WORSHIP THAT TRANSFORMS MUST FIRST BE SACRIFICIAL | Pastor Matthew Johnson

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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