REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE! // Kerry Hesketh

Devotional

Day 1: Set Apart as Living Stones

The Hebrew word _kodesh_ echoes through Israel’s story—a people called to be sacred, distinct from surrounding nations. God commanded them to remove pagan practices, to live as a “kingdom of priests.” In Corinth, Paul confronts a church tolerating sin even pagans rejected. Holiness isn’t abstract—it’s practical separation from what defiles. Like a parent redirecting a child, Paul says, “Stop.” [00:38]

Holiness begins with identity. Just as Passover blood marked Israel’s homes, Christ’s sacrifice marks us. We’re set apart not by our perfection, but by His. The Corinthians forgot this, confusing cultural norms with covenant calling.

Where have you blurred the line between Christ’s standards and society’s compromises? Name one habit, relationship, or thought pattern that contradicts your holy identity. What step will you take today to honor your true citizenship?

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
(1 Peter 2:9, NIV)

Prayer: Ask Jesus to reveal one area where He wants you to live “set apart” this week.
Challenge: Write “kodesh” and “hagios” on a sticky note. Place it where you’ll see it daily.

Day 2: When Leaven Meets Truth

Paul smells sourdough in Corinth’s compromise. A man sleeps with his stepmother—a sin even Roman law forbade—yet the church boasts about their tolerance. Paul warns: “A little yeast leavens the whole batch.” Like mould spreading in dough, unchecked sin corrupts community. He commands radical surgery: remove the leaven to preserve the body. [08:02]

Leaven represents sin’s infectious power. The Corinthians prized cultural relevance over purity, forgetting holiness protects unity. Paul’s solution isn’t shaming but reclaiming identity: “You really are unleavened”—made clean by Christ’s sacrifice.

What “yeast” have you tolerated in your life or relationships? Gossip? Bitterness? Compromise? How might your tolerance harm others’ faith?

“Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are.”
(1 Corinthians 5:6-7, NIV)

Prayer: Confess any “yeast” you’ve ignored. Ask for courage to confront it.
Challenge: Delete one app, unfollow one account, or throw out one item that feeds compromise.

Day 3: Blood on the Doorposts

Moses’ people huddled behind lamb’s blood as death passed over. The lamb had to be flawless—no broken bones, no blemish. Centuries later, John the Baptist pointed to Jesus: “Behold, the Lamb of God.” At Calvary, the final Passover Lamb died, His blood marking us eternally. [10:02]

Egypt symbolizes bondage; the Lamb’s blood breaks chains. The Corinthians acted like redeemed people still enslaved, forgetting Christ’s sacrifice finished their rescue. Holiness starts here: we’re declared clean because the Lamb was crushed.

Do you live as a liberated soul or a spiritual refugee? When guilt whispers, “You’re unworthy,” whose blood will you remember?

“Your lamb shall be without blemish… They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts… The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you.”
(Exodus 12:5,7,13, ESV)

Prayer: Thank Jesus for three specific ways His blood has freed you.
Challenge: Text someone: “Today I’m grateful Christ’s blood covers ______. How can I pray for you?”

Day 4: Foundations in the Flood

Jesus ends His Sermon on the Mount with a storm warning. Both houses—the wise man’s and the fool’s—face identical floods. The difference? Foundations. Paul tells the Corinthians: Build on Christ’s finished work, not cultural trends. When temptation’s floodwaters rise, right beliefs anchor right actions. [20:20]

Storms test what we truly trust. The Corinthians’ foundation cracked when they valued wealth over holiness. Like Abraham’s three-measure feast, Christ’s cross is extravagant grace—a foundation that withstands any flood.

What “flood” is threatening your peace today? Fear? Lust? Anger? How would clinging to your holy identity change your response?

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall.”
(Matthew 7:24-25, NIV)

Prayer: Ask the Spirit to highlight one teaching of Jesus you need to obey today.
Challenge: Write Matthew 7:24 on a rock. Keep it in your pocket as a physical reminder.

Day 5: Drip by Drip, Stone to Spring

Rabbi Akiva watched water carve stone through persistent droplets, not force. Paul urges the Corinthians: Let Scripture’s truth reshape you daily. Like yeast permeating dough, God’s Word—when consistently applied—transforms hearts. [25:14]

Holiness isn’t a sprint but a slow saturation. The Corinthians wanted quick fixes, not the daily discipline of remembrance. Yet three measures of flour—enough for sixty loaves—show God’s abundant grace for the process.

What “drip” of Scripture could soften your hardest area? A verse about forgiveness? Patience? Purity?

“He told them still another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.’”
(Matthew 13:33, NIV)

Prayer: Open your Bible randomly. Ask God to highlight one verse to “drip” into your week.
Challenge: Read one Proverb aloud at breakfast each day. Notice its slow work in you.

Sermon Summary

Holiness speaks first as identity: kodesh and hagios name a people “set apart, pure and blameless.” Paul then presses that identity into a compromised church. The text exposes an incestuous union “of a kind not even pagans tolerate,” and Paul calls for mourning, discipline, and salvation-minded judgment, not pride. His posture sounds like shema: hear, listen, and give the appropriate response. He is not inventing a new standard. He is reminding a discipled community of what he already taught from Torah: “Do not have sexual relations with your father’s wife.” The call is simple and sharp: stop. Remember who you are. Set apart. Pure. Blameless.

Passover frames the rebuke with grace. Paul reaches for Israel’s story: slaves in Egypt, rescued under the blood of a spotless lamb. Jesus stands as that Lamb, the once-for-all sacrifice. Hebrews 10:10 names the result: sanctified, set apart as holy. The cross finishes positional holiness. The question is belief. If the identity sounds too good to be true, Peter’s language answers it: a chosen people, a royal priesthood, God’s own possession. The coin holds two sides. One side reads “finished work.” The other reads “worked-out holiness.”

Leaven becomes Paul’s picture for the second side. Old leaven corrupts. One person’s sin permeates a whole dough. Jesus warns about the yeast of the Pharisees, a rule-keeping obsession that forgets grace and distorts a whole community. Yet the kingdom is also like leaven a woman works into an extravagant measure of flour, quietly transforming everything it touches. The cross is lavish; the kingdom’s influence is thorough.

“Celebrate the festival” shifts the calendar into the heart. Paul writes it in the present active: daily remembrance. The life built on that remembrance looks like Matthew’s long block of Jesus’ teaching: foundations on rock, not sand. Floods come to both houses. The first ten seconds of temptation are decisive. Right believing leads to right thinking, which leads to right living. Formation, though, is usually slow. Rabbi Akiva’s image lands the point: drip, drip, drip. Water carves stone when it falls long enough. So the word, received and obeyed, bores channels through a stubborn heart until sincerity and truth replace malice and wickedness. Holiness in the everyday sounds like constant shema and constant celebration: identity cherished, leavened into life.

Key Takeaways

1. Holiness is identity before effort The cross names the church holy before the church ever performs a single deed. Positional sanctification anchors the conscience so correction can heal rather than crush. Effort then becomes response, not self-salvation, because Jesus is the Passover Lamb and “it’s a done deal.” [10:56]
2. Shema calls for a real response Hearing, in Scripture’s sense, means stopping and doing the fitting thing. Paul’s command sounds parental because love risks hard words to save a life. Identity is remembered in obedience, not just recited in songs or creeds. [03:47]
3. Leaven warns and invites influence Old leaven spreads corruption; one person’s compromise reshapes a whole culture. But kingdom leaven quietly saturates every corner with sincerity and truth. The question is which ferment is at work in a community’s habits and teaching. [15:00]
4. Celebrate the festival every day Passover remembrance moves from a date on the calendar to a posture of heart. Present-active celebration keeps the finished work current in mind and body. Daily gospel rehearsal displaces old malice with new sincerity. [19:29]
5. The first ten seconds matter Temptation is a flood, and early choices decide the footing. Foundations are laid before storms, not during them. Right believing trains quick, sturdy refusals that become right living. [22:04]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[00:19] - What does holy mean?
[00:38] - Kodesh and hagios defined
[00:59] - Paul confronts sexual immorality
[01:26] - Judgment aimed at salvation
[02:19] - Culture shock and church pride
[03:17] - Paul’s heart of shema
[04:53] - Discipled from the Old Testament
[06:50] - Leviticus and being set apart
[08:02] - Leaven and the Passover Lamb
[08:40] - Exodus and bondage broken
[10:31] - Finished work and sanctified
[12:53] - Two sides of the holiness coin
[13:52] - Unleavened festival explained
[15:37] - Yeast of the Pharisees warning
[16:58] - Kingdom yeast and extravagance
[19:29] - Celebrate the festival daily
[20:20] - House on rock, floods will come
[21:42] - Ten-second window of response
[23:19] - Drip, drip, drip: formed by Scripture
[24:57] - Let the word permeate everything
[25:14] - Holiness in the everyday

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading
1 Corinthians 5:1-8 (ESV)
"It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you. For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."

Observation Questions

What specific sin does Paul confront in the Corinthian church, and how does he describe their response to it? (See 1 Corinthians 5:1-2)
Paul uses the metaphor of "leaven" to describe sin’s influence. What does he say happens when "old leaven" remains in the community? (See 1 Corinthians 5:6-7) [08:02]
How does the sermon connect the Passover lamb to Jesus’ work on the cross? (See 1 Corinthians 5:7) [09:37]

Interpretation Questions

Why does Paul link the command to remove the immoral person with the imagery of Passover and unleavened bread? What does this reveal about the relationship between holiness and community?
The sermon states, "Holiness is identity before effort." How does this idea reframe the way we approach obedience and repentance? [10:56]
Paul urges the Corinthians to "celebrate the festival" in a present-active sense. What might daily remembrance of Christ’s sacrifice look like practically? [19:29]

Application Questions

The sermon emphasizes that "the first ten seconds of temptation are decisive." What practical step could you take this week to strengthen your response in those critical moments? (Example: memorizing a Scripture, pausing to pray) [21:42]
Are there areas in your life or community where "old leaven" (habits, attitudes, or compromises) might be spreading negatively? How could you intentionally "cleanse" them? [15:00]
The sermon compares God’s Word to water carving stone through "drip, drip, drip." What small, daily habit could you adopt to let Scripture reshape your heart? (Example: 5 minutes of reflection, journaling one verse) [23:19]
How might celebrating Christ’s finished work daily (e.g., through prayer, worship, or gratitude) shift your perspective when facing guilt or shame? [19:29]
Paul calls the Corinthians to mourn sin rather than boast. Is there a situation where pride might be blinding you or your community to wrongdoing? How could humility open the door to healing? [02:19]
The kingdom’s influence is compared to leaven that "quietly transforms everything." What ordinary, everyday action could you take to spread sincerity and truth in your relationships? [16:58]

Sermon Clips

But here's the question. Do you believe it? That's it, isn't it? It's gotta not just remain head knowledge. It's gotta to sink 18 inches into our heart. Do you believe that you are holy, righteous, and in right standing with God? Because it actually sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? But this is the good news, and this is why Paul is challenging them to listen and obey, to shema, remember who you are. [00:11:06] (32 seconds)

You see, the blood on the doorpost was a sign to God that these were were his people, and the blood of the lamb that day saved the Israelites in a really special way. And it's the same for us. Jesus has sacrificed, has died on the cross for us. Jesus is our Passover lamb. Now, my title of this message today is the holiness in every day, and this is it. This is the good news of the gospel. [00:09:56] (29 seconds)

But as John spoke last week, this is a spiritual father talking to his church. And as parents, we have to have hard conversations with our children, don't we? Or we can at least try to have hard conversations. But I believe Paul has this heart posture of this word, shema. Can you say shema? Thank you. So I absolutely love this word, and I believe Paul is saying, stop. Stop what you are doing. It is not going to end well with you. Stop. [00:03:09] (33 seconds)

Now, if you're out in the desert, it could be completely sunshine where you are, and it could have rained 10 kilometres away. And that rain comes down the hill, and it starts to form a gushing river. Now, if you're in the desert and you hear the sound of rushing water coming towards you, you've got ten seconds to get to higher ground because that water's gonna take you out. And it's the same for us today. Paul, the book of Corinthians, is talking about the different vices that the people have got themselves entangled to. Okay? And I'm equating this now to the flood in this parable. [00:21:00] (35 seconds)

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REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE! // Kerry Hesketh

Devotional

Day 1: Set Apart as Living Stones

Day 2: When Leaven Meets Truth

Day 3: Blood on the Doorposts

Day 4: Foundations in the Flood

Day 5: Drip by Drip, Stone to Spring

Sermon Summary

Key Takeaways

Youtube Chapters

Bible Study Guide

Sermon Clips

Chatbot

REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE! // Kerry Hesketh

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