Looking at Jonah 1:17, we pull in Jesus’ words from Matthew 12:38-42 to consider what Jesus meant by the sign of Jonah and how this authenticates the story of Jonah and the fish.

For this fourth Sunday evening worship service, we jump into Jeremiah and John 6 to understand what is meant by free will and that our salvation is all of God’s grace in Christ Jesus. As the Westminster Confession of Faith puts in chapter 9: “When God converts a sinner, and translates him into the state of grace, he frees him from his natural bondage under sin; and, by his grace alone, enables him freely to will and to do that which is spiritually good…”

“When we began Jonah, we saw that the prophet was unwilling to preach repentance to Nineveh. He instead fled in the opposite direction and boarded a ship for Tarshish. The Lord, in His sovereignty, uses Jonah’s disobedience to show mercy to the mariners on board the ship.”

“Beginning a new sermon series on Jonah, we take the first three verses to see God’s command to Jonah and the prophet’s response. What we’ll see throughout this book is that our God is relentless in His mercy.”

Concluding our sermon series through 1 Thessalonians, we look at Paul's prayer for the church and the certainty of sanctification.

Paul begins the conclusion of his letter to the Thesalonains speaking to their responsibility towards church leadership, towards each other, and towards God in worship.

Paul encourages believers to be prepared for the return of Christ, not by trying to calculate the times, but by living in faith, love, and hope.

Continuing our sermon series, we look at two purposes behind Paul's composition of 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. He wrote to clarify and comfort. Let us be comforted! Christ will return.

Preaching for our fourth Sunday evening worship service and installation of our pastor, Kenneth Maple, Dr. Cathcart reminds us all that scripture is our only rule for faith and practice, and a pastor's job is to feed his flock with the whole counsel of God.

Jesus said, "By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:35), and Paul in 1 Thessalonians shows us this. We are to love one another in the church and by our work show Jesus to those outside of the church.