Sermon Tone Analysis

Weekly Briefing

So here is something I want to put on your radar - here’s the word for you to hang it all on - generosity.

Did you know that God, in His sovereign goodness, has designed our world that He would accomplish His mission of rescuing sinners like YOU and ME by us.

You and I! Just be honest for a second - that should shock you.

You know yourself - how selfish, how consumed you are with your own world - and God the Almighty wants to use US to accomplish His plans!

Wow.

Well, on Sunday our pastor spoke to us about one way God does this is through our generosity - especially of our money.

Did you know ministry in this church doesn’t happen for free?

Like it cost money to operate week to week.

I have a budget of $10, 300 that I spend each year to do the things that we do at Fuel and throughout the summer!

Can you believe that?

And it is the members of the church - like you - and their joyful giving and generosity that provides a path for ministry like this to take place.

Now, why am I telling you this?

I know that 95% of you don’t have jobs where you make money, but here’s what you need to understand - part of being a community of believers - part of being a part of the Fuel family - is being generous with your money.

I have a book here: “The Money Challenge”

I have a booklet here: giving strategy at First

I have a handout: ways to give

God owns everything - including what you will make in the years to come.

I want you to know that God desires, and demands, that you be overly generous with your finances.

10% is what we would call showing up - it is the starting point - but the NT is clear that our giving must be joyful and for many giving 10% of their money is sinful.

So let’s be a generous student ministry.

If you are a member of First you need to begin thinking about this being part of your faithful service to Christ.

Awakening Prayer

Clifton Lamb

Student Led Scripture Reading

Bear Dominguez:

MaCenzee Currey:

Jonah 4:5-1

So here is something I want to put on your radar - here’s the word for you to hang it all on - generosity.

Did you know that God, in His sovereign goodness, has designed our world that He would accomplish His mission of rescuing sinners like YOU and ME by us.

You and I! Just be honest for a second - that should shock you.

You know yourself - how selfish, how consumed you are with your own world - and God the Almighty wants to use US to accomplish His plans!

Wow.

Well, on Sunday our pastor spoke to us about one way God does this is through our generosity - especially of our money.

Did you know ministry in this church doesn’t happen for free?

Like it cost money to operate week to week.

I have a budget of $10, 300 that I spend each year to do the things that we do at Fuel and throughout the summer!

Can you believe that?

And it is the members of the church - like you - and their joyful giving and generosity that provides a path for ministry like this to take place.

Now, why am I telling you this?

I know that 95% of you don’t have jobs where you make money, but here’s what you need to understand - part of being a community of believers - part of being a part of the Fuel family - is being generous with your money.

I have a book here: “The Money Challenge”

I have a booklet here: giving strategy at First

I have a handout: ways to give

God owns everything - including what you will make in the years to come.

I want you to know that God desires, and demands, that you be overly generous with your finances.

10% is what we would call showing up - it is the starting point - but the NT is clear that our giving must be joyful and for many giving 10% of their money is sinful.

So let’s be a generous student ministry.

If you are a member of First you need to begin thinking about this being part of your faithful service to Christ.

Introduction

Play-by-Play of .

And that takes us to

, “But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.

(2) And he prayed to the Lord and said, ‘O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country?

That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish;”

So here we have the rub - God has relented of G-bombing Nineveh - which is like the Atomic bomb, but divine - He has said “I’m not doing that, they have turned their heart to me, so I will hold back my fury and show mercy”.

And Jonah is like angry.

In fact, the way the Hebrew reads it could be translated that God’s actions were “exceedingly evil to Jonah”.

He’s so mad that he looks back at his disobedience and say’s “isn’t this exactly why I didn’t do what you wanted me to do?”

This is the human heart on display.

I think this is why the true story of Jonah resonates with people because whether you are hyper religious and you are always at church and you love Jesus or you are a lost person following whatever you feel like doing - we all can relate because we are all sinners: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” .

This is how it works in our heart - we justify our ungodly and wicked actions.

Like Jonah, “I knew what was going to happen God, I knew what you would do, and that is exactly why I didn’t do what you wanted me to do.”

How long has it been since you justified your sin?

-Today at school, yesterday on social media, last week with a friend?

Look - you can make excuses and justify your sin all you want, but it is only Christ, and not you who is the justifier of sin.

Trying to prove your case before God is like trying to cut down a California Redwood with a square of toilet paper.

It’s impossible.

Responding to God’s Word

Look at the reason for Jonah’s anger - look back at (v.2-4):

So Jonah looks at God and basically throws his finger, that God made, in God’s face and say’s: “I knew you would be merciful…ARE YOU KIDDING ME…I knew you are gracious…SERIOUSLY GOD…I knew your fuse is long - it takes time for you to get angry…I knew you wouldn’t kill them because you are so gracious…and that, that right there is why I didn’t go.”

Here’s what we learn from this confession of Jonah’s: first, we learn that there are three ways we can respond to God’s word.

(A) Hear and Say “No”

So we can hear from God and just say no.

That’s what Jonah did in Jonah one.

God told him to go and preach to Nineveh and Jonah said no.

Remember students rebellion to God is as simple as telling Him no.

Are you telling God no?

-Is your reputation too important to live for Christ at this point in time?

-Are sports too valuable for you to be on fire for Christ and focus on Him and Him be the reason you play?

-Is that person too wonderful and is sin to tantalizing for you to say yes to God?

What are you telling God no to?

One way we can respond to God’s Word is by hearing and saying “no”.

(B) Hear and Say “Yes” Outwardly

The second way we can respond to God is how Jonah has responded in chapters 2-4.

We can hear God and we can say “yes” to God, but in our heart we are not doing from love.

So we are conforming to God’s standard “go and preach” but we are not conforming to God’s spirit “do so in love and for God’s glory.”

Jonah basically goes through the actions with God.

Here’s what happens when we do this - and we see it in Jonah’s life:

Stell bar - it will bend, but snap back.

It will bend and break.

So, sometimes like in Jonah’s life we find ourself in a circumstance that is awful - in the ocean ready about to die, then in the belly of a whale - and it is the circumstance that puts pressure on us to conform and do what God said.

But truthfully, we haven’t changed.

And once we’ve cleared our conscience and once the heat of the circumstance is turned down - we are back to the same old person.

We snap back to who we are - like the steel bar.

Or, a circumstance can put so much pressure on us that we break and we lose our mask and we just walk in wickedness.

That’s what happens to college students regularly.

They graduate and all their identity was in who they were and their reputation at school and then in one day it is gone.

So they have a crisis of soul.

And they had a Jesus cross necklace and they even had a bible that I bought them, but there was never transformation and the pressure of losing their home at school and their identity reveals their heart.