(1 Corinthians 12:14–26; cf. 2 Corinthians 12:9, Jonah 1–4, Judges 13–16)
“For the body does not consist of one member but of many,” we read in 1 Corinthians 12. Paul gives us that image that is familiar to many of us, the Church as a body. The work of the Church is vast and the parts are many. Consider teaching and studying God’s word (the work of the mouth), our missionaries abroad (the feet), ministering to the sick (eyes to see, hands to comfort), to name a few.
You’ve probably heard this before. I have too. Maybe when you hear, “the Church is a body,” you think about what part you are based on your strengths. The Church is a body, so that makes me a ______. If you’re compassionate, maybe you say, “I’m an ear.” If you’re good behind the scenes, maybe you’re a bicep or a brain.
Here’s the challenge I want to put before us: instead of sticking to what we’re good at, what would happen if we did more of the things we’re bad at? Because if this church would be a people who did the things they were bad at, how much more would we see the things that God is good at?
Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 12:9, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” When we give God our weaknesses, we demonstrate His strengths.
Let me tell you about three people: Jonah, Samson, and Caleb.
Jonah: God Works Despite Our Attitude
In Jonah 1, God gives Jonah a very clear purpose: “Go to Nineveh and preach.” Wouldn’t we kill for that kind of specific guidance? Job, school, life direction—what’s God’s will for me? But Jonah reminds us that even with clear instructions, obedience isn’t easy.
Jonah ran in the opposite direction. And after Nineveh repented, Jonah was angry. He prayed, “O Lord, is this not what I said? That’s why I fled, because I knew you are gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”
Like an angsty teen: “Ugh, God, I knew you’d be merciful!”
But for a season, over 100,000 people turned to the living God. Jonah gave God resentment and reluctance. God gave Nineveh salvation.
God does a lot with a little.
Samson: God Works Despite Our Actions
In Judges 13, Israel had done evil, and God raised up Samson through a miraculous birth. The Spirit of God blessed him with power and might to overcome the Philistines.
Surely this is the one who would deliver Israel! But you know how his story goes. Instead of focusing on God’s mission, Samson wasted his strength chasing after a Philistine woman, Delilah. God gave Samson power, and what did Samson give back? Infidelity. He forgot his first love.
And yet, in the end, Samson remembered God. And God used him one last time.
Samson gave back compromise and failure.
God does a lot with a little.
Caleb: God Works Despite Our Abilities
This one is personal. Not the Caleb from Numbers 13, but the Caleb from the mid-90s: me, son of Ed.
I’ve talked about this before: I grew up with a speech impediment. Reading out loud in school was a nightmare. I’d count the paragraphs, try to memorize mine, but it never helped. The closer it got to my turn, the more the dread built. Maybe you experienced that, too.
Never in a million years, I said, would I have a job where I had to speak in front of people.
For the longest time, I felt like God had given me both a thorn but at the same time a burden. The thorn was speaking. The burden was serving. I felt like I had to, but I gave back resentment, excuses, and fear.
Even now I carry some of that with me. But look where we are. I said I’d never do something like this.
I don’t tell this story to say how great I am. I still feel that tightness in my chest remembering those moments in the classroom. But I tell it because, like Paul says, imitate me as I imitate Christ.
That thing you’re bad at, the thing you’d never do, maybe that’s what God needs you to do.
God has a long history of doing a lot with a little.
God Will Do Good In Spite Of…
We see the pattern again and again:
- Jonah: God will do good in spite of our attitude.
- Samson: God will do good in spite of our actions.
- Caleb: God will do good in spite of our abilities.
And throughout Scripture:
- Abraham & Sarah thought they were too old.
- Gideon was fearful and hid in a winepress.
- Peter lashed out in anger and denied Jesus.
- Joseph was betrayed, enslaved, and imprisoned.
Yet in every case, God did a lot with a little.
Our Call
What are you holding back from God? What are the “nevers” you’ve told Him? God doesn’t always need what we think is our best. Sometimes He needs our willingness to give what we think we don’t have.
Don’t stop using your strengths, by all means please let the beauty of Jesus be seen in you. But don’t stop there. Remember the widow who gave her two copper coins. Jesus marveled not at the rich who gave much, but at the one who gave the little she had.
What is that little thing, that you think wouldn’t be worth anything?
Oh, what great things God could do with what little we have, if we were a people who did more of what we were bad at.
This is adapted from a sermon preached on September 7th, 2025 by Caleb McGaughy.
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