1 Samuel 28
SERIES: Leadership in Hard Times Saul and the Medium of Endor SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: There is a phenomenon sweeping our country that is as old as civilization and as new as the past week’s headlines. It is “the occult.” Shirley MacLaine has sold over 10 million books advocating channeling. George Lucas, perhaps the most successful movie producer of all time, has succeeded in substituting “the Force” for God in the vocabulary of millions of America’s youth. Nancy Reagan has for years consulted an…
Romans11:22
SERIES: Our Great and Awesome God The Kindness and Severity of God SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus PLACE: Dallas Theological Seminary DATE: October, 1996 I want to speak to you today from Romans 11, verse 22, “Consider therefore the kindness and severity (sternness in NIV) of God: severity to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off.” When Paul speaks of the kindness and severity of God, he clearly does so within the context of…
2 Timothy 1:8-18
SERIES: Entrusted with the Gospel The Fellowship of the Unashamed SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: Last Lord’s Day Pastor Josh shared with us very poignantly about how he could relate to Timothy, the young protégée of the Apostle Paul to whom he addresses this powerful personal letter we know as 2 Timothy. Josh saw in Timothy’s background some of the same family of origins issues which he himself experienced, namely the absence of a godly father in the home. While Paul praises Timothy’s mother…
2 Timothy 2
A Shepherd’s Most Important Task: Feed the Flock SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Note: This sermon was preached at College Avenue Baptist Church in San Diego in 2005. I was asked to speak at the installation of my dear friend Carlton Harris as Pastor. Introduction: When Carlton called and asked me to come and preach at his installation service, I told him I would pray about God’s will in the matter, hung up the phone, and immediately asked my wife to order some airline…
2 Timothy 3:1-15
Entrusted With the Gospel Religious Sinners in the Last Days SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: What is the greatest threat to the church of Jesus Christ in the last days? Is it secular humanism? Is it the new atheism? Is it the ACLU? Is it government efforts to limit religious freedom? Is it the movement that seeks to redefine marriage and the sexual mores that have been accepted in principle for 2000 years? All of these are, in my humble opinion, a threat to biblical Christianity, but not…
2 Timothy 3:16-17
SERIES: Entrusted With the Gospel Can the Bible Be Trusted? SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: I want to be very up-front with you this morning. I am one of those old-fashioned preachers who believes the Bible is free from error–not just in its lofty spiritual affirmations, but in everything it intends to teach. I have been studying the Bible almost full-time now for 50 years (I started Bible college in 1962), and I haven’t found an error in it yet. There are some issues I…
2 Timothy 4:6-18
SERIES: 2 Timothy Final Instructions for Paul’s Progeny SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Note: This sermon is both a conclusion to a series on the Book of Acts and an exposition of 2 Timothy 4:6-18. Introduction: I’ve enjoyed our study of Acts so much that this week I had withdrawal pains. So, I decided to preach a postscript to the Book today. We noted last Lord’s Day that Acts is an unfinished book and intentionally so, because every generation of the church has a chapter to…
John 1:1-5
SERIES: The Gospel of John The Gospel Par Excellence SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: Today we begin a new series on the Gospel of John. After a lifetime of study of this book, one scholar calls it “the most amazing book ever written. It is a pool in which a child can wade and an elephant can swim.” [i] It is both simple and profound. It meets the spiritual need of the unbeliever, the brand-new Christian, and the one with many years of maturity. It has been…
John 1:6-9, 19-34
SERIES: The Gospel of John A Voice in the Desert, or John the Baptist Was No TV Preacher SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: On this day of the first Presidential debate of 1992, I am reminded of one of the most electric moments in the 1988 presidential campaign. It came during the debate between Senators Dan Quayle and Lloyd Benson, the Republican and Democrat nominees for Vice-President. When Quayle quoted Jack Kennedy approvingly, Benson retorted with the line that has become a classic…
John 1:10-18
SERIES: The Gospel of John The Visit SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: Our earth is of tremendous size to us. Few of us have circled it even once. Yet if our sun were hollow it could hold over one million earths, and there are stars in our galaxy that, if hollow, could hold over 100,000,000 of our suns! And there are at least 100,000,000 other galaxies, each with at least 100 billion stars! The sheer magnitude of this universe is mind boggling. Yet the Bible…
John 1:35-51
SERIES: The Gospel of John Building from Scratch SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: Suppose for a moment that Dr. Paul Cedar, the President of the Evangelical Free Church of America, were to come to us and say, “The largest city in the United States without an Evangelical Free Church is Atlanta, Georgia, and we would like you to go there and establish a church. We don’t want to waste any time, so, to help you we will provide unlimited financial resources so…
John 2:1-11
SERIES: The Gospel of John Joy in Cana SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: If you were asked to name three characteristics of Jesus that stand out above all others, what would they be? Holiness, love, compassion, humility, wisdom, justice, goodness, truth? I wonder if any of us would list joy or exuberance or happiness. Frankly, I think we should. In fact, Jesus had such a penchant for celebrating life that His enemies were given to calling Him a gluttonous man and a winebibber, as the…