This call to worship1 is about coming home to the Father. Jesus did more than tell us what God is like. He did more than show us the way. Astonishingly, in His own person, as fully God with the Father and fully human with us, He brought God to humanity, and He carried humanity home into the Father’s embrace.
The face of Jesus Christ, therefore, is the place where all of our distorted images of God are judged and healed. It is His compassion that reveals the Father’s compassion. It is His welcome that unveils the welcome that has always existed in the heart of God.
That isn’t a wild theological metaphor. It is reality. Through the Holy Spirit, the communion the Son has with the Father becomes a real communion given to us to live inside of. And in that reality, the Spirit awakens within us the Son’s own cry, “Abba, Father” (something like the innocent, loving, free exclamation a child expresses to a loving daddy). We have moved from estrangement with God into belonging. We have moved from anxious striving for His affection into the freedom of children who discover that the Father’s incomprehensible grace has completely and fully and entirely preceded us.
And then, inside this reality, worship freely erupts. We gather as believers with other believers simply because Christ has opened the way, the Spirit has drawn us near, and the Father has already made room for us in His life. And there we learn to live from the home Jesus has brought us into.
Themes
Christ’s Mediation • Access to the Father • Divine self-revelation • Homecoming • Adoption • Participation in Christ • Grace • The Father revealed in Christ • Performance • Filial belonging • Awakening • Abba, Father • Assurance in Christ • Distorted images of God • Freedom • Anxious striving • Reality • Welcomed home • Union
Because He is truly God with God and truly human with us, He holds both sides of our relationship in Himself.
Scripture reading
John 14:6, 9 Luke 15:20 Galatians 4:4–7
This call to worship is an invitation to come home. Jesus didn’t merely come to save us from something. He came to bring us to Someone. He came to bring us home to the Father.
John recorded that Jesus said: I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father. In the parable of the prodigal son, Jesus said: While he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul wrote: When the fullness of time had come, God sent His Son… so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ So you are no longer a slave but a child.
Prayer
Father, we’re here this morning because Jesus has brought us to You. We’re not climbing toward You. We’re not manufacturing our own access. You have already moved toward us, and we already have access in Jesus Christ. Because He is truly God with You and truly human with us, He holds both sides of our relationship in Himself. He brings You to us, and he brings us home to You. We confess that we don’t always see You clearly. Sometimes we imagine that You’re distant, or reluctant, or disappointed with us. And so sometimes we live as if we have to earn Your welcome or prove we deserve to be here. It’s easy for us to construct pictures of You from our fears, from our experiences of authority, from our earthly fathers, from our failures, from our own guilty consciences. Turn our eyes from whatever that is, and turn them again to Jesus, Who is Your full, complete, and perfect self-revelation. He belongs eternally to Your very being and life. In His compassion, we see Your compassion. In His mercy, we see Your mercy. In His welcome, we see Your welcome. Thank You, Father, that Jesus not only came to forgive our sins but also to bring us home to You. Thank You for the fact that we don’t come to You as strangers. We don’t come as servants hoping to earn a place in Your house. In Christ, You have received us as Your children. By Your Holy Spirit, awaken that truth within us this morning. And teach our hearts to cry, “Abba, Father.” And those of us who are tired, give us rest. For those who are ashamed, let there be grace. For those who feel far away, give us the assurance that You have already come near to us — that You are already near to us — in Jesus Christ. And move our feelings into correspondence with that reality. Free us from all our anxious striving. Free us from the idea that so much depends on us. Free us from the fear that we must somehow make ourselves worthy of Your love. We are here because You have called us. We are here because Christ has opened the way. We are here because Your Spirit draws us into Your life and Your love. So receive our worship today— not as a payment, not as a performance, but as the grateful response of children who have been welcomed home. Father, through Your Son and in Your Spirit, we worship You. Amen.
A call to worship for the small assembly of Christians who gathered at Pathway Church in Beaverdam, Michigan, on August 30, 2026.