What will your New Year’s Resolution be?  The turning of the year is a good time to reflect on our commitments and our priorities.   The Bible makes it clear that God created time and the seasons so that we might reflect on our commitments to Him and His priorities for us.   From this powerful and moving passage in the obscure prophet Habakkuk, Pastor Wheeler challenges us to make New Year’s Confessions rather than New Year’s Resolutions.  What is the difference?  Listen and find out.

Get the 12-30-2012 Bulletin and listen to “New Year’s Confession,” Habakkuk 3:1-19. 

Every mother wants the world to dote on their new baby, especially their firstborn.   Because of the inexplicable circumstances of Jesus’ birth, Mary was denied the dotage of friends and family.  But God sent shepherds and sages and Simeon to adore Jesus in his infancy.   No doubt, Mary was thankful for Simeon’s joy at taking the Lord Jesus in his aged arms, yet Simeon’s words contained a dire and foreboding prophecy for this young mother — her precious baby was set for the rising and falling of many in Israel and as a sign that would be opposed and a sword would pierce her own soul too.    Simeon had been waiting for the consolation of Israel and, no doubt, associated the prophecy of Zechariah 13:7 with the babe in Mary’s arms.   Join Pastor Wheeler as he unfolds this terrible and wonderful prophecy of our Savior from the prophet Zechariah which offers hope to broken and weary sinners.

Get the 12-23-2012 Bulletin and listen to “Born to Die”, Zechariah 13:7. 

It is easy with all that has happened in the last two weeks to become cynical; cynical about humanity and even cynical about God.   The author of Hebrews wrote “Now in putting everything in subjection to Christ, the Father left nothing outside His control.  At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to Him.”   Sometimes this disconnect between the reality of Christ’s reign and the appearance of it makes us cynical about God’s promises.   The people of Malachi’s day were also cynical.  “Where is the God of justice?” they cried.   But God patiently deals with critics and cynics.   Join Pastor Wheeler as he examines Malachi’s prophecy of the coming of Christ as the only answer for the cynicism of Malachi’s day and of ours.

Get the 12-16-2012 Bulletin and listen to “Bah, Humbug,” Malachi 2:17-3:5. 

It seems that every year there is one particular toy or gadget that is the hottest, the most desired gift.   Stores are sold out, there are fights and confrontations between customers, wrestling to lay claim to the coveted prize — a battery operated fur-ball that taunts anyone who squeezes it.   Why do we attempt to move heaven and earth to acquire what will not last, yet spend so little effort laying hold of what will last forever?

The minor prophet Haggai preached to a discouraged people.  The prophet called them to quit chasing after temporary and fleeting desires and to cultivate and build on an eternal desire — the desired of all nations, the coming Lord Jesus Christ.   What is the object of your desire this season?  Is it truly the “desired of all nations?”  Join Pastor Wheeler as he examines this beautiful and timely word from the Lord call us to make Christ our most desired gift.

Get the 12-09-2012 Bulletin and listen to “The Most Desired Gift,” Haggai 2:1-9. 

During the Christmas Season, as we read the gospel narratives of the nativity, we often begin to wonder about things God has not revealed.  Was there an innkeeper and was he grumpy or compassionate?  Was the start of Bethlehem a real star?  Or was it a comet, Kepler’s conjunction or St. Elmo’s fire?   Were there three wise-men?  Were they kings?

It is not without reason that the Scripture warns us against vain prying and calls us to concentrate on what God has revealed.  Such questions tend to become a distraction and reduce the nativity passages in the New Testament to the level of myth.   As the prophet Micah indicates where Jesus would be born, he points us beyond the question of the place to the nature and purpose of the one who would be born there.   Listen as Pastor Wheeler examines the dangers of asking the “wrong question” when we come to the passages surrounding the incarnation of Christ.

Get the 12-02-12, Bulletin and listen to “The Wrong Question,” Micah 5:1-6. 

Matthew Henry once commented that “thanksgiving is good, but thanks-living is better.”  How do we express our thankfulness by the way we live our lives.   The prophet Micah brings this out as he encourages the men of his day and of ours to live “doxologically,”   Listen as Pastor Wheeler examines what it means to Live Thanks.

Get the 11-25-2012 Bulletin and listen to “Thanksliving”, Micah 4:1-5. 

As Christians we are thankful for God’s provision for our daily bread, but in this passage, the prophet Micah reminds us let our thanksgiving be governed by God’s promises not merely his providences.  Despite the difficulty of our situation, God has promised to be gracious to us.  Join Pastor Wheeler as he examines how God’s Word instructs us in thanksgiving even in the midst of a “frowning providence.”

Get the 11-18-2012, Bulletin and listen to Harvest Thanks, Micah 4:1-5. 

Whoever wrote that “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me” was self-deluded.   Nothing sinks into our souls and makes and impression like the words spoken to us by those we love.   And no words have the impact that God’s Words have.   In Micah 3:1-12, the prophet preaches a bold and difficult sermon.  Yet, from Jeremiah 26 we know that this sermon brought repentance to the people of the Old Testament Church that stayed the hand of God’s judgment for 100 years.  The church in Micah’s time was playing games with God, not unlike the church in our day. Listen as Pastor Wheeler examines the game that needed changing and the change the game needed.

Get the 11-11-2012, Bulletin and listen to Micah 3:1-12 “Game Changer” 

What brings about reformation and revival?   Romans 1:16-17 reminds us that it is the power of the gospel that brings reformation and revival.  According to Romans 10:17, the word of Christ preached is the ordinary means used by the Holy Spirit to work faith in men.   Yet in our day, as the day in which Micah preached, there are those that preach against preaching.   In “One Little Word,” Pastor Wheeler examines how the contemporary church has impeded reformation and revival by despising preaching.  Listen as Pastor Wheeler challenges us to delight in the preaching of the gospel.

Get the 10-28-2012 Bulletin and listen to “One Little Word”, Micah 2:6-11 

Historian, Henry Van Til once commented that “culture is religion externalized.”  Man’s worship and man’s lifestyle are inseparably connected.   Consequently when God confronts us, He confronts us about both our worship and our lifestyle.   Both the Ten Commandments and the Great Commandment remind us that our love for man is a consequence of our love for God.   Even Nietzsche, the recognized that morality was impossible without religion.   The God of Scripture is a God who confronts.  He confronts us about our worship and about our lifestyle.   Listen as Pastor Wheeler concludes the exposition of Micah 1 and 2 as Micah preaches to us of a God who calls us out.

Get the 10-07-2012 Bulletin and listen to Called Out, Micah 2:1-13.