Sermons from St. Paul UMC

Bread of the Wilderness

Matthew 14:13-21 (NRSVue)

Five thousand hungry people, a deserted place, and a handful of disciples holding five loaves and two fish. They looked at what was in their hands and said, “We have nothing.” But they weren’t holding nothing. They were standing in front of the Son of God and doing math anyway.
We do the same thing. We look at our time, our resources, our energy, and decide it isn’t enough to matter. But we aren’t the ones who get to decide that.
In the first message of our five-week series through Matthew 14-16, Pastor Dylan Ward looks at the only miracle recorded in all four Gospels and asks what happens when what we call “nothing” ends up in the hands of Jesus. He doesn’t need our five loaves. He wants our hands.

Preached by Rev. Dylan Ward | August 2, 2026