Radio Broadcast Tuesday 07/22/2025

Classic Christianity – Power in Weakness – Part 2 – 7-22-25

Power in Weakness – Part 2

Sometimes we have thrones in the flesh that won’t go away. Sometimes they are people, sometimes they are situations, sometimes they are tribulations, and no matter how hard or how many times we pray that something be done about them, God’s answer is, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” Other times, we wish we could speak better, or write better, or do things better, or not get so angry, or not do this or that, and we pray to God to take care of that issue, and God’s answer is, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” But Lord we say, I could witness so much better if I could speak better, and God says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” And after sometimes, many times of praying to God, it finally sinks in on how the just shall live (that’s you and me who are in Christ Jesus), and we are to live by faith from first to last, from beginning to end, for ALL time. He is the ONE who lives in and through us. We can do NOTHING of ourselves. He is the one where ALL the power resides. Simply abide in Him and allow Him to direct ALL your paths.

~ “I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to gain, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of it I do not know, but God knows. And I know that this man—whether in the body or out of it I do not know, but God knows— was caught up to Paradise. The things he heard were inexpressible, things that man is not permitted to tell.

I will boast about such a man, but I will not boast about myself, except in my weaknesses. Even if I wanted to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will credit me with more than he sees in me or hears from me, or because of these surpassingly great revelations.

So to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me. That is why, for the sake of Christ, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:1-10

…..

And a certain ruler asked Him, saying, “Good Teacher, having done what, will I inherit eternal life?”
And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good, except God alone.

~ “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” 1 John 5:12

~ Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; the one believing in Me, even if he should die, he will live. And everyone living and believing in Me shall never die, to the age. Do you believe this?” John 11:25,26
—

Pray to God:

Do you really want to know the WHOLE Truth of what is going on today?

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7

Lord Jesus, teach me the truth of the world today and give me the wisdom to know the truth and identify the lies of the devil. Thank you God.”

~ “And so he told us that, therefore I’m going to boast all the more gladly about my weakness. Why? So that Christ’s power, he said, may rest on me. Verse 12. This is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in my weakness. I delight in it. Now, look at this, guys. Think about this for a minute. Think about how much sense does this make to you on a worldly basis, on just a worldly basis, I’m going to get up this morning and I am going to delight in the insults that you’ve given me, and I’m going to delight in My hardships. I’m just thrilled to death that I lost all this money on the stock market recently. I’m just thrilled with that. Going to delight in that hardship. I’m going to delight in the fact I lost my job, Praise Jesus. Persecutions. I’m just going to delight the fact that people turn their back on me and say the guy’s an idiot. Going to delight in that? Going to lighten difficulties. God, we don’t delight in difficulties. We delight when things go smooth. Thanksgiving. What are more more Thanksgiving about? All the good things that have happened to us. Thank you, Lord Jesus for my family. Thank you, Lord Jesus for all this food. Thank you, Lord Jesus for Pepto Bismol. We got a million things to thank God, but do we thank him for the hard times. Do you know guys, it’s through the hard times when God builds character in you. I’ve told him sometimes, Lord, I’m as big a character as I need to be. I don’t need any more trials and tribulation. He said, we’ll just see about that. It says, trials and tribulation build character.” ~ Bob George

Bible Study Booklets

Announcer 0:13
Welcome to Classic Christianity Radio with Bob George Bob’s clear, timeless teachings on the complete forgiveness and unconditional love of Jesus Christ will transform your life as you learn about God’s amazing grace. Let’s join Bob as he teaches us from God’s Word.

Bob George 0:29

So when you say here that the way you get strong spiritually is to get weak, that’s a tough one to grab a hold of, but the Bible says that I will boast all the more gladly. He said, I’m not only weak, I’m going to boast in my weakness, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. There again, the power, the power of God, may rest on me. So you ask yourself the question, how do I plug in to what the Bible says is power, and he says, God wants me to have this power. Then how in the world do I get it? And can you see guys with our background, it’s it’s go try harder. Go study your Bible harder, pray harder, witness to more people. Go to church. Tithe if you want to get really powerful, tithe twice. And we come up with all of these activities, spiritual activities, and tell people, if you do this, just like if you lift weights, you’re going to get strong. If you do this, you’re going to get strong spiritually, don’t we? Am I right or wrong? And so we want to be strong spiritually. We don’t want to be weaklings. And so what do we? Do we go out and try to make ourselves strong spiritually. And Paul says, No, guys, the only way that you’re ever going to experience the power of God in your life is when you recognize your weakness, when you recognize the fact that I can’t, but He can. When you recognize the fact that apart from Christ, I can do nothing, well, you see, we say those words, but do we put them into practice? Apart from Christ, I can do nothing. What’s he talking about? I didn’t need Christ to drive the car here to church. Sometimes you don’t even need Christ to preach here in church. But the issue is, what is he talking about? He’s talking about the things that I’m interested in, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, long suffering. Those are the things I’m looking for. Those are the qualities I’m building into you. Your educational system can build in intellectual qualities, your physical system can build in physical qualities, but if you’re looking for spiritual qualities only, I can build those into you. And there’s only one way I’m going to do it when you recognize that you can’t, and I did, because I’m not going to compete with you. I’m not going to be in this ball game with you. I’m not going to be getting in the car with the two drivers with the two steering wheels and say, Let’s both of us drive. One of us is going to be the driver and the other is going to be the spectator. But we’re not going to have two drivers. And until you come to the point of saying, I let go of the wheel, that I can’t, but you can, you’re never going to experience the power of this trip. And so, contrary to everything else that we know in human experience, how do you get powerful? And how do you get strong in the Lord, by recognizing your weakness.

Does that make isn’t that crazy, guys? I mean, the logic of that doesn’t even there’s no logic to it. But you see, God doesn’t deal in human logic. He deals in truth. He knows us. And he knows that if I have something to do with my trying to make myself strong spiritually, guess who I’m going to be talking about me, and if all I have to do to build a church is to just get a hold of some concepts, worldly concepts of how you draw crowds, and you draw the crowd, guess who I’m going to be talking about, us, and how many people we have and how much money we have. That’s why it says guys, that a man who compares himself by himself is a fool. Why? There is nothing good that can come from it. If I’m comparing myself by you, there’s only two things I can come up with. I am better than you, that’s pride or woe is me, I’m worse than you. That’s self condemnation, and both of those are out of the pit of hell. And so the issue is, when you’re out trying to build something on your own, when you get it, you’re really proud of yourself. If you go out and lift weights and get some big muscles, I’ll guarantee you you’re going to wear a t shirt, a tight one, let your muscles bulge. I’ve never experienced that, but I’ve seen it. Am I right or wrong? If you’ve gone out and gotten educated, I guarantee you’re going to let everybody you know how smart you are. We’re so proud of ourselves. Paul says. You’re going to be strong in the Lord, there isn’t going to be any room for pride. Why do you think people resist this message of grace? Because you can’t get prideful over it. There isn’t anything to get prideful over. You didn’t have anything to do with it. But, Lord, You don’t understand, I’ve kept short accounts with God. I’ve been diligent in keeping my sins confessed. I know, and that’s why you’re talking about it. That’s why you’re talking about it, is because you’re prideful of what you’re doing. If you understand, what Christ did at the Cross took away your sin. There anything to brag about that is there? Now look what I’ve done. There isn’t anything you’ve done. If there was anything that I had to do with salvation, I’d be bragging about it, and that’s what we do. I got baptized. I got double dipped. I spoke in tongues, and I think big, hairy deal. Why are you bragging over something you have done instead of bragging over what God has done? But that’s the way we are, am I right or wrong, isn’t that the way when I’ve accomplished something, brother, you’re going to know about it. He said, My grace is sufficient. Paul, forget about what you’re doing. My grace is sufficient. What I did for you is sufficient. You don’t need to try to add to that equation. I did it. You didn’t quit adding to it.

And so he told us that, therefore I’m going to boast all the more gladly about my weakness. Why? So that Christ’s power, he said, may rest on me. Verse 12. This is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in my weakness. I delight in it. Now, look at this, guys. Think about this for a minute. Think about how much sense does this make to you on a worldly basis, on just a worldly basis, I’m going to get up this morning and I am going to delight in the insults that you’ve given me, and I’m going to delight in My hardships. I’m just thrilled to death that I lost all this money on the stock market recently. I’m just thrilled with that. Going to delight in that hardship. I’m going to delight in the fact I lost my job, Praise Jesus. Persecutions. I’m just going to delight the fact that people turn their back on me and say the guy’s an idiot. Going to delight in that? Going to lighten difficulties. God, we don’t delight in difficulties. We delight when things go smooth. Thanksgiving. What are more more Thanksgiving about? All the good things that have happened to us. Thank you, Lord Jesus for my family. Thank you, Lord Jesus for all this food. Thank you, Lord Jesus for Pepto Bismol. We got a million things to thank God, but do we thank him for the hard times. Do you know guys, it’s through the hard times when God builds character in you. I’ve told him sometimes, Lord, I’m as big a character as I need to be. I don’t need any more trials and tribulation. He said, we’ll just see about that. It says, trials and tribulation build character.

We’re not going to seek character that way. We’re going to go out and try to build character. Say, how do you get character? Same way you get everything else. Go out and work at it. Said, No, you don’t have to work at it, believe me, I’ll put you through. I’ll let you go through enough trial and tribulation. You’ll get some character if you just approach the trial and tribulation with the right attitude. But he’s saying to us, guys, it’s look, for the sake of Christ, Jesus, I’m going to delight in my weakness. You’ll delight in it. Now, guys, want to ask you a question. Answer it honestly in your own head. Do you actually delight in your weakness? How many of you have come to understand that you are weak? When do you really understand that you’re weak? You or when you’ve just gotten out of surgery, that’s one way, when you’re sick, when you’re down, and many times even when you’re deeply depressed. Now, guys, instead of turning to the world for solutions, God could be allowing that to take place so that you would ultimately have brains enough to turn to Him for His sufficiency. It’s in your weakness. Remember what they call foxhole religion. You’ve heard that terminology. What is that? People in the service, people in the army in a foxhole getting bombed and turned to Jesus. No wonder they call it foxhole religion. What Lord, if you don’t get me out of this, I’m not going to get out of this situation. I am weak. I’m powerless. He says, Good, now my strength will be there.

And so guys, I think there’s to a degree, there is an educational process that we have to go through, and that is getting our minds renewed on what is actually truth. Because our pride does not like this. I mean, there isn’t anything in our pride that says I like this message, I want to walk out of here just rejoicing in how weak I am, because our pride says, No, I don’t want to be weak. I want to be strong. But God says you will be strong if you recognize you’re weak, because my strength will be there, not yours. We think we’re so powerful, we build these big atom bombs, and we build hydrogen bombs. And you look at what happened during World War Two in Japan, when we bombed Japan, and you take a look at that city, what it took, and it took billions of dollars to develop these bombs to wipe out a city. And then you see a hurricane come through and just collapse the whole place. You think God’s power is a little bit more stronger than our ability to build bombs. Think that tsunami had a little bit more power to it than a bomb.

Click to Donate to Bob George Ministries

Check out our website, Shop.BobGeorge.net. Let’s join Bob. Now as he continues the radio program.

Announcer
Classic Christianity Radio thanks you for your support of our online and radio ministry. Make sure to visit BobGeorge.net to order a copy of the closer look Bible study series. A Closer Look Bible studies features eight in depth study guides that detail hundreds of Bible verses to help you deepen your understanding of the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ a closer look. Bible Study Guides are an excellent tool for both individuals and larger Bible study groups. Please visit bobgeorge.net to order your copy of a Closer Look Bible studies, as well as many other wonderful books, CDs and study guides. With your support, we can continue to share the good news of Jesus Christ. Let’s continue now with our Classic Christianity Radio program.

Bob George 14:16
So you see, guys, there’s in reality where we have to die, to our own self sufficiency in order to come alive, to his. Where I have to come to a point in my life of saying, Lord Jesus, from what you’re looking for, I can’t pull this off. Isn’t that true in regard to salvation? Let’s say we say, hey, I want to be saved. I want to be strong in Jesus and get saved. Okay, go out and try it. How far are you going to get? Guys go out and do this and this and this. You’ll get saved. Will you? How do you get saved? When you come to the end of yourself. There’s not a person sitting in this room or in the sound of my voice today that. If indeed they’re saved, there wasn’t a point in time in their life when they said, I can’t do it Lord, I cannot pull this off. I’ve tried. I’ve tried all the religious stuff that they told I cannot pull it off. I fall flat on my face every time. The things I want to do, I don’t do, and the things I don’t want to do, I’m doing them anyway. Wretched man that I am who will free me from its bondage of sin and death? And you hear a small voice that says, Thanks be to God. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, He has set me free. And we come to Him by faith, total, without effort, by him and him alone. We right or wrong? It’s how you come to Christ. How do you live with him? As you receive Christ, Jesus, the Lord, so walk ye in him. How did you receive Him? By coming to the end of yourself and walking by faith. How do you walk in him? By remaining at the end of yourself and walking by faith so that he can brag and delight in your weakness. You get insults in the world. Do we get insults with each other? Everybody like you? How many of you, when you got a hold of this message, I cannot wait to go back to my friends and give them this good news, they will be so happy to hear this? How many of you ever read into that? I just now, how many of your friends were really happy to hear this? No, they thought you had just gotten demon possessed. So folks, you got to learn, and that’s where God’s Word comes in, that if a whole world is against me, Christ is for me. Been married. Did your mate leave you? Ever happen? Don’t need to hold up your hands. Did your mate leave you? Is that the end of the world? Might have seemed like it at the time. What got you through that? If God is for me, who can be against me? Why do I want to hold on to him if he doesn’t want to hold on to me? Well, why do I want to hold on to her if she doesn’t want to hold on to me? If God’s for me, who can be against me, I’m never going to be alone again. Whether I’m with her or whether I’m not with her, I’m never going to be alone again. God said to love one another. If you choose not to love me, that’s your prerogative, but I choose to love you. Those are all renewing of the mind. It’s beginning to see things from God’s perspective, but rather than man’s perspective. Said, I’m going to rejoice in the fact that I have these insults. Why? Because it reminds me of the sufficiency of Christ.

Guys, I’ve said this before, and we’ve talked about it before. Why, when God saved us, did he come to invade our life and leave this old yucky flesh in place? Why? Well, first of all, let me ask you a question. Are you all aware of the fact that you still have yucky flesh? Does anybody in here doubt that at all? If you do, we’ve got an insane asylum down the road a little bit, if we’d like to get you to. And we still have yucky flesh. Now, do you think that God is not powerful enough that he could have eradicated that flesh? I mean, when he saved you, I’m just no more flesh. You’re just going to be absolutely perfect. That’s what we’d like for it to have been. In fact, some of us, when we came to Christ, that’s what we were taught, you’re going to be, you’re going to be sinless now? That only lasted for a couple seconds. But the issue is that that would when we are, when we’re, when we’re in Christ, Jesus, that that is Christ living in me, but he chose to live in this body that contains indwelling sin. He left it there. But he said, If you’ll walk in the Spirit, you won’t fulfill these desires of the flesh. He didn’t say, I’m going to take the desires away from you. There would not be, quite frankly, guys, if God would have taken every sinful desire away from you at salvation. Do you know how long you’d hang on to Jesus? About five minutes. Do you know why Paul was able to say, I rejoice in my weakness? Because he recognized my weakness is what keeps me dependent on Jesus. That’s why he left us with this flesh. It keeps us dependent on Jesus. Otherwise, who are we going to be dependent on? Me. I don’t care if at salvation I didn’t have. Have anything to do with him eradicating this flesh, I’m going to ultimately take credit for it. And many times you say, Well, I don’t glorify my yuckiness. I mean, I’m not just walking around bragging about it. I don’t have to brag about it. It’s just there. It just raises its ugly head whenever it wants to, but it’s what keeps you dependent. And if we’ll begin seeing this, we’ll begin seeing Hold on a minute. Instead of rebelling against my weakness, I’m going to start rejoicing in my weakness, because our tendency is, dog gone it I’m going to improve that. I’m going to get better. I got a bad temper, I’m going to work on it. I got a critical spirit, I’m going to work on it. Any of you have any of those, don’t work on it. How much good does that do guys? You can work on it all day long. You’re never going to eradicate it. You say, Well, that’s not good news. Yes, it is, because you and I are indwelt, it says that we have living in us God and that I have the ability to participate in that divine nature that lives in me anytime I want to. That’s supernatural, guys. I also can participate in this flesh of mine, and I can do that quite well, and I’m familiar with it, aren’t you? Not with mine, with yours. But that’s a choice. I have a choice to participate in the divine nature and do things God’s way, think things God’s way, or to think things my way. And guys, if I’m full of pride, it’s just my way.

That’s why in Christian marriages, that it says to learn to submit one to another. What is that saying? Is quit always wanting to be right. Like a guy said, I married my wife, her name was right. I just didn’t know her first name was always. I we want to be right. He said, You’re going to have to give that up and say, I don’t care what I’m thinking. This, this thing sounds so good. You can do some great, funny things with this, men from Mars and women from wherever they’re from, and all that kind of stuff back and forth. But the issue is that is not the issue. It’s not the thing that this is just the way we women think, and this the way we men think. The issue is, I know that’s the way you think. That’s why you need the Lord, because both of you are messed up, and you need. Amen. Paul says, Amen, you need the Lord. That’s why in decision making, it’s not here’s what I feel and here’s what I feel, and I feel this way because I’m a man. I feel this way because I’m a woman. But let’s say, What does God say about this? What’s God say about it? And guys, if we don’t use that as a standard, we’re just out to lunch. We’re just out on our own. If we don’t make our decisions based upon what God has to say, then we’re just out on our own, and destruction is ahead of you, either destroying of your marriage, destroying of your relationship. How many of you are married in this room? Okay, how many of you, when you got married, stood before the minister and said, I pledge to be angry and I pledge to get my way, so help me God? And I pledge I’m going to hang in there till death do us part. I took my wife for better or for worse, even though she’s worse than what I took her for, that’s what I took her for.

No, I’m there to love and obey, cherish, just so they love. It’s unbelievable. Six months later, ready to kill each other. What happens? We destroy it with our mouths, with our minds. We get in and take something that God put together beautiful and begin the process of destruction. Why? Getting our own way. Getting her own way. In other words, instead of saying, I’m going to glory in my weakness, and husband, you glory in your weakness. Because, man, you got them, we’re going to go to God. You. We’re going to go first to God to see what does he have to say about it. I’m not saying he may not reveal anything to us at that time, but that’s where we’re going to start. We’re not going to start with what I think and what you think. We’re going to start with, What does God have to say? If you do, you’re going to solve yourself in marriage, tons of problems, I tell married people today something that Amy and I have learned, if you’re in a decision making process about something until the two or you are together, don’t do it. We’ve done both ways in our marriage. Well, this is what I think we’re going to do, well, Amy, well, I don’t think we should do that. Well, I don’t care if they do it anyway, and you live the results of it. I don’t think there’s a decision that Amy and I have ever made on anything when we weren’t 100% together that hasn’t proven to be absolutely successful. Didn’t God, make the two of you one? If he made the two of you one, then have a oneness. That’s why it says it’s so vitally important. Do you know the only thing it talks about in marriage in the Bible is, don’t be unequally yoked with each other. People have these marriage seminars. And I say, I don’t know what you talk about in these marriage seminars, there’s only a couple of things the Bible talks about in marriage. I mean, I could have a 10 Minute marriage seminar, but I don’t know, you know, people say, Why don’t you do one on marriage? I don’t know how to do one on marriage. I could do one on how you live your Christian life. We get more results out of our conferences than any marriage conference I’ve ever been to, because you learn how to think. But if people will just if we’ll just learn that it’s not important for me to be right. What’s important is for us to be accurate. It’s not what do I think it’s what does God have to say? Go there first. Some people are in rebellion of that, well, it just shows you where your heart is.

Announcer 27:11
Thank you so much for tuning in to Classic Christianity with Bob George. We hope you’ve enjoyed today’s program. We truly hope that today’s message has inspired you to walk a life of faith in the Lord find more information online at BobGeorge.net. There you will also find available CDs, DVDs and Bible studies available for purchase. It’s through your help that we are able to spread the good word of Jesus Christ. Until next time, walk in faith be good to one another and praise the Lord. Amen.