Until I die, I'm going to treat everybody right. I'm going to treat everybody right. I'm going to treat everybody right until I die. I'm going to stay on the battlefield. I'm going to stay on the battlefield. I'm going to stay on the battlefield until I die. until I die. I'm going to stay on the battlefield. I'm going to stay on the battlefield. I'm going to stay on the battlefield until I die. I will trust in the Lord. I will trust in the Lord. I will trust in the Lord until I die. until I die I will trust in the Lord I will trust in the Lord I will trust in the Lord until I die I'm gonna trust in the Lord. I tell you what, it is so good to be in the house of God this morning. I tell you what church, I have looked forward to be here this morning from the moment that I was scheduled to preach here. And I just, you know, I was just so anxious and I just, I love when God gives me a moment to get to preach the word of God. And I hope you guys feel the same. I hope y'all, you know, I hope you guys don't take this for granted. Listen, I'm hearing kids crying, my baby's crying, and I'm thinking, what a blessing it is to be in a church like this, full of kids, full of people. Do not take that for granted, church. Please promise me that you do not take that for granted this morning. I wanna tell y'all, I have been on a journey lately. My life have just taken different direction, and I just, I'm gonna be honest with you guys, this path that God had got me on, boy, I'm scared to death. But when I was thinking about this, this path that the Lord had me on, I was thinking about, you know what, I have an option. And Brother Justin was preaching on this last Sunday, and I'm going to be honest with you, Brother Justin, I don't remember what verse you preached out of or what book it was. But there was one thing that he said that stood out to me. He said, when the Lord calls you to do something, he said, you have two options. He said, you either accept the call and you be obedient and you will be closer to God. Your relationship with God will grow stronger. But if you are disobedient and you do not do what the Lord tells you, then you're choosing the other path. And that's going to get you, then you're going to put yourself in a position where you're going to go away from God. And I'll tell you what, that just hit me like a brick, because let me tell you something, church, you know, the path that God wants me on, sometimes, I'm gonna be honest with you, I just wanna run the different direction. I wanna go the opposite of what God wants me to go. And I was thinking about this, about a man in the Old Testament by the name of Jonah. So if you have your Bible, go to the book of Jonah. We're gonna look at chapter one, And I'm not going to keep you here long this morning. I promise. I know you guys are tired. I see in your eyes. You're thinking, oh, Lord, it's been the first week of school. We've had football practice, football game. Oh, my Lord, I'm tired. But guess what? I'm not going to keep you long this morning. I promise. I'm not going to keep you long. But I just want to preach what the Lord has put on my heart this morning. And the title of my little sermon I have is called, It's Running in the Wrong Direction. And the reason why I believe that Jonah came to my mind, because church, we are just like Jonah. We have struggled just like Jonah has struggled. When God tells us to do something, we want to do the opposite. When God tells us he needed us to do something, we are disobedient. And let me tell you something, church, as Christian, we are all disobedient. like that. We all go through the same journey that Jonah went through in his Bible. Like I said, I truly believe, church, that every single one of us is called to do something. believe that. You might think, well I ain't called to preach. That's fine, you might not be called to preach, but God might want you to reach out to somebody. God might want you to go help somebody. God might want you to pray for somebody. But so many times we say, here I am Lord, please send somebody else. We do that all the time. We always say, you know what, I'm not comfortable doing this. And then the story about Jonah, chapter one, verse one. And before I read this story, you know, this story is one of the most popular story in the Bible. And this story has caused, and to be honest with you, the story of Jonah, it kind of caused a lot of mess. I have talked to people that are atheists, and I'm asking them about Jesus Christ, and I'm telling them about Jesus Christ, and the only thing they get sucked on is this. They go, was it a big fish or a whale? And I go, are you serious right now? You're more concerned about if it's a fish or a whale? Are you really that serious about it? I mean, there's so much more than the fish or whatever it is. The Bible says the fish, but if you go to Matthew chapter, listen, I want to read this real quick. Matthew chapter 12. I want to read this real quick, because this might answer some of your questions. Like I said, so many people get stuck on if it's a big fish or a whale. Well, guess what? Look what Jesus said. In Matthew chapter 12, verse 40, Jesus said, Let me get there real quick. Verse 40 says, For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The man of Nineveh shall raise in judgment with this generation and shall condemn it, because they repent at the preaching of Jonah. And behold, a greater than Jonah is here. Listen, church, if you're here this morning and you can't believe this, you can't believe the story of Jonah, you can't wrap your head around that Jonah was swallowed by a whale, but guess what? You can't wrap your head around that Jesus died on the cross for you. You can't wrap your head around that he was buried and he was dead for three days and he was redirection. Listen, church, if you believe this, You have to believe this story about Jonah and about this fish. But like I said, don't get distracted about the fish. There's something more than that, church. This book of Jonah, it's about his struggle. It's about his disobedience. It's about his prayer. It's about his second chance. Church, we all, I am so thankful for that second chance that Jesus gave me. I'm so thankful, church. And some of you might be here this morning thinking, you know what, Asa, I need a second chance. What are you waiting on? Jesus has given you that opportunity. You might be thinking, well, Asa, I don't need a second chance. Well, guess what? You might have a bad week this week. Remember that Jesus, that our Heavenly Father has given us a second chance through the blood of Jesus Christ. And I am so thankful for that. But look at Jonah 1. Now the word, Jonah 1, verse 1, now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah, the son of Amitiah, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, cry against it for their weakness. It's come up before me. So let's stop right there. What I love about this story, I love that in verse one, it said the word of the Lord came unto Jonah. And let me tell you something, the reason why I love that because, you know, there's not much detail. We don't know if the Lord came to him in a vision, into a dream, into his heart. But guess what, church? God spoke clearly to Jonah. He doesn't say that Jonah was struggling to hear him. He was speaking Clearly to Jonah and I what I want to say is this is that God is speaking Clearly to you this morning. He's speaking clearly and some of you guys might be like well I don't know if it's God or Satan and the reason why I say that because when I was you know, uh You know when I was you know, not living the will of God I could just I could clearly hear the Lord talking to me And sometimes I was saying, well, maybe that's the devil talking to me. And now that I look back, I'm thinking, how stupid can I be? You think the devil wants me to do good for the Lord? No, he doesn't want me to do good for the Lord. Listen, when God speaks, it is clearly, we know that God is speaking to us, but the problem is we get so distracted. We have the world in front of us, and we do not put the Lord in front of us, church. If you want to hear God, let me tell you something, you have got to get rid of all the things that are distracting you. Get rid of your cell phone, get rid of the TV, get rid of Facebook and all the social media if that's what it is distracting you this morning, church. God is speaking to you, and when He speaks, I promise you, you will hear it. I promise you, you will know who it is. And let me tell you something, Church, we have got to stop. Listen, us Christian, we just, we just mope all the time. We always, we just want to feel sorry for ourselves. Church, we have got to stop acting like little babies. Why? Because God, has us. God loves us. God cares for us. God wants what's best for us. We have got to stop walking around and thinking, oh, my life is pitiful. You really think your life is pitiful? Pitiful? God has given you everything. He has given you a roof over your head. He's given you the car. He's given you clothes. He gave you the ability to go to work and provide for your family. Yes, it's hard. You know, being a Christian in this world is not gonna be easy, church. We just mope around, oh my, my Lord, oh my Lord. We gotta stop it, church. And we need to remember that we need to, we need to jump and we need to be rejoiced, we need to be joyful, we need to be singing God's praise because of what he's done, because he sent his son, Jesus Christ, to come on this earth and to die for our sin. Let's continue reading, let's look at verse two. It said that, you know, he arrives, he tells Jonah, arrive and go to Nineveh. That their weakness has come up before me. Well, what kind of weakness was there at Nineveh? Well, the first thing is this. They were so evil in this city. They were heartless. They were cruel. They were a godless church. This place was a sherry place, but But what you see here is that God, when the Lord tells Jonah to arise and go, it's an urgent. He's telling him, go, do not wait a second. I need you to go to this city called Nineveh. There is wickedness in this city. This city is evil. Let's look at verse three. But Jonah rose up. to flee into Tarsus from the present of the Lord and went down to Joppa and he found a ship going to Tarsus so he paid their fare thereof went down into it to go with him into Tarsus from the present of the Lord. What's so scary about this church is that Jonah, you have to understand, Jonah was a prophet. Jonah was, you know, he was good at what he was doing. He was good at preaching the word of God. And the moment that God told him to go to Nineveh, listen, you have to understand, Jonah wants nothing to do with this place. This place is an enemy to the Israelites. This place is evil. I mean, they're heartless. But when he told him to go, Jonah said, froze up, and he went away. He went to Tarsus. And what I love about this scripture is that if you look at the scripture at verse three, it says that he went down. to Joppa, and he found a ship, so he paid a fare. Therefore, he went down into it to go to them unto Tarsus from the presence of God." Listen, think about that direction that he's going. He's going down to Joppa. He's going down into the ship. And eventually, if you read all the Book of Jonah, which I'm not going to at this point, but if you read on, guess what? He went down into the belly of the fish. His life is spilling down. His life is going down. Why? Because he is running from the presence of the Lord. Let me tell you something, church. There's a lot of Christians that are on that boat this morning. God has called him to go somewhere, and he's saying, no, I'm going to go to Tarsus. I'm going to go down and down. And let me tell you something, church. We have got to realize what is going on in life, because when we don't live for God, we don't be obedient to God. Guess what? We're going to go down and down, church, just like King David. When King David saw Bathsheba, guess what he did? He went down a little farther and called her name, Guess what he did? He commit adultery. And then he went down a little farther to try to cover up his sin. King David just kept going down and down and down. And let me tell you something, church, when you are running from God, when you're running from his presence, you will just go down and down and you're going to find yourself in a hole where you're just not satisfied with the world. You have no joy. You have no peace in your life, church. There's been so many, there's been time in my life, and let me tell you something. Even when God called me to preach, even in the beginning of that, listen guys, I am born in the month of March, okay? My mama told me, if you're born in the month of March, you are a dreamer. Is that true? I have no idea. But, all my life, I've always been a dreamer. I've always dreamed, I've always had all these wants and wishes, and I remember the beginning of, when I found out that I had this disease in my eye, it's called Usher's syndrome type 2a, retinitis pimentosus, yada, yada, yada. It's a long word. But I remember the beginning where my driving had become limited. And I was wrecked. I was just, I was destroyed. I'm thinking, I have to let my wife drive me everywhere? That's not fun. And every time I tell my wife to do something, she gets upset with me. She's like, I'm driving. I'm like, I know you are, that's why I'm telling you what to do. But when I got to that point in my life, there was a moment where, and like I said, I was just dreaming. Don't judge me on this, because listen, I'm a country boy at heart, okay? But in my mind, I thought, well, what if I just move into the city, right? We were spending a lot of time in Baltimore. You know, we were close to New York City. I was thinking, what if I just Live in the city, work in the city, walk to work, you know, just, you know, when you're in a big city, everything's right there. There's two blocks. There's a grocery store in the corner. There's, you know, a clothing store, you know, down the block and all this stuff. And I was thinking that it could be more convenient if we would just live in the city. Now listen. And then next thing you know, I found myself looking at apartments and condos, and even though God would call me to preach, I was just like, you know what, let me just put this over here. And what happened was, The more I thought about the city, the more I thought about, you know, what we could be doing, what I could be doing, God just got farther and farther away from me. And it wasn't Him, it was me, church. I was the one that kept pushing Him farther and farther away. God was calling me to preach. I said, nah, I'm good. Let me just live my life. I'm going through something dramatic, Lord. And the Lord's like, I know you are. I got you. I knew you gonna go through this. I got your back. But I would just push him back and back and back to the point where I realized, church, that when we put God to the side, when we put God behind us, let me tell you something, church, when you run from God, The devil, he'll give you a boat. The devil will give you a boat. He will tell you where to go. If you're running from God this morning, if God is calling you to do something, and you're being disobedient to the point that you're leaving His presence, you don't want to get into the Word of God, you don't want to pray, you don't want to come to church, you'd rather just work, work, work, and just so you can have excuses to not to go to church, and the next thing you know, guess what's going to happen, church? The devil, he will give you a boat, and he will say, go that direction. And know that direction's going to take you, church, away from God. I heard someone share a testimony earlier. The devil wants nothing to do with you. He doesn't want nothing good from you. He doesn't want God to do anything for you. but the devil, he will put you on that boat. And some of you guys might be there right now. Some of you guys might be thinking, you know what? God has called me to do something, but I am on that boat and I'm wanting to get away. And let me tell you something, church. This is where it gets very scary, because I've seen this. Listen, I've been in church all my life. I have seen this time and time again. I've seen people turn their back away from God. They run from the presence of the Lord, just like Jonah was running from the presence of the Lord. Just because God wanted him to step up and be obedient, they'd rather just turn their back and live for themselves. Let me tell you something, church. There's a price to pay when we run from God. There's a price that we pay. I've seen family break up. because someone choose not to follow God. Someone choose to not be disobedient. I've seen people run from God, get away from God's presence, and they turn back into their old self. And they put that old dirty coat on, and they get right back into alcohol. They get right back to drugs. They get right back to gambling. They get right back to cussing. They get right back to all the evil things that are in this world. I seen men that were called to preach, but they turned their back on God, and now they're on that boat going through Tarsus right now, just like Jonah was. You know, I was thinking about that price that people have to pay. I was thinking about that young girl who who, you know, yes, she might have missed up, but now she's pregnant. She's going to have an abortion. Guess what, church? There's a price to pay. I saw a video of a girl that did that, and she said that when she had the abortion, she said she thought she was doing the right thing because the world was telling her it was the right thing. The world was telling, you go, girl. Get rid of that baby. And she did. But the next day, she said it was the worst day of her life. The moment she walked out of that building, she said the guilt that she felt, the regret that she felt, she thought, I could have had this baby. She said, I wasn't poor, I could have had this baby. And now she's dealing with depression. That's the price that people have to pay when they turn their back on God. What happens is they start living in this world and the world tell them, you know, you're either on this side or this side. But let me tell you something, church, we can't pick a side, church. The only style that we can pick is Jesus Christ, or faith. That's the style we need to pick. And I'm getting so tired of us Christians. And listen, when I say I get so tired of us Christians, I'm talking to me, okay? I got one finger pointing at you, I got three pointing back at me. For so many times as Christians, we just want to sit and do nothing. We just let the things happen. We just continue to be disobedient. And we think, well, if I just go to church, I'll feel better. Well, guess what? You might feel better. But guess what? Tomorrow, you're going to go right back to the way you've been for the last year, or the last month, or the last few weeks, right back into the world, living for the world, not living for God. I'm going to tell you right now, church, there's going to be a price to pay when we don't live for God. And if you're here this morning and you do not have the Lord in your life, well, guess what? You're on that boat right now, and you're going away from God, and you're going down, and you're going down, and you will have a price to pay. And listen, and like I said, I get so upset with myself, I get upset with other Christians because we know people that are lost in our own family. and we don't say nothing. We just sit there and let time go by. And we sit there and we watch the person that we love, that don't know Jesus Christ, and they get older and older, and we think, well, one day I'll tell that person about you. But for some reason, we just choose to be disobedient. Let me tell you something, church. This life that we live in is short. It's a short life. That's something that I have realized as the older I get, that in 10 years, I'm gonna be 40! That's old! You're not 40 yet. Are you? Oh! I'm sorry, Justin. That is Flame the Gray. And Jeremy, he looks good. Okay, move on. Let's move on. So, I see the price that people have to pay. Let's go to Galatians real quick. Let's go to the book of Galatians in the New Testament. I want to read a verse out of there. Galatians chapter 6, and I want to get verse 7. This kind of back up what I've been saying. I know I've kind of been rambling. But Galatians chapter 6, verse 7. Galatians chapter 6, verse 7. It says, Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Let me tell you something, church. You don't have to run anymore. If you're here this morning and you're thinking, Asa, I haven't been obedient. Asa, I haven't been disciplined. Asa, I haven't been responsible. I haven't grown my faith in God. I'm gonna tell you this morning that you can stop running. Because God does not want you to run anymore. God wants you to get off of that boat. And God wants you to go to Nineveh. And that Nineveh might be repent. That Nineveh might be be obedient and tell someone about Jesus Christ. That Nineveh might be just, you know, grow and get closer to God. I mean, I've seen so many times people try to be obedient, but when they fall short, they go, I'm not good enough. And guess what? You're not good enough. But let me tell you something. We serve a risen savior. We serve the one. We serve the one that took our place. We serve the one that paid the price. And his name is Jesus Christ. So I'm going to tell you this morning. Stop running. Stop running from the calling of God. Stop running. Listen, you're scared? That's normal. We all get scared. But let me tell you something, church. The more that you are obedient, let me tell you, you will grow stronger in your faith. You will have a stronger relationship with the Lord. I mean, listen, and every day, God is telling us a path to go, and we have to choose Him. When you stop running, you can enjoy life, you can enjoy the fellowship, you can enjoy the blessing that God has given you. When you stop running, you can come to church and enjoy having service, enjoy praising His song. I remember when I was running from God, and I wanted nothing to do with God, and I remember New Vision, first came open, and I would come here and just, I would just, I was just like, I wanted nothing to do with it. And I found myself not enjoying the service. I found myself hearing people crying while they give testimony, but not understanding, because I wasn't giving God my all. I was trying to run from Him. And I tell you what, Church, the moment I turned my life around, and I didn't have, and listen, I just did it. I prayed to God, I said, you know what, Lord? I'm done running. I want to repent. I'm repenting now. Lord, forgive me! And ever since that moment, it flipped over. Ever since that moment, a turn. I enjoy coming to church. I enjoy fellowshiping with you guys. I enjoy seeing his songs. I enjoy just coming in here and listening to testimony, tell my testimony. I enjoy preaching in this beautiful church. It is time for you to stop running. Everybody please stand. I'm done. Like I said, I'm not going to drag this on. I'm not going to, you know, I'm just gonna be obedient to the Lord that I'm done.