THE STRENGTH OF SURRENDER | PASTOR MATTHEW JOHNSON

"The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction. But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God." - Pastor Matthew Johnson

On Sunday, March 15, Pastor Matthew Johnson stepped to the platform at The Tree Church and did something that does not happen often in a Sunday sermon. He let the congregation see his heart before he opened his Bible.

He warned them upfront. The message was going to feel different. More personal. More direct. And before he was a minute in, his voice broke.

What followed was one of the most searching and honest messages Pastor Matthew has delivered in his fifteen years as lead pastor - a challenge drawn from Luke 9:23 about what it actually means to follow Jesus.

Pastor Matthew opened by sharing four words that have been weighing on him for the past five or six years, words he said have been floating around his spirit through a season of growing burden: burden, fear, insecurity, and love.

The burden, he explained, is to communicate the truth of God's word in the clearest and most honest way possible. Not to pass on information. Not to make people feel good. But to speak in a way that leads people to genuine obedience.

The fear is harder to say. Pastor Matthew was careful about how he framed it, acknowledging that it could sound arrogant or judgmental coming from a pastor. But he said it plainly anyway. His fear is that many people - perhaps a majority of people - who come to church believing they are in a saving relationship with God may not be. He pointed to the words of Jesus himself, who described a broad path that leads to destruction and said that most people walk it without realizing where they are headed. He pointed to Matthew 25, where people stand before God in judgment shocked to discover that despite all their spiritual activity, God says to them: I never knew you.

The insecurity Pastor Matthew named was quieter but just as real. He said his fear as a pastor is that the congregation will grow tired of a voice that challenges them. And when they grow tired of that voice, they grow tired of the Holy Spirit's voice. He quoted the recurring scriptural warning: today, if you hear his voice, harden not your heart.

And underneath all of it, he said, is love. The kind of love that compels a pastor to keep saying the difficult thing.

With that foundation laid, Pastor Matthew opened Luke 9:23. Jesus is speaking to the large crowds that had been physically following him from town to town. They were drawn to him. They believed he was at minimum a prophet sent from God. They were in proximity to him. And yet Jesus stops and says something that cuts right through physical proximity to the deeper question.

If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

Pastor Matthew slowed down on every phrase. To deny yourself, he said, is not about giving up a few preferences or forgiving someone difficult. Jesus was not leaving that much room for interpretation. He followed it immediately with take up your cross - the imagery of an execution - making clear that what he is describing is a death to self that is total and complete. And then he added the word daily, acknowledging that this is not a one-time decision. It is a battle fought every single morning.

The final phrase is just as demanding. Jesus does not say come alongside me. He says follow me. Get behind me. I lead. You follow. Pastor Matthew was honest that even as he said it, something in him resisted it. Because every person has been shaped by a culture that celebrates autonomy, independence, and self-sufficiency. The idea of surrendering total control to anyone - even God - runs against everything that feels natural.

Pastor Matthew took time here to address the resistance directly. When people hear that God wants full dependence and full trust, the natural response is to wonder whether God is somehow threatened by independence, the way a controlling parent might be. He was clear: that is not what is happening. God is not insecure. God is not needy. The reason God calls his people to full dependence is because he is the only true source of wisdom, life, and power. He knows every person better than they know themselves. He loves every person more than they love themselves. And he has redemptive plans that go far beyond anything a person could map out on their own.

The control people think they have, Pastor Matthew said, is an illusion. Economies fall. Relationships end. Health changes. Everything that feels secure can be gone in a moment. What Jesus is offering is not a loss of freedom. It is an invitation to trust the one who actually holds all things.

He walked the congregation through biblical examples of this pattern. Abraham, called to father a nation at 75 years old, married to a woman who had never been able to have children. Moses, a murderer with a speech impediment, called to be God's mouthpiece before the most powerful man on earth. David, a shepherd boy called to be a king. None of it made sense by human logic. All of it revealed the power of a God who does not need human qualifications - only human trust.

This is where Pastor Matthew brought the message to its center. The cross, he said, is not just an event in history. It is an invitation. God looked down at a broken and rebellious humanity and chose to come to them. Jesus lived a perfect life, submitted fully to the Father's will even when it meant the cross, and died so that anyone who puts their faith in him might be saved.

But receiving that salvation, Pastor Matthew was careful to say, is not simply a matter of agreeing that Jesus died. It is belief so real and so deep that it leads to obedience. He pointed to 1 Corinthians 1:18, where Paul writes that the message of the cross is foolishness to those headed for destruction, but to those who are being saved it is the very power of God. The Greeks rejected it because it did not fit their logic. The Jews rejected it because it did not fit their expectations of a conquering Messiah. And people today, Pastor Matthew said, do the same thing - hearing the invitation of Jesus and walking away because it does not fit their goals, their comfort, or their sense of control.

Before closing, Pastor Matthew named three postures he has observed that fall dangerously short of what Jesus is calling people to.

The first is treating God as an influence. Taking his word into consideration alongside everything else - personal goals, desires, the opinions of others - and then making decisions that ultimately keep the person in control. God is consulted but not obeyed.

The second is using God as a reference point. Knowing the truth. Believing the truth. Even feeling convicted by the truth. But continuing to live in disobedience with the intention of getting around to obedience someday. Living close enough to the truth to feel okay, but not close enough to actually walk in it.

The third is the co-pilot method. Treating the relationship with Jesus as a partnership where a person remains the captain and Jesus is invited along for the ride. It feels collaborative. But if the person is still making the final call, they are still in control, not God.

All three, Pastor Matthew said, fall dramatically short of deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and follow me.

Pastor Matthew closed with four honest diagnostic questions, inviting the congregation to measure their own submission not by feeling but by practice.

Do you submit to the Holy Spirit's voice? When God nudges you toward something or checks you away from something, do you treat that as authority? Or do you push back until the voice grows quiet?

Do you submit to the word of God? When scripture reveals that something in your life falls short, is your response immediate obedience? Or does the word sit as a reference point while life continues unchanged?

Do you submit to the people around you? Drawing from Ephesians 5:21, Pastor Matthew asked whether the posture toward a spouse, children, co-workers, and strangers is one of service or one of constantly fighting for personal rights.

Do you submit to authority? Romans 13 says all authority has been established by God. Hebrews 13 calls believers to obey their leaders. How a person treats their boss, their elected officials, and their spiritual leadership reveals something real about their relationship with God.

The sermon ended with an altar call. Pastor Matthew asked the congregation to come forward - not for an emotional moment, but for a spiritual one. To confess where there has been rebellion. To receive grace. And to leave walking in the obedience that full surrender to Jesus makes possible.

The Tree Church is a community of people committed to following Jesus together, with two campuses in central Ohio. If you are searching for a church in Lancaster, Ohio, we would love to have you join us any Sunday at 9:00 AM or 11:00 AM at our Lancaster Campus.

We also have a home for you at our Logan campus. Sunday services in Logan run at 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM at our Logan location. If you are looking for a church in Logan, Ohio, come as you are - you are welcome here.