Sermons from 2024 (Page 2)
Philippians 4:10-23
SERIES: Philippians: Cheerful Sounds from a Jail Cell Parting Graces SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: All of us have heard the phrase “parting shots.” It’s used to describe last-minute comments, usually nasty ones, when one is ending a phone conversation or leaving a meeting or closing a letter. Parting shots are effective principally because the other person doesn’t have the chance to respond; all he can do is to stew about what was said. Well, the Apostle Paul offers some last-minute comments to…
2 Samuel 1
SERIES: David: A Person After God’s Own Heart How the Mighty Have Fallen SPEAKER: Phil Thengvall Introduction: When I began working on this sermon several weeks ago, I had already decided the primary focus would be the different ways people respond to death. What I did not know then was that today, January 2, 2005, the focus of the whole world would be on death, thousands, even tens of thousands of deaths. The tsunami of 2004 will probably go down in history…
2 Samuel 2-4
SERIES: David: A Person After God’s Heart Dealing With Boneheads SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: I learned something shocking this week: Wyatt Earp’s wife Josie died the year I was born–1944. Honest. Now that may confirm what some of you suspected–that I am really old, but what I wish you would take from it is that some events that seem ancient and remote are really rather recent and relevant. Wyatt Earp himself died during the lifespan of many people in this room–on January 13, 1929. He was once…
2 Samuel 4, 5
SERIES: A Person After God’s Heart Growing into a Person After God’s Heart SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: Last Lord’s Day we learned that David, after over a decade of running and barely surviving, has finally become king; unfortunately, he is not king over all of Israel yet, but only of the one tribe of Judah. He is, however, negotiating for the loyalty of the other eleven tribes–with Abner, commander of the army of Ish-Bosheth, Saul’s son and the illegitimate king of…
2 Samuel 6
SERIES: A Person After God’s Heart You Can’t Keep God in a Box SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: David is the only one in Scripture who is called “a man after God’s heart.” What earned him this epitaph? We cannot answer the question fully until our study of David’s life is over, but each week we are getting hints. Three weeks ago we saw David’s intense personal grief over the death of a mortal enemy; such an attitude is very godlike. Then two weeks ago we…
2 Samuel 11
SERIES: David: A Person After God’s Heart Cancer in the Body SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: Friends, we come today to one of the saddest stories in the whole Bible–the story of David and Bathsheba. It is sad because it reminds us of the fact that human beings, no matter how gifted or godly or successful, will always disappoint us eventually. We dare not put our ultimate faith in people. It’s sad, too, because it reminds us of our own failures in life–acts…
2 Samuel 9
SERIES: A Person After God’s Heart Loyal Love SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: We come today to my favorite David story. It is a story of love and loyalty and grace. It is a story that will lead us right to the Cross. Will you turn with me to the ninth chapter of 2 Samuel, and I will read from the NIV. I invite you to stand as I read: David asked, “Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I…
2 Samuel 7
SERIES: David: A Person After God’s Heart When God Says “No” SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: Does God answer prayer? Probably every one of you would answer, “Yes, of course!” But what percentage of the time do you get what you ask for? Forty percent, sixty percent, eighty percent? Does that bother you? Have you ever wondered if an atheist’s wishes are fulfilled any less often than a believer’s prayers? The problem of unanswered prayer (or receiving an answer that is “no”) is one that every believer…
2 Samuel 12:1-14, Psalm 51
SERIES: David: A Person After God’s Heart He Said He Was Wrong SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: John R. W. Stott, one of the great evangelical thinkers of our day, has stated, “Christianity is the only religion in the world which takes sin seriously and offers a satisfactory remedy for it.” I believe that is true. Examine the great religions of the world–Hinduism, Confucianism, Taoism, Islam, spiritism–and none even comes close to the moral standards set down in the Bible or offers a solution to…
2 Samuel 12ff, Galatians 6:7-8
SERIES: David: A Person After God’s Heart Sin Will Take You Further Than You Want to Go SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: More than fifteen years ago Jan and I attended the Praise Gathering in Indianapolis that was sponsored for many years by the Gaithers. On the last day I was tired after the third concert and I almost went back to my hotel room. The Cathedral Quartet was singing, and I slipped into the back row. They did a song that someone handed…
2 Samuel 12:1-14
SERIES: David: A Person After God’s Heart Caring Enough to Confront SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: Suppose you discover that a good friend of yours is addicted to prescription medicine. Or perhaps you learn that someone in your ABF is having an affair. Or maybe a teenager hears that another kid in the youth group is sexually active. What should you do about it? Mind your own business? Spread the information (so others can pray, of course)? Turn them in? Or should you confront them? One of the…
2 Samuel 13-18
SERIES: David: A Person After God’s Heart A Neglectful Father and a Rebellious Son: Recipe for Disaster SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus Introduction: Absalom is a person it is easy to dislike. He murdered his brother, betrayed his father, and committed adultery in the sight of all Israel. But I believe as we study his life in a little more detail, it is more appropriate to pity him than hate him, for the circumstances of his childhood were less than ideal. No one, of course,…