This call to worship1 is about the true beginning of the human story.
We often begin the story with ourselves—with our sin, our need, our search for purpose, our attempts to reach God—and then treat Jesus as the answer to the sin problem we created.
But the gospel begins farther back.
Before there was sin, before there was humanity, before there was creation itself, there was the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the fullness of eternal communion and love. And from within that love, God freely purposed a creation made through Christ, for Christ, and for communion with himself in Christ.
That means our failures, though real, are not the deepest truth about us. Adam doesn’t define humanity—Jesus Christ does.
We were not created to earn God’s favor, manufacture our own identity, or live as autonomous individuals. We were created to receive our life from God and participate by the Spirit in the Son’s own communion with the Father.
When we worship, we’re not exerting religious effort to climb back toward God. Worship is our joyful awakening to the God who has already come to us in Christ, who has already gathered us into his life by the Spirit, and has even taken our faltering prayers and singing and whatever response it is we’re generating into Christ’s own perfect response to the Father.
We don’t begin with what we must do for God, but with who God eternally is, what he has purposed for us in Christ, and the astonishing invitation simply to live, together, inside that reality.
Themes
Trinity • Creation • Christ’s primacy • Participation in God • Grace • Eternal divine love • Defined by Christ • Vicarious mediation • Belonging • Identity • Communion • Worship • Freedom • Isolation
Jesus is not a long footnote to our rebellion.
Scripture reading
Genesis 1:26–27 Ephesians 1:3–5 Colossians 1:15–17
This call to worship reminds us that our story doesn’t begin with our failure or with what we need to do for God. It begins with who God has always been—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—and with the love that was already turned toward us before we ever knew to turn toward him.
In the opening chapter of Genesis we read: Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness.” So God created humankind in his image; in the image of God he created them. In the New Testament, we read: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will. Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created. All things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Prayer
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, before there was all of this— before sin, before any of us, before creation— there was Your life and Your love. Love wasn’t something that started when You created us. Your love is who You have eternally been. You, Father, have never been without the Son. And You have always loved Him. There wasn’t a deficiency in You that led to creation. You did not create us because You were lonely. All of this came into being when You were already infinitely alive, infinitely personal, and infinitely rich in communion. It was out of Your goodness that You created us, so that we might know You, so that we might belong to You, so that we might share in the life and love that comes from You. We weren’t created to be a workforce for a cosmic employer. We didn’t come into existence to be defendants before a cosmic judge. We were created for communion with You. Creation isn’t a collection of things You happen to have made. All things have been created for Him! You willed all of this into existence because You freely willed, from before creation, to have us participate in Your very own life through Your Son, Jesus Christ. Father, thank You! Before we ever sought You, You were already turned toward us in love. Before any of our failures or fears came into existence, before all the things we try to define ourselves by, Your purpose for us was already set in Jesus Christ before the foundation of this world was ever laid. Our failures are real, yes, but they are not ultimate. It isn’t our sin that tells us the deepest truth about ourselves. Jesus Christ does. Lord Jesus, You are not an afterthought in our story. You’re not merely the Father’s response to Adam’s failure. You’re not a long footnote to our rebellion. You’re not Plan B. All of creation is, first of all, through You. All of creation is, first of all, for You. All of creation is, first of all, held together by You. You are not one more item in some large theological system. You are the single concrete reality where we learn who God truly is and where we learn what we are intended to be. You are the place where God comes to us. And You are place where we are brought to God. You mediate God's love to us. And You mediate our perfect responsive human love back to the Father. Holy Spirit, open our hearts this morning. Free us from all the anxious beliefs we have that tell us that some part of all this is up to us; that we must earn our place with God. Free us from that isolation that tells us we belong only to ourselves. Help us to know that our identity isn’t from others. Help us to know that it’s also not self-constricted. Bring us into that participation with the Father that we have been made for— that real communion with the Father through the Son. And then brings us closer toward each other. We’ve not here as spectators. We’ve not here as consumers. We’ve not here to run “church”. We’ve come this morning because You have called us together as Your people. We know, this morning, that our worship is received because it is taken by Jesus Christ and offered through Him. Turn our attention away from ourselves and toward the God who loved us before we ever knew how to love in return. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we belong to You. And with joy and thanksgiving, we worship You. Amen.
A call to worship given to the small assembly of Christians that gathered in Pathway Church, Beaverdam, Michigan, on August 16, 2026.