spirit would be the one to empower and to give him the courage to speak, not by power nor by might, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord. And maybe some of you have been failing. Maybe there's things, not just the gospel, but preaching the gospel is definitely right up there. Or maybe there's people in your life that you let them kind of just walk all over you instead of you taking a stand for what's right. And maybe that's part of it is because you're afraid. That's not a sin unless you give in to it. That's when it becomes sin. No, it's not as bad as murder. It's not as bad as killing somebody. But it's a sin. It's something you need to face. It's something you need to deal with. It's something you need to confess. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And then he can also give you the courage. You'll still possibly feel fear. One time, I was young, and I think I'd only done one funeral. And then I was asked to do a tragic funeral. And the man was not saved. And I was just, I was up all night the night before. And Jesus didn't show up in a night vision. But I did open his word and I kept reading and looking for encouragement and wisdom and guidance. And then it just dawned on me. Preach the word. Be instant, in season, out of season. reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. That's it! I was so worried, but what am I supposed to do? Hey, how many of you have been to funerals where these guys just ramble on and they try to act like they know the person when they didn't, and they all, and I learned real quick, you know, you read the obituary, if the family wants to say something, let them, but I don't get up there and try to act like I know a person when I don't. or that I know them better than I did. I don't try to put them in heaven or hell. That man was lost. I didn't get up there and declare he was lost. But what I did say is I know that you're mourning, you have our condolences. I want you to know we've been praying for you and the family. But the question I have for you today is where are you standing with God? Where are you going when your life is over? And I preach the word. Now I know some of you heard that story a few times. Keep coming, you'll hear it again. But the question is this, what are you doing with it? Are you facing those times where you are fearful? You're afraid you're going to offend somebody. You're going to even ruin a relationship or lose a job or whatever. Now, again, be very careful with that. You're paid to work. You're on the clock. Don't be preaching the gospel and having over calls. You know, boss walks in, you're up there, I see that hand, you know. Yeah, you're fired. But on your breaks and lunch or whatever and you're talking to people. Have courage. First of all, it's not illegal for you to talk about whatever you want to talk about. And especially if they approach you about something and you give them a biblical answer. There's no law against that. You can't really get in trouble. They can try, but then there's recourse. Amen? Appeal to Caesar like Paul did. But I'm just telling you, don't let that fear cripple you and understand that you're normal. Fear is a part of life. Anxiety is a part of life. But you don't have to let it control you. Speak boldly and don't even try to silence me even if you won't speak boldly. That should be your attitude too. Hey, there are other Christians who will never get this and they will always cower. But don't let them try to pull you down. There have been times where I'm preaching, I'm speaking the truth, and someone else tries to get in the way. I'm like, you need to leave. You need to get out of here. This is none of your business. Amen. Sometimes that's where you reprove and rebuke. I can put on a series on that alone. But I want to look at 2 Timothy 4 that I was quoting. 2 Timothy 4 verses 1-8. I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. Read two and three with me. Preach the word, be instant, in season, out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching. How many of you tell, even when those times are you find the courage and you speak up, and then that guy or that gal, he or she, they're quoting other preachers? who were apostates. That's happening more and more. And some of the biggest names, like Andy Stanley, and a couple of the presidents of the Southern Baptist Convention. You wouldn't recognize their names. One guy's named Greer, and others. Total giving in to the left and wokeism, which is Satanism, And then you talk to your friends and loved ones, well, so-and-so said this, so-and-so said that. Listen, if that so-and-so isn't the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, I don't care what so-and-so said. It better be in conformity to God's Word or it's meaningless to me. And then we continue, it says, verse four, this is where we are today, read it with me, four and five. And they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables, but watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. Now you may say, well, I'm not a pastor. Yeah, that's right, not everybody's gonna be the pastor, but all of us are supposed to be preachers. All of us are to preach the gospel. All of us are to declare God's word and God's truth to those when it comes up, when the opportunity is there. And then you can say with Paul in verse 6, for I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. Verse 7, I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. When you come to the end of your life, don't you want to be able to say that? You understand that the guy who wrote that is the same guy who was needing encouragement because he had fear. Same guy. And then you can say with verse eight, read that with me. Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. Amen. That's available to all of us who love his appearing. Now, I don't have time to get into details, but there's a book out called Shepherds for Sale by Megan Basham. It's available in audio. I'm listening to the audio book, but it's available in hard copy. And if you want to know how the evangelical churches and denominations and organizations are being sold out to Sodom and Gomorrah, read that book. It's happening right now. In time apostasy among evangelical Christians. And a lot of people are just spiritually dead and they don't care. And they're watching their denominations go to hell and not lifting a finger, saying a word. And I have to believe it's because they have fear. And we're told not to fear. We're told to speak up. Amen? Now denominations are wicked anyway. I don't believe the Bible teaches denominations. So you're already in trouble when you have a denomination. The Bible says there's local church ministry with the pastor and elders ahead of each local church. We fellowship with all the saints who are biblical Christians. But as far as hierarchies, organizations, headquarters, and all that, that's right out of Rome. That's not out of the Bible. So it's kind of a bad idea to begin with, and it's going to end badly. But if you're going to have it, you know, we pray that if they're going to have them, that they at least stick to the Bible when it comes to biblical doctrine. Now some weeks ago, I had this text thrown at me, and I want to look at that real quick. 2 Peter chapter 2. Sometimes, because you might have this thrown at you, so you'll know what's up. We'll read it. 2 Peter chapter 2, beginning verse 10. Yeah. But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise government. Someone said that because I speak out against the politicians that I'm one of these guys. I'm walking after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness. They didn't actually elaborate on what that meant. And despise government. I do not despise government. I am a constitutionalist, I believe God ordained that constitution for this country, I stand up for it. We were in a previous building before we met here, somebody tried to get us kicked out, said we were an anti-government group. The guy who was on the board, the head of the board, came to me and asked me, he said, you anti-government? I said, well, no. He said, what do you stand on the Constitution? I said, we love the Constitution. We hand them out in pocket size. We want to make sure everybody's got a Constitution, reads it, and knows it. Really? I said, yeah, absolutely. Why? He says, well, so you don't preach that we should overthrow the government? I said, no, I do preach that we should vote for the best people to be the head of that government so that our constitutional rights will be preserved, but I don't preach overthrowing the government. And so I thought so, I figured that was the way it was, and that was the end of that. And then we talked about the Buckeyes. But we're not anti-constitution, we're not anti-government, but we are opposed to those who violate the God-ordained constitution. See? It goes on to say, presumptuous are they, self-willed are they, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. We don't speak evil of dignities. We want them saved, and we respect the office, but we are not afraid to rebuke their evil, wicked policies. And that is biblical. That's not speaking evil of the dignity, it's of their policies. And it goes on to say, whereas angels which are greater in power might bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord. And it goes on to say, but these as natural brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of things that they understand not and shall utterly perish in their own corruption. And I'm not gonna read all the way down through verse 22, but I'm here to tell you that we would love, I've said this, remember I talked about Hillary Clinton. And one time, I can't remember if it was during a Bible study or during prayer time, but I said, we need to pray that Hillary gets saved. And somebody booed. I'm like, no, man, we don't want to see her go to hell. And I'd love, she got saved, and that would mean she would have the Holy Spirit, and she would stop pushing the wicked things she pushes. Then she'd probably be a good candidate. So that's our attitude about it. If it's right, preach it, amen? If it's sin, rebuke it. Amen? Like John the Baptist did. You remember back in Matthew 14, 3-4? He didn't speak evil of the dignity himself. He spoke against the wickedness. For Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him, and put him in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife. For John said unto him, It is not lawful for thee to have her. So you speak against the evil going on, the wickedness going on. Paul received the word of exhortation from Jesus to not fear and to speak the truth. That's our main emphasis as we go into this last verse. And then he began what we could call an 18-month mission. In verse 11. Let's look at that. Back in our text. It's where we're close. Acts 18.11. It says, and he continued there a year and six months. What's he doing? That's it. That was his ministry. We got a sign up on the back wall there. That sign is what we're all about. Simply teaching the Bible simply. This isn't a personality cult. I'm not up here to try to make you Gregites. The Millerites has already been taken. That's what started the Seventh Day Adventists. You'd have to be Gregoryites or something. I don't want you to fall in love with me. Jenny's got that covered, amen? Well, I want you to fall in love with this book. I want you to fall in love with the Savior. And if you love the Savior, you love Him who sent Him. And if you love Him who sent Him, you are going to love that Holy Spirit given to you, dwelling in you, and He then helps you understand the book He gave you. And that's what this is all about. That's what the local church is all about. It is about simply teaching the word of God, simply, which is what? It says here, Paul spent a year and six months, that's what he did in Corinth. Now, Paul was not appreciated by many in the Corinthian church. And when we study 1 Corinthians, we see that, but there's one passage, 2 Corinthians 12, 15. And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you, though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved. I just can tell you, I've experienced that. And I said, no, some of you have too. You pour yourself into somebody, you try to be their friend, you pray for them, you try to help them, and you just love them and love them, They just turn around and be nice about it. They just walk out. Leave you sitting. Sometimes they treat you really bad and then do that. It is. I mean, I love all the folks here and there's people who have been listening online for years, but there are more people that I have tried to help and tried to be a brother and friend to that have just So don't feel like you're alone if that's happened to you. Don't be surprised when it happens to you. And this last day's generation are gonna be more and more thankless, unthankful, unholy, you heard those words before? So let's close just asking this question. Will you faithfully serve the Lord even if those you minister to don't appreciate you? You just keep on, keep on. You know what? If you're doing it for the right reason, then you understand you're doing it for the Lord. You're doing it because you love Him. You're doing it because He's told you this is what you're to do. And you do love people, and you do want to help them. But even when they just spit on you, you keep doing it because the first priority is serving the Lord. The first priority is pleasing the Lord. And the first priority is showing your love for the Lord. And then if the second priority, loving that person and that person doesn't appreciate it or whatever, then you move on. There's other people out there who might just appreciate your love, might just appreciate what you do for them. Be faithful, be bold, and be willing to follow Jesus no matter the cost. It's what we're seeing out of Paul, and we're gonna continue to see out of Paul as we continue in the book of Acts. And that's what we saw out of Jesus Christ. The fact that He endured three and a half years of mankind only to end it by being beaten, spat upon, nailed to a cross, mocked and vilified so that He could save us from our sins. It's only reasonable, as Paul says in Romans 12, 1 and 2, that we present our bodies a living sacrifice. Father, we thank you, Lord, for what we've learned today, and we thank you for this book. We pray that everyone here will be committed to learning this book, reading it, studying it verse by verse, hiding your word in our hearts that we might not sin against you, and that the Holy Spirit, using your word, will speak to us daily and guide us, help us along the way so that we might please you. But in pleasing you, we find you to be so loving and gracious and merciful in longsuffering. Help us to enjoy our salvation and our relationship with our wonderful Savior. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Sing all three verses and then we'll repeat verse one as the final verse. a a a a a Don't tear me back. Though no one join me, still I will fight. Though no one join me, still I will follow Though no one join me, still I will follow No turning back, no turning back The world behind me, the cross before me The world behind me, the cross before me The world behind me, the cross before me No turning back I have decided to follow Jesus I have decided to follow Jesus I have decided to follow Jesus No turning back. No turning back. God's people say amen. Amen.