Freedom for tired people.
A call to worship.
This call to worship1 centers on the sacred paradox at the heart of the gospel. The God who is fullness itself, lacking nothing, has—by sheer delight—bound Himself to us in Jesus Christ. In this light, the restless ache that drives us toward lesser meanings is both exposed and, in Christ, tenderly undone.
This is grace. It is the living movement of God’s own heart toward us. Not a reaction, not a reward, not mere sentiment. It is the overflow of eternal love, the pulse of God’s covenant purpose breaking into our reality.
God’s love does not arise from our beauty, worth, usefulness, or even our brokenness. The honest truth, neither flattering nor crushing, is that we are tangled in disordered desires, captive to false dependencies, haunted by hidden griefs, restless in anxious striving. Yet the gaze of God does not turn away. He sees us as we are and, undeterred, draws near in mercy.
Christ is not an accessory to our sincerity. He is the feast for our hunger, the healer of our distortions, the restorer of our humanity, the anchor of our communion with God.
Worship begins when the soul turns from the exhausting project of trying to secure life from created things to the abundant, unshakable, healing reality of God’s love, given to us, for us, and in our place in Jesus Christ.
Themes
Grace • Communion with God • God’s love • The God who sees • Restlessness • Disordered desires • False security • Mercy • Christ’s healing • Wholeness • Rest • Fullness
Nothing in us compels God to love us. He simply loves us, unimaginatively so, from the freedom of His own being.
Scripture reading
Isaiah 55:1–3 Psalm 113:5–8 Matthew 11:28–30 1 Corinthians 1:27–30
God is not compelled by anything impressive, desirable, or useful in us. He loves us freely, simply because of his goodness. So perhaps we should stop looking to created things to save us and return instead to Jesus Christ, in whom our restless hearts, our brokenness, and our true life are made whole.
The prophet Isaiah wrote: Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to Me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to Me; hear, that your soul may live. The Psalmist wrote: Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, who looks far down on the heavens and the earth? He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes, with the princes of His people. Jesus said, Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light. Paul wrote: You are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God who has become for us our righteousness, who has become for us our sanctification, who has become for us redemption.
Prayer
Lord God, there are many things that draw us toward people. And You are not drawn to us by any of these things. You are not drawn to us by our beauty, our strength, or our success; not our sincerity, our usefulness, our spiritual intensity; not even our faithfulness, or our obedience, or devotion, or even our brokenness. You are gracious in Your very being, freely desiring communion with us. Nothing in us compels You to love us; You simply love us, unimaginatively so, from the freedom of Your own being. You are drawn to us by Your own love. And You have determined not to be God without us. And, in light of that unimaginable love, why are we restless? We confess any restlessness this morning. We attach our hopes to things that are small, and silly, and shortlived. We ask created things to save us, to fill us, to occupy us. We seek life in human approval. We seek security in things that can be taken away. We seek fullness in things that cannot satisfy us. And You, Father, You are the God who sees. You see us. Truly see us. You see what is hidden and what is displayed. You see our grief and our vanity, our longing and our rebellion, our exhaustion and our self-importance. You see our wounds, our evasions, and our false loves. You see the soul striving to be loved and the soul pretending it needs no love at all. And You still come near. Turn us from hungry striving to the abundance of Your grace. Free us from all our disordered desire. Teach us to seek in Christ what cannot be found anywhere but in Him. Lift our eyes from ourselves, from our wounds, from our comparisons, from our failed loves and anxious labors, and gather us into the awesome joy of Your presence. As we all meet together with You this morning, enable us to experience again Your mercy and Your love. Enable us to experience, Father, that Christ has not refused our brokenness, our distortions, but has taken them all up into Himself, healed them, bent them back; and we now share completely in His wholeness. Order our loves. Quiet our fears. Awaken our praise, now. And let Your living kindness draw us into the rest, the fullness, and the communion for which we were made and in Christ we have. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
A call to worship given to the small assembly of Christians that gather in Pathway Church, Beaverdam, Michigan, on Sunday, March 22, 2026