There is no you to find.
A call to worship.
This call to worship1 is about the place where God meets us. He meets us in the middle of all our disorder, not outside it or above it. He’s not waiting for us to climb out. He’s in it with us, as the Father who sees, the Son who assumes and heals, and the Spirit who draws us into communion.
When we come to worship, we’re not coming as spiritually competent selves looking for a little inspiration. We’re coming as tangled, unfit, self-protective creatures. And while that is true, it is also true that our true humanity—who we really are, what we really are—is all wrapped up and received by the Father perfectly in Christ.
Whatever our chaotic reality is, His grace is far more real than that. Salvation isn’t God helping us secure the selves we are trying to find or build, but God judging, healing, and recreating us from within through the humanity of Jesus, which was perfectly lived in our stead.
Our God is the God who speaks, searches, sees suffering, comes down to rescue, shepherds by self-giving, and binds all things together in the inseparable love of Christ. He calls us out of all our anxious possession, away from all our false lordships, out of all our introspective self-repair, and into the Son’s own communion with the Father in the Spirit.
Themes
Communion • Tangles lives • God’s redemption presence • Mercy • Grace • God’s faithful promise • Our fragile selves • False lordship • Freedom • The True Shepherd • True humanity • The reordering Word
There is no place too tangled or too complex or too wrong for God’s mercy to already be in it and at work.
Scripture reading
Genesis 31:3 Psalm 139:1 Exodus 3:7–8 John 10:11-15
This call to worship is an invitation to come before the living God honestly, without pretending our lives are cleaner or more together than they are. It reminds us that God does not stay far above our confusion and brokenness, but comes near in Jesus Christ to find us, heal us, and draw us into communion with Himself.
God spoke these words to Jacob: Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you. David penned these words in a song he wrote: You have searched me, Lord, and You know me. In the book of Exodus, we read these words that the Lord spoke: I have indeed seen the misery of My people… I have heard them crying out… and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them… John recorded these word of Jesus in his gospel: I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep… I know My sheep and My sheep know Me— just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father. And the Apostle Paul wrote these words to the Romans: And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all— how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? 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. For I am convinced that 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.
Prayer
Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, You are the Living God Who speaks, and Who acts, and Who judges, and Who saves. You are the Living Lord Who gives Himself to be known. And so we’ve come here this morning, not for religious atmosphere or emotional support or inspiration. We’re here seeking You. We’re expecting You— the Living God. You are not hovering above our tangled lives, our broken stories, our disordered loves. You’ve entered them. You’ve redeemed us from within them. All the stuff that is hidden from others isn’t hidden from You: our fears, our fatigue, our resentment, our manipulation, our wounds. There is no place too tangled or too complex or too wrong for Your mercy to already be in it and at work. Lord God, we’re here, and it is not because we’re all cleaned up or that we’ve mastered our own hearts and we’re spiritually competent. We’re here because we need Your grace to find us, and heal us. We haven’t made ourselves fit to be here. Jesus has taken our unfitness into Himself and made it His own burden, and that’s why we’re here. That’s why we have communion with You. Now as we sing and pray and study scripture together, teach us again that Your faithfulness goes way deeper than our disorder. Teach us again that Your promises aren’t fragile. Your promises don’t depend on the stability of our emotions, or the clarity of our motives, or the success of our strategies. You have bound yourself to us way more deeply than we are bound to all our own crap. Your grace is way more real than whatever chaos we’re in. So set us free this morning from every false lordship in our lives— from everything that we call “Mine!” My career. My future. My plans. My house project. My story. All the things we fiercely protect. For all things belong to You, Father, through the Son in the Spirit. Draw us into all the freedom that is just right there for us in Your promise. Help us to hear You this morning. And when we do, help us to repent from whatever it is we want to then tell ourselves about it. We’re not free because we’re becoming more self-grounded or more financially secure, or more educated, or more professionally experienced. We are free because we are participating in the Son’s own communion with You, Father. You haven’t liberated us into emptiness. You have liberated us into communion. So, turn our eyes away from introspection and turn them to Jesus Christ, the faithful Son, the true Shepherd, the One who does not manipulate us, but gives Himself for us. In Him, gather our scattered lives. In Him, judge and heal what is crooked in us. In Him, lead us from all our bondage and into communion with You. In Christ, You haven’t come to help us find whatever self we’re searching for or making. You’ve come to put it to death and raise us into true humanity. Come, Lord, and speak to us. Don’t give us information. We want to hear the Word that creates, and exposes, and reconciles, and commands, and sends, and comforts, and reorders our realities. We worship You in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
A call to worship given to the small assembly of Christians that gather in Pathway Church, Beaverdam, Michigan, on Sunday, May 3, 2026