Entitlement or Effort?

July 12, 2026July 12, 2026 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Bible, birthright, Broadway, Christ, church, effort, entitlement, Esau, faith, Genesis, God, Jacob, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John Partridge, Matthew, Methodist, Ohio, parable, sower

Entitlement or Effort?

July 12, 2026*

By Pastor John Partridge

Genesis 25:19-34 Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

There is an ongoing conversation in American culture that revolves around who should, and who should not, go to college. I realize that this is not always a popular subject in a college town, particularly with many college graduates, staff, and professors in attendance, but the conversation is still worthwhile. Let me be clear, I do not mean to say that some people should not go to college based on some arbitrary measure like family income, race, religion, or other socioeconomic factors. Neither, in this case, do I intend to open the important subject of young people who graduate with a degree they didn’t really want, a mortgage with no house, and few prospects for a career that will pay off their loans. Although I regard that as a genuine problem, instead what I mean is that simply by temperament, giftedness, and passion, some among us are simply not built for higher education despite many of those people being more than capable of it.

In my previous career, I often spoke with one of our machinists. He was kind, friendly, intelligent, and a good conversationalist as well as being an experienced, and highly skilled machinist. But while higher education could have prepared him to own and operate his own business as a machinist, he had no desire whatsoever to do so. Likewise, in one of our previous appointments, one of our neighbors was a skilled auto mechanic, but although he was willing to substitute as a shift manager, he too preferred to do the hands-on labor and had little desire to be responsible for the accounting and other duties required to own and operate his own business. In a different way, while our son Noah is more than intelligent enough to tackle college courses, and while he already operates his own business, he is not at all interested in dedicating four, or even two, years to academic study.

As much as many of us value higher education, if we’re honest, we recognize that not everyone has a need, a desire, or the temperament to pursue it. And that is one of the things that we see in our scriptures for today as well as the encouragement to be aware of the needs, desires, and temperaments of the people with whom, and to whom, we are in ministry. We begin this morning with the story contained in Genesis 25:19-34, in which Abraham’s son Isaac, and his wife Rebekah, have their own children.

¹⁹This is the account of the family line of Abraham’s son Isaac.

Abraham became the father of Isaac, ²⁰and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan Aram and sister of Laban the Aramean.

²¹Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. ²²The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, “Why is this happening to me?” So, she went to inquire of the Lord.

²³The Lord said to her,

“Two nations are in your womb,
and two peoples from within you will be separated;
one people will be stronger than the other,
and the older will serve the younger.”

²⁴When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. ²⁵The first to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment; so, they named him Esau. ²⁶After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel; so, he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them.

²⁷The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents. ²⁸Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob.

²⁹Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. ³⁰He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” (That is why he was also called Edom.)

³¹Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.”

³²“Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?”

³³But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So, he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob.

³⁴Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left.

So, Esau despised his birthright.

One of Isaac’s favorite foods was wild game and, being too old to hunt, or too busy with the family business (you will recall that Abraham was wealthy and only had one heir), and so Isaac was particularly fond of Esau who preferred living in open country and occasionally brought him his favorite food. Rebekah, however, found that her favorite child was Jacob who was more of a homebody and was a man who knew how to cook. And so, when Esau came home hungry, he demanded some of the stew that Jacob was cooking, and Jacob only offered it in exchange for the birthright, in this case two thirds of their eventual inheritance from Isaac. But despite the price, Esau accepted because, as our scripture says, “Esau despised his birthright.”

But the birthright that would be passed down from Isaac wasn’t just financial, but also spiritual. The brother with the birthright would become the spiritual head of the family, and Esau is not interested or temperamentally inclined to act in this capacity. Despite God’s promise to Rebekah that “the elder will serve the younger” Jacob finds it necessary to help God out and negotiate for that position anyway. My commentary described Esau as being too “profane,” “coarse,” and “unspiritual” to be suitable as a part of the Messiah’s family tree. But more than that, I think, is that God had created Esau as a man who didn’t want the job. He was not temperamentally suited for being the spiritual leader of the household, nor did he have any desire to oversee the extensive lands, herds, businesses, and financial holdings of their family. Moreover, Esau’s own comments imply that he thought that his lifestyle of living outside in the open country would likely lead him to die long before his brother Jacob anyway.

And when we consider temperament, giftedness, and inclination in our way of thinking, then we see Jesus’ parable of farmer sowing seeds in Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 in an entirely different light when it says:

^13:1 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. ²Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. ³Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. ⁴As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. ⁵Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow. ⁶But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. ⁷Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. ⁸Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. ⁹Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

¹⁸“Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: ¹⁹When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. ²⁰The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. ²¹But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. ²²The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. ²³But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

We have all heard this parable before and have discussed it in bible study or Sunday school, but the way we usually look at it is simply as a guide to why our evangelistic efforts sometimes fail. And what we take away from such a discussion is only that we should share the message of the gospel, which is planting seeds, wherever we can, but that we should not be discouraged that many of our attempts will not be successful. And that’s all true. But what if the passage is trying to teach us something deeper? What if we look at this passage while we keep in mind the differences between Jacob and Esau? The brothers were built differently. Esau loved hunting and the open country while Jacob preferred his job as a shepherd and staying close to home. Esau was not built to be the head of Isaac’s clan, but he was good at other things. And if we consider that when we look at the parable of the sower, the deeper truth is not only that sometimes our efforts will fail, but also that we should account for the differences in the people, and the soil, in which we plant. If we thought about planting in that way, then maybe we put out netting to keep the birds from eating the seeds, add a little soil to the rocky places, and pull up a few thorns to give the seeds more space. Instead of just flinging out some seeds and accepting failure, we should, like good gardeners, also pay attention to the unique individual needs of our audience so that we can nurture them and help them grow.

By tradition, Esau was the firstborn brother and was entitled to the birthright, entitled to his father’s blessing, and entitled to becoming the head of the clan of Abraham and Isaac. But even before they were born, God knew that Isaac was the one who would be better suited and better equipped by faith and by temperament to lead his family both spiritually and financially. Although Jacob and Rebekah both conspired to make that happen, it would have happened in any case because God promised that it would be so. In the end, Jacob inherited the birthright, not because he swindled his brother out of it, but because he was better suited to it. God chose for the birthright to pass, not to the brother that was entitled to it, but to the brother that would do the work to honor God’s gift.

Likewise, just because we plant, just because we share the message of the gospel, doesn’t mean that we are entitled to any particular result. Just as it was in his creation and treatment of Jacob and Esau, God has created each person as a unique individual with different skills, talents, and abilities, but also with diverse needs. While it’s true that not every seed that we plant will produce a crop, it is also true that we cannot simply shrug and accept that our work will fail. Instead, we must consider the differences between those to whom we have shared the message of Jesus and, like a skilled gardener, put a net over some, soil over others, and a little shade and water where needed. We shouldn’t simply assume that we will fail but instead be prepared to nurture the seeds we have planted so that we can raise crops in unexpected places.

Success, both financially and spiritually, doesn’t come from entitlement, but from faith, thoughtfulness, nurture, and hard work.

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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.™

Through the Impossible

July 5, 2026July 5, 2026 PastorPartridge Sermon Abraham, Alliance, Bible, Broadway, Christ, church, faith, Fort McHenry, Francis Scott Key, Genesis, God, impossible, isaac, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John Partridge, make a way, Matthew, Methodist, Ohio, Paul, possible, Rebekah, rescue, Romans, Star Spangled Banner

Through the Impossible

July 05, 2026*

By Pastor John Partridge

Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67

Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

Romans 7:15-25a

In September 1814, during the War of 1812, American lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key traveled to Baltimore on a truce ship. His mission, authorized by President James Madison, was to negotiate the release of Dr. William Beanes, an American civilian who had been captured by the British. While Key successfully negotiated Beanes’ release, he and his companions had overheard the British planning their upcoming attack on Baltimore, so they were detained for their own security.

On September 13, 1814, the British Royal Navy launched a massive assault on Fort McHenry, the military stronghold guarding Baltimore Harbor. For 25 hours, Key watched in captivity as rockets and bombs rained down on the fort. Because of the heavy smoke and the darkness of the night, Key could not tell if the fort had fallen or if the Americans had surrendered. The only proof that the fort was still holding was the occasional flash of the “rocket’s red glare,” briefly illuminating the skies.

At the break of dawn on September 14, the smoke began to clear. Through his spyglass, Key looked toward Fort McHenry and saw a giant American garrison flag waving triumphantly over the ramparts.

Elated and moved by the fierce American resistance, Key pulled a letter from his pocket and began crafting a poem that would later be set to music and become our national anthem.

O say, can you see
By the dawn’s early light
What so proudly we hailed
At the twilight’s last gleaming?

Whose broad stripes and bright stars
Through the perilous fight
O’er the ramparts we watched
Were so gallantly streaming?

And the rockets’ red glare
The bombs bursting in air
Gave proof through the night
That our flag was still there.

O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

– Francis Scott Key

During the dark night of September 13^th, 1814, while watching the continuous violence of the British naval bombardment of Fort McHenry, it must have seemed impossible for the American defenders to survive. Only brief flashes from the exploding shells gave occasional hints that the American flag still flew over the fort until, finally, the dawn revealed that twenty-five hours of sustained British bombardment had been unsuccessful in dislodging the defenders.

That, I think, sets the tone for the theme of today’s message. When have you witnessed the impossible unfold before your eyes? In my career as a pastor, and even before we went into ministry, Patti and I have witnessed quite a few impossible events that I cannot help but describe as miracles. And while we might not describe all the stories contained in today’s scriptures as miracles, certainly they all describe God working to bring his people through impossible situations… including you and me. We begin this morning by returning to the story of Abraham as he seeks to find a bride for his son Isaac. Not wanting his son to be misguided and led astray by a Canaanite woman from their new home, Abraham sends a trusted servant to his father’s family in search of a bride in Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67, he finds one, and this is how he explains his search to her family:

³⁴So he said, “I am Abraham’s servant. ³⁵The Lord has blessed my master abundantly, and he has become wealthy. He has given him sheep and cattle, silver and gold, male and female servants, and camels and donkeys. ³⁶My master’s wife Sarah has borne him a son in her old age, and he has given him everything he owns. ³⁷And my master made me swear an oath, and said, ‘You must not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I live, ³⁸but go to my father’s family and to my own clan, and get a wife for my son.’

⁴²“When I came to the spring today, I said, ‘Lord, God of my master Abraham, if you will, please grant success to the journey on which I have come. ⁴³See, I am standing beside this spring. If a young woman comes out to draw water and I say to her, “Please let me drink a little water from your jar,” ⁴⁴and if she says to me, “Drink, and I’ll draw water for your camels too,” let her be the one the Lord has chosen for my master’s son.’

⁴⁵“Before I finished praying in my heart, Rebekah came out, with her jar on her shoulder. She went down to the spring and drew water, and I said to her, ‘Please give me a drink.’

⁴⁶“She quickly lowered her jar from her shoulder and said, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels too.’ So, I drank, and she watered the camels also.

⁴⁷“I asked her, ‘Whose daughter are you?’

“She said, ‘The daughter of Bethuel son of Nahor, whom Milkah bore to him.’

“Then I put the ring in her nose and the bracelets on her arms, ⁴⁸and I bowed down and worshiped the Lord. I praised the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me on the right road to get the granddaughter of my master’s brother for his son. ⁴⁹Now if you will show kindness and faithfulness to my master, tell me; and if not, tell me, so I may know which way to turn.”

⁵⁸So they called Rebekah and asked her, “Will you go with this man?”

“I will go,” she said.

⁵⁹So they sent their sister Rebekah on her way, along with her nurse and Abraham’s servant and his men. ⁶⁰And they blessed Rebekah and said to her,

“Our sister, may you increase
to thousands upon thousands;
may your offspring possess
the cities of their enemies.”

⁶¹Then Rebekah and her attendants got ready and mounted the camels and went back with the man. So, the servant took Rebekah and left.

⁶²Now Isaac had come from Beer Lahai Roi, for he was living in the Negev. ⁶³He went out to the field one evening to meditate, and as he looked up, he saw camels approaching. ⁶⁴Rebekah also looked up and saw Isaac. She got down from her camel ⁶⁵and asked the servant, “Who is that man in the field coming to meet us?”

“He is my master,” the servant answered. So, she took her veil and covered herself.

⁶⁶Then the servant told Isaac all he had done. ⁶⁷Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he married Rebekah. So, she became his wife, and he loved her; and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.

Think about what happened. Abraham’s trusted servant, a man who does not share Abraham’s faith, is sent to place he has never been, to find a woman among a people that he has never met and, out of respect for his employer, prays to Abraham’s God that he would be led to the right woman, and specifies the conditions so that he might know that God had chosen that particular woman. And everything unfolds, exactly as he prayed that it would. What Abraham asked was difficult. What the servant prayed for was impossible. And yet, God moved through the impossible and the servant meets Rebekah in exactly the way in which he had prayed.

In an entirely different way, Jesus addresses a crowd of people who are likewise faced with impossible and insurmountable problems and many of these problems are still faced by the people around us today: Poverty, hunger, unemployment, sickness, violence, uncertainty, difficult employers, and more. On top of these daily worries, religious leaders piled on mountains of rules that made life even more difficult and more expensive. And Jesus speaks these words of comfort in Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30:

¹⁶“To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others:

¹⁷“‘We played the pipe for you,
and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge,
and you did not mourn.’

¹⁸For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ ¹⁹The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is proved right by her deeds.”

²⁵At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. ²⁶Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.

²⁷“All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

²⁸“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Jesus said that this generation was just like the children who played games in the marketplace and made rules that found fault no matter what choices you made. Life was already difficult, but Israel’s leaders, instead of making things easier, chose instead to make things harder in people who were already struggling. And Jesus calls to these hurting people and declares that he will help them to move through the impossible, saying, “²⁸“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

And finally, in his letter to the church in Rome, Paul describes a struggle that every Christian has faced throughout history. No matter how strong our intentions are to do better, we always seem to fall short of our aspirations, and often our failures are even more dramatic. In Romans 7:15-25 Paul writes:

¹⁵I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. ¹⁶And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. ¹⁸For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ¹⁹For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. ²⁰Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

²¹So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²²For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; ²³but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. ²⁴What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? ²⁵Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature, a slave to the law of sin.

Paul admits that he simply cannot help himself. As much as he intends to do what is right and good, as much as he intends, and desperately wants, to do the things that he knows that he should do, he cannot. Worse, the things that he knows, and wants not to do, despite his best efforts, he does those things anyway. “I desire to go good, but I cannot carry it out.” And in this, Paul describes not only his inner being that delight’s in God and in doing God’s will, but also his inner human sinful nature such that good and evil live side-by-side inside of him. His point is that we fall too easily into temptation, and even when we try to do good, we often fail. But as discouraging as that may sound, Paul’s conclusion is to give thanks to God who delivers us through Jesus Christ regardless of our sin and failure.

This is the miracle that we see every day as the followers of Jesus Christ. Just as God made a way through the impossible so that Abraham’s servant could find the bride that God had chosen for Isaac, God continues to make a way through impossible circumstances for us today. No matter how hard life can get, no matter what difficult circumstances we may find ourselves in, no matter the struggles that we face, Jesus calls to hurting people and declares that he will help them to move through the impossible, saying, “²⁸“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Likewise, when we are tempted to criticize and beat ourselves up because of our failures, Paul reminds us that our failure only reminds us that we are human. The good news is, as it has always been, that this is why we follow Jesus and why Jesus gave his life to save us, because despite our failures, despite the drama, despite our overwhelming shortcomings, God delivers us through Jesus Christ our Lord.

No matter what we face, no matter how impossible, God always makes a way.

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Choosing Slavery

June 28, 2026June 28, 2026 PastorPartridge Sermon Abraham, Alliance, Broadway, Christ, church, death, faith, God, isaac, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John Partridge, Matthew, Methodist, Ohio, Paul, politics, rescue, Romans, sacrifice, sin, slave, slavery, Street, surrender

Choosing Slavery

June 28, 2026*

By Pastor John Partridge

Genesis 22:1-14 Matthew 10:40-42 Romans 6:12-23

This morning, I want to begin with two questions which are, in the end, really only one question.

First, what does it mean to surrender? Not the kind of tepid negotiated peace that we often see in modern political conflict, but the absolutely dominating peace that follows what is known as unconditional surrender. What sort of treatment would one expect, and what would it mean to surrender… unconditionally?

Second, under what conditions would you choose to become a slave? And again, I don’t mean the lighthearted sort of slavery that we see in high school fundraisers where you must do the bidding of an upperclassman for a day. I mean absolutely surrender your life, liberty, choice, and freedom for the rest of your natural life. As Americans, our national and cultural core clings to things like life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But under what conditions would you give that all up?

This was not an uncommon choice in the ancient world. Remember that I have said that in places like Israel, as well as many others in the first century Roman world, approximately 90 percent of the population lived at a subsistence level of poverty. Subsistence level means that, while they may have owned land, or even possessed valuable skilled trades, they earned just enough to feed themselves and their families, and no more. They were, perpetually, one bad harvest or one bad debt from starvation. Worse, those persons to whom you owed money were entitled to recover what was owed from whatever personally belonged to you… including your life and your liberty, as well as that of your family.

And so, some people, faced with an insurmountable debt, might occasionally sell their freedom, possibly to someone that they knew would be a humane master, so that their debts would be paid and their family would not be sold along with them. At other times, there were historically recorded instances, when people would work to pay off a debt, more as indentured servants, and would then ask to become slaves to their employer so that they would not have the constant worry and fear of daily earning enough money to remain free. There were still other similar cases that involved romantic relationships between a free person and a slave in which the free person chose slavery so that they could stay together.

And so, as we read our scriptures for today, we find Abraham who, while not a slave, has a relationship with God that checks all the same boxes, we have a teaching from the Apostle Paul that insists that everyone is a slave, and there is a brief word from Jesus who explains how his followers should treat one another. While these may not seem to have a lot in common, bear with me and, hopefully, you will see how this all fits together. As I noted, we begin with the story of Abraham in Genesis 22:1-14, when God asks him to do something that, given the path that Abraham and Sarah traveled to parenthood, is absolutely inconceivable.

^22:1 Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

²Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”

³Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. ⁴On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. ⁵He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”

⁶Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, ⁷Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”

“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.

“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

⁸Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.

⁹When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. ¹⁰Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. ¹¹But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

¹²“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”

¹³Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. ¹⁴So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”

God commands Abraham to take Isaac, his only son, who is, you will remember from last week, Abraham’s only son because Abraham was forced into an impossible position and compelled to divorce his wife Hagar and send both Hagar and his other son, Ishmael, away. And now, having done that, God commands Abraham to offer Isaac to God as a sacrifice on an altar on top of a mountain. And Abraham collects Isaac, and he goes. We don’t know what Abraham was thinking. I suspect that he didn’t tell Sarah where he was going, because this was Abraham’s test, and because I don’t think she would have let him go. But Abraham does tell his servants that “We will worship and then we will come back to you.” Abraham was fully committed to sacrificing Isaac but, at the same time, believed that, somehow, Isaac would be restored to him at the end of the day.

But, in the end, after being brought to the razor’s edge, where the knife was already aimed for his son, and Abraham completely ready and willing to take his life, God stops him and then says, “Now I know that you fear God.” This is God acknowledging that Abraham was completely sold out, completely surrendered to God. Abraham was, by all definitions, a slave to God who was willing to do absolutely anything that God commanded him to do.

Next, we come to the words of Jesus regarding welcome and hospitality in Matthew 10:40-42, that, at first, seem ridiculously out of place in a discussion about slavery, but if you bear with me, I think it will all fit together in the end. Jesus said:

⁴⁰“Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. ⁴¹Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. ⁴²And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.”

And, once again, you are thinking that this is all about hospitality and cannot possibly have anything to do with slavery. I can understand that, because that’s what I was thinking the first several times that I read through these scriptures. But hold on to that, and I think you will understand how it fits in few minutes after we read Paul’s explanation of our own relationship to slavery in Romans 6:12-23 when he says:

¹²Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. ¹³Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. ¹⁴For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

¹⁵What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! ¹⁶Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? ¹⁷But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. ¹⁸You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

¹⁹I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. ²⁰When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. ²¹What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! ²²But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. ²³For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul explains that because we are now under the grace of Jesus Christ, we are no longer slaves to sin, and thus sin is no longer our master. But that means that we are now slaves to Jesus Christ because we have given ourselves to God and he has purchased us with the life of his son, Jesus. Moreover, Paul says that everyone that you know, whether they follow Jesus or not, is a slave to something because “you are slaves of the one you obey.” If we were not slaves to Jesus, we would be slaves to sin, wickedness, impurity, or pleasure, or money, or power, or influence, or charisma, or politics, or knowledge, or… something else. But because we have offered ourselves to Jesus, and because we have been rescued from sin and death, we are now slaves to God and slaves to Jesus Christ. As such we should be just as sold out, just as committed, and just as completely surrendered to the will of God as Abraham was.

And once we understand that then this also explains how we connect to Jesus’ words about hospitality that we read from the Gospel of Matthew. If we recognize that we are all slaves to Jesus Christ, then how can we not act hospitably and welcoming to others that also belong to him. Can you imagine that a slave owner would be pleased with one of his slaves mistreating another? It would follow that it would please a master for his slaves to care for one another and do everything in their power to encourage and equip them to do the work that the master had given them to do and not to discourage or impede them from doing it.

Just as Abraham was, we are called to be fully committed, sold out, and completely surrendered to the will of God just as if we were slaves to Jesus. And having accepted Jesus as our master, then we must not only do everything we can, with all that we are, to accomplish the work that he has given us to do, but we must also welcome others who follow him, and do whatever we can to aid them in doing his work as well.

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Life and Death Choices

June 21, 2026June 21, 2026 PastorPartridge Sermon Abraham, Alliance, Bible, Broadway, Christ, church, death, faith, Genesis, God, Hagar, Ishmael, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John Partridge, life, life and death, Matthew, Methodist, Ohio, Paul, Romans, Sarah, Street

Life and Death Choices

June 21, 2026*

By Pastor John Partridge

Genesis 21:8-21 Matthew 10:24-39 Romans 6:1-11

Have you ever been in a position where you were compelled to make a choice, but none of the choices were good ones? One of the most famous of these is that of Socrates who, in 399 BCE was convicted of impiety and corrupting the youth of Athens with his philosophy and was given the choice of exile or death by poison. Neither was a good choice, but Socrates felt that exile was a fate worse than death and thus chose poison. In the modern era, being confronted by bad choices remains common. In combat, soldiers and sailors are often faced with choices that have terrible results regardless of what they choose. Likewise, the homeless, those in poverty, and many others are faced with choosing between multiple bad choices with no good options. What do you choose when faced with a fine for $300 or three days in jail, when you don’t have $300 and will lose your job if you miss three days of work?

I don’t have the answer because, obviously, there are no good answers. But this is what Abraham faces as we read from Genesis 21:8-21. Isaac, the son of Abraham and Sarah, had grown enough to be weaned from his mother, possible at the age of three, or perhaps a bit older, but when that happens, Sarah forces Abraham to make a choice that he doesn’t want to make, and in which someone will be hurt no matter what he chooses.

⁸The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast. ⁹But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, ¹⁰and she said to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.”

¹¹The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son. ¹²But God said to him, “Do not be so distressed about the boy and your slave woman. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. ¹³I will make the son of the slave into a nation also, because he is your offspring.”

¹⁴Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the Desert of Beersheba.

¹⁵When the water in the skin was gone, she put the boy under one of the bushes. ¹⁶Then she went off and sat down about a bowshot away, for she thought, “I cannot watch the boy die.” And as she sat there, she began to sob.

¹⁷God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. ¹⁸Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.”

¹⁹Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So, she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.

²⁰God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the desert and became an archer. ²¹While he was living in the Desert of Paran, his mother got a wife for him from Egypt.

There are several things that might be helpful as we try to understand this. First, as revered of an ancestor as he may be, Abraham was just as flawed and just as human as the rest of us. He made mistakes, and we cannot argue that this interaction, as painful as it is, was anything close to perfect. Second, culturally, despite Hagar being owned by Abraham, once she bore him a child, she legally became his wife. Therefore, although Isaac was the child of Sarah, and the child that God had promised to them since this entire adventure began, it can be argued that Ishmael was, legally, the firstborn male child and would therefor inherit the lion’s share of Abraham’s estate. Third, because Hagar was legally his wife, Abraham could not sell her, or give her away, or set her free, or simply throw her out as it appears that he did. Instead, legally, what we are witnessing is a legal divorce proceeding. Although the details are not included in the writing of Genesis, in order for Abraham to send Hagar away, there had to be some formal stuff that legally satisfied the requirements of divorce.

With all that in mind, Sarah forces Abraham to make a choice that has been coming ever since he chose to make a baby with Hagar. The choice to do nothing results in Ishmael being declared as the firstborn son, and displacing Isaac as the child of God’s promise. The second choice is to divorce Hagar, send her away, but raise Ishmael for himself, again resulting in Ishmael being understood as the firstborn son, The third option was to divorce Hagar, and send both her, and Ishmael, away leaving Isaac as the only son. Abraham didn’t want to do any of those things. Not surprisingly, as his son, he had feelings for Ishmael, and likely for Hagar as well. But Abraham also had feelings for Sarah and for Isaac, didn’t want to hurt them, and also wanted to honor God’s gift by allowing Issac to receive the inheritance that had been promised to him. No matter what Abraham chooses, something gets broken and someone gets hurt. Could Abraham have done better by Hagar and Ishmael? Should he have done better? Yeah, probably. But as we all know, it’s easy to sit in judgement when you don’t have all the facts.

In any case, Abraham is forced into a life-or-death choice, with nothing to ease the pain and loss except for God’s promise to care for Ishmael. But, like it or not, all of us face life-or-death choices. Hopefully, the choices that we face have some good mixed with the bad and, like Abraham and many others, we will not be forced to choose between several bad options. But, in Matthew 10:24-39, Jesus describes one of those choices we will have to make, when he says:

²⁴“The student is not above the teacher, nor a servant above his master. ²⁵It is enough for students to be like their teachers, and servants like their masters. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household!

²⁶“So, do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. ²⁷What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. ²⁸Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. ²⁹Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. ³⁰And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. ³¹So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

³²“Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. ³³But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.

³⁴“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. ³⁵For I have come to turn…

“‘a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—
³⁶ a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’

³⁷“Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. ³⁸Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. ³⁹Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.

Jesus says that it is enough for us to be like our teachers and like our master, Jesus. We should not be afraid of those who criticize or condemn Jesus, and to an even greater degree, us. In the end, Jesus says, the truth will be made known. Everything that has been hidden will be revealed, everything that has been deliberately concealed will be made public. Nothing will linger in the shadows, all conspiracies and secrets will be brought into the light, all lies will be exposed. And so, Jesus urges us to put away our fear of those who can only kill us, but who cannot take away our life with an eternal God. Rather, we should choose carefully whom we would rather have as our enemy. Should we ally ourselves with those who might attack our credibility, tell lies about us, conspire against us, or even kill us, but whose schemes will be revealed on the day of judgement? Or should we ally ourselves with the creator of the universe, the champion of truth, the bearer of all wisdom, and the keeper of our souls for all eternity? It is a life-or-death choice.

When Jesus says, “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. ³³But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven” He isn’t talking about silly internet memes that demand that you repost if you really love Jesus. He is saying that we must choose a side. We must put Jesus first, above our parents, above our families, and above our own well-being. But by choosing Jesus, and placing him first, we will find life.

Paul reinforces this teaching as he writes to the church in Rome in Romans 6:1b-11, saying:

^6:1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? ²By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? ³Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

⁵For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— ⁷because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

⁸Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. ¹⁰The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

¹¹In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Paul says, “Shall we go on sinning?” and point out that we have choices to make. We chose to follow Jesus. We chose to be baptized and make a public statement that we were following Jesus. And, Paul asks, if we have been baptized, and we have died to sin and raised to a new life in Christ, then shouldn’t we live as if we are following the example, and the teachings, of Jesus?

The story of Abraham tells us that although we have many choices to make, sometimes we will be faced with choices that have no good options. Sometimes our choices will hurt people. Sometimes our choices may be the pivot between life and death for ourselves or for others. But Jesus reminds us that our choices also decide with whom we will ally ourselves. Will we choose to be God’s ally, or God’s enemy? Will we choose to put Jesus first, even ahead of our family, our jobs, our wealth, and our well-being?

Will we choose to life as if following Jesus means something?

As Joshual once said, “choose for yourself this day whom you will serve.” (Joshua 24:15)

And having done that, we must live as if that choice means something.

But… choose wisely, because these really are… life and death choices.

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Directions and Credits “For Us”

June 7, 2026June 7, 2026 PastorPartridge Sermon Abraham, Abram, Alliance, Bible, Broadway, Christ, christianity, church, credits, directions, faith, Genesis, God, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John Partridge, Matthew, Methodist, Ohio, Paul, rules

Directions and Credits “For Us”

June 07, 2026*

By Pastor John Partridge

Genesis 12:1-9 Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26 Romans 4:13-25

How do you explain Christianity to the people around you?

I think that you know what I mean. Your friends certainly know that you are a Christian, or that you regularly, or… occasionally, attend church. And, if they are comfortable in their relationship with you, they may eventually ask a question like, “How does that work… exactly?” How does one become a Christian, and what do you have to do because you are a Christian? Some of that we know, and if we’re honest, we spend years of our lives working out some of the other parts of it. But we also know that many people who claim the name of Jesus Christ, and who call themselves Christian, get a lot that wrong. But, as confusing as that is, I think, or at least I hope, that our study of today’s scriptures should help clear away some of our confusion.

But before we jump into our scriptures, I want to read two quotes that will frame our discussion.

First, Margaret Mead, a well-known American anthropologist who spent her life studying human behavior, once said, “What people say, what people do, and what they say they do are entirely different things.” This explains an awful lot about politics but reveals the truth that we see in our everyday lives. “What people say, what people do, and what they say they do are entirely different things.” The second quote, from Sir Winston Churchill, is similar, but the focus is different, and will lead us very well into today’s scripture, and that is, “I no longer listen to what people say, I just watch what they do. Behavior never lies.”

“I no longer listen to what people say, I just watch what they do. Behavior never lies.”

That really is powerful.

And so, I want you to keep these ideas in mind as we read and think about today’s scripture lesson. We begin this morning reading from the story of Abraham in Genesis 12:1-9 which says:

^12:1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

²“I will make you into a great nation,
    and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
    and you will be a blessing.
³I will bless those who bless you,
    and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
    will be blessed through you.”

⁴So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. ⁵He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.

⁶Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. ⁷The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspringI will give this land.” So, he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

⁸From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord.

⁹Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev.

I pause here to do something that Engineers rarely do. I pause here to teach a little English. You are all familiar with the past, present, and future tenses, but English also has an imperative, which we use in instructions and commands. This is important, because while every sentence typically requires both a noun and a verb to make sense, in the imperative, a noun is only implied and not required. This is why commands like “Jump” or “Get out” make perfect sense even though they don’t have a noun in them. The noun, typically “you” is implied. And this is what we see when God commands Abram. If we include the implied noun in the first verse, God says “You go” or “I command you to go” from the places, people, and things that you know, and to the place that I will show you. But, then in the second verse, God explains that Abram’s obedience is not pointless, but that God is offering a transaction. Verse one says “You go” but in verse two, God says that if Abram goes, then “I will” do these things. And this becomes God’s promise to Abram.

But as we noted earlier, regardless of what Abram might have said, which is not recorded, it is important for us to watch what Abram does. And as we read the story, we see that Abram does several things. First, Abram goes. He is seventy-five years old, well-established, and reasonably wealthy, and he leaves it all behind, family, friends, and everything familiar, and heads off into the unknown. But on the way to the place that God is leading him, he stops, twice, both in Shechem, and in Bethel, and builds an altar to worship God and to give thanks, while he is still on the way to the blessing that he has not yet received. And, after giving thanks to God, Abram packs up and continues the way toward wherever it is that God is leading him.

And we see something similar in the gospel of Matthew as Jesus calls the disciple Matthew to follow him. But we also see something quite different, even the opposite, in the same story. In Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26, we read this:

⁹As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

¹⁰While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. ¹¹When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

¹²On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. ¹³But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

¹⁸While he was saying this, a synagogue leader came and knelt before him and said, “My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live.” ¹⁹Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples.

²⁰Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. ²¹She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.”

²²Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment.

²³When Jesus entered the synagogue leader’s house and saw the noisy crowd and people playing pipes, ²⁴he said, “Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep.” But they laughed at him. ²⁵After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up. ²⁶News of this spread through all that region.

So, where we saw God and Abram in the previous story, here we have Jesus and Matthew having a similar conversation. Jesus says, “Follow me” and Matthew gets up and follows. But as soon as Jesus arrives at Matthew’s house, the Pharisees complain that Jesus is socializing with the wrong kind of people. Jesus says, “It is not the healthy that need a doctor but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” But where Matthew did what Jesus told him to do, the implication of the story is that the Pharisees surely did not. Jesus said, “go and learn” and the Pharisees ignored his instructions.

But to add contrast to the contrast between those two stories, the gospel writer immediately follows that story with two more in which people act in ways that demonstrate their faith through their actions. First, by a woman who gave herself directions to touch Jesus’ cloak, and second by a synagogue leader who asked Jesus for help, and then did whatever Jesus asked him to do even when the crowd of people, in his own house, laugh at Jesus, and by extension, the synagogue leader himself, for even imagining that the girl could be alive.

And that’s where we get to us. In Paul’s letter to the church in Rome, he explains what following Jesus means, how we become followers, or what we now name as being Christians, and also covers how many Jews of his day, and Christians today, get the whole thing wrong. Reading from Romans 4:13-25, we hear this:

¹³It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. ¹⁴For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless, ¹⁵because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.

¹⁶Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. ¹⁷As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.

¹⁸Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” ¹⁹Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. ²⁰Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, ²¹being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. ²²This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” ²³The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, ²⁴but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. ²⁵He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

Paul reminds the Jews of the first century that while Abraham was the father of their tribe and of their religion, he did not possess the writings of the Law or the prophets in which the Pharisees, teachers of the law, and so many others placed so much importance. Paul says that it wasn’t the ten commandments that made Jews righteous, nor was it the Law, or the prophets, nor the adherence to the hundreds of rules that regulated the behavior of obedient Jews. Instead, Paul explains that the thing that made Abraham righteous, and the thing that lay at the core of what made people righteous for all time, was that they had placed their faith in God. Paul says that now, for us, this is what we have as believers in Jesus Christ. It isn’t because we adhere to the ten commandments, or because we follow a bunch of rules about alcohol, tobacco, snake handling, how we say our prayers, how we dress, how we speak, how we worship, or dozens of other rules that people say Christians are supposed to follow, but that God credits us with righteousness, God sees us as righteous, simply because we believe in Jesus Christ.

Just as the Pharisees thought that Jesus’ faith was wrong because he ate with tax collectors and sinners, lots of people, church people, and non-church people alike, often get this backwards. We aren’t Christian because we follow a bunch of rules. We are Christian because we have put our trust in Jesus.

But then why do we follow some of the rules and behave in certain ways? The example that springs to mind is the reason that I do not ride motorcycles. I like them. I once thought that I would surely own one. But the idea of me riding a motorcycle would worry my wife to no end. I stay away from motorcycles, not because Patti has made some kind of rule, or because she has forbidden me from doing so, but because I love her, a choose to behave in ways that give her comfort and not worry. And the same can be said for why Christians do many of the things we do. We do not follow rules because following rules makes us Christian. Putting our faith in Jesus is what makes us Christian. We follow certain rules, and adopt certain behaviors, not because we must, but because we choose to do so because we love Jesus and want to honor him.

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Are You Marble, Sponge, or Tea?

March 25, 2026March 25, 2026 PastorPartridge Blogs Alliance, Broadway, Christ, church, faith, God, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John Partridge, marble, Matthew, Methodist, newsletter, Ohio, salt, sponge, tea

Are You Marble, Sponge, or Tea?

by John Partridge

As we pass through the seasons of Lent and Easter, and move ever closer to spring and warm weather, it is worthwhile for us to consider what we will do with what we have learned. After spending time during Lent in contemplation of our need for forgiveness, and celebrating the arrival of that opportunity at Easter, we must consider what we will do with what we have learned, and more importantly who we will be, as we go forward.

A visual analogy that has stuck with me for many years has been to ask the question of whether you are a marble, a sponge, or tea. If we imagine that the world and the culture which surrounds us is a big pot of water, lemonade, or soup, what happens because we are in it? If we are marbles, we take up space, we displace the water, but our presence changes nothing. If we are sponges, then we absorb so much of what surrounds us that we take on the flavor and essence of what surrounds us. But, if we are tea, what we are, and who we are, steeps into every drop and every crevice of the culture around us so that its flavor is irreversibly changed to reflect our morals, ethics, and values.

According to scripture, our calling is to be tea. Or, in the language of the bible, salt.

In Matthew 5:13-16, Jesus said:

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.

If we are salt, we don’t just take up space, or absorb the culture around us, but our saltiness flows the other way, like tea, and flavors the world around us. Likewise, as the people of light, we don’t just take up space, or even navigate through a world filled with darkness, we bring light into the darkness. By our presence, and the light that we bring, we show the people around us where the pitfalls lie and reveal a path of safety as we move forward together.

As we consider the lessons of Lent and Easter, and think about who God calls us to be, both as a church and as individuals, let us think about who we will be in the days ahead.

Will we be marbles, sponges, or tea?

Blessings,

Pastor John

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Lies, False Promises, and Restoring the Broken

February 22, 2026February 22, 2026 PastorPartridge Sermon Adam, Alliance, Broadway, Christ, church, death, decay, disease, Eve, faith, God, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John Partridge, Matthew, Methodist, Ohio, Paul, reconciliation, restoration, restore, Romans, sin, Street

Lies, False Promises, and Restoring the Broken

February 22, 2026*

(First Sunday of Lent)

By Pastor John Partridge

Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 Matthew 4:1-11 Romans 5:12-19

Welcome to the first Sunday in Lent. And, as I have noted in our Lenten mailing, as well as at other times, Lent is a season of preparation and a time for us to explore and deepen our relationship with God. As such, this is a wonderful season in which to ask questions. And so, as I read over the scriptures for today, the obvious question that presented itself was, “What does God want?” Sometimes, when we step back from the stories and instructions of individual scriptures and we look at the wider view, we can see trends, underlying direction, and deeper purpose behind the broad arc of scripture. And so today, as we move from Genesis, to the gospel story of Matthew, and then onward to Paul’s letter to the church in Rome, we will see a shared theme that is birthed in the earliest days of scripture, watered and matured in the story of Jesus, and finally bearing fruit as it is explained to the church and expounded upon as Paul helps the church to understand what it is that God desires.

And so, as we begin this journey, let us begin at the beginning as we read the story of humanity’s fall in Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7, where we hear this:

¹⁵The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. ¹⁶And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; ¹⁷but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

^3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

²The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ³but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

⁴“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. ⁵“For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

⁶When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. ⁷Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so, they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

As we read this story, we not only see the fall of humanity into sin, but also the character of the actors behind it. The serpent first warps and manipulates God’s instructions to suit his own ends, and later outright lies in saying that eating from the tree would not result in death. Eve, meanwhile, fabricates an additional instruction that God had never given declaring that God had told them never to even touch the tree of knowledge. Adam, meanwhile, who we discover had been present for the entire exchange, has every opportunity to correct any of the falsehoods, but rather than oppose them, stands by passively and agrees to everything instead. Humanity falls because Adam and Eve submit to their selfish desires, and the serpent shows himself to be a liar, thief, and manipulator in moving humanity toward his own ends and purposes.

And that is how the relationship between humanity and the enemy of our souls continues for thousands of years until that same master manipulator encounters Jesus and attempts to use the same tools of trickery in Matthew 4:1-11 where we hear this:

^4:1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be temptedby the devil. ²After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. ³The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

⁴Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

⁵Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. ⁶“If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

⁷Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

⁸Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. ⁹“All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

¹⁰Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”

¹¹Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

First, the devil questions Jesus’ identity saying, “If you are the Son of God…” but also tempts Jesus with his own human weakness by suggesting that he transform stones into bread to break his fast and ease his hunger. In answer, Jesus quotes scripture, so the devil then uses scripture as a part of his next temptation. Again saying, “If you are the Son of God…” but this time testing Jesus’ limits by quoting the passage that promises angelic protection. Like the transformation of bread, this was certainly something that Jesus could have done, but Jesus sees this as not only proving something he feels no need to prove, but as a violation of boundaries by deliberately testing God. And finally, the devil offers to give Jesus influence, wealth, and power but Jesus knew that these were all false promises. Even if he wanted to do so, Satan could not give Jesus the things that he promised. While Satan is the ruler of many earthly kingdoms, God is the creator and ruler of the universe. Satan rules only because God chooses to allow him to do so. Instead, Jesus replies that the command of scripture is to worship the Lord and serve God only.

Jesus resists the temptation of the devil and, through his life, death, and resurrection, overcomes sin for all time. The important piece here, is that Jesus did not just resist sin, or simply overcome the temptation of sin for himself, but that he defeated sin, for all time, and for all people if they choose to believe. In Romans 5:12-19, the Apostle Paul explains it to the church this way:

¹²Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way, death came to all people, because all sinned—

¹³To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law. ¹⁴Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.

¹⁵But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! ¹⁶Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. ¹⁷For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!

¹⁸Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. ¹⁹For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

Paul’s message is that Adam and Jesus are bookends to the same story, but that those two bookends are not equal. Adam, who is given the responsibility for committing the first sin, brought sin into the world and doomed humanity to both sin and death. But Jesus, Paul says, is the gift from God that came after thousands of years of humanity’s accumulated sin. That gift, the gift of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, brings the forgiveness of sins, justification before God, and the offer of life to all people.

In the measure of scripture, Adam and Eve were given life and a life of perfect closeness to God, but by their sin, destroyed that relationship and doomed humanity to disease, decay, and death. But Jesus, through his birth, life, death, and resurrection repaired what had been broken, made reconciliation possible, and restored the relationship between humanity and God. Because Jesus resisted the temptation of the devil, lived a perfect life, and was obedient to God, even unto death, all of humanity now has the opportunity to be forgiven of their sin and seen as righteous before God.

We, like uncountable generations of humanity, suffer from our inheritance of temptation and an irresistible compulsion toward sin. But we give thanks to God that Jesus has given us the gift of grace, rescue, reconciliation, restoration, righteousness… and life.

Our prayer is that might all accept the gift, and share it with our friends and neighbors.

Judgement, Destruction, and Treasure

February 19, 2026 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Ash Wednesday, Broadway, Christ, church, Corinth, Corinthians, faith, fear, God, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Joel, John Partridge, Matthew, Methodist, Ohio, Paul, repent, repentance, Street, treasure, worry

Judgement, Destruction, and Treasure

February 18, 2026*

(Ash Wednesday)

By Pastor John Partridge

Joel 2:1-3, 6, 12-14 Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 2 Corinthians 5:20b – 6:10

Joel 2:1-3, 6, 12-14

^2:1 Blow the trumpet in Zion;
sound the alarm on my holy hill.

Let all who live in the land tremble,
    for the day of the Lord is coming.
It is close at hand—
²    a day of darkness and gloom,
    a day of clouds and blackness.
Like dawn spreading across the mountains
    a large and mighty army comes,
such as never was in ancient times
    nor ever will be in ages to come.

³Before them fire devours,
    behind them a flame blazes.
Before them the land is like the garden of Eden,
    behind them, a desert waste—
    nothing escapes them.

⁶At the sight of them, nations are in anguish;
every face turns pale.

¹²“Even now,” declares the Lord,
“return to me with all your heart,
with fasting and weeping and mourning.”

¹³Rend your heart
    and not your garments.
Return to the Lord your God,
    for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love,
    and he relents from sending calamity.
¹⁴Who knows? He may turn and relent
    and leave behind a blessing—
grain offerings and drink offerings
    for the Lord your God.

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

^6:1 “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

²“So, when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. ³But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, ⁴so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

⁵“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. ⁶But when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

¹⁶“When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. ¹⁷But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, ¹⁸so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

¹⁹“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

————

As we read the words of the prophet Joel, God announces to the people of Israel that their future is dark and frightening. God says that judgement is coming, destruction is coming, pain, suffering and fear is coming. But, God says, it is still possible to escape the coming darkness if they will only repent of their sin and return to God. We know that Joel wasn’t specifically written to us, but we can still learn from it. The people of ancient Israel weren’t the only ones who worried about their future. They weren’t the only ones who saw enemies on their borders, corruption and internal conflict in their government, food insecurity, looming economic collapse, and fear that their children may not inherit anything more than struggle, grief, and pain. Those fears are as real today as they have ever been, and it is for that reason that Joel’s words are still relevant. God says that if you want to be ready for an uncertain future, if you want to be prepared for whatever lies ahead, if you want God to walk with you, to guide you, strengthen you, and protect you, all that is needed is to repent of your sin, return to God, and walk in his ways.

But the words that we heard from Jesus in Matthew chapter six fine tune Joel’s message. Jesus says we should not practice righteousness in front of others in order to be seen by them. We should not pray out loud on the street corner so that everyone can see and hear us and we should not deliberately look disheveled and sad so that people will know that we are fasting. In total, what Jesus is saying is that our worship and our sacrifices for God, though necessary and desirable, are not a show. Our worship, sacrifice, and other things that we do for God are just that. Our worship is intended to be a gift of thanksgiving to God and the only accounting that we should be worried about is God’s. Whatever treasure we may accumulate, is intended to accumulate in heaven and not at Chase bank, J.P. Morgan, or Golman Sachs.

But what does this all mean to how God wants us to live in the ordinary, day to day world? As we often do, we find at least a part of our answer in the words of Paul in his second letter to the church in Corinth, where he explains how he and his team had ministered in Corinth and how that ministry stands as an example to all of us in how we are to act as God’s people. In 2 Corinthians 5:20b – 6:10 Paul says:

We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. ²¹God made him who had no sin to be sinfor us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

^6:1 As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. ²For he says,

“In the time of my favor I heard you,
and in the day of salvation I helped you.”

I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.

³We put no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. ⁴Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; ⁵in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; ⁶in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; ⁷in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; ⁸through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; ⁹known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; ¹⁰sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

First, Paul echoes the words of Joel and begs the people of the church to repent, and be reconciled to God, and rebuild their relationship with him. Second, he emphasizes that the time to do these things is now, “now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.” Don’t wait, do these things now. And finally, Paul says that one of the core takeaways from their ministry in Corinth was their lived example of compassion, faithfulness, gratitude, sacrifice, and living in ways that gives credit to God. Specifically, Paul says that a fundamental principal for his ministry, and by extension our ministry as well, was to live in such a way that we do not discredit Jesus, our faith, or our church.

But what does that mean?

It means that we need to live the way that Jesus lived and the way that his disciples modelled for us. To live lives of compassion, faithfulness, empathy, and love for the people around us. To live lives that give sacrificially rather than hoarding selfishly. It means to live in such a way that the people who know you say things like, “I’ve never seen anyone love like that,” “I’ve never seen that kind of generosity,” “I see you do things that I think Jesus would have done,” “I don’t understand why you would care so much about me,” or “ I may not always agree with you, but you seem to genuinely live the way that I thought Christians were supposed to act.” We are not supposed to abuse others because it’s profitable, or ignore injustice because we don’t want to rock the boat, or hurt other people because we disagree with their lifestyle choices. We must not act in ways that make people think poorly of Jesus, or our faith, or our church. We cannot act in ways that cause others to see God’s people as corrupt, unloving, or hateful even when we might profoundly disagree with one another.

Doing these things, and living in this way is going to be hard. Done right, it will be one of the hardest things that we ever do.

That’s why we need to repent, be reconciled to God, and live in ways that honor God.

Because that, my friends, is how we store up treasure in heaven.

When God is Deaf and Blind

February 8, 2026 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, blind, Broadway, Christ, church, Corinth, deaf, faith, God, Isaiah, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John Partridge, Matthew, Methodist, Ohio, Paul, Street

When God is Deaf and Blind

February 08, 2026*

By Pastor John Partridge

Isaiah 58:1-12 Matthew 5:13-20 1 Corinthians 2:1-16

What happens when God doesn’t hear your prayers?

Likewise, what should we think when we are going through trials and difficult circumstances and God doesn’t seem to care?

Honestly, I don’t have all the answers because every circumstance is different.

However, scripture does give us some insight that can help to clear the fog but, before we get to that, let’s think about some of the reasons that sometimes we don’t hear or see the things that are happening around us. In my case, you all know that sometimes, with my hearing loss, particularly if there is a lot of noise, or there are overlapping conversations, I simply don’t hear some things or what I hear is unintelligible. Similarly, we sometimes miss important emails or text messages because they got lost in our general busyness and the crowd of other messages that were fighting for our attention.

And, still other times, we did hear the questions that were asked of us, or we did notice what was going on around us, but we simply chose not to pay attention to them. As parents, we have told our children not to do certain things, explained to them why doing those things was a bad idea, and then watched events unfold when they did those things anyway. Certainly, we could have intervened and rescued them, but at times, the best parenting is to simply watch and let them suffer through the consequences of their actions.

But which of these kinds of actions might we attribute to God? Surely, God isn’t hearing impaired so we can easily eliminate that one. And, while it isn’t difficult to imagine that the prayers and activities of several billion humans might be an overwhelming burden, once again, from what we know about God, that shouldn’t be an issue either. We can be sure that our messages to God aren’t simply being misplaced because God is busy. So, at this point, let us look at some scripture and see what answers we can find that might help us to gain a better understanding of what is happening when God seems to be deaf to our prayers and blind to our suffering. We begin this morning reading from the words of the prophet Isaiah found in Isaiah 58:1-12, where God says:

^58:1 “Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion and to the descendants of Jacob their sins.
²For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them.
³‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’

“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers.
⁴Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high.
⁵Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?

⁶“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?
⁷Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
⁸Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
⁹Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

“If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
¹⁰and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.
¹¹The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.
¹²Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

Through Isaiah, God says that he stopped watching the fasts and the worship of the people when they stopped acting decently toward the people around them. God says that he stopped listening to their prayers when their actions showed their rebellion against him. Instead, what God wants is people who fight against injustice, free those who are enslaved and oppressed, share their food with the hungry, give shelter to the homeless, clothes to the naked, and provide care for your family when they need assistance. If we do those things, God says, then he will guide you, strengthen you, satisfy your needs, protect you, watch your back, answer your prayers for help, and give you the strength to rebuild your life.

In that passage, Isaiah explains some of the ways that we might find ourselves feeling unheard or unseen by God, and all of these seem to be an “us” problem and not a “God” problem. And, when we turn to the New Testament, we find Matthew recording Jesus as he goes farther in explaining who we are supposed to be and how we are supposed to act. As we read Matthew 5:13-20, we hear this:

¹³“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

¹⁴“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. ¹⁶In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

¹⁷“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. ¹⁸For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. ¹⁹Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. ²⁰For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus teaches that we, his followers, are supposed to be the salt that changes the flavor of the world and seasons the people and culture around us wherever we go. We are supposed to bring light into the lives of everyone around us so that they can see the good things that we are doing and understand that God should get the credit. On top of that, Jesus is clear that we are to follow all the commandments and teachings of God and that we cannot choose some to follow and others to ignore.

Finally, in his letter to the church in Corinth, found in 1 Corinthians 2:1-16, Paul gives us all some advice on how to follow Jesus and do the things that we have been talking about. I’m not going to read it all, but this passage is in your bulletin, and I recommend that you read it for yourself.

^2:1 And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. ²For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. ³I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. ⁴My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, ⁵so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

⁶We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. ⁷No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. ⁸None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. ⁹However, as it is written:

“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”—
the things God has prepared for those who love him—

¹⁰these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. ¹¹For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. ¹²What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. ¹³This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. ¹⁴The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. ¹⁵The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, ¹⁶for,

“Who has known the mind of the Lord
so as to instruct him?”

But we have the mind of Christ.

But what Paul says, is that when we teach others about Jesus, God, and the gospel message, the words that we speak are taught by the Spirit of God and explain spiritual realities that are unseen by people who are unconnected to the spirit of God. This is why we can pray to God for discernment and understanding so that we can see the world around us in ways that others cannot hope to see it.

And so, while it is possible that the reason that God doesn’t seem to be listening is because there something that he is trying to teach us, Isaiah says that often our problem is often self-caused. When we claim to be the followers of God but act as if we are not, when we defy God and do the things that he has taught us not to do, and refuse to do the things that he has commanded us to do, God may choose to leave us alone, to ignore our prayers, and turn a blind eye to our worship. Our mission is to change the flavor of the world and to bring light into the lives of the people and the community around us. Jesus made it clear that God cannot walk with us if we only choose to follow some of the commands of God that we like and ignore the others. If we are to be faithful, we must follow, and practice, all the teaching and commandments of God.

Doing so won’t be easy. But God has sent his spirit to live among us and within us, and we are invited to pray for discernment and understanding so that we can see the world the way that God sees it.

The short answer to all of this is that while God always hears our prayers and knows what we are doing, we can’t half follow God. A scout, or a football player at the Super Bowl, that only does what they are supposed to do half the time, is going to get sidelined pretty quick.

If we’re going to choose to follow God, we have to be all-in.

Photo by Comstock Images on Freeimages.com

Left, Right… Wrong?

February 1, 2026 PastorPartridge Sermon Alliance, Broadway, Christ, church, Conservative, Democrat, faith, God, Isaiah, Jesus, Jesus Christ, John Partridge, left, Liberal, Matthew, Methodist, Ohio, Paul, Republican, right, wrong

Left, Right… Wrong?

January 25, 2026*

By Pastor John Partridge

Isaiah 9:1-4 Matthew 4:12-23 1 Corinthians 1:10-18

It doesn’t take a genius to notice that our nation is increasingly divided. On top of that, or maybe because of that, our media seems to delight in defining us by our differences rather than by what we have in common. Everyone is described by adjectives like left, right, and center, with the use of “center” becoming less common every day. We have the political right and left as well as the religious right and left, and even these are sometimes subdivided by the same measure when described as the conservative republicans, or liberal Democrats, when the core assumption is that Republicans are generally conservative and Democrats generally liberal to begin with. But the center isn’t safe from this either because terms like “left-leaning” or “right-leaning” moderate are also commonly used. More to my point this morning, it likewise isn’t impossible for us to find references to conservative or liberal Methodists, Catholics, Lutherans and other denominational affiliations as well as opinions ranking various denominational affiliations by where they lie on that person’s perception of the political or religious right-left spectrum. It’s become all so common that we all take it for granted and think little, or nothing, of such descriptions.

But what if we’re all wrong?

And for us to consider that at all, we must begin by thinking about what direction and what guidance we get from scripture and from the teaching and example of Jesus. For our purposes this morning, let us begin with the words of the prophet Isaiah, in Isaiah 9:1-4, as he describes the purpose of the messiah and rescuer that is to come:

^9:1 Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future, he will honor Galilee of the nations, by the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan—

²The people walking in darkness
    have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
    a light has dawned.
³You have enlarged the nation
    and increased their joy;
they rejoice before you
    as people rejoice at the harvest,
as warriors rejoice
    when dividing the plunder.
⁴For as in the day of Midian’s defeat,
    you have shattered
the yoke that burdens them,
    the bar across their shoulders,
    the rod of their oppressor.

Isaiah says that the people would be rescued from the gloom and depression that comes from their oppression and says that the messiah will come from the land that was, in the Mosaic writings, defined by the inheritance of the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali, but was known in his time as the area of Galilee and, just to be sure that everyone was on the same page, he explained that it was the land beyond the Jordan River but which was near to the Via Maris, the Way of the Sea, the ancient road that ran along the sea and connected Judea and Israel to the nations of Mesopotamia in the East and Egypt to the West. But after identifying the place from which the messiah would come, Isaiah says that the arrival of the messiah would bring light to the darkness, enlarge the nation, increase the joy of the people, and bring freedom by shattering the yoke of oppression and breaking the rod of those who rule over them.

And it is this passage that Matthew has in mind in Matthew 4:12-23, when he notes the home of Jesus and then describes the message that Jesus preached, saying:

¹²When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he withdrew to Galilee. ¹³Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali— ¹⁴to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah:

¹⁵“Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,
    the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan,
    Galilee of the Gentiles—
¹⁶the people living in darkness
    have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
    a light has dawned.”

¹⁷From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

¹⁸As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. ¹⁹“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” ²⁰At once they left their nets and followed him.

²¹Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, ²²and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

²³Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.

Matthew says that Jesus withdrew to Galilee when he heard the horrible news that his cousin John the Baptist had been thrown in prison, meaning that Galilee was Jesus’ safe space and home. But by using Isaiah’s imagery, Matthew reveals that Jesus was the Messiah that Israel had expected, the Messiah that would break the yoke of the oppressor and bring freedom to the people. And with that preamble, Matthew says that the message that Jesus preached was a message of repentance. And it is important at this point, to remind ourselves that the literal meaning of the word for repentance is a “change of direction.” We cannot repent and continue in the same way that we did before. Repentance means that the direction of our lives has changed because the kingdom of God has come near to us. And then, after Matthew describes the calling of Peter, Andrew, James, and John, he said that Jesus went throughout the area of Galilee proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness found among the people.

And then, as we know, many people repented, they came to faith in Jesus, they changed direction, they put their faith in him, and they followed his teaching and his example. But… they didn’t always get it right and they didn’t always agree on what it meant to follow Jesus. And that is what Paul is addressing as he writes to the church in the Greek city of Corinth in 1 Corinthians 1:10-18, when he says:

¹⁰I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. ¹¹My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. ¹²What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.”

¹³Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? ¹⁴I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, ¹⁵so no one can say that you were baptized in my name. ¹⁶(Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t remember if I baptized anyone else.) ¹⁷For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

¹⁸For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹For it is written:

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”

Paul appeals the people of the church to stop dividing themselves along lines that were related to theology and personality. These were political style divisions in which groups of people had allied themselves by claiming allegiance to Paul, or Apollos, of Peter, or Jesus. Of course, none of these, originally, were in any disagreement with one another, but these groups used them as figureheads to create lines of division. And so here, Paul interjects reason by pointing out that Jesus was not divided, that Paul was not crucified, and that he had no desire or inclination to be the object of anyone’s worship. Instead, Paul reminds everyone that it was Jesus who sent him to preach the gospel. The core of the gospel message, Paul says, is that Jesus is the source of our salvation and not the cults of personality, wisdom, or eloquence that humans create to set themselves apart from one another and create division.

And as we read Paul’s words from two millennia away, we are tempted to say to ourselves that we no longer argue that one follows Peter, another Paul, another Apollos, and another Jesus. But isn’t that exactly what we’re doing when we say that we identify as Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, Catholic, or any other denominational, or nondenominational affiliation? Aren’t we going through the same motions and methods of division that Paul was trying to break up when he wrote to the church in Corinth?

Paul’s argument wasn’t necessarily that disagreement was prohibited, though scripture often emphasizes that unity is our goal. Instead, Paul’s argument is that despite our disagreements, we must focus instead upon the centrality of Jesus for all of us. Worse, I think, for those of us in the church, is that many of our political disagreements fall under that same condemnation. Too often, especially in recent years, Christians proudly announce that their alignment, their identity, belongs to this or that political party. They, and if we’re honest, we, claim that we are, first and foremost members of the Christian right, left, or middle. But if we are to take scripture seriously, whenever we begin to adopt a personal identity in that way, we have already shoved Jesus out of the center.

The promised messiah has promised to free us from the yoke that burdens us and gives us freedom, only for us to shackle ourselves to another burden that demands our loyalty and allegiance.

The message of Paul is that whenever we claim allegiance to this divided group, or that other divided group, whenever begin to think of ourselves as this denomination, that denomination, or as the Christian left or the Christian right…

…we’re wrong.

Pastor Partridge

Sermons, blogs and other things from Pastor John Partridge

Matthew

Entitlement or Effort?

Entitlement or Effort?

July 12, 2026*

Through the Impossible

Through the Impossible

July 05, 2026*

Choosing Slavery

Choosing Slavery

June 28, 2026*

Life and Death Choices

Life and Death Choices

June 21, 2026*

Directions and Credits “For Us”

Directions and Credits “For Us”

June 07, 2026*

Lies, False Promises, and Restoring the Broken

Lies, False Promises, and Restoring the Broken

February 22, 2026*

(First Sunday of Lent)

Judgement, Destruction, and Treasure

Judgement, Destruction, and Treasure

February 18, 2026*

(Ash Wednesday)

When God is Deaf and Blind

When God is Deaf and Blind

February 08, 2026*

Left, Right… Wrong?

Left, Right… Wrong?

January 25, 2026*