Bible Guys Classics: 2 Corinthians 11 Part 2

Well today Paul finally comes out with it. As he is trying to defend his authority and apostleship, he finally comes out and says, Okay, fine, you want to know, I'll. Tell you he's been hitting at this for a while and finally he's just going to drop it all on us in these fifteen verses. So he's Chris and I'm Jeff, and we're the Bible guys. Well, we are supposed to do a draft because our listeners are. Only Super Bowl only just very very close. Yes, that's right to the Super Bowl, and. So we are filming this just to be candid. This is way back in December, so today's December twenty ninth. We're filming this, that's right, So it's not even the first of the year. However, our listeners are going to be listening to this sometime like end of January. So keep in mind that if we make this prediction, we are weeks behind it. I feel like we had to say. That, Oh I don't think so. I think that you've already got some clinched teams. So it just just be just be you know, courageous. Yeah, but we're supposed to draft who we think is going to the Super Bowl. Yeah, that's okay, So we may draft somebody who's out. Yeah. Well, I mean that's the whole idea behind the draft. Not everything's guaranteed in the draft. Right, But what I'm saying is I don't want I don't want. I don't want anybody at the end of January to think, Okay, aren't they aren't they goofy, don't they know the record? Well so so anyway, so stick with. Clinched teams then you know they're in the playoffs at least. All right, Well, let's do our draft. We're going to do three teams each, okay, and we're gonna do rock paper scissors One two three? Shoot? Ready, right, one two three? Shoot? Oh that's okay. First, so he gets it. I had I had scissors, he had rock. Yes, So I'm going to go with the Eagles. Oh really? Yeah? Good because that left the team that's going to win the Super Bowl, that's the Bills, you think, so oh yeah, absolutely? Yeah? Okay, all right then and then my next draft on. My team is the Minnesota Vikings. Really yes, So I'm going to choose exactly the opposite. I think that the forty nine Ers are going to knock off the Vikings, you think so, I do, Yeah, I just I don't think that. I think the Vikings are fraudulent. Team wow wow, well do your friend down Cousins isn't gonna be happy about that prediction. Well, I didn't say his son was yeah. Yeah, okay, and then I'm going to go with. I'm gonna go with the Chiefs. Oh see, I don't like the Chiefs either. I'm done. I'm done with the Chiefs. Chiefs need to be done. Okay, So what are we at now? Is this my third pick? Yeah, it's your third pick. It's my third pick. I think, I think, I know you're gonna pick. Oh, the Lions. You know what. So so, by the way, I can almost guarantee that they're not gonna happen. No. No, what I'm saying is, by the time people listen to this, they're like they're like, they're like, dude, they're out. Right. By the way, would it be funny if if at the end of January, we're talking about this in December and they're they're in yeah yeah, yeah, maybe that right, drinking the blue kool aid. You never know? So well, I do know, I know for sure that's not gonna happen. I just did to be funny. Yeah, Well, the ones to watch the fun uh AFC would be the Lions to watch, and then the Cowboys I think would be fun. So I think I think the Bengals have a legit shot. To be honest with you, I really do. Yeah, that's why I thought you were gonna choose. Yeah, that's what okay. Anyways, and I. Think another fun to watch in the NFC would be the Dolphins, right, that was a really interesting game, yes, just recently, and then Jags, I think Jags. So football is always fun, and especially you know, once you get to a playoff situation, it's like a whole new season and so you know, it's a one and done kind of a thing, and you know, those things are fun to do, fun to pay attention to. Yeah, and I usually like the grilling and all the or dervs and snacks centered around the Super Bowl. Because we mentioned this in a service and the fall kickoff. I want to let everybody know that currently right now, being December, we have one more week left in my Fantasy football League four and I'm actually in the championship for the Super Bowl. And so am I and that's in my league in your league. Yeah. The funny thing is I'm in your league. Yes, the other it's the Church League, the good league, the league that's really hard to win at is the league that. You're no, no, no, hey, I'm in a twelve team league in the other league. You're in a twelve team league in this league. Of what I'm saying is they're both legit. So you know, the only difference is the other league that I'm in is a five hundred dollars cash prize. Oh wow. Yeah, so if I win, it's a five hundred our cash prize. So I'm really super open and I have one week to go, and I'm forty five points ahead. The Heritage the Heritage League, you get a super Bowl trophy and a diamond ring. It's a fake Diamon ring, but a great, big, giant super Bowl. Yeah. It actually looks fun and it's funny. Yeah, So I'll probably win that this week, just so you know. At least I'm at least I'm not lasting that. Least all right. So the things we do, we the diversions that we distract ourselves with, right. This is fun. Mostly what it does in the office is it just creates a lot of trash talk. Everybody walking around harassing each other and you know, making me feel like I probably need this fire a few of these people. So uh, as as Chris said at the beginning, this is where we've talked about it. We kind of set the table a few times. Hey, Paul's going to start bragging about his his record, and he's going to start bragging about his you know, his achievements, those kinds of things. So if you notice through this whole book, he talks for a minute about false teachers, and then he talks about his track record, and then he talks about a couple of things at the beat they need to crack, and then he goes back to his track record and false teachers. He kind of does. It's it's almost like his his style of talking to the cre is to give you a little bit and then to back off and change the subject for a minute, and then to give you a little bit of that and back off and change the subject for a minute. Instead of just pounding them over and over and over from start to finish and proving that he won. It's like, you know, I'm going to give you some bad news. But then go ahead and digest that while I talk about something else. And I'm going to give you some bad news and digest that while I talk about something else. That's kind of what he's doing here. So now, finally this is where he drops the bomb, and he goes, come on, these super apostles, as we were talking about yesterday, they're in here. They're willing to collect money from you, they're willing to have prestige among you, but they haven't paid any of the price. So if they want to brag about their achievements, let me tell you about my achievements, right right, And so it was. He's frustrated with the whole thing. He's embarrassed that he's doing it, but he feels it's necessary. Yep, So here we go. In verse sixteen in chapter eleven, he says again, I say, I don't think I'm a fool to talk like this, but even if you do, listen to me as you would do a foolish person while I boast a little. Such boasting is not from the Lord. But I'm acting like a fool. And since others boast about their human achievements, I will too. After all, you think You're so wise, but you enjoy putting up with fools. You put up with it even when someone enslaves you, takes everything you have, takes advantage of you, takes control of everything, and slaps you in the face. I'm ashamed to say that we've been too weak to do that. But whatever they dare to boast about, I'm talking like a fool again, I dare to boast about it too. Are they Hebrews? So am I are the Israelites? So am I are the descendants of Abraham? So am I are they servants of Christ? I know I sound like a madman, but I've started doing far more. I've worked harder, been put in prison more often, been whipped times without number, face death again and again five different times. The Jewish leaders gave me thirty nine lashes three times. I was beaten with rods once, I was stoned three times. I was shipwrecked once. I spent a whole night in a day adrift at sea. I've traveled on many long journeys. I've faced danger from rivers and from robbers, and I've faced danger from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles. I face danger in the cities, in the deserts and on the seas, I face danger from men who claim to be believers but are not. I've worked hard and long, and during many sleepless nights, I've been hungry and thirsty, have often gone without food. I've shivered in the cold, without even enough clothes to keep me warm. Then, besides all this, I have the daily burden of my concern for all the churches. Who's weak without my feeling that weakness, who has led astray? And I do not burn with anger if I must boast, I would rather boast about the things that show how weak I am. God, the father of our lord, Jesus, who is worthy of eternal praise, knows I'm not lying. When I was in Damascus, the governor under King Ratus kept guards at the city gates to catch me. I had to be lowered in a basket through a window in the city wall to escape from him. There it is so, there's once again, you know, Paul has this way of throwing down the supreme example, and you know he's certainly qualified to do so. If there was anybody who was you know, uh, you know, who set the prime example, it would be Paula and and you know what, he doesn't boast. You know, you can hear his hesitancy. He says, Hey, he's you know, he says, I know this sounds foolish. He goes, I really, what he's saying is this. I view anyone who does this as foolish. But you're no. Strangers to listening to fools, right. In fact, you've let other fools come in and they basically take you for everything you have, and they'll slap you and you'll thank you for it, right, right, So he says, if you're going to listen to them that way, then hey, listen to me this way, because you know, I'm going to talk with a foolish and a madman, right, but I'm gonna I'm gonna lay it down for you because you know, nobody has the you know, right to brag like I do. Yeah, it's just a tactic, right, That's that's what he's doing here. It's fine. This is what they do to you all the time. If that's all you listen to, right, And if that's all you need, listen to my resume on this one, right, If you're just looking for how impressive somebody's life is Okay, let me drop this one, because there's nobody that has put up with what I've had to put up with. So my life application study Bible notes have an interesting thing here. It says, because Paul wrote this letter during his third missionary journey in Acts eighteen through twenty one, his excuse me, his trials were not over. He would experience yet further difficulties and humiliations for the cause of Christ. And then it says see Acts twenty one, which will eventually get to. Acts twenty two. Paul was sacrificing his life for the good News, something his false teachers would never do. The trials and hurts we experience for Christ's sake, build our character, demonstrate our faith, and prepare us for further service for the Lord. I think it's interesting how it pointed out and that we're about to see that Paul's trials weren't over. He was in the midst of it, right And by the way, we don't really know when we're in. The midst of it. We don't know when it's going to end. Paul lists everything and we perceive it as something that's all in the past, but he's in the grind of it. Right now. It's almost incomprehensible to us. In our culture. You know, we wake up in the morning and go on a Sunday. Gee, do we want to go to church today? So many other things. I don't feel like it, I'm sleepy, it's cold outside, whatever, and so you know, we don't think of if I go with it, be with the other Christians, I might be stoned to death, or I might get arrested, or I might be attacked if I share my faith at work, you know today somebody might think, oh, you know, I might have a coworker who looks at me sideways, or I might get passed over for a promotion, or you know, I might get called into HR. But we're not thinking I just might get you know, beat to death. Yeah on this right. You know, do you remember the Columbine shooting. Yeah, so the Columbine shooting. Goodness, it was like what mid nineties. Yeah, yeah, it's terrible. So we were both youth pastors of the test. I was, so I was a high school master of a bunch of students, and we went up to this camp and that was one of the first sort of mainstream shootings because unfortunately, there have been many right, which is just a terrible topic, terrible, but anyway, in this particular case, the guys, the two guys doing the shooting, were somehow interested in people who believed in God. And there was a girl named Cassie Bernal, and Cassie Bernall's father wrote a book called She Said Yes, and he was our guest speaker at this camp. And then they actually loaded from Denver the twelve crosses that were actually at the funeral with all the notes from all the other students that were still on the crosses. And so we had fifteen hundred students from you know, from Georgia and from Ohio and from all around the mid East, you know, Midwest who actually were able to just sort of walk and read all the notes. It was very heavy, very somber. And then Cassie Bernall's father spoke, and the entire book was based on this fact. And this is sort of the point of the story. Where they were they were in the library and they were looking, they were pointing the guns of people and saying do you believe in God? And the kids, depending on their answer, they would get shot. And then they found Cassie under her desk knowing knowing that if she said yes, she would get shot, and and they said. Do you believe in God? And she paused, and she said yes, and then they shot her, killed her. And so it's just this idea of like, you and I have absolutely no idea how we would respond in that situation, and we hope we would be the person who says yes. And none of us you know, face. Uh, you know our we don't have to measure our faith, you know, up against situations like that. But Paul did, Yeah, well, you know, this is kind of the paradox of faith, and this is one of the paradoxes of having an eternal view, which is a big part of the challenge of Second Corinthy is it's a look into you know, look to eternity, not just to these temporal things. And for her, in that moment, she said yes and was immediately standing before the one she chose that's right, right, right. So for us, what a loss, what a shame. This is a horrible thing, and it is it's a tragedy. I'm not minimizing that at all. For her, it was yes and immediately standing in the truth of what she claims she believed, right in that moment. And so the more you be convinced, become convinced of eternity, the less afraid you are of entering it right. And so sure there's terror all those things. Just just like Paul said in the previous chapter, Yeah, I've been afraid, but man, it's worth it. So then he gives you this laundry list of all the times that you know, I was afraid, and these are the things that happen. You know, God's goal for us is not to protect us from every single problem. God's goal is for us to become more and more like Jesus and to be effective on the mission he has us on until the day he decides to reward us and promote us by taking us to heaven. And in that day it'll all makes sense, It'll all be worth it. I think of the you know, I've talked about this a lot on the podcast, the different people that I've met around the world, you know, through the Timothy initiative as. We start churches. Heard a story just recently a guy in Vietnam that they had come and told him, you're not a lot of plant churches, and it was people in the village. This isn't government stuff. This is just people in the village who were angry that this guy is sharing the gospel, and they threatened him a few times. Finally they begin to chase him. They chased him down and he's running as fast as he can't, trying to get away, and they just slashed him from top of his face to bottom like this and cut him up and beat him up and left him for dead. And then they went and got his mother and his sister and tied them up, threatened to kill them. He wound up getting some help and they wound up setting his mother and sister free. But he came away going, what am I doing that even my mother and my sister are threatened by the work. And he said, all I can do is trust that God will take care of us, protect my mother and my sister. I can't stop telling people about Jesus. And I think, man alive, Do I have that kind of guts? Do I have that Christian? Because in his mind, who else is going to say anything? It's in a community where there's no other Christians. So the only way to get the gospel to these people is to go through the suffering in order to reach the people that are necessary and that has been the story of Christianity for two thousand years. We have the extreme luxury of living in a country that has religious freedom. It's beyond comprehension how incredible this luxury of religious freedom is. But it also tends to make soft Christians a little bit. And so I think that we have to choose to be strong, otherwise we will be you know, we will just naturally become weak. But around the world, even today, there's tens of thousands of people who struggle and suffer because of the Gospel, and you know, God is good in the middle of that. Yeah, yeah, I heard similar stories in Cuba, you know, back when, back when persecution was really high, and yeah, it's amazing. And you go and you interview these people, you meet with these people, and you know which, of course, you know, you and I have the privilege of doing sure, because of our because of our job. But you know, you meet those people and you're like, You're like, man, I'm a I'm a piece of garbage, right, I mean, that's what makes you feel like, You're like, I'm not sure that I'm you know, really as strong as I think I am because I don't have to face any of these things, well. They inspire me. They so on one side, I feel like I'm not worthy to carry their bags, right, you know what I mean. On the other side, I'm like, I want to be right right, so i don't feel like I'm garbage and I'm never going to measure up. When I see somebody like that, they become my heroes, and I'm like, I want to be like that. I want to believe. Now, God's never put me in a position where, you know, if I say yes, I'm going to die kind of situation yet, but I want to believe that I will say yes. And the reason why I think it's possible is because others can. Others do. And so for two thousand years, when we see when we see Paul and he tells about his crises and his struggles, he went through them, and he went through them with dignity. He's even embarrassed to talk about him because the work was more important. That's what he's trying to say through the whole thing is the work being done among you is far more important than me. Bragging about my struggles. That's this whole passage if you're thinking about the big picture. And so they went through it and then if they can go through it, we can too. And if it was worth it, thank god he did, because the Gospel might not have made it to you and me. Right. Thank God that the people in the you know, five hundred years ago went through the struggles that they went through, or that the people who went through the struggles before the generation before you became a Christian. Thank God that they did. Because the Gospel made it to us. And now it's our responsibility to carry it with faithfulness. And if God was good to them and carried them through the struggles, he'll be good to us and carry us through even though it's a little bit of fear, even though we're not very good at it. He's going to do He's going to do the work in us. And that's the big picture of these three four chapters. You know, it's so interesting that you said you're like, oh, I don't feel like garbage, you know, and then you said, you know it inspires you and you want to be like them. Yeah. I was thinking about you said that, and I thought, I I feel like garbage all the time, Like like I when I when I I. Have self assurance in the strengths finders than so I never feel like garbage. I'm just like, like, what I mean. I remember being in the hotel, like when I was in Cuba. We talked to this guy and he's, you know, sharing Christ, and the government calls and threatens his daughters. Right, and I go. Back to the hotel and I'm like, I remember one time being in Buffalo Wild Wings and I felt like God was saying pray with this guy. And like I almost didn't, right, I end up doing it right. But there are times where I don't do those things sure where God says, hey, bring up, bring up God in this conversation, and. I'm afraid I'm afraid to do that. There are times where I quite literally brush God off if I because I'm trying to justify it, like is this really from God? Or is this something that maybe you know, like maybe it's too much, too much spicy pizza. You know, I think this is a it's a spiritual muscle, right, I really do. The reason why it's easy to not do it, the reason why you feel like, oh man, I feel like because I can't lift this heavy weight. If Arnold Schwarzenegger at his peak, back when he's mister Olympia or whatever, mister you know universe. Mister everything. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you. Know that dude could walk up and pick up you know, weights that you and I couldn't pick up with both hands. He can pick up with his little finger back then, right right, Well, that doesn't mean I'm garbage because he can and I can't. It's that he did the work to get there and I didn't. Right. So, now he had some genetic advantages and all those kinds of things, some certain gifts. But if I would buckle down and over the next six months or the next year, if i'd work hard, I bet you I could. Lift fifty pounds more than I lift now. Yeah, And so I. Think it's the same thing spiritual courage and spiritual effectiveness. It's like a spiritual muscle. You have to work it. So when when you were challenged to speak to that guy or to pray for that guy in Buffalo, wowings, Yeah, just do it. You do it now, you lifted that weight. It's like working out today. And you do that often enough and eventually you will be ready for the heavy persecution. So the people who succeed at are the ones who do do the consistent work. The reason why Paul was so strong, was because he had so many He just give us a whole list of all the big workouts he did. Yeah, you're right, you do have self assurance. Yeah, because I get it. You're you're you're the coach, you're the guy. You're like Chris May, right, Chris may is like. You can do it. He's our trainer, right, right, right. But I'm saying, yeah, I get it, but I'm referring to all the past failures when I didn't get him go to the jail. Yeah, yeah, right, But but yeah, you're right, it is it. Is positivity too. Oh we can do that. Yeah. Well, everything you're saying is correct. Like I realized that it's all potential, it's all you know, practical, it's it's all those things too. So yeah, you're right. This is why he gives it to us. Says, hey, I went through it, you can go through it, you can make it. Yeah. Sure, that's why guy gave us these lists. And by the way, let's just not brush past the fact that he says five different times, the Jewish leaders gave me thirty nine lashes. I mean, you know, forty lashes was illegal, because forty lashes. Was considered lethal. Right, So just in case our listeners you know, don't know this. So Jesus was actually given thirty nine lashes right and right before, you know, on Good Friday when he was you know, taking to the cross. And they said when he was done, he didn't look like a human, right, right. And so here's Paul saying, wait a minute, that happened to me five times. And that's only one of like fifteen things that Paul mentions. Just one of those. One of those five alone would have been like, are you kidding me? Three times he was shipwrecked, right. You know, I have a friend whose names Kujo. He survived a jet crash in the Democratic Republican. Because his name is Kujo. Yeah, yea, yeah, Kujo means boy born on Monday, by the way, which is funny. But that's an amazing story. He survived a jet a crash, a jet crow while he was going to preach. But Paul says, yeah, I was in three shipwrecks and actually I floated around in the. Water for a day and a half. Yeah. That's incredible, just incredible, incredible. Yeah. So so Paul has you know, basically dropped the hammer on this and then he's gonna move on and he's gonna, you know, pick up tomorrow. Uh. Talking about the thorn in the flesh, which is also a common phrase in church world. We're gonna find out what that means. Yeah, I think this is this chapter twelve is going to be super relevant for a lot of people. Yeah, So we will hopefully see you then on the bubble guys. H