The Owner

"All that I have belongs to God." — Pastor Matthew Johnson

At the beginning of the year, Pastor Matthew Johnson opened a new sermon series by addressing a mindset that shapes every area of life. Before talking about habits, decisions, or priorities, he pointed to a deeper issue. The way a person understands ownership determines how they live, how they obey, and how they relate to God.

The message centers on a simple but challenging truth. All that a person has belongs to God. This includes tangible things such as money, possessions, homes, and work. It also includes intangible things such as time, influence, education, relationships, goals, and desires. According to Scripture, this is not a secondary teaching. It is the assumption on which the Bible is built.

Pastor Matthew explains that if this mindset is not understood, much of Scripture will feel confusing or unreasonable. God’s commands, expectations, and promises are consistently rooted in the belief that He is the owner and His people are stewards.

At the heart of the message is a prayer Pastor Matthew shared for the church. He is praying that individuals would experience the fullest life God has to offer. At the same time, he is praying that the church would fully honor God with their lives. These two desires are not separate or competing goals.

The sermon makes it clear that honoring God and experiencing the fullest life are inseparable. One cannot exist without the other. A person cannot experience the life God offers while refusing to honor Him. Likewise, honoring God leads directly into the life He intends for His people.

This connection sets the tone for the entire series. Before discussing specific areas of obedience, the message calls for a renewed mindset. How a person thinks shapes how they feel, and how they feel shapes how they live.

Pastor Matthew acknowledges that the mindset of full surrender is one of the hardest to embrace and even harder to maintain. Over time, it is easy to drift away from it. This is not because people are intentionally rebellious, but because the culture they live in reinforces a different way of thinking.

Modern culture teaches that hard work leads to success, and success leads to ownership. The more someone accomplishes, the easier it becomes to credit themselves for what they have. Gratitude slowly gives way to entitlement. What may begin as thankfulness eventually turns into a belief that everything earned is deserved and owned outright.

This mindset affects every area of life. Education, careers, businesses, families, finances, and relationships can all become areas where people believe they are the primary reason for their success. God’s role becomes minimized, forgotten, or ignored.

The sermon turns to the teachings of Jesus to reinforce this truth. Large crowds followed Jesus during His ministry, but He consistently challenged their understanding of what it meant to follow Him. In Luke 14, Jesus makes it clear that a relationship with Him requires prioritizing Him above everything else.

Jesus uses strong language, calling His followers to take up their cross daily and count the cost. His message is not about casual belief. It is about surrender. He summarizes this teaching by saying that anyone who does not renounce all that they have cannot be His disciple.

This teaching reinforces the same truth found throughout Scripture. A relationship with God begins when ownership is surrendered. God is acknowledged as the owner, and His people live in obedience to Him.

To illustrate this mindset, Pastor Matthew walks through the story of Israel found in Deuteronomy. Moses delivers his final messages to the nation as they prepare to enter the Promised Land. After years of God’s faithfulness, Moses issues a warning.

Israel’s history is marked by God’s provision. He created them as a people, rescued them from slavery in Egypt, guided them through the wilderness, provided food and water, protected them from enemies, and sustained them for decades. Their clothes did not wear out. Their needs were met in miraculous ways.

As they prepared to enter a land filled with cities they did not build and resources they did not create, Moses warned them not to forget the Lord. Blessing would create a new temptation. When life became easier, they might forget how dependent they once were on God.

Deuteronomy repeatedly warns against forgetting the Lord. Moses explains that forgetting God does not happen suddenly. It happens when people focus on their effort while minimizing God’s role. Over time, pride replaces gratitude.

When people believe their power and ability are the source of their success, obedience loses its value. God’s commands begin to feel unnecessary or restrictive. Rebellion begins when God’s faithfulness is forgotten.

Pastor Matthew connects this warning to everyday life. Disobedience often stems from a belief that personal wisdom is better than God’s instruction. Whether it involves time, money, relationships, or priorities, people disobey because they believe they know what will bring fulfillment.

The sermon also addresses how time affects memory. Both painful and joyful moments can lose their emotional weight over time. Moments when God’s faithfulness was undeniable can slowly fade.

Pastor Matthew shares a personal story of being healed from a serious back injury. In the moment, the healing was undeniable. Years later, time created distance from that experience. This illustrates how easy it is to question what once felt certain.

Moses warned Israel that this same process would happen to them. Without intentional remembrance, God’s faithfulness would fade into the background of their story.

The solution Moses offers is intentional remembrance. God’s people must regularly remind themselves of what He has done. They must remember where they came from and who made their lives possible.

For Israel, this meant remembering slavery, deliverance, provision, and protection. For believers today, it begins with remembering that God gave life, ability, opportunity, community, and salvation.

Pastor Matthew points to Jesus as the ultimate reminder of God’s faithfulness. God gave before He ever asked. Jesus left heaven, took on human form, and gave His life so that people could be restored to a relationship with God.

The sermon emphasizes a key contrast. Ownership creates pressure, but surrender creates peace. When people believe they own something, they feel responsible to provide, protect, and sustain it. When something is surrendered to God, the responsibility belongs to Him.

Pastor Matthew shares honestly about the pressure of leading a growing church. A reminder from his counselor reframed the weight he was carrying. The church does not belong to him. It belongs to God. His responsibility is obedience, not ownership.

This same truth applies to every area of life. God calls His people to obedience. He takes responsibility for outcomes.

The message concludes with a simple phrase. Surrender gains. What feels like loss is actually the path to peace, purpose, and blessing. Holding tightly leads to control and anxiety. Releasing control leads to trust and freedom.

Pastor Matthew challenges listeners to reflect honestly. What are they gripping tightly. What feels difficult to release. Through prayer and obedience, those areas are to be surrendered to God.

The invitation is not about losing joy. It is about removing pressure and deepening trust. God, who gave first, can be trusted with everything.

The Tree Church is a life-giving church with locations in Lancaster and Logan, Ohio, focused on helping people follow Jesus and grow in faith. If you are looking for a church in Lancaster or a church in Logan, The Tree Church welcomes individuals and families to join in worship each Sunday at 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM.

Lancaster: 721 N Memorial Dr, Lancaster, OH 43130
Logan: 36 Hocking Mall, Logan, OH 43138