Randy Wray's Blog

(A Message from Matthew 14:13-21)

God who made us, who formed us in our SHAPE, created us to make a DIFFERENCE.

Ephesians 2:10 (NCV) God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us to do good works, which God planned in advance for us to live our lives doing.

In the Bible, we find a story of some volunteers faced with a situation of providing food for some hungry people.

Matthew 14:13-21 (NCV) When Jesus heard what had happened to John, he left in a boat and went to a lonely place by himself. But the crowds heard about it and followed him on foot from the towns.  When he arrived, he saw a great crowd waiting. He felt sorry for them and healed those who were sick.  When it was evening, his followers came to him and said, “No one lives in this place, and it is already late. Send the people away so they can go to the towns and buy food for themselves.”  But Jesus answered, “They don’t need to go away. You give them something to eat.”  They said to him, “But we have only five loaves of bread and two fish.”  Jesus said, “Bring the bread and the fish to me.” Then he told the people to sit down on the grass. He took the five loaves and the two fish and, looking to heaven, he thanked God for the food. Jesus divided the bread and gave it to his followers, who gave it to the people.  All the people ate and were satisfied. Then the followers filled twelve baskets with the leftover pieces of food.  There were about five thousand men there who ate, not counting women and children.

What we see in this story is a struggle (a common struggle in the task of making a difference).

• A struggle between SELF and SERVICE.

We see this in  . . . (v. 13-14) and we see this in . . . (v.15)

• A struggle between SUPPLY and SUPPLIES.

We see this in . . . (v.15-17)

• A struggle between HOARDING and HELPING.

We see this in . . . (v.18-20)

• In the struggle we see SUCCESS.

We see this in . . . (v.20-21)

I’m convinced of 2 things:

1. We are not a PERFECT church.
2. We CAN make a difference

It will happen if we PURSUE what God PLANNED for us to do.