Sermons on Demons
1 Samuel 17
SERIES: Leadership in Hard Times The Difference Stature Makes SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: Last week I saw a major news article on television on the startling increase in the use of growth hormones by ordinary Americans. Previously extremely expensive, and used only for children with pituitary deficiency, growth hormones are now made synthetically, are available cheaply, and are being used by perfectly healthy adults who want to have bigger and better bodies. Even some parents of normal-size children are giving growth…
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…
1 Peter 3:13-22
Defending the Faith, Not Ourselves In chapter 1, we were introduced to the reality that becoming a Christian introduces a tremendous new tension in life. Our faith in Jesus causes our citizenship papers to be transferred from one kingdom to another. Paul tells us in Colossians that God “has rescued us from the one who rules in the kingdom of darkness, and he has brought us into the Kingdom of his dear Son.” (Col. 1:13, NLT) The tension results because though our papers…
1 John 4:1-6
Spiritual Warfare in the Church Introduction: I’d like to set the stage this morning with a story from 2 Kings 6. The prophet Elisha is in Dothan, where he has been regularly receiving information from God about the military movements of the Aramean or Syrian army and passing the information on to the King of Israel. The King of the Arameans suspects a spy among his trusted confidants, but eventually he is informed that Elisha is the culprit; in fact, one of his…
Daniel 10
Spiritual Warfare, Politics, and Prayer Note: This sermon was preached at First Free in Wichita in 2020, shortly before the national election. I have inserted it here as an update to the earlier series. Introduction: Today we come to a chapter that is unique in the book of Daniel; in fact, it is unique in the Bible. It tells us that Daniel receives a final prophetic vision, but the details of the vision are not revealed until chapter 11. The focus of this chapter is…
Colossians 2:6-10
Lordship Living SCRIPTURE: Colossians 2:6-10 SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: In 1988 Dr. John MacArthur, evangelical pastor of a mega-church in southern California, wrote a book entitled The Gospel According to Jesus. In this extremely provocative treatise MacArthur argues that many fundamentalists and evangelicals have twisted the Good News of salvation by faith into an easy-believism. They have taken salvation too lightly by ignoring the warnings of Jesus that the cost of discipleship is high, the way is narrow so that few find it, and…
Colossians 2:9-15
What Do You Have If You Have Jesus? SCRIPTURE: Colossians 2:9-15 SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: If I had my choice to listen to any preacher anywhere, I wouldn’t choose Billy Graham, Chuck Swindoll, Charles Stanley, or even Stewart Briscoe, as great as those communicators are—I’d take Dr. E. V. Hill. Dr. Hill is from Los Angeles, the pastor of Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church, and he is a preacher’s preacher, combining the best of black revivalism with good sound theology and…
Matthew 8:23-9:8
Jesus: Lord Over Everything Introduction: The Gospel authors chose their stories carefully and for a purpose. They had such amazing material to choose from. John tells us that Jesus did many other miracles besides the ones John recorded. In fact, “If every one of them were written down,” he said, “I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written” (John 21:25). So when we come to a section like our Scripture text today we should ask why the author has chosen…