When I Am Weak, Then Am I Strong

let's clap our hands of the lord together shall we let's lift our voices and magnify his holy name come on let god arise in this house let praise be lifted up in this room right now hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah happy father's day to all the dads and to every man in this room that has long to be a father and that has not been the case for you we honor you as well and um to the dads that have lost children we honor you to those that have your babies with you in church today or maybe you've got prodigal children and you just don't really have a clue where they're at happy father's day i feel the holy ghost in this room right now let's lift our hands and close our eyes let's pray for just a moment everybody close your eyes just focus on the lord i feel a sweet sovereign touch the lord in

this room right now in the name that is above every name jesus we call upon you right jesus have your way today let the comfort of your spirit be in this room in jesus name in jesus name i am humbled to be here in this pulpit this is a church of power this is a great place however you're thankful for apc amen what amazing house give honor to brother willow ford his beautiful wife and to bring it along his family and to brother buddy the elf on the front seat up here god bless you and i had to say that i just you're just as ugly as he is i just had to say it it just it is it's true so i feel at home if you can't tell but i am to one of my dearest friends with adam dennis i love you and his precious family and my wife and my son

and daughter they're here today however they're hanging out in the pastor's office but after many years of infertility my wife and i were blessed to adopt a baby boy 10 years ago and 10 years ago this weekend we actually brought him home to our house but after a stillborn baby three years ago three weeks ago we welcomed sparrow joy and i've got a picture i want you to meet my new little girl there's sparrow joy miracle that's my rainbow baby right there and so you may be seated in jesus name thank you so much i want to begin today with a a statement that i am very passionate about it's this everything that god does he does it right there is nothing that he can do wrong we may think he missed the mark but it's really the fact that his ways are higher than our ways and that his thoughts are higher than our

thoughts it's evident in every page in this holy book that if we trust in the lord with all of our heart leaning not to understand him in all of our ways acknowledge him that he will direct our paths the genesis of his greatness is found in the beginning god created the heaven and the earth and the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep and the spirit of god moved upon the face of the waters and god said let there be light and there was light and god saw the light that it was good and god divided the light from the darkness and god called the light day in the darkness night and the evening and the morning were the first day time does not give me the permit that i would want to read through every verse but the thumbnail of creation is very clear god spoke

it and it was so on the second day he separated the waters and created a ferment on the third day he separated water from land and created a dry ground plants and trees all around if you remember on the fourth day he created the sun the moon the stars and the rest of the universe on the fifth day god created fouls of the air birds and living water dwellers fish and all these other type of water animals that are around us and on the sixth day well that's the day that god created land animals and human life as we know it and on the seventh day he took a nap you'd be exhausted after all that work wouldn't you john had this revelation that changed the world around him and we would do ourselves good to remember what he spoke so clearly and convincingly that in the beginning was the word and the word was

with god and the word was god the same was in the beginning with god that all things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made in him was life and the life was the light of men and the light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not if you jump down to verse 14 this is what we all love and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us the bible is not some myth that people have fabricated over time but rather it is a timeless reality and a truth that we will do well if we choose to abide by isaiah thunder for unto us a child is born unto us the son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulders and his name shall be called wonderful counselor mighty god everlasting father the prince of peace of the increase of his government and peace there

shall be no end but it does not stop there he continues by asking the question who hath believed i report and to whom is the arm of the lord revealed for he shall grow up before him as a tender plant as a root out of dry ground and he hath no form of communist and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him he is despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and we hid as it were our faces from him he was despised and we esteem him not surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we did esteem him stricken smitten of god and afflicted but somebody's going to connect with this verse but he was wounded for our transgressions and he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and shouted with his stripes

we are healed not only did god create the water we drink and the food that we eat the land that we live on the oxygen in our lungs but he also knew that there would come a point in time that we would need for him to serve as a place of refuge and strength your bible this holy book this story upon story is filled with dynamic details that shed some light on the situations that would ultimately come into our lives are you with me this morning regardless of what the devil may depict on your life and against the lies that he has spoken against you and your future though he may have pushed you into a corner at some place in your life i'm looking at some good men of god that need to hear me say these words it's not over it's not over we serve a god who is our refuge and strength

a very present help in the time of trouble and he will not suffer your foot to be moved and while he's keeping you he will not slumber and when we humble ourselves under his mighty hand he would exalt us in due time and therefore we cast our cares upon him because he cares for us i just wonder on this sunday morning i didn't come to bash any dads i come to encourage somebody we serve a mighty god if you believe that would you just throw your hands towards heaven and would you bless this holy name right now come on i want us to make it known that god is great and he is greatly to be praised come on apc lift your voice and give god great praise in this house right now hallelujah to the lamb of god praise god the lord is strong and mighty mighty in battle and there's no one like

him he has a reputation that proves him i mean have you ever considered about how great our god really is and we sing about it all the time pastor brad but for us who've been redeemed by the blood of lamb and have a testimony it's not about lyrics for us it's our lifestyle when i think of the goodness of jesus and all he has done for me my soul cries out praise god for saving me you don't know like i know what he's done for now this is not a concert but just go ahead and just the truth is we have a testimony and we have a book that tells us about the time that he cast the devil out of the synagogue that he healed the man's sick apology that he healed the lame of bethesda he restored the prodigal son i mean you read he carries the lost sheep home he is moved

with compassion over the lives of the people he created he resurrected the widow's dead son the ruler's daughter and lazarus was stinking on the fourth day he still said come forth and he got up he cleansed the filthy leper that's how great our god is he healed the woman with the issue of blood he opened blind eyes unstopped deaf ears straightened crippled feet and with her hands he breaks the feathers of the slain and he is the god that called us out of darkness into his marvelous light and i think he's worthy of some praise on this sunday morning somebody shout yes i have said all that to say this one thing we are easily pleased when god pleases us we're easily moved when god is working on our behalf the way we've prayed for him to work and we shout and we dance and we run rejoice and sing and all my life he's

been faithful and he really has been what about that time when god doesn't answer the prayer you've asked him to do so with is he still a good god when everything around you seems to be falling apart is he still powerful when you feel like when you call on his name and he's not there how many men in the house they have been through some storms in your life and yet god even though you felt like he was so far away was just as close as the mention of his name my little girl sparrow i call her roe for short she was a miracle child at the fine moment we found out my wife was pregnant after losing a child as i told you we went through this pregnancy was very very tricky i had to cancel some trips and stay home because we thought she was coming early and the day that my wife

was admitted to the hospital she had the condition that was just wrecking her body her blood pressure was not under control and it was just going crazy brother williford when i took her to the er she was about 174 of a 110 and then it kept rising after they gave her medications after 15 hours of being on this medicine it just kept rising and rising and rising and the doctor walked in and said we're gonna have to do a c-section we're gonna lose the baby and the mother we gotta do this quick and so in that time from the moment he walked upstairs the or until the time he come back my wife's blood pressure plummeted to like 84 55 and the baby's heart rate was dropping drastically i was losing my wife and my baby and i just did all that i know i could do is just kind of wish with a prayer

with adam lord i trust you do what you have to do that's tough to say but that's really when a man's faith is put to the test that even when i can't see it he's working even when i can even but it looks like trials are in my life i still have to proclaim god i trust you and so about 10 minutes later the doctor's in the room he just walked back in and the nurse come in and said the or's ready he said thank you jesus my wife was turning gray there was there was just a lot of just a lot of stuff going on she don't remember anything of this day and all she remembers hearing is the doctor say thank you jesus we go to the or my baby girl sparrow is born blue and not breathing and and i'm i'm watching the whole surgery i love surgery i used to work

in surgery i used to help with knee replacements and hip replacements and although the jazz open heart surgery i just it just i love it and so my wife's knocked out she's on that good juice so it's all good you know she's she and she said she's not crying and i said i know i know and the doctor looked at me and said it's normal the baby's stressed out but give us some time and i watched within 14 minutes as they massaged my little girl's body and gave her some oxygen as the color came into her skin and and and the lungs began to work and i watched and i kept waiting for that normal newborn scream that cry just but it wasn't happening it's just this tiny little noise coming out and when it was all said and done we were walking the recovery room and i will never forget this moment because this

is where god spoke to me on what i am sharing with you today are you ready for this we're walking pastor brad to the recovery room and my wife is on the stretcher with the anesthesiologist and the or nurse and walking beside me as i'm holding my little girl to the recovery room is our doctor and he said you have any questions for me man she's a beautiful baby oh she's so cute you got a great girl do you have any questions i said no i just kept wondering why is it that she did not cry aloud i kept waiting for the reaver for that loud scream to come out here's what my doctor told me as he put his arm around my shoulder he said reverend sometimes the whimper is more powerful than the scream and it rocked my world for a moment there because my little girl was weak but she was yet

whimpering and there's something amazing when the weak whimper there's something powerful when the weak don't have a lot of strength to say anything loud and strong but enough hey faith as the size of the grain of you don't need a whole lot honey you just got to use what you've got i'm hearing the divine anointing of the holy ghost to tell somebody your season of struggle is not defined by how loud you can scream but if all you've got is a whimper just to say jesus he's as close as the mention of his name i'm preaching to some men in the house today it's okay to let some tears come out of your eyes you're not a weak man because you cry you're a strong man because they that sow in tears they're gonna reap enjoy you don't know where they even what i'm going through that's okay you don't know what i've been going

through but i want to tell you we've got one common truth we serve a mighty god and when the week will empower he shows up he says it's going to be all right weeping may endure for the night but joy comes in the morning aha forgive me for being so personal but i'm sick and tired of pretty preaching that has no punch to it i know you don't have that here i know you've got dynamic preaching here but i can only preach to you the way that god speaks to me he began to tell me i've got you in the palm of my hand you don't have to worry about your baby you don't have to worry about your wife and they're sitting in that room right now healthy waiting for me to shut up so we go eat lunch and such were some of you i know that's i get it i'm sorry wrong

sermon let's go back sorry bible quizzing guys completely out of context here it is everybody shout paul paul knew what it was like to have trials and adversities am i doing all right today is this okay paul we find was always in the center of god's perfect will he was threatened with death in jerusalem but in the center of god's perfect will was arrested by the romans but in the dab smack middle of god's perfect will locked away in a dark damp cell mistreated but he was yet in god's perfect will bound escorted under guard to a ship that would take its final destination a place from which there would be no coming back and yet paul isn't god's perfect will he was restricted from moving about freely held prison among heathen soldiers and sailors that care little for god but yet it blows my mind he was still stuck in the middle of god's

perfect will he was on a ship bound for roman ship that would face one of the scariest and fiercest storms throughout all the bible a ship that would be wrecked on a strange island and after being broken into all the pieces left by himself stranded brother buddy you guessed it he was right in the center of god's perfect will the point that i'm trying to make to you is this the storms of life and adversity around us the attacks of the enemy do not mean that we are not in god's will in fact many times it's quite opposite have you ever considered my servant job is what god said job was minding his own business doing what he was supposed to be doing much like some of you when the trial came to your life and your family and your situations have taken a turn as it seems to the worst have you ever considered

that when the lord spoke to satan that day he was not saying i want to see how much faith job has of me no i believe it was a exclamation mark at the end when god looked down and said hey job i have faith in you let that sink in for just a moment you mean god has faith in me yeah he'll not put more on you than what you could ever bear he gives you the ways you know there's this thing called the fellowship of suffering and it's only for a certain select who god has the confidence that they are going to curse me and die you know what's amazing about job's life is i have to believe that he may have made this statement why curse god and die when i can bless him and live i mean really when you consider it he's done everything right according to the book he's been

faithful feared god was not evil back to paul this this particular storm blew him off course and let's face the facts ladies and gentlemen tragedies slow our progress and they always alter our plans and they bring this unwarranted frustration in our lives because our blessed plans are often shattered by circumstances of life and we find our plans shipwrecked for no fault of our own i didn't ask for this boat to wreck i didn't ask to be stuck on this island paul could have said well i guess it just wasn't god's will for me to reach rome after all i mean but but his personality and his persistent mindset while in these circumstances set paul up for success because here's what one preacher said jack cunningham said this when you change what you're saying you'll change what you're seeing it's not so much on what is around me you know it's really the mindset that god

is trying to teach me something in this moment am i am i talking to anybody today am i completely overhead are we are we good i won't be much longer i promise just another hour we'll be done okay just this is it that's it i'm not saying i'm coming to close because i'm not going to be one of those lying preachers i'm not doing that i'm not i'm not asking five more minutes because i'll take ten i'm not doing that everybody shout storms we have a way of sapping our strength and draining our energy and weakening our hope and crushing our resolve but i have three words i want you to remember and i want you to say every time you wake up and you feel like you don't have what it takes just trust jesus at some point you've got to muster the strength to rise above the waves and hold on to the

victory comes you know what's amazing about the story when paul reached in and that viper latched onto him sinking those things and pushing that venom into his body he shook off the beast and they said oh my goodness when you have a miraculous moment there's always going to be somebody trying to put some false label upon you when you have to just realize hey sometimes actions speak louder than words i don't have the words to say it but shake off the beast anyways it's remarkable to me that the viper can strike but it's venom can't kill especially when you've got a royal bloodline flowing through your veins and i'm looking across this tabernacle today at some men and women that have survived some treacherous storms in your life you ought to rejoice in the lord right now you ought to give god thanks that you're still here if god called me he's going to carry

me regardless of what life may bring my way regardless of the trials of my present situation and the obstacles that try to block me i'm still right in the middle of god's perfect will and nothing shall change the fact that he is for me and look if god be for me please tell me who can be against me i just want to tell you greater is he that's within you than he that's in the world and no weapon formed against you shall prosper it may not look like it's going to happen right now i may not see the end result this moment the clouds are starting to settle in but i'm going to hold on because i see a promise coming down the dusty road i see a way in the middle of the no way i see a peace coming from my storm i see light in the darkness i want to tell somebody

today it's okay to have a whimper because when the weak will empower it gets god's attention so here we are on this father's day and you're wondering man what kind of deal is this i wrote this message on tuesday putting my thoughts together and around 1 15 this morning i erased everything i wrote and i sat in my little girl's room she has a recliner in there i'm 40 don't have a recliner in my room the lord began to speak to me this wasn't in my previous notes but here it is today for we would not brethren have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in asia that we were pressed out of measure above strength in so much that we despaired even of life but we have the destination or the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust ourselves but in god who raises the dead who deliver us

from so great at death and death deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us notice what paul said i had trouble i was just spirit of life the sentence of death stated that he would not trust himself but in god what a powerful statement knowing that god delivered him once before and god could do it again he goes on we're in trouble on every side yet not distressed perplexed but not in despair persecuted not forsaken cast down but not destroyed always bearing about in the body of the dying of the lord jesus that this life also of jesus might be manifest in our body he says of the jews five times i received forty stripes saved one thrice i was beating rods one saw stone thrive suffered like night and day been in the deep journeys often perils of water pearls of robbers perils of my own countrymen perils by the heathen

perils in the city in the wilderness the sea false brethren weariness and painfulness watching is often in hunger thirst and fasting often is cold and nakedness beside those things that are without that which cometh upon me daily the care of all the churches as if what i was going through was not enough and yet there was other things on top of me paul was a man that was used greatly by god brother williford but he's also men that suffered greatly for god i have this unique relationship with with first peter chapter five verse eight we all love it be so religious because the adversary devil has a roaring lion walking about seeking whom he may devour and we rejoice over the fact that god's for us yeah he's powerful and there's no line greater than the line of the tribe of judah and we we go bonkers and go nuts and we shout like hallelujah

anyways but if you trickle down a couple more verses it talks about something like this after that you have suffered a while i'll strengthen you establish you settle you perfect you none of those comforting moments come to pass until the reaver after you have suffered a while i feel like god wants to encourage somebody today and i don't usually do this but if the worship team can sing the goodness of god again i believe that's going to be perfect for what the lord wants to do right now but i have just a couple more things to say and it's this right here if you're not dead then god's not done if you still got breath in your body you still have a reason for being alive if you're here under the bounds of trials and tribulations you're in a room full of people just like you and you're not alone am i preaching to anybody

in the house this morning come on i i really would have would have much rather preach something else and and and i would man i i love good preaching shouting dancing and running around but sometimes we got to come to the grips of reality you can play it's not always perfect but here's what paul says i remind you here it is verse 7 of second corinthians 12. he said there was a thorn given to me in my flesh the messenger of satan to buffet me this i should be exalted above measure for this thing i besought the lord thrice that it might depart from me he was asking god to get rid of it but it wasn't going away and he said unto me my grace is sufficient for thee my strength is made perfect and weakness most gladly therefore will i rather glory in my infirmities that the power of christ may rest upon

me therefore i take pleasure in mind infirmities and reproaches and necessities and persecutions and stress for christ's sake and here it is for when i am weak then am i strong when the weak whimper strength comes to their life anybody feel like you're weak today it's okay anybody need to touch the lord on this sunday morning i i'm so sorry for not being your typical father's day sermon i just had to obey god today is that all right maybe i'll come back and do a better job i don't know i'm just i'm just trying to pull for some man today it's okay to need the lord on your side a little extra even right now this is a special father's day for me because i mean i i i've had my boy london in fact i've had him in fact i've had my little boy london for quite a while and and i've had all

kinds of blessings you know i grew up in a broken home and and i i didn't have the relationship with a father and i didn't have everything in my world that was so perfect and the way that life it should be but there was a moment in time there was a moment of time where i was reaching out for something a little more life a little more hope a little joy and and i didn't have a dad that was always there for me and i always wanted that special relationship but then the lord told me that just because your dad was a failure you don't have to be a failure and i'm going to give you something that's going to reverse the curse in your life i'm going to give you a baby boy it's going to come in a way that you last expected i mean because every woman wants to give birth that's

her desire but my wife she couldn't conceive a child so he adopted my little boy 10 years ago you know he prayed so hard for baby sister he was eagerly desiring to have a baby sister and my wife conceived a little seven-year-old boy brother willowford lost that baby sister how do you explain that to a little boy you know what i did for the bread i said london did you pray that god will let mommy get pregnant he said i did i said did you pray that you could hold her he said i did i'm preaching did you did you did you ask the lord to let you see her he said i did and her little stillborn body not even a pound my son looked at me and i'll never forget what he said he said daddy god is so good and we kept on praying she's filling her diaper right now that's my

girl hallelujah go ahead girl let the lord use you hallelujah on this sunday morning it was a little too deep i had to lighten up the load that's what no pun intended sorry but adam that's the sound of life it's a whimper but it's the scream if you're not loud right there she's hungry but listen listen to that sound it's a sound of life it's a sound of healing it's a sound of hope sound of restoration and let me just tell you something right now it may have started out as a whimper but god's going to let you release a sound that's going to shred every adversary in your life right now would you stand and lift your hands and love the lord for just a moment come on will you lift your hands right now and pray come on let god arise in this tabernacle hallelujah jesus i bless your name today lord i

thank you for your power i thank you for your mercy jesus god you've never left me you've always been there for me jesus you've always been on my side with every breath of god is this is an opportunity for every person in this room right now to come to this altar and to lay aside every weight in the sin that does so easily sent you and run the race of patience i'm reaching for people right now that need god to touch you in a divine way don't miss your moment you know the lord wants to do he wants to take that whipping moment where you feel like you don't have enough strength to say anything to him and he draws you close to him he says when you're weak that's when my strength is made perfect god is in this room right now to reach for somebody and tell you that you're not alone you're

not by yourself i'm with you always i'm walking with you in this season of struggle i'm still the god of your salvation i love you so much that i went to a place called calvary i was buried in a bar tomb and i rose again on the third day i want to give you the joy of your salvation i want to give you hope and peace and joy i dare say find somebody grab them by their hand prayer of your brothers prayer of your sisters let the holy ghost move in this house right now come on say all my oh is oh of god is is is is oh is just keep praying where you are but if you're with your family right now would you join hands together your family and if if you're here without family members find somebody to link with there is an all-out attack against the families of god i'm

blessed to travel across our fellowship and i i've been in several services lately where i've just felt a pull from god for men to take a dominion over their families we need to remind hell of its future and guess what it is what it always has been you are defeated and our god is still on the throne anybody want the lord to bring you some comfort and peace to your home and bring some life and strength and joy i've been there wondering if if i'm ever going to receive the blessing of a child i i was there for five years it was a hard struggle going to mother's day and i i was the music i was a youth pastor i had to watch baby dedications and yet i had no baby in my arms i had to sit there and make programs for fathers and yet i had no child of my own and

that's when the lord began to work on me you have to rejoice with those who rejoice because when it's time for me to bless you you're going to want somebody shouting at your corner so you know what i felt this morning driving over here i was i was just talking to my wife and just small talk but i felt impressed today to pray for two things number one for god to strengthen the men of this congregation i'm looking around this room today i see good men i see godly men i see men just like me that have lived in a struggle i see men that have come through that struggle and i see some that are still living in that struggle you know what we have in common we're in the right place at the right time with the right god it's simple i know it's not wow but that doctor told me sometimes the

whimper is stronger than the screen because even when you don't have the strength to cry out jesus the lord spoke to me and said that i'm as close as the mention of my name and if i can call men out of cage with a still small voice then i can be moved with compassion by what little strength you have left you're not alone you're not by yourself god is for you i feel the sweet presence of god on this sunday morning your hands and voices and pray aloud right now yeah just stay right there just play a little bit softly come on lift your voice right now come on let a blanket of comfort come across this tabernacle right now let a wave of god's kind of glory into this tabernacle right now haha hallelujah jesus hallelujah jesus is and present that faith and your praise and then hallelujah let's do that together right now

let's do that together right now come on let everything that had breath no matter what strength you have right now let's praise the lord together shall we all my life you have been faithful i will of the goodness i will see is it's running after you but you just run after him thank you jesus is