Light for the Journey: Recent Episodes
David Cartwright, Russell Memorial United Methodist Church
Join members of Russell Memorial United Methodist Church in Wills Point, Texas, as we go deeper into the Word of God with Pastor David Cartwright each week. Listen to the sermon of the church’s weekly worship service that has been conveniently converted into podcast so that the message can go with you wherever you travel.
This podcast is an audio version of a document made for RMUMC to briefly explain the changes to the Methodist denomination.
God tells Adam in Genesis 3:19 that “For dust you are and to dust you will return.” This verse is quoted a lot, especially at funerals, but how often do we really stop to think about the fact that our physical bodies are no more than so much clay clumped together? Our eternal selves reside within these clay jars that don’t last very long. That inner self is the focus of Pastor David Cartwright’s message this week, drawn from 2 Corinthians 4:5-18.
The Holy Trinity consists of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Every Pentecost, we celebrate the day when the Holy Spirit first came down to the original Christians shortly after God the Son returned to God the Father. But what exactly is the Holy Spirit? And how do we interact with it today? These are the questions Pastor David Cartwright answers in this week’s message, drawn from Romans 8:22-27 on Pentecost Sunday.
If you want to do anything difficult that requires muscle, you have to build up those muscles first through practice and exercise. The same is true of your Christian muscles; in order to do great things through God, you have to practice and exercise your faith. In this week’s message, drawn from Romans 12:1-2 and Philippians 4:4-13, Carol Miracle explains how we can build up those muscles and the benefits of doing so.
George Strait has a song called “I Saw God Today” in which he sings “I’ve been to church / I’ve read the book / I know He’s here / But I don’t look… / His fingerprints are everywhere / I just look down to stop and stare / Open my eyes and then I swear / I saw God today.” The song is about all the little things in our lives in which we can see God’s majesty and grace. In this week’s message, drawn from John 21:1-14, Pastor David Cartwright explains how Jesus exists not just in our worship spaces but more importantly in our everyday interactions, if we’re just willing to look.
When you hurt someone, you should always apologize to them and try to make up for it. When we sin, we sin not just against one another but primarily against God. In this week’s message, drawn from Psalm 51, Pastor David Cartwright explores how we can ask forgiveness for our sins and the way to achieve the truly penitent heart that God desires.
What does it mean to have faith? Faith is central to our, well, faith, but what is faith? How do we do it or experience it or feel it? And what do we do when we seem to lose it? In this week’s message, drawn from John 20:26-31, Pastor David Cartwright explores how Jesus’ disciples first reacted to reports that He had risen and examines the faith of the disciple we now call Doubting Thomas.
A story requires three things: something to tell, someone to tell it, and someone to hear it. Without those three things, a story cannot exist; it’s like the proverbial question, if a tree falls in the forest but no one hears it, does it make a sound? If something happens but no one tells it or if someone tells it but no one listens, has a story come into existence? In this week’s message from Easter Sunday, drawn from Mark 16:1-8, Pastor David Cartwright examines the importance of spreading the Easter story, both two thousand years ago and today.
Christians often say that Jesus came to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. When we say that, we often may imagine ourselves as the afflicted ones Jesus is comforting while other people are the ones Jesus is afflicting. After all, we are not the Pharisees and Sadducees that lost their way; those people, over there, are the ones that Jesus came to afflict. However, in this week’s message, from Palm Sunday and drawing on John 12:12-19, Pastor David Cartwright points to how Jesus challenges us all to see and understand our own sin instead of focusing on the sin of our neighbors.
“Amazing Grace” might just be the most well-known Christian song in the world today, but what is grace? Christians use that term a lot to refer to many different aspects of God’s benevolence. In this week’s message, given on the fifth Sunday of lent and drawn from John 16:16-22, Pastor David Cartwright explores God’s grace in what is to come, in what God has planned for us that we cannot even see yet.
This week’s message, drawn from John 17, comes from the fourth Sunday of Lent. In this week’s message, Pastor David Cartwright breaks down one of Jesus’ prayers, focusing on how Jesus viewed his own work and how he prayed for all of us. Pastor Cartwright has been doing a sermon series on being in the world but not a part of it, and today his focus is on how Jesus has already and continues to intercede on our behalves to help keep us focused on God’s work.
This week’s message comes from the third Sunday of lent. During this lent season, Pastor David Cartwright is doing a sermon series on how we as Christians are called to be in this world but not a part of it. This concept is often repeated in the church today, but it’s not necessarily easy to live out. In this week’s message, drawn from Romans 8:1-8, Pastor Cartwright explores how we can keep the spirit of God even while existing in this world.
This week’s message, drawn from 2 Corinthians 5:17-21, comes from the second week of lent. Last week, Pastor David Cartwright started a series exploring how Christians are called to be in the world but not part of the world. While that idea is repeated often in the Christian church today, it’s a bit of an oxymoron; how can we exist somewhere and not become a part of it? Pastor Cartwright delves into that very conundrum this week, comparing Christians to ambassadors who work in foreign lands for the good of their country. We are, in this view, ambassadors from God, here on a mission for His kingdom.
This week’s message comes from the first Sunday of Lent, the time when we prepare for the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. During Lent, it is traditional to reassess and repent of your sins`, to spend the forty days cleansing your soul so that you can be reborn with Jesus on Easter. In this week’s message, drawn from Ephesians 2:1-10, Pastor David Cartwright begins this season by exploring the three forces working against that goal: Satan, the flesh, and the world.
People often say that when you die, “You can’t take it with you.” No matter what possessions you amass in this world, you can’t bring them into the next life. Why? Because the things we have in this world are not really ours. In this week’s message, drawn from Matthew 6:19-21. Pastor David Cartwright reminds us that God has made us stewards of His world and explores what our duties as stewards are.
During this time of pandemic, the way we worship has changed out of necessity. Many people are worshipping online, and those who do worship in person are doing so socially distanced. With all this change, we still need to keep our minds and hearts centered in godly worship. In this week’s message, drawn from Deuteronomy 16:1-17, Pastor David Cartwright examines how God defines worship to think through how we should worship today, even during this unprecedented time.
There are many different ways that people work to become familiar with the Bible. For example, many children are encouraged to learn Bible verses by heart, to recite them at Sunday School each week. But how do we know that we’re really understanding the Bible rather than just learning what words are contained within it? In this week’s message, drawn from Hebrews 4:12, Romans 12:2, and Colossians 3:16, Pastor David Cartwright explores how we can mindfully learn about God through the Bible, how we can learn about the Word who is Jesus Christ rather than simply learning what words are on the page, and how we can then integrate those lessons into our daily lives.
How do you pray? Do you have long conversations with God every morning? Quickly thank him for your food at each meal? Count your blessings before you sleep? There are so many different ways and times to pray, and they all likely trace back to the time in Luke 11:1-13 when Jesus taught his disciples to pray. In this week’s message, Pastor David Cartwright breaks down Jesus’ template to better understand the elements of a godly prayer.
We have several ways for identifying who we are in the United States: driver’s license, birth certificate, social security card, passport, etc. But the Bible tells us that our primary proof of residence in the kingdom of God is the love we show each other. In this week’s message, drawn from Colossians 3:1-17, Carol Miracle identifies several ways that we can work on developing this Christianly love.
At the beginning of the new year, many people set fitness goals to get into better shape. They train their bodies by eating healthier food or by exercising more. But what can you do when you want to get into better spiritual shape? In this week’s message, drawn from Luke 2:39-52, Pastor David Cartwright talks about spiritual training and how to incorporate it into our daily lives.
Most people even remotely familiar with the nativity story know about the wise men who came from afar to see the newborn king, yet there’s so much about their story that we take for granted or have frankly made up over the years. In this week’s message, drawn from Matthew 2:1-12, Pastor David Cartwright breaks down what we know about their journey and relates that to the journey of faith that we all must take.
What does it mean to live an extraordinary life? How do we measure or recognize extraordinary lives? We have ways for measuring if someone should become a saint or should be inducted into a hall of fame, but does that mark that person’s life as truly extraordinary? In this week’s message, drawn from Luke 2:22-40, Pastor David Cartwright looks at some of the first people who recognized that not only would Jesus have an extraordinary life but that he himself was extraordinary.
Perhaps the most well-known Bible verse is John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son so that whomsoever shall believe in Him may not perish but may have everlasting life.” This love is the central element of the nativity story, and God’s love features prominently in our stories and songs this time of year. But how can we even begin to fathom God’s unfathomable, never-ending love? In this week’s message, from the fourth and final Sunday of Advent and inspired by Romans 5:1-5, Pastor David Cartwright focuses on understanding this love and how we can access it throughout our lives.
This week’s message comes from the third week of Advent, based on Isaiah 61:1-4. So far in this Advent, Pastor David Cartwright has examined what hope and peace mean to Christians, during Advent and the rest of the year. This week, he turns to the concept of joy. Joy can be found throughout the Bible and in countless Christmas carols and Christian hymns. At this time of year, we are constantly reminded that Jesus brought joy to the world, but what is that joy? How is that different from happiness or contentment? How should we see that joy in our daily lives? That’s what our sermon is about today.
The classic Christmas carol “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” reminds us that Christmas brings “tidings of comfort and joy.” When you think about comfort at Christmas, you may think of soft, warm sweaters or curling up next to the fire with a nice cup of coco and your loved ones nearby. In this week’s message, from the second Sunday of advent and drawn from Isaiah 40:1-11, Pastor David Cartwright explores what comfort Jesus brings the believer and how we should carry that comfort with us the whole year through.
This week’s message comes from the first week of Advent. Advent is a season of looking forward to the future, specifically looking forward to the coming of Christ. People nowadays often worry when looking to the future: will they downsize at work? Will my loved ones be safe? Will I get that grade/promotion/raise/date that I want? In this week’s message, drawn from Isaiah 7:10-14, Pastor David Cartwright reminds us that the season of Advent is a time of looking ahead that is full of hope, a hope that can and should fill the rest of our lives if we let it.
This week’s message comes from Christ the King Sunday, the Sunday that ends the Christian year and on which we remember the primacy and lordship of Jesus before we begin the anticipation of Christ’s birth that is advent. In this year’s Christ the King sermon, taken from Colossians 1: 9-20, pastor David Cartwright explores what it means for us to say that Christ is king and calls for us to joyfully choose Christ as king of our lives.
This week’s message comes from Youth Sunday and is given by our Youth Director, Jerry Don Huff. In his message, drawn from Matthew 16:24-26, Jerry Don discusses how we must follow God’s path for our lives, even if that path isn’t the one we want to take. Our duty, as Christians, is to constantly search for God’s plan for our life then choose to follow it.
This week’s message comes from United Methodist Women’s Sunday and is given by one of our United Methodist Women: Carol Miracle. In this message, drawn from 1 John 2:12-14, she traces the ways we are supposed to grow in our faith throughout our lives, having different relationships with God based on the relationships we develop in our communities.
This week’s message, drawn from Hebrews 11:39-12:2, comes from All Saints’ Sunday, the day in the Methodist calendar when we remember all of our brothers and sisters in Christ who have gone on before us. For this year’s All Saints’ Sunday, in a year steeped in death for those of us in the United States, Pastor David Cartwright reminds us that although our fellow Christians may no longer be with us physically, they have become a part of the cloud of saints that is always there to guide us and intercede on our behalf.
The Bible tells us to love our neighbor, but we can sometimes translate that a little too literally. Sure, we’ll love the person who lives next door, the person who is very like ourselves, but many of us struggle to cast our love a little further afield. In this week’s message, drawn from Luke 10:25-37, Pastor David Cartwright explores the parable of the good Samaritan to think about how Jesus defines “neighbor” and how we should spread our love today.
Usually, when someone tells you that you’re acting like a child, it’s not a compliment. They may mean that you’re acting immature or selfish or overly dramatic, but we all know that children are more than that. In fact, even though our culture wants us to just grow up, Jesus tells us that the only way to enter heaven is to act like a child. In this week’s message, drawn from Matthew 18: 15-17, Pastor David Cartwright explores what child-like qualities Jesus may have been referring to and how they prepare us for God’s kingdom.
Who should Christians associate with? In American culture, we often say that if you hang out with the wrong people, they’ll be a bad influence on you. This leads a lot of Christians to spend their time with other good, godly people, but that’s not what Jesus did. In this week’s message, based on Luke 19:1-10, Pastor David Cartwright looks at the story of Jesus and Zaccheus to explore who Jesus spent time with and how that should affect our own actions today.
We all know how the Israelites brought down the walls of Jericho: they walked around the walls once each day for six days, then seven times the seventh followed by a huge shout. But why did simply walking around the walls bring them tumblin’ down? In this week’s message, taken from the book of Joshua, Pastor David Cartwright explores the life of Israelite leader Joshua to discover what about this man’s faith enabled him to lead the Israelites in such an astounding feat.
The world can often feel like a dark and sinful place. That’s the kind of world that our story today begins in, a world where every living thing, from humans to animals, was so full of sin that God regretted His own creation. Everything, that is, besides one man and his family. In this week’s message, taken from Genesis 6-9, Pastor David Cartwright dives into the story of Noah and his famous arc to think about what it means for the world to be so sinful and the lessons we can glean from this story to deal with sin in our world today.
We all know the story of Daniel and his fateful trip to the lion’s den. But could there be more to this story? In this week’s message, based on Daniel 6, Pastor David Cartwright delves deeper into this beloved Bible story to show that not all lions have paws and claws.
The story of Samson and Delilah is a well-known one: Samson is super strong because he never cuts his hair, he tells Delilah that, she tells other people who then cut Samson’s hair and chain him up, Samson pulls down a building. But there’s more to the story. In this week’s message, drawn from Judges 13-16, Pastor David Cartwright delves into Samson’s life to explore more deeply just why losing his hair brings Samson down so that we can avoid a similar fate.
David and Goliath are perhaps some of the most well-known characters in the Bible. Their names are also often used as metaphors when an under-dog wins. You may sometimes feel like you’re facing a metaphorical Goliath in your life, something so big that there’s no way you could win, but we know the end to the story: David wins. But how does a young shepherd with no armor defeat a well-trained giant? In this week’s message, Pastor David Cartwright walks us through David’s story in 1 Samuel 17 to show us that David’s faith in God is what really wins the day.
Moses appears in the New Testament, both as a symbol of the law and in person on the mount of transfiguration. But could Moses’ life be seen as a precursor of the Gospel itself? In this week’s message, based on Exodus 3, 19, Pastor David Cartwright explores ways that Moses’ life foreshadows Jesus’s own life, death, and resurrection, binding the Old Testament and New Testament together in a way that reveals God’s master plan.
If you’ve been around church for any amount of time, there’s a good chance you’ve heard the creation story a time or two. We usually end that story with how Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit and were cast out of Eden, but in telling it over and over again, some of the details may have run together or lost their shine. In this week’s message, taken from Genesis 2:15-3:24, Pastor David Cartwright walks us through this passage again to help us see the Garden of Eden, its two trees, and Adam and Eve’s choice anew.
You’re probably familiar with the expression “that person has a big head”, meaning that that person’s ego has grown too big. Imagine for a moment that a person’s head would really grow in size and weight when they became too cocky; how much of a burden would that be? You might struggle to lift your head, to fit your head through your shirt, even to walk through doorways, if it truly got out of hand. In this week’s message, taken from 2 Corinthians 4:7-12, Pastor David Cartwright reminds us that while our ego may not weigh us down physically, it is a spiritual burden, one that God asks us to surrender to Him.
Children often feel safest at night when they’re lying under a blanket, where the monsters can’t see them, and they might want to carry that safety blanket around them for those times in waking hours when something frightens them. We all just want to feel safe. This week, preaching from 2 Kings 6:8-23, Pastor David Cartwright reminds us that we are always safe because we have the ultimate protection in God.
An Indian parable tells the story of three blind men who come across an elephant for the first time. One man feels its trunk and believes it is a snake. One man feels his leg and believes it is a tree trunk. The final man feels its tail and thinks it is a rope. None of them can understand what an elephant is because they only have a partial view. Their understanding does not change what the elephant is, but, every day, people allow others to shape their self-identity based on a similar partial picture. In this week’s message, based on John 4:1-42, Pastor David Cartwright encourages us to understand how God, who can see every aspect of us, knows who we are.
Where do you look for satisfaction? Do you find satisfaction when you succeed at work, or in your skills and hobbies, or in the joys of your family? In this week’s message, taken from John 7:37-39, Pastor David Cartwright reminds us that the most refreshing satisfaction comes from God and gives some suggestions on how to find it.
This week’s message, taken from 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 and Hebrews 10:24-25, concludes the sermon series based on I am a Church Member by Thom S. Rainer. The first five weeks of the sermon series focused on how to be a functioning, unifying, and selfless member of the church who prays for their preacher and uses their influence with their family to strengthen the church. In this final week, Pastor David Cartwright reminds us that being a church member is a gift, not an obligation: our church family is there to help us thrive in life while we uplift God’s message and work, and it should be our joy to help with that mission.
This week’s message, taken from 1 Corinthians 16:15-20, continues the sermon series based on I am a Church Member by Thom S. Rainer. The first four weeks of the sermon series focused on how to be a functioning unifying, and selfless member of the church who prays for their preacher, and this week, we move to thinking about how we can influence those outside the church. In particular, this week, Pastor David Cartwright reminds us of the influence we have over our family and how we should use this influence to encourage our family to support God’s church.
This week’s message, taken from 1 Timothy 3:1-7, continues the sermon series based on I am a Church Member by Thom S. Rainer. The first three weeks of the sermon series focused on how to be a functioning unifying, and selfless member of the church, and this week, we move to thinking about one of the most important things the congregation can do for its leader: praying for the preacher. Pastor David Cartwright explains the importance of praying for your preacher, especially for wisdom as he leads the church in a godly direction without selfish pride.
This week’s message, based in Phillipians 2:1-5, continues the sermon series based on I am a Church Member by Thom S. Rainer. The first two weeks of the sermon series focused on how to be a functioning and unifying member of the church, and this week, we move to being a selfless member. If we are to function as one, unified body, we must first put others, and our church, before ourselves. Pastor David Cartwright discusses how to put the good of the church before our own preferences and conveniences.
This week’s message, based in Ephesians 4:1-3 and Colossians 3:12-14, continues the sermon series based on I am a Church Member by Thom S. Rainer. Last week, we began by discussing how to be a functioning member, and this week, we move to being a unifying member. In order for the church to succeed in its mission, we must all work together, in unison, but that’s not always easy. Pastor David Cartwright outlines a few ways that we can each work on being a unifying force within our own church, starting with stopping gossip and forgiving our church brothers and sisters.
Today’s message is the first in a sermon series based on I am a Church Member by Thom S. Rainer. According to Rainer, the first step of being a church member is to function like a member of the church, which means working with others towards the major goals of the worldwide and local church. The Apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians 12:4-7, 12, 14-27, talks about members of the church like different body parts: each body part does something different, but we need all of the parts working together to accomplish anything. Today, Pastor David Cartwright asks us to consider what our own role in the church is and whether we’re functioning successfully in that role.
This week’s message comes from Pentecost Sunday, as described in Acts 2:1-12, when we celebrate the day when the Christian church began. On that day, shortly after Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension, all the elements came together to ignite and start a movement bigger than any single person there could imagine, a movement that is still going today. Pastor David Cartwright breaks down the elements necessary to ignite a Christian revival as seen on Pentecost and calls for us all to bring these elements together today in our own lives.
In this difficult time, when things seem so bleak, where do you look for hope? This week’s message is based on an entry of the journal of John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church. Pastor David Cartwright charts Wesley’s Christian journey leading to what is called Aldergate’s Day, the day that Wesley had an epiphany about what is perhaps the central question for the Christian faith: from where does your hope in salvation come?
This week’s message, drawn from Acts 1:1-11, is about Jesus’ ascension. When Jesus was ready to ascend to the right hand of God, He passed his work and his message onto the disciples, beginning a relay race that continues today. Pastor David Cartwright discusses what Jesus gave all of us and how we can run our leg of the relay race and continue passing the baton along.
What is love? This week, Pastor David Cartwright discusses the biblical definition of love as seen in 1 Corinthians 13:1-7. He tells us that biblical love is unlike the love we see in films and television; it is not easy or sappy, and it goes beyond just the physical manifestations that show our love. Biblical love is hard, but it’s also the most important thing we do as Christians. After all, they will know us by our love.
This week, the fourth week of Easter, Pastor David Cartwright reminds us that God does not change, but the way He interacts with us might. In this light, Jesus’s birth, death, and resurrection, our salvation, was just a new old thing; a new variation on the same theme. In this week’s passage, taken from Luke 24:44-53, the disciples witness Jesus’ ascension, a new confirmation of what God has said and done before, but this uplifting scene only comes after several anxious days of waiting. Pastor Cartwright encourages us all to see this time of quarantine, or any time when God may seem distant, as a similar period of waiting before the next new old thing.
This week’s message, taken from Luke 24:28-35, comes from the third Sunday of Easter. After Jesus’ resurrection, Jesus appears to more of his disciples, who invite Him in and participate in communion with Him. Pastor David Cartwright reminds us, in these turbulent times, when traditional communion may be impractical, that any time we invite Jesus in, we participate in a communal relationship with Him.
This week’s message, drawn from Luke 24:13-27, is one of purpose in a time of uncertainty. In the days after Jesus died, a time when his disciples were scared of what the future held and mostly stayed indoors in fear of dangers of the outside world, Jesus appeared to two of his own disciples who did not recognize him; he had to realign their understanding of himself and God’s word before they realized who it was they spoke to. Today, Pastor David Cartwright suggests that we take this time of quarantine to likewise align our vision with God’s plan and purpose.
This week’s message, drawn from Luke 24: 1-8, comes from our Easter service. During this global pandemic, as we are unable to meet and worship the way we usually do, it is easy to feel downcast, like the apostles did the Saturday after Jesus’ death. Pastor David Cartwright reminds us that, in such dark times, we know that Sunday morning is coming. Just as Jesus told his disciples that He would rise again, God has promised us that He will always overcome the worst the world has to offer. Will we listen and hold onto the hope for Sunday?
The message this week comes from Palm Sunday’s sermon, taken from Luke 19:28-44. We all know the image of Palm Sunday: Jesus riding into Jerusalem as the crowds cheer and lay down palms and cloaks for Jesus to ride over. We often talk about this day as one of victory and joy, when the people of Jerusalem finally worshipped Jesus. Yet the scriptures tell us that Jesus wept over the city and decried its citizens. Why does Jesus feel such sorrow in the middle of such joy? Today, Pastor David Cartwright suggests that Jesus mourned that the people just didn’t get what was really happening and encourages us to try and get what is happening today amid this global pandemic.
This week, Pastor David Cartwright gives a message on Luke 18:18-30, which tells of a time when a rich young ruler approaches Jesus to ask what else he must do to enter the kingdom of heaven. While Jesus tells this man that the last thing he must do is give away all his possessions, Pastor Cartwright tells us today that we all have one last thing that we must give up to enter the kingdom of heaven. It may not always be money, but we all have one thing that we put before God, the thing that's keeping us from following God with our whole heart.
In this week's sermon, Pastor David Cartwright discusses the Parable of the Prodigal Son as told in Luke 15:1-2, 11-32. He explores the prodigality of both sons and the father within the story, arguing that the father, a symbol of God, shows prodigal love for both his sons and all of us.
In this sermon, Pastor David Cartwright talks about the differences between gate keeping (having such high expectations of others that everyone is kept out of the kingdom of God) and holding open doors (welcoming everyone into God's family). The scripture for today comes from Luke 11:37-52.