God Satisfies All Matthew 14:13–21; Isaiah 55:1–5; Romans 9:1–5 

Grace, mercy, and peace be with you, from God, our Father, and our Lord, Jesus Christ, who satisfies the heart and soul.

Today we’re going to talk about how God satisfies all. All in the sense of all people, and all in the sense of in everyway.

This comes from our Gospel, Matthew’s account of the miraculous feeding of the 5000: And they all ate and were satisfied.

5000 hungry men, plus women and children, 5000 hungry households were fed from 5 loaves of bread and two little fish. 

Jesus showed His power to provide, and in abundance.

Some of Jesus’ miracles provided for people’s physical needs, like feeding the hungry, and healing the sick. But they all provided for the soul, because they all showed who Jesus is, the almighty, all-gracious Son of God, who has the ability to help people with their greatest needs; and the power save them from their greatest enemies, sin, death, the devil, hate, judgment, condemnation, Hell, the hostile world, and all that oppose God and would harm His Creation, especially His Church, His people. 

Since that evil resides within us, Jesus ultimately saves us from ourselves. It’s really my own sin that would destroy me, and so it’s me that I need to be saved from.

In all His miracles, Jesus shows that He’s powerful to save us from all that would harm us, even ourselves. Most of all, He shows that He is powerful to save in that greatest of miracles when He rose from the grave.

And someday He’ll show whole world His saving power when he comes in glory and raises all the dead. Those who lived and died in Him will rise to live in glory; and those who didn’t will rise and face the eternal outcome of not having lived in Christ, who could have saved them, and so much wanted to. This is why God calls all to live in His Son. 

In our Old Testament He invites all to come to Him: Come everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, the Gospel.

Last year water was something we had a lot of; this year it’s a little drier. But nothing compared to some places in the world, like the great deserts, the Sahara, of north Africa; or the Atacama, of South America, or the Gobi desert of Asia.

Wherever you live, you need water to survive. In the same way, wherever you live, you need God. 

Wherever you live, your heart needs love. You need kindness. You need forgiveness. You need hope. You need something to believe in. These are basic human needs.

When you put them all together, they show that we all need God, and each other. Because that’s how God made us. He made us for Him, and for each other.

Without God, without His creation, without each other, we’re lacking. We may be surviving, but we’re not thriving.

Without God in your life, there will always be something missing.

We can try to do things to fill that “God shaped hole”, if you will, in your heart and your life, but they never really work.

Only God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, can satisfy all. 

Any understanding of God that is less than Triune, leaves a spiritual void in your life and your soul.

That’s why all belief systems, other than the Gospel, have this never ending drive, this constant requirement to try to be good enough to earn God’s love and favor. 

Being a little good, earns a little love. Being pretty good, earns quite a bit of love. Being very good earns a lot of love. Being completely good, earns God’s complete and perfect love.

The problem is, other than Jesus, no one is completely, perfectly, good. So, according to all the work’s righteous religions of the world, God is always withholding some of His love from you.  

Faith in a God like that will never fully satisfy you, because He never fully loves you on account of your sin.

Thanks be to God, that’s not how He is. He does fully love you. He shows that in the Gospel. 

The one true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, does not base His love for you on your character, but on His character; not on your deeds, but on His deeds.

His deeds are holy, with no selfishness whatsoever mixed in; unlike our deeds, that have good and bad mixed together.

God showed his holy, unconditional love by sending His Son to die, not just for some people, not just for good or above average people, but for all people, even those who don’t love him. 

He died for them that they, too, might repent and believe and receive His perfect, holy love; that they might come to the waters, and drink; that they might come to the Gospel, and hear, and believe, and be fulfilled with God’s complete and unconditional love; His mercy that can satisfy us all in every way.

As David confessed in the beloved Psalm, 23, The Lord is my Shepherd, therefore I shall not want. He cares for me in every way; He satisfies all.

We can go through life always wanting more, or we can go through life truly having more. As we said in our message last week, when we have Jesus in our life, then we have the pearl of great worth, the world’s greatest treasure, and we are rich beyond earthly imagination.

In our Epistle Paul expresses his love and concern for his kinsmen, the Israelites, that they would repent of their stubbornness and believe and receive God’s perfect love and blessings.

He pleaded with them that they would give up the futile practice of trying to earn God’s love and salvation through the law, and instead, believe in Christ and embrace it in the Gospel. And then be blessed by the Holy Spirit; fulfilled and satisfied with God’s good gifts.

This is where satisfaction is found: in the work and the blessing of our Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, satisfies all!

When we’re unfulfilled and unsatisfied, that becomes our pressing need; and our goal is to try to find fulfillment. But when we’re fulfilled, we’re equipped to help others, and less driven to try to fulfill and gratify ourselves. God provides that fulfillment.

When we find our fulfillment in the perfect love and blessings of Christ, it helps us to be less selfish and self-driven, and it makes us more capable of watching out for others.

When we are fulfilled by the Gospel, then the energy and time and resources that are spent in vain, trying to find inner peace and satisfaction in worldly things, can instead be directed toward serving God and helping others.

We still need to take care of ourselves, physically and emotionally and relationally and spiritually. Helping others doesn’t mean we entirely ignore our own needs. We saw in our Gospel today that Jesus had withdrawn from the people to spend some time alone, tending to Himself. We need to take care of ourselves in every way.

But when we let God, through His Word and Sacraments, fill us with the fruit of His Spirit, love, joy, peace and many more blessings, then we find that good balance between taking care of ourselves, and taking care of others.

As we find that balance, God is glorified, we are fulfilled, and others are helped.

May God, who is powerful and loving to satisfy all, bless you with His complete and perfect love. And may His peace, which passes understanding, satisfy your soul, and guard your heart and mind, in Christ Jesus, our Lord, who cares and provides for us in every way. Amen.