Themes
Calling • God’s promise • Provision • Obedience • Grace • Faith • Testing • Surrender • Possession • Sacrifice • Substitution • Compassion • Hope • Trust • Agency • Confidence in God’s faithfulness • Thanksgiving • Promise • The God who does what He wills
Purify our love of possessiveness; give us Isaac back as grace, not grasp.
Scripture reading
Genesis 22 Hebrews 11:17–19 Hebrews 6:13–18 John 1:29 Galatians 3:14
This call to worship1 is about God calling us or commanding something of us. And when he does, it doesn’t change anything he’s promised us. In fact, he provides all that is needed. And our obedience means we get to participate in His grace.
Of Abraham, we read this in Genesis: God tested Abraham. God said, “Abraham!” And Abraham said, “Here I am.” And God said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there… on one of the mountains that I shall show you.” And then later in the story, we read: The angel of the LORD called… “Do not lay your hand on the boy…” And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a ram… and Abraham went and took the ram and offered it instead of his son. And then the LORD declared, “By Myself I have sworn, because you have not withheld your son… I will surely bless you… and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” In the book of Hebrews, we read: By faith Abraham, when tested, offered up Isaac… He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead— from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. When God made a promise to Abraham, since He had no one greater by whom to swear, He swore by Himself… so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we… might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. In John’s gospel, we read what John the Baptist shouted when he saw Jesus: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” And the Apostle Paul wrote this: He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, with Him, graciously give us all things?
Prayer
Father of Abraham, Living Lord who calls us by our name, we haven’t come here this morning to ponder a principle by which to live by, or some idea, or even a truth, for that matter. We are here, instead, to answer Your voice. You are the One who speaks. You are the One who calls us. You are the One who commands something of us. And whatever that is, it doesn’t just arrive in the abstract, out of nowhere, as a blind test of our endurance or of our determination or even of some blind faith we are expected to conjure. Instead, Your voice, Your command, always arrives inside the promises You have already made to us. Your command comes to us after You have bound Yourself to us, and so it always arrives carrying with it Your provision for us. When You claim us, You provide for us. Re-situate us now in that understanding. We cling to, we own, we feel we possess so many things: our children, our bodies, our health, our time, our vocation, our homes, our reputations, our plans, our futures, our abilities, even Your promises. Move us from the possession of all our things to seeing everything as Your gift. Move us from grasping to gratitude. Move us from guarding what we think we must keep to receiving everything from Your hand. Purify our love of possessiveness; give us Isaac back as grace, not grasp. Re-shape our will, re-train our choices, re-tool our agency away from all of our self-making, away from how we feel in the moment, away from whatever mood we’re in. Re-tool it, instead, to be a responsive trust in You so that we rise up early, so that we shoulder the wood, so that we walk the hard road to the place You have yet to show us, so that we say again and again and again, “Here I am, Lord!” Form our worship by Your truth and mercy, not our likes and dislikes. Tune our speech and all of our expressions to Your grammar. We can’t force communion with You through our offerings. We can’t win our way to You. We can’t secure access to You by the things we sacrifice. We are, however, those who bear witness to Your once-for-all offering. We come by the way You have opened in Christ. We receive communion as Your gift. It is not performance; it is participation. It is not our gift that moves You, but Your gift —the Lamb You provide— that moves us— that moves us to thanksgiving and obedience. At the altar of Moriah, You stayed the knife; at the hill of Calvary, You did not spare Your own Son. Let this become the logic that shapes our thinking and forms our words. Let this be the posture that shapes our muscle and forms our actions. For You are the God that does whatever You will— and what You will is mercy. For You are the God who commands— and every command is carried by Your compassion. You are the God who supplies everything any command requires: You supply the goal, the way, the meaning, the means, the future. We are known by You. We are held by You. In Jesus, You have bound Yourself to be our God. And He is the promised Seed; and we belong to Him. And so we share Abraham’s blessing and calling. A blessing that comes from You, through Your Son, by Your Spirit— and You send that blessing out to others through us as His witnesses. This is the relationship we are in! So, by Your Spirit, settle us into this relationship— shape how we think and speak, how we love and act— so that we live from it and carry Your blessing to the world. Make our obedience the echo of Abraham’s “Here I am.” Make our confidence the certainty of Your sworn promise. Make our communion the fruit of Your provision alone. Through Jesus Christ, our High Priest and our Offering, the Provided Son in whom all Your promises to us are “Yes!” Amen.
1
This call to worship was given to the small assembly of Christians that gathered at Pathway Church, Beaverdam, Michigan, on Sunday, October 12, 2025.