Jesus is gentle and lowly.
A call to worship.
Themes
The heart of Jesus • Lowly gentleness • Tender kindness • Burdens • Rest • The aroma of heaven • The yoke of Jesus
His heart of gentle embrace will never be outmatched by our sins or our failures or our insecurities or our doubts or our anxieties.
Scripture reading
Matthew 11: 28–30
This call to worship1 is about the heart of Jesus. There’s one place in all the Gospels where Jesus tells us about His own heart—where He tells us what is at the center of who He truly is, what defines and directs Him, what makes Him the human being that He is, who He is at His core.
His disciple Matthew recorded that He says this of Himself:
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.
Prayer
Loving, compassionate, forgiving, sovereign Father in heaven, the heart of Your son is not austere and demanding. It’s not exalted and dignified or even joyful and generous. Instead, at the deepest parts of His being, He is gentle and lowly. He is meek. He’s humble. He’s gentle. He is the most understanding person in all of the universe. His most basic disposition is not a pointed finger, but open arms. He is lowly, and humble. He is accessible. For all His resplendent glory and dazzling holiness, for all His supreme uniqueness and otherness, no one in all of history has ever been nor will ever be more approachable than Him. And this morning, here in this little building amongst fields of corn, we don’t need to unburden ourselves — we don’t need to first collect ourselves — and then come to Him. Our burdens are what qualify us to come. Father, we do seek rest today. And He says, “I will give you rest.” He is tender. He is open. He is welcoming. He is understanding. He is willing. He is gentle and lowly. His heart of gentle embrace will never be outmatched by our sins or our failures or our insecurities or our doubts or our anxieties. Lowly gentleness is not one way among many possible ways He occasionally is toward us. No! Gentleness is who He is. He will forever astound us and sustain us with His endless kindness. Father, help us this morning to walk more deeper into His tender kindness, so that we can then live from it — so that we live the way that You have called us to live. So that we leave in our own wakes, everywhere we go, the aroma of heaven. So that we startle those around us with glimpses of Your divine kindness. Help us, Father, to put on His yoke and to carry His burden, because His yoke is kind and His burden is light. Whatever yokes and burdens we have, they’re not that. Help us to experience again this morning His endless gentleness and supremely accessible lowliness. In the name of Jesus, who has been highly exalted, at whose name every knee will one day bow, whose eyes are like a flame of fire, whose voice is like the roar of many waters, whose face is like the sun shining in full strength… and yet whose deepest heart, more than anything else, is gentle and lowly, Amen
Inspiring resources
A call to worship creates wonderment, amazement, curiosity, yearning, captivation, provocation, hopefulness, thankfulness, affection, rapture, delight. As these mix together, the response is worship.
If this call to worship leaves you wondering or curious or provoked or hopeful, consider diving into this awesome book by Dane Ortlund, who wrote many of the things in this call to worship.
This call to worship was given to the small assembly of Christians that gathered in Pathway Church, Beaverdam, Michigan, on Sunday, July 24, 2022