Community UMC Sermon Devotionals

  Based on the sermon, Hungry? , found here -  https://kwssmithereens.blogspot.com/2026/08/hungry_0557857190.html How to Use This Study Each day walks through the same nine verses — the feeding of the five thousand — but pauses on a different moment in the story. Read the full passage first, even on days you've read it before; then sit with the reflection, and close in prayer. There is space at the end of each day to write your own thoughts. Day 1 — He Withdrew, Yet Was Moved Day 2 — What Do You Have? Day 3 — Bring It Here to Me Day 4 — Looking Up, Giving Thanks Day 5 — Broken and Given Day 6 — Twelve Baskets Left Over Day One He Withdrew, Yet Was Moved 13  Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat, to a deserted place apart. When the multitudes heard it, they followed him on foot from the cities. 14  Jesus went out, and he saw a great multitude. He had compassio...

   A Six-Day Devotional on Matthew 13:44–52 Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (public domain). These eight verses close out a long chapter of parables in Matthew.  Jesus has been teaching crowds about the kingdom of heaven — what it's like, how it grows, who receives it.  Now, almost in private with his disciples, he gathers it all into four short pictures: a buried treasure, a single pearl, a fishing net, and a household steward.  Over the next six days we'll sit with each one, letting them ask their questions of us.   Day 1 — Stumbling Into Treasure Read: Matthew 13:44 "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid. In his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field." Notice how it begins: the man wasn't looking.  He was simply working the field — an ordinary day, ordinary labor — when his shovel struck something that changed everything.  The kingdom oft...

  Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (public domain). Feel free to read each day's passage in your own preferred translation alongside this guide. In the back half of Romans 8, Paul moves through some of the deepest waters in all of Scripture: the Spirit who frees us, the adoption that makes us God's own children, the suffering that marks this present life, and the glory that is coming.  These six days trace that movement — from the obligation we no longer owe the flesh, all the way to the hope that holds us while we wait.  Take each day slowly.  Read the passage, sit with the reflection, answer the questions honestly, and let the prayer become your own.   Day 1 — A Debt We Don't Owe Read: Romans 8:12-13 "Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." (vv. 12-13) Paul begins...