Where Weakness Meets Glory & Faith Under Pressure
Pastors Abel & Scarlett Bonilla 5/10/2026
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Summary
Pastors Abel and Scarlett Bonilla explore how God's glory and power are most clearly revealed when we reach the end of our own strength. Drawing from the lives of Paul and James, the sermon encourages believers to see life's pressures as tools for refinement rather than signs of abandonment.
Key points
- •Paul's 'thorn in the flesh' illustrates that God's strength is not perfected in human ability or charisma, but in weakness and yieldedness.
- •Pressure in the life of a believer is not meant to destroy faith but to reveal its depth and develop spiritual maturity, much like wind strengthens a tree's roots.
- •Anointing is not synonymous with talent or personality; it is the result of a vessel being broken and submitted to God through difficult seasons.
- •When facing trials or a lack of direction, believers are encouraged to ask God directly for wisdom rather than relying solely on human counselors or worldly systems.
- •Intercessory prayer, particularly by parents for their children, is a powerful tool for sustaining faith and reclaiming those who have wandered.
Scripture
Strength in Weakness
Faith under Pressure
The Power of Prayer
Motherhood and Family
Spiritual Maturity
Life application
When you hit your limit this week - whether in parenting, work, or personal struggle - stop trying to perform and instead vocally surrender those 'weak' areas to God, asking Him to let His strength rest on your inability.
Reflection questions
- In what areas of your life are you currently trying to appear 'strong' or 'polished' instead of being honest with God about your weakness?
- How does the analogy of the 'biosphere trees' change your perspective on the current pressures you are facing?
- Paul listed his shipwrecks and trials as his 'boasts'; what difficult parts of your story can you now see as evidence of God's sustaining power?
- When you lack wisdom, do you find yourself turning first to worldly sources or to God in prayer?
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Full transcript
0:00That's right. It's a hard job being a mom. You guys can open
0:00your Bibles with me to 2 Corinthians 12, 9-10. You don't have to
0:06stand. If you feel to, you can. But I'm so excited for Mother's
0:12Day. It's my first Mother's Day. Praise the Lord. Yes. And we'll get
0:18to that in just a minute. But if you're there, you can say
0:23amen. Praise God. 2 Corinthians 12, 9-10. It says, And he said to
0:29me, My grace is sufficient for you, for
0:35my strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore most gladly
0:41will I rather boast in my infirmities, that the power
0:46of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure
0:52in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses,
0:58for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I
1:04am strong. if you guys would pray with me just a moment if you can
1:09close your eyes close your bibles lift your hands to heaven and ask the lord
1:13to speak to you today god i pray over this message i pray over every
1:16person that's walked through those doors today god that they would hear a word from
1:20you god that your spirit would move upon every heart in this place that no
1:24flesh would glory in your presence jesus that your perfect will would be done today,
1:29God, and that we would get a hold of you, God, that this word would
1:34take root, that it would grow, God, fruit and bear fruit in the lives of
1:40these people here today. In Jesus' holy name I pray. Hallelujah. Amen. You may be
1:46seated again. Praise the Lord. So, it is my first Mother's Day. My baby girl
1:51is about to be one. She'll be one next month. And... I'm telling
1:57you, very exciting. It is a blessing. But, you know, I've
2:03always seen motherhood through my friends. This is my first time
2:08seeing it through my own lens. And I've seen them handle
2:14with grace what motherhood is. And so children are a blessing,
2:20but they can really humble you real quick. And so, you
2:26know, I now understand why a mother... has the same cup of
2:31coffee that she's had from 8 a.m to 5 p.m and it's not even halfway
2:37done because you barely get a chance to really sit down and just process the
2:42day okay and I've only got one so I can only imagine I know here
2:47at Cathedral we've got many kids and it's such a blessing also I've noticed with
2:53motherhood that there's a lot of pressure on being a mom, especially through social media
2:59today. There is so much going on online, and it's like any little thing you
3:04do can be wrong. You know, it's like give your child organic food. Don't give
3:09them organic food because the organic industry is twisted and then and you're going, oh
3:14my word, and then they say don't let your child cry too long and and
3:18if you do you're going to traumatize them. They're going to have attachment issues and
3:22you've got to figure out how to and you're just trying to figure out how
3:26to just hold your child long enough. My baby girl's heavy. I mean, I'm trying
3:31to keep my arm attached to my shoulder. She weighs about the weight of a
3:35mini fridge. she's a heavy one I
3:41love her though she's junk but you know it's it's such a blessing but
3:47it comes with a lot of pressure and and I know that there are
3:53different stories that that came through those doors today I understand not everyone in
3:59this room carries the same story some women in this room are praying for
4:04children they've not yet held some women have walked through grief of losing children
4:10parents Some have carried the ache of losing a mother and so this
4:16day resembles a lot of grief for you. Some are waiting on promises that they
4:22thought would already be fulfilled by now. And some of the men in this room
4:28know exactly what it feels like to silently carry pressure while trying to remain strong
4:34for everyone around them. And so everybody comes from a different place and this is
4:39the kingdom of God, right? Some have walked for decades with him and some are
4:45new and they're just learning how to trust him. And so we all come together
4:50in this beautiful place. But no matter what season brought us into this room today,
4:55every one of us understands what it feels like to carry something that's heavier than
5:01ourselves. And so the context we find ourselves in when reading this passage in Corinthians
5:06is Paul is writing to the church at Corinth. Corinth was a very
5:11powerful city. It was known for trade, for commerce. It was
5:17known for cultural influence. It was shaped deeply by Greco-Roman values.
5:22They valued speech, image, influence, public reputation. So if you were
5:28powerful and sounded powerful, people followed you. If you appeared strong,
5:34people respected you. If you were persuasive enough, if you had enough
5:39charisma, people followed after you much like the world we live in today. Amen.
5:45And so that same atmosphere had begun to sweep into the church at Corinth
5:51and Paul was having an issue because one of the greatest apostles of the
5:57New Testament, Paul arguably, is having to defend himself to the very church he
6:03helped establish. Because what had happened was there were these chief apostles
6:08Paul called them or super apostles and he was being sarcastic and saying such
6:14They had entered the scene and they were these men that were very polished.
6:20They were very persuasive confident harsh in their authority Paul literally references them slapping
6:25some of the Saints in the face in correction and but they were
6:31highly skilled in their speech they were very impressive they had great reputation and
6:37so corinth had had felt like this this is what strength looks like this
6:43is this is what perfection looks like this is how we need to present
6:48ourselves and they started to question the way that paul had carried himself and
6:54somewhere along the way the church at corinth started equating impressive with anointed
7:01and now paul finds himself in a strange place he's having to defend not
7:07only what he preaches but he has to defend the very shape of his
7:13life and ministry to this church and the thing about it is that this
7:19idea stands in direct opposition to the gospel at itself because at the center
7:24of christianity we find a cross that is bloody that is shameful that is
7:30painful full of humiliation What looked like weakness to the world
7:36is what God used to overcome the world and so in Christianity this idea
7:42of strength is twisted this world has such a different idea of what it
7:48means to be strong and Paul he decides he's going to respond to these
7:53accusations of weakness he even admits Paul that maybe he wasn't the best spoken
7:59and They picked on him because they were these super apostles did because they
8:05said you speak so eloquently in your writing but when you when we see you
8:11in person it's not the same and so they were getting it confused with spiritual
8:16authority and Paul responds in a way that's a bit shocking because it's the opposite
8:22of what we would do instead of listing off all of his qualifications to justify
8:28himself. Well, I've done this and I've achieved this and I've accomplished this and I
8:33have this many degrees and I can speak this many languages and I'm both Hebrew
8:37and Roman and I fit all of the cultural things that you want me to
8:42fit into. Instead of listing off all of the things that make him great, he
8:46starts listing off all his weaknesses. he starts naming
8:52imprisonments shipwrecks persecutions afflictions pressure weariness pain he says
8:58from the jews five times i received 40 stripes
9:04minus one three three times I was beaten with rods, once I was
9:09stoned, three times I was shipwrecked and Paul keeps going on and on. Why?
9:15Because he had discovered something Corinth still did not understand that the power of
9:21God was never resting on the ability to appear strong. It rested on his
9:27willingness to yield in weakness. Paul realized it is not my qualifications
9:33that made God use me. It is not my eloquence. It is not my achievements.
9:38It's not my reputation. It's not my education. It's not my friends. It's not what
9:44I can wear. It's not how much money I have. It's none of that. It's
9:49not my status. It's not because I know what to do all the time, when
9:55to do it. No, he said my strength My strength, his strength is made perfect
10:01in what? Weakness. Not in what I can do, but in what I do
10:06when I can't do it anymore. The truth is that I can't in my
10:12own strength heal a body. I wish I could. I actually don't wish I
10:18could because I don't know what I do with that kind of power. I
10:23can't trust myself. I don't trust this flesh. In my own strength, I can't
10:29raise the dead. I have tried. I'm a hospice nurse, so
10:35context. I can't save a soul on my own. I cannot break chains on my
10:41own. But I'll tell you something, I know the one who can. And he will
10:47not withhold himself from me. He said, ask and ye shall receive. Ask and
10:53you shall receive. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it will be opened unto
10:59you. And when I come to the end of myself, his strength begins where mine
11:04runs out. And the thing about it is that that is the complete opposite of
11:10human nature because we want to impress. We want to control. We want
11:16to perform. We want to appear capable. But the kingdom of God has
11:22always functioned differently. God loves putting his divine strength inside of weak things
11:27so nobody mistakes where his glory comes from. I asked my husband if
11:33I could use this example today because he's used this before in his
11:39preachings and he gave me permission. But there was a scientific experiment
11:44called Biosphere 2, and I believe it was in 1990, but the building
11:50is still up today if I'm not wrong. And it was this beautiful
11:56enclosed space environment built to imitate Earth itself, and inside were different ecosystems.
12:02There was a rainforest, a desert, a farmland, ocean with coral reef inside.
12:08Everything in this environment was controlled. There was no outside interference, there
12:14were no storms, no unpredictable pressures, and so they planted trees inside and they
12:19noticed that these trees started to grow very quickly, very tall, and so they
12:25were excited about it, this experiment to work it out. But after a while,
12:31the trees began to fall. There was no disease, they had all the nutrients
12:36that they needed, and they were confused because it looked like they were thriving
12:42and growing and healthy. But scientists discovered that without wind
12:48or environmental stress, the trees never developed the internal strength necessary
12:54to sustain their own growth. So they grew fast, but they
13:00did not grow strong. And I think that sometimes we want
13:06a spiritual biosphere. God, remove every pressure from my life. Remove every
13:11burden. Remove every difficult season, God. Remove every hard thing. But the thing is that
13:17what if God is wanting to put those pressures? What if some of the pressures
13:22we are trying to escape is actually developing the strength that we have been praying
13:28for? What if the weight is not punishment and the resistance is not God abandoning
13:33you? What if God allows pressure because pressure reveals who you depend on?
13:40God did not remove the pressure from Paul. Paul said, "God, I asked of
13:45you three times, Lord. Three times I asked of you, Lord, to remove this
13:51thorn from my flesh. I want it gone. It's uncomfortable and it hurts. It
13:57angers me. It frustrates me. I lose sleep at night because of this thorn
14:02in my flesh. Three times I've asked of you, Lord, to remove it." And
14:08Paul said, "You know what God told me? No, because
14:13my grace is sufficient for thee. For
14:19my strength is made perfect in weakness. Notice what God did not say.
14:25My strength is made perfect when you finally get everything together. My strength
14:30is made perfect when you stop struggling. No, my strength is made perfect
14:36in your weakness. Meaning that the very place you think disqualifies you may
14:41become the very place where God reveals himself the most in your life.
14:47The most clearly. And I want to make a point here that
14:53biblical weakness is not equal to laziness. It is not equal to
14:59refusing responsibility or nurturing your insecurity. It's not equal to hiding behind
15:05fear. It is not equal to refusing to grow. God gave us
15:11a mind. He gave us passions. He gave us drives and desires and he wants
15:16us to use them for his glory. Think about the parable of the talents. When
15:20the servant buried the talent, the master was not pleased because he wanted him to
15:25do something with it. We are to work hard. We are to be faithful. We
15:30are to multiply what God has given us. But remember at the end of it
15:34all that the anointing of God has never rested on your human performance. The
15:40anointing of God rests on yielded, broken, submitted
15:46vessels to God. God has
15:51always chosen things that looked insufficient. A shepherd boy with a sling. A
15:57stuttering deliverer. A man and a woman too old to have a promised
16:03son. A teenage girl from Nazareth carrying the Messiah. Dry bones in a
16:09valley. He ultimately chose a cross. Weakness is when God works best.
16:17When you have reached the end of what you can produce when you have obeyed
16:22when you have prayed when you have tried when you have given You now stand
16:27in a place where if God does not sustain you you cannot sustain yourself That's
16:32what we mean by weakness and that's where God's grace becomes sufficient for thee grace
16:37is where God steps into the difference between what you can do and what only
16:43he can do and And God will absolutely allow you to be in a
16:48place like that, in a season that stretches you thin, in a place where
16:54you feel almost crushed, Paul said, "I was hard pressed on every side, but for
16:59some reason I wasn't crushed." God's gonna let you get to the place where you're
17:04so hard pressed you feel like you won't be able to make it. But guess
17:08what? You're gonna make it another day and you're gonna realize that it wasn't because
17:13of your strength, but because of His. You will make it and you'll realize that
17:17it was never on your program, on your calendar, on your agenda, because of your
17:21ability, because of what you were capable of. but because you yielded it to him
17:27after all. God will allow you. He will expose your limits. He will
17:33allow you to carry things that feel heavier than you. He will make
17:39you confront realities you never want to have to confront. Job said, when
17:45he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold. And in you,
17:51God sees gold today. but only he is the one that
17:56can draw it out of you we can't produce it from ourselves we can't
18:02manufacture it there's no five-step plan that can bring us to this gold there's
18:07no self-help book that can create it and construct it for us only god
18:13in your life can draw the gold out of you and it will come
18:19through weakness and this is where the anointing comes in because we talk about
18:24anointing sometimes like it's charisma And we talk about it like it's
18:30talent or personality, but it's none of those things. It is not personality with
18:36a little bit of God sprinkled on top. When people speak and sing and
18:42you feel the anointing of the Lord, it's because they have yielded themselves to
18:48God in the most difficult seasons of their life. Not when it's easy, but
18:54when it's tough, when it doesn't make sense. That's when the anointing
19:00of the Lord can rest on you if you yield to him and
19:06let him. Let him rest on you. Let his spirit be on you.
19:11So to our moms, it is not on your strongest day that you
19:17are anointed. I did not cry during the first service. It is not
19:23on your most polished day, sir. It is not on the day that
19:29you have everything put together and you are the most productive that the
19:35Lord can use you most. We can't get it twisted. It is
19:41in your weakness. It is in your inability. When you yield to him, the
19:46Lord steps in and makes a way for you. We can't do it in
19:52and of ourselves, but he steps in. God has never asked you to pretend,
19:58church. He's never asked you to pretend like you have it all together all
20:03the time. He's never asked you to pretend like you've got it figured out.
20:10He's asking for people who are willing to, yes, I'm going to make mistakes. Yes,
20:14I'm going to go through valleys. I'm going to go through difficulty. I'm going to
20:18go through hard times. But what am I going to do in those hard times?
20:23I'm going to relinquish all that I've got to you, God. And I submit myself
20:27before you. I'm going to find myself at an altar on my knees once again.
20:31I'm not going to look to me. I'm not going to look to anybody else.
20:36I'm looking to you, God, from whence cometh my help. My help. comes from the
20:41Lord the maker of heaven and earth I need you
20:46God you caught when you answer me God when I
20:52don't hear me Jesus thank you Lord thank you Lord
20:58praise the Lord I'm gonna grab my baby real quick
21:04I'm coming to a close and my husband's gonna come
21:10and take over she's seeping okay hold on let's see
21:16if we can do this this is Rome everybody
21:26Good morning. Yeah, okay, this is for mom. She, I thought she'd
21:31be nervous, but I guess she loves the spotlight. The first service
21:37I had to put her down because she really was taking all
21:43the spotlight. But this is little Rome and she is my love.
21:48I love this girl so much. She's happy. My little girl is
21:54getting heavy to the point where it's hard for me to carry
22:00her sometimes, if you can't tell. I've already done a little something
22:05to my back and I'm not even 30 yet.
22:13This girl is growing older and the older that she grows, the heavier
22:18she's going to be. And it makes me sad because the older that
22:24she grows, the stronger that she grows, the weaker I'm going to become.
22:30And I think about that. I won't be able to be next to
22:36her through all of life's journeys. I can be as close as possible.
22:42But when she wakes up at 3 in the morning with a burden or because
22:48she's going through something, I might not be right next to her during that moment.
22:54It's not physically possible for me to be next to her all the time. She
22:59won't want that as she gets older anyway. But I know a God who will
23:05be with her, and I'm grateful for that. The reality is that as she gets
23:10older and heavier, I will get weaker and will no longer be able to carry
23:16her. But I'm thankful today that God is not like
23:22me. That the heavier life gets and that the heavier
23:27things become and that the more pressure falls on me
23:33or anybody else. You can take her babe before she
23:38completely destroys the closing. The more pressure that we feel
23:44and the heavier things get for us, the stronger our
23:49God is. At the end of it all, in your
23:55weakness, he is strong. And I'm so grateful today to say that I
24:00stand up here not because I am the most eloquently spoken person you've ever heard
24:05and not because I'm the best spoken person in the room today or I have
24:11all the qualifications more than anybody else. No, I stand here today because I have
24:16learned this beautiful truth. That that is where at the end of myself and in
24:21my weakness, that is where I find the grace to continue. That's where grace resides.
24:26That's where I, the weary find rest, the rest and refreshing through the spirit and
24:32the presence of God. Thank you, Jesus. Can we just close our eyes and close
24:36this out in prayer as my husband comes to transition? God, I thank you, Lord,
24:41that in my weakness, you are my strength, that when I am incapable, you are
24:45capable. God, that I don't need to impress, that I don't need to perform. Lord,
24:49that you know the end of me, God, and that when I reach that edge,
24:54Jesus, you come to save me every time, Lord. You come to sweep in and
24:58save the day God when I cannot count on myself when I can't count on
25:02the doctor when I can't count on a friend God I can count on you
25:06because you are a friend that sticks closer than a brother you are a healer
25:11a deliverer you are the first and the last and the and the author and
25:15finisher of my faith, God. I pray, God, your strength over every individual in
25:21this place today. Have your perfect way in the rest of this service. In
25:26Jesus' name I pray. - In the name of Jesus, hallelujah. Would you clap
25:32your hands unto God right now? Hallelujah. Where weakness meets glory. One of the
25:38greatest privileges of my life has been to share the pulpit with my wife.
25:44And today's a special Mother's Day, not just because it's her first Mother's Day,
25:50but because we also get to do this and i am watching the clock so
25:55i know you are planning uh lunch with mom but i do believe they meant
26:00that god still has something for us and i i'm so thankful for the words
26:05we just heard amen that she delivered amen by the holy ghost and i'm so
26:10thankful but i'd like to read a scripture a portion of scripture right now if
26:15you have your bible with you would you open your bible with me in the
26:20book of james chapter one James chapter 1 the Bible says James
26:26a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ To
26:32the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad greeting my brethren counted
26:37all joy when you fall into diverse temptations Knowing this that
26:43the trying of your faith worketh someone say with me patience
26:49but let patience have her perfect work that ye may be
26:55perfect and entire and that ye may be perfect and
27:01entire, wanting nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask
27:07of God that giveth to all men liberally, and abradeth not, and
27:13it shall be given him. I believe the Holy Ghost is going
27:19to mesh both of these sermons together. James, the brother of Jesus,
27:25is now writing to a church that's been scattered. The epistle of
27:31James is one of the most direct and more practical sermons
27:37also most challenging books in all of the Bible. It was written
27:43by James that many refer to as James the Just, the brother
27:48of Jesus. He was a key leader in the Jerusalem church. So
27:54this is not the voice of a distant theologian trying to encourage
28:00someone, but this is in fact the voice of a pastor that
28:05is speaking to people who are hurting, who are scattered,
28:11those that are under real pressure. Has anyone been there?
28:17James is writing to these Jewish people, believers who have
28:23been dispersed all across the land. They were pushed out
28:29of their homes because of persecution. These are the people
28:34trying to live for God in unfamiliar places. They are
28:40surrounded by culture and people that don't share their same
28:46values. Does it sound familiar? I've had four major
28:52transitions in my life. I've moved. I've crossed state lines, but I've also crossed country
28:58lines. And here I am in Florida. And it's been a blessing to to travel
29:04and be in different places and see the hand of God in different places. But
29:10I assure you that there's different pressures that come when you have to transition at
29:16any time in life. For those who have had a transition in your life
29:22and you've moved cities or there's been a big transition in your family, you know
29:27that there are different pressures that come to your life. There's different things that come
29:33to your life. The people of God, the Jewish that were dispersed all across the
29:39land. And let me take you back to the origin of this moment where the
29:44Jewish people had to be scattered. This happened in the book of Acts chapter 12.
29:50When a young man, young boy named Stephen is killed and persecution begins,
29:56the church has to now scatter. Now the church had a purpose. The
30:02church had a calling. We read in Acts chapter 1 verse 8, that
30:07you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you.
30:13And it says, "And you shall be a witness unto Jerusalem, unto all Judea, unto
30:19the Samaritans, and then you go to the rest of the world." There's purpose in
30:24the people of God, but yet they are now dispersed. They are not together. I
30:30know, I know, I love unity and unity is precious. But there's moments in your
30:35life where you don't feel the unity. When you're not living with people that
30:41believe the same thing you believe. That you're not in the same season as those
30:47that sit next to you at church. And they may be going through a victory
30:53season and you are watching them thinking, God, what about me? There's moments in our
30:58lives where pressure steps in. The world that these Jews are living in, the geopolitical
31:04part of it, I was doing some research and it says that they
31:10were under control of the Roman Empire at the time. All of the power
31:16at the time was centralized on the Roman Empire. So the believers understood that
31:21they had no influence in that day. They lived in a world where they
31:27were not in charge and they knew it. Socially they were outsiders. Their faith
31:33in Jesus set them apart. Not only from the Roman society
31:39but even from fellow believers, fellow Jews. In fact, some Jews rejected
31:44Christ while others accepted Him. So now those that have confessed, those
31:50that have followed Jesus are now caught up in this moment where
31:56they feel rejected even by their own. Really? You follow Jesus? Really?
32:02You believe in this whole cross thing? I know some of us
32:08have been there before. well we felt people question our faith people
32:14challenge our faith amen i'm preaching to a group of people amen that
32:20understand what pressure is like i understand that you know i know amen
32:26the pressures are of life can be heavy but they were living socially
32:32under pressure they were misunderstood they were marginalized and often rejected by those
32:38that were close to them economically they were
32:43facing a lot of challenges many of them were struggling I will
32:49tell you that if you move and you're dispersed and you're moving
32:55around your finances decrease significantly they're struggling they're in a position of
33:01lack so physically all these things are happening around them but now spiritually
33:07there is also tension i'm so thankful that we get to come to church on
33:12a sunday morning amen with believers that believe in god that love god i'm so
33:18thankful That this is an atmosphere, a safe atmosphere where you can smile, where you
33:23can feel the presence of God. Come on somebody, I know you feel what I'm
33:28talking about right now. You can come to a place and you can lift up
33:32your hands without any pressure, without anybody looking at you, without anybody thinking, oh that's
33:37a little bit too much. No, let me tell somebody here this morning, if you
33:42can't worship in this house, what makes you think you can worship in heaven?
33:49In fact, let me just say this. If you can't worship in this room,
33:55what makes you think worshiping out there will be any easier? Do you feel
34:01pressure in this room? How much more pressure are you going to feel when
34:07you try to pray at work? When you try to believe and understand that
34:13God can move outside of these four buildings? There's pressure. There's real pressure. There's
34:19spiritual pressure that's going on with the people of God. And James
34:25understands this, so he says. He understands and he doesn't try
34:30to go into deep theology. And I love theology, but James
34:36is not trying to get all smart with these people. He
34:42doesn't even build slowly as he addresses these people. But he
34:48opens with a statement that almost feels shocking. And I quote,
34:54My brethren, count it, count it joy when you fall into
35:00diverse things. Temptations. Can I tell the church here today?
35:06My brethren, count it all joy. Not some things, all of
35:11the things. Not just some pressure, count the pressure as joy.
35:17Some of us want to have joy when we're living in
35:23the mountain top. Some of us just know how to have joy and respond with
35:28a smile when everything is great. When you have money in the bank, when your
35:32investments are going right. Amen. Some of us know how to smile when everyone's happy
35:37at home and your children are living for God. And I'm not saying that's a
35:42bad thing, but hear me now. I want you to count joy even the moments
35:47of weakness, even the moments of pressure, even the moments where you don't feel like
35:52it, even in the Moments when you show up to church and you know, you've
35:57been fighting at home But yeah, you get here and you understand. God is still
36:03good. God is still great He's still a miracle worker. He's still a God that
36:09answers prayer I want to count it all joy. Yeah, even the things that hurt
36:15me even the pressures that come against me I want to count all of it
36:21as joy so James says count it all joy
36:27now I want you to understand why he's saying
36:33this pressure ladies and gentlemen doesn't destroy real faith
36:38pressure only reveals real faith let me explain it
36:44this way your life's pressures are supposed to tell
36:49how great your God is so when you go
36:54through pressure you don't run away from God when
37:00you go through sickness you don't skip church pastor's
37:05not here so he'll correct it when he gets
37:11back Now, I'm not saying you're not
37:17cognizant of getting other people sick. Please don't misunderstand me. But if you're going to
37:22get your miracle anywhere, it's going to be in the house of God.
37:28If you're going through pressure, you're not going to get your answer in Wall Street.
37:32You're not going to get your answer with what the president is saying. You're not
37:37going to get the answer overseas in the investments and the money. I'll tell you
37:42where you're going to get your answer. When you're going through pressure, when you're going
37:47through diverse temptations, when you're going through the issues of life, you will find your
37:51answers at the cross. You will find your answers in a church that believes that
37:56God can move. Is there anybody in this place that believes that
38:02God can still perform the impossible? Is there anybody in this room that
38:08can lift up their hands and their voice and say, thank you, Jesus,
38:13because even though I'm struggling, you are still faithful. Pressure doesn't destroy your
38:19faith. It shall reveal how great your God is. Well, preacher, what are
38:25you saying? Are you saying that I should smile when I go through
38:31things? Sickness well preacher. What are you saying? You're saying
38:37I should be joyful when someone hurts me. Well preacher What
38:43are you saying? Are you saying that I should smile at
38:49the very thing that has my fat in chains? What are
38:55you saying? I'm saying that through every pressure the process just
39:00refinement. There's polishing There's building and God uses pressure to make
39:06you mature to make you stable and I don't know about
39:12you, but I want to be a pillar in the house of God. I don't
39:17know about you, but when family members, when friends out there are struggling, I want
39:21them to know they can come talk to me because I've been stable. Because I
39:26remember one time I was in high school, amen, and I was doing my best
39:30to minister to my friends in high school. We would have Bible studies at lunch,
39:35and I did my best to show them, amen, that I was a real Christian.
39:40One morning or night, two in the morning, I get a phone call from one
39:44of my friends. I didn't know if I was going to
39:50answer the phone because I thought, you know, maybe it's not an emergency. But then
39:56I thought, it's 2 a.m. Why would he be calling me right now? Something serious
40:02is going on. And I remember I picked up the phone, and it was my
40:07friend Luis, and he's crying. And I'm not a pastor at the time, so I
40:13guess pastors are the only ones that can give advice. I'm going to do my
40:19father-in-law. This is what he does when he says something shocking. As though he's shocked
40:25too, amen. No, he knew what he was saying. Praise God.
40:32I love you. He's watching. He's probably watching. And I pick up the phone, and
40:37Lisa's crying. And I started thinking, well, you know, what's going on, man? Hey, are
40:41you all right? And he started crying, and he said, hey, Abel, I was sorry
40:46to call you, but I'm in my bed right now in my room. You know,
40:51my lights are off. And he said, I was sleeping, and I just felt this
40:55sinister feeling. Feeling I felt this presence just walk into my room and I'm so
40:59afraid I can't move I can't get out of my bed He said I don't
41:03know what to do I can't even get up to turn the light on and
41:06he said the only person I could call the only person I can think of
41:10was you I don't know about you, but I want to be I want to
41:14be Mature and I want to be a pillar in the house of God Want
41:18when people think about pressure in their life that they know they can come to
41:21a man or a woman that loves God that knows God that knows how to
41:25get a hold of God I remember in that call I said Louisa well you
41:28call the right person and I wasn't trying to be prideful I said I know
41:32exactly what you should do right now I said I want you to close your
41:35eyes and lift up your hands and we begin to pray at 2:00 in the
41:39morning over the phone and I told them once we're done praying and we hang
41:43up I want you to stop playing Christian music and I sent him some YouTube
41:48links and Luis was playing these YouTube songs and after a while he calls me
41:53again and he says Abel I feel a different presence in my room I feel
41:58something different that has shifted in my room and I said I know what that
42:03is that is the power can i preach to somebody
42:09here today your faith matters when you're going through pressures when
42:15you're going through altiza don't run away don't pull back get
42:21closer to the cross get closer to the cross get closer
42:26to the cross he says brethren counted all joy counted all
42:32of it all of it has joy the believers he is
42:38writing to are not asking do i grow deeper they're actually
42:44asking the question how do i survive what i'm going through
42:52And James answers, count it all joy. When you're surviving, count it as joy.
42:58When you are thriving, count it as joy. Now let's be real in this
43:04house. There's been times in your spiritual walk with God where you only feel
43:10like you're surviving. You don't feel like you've been thriving. There's been moments in
43:15my life where I just felt like, Lord, I'm just getting through this season.
43:21There's been moments in my life where I've questioned things. And I said, Lord,
43:27where are you? It feels like I'm just surviving. Has anyone else been there?
43:35But the position of a believer is not to be surviving, but to be
43:41thriving in God. The position of a believer should be, I know how to
43:47get in touch with the God of the miracles. And the reality is that
43:52you and I know how to get in touch with God. So when you're
43:58going through pressure, someone say with me pressure, you know how to get a
44:03hold of God who will relieve your pressure. James is writing to these 12
44:09tribes that have been scattered who are going through pressure. This persecution has begun.
44:15gone by and they've been displaced, they've been tested, they've been
44:21challenged, their faith has been challenged. Can I tell someone here
44:27today that trials are not the enemy of your life. Trials
44:33are just a process. Trials are just a process. It's not
44:39just emotional joy that James is talking about, but he's wanting
44:44you to shift your perspective. I'm not just a survivor. I
44:50got God on my side. I'm not just surviving this moment.
44:56I'm not just surviving this cancer. I'm not just surviving
45:02this tumor. My marriage is not just surviving. No, no, no, no, no,
45:08no. This pressure is only making me stronger in God. This pressure is
45:13only getting me closer to the God of my salvation. This pressure is
45:19only building up a character within me that's going to glorify the Lord.
45:25But hear me now. When you don't have the answers, you must ask.
45:31I love what James says in verse 5. Many of you lack wisdom.
45:38Let him ask of God. Now, I'm going to reveal my heart as a pastor
45:44right now. And I shared this with the church recently, so you can't get me
45:50in trouble if you have their number and try to call them. I was speaking
45:56to the church in Miami, and I said, I love counseling. If someone comes to
46:02me and says, Pastor, I need some direction in my life. This is going on.
46:07I love sitting in a room, and I love to talk and try to help
46:13them. But the reality is that I don't decide anything. What's going to happen
46:19in your future? Some people come to the man of God because you want him
46:24to tell you how to live your life. You've had a book with you all
46:30along, but you don't open it. It's collecting dust at home. You're going through pressures
46:36in life, and you want a man to tell you how to fix your pressure
46:41and your trials and your issues. And there's nothing wrong with talking to the pastor.
46:47Trust me. We love doing that, talking to people. But at the end
46:52of the day, every meeting, and I've noticed this even before
46:58I pastored and people ask me things, and some people really
47:04think you're going to give me my solution. I always finish
47:10my meetings by saying, now it is time to pray about
47:16it. In other words, if any of you lack wisdom, ask.
47:21Not the pastor. If any of you lack wisdom, ask. Not
47:27Wall Street. Not the news media. Ask. of you
47:33lack wisdom if any of you want wisdom ask god i'll tell you why you
47:38ask god because he knows your beginning and he knows your end because he is
47:43writing your story right now and what you consider pressure is not pressure in the
47:48eyes of god god is building you up come on can i preach to a
47:54group of people right now That understand that God has the answer
47:59to your life. God has answered to your trial
48:05The Lord has the answer to anything that's happening.
48:10Oh, I trust God. I don't trust the bank
48:16I don't trust the Lord. We sing it today.
48:22We said he is my firm We sing it
48:27but do we believe it Come on,
48:33we can sing it all day. But when you go through
48:39the pressure, that's when you have to start living it out.
48:44That's when you have to start believing. That's when your faith
48:50starts to reveal itself. Faith under pressure. When you are weak,
48:56he is strong. Let him ask in faith. Nothing wavering. And
49:01I seek to close. My mother, a very young age, I've
49:07been in church all my life. I've had the privilege to
49:13live for God and Seen others changed
49:18by the power of God, but there was a season in
49:24our family's journey where one of my siblings his faith was
49:30Withering, you know, you're a pastor son and all the pressure
49:36is on you the expectations are high It's almost like you
49:41can't mess up at all Because if you do a lot
49:47of pressure so we were going through a season in our
49:53lives and one of my brothers decided You know, my faith
49:59is not I don't even have faith. I
50:04I don't know that I believe in this. I don't know that I'm going through
50:10this. And in that season, he decided to leave our house. He left. He was
50:16very, very young. He just left. One night, he just left. We didn't know where
50:22he was for a whole week until a lady in our church told my mother,
50:28said, hey, your son is living with us. I don't know how he got there.
50:34It was like an hour distance. He got there, and he's living with his best
50:40friend at the time, Israel. And his mom is sharing this with
50:45my mother on Sunday church saying, your son is with me. He came
50:51the other day. So my mom is going through pressure. It's one of
50:57the first times she has to deal with this. And I don't mean
51:02all of her sons leaving church, but I mean real pressure. Now, as
51:08parents, it is our responsibility. Dad, mom, it is our responsibility to pray
51:14for our children. Now, I've been waiting to say this. So now that
51:20I have a baby, I can say it. It is our job.
51:26They watch you. My baby girl, you thought when she was up here, she just
51:31lifted her hands just because she's trying to be funny. No, she sees mom and
51:37dad worship at church. That's why she's lifting up her hands in church. Parents, it
51:43is our job. It is your job. It is your jurisdiction. That's come next week.
51:48Amen. Pastor Elms preaches Justice Series incredibly. He will preach on that. My mom is
51:54going through a lot and the family is going through a lot. And several nights,
51:59I wake up three in the morning. and I hear my mother in
52:05the living room praying. And it's not a soft prayer, it's not
52:11a whisper. Maybe it started that way, but the pressure makes your
52:17faith grow. So as she's praying, started as a whisper, I can
52:23almost assure you, her desire was not to wake her children up.
52:29But as she's praying in the living room, the prayer gets louder
52:35and louder and louder. To the point where I wake up, and
52:41multiple nights this was going on, one of the nights
52:46several nights in fact she walks into our bedroom and she starts praying
52:52for us she would place her hands in my feet she would place
52:58her hands in my forehead and she would pray and i remember her
53:03prayer lord order the steps of my sons my daughter and she would
53:09pray for our mind lord touch their mind i'm dedicating my children to
53:14you and mama got a hold of prayer and mama started asking god
53:20for wisdom Come on, when you ask the Lord for
53:26wisdom, you are praying. Get to the point where we get to
53:32the moment where my brother decides to come back home after three
53:37months. His first night back, Mama's praying at three in the morning.
53:43And Mama comes right inside our bedroom, and she's doing the same
53:49thing again. She gets to my brother, and every time she tries
53:55to pray for him, I remember him shifting his body. He didn't
54:00want Mama praying for him. She would try
54:06to put her hand in his forehead. She would just try to jerk
54:12his head. Several nights, Mama's still walking in. Her son doesn't want her
54:18to pray for her, but she's praying for all of us. She's still
54:23struggling and going through pressure. To make the story short, today my brother
54:29is pastoring a church, and him and I get in phone conversations. We're
54:35both pastoring now. And he cries with me, and he says, Abel, I
54:41have a burden. I have this calling. He shares his sermon notes with
54:46me. He preaches incredible and I just, I get to
54:52see this side. But I also saw the other side. When
54:58the pressure was there and the faith was withering. But yet,
55:03mama asked the right questions. Would you stand right now with
55:09me? You may come to this house weak. You might have
55:14come to this house with pressure. You made it to this
55:20place thinking it's going to be another Mother's Day, another Sunday.
55:26But God is saying, "No, no, no, no. I want to
55:31touch you today." And I'm speaking to mothers, I'm speaking
55:37to fathers, I'm speaking to young men and young women. And you've been going through
55:43pressure. And your faith has been withering. God is in this room. I'm going to
55:49say it again. God is in this room. And there are promises all over this
55:55atmosphere right now. if you believe and if you can tap into the supernatural right
56:00now and you can reach out and say Lord I'm gonna hold on I'm gonna
56:05take on this promise come on someone ought to raise your hand right now and
56:10start pulling down the promises of God and start reminding the Lord Lord you are
56:14not a man that you should lie God your promises are going to be fulfilled
56:19from my for my marriage
56:24and for my
56:29son and for