Get the 03-10-2013, Bulletin and listen to Faith No Fancy, Habakkuk 2:1-5 

As Lord Cornwallis’ troops surrendered at Yorktown their band struck up a popular tune of the time entitled, “The World Turned Upside Down.”   No doubt, they struggled to grasp how a band of unorganized insurgents had defeated the greatest military super-power of the day?  What is even more mysterious to the Christian today is how an almighty, all beneficent God can allow injustice and evil in the world.   Unless we have formed our understanding of God from the Bible, we are apt to think that the world is, indeed, turned upside down.   Habakkuk struggled with God’s tolerance of evil and his apparent unjust use of the wicked to chastise his own people.   Habakkuk, like us, was tempted to view God as unfair when looking through the lens of reason and not that of revelation.   Join Pastor Wheeler as he examines why we often struggle with God’s mysterious timing and methods and how we can faithfully wrestle with a world turned upside down.

Get the 03-03-2013 Bulletin and listen to The World Turned Upside Down, Habakkuk 1:1-2:1. 

Prayer is no polite affair.   One dear member of our congregation used to refer to it as “bending God’s ear.”   The prophet Habakkuk bent God’s ear with some serious issues; issues all of us will face when God’s timing and His work conflict with our own expectations.   How do we respond when God seems to be in abstentia or when He works in a way that seems unfair?   The prophet Habakkuk’s name means, “to embrace.”   How willing are we to embrace God and to cling to Him when that embrace feels a lot like wrestling.   When Jacob wrestled with God, he refused to let go.   What about you?  Will you let go, when you wrestle with God’s timing or His ways of working?  Or will you embrace Him and refuse to let go.   Listen as Pastor Wheeler begins our study of Habakkuk with this sermon, entitled, “Bending God’s Ear.”

Get the 20130224 Bulletin and listen to Bending God’s Ear, Habakkuk 1:1-11. 

One of the central pictures of God’s relationship to his people in the Scriptures of both the Old and New Testaments is that of husband to wife.   God speaks tenderly to his people.  He woos them with words of kindness and care.   It is, indeed, the kindness of God that leads men to repentance.   When men see that God is a God who delights in mercy, then by the effectual calling of God’s Spirit, they are wooed by Him to become His beloved.   Listen as Pastor Wheeler completes our study of Micah by examining the consequences and the confirmation of God’s wooing words to His people.

Get the 02-17-2012 Bulletin and listen to Words That Woo, Micah 7:18-20. 

The prophet Micah’s name means, “who is like our God.”   This is the question the prophet poses throughout the book, and explicitly in the last passage as he sums up the answer —  God delights in mercy.   The Puritans often noted that  mercy was God’s “usual” work while judgment was God’s “strange” work.  In this beautiful passage God unveils one of His cardinal attributes, that He is a God who delights in mercy.  John Calvin once noted that in revelation God is veiled to be unveiled.   He expresses his nature through the limits of language to reveal to us what no mind can fully grasp.   Listen as Pastor Wheeler begins to examine this God who delights in mercy to discover the causes, the consequences and the confirmations of this mercy to poor, unworthy sinners.

Get the 02-10-2013 Bulletin and listen to Veiled to Be Unveiled, Micah 7:18-20. 

Charles Spurgeon once commented that every Christian should read with the Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other.   While there is great truth to this statement, Christians must guard against using the newspaper to understand the Scripture.   If the newspaper is our lens, then we will be tempted to despair, but with the Bible as our lens we will learn to say, “..but God” when the world seems out of control.  Join Pastor Wheeler as continues our study of the Minor Prophet, Micah.

Get the 02-03-2012 Bulletin and listen to The Turning of the Tide, Micah 7:1-8. 

The 23rd Psalm stands out in the Psalter as a prayer and song of pure trust — no lament, no complaint, no struggles with doubt or fear.  Though most of us have memorized, or at least heard, Psalm 23, it continues to yield a thousand sacred sweets to the believer who sings it in faith whether in the green pasture or the shadowy valley.   Listen as Pastor Wheeler takes us to this Psalm of refreshment, which restores our soul both in season and out.

Get the 1-27-2013 Bulletin and listen to In and Out of Season, Psalm 23. 

Losing your wallet used to be uncomplicated.   Recovery was simply a matter of cancelling your credit cards and getting a new driver’s license.   But in these heady days of the internet and identity theft, we may quickly find that we have a cyber doppleganger in Hong Kong who is living it up at the expense of our reputation.   As grievous as this is, have Christians ever considered that they steal God’s identity when they live lives in direct conflict with their profession of faith?   Pastor Wheeler considers this thought as he continues to examine our ingratitude toward God’s grace when we fail to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with our God.

Get the 1-20-2013 Bulletin and listen to Identity Theft, Micah 6:6-8. 

Reformed worship has always followed the trajectory of grace and gratitude.   God reveals His grace in the gospel and His people respond with grateful worship.   Our worship always exhibits this ongoing conversation between a gracious God and a grateful people.   But what conversation does our life exhibit?   Do we desire to live holy lives as the fruit of grace?  Does our lifestyle, our speech, our focus, or our thought life express ingratitude in response to God’s grace?   Listen as Pastor Wheeler begins to examine this well known passage from the minor prophet Micah to see how professing Christians often show ingratitude to God.

Get the 01-13-2013 Bulletin and listen to  “Grace and Ingratitude,” Micah 6:1-8. 

The New Year is always a time of great expectation.   As we stand at the head of a new year, the calendar is empty and clean.   The year before us is full of promise, so unlike the year that is past with all its cares and crises.   Yet we know this is only a trick of perspective.   The new year holds just as many uncertainties and the old year.   The Bible, however, commands us not to worry.   How can we every keep that command?   Listen as Pastor Wheeler examines the final verses of the prophecy of Habakkuk to see how God calls us from worry to worship.

Get the 01-06-2013 Bulletin and listen to “From Worry to Worship,” Habakkuk 3:17-19.