The Church, Where the Lord Works

Introduction

There are Sundays when you look at your church and wonder what you're even doing there. You're not preaching, you're not leading worship, you're not healing anyone. You come, you sit down, you pray in silence. And a quiet voice whispers, "What am I really good for here?" In his message "The Church, Where the Lord Works," Pastor Rutz opens up 1 Corinthians 12 through 14 to answer that question. Paul compares the Church to a body: many members, one organism, one Head who is Christ. Everyone matters. Even the little toe. Especially the little toe. And above the gifts, one thing stands out: love. Without it, nothing holds together.

Outline of the message

1. One body, many members

• Paul writes: "The body is one, though it has many members... so it is with Christ." The Church is the body of Christ, and Christ is its Head.
• Pastor Rutz stresses this: no matter your age, your nationality, your job, or how deep your faith runs, you're part of the body. Jews, non-Jews, slaves, free people, one Spirit baptizes us all into one body.
• You can't say, "I'm not the hand, so I'm not part of the body." A member stays a member, even if it doesn't realize it.
• Every part is connected directly to the Head. If you stay connected to Jesus, if you listen to his voice and let yourself be led by the Holy Spirit, your place in the body becomes clear.

2. The weakest members are the most necessary

• "The parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable" (v. 22). Pastor Rutz uses the image of the little toe: hidden, tucked away in a sock, forgotten. Until the day you stub it against the bed frame. Then you understand it matters.
• In the Church, these are the new converts, the children, those going through a trial, those whose faith is shaking. In a family, it's sometimes the fragile child who needs the most care.
• These brothers and sisters are not a burden: they are gifts. God places them there to teach you to love differently, to move beyond your own strength, to ask for his heart.
• When you think, "If this person weren't here, the church would be better off," stop. God is the one who placed them there. It's through them that he shapes you.

3. A body supports itself, it doesn't compare itself

• "If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together" (v. 26).
• God deliberately limits each of us. No one has everything. The one who has must serve with humility, the one who receives must give thanks without complaining. That's how pride dies and unity grows.
• Pastor Rutz puts it plainly: God's ways are the opposite of human logic. What looks to you like a detour, an obstacle, an inefficiency, is often exactly the place where your faith will take root more deeply.

4. Spiritual gifts: given, never earned

• Paul lists the gifts: apostles, prophets, teachers, those who work miracles, those who heal, those who help, those who lead, those who speak in tongues.
• Pastor Rutz draws a distinction. On one hand, there are natural skills (singing, playing an instrument, cooking, teaching): they are useful, but they aren't yet the gifts Paul is talking about. On the other hand, there are spiritual gifts: wisdom, discernment, faith, healing, prophecy, tongues, interpretation. Those are given by the Spirit alone.
• These gifts aren't earned through performance. They're received in a clean vessel. God has made you a vessel of gold, wood, bronze, or clay, every vessel is useful. Your job is to keep it washed each day through repentance and the word.
• "To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good" (1 Corinthians 12:7). No gift is for show. Everything is meant to build up the body.

5. Without love, nothing has value

• "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal." Paul sweeps everything away: gifts, knowledge, faith that moves mountains, giving away all his possessions, even martyrdom. Without love, it's worth nothing.
• Pastor Rutz lingers here. You can pray, serve, sing, teach, give without holding back, and yet all of it will weigh nothing before God if love isn't at the center.
• It's not that the gifts are bad. They're necessary, especially in the times we live in. But they never replace love. They're only useful when carried by love.

6. The portrait of love, with your name in it

• "Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way..."
• Pastor Rutz suggests a simple exercise: reread this passage replacing "love" with your first name. "[Your name] is patient, [your name] is kind, [your name] does not get irritated..." You might laugh. You might feel uncomfortable. That's exactly when the mirror does its work.
• Write this passage out, put it somewhere you'll see it every morning, and meditate on it until the end of the year. Not to condemn yourself, but to let the Holy Spirit dig, reveal, correct, and heal.

7. What remains

• "Prophecies will pass away, tongues will cease, knowledge will pass away... So now faith, hope, and love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love."
• The gifts are for the road. They help you do your work here on earth and enter the Kingdom together with those God has entrusted to you. Once you arrive, they will stop. They're tools, not your identity.
• What crosses over through death is love. What you did with love, God keeps. Everything else will fall away like dry leaves.
• "Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy" (14:1). One doesn't go without the other. Love as the destination, gifts as the means.

Key takeaways

• You are a member of the body of Christ. Your place isn't optional, it's necessary, even when it's hidden.
• The weakest members aren't a burden: they're a gift meant to teach you to love the way God loves.
• Spiritual gifts aren't earned. They're received in a clean vessel, washed by repentance and humility.
• Without love, even the most spectacular gifts weigh nothing. With love, even the quietest ones build eternity.
• What remains at the end of the road is faith, hope, and above all, love.

Personal application

1. In your local church, what part of the body are you right now, visible, hidden, resting, being trained? Do you accept it, or would you rather be "the hand" instead of someone else?
2. Who, in your church or your family, is the "little toe" you're tempted to ignore or find inconvenient? How might God be shaping you through that person this week?
3. What spiritual gift have you never dared to ask for because you believe you're unworthy or not gifted enough? What's stopping you from simply asking God to wash you and fill you?
4. Take 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 and read it out loud, replacing "love" with your first name. Which sentence makes you the most uncomfortable? That's where God wants to work with you.
5. If your life ended tonight, what would you have done out of love that crosses over death with you? Are you satisfied with your answer?

Verses cited

• 1 Corinthians 12 (ESV)
• 1 Corinthians 13 (ESV)
• 1 Corinthians 14:1 (ESV)
• Acts 4:24-37 (ESV)
• Zechariah 4:6 (ESV)
• Hebrews 11:6 (ESV)

Frequently asked questions

Do all Christians receive the same spiritual gifts?

No. Paul says it plainly: "Are all apostles? Are all prophets?" The answer is no. The Spirit distributes gifts to each person as he wills, for the common good. One receives wisdom, another faith, another healing or the interpretation of tongues. It's not a hierarchy of merit, it's a distribution of missions. Your responsibility is to keep your vessel clean so that what God wants to pour into it can stay there.

Can I "lose" my place in the body if I drift away?

Pastor Rutz points out that the connection to the Head, meaning to Jesus, is vital. You don't lose your intrinsic worth as a member, Paul says that even a foot that claims not to belong to the body still belongs to the body. But you can lose the vitality of your place if you unplug yourself. It's like a limb that falls asleep: it's still there, but it's no longer useful. The solution isn't guilt, it's reconnecting: prayer, the word, repentance, fellowship with other believers.

Practically speaking, what should I do when someone in the Church weighs on me?

First, change how you see it. This person isn't there by accident. God placed them there, and placed you next to them, so that your capacity to love would grow beyond your comfort zone. Then, pray for them before you speak about them. Finally, let the Holy Spirit show you what, in your own reaction, reveals a lack of love that needs to be transformed. The body supports itself, it never amputates itself.