Sermons from 2023
MY STORY – GOD’S FAITHFULNESS
My Faith Story Is the Story of God’s Faithfulness SCRIPTURE: Various SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus DATE: December 7, 2003 This is going to be an unusual Sunday as far as the sermon is concerned. A few days after announcing my resignation on November 9, I met with our whole staff to share with them something about my spiritual journey over the past 30 years. Several encouraged me to share the same story with the whole congregation. They said it helped them see that our…
Exodus 1:1-22
The Gathering Storm SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: Kitty Kelley has raised our consciousness level regarding the private lives of famous people of our day, and she has focused attention upon a curious fact—the more you learn about them, the less you like them, even given the fact that half of what is written may be false or exaggerated. And that’s not just true of Ronald and Nancy Reagan. Consider Lyndon Johnson, John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Dwight Eisenhower. The…
Exodus 2
The Development of a Deliverer SPEAKER: Brad Harper Introduction: Please turn in your Bibles to the second chapter of the Book of Exodus and listen carefully to the Word of the Lord: Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, 2 and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. 3 But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with…
Exodus 4:18-6:12
A Long Obedience SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: Friedrich Nietzsche was not the kind of philosopher with whom Christians find much in common, but even radical unbelievers sometimes have good things to say. In his book, Beyond Good and Evil he wrote, “The essential thing in heaven and earth is that there should be long obedience in the same direction; there thereby results, and has always resulted in the long run, something which has made life worth living.” Eugene H. Peterson borrowed Nietzsche’s phrase for…
Exodus 3:1-4:20
All Excuses Set Apart SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: Queen Elizabeth visited the colonies this week. She was treated with respect and enthusiasm, but the fact is Americans don’t respond to royalty quite like the British do. The few among us old enough to recall the Queen’s coronation nearly forty years ago will remember the pomp, pageantry and ceremony that accompanied that incredible event from start to finish. Just prior to the coronation invitations were sent to friends and celebrities…
Exodus 7-11
God’s Megaphone SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains. It is His megaphone to arouse a deaf world…. No doubt Pain as God’s megaphone is a terrible instrument; it may lead to final and unrepented rebellion. But it gives the only opportunity the bad man can have for amendment.”[i] Thus wrote C.S. Lewis, and I suspect there are a number of individuals here who could testify that God’s megaphone of pain…
Exodus 11-12
The Night Nobody Slept[i] SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: Imagine you’re an Egyptian mother living about 1400 years before Christ. You retire one night not too long after the sun goes down, as Middle Eastern families generally do, but you’re awakened suddenly in the middle of the night by the sound of your ten-year-old son struggling for breath. It’s not hard to hear since your house has only one room, and you rush to his side only to hear a gut-wrenching last gasp…
Exodus 13:17-14:31
Divine Deliverance: Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Fire SPEAKER: Brad Harper Note: The manuscript of this sermon is unavailable. However, the outline is below. Introduction: Deliverance from: Slavery Hopelessness An old identity Deliverance through: The reassuring guidance of God Confusion Faith Enemy attack An overwhelming obstacle Deliverance to: A place of insecurity and trouble A place for faith A place for God’s glory The road to the promised land Timeless truths to ponder: Our deliverance is based on a fact…
Exodus 15:1-21
Genuine Worship SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: The crossing of the Red Sea is certainly one of the great miracles in the Old Testament. Last Lord’s Day Brad helped us gain a better perspective on the amazing deliverance that God achieved for Israel by opening passage through the water and then allowing it to close once again upon the pursuing armies of the Egyptians. I find it instructive that the first thing Moses does after the crossing of the Red Sea is…
Exodus 15:22-27
The Desert Experience SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: We lived for nearly ten years in Wichita, Kansas. During that decade we made perhaps two dozen trips across western Kansas and through eastern Colorado to the Rocky Mountains. We either took highway 54 through Pratt, Dodge City, Garden City (a place seriously misnamed), Lamar, and Rocky Ford, or we drove north to Salina to pick up I-70 and traveled through Russell, Hays, Oakley, Colby, Goodland (another serious misnomer), and Limon. There’s not a lot to…
Exodus 16:1-17:7, 1 Cor. 10:1-13
Privilege Does Not Equal Success, or A Heavenly Diet for an Earthly Appetite SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: All of us have known of individuals who started out with nothing and became great successes. On the other hand, we have also known people who had everything—family, friends, wealth, intelligence, social privilege, you name it—and yet turned out to be miserable failures. The ancient Israelites, whom we have been studying for several months, are a poignant illustration of the latter, particularly in the spiritual realm. Last Lord’s…
Exodus 17:8-16
The Power of Persistent Prayer SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: Let’s begin today by reading Exodus 17:8-16. The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. 9 Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.” 10 So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. 11 As long as Moses held up…