Satisfied in God // The Gospel of John // Abigail Dundore

This week, Abigail Dundore brings a message from John 5 and 6 titled "Satisfied in God." Drawing from three back-to-back scenes in the Gospel of John, Abigail traces a pathway through the strongholds that keep us from fully alive desire for Jesus — and shows how his presence is the answer to every one of them.

The sermon moves through three scenes and three strongholds. First, cynicism: the man at the pool of Bethesda who has been sick for 38 years and can no longer even answer a question about desire. Jesus moves toward him anyway, awakens his longing, and takes care of him in a way he never could have imagined. Second, scarcity: the feeding of the 5,000, where Philip and Andrew are doing the math on what they don't have while Jesus is quietly setting up a completely different story — one of abundance, leftovers, and to-go boxes. Third, striving: the disciples rowing alone across the sea in the dark, paddling directionlessly in the face of chaos, until Jesus steps into the boat and they are instantly at the shore they were made for.

In each scene, Abigail makes clear that the solution is never a new strategy or a change in behavior — it is the presence of Jesus. He is the one who finds us in our disappointment, who writes abundance over our scarcity, who steps into the storm and becomes the destination we didn't know we were looking for. As Augustine put it, our hearts are restless until they rest in him.

Ultimately, this is an invitation to arrive where Peter arrived — at the place of being able to say, with full conviction, Lord, to whom else would we go? You have the words of eternal life. Not as a theological statement, but as the lived reality of a heart that has been freed from cynicism, scarcity, and striving, and found its satisfaction in Jesus alone.