"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.
   
   

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.
   
   

"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: 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.

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

Reading: Leviticus 10:1-11; 1 Samuel 15:22-23

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.

Nadab and Abihu had access, anointing, and authority—yet they died in God's presence. Their "strange fire" represented worship done their way, not God's way. Proximity to God doesn't excuse disobedience. Many today sing passionately on Sunday while living in willful rebellion Monday through Saturday. God calls this hypocrisy.

Obedience isn't legalism; it's love expressed through surrender. Samuel declared, "To obey is better than sacrifice." You cannot worship God while ignoring His commands. What commandment are you rationalizing away? What sin are you excusing? God desires worshipers who honor Him through obedience, not just emotion. Acceptable worship flows from submitted hearts.         

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, forgive me for the times I have wanted the appearance of worship without the surrender that worship requires. Show me any area of disobedience I have justified or ignored. Give me a heart that delights in obeying You, not out of obligation, but out of love. 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 specific area where He has been calling you to obedience.
   
   
2. Take one concrete step today to obey what He has already made clear through His Word.

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

Reading: Genesis 4:1-7; Matthew 6:33

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.

Abel's offering revealed what was in his heart—God held first place. Cain's offering exposed divided loyalty. The difference wasn't in the gift itself but in the giver's heart. God doesn't want leftovers; He desires priority. When we give God our firstfruits—our best time, resources, and attention—we declare His worthiness.

Today, examine your calendar, bank account, and thought life. Where does God actually rank? He doesn't demand first place to control you, but to protect you. When God is first, everything else finds its proper order. Sin crouches at the door of misplaced priorities. What area of your life needs reordering 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: Father, show me where You have slipped from first place in my life. Reveal any priorities that have crowded You out. Give me the courage to reorder my time, resources, and attention so that You receive my best and not my leftovers. Help me trust that Your place at the center of my life is for my good and Your 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. Spend the first 15 minutes of your day with God before checking your phone, email, or social media.
   
   
2. Identify one area of your life where God has not been first and make one practical change today that reflects His priority.

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

Reading: Romans 5:6-11; 1 John 4:9-19

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 you ever thought to seek God, He was fighting for you. While you were still a sinner—indifferent, rebellious, lost—Christ died for you. This is the stunning reality: you don't earn God's love through perfect faith or unwavering trust. He loved you first, completely, sacrificially. The Creator of 200 billion galaxies knows your name and counts your tears. The One who orchestrates ecosystems and ocean currents orchestrated your redemption. When faith feels impossible, remember you're not sustaining this relationship alone. Jesus holds you secure. Your job isn't to be a perfect follower but to respond to the perfect love already poured out. Will you fight for the relationship He already died to secure? Let His love compel you forward 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: Thank Jesus for His sacrificial love and ask Him to help you live each day rooted in the confidence that you are deeply loved by God.
   
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 time reflecting on the cross and write down what Christ's sacrifice reveals about God's love for you personally.
2. Respond to God's love by showing intentional love and encouragement to someone else this week.

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

Reading: Job 38:1-18; Habakkuk 3:17-19

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.

Life rarely unfolds as we expect. Prayers go unanswered, loved ones suffer, dreams die. In these moments, we face a choice: deconstruct our faith or reconstruct our understanding of God. Job demanded answers for his suffering; God responded by revealing His incomprehensible power and wisdom. Sometimes God's answer to "Why?" is simply "Trust Me—I'm God and you're not." This isn't cruel; it's an invitation to worship a God bigger than our circumstances. Habakkuk chose worship even when nothing made sense: "Though the fig tree does not bud...yet I will rejoice in the Lord." God's love isn't measured by comfortable circumstances but by the cross. When expectations crumble, cling to what's certain: His character, His promises, His presence.            

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: Ask God for the grace to trust His character when life doesn't meet your expectations and circumstances don't make sense.
   
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 God's promises that remain true regardless of your current situation.
2. Choose one way to worship God today—even if you're disappointed, confused, or waiting for answers.

"Character is exposed under testing. It's easy to be a person of character when it doesn't cost you anything. It's easy to be a person of character when it's simple." — Pastor Christopher Reed

The Tree Church Bible Study returned this week with another rich conversation rooted in the book of Ruth. Pastor Stacey Crawford welcomed Pastor Zach Stephens and Pastor Christopher Reed back to the table as the group picked up in Ruth 3:10-18, a passage that brings one of Scripture's most quietly powerful moments into full view.

Before opening the text, the three hosts took a lighthearted detour, each sharing who would make their personal Mount Rushmore of heroes. Pastor Zach named leadership voices like Gregg Scholl and John Mark Comer alongside sports figures who have shaped his thinking. Pastor Christopher put Jesus at the top without hesitation, adding C.S. Lewis and his own youth pastor to the list. Pastor Stacey rounded things out with Mother Teresa, Billy Graham, Susan B. Anthony, and Walt Disney, sharing a well-known Billy Graham joke along the way that brought some genuine laughter to the conversation. It was a warm and personal opening that set the tone for the discussion ahead.

The group moved into the passage with Pastor Stacey reading Ruth 3:10-13 aloud. In this moment, Boaz has just been awakened in the night by Ruth, who has come to the threshing floor and laid at his feet as a way of asking him to be her kinsman redeemer. Rather than reacting with confusion or dismissal, Boaz responds with a blessing.

Pastor Christopher noted that the blessing Boaz extends to Ruth is not a small thing. He pointed out that Boaz praises Ruth specifically for her loyalty, not just to what would have been easiest for her, but to what was right and true. Ruth had chosen not to pursue a younger man who might have offered more in terms of security or an heir. That choice, according to Boaz, reflected something deeper than practicality. It reflected character.

Pastor Zach added that both Naomi and Ruth likely knew another kinsman redeemer existed who was more closely related. The fact that Ruth came to Boaz anyway, a man of renown in both character and standing, showed that the relationship they had built mattered more to her than what might have made more logical sense.

Boaz does not hide from the complication. He tells Ruth plainly that there is another man who stands closer in line as a family redeemer. Rather than maneuvering around this or sweeping it aside, Boaz commits to handling it properly. He tells Ruth to stay through the night and promises that by morning he will address the situation directly.

Pastor Christopher reflected on what that kind of integrity actually looks like in practice. Boaz clearly desired Ruth. He was honored by her. And yet rather than finding a way to skip the process, he committed to doing things the right way. The group agreed that this is one of the defining marks of Boaz throughout the entire book. He never cuts corners. He never looks for the easy exit. He moves with purpose toward what is right.

Pastor Stacey also highlighted how Boaz committed to protecting Ruth's reputation through all of it. He was not only protecting her physically by keeping her through the night and sending her home before anyone could recognize her. He was also making clear to anyone who needed to know that Ruth was a woman of virtue and that her character would not be called into question by what had taken place.

Before Ruth leaves, Boaz measures out six scoops of barley and sends her home. Pastor Christopher shared an insight from his commentary reading that added a layer to this moment. The way the original text describes Ruth carrying the grain suggests she bundled it in front of her rather than on her back, creating an image that the commentary writer connected to the child she would eventually carry. It was a subtle foreshadowing of the life that would come from this union, tucked quietly into the details of the story.

Beyond the imagery, the group noted that the grain itself carried meaning. When Ruth returned to Naomi and shared everything that had happened, the barley was part of the message. Pastor Christopher pointed out that Boaz never explicitly said the grain was for Naomi, but Ruth communicated it that way. In doing so, Boaz was honoring Naomi, acknowledging her as the parental figure in Ruth's life and extending his provision to cover her as well.

Naomi's response when Ruth returns is one of the quieter but more powerful moments in the passage. She tells Ruth simply to be patient, that the man will not rest until the matter is settled that very day. Pastor Zach noted how much trust is packed into that statement. Naomi was not anxious. She was not spiraling. She knew who Boaz was and what he had shown himself to be, and she trusted that his character would carry through to completion.

Pastor Christopher drew a parallel that the group returned to more than once throughout the conversation. The way Boaz shows up for Ruth and Naomi, the way he provides, protects, and moves with intention toward redemption, points toward something larger. Naomi's trust in Boaz mirrors the kind of trust God calls his people to place in him. The human action in this story, as Pastor Christopher put it, often implies God's action. Boaz restoring Naomi is a picture of God restoring Naomi.

The group paused to reflect on Naomi's arc across the book of Ruth. She is the character who experiences the full cycle. She walked through loss, through bitterness, through a season of turning away, and then through the slow and steady process of return. What the group was now watching unfold was the restoration side of that cycle, made possible through the faithfulness of Ruth and the integrity of Boaz.

Pastor Zach connected this to people he has known personally, friends who did not grow up in faith but found Jesus in adulthood and are now leading their families with a depth that can only come from having walked through something hard. God, he said, does not waste the hurt. He uses it. He works through it for his good and to further his kingdom.

The final portion of the conversation turned toward application. Pastor Stacey brought the group back to the theme that had been present throughout the entire episode, the character of both Ruth and Boaz, and asked directly what that means for people today.

Pastor Christopher framed it around knowing who God is and what he values. Godly character, he said, is not about becoming equal with God. It is about reflecting his values. Treating others the way he treats others. Seeking goodness, uprightness, and righteousness. Truth, honesty, fairness, justice. These are the things God values, and they are the things that flow through the entire story of Ruth. Boaz and Ruth are what Pastor Christopher called typological Christ figures in the narrative. They enact God's character in difficult situations.

He also pointed to Jesus in the wilderness as an illustration of the same principle. Every temptation Jesus faced was not just about doing the wrong thing. It was about doing the right thing the wrong way. Jesus had the power to turn stones to bread. He could have jumped from the temple and let everyone watch. But that was not the way God called him to do it. Character, Pastor Christopher said, is not just about reaching the right end. The means are always guided by God.

Pastor Zach brought it down to everyday life. He talked about the fruit of the Spirit and how God uses the image of plants and fruit to describe what it looks like to follow him. You can tell if a plant is healthy by what it produces. The same is true of a person. When God's character is at work in someone, it shows. It comes out in how they speak, how they respond, and how they treat the people around them.

Pastor Stacey closed the reflection with a simple but pointed observation. The moments that test character are not always dramatic. Sometimes it is how a person responds when someone cuts them off in traffic. Sometimes it is how they handle a situation that is precarious or uncomfortable. Those are the moments, she said, where the choice is clear. Follow God in this moment, or follow the ways of this world. Ruth and Boaz chose well. The invitation for every follower of Jesus is to do the same.

Pastor Christopher closed the episode in prayer, asking that those listening would live lives that reflect the values God holds, marked by honesty, kindness, generosity, patience, and a pursuit of justice and the welfare of others.

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.

"When you have the truth and you have genuine love, then that love compels you to share that truth." — Pastor Matthew Johnson

Pastor Matthew Johnson opened the final message of a seven-part series on deconstruction and reconstruction by explaining something personal. The week before, a guest pastor had noted that one of the things he respected about Pastor Matthew was his willingness to address difficult topics, even when they are controversial or unpopular. Pastor Matthew took a moment to reflect on why that is true of him.

He said it is not primarily about courage. It comes down to two things. He genuinely believes he has access to truth through God's word, and he has genuine love for the people he serves. Those two things together are what compel him to speak even when a message is hard to deliver.

That foundation set the tone for everything that followed. Pastor Matthew was clear that the final part of this series would require directness. He had been intentional throughout the series to speak with compassion, knowing that people walking through a season of questioning their faith are in a vulnerable and often disorienting place. But in this closing message, love required honesty.

Pastor Matthew has spent years as a student of culture. Through social media, books, videos, personal conversations, and stories from people who think and believe differently than he does, he has observed a consistent pattern among those who step back from their faith.

He narrowed it down to three reasons. People deconstruct because God did something unexpected, something confusing, or something undesirable. They had a picture in their mind of what life with God was supposed to look like, and reality did not match it. Maybe a health crisis came. Maybe a relationship fell apart. Maybe they prayed for something specific and never received it. Maybe the brokenness of the world simply felt incompatible with a loving God.

Pastor Matthew was direct. If someone is pulling back from God because he did the unexpected, the confusing, or the undesirable, then what they are really saying is they want a God who does what they expect, what they understand, and what they desire. And Pastor Matthew named that plainly. That is not a relationship with God. That is wanting a genie.
He was careful to say he was not being snarky. He was not attacking anyone. He was being honest about what that posture actually communicates, because dishonest or incomplete perspectives, in his experience, lead to more confusion rather than less.

Pastor Matthew made a point that anchored the entire message. He said the culture has been deconstructing the wrong God. What people have been pulling away from is the true creator God. But what actually needs to be deconstructed is the idolatry of self.

The culture, he explained, has trained people to believe they can create their own truth, define their own morality, and shape their own reality. In that framework, the self becomes God. And he said plainly that we make a bad version of God.

With that foundation in place, Pastor Matthew offered four suggestions for anyone who wants to experience real life, a healthy relationship with God, and a faith that is genuinely strong.

The first suggestion was the most foundational. You are not God. Pastor Matthew was not saying this to be condescending. He was pointing to something that has to be genuinely settled in a person's heart before anything else can follow.

He walked through the scale of creation to make the point. The sun alone produces enough power every second to power the entire earth for 634,000 years. And the known universe contains an estimated 200 billion to two trillion galaxies, each with hundreds of billions of stars. The power required to create all of that is beyond anything a human mind can fully take in.

Beyond power, God has wisdom and knowledge beyond comprehension. Pastor Matthew described the staggering complexity of conditions required for life to exist at all, from the atmosphere to the water cycle to the stability of the moon to the way soil organisms recycle nutrients. Everywhere you look in creation, systems are connected to other systems, each serving a purpose beyond itself.

And if God designed creation with that level of purpose, Pastor Matthew asked, why would anyone assume he has no purpose when he allows something that does not make sense to us?

The first suggestion leads naturally into the second. God is not just powerful and wise. He proved who he is.

Two thousand years ago, God became man in the person of Jesus. Pastor Matthew pointed to John 1:3, where the apostle John wrote that all things were made through Jesus and without him nothing was made that has been made.

Jesus demonstrated his identity in ways no other person in history has. He healed bodies that medicine could not touch. He gave sight to the blind, speech to the mute, and hearing to the deaf. He raised the dead. He controlled weather, walked on water, and multiplied food. Demonic forces obeyed him without resistance. The laws of physics did not constrain him.

And this same Jesus, the creator God in human form, said he did not come to be served or to condemn. He came to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. He came to die on the cross for the sins of people who were broken and rebellious so that anyone who puts their faith in him could be reconciled to God.

Pastor Matthew brought this back to the practical. When you surrender your life to Jesus, you are surrendering to a God of power, wisdom, purpose, and love that are all beyond your comprehension. He is going to do things that are unexpected. He is going to do things that are confusing. He is going to allow things that go against your desires. But every single thing he does is being done by a God who loves you more than you can fully understand.

Pastor Matthew was careful to define what biblical faith actually means, because he said it is often misunderstood. Faith in the biblical sense is not blind trust. It is not closing your eyes and walking forward without forming an opinion. It is something much more grounded than that.

He used a scene from the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade to illustrate it. Near the end of the film, Indiana Jones faces a massive chasm with no visible bridge. His father is dying and the only hope is to reach the other side. The clue in his book says it is a step of faith. So he closes the book, lifts one leg, and steps forward into what looks like empty air. The bridge catches him because it was there all along, designed to blend perfectly into the wall. He just could not see it. After that first step, his eyes adjust and he walks the rest of the way with confidence.

Pastor Matthew said that first step carries the most risk. But after it, faith becomes an educated decision built on experience with a faithful God.

He then walked through Hebrews 11:1 word by word. The writer of Hebrews defines faith as the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. The word translated as assurance or substance in the Greek literally means foundation. Faith is the foundation of a life built on real experiences with God, on moments where he showed up, on steps taken in obedience where he proved faithful. Hope in this context is not a wish. It is a confident expectation grounded in God's promises and in what he has already done.

Pastor Matthew illustrated the conviction aspect with something close to home. After 25 years of marriage and eight years of dating before that, he said no one in the room could convince him that his wife does not love him. He cannot prove it in a way that satisfies a skeptic, but the accumulated experience of their life together has become proof inside his own heart. That, he said, is what biblical faith looks like in a relationship with God.

The fourth and final suggestion was the most urgent. Pastor Matthew said the relationship will be attacked. Jesus promised it. Paul confirmed it. The enemy has military strategies set up against every believer's faith, and those strategies are designed to exploit the moments when God does the unexpected, the confusing, or the undesirable.

To make this concrete, Pastor Matthew told Paul's story. Paul was the best of the best in the Jewish religious world, a Pharisee of Pharisees, disciplined and trained at the highest level. Then he had a direct encounter with the risen Jesus, received a specific calling, and was given special revelation about what was ahead. By any reasonable expectation, the next chapter of his life should have looked like blessing and fruitfulness.

Instead, Paul was imprisoned repeatedly, beaten five times with 39 lashes each time, beaten with rods three times, stoned once, shipwrecked three times, and spent a full night and day adrift at sea. He faced danger in cities, in the wilderness, on the water, and from people who should have been on his side. He went without food, without water, and without sleep. And on top of all of that, he carried a daily weight of concern for the churches he loved.

Pastor Matthew said plainly that if anyone ever had a reason to deconstruct, it was Paul. And yet Paul wrote from that exact experience in Philippians 4:11 that he had learned to be content in every circumstance, whether in abundance or in need. He explained how in the verse that follows, one of the most misused verses in the Bible. When Paul wrote that he could do all things through Christ who strengthens him, he was not talking about achieving something he wanted. He was talking about accepting something he did not get and remaining at peace because of his relationship with the living God.

Pastor Matthew then turned to 2 Corinthians 10, the other passage he had asked the congregation to turn to at the start of the message. Paul wrote there that the weapons of spiritual warfare are not physical but have divine power to destroy strongholds. Paul's strategy was to take every thought captive and make it subject to what he knew was true. When life went in an unexpected direction and the message came to his mind that God had failed him or was not real, Paul took that thought and held it up against the word of God and against his own history with a faithful God. He called the lie what it was and destroyed it before it could take root.

Pastor Matthew explained the difference between a foothold and a stronghold using two illustrations. As a kid wrestling with his older brothers, he knew that getting his foot in the door before it closed was the key to pushing all the way in. At D-Day, the allies knew that taking the beach at Normandy would create a foothold that would eventually become a stronghold against the Nazis from the west. Paul's point, and Pastor Matthew's, is that the way to keep a stronghold from forming is to destroy it when it is still a foothold. Address the thought when it first arrives. Do not let it settle.

Pastor Matthew closed with a prayer that was honest and pastoral. He acknowledged before God that there are times when he is confusing, times when his people are frustrated and disappointed, times when things simply do not make sense. He asked God to help his church be reminded of his goodness, to feel his presence, and to have that deep assurance that God is good, that he is present, and that he is working everything out for a purpose.

The series on deconstruction and reconstruction ended not with easy answers but with a clear and grounded call. The creator God has more power, more wisdom, more purpose, and more love than any of us can fully comprehend. When you trust him and walk in faith, that trust becomes the evidence that secures your heart. You do not have to deconstruct what is good. You can deconstruct what is weak and false so that what remains is stronger than where you began.

The Tree Church exists to help people find and follow Jesus. If you are looking for a church in Lancaster, Ohio, or a church in Logan, Ohio, we would love to have you join us.

We meet every Sunday at 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM at both of our 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, working through hard questions, or simply looking for a community to call home, there is a place for you here at The Tree Church.

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

Reading: 2 Corinthians 10:3-6; Ephesians 6:10-18

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.

Your relationship with God will face opposition. The enemy schemes to plant doubts, twist truths, and magnify disappointments until your faith crumbles. Paul understood this warfare intimately—beaten, imprisoned, shipwrecked, yet unshaken. His secret? He took every thought captive, destroying arguments against knowing God. When disappointment whispers that God doesn't care, combat it with truth: He gave His Son for you. When confusion suggests God is absent, counter with Scripture: He promises never to leave. Don't give negative thoughts a foothold, or they'll become strongholds. Run to Jesus, to truth-speaking friends, to Scripture—not to things that weaken your faith. Spiritual warfare is real, but your weapons have divine power. Fight for the relationship Jesus already fought to secure.               

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: Ask God to help you recognize lies that weaken your faith and give you the strength to stand firm in His truth.
   
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 thought and replace it with a specific Scripture that speaks God's truth over that situation.
2. Reach out to a trusted Christian friend, mentor, or small group member for encouragement and prayer this week.

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

Reading: Hebrews 11:1-6; John 20:24-29

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.

Faith isn't blind trust—it's confidence built through relationship. Like Thomas, we sometimes need to see before we believe, but Jesus graciously meets us in our doubt. Each time God proves faithful in small things, our trust deepens for bigger challenges. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen—not wishful thinking, but firm confidence rooted in God's proven character. Think of faith as stepping stones across a river: the first step feels risky, but each stone you land on gives courage for the next. Jesus invites you to take one step today, promising to meet you there. What faithful step is He calling you toward? Trust His track record, not your feelings.               

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: Thank God for His faithfulness in your life and ask Him to strengthen your trust as you continue walking with Him.
   
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. Write down three specific ways God has proven faithful to you in the past and revisit them when doubts arise.
2. Take one step of obedience today in an area where God is asking you to trust Him more deeply.

Can faith and science coexist? For Pastor Chris Reed, Pastor Anthony Lombardi, and Pastor Matthew Johnson, that question is not just worth asking. It is worth sitting down and working through together.

In this episode of The Branch Podcast, the three pastors pick up where guest speaker Pastor Tim left off after his message on the perceived tension between faith and science. What follows is a wide-ranging, grounded conversation that takes both intellectual honesty and biblical conviction seriously.

Pastor Matthew opens the conversation with a question that cuts to the heart of the whole discussion. What actually requires more faith, he asks, believing everything came from nothing, or believing there is a creator?

His answer is direct. When you look at the fine-tuning of the universe, the precision required for life to exist at all, and the reality that something inanimate somehow became living, the idea that it all happened without a designer starts to feel like the harder thing to accept. Pastor Matthew points out that even some people he knows personally who do not hold a Christian faith have told him they find it more intellectually honest to believe some kind of intelligence initiated life on earth.

Pastor Anthony builds on that. He notes that science as a discipline has real limits. It can observe and measure, but it cannot get behind the question of what caused the universe to exist in the first place. At some point, honest inquiry has to acknowledge that the boundary has been reached. To move beyond that boundary and claim there is definitely no creator, he argues, is not scientific. It is a faith system of its own, one that Pastor Tim called scientism in his message the week prior.

Pastor Chris brings up a question that lands closer to home for many believers. When is it appropriate for Christians to push back on what the scientific community broadly accepts?

Pastor Matthew's answer is measured. He says that when science genuinely proves something, his response is curiosity, not defensiveness. He wants to understand how new information fits within his faith, not because his convictions are fragile, but because he does not believe truth ultimately contradicts itself. He does, however, draw a clear line between scientific laws and scientific theories. A theory presented as settled fact, he says, deserves critical reading regardless of how confidently it is offered.

Pastor Chris adds that his freshman college biology professor shaped how he approaches this. The professor's whole point was to teach students to read scientific articles carefully and not accept claims as gospel truth just because they are confidently presented. That same critical thinking, Pastor Chris says, applies in both directions. Christians should apply it to science, and they should apply it to their own assumptions about what scripture is saying.

One of the richest threads in the conversation is the question of whether the creation account in Genesis was ever meant to answer scientific questions at all.

Pastor Anthony's response is clear. Genesis is primarily about theology, not science. It is answering the why, not the how. The ancient world had competing creation narratives, most of them involving warring gods and bloodshed. Genesis sets itself apart by presenting a God who creates out of love, with purpose and intention, and who makes human beings in his image not as slaves but as partners in caring for what he made.

Pastor Matthew picks up the thread and talks about the danger of reading Genesis through a modern Western lens. A 21st century reader expects a news article to be factually accurate, chronologically ordered, and complete. But that is not how ancient Israelite writers thought or wrote. Ancient literature used poetry, parallelism, and layered storytelling. The audience understood what kind of text they were reading. Pastor Matthew points to the literary structure of Genesis 1, where the days mirror each other in a way that reads more like a work of art than a timeline, as evidence that the author was doing something theological rather than scientific.

"Why can't we read it as poetry," he says, "or as these very layered stories that are historically rooted, but that are teaching ideas about who God is and what it means to be human?"

The conversation turns to evolution, and all three pastors engage it carefully.

Pastor Chris is honest about where his tension lies. Evolution requires enormous amounts of death through natural selection. He is not sure that death was part of the original created order before the fall, and he also struggles with the idea of made in the image of God being something that emerged gradually rather than something God gave immediately and directly. He reads the account of God forming Adam from dust and breathing life into him as carrying real weight.

Pastor Anthony agrees. He says the special designation given to human beings in Genesis, the repeated refrain that God looked at them and called them very good, the charge to have dominion over creation, and the unique covenantal relationship God offers to people but not to animals, all of it points to a distinction that an evolutionary framework makes very hard to maintain. One of his theology professors put it this way: human beings are the only creatures on earth capable of destroying the world. That kind of capacity, he argues, did not come from natural selection.

Pastor Matthew holds the tension openly. He acknowledges question marks he has not fully resolved, including the reality that the scientific record points to large populations of humans existing on earth at the same time. He does not pretend to have tidy answers. What he does say is that even if it turned out God used some form of guided process in creation, that would not shake his faith. God would still be the initiator and the designer behind all of it.

Pastor Chris names himself an old earth creationist and explains why he holds that view without apology.

His reasoning rests on two points. First, the Hebrew word translated as day in Genesis carries a range of meaning far wider than a single 24-hour period. Second, biblical genealogies were never designed to function as timelines. They highlight specific individuals for specific purposes. Treating them as a complete generational record and then doing the math to arrive at a 6,000 year old earth, he says, is standing on faulty ground.

Pastor Anthony frames the whole question in a way that takes the pressure off entirely. Whether God created everything in an instant or set a 13.6 billion year process in motion, he is still the one who spoke it into being. Neither view threatens the core of what Christianity actually teaches. What changes between them is not the identity or the power of God but only the timeline.

"If God did it in a moment, how awesome is our God," he says. "If he did it over 13.6 billion years, how awesome is our God."

One of the sharper sections of the conversation arrives when the pastors examine what happens when science tries to answer philosophical and moral questions it was never designed to address.

Pastor Matthew makes the point that science, taken to its logical end without a moral framework rooted in something beyond natural selection, cannot actually account for why human beings care for the weak, protect the elderly, or sacrifice for strangers. If survival of the fittest is the operating principle, then strength should dominate and weakness should be discarded. But no one actually lives that way, and no society that wants to survive actually advocates for it.

Pastor Chris takes that a step further by pointing to what happens when meaning gets stripped from human experience. Love reduced to a brain chemical. Compassion explained as a survival mechanism. When science is used to reduce everything to its most basic parts and those parts are assumed to be the whole story, the meaning that God designed human life to carry gets lost entirely. People are left with an existence instead of a life.

"God has obviously designed us to not just have an existence," Pastor Chris says. "We're designed to flourish."

The final question of the conversation asks how Christians should think about scientific and technological advancement when it consistently outpaces moral reflection.

Pastor Matthew's answer is that the concept of progress is only meaningful if you know what you are progressing toward. Technology aimed at human flourishing, at aligning life more closely with the way God designed people to relate to him and to one another, is worth celebrating. Technology developed for profit or convenience with no moral framework guiding its use is a different thing entirely.

Pastor Anthony references the story of Babel as a biblical example of human ingenuity untethered from the purposes of God. The ability to build something, he says, does not automatically mean it should be built. Not all ends justify every means, and Christians have a responsibility to say so clearly.

The episode wraps with a moment of humor. Pastor Anthony walks back some comments made in an earlier episode about intermittent fasting after receiving a spirited correction from Dr. Todd Hansen, a member of The Tree Church. The retraction is made in good fun, and the conversation ends with the announcement that this is the last Branch Podcast episode before a summer break.

Pastor Chris thanks Pastor Anthony and Pastor Matthew for a conversation that clearly mattered to all three of them. The listener can hear it.

If this conversation sparked something in you and you are looking for a church community in central Ohio that takes both faith and honest questions seriously, we would love to meet you at The Tree Church.

We have two campuses in the area:
Our Lancaster campus is located at 721 N. Memorial Drive, Lancaster, OH 43130. Our Logan campus is located at 36 Hocking Mall, Logan, OH 43138. Both campuses hold services on Sunday mornings at 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM.

Whether you have been following Jesus for years or you are just starting to ask the hard questions, there is a place for you here. We would love to see you on a Sunday.

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

Reading: Isaiah 55:8-9; Romans 11:33-36

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.

We often construct a version of God that fits comfortably within our expectations—a deity who operates according to our logic and timing. But the Creator who spoke galaxies into existence transcends our finite understanding. His ways are not our ways; His thoughts tower above ours like the heavens above the earth. This isn't a limitation on our faith—it's an invitation to trust Someone infinitely wiser than ourselves. When life doesn't make sense, remember: the God who orchestrated the intricate dance of planets, seasons, and ecosystems is orchestrating your story too. You don't need to understand everything; you need to trust the One who does. Surrender your need for comprehension and embrace the mystery of His wisdom.                 

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: Ask God to help you trust His wisdom even when you don't understand His plans, timing, or purposes.
   
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. Surrender one unanswered question or situation to God in prayer, choosing trust over the need for complete understanding.
2. Spend time worshiping God for who He is rather than focusing on what He has or hasn't done in your circumstances.

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

Reading: Romans 1:18-20; Colossians 1:15-20

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.

Paul declares that God's "invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made." Creation itself testifies to the Creator, leaving humanity without excuse. Yet this natural revelation finds its fulfillment in Christ, "in whom all things hold together." The same Jesus who walked on water and calmed storms is the one who established the laws of physics. He doesn't violate His own creation; He authored it. As you reconstruct your faith, remember that all genuine truth—whether discovered in a laboratory or revealed in Scripture—ultimately points to the same Source. Don't be afraid of honest questions or new discoveries. God is big enough to handle your doubts and wise enough to guide your seeking. Walk forward in confidence, reading both of God's books with wonder.

How can you become more comfortable holding both scientific discovery and biblical faith together in harmony?                  

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: Ask God to strengthen your trust in Him as the source of all truth and give you confidence to seek Him honestly.
   
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. Bring one unanswered question or doubt to God today instead of avoiding it, trusting Him to guide your seeking.
2. Spend time worshipping Jesus as Creator and Sustainer by reflecting on Colossians 1:15–20 throughout your day.
   
   

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

Reading: Proverbs 3:13-20

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.

This passage beautifully connects divine wisdom with the physical world: "By wisdom the LORD laid the earth's foundations, by understanding he set the heavens in place." The same wisdom that governs the universe is available to guide your life. God doesn't ask you to choose between intellectual honesty and spiritual devotion—He invites you to pursue both with integrity. When we study creation with honest curiosity, we're not threatening God's authority; we're honoring His craftsmanship. When we read Scripture with humble hearts, we're not abandoning reason; we're seeking ultimate meaning. Let wisdom hold both books together in your hands. Embrace the complementary nature of God's revelation. Your faith grows stronger, not weaker, when you refuse to pit truth against truth.

In what area of your life do you need God's wisdom to integrate faith and reason?         

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: Ask God for wisdom to faithfully integrate truth, faith, and understanding in every area of your life.
   
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. Invite God into one area where you’ve separated faith from daily decision-making or intellectual pursuits.
2. Practice seeking wisdom today by pausing before decisions and asking God for guidance first.