share the story

Ownership. Relationship. Commitment.

PastorPartridge Sermon , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Ownership. Relationship. Commitment.

April 28, 2024*

By Pastor John Partridge

John 10:11-18                        Acts 4:5-12                 1 John 3:16-24

Have you ever driven a rental car? You can never be too sure about rental cars because, although they are usually new, people often drive them in ways that you would not drive your family car. I’ve heard stories about rental cars being destroyed because there are often no repercussions if you pay for the insurance in advance. Military vehicles are often in a comparable situation, although destroying them is punishable, it is not all uncommon for young soldiers to take vehicles off-road, bury them to the axles in mud, or worse, and just generally drive them… shall we say… harshly. Though in some cases, the motor sergeant is going to own you for a while.

There is a saying, “Drive it like you stole it” that might be applied to both rental cars and military vehicles. At the heart of this discussion is the issue of ownership. Ownership of the car makes a difference. If those same young soldiers spent several years working at the local fast food franchise to buy their own car, and then did a lot of their own labor to fix it up and add after-factory accessories and bling to it, the odds are good that they would drive that car in a vastly different way than a rental car or military motor pool vehicle.

Ownership makes a difference in many things. And it is that principle that we find at the core of our story this morning in John 10:11-18 when Jesus says…

11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So, when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. 17 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd” and not a hired hand. The difference between the good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep, and the hired hand who runs away and allows the flock to be scattered, is ownership. The flock belongs to Jesus, and not only does he protect it and preserve it with his life, but he has a relationship with his sheep. He knows everything about his sheep, and they know him. And because they know him, and they trust him, they listen to his voice and follow his commands. And that illustration is accurate. Before we went into ministry, Patti and I had seven acres and, at one time, two sheep. Every day I let them out of the barn in the morning and they ran out to the pasture to graze. But every evening I opened the door to their stall, and then the barn door, and as soon as I called them, they ran in. If it was anybody but Patti or I, they didn’t come because they didn’t know them.

Ownership, and relationships, make a difference.

And so, when Peter and John are detained, if not arrested, and brought before the elders to make an accounting for the lame man that they healed at the temple gate, they don’t take the credit for anything, but instead point to the good shepherd. Let’s read the story in Acts 4:5-12:

5 The next day the rulers, the elders and the teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. 6 Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and others of the high priest’s family. 7 They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: “By what power or what name did you do this?”

8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! 9 If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, 10 then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. 11 Jesus is

“‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’

12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

Peter and John knew the good shepherd and had a relationship with him. And so, as his followers, or as John Bunyan said it in Pilgrim’s Progress, as under-shepherds, they knew from where their authority and power had come and gave credit and testimony to Jesus for the healing of the lame man who had begged at the gate to the temple.

But why? And why does knowing why matter to us? And how does knowing inform us, and instruct us, about how we should live our lives today? The Apostle John understood that these are legitimate questions, and they were questions that the church was asking two thousand years ago just as we ask them today. And that’s why we find John’s answer to the first century church, and to us, in 1 John 3:16-24, when he explains that…

16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.

19 This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: 20 If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24 The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.

Jesus said that he was the good shepherd, because the shepherd has ownership of his sheep, and is willing to lay down his life to protect them. Jesus did just that. He laid down his life so that we could be rescued from sin and death. Building on that, John makes the point that if Jesus laid down his life for us, then we should be ready to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If the followers of Jesus Christ are blessed enough to have money, cars, houses, and other material possessions, and have no pity for brothers and sisters that are in need, then how can we believe that the love of God is in them at all? Love, John says, isn’t about the words that we say, but in the actions that we take. Love isn’t saying that we care about the poor, or giving speeches about how much we love them. Love is making sure that they have food, clothing, and a place to live.

John says that “the one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.” If we love God, if the Spirit of God truly lives in us, then we will keep God’s commandments, do the things that God asks us to do, and love the people around us in the way that Jesus loved them. The abridged version is that if we truly believe, then we will use what we have, to take action and love the people around us by caring for their needs.

Jesus is the good shepherd. He has ownership and is not a hired hand, so he was willing to lay down his life for his sheep. But a good shepherd also has a relationship with their sheep. He knows them, and they know him. And because we have a relationship with Jesus, as our good shepherd, we have made a commitment to follow him, to obey him, and to love the world the way that Jesus loved.

Love is not words; love is an action.

How will you show the people of your community the love of Jesus today?

That is a question we should ask ourselves every day, and every time we see people who are struggling.

How will we show them the love of Jesus today?

Please LIKE and SHARE!

Click here to subscribe to Pastor John’s blog.

Click here if you would like to subscribe to Pastor John’s weekly messages.

Click here to visit Pastor John’s YouTube channel.




*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.™

Photo by Sarej on Freeimages.com

Hope for the World

PastorPartridge Sermon , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hope for the World

April 21, 2024*

By Pastor John Partridge

Luke 24:36b-48                     Acts 3:12-19               1 John 3:1-7

The question that we asked last week was “What comes next?” And we asked what we were supposed to do with what we had learned from the stories that we read during Lent and about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ at Easter. And although we looked at some examples of what the disciples did, and, I hope, better understood what God commands us to do with the story of the resurrection and the message of the gospel, there is another question that was left unanswered. And the unanswered question is… why.

Why does God call us to share the good news of Jesus Christ? Why are we supposed to share our stories and the stories of scripture? Why are we commanded to inconvenience ourselves by having uncomfortable conversations about eternity with our friends, family, and people everywhere?

And so that’s the question that we’re going to dig into this morning, but, to do that, we are going to start in the same place that we started last week, and with the same story, but this time reading from the gospel of Luke, instead of the gospel of John that we read last week. We begin with what should be a familiar story in Luke 24:36b-48, which says…

36 While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

37 They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. 38 He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? 39 Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”

40 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. 41 And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and he took it and ate it in their presence.

44 He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”

45 Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46 He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things.

Just like we heard last week, Jesus begins his time with the disciples by saying “Peace be with you” just because, knowing full-well that Jesus was dead, seeing him appear in the middle of the room scared the dickens out of them and everyone thought that he must be a ghost.  But Jesus calms them down, allows them to touch him to understand that he is both alive and solid, and even eats in their presence because, I suppose, logically, dead guys and ghosts don’t eat. But then Jesus gets to the important stuff and reminds them that what they have seen in his death and resurrection is nothing less than the fulfillment of dozens of ancient prophecies that they had all read in the Law of Moses, in the writing of the prophets, and in the Psalms. Jesus connected the dots between what they knew about the scriptures, the promised Messiah, and what they had seen in Jesus so that they understood that he was indeed the Messiah that Israel had been promised.

And then Jesus answers the “so what” question. Jesus says that the next step that must come, the next thing that must happen after the arrival of the Messiah, is that people need to repent and be forgiven of their sins, and the good news must be preached to all the nations of the world. In addition, having said that, Jesus declares that the disciples, and the other followers that were there, are witnesses of what had happened. The clear implication is that Jesus is commanding them to go and preach to the nations of the world because they were the people who had witnessed what had happened.

And so, the disciples begin to do exactly that. They are transformed from being scared men and women who meet in private behind closed doors and start to preach the message of Jesus Christ in public places and even in the Temple itself in full view of the priests, Pharisees, Sadducees, and the soldiers of the Roman Tenth Legion. In Acts 3:12-19, Peter heals a lame man whom everyone had seen begging at the gates of the temple, brings him into the temple courts, and everyone crowded around them asking questions and trying to understand what had happened.

11 While the man held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon’s Colonnade. 12 When Peter saw this, he said to them: “Fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? 13 The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. 14 You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. 15 You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. 16 By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see.

17 “Now, fellow Israelites, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. 18 But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer. 19 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, 20 and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus.

And it is here that Peter says exactly those things that Jesus commanded them to say, that they were witnesses, that Jesus died, that God raised him from the dead, and that by repenting, turning to God, and putting our faith in Jesus, our sins are forgiven, wiped out, and erased as if they never happened so that we can rest and be refreshed in the presence of God.

But that still doesn’t answer the question of why. So far, what we’ve seen isn’t much different than what we saw last week. Jesus sends the disciples out, they go out, they perform miracles, and they preach because they were the people who had witnessed Jesus’ ministry, death, and resurrection. But how does that connect to us, and why are we called to share what we know if we weren’t the people who witnessed these events firsthand? And we hear the answer in the letter of 1 John 3:1-7, which was written, by the Apostle John, to the churches of in the Roman province of Asia between the years 85 and 95 AD as he says…

3:1 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears,[a] we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.

7 Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.

John says that even if we weren’t there to see it all unfold firsthand, we have still experienced the loved of God in a lavish and extraordinary way as we have been adopted into God’s family and declared to be the children of God. But John reminds us that not everyone knows the love of God or has experienced the lavish gift of adoption into God’s family. And because others have not heard the Good News, have not been adopted, and have not experienced the lavish love of God, they live without hope.

Let me say that again and let it sink in, all who have this hope in him, purify themselves just as Christ is pure. But the people who haven’t heard the Good News live without hope. We live in a world that is filled with sadness, darkness, hopelessness, and despair. Imagine watching the evening news, reading your newspaper or your morning internet news feed, seeing all of the death, destruction, warfare, violence, bloodshed, greed, suffering, corruption, and outright evil splashed across your screens and into your eyeballs every day without a shred of hope that it will ever get better, without hope that there is a better day coming, without hope that there is a God who cares, without hope that there will ever be justice for the poor and the oppressed, and without hope that there is anything at all beyond the veil of death. That is the reality for all those who have not heard and understood the message of Jesus Christ.

And that’s the answer to the question of why God has called us to share the story of the gospel, of Easter, and the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The answer to why, is simply because each of you, each of us, is the last guardian, the last bastion… of hope.

What kind of human being would watch a child drown when they only had to reach out their hand to save them?

But we live in a world full of people who are drowning in hopelessness.

And we are called to reach out our hands… and share the hope that we have.

Please LIKE and SHARE!

Click here to subscribe to Pastor John’s blog.

Click here if you would like to subscribe to Pastor John’s weekly messages.

Click here to visit Pastor John’s YouTube channel.

*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.™

Photo by firehawk77 on Freeimages.com

Share the Story. Do the Stuff.

PastorPartridge Sermon , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Share the Story. Do the Stuff.

April 14, 2024*

By Pastor John Partridge

John 20:19-31                        Acts 4:32-35               1 John 1:1 – 2:2

Well… You’ve probably noticed that Easter is over. It’s a little weird because in the church there is this big build up to Christmas and Easter, and at least with Christmas, we can argue that December 25th is only the beginning of the 12 days of Christmas, and the official season of Christmas lasts for quite a while after that. But we prepare for Easter through the season of Lent, have a big celebration on Easter Sunday, and then…. …nothing. I’m not suggesting that our United Women in Faith Sunday wasn’t great, but, as it relates to Easter, we’re still left with the question of “What’s next?” In seminary, my preaching professor said that the end of every sermon should answer the question “So what?” And, as big as Easter is, now that it’s over, we’re left with the same question… “So what?” Now that we’ve celebrated, what does it mean? How does this inform our lives? What should we do next?

And, as if often the case, we can find the answer to our questions by looking at the example of scripture, the example of Jesus, and especially the example of the disciples. What did the disciples do after the resurrection? And what did the other rank and file, nameless, ordinary followers of Jesus do? To find out, let’s rejoin the disciples about where we left them on Easter Sunday and then check out some snapshots in time to see what they did with what they had learned. We begin with the story of John 20:19-31, where we hear this:

19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

24 Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

30 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believethat Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

As I mentioned on Easter Sunday, we find the disciples living in fear, meeting together with the doors locked because they were afraid that with Jesus dead, the same influential people that arranged a kangaroo court with false charges against Jesus would be emboldened by their success and come after the disciples next. And as they met together, their fear changed to joy when Jesus suddenly appears among them. But even now, the disciples do not completely understand. The ones who see Jesus firsthand are joyful, but Thomas, who wasn’t there, was openly skeptical, as many of us would be, and as many of our friends still are. Our life experience tells us that death is permanent and without firsthand evidence, without seeing Jesus personally, and physically verifying that it wasn’t some kind of imposter, Thomas wouldn’t believe. I would assume that Thomas wanted to believe that this was true but coming back from the dead seemed like a bridge too far.

But even though the disciples were overjoyed that Jesus had risen from the dead, and even after Jesus appeared to the disciples a second time, the disciples still didn’t understand what it all meant or what they were supposed to do even though Jesus said, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” It wasn’t until they had gone back to their fishing boats, returned to their jobs, and tried to resume their normal, pre-Jesus, lives, that Jesus appeared to them yet again, and called them into his service and his mission… again, that they finally understood what the resurrection meant and how they were supposed live their lives. We see the difference that it made as we read the story in Acts 4:32-35 and see how their behavior has changed:

32 All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. 33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all 34 that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35 and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.

By the time that we see these same disciples in the book of Acts, once they completely understood the meaning of the resurrection, the impact, and the lessons, of Jesus had changed their lives. Now, because of the grace of God that was within them, rather than scrabbling out an existence as individuals, the followers of Jesus have, at least partially, begun to live communally so that the poorest among them would have food to eat and a place to live. Although they legally owned individual property, they did not claim it as their own within the community of faith. Instead, they maintained their individual property for the best outcome for all rather than the best outcome for them individually. But this was not the only change that they had made in their lives. Where before we saw men who attempted to go back to their previous lives fishing in the Sea of Galilee, now the disciples dedicate themselves to sharing the message of the gospel and telling the world about the resurrection of Jesus.

But what else? How does that trickle down to the church of the twenty-first century and ordinary people like us? And we find a satisfactory answer to those questions in 1 John 1:1 – 2:2 as John explains how the community of Jesus followers were living their lives in the first century:

1:1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make ourjoy complete.

5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.

2:1 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

John says that because they heard the good news, saw Jesus with their own eyes, and touched his hands with their own fingers they now spent their lives telling the world about the message that Jesus shared. Their mission was to tell others about Jesus so that they could also believe and join the growing collection of followers that would eventually become known as the church. But following Jesus, and being in fellowship with other believers, meant something about how they lived their lives. If they said that they believed, but acted in ways that were contrary to the teaching of Jesus, then their entire lives became a lie. John says that if we follow Jesus, then we must live in the light, and live the kind of life that Jesus taught.

Likewise, because of what we know about the sacrifice of Jesus, we cannot pretend that we are perfect and without sin because that too is a lie. Instead, we recognize our flaws, failures, and sin, confess them to Jesus, and trust that he will forgive us and purify us from our unrighteousness. Any time that we claim to be better that we are, we make Jesus out to be a liar and the people around us cannot find him in us. John says that we do all that we can to live without sinning, but since we aren’t perfect, then we know that we eventually will. And so, whenever we fall into sin, we must remember that Jesus sacrificed himself so that we, and the entire world, could be forgiven of our sin.

So now, we end where we began, with these questions: “So what?” Now that we’ve celebrated, what does it mean? How does this inform our lives? What should we do next?

And the answer that we have found in the example, and in the words, of the disciples and the followers of Jesus in the first century is to tell the story, to share what we have, and to live the way that Jesus lived and the way that Jesus taught.

Simply put, Share the story… and do the stuff.

Easy to say, and sometimes hard to do, but that is our mission… and our life.

Share the story… do the stuff.

Please LIKE and SHARE!

Click here to subscribe to Pastor John’s blog.

Click here if you would like to subscribe to Pastor John’s weekly messages.

Click here to visit Pastor John’s YouTube channel.

*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.™