Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Joke:

One day, a little boy talked back to a man’s wife.

She told him to do something; he said, 'No, I don't want to.' So, the man had to pulled him aside and say, 'Listen -- you gotta teach me how to do that.'

If there was a group of people who were about to spend eternity in hell…and God told us to go warn them…if God told us to make sure they knew that He has made a way for them to spend eternity in heaven with Him…what kind of people would we be if we said no?

Evangelism is in trouble in the United States.

For decades, we have been coming up with ways to say “no” to God.

Instead of encouraging each other to cultivate a burden for lostness, we have left evangelism up to the professionals, the Billy Graham crusades, the big church events, the IMB and NAMB.

The results have proven to be catastrophic.

Today it is common to meet Christians who are active in church, who have never shared the gospel with anyone.

Barna Research Group just finished a study that says about 46% of millennials do not believe that personal evangelism is their personal responsibility.

God has called every believer to follow Jesus…become fishers of people…put their yes on the altar when it comes to missions.

Missions for us begins right here…in our community.

A church who is not sharing the gospel in their community is not a community of faith…they are a group of religious nuts.

I want to encourage you to put your yes on the altar this morning.

I want to encourage you to commit in your heart to cultivate a burden for lostness and spend the rest of your life engaging those who do not know God by sharing the gospel.

I am not saying that we need to invite more people to church (that is needed)…I am not saying we need to provide more clothes, money, food, and other temporary things that people need (that is needed)...I am saying that we need to share the gospel with more people.

If you like hell fire and brimstone sermons, you will enjoy the next few minutes…if you don’t like studying portions of Scripture that step on your toes…now might be a good time to find something to do on your phone.

We look at what happens to Jonah and think: this only applies to ordained ministers.

The story of Jonah provides us a picture of what it looks like when God’s people refuse to put their yes on the altar.

three things we learn about missions from the story of Jonah.

Consider this: in the Old Testament, God raised up prophets to steward His word.

Jesus established the church and commanded us to share the gospel with everyone everywhere.

Sometimes missions is not where you want to be.

I am going to apply the book of Jonah to everyone of us, regardless of your role in the church.

All of us are following Jesus…He wants to make us fishers of people.

He wants all of us to pursue people…to share the gospel.

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Before we pile on Jonah, pointing our fingers and saying: this guy is a horrible prophet (and he is), before we conclude that we are nothing like Jonah…I want to show you what Jonah was going through.

We are much more like Jonah than we may think.

Jonah had seen some success in ministry.

2 Kings 14:23-

Jonah had a front row seat to God doing something special through him in his native land.

God was using him in spite of the wickedness of the king.

Jonah could see very clearly that the Lord was blessing Israel through him.

When God told Jonah to go to Nineveh, He was sending Jonah to Israel’s primary enemy.

Why would Jonah want to help Israel’s enemy?

Sometimes missions is not where you want to be.

In Israel, Jonah’s job was to proclaim God’s grace.

Jonah was preaching God’s mercy on a wicked nation.

Now God was asking Jonah to preach a message of repentance.

To make matters worse, he was to preach that message to people he didn’t like or care for.

Maybe you can identify with Jonah.

Right now you are serving in ministry in a spot that doesn’t require you to be bold in your witness.

You have not had a need to learn to share the gospel.

There is not a need for you to start new relationships.

Maybe you have never looked someone in the eye and told them they need to repent…your ministry in the church just doesn’t require it...and the thought of sharing the gospel with someone terrifies you.

God asked Jonah to shift gears in ministry.

God asked Jonah to put his yes on the altar, but Jonah put his no on the altar.

He decided in his heart that preaching repentance with boldness was something he was not willing to do

He decided that the people God was sending him to were not worthy of grace.

Jonah was extremely racist.

Assyria was an enemy of Israel and Jonah wanted them to be punished, not forgiven.

He decided that missions was not where he wanted to be.

Where God wanted him to be was not where he wanted to be.

In many ways, I identify with Jonah.

As a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, I wanted to go to Kamchatka.

I ended up in Moscow.

Now God has sent me to the church…my home church with a message of Bible Literacy and evangelism and disciple-making.

I thought I was going to be standing in front of tribal people and reindeer herders preaching repentance and faith in Jesus.

Instead, I am standing in front of God’s people in my home where my family lives telling every believer that they must read through God’s word over and over until Jesus comes back or until we die—that we must learn to share the gospel and reach everyone within a 20 mile drive of our church, and that we must plant new churches and help struggling churches here and overseas.

Today, I am preaching a message that we must not consider VBS as a completed task.

We have to shift gears in ministry.

We put on an amazing VBS.

We have shared the gospel with children...Now we must show up at every home of an unchurched family that attended our VBS and preach the gospel to adults.

This may terrify you.

I want you to know that it is terrifying to me.

I am terrified that I will tell you that you should read the Bible—that you should learn to explain it—and you wont do it.

That I will tell you that we need to engage every home and only three people will show up to go visiting....

Maybe decorating, or leading a class, or registering, or cooking, or dancing, or general helping during VBS was wh

I am terrified that I will tell you that every believer must learn to share the gospel…then share it…and some will not do it.

I want us to now and always put our yes on the altar.

Lord, if you are saying to engage this community…to share the gospel with every person…even if this is not necessarily what we want to do, then there is no excuse, no task too difficult, no conversation too awkward, no home too dirty, no person too different than me, no life that is too messy, no week that is too busy…my yes is on the altar…there are families to engage…who is with me?

The first thing the Book of Jonah teaches us about missions is: Missions sometimes is where we don’t want to be.

There is a second thing:

Missions is not optional.

God asks Jonah to put his yes on the altar, be he puts his no on the altar.

He gets on a ship that is headed to Tarshish.

God sends a storm that threatens to destroy the ship.

Eventually, Jonah tells the others on the ship who he is and why the storm has come.

He realizes that missions is not optional.

He tells the men on the boat to throw him overboard.

jonah 1

Jonah found out that missions is not optional.

God has the authority and the power to put His servants where He wants them.

There is great comfort in this truth:

If you are being obedient to the Lord, If you are burdened for lostness and you are engaging people by sharing the gospel, understand that God has the authority and ability to put you where He wants you.

If you are in limbo but you are being obedient, wondering what you need to do next, just keep doing the last thing you know God told you to do…He will put you where He wants you.

However, if you are being disobedient…not burdened for lostness, not engaging the lost by sharing the gospel…beware…God has been known to use big fish to move His servants to where He has commanded them to be.

Missions is not optional.

Why is missions not optional?

Missions is not optional because missions is not about us.

God is already working on a story that is bigger than us.

not about us.

God is already working on

not about us.

God is already working on

families in our community.

list out examples so that people don’t think I am talking about full-time ministers.

families in our community.

While we are here in this worship service, God is doing things in people’s lives that we might be unaware of.