Finals are just around the corner, and we’re excited to provide Finals Survival Kits—filled with goodies to help students stay focused during finals week. We invite you to volunteer or donate items for the survival kit! To sign up, please text the word "FINALS" to 269-281-2345.
Charmed into Righteousness
The Truest Friend
Speaker
Dwight K. NelsonDwight 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
Saturday, January 09, 2016
Program:
As We Begin
What a Friend We Have in Jesus • Robert Hobby
Praise
He Is Exalted • Shout to the Lord • Amazed
Prayer
Don Dronen
Welcome New Media Ministries Director
Richard Parke
"By the Word of Their Testimony"
Korollos N. Abdelmalak with Rodlie Ortiz
GROW Groups Video
Keith Wakefield
Children's Story
Jesus, What a Friend for Sinners • Dale Wood
Worship in Music
Jesus, Lover of My Soul • Gilbert Martin
Sermon
“Charmed into Righteousness: The Truest Friend” • Dwight K. Nelson
Connect Card, Tithes & Offerings
Hymn
Jesus, What a Friend for Sinners • 187
As We Depart
Jesus, My Joy • Theophil Forchhammer
More In This Series
“Charmed into Righteousness: The Truest Friend”
Reinhold Niebuhr: "On the whole, people do not achieve great moral heights out of a sense of duty. You may be able to compel them to maintain certain minimum standards by stressing duty, but the highest moral and spiritual achievements depend not upon a push but upon a pull. People must be charmed into righteousness.” (Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic 75)
Ellen White: "You cannot but be charmed with the matchless attractions of the Son of God." (Christian Education 76)
- Romans 5:6-8, 10
- The Timeline of the Good News
- God loved us and Christ died for us:
- “While we were still .” (v 6)
- “While we were still .” (v 8)
- “While we were still ” (v 10)
- Three timelines, one truth: God us we were lovable.
- Walt Mueller: “. . . for digital natives living out their lives in the online world, the identity options from which to choose are virtually limitless. Kids [and adults] are able to perform through a growing multitude of social media sites by choosing the words they post (true and false), and by posing and photo-shopping themselves into images that don’t come close to who they really are. As media critic Quentin Schultze has observed, ‘The digital world suffocates virtue by allowing us unbridled freedom to be all things to all people . . . to give ourselves over to the highest bidder or to the most persuasive master’” (YouthWorker Journal Jan/Feb 2015 pp 16-17).
- Michael Horton: Psychiatrist Keith Ablow warns of “‘the toxic psychological impact of media and technology on children, adolescents and young adults [and not so young adults], particularly as it regards turning them into faux [false] celebrities—the equivalent of lead actors in their own fictionalized life stories. . . . On Facebook, young [and not so young] people can fool themselves into thinking they have hundreds or thousands of “friends.” They can delete unflattering comments. They can block anyone who disagrees with them or pokes holes in their inflated self-esteem. . . . Using Twitter, young [and not so young] people can pretend they are worth “following,” as though they have real-life fans, when all that is really happening is the mutual fanning of false love and false fame’” (or-di-nar-y: Sustainable faith in a radical, restless world 60).
- The Father loved us and Christ died for us we could spiritually photoshop ourselves into an acceptable, attractive state.
- Ezekiel 16:4-10, 15, 22
- Romans 3:10-18
- God loved us and Christ died for us:
- The Truth of the Good News
- Desmond Ford: “With the gospel, it’s the opposite. It must be true because it’s so good! The word ‘God’ is just a contraction of the word ‘good.’ The word ‘devil’ is just an expansion of the word ‘evil.’ God is good, ‘gooder’ than we could ever think, just as we are ‘worser’ than we ever thought. You have to keep the two at equipoise. God is better than we ever considered. We’re worse than we ever suspected.” (Right With God Right Now 83)
- John Peckham: “Scripture presents God as affectionate and loving, devotedly interested and intimately concerned about humans, affected by the world in feeling joy and delight in goodness, yet sorrow, passion and intense anger at evil, alongside profound compassion and the desire to redeem humans. While none can overpower God, he is affected by worldly events because he has willingly opened himself up to reciprocal love relationship with creatures. . . . God enjoys and is deeply affected by reciprocal (though asymmetrical) relationship with humans” (The Love of God: A Canonical Model 189).
- Romans 5:10 TEV: “We were God’s enemies, but he made us his through the death of his Son. Now that we are God’s , how much more will we be saved by Christ’s life!”
- John 15:13, 14—“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s . You are my if you do what I command.
- Steps to Christ 100: “The relations between God and each soul are as distinct and full as though there were not another soul upon the earth to share His watchcare, not another soul for whom He gave His beloved Son.”
- p 74—[Jesus is our] “ and Saviour still.”
- p 78—“. . . what a friend [we have] found in Jesus . . .”
- p 93—“Prayer is the opening of the heart to God as to a .”
- p 103—“He [God the Father] is [our] friend.”
- p 122—“Jesus is our .”
- May 24, 1905 letter: “My dear child Mabel—O that we all realized that true happiness is found in taking Christ as our and friend. . . . He loves you and will be your .” (Letter 147 1905)
- Adventist Home 204—“[Jesus] knows the burdens of every mother’s heart and is her friend. . . . He is woman’s friend today and is ready to aid her in all the relations of life.”
- Mind, Character and Personality 2:491 (in a letter to an aged Christian)—“Just rest in [Jesus’] arms and know He is your Savior and your Friend, and He will never leave you or forsake you.”
- How to grow this friendship through prayer: https://www.pmchurch.tv/newwaytopray
“Best Friends Forever and Ever”
Belong: Finals Survival Kit
Easter Lilies for Home Visitation Members
Help us show our home bound and assisted living members that we haven't forgotten them. This afternoon we have an Easter Lily to deliver to them. It just takes a few minutes, but a flower and prayer, puts a smile on their face every time they look at it. We will give you a card with their name and address on it.
Telling the Andrews University Story
On Saturday, April 19, 3:30 PM, at Mars Community Center, Michiana Adventist Forum will host an interview with Dr. Meredith Jones Gray, author of “As We Set Forth” (2002) and “Forward in Faith” (2024). This two-volume set recounts the history of Andrews University from its early days as Battle Creek College and Emmanuel Missionary College. In this interview, Dr. Jones Gray will reflect on her research and writing process as it intersects with her own long history at Andrews. Mars Community Center is located at 26-50 Sylvester Ave., Berrien Springs. Everyone is welcome.
Andrews University Symphony Orchestra
Saturday April 19 at 8:30 PM, the Andrews University Symphony Orchestra is presenting the WAUS "Thank You Concert" in the Howard Performing Arts Center. This performance is sponsored by the radio station and the admission is free. Dr. Chi Yong Yun will be featured as guest soloist on Schumann's piano concerto in A minor, and the University Singers and Chorale will be performing Franck's Psalm 150 and The Heavens Are Telling from Haydn's oratorio The Creation.
In Memory With Hope
If you would like to honor the memory of someone who has passed away since last Easter, you are invited to bring a spring flower to place at the foot of the cross during the Processional of Hope at either service this coming Sabbath, April 19, 2025.
Offering for April 19, 2025
Pioneer Operating Budget
Charles Schwab, Bank of America, and Fidelity are among many financial institutions that provide financial advisers to help people invest their money to prepare for retirement. Christ gave solid investment advice, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21 NKJV).
In other words, invest your treasures in the kingdom of heaven. God has a simple plan in place to finance His kingdom work here on earth. It’s so simple. First, He blesses His children, and then they return faithfully the tithe and freewill offerings. That’s it. As there are greater needs in growing God’s kingdom, He increases the blessings He gives to His children. So, the more faithfully we return, the more He gives. This is the divine partnership God wants His people to understand. There is no other plan, no substitute, no alternate. An all-wise God knew the right plan from the beginning. His investment system is fail-proof. Do you want to see God do a miracle? Let’s invest in Kingdom work and watch Him work His wonders.
—North American Division Stewardship Ministries
K-ANTHONY and Friends
Join us for a free vespers concert at the Howard Performing Arts Center lobby on April 25, 2025. K-Anthony and Friends will engage us in an awesome evening of worship and vibing.
Howard Series Presents: Carla Trynchuk & Elena Braslavsky in Concert
Violinist Carla Trynchuk and pianist Elena Braslavsky will be performing a recital including works by Bach, Brahms, and the Ukrainian composer Silvestrov. Trynchuk, faculty at Andrews University, has performed internationally as soloist and recitalist in more than 15 countries. Braslavsky, formerly a faculty member at The Juilliard School and the Mannes School of Music, currently serves on the piano faculty of the Mozarteum University of Salzburg. Trynchuk and Braslavsky were classmates together at The Juilliard School. Please visit us at our website howard.andrews.edu to purchase your concert tickets.
Best Buddies Friendship Walk
Best buddies is a worldwide organization that fosters relationships between individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities with others in the community. This April there will be a friendship walk on the Andrews campus. This will help us raise money for the organization, which then helps other chapters to be opened in new schools as well as programs in schools, workplaces, and communities. If you are interested in joining us for the walk you can sign up, and if you can not join us on April 27 you can still donate. All donations are welcome and appreciated.
Memorial Service for Bruce Wrenn
The Memorial Service for Bruce Wrenn will be on Sabbath, April 26 at 5 PM at Pioneer Memorial Church. Visitation with the family will be in the Narthex from 4-5 PM.