Peace and the Over-Shepherd

November 23, 2025 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Bible, Broadway, Broadway Street, Christ, christianity, church, Colossae, Colossians, faith, God, Jeremiah, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John Partridge, King, Luke, Methodist, Ohio, overshepherd, Paul, savior, shepherd, undershepherd

Peace and the Over-Shepherd

(Christ the King Sunday)

November 23, 2025*

By Pastor John Partridge

Jeremiah 23:1-6 Luke 23:33-43 Colossians 1:11-20

C.S. Lewis once said that we simply cannot say that we accept Jesus as a great moral teacher but not accept that Jesus is God. Lewis explained it this way in his book, Mere Christianity:

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

Going in a different direction to explain Lewis’s point, if you haven’t yet done so, I strongly recommend reading the classic novel, Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan. This book was originally published in February 1678 and has been rewritten in modern languages many times since. It was in reading this book that I first encountered the term “under-shepherd” which refers to those people, such as pastors and lay leaders but also sometimes kings, who lead and guide the flocks of God’s followers and who therefore serve under the Chief Shepherd, Jesus Christ. And it was this word, and this understanding, that came to mind as I read our scriptures for today. We begin by reading from Jeremiah 23:1-6 as God condemns the spiritual and political leaders that have led Israel and Judah astray and caused them to come to harm. Jeremiah writes:

^23:1 “Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!” declares the Lord. ²Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to the shepherds who tend my people: “Because you have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not bestowed care on them, I will bestow punishment on you for the evil you have done,” declares the Lord. ³“I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and will bring them back to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and increase in number. ⁴I will place shepherds over them who will tend them, and they will no longer be afraid or terrified, nor will any be missing,” declares the Lord.

⁵“The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
    “when I will raise up for Davida righteous Branch,
a King who will reign wisely
    and do what is just and right in the land.
⁶In his days Judah will be saved
    and Israel will live in safety.
This is the name by which he will be called:
    The Lord Our Righteous Savior.

It doesn’t take a genius to understand that God is not at all happy with the failed shepherds that had been, and were still, leading his people. By their actions, and their inaction, they had caused God’s people to lose their faith, to be defeated and captured by their enemies, and to flee to wherever they could to find safety. God goes as far as to say that Israel’s leaders had driven God’s people away from him by their failure to adequately care for them and, for doing so, God intended to punish those leaders for their evil. But God wouldn’t stop there. God also announces his intention to gather those who remained faithful, from all of the nations to which they had been taken or to which they had fled, bring them back to his pasture, and enable and empower them to be fruitful and increase in number. God would then appoint replacement shepherds who would protect them and keep them safe. In addition, God then promises that there will be a day when he would send a new king, a new over-shepherd or chief shepherd, who would rule wisely, with justice and righteousness, and who would rule over both Judah and Israel, and who would be known as both Lord and Savior.

At this point, we all know who Jeremiah was describing, but we can hear Luke’s answer to the prophecy of Jeremiah as we hear the way that he describes the events of Jesus’ crucifixion in Luke 23:33-43 where he says:

³³When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. ³⁴Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

³⁵The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.”

³⁶The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar ³⁷and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”

³⁸There was a written notice above him, which read: this is the king of the Jews.

³⁹One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”

⁴⁰But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? ⁴¹We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”

⁴²Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

⁴³Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

As we consider this conversation, we realize that the man described only as “the other criminal,” after only a few hours on the cross next to Jesus, has grasped something that even Jesus’ disciples struggled to understand. This man looks to Jesus and asks that he remember him when Jesus comes into his kingdom. (pause) In that moment, the man known as the “other criminal” understands that Jesus has power and authority far beyond an ordinary human being and beyond that of chief priests and kings. And having made this request, Jesus answers that before the day was over, they would meet again in paradise. Although it is unlikely that the “other criminal” made any connection between Jesus and the person described by Jeremiah, I think that Luke certainly made that connection and uses this story to tell the world that Jesus is the Chief Shepherd, King, and eternal savior of God’s people.

Paul obviously understands this, and goes one step further in his description of Jesus and of Jesus’ authority as he writes to the church in Colossae in Colossians 1:11-20, saying:

¹¹May you be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, ¹²and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified youto share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. ¹³For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, ¹⁴in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

¹⁵The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. ¹⁶For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. ¹⁷He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have supremacy. ¹⁹For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, ²⁰and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

Paul says that because of the work of Jesus Christ, God has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his people, rescued us from darkness, and brought us into the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Because of him, we have been forgiven of our sins and redeemed from sin and death. Further, Paul says that Jesus is in control of all that exists and is the force that keeps everything in the universe from coming apart. Jesus is the head and chief shepherd of the church, the first to rise from the dead, and through him God created a path for all people to restore their relationships with God. It was through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross that God is able to bring peace to our lives and to the world.

To summarize, God got angry that the under-shepherds that he had sent to oversee his people broke trust with both God and the people, and God promised that he was going to make things right first by sending replacement shepherds, but would also, eventually, send a new chief shepherd, king, and savior. Luke makes it clear that Jesus is the fulfillment of that promise, and Paul expands on this and explains that Jesus not only oversees God’s people but also oversees the entire universe and holds it all together. It is Jesus that has rescued us from sin and death, it is Jesus who has made it possible to receive a portion of the inheritance of God’s people, it is Jesus who has made it possible to repair our relationship with God, to make our home in God’s heavenly kingdom, and it is Jesus who has made peace possible, both in our lives as individuals, but also between the peoples of the world.

The message of scripture is clear. Jesus simply cannot be reduced to a description of “just a great moral teacher” because God’s promises, and Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, make it abundantly clear that he is much, much more than that. Jesus is the Chief-Shepherd, the king of the universe, the savior of the world, and the source of all peace.

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*You have been reading a message presented at Christ United Methodist Church on the date noted at the top of the first page. Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Christ UMC in Alliance, Ohio. Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry, if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you. Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry or any of our other projects may be sent to Christ United Methodist Church, 470 East Broadway Street, Alliance, Ohio 44601. These messages are available to any interested persons regardless of membership. You may subscribe to these messages, in print or electronic formats, by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at secretary@CUMCAlliance.org. These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.com . All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.comThe “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Moving from Tears to Victory

November 16, 2025 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Broadway, childhood, Christ, church, faith, God, Isaiah, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John Partridge, Luke, Methodist, Ohio, pain, Paul, tears, trauma, victory

Moving from Tears to Victory

November 16, 2025*

By Pastor John Partridge

Isaiah 65:17-25 Luke 21:5-19 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13

Today, I want you to think about what the word “Childhood” means. Our ideal hope is that it refers to a time of innocence, playfulness, learning, development, and growth. But we all know that not all childhoods are created equally. Some of us had a childhood that leaned toward the ideal, but we all know of others whose childhood was less than ideal, or that ended much earlier than it should have because of a crisis, trauma, or death in the family. I have heard psychologists say that the childhood of an entire generation was shifted in important ways because of the national trauma that we all experienced on September 11^th, 2001. But as much as we all would like everyone to have an idyllic childhood, our reality is that because we are imperfect humans that live in an imperfect world, even when we are doing well, most childhood fall far short of our ideals.

As parents, no matter how hard we try we cannot protect our children forever. The best that we can do is to give them the best start that we can because, sooner or later, in childhood or early adulthood, our children are going to experience loss, trauma, suffering, and other unpleasantness. If we’re honest, we can admit that experiencing those things, and learning to overcome them, or at least to survive them, contributes strongly to our maturity as adults. But even so, sometimes the tears, sorrow, suffering, trauma, and loss are hard to move past and we not only struggle with what we have experienced, but our path to maturity gets stuck, and we drag these negative experiences along with us as unwanted emotional and spiritual baggage.

And so, it’s fair for us to ask how we can move past our trauma, and to unload the baggage that we carry. And this is one of the questions for which we might find some answers as we read and think about our scriptures this morning. We begin this morning by reading the words of God from the prophet Isaiah. In these words, Isaiah writes to the people of Judah, both warning them that they will be conquered by the nation of Babylon, and that they will be carried off into captivity, but also that God would not forget them, and that they would one day return home. Reading from Isaiah 65:17-25, we hear these words:

¹⁷“See, I will create
    new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered,
    nor will they come to mind.
¹⁸But be glad and rejoice forever
    in what I will create,
for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight
    and its people a joy.
¹⁹I will rejoice over Jerusalem
    and take delight in my people;
the sound of weeping and of crying
    will be heard in it no more.

²⁰“Never again will there be in it
    an infant who lives but a few days,
    or an old man who does not live out his years;
the one who dies at a hundred
    will be thought a mere child;
the one who fails to reacha hundred
    will be considered accursed.
²¹They will build houses and dwell in them;
    they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
²²No longer will they build houses and others live in them,
    or plant and others eat.
For as the days of a tree,
    so will be the days of my people;
my chosen ones will long enjoy
    the work of their hands.
²³They will not labor in vain,
    nor will they bear children doomed to misfortune;
for they will be a people blessed by the Lord,
    they and their descendants with them.
²⁴Before they call I will answer;
    while they are still speaking I will hear.
²⁵The wolf and the lamb will feed together,
    and the lion will eat straw like the ox,
    and dust will be the serpent’s food.
They will neither harm nor destroy
    on all my holy mountain,”
says the Lord.

God tells the people of Judah that his creation is not done and that there will come a time when he will once again resume his work after his original seven days of creation. God promises that after all of the destruction, sorrow, suffering, and death that his people would witness, that he was one day going to start over and create a new heaven and a new earth and in that new place, the pain and grief of the our former world would fade and be forgotten. In these words, God promises a future filled with hope where weeping and crying would no longer be heard among his people and where life’s greatest sorrows and traumas would never happen again. Instead, God says that in that place everyone would be able to keep the things for which they had worked, fear of the natural world would be no more, and everyone, as well as their descendants, would be blessed.

But we all know that years of pain and suffering separated the people of Judah from the time of Isaiah’s words until the time of their return from captivity in Babylon. There was a separation between the time of the promise and the time of God’s restoration. Likewise, Jesus warns us that following him is not a magic bullet. By choosing to follow Jesus, our lives are not miraculously transformed into joy without pain. Instead, Jesus warns his disciples that while we are promised victory against our enemies, we must still endure hardship, pain, and suffering before that day comes. In Luke 21:5-19, we hear this Jesus describing the destruction of Jerusalem that would come forty years in the future in 70 CE, but Jesus also describes God’s promise of victory:

⁵Some of his disciples were remarking about how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and with gifts dedicated to God. But Jesus said, ⁶“As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down.”

⁷“Teacher,” they asked, “when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are about to take place?”

⁸He replied: “Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not follow them. ⁹When you hear of wars and uprisings, do not be frightened. These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away.”

¹⁰Then he said to them: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. ¹¹There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.

¹²“But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. They will hand you over to synagogues and put you in prison, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. ¹³And so you will bear testimony to me. ¹⁴But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. ¹⁵For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. ¹⁶You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. ¹⁷Everyone will hate you because of me. ¹⁸But not a hair of your head will perish. ¹⁹Stand firm, and you will win life.

As Jesus and his disciples walk the streets of Jerusalem, and they marvel at a city that was filled with the magnificent architecture built by King Herod’s engineers as well as the most powerful kings and empires of the previous several hundred years. But Jesus warns them that many of them will live to see the day that, as marvelous as it was, it would all be destroyed and left in ruins. Further, Jesus says, they would see deceivers and imposters that would claim to be sent by Jesus, or even to be Jesus, they would hear of wars and uprisings, earthquakes, famines, pestilence, natural disasters, ominous portents, and signs, as well as personal suffering and persecution. Jesus says that everything that could go wrong, would go wrong, but no matter what happened, God would protect them if they would stand firm in their faith. The disciples understood that Jesus was saying that even if their suffering resulted in imprisonment, torture, and death, God would still greet them as they entered his kingdom as victors and conquerors and not as victims or the conquered. God’s promise is that because the war with the enemy has already been won, no matter what pain we might experience during our lives, we will stand as victors in life if we will only stand firm in our faith.

But as much as we might appreciate Jesus’ warning of future struggle and the hope of ultimate victory, we are still left with trying to figure out how to navigate through the life that we have been given in the world and the culture in which we live. And for that, we look once again to the Apostle Paul who gives life advice to the church in Thessalonica as he writes in 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13, saying:

⁶In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers and sisters, to keep away from every believer who is idle and disruptive and does not live according to the teachingyou received from us. ⁷For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, ⁸nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. ⁹We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you to imitate. ¹⁰For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.”

¹¹We hear that some among you are idle and disruptive. They are not busy; they are busybodies. ¹²Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the food they eat. ¹³And as for you, brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is good.

Paul tells the church that it is important how you choose your friends. While we are called to reach out to the lost people around us and to share the good news of Jesus Christ with everyone that we can, it remains vitally important that we protect ourselves. And one key tool that we have to do that is to surround ourselves with hardworking people of strong and solid faith who live lives of integrity and follow the teachings that have been handed down to us. Paul points out that even when he had every right to ask for some assistance from the church when he and his team were with them, he chose not to exercise his rights and instead they all worked secular jobs as well as preaching and teaching so that they would set a good example for the people of the church to model and imitate. Instead, Paul says, each of us who is able should work hard to contribute in every way that we can and not be tempted into idleness or disrupting the work that others are doing.

Taken together, what have we learned today?

First, that God promises a future filled with hope where weeping and crying would no longer be heard among his people and where life’s greatest sorrows and traumas would never happen again. But also, when we choose to follow Jesus, our lives are not miraculously transformed into joy without pain. Instead, Jesus warns his disciples that while we are promised victory against our enemies, we must still endure hardship, pain, and suffering before that day comes. We will live to see deceivers and imposters that claim to be sent by Jesus, we will hear of wars and uprisings, earthquakes, famines, pestilence, natural disasters, omens, and signs, and endure personal suffering and persecution. Jesus says that everything that can go wrong, could go wrong, but no matter what happens, God will protect us if we stand firm in our faith.

But to do that, it is important how we choose our friends. While we are called to reach out to lost people and to share the good news of Jesus Christ with everyone that we can, it remains vitally important that we protect ourselves. And to do that we must surround ourselves with hardworking people of strong and solid faith who live lives of integrity and follow the teachings that have been handed down to us. We must work hard to contribute in every way that we can and not be tempted into idleness or disrupting the work that others are doing.

Like Paul and his missionary team in Thessalonica, a part of our calling is to live our lives as a model for others to follow. We are called to live lives that are filled with hope because we know that although none of us will pass through this life without experiencing pain, heartbreak, suffering, grief, and loss, we keep hold of God’s promise of a new creation where there will no longer be tears, sorrow, or death. But between here and there, we must stand firm in our faith in Jesus, surround ourselves with strong, hardworking people of faith, and…

…never stop doing good.

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A Future Without Fear

November 9, 2025 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Bible, Broadway, Christ, christianity, church, death, despair, faith, future, God, Haggai, hope, Jesus, Jesus Christ, loss, Luke, Methodist, Ohio, Paul, resurrection, sadness, work

A Future Without Fear

November 09, 2025*

By Pastor John Partridge

Haggai 1:15b-2:9 Luke 20:27-38 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17

What do you do when your reality falls far, far short of your dreams and expectations, or your life reeks of disappointment? Or when your philosophical and theological adversaries show up to make fun of you in the public square and point out how your beliefs don’t make sense? Or when the church across town is preaching stuff about Jesus that isn’t true, everyone is talking about it, and even the people in your church are starting to believe it?

Does that sound a little farfetched? It isn’t. Because all these things happen in our scripture lessons for today, and in each case, the people involved are given cause to worry about their place in the world, their place in God’s kingdom, and about their future in general. Likewise, in each case, their fears are put to rest, or at least comforted, and they are given words of instruction to help them to continue moving forward.

We begin by reading the words of the prophet Haggai who had returned to Israel with 50,000 of the people who had lived in exile in Babylon. The problem, however, was that while they had much initial success in rebuilding the city of Jerusalem and had almost immediately built the foundations of a new temple on the temple mount. But as soon as they had done so, their neighbors, the Samaritans, and a few others, became particularly unhappy with the idea of a vibrant and active Jewish state returning to the neighborhood. And so, their complaints and disruptions, along with a lack of backbone and willpower on the part of the people of Israel, caused the work on the temple, and on the city walls, to grind to a halt… for eighteen years. It is in this environment that Haggai brings the words of God to his people saying in Haggai 1:15b-2:9:

^1:15 In the second year of King Darius, ^2:1on the twenty-first day of the seventh month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai: ²“Speak to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, to Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people. Ask them, ³‘Who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing? ⁴But now be strong, Zerubbabel,’ declares the Lord. ‘Be strong, Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land,’ declares the Lord, ‘and work. For I am with you,’ declares the Lord Almighty. ⁵‘This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.’

⁶“This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea, and the dry land. ⁷I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the Lord Almighty. ⁸‘The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the Lord Almighty. ⁹‘The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘And in this place, I will grant peace,’ declares the Lord Almighty.”

Haggai is one of the people present who remembers what Jerusalem looked like when Babylon conquered them. He and many others remembered the temple that Solomon had built, and so he understood the hopelessness and depression and the weight of the memory that sat on their chests when they thought about it. He asks them because what stood in front of them was just a beginning, a foundation of a new temple that had sat unfinished for eighteen years. But God encourages them to be strong and to do the work that was needed to restart their building program and to finish the construction of a new temple and new city walls. God says that if they will do the work, he will shake the world and make Israel a place that is sought after by people everywhere because the new temple will become even greater than the temple of Solomon that they remembered. God tells his people that despite the losses that they had witnessed, and despite the sadness of the unfinished building that was in front of them, the future is bright if they will only be strong, be persistent, and do the work.

But what do we do when the people around us mock us for our beliefs? Can their ridicule shake our faith? This very thing happens to Jesus in Luke 20:27-38, and what we learn is that we should learn and understand our own beliefs well enough to have confidence both in what we believe, and what our beliefs mean for our hope in the future. Luke says,

²⁷Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question. ²⁸“Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. ²⁹Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless. ³⁰The second ³¹and then the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children. ³²Finally, the woman died too. ³³Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”

³⁴Jesus replied, “The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. ³⁵But those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, ³⁶and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection. ³⁷But in the account of the burning bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’³⁸He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”

The Sadducees ask Jesus the same or similar question that I have seen thrown around as criticism of Christian beliefs in various forums online in the present day. It would seem to be an issue if you thought about the problem in the way that the Sadducees presented it. If one woman were, as required by the scriptures, married to seven men, whose wife would she be in the afterlife after the resurrection? But Jesus avoids answering the question by saying that the question itself misunderstands the very nature of the resurrection because it assumes that the life that comes after our death on this world would be the same as the life that we know. Instead, Jesus says, the rules that govern our lives after the resurrection will be different. In the life to come, marriage doesn’t exist just as death will no longer exist.

Unfortunately, Jesus doesn’t elaborate on that at all so we don’t know anything about what relationships between men and women would look like, other than to know that they will be different. In any case, Jesus goes on to say that while our relationships will be different, that despite the Sadducees disbelief in an afterlife, there will be life after death because God is the God of the living, both those living before death, and those living after death. The two things we should take away from this passage this morning are these: First, that, like Jesus, we should seek to understand our faith well enough to know that sometimes the difficult questions with which we are presented are unanswerable, not because our faith is wrong, but because they are asking the wrong questions entirely. And second, our future is bright because we can be confident that there is life after the resurrection despite the death that we witness in the world in which we currently live.

But we return to the question of how we should live in our present day with the time that we each have before our own death and eventual resurrection. How should we live our lives, and how can we find the strength to make it through the trials that we face every day? What do we do when we hear preaching that we know is wrong and contrary to scripture, and when people around us, even people in the church, begin to believe things that are wrong? And at least a part of the answer to our question can be found in the words of comfort that the Apostle Paul sent in his second letter to the church in Thessalonica in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17 where he says:

^2:1 Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, ²not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come. ³Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessnessis revealed, the man doomed to destruction. ⁴He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.

⁵Don’t you remember that when I was with you, I used to tell you these things?

¹³But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as firstfruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. ¹⁴He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

¹⁵So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.

¹⁶May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, ¹⁷encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.

Paul says that whether wrong teaching comes from pastors, prophets, letters, or books, we should not be alarmed or unsettled. But we should expect that the enemy of our souls will be at work spreading false prophecies, fake news, and misinformation so that he can set himself up as God, even in God’s churches. And these are just one type of trial that we face as we navigate our way through this life. But as we find our way, we should stand firm, hold fast, and stay true to the truth that has been taught to us and continue to share what we have learned with others. Paul’s prayer, and ours, is that Jesus Christ would continue to encourage us and give us hope so that our hearts will be strengthened and enable us to continue doing good and sharing the word of God with the people around us.

And so let us look at the words of advice that we have received: Despite the pain that we have endured, despite the trials that we have faced, despite the losses that we have witnessed, we should not be tempted to fall into hopelessness because God promises that our future is bright and full of hope. Rather than giving in to fear and doubt, we must remain strong and do the work to which God has called us. We should seek to understand our faith well enough to know that sometimes the difficult questions with which we are presented are unanswerable, not because our faith is wrong, but because they are asking the wrong questions entirely. We should be confident that there is life after the resurrection despite the death that we witness in the world around us. We should stand firm, keep doing good, and keep telling others about the good news of Jesus Christ because, despite the trials that surround us, because we follow the God of creation, resurrection, repentance, and restoration, the future, as it has always been, continues to be bright and full of hope.

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Focus Determines Destination

October 26, 2025 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, arrogant, Bible, blindness, Broadway, Christ, Christ Church, christianity, church, destination, faith, focus, God, humble, humility, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Joel, Luke, Methodist, Ohio, Paul, tax collector, Timothy

Focus Determines Destination

October 26, 2025*

By Pastor John Partridge

Joel 2:23-32 Luke 18:9-14 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18

All of us drive. Most of us drive automobiles, but some of the younger people in the room ride bicycles. For my illustration this morning, either works. Imagine that there is no traffic and you are going down the road as fast as you can. Now imagine closing your eyes.

Even the idea can be terrifying.

If you were forced to drive without being able to see, you wouldn’t go far.

Now imagine that you can, and must drive, but while you can see, your vision is significantly impaired. If you need glasses to drive, imagine what it would be like if your glasses were broken and you had to drive anyway. The worse our vision, the slower we are likely to drive, and we would certainly avoid some of the main highways in favor of less traveled back roads for an additional safety measure even if it slowed our travel even more. But the worse our vision gets, the more likely it is that we wouldn’t even arrive at our chosen destination at all. At some point, we would choose a place of safety at the home of a friend, or even the parking lot of a random business, where we would stop and phone a friend or family member for help.

When we think in terms of driving, or even walking, when we can’t see well, it seems obvious how important our focus is to reach our destination. But our journey through life, whether that is our family life, our career life, or our spiritual life, depends upon our focus just as much. It has been said, regarding our careers or education, that if you don’t know where you want to go, you will go somewhere, but not necessarily where you want. It’s silly, but it makes a point. Similarly, the Cheshire Cat in “Alice in Wonderland” said, “If you don’t much care where you are going, then it doesn’t matter which way you go.” Regardless of whether it is our career, family life, or our spiritual life, if we have a destination in mind, then we must resolutely keep our focus on our goal.

After the people of Israel and Judah had been devastated by a series of locust swarms, they were, not surprisingly, filled with despair and worried about their future. They wondered what had become of their dreams, aspirations, and goals but as they worried, God sent a message through the prophet Joel that had much to do with how they chose to focus their lives. As we read this message in Joel 2:23-32, we will find that we can read it in two parts. The first is a promise to the people of the ancient nation of Israel, and the second is a promise both to them, and to all of us who have come afterward. God said:

²³Be glad, people of Zion, rejoice in the Lord your God,
for he has given you the autumn rains because he is faithful.
He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before.
²⁴The threshing floors will be filled with grain;
the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.

²⁵“I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten—
    the great locust and the young locust,
    the other locusts and the locust swarm—
my great army that I sent among you.
²⁶You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God,
    who has worked wonders for you; never again will my people be shamed.
²⁷Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the Lord your God,
    and that there is no other;
never again will my people be shamed.

²⁸“And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams,
    your young men will see visions.
²⁹Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
³⁰I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth,
    blood and fire and billows of smoke.
³¹The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood
    before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
³²And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved;
for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance,
    as the Lord has said, even among the survivors whom the Lord calls.

In the first half of our reading, God tells his people that there is hope for a brighter future, that what was lost will one day be restored to them despite the famine, starvation, and death that they had witnessed. And in the second half, God tells his people, and all who follow, that after he has restored his people to their nation, God is going to do something new. Rather than sending his spirit occasionally to selected prophets or people in dreams and visions, God will send his spirit into all his people so that everyone will be given gifts of the spirit. While there will still be wonders and disasters to be seen in the world, everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be delivered.

But still, even though God will send his spirit to live in all his people, there are still ways that we can take the wrong path and find ourselves off the road and stuck deep in the weeds. In Luke 18:9-14 Jesus tells a parable that illustrates how and where we must keep our focus.

⁹To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: ¹⁰“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. ¹²I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

¹³“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

¹⁴“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Because there were people in the room who were full of themselves and overconfident in their own abilities, religiosity, and righteousness, Jesus goes out of his way to point out that overconfidence and arrogance is a trap that causes us to lose focus and wander from the truth. In Jesus’ parable, the first man was full of himself and prayed to God focused entirely on himself, saying ‘I’ four times. Never once did this man ask for forgiveness, or for aid, or to say thank you for what he had been given, or anything. His entire prayer was filled with bragging about what he had done. But the second man was entirely different. His prayer focused entirely on God. He recognized his shortcomings, failure, and sin, and simply asked God for mercy. Jesus then goes on to say that only the second man was justified before God while the first man was on a path that would surely see him humbled before God.

In contrast, before Paul’s death, we hear his summary of his life and ministry as he writes to his spiritual son, Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18. Paul says:

⁶For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. ⁷I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. ⁸Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

¹⁶At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. ¹⁷But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion’s mouth. ¹⁸The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Paul knows that the end is near and that he will soon die. He says that his life is being emptied as his life is being poured out like a pitcher of water or wine. But as he faces the end of his life, he knows that he has done the best that he could. He fought the good fight, finished the race, and kept true to his faith in God. For that, Paul knows, that he will be awarded with righteousness on the day of judgement. Paul also says that even when he stood alone, and was abandoned by friends, family, coworkers in the church, and everyone else, he continued to do his best to share the message of Jesus Christ with the people around him even though they didn’t even believe in the same God. Paul knew that until God called him home, that same God would rescue him from every sort of evil because Paul had kept the faith and had done his best to accomplish the mission on which God had sent him.

Paul never lost his focus on what was important even when everything, and everyone, stood against him. And because Paul had kept his focus on the path to which he had been called, he knew that he would safely arrive at his destination and be rewarded by God when he got there.

While every follower of Jesus receives the gift of God’s spirit, if we want to arrive at the destination to which we are called, we must keep our focus on the path ahead with humility and persistence. Because, just like driving on the highway, if we lose our focus, we can take the wrong path and find ourselves off the road and stuck in deep weeds.

Because, in the end, our focus will determine our destination.

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Worthwhile? Or Worthy?

October 5, 2025 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Babylon, Broadway, Christ, church, faith, God, Jermiah, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John Partridge, Judah, Lamentations, Luke, Methodist, Ohio, Paul, soul, Timothy

Worthwhile? Or Worthy?

October 05, 2025*

By Pastor John Partridge

Lamentations 1:1-6 Luke 17:5-10 2 Timothy 1:1-14

How do you greet your friends at church? Or any of your other friends outside of church?

It’s common to say something like “Hi! How are you?” or “Hey. How are you?” But we all know that’s a superficial question. Occasionally, among close friends, I’ve been known to take a hard look at their facial expressions and their general demeanor, and follow that up with, “No, how are you… really?” And that is the question that brings out a bit more honesty, requires a little more thought, often takes longer to answer.

But one question that John Wesley often asked, was “How is it with your soul?” That too, is a deeper question than, “Hey. How are you?” Not only does this question probe with some of the depth of “How are you really?” but it also asks for some thought about how we are spiritually. How is it with your soul asks about your physical and emotional condition, but it also requires some thought about our faith and our relationship with God.

As we read and think about our scriptures for today, we will find that our discussion is, in some ways, similar to the discussions that we’ve had for the last two weeks. But, like “How is it with your soul?” our discussion will require us think more deeply about our faith before we’re done. We begin this week by reading a prayer of mourning from the book of Lamentations as God’s people grapple with what it means physically, emotionally, and spiritually, to have been conquered by the nation of Babylon, to have lost the city of Jerusalem, and to have witnessed, cruelty, destruction, and death on a scale that they could likely not have imagined previously. (Lamentations 1:1-6)

^1:1How deserted lies the city,
    once so full of people!
How like a widow is she,
    who once was great among the nations!
She who was queen among the provinces
    has now become a slave.

2 Bitterly she weeps at night,
    tears are on her cheeks.
Among all her lovers
    there is no one to comfort her.
All her friends have betrayed her;
    they have become her enemies.

3 After affliction and harsh labor,
    Judah has gone into exile.
She dwells among the nations;
    she finds no resting place.
All who pursue her have overtaken her
    in the midst of her distress.

4 The roads to Zion mourn,
    for no one comes to her appointed festivals.
All her gateways are desolate,
    her priests groan,
her young women grieve,
    and she is in bitter anguish.

5 Her foes have become her masters;
    her enemies are at ease.
The Lord has brought her grief
    because of her many sins.
Her children have gone into exile,
    captive before the foe.

6 All the splendor has departed
    from Daughter Zion.
Her princes are like deer
    that find no pasture;
in weakness they have fled
    before the pursuer.

The nation of Judah mourns all that was lost but the writer, traditionally thought to be the prophet Jeremiah, also notes that all of Judah’s allies, all her false gods, and all her false hope have abandoned her. He says that the even the roads mourn because no one comes to her appointed festivals, meaning that the practice of the religion of Yahweh has ceased. But the writer admits that God has brought this tragedy upon his people because of the sins that they had committed, and the princes of Judah have fled their pursuers like deer that flee from their hunters.

When we read the words of Jeremiah, we imagine that if we could ask the nation of Judah, “How is it with your soul,” Jeremiah would answer by saying that Judah was cowardly, hungry, sinful, and faithless.

But the disciples of Jesus knew the history of their people. They knew that God had sometimes judged their nation because of their faithlessness, and the current occupation of their nation by Rome raised some of the same questions. Would God allow us to be free if we had more faith? Is the Roman occupation a sign that God is displeased with our faithfulness? How can we have more faith? And in that environment, we can, perhaps, understand a little better why the disciples ask Jesus, in Luke 17:5-10, how they can be more faithful, or, more correctly, the disciples ask Jesus to simply give them more faith.

⁵The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”

⁶He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.

⁷“Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? ⁸Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? ⁹Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? ¹⁰So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”

The first thing that I thought of when I read that first verse, “Increase our faith!” is that the disciples should have known that there’s no shortcut to increasing our faith. Much as praying that God would grant us patience, often results in God leading us into places that force us to be patient, I have always believed that praying for more faith results in finding ourselves in places that demand more faith from us. And, while it is possible that the disciples understood that Jesus’ reply is still surprising. When Jesus says, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed…” he is telling his disciples that it isn’t necessary to have a lot of faith. Even a tiny amount of faith in an all-powerful creator God is so immensely powerful that we should be able to command a tree to uproot itself and grow in the ocean. And Jesus’ parable about the servant and his master tells us that being worthy of God is no more difficult than doing the things that we have been asked to do.

Paul says something similar as he writes to his protégé in 2 Timothy 1:1-14 when he says:

^1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, in keeping with the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus,

²To Timothy, my dear son:

Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

³I thank God, whom I serve, as my ancestors did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. ⁴Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy. ⁵I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.

⁶For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. ⁷For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline. ⁸So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner. Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God. ⁹He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, ¹⁰but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. ¹¹And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. ¹²That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.

¹³What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. ¹⁴Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.

Paul reminds Timothy that he not only serves God but does so with a clear conscience and remembers Timothy in his prayers. Moreover, Paul remembers Timothy’s faith, but not just because the faith of Timothy’s mother and grandmother had made an impression on him, but because Paul had witnessed Timothy as he had lived out his faith in front of him. Paul then encourages Timothy to “fan into flame the gift of God” which I take to mean that he is encouraging Timothy, not just to sit back and rest in the gift of faith that he had been given, but to actively work to exercise and to increase it.

Paul then returns to his other point that he serves God with a clear conscience as he tells Timothy not to be ashamed of the testimony of Jesus Christ or the fact of Paul’s imprisonment. He reminds Timothy, and us, that God saved us and has called us to this life because of his own purpose and grace and because of that, Paul’s suffering was no cause for shame. Paul believed in Jesus Christ and trusted him to guard his path and his future until the day we meet at the foot of God’s throne. The key, Paul says, is to remember the teaching that he has been given and the life and faith that Paul, Jesus, and everyone who has invested themselves in us have modeled and demonstrated for us in their own lives.

And so, we have several clues that will aid us in answering the question “How is it with your soul?” First, there are consequences for living a life that is sinful and faithless. Second, that there is no shortcut to increasing our faith but also that even a tiny amount of faith in an omnipotent creator God is immensely powerful. Third, if we desire to be worthy of the gifts that God has given to us, being worthy of God is no more difficult than doing the things that we have been asked to do. Fourth, although the gift of faith has been given to us, we must still actively put in the hard work necessary to exercise and to increase it. And finally, we should never be ashamed of the testimony of Jesus Christ and that we should always remember the things that we have been taught by Jesus, Paul, and all those who have modeled and demonstrated a life of faith alongside of us.

Answering the question, “How is it with your soul?” is much harder than “Hey! How are you?” but it is also far more important. It is important for each one of us to occasionally put thought into how we are doing, how we are living, and how we are growing in our faith and in our obedience to Jesus Christ.

So…

How is it with your soul?

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Who Do You Serve?

September 21, 2025 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Bible, Broadway, Christ, christianity, church, drift, faith, God, Jeremiah, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John Partridge, Luke, Methodist, Ohio, servant, service

Who Do You Serve?

September 21, 2025*

By Pastor John Partridge

Jeremiah 8:18 – 9:1 Luke 16:1-13 1 Timothy 2:1-7

Have you ever gone through a time in your life when God seemed distant and far away? Or just a time when it seemed as if God didn’t care about what you were going through? If we’re honest, I think that most of us have felt like that from time to time. But in times like that, I have been reminded of a poster that I saw many years ago that simply said, “If God seems far away… who moved?” Let me say that again, “If God seems far away, who moved?” Now, I admit that summarizing the complexities of life this in way may be a little over-simplistic, but it does seem to get to the core of the issue. While scripture tells us that there have been times when God didn’t seem to listen, the far more common theme tells us of times when God has chosen to appear distant because his people turned their backs on him first. Our first scripture for today recounts an example of such an occasion that was recorded by the prophet Jeremiah as God’s people mourn over the destruction of Jerusalem and the captivity of God’s people in Babylon and we hear these words in Jeremiah 8:18 – 9:1:

¹⁸You who are my Comforterin sorrow, my heart is faint within me.
¹⁹Listen to the cry of my people from a land far away:
“Is the Lord not in Zion?
Is her King no longer there?”

“Why have they aroused my anger with their images,
with their worthless foreign idols?”

²⁰“The harvest is past,
the summer has ended,
and we are not saved.”

²¹Since my people are crushed, I am crushed;
    I mourn, and horror grips me.
²²Is there no balm in Gilead?
    Is there no physician there?
Why then is there no healing
    for the wound of my people?

^9:1Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears!
I would weep day and night for the slain of my people.

Jeremiah reaches out to God because he is filled with sorrow and God is the one who he normally seeks out to find comfort. Jeremiah asks that God listen to the voices of his people as they weep in sorrow and asks why God is no longer in Jerusalem. But God answers that his people have angered him by worshiping images and idols instead of him and, because of God’s displeasure, the people feel disconnected, they know that God has withdrawn his saving power, and they feel crushed, horrified, and wounded. Jeremiah declares that he is so filled with sorrow that if his head were a spring of water, and his eyes were fountains, he would weep day and night over the deaths of his people.

But as sad as the story is, it is important to remember that the disconnection from God started long before the invasion of the Babylonians. God’s people turned their backs on him and worshiped foreign gods, images, and idols and refused all of God’s attempts to call them back to himself. It was only then that God turned his back, and it was only then that God allowed the Babylonians to rise in power and bring punishment to the people, and to the nation, of God.

But in Luke 16:1-13, Jesus tells a story about changing allegiances with an entirely different sort of spin while still being a story about obedience.

^16:1 Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. ²So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’

³“The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg— ⁴I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’

⁵“So, he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’

⁶“‘Nine hundred gallonsof olive oil,’ he replied.

“The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred and fifty.’

⁷“Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’

“‘A thousand bushelsof wheat,’ he replied.

“He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’

⁸“The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. ⁹I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

¹⁰“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. ¹¹So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? ¹²And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?

¹³“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

In the story that Jesus told, we discover that at some point, the manager decided that his allegiance was to himself more than it was to the owner, to ethics, to morals, or the teachings of God. The manager began to siphon the owner’s money in wasteful ways that we would describe as graft, theft, and embezzlement. When the owner gives the manager a few days to show him his accounting ledgers, the manager seeks out some of his boss’s biggest clients and debtors, and allows them to settle with him for enormous discounts so that they then become indebted to him rather than to his boss and he can count on them for employment and support after he loses his job.

The point that Jesus makes is that while the manager was shrewd in his dealings, he had lost faith with his employer and shifted his loyalties to himself, to his pleasure, and to his vanity even at the expense of his continued employment. While Jesus compliments the shrewdness of the manager and encourages us to use those same kinds of street smarts to the advancement of God’s kingdom, Jesus also notes that we cannot serve two masters. If we allow our bank account, pleasure, vanity, other gods, family time, politics, or any number of other things to become our master, then God becomes secondary and no god at all. Christian radio show host Larry Burkett, in his weekly show on finance, used to be fond of saying that if he could spend five minutes with your checkbook, he could tell you what your priorities were. Your priorities, and your master, are the things that you put first.

If we want to get our priorities right, if we want to serve the right master, and put God first, then it is worth looking at the advice that Paul has for his protégé Timothy in his letter that we find in 1 Timothy 2:1-7 where he says:

^2:1 I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made for all people— ²for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. ³This is good, and pleases God our Savior, ⁴who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. ⁵For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, ⁶who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time. ⁷And for this purpose I was appointed a herald and an apostle—I am telling the truth, I am not lying—and a true and faithful teacher of the Gentiles.

Paul says that what God really wants from us is godliness and holiness. These are the things that we should make central to our lives and the things that we should give priority in our lives. God wants all people to come to a knowledge of truth, to know that there is one God, and one mediator between God and humanity, found in the man Jesus Christ.

Yes, there are times in our lives when it seems as if God is far away, but most often when that happens it is not because God moved, but because we did. We wandered off, we drifted, we forgot, we allowed our focus to shift to other things, we allowed other things to become our priorities and take a central place in our lives. The way to keep God close is to make God our first and most important priority. God wants us to have peaceful and quiet lives, but to do that we are called to live lives of godliness and holiness and expend ourselves in pursuit of God’s mission to save all the people of the earth and help them to find a knowledge of the truth.

Any attempt to serve more than one master causes us to abandon one of them. Dividing our loyalties causes us to give priority to one and to hate the other.

We can only serve one master.

Choose wisely.

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Hospitality: Curse or Blessing?

August 31, 2025 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Bible, blessing, Broadway, christianity, church, curse, faith, God, Hebrews, hospitality, Jeremiah, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John Partridge, Luke, Methodist, Ohio, Street

Hospitality: Curse or Blessing?

August 31, 2025*

By Pastor John Partridge

Jeremiah 2:4-13 Luke 14:1, 7-14 Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16

You’ve heard it plenty of times, sometimes even within these walls, when churches proudly proclaim that “We are a welcoming church!” But whenever you hear that, it always pays to look a little deeper. A year or two ago, as I walked around downtown Akron during a break from our Annual Conference, I stopped in front of a parking deck for a downtown church. The signs were strikingly specific, and while there were several of them, the clear and emphatic point was that these parking spaces were to be used only by church members. While there was one sign that noted visitor parking, two others clearly said, “No Parking Members Only,” and “Church Parking Only – Decal Required – All others will be towed at the owners expense.” Despite the sign noting that visitors were welcome, the other two would cause me to be quite reluctant and anxious to park there if I didn’t belong.

In another case, I have often heard stories about new pastors or evangelists who dressed as a homeless person and spent the night, or at least the early morning before their first Sunday at a new church, sleeping on the steps of the church. They were often shooed away, or they watched as members of the church made a wide berth around them on the way to their fellowship inside. In the story, the people were then deeply embarrassed to discover that the disheveled person that they had seen outside was their new pastor or visiting evangelistic speaker.

It is often an unfortunate truth that when churches, and many other groups, proclaim that they are welcoming, the implied message is that they are only welcoming of a certain kind of people. It was clear in my last appointment that while everyone agreed that they wanted their church to grow, some (only a few) of them were only welcoming to the people who were like them and who worshiped like them. They openly opposed everything to do with our non-traditional worship service (which was growing) and insisted that if we eliminated it, that everyone could worship together in their traditional worship service. I warned them that many of the people who attended the non-traditional service felt that service was their home and would have chosen the traditional service if they had preferred it. The message, in any case, was that “we are a welcoming congregation… as long as you look like us and like the things that we like.”

And so, the question of the day is this: What does real hospitality look like? How do we accept it when it is offered to us? And how do we offer it, openly, honestly, and without reservation? And for that, we begin once again with a message that God sent to the people of Jerusalem through his prophet Jeremiah as we read the words of Jeremiah 2:4-13:

⁴Hear the word of the Lord, you descendants of Jacob,
all you clans of Israel.

⁵This is what the Lord says:

“What fault did your ancestors find in me,
    that they strayed so far from me?
They followed worthless idols
    and became worthless themselves.
⁶They did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord,
    who brought us up out of Egypt
and led us through the barren wilderness,
    through a land of deserts and ravines,
a land of drought and utter darkness,
    a land where no one travels and no one lives?’
⁷I brought you into a fertile land
    to eat its fruit and rich produce.
But you came and defiled my land
    and made my inheritance detestable.
⁸The priests did not ask,
    ‘Where is the Lord?’
Those who deal with the law did not know me;
    the leaders rebelled against me.
The prophets prophesied by Baal,
    following worthless idols.

⁹“Therefore I bring charges against you again,”
declares the Lord.
    “And I will bring charges against your children’s children.
¹⁰Cross over to the coasts of Cyprus and look,
    send to Kedarand observe closely;
    see if there has ever been anything like this:
¹¹Has a nation ever changed its gods?
    (Yet they are not gods at all.)
But my people have exchanged their glorious God
    for worthless idols.
¹²Be appalled at this, you heavens,
    and shudder with great horror,”
declares the Lord.
¹³“My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me,
    the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
    broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

God sends word to Jerusalem, Israel, and all the descendants of Jacob that he is disappointed, hurt, and angry that he has given them freedom, land, a nation, and many other gifts of his hospitality, but after he gave it to them, they abused and destroyed them. For that, God says that he is bringing charges against them in court. No other nation, God says, has ever changed its gods. They might be completely wrong about who is god, but at least they were faithful. But God’s people have exchanged their true God for a pocket full of worthless beans, or in this case, worthless idols. They exchanged gold and riches for lumps of clay. God says that his people have turned their backs on his hospitality and walked away from their God because they decided to worship themselves even though they have no power of their own.

And then in Luke 14:1, 7-14, we find Jesus people-watching at a banquet at the home of a prominent Pharisee, and after he watches for a while, Jesus comments on how we should show hospitality in a way that would please God.

^14:1 One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched.

⁷When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: ⁸“When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. ⁹If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. ¹⁰But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all the other guests. ¹¹For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

¹²Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. ¹³But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, ¹⁴and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

Jesus says that if you use your hospitality to show off, make yourself feel important, impress the right people, or to move up in your social and business circles, then God may knock you down and teach you something about humility. But, if you use your hospitality to humble yourself, then God will exalt and lift you up. Jesus says that the right way to show hospitality is to use it to care for people who can’t afford to give anything back, to feed the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. The core value here is that God will repay you when you use your hospitality to show genuine generosity and grace.

This same sentiment is echoed by the author of Hebrews as he reflects on hospitality, marriage, and how we should choose our heroes and leaders. As we read Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16, we hear this:

^13:1 Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. ²Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. ³Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.

⁴Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. ⁵Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,

“Never will I leave you;
never will I forsake you.”

⁶So we say with confidence,

“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
What can mere mortals do to me?”

⁷Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. ⁸Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

¹⁵Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. ¹⁶And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

The writer of Hebrews says that while we should continue to love one another as brothers and sisters in Christ, we should not forget to show hospitality to those who do not belong to our church, our fellowship, or even to our faith. It is through our hospitality, generosity, and kindness that people will see, hear, and feel the love of Jesus Christ and be drawn to faith in him. Similarly, while we should continue to love one another as brothers and sisters, we should also continue to love, and be faithful to, our spouses. But, when it comes time to choose our leaders, or to identify the people that we admire and respect, we should first consider the outcome of their faith and their way of life. Consider whether their example is worth following by looking to see how they have modeled their lives after Jesus Christ.

When we consider these things together, we understand that hospitality isn’t just about inviting people to our homes or to our churches. It’s about loving the people with whom we worship, but also about showing compassion, generosity, and love to the people around us who don’t belong to our fellowship, our church, or our faith. Hospitality is about using what we have to care for people who have less than we do. It’s about loving our spouses in a way that is exclusive, monogamous, and faithful to them and to the vows that we took before God. Hospitality is about remembering the things that God gave us, giving thanks for them, continually offering God a sacrifice of praise and worship so that we don’t turn our backs on him and exchange the richness of our God for a lump of clay.

Don’t fall into the trap of believing that hospitality is just occasionally offering an invitation to your church or to your Sunday school class. Hospitality is about giving thanks for what we have been given, it about how we live our lives, how we model Christ’s example to the people around us, it’s about doing good, and it’s about sharing what we have with others.

Hospitality isn’t just one thing; it’s the whole package of how we live our lives and reveal Christ to the people around us.

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The Danger of ‘No’

August 24, 2025 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Bible, blessings, Broadway, Christ, christianity, church, consequenses, danger, faith, God, Hebrews, Jeremiah, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John, John Partridge, Luke, Methodist, no, obedience, Ohio, Saying no, worship

The Danger of “No”

August 24, 2025*

By Pastor John Partridge

Jeremiah 1:4-10 Luke 13:10-17 Hebrews 12:18-29

How familiar are you with the word… ‘No?’

I mean, certainly we all know it and use it. Some of us are better at using it while others of us say ‘yes’ more often than we should. But other than that, there are different kinds, or different levels of saying no. The repeated refrain that we hear in public, and that we teach our young people, is that “No means no.” That healthy and respectful relationships require both parties to consent. The concept of “No means no” applies not only to romantic relationships, but also to group dynamics such that peer pressure should not unduly compel individual members of a group to do things that they are not comfortable doing.

In these situations, saying no, and hearing and accepting no, are important. But there are other situations where no is not as meaningful, and where saying no can cause problems. If your boss gives you an assignment, saying no may not mean anything at all. Your boss may simply ignore your refusal and assume that the task will be done regardless and, if it is not, then you can expect that there will be consequences. In the military, there are obvious situations where ‘no’ is simply not an acceptable answer. In my own career, in which the bishop appoints itinerant pastors to move where and when they say, the unwritten rule of thumb is that you can say no… once… in your career, and even then, saying no to the bishop may have significant career implications.

But what happens when we say no to God?

Sometimes, it may not seem as if there are any consequences at all. We say no to God and stay home from worship, we don’t read scripture, we live in ways in which we know God would not approve, and we do our best to ignore the call that he has on our lives to do his work in our community and in the people around us. But the operative word here is “sometimes.” Scripture is filled with warnings about the potential consequences of ignoring God or saying ‘no’ too often. Some of those warnings tell us that God will withhold his blessings, others that God may punish you, but often it is that God will simply allow you to suffer the natural consequences of your actions, or in today’s language, God will allow what goes around, to come around.

In any case, today we will look at three case studies from scripture and we will begin in Jeremiah 1:4-10, where we hear God call Jeremiah, possibly only twelve years old, to speak for him as his prophet, we hear Jeremiah attempt to say ‘no,’ and finally we hear God command Jeremiah’s obedience anyway. Jeremiah begins by saying:

⁴The word of the Lord came to me, saying,

⁵“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born, I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

⁶“Alas, Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.”

⁷But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. ⁸Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord.

⁹Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “I have put my words in your mouth. ¹⁰See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”

God tells Jeremiah that even before he was born, God had a purpose and mission for his life. Despite that, Jeremiah makes excuses, saying that he is too young to do anything useful for God, but God isn’t buying it. Rather than even consider Jeremiah’s objections, God simply reaches out and equips Jeremiah with the things that he needs to get the job done.

And then in Luke 13:10-17, we hear the synagogue leaders say ‘no’ to Jesus because, in their mind, Jesus isn’t following the rules correctly.

¹⁰On a Sabbath, Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, ¹¹and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. ¹²When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” ¹³Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.

¹⁴Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”

¹⁵The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? ¹⁶Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”

¹⁷When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.

Just to be clear, Jesus was teaching, on a sabbath day, in church, and paused to heal a woman who had been crippled for eighteen years. Rather than be excited that they had witnessed a miracle, or simply happy that the woman had received healing after a lifetime of pain, the synagogue leaders get upset because, somewhere along the line, someone decided that healing is work. As such, since faithful people were taught to refrain from working on the sabbath, Jesus should have waited until the following day, and made this woman wait yet another day, before healing her. But Jesus isn’t buying it. Jesus reminds them that even his accusers feed and water their animals on the sabbath because, clearly, decency and kindness shouldn’t be restrained by deciding that they are work. The leaders of the synagogue said ‘no’ to God and defended their refusal in language that sounded both religious and traditional.

Our final case study is found in the book of Hebrews, current scholarship believes that this was written by Barnabus or Apollos, and reminds the people of the church that we have good reason not to say no. We hear these words in Hebrews 12:18-29:

¹⁸You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; ¹⁹to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, ²⁰because they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.” ²¹The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”

²²But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, ²³to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, ²⁴to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

²⁵See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? ²⁶At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” ²⁷The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.

²⁸Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, ²⁹for our “God is a consuming fire.”

First, we are reminded that we do not live in the time of Moses when God lived on the top of a mountain and everyone was terrified of his presence. Instead, because we have chosen to follow Jesus, instead of coming to the foot of a scary mountain, we present ourselves to God in the new heavenly city of Jerusalem. There, we come to God where Jesus stands as our mediator and speaks on our behalf. Because of that, we should not refuse the commands of God and say ‘no.’ The writer then reminds us of how it often did not end well for those persons in scripture who had said no to God. And so, since we are receiving the kingdom of God, we should be thankful and worship him with reverence and awe because our God consumes those who refuse him, but we are consumed with passion for his kingdom.

There is danger in saying ‘no’ to God.

Jeremiah said ‘no’ and God equipped him for his mission and ministry and sent him out anyway.

The leaders of the synagogue said ‘no’ to God and made up a bunch of traditional and religious sounding reasons why, but Jesus called then out on their hypocrisy and explained that God doesn’t place limits on kindness, decency, and compassion.

And the writer of Hebrews reminds us that it often didn’t end well for those in scripture that said ‘no’ to God. If we don’t want to be consumed by God, we should worship him with reverence and awe, be consumed with a passion for his kingdom, and say ‘yes’ to his calling, his vision, and his mission as he sends us out into the world.

Saying ‘no’ to God is a dangerous thing.

Let us do our best to say ‘yes’ instead.

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Your Religion is Worthless

August 10, 2025August 10, 2025 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Broadway, Christ, church, faith, God, Hebrews, Isaiah, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Luke, Methodist, Ohio, Paul, prophet, religion, worthless

Your Religion is Worthless

August 10, 2025*

By Pastor John Partridge

Isaiah 1:1, 10-20 Luke 12:32-40 Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16

Imagine that you are a farmer, and the great and powerful Oz, the perfect meteorologist, who is known to never be wrong, visits to tell you that there will be a drought that will begin after the planting season. Further, to survive the famine that follows, rather than planting your seed in the spring, you should store all your seed so that your family has food to eat during the famine. Do you have that in mind? Now imagine that you, your neighbors, and everyone else, completely ignore the meteorologist. But, from planting time and all through the growing season, the meteorologist is constantly heard on television, radio, and public appearances, telling everyone that what they are doing is entirely useless, because he knows, absolutely, that the harvest will fail. And, of course, by that time, you have begun to realize that he is right because it hasn’t rained a drop since everyone’s seed went into the ground. You know that there will be no harvest, you know that there will be a famine, you know that you and your family will be very hungry, and you pray that there might be some bright spot that could give you hope for the future.

Aside from the utter fiction that there might be such a thing as a perfect meteorologist, we can understand that story. But now imagine that, rather than a meteorologist, our story was about a prophet that was sent by God. And imagine that instead of talking about seeds, his warning was about the worship of God’s people and his church. It is that story that we hear from the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 1:1, 10-20:

^1:1 The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah, son of Amoz, saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

¹⁰Hear the word of the Lord,
    you rulers of Sodom;
listen to the instruction of our God,
    you people of Gomorrah!
¹¹“The multitude of your sacrifices—
    what are they to me?” says the Lord.
“I have more than enough of burnt offerings,
    of rams and the fat of fattened animals;
I have no pleasure
    in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
¹²When you come to appear before me,
    who has asked this of you,
    this trampling of my courts?
¹³Stop bringing meaningless offerings!
    Your incense is detestable to me.
New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—
    I cannot bear your worthless assemblies.
¹⁴Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals
    I hate with all my being.
They have become a burden to me;
    I am weary of bearing them.
¹⁵When you spread out your hands in prayer,
    I hide my eyes from you;
even when you offer many prayers,
    I am not listening.

Your hands are full of blood!

¹⁶Wash and make yourselves clean.
    Take your evil deeds out of my sight;
    stop doing wrong.
¹⁷Learn to do right; seek justice.
    Defend the oppressed.
Take up the cause of the fatherless;
    plead the case of the widow.

¹⁸“Come now, let us settle the matter,”
    says the Lord.
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
    they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
    they shall be like wool.
¹⁹If you are willing and obedient,
    you will eat the good things of the land;
²⁰but if you resist and rebel,
    you will be devoured by the sword.”
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

God begins his speech by labelling the leaders, rulers, and people of Judah and Jerusalem as the rulers of Sodom and the people of Gomorrah and by doing so immediately goes on record as saying that they are all perverse and immoral. God continues by saying that he doesn’t care about the offerings, and sacrifices made in the temple because all of them are meaningless. Likewise, the feasts, festivals, holidays, and worship are so detestable and burdensome that God hates them with all his being and is weary of being bothered by them. God is so disturbed by the behavior of his people that he closes his eyes and refuses to listen when they pray because the entire nation is covered in the blood of the innocent and guilty of evil.

That is abrupt and harsh, but God also offers hope.

The solution is simple. Stop doing wrong, learn how to do what is right, seek justice, defend the oppressed, stand up for the fatherless, plead the case of the widows, and be a voice for anyone who doesn’t have a voice or rights because they are “outside the system.” God says that he is willing to forgive the sins of his people, and return their blessings, if they are willing to listen to his words and be obedient to his teaching. However, if they resist him, and continue to rebel against him, then they will be destroyed by violence.

Oddly enough, Jesus teaches a remarkably similar message, although rather than teaching it as a threat, he offers it as an instruction on how to please God in the right way. In Luke 12:32-40, we hear Jesus say this:

³²“Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. ³³Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. ³⁴For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

³⁵“Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, ³⁶like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks, they can immediately open the door for him. ³⁷It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. ³⁸It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak. ³⁹But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. ⁴⁰You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

Although Jesus’ words are different than Isaiah’s, the message is the same. The distinctive mark of those who truly follow God is not how often they worship, or how may festivals and holy days they celebrate, but in how they obey God’s teachings and live it out. Jesus says that the way we live out our faith is by using the things that God has given us to help the people God has told us to help. Instead of holding on to “stuff” that you really don’t need, sell it and use the money to help the poor and the hungry. Do the things that God taught us to do, help the people God taught us to help, and God will credit your account with treasure in heaven. Jesus says that where you keep your treasure will reveal the location of your heart. In more modern language, Christian financial radio host Larry Burkett used to say, “Give me five minutes with your checkbook and I’ll tell you where your heart is.”

And then in Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16, Paul explains it yet another way, saying:

^11:1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. ²This is what the ancients were commended for.

³By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

⁸By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed, and went, even though he did not know where he was going. ⁹By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. ¹⁰For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. ¹¹And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because sheconsidered him faithful who had made the promise. ¹²And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

¹³All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. ¹⁴People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. ¹⁵If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. ¹⁶Instead, they were longing for a better country, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

Paul is saying that faith isn’t just some stuff that we believe. Yes, it is the confidence that we have in a future that we cannot see, and the hope that we have in God’s forgiveness and in his promises for our future. But it’s more than that. Faith is also how we understand the universe and make sense of the world that we live in. It was faith that allowed Abraham to be obedient and follow God to a country that he had never seen, faith that allowed Isaac and Jacob to live in tents before their family had become a nation and, under Moses, finally reached the Promised Land. It was faith that allowed Sarah to have children even when both she, and her husband, were decades past her childbearing years. These people lived out their faith in God even when the things that God had promised to them only came to their grandchildren and even later descendants many years after their deaths. At any time, they could have returned to the country from which they came, but instead, each day, they decided to be obedient and follow God, and as a reward, God prepared a city for them to call home after their deaths.

In Isaiah, we hear God say that he is tired of empty and meaningless worship from people that do not do the things that he has taught them to do or behave in the way that he has taught them to behave. In Luke, we hear Jesus say that faith isn’t just something we say or believe, faith is living out the things that God has instructed and taught us to do. Those good servants who have true faith will be found doing the work of the kingdom when he returns. And Paul emphasizes these same things. Faith isn’t just the things that we believe. It is our confidence in the future, the way that we see and understand the world around us, our hope for forgiveness, our hope in a future that we cannot see, the way in which we live out our faith, and how we do the work of the kingdom of God and carry on the mission and vision of Jesus Christ.

That is one of the great misunderstandings of our generation and, as we have seen in scripture, a misunderstanding of many generations that came before us. Faith isn’t just an idea, or words that we teach on Sunday, a belief that we have, the way in which we worship on Sundays, the rituals that we perform, the holidays that we celebrate, or a book that we have on a shelf. Faith is how we see the world, how we live, how we act, how we treat the people around us, how we spend our money, how we show compassion, how we share what we have been given, and how we love.

If we don’t live out our faith, and do the things that God teaches us to do, then our religion and worship are worthless.

Paul said that faith is an assurance about what we do not see, and yes, there are parts of our faith that we cannot see, but if we do it right, our faith is unquestionably something that the people around us will see and feel.

There is a quote that is widely, though questionably, attributed to St. Francis of Assisi that says, “”Preach the Gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words.”

For they will know we are Christians…

…by our love.

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Children of an Annoying God

July 27, 2025 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, annoy, annoying, Broadway, Christ, church, Colossae, Colossians, faith, God, Hosea, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John Partridge, Luke, Methodist, Ohio, Street

Children of an Annoying God

July 27, 2025*

By Pastor John Partridge

Hosea 1:2-10 Luke 11:1-13 Colossians 2:6-19

Any of you that have siblings will know that they are often uniquely equipped to annoy you. In part, this is true because they have spent so much time in the same room, or at least in the same house with you, but also because, having spent many years in the same household together, they know more about you, and the family stories, and your personal history, than almost anyone else. Next in line, in their ability to push your buttons, get on your nerves, and be annoying when they want to do so, are your closest friends. Those friends from high school or college with whom you spent hours, every day, for four years, in class, out of class, in the weight room, on the practice field, in the library, and elsewhere… together. They too, know so much about you, that when they want to yank on your chain and annoy you, they know things about you that few other people know and can say words that can get under your skin but mean little or nothing to other people in the room. For these same reasons, these are the people who can often speak wisdom and advice into your life when you aren’t willing to listen to anyone else simply because you have shared so much of your lives with one another.

This is what we find God doing, and teaching, in all three of our scriptures this morning. We begin by reading the words of the prophet Hosea, where we find God deliberately taunting and annoying the nation of Israel by reminding them of their failures and shortcomings, and pointing out how those failures have damaged their relationship with the God that they claim to worship. Reading from Hosea 1:2-10, we hear this:

²When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.” ³So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

⁴Then the Lord said to Hosea, “Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel. ⁵In that day I will break Israel’s bow in the Valley of Jezreel.”

⁶Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the Lord said to Hosea, “Call her Lo-Ruhamah (which means “not loved”), for I will no longer show love to Israel, that I should at all forgive them. ⁷Yet I will show love to Judah; and I will save them—not by bow, sword, or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but I, the Lord their God, will save them.”

⁸After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, Gomer had another son. ⁹Then the Lord said, “Call him Lo-Ammi (which means “not my people”), for you are not my people, and I am not your God.

¹⁰“Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘children of the living God.’

First, God asks Hosea, a highly visible public figure, to marry a woman, Gomer, who is known to be an unfaithful cheater. Some translations label her as a prostitute, but ‘repeat offender” or “serial cheater” is probably more accurate. In any case, the reason is that the relationship between Hosea and Gomer is meant to be a model for Israel’s relationship with God, as repeat offenders who are serial cheaters with other gods. Next, through the names of Hosea’s children, God reminds Israel that their king is only on the throne because he murdered the son of the previous king, and through the next two children, reminds them that God will no longer show his love to Israel and that they have been so unfaithful that they can no longer call themselves God’s people.

Imagine, seeing Hosea, a public figure, especially in Jerusalem and the halls of power, every day for years, and every time you heard the gossip about his cheating wife, you were reminded of Israel’s infidelity with God. Or that every time you heard the names of Hosea’s children, just speaking, or hearing their names reminded everyone of Israel’s failures to obey God. Whenever we read this story, there can be no doubt that when it comes to annoying his people to make a point, God plays a long game over years and even decades and plays on an entirely different level than our friends and siblings.

In our next scripture, Jesus teaches that sometimes it is good to be annoying. And we hear that story in Luke 11:1-13 as the disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray.

^11:1 One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”

²He said to them, “When you pray, say:

“‘Father,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
³Give us each day our daily bread.
⁴Forgive us our sins,
for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
And lead us not into temptation.’”

⁵Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; ⁶a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ ⁷And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ ⁸I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.

⁹“So, I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ¹⁰For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

¹¹“Which of you fathers, if your son asks fora fish, will give him a snake instead? ¹²Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? ¹³If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

While we are all familiar with the prayer that Jesus teaches, what we don’t often discuss is how Jesus teaches his disciples to use it. Jesus teaches them a prayer but immediately tells them that they should never be afraid to be a bother, but to annoy God freely and deliberately with their prayers. The examples that Jesus gives are annoying a friend who has already gone to bed until he answers the door and gives you some bread and how a parent, even an evil parent, knows how to give good gifts to his or her children. If God is good, how much more will God do for us than we would do for our friends or for our children? Jesus encourages us to annoy God and to pound on the gates of heaven with our prayers and not to be shy in asking for fear that we might be a bother to God. At the same time, as we read Paul’s letter to the church in Colossae, he hear as he encourages the church to be so confident in what they have, and the gifts that God has given to them, that they, and we, do not wander from what Jesus has taught just because the people and the culture might annoy us. In Colossians 2:6-19, Paul says:

⁶So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, ⁷rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

⁸See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forcesof this world rather than on Christ.

⁹For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, ¹⁰and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. ¹¹In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self-ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, ¹²having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

¹³When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, ¹⁴having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

¹⁶Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration, or a Sabbath day. ¹⁷These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. ¹⁸Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. ¹⁹They have lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.

Paul says that once we choose to follow Jesus, we should be confident in living our lives the way that he taught us to live. We should not be persuaded by weak philosophy, corrupt traditions, or the vaguely spiritual culture around us that encourages a vague faith in nature, or the universe, or some other impersonal god. Instead, we must remember that Jesus is the God who came to earth, was born and lived as one of us, and who now lives and rules over all creation. When we chose to follow Jesus, we were set apart from the rest of the world and, through our baptism, are buried and raised to a new life of faith. Because of that we should not allow others to judge us for living differently than the people around us if our conscience guides us to eat differently, live differently, or worship differently than they do. Paul warns, and this is just as applicable today as it has ever been, that many of the people around us have become “disconnected from the head” which he means disconnected from God, but would likely not be wrong to also think of as being disconnected from their brains. Instead, we are to live, together, as one body, supporting and encouraging one another, and working together with God as the head.

In the end, we must remember that we worship a God who freely annoys his people and his church to remind them, to remind us, of who we are supposed to be and how we are supposed to act. But we are also taught that we should not worry about being a bother to God, but to pray unceasingly, to annoy God by pounding on the gates of heaven until he answers our prayers. And all of this is because God is a loving father who seeks to do what is best for us, and desires to give us gifts that will allow us to do his work, to be a blessing to the people around us, and to change the world.

We worship an annoying God who encourages us to annoy him in return, and to have the courage to ignore others who would try to annoy us away from God’s teaching. May our persistence in living like Jesus annoy the people around us into seeing God and hearing his call.

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