Matthew 14:13-21 Pentecost 10
Pastor Ron Koehler
Grace-Tucson, AZ
August 2, 2026
CHRISTIANS TRUST GOD TO PROVIDE There is nothing like a new, not-yet-trained puppy to teach you that there are some things you cannot control. You’d swear they’re smiling as your flip-flop dangles from their mouth and they tear around the house, hiding behind a couch, then racing down the hall, ignoring your sweetest requests, your persistent pleading, your insistent command. This inability to control things is harder when it comes to people. You can’t change the kid at school who doesn’t like you for no good reason. You can’t force your parents to change their rules. You wish you could convince the other person in the relationship to not do and say hurtful things…to work on the relationship…to not leave. You want your child to come back to their Savior, but you can’t make them. You can’t change the diagnosis or the elimination of your job or tax laws or the death of someone you loved. There are just a lot of things that we discover we can’t control. This not being able to control things throws a lot of people and leaves them feeling afraid or hopeless. I hope you don’t feel that way when these things hit. You don’t have to. Even though Christians struggle along with everyone else, we do it a little differently. We have the comfort and assurance that God is there for us, and we trust him to provide for us even when things seem out of control and there is no solution in sight. We Bring Our Seemingly Impossible Problems to Jesus You know that Jesus went through this kind of stuff too, right? Although there are a bunch of dogs mentioned in the Bible, I don’t recall Jesus trying to control a puppy, but there were many people who hated him and bullied him. He felt the hurt of damaged relationships—like when Peter denied knowing him. He knew the pain of someone walking out of his life—Judas. He had a diagnosis written down by the prophets. It said that he would carry the weight of all people’s sins in his body and soul and that it would result in death—and the stress of that led him to plead with his Father for it to go another way. And he felt the gut-punch that came with the news of a friend’s tragic death. Jesus had just heard that John the Baptist had been executed. Killed for doing God’s work. His head placed on a party platter. Clearly a horrific act all by itself, and not terrible simply because he was a preacher or that he was a relative of Jesus. John was the one called to prepare people to see Jesus as the Savior, and he faithfully did that. Can you understand why Jesus wanted to be alone with his disciples? To quiet all the noise. To grieve. To rest. To pray to his Father. The boat he got in was to distance himself from all the commotion. But thousands of people had run along the shore to the other side of the lake where he would land—5,000 men PLUS women and children!