What happens when desperation meets divine intervention? Can the touch of Jesus truly transform our lives? Join us as we explore the miraculous healing in Matthew 9:18-26 and discover how we can spread the life-changing news of Jesus. Let's dive in together!
Prayer Prompts
Use these prompts to guide your prayer time as we prepare our hearts for Sunday.
We come before you, Lord, in awe of your power and the healing touch of your hand. Just as Jairus sought you in desperation, we ask that you lay your hand upon our lives, bringing healing, restoration, and peace to our hearts and homes. May we trust in your ability to transform our situations and grant us the faith to believe in your miracles.
As we reflect on the impact of your miraculous works in our lives, we pray for boldness to share the good news of Jesus with those around us. Help us to be faithful witnesses of your grace and love, spreading the stories of how you have changed us and our families, so that others may come to know you as we do.
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.