What does it mean to truly be satisfied? Are we seeking fulfillment in the right places, or are we missing the abundance Jesus offers? Join us as we explore the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 and uncover the deeper hunger that only Christ can satisfy. Let's dive in together!
Prayer Prompts
Use these prompts to guide your prayer time as we prepare our hearts for Sunday.
We thank you, Jesus, for your deep compassion that reaches into our lives, reminding us that we are never alone in our struggles. Help us to recognize your love and grace in our daily lives as we seek to reflect that same compassion to those around us, especially to our families, friends, and community.
Lord, we ask that you satisfy our souls despite the distractions and emptiness we often chase in this world. Teach us to find our true fulfillment in you alone, and help us to share this abundance of love and grace with others who are searching for true satisfaction.
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>> Hey Cross Church family and welcome to
the Sunday setup. This is our time each
week where we digitally gather together
Thursdays at 2:00 to pray through our
piece of scripture that will be studying
this Sunday in order to get our hearts
ready for what God's word says, how we
are to receive it so we can put it into
practice [music] next week.
As we continue our series through the
miracles, we have two weeks left and
we're going to be in Matthew chapter 14
starting in verse 13 and this is a
miracle that's very well known.
Actually, a miracle that's covered in
all four Gospels, which is very rare
that we see here. But in Matthew chapter
14 starting in verse 13, [music] this
story, the feeding of the 5,000.
Let's read this 13 through 21 and have a
couple prayer prompts that come out of
this. And it starts this way.
When Jesus heard about it, he withdrew
from there by boat to a remote place to
be alone.
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>> When the crowds heard this, they
followed him on foot from the towns.
When he went ashore, he saw a large
crowd. [music]
He had compassion on them
and he healed their sick.
When evening came, the disciples
approached him and said, "This place is
deserted and it's already late. Send the
crowds away so that they can go into the
villages and buy food for themselves."
"They don't need to go away," Jesus told
them. "You give them something to eat."
"But we only have five loaves and two
fish here," they said to him. "Bring
them here to me," he said. Then he
commanded the crowds to sit down on the
grass. He took the five loaves and the
two fish,
and looking up to heaven, he blessed
them.
He broke the loaves, and he gave them to
the disciples, and the disciples gave
them to the crowds.
Everyone ate and was satisfied. They
picked up 12 baskets full of leftover
pieces. Now, those who ate were about
5,000 men, besides women and children.
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Here, as we read this story, this
miracle that maybe you are very familiar
with, where Jesus takes a little boy's
lunch and he multiplies it beyond what
math and science [music] and physics and
everything else can comprehend, truly a
miraculous event,
and he feeds this large crowd.
But in this, I love that the preamble to
this,
in verse 14, as this whole story set it
up, when Jesus looks at the crowd,
he had compassion on them.
And this is where I want us to start our
praying time through this piece of
scripture of who Jesus is, is a prayer
of thanksgiving, that we have a
compassionate God who loves us so much.
And this is our prompt is, Jesus,
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thank you that you have compassion for.
Jesus, thank you that you have
compassion [music]
for.
For my sin,
for my family, for my neighbors, for
whatever it is, Jesus, thank you that
you have compassion for.
Pray that to our God.
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>> Jesus, thank you that you have
compassion
for us,
for our church,
for our families, for our community.
Lord, we do not deserve your compassion.
We are just like the crowds in this
story.
Sometimes we follow you because of
selfish need. Sometimes we follow you
because we want to get closer to you,
but in all ways, we still fall short. We
sin, we fail, we make mistakes, but you
have compassion. You forgive, you heal,
and you make us new in you, and that is
only because of the love and compassion
that you [music] possess.
Lord, we thank you that you are
compassionate towards us.
But, the story does not end there.
When Jesus sees the compassion, he feeds
them.
And he feeds them to give them a
temporary need cuz they were hungry.
They need to be filled. But, there's
this line in here
where it says in verse 20 that everyone
ate
and was satisfied.
And what's crazy is they picked up 12
baskets full of leftover pieces. They
still had more after they were
satisfied. There was an abundance there.
And here kind of gets into the central
life of this story. Not only forecast
that they met their physical need, but
Jesus was forecasting the greater
satisfaction, the greater bread of life
that would come, that would not just
satisfy our physical hunger, but our
spiritual, our emotional, our mental,
and our uh
every hunger that we have in our life
that would be [music] satisfied by Jesus
and him alone.
So, here's our prayer prompt as we think
about how the Jesus has so much
compassion on us to love us, to seek us,
to come [music] after us, is often we
get distracted because we try to find
our satisfaction [music] in other
things.
And this prayer prompt, I just want you
to get personal with Christ and you to
reflect on Lord, satisfy me despite my
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>> Lord, satisfy me despite
maybe my work my work that just never
seems to fulfill, never seems to end,
but just keeps on wanting more and more
and more. Lord, satisfy me maybe despite
an addiction,
despite
anxiety, despite stress, is Lord,
satisfy me despite
Just pray this prompt of focusing our
satisfaction,
our fulfillment, our filling of our
lives on Christ and not the things of
our world. Jesus, satisfy me despite
Pray those to our God. [music]
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>> Lord, hear these prayers.
God, satisfy us despite
the worldly things that we often fill
our lives with that fill us up for a
minute
and then that emptiness comes.
God, satisfy us despite [music]
the negative emotions we have,
despite the addictions we have, despite
the sin that is our life, [music]
despite the yearning and the striving
that never ends that we have.
And Lord, ultimately, satisfy [music] us
despite the fact that too often
we don't find our true contentment, our
true fulfillment in you.
And Lord, let us this passage be a
reminder that only you are enough, only
you can fill us, and only you are the
God that we can share with the world
around us who is enough for us and for
everyone.
And God, we just thank you. We thank you
for this miracle that you provided
sustenance, you provided fish and bread,
but Lord, more than that, we thank you
that you are the bread of life and you
call us to be fishers of men.
And Lord, we thank you for this time.
Lord, prepare our hearts for this
weekend and we just lift all this up in
Jesus' name. Amen.
Hey, thank you for joining us today.
We'll see you this Sunday.
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>> Mhm.