Take 2-3 minutes to quiet yourself and ask God to speak to you today through your devotional time.  

Reading: Psalm 34:1; Romans 12:1-2

Be sure to highlight or note anything that stands out to you while you read.  
After reading the passage, take the next 5-10 minutes and spend time reflecting on what you read. You can write these things down in a journal or record them in your phone. Be attentive to both what you highlighted in the passage and what is going on in your life.

“I will bless the Lord at all times.” David wasn’t singing every second, but praise was the settled direction of his life. Paul calls this a “living sacrifice”—not something offered once emotionally then taken back, but a life continually placed on the altar.

This is the goal: that Sunday becomes merely the overflow of Saturday’s worship, Friday evening’s worship, Tuesday morning’s worship. When worship becomes your lifestyle rather than an event, everything changes. The song ends, but the worship continues. The service concludes, but your offering keeps going. You leave the room, but you take the heart of a worshiper into your workplace, your home, your struggles. This is what God desires—not perfect performance, but persistent positioning of your heart toward Him at all times, in all circumstances.

What would change in my week if I truly lived as a “living sacrifice”?       

Now, take 10 minutes to seek God in prayer…  

1. Begin your time in prayer by taking 1-3 minutes to sit in silence (You can take longer if you sense the Spirit already beginning to speak to you).  
2. Pray through the things you sensed God speaking to you through the Scriptures or pray the following prayer: Father, I don’t want my worship to be limited to one hour on Sunday. Help me live every day with a heart that honors You. Let my thoughts, words, actions, and attitudes become a continual offering of praise. Shape my life into one that reflects Your goodness wherever I go. Amen.
   
3. Close by taking 5 minutes to sit in silence, asking God if there is anything else He wants to speak to you today.  

Faith Steps:

1. Begin tomorrow by dedicating your entire day to God before you do anything else. 
2. Look for one opportunity today to intentionally glorify God through your attitude, words, or actions in an everyday situation.
   
   
   
   
   

Take 2-3 minutes to quiet yourself and ask God to speak to you today through your devotional time.  

Reading: Psalm 66:10-20; Hebrews 12:1-3

Be sure to highlight or note anything that stands out to you while you read.  
After reading the passage, take the next 5-10 minutes and spend time reflecting on what you read. You can write these things down in a journal or record them in your phone. Be attentive to both what you highlighted in the passage and what is going on in your life.

The psalmist cries out for help while simultaneously praising God. How is this possible? Because worship originates in the heart, not circumstances. Jesus demonstrated this ultimate truth: the greatest act of worship this world has ever seen came through the greatest pain ever endured. On the cross, Christ’s submission to the Father’s will in agony became humanity’s redemption.

Pain doesn’t disqualify worship; it deepens it. When you choose to trust God’s character despite unanswered prayers, broken relationships, or devastating loss, you’re declaring that His worth doesn’t depend on your comfort. This isn’t minimizing pain—it’s transforming it into purpose. Pain doesn’t get to decide whether God remains worthy. That’s Christlike maturity. That’s worship that moves mountains.

What pain in my life can I surrender as an act of worship today?        

Now, take 10 minutes to seek God in prayer…  

1. Begin your time in prayer by taking 1-3 minutes to sit in silence (You can take longer if you sense the Spirit already beginning to speak to you).  
2. Pray through the things you sensed God speaking to you through the Scriptures or pray the following prayer: Lord, You know every hurt, disappointment, and unanswered question I carry. Help me trust You even when I don’t understand what You are doing. Teach me to worship You not because life is easy, but because You are always faithful. Take my pain and use it to draw me closer to You. Amen.
   
3. Close by taking 5 minutes to sit in silence, asking God if there is anything else He wants to speak to you today.  

Faith Steps:

1. Honestly surrender one burden or disappointment to God in prayer instead of continuing to carry it alone. 
2. Thank God for one evidence of His faithfulness, even if your circumstances have not yet changed.
   
   
   
   
   

Take 2-3 minutes to quiet yourself and ask God to speak to you today through your devotional time.  

Reading: Colossians 3:17; Psalm 66:13-15

Be sure to highlight or note anything that stands out to you while you read.  
After reading the passage, take the next 5-10 minutes and spend time reflecting on what you read. You can write these things down in a journal or record them in your phone. Be attentive to both what you highlighted in the passage and what is going on in your life.

Worship isn’t confined to mountain-top experiences or Sunday services. Paul’s instruction transforms everything: “Whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus.” This means Monday morning traffic, changing diapers, filing paperwork, and doing laundry can all become acts of worship.

The ancient sacrifices weren’t always glorious—they were routine, even messy. Yet they were worship. When you delight in God during ordinary moments—savoring a meal, laughing with friends, completing a task with excellence—you’re worshiping. Every breath is a gift He didn’t have to give. Every moment of joy points back to the One who created our capacity for delight. The question isn’t whether God is present in the mundane; it’s whether we’re awake to Him there.

How can I practice God’s presence in today’s ordinary tasks?        

Now, take 10 minutes to seek God in prayer…  

1. Begin your time in prayer by taking 1-3 minutes to sit in silence (You can take longer if you sense the Spirit already beginning to speak to you).  
2. Pray through the things you sensed God speaking to you through the Scriptures or pray the following prayer: Father, help me remember that every moment of my day belongs to You. Teach me to see ordinary responsibilities as opportunities to honor You. May my work, conversations, and daily routines become acts of worship that reflect Your presence in my life. Amen.
   
3. Close by taking 5 minutes to sit in silence, asking God if there is anything else He wants to speak to you today.  

Faith Steps:

1. Choose one routine task today and intentionally do it with gratitude and excellence as an act of worship. 
2. Before beginning each new activity today, pause briefly and invite God into that moment.
   
   
   
   
   

Take 2-3 minutes to quiet yourself and ask God to speak to you today through your devotional time.  

Reading: Psalm 66:1-7; Romans 1:20

Be sure to highlight or note anything that stands out to you while you read.  
After reading the passage, take the next 5-10 minutes and spend time reflecting on what you read. You can write these things down in a journal or record them in your phone. Be attentive to both what you highlighted in the passage and what is going on in your life.

Creation screams of God’s glory. From the unimaginable power of the sun to the complexity of human consciousness, everything reveals something about our Creator. The psalmist commands us to “make His praise glorious”—to let our worship match the magnitude of who God is.

When you witness a breathtaking sunset, hold a newborn baby, or stand beneath a starlit sky, these aren’t random moments of beauty. They’re invitations to worship. God’s invisible qualities are clearly seen in what He has made. The extraordinary moments aren’t interruptions to ordinary life; they’re divine appointments where God reveals His creativity, power, and attention to detail. Don’t rush past them. Pause. See what He’s worth. Respond with awe.

When did I last allow an extraordinary moment to lead me into worship?        

Now, take 10 minutes to seek God in prayer…  

1. Begin your time in prayer by taking 1-3 minutes to sit in silence (You can take longer if you sense the Spirit already beginning to speak to you).  
2. Pray through the things you sensed God speaking to you through the Scriptures or pray the following prayer: Lord, open my eyes to see Your fingerprints all around me. Help me slow down enough to recognize Your greatness in creation and in the blessings You place in my path each day. May moments of beauty always point my heart back to the beauty of the One who created them. Amen.
   
3. Close by taking 5 minutes to sit in silence, asking God if there is anything else He wants to speak to you today.  

Faith Steps:

1. Spend at least ten minutes outside today, intentionally noticing God’s creation and thanking Him for what you see. 
2. When something beautiful captures your attention today, pause and turn that moment into worship instead of simply moving on.
   
   
   
   

"God is bigger than language and he's bigger than music. Then worship is more than a song." — Pastor Jonathan Phillips

Most people would say worship ends when the song does. When the lights come up and the band walks off the stage, worship is over and the rest of life begins. But in week four of The Tree Church's worship series, Pastor Jonathan Phillips made a case that challenges that assumption at its foundation.

Worship does not end when the song ends. It was never supposed to.

Pastor Jonathan opened in Revelation 22:8–9, where John the Revelator falls at the feet of an angel after receiving an extraordinary vision. The angel stops him immediately. "Don't do that," the angel says. "Worship God." Pastor Jonathan pointed out that this is not a suggestion or an invitation. It is a command. And notably, it comes without conditions attached.

Not worship God when the atmosphere is right. Not worship God when the band plays your song. Just worship God.

That command became the anchor for everything that followed.

Before walking the congregation through what a worship life looks like, Pastor Jonathan wanted to address the why behind it. He turned to Isaiah 42:8, a verse he first encountered as a sophomore in college.

"I am the Lord. That is my name. I will not give my glory to anyone else nor share my praise with carved idols."

That verse, he explained, set the direction of his life. God is passionate about his own glory. He will not share it. And when Pastor Jonathan saw that, he realized there were only two options. He could spend his life trying to make it about himself, or he could get in line with the heart of God and give his life to helping others see how much God is worth.

That became his mission. To help the world see what he is worth.

God does not need our worship. Pastor Jonathan was clear about that. God exists apart from everything. He cannot be added to or subtracted from. But he wants us to see his worth because he sees it. And a good God who wants his people to experience something that boundless must be doing it for their good.

Pastor Jonathan built toward one of the central ideas of the message by first exploring why worship through song matters so much. Psalm 66:2 and 4 call the people of God to sing the glory of his name. Scripture is filled with commands to sing, to make music, to speak to one another in hymns and spiritual songs.

There is a reason for that. Music communicates beyond language. It reaches places that words alone cannot.

To illustrate the point, Pastor Jonathan wrote a country song live in the room with the congregation's help, pulling themes and words from the audience and turning them into a full chorus on the spot. The room sang along almost instinctively.

That, he said, is exactly the point. Music moves people in ways that language cannot always explain.

But here is where the message sharpened. If God is beyond language, and music can go further than language, God is also beyond music. Which means worship itself must be more than a song. Colossians 3:17 captures this well. Whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father. Paul takes worship completely out of a single moment and places it into the context of an entire life.

Pastor Jonathan then walked through three arenas where a worship life actually takes place, drawing from Psalm 66 throughout.

The first is the extraordinary. Psalm 66:2–3 calls the people of God to make his praise glorious, to say to God how awesome his deeds are. Pastor Jonathan illustrated this with a series of images and facts designed to stir a sense of awe.

A tornado tearing through a neighborhood like paper. Mount Everest, the highest peak in the world, visible for 230 miles from its summit, and yet invisible from a photo taken near Saturn's rings. The sun, burning at 27 million degrees Fahrenheit, felt from 93 million miles away. The mantis shrimp, four inches long, capable of striking with the force of a 22 caliber bullet fast enough to punch 437 times in the span of a single blink.

Each of these things reveals something about God. His power. His creativity. His attention to detail. His mystery. When we encounter the extraordinary and recognize God in it, that recognition and response is worship.

The second arena is one that often gets overlooked. A worship life happens in the mundane.

Psalm 66:15 describes offerings of bulls and rams, a ritual that was routine, repeated, and anything but glamorous. Pastor Jonathan used his own marriage proposal to Natalie as a contrast. The proposal was extraordinary by any measure. Rose petals, candles, a message in a bottle, a letter written the day he knew he would marry her. Tears, joy, and his sister doing laps around the park in her car to catch the moment on video.

But marriage is not made of proposals. It is made of laundry days and gym sessions and holding someone's hair back when they are sick.

Worship works the same way. A worship life is not built only on the mountain top moments. It is built in the 3:00 a.m. diaper change. The morning commute. The first bite of a perfectly cooked steak. The DQ Blizzard a neighbor drops off. The feeling of sliding your feet under the covers at the end of a long day.

Pastor Jonathan pointed out that God gave human beings the ability to enjoy every one of those moments. He gave us taste buds when he could have made everything taste like unsweetened oatmeal. He gave us color when he could have made the world grayscale. He gave us the ability to smell a watermelon cracked open in the summer. All of it was created for our delight, so that our delight would point us back to him.

And beyond creating those moments, Jesus purchased our right to enjoy them through his death on the cross. We were enemies of God, and he sent his son to pay for our place in this world and our ability to bring him glory in it.

The third arena is the hardest. A worship life happens in the pain.

Psalm 66 does not shy away from this. Verse 12 acknowledges going through fire and water. Verses 17 and 19 describe crying out to God in trouble, praising him even as the cries came. The NLT captures it this way: "For I cried out to him for help, praising him as I spoke."
Pastor Jonathan paused on that tension. How does someone cry out for help and praise at the same time? Because worship does not originate on the lips. It originates in the heart. Jesus said it plainly. Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. When praise is what lives in the heart, it finds its way out even through tears and cries for help.

"It is one thing to see God in beauty and even to see him in the mundane, but it is a whole different level of maturity found in those who continue responding to him in the pain."
 — Pastor Jonathan Phillips

Pain is not a reason to stop worshiping. Pain does not have the authority to decide whether God is worthy. Pastor Jonathan was careful not to minimize what people carry. He was not saying that pain is something to celebrate or rush through. He was saying that worship gives pain a purpose.

When the prayer is not answered the way you hoped. When the relationship breaks. When the doctor says cancer. When someone you love is gone. In those moments, a worship life says: God, get glory in my hurt.

That posture, Pastor Jonathan said, is one of the most Christlike things a person can do. Jesus endured the greatest suffering this world has ever seen. And from the greatest pain came the greatest act of worship this world has ever seen.

Pastor Jonathan closed by calling the church to something specific. Not a Sunday kind of worship. A Monday kind of worship. A Tuesday kind of worship. Worship that does not need to be warmed up because it never actually stopped.

He described a vision for what it could look like if Sunday morning was simply the overflow of what had already been happening in the heart all week. No need for a strong opener to get people in the room. They would already be there.

That is what a worship life produces. In the extraordinary moments, you worship. In the mundane moments, you worship. In the painful moments, you worship. Not because it always feels right, but because God is always worth it.

The Tree Church gathers every Sunday at 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM across two Ohio campuses.

If you are looking for a church in Lancaster, Ohio, join us at our Lancaster campus at 721 N. Memorial Drive, Lancaster, OH 43130.

If you are looking for a church in Logan, Ohio, our Logan campus is located at 36 Hocking Mall, Logan, OH 43138.

We would love to have you join us this Sunday.

Take 2-3 minutes to quiet yourself and ask God to speak to you today through your devotional time.  

Reading: Revelation 22:8-9; Isaiah 42:8

Be sure to highlight or note anything that stands out to you while you read.  
After reading the passage, take the next 5-10 minutes and spend time reflecting on what you read. You can write these things down in a journal or record them in your phone. Be attentive to both what you highlighted in the passage and what is going on in your life.

John’s instinct was to worship the messenger rather than the message-giver. How often do we do the same—worshiping the gift instead of the Giver? God’s declaration in Isaiah is clear: “I will not give my glory to anyone else.” This isn’t divine insecurity; it’s divine reality. God knows His infinite worth and invites us to experience the joy of worshiping the only One truly worthy.

Today, examine what competes for God’s place in your heart. Career success? Relationships? Comfort? These are little kingdoms with little gods. Only the Creator of all things—who needs nothing yet offers everything—deserves our complete devotion. Worship isn’t about what makes us feel good; it’s about responding rightly to who God actually is.

What “little g gods” am I tempted to worship instead of the one true God?

Now, take 10 minutes to seek God in prayer…  

1. Begin your time in prayer by taking 1-3 minutes to sit in silence (You can take longer if you sense the Spirit already beginning to speak to you).  
2. Pray through the things you sensed God speaking to you through the Scriptures or pray the following prayer: Father, You alone are worthy of my worship. Forgive me for the times I have allowed other things to compete for Your place in my heart. Reveal any idols I have unknowingly built, and help me tear them down. Teach me to love You above every comfort, success, relationship, and possession. You alone deserve my complete devotion. Amen.
   
3. Close by taking 5 minutes to sit in silence, asking God if there is anything else He wants to speak to you today.  

Faith Steps:

1. Ask God to reveal one area that has become more important to you than your relationship with Him. 
2. Take one practical step today to put God back in first place, whether through your time, priorities, or decisions.
   
   
   
   

Take 2-3 minutes to quiet yourself and ask God to speak to you today through your devotional time.  

Reading: 2 Samuel 24:19-25

Be sure to highlight or note anything that stands out to you while you read.  
After reading the passage, take the next 5-10 minutes and spend time reflecting on what you read. You can write these things down in a journal or record them in your phone. Be attentive to both what you highlighted in the passage and what is going on in your life.

King David refused to offer God something that cost him nothing. When given the opportunity to sacrifice freely available oxen and wood, he insisted on paying full price, declaring, “I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing.” True worship—true sacrifice—involves something valuable to us.

God isn’t looking for our leftovers or convenience; He’s inviting us to test what we truly value. Like refining fire that burns away impurities and reveals genuine gold, sacrificial living reveals what’s real in our faith. When you give God your best time, resources, energy, and obedience, you discover His will is good, acceptable, and perfect. The testing proves what’s valuable. Today, ask yourself: What am I offering God that actually costs me something? Your answer reveals what you truly believe about His worth.

Now, take 10 minutes to seek God in prayer…  

1. Begin your time in prayer by taking 1-3 minutes to sit in silence (You can take longer if you sense the Spirit already beginning to speak to you).  
2. Pray through the things you sensed God speaking to you through the Scriptures or pray the following prayer: Father, forgive me for the times I have offered You only what is easy or convenient. Help me become someone who gladly gives You my best time, energy, resources, and obedience. Teach me to trust that every sacrifice made for Your glory is worthwhile. Reveal Your good, pleasing, and perfect will as I surrender more of my life to You. Amen.
   
3. Close by taking 5 minutes to sit in silence, asking God if there is anything else He wants to speak to you today.  

Faith Steps:

1. Identify one meaningful sacrifice you can make this week that honors God and benefits others. 
2. Give God something valuable today—your time, resources, attention, or obedience—as an intentional act of worship.
   
   
   

Take 2-3 minutes to quiet yourself and ask God to speak to you today through your devotional time.  

Reading: Philippians 4:8-9

Be sure to highlight or note anything that stands out to you while you read.  
After reading the passage, take the next 5-10 minutes and spend time reflecting on what you read. You can write these things down in a journal or record them in your phone. Be attentive to both what you highlighted in the passage and what is going on in your life.

You act the way you act because you think the way you think. This simple truth unlocks the mystery of transformation. Our behaviors flow from our beliefs, and our beliefs are shaped by what we focus on. Paul instructs us to fix our thoughts on what is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, and commendable. This isn’t positive thinking; it’s truth-centered thinking.

When you fill your mind with God’s Word, worship, and truth, your perspective shifts. What once seemed impossible becomes possible. What once felt unnatural becomes your new normal. Transformation doesn’t happen through willpower alone but through renewed thinking. Today, audit your thought life. What are you dwelling on? What messages are you consuming? Replace one lie you’ve been believing with a truth from Scripture. As your mind is renewed, your life will follow.

Now, take 10 minutes to seek God in prayer…  

1. Begin your time in prayer by taking 1-3 minutes to sit in silence (You can take longer if you sense the Spirit already beginning to speak to you).  
2. Pray through the things you sensed God speaking to you through the Scriptures or pray the following prayer: Lord, renew my mind through Your truth. Expose the lies, fears, and unhealthy thought patterns that have shaped my life. Help me fill my mind with what is true, honorable, and pleasing to You. Transform the way I think so that my life increasingly reflects the character of Christ. Amen.
   
3. Close by taking 5 minutes to sit in silence, asking God if there is anything else He wants to speak to you today.  

Faith Steps:

1. Identify one recurring negative or unbiblical thought and replace it with a specific Scripture today. 
2. Spend at least ten minutes reading and reflecting on God’s Word instead of consuming other media.
   
   
   

 "God is right there to redeem. God is right there to save and to bring us back into wholeness when we look to him and when we depend on him." — Pastor Phil Venrick

The Tree Church Bible Study closes out its study of the book of Ruth with one of the most beautiful moments in the entire narrative. Pastor Stacey Crawford is joined by Pastor Phil Venrick and Pastor Chris Reed for this final episode, and the weight of where the story has arrived is not lost on any of them. After weeks of walking through loss, loyalty, redemption, and obedience, the pieces come together in Ruth 4:13-22.

Pastor Stacey opens by noting that this book only has four chapters, and yet the story has felt as rich and layered as anything the group has studied. Compared to their previous study of Acts, which stretched across more than twenty chapters, Ruth flew by. But what it lacked in length it more than made up for in depth.

The passage opens with a simple but profound statement. Boaz took Ruth as his wife, and the Lord enabled her to become pregnant. She gave birth to a son.

The women of the town respond immediately, turning to Naomi with words of blessing and celebration. They praise God for providing a redeemer for her family and express hope that the child will restore her youth and care for her in old age. They also make a striking declaration about Ruth, saying she has been better to Naomi than seven sons.

Pastor Stacey pauses on this moment with genuine emotion. As a mother herself, she can feel the weight of what this means for Naomi. This is a woman who lost everything, who returned to her homeland with nothing, who told the people to call her bitter because of what life had taken from her. And now she is holding her grandson.

Pastor Chris adds that the author is deliberately bringing the story back around to Naomi. Though Ruth plays a central role throughout, Naomi is in many ways the primary character because of the way God's interaction with her drives the narrative. Her story, Pastor Chris points out, mirrors the story of Israel itself: she walks away, she returns, and God brings restoration and blessing.

The mention of seven sons is also worth noting. Pastor Chris explains that seven carries symbolic meaning in Scripture. The women are not making a literal comparison. They are saying that Ruth has been the complete and full blessing for Naomi, the epitome of what it means to be provided for and cared for.

Pastor Phil reflects on the role of community in this moment. The women surrounding Naomi are not peripheral characters. They understand the significance of what God has done. Their excitement and celebration are part of the blessing itself, a picture of what it looks like when a community truly walks alongside someone through the hardest seasons of life.

This leads Pastor Stacey into a personal reflection that resonates deeply with all three hosts. She asks Pastor Phil and Pastor Chris to share about someone in their lives who was not a blood relative but who has been a Ruth-like blessing to them.

Pastor Chris points immediately to Pastor Phil. The two have worked together for nearly seventeen years, and Pastor Chris describes him as someone who walks alongside you through the ups and downs of life, keeps pointing you back to Jesus, supports you when you are down, celebrates with you when God is doing something great, and encourages you when you need it most. He also mentions his youth pastors Sarah and Shane, who saw something in him that he did not yet see in himself and invested in him accordingly.

Pastor Phil reflects on the same theme, noting that it is often easier to recognize God's blessing in people looking back than in the moment. Time has a way of clarifying what God was doing through the people he placed in a season. He mentions Pastor Stacey and Pastor Chris, along with hundreds of others across different seasons of life, people who have been closer than blood family because they were present through the hard things.

Pastor Stacey names Tiffany Faulk and Katie Eiser as two women who have walked through some of the hardest seasons of her life with her. She reflects on how isolating life can feel at times, and how much it means to know there are people who are genuinely for you.

Before moving to the genealogy, Pastor Stacey pauses on one phrase from the women's blessing. They say, "May this child be famous in Israel." She asks Pastor Chris whether this is foreshadowing.

Pastor Chris confirms that it is. The author is telling a story with the ending already in mind. The prayer feels spontaneous in the moment, but the author is guiding the reader toward what is about to be revealed. The same literary technique appeared earlier in the book when blessings were spoken over Boaz and Ruth, blessings the reader later watches God bring to fruition. This is the author's way of laying a trail that leads somewhere significant.

The passage closes with a genealogy running from Perez through ten generations to King David. Pastor Stacey reads through the names, and the group takes a moment to appreciate what this list actually contains.

Pastor Chris is careful to explain that biblical genealogies are not meant to be read as exhaustive historical records. They are theological documents. The author is not trying to account for every person who lived between one generation and the next. He is establishing a family line and making a point about God's faithfulness across time.

The specific starting point of the genealogy matters. Rather than beginning with Judah, who is the true family head in Israel, the author begins with Perez. Pastor Chris explains that this places Boaz and Ruth in the seventh generation from Perez, a number that carries meaning throughout Scripture as a symbol of completeness. Nothing in this genealogy is accidental.

The genealogy ends with David. And for anyone reading the story who knows what comes next, that name carries enormous weight. David becomes the iconic king of Israel, the standard against which every king who follows him is measured. Pastor Chris notes that 2 Samuel 7 contains God's promise to David that someone from his family line will always sit on the throne. Israel eventually goes into exile. No one sits on David's throne again until the New Testament authors point to Jesus as the one who fulfills that promise completely and finally.

The list of names in Ruth 4, Pastor Chris says, can also be found in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew. This simple four-chapter story is woven into the largest story God is telling in all of history

As the group reflects on the full arc of the book, the conversation turns to one of its most important themes. God's plan moves forward even through human failure.

Pastor Chris frames it this way: disobedience is detrimental to the person who chooses it, but it does not stop what God is doing. The story of Ruth and Naomi is full of moments where people did not do things the right way. And yet God's posture of redemption, his constant drive to reconcile what is broken and restore what is lost, never wavered.

Pastor Phil adds that as a younger Christian he used to think his sin could somehow alter God's story. What he has learned over time is that sin alters his own story, not God's. God will accomplish what he has purposed. And God is always there to redeem and bring back into wholeness anyone who looks to him.

Pastor Stacey brings this down to a personal and practical level. She speaks to the person who has been told they ruined everything, whether through sexual sin before marriage, financial decisions that buried a family in debt, or addiction that felt impossible to escape. The message of Ruth is that no one is too far gone. There is always potential for redemption.

Pastor Chris is careful to clarify that this is not a license to remain in disobedience. Extravagant grace is not permission to stay in brokenness. What it is, is an invitation. No matter how far someone has gone, repentance opens the door to walk back toward God and allow him to lead the way forward. That is what Ruth and Boaz modeled. It is what Naomi experienced. And it is what God offers to anyone who will trust him with it.

Pastor Stacey closes the study with genuine warmth. She has read this story many times, but studying it carefully, passage by passage, brought it alive in a new way. Her hope for everyone who has followed along is that they are walking away with a clearer picture of who God is: a God of redemption, a God of grace, a God who can use anyone who chooses to run to him, and a God who does things greater than our sin and greater than we could accomplish on our own.

Pastor Phil closes in prayer, asking God to remind every listener through his Spirit of the areas where they are being called back into obedience, and to give them the courage to take those steps trusting that the path of obedience is where life with God is truly found.

This Bible study is part of The Tree Church Bible Study podcast (TCBS), created to help the Tree grow deeper in understanding the Scriptures. New episodes are released regularly on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.

Take 2-3 minutes to quiet yourself and ask God to speak to you today through your devotional time.  

Reading: 1 John 2:15-17

Be sure to highlight or note anything that stands out to you while you read.  
After reading the passage, take the next 5-10 minutes and spend time reflecting on what you read. You can write these things down in a journal or record them in your phone. Be attentive to both what you highlighted in the passage and what is going on in your life.

The world operates on a clear pattern: put yourself first, follow your heart, do whatever makes you happy. It sounds liberating, but it’s actually enslaving. God offers a radically different path—one that prioritizes His truth over our feelings, service over selfishness, and eternity over the temporary.

Resisting the world’s pattern isn’t about becoming isolated or joyless; it’s about discovering that God’s design leads to deeper fulfillment than the world’s cheap imitations ever could. Today, identify one area where you’ve been conforming to cultural expectations rather than God’s truth. Perhaps it’s how you spend money, manage relationships, or define success. Choosing God’s pattern may feel unnatural at first, but it’s the pathway to genuine transformation. The world passes away, but those who do God’s will live forever.

Now, take 10 minutes to seek God in prayer…  

1. Begin your time in prayer by taking 1-3 minutes to sit in silence (You can take longer if you sense the Spirit already beginning to speak to you).  
2. Pray through the things you sensed God speaking to you through the Scriptures or pray the following prayer: Father, help me recognize the ways I have allowed the world’s values to shape my thinking. Give me the courage to live differently and to follow Your truth even when it goes against culture. Teach me to value what You value and to pursue what lasts for eternity rather than what fades away. Amen.
   
3. Close by taking 5 minutes to sit in silence, asking God if there is anything else He wants to speak to you today.  

Faith Steps:

1. Identify one area where you have been influenced more by culture than by Scripture and write it down. 
2. Take one practical action today that reflects God’s values instead of the world’s expectations.
   
   

"You act the way you act because you think the way you think." — Pastor Matthew Johnson

Pastor Matthew Johnson opened the third part of The Tree Church's ongoing worship series by returning to a question that had been sitting with him for over a year. As he worked through his regular rhythm of reading the Bible, a recurring pattern began to surface. Over and over again, he found examples of people bringing worship to God-
- and God rejecting it.

That observation became the starting point for the series. Not to stay in the negative, but to ask the more important question: what kind of worship does God actually receive?
Pastor Matthew has returned to the same definition each week. Worship is responding rightly to who God is. In every situation of life, the person who truly worships God is asking what would honor him, what he has commanded, and what would be pleasing to him in that moment.

The previous week, Pastor Mary Johnson brought a message focused on adoration - the physical and intentional side of worship. She grounded the congregation in what it looks like to pause and reflect on who God is and what he has done. Pastor Matthew picked up from there with a clear aim: how does that kind of worship extend beyond Sunday and into the everyday patterns of life?

Before moving into scripture, Pastor Matthew took a moment to make sure the congregation shared the same understanding of what transformation actually means. True transformation is not occasional or periodic. It is not a change that shows up only on the first of the month or on special occasions.

He drew on simple, relatable examples. A person trying to eat healthy is not looking to make a good food choice once in a while. Someone pursuing healthy relationships is not aiming for kindness only on birthdays and anniversaries. And a person who wants to be spiritually transformed is not satisfied with encountering God only on Sundays.

The goal is something natural and consistent - a change that works its way into every area of life and stays there.

To explain how transformation actually takes place, Pastor Matthew introduced what he called a foundational truth. Thinking shapes behavior. What happens on the inside determines what comes out in behavior.

He supported this with the words of Jesus, who said that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. In the culture of that time, the heart represented the central place of thinking, feeling, and believing.

Pastor Matthew gave the congregation a practical list to illustrate how this plays out. A person worries because they believe everything depends on them. A person gives generously because they believe God is their provider. A person forgives because they believe God has forgiven them. A person skips church because they believe their spiritual life is a private matter. A person tithes because they believe everything they have belongs to God.

Thinking shapes behavior. That much is not difficult to understand. But what comes next is where things get counterintuitive.

If thinking determines behavior, then how does a person transform their thinking? The answer, Pastor Matthew said, would likely surprise people.

You change the way you think by changing the way you act.

This is not a contradiction. It is the path of trust. A person begins doing intentional behaviors in faith - things that are not yet natural, not yet their reality - because they trust someone who has already experienced the results. Over time, as those actions prove to be true, the mind begins to shift. What was once foreign becomes familiar. What was once hard becomes natural.

Pastor Matthew illustrated this through a personal story about beginning CrossFit. He described his first class in honest and self-deprecating detail - unable to complete basic movements, outlasted by a woman who was visibly pregnant, finishing his final burpees alone while the class watched. It was humbling and difficult. But after years of consistent effort, those same movements became a natural part of his life. He now dislikes skipping a workout.

The point was not about fitness. The point was that what begins as an act of trust, taken before the results are personal, can eventually become a rhythm so natural that its absence is felt.

Pastor Matthew then turned to the primary text. The Apostle Paul, writing to Christians in Rome who were still learning what it meant to follow Jesus, said this:
"I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship."

Pastor Matthew drew attention to the word therefore. Paul had spent eleven chapters describing the mercies of God - the way God pursued his people while they were still enemies and powerless, how he justified them by faith, forgave their sins, adopted them into his family, gave them his Holy Spirit, freed them from condemnation, and promised them a future glory. In light of all of that, Paul now makes his appeal.

He is not asking people to earn God's love. He is asking them, in response to what God has already done, to do something difficult and counterintuitive. Offer your whole life to him.
Paul describes this offering three ways. It is a living sacrifice. It is holy. And it is acceptable.
A living sacrifice, Pastor Matthew explained, is putting God's will above your own, one decision at a time. This audience understood sacrifice as a one-time event with future impact. But Paul was describing something ongoing - moment after moment, hour after hour, day after day. It is the same language Jesus used when he told the crowd that following him required taking up the cross daily.

The cross, to that audience, was a symbol of execution - a one-time, final event. Jesus reframed it as a daily practice. Every single day, the person who follows him must be willing to set aside their own wants and desires and surrender them.

"The reason why it's a sacrifice," Pastor Matthew said, "is because it's difficult when easy is an option."

Holy living means being set apart from the patterns of the world. It is the narrow path that Jesus described - difficult to find, few who walk it - that leads to life. And acceptable living is a life of obedience to God, which is what this daily sacrifice ultimately produces.

This, Pastor Matthew told the congregation, is what true worship is. It is not only adoration in a Sunday gathering. It is a life offered as a living sacrifice.

To bring this into everyday life, Pastor Matthew offered a list of what sacrificial living can look like. Starting the day with prayer before checking a phone. Choosing God's will over personal preference. Reading scripture when it does not feel appealing. Attending church when staying home would be easier. Giving generously when keeping the money is tempting. Serving others without expecting recognition. Forgiving someone who caused real pain. Responding with kindness to someone who inflicted wounds. Telling the truth when a lie would be more convenient. Remaining sexually pure when temptation is present. Putting a spouse's needs ahead of one's own. Being patient with children. Repenting quickly when sin occurs. Remaining faithful when faithfulness costs something.

The purpose of the list was not to produce guilt. It was to help people see that the everyday of life is full of moments where a different path is available.

Pastor Matthew moved to the second verse. Paul continues: "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."

Pastor Matthew offered a direct assessment of the dominant pattern in contemporary culture. The world says to follow your heart, create your own truth, and do whatever feels good. Paul and Jesus both say the opposite.

The pattern of the world is wide and easy to walk. It requires no resistance. But it ends in destruction. The pathway God calls people to is narrow, difficult, and countercultural. And it is the path that leads to transformation.

God does not simply download new thinking into a person's mind. The transformation comes through the process of doing - of taking faith-driven actions that slowly but surely reveal new truths and reshape how a person sees the world.

Pastor Matthew connected this to what Jesus said in John 8. The often-quoted line about the truth setting you free is incomplete on its own. What Jesus actually said was that if a person abides in his teaching - if they take it and begin to live it out - then they will know the truth, and the truth will set them free. The knowing comes through the doing.

The final image Pastor Matthew drew from the text was the word testing in verse two. In the original language, it was the same word used when testing metals - specifically coinage - to determine whether it was genuine or counterfeit.

He shared a detail about the Secret Service, which is responsible in the United States for identifying counterfeit currency. The people who specialize in detecting fakes do not study counterfeit money. They study the authentic. They become so familiar with what is real that the counterfeit stands out immediately.

This is what Paul is describing for the life of faith. When a person offers their life as a living sacrifice, they are placing themselves in the fire. The impurities rise to the surface. What is false is revealed. And when God removes it, what remains is more valuable, more genuine, and more free.

Pastor Matthew gave several examples of how this plays out. A person who holds a grudge, living by the world's instruction not to let anyone off the hook, eventually discovers that the grudge became a cancer - not to the person who wronged them, but to themselves and to every other relationship they have. When they finally forgive, they realize that forgiveness was always the better way. Not because it was easy, but because it was true.

The same is true of generosity. The world insists that accumulation brings fulfillment. But after enough purchases and the fading happiness that follows each one, a person starts to see that stuff cannot satisfy. When they begin to give generously, God breaks the hold that money had, and lasting joy begins to take its place.

Pastor Matthew closed with a question directed at the congregation. Do you believe God's abundant life is worth it?

He spoke personally. He and Pastor Mary Johnson are in one of the most financially demanding seasons of their lives - two kids in college the previous year, one getting married now, a 25th anniversary, and a challenging economic climate. He said without hesitation that he does not regret a single dollar spent on his kids or given to the church. The sacrifice is worth it when the payoff is clear.

That is the posture Paul is calling every believer to take. Trust that the payoff is worth it. Then make the sacrifice.

The prayer Pastor Matthew left with the congregation was simple and honest. God, take me through the fire until only what pleases you remains.

He encouraged everyone to identify one, two, or three areas where God is calling them to take the difficult path - and then to tell someone. A friend, a connect group, a pastor. Accountability makes the commitment real.

The sermon closed in prayer, asking God to help the church in Lancaster and Logan to be men and women who trust him - who are willing to walk through the fire believing that what comes out on the other side is the abundant life only God can offer.

If you are looking for a church in Lancaster or Logan, Ohio, The Tree Church would love to have you. Sunday services are held at 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM at both campuses.

Lancaster Campus 721 N Memorial Dr, Lancaster, OH 43130, USA

Logan Campus 36 Hocking Mall, Logan, OH 43138, USA

Whether you are new to faith or have been walking with Jesus for years, there is a place for you here. Come as you are.

Take 2-3 minutes to quiet yourself and ask God to speak to you today through your devotional time.  

Reading: Luke 9:23-26

Be sure to highlight or note anything that stands out to you while you read.  
After reading the passage, take the next 5-10 minutes and spend time reflecting on what you read. You can write these things down in a journal or record them in your phone. Be attentive to both what you highlighted in the passage and what is going on in your life.

Jesus calls us to take up our cross daily—not once, but every single day. A living sacrifice means presenting ourselves to God repeatedly, one decision at a time. Unlike the Old Testament sacrifices that were offered once and consumed, we are called to continually choose God’s will over our own preferences.

This looks like starting your day in prayer instead of scrolling your phone, choosing forgiveness when resentment feels justified, or giving generously when keeping feels safer. Each choice is a small death to self and a step toward transformation. The beauty of living sacrifices is that they’re not about perfection but persistence. What one area of your life needs to be placed on the altar today? Trust that God’s way, though harder, leads to life.

Now, take 10 minutes to seek God in prayer…  

1. Begin your time in prayer by taking 1-3 minutes to sit in silence (You can take longer if you sense the Spirit already beginning to speak to you).  
2. Pray through the things you sensed God speaking to you through the Scriptures or pray the following prayer: Lord, help me choose You in the everyday moments of life. Give me the strength to deny myself, take up my cross, and follow You faithfully. When obedience feels difficult, remind me that Your ways lead to life. Teach me to surrender my will daily and trust that Your plans are better than my own. Amen.
   
3. Close by taking 5 minutes to sit in silence, asking God if there is anything else He wants to speak to you today.  

Faith Steps:

1. Identify one area where your desires have been competing with God’s will and intentionally surrender it to Him today. 
2. Make one choice today that honors God even if it costs you comfort, convenience, or personal preference.
   
   

"Worship is an overflow of what is in our hearts." — Pastor Mary Johnson

Does it matter how we physically worship?

That is the question Pastor Mary Johnson brought to The Tree Church as she continued the church's ongoing series on worship. It is a question that surfaces a range of responses. Some people are unsure. Others have quietly decided that physical expression in worship is simply not their style. And still others have made a firm internal determination that reserved worship is just who they are.

Pastor Mary did not come to the message to reprimand anyone. Her aim was something else entirely. She wanted to teach in a way that would open a door toward a deeper friendship with God.

Pastor Mary opened by anchoring the message in Romans 12:1, where the Apostle Paul writes that believers are to present their bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. She pointed out that Paul does not say to present emotions or thoughts. He says bodies.

From there she moved through a wide range of scriptures, each one showing a different dimension of physical worship. Psalm 95:6 calls people to bow down and kneel before the Lord. Psalm 134:2 instructs worshipers to lift their hands in the sanctuary. Psalm 96:1 calls for singing. Psalm 47:1 calls for clapping. Psalm 66:1 calls for shouting. Psalm 149:3 calls for dancing. Philippians 2:10 speaks of every knee bowing at the name of Jesus.

The picture the Bible paints, Pastor Mary noted, is consistent. Worship has always involved the body.

To make the point land, Pastor Mary drew from everyday life. When someone loves a sports team, they clap, cheer, stand, and shout. At concerts, people sing with emotion every word of every song. Parents hug and kiss their children to express what they feel on the inside. People stand for national anthems and place their hand over their heart. At funerals, grief comes out through tears. At weddings, joy comes out through laughter and embraces.
None of that has to be taught. It is natural.

The challenge Pastor Mary placed before the congregation was simple. That same natural impulse to physically express what is felt internally does not always carry over into worship. And she wanted to know why.

She pointed to a few common reasons. Some people feel reserved by nature. Others prefer to worship privately. Some have convinced themselves that as long as worship is in the heart, the physical dimension does not matter. And for others, there is real discomfort about what the people around them might think.

Pastor Mary named all of it honestly and then offered this: that reserved posture in worship is a learned behavior, not a natural one.

To go deeper, Pastor Mary turned to one of the most important worshippers in all of scripture. King David.

She gave the congregation context before reading from 2 Samuel 6. David was bringing the ark of the covenant back into Jerusalem. The ark was where the presence of God dwelled. It had been mistreated over the years, used as a good luck charm, taken as a trophy by enemy nations, and at times simply neglected. David wanted to restore it to its rightful place.

And when those carrying the ark had gone just six steps, David stopped everything and made a sacrifice. Then he danced before the Lord with all his might. He wore a linen ephod rather than his royal garments, choosing humility over status. There was shouting. There was the sound of the horn. The whole procession was marked by physical, wholehearted worship.

Pastor Mary drew out the reason behind it. David had a history with God that ran deep. As a shepherd boy, he had been anointed as the next king of Israel. But between that anointing and actually taking the throne, roughly 22 years passed. During those years, he fled for his life repeatedly from King Saul. He hid in caves. He did not always know where his next meal would come from. And through all of it, God provided. God sustained him. God protected him.

David knew what God had done. And his dancing was the overflow of that knowing.

Pastor Mary paused there and asked the congregation whether the truths David recognized are also true for each person sitting in the room.

God loves every person. God created every person. God has a purpose for every person's life. And God, rather than turning away from sin, took on human form, came to this earth, and died so that people could be in right standing with him. That is who is being worshiped every Sunday morning.

She pressed the point with a series of everyday scenarios. If a lifeguard pulled someone from drowning water and brought them to shore, there would be a response. If someone donated an organ to save the life of a loved one, there would be an embrace, tears, a heart full of thanks. If someone paid off a debt that was about to leave a family without a home, no one would walk away without saying something.

Then she made the connection. That is exactly what Jesus has done. And if it would produce a physical response in those everyday situations, it should produce one in worship.

Pastor Mary then shared a story that stopped the room.

She has a friend who began attending The Tree Church in January after years of distance from God. Over the months, she joined a women's connect group, began learning the teachings of Jesus, and started putting them into practice. About a month before the message was preached, this friend told Pastor Mary that she had gotten down on the floor of her living room, bowed before God, and submitted her life completely to Christ.

But there was another moment she wanted Pastor Mary to hear. She had been out on her farm, mowing her pasture on a tractor. The tractor was kicking up insects, and swallows and swifts were diving all around her to catch them. In her own words:

"I was in this darting cloud of beautiful, gorgeous birds with glistening blue wings and perfectly designed bodies all dancing around me. The sun was shining on my face, and I had to stop the tractor, raise my hands, cry, and thank God."

Pastor Mary noted that this woman did not keep driving. She did not think, "This is cool," and move on. She stopped. She responded. She worshiped physically because what she recognized about God required a response.

Pastor Matthew Johnson, after hearing the story, said it read like a modern-day psalm. And Pastor Mary agreed. That is what David was expressing in the Psalms, and that is what every believer has the opportunity to do.

Back in 2 Samuel 6, the story takes a turn. As David danced before the Lord, his wife Michal, the daughter of King Saul, watched from a window. And she despised him in her heart.

When David returned home, she confronted him. She mocked him for uncovering himself and acting in a way she considered beneath his position as king.

David did not soften his response. He told her that it was before the Lord, who had chosen him above her father, and that he would be even more undignified than this if it meant honoring God. Another translation of that passage uses the word undignified. David was telling her plainly that no amount of social judgment would change how he worshiped the God who had called him and sustained him.

Pastor Mary named the dynamic clearly. A lot of people do not respond physically in worship because they are worried about looking silly. Others hold back because they feel like a hypocrite, aware of their own sin and not wanting others to notice. She met both concerns with honesty. True worship is not about what the people around someone are thinking. And the invitation to worship is not extended only to perfect people. God forgives and draws near those who come to him honestly.

She also shared a personal story from college. She had grown up in a family where physical worship was a normal rhythm. But when she joined a campus ministry, physical worship was not part of the culture. She felt the tension of wanting to raise her hands in a room where no one else was. She did it anyway, even though it felt awkward. Over time, the worship culture in that room began to shift.

What she carried out of that season was a clear realization. Worship is not about the worshiper, and it is not about the people nearby. Worship is about God and for God.

Pastor Mary closed with something that softened the challenge into an invitation. Physical worship is not only an expression of what is already in the heart. Sometimes it becomes the doorway through which God meets someone.

She described a season in her own life when she felt spiritually dry. She was doing the right things but not feeling God's presence. One morning, driving her children to school and then heading to work along a road she described as one of the most beautiful in Fairfield County, she was worshiping with one hand on the wheel and one hand in the air. She told God she was inviting his presence and asking him to meet her there.

And he did.

She offered that same possibility to everyone in the room. Even when worship does not feel natural, even when someone walks through the doors on a Sunday morning not feeling like engaging, choosing to physically worship is an act of invitation. It creates space for God to meet someone exactly where they are.

Her closing challenge was straightforward. Take one step this week toward physically expressing worship with greater intentionality and surrender. Not just on Sunday morning, but at home, in the car, on a lunch break, wherever there is a moment to recognize who God is and respond to him.

Pastor Mary closed the sermon in prayer, asking God to help the congregation be bold, to process the truth of scripture, and to set aside pride and the opinions of others in order to engage with God in a fresh way.

The service moved into a time of congregational worship immediately following, giving everyone in the room the opportunity to put into practice exactly what had just been taught.

The Tree Church exists to help people know God and find their place in his family. With two campuses in central Ohio, the church gathers every Sunday at 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM and is home to a growing community of people at every stage of faith.

Lancaster Campus 721 N Memorial Dr, Lancaster, OH 43130, USA

Logan Campus 36 Hocking Mall, Logan, OH 43138, USA

If you are looking for a church in Lancaster or a church in Logan where you can connect, grow, and belong, The Tree Church would love to have you. Come as you are.

Take 2-3 minutes to quiet yourself and ask God to speak to you today through your devotional time.  

Reading: Romans 12:1-2

Be sure to highlight or note anything that stands out to you while you read.  
After reading the passage, take the next 5-10 minutes and spend time reflecting on what you read. You can write these things down in a journal or record them in your phone. Be attentive to both what you highlighted in the passage and what is going on in your life.

Before God asks anything of us, He reminds us of everything He’s already done. Paul begins his call to sacrifice with “therefore, by the mercies of God”—pointing back to eleven chapters of grace, forgiveness, adoption, and love. God doesn’t demand our obedience to earn His favor; He invites our response because He’s already shown us unfailing mercy.

Today, pause and reflect on God’s mercies in your life. What has He forgiven? How has He pursued you? Let gratitude become the fuel for your worship. When we truly grasp what God has done for us, offering ourselves back to Him becomes not a burden, but a privilege. Transformation begins when we stop trying to earn God’s love and start responding to the love He’s already given.

Now, take 10 minutes to seek God in prayer…  

1. Begin your time in prayer by taking 1-3 minutes to sit in silence (You can take longer if you sense the Spirit already beginning to speak to you).  
2. Pray through the things you sensed God speaking to you through the Scriptures or pray the following prayer: Father, thank You for the countless mercies You have shown me. Thank You for Your forgiveness, patience, grace, and love. Help me never lose sight of what You have done through Jesus. Let gratitude fill my heart and become the motivation behind my worship, obedience, and sacrifice. Teach me to live as someone who has been deeply loved by You. Amen.
   
3. Close by taking 5 minutes to sit in silence, asking God if there is anything else He wants to speak to you today.  

Faith Steps:

1. Make a list of five specific mercies God has shown you and thank Him for each one. 
2. Spend time worshiping God today by focusing on what He has done rather than what you need Him to do.
   
   

Take 2-3 minutes to quiet yourself and ask God to speak to you today through your devotional time.  

Reading: Psalm 150

Be sure to highlight or note anything that stands out to you while you read.  
After reading the passage, take the next 5-10 minutes and spend time reflecting on what you read. You can write these things down in a journal or record them in your phone. Be attentive to both what you highlighted in the passage and what is going on in your life.

Psalm 150 crescendos with a symphony of physical worship expressions: instruments playing, dancing, shouting, and praising with everything that has breath. This isn’t a suggestion—it’s a joyful command to engage our whole selves in worship.

Sometimes worship flows naturally from hearts overflowing with gratitude. Other times, physical acts of worship become invitations for God to meet us, reminding our hearts of His worthiness even when emotions lag behind. Both are necessary and beautiful.

This week, take one intentional step toward more physical engagement in worship. Lift your hands in surrender, bow in reverence, sing with abandon, or dance with joy. Let your body express what your spirit knows to be true: God is worthy of every expression of praise you can offer.

Now, take 10 minutes to seek God in prayer…  

1. Begin your time in prayer by taking 1-3 minutes to sit in silence (You can take longer if you sense the Spirit already beginning to speak to you).  
2. Pray through the things you sensed God speaking to you through the Scriptures or pray the following prayer: Father, You are worthy of all praise, honor, and glory. Help me worship You with my whole life and not just my words. Whether I feel full of joy or am walking through difficulty, teach me to praise You because of who You are. May my worship bring You honor and draw me closer to You. Amen. 
   
3. Close by taking 5 minutes to sit in silence, asking God if there is anything else He wants to speak to you today.  

Faith Steps:

1. Choose one physical expression of worship this week that is outside your normal comfort zone and practice it as an act of devotion to God. 
2. Read Psalm 150 aloud and spend a few minutes praising God for His character, faithfulness, and power.
   
   

Take 2-3 minutes to quiet yourself and ask God to speak to you today through your devotional time.  

Reading: 2 Samuel 6:16-23

Be sure to highlight or note anything that stands out to you while you read.  
After reading the passage, take the next 5-10 minutes and spend time reflecting on what you read. You can write these things down in a journal or record them in your phone. Be attentive to both what you highlighted in the passage and what is going on in your life.

Michal despised David’s uninhibited worship, viewing it as beneath his royal dignity. David’s response is striking: “I will become even more undignified than this.” He refused to let human opinion dictate his worship of God.

How often do we hold back in worship because of what others might think? Fear of looking foolish, concerns about our reputation, or worry about being judged can build invisible walls around our hearts. True worship isn’t driven by public opinion but by a passionate desire to honor God. David was willing to appear contemptible in human eyes to be honorable before God. Today, ask yourself: Am I more concerned with God’s opinion or people’s? Surrender your pride and worship God with abandonment, regardless of who’s watching.

Now, take 10 minutes to seek God in prayer…  

1. Begin your time in prayer by taking 1-3 minutes to sit in silence (You can take longer if you sense the Spirit already beginning to speak to you).  
2. Pray through the things you sensed God speaking to you through the Scriptures or pray the following prayer: Lord, free me from the fear of people. Help me care more about honoring You than protecting my image. Break down any pride, insecurity, or self-consciousness that keeps me from fully worshiping You. Teach me to live for Your approval alone. Amen. 
   
3. Close by taking 5 minutes to sit in silence, asking God if there is anything else He wants to speak to you today.  

Faith Steps:

1. Identify one fear or insecurity that has been limiting your worship and surrender it to God in prayer. 
2. During your next worship gathering, focus entirely on God rather than how you might appear to others.
   
   

"God's posture is always one of redemption, one of abundance, one of blessing, one of caring for his people. That's always God's posture." — Pastor Chris Reed

The Tree Church Bible Study picks up in Ruth chapter 4, and the transaction that has been building throughout the entire story is finally made official. Pastor Stacey Crawford is joined by Pastor Phil Venrick and Pastor Chris Reed as they walk through verses 7 through 12, a passage that is as historically layered as it is spiritually rich.

Before diving into the text, Pastor Stacey briefly recaps where the story left off. In the previous episode, Boaz had a conversation with another man who had the first right to be the family redeemer for Naomi and Ruth. That man chose not to fulfill the responsibility, and so the role passed to Boaz. Now it is time to make things official.

Ruth 4:7 introduces a cultural detail that stops the group in their tracks. The text explains that in those days, the custom for transferring a right of purchase was for a man to remove his sandal and hand it to the other party, publicly validating the transaction.

Pastor Stacey admits she has encountered several unusual moments in this study, and this one ranks among them. Pastor Chris adds that the commentaries he read noted the same thing. The sandal custom as described here does not appear in other places in Scripture in quite the same way, and scholars have wrestled with exactly what was happening. The closest reference point is a passage in Deuteronomy connected to the Levitite law, where removing a sandal carried an element of shame for someone who refused to fulfill a family duty.

The group also acknowledges there is some confusion in the text itself about who removed whose sandal and what happened to it afterward, which leads to some light humor about whether the other man limped home. But the deeper point comes through clearly. Boaz is going through the proper process, doing things the right way, and honoring the other man in the process. The text does not even record the other man's name. Pastor Chris notes that in the Hebrew, he is referred to with language that essentially means Mr. So-and-So. The story is not about this man's failure. It is about Boaz's desire and character.

In verse 9, Boaz turns to the elders and the crowd gathered at the gate and makes his declaration. He has acquired all the property of Naomi's late husband and sons. He has also taken Ruth, the Moabite widow, as his wife so that the family name of her deceased husband can continue and the family property can be preserved.

The elders and the people respond with a blessing. They invoke the names of Rachel and Leah, the matriarchs from whom all of Israel descended, and express hope that Ruth will be like them in Boaz's home. They also mention Perez, the son of Tamar and Judah, as a reference point for the descendants they hope God will give.

Pastor Stacey asks Pastor Chris to provide some background on Rachel and Leah for listeners who may not be familiar. Pastor Chris explains that Rachel and Leah were sisters, both wives of Jacob, and the mothers of the twelve tribes of Israel. Without them, there is no Israel. Their inclusion in this blessing is significant. It connects Ruth and Boaz to the founding story of the nation and foreshadows what God is about to do through their family line.

The group also notes the literary technique at work. Earlier in the book of Ruth, blessings were spoken over Boaz and Ruth by those around them. Now another blessing is spoken. As Pastor Chris points out, the author is foreshadowing. The prayers are being prayed, and the reader is about to see God bring them to fruition.

With the transaction complete, the conversation moves into one of the most meaningful discussions of the entire series. Pastor Stacey raises the theme of God's blessing of obedience, pointing to how both Ruth and Boaz consistently displayed character and integrity throughout the story and how God blessed every step.

Pastor Phil shares that one of his clearest examples of stepping into obedience came through tithing. For a long time, tithing felt scary. It did not make sense on paper. His way of avoiding it was to say it was between him and God, which he acknowledges was really just his way of saying he was not ready. When he finally took the step, he watched God be faithful in ways that could not be explained otherwise. He describes it as one of those things that had to be a God thing.

Pastor Chris shares a similar experience. After working at The Tree Church for eleven years as a tech director, he began to sense God stirring something in his heart toward biblical education and discipleship. The role he eventually moved into did not exist yet when he felt that stirring. Going to Pastor Matthew Johnson and saying he did not want to spend the rest of his life in tech ministry was not a comfortable conversation. But he felt God prompting him to have it rather than waiting for a door to open on its own. That step of obedience led to exactly the transition he had felt called toward.

Pastor Chris then offers an illustration that reframes the entire conversation about blessing. He describes thinking through this topic during a morning run while preparing for the episode, and what emerged is a picture of a waterfall.

God's posture, Pastor Chris explains, is always one of blessing, abundance, redemption, and care for his people. That never changes. The question is not whether God is willing to bless. The question is whether a person is positioned to receive it. Obedience is the act of stepping under the waterfall. When someone aligns themselves with what God is doing, the way Ruth and Boaz did, they place themselves in the flow of what God is already pouring out.

This reframes blessing in an important way. It is not a transaction where obedience earns a reward. God is not waiting to be convinced. His heart is already inclined toward his people. What obedience does is move a person into alignment with that reality.

Pastor Chris takes the illustration one step further. Even God's resistance when someone steps out of that alignment can be understood as a form of blessing. It is God drawing his people back toward the place where life is truly found. The story of Israel is this story on repeat. They wander, they fall away, and God pursues them, forgives them, and draws them back.

Pastor Phil connects this to how the group tends to equate blessing with happiness or personal comfort. But blessing is bigger than that. It is about being in a place of dependence on God, being shaped by him, and living within his design. That can look like difficulty. It can look like discipline. It can look like the discomfort of a step of faith that does not feel safe.

The episode closes with a reflection on the story of Perez, whose name appears in the elders blessing over Boaz and Ruth. Pastor Chris notes that Perez's origin story, found in Genesis, is not a clean or straightforward one. Judah, his father, fails in a number of significant ways. And yet Perez becomes a line through which God's promise and plan continue to move forward. God brings about fulfillment and redemption in spite of human mess and failure.

This is, the group agrees, the throughline of the entire book of Ruth. These are not perfect people. Naomi and her husband made decisions that were less than ideal. Ruth was a Moabite outsider. And yet God's faithfulness pursues every one of them and brings restoration.

Pastor Stacey closes by reflecting on how much she loves the waterfall picture. Even when she steps out in disobedience, God's blessing is still flowing. The invitation is always there to step back in.

Pastor Chris closes the episode in prayer, asking that everyone who hears these stories would recognize that the things God calls his people to are ultimately an invitation to position themselves where he can pour out what he desires most to give, beginning with his presence.

This Bible study is part of The Tree Church Bible Study podcast (TCBS), created to help the Tree grow deeper in understanding the Scriptures. New episodes are released regularly on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.

Take 2-3 minutes to quiet yourself and ask God to speak to you today through your devotional time.  

Reading: Psalm 95:1-7

Be sure to highlight or note anything that stands out to you while you read.  
After reading the passage, take the next 5-10 minutes and spend time reflecting on what you read. You can write these things down in a journal or record them in your phone. Be attentive to both what you highlighted in the passage and what is going on in your life.

The psalmist invites us to “come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker.” This is a call to recognize the extraordinary privilege of God’s presence. David’s excitement about the Ark wasn’t about an object—it was about proximity to the living God.

Today, we have something even greater: the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. God Himself resides in our hearts. How should this reality shape our worship? If Jesus physically walked into your room right now, you would naturally respond with reverence, awe, and joy. That same Jesus is present with you through His Spirit every moment. Don’t let familiarity diminish wonder. Respond appropriately to the presence of God today with physical expressions of honor and gratitude.

Now, take 10 minutes to seek God in prayer…  

1. Begin your time in prayer by taking 1-3 minutes to sit in silence (You can take longer if you sense the Spirit already beginning to speak to you).  
2. Pray through the things you sensed God speaking to you through the Scriptures or pray the following prayer: Father, thank You that I never walk alone because Your Spirit lives within me. Forgive me for the times I take Your presence for granted. Open my eyes to the wonder of who You are and awaken fresh awe in my heart. Help me respond to Your presence with reverence, joy, and gratitude. Amen. 
   
3. Close by taking 5 minutes to sit in silence, asking God if there is anything else He wants to speak to you today.  

Faith Steps:

1. Set aside five uninterrupted minutes today to simply sit in God’s presence without distractions. 
2. Before beginning your next prayer or worship time, pause and remind yourself that God is present with you right now.
   
   

Take 2-3 minutes to quiet yourself and ask God to speak to you today through your devotional time.  

Reading: 2 Samuel 6:12-15

Be sure to highlight or note anything that stands out to you while you read.  
After reading the passage, take the next 5-10 minutes and spend time reflecting on what you read. You can write these things down in a journal or record them in your phone. Be attentive to both what you highlighted in the passage and what is going on in your life.

King David’s exuberant worship before the Ark of the Covenant wasn’t performance—it was overflow. He danced with all his might because his heart was overwhelmed with gratitude for God’s presence returning to Israel. David understood what God had done: called him from shepherding sheep, sustained him through years of waiting, and established him as king.

His physical worship reflected the magnitude of grace he’d received. What has God done in your life? He has called you, redeemed you, filled you with His Spirit, and adopted you as His child. When we truly grasp the weight of God’s love and sacrifice through Jesus, worship becomes irrepressible. Let your worship today be an authentic overflow of a grateful heart.

Now, take 10 minutes to seek God in prayer…  

1. Begin your time in prayer by taking 1-3 minutes to sit in silence (You can take longer if you sense the Spirit already beginning to speak to you).  
2. Pray through the things you sensed God speaking to you through the Scriptures or pray the following prayer: Lord, thank You for Your faithfulness in my life. Thank You for saving me, sustaining me, and walking with me through every season. Help me never lose sight of Your goodness. Let gratitude fill my heart until worship naturally overflows from everything I do. Amen. 
   
3. Close by taking 5 minutes to sit in silence, asking God if there is anything else He wants to speak to you today.  

Faith Steps:

1. Make a list of five specific ways God has been faithful to you and thank Him for each one. 
2. Spend time worshiping today by focusing on God’s goodness rather than your current circumstances.
   
   

Take 2-3 minutes to quiet yourself and ask God to speak to you today through your devotional time.  

Reading: Romans 12:1-2

Be sure to highlight or note anything that stands out to you while you read.  
After reading the passage, take the next 5-10 minutes and spend time reflecting on what you read. You can write these things down in a journal or record them in your phone. Be attentive to both what you highlighted in the passage and what is going on in your life.

Paul’s call to present our bodies as living sacrifices reveals a profound truth: worship is not merely an intellectual exercise or emotional experience—it requires our whole being. The phrase “present your bodies” is intentional and specific. God desires more than our thoughts about Him; He desires tangible, physical expressions of devotion.
Just as we naturally stand, cheer, and celebrate at events that excite us, our worship of the Creator should evoke even greater physical response. Today, consider how your body participates in worship. Are you holding back what naturally belongs to God? Your physical engagement in worship—whether through lifted hands, bowed knees, or joyful dance—demonstrates the sincerity of your heart and opens you to transformation.

Now, take 10 minutes to seek God in prayer…  

1. Begin your time in prayer by taking 1-3 minutes to sit in silence (You can take longer if you sense the Spirit already beginning to speak to you).  
2. Pray through the things you sensed God speaking to you through the Scriptures or pray the following prayer: Father, thank You for creating me as a whole person—body, soul, and spirit. Forgive me for the times I have withheld expressions of worship because of fear, pride, or distraction. Teach me to honor You not only with my thoughts and words but also with my actions. Help me offer my entire life as a living sacrifice that brings You glory. Amen. 
   
3. Close by taking 5 minutes to sit in silence, asking God if there is anything else He wants to speak to you today.  

Faith Steps:

1. During your next time of worship, intentionally engage physically by lifting your hands, kneeling, bowing your head, or standing in reverence. 
2. Ask God if there is anything you have been withholding from Him and surrender it as an act of worship today.

"Worship is responding rightly to who God is. So in every situation in your life, in that situation, it's responding rightly to who God is in that moment." — Pastor Matthew Johnson

Pastor Matthew Johnson did not arrive at this series quickly. For years, one of the consistent rhythms of his life has been reading through the Bible in its entirety, cycling through different translations and approaches. During one of those reading seasons, something began to stand out in passage after passage across multiple books of Scripture.

God was rejecting worship.

Not from enemies of Israel. Not from pagans. From his own people, who believed they were honoring him.

Pastor Matthew wrote down example after example on half sheets of paper, noting at the top "potential series." Then he sat on it for over a year. Every time the series came close to the calendar, he pulled back. He wanted to make sure he had the heart of God before bringing a message this sobering to The Tree Church family.

After months of continued prayer, he felt a clear release from the Holy Spirit to address it. And so the six-week series Acceptable Worship That God Receives begins.

Before diving into the difficult examples, Pastor Matthew takes a moment to define worship, because he believes it is one of the most misunderstood concepts in modern Christianity.
Most people reduce worship to the singing portion at the beginning of a church service. That is absolutely worship, he says, but it is only one expression of something much larger. Biblical worship includes praise, prayer, singing, gratitude, obedience, surrender, service, generosity, holy living, and more.

After working through that scope, Pastor Matthew lands on what he calls the best definition available.

Worship is responding rightly to who God is.

In every situation, in every moment, worship is the act of pausing and responding to God in a way that properly reflects who he is. And when a person does that, Pastor Matthew says, God's offer is to meet them in that moment.

To bring the definition to life, Pastor Matthew shares a personal story he calls one of the top two or three most important moments of his life.

As a freshman at Central Bible College in Springfield, Missouri, about 30 years ago, he was sitting in mandatory chapel during a transition from traditional to contemporary worship. The unwritten rule was that at least one hymn had to be included in each service. Pastor Matthew, an 18-year-old who had no emotional connection to hymns, found himself standing as an elderly professor began singing a hymn he did not know, in what he describes as the worst voice imaginable.

In his own words, his response was arrogance. He decided to sit down as a protest.
On his way down, the Holy Spirit stopped him. Not in an audible voice, but as close to one as he had ever experienced. The question came immediately: "Are you worshiping this song or are you worshiping me?"

He stood back up. And in that moment, he made a promise he has kept for three decades. From that day forward, if there is ever a moment where he can give God worship, he is going to do it.

That commitment, he says, has made all the difference.

Pastor Matthew is clear about why this series matters so much to him. It comes down to two things. He loves God and wants him to receive everything he deserves. And he loves his congregation and wants them to receive everything God offers.

True worship, he explains, accomplishes both at the same time. When God is honored properly, when he is placed at the center of a person's life, worship reshapes that person. It reorders priorities. It draws them into a deeper surrender and relationship with him.
That is the goal of the entire series.

With that foundation in place, Pastor Matthew moves into the sobering heart of the message, walking through three biblical accounts of God rejecting worship. In each one, the rejection is not the final word. It is the doorway to understanding what God actually accepts.

Genesis 4: Priority

In Genesis 4, Cain and Abel both bring offerings to God. Abel, a shepherd, brings the firstborn of his flock along with generous portions. Cain, a farmer, brings crops after some time has passed. God accepts Abel's offering and rejects Cain's.

Pastor Matthew is careful to point out that this was not about what was brought. God's law later confirms he accepts both animals and crops as offerings. The issue was when it was brought, and more importantly, the heart behind it.

Abel brought the first portion. He gave to God before he knew what the rest would look like. That is faith. That is trust. That is what his worship communicated: God, I believe you will provide the rest. God receives it.

Cain brought God something at some point after other priorities had already been addressed. God was not first. And so God rejected it.

The first truth about worship God accepts, Pastor Matthew says, is this: worship God accepts gives him first place. The one-word summary is priority.

He then turns this directly toward the congregation. When a major decision comes up, when a promotion is offered, when a house is being purchased, when someone has done something wrong and a response is forming, at what point does God enter the equation?

True worship pauses before any of that and asks what God wants in the moment. And Pastor Matthew is direct: in most modern American Christian lives, God is not first. He gets the leftovers. Leftovers in time, in talent, in finances, in church attendance. The challenge is not meant to produce guilt, he says, but to name what is true so that something can change.

Leviticus 9 and 10: Obedience

The second account requires a brief background. After God delivered Israel from Egypt, he instructed them to build a tabernacle, a portable dwelling place for his presence. He set apart the tribe of Levi for its ministry, and more specifically, Aaron and his sons as the priests who would operate it and enter his presence on behalf of the nation.

In Leviticus 9, Aaron and his sons follow every instruction God gave them to the letter. They make the first sacrifice. God's glory appears before the entire nation. Fire comes from his presence and consumes the offering. The people shout in joy and fall on their faces in worship. It is described as an incredible moment of authentic encounter.

The very next passage introduces Nadab and Abihu, two of Aaron's sons. They take their censers, fill them with fire, and offer what the text calls unauthorized or strange fire before the Lord, something God had not commanded. Fire comes from his presence again, but this time it consumes them. They die before the Lord.

The two stories sit side by side intentionally. In one, obedience leads to God's presence and transformation. In the other, doing whatever felt right leads to death.

Pastor Matthew acknowledges the text does not specify exactly what made the fire unauthorized. It may have been the source of the fire, entering a forbidden area, offering incense at the wrong time, or possibly being intoxicated, as the verses that follow include a command against strong drink before entering God's presence. But the specific detail is not the point. The central issue is that they treated a holy responsibility in a disobedient way. They thought they could worship however they wanted, and God rejected it.

The second truth: worship God accepts follows his ways. The one-word summary is obedience.

Pastor Matthew is careful here. God was not demanding perfection. The sacrificial system itself existed because he knew all of humanity would sin. But there is a difference between falling short and willfully living in disobedience while expecting God to receive your worship as though nothing is wrong.

He offers a human parallel. If someone disrespected you publicly, then showed up at your door acting as though nothing had happened, even a loving and forgiving person would need to address it before moving forward. The relationship requires honesty. God is showing the same thing. Willful disobedience and confident worship cannot coexist without the disobedience being addressed.

Acts 5: Purity

The third account moves into the New Testament, shortly after the resurrection of Jesus and the birth of the church. The Holy Spirit has fallen, and believers are selling excess possessions to give to those in need.

A man named Ananias and his wife Sapphira sell a piece of land. They give a portion of the proceeds to Peter, but they claim it is the full amount. They were not required to give everything. That was not the sin. The sin was the deception.

Peter confronts Ananias directly: why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit? Ananias falls dead. Three hours later, Sapphira arrives, not knowing what has happened. Peter gives her an opportunity to tell the truth. She repeats the lie. She also falls dead.

Pastor Matthew notes that this is the very beginning of the church, and God was establishing what authentic worship in his community would look like. An act of giving that looked like worship was corrupted by deceit, and God refused to let that be the foundation.
The third truth: worship God accepts comes from a clean heart. The one-word summary is purity.

He then walks through what purity meant under the Old Covenant. Before entering the presence of God, the priest had to wash, make a sacrifice for himself and his family, and go through a process of reflection, confession, and repentance. This was not casual. It was the most sobering moment of the year, stepping into the Holy of Holies, completely exposed before God.

What has changed under the New Covenant is the sacrifice. Jesus became that sacrifice. But God still desires purification as people come to worship him. Pastor Matthew points to Hebrews 4, where the writer describes the word of God as sharper than a two-edged sword, cutting between bone and marrow, exposing everything and laying a person bare before God. It sounds terrifying, he says, and by itself it is. But the passage continues. Because of Jesus, the invitation is to draw near with confidence to the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace in the time of need.

True worship in purity is not about having it all together before approaching God. It is about stepping into his presence and inviting him to expose what needs to be addressed, then receiving mercy to walk out differently.

Pastor Matthew closes the message not with a lengthy application list but with a simple, direct invitation. He does not think the message was confusing. He does not think it needs more explanation. What it needs is a personal moment.

He asks the congregation at both campuses to close their eyes and reflect. Is God first in every area of life? Is there known disobedience being tolerated? Is there sin being held onto while still expecting worship to be received?

If the answer surfaces anything, the response is not shame. It is confession. Repentance. Receiving mercy. And then approaching God with anticipation that his presence will do what he has promised to do: transform a life.

Without priority, obedience, and purity, Pastor Matthew says, God is not honored and people are not transformed. But when those three things are present, his promise is to do exactly that.

If you are looking for a church in Lancaster or Logan, Ohio, we would love to have you join us. The Tree Church holds Sunday services at both campuses at 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM.

Lancaster Campus 721 N Memorial Dr, Lancaster, OH 43130, USA

Logan Campus 36 Hocking Mall, Logan, OH 43138, USA

We are a community committed to authentic worship, real relationships, and allowing God to do what only he can do in a person's life. We hope to see you this Sunday.

Take 2-3 minutes to quiet yourself and ask God to speak to you today through your devotional time.  

Reading: Hebrews 4:12-16; Romans 12:1-2

Be sure to highlight or note anything that stands out to you while you read.  
After reading the passage, take the next 5-10 minutes and spend time reflecting on what you read. You can write these things down in a journal or record them in your phone. Be attentive to both what you highlighted in the passage and what is going on in your life.

True worship transforms both the worshiper and honors God. The writer of Hebrews invites us to approach God's throne with confidence—not arrogance, but assurance in Christ's finished work. God's Word exposes us, but His grace restores us.

Paul calls this "reasonable service"—offering ourselves as living sacrifices. Worship isn't just Sunday singing; it's daily surrender. When we worship with priority, obedience, and purity, we're transformed from glory to glory. Our minds are renewed. Our lives are reordered. God receives honor, and we receive the fullness He offers.

Today, present yourself completely to God. Let worship reshape your week, not just your weekend. Experience the life-changing power of acceptable worship.       

Now, take 10 minutes to seek God in prayer…  

1. Begin your time in prayer by taking 1-3 minutes to sit in silence (You can take longer if you sense the Spirit already beginning to speak to you).  
2. Pray through the things you sensed God speaking to you through the Scriptures or pray the following prayer: Lord, I offer myself to You today as a living sacrifice. Renew my mind, shape my desires, and transform my life through Your Word and Spirit. Let my worship extend beyond songs and gatherings into every decision, conversation, and action. Make me more like Jesus. Amen.  
   
3. Close by taking 5 minutes to sit in silence, asking God if there is anything else He wants to speak to you today.  

Faith Steps:

1. Begin your day by intentionally surrendering your plans, schedule, and priorities to God in prayer.
   
   
2. Identify one area where God is calling for transformation and take one practical step of obedience today.

Take 2-3 minutes to quiet yourself and ask God to speak to you today through your devotional time.  

Reading: Acts 5:1-11; James 4:1-10

Be sure to highlight or note anything that stands out to you while you read.  
After reading the passage, take the next 5-10 minutes and spend time reflecting on what you read. You can write these things down in a journal or record them in your phone. Be attentive to both what you highlighted in the passage and what is going on in your life.

Ananias and Sapphira's sin wasn't withholding money—it was presenting a lie as worship. They wanted recognition without surrender, reputation without reality. Their story terrifies us because it exposes what we hide: the gap between our public worship and private truth.

God takes worship seriously because He takes relationship seriously. You cannot manipulate God with religious performance while harboring deception. James warns that friendship with the world is hostility toward God. Examine your motives today. Are you worshiping for appearance or authenticity? God doesn't need your perfection, but He demands your honesty. Draw near with a true heart. Humble yourself. Let God lift you up.       

Now, take 10 minutes to seek God in prayer…  

1. Begin your time in prayer by taking 1-3 minutes to sit in silence (You can take longer if you sense the Spirit already beginning to speak to you).  
2. Pray through the things you sensed God speaking to you through the Scriptures or pray the following prayer: God, help me to live with integrity before You. Expose any areas where my public faith does not match my private life. Remove any desire for recognition, approval, or appearances that compete with genuine devotion to You. Teach me to worship You in truth and humility. Amen.   
   
3. Close by taking 5 minutes to sit in silence, asking God if there is anything else He wants to speak to you today.  

Faith Steps:

1. Ask God to reveal any gap between who you appear to be and who you really are.
   
   
2. Share a struggle, weakness, or prayer request with a trusted believer rather than hiding behind appearances.

"Jesus was the one who had to die in order to redeem us. He knew going into it what it would cost. And it didn't matter. It was like this is the right thing to do." — Pastor Zach Stephens

The Tree Church Bible Study returned this week with one of the most anticipated moments in the entire book of Ruth. Pastor Stacey Crawford welcomed Pastor Zach Stephens and Pastor Christopher Reed back to the table as the group moved into Ruth 4:1-6, the passage where Boaz goes to the town gate and sets the redemption process in motion.

Before opening the text, the three hosts shared a lighthearted conversation about everyday tasks that seem to take up far too much time. Pastor Christopher admitted that household chores top his list, from dishes to sweeping to cleaning the bathroom, tasks he pushes off as long as possible. Pastor Zach laughed about the ongoing joke at the church staff office, his need to make a trip to the kitchen every hour for a snack, something his coworkers have come to expect on a reliable schedule. Pastor Stacey rounded things out with laundry, noting that with three people in the house it somehow never ends. It was a warm and relatable opener that set a comfortable tone before the group turned its attention to the text.

Pastor Stacey set up the passage by reminding listeners where the story left off. Boaz had promised Ruth that he would handle the matter of redemption that very day. Naomi had told Ruth to be patient, confident that Boaz would not rest until things were settled. Now, in Ruth 4, that promise is being kept.

Boaz goes to the town gate and takes a seat. The closer family redeemer passes by, and Boaz calls him over. Ten elders from the town are gathered to sit as witnesses, and the conversation begins.

Pastor Stacey noted that the scene felt almost too convenient, as if all the right people simply happened to show up at the same time. Pastor Christopher offered helpful context. The town gate, he explained, functioned as the public square of ancient Israelite life. It was where judicial matters were handled, where legal agreements were made, and where the business of the community took place. Men of standing and leadership passed through regularly. The ten elders were not a coincidence. They served as an authorized quorum of witnesses, present to ensure that whatever agreement was reached was handled fairly and could not be disputed later.

Pastor Zach added that Boaz had likely done the preparation work ahead of time, letting the elders know a matter needed to be settled. When the other redeemer came through, everything was already in place. It was the urgency Naomi had spoken of, made visible.

Boaz opens the conversation by presenting only part of the picture. He tells the other redeemer that Naomi is looking to transfer the land that belonged to their relative Elimelech, and asks whether he is willing to redeem it. The man agrees without hesitation.

Pastor Stacey found this moment a little amusing, noting that Boaz essentially leads with the most appealing part of the offer before revealing the rest. Pastor Christopher pushed back gently on any suggestion that Boaz was being manipulative. Boaz, he said, was being wise and shrewd, and that is not antithetical to godliness. He was not withholding information. He was simply releasing it as it needed to be released. The land was the first matter on the table, and the family line would come next.

Pastor Christopher also paused to clarify what was actually happening with the land. Naomi did not technically own it outright. The land belonged to Elimelech's family line and was meant to stay within the clan. What Naomi held was more of a representative claim to it. The transfer being discussed was closer to a lease arrangement than an outright sale, giving the redeemer the right to work and benefit from the land while also providing for Naomi. The land, Pastor Christopher emphasized, was part of the promised land, meant to stay in the family as a sign of God's blessing and provision. The year of Jubilee, he noted, existed for exactly this reason, to ensure that even land that had been transferred would eventually return to the original family.

Then Boaz adds the rest. Redeeming the land also means marrying Ruth, the Moabite widow, so that she can have children who will carry on her husband's name and keep the land in the family.

The other redeemer's answer changes immediately. He cannot do it, he says, because it might endanger his own estate. He steps aside and tells Boaz to redeem it himself.

Pastor Stacey noted that this was her romcom moment, the point where everything shifts and Boaz gets to be the one. Pastor Zach reflected on the decision from a practical standpoint. From a purely calculating perspective, the land alone looked like an asset. But adding Ruth, the responsibility of raising up an heir, and the care of Naomi on top of that began to look more like a liability. The other redeemer made his decision based on what was best for himself and his existing estate.

Pastor Christopher was careful not to be too hard on the man. He noted that the redeemer may have already had children of his own, and the complications of adding to that picture were real. He was within his rights to decline. But the contrast with Boaz was unmistakable. Where the other redeemer calculated the cost and stepped back, Boaz had already counted the cost and was prepared to step forward. That contrast, Pastor Christopher said, was exactly what the author intended.

With Boaz positioned as the redeemer, the group turned to the larger question the passage raises. What does it actually mean to be redeemed?

Pastor Zach opened the discussion by going back to the definition of the word itself. Redemption, he said, is deliverance from something by the payment of a price. For humanity, that price is tied to sin. The Bible is clear that the wages of sin is death, and something had to be paid. God's answer was to send his son. Jesus knew what it would cost. He knew the suffering ahead. And he went anyway, because the goal was relationship, restoration, and bringing people back into right standing with God.

Pastor Christopher built on that foundation. He noted that people often reduce redemption to the forgiveness of sins, and while that is certainly part of it, the concept is far larger. He pointed to what Boaz did as an illustration. Boaz could have simply redeemed the land. But he went further, taking on the full responsibility of restoring what was fractured, providing for Ruth and Naomi, keeping the family line alive, and bringing wholeness to a situation that had been broken.

That, Pastor Christopher said, is what Christ does. The forgiveness of sins reconciles people back to God. Being in relationship with God connects people back to the source of blessing, of peace, of wholeness. The Holy Spirit then empowers believers not just to be forgiven but to grow and become more like Christ. And the reach of redemption does not stop there. It extends into creation itself. Christ's life, death, and resurrection set in motion the ultimate restoration of all things, a cosmic shalom that will one day be made complete.

Pastor Zach connected this to the garden of Eden, pointing out that God had a plan of redemption from the very beginning. Even when Adam and Eve sinned, God did not abandon his people or his creation. Every step of the way, he has been working to redeem, to restore, and to bring things back to what he originally designed them to be. That full redemption, Pastor Zach said, will be complete when believers stand face to face with him.

Pastor Christopher closed the theological reflection with a thought that grounded everything in the story of Ruth. The God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament are the same. The heart to redeem, to risk, to rescue, and to make things right has been God's heart from the very beginning. Jesus did not introduce a new idea. He became the fullness of everything that stories like Ruth and Boaz were always pointing toward. The line of Jesus himself, Pastor Christopher noted, would come directly out of this story.

Pastor Stacey brought it home by reflecting on God's compassion and sovereignty throughout the book of Ruth. From Naomi's deepest loss to this moment at the town gate, God had been orchestrating every detail. He wanted to redeem Naomi. And through Boaz, he did. That same God, she said, leads every reader straight to Jesus, the ultimate redeemer.

Pastor Zach closed the episode in prayer, asking that anyone listening who felt they had gone too far or made too many mistakes would hear the truth that redemption is available to all. Christ did not die for some sins or some people. He died for each one.

This Bible study is part of The Tree Church Bible Study podcast (TCBS), created to help the Tree grow deeper in understanding the Scriptures. New episodes release regularly on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.

Take 2-3 minutes to quiet yourself and ask God to speak to you today through your devotional time.  

Reading: Leviticus 16:1-19; Psalm 51:1-17

Be sure to highlight or note anything that stands out to you while you read.  
After reading the passage, take the next 5-10 minutes and spend time reflecting on what you read. You can write these things down in a journal or record them in your phone. Be attentive to both what you highlighted in the passage and what is going on in your life.

The high priest couldn't enter God's presence carelessly—purification was required. Blood was shed, water applied, and hearts examined. Today, Jesus is our High Priest, and His blood purifies completely. But purification still requires our participation: honest reflection, genuine confession, and true repentance.

David understood this: "You desire truth in the inward parts." God isn't fooled by external religiosity when internal corruption remains. The good news? When we confess, He is faithful to cleanse. Don't approach worship casually. Pause before you sing, pray, or serve. Ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart. Confess what He reveals. Receive His mercy. Then worship from purity, not presumption.        

Now, take 10 minutes to seek God in prayer…  

1. Begin your time in prayer by taking 1-3 minutes to sit in silence (You can take longer if you sense the Spirit already beginning to speak to you).  
2. Pray through the things you sensed God speaking to you through the Scriptures or pray the following prayer: Father, search my heart and reveal anything that is displeasing to You. Thank You for the cleansing power of Jesus' blood. Help me be honest about my sin, quick to confess, and willing to repent. Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me. Amen.    
   
3. Close by taking 5 minutes to sit in silence, asking God if there is anything else He wants to speak to you today.  

Faith Steps:

1. Spend five minutes in quiet reflection, asking the Holy Spirit to reveal anything that needs to be confessed.
   
   
2. Confess specifically what God reveals and thank Him for His forgiveness and grace.