Why Paul Bragged About Being Weak | 2 Corinthians 12:1–10

You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in

practical ways. Hey, everybody, thanks for tuning in once again

to the Bible Guys. I am Chris and I'm Kyle,

and today we're your Bible Guys because Jeff is on

this mission across the world helping people get to know

Jesus to the Timothy Initiative, and we are in the

middle of a series called Dangerous Prayers, ran about surrendered

and you know, this whole week has been quite a journey, right.

So it's been Isaiah in heaven talking about, you know,

send me God, and then we talked about Moses who says, okay, God,

show me your glory. You know, I want your presence

to be with me. What a dangerous prayer, right, to

desire God's glory more than anything else. And then yesterday

we talked about the disciples who are faced with a

really hard truth, who say, God, help us to increase

our faith. Right, so think about that, you know, send

me on whatever mission you want. God, help me to

know your presence more than anything else. And God increased

my faith so that I can do what you asked

me to do. Those are three dangerous prayers, and today

we're actually talking about the prayer that Paul prayed about

the thorn in his flesh. What is known as the thorn.

I've always hated that phrase. I've always hated it.

Really.

Yeah, I don't know, because it's not a literal thorn. Yeah,

I don't know. It's just for some reason, when we

when we attach things to you know, it's just become

known as the thorn.

What is it?

Yet, it's like it's like he never you know, I

guess a translation referred to as the thorn. That's that's

why where the name came from. Yeah, but anyway, all right.

So before we even get into that, we're going to

be playing this game. It's guess the word. And I'm

gonna be the host of this game. And I don't

know if you know this, but people call me the

king of catchphrase.

Apparently, because that's what that's what that's how this is Rich.

That's right, wrote this game and ord this made this

and she knows that if she's been to my house

a few times in which we've played the game catchphrase.

And I'll be honest, although I am good at catchphrase.

My wife, I have to minute. She'll she may not

listen to this podcast right now for this day, but

she is definitely better than me. Kristen. Yeah, she's not

a competitive person at all, but for some reason catchphrase,

she gets very competitive. She's good queen, She's the queen. Yep.

All right.

So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna get I'm

gonna have a word.

And by the way, this is sort of like taboo.

And if you're listening online, if you're watching online on video,

what we're going to try to do, hopefully is put

all the forbidden words on the screen so that you

can watch along with us and make sure that Kyle

doesn't make a blunder. Yes, so watch yourself, monitor yourself.

I'll be careful. So basically, there's a word that I

want Chris to say, but I have to avoid saying

these other words that you're going to see on this

The audience should race me, all right, So we'll go

number one. Yes, this word is something you will eat

in Apple. Nope, it's something you may get at doat

Francesca's probably a basic thing on the menu.

Lasagna.

Nope, it's even more basic than that lapasta. Nope, it's

similar to the saphistic part of that. Yes, I can't

say those words. Nope. It's it's like basic man, it's chef. Yep,

there you go. Boom, spehetty.

Okay.

Number two, this one is gonna be tough.

Okay, No, No, you can't move on yet. You gotta

tell us the words that you are not allowed to say.

I couldn't say pasta, noodles, Italian sauce, or meatballs.

Now, by the way, once I say the words, you're

allowed to say that, okay. So if I was like

I said pasta, you can say what's another word for

past There you go, you could say that.

There you go.

All right.

Our next one, this one's gonna be a tough one.

All right. So this maybe somebody is a magician and

they would do this. They will, no, they would shoot.

It's one word and it's something where they're uh teleport Nope,

shoot a word. I almost just said, okay, So they're

making you think something that isn't actually there an illusion. Boom,

that's the word illusion. Nice work, all right. So the

words I couldn't say were magic, trick, deception, mirage, or fake. Wow.

So good job. Do you I know that's kind of hard.

That was tough.

Yeah, so I said, magician, I don't know, hopefully I

in the past, I don't.

Know how I would say illusion.

Yeah, it's tough.

Yeah. A lot of times the way I approach this

game is I try to go at a different angle. Yeah,

and I say, like, it's like, what's that movie with

you know, the Illusionist? So yeah, cut it down illusion. Yeah.

So that's even like for the spaghetti One's why I

went with Duffern Chessca's. Cana know you like the place,

but okay, this next one is can.

Be brewal although I do like daffern Chesca's, but you

know it beats it.

Oh yeah, it's it's my spot.

It's number one for sure.

Nice all right. So third one here, I got a

word here where basically you can fall into it. You

may see this on a beach, a pit. It's more

in movies. Something you might see in movies, and it's

something where you end up falling into it and it's

really hard to get out of this thing. You may

see like Indiana Jones, you know, like an Indiana Jones

type thing where they are quick sand yes, boom okay,

couldn't say sink, No, sink. You can't say sink. You

can't say trap, desert, mud or struggle.

Okay, because sink would have given yes. Yeah, that's pretty crazy.

Yep. Okay, all right. Fourth one, all right, oh, here

we go, give me a moment here. I gotta look

at these ones here.

Okay, this is hard, Yeah, these are these are decently tough.

Yes, okay. Fourth one is it's it's an attribute that

somebody may have character nom mm, integrity, thank you, get

me go, Oh my gosh, this is tough. Okay. It's

also something in that.

Thank you you're.

Uh, it's something that may go out at your home.

Electricity.

Uh, that is one of the words. It's electricity.

But what is power?

Power? Thank you? Attribute somebody may have as I went

wrong on that west So it's strength, energy, electricity, control,

and authority. So it did a good job of locking it.

But once you said electricity, that was great, okay.

And and the word was power.

Yeah, power. That's why I said it's something you can

lose in a home. You said electricity, where does it

come from?

I would have said, like the old he Man cartoon says,

I have the blank.

Yeah, okay, I need to do a better job of

looking at it. Yeah, pop culture things. Okay, all right,

here we go this next one. Yea, it's not it's

the opposite of white as far black colors. Okay, that's

the first word. And then this is something you would

fall into, black pit. Nope, something else you'd fall into.

You got it?

Black ditch?

Oh my, yes, no, it's it's a black hole.

There it is. Yeah.

Well I didn't even say anything. You just got there

right so that the words were uh, space, gravity, galaxy,

universe or suck. So for you, I feel like when

I went with your your strategy of opposite of white black,

there you go. So you gotta dude, that was good.

Do you get all five? Next work?

All right? All right? So speaking question is did the

fans beat me?

Did the fans beat you? Yees? So I guess let

us know. I meant we mentioned this a couple of

days ago. We love to read your comments. I don't

know if you know what's but his comments. You're yes,

she comments all the times, very encouraging words. So maybe

if anything, just that could be a reason to start

reading the comments. Let us know if you beat us

in that game you beat Chris and that game beat me.

I guess I once thought I was the king of catchphrase.

That was tough, though.

I bet you my good friends Maria and Craig Brown,

dear friends of ours. Yeah, I bet you that they're

going to comment because I mentioned the restaurant that they

always take us to, Leciouse. Yes, and they're going to comment.

And oh my goodness, Yes, Maria Craig say hi. If

you're listening to this, yes, say say hi. And that's

all you have to do.

Just say. Then everybody else tune in to see Marie

and Craig say hi. Yes, So everybody engage. Everybody writes something.

Yeah, let us know. I mean, that's so that's their

favorite spot, is Luciano's right?

Oh yeah?

Okay, So here's what I want to do, just because

I want to hear on that comment. Let us know

what your favorite local restaurant is. It might be nice

to show some love to local fun spots, you know,

local spots, local restaurants.

Nice.

All right, So clearly that was not a weakness of

yours or mine that game, right, you'd say that was

a strength of yours? Right?

Yeah? Oh good?

But Josh, some people. This kind of thing may be

a weakness, and today we're actually going to talk about

turning your weakness into a strength. Whow as we lean

into Second Corinthians twelve.

That's good, that's good. Right, you took the assignment seriously?

Yeah, yeah, you really did well.

Good.

But I saw weakness and I was like, oh that

was good. That was the strength of yours. Because if

you would have said I'm not really that good at that,

that would have been my segue. But anyways, you are good.

And today we're going to be reading in Second Corinthians

in chapter twelve, and as Chris mentioned earlier, it's about dangerous,

dangerous prayers of surrender. Second Corinthians. You good if I

start yep? All right? Twelve one through ten says this,

this boasting is Paul speaking. This boasting will do no good,

but I must go on. I will reluctantly tell about

the visions and revelations from the Lord. I was caught

up to the Third Heaven fourteen years ago. Whether I

was in my body or out of my body, I

don't know. Only God knows. Yes, only God knows whether

I was in my body or outside my body. But

I do know that I was caught up to paradise

and heard things so astounding that they can astounding that

they cannot be expressed in words. Things no human is

allowed to tell. That experience is worth boasting about, but

I'm not gonna do it. I will boast only about

my weaknesses. If I wanted to boast, I would be

no fool in doing so, because I would be telling

the truth. But I won't do it because I don't

want anyone to give me credit beyond what they can

see in my life or hear in my message, even

though I have received such wonderful revelations from God. So

to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a

thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment

me and keep me from becoming proud. Three different times

I beg the Lord to take it away. Each time

he said, my grace is all you need. My power

works best in weakness. So now I'm glad to boast

about my weaknesses so that the power of Christ can

work through me. That's why I take pleasure in my

weaknesses and the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I

suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I

am strong.

Man.

That's I love this.

It's one of the most found on paradoxical statements in

the Bible. You know, they always say, like you know,

in order to be exalted, you have to be humble,

in order to be last, in order to be first,

you have to be last. You know, the most powerful

direction is not up and down, and you know, goodness,

there's so many other ones, but you know, in order

to live, I have to die, right, I mean, there's

so many different opposite kind of things, and this is

probably one of the most powerful. He says for when

I am weak, that I am strong, because the reason

why it's powerful is because the concept is deeper than most. Right.

So it's like what he's really saying is he's saying

that there's a human part of yourself and you're gifted, right,

You're gifted in all sorts of strong ways. You have

all these gifts that you know that that allow you

to progress in this world. And you know, being a

good talker, a good communicator, a good persuasive person, a

good relational person, right, all these different things, your your

wisdom and all these different things. But whenever you operate

in your own strengths. It's it's less of a spotlight

on God's power in your life. So you could say that,

you know, a really talented person could operate in their

own strength and be like even a pastor or a leader.

We've certainly seen those the share of those kinds of

people right where it's like, wow, they're just a phenomenal,

charismatic leader, but it seems like it's all them and

it's nothing about the power of God. And then sometimes,

not often, i should say not the majority. It is often,

but not the majority. But oftentimes we'll see a pastor

fall and we'll say, well, that's because it was he

was operating in his own strengths, he was operating in

it was all about him, right, or you know whoever.

So I think that I think that this concept is

so deep because what it's saying is it's saying that

whenever you're deficient, you have no choice but to rely

on the power of God in your life. And it's like, well, God,

I'm in capable. It's like Gideon, right, It's like I'm

incapable of doing these things, and God's like, perfect, You're

exactly where I want you to be, and you're like,

what do you mean, Well, God, I can't do this perfect.

David goes out there to fight Goliath. You know, I

can't put on Saw's armor perfect. Now you're gonna see

God's strength come through because there's no way you could

defeat Golias like this, right, I mean, come on, I

mean he was a good shot with the slang, but

that hadn't been gotten right. And so it's like, it's like,

that's what it means. It means Paul is saying, like

I have I am. So you think about Paul Man.

It's credentials. Think about Paul. There was nobody that could

have boasted more than Paul. Yes, and and and yet

what he's saying is is he's saying, there's this thing

in my life and and and uh, and it's just

there to remind me that I have to stay humble,

right because because if this thing weren't there, I probably

wouldn't rely on God as much as I do.

Yeah, So would you say the dangerous prayer here would

be the fact that he prayed three times for the

Lord to take the flesh or the thorn away. Yeah.

And then God's response was that my grace is enough.

I think it says in this translation I've always heard

is that my grace is sufficient for you. You've probably heard

that before and IV translation translations, sufficient is defined as enough.

And I don't know why, I've always loved that that

that that word that's saying, my grace is sufficient sufficient.

So here it says, is all you need.

All you need? Okay, I love that is my grace

is all you need. Whenever you know he's saying, he said, hey,

take this away from me. Hey, just you know, my

grace is enough. You don't need anything more or anything less.

This is what I got for you. I love that,

But I think for me that you agree with you.

I love the fact that he's talking about boasting in

the things that you're weak at, because when you're weak,

then he has made strong. And it's a reminder, yeah,

for all of us, or anybody really here who maybe

is going through something that maybe it's a sickness, maybe

it's an illness, maybe it's something in your life. I

don't know about you, but I think it's powerful to

pray and ask God. We should be praying, we should

be praying for healing over things. But you and I

both have seen a fair share of prayers that you're

just asking God's will to be done right, You're just praying.

And oftentimes I think one of the problems is that

sometimes we start to attach people's faith or lack of

faith into that healing. But we see here, here's Paul,

who is like the most faith right, he's the most

God following person. Yet God didn't take away that sickness,

that ailment, that illness, whatever it may be, that thorn

in his flesh. God said, don't worry about it, rely

on me. Just a fun story that just I don't

know if I've ever shared this story with you, but

there's one time, many years ago the youth group I

was leading, there's a big group of students and leaders

that went to a concert for a well known worship

group in the country. They're a well known traveling worship group.

But they also had their known to do like healings

at the end of the service. And so we had

a bunch of students and adult leaders who went out

there with these with to see this worship concert and

at the end there was a healing part of the

service where they told people that if you just had

enough faith, enough faith small as a mustard seed. God

will heal you of whatever it is, but you just

have to take the step. And so we had a

person actually who is maybe a junior, who actually drove

himself checked this out. He drove himself an hour to

get there. To this account, he everybody else drove together.

He had been running to something he had. He has

serious eyesight issues. If only he had faith, then God

would heal him. So what he did is he broke

his glasses that he needed to see, broke him in

half walk to the altar, could barely see. And God

did not take that from God did not heal his

his eyesight right there. And then his mom called me

the next day devastated because for one her son had

to drive in this condition where he could barely see.

He is on the road driving an hour away. I

didn't know about this until the next day, and then

also came home feeling extremely discouraged that his his what

he has perceived lack of faith because God clearly didn't

heal him. I remember just thinking, man.

And that's the danger we can blame ourselves. Well, my faith,

my faith was.

Percent And I think this is always a reminder for

me that like maybe it's not like I think we

should pray for healing. Maybe we should one hundred percent

we should pray him. Believe that God can heal us

and will if if he so desires. But the same

time trusting in what Paul is saying here that like

his grace is still enough. And I don't know if

you've had his stories like that where you've winnessed people

who like man, it must be my lack of faith

that God didn't heal this thing. And it's sad, yeah

it is.

And again the sad part is in the fact that

we sometimes take God's word and we say, well, we're

able to name it and claim it because the choice

is up to us, when when actually, in every single

time that God says, hey, if you have enough faith

ask this will be done. It'll be done. But what

God always does is he always throws it under the

umbrella that it's God. God is the one doing the miracle,

and so therefore it has to align with God's will. Right,

So it is if God chooses right, and so so yes,

we can have move we can move mountains, we can

see mountains moved with incredible faith. We can see mulberry

trees cast into the sea. We can see all these

different things, you know, with the size of a mustard. See.

But that's if God wills it. Right. So God is

able and we are able. Period, that's the end of

that sentence. Right. We can do this with faith under

the umbrella of if God wills it. Because after all,

if it were just a name it and claim it

kind of a thing, then Paul's foreign in his flesh

would have been gone. Yep. So Paul has enough, certainly

has enough faith. I mean, if anybody has the quality

of faith, and you know who makes the cut, it's

going to be Paul, right, So you know, Paul, Paul

is a guy in Act chapter nine where Jesus appeared

in front of him, He's the only apostle that is,

you know, to be categorized with the other twelve apostles, right,

He's the only other parstle that Jesus came down and

hand picked. And he did so after he died and

rose again, he came back down to the earth to

choose Paul to get the rest of the job done

to spread the gospel. I mean, he physically appeared in

front of Paul. Paul's talking about being caught up into

heaven and the paradise, which, by the way, what the

heck is that about? Right? We don't talk about that

a lot. Yeah, But Paul's talking about this vision that

he had, and he says, I don't know it was

a vision. I don't know if I physically went there.

I don't know if I just had this vision. Only

God knows. But let me tell you something. I was there.

And so he's talking about this miraculous thing. So if

there's anybody who has enough faith that God is real

and able, it's Paul.

Yeah. Yeah, And I was just going to add ont

to that too. You mentioned earlier about how he's somebody

who had done had followed the law growing up right,

and then he had this encounter with Jesus, the risen Savior,

and his life is completely transformed. But I like how

he talks about boasting in weakness, boasting your weaknesses. Isn't

it true that a tendency we may have as Christians

the more we follow God is to almost not even

notice our weaknesses. Right, We're quick to notice the weaknesses

of others and point out the flaws of others. But

I actually think it's interesting the guy who should be

it was probably very mature in his faith. Was very

quick to point out that he will boast, he'll brag

about his weakness. I think this is a reminder for

anybody who listened to this who maybe like it's really easy,

especially when on his daily podcast. You'll listen to a

daily Bible podcast to really allow knowledge to puff you

up and build you up and make you feel somewhat

superior or feel like you have all the answers and

the truth and all that stuff, It's very easy. I honestly,

I think I've met so many people over the years

who the knowledge has puffed them up and created pride

and that sort of thing. Then you have Paul who

goes literally the opposite of that. He's like, no, no, like,

I'm going to boast about my weaknesses for when I'm

weak and I made strong. That's literally what it should

look like. The more you if you want to go

deeper and grow deeper in your faith, it actually looks

like that acknowledging that you don't have what it takes.

You're not strong enough. You have more weaknesses maybe than

you do strengths. You know, and maybe maybe God has

allowed this to happen because we absolutely need him. Because

I think that when once knowledge starts to puff up,

you begin to realize that you start to think, oh,

I got this, I'm smart enough, I'm good enough, I'm

out to enough, that's right, and miss out on all that.

Yeah, some of the best times in my life are

when I think to myself, if God doesn't show up,

I'm toasted. Right. I mean, you know you have to

you have to have enough faith in your life to

move forward with every God calls you to do. And

it's like it's like, man, you know, anything without risk

doesn't really require God to show up, right, And you

know that's almost the definition of faith at times right

where where it's like it's like, Okay, I'm too weak

for this to happen. I can't manufacture this, I can't

produce the results of this, I can't make this happen.

Only God can do this. And so you know, that's

a form of saying, like, God, I can't do this,

I'm weak in this area, right, Only you have the

power to do this. And so I think that this

is a This serves as a great reminder and I

do love the fact that we don't know what Paul's

Infirmaty Infirmary was you know, some people have said over

the years, I've read so many different things. Some people

have said he was hunchbacked. Have you ever heard of that?

That he had this hunchback? Which because because the word

Paul means well, gosh, what does it mean? It means

it means like, does it mean hump or something? No,

Paul means can you look at up? Maybe you look

up what the word Paul means, but it means something

like that, and they thought, oh, maybe that's why he

was named that. And then some people for some reason

say that Paul's eyesight I've heard that, yeah, or maybe

it was he was blind or something, you know. And

then some people have attributed to you know, different various things.

But either way, it doesn't tell us.

Yeah, it looks like it's me Paul. It means small

or humble. There you go at, okay, what I mean

small or humble? You only look up Saul real quick,

just because I'm curious. Yeah, which it wouldn't be with

King Saul.

But still, I just remember being in the Life of

Paul class with doctor Haru, and I thought, and somehow

I thought he attributed the definition of the word Paul

to the hump to the humpback, but maybe not maybe

but maybe small mint hunched over. I don't know. But

either way though, I love the fact that Paul doesn't

mention what it was because it's symbolic for the rest

of us. And so think about the credentials of the

apostle Paul. Number one, he was Pharisee, right, so he

grew up in the religious elite. He had political prowess,

he had a future, he had definitely an income, right,

he had fame, He had all those different things. So

in Act chapter nine at the beginning, it tells us

that he was so much in favor of the religious

movement that he was actually in charge of persecuting Christians.

And he was commissioned by Caiaphas to go to Damascus

to accomplish in Damascus when he had already successfully accomplished

in Jerusalem, which was to perscue Christians. He's the head

of all of that, so he had influence, he was

rising up through the ranks, and Acts chapter seven he

was an intern and Act chapter ninety's in charge of

the whole thing, so all of that. But he was

a Roman citizen on top of that, and it was

so unbelievably unique for a Jew to be a Pharisee

to also be a Roman citizen, and for him to

be a Roman citizen. And by the way, the context

of that is, of course Rome was occupying the territory

of the Jewish people at the time. So Rome had

conquered the world, which is why they were under They

were under oppression, which is why when Jesus was under trial,

remember he had to go to both Caiaphas and then

to Herod and then you know, then Caiaphas the Supreme Court,

and then go back to ponscious Pilot. It was both

Rome condemning his death and then also the religious leaders

because the Religiou leaders can't do anything without Rome. They

were just there. They were the taxation, they were the

conquering political people of the world, the power. So Paul

had this unique position where he was a Jew who

he was a Roman citizen, which is why later on

when he's thrown in jail, he doesn't tell anybody he's

a Roman citizen, and then finally he says, I'm a

Roman citizen. They feared him and they let him go. Right,

So think about everything he has worth to brag for

and then none of that. But he studied under the finest.

He studied under Gamelion. So think about his training under

the very best of the best. So here he is

this prestigious guy. I've always I've always been impressed with this.

But did you know what Paul's final exam was? If

you ever heard this, So, the pharisees would have to

study the Book of the Hour, Oh yeah, right, or

the Pentitook, the five Books of Moses, and it would

always be printed in the same fashion. And so for

Paul's final exam to become.

A Pharisee, they haven't memorized.

Yeah, you'd have to have memorize. But get this to

such a Yeah, of course you had to have memorize.

But worse than that, they would close the Book of

the Peditook and they would take a nail and they

would pick anywhere on the Bible, and they would or

on the Books of Moses, and they would drive and

nail through anywhere in that book. And he would have

to quote every verse that I went through. Wow, based

on where it was on the page. Wow. Yeah, that's

that's according to according to tradition, that's what it was.

On all five books of the Bible.

Yeah, it was like the first first, like thirteen, right

or something like. That's very well.

I'm not sure about us. It's most people's belief that

he would have taken the test at thirty. But but

you're thinking of just to be a Jewish boy would

have the Books of Moses memorized by the age of twelve.

Yes, right, and then they follow a rabbi and do

the whole thing.

Yeah, but in order to become a pharisee and to

have memorize it to that degree, you would have to

start that at thirty.

That's insane.

But yeah, I mean think about all the credentials. So

if there's anybody who had a right to brag, it's Paul, right.

So he can brag about the things that he left,

the influence that he had, the difference that he made

in the Christian movement to where to where like he

had to literally be lowered out of a wall. He

had officials after him. So he has caused the ruckus

to the highest degree. And so he says, listen, I've

been to heaven, whether it's bodily or not, I've been

there in a vision or something. He's like I have

reason to brag, and yet, and yet, I'm telling you

right now, I'm not going to do it because I

can tell you a bunch of stories. But instead, what

I'm going to tell you is when I'm weak, then

I'm strong. What an unbelievable.

Motto, y'all boast in my weakness? Yep, yeah, that's great.

So all right, Well, it's a dangerous prayer to pray

God take this away from you, but it's probably even

more dangerous to say I'm okay with not having it

being removed. So hey, that's our time, so hopefully we

will see you next time on the Bibble guys,