Nothing Left.
A call to worship.
This call to worship1 is about God’s amazing mercy. When we come to worship, the starting point isn’t our own spiritual strength, emotional clarity, or capacity to pray It is the living, ascended ministry of Jesus Christ and the indwelling groan of the Holy Spirit within us.
The Father welcomes us. And it’s not because we’re perfect, articulate, or strong in faith. It’s because the Son has entered the depths of our forsakenness, carried our humanity into God’s own life, and now intercedes for us; and because the Spirit prays within us when we have no words left—when there’s only ache, silence, or breath.
We might think that our sorrow means that we’re at some distance from God, or that our unanswered prayers mean abandonment. But that would not be true. The heart of God isn’t expressed in any of that. It is expressed through the crucified, risen, ascended, and interceding Jesus Christ. We may come to worship empty, wounded, confused, and weak, but Jesus gathers us into his own worship. He is our prayer when we cannot pray, our faith when ours is weak, and our Amen before the Father.
John promises us the Advocate, Paul speaks of the Spirit’s groaning and Christ’s inseparable love, and Hebrews shows us Jesus as our caring High Priest. All of this is pointing to one clear truth: God is not waiting for us to find our way out of darkness. In Christ and through the Spirit, God comes to us, holds us before the Father, and will carry us safely home.
Themes
Christ’s intercession • Participatory worship • The faithfulness of Jesus • The Spirit’s groaning • Abba, Father • God’s nearness in suffering • Humanity carried into God • No condemnation • Unanswered prayer • Christ our Amen • Hope in darkness • Christ holds us
We want to know not just that God is good, but that He is good right here — in this grief, in this waiting, in this unanswered thing.
Scripture reading
John 14:16–20, 26 Galatians 4:6 Romans 8:23–26, 34–39 Hebrews 4:14–16 Hebrews 7:25–26
This call to worship is for anyone who comes to God feeling like their faith is weak, their prayers are silent, or their heart is too tired to sing. It reminds us that we are welcomed, not because we are strong enough, but because Jesus is already praying for us and the Spirit is already working in us.
Jesus siad: I will ask the Father, and He will give you an advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of Truth. He will live with you and will be in you. Jesus went on to say: Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things. The apostle Paul wrote: Because you are His sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” We groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, as we wait eagerly for the redemption of our bodies. The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. Christ Jesus who died— more than that, who was raised to life— is at the right hand of God and is interceding for us. So, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. The writer of the Book of Hebrews wrote: Since we have a Great High Priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Jesus lives to intercede for those who come to God through Him. Such a high priest truly meets our need
Prayer
Father, we’re here this morning with all that is in us. We’ve left nothing of ourselves behind. And we’re also here with all that is not in us right now. Things maybe like: spiritual strength, the sense of Your presence, even a desire to worship, even hope. We come with faith—we do— even if there is hardly any left, and we come with all the places in us where our faith has been worn thin— the places of waiting and disappointment, the places of unanswered prayer, the places where it sure does seem like You are absent . We come with songs, too, Lord, but… but also with silence, because there’s stuff happening that makes it hard for singing. We come with our prayers, and also with all the ache we feel when our prayers have turned to just… breathing. Lord, we confess that we long for a spoken word from You that we can actually hear, a sign that we can see, a promise from You that’s fitted exactly for what we’re carrying. We want to know not just that You are good, but that You are good right here — in this grief, in this waiting, in this unanswered thing. The truth is, You haven’t given us something less than the promise we long for. You have given us something more— something more and something else entirely. You have given us Your Son. You have not merely spoken from heaven. You have spoken to us in flesh and blood. You have not loved us from a distance, from somewhere out there beyond our suffering. You have come all the way down, and have gone all the way into our pain, and our troubles, and our loss. You have entered our weaknesses, our sorrow, our silences. You took our humanity as Your very own and You carried it into the very life of God. You have gone into the very places where we think we are alone. You have cried the cry of the abandoned: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” When we feel forsaken, we are not in a place You never were. When there is nothing but silence, we are not outside Your knowing and Your caring. When we have no more words to pray, we are not beyond the prayers prayed for us by Your very Son. There is no pit so deep that His cross has not gone deeper still. So receive us, then, not according to the strength of our faith, but according to the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. Receive us, then, not according to the clarity of our prayers, but according to His living intercession that is happening for us in this very moment. Receive us, then, not according to the steadiness of our hope, but according to His risen life. He is our prayer when we cannot pray. Christ is our trust when we cannot trust. He is our worship when we come empty. He is our Amen before You, Father. Open our eyes to Your Holy Spirit, to Your Comforter, who is in us, with us, alongside us. Whose groan in us is deeper than words. Who cries in us, “Abba, Father,” when our own voice fails. Who bears witness in us that we are Your children, held in Your Son, beloved by You, Father, not abandoned in the dark. Silence the accusing voice that tells us our sorrow is rejection. Silence the fear that unanswered prayer means we’re forgotten. Silence the lie that we are placed outside Your mercy. In Jesus Christ, You have spoken to us. There is now no condemnation. He has borne all our judgment. He has carried all our sin. He has taken the curse into Himself and broken its claim. So enable us to read Your heart through Your pierced and risen Son, because there we learn who You are. There we learn that You are not against us. There we learn that He has become our Brother, our Priest, our Advocate, our Life. And now, Father, in spite of our open wounds. in spite of our questions. in spite of the darkness. in spite of our emptiness, gather us into His worship. Enable us to participate in His praise. Receive us into His prayers. Uphold us in His faithfulness For Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ has ascended. Christ intercedes. Christ sends the Spirit. Christ holds us before the Father. So we worship You, Triune God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — the God who has come all the way down and who will carry us all the way home. Amen.
A call to worship given to the small assembly of Christians that gathered in Pathway Church, Beaverdam, Michigan, on May 17, 2026.