We are friends of God.
A call to worship.
Themes
Calling • Promise • Oath • Hope • Sacrifice • Resurrection • Friendship with God • Command to love. • Righteousness by faith • Heirs of Abraham • Sonship • Intercession • Obedience • Peace • Mediation • God’s initiative • Testimony • Mission • Hospitality • Courage • Generosity • Facing loss • Resurrection life • Belonging • Being known
Make our lives a doorway through which Your mercy can walk into someone else’s world.
Scripture reading
Genesis 22 Hebrews 6:11–20, 11:12–19 Galatians 3 James 2:23 John 15:13–15
This call to worship1 names what we forget: God has already moved toward us. It invites us to answer, “Here I am,” and to live like people held by promise, not driven by panic—friends of God who become a front porch of mercy for others.
The writer of the Book of Hebrews wrote this: Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts, to make certain that what you hope for will come true. Follow the example of those who, because of their faith and endurance, have inherited God’s promises For example, there was God’s promise to Abraham… …and he received what God had promised. God bound himself with an oath, so that those who received the promise could be perfectly sure that He would never change His mind. And this hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. A whole nation came from this one man, Abraham, who was as good as dead— a nation with so many people that, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore, there is no way to count them. It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice. Abraham, who had received God’s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, even though God had told him, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.” Abraham reasoned that God was able to bring him back to life. And in a sense, Abraham did receive his son back from the dead. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians to help them see that these same promises reach us and move through us. He wrote: Does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey…? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ. In the same way, “Abraham believed God, and because of his faith, God counted him as righteous.” The real children of Abraham, then, are those who put their faith in God. God proclaimed this good news to Abraham long ago when He said, “All nations will be blessed through you.” So all who put their faith in Christ share the same blessing Abraham received because of his faith. Through Christ Jesus, God has blessed us with the same blessing He promised to Abraham, so that we who are believers might receive the promised Holy Spirit through faith. You are Abraham’s heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you. In the book of James we read: It happened just as the Scriptures say: “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” He was even called the friend of God. And finally, John records these words that Jesus spoke: “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are My friends if you do what I command… This is My command: Love each other.”
Prayer
Father in heaven, You haven’t left us with theological principles to ponder or doctrines to debate or spiritual hacks or inspirational quotes or performance targets or best practices— You called us by name. You have asked something of us. You have given us Your command. And Your command is always inside of Your promise to us— Your promise to be our God, Your promise to give Yourself to us, Your promise to bless others through us, Your promise of unshakeable hope and a future that is secure. Remind us that our confidence is not in the strength of our grip, but in the solidity of Your oath-bound purpose for us in Jesus Christ. When we hear Your call, remind us that we are moving inside promises You have already secured; we are not moving toward a future we must secure. You provide to us what You ask of us. And You give back to us what we fear to lose. There is always hope beyond the brink: because You are the God who gives, You are the God who gives back— sometimes literally, sometimes in new forms, but always redemptively, and ultimately in resurrection. So enable us, then, to parent without panic, to work without grasping, to give without fear, and to face loss with hope. And enable us to see it all in Jesus: the Son given for us, raised for us— proof that Your gifts don’t end in our hands; they live in Yours. Turn all the private moments where You rescue us into public places with names like: “The LORD will provide.” Turn all our “God did something for me!” into “Come and see what God has done!” Help us name Your provisions aloud, so others can remember them and live from them. Make our life a doorway where Your mercy can walk into someone else’s world. Take us out of our bunkers. Place us on Your front porch. Widen the promises You’ve made to us to include those around us— our families, our brothers and sisters here, our places of work, even entire nations. Draw us into a communion where we begin to sound like this: “Here I am”— where our expressions echo Your very own beloved Son. And confirm to us that we are Your friends. Friendship with You, God! Not a ladder to climb. Not a treadmill of religion to run. Not a wall of worthiness to scale. Not dues we have to pay to buy our way in. Not a system we have to work. Not gold stars we collect. Not a script we follow. Not a spiritual brand we have to curate. Just friendship— friendship with You, Father. Teach us to simply answer, “Here I am” and to then step into all Your grace. On the days we’re empty, let the faithfulness of Christ carry us, let His righteousness clothe us, let His sonship claim us, let His intercession speak for us, let His obedience steady our steps, let His peace guard our hearts, let His resurrection be our life, and Your Spirit be our strength— so that Your compassion flows through us, and Your mission becomes all that we do. In Jesus, You have bound Yourself to be our God. We are known and we are held by You. We have gathered here to be sent. We are loved here, so that we can love. We are blessed here, so others can be. Lift our eyes— from the spared son to the Son not spared, from our offerings to Your Lamb, from our fears to Your oath and Your promises. In the name of Jesus Christ, the Provided Son, the Lamb of God, our Friend and our High Priest. Amen.
1
This call to worship was given to the small assembly of Christians that gathered in Pathway Church, Beaverdam, Michigan, on Sunday, October 19, 2025.