Dillon Community Church

Day 1: More Than a Ticket Out

Devotional

It is easy to treat faith like a transaction. Say the right words, check the right boxes, and secure your place in eternity. But following Jesus was never meant to be that small. Paul wrote to a church living inside a culture obsessed with personal pleasure and status. Sound familiar? The Corinthians had convinced themselves that faith was a spiritual matter and the rest of life, their money, their relationships, their bodies, was their own business. Paul pushes back hard on that idea. Being brought into God's kingdom is not just about where you end up when you die. It changes everything about how you live right now. It reshapes your values, your desires, and your identity from the inside out. Jesus is not interested in being a consultant you call on occasionally. He wants to be Lord of all of it. That might feel like a lot. But here is the encouraging part: you are not being asked to clean yourself up before you come. You are being invited into a community where God Himself does the transforming work. He is not waiting for you to have it all together. He is already at work in you, renewing the way you see yourself and the world around you.

Bible Verse

"I will extol the Lord at all times; His praise will always be on my lips. I will glory in the Lord; let the afflicted hear and rejoice." - Psalm 34:1-2

Reflection Question

If Jesus is truly Lord of your life and not just a consultant, what is one area you have been keeping off the table?

Quote

"This isn't just a get out of hell free card. The gospel impacts every single part of who you are, your relationships, how you think about your money, how you think about your sexuality, how you think about desires, how you use the gifts that you have."

Prayer

Lord, forgive me for the ways I have tried to keep parts of my life outside of Your reach. I invite You into all of it today, not just the parts that feel safe to surrender. Amen.

Day 2: The List Is Wide for a Reason

Devotional

When people read 1 Corinthians 6, they often scan the list of behaviors Paul mentions and quietly feel relieved when they do not see themselves in it. But Paul is not letting anyone off that easily. Greed sits in that list. So does gossip. Sexual immorality is there, but so are the quieter sins that respectable people carry around without much guilt. Paul levels the playing field on purpose. The list is wide because the human heart is wide in its capacity for self-serving behavior. But here is what Paul is actually getting at. He is not describing people who struggle with sin and hate that they do. He is describing people who have grown comfortable with it, even proud of it, and who refuse to let Jesus anywhere near it. There is a real difference between a person who keeps falling and keeps getting back up, and a person who has simply decided to stay down. If you feel the weight of your sin, if it bothers you, if you keep confessing it even when it feels repetitive, that is not a sign that nothing is changing. That tenderness in your heart is actually evidence that God is already at work in you. Do not mistake conviction for condemnation.

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

Is there an area of your life where you have shifted from struggling against sin to simply making peace with it?

Quote

"We should all see ourselves somewhere in the passage. That's the point. If you don't see yourself somewhere in this passage, you're lying."

Prayer

God, give me the courage to be honest about where my heart has grown comfortable with what You call harmful. Keep me tender, and remind me that conviction is a gift, not a punishment. Amen.

Day 3: Freedom Is For Something

Devotional

The Corinthians had a saying: everything is permissible. It sounds like freedom. Paul agrees that freedom is real, but he reframes what it actually means. Christian freedom is not a blank check to chase every desire wherever it leads. That kind of freedom eventually becomes its own prison. When you are always chasing the next thing that feels good, you are not free. You are just a slave to a different master. Paul points to something better. True freedom is not freedom from all constraints. It is freedom for something. Freedom to love well. Freedom to build others up. Freedom to live in a way that contributes to renewal and reconciliation rather than feeding patterns of selfishness and destruction. Think about it this way. A musician who has mastered their instrument is not less free because they learned the rules of music. They are more free because of it. The discipline opened up a world of expression that chaos never could. The more you pursue Jesus, the more that kind of freedom opens up to you. Not a freedom that leaves you empty after the thrill fades, but a freedom that is rooted in something lasting and life-giving. That is the kind of life God is inviting you into.

Bible Verse

"What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?" - Romans 6:1

Reflection Question

In what area of your life have you confused the freedom to do something with the wisdom of whether you should?

Quote

"The more you pursue Jesus, the more free you become. Because according to Paul, freedom in Jesus is not freedom from something, it's freedom for something. And freedom is the most meaningful when it is for something."

Prayer

Jesus, thank You that You did not set me free just to wander. Show me what You have set me free for, and give me the courage to pursue it. Amen.

Day 4: You Carry His Presence

Devotional

Here is something that should stop you in your tracks. The moment you gave your life to Jesus, the Holy Spirit took up residence inside you. You are not just someone who believes in God. You are a walking temple of His presence. That changes everything about how you think about your body and what you do with it. Paul is not making a list of rules to follow. He is helping you see your own dignity. Wherever you go, you bring God's presence with you. Into your relationships. Into your workplace. Into your private moments. This is not meant to feel like pressure. It is meant to feel like honor. God chose to dwell in you. Not in a building made of stone, but in you. That is an extraordinary thing. And because it is extraordinary, what you do with your body is not a private matter disconnected from your faith. It is an act of worship or an act of desecration. Paul is not trying to shame anyone. He is trying to help you see yourself the way God sees you, as someone worth indwelling, worth transforming, worth calling holy. You are not just getting through life. You are carrying something sacred.

Bible Verse

"Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ Himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, 'The two will become one flesh.' But whoever is united with the Lord is one with Him in Spirit. Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies." - 1 Corinthians 6:15-20

Reflection Question

How would your daily choices shift if you genuinely lived with the awareness that you carry God's presence with you everywhere you go?

Quote

"The moment that you submitted your life to Jesus and the moment that the Spirit took up residence within you, He became a part of you. You are literally a walking temple of God's presence."

Prayer

Holy Spirit, remind me today that I am Your temple. Let that truth shape the way I treat my body, my relationships, and the people around me. Amen.

Day 5: The Warmth Has Already Won

Devotional

Transformation is rarely dramatic. Most of the time it feels slow, frustrating, and two steps forward and one step back. If that is where you are, you are in good company. Paul knew that the people he was writing to were not going to leave behind years of deeply ingrained habits overnight. He was not naive about that. But he also did not leave them without hope. He reminded them of what was already true: you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified. Think of someone walking into a warm room after hours out in the cold. The warmth is real. It has already won. But the effects of the cold do not disappear instantly. The hands are still numb. The thaw brings its own discomfort. That does not mean the warmth has failed. It means the process is underway. Your old habits, old pulls, old patterns, they are not proof that God has given up on you. They are evidence that something is changing. The warmth of His grace is doing its work, even when you cannot feel it yet. Keep confessing. Keep returning. Keep showing up. God is not done with you, and the work He has started in you, He will finish.

Bible Verse

"'Everything is permissible for me' but not everything is beneficial. 'Everything is permissible for me' but I will not be mastered by anything. You say, 'Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.' The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and He will raise us also." - 1 Corinthians 6:12-14

Reflection Question

Where in your life do you need to stop interpreting slow progress as failure and start recognizing it as transformation in motion?

Quote

"The pull of old desires, old habits, old addictions, is not proof that nothing has changed. It's evidence that something is changing."

Prayer

Father, thank You that You are patient with me. On the days when change feels impossible, remind me that Your grace has already won, and that You are faithful to complete what You have started. Amen.

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