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1. A New Continuing
John 14:8-17, 25-27
Sermon
David R. Cartwright
That first Pentecost was a grand and glorious day. It was a new beginning. On that special day, God's people were reborn through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It was an extraordinary event. As Luke's Gospel reports it, all kinds of marvelous things took place on that day. As Jesus' disciples were all gathered in one place, there was first the sound of a mighty wind; then tongues of fire appe...
Sermon
David R. Cartwright
The situation was this: A young Jewish lawyer wanted to reassure himself that he was doing the right thing. To help him, Jesus took the opportunity to tell him a story. The story was designed to set the young man straight. The story begins the way a lot of stories begin. "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho" (Luke 10:30). At this point, we aren't told anything about the man. Not his na...
Sermon
David R. Cartwright
A teacher was fond of asking students in his counseling classes this question: "What can you know about a perfect stranger the moment you meet?" After the students had a go at the question, the professor shared his own answer, "You can bet that the stranger has just lost something." That person has just lost a job, a promotion, a loved one, a home, a car, a girlfriend, a boyfriend, their health, t...
Sermon
David R. Cartwright
There are two main ways to go about teaching someone something. You can teach them what you think they need to know, or may need to know sometime later on. Or you can teach them what you think they're ready to understand at the moment. These two approaches are the basic ways of going about teaching. But sometimes these two methods can come into conflict. I began my ministry as an associate minist...
Sermon
David R. Cartwright
We live in what has been called the "Information Age." We have more information at our disposal than any generation before us. We are flooded with bits of information, or should I say "bytes"? I think a much better description of our time would be the "Age of Distraction." Everybody and everything are out to get our attention. And one way to do that is to distract us from whatever we may have bee...
Sermon
David R. Cartwright
Jesus knew what to do all the time, and he knew how to go about it. He knew how to serve God in good times and in bad. In these scriptures from Luke, we continue to follow Jesus on the way to Jerusalem. But for now, the apparent destination of the trip has receded to the background. Something else has caught our attention. For one thing, Jesus' message of announcing the coming of the kingdom of G...
Sermon
David R. Cartwright
Jesus knew what rejection felt like. When he preached his first sermon in his hometown of Nazareth, things went well in the beginning. But after he was finished, the people ran him out of town. They even tried to run him off a cliff, but he managed to escape. That was the first time Jesus experienced rejection for what he was trying to do for God, but it was not to be the last. Many of us know ho...
8. Shaped by the Winds of God
Acts 2:1-13
Illustration
David R. Cartwright
Most times, when I'm called to conduct a funeral of a loved one from the church, I'm asked by the funeral director if I'd like to ride with them rather than to drive my own car. And most times, I take them up on the offer, for it is more relaxing not to have to worry about driving. I must say that I've had some interesting and informative drives out to the cemetery. One director told me about the ...
Sermon
David R. Cartwright
If there was anything Jesus despised, it was stinginess, especially the holding back of oneself. If there was anything he admired, it was extravagance, especially the extravagance of love. There are really only two ways to live. You can live as if this is the last drop, and there won't be anymore; or you can live as if there is more where this came from. We can live out of scarcity, or we can liv...
10. Undivided Attention  
Luke 10:38-42
Illustration
David R. Cartwright
Pastor David Cartwright tells this story about his daughter and homework. He says, back when our daughter, Megan, was in high school, she was trying to write a paper for her English class. She was experiencing what is known as "writer's block." I watched her pace up and down the family room, working herself up into quite a frenzy. Finally, she came over to me and said, "Dad, I just can't think of ...
Sermon
David R. Cartwright
How do you handle what happens when you're not prepared for what happens? Well, sometimes not all that well. I would like to call your attention to a movie, Cheaper By The Dozen, starring Steve Martin. There are numerous scenes in this movie that illustrate how one father tries to take care of things while his wife is away. This movie is about a father who has just gotten his dream job of coachin...
Sermon
David R. Cartwright
Those of us ministers actively engaged in congregational worship don't get many opportunities to visit other churches and to worship in different settings. We're pretty much committed to being in our own congregations for the better part of the year. Four or six Sundays at most is about all we have to experience how others go about it. Actually, this pattern begins for most of us even before we'r...
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