Dillon Community Church

Day 1: Called Out, Not Checked Out

Devotional

It is easy to assume that following Jesus means keeping a safe distance from the messy, complicated world around us. But that is not the life Jesus modeled, and it is not the life He calls us to. Jesus sat at tables with people others avoided. He asked questions, listened, and engaged. He did not wait for people to clean themselves up before He showed up. He brought the kingdom into the middle of real, broken lives. And He calls His church to do the same. You were not saved to retreat. You were saved to reflect. Every relationship you have with someone far from God is an opportunity to carry something they desperately need: hope, grace, and the presence of a God who sees them. This does not mean compromising your values. It means holding them with open hands, in the middle of real life, around real people. Engaged holiness is not weakness. It is one of the most powerful witnesses the church has. You do not have to have all the answers. You just have to show up.

Bible Verse

"For God so loved the world..." - Actually, let me select from the provided list. The most fitting verse here is Romans 13. Romans 13:8-10 (NIV): "Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. The commandments... are summed up in this one command: Love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law." - Romans 13:8-10

Reflection Question

Is there someone in your life you have been keeping at arm's length because their story feels too messy or too far from faith?

Quote

Paul would never have recommended a kind of Christianity which withdrew from the world. To him, it was something that had to be lived out in the world.

Prayer

Lord, give me the courage to engage the world around me with the same grace You showed me. Help me to see people the way You see them, and to show up with love rather than judgment. Amen.

Day 2: Grace on Display

Devotional

There is something deeply human about wanting to win. When someone wrongs us, every instinct says fight back, defend yourself, make sure everyone knows you were right. But Paul challenges that instinct directly. In Corinth, believers were dragging one another into court over money and personal grievances. And Paul's response was not about who had the better legal case. It was about what the watching world was seeing. When Christians fight to win at all costs, the story of grace gets buried under the noise of the conflict. This is just as real today. Social media has made it easier than ever to publicly tear someone down, score points, and walk away feeling justified. But winning an argument and reflecting the gospel are rarely the same thing. Paul's invitation is countercultural and costly: absorb the loss. Not because you are a pushover, but because you understand that what is at stake is far greater than the dispute in front of you. The world is watching. And what it needs to see is not more people fighting to be right. It needs to see grace actually working in real people's lives.

Bible Verse

"Do you not know that the Lord's people will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!" - 1 Corinthians 6:2-3

Reflection Question

Is there a conflict in your life right now where you are more focused on winning than on what your response is communicating about the grace you have received?

Quote

The world doesn't need to see more people shaming other people, attacking their reputation and taking them for all they have. The world already has enough of that. No, let the world see grace at work. Show the world the wisdom of the cross.

Prayer

Father, loosen my grip on being right. Help me to value the witness of grace over the satisfaction of winning, and give me the humility to absorb a loss for the sake of something greater. Amen.

Day 3: Look Inside First

Devotional

It is far easier to spot problems in others than to examine what is happening in our own hearts and communities. The Corinthians had mastered this. They were ready to judge the world outside the church while completely overlooking serious sin within their own walls. Paul's correction is direct: get your own house in order. Not because outsiders do not matter, but because the church cannot speak with integrity about transformation if it is not willing to take transformation seriously within itself. This is not about becoming a community of harsh critics who police one another. It is about becoming a community honest enough to say, "We are not perfect, but we take sin seriously and we take grace seriously." That combination is rare. And it is compelling. When a community is willing to hold one another accountable with gentleness and love, and when repentance is met with restoration rather than rejection, something beautiful happens. People on the outside begin to notice. Not because the church is perfect, but because it is real. The goal is never shame for its own sake. The goal is always restoration, always return, always more of Jesus.

Bible Verse

"Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." - 1 Corinthians 6:9-11

Reflection Question

Are there areas in your own life or community where you have been quicker to judge others than to honestly examine what God might be asking you to address closer to home?

Quote

Don't get so caught up with the sins of outsiders that you fail to see the sins going on in your community, your own community.

Prayer

God, give me the humility to look inward before I look outward. Help my community to be one where truth and grace walk together, and where restoration is always the goal. Amen.

Day 4: You Have Been Washed

Devotional

Some of us carry a quiet weight that whispers: you are too far gone. Your past is too complicated. Your failures are too many. And so we keep God at a polite distance, convinced that transformation is for other people. But Paul looks directly at a church full of people with complicated histories and says something stunning: that is what some of you were. Past tense. Because something happened. You were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified. This is not a small thing. It is the whole story. The gospel does not ask you to arrive cleaned up. It meets you exactly where you are and begins the work of making you new. Not perfect overnight, but genuinely, progressively new. The Christian life is marked not by having it all together, but by repentance and humility. It is the posture of someone who knows they need God and keeps coming back to Him. Like the Father in Mark 9 who cried out, "I believe. Help my unbelief." That honest, reaching faith is exactly what God responds to. You are not defined by what you were. You are defined by what He has done. Let that sink in today.

Bible Verse

"Immediately the boy's Father exclaimed: 'I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!'" - Mark 9:24

Reflection Question

Is there a part of your past or present that you have been holding back from God, unsure if His grace is really big enough to cover it?

Quote

The Christian life is not marked by perfection but by repentance, by humility, to come before God like the father in Mark 9 who cried, I believe. Help my unbelief.

Prayer

Jesus, thank You that You do not wait for me to be perfect before You welcome me. Help me to receive the fullness of what You have done for me, and to walk in the freedom of being washed, sanctified, and justified. Amen.

Day 5: Overflow

Devotional

Everything changes when grace stops being something we hold onto and becomes something we give away. Paul's entire argument in these chapters points toward a single vision: a community so transformed by what God has done for them that it naturally overflows into how they treat one another and how they engage the world. People who truly understand how much they have been forgiven do not hoard grace. They extend it. This is what shifts the questions we ask. We stop asking, "What am I entitled to?" or "How do I win?" and we start asking, "What does love require of me right now?" That is a kingdom question. And it leads to kingdom living. The church becomes most fully itself when it is there for others. Not as a perfect institution, but as a community of people who have been broken, restored, and are now willing to sit with others in their brokenness. That is the picture the world is hungry to see. You have been given much. And the grace that has been poured into you was never meant to stop with you. Let it overflow today, in your home, your workplace, your neighborhood, and your church.

Bible Verse

"And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." - 1 Corinthians 6:11

Reflection Question

Who in your life right now needs you to extend the same grace and patience that God has extended to you?

Quote

The people who know that they have been given much eventually learn to give much. The people who have received mercy, they begin to extend mercy. And the church becomes most fully the church when the grace that has been poured into us overflows into the lives of others.

Prayer

Lord, let the grace You have poured into me overflow into the lives of the people around me. Make me a person who gives generously because I have received generously. Amen.

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*Devotionals written from sermon given by Pastor Ryan Leeds and compiled using Sermon Shots.