Dillon Community Church

Day 1: Set Apart for Something Greater

Devotional

You were not just saved from something. You were saved for something. Paul opens 1 Corinthians 9 by defending his identity as an apostle, but the deeper point is this: knowing who you are in Christ changes everything about how you live. When you understand that you have been set apart, called, and commissioned by God, it reframes your daily decisions. You stop asking only "What am I allowed to do?" and start asking "What does love require of me?" Paul had real rights. He earned them. But he held them loosely because his identity was not built on what he could claim. It was built on who he belonged to. That kind of security is rare, and it is only found in Christ. You may be in a season where you feel overlooked or undervalued. Maybe you have given up something you deserved and no one noticed. Take heart. Paul's willingness to lay down his rights was not weakness. It was the overflow of a life anchored in something unshakeable. Your worth is not determined by what you hold onto. It is secured by the One who holds you.

Bible Verse

"To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be His holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours." - 1 Corinthians 1:2

Reflection Question

In what area of your life are you allowing your rights or your reputation to define you more than your identity in Christ?

Quote

"You have been sanctified in Christ Jesus. You have been set apart."

Prayer

Lord, thank You that my identity is secure in You and not in what I can claim or achieve. Help me to hold my rights loosely and live from the freedom of knowing I belong to You. Amen.

Day 2: Freedom That Serves

Devotional

Most of us think of freedom as the ability to do whatever we want. Paul had a completely different definition. He was free. Genuinely, completely free in Christ. But he used that freedom to make himself a servant to everyone around him. He worked with his hands as a tentmaker, which actually lowered his social standing in Corinth. He did it on purpose. It meant no one owned him, and it meant he could reach anyone without strings attached. That is a countercultural kind of freedom. It is not freedom for yourself. It is freedom for others. Think about the people in your life who need the gospel. Are there any barriers standing between you and them? Sometimes those barriers are not theological. They are social, financial, or relational. Paul was willing to remove every unnecessary obstacle so that nothing would get in the way of someone hearing about Jesus. You have been given freedom in Christ. The question is not just what you will do with it, but who you will use it for.

Bible Verse

"Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible." - 1 Corinthians 9:19

Reflection Question

Is there a barrier, whether social, financial, or relational, that you could remove in order to better reach someone who needs the gospel?

Quote

"Working with his own hands meant nobody owned him. It freed him to serve everybody."

Prayer

Jesus, You left the glory of heaven to reach me. Give me the same heart, a willingness to lay down my comfort and status so others can experience Your love. Amen.

Day 3: Love Over Rights

Devotional

There is a moment in Paul's story that stops you in your tracks. He received thirty-nine lashes from Jewish authorities not once, but five times. He was free in Christ. He did not have to submit to that. But he stayed connected to his people because he loved them too much to walk away. That is not stubbornness. That is not martyrdom for its own sake. That is a love so deep it was willing to suffer in order to keep a relationship alive and a door open. Most of us will never face anything close to that. But we do face moments where exercising our rights would cost us a relationship. A conversation we could win but probably should not. A boundary we could enforce but might not need to. A preference we could insist on but could also release. Paul's example is not a call to be a pushover. It is a call to ask a harder question: Is there something more important here than what I have the right to do? Love does not always demand its own way. Sometimes it quietly steps aside so someone else can find their way to Jesus.

Bible Verse

"When those rights stand between him and someone he longs to reach with the gospel, he lays them down." - 1 Corinthians 9:1-18

Reflection Question

Is there a relationship in your life where insisting on your rights might be closing a door that love could keep open?

Quote

"Having a right doesn't mean that I always have to exercise it. Sometimes there is something more important than what I have the right to do."

Prayer

Father, give me the courage to love people more than I love being right. Teach me when to hold firm and when to let go, for the sake of someone else drawing closer to You. Amen.

Day 4: The Discipline of Desire

Devotional

Self-control sounds exhausting. And honestly, if it is just willpower, it is. Paul uses the image of an athlete training for competition. But he is not calling you to grit your teeth and white-knuckle your way through the Christian life. He is pointing to something deeper. The athlete trains hard because the prize is worth it. The discipline flows from the desire. Think about Jacob. He worked seven years to marry Rachel, and Scripture says it felt like only a few days because of his love for her. That is not mind over matter. That is a heart so captured by something beautiful that sacrifice barely registers as sacrifice. This is the kind of life Paul is describing. Not a life of constant self-denial, but a life where your heart has been captured by something so good, so real, and so lasting that lesser things naturally lose their grip. You do not have to manufacture that desire. Ask God for it. Ask Him to make the gospel so real and so beautiful to you that everything else finds its proper place beneath it. That is where lasting change begins.

Bible Verse

"Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize." - 1 Corinthians 9:24

Reflection Question

What are you currently training your heart to desire, and is that desire pulling you toward Christ or away from Him?

Quote

"It's not mind over desire. It's something different. It's something deeper. It's a passion of the heart."

Prayer

Lord, capture my heart with something greater than my appetites. Make the gospel so beautiful to me that sacrifice feels less like loss and more like love. Amen.

Day 5: A Love You Cannot Lose

Devotional

Here is the most encouraging thing about everything Paul describes. It is all built on a foundation you cannot lose. In every other area of life, you can set your heart on something and watch it slip away. A relationship. A career. A dream. Even your health. But the love of God in Christ is different. It is secure. It is permanent. And it is the one thing worth building your entire life on. Christ stepped out of heaven, took on flesh, and endured a horrific death on the cross. He did it for the joy of seeing you come into right relationship with God. That is not a transaction. That is love at its most extravagant. When that love becomes the guiding reality of your life, something shifts. You stop grasping and start giving. You stop protecting yourself and start pouring yourself out. Not because you have to, but because you have experienced something so transforming that you genuinely want others to experience it too. This is the beauty of the gospel. It does not just change what you do. It changes what you want. And what you want changes everything.

Bible Verse

"For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." - 1 Corinthians 2:2

Reflection Question

If the love of God is truly the one thing you cannot lose, how would living from that security change the way you relate to the people around you today?

Quote

"The beauty of the gospel is that it completely transforms your life to the point where you would gladly give up anything for the sake of another person experiencing what you have experienced."

Prayer

Thank You, Jesus, that Your love for me is not fragile or conditional. Let that love be the foundation I build on and the gift I freely give to everyone around me. Amen.

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