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The Chosen

Snakes in the Cradle

Resources

Speaker

Dwight K. Nelson

Dwight Nelson served as lead pastor of the Pioneer Memorial Church on the campus of Andrews University from 1983 to 2023. During his time at Pioneer he spoke on the “New Perceptions” telecast, taught at the theological seminary and has written books, including The Chosen. He and his wife, Karen, are blessed with two married children and 2 granddaughters.

Offering

Strange symbols represent the medical profession--two snakes entwined around a pole. Strange unless you understand the Biblical story of the snake on the pole and the ultimate antigen it created for divine healing. This message provides an essential corrective to the inherent risk run in The Chosen sermon series.
Saturday, December 01, 2007

More In This Series

09/01/2007
Why You Are the Most Unique Person on Earth
Was your conception unplanned, your birth an "accident"? Are you handicapped? Too young to contribute, or too old to make a difference any more? Ah, but if you only knew what it took for you to get here, and what it means that you've been chosen! That discovery marks the first step toward determining your destiny - your special place and role on earth.
09/08/2007
Why We Are the Most Unique People on Earth
Sometimes God chooses in ways that seem so politically incorrect. But choose He did, back then; and choose He does, today! "It is a fearful thing to be chosen," especially so if all we want is to be accepted.
09/15/2007
Not a Big Head, but a Big Heart
Chosen? Maybe. But on what basis? And for what purpose? The answers make a huge difference in what it means to be chosen.
09/29/2007
Children of the Waldenses
What happens when one generation of the chosen visits the site where a previous generation gave their all for Christ? Pastor Dwight interviews some of the students he accompanied on the tour and were impacted.
10/06/2007
Blood on the Doorpost
Forgetting can be lethal. Remembering keeps a chosen movement, or person, alive and advancing. And for the divinely chosen, there is much to remember.
10/13/2007
How to Stone the Prophet
Within the wider community of God's chosen, a select few were always chosen as His mouthpiece to the many. As it happened in the Biblical era, so it happened in our own. The chosen community of old most often ignored God's chosen one among them. What's our response to His chosen one among us? And why does it matter?
10/27/2007
How to Eat, Drink and Be Merry Without Getting Stoned
Think that addiction is only about alcoholism and drug use? Or that Christians are immune? Consider the bad news about addiction and the good news for the addicted.
11/03/2007
How Much of Naked is Acceptable?
Is a little cleavage a spiritual issue? What about a little ornamental jewelry? Is it time to revise some old standards, or to reaffirm them? If the Bible is our guide and "the chosen" our identity?
11/10/2007
How to Live Without Sex (for Awhile)
This is not your grandmother's traditional sermon on sex. The three realms of fake intimacy discussed could be the greatest threat facing our nation, our church and personal faith. A non-simplistic and workable four-fold "Life and Sex Strategy" provides a map to wholesome exercise of God's gift within His prescribed restraints.
11/24/2007
An American Thanksgiving in Canaan
The God you gratefully remember is the God you will faithfully obey. Discover the secret to sustained gratitude.
12/08/2007
Crossing Over
The story of a leader who never crossed over, and how mercy still had the last word. Vital lessons for leaders in nations, work places, social groups, families, etcetera.
All Sermons
Fellowship Dinner
Pioneer Commons

 There will be a fellowship dinner following the second worship service in the commons.

Offering for January 10, 2026

Religious Liberty
 

Seventh-day Adventists have stood firmly for religious liberty—for everyone—for more than 150 years. But do you know the reason why? Part of the reason is that, when our church was founded, almost every American state had Sunday-keeping laws on the books. Adventist pastors, farmers, laborers, and others were arrested, jailed, or fined for doing “secular work” on Sunday. Even Wille White, son of James and Ellen, was arrested in Oakland, California, in 1882 for keeping the Pacific Press Publishing presses operating on a Sunday! But that’s not the full story. The deeper reason why we continue to stand for religious liberty—in the courts, before legislatures, and through the pages of Liberty magazine—is because we want to reflect the character of the God we serve. He’s a God who created us in His image and who has given each one of us the freedom to choose whom we will worship. He’s a God who, in the words of Ellen White, “desires only the service of love,” which “cannot be won by force or authority” (The Desire of Ages, 22).

Today, please help support this vital ministry of religious liberty. It’s a ministry that defends not only the rights of individual conscience, but also the ability of our church to continue to do its mission. And as we face uncertain days ahead, your prayers and support are needed now, more than ever.
 

—North American Division Stewardship Ministries