Sunday Setup – Matthew 9:18-26

Hey, Cross Church family and welcome to with the Sunday setup. This our time each week where we gather digitally together, pray through a piece of God's word that we'll be studying this weekend to prepare our hearts for to hear this word, to praise through it, to preach through it so we can practice it next week. Today, we are continuing on in our series through the book of Matthew looking at the miracles of Jesus. And we're going to be in Matthew chapter 9 starting in verse 18. And we're going to read this story. And we're actually over the next two weeks, we're going to kind of pick apart uh this whole passage of 18- 26. But I'm going to skip a few verses that we'll cover the following week. But I want you to just follow along with me as we read in Matthew chapter 9, starting in verse 18. It says this. As he being Jesus was telling them these things, suddenly one of the leaders came and knelt down before him, saying, "My daughter just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live." So Jesus and his disciples, they got up and they followed him just then. Uh skip down actually to verse 23 because this is this just then is the interrupter story that we'll look at the following week. But I want us to skip verse 23 where he comes back in the story uh with this man whose name is Jarius. We'll find out that we see from the other gospel accounts. But in verse 23 it says when Jesus came to the leader's house he saw the flute players and a crowd lamenting loudly. Leave," he said, "because the girl is not dead, but asleep." And they laughed at him. After the crowd had been put outside, he Jesus went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. Then news of this spread throughout that whole area. Here's what we see in the story is that a man desperately comes to Jesus. He asks him that his daughter has passed away, has died, and he says, "Come heal her, bring her back to life." And Jesus goes and he does exactly that. And and in this whole passage, there's a lot going on here that we'll explore more in depth this Sunday of the skeptics and those who kind of resisted this. But I think as we prepare for it, a few things that we can see that I think we just need to spend some time praying through is first in verse 18. It says, "Come lay your hand on her and she will live." Just think about the power that God possesses and what Jesus could do with just his hand. We've seen what he can do with his words. And I think here's our first prayer prompt. This prompt of worship is Jesus your hand can a little different prayer prompt, but just think about that for a second. Is Jesus your hand can heal people? Your hand can create things. Jesus, your hand can change someone's life. Your hand can bring restoration. What can the hands of Jesus do? The God of the universe who has all power. Just take a minute praying through that. Jesus, your hand can Heat. Heat. Jesus, your hand can heal as we see in this story. Jesus, your hand can create as we see throughout scripture. You took a rib of Adam and created Eve from it. But Lord, your hand can also steady. It can steady our anxiety, steady our stress, steady the emotions that we have because you are God and you are all powerful. And Lord, just that we remember that that we can have the same faith as this leader Jarius to say, "Hey God, Jesus, come and lay your hand on our life and see how it changes." But it doesn't stop there. As we go through the story, we see this miracle. Verse 26, I love how this passage ends. And we actually will see some other accounts that Jesus says don't say anything. Don't say anything. Don't say anything. He doesn't say that in Matthew. We don't get him recorded saying that. But in verse 26, despite him saying don't say anything, it says then news of this spread throughout that whole area. And when Jesus does something miraculous in our life, that should be news that we spread throughout. When Jesus saves us, when he changes us, when he reshapes our family, when he changes us personally and we have this level of discipline we didn't before, when Jesus intervenes, when the hand of God comes upon us, that news should spread. So here's our pro prayer prompt and this is for you personally just to pray. This is let me spread the news of Jesus too. Let me spread the news of Jesus too. To who? Who is it that you are spreading this news throughout the land to? That you're telling of how you coming to church has changed the life of your family? Of how you reading your Bible has shaped your thinking. Let me spread the news of Jesus too. Pray that in your time. Heat. Heat. Let us spread the news of Jesus to those around us. God, you know these names we're praying for. God, you know what they're going through in their situation. Lord, let us just be faithful here at Cross Church uh to take this news out to the world around us, to tell people how you've impacted us. God, we've seen people make professions of faith recently. We've seen baptisms happening. We're we're having more conversations of how you continually moving in the lives of people, having baptisms coming soon. And all this is to spread the news of what you have done. That your hand has touched the lives of real people in 2026 and surprise Arizona and beyond. And God, that we can just be instruments that we can just be faithful to the world in the land that you have in front of us. God, thank you for this time, Lord. Thank you for this passage. Prepare our hearts as we gather together to hear it as a church family. And Lord, we then take it out to spread the news to the world around us. God, I just thank you again for this time. Lift all this up in the healing name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Hey, thank you guys for joining us today. We'll see you this Sunday as we dive in to the miracles of Jesus. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.