Samuel Rodriguez | First Conference 2016

I am truly blessed to be with you again.

I am blessed.

I am overly blessed.

Yeah.

And today, in the audience, I am with two of my heroes, actually.

And there's a lot more, but there are two individuals here who have influenced me, who I have followed.

Actually, right here, if I'm not mistaken, on this stage, I forget when it was, a couple years back.

One of my spiritual fathers, James Robinson, helped me recognize Daddy James, please.

Right here on this stage, there was a moment, an encounter.

I can't even explain what took place, but the outcomes have had some serious ramifications in the body here and around the world.

So James, I love you.

I am grateful to God for you, believing that the best is yet to come.

I am your spiritual Hispanic adopted son.

And you cannot deny me, my amigo.

And of course, I am in the presence of el pastor número uno que existe.

El mejor pastor.

The best pastor on the planet.

I want to be like him when I grow up, Pastor Robert Morris.

His lovely wife.

To all the leaders.

I just want to just share a word now.

This is I was with you in the Blessed Weekend conference, but there's a there's a word that God placed in my spirit regarding this year for this first conference here at Gateway, and for everyone watching this program right now on Daystar, and for all the campuses, and it's and it's germane to this year indeed.

We do live in difficult times.

And these are difficult times, but and and to a great degree, many, even within the confines of the body, within the church family, have embraced this sort of perpetual motif of failure, or in the best case scenario, survival.

And and so we have even believers that are have embraced this idea of failure, and some have embraced the concept or the construct of perpetual survival, and and that's not what God made you for.

And God has greater things for you.

And I want to share with you what God placed in my heart.

It's not gonna be a latte but a camel macchiato with a double espresso shot.

So create some space.

It's a little bit awkward, a little bit different, a little bit outside the box.

I'm gonna illustrate it, but but it's what God placed in my heart.

He's he no degutar, but but but here it is in one biblical chapter, a man named Gideon he went from both de facto and the jour failure hiding in the threshing floor because he was afraid of the Midianite marauders to surviving.

He came out of the pit and accepted his calling to thriving.

He built an altar and defeated the Midianites and changed his world in one chapter.

So God gave me a word for you today, confirmed again while I visited a certain coffee establishment, ordering my grande non-fat upside down, Karamakiato, that we are not, in spite of the naysayers who believe otherwise, the people that will fail.

We are not those that will just survive.

We're gonna change the world because we will do nothing less in the name of Jesus Christ than thrive.

I want you to look at the neighbor you do look, do you do like and accept and tell them thrive?

Tell the other neighbor, the one you tolerate, and tell him thrive.

Find someone who you don't even like, but for the sake of your Christian motif, you have to embrace them, tell them, thrive.

Now, let me have my volunteers quickly.

Where are my volunteers?

Come quickly here.

I want to title this one Life Throws You Rocks, Build an Altar and Thrive.

Here's the word of the Lord from Judges 6.

Judges chapter 6.

Judges 6 · chapter mention

Let's begin with verse 12.

The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, Mighty hero, the Lord is with you.

The 14th verse.

And the Lord turned to him and said, Go with the strength you have, not the one that's forthcoming, but the one you have.

And rescue Israel from the Midianites.

I am sending you.

The 24th verse.

And Gideon built an altar to the Lord there, named it Shalom.

Jahwe Shalom, which means the Lord is peace, which means nothing missing, nothing broken.

And the altar remains in the land to this day.

Repeat after me, say thrive.

Say it louder, say thrive.

In Spanish, say prospera.

In Greek, say oh forget about it.

Just that's good enough, right there.

Failure.

Because when the angel of the Lord confronts Gideon in Judges 6, 11, he finds the people of Israel hiding in the threshing floor, accepting failure.

They would work hard only to see the Midianites, the marauders, take their harvest.

They were afraid, the Bible says they were afraid to confront.

They were afraid to thrive.

I stated this before, and I'll state it again.

I am compelled.

It behooves me to reiterate it.

Today's complacency is tomorrow's captivity.

And you are what you tolerate.

And engaging this biblical narrative as a prophetic rubric, we need to understand the following truth.

There are three types of people, even arguably to a great degree in the audience watching by television, definitely around the world.

There are three types of people in the world watching, and every single person in the world can fall into one of the corresponding categories.

Three types of people.

There are those that are failing, there are those that are surviving, and then there are those that are thriving.

Every single person here.

Every single person can fall into one of these three respective categories.

Egypt, desert, or promised land.

Repeat after me, say failure.

Say survive, say thrive.

Now here's the word, here's the word, here's the word.

Jesus was not born to a virgin, baptized in the Jordan, crucified on the cross, resurrected from the dead, and ascended to heaven, so you and I would just fail or just survive.

This is not why, because right now, the idea of just perpetual failure and survival, and then we have a church, even a church in America today in 2016 that embraces this reality, and we're drinking the proverbial Kool-Aid out there.

And whatever CNN and MSNBC and Fox News and ABC and NBC and CBS and even Univision preach to us, we drink the Kool-Aid, and we believe that we should be somehow here or here.

He's not coming back for a failing church, and he's not coming back for a church that's barely making.

Jesus is coming back for a glorious, thriving church.

So Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus was not born to a virgin and baptized into Jordan and crucified or resurrected and ascended.

So you and I would just fail or survive.

Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the conqueror, the Son of Man, and the Son of God, the way, the truth, and the life, the resurrection and the life, la vid verdadera, buen pastor, la puente estrecha, la puente, la gotable y el pan de vida.

He came down not for you and I to fail or just survive.

He came to give us life and life abundantly.

He came down so you and I would do nothing less than thrive.

Somebody say thrive.

Look at your neighbor, tell him, thrive.

Tell your other neighbor, tell him thrive.

Because there is a difference.

There is a difference, and you're gonna understand that thrive is not sort of some sort of nomenclature or descriptor that is manipulated by the very variables of material possessions, is way beyond that.

But the idea, the reality, even this is kind of simplistic.

We understand why God would not want us here, but even these two have to somehow experience some sort of differential.

What distinguishes between surviving and thriving?

There's a difference between the desert and the promised land, between living life and what my dear friend will call a blessed life, between I am okay and I'm more than a conqueror, between enough and more than enough, between fool and overflow, between making it and conquering it, between existing and shining, between rhetoric and action, between speaking faith and bearing fruit, between having a dream and living out a vision, between surviving and thriving.

There is a difference between existing and living.

And God did not create you to occupy space, He made you to overflow with life in the name of Jesus.

Your eye has yet to see, your ear has yet to hear, and your mind has yet to imagine the wonderful things that God has in store for those who love him.

So why are you here?

And why are you watching right now?

You are here by divine appointment to hear from heaven via the word of God the very same thing that Gideon heard in this passage.

Heaven shows up, and the angel of the Lord parenthetically tells Gideon, your failure season is over.

In a matter of fact, as you read the rest of the passage of Judges chapter 6, the angel of the Lord not only tells him his days of hiding in the threshing floor, the days of captivity and failure are over, but he assures Gideon that he will never go back to failure again.

Judges 6 · chapter mention

So God placed you to hear this word because just like Gideon, some of you have been hiding in the proverbial threshing floor of life.

You've been hiding from the Midianite marauders.

The Midianites of this day and age have stolen your joy, your shalom, your children, your marriage, your peace, your health, your finances, your integrity, your morality, your righteousness, your purity, your holiness.

You're here, you're here because you're tired of living a life where things are stolen, ripped off, and you have yet to see the fruit of the harvest.

So I'm speaking to every single person who has experienced that threshing floor, to those who have yet to see the fullness of the promises fulfilled.

The enemy has shown up to rob and kill and destroy the very things you hold near and dear.

Well, I have news for you.

And this is not a pathetic word stemming out of the womb of emotional exuberance.

I am committed to biblical truth and orthodoxy.

I am coming to you in the name of Jesus, led by the Spirit of God, to tell you this year you will not live in failure.

And this year you're not just gonna survive.

Let me speak to you prophetically in the name of Jesus, you that are here in this audience, you that are watching right now by television, this year will not be your year of failure or just survival.

You and your children, and your children's children, and your children's children's children's children's children's children's children, in the name of Christ will do nothing less than thrive.

In the matter of fact.

What time is it?

What's the exact time though?

Like, I know, but what's the i like by the way?

What's the iPhone time?

There's a reason for that.

Not the Android, it has to be iPhone, of course.

752.

I have okay, 752.

Okay, 752, 75.

I'm on the way to 753.

Look at your neighbor, tell them, neighbor, 752 for now.

Because it this is why why am I giving you the time?

Um I kid you not, because and I am believing in the name of Jesus that at this time with fear and trembling in the name of the Lord, again, with an unbridled commitment to God's word, I am believing that at 753, I am declaring we are about to declare that I don't care what lie, what the enemy constructed around you, in the time of Gideon, the enemy would construct an asherapole.

An asherapol was literally a physical reminder of captivity.

So the Midianites, the marauders, later on, Jezebel and Cage, the same, she had the same strategy actually, the same motors operandi.

They would construct an asheropol, which was this physical, false God reminder, they were under captivity.

So every single morning, Gideon would wake up and he would see this asherapole, and he was reminded, and he would live in failure because he embraced, he tolerated failure.

So it's 757.

Because this is what we're declaring.

Here's what I want you to do, son.

When I say now, I want you to rip this poster up.

Now I don't want you to rip it up in some sort of that's a cute illustrated sermon.

I want to I want you to rip it up in the name of Jesus, believing that every single person here and every single person watching by television, that their season of failure is over in the name of Jesus.

For every single person who has experienced failure, failure in their families, their homes, their marriages, their integrity, their walk in Christ, their faith, whatever it may be, we are believing that that failure season is over, that they will not 2016 will not be a year of failure, it will be a year where they will thrive for the glory of Christ and they will see everything God has in after them.

Are you ready to rip this?

Okay.

When I say now, I want you to rip that thing.

Now, how how you rip it, I'm not gonna tell you all the specifics.

But if I were you, there are some that have just they're tired of seeing the Midianite marauders show up.

So I wouldn't just rip it one time, I would try to rip it in a with and we'll vacuum later on.

But but I really want you to break this thing because even collectively in America, the church for the past, and I say this with great due deference, we've embraced a failure mentality.

We have succumbed to the ashera poles of culture and moral relativism, of governmental structures and paradigms that run counter to our Judeo-Christian value system.

And instead of fighting it and coming out against it in the name of Jesus, we're hiding in the threshing floor, and we're satisfied with having our services and our celebrations on Sunday, all the while this country is going to hell in a handbasket.

We need a church to come out of failure, we need a church to come out of survival, we need the we need a church this year to stand up in the name of Jesus and say we are not the generation that will stand up, and we are not the generation that will just the generation from the Are you ready to rip this thing?

All right here.

He just supposed to be that excited.

The Midianites came in and the diabolical marauders, the fleshly thieves with the assignment from hell to take away the harvest.

And then they say, and at the moment, I I'm provocado que l'Iglesia se contact that's what's happening.

We're a bunch of Gideons in the threshing floor, and all the and all are there any questions?

Because this is I'm I kid you not, this is the hour, this is the year that we're gonna come out of our threshing floor.

No, we really are.

It begins you personally and your family, your home, your marriage, your ministry, your faith, and your integrity, and then corporately as a church, we're gonna come out of the threshing floor.

I mean, we we for the fact we've been hiding, but that season is over.

We're coming out so so so so.

Here it is, and there's an anointing on this.

So when I say now, I want you to rip this thing again.

You're not just ripping it, saying, Oh, isn't that special?

No, you're ripping it because failure is over, and I don't just mean personal failure, I mean corporate failure of the church, sacrificing truth on the altar of political and cultural and sexual expediency.

Let me judges chapter six.

They actually had his Gideon's father constructed, he drank the Kool-Aid, and because of political purposes, literally, because of political correctness, in order to somehow receive the validation of the collective Midianite marauders, what he did what he constructed a false altar to Baal.

Read it, do your biblical due diligence.

He did, and and they they had this altar constructed, and then so Gideon, when he comes out of this threshing floor pit, what he brings down that altar and he built another one called Shalom.

And actually, in chronological order, he built Shalom and then brought down the false altar.

Because we we we incentivize we're gonna come.

What time is it?

All right, all right.

The Midianites were able to take the harvest because Gideon and the Israelites lived in failure.

They got away, they got away, they got away with stealing the harvest because the because the Israelites lived in failure.

The Midianites of 2016, the Midianites in America and around the world are getting away because to a great degree, unfortunately, many sectors of the church live in faith in fear.

They live in fear, they live in fear, fear of being called names, fear of being called intolerant, fear of being marginalized.

We we fear more the names that men may label upon us instead of walking on the authority of the name that is above all the other names.

Heaven showed up and took Gideon out of failure forever.

He Jesus Christ already broke the bondage of sin and failure forever.

Revelation chapter 1, verse 5.

Revelation 1:5

So if you have experienced some sort of failure in your life, or if you have seen failure around you with your children or even in your culture, raise one hand.

If you're tired of it, because if you're not tired of it, you're gonna tolerate it.

Raise both hands.

If you're uberly immensely tired of it, and you're and you're saying we're not gonna take this anymore, we're coming out of our threshing floor.

Raise both hands and a foot.

All right, so here it is.

I was waiting.

It says 7:59.

Your season of failed dreams, failed integrity, failed righteousness, failed relationships, failed endeavors is over.

And I'm not saying you will be perfect, you'll never make mistakes.

What I can assure you with biblical certainty is that you will never live in failure again.

Isaiah 40.

That's the word of God.

Isaiah 43:13, from eternity to eternity, I am God, and no one will be able to snatch you away from my hand, and no one will be able to undo what I have done with you.

Isaiah 43:13

Jude 124.

Now, unto him that is able to keep you from falling, from failure, and present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.

Now it's eight o'clock.

Now I'm ready.

Come up here.

At the count of three, I want you to break this.

DJ, you're not breaking this just for a sermon illustration.

For too long, we as the church have been hiding in the threshing floor, and we've permitted the enemy to get away and taking the harvest that belongs to us.

We have permitted this to happen even in our watch, in our generation.

We are Gideons, and we're coming out of this failure threshing floor pit and we're coming out and we're never stepping back in in the name of Jesus.

And I'm speaking prophetically this year, you will not live in failure, and you will not just survive, you will thrive.

So if you're ready to come out of failure, if you're ready to break failure forever, raise one hand.

If you're ready to see failure broken in your family, home, marriage, and ministry and community, raise both hands.

If you're ready to see that spirit of failure, even in our nation broken, raise both hands and a foot.

Well, get ready at the count of three.

I want you to break this.

And I am believing that something will break through here and will break through everyone watching right now.

I right now, este es el momento que el fracaso se termina in tu vida in the nombre de Jesus de Nazaret.

This is the moment when you go back home, Failure will no longer be waiting for you.

I am believing that you win.

We will not embrace you, but We will not drink the cool way from the Midianite Marauders.

The failure is over.

Thank you very much.

Why has all this happened to us?

14 comes out of failure, and the first thing he does is he enters a survival mode.

He wants to focus on it.

Why did I have to go through that?

We've all been through something.

We've all been through something.

We've all been through something.

Really?

If you've never been through anything, I I won't talk to you after the survivors.

Because we've all been through something.

I'm gonna ask one more time.

I was a teacher for many years, so I'm compelled to ask.

I'm gonna raise your hand.

I'm sorry, it's part of my DNA.

If you've been through at least one major storm in life, I don't mean a migrant headache, I don't mean a pimple out of place.

I mean you've been you've been through one mucho grande storm in your life that should have taken you out, but somehow you survived.

If you've been through at least one, raise one hand.

If you've been through a couple of major storms that you survived, a couple of major ones, raise both hands.

If you've been through so many you lost count, raise both hands and a foot.

If you've been through so many that if I Google your your your your your name up the your Instagram account shows up with a big storm picture on it.

So why are you still here?

Why are you alive today?

Why did you survive?

Because the purpose of God is greater than the brokenness of man.

You survived.

Matter of fact, you made it, you made it, you made it, and you made it not because you perfectly held on to God, you made it because God perfectly held on to you.

You made it not because your faith was so efficient, but rather because his grace is always sufficient.

You made it, you survived.

You are a survivor.

That's it.

And all of us, this cannot be broken because all of us have to go through to get to.

We we have to survive.

And and even in the past year, past couple years, many have been through things, and and and and we are all survivors in the purpose of God, 1 Corinthians 2.9, because God always completes what he starts in your life, Philippians 1.6, because he who called you is faithful, 1 Thessalonians 5.24.

Because we Isaiah 43, no matter what we go through, he will be with us.

We all have to go through.

All of us have been through something.

So no matter what you've been through, and you may say, but I'm going through something now, we all have to go through.

We do.

I mean, it's a learning experience, the anointing and the acumen and the faith that grows in the midst of what we go through.

We all have to go through.

Joseph went through the pain to get to the palace, the Israelites went through the desert to get to the promised land.

I mean, we all have to go through Jesus.

We all have to go through.

But even if you're going through something right now, I can with biblical certainty tell you that you will make it to there.

And you will say that's a little bit exuberant, presumptuous.

How dare you say that?

Where's the biblical proof?

Oh, real simple.

Here's the question.

As a matter of fact, ask your neighbor, neighbor, did Joseph stay in the pit?

Did the Israelites stay in the desert?

Did Jonah stay in the whale?

Did Daniel stay in the den?

Did Jesus stay in the tomb?

Well, I'm not staying either.

I'm coming out and I'm gonna see everything that God has for me and my family.

It's simple.

We are all.

Because when heaven starts it, hell cannot stop it.

I'll say that one more time for the hearing impaired.

When heaven starts it, hell cannot stop it.

And I'm and I'm gonna share something with you.

I I am a trekkie, I am an evangelical trekie, I was a math nerd, I was a computer engineering major at Penn State University.

I would make fun of things that would take place even in certain churches.

A lot of fun.

And and and and I doubted many things.

I saw Elmer Gentry everywhere.

I thought that a lot of what we saw in churches was snake oil salesmen, and it was fake and it was a pathetic.

So I had my true encounter with God, where I experienced a living God in my life, and I used to critique even people in the churches that would engage in what just happened before.

I mean, there's thousands of people here, and before the worship leader was here, and I saw Pastor Robert Morris, and he was facing the carpet.

And you know, to me, at one time I would have said, How can someone with so much intellect and cognitive accuracy, how can you be so cognitively inclined and just acquiesce in a motif where you're in front of thousands of people and here you are?

You know, this is just ludicracy to a degree.

I used to critique that and call it emotionalism and exuberance and just outside the confines of reality until I survived my journey.

And then I discovered I used to I I even used to think that praise was contextualized in the context of pigmentation, which means I used to think that we respectfully, I used to think that uh I was a trekkie, so I used to think that that white Christians were more like Spock, and they were very logical, and then and that black and Latino Christians were more like William Shatner and uh Captain Kirk, the old school Captain Kirk, and and be and they were a little bit more woo.

So I used to think it was all culturally contextualized, and and then I found out it has nothing to do with culture.

I found out what there's a reason why people will bow down and worship in front of thousands of people or even privately in their home.

I found out there's a reason why people shout and raise their hands and say hallelujah and glory to God.

I discovered the reason why.

I found out that worship has an equation.

I found out that the size of your praise is directly proportional to the magnitude of the hell that God takes you out of.

I'll say that one more time.

The size of your praise is directly proportional to the magnitude of the hell that God took you out of.

So if God took you out of a little hell, then you give him a little praise.

But if he saved you, if he delivered you, if he healed you, if he turned you around, if he placed your feet on solid ground, then you open up your mouth, and you give God your high.

We survive, we can survive, we survive, we survive, and I'm gonna hurry, I'm gonna hurry, I'm gonna hurry.

We survive, and oh, one more thing.

We survive, we all go through things.

And Gideon came out from failure, and he entered a survival mode, and he had questions, and God shows up, and the angel of the Lord, and then subsequently he says, The Lord, and he says, You are a mighty warrior.

Go with the strength you have and defeat the media.

I mean, it's cocoa for cocoa for stuff too.

Because the guy was hiding in the threshold, the guy was just hiding, and the angel of the Lord shows up and says, You're a mighty warrior.

And then in Hebrew, the Bible says, Oh, you're glory.

So exegetically speaking, when you read the narrative, it's like you will one day be a mighty warrior.

After 40 steps and three books and two lessons, you will be a mighty warrior.

Heaven shows up to condemn the judgment.

Heaven shows up to the fine.

That's what heaven does.

You are a mighty warrior.

You are a mighty warrior.

You are a mighty warrior.

No matter what you're going through or what you've been through, understanding that you're defined.

I stated this when I was here for the blessed, not by the hell you may be going through, but by the heaven you're going to.

You are defined by God's purpose in your life.

In a matter of fact, you're defined by everything God says about you.

Because you are, and one more thing.

It doesn't even matter right now if you see God in the midst of what you're going through.

You just messed it up, Pastor Sam.

That's theologically woo-woo.

You can't say that.

No, no, no.

Here's what I mean.

There's no in Daniel chapter 3, when she break, Meshach, and Abednego were in the fiery furnace.

Daniel 3 · chapter mention

Do your biblical due diligence first.

I want you to tell me where it says that she break, Meshach, and Abendago saw the fourth man in the fiery furnace.

That they acknowledge him.

No, it says that Nebuchadnezzar, the one that threw them in there, he saw the fourth man in the fiery furnace.

So right now, you may not see God the way you think you should be seeing God in the midst of what you're going through.

It doesn't matter.

What matters is that hell sees God in the midst of what you're going through.

What matters is that Nebuchadnezzar sees God in the midst of what you're going through because whether you see him or not, he is right there.

So go back, survive.

We're not gonna break you because sometimes we need you.

Come here, thrive.

Thrive.

It means this right here.

You must learn to climb out of hell to survive, but you must learn to bring down heaven to thrive.

One of them is the battle of your heart, the other one is the battle of your mind and for your mind.

There's a difference between surviving and thriving.

Come here, survive for a second.

Let me bring you back.

You know how people surviving, how they pray, the majority of their prayers, and there's nothing wrong with it, but you have to jump out of that to this and not to get stuck here.

The majority of people that are surviving pray like this: Lord bless me, Lord bless me, Lord bless me, Lord bless me.

The people that thrive say, Lord, make me the greatest blessing to everyone I know in the name of Jesus.

This is where they pray, Lord, answer my prayer, and that's okay.

Answer my prayer, answer my prayer.

And as Daddy James reminds us, this is where people emerge and say, make me the answer to someone else's prayer.

Somebody say, Thrive! Thrive.

This is about mirrors, and this is about windows.

You are a mighty hero.

It always begins with identity.

Thrive with who you are.

Thrive with you are a mighty hero.

Do not permit others to define you.

Do not permit your surroundings, your critics, your haters, your flesh, or your past to define you.

He worked in a threshing floor, and God says, You are a mighty warrior.

You will not and cannot come out of failure until you know who you are in Christ and who Christ is in you.

We fail because we embrace a false definition.

We suffer from identity moratorium.

To thrive, you must know who you are.

He begins by telling him, You are a mighty warrior.

You can't embrace what God has for you until you embrace what God did for you.

It may look like a failure, but in reality, you are a mighty warrior.

Let me tell you what you're not.

You're not a mistake, you're not a random occupier of space and time, you're not the devil's punching bag, you're not the enemy's trophy, you're not a failure, you're not just a survivor.

You're a child of God created in his image, washed by his flood, filled with the spirit, called chosen and covered, forgiven, free, and favored.

You are a child of God indeed.

You are wonderfully and fearfully made, Psalm 139, 14.

You are the apple of his eye, you are his treasured possession, Deuteronomy 7, 6, and you are called chosen and faithful, Revelation 17, 14.

Christ defines you.

Raise your right hand and say, Jesus Christ defines me.

Repeat after me, say the cross defines me, the empty tomb defines me, the blood of Jesus defines me.

I am defined by the Father, I am defined by the Son, and I am defined by the Holy Spirit.

Thrive with who you are, thrive with what you have, he says.

Go with what you have, go with what you have.

Stop focusing on the things that are missing and give God praise for what you already have.

Focus on what go not with what's forthcoming, go with what you have.

You have a faith that moves mountains, a shout that brings down laws, you have a joy that cannot be explained, a peace that passes all understanding, you have a grace that is deficient, an anointing that destroys the yoke, a destiny that cannot be stopped, mercies that are new every morning.

You have the strife of the Father, the grace of the Son, the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

You have Jesus, you have everything.

Thrive with what you have, thrive in the face of your weakness, Judges 6:15.

Judges 6:15

My clan is the weakest, I am the least of them.

God does not call the perfect, he calls the willing.

He does not call the one that has it all, he calls upon those that will surrender it all.

I finish.

Thrive with shalom.

When he came out, a failure in survival.

We begin to drive.

This is what he did.

He built shalom.

We read it.

The altar that says peace, where nothing is missing and nothing is broken.

And then here comes.

There was this ashere pole.

This is so prophetic for us and for this nation.

There was this pole constructed to remind them of their captivity.

I love this.

And the Lord gives this Gideon who's no longer failing or surviving but thriving.

Clear instructions.

You see that Asherah pole right there, that reminder?

Cut it down.

You would assume for a second he will cut it down and discard it and throw it away.

And the Lord said, Cut it down right there, cut it down, but don't throw it away.

Use it to fuel your altar.

I'm gonna say that one more time.

Whatever the enemy constructed to hold you back this year, God's gonna turn it around, you're gonna cut it down, and it will be the fuel.

It will be literally the resource that will fuel the altar of shalom in your life.

What does that mean, Pastor Rodriguez?

Whatever the enemy created to stop you, it will not stop you, it will actually be the resource that will fuel your destiny and the greatest year thus part of your life.

Cut it down.

That's Judges 6:25.

Judges 6:25

Whatever hell constructed to keep you in your past will be cut down and fuel your future.

Therefore, from this moment on, you will not be defined by the wall in front of you, you will be defined by the shout inside of you.

You will not be defined by the giant that rises up against you, you will be defined by the stone that brings him down.

I conclude.

Pastor Robert just reminded me of this a few moments ago.

I shared this with James when I was here for James's conference.

Some years back, I was invited to speak, actually to pray at an event in Washington, D.C.

If anyone wants to see the video testimonies of those that were there for the skeptics, uh you can speak to Tony Suarez, Bishop Angel Nunez, Carlos Durant, and others that were there, countless that were there, and those videos are available on our website.

I was invited to Washington, DC.

It was a secular event.

There were over a great number of people, hundreds of a couple hundred thousand people gathered in the secular event.

And when I was first invited, I even asked the the television personality who you would recognize, who's a friend who invited me.

I asked him, Why are you inviting me?

I said, I'm a Californian, so I said, Hey dude, why are you inviting me?

And it's it's a secular event.

Why would you need me there?

Why would what do you want me to do?

He goes, I want you to pray.

And I go, but it's a secular event.

What and he and he actually said, Why not?

Good point.

So I went, I went to Washington, and I and and as I know, and I went to Washington and I had my I arrived, and there was this kid that was crying all the way from San Francisco to Washington.

And when we got off the plane, I couldn't sleep at all because of the kid that was crying.

It was more of a toddler, and and and I wanted to lay hands on the kid, but not in the name of Jesus.

And so I went and I got my camel macchiato and I went to the place and I went backstage and I ran up and he looks at me and he says, He goes, Pastor Sam, I have some news for you.

Um, because the people heard that you were the one praying.

The committee, there's always a committee, the committee decided that they should invite other faith groups to pray likewise.

And I went, Oh wow, I I prepared something assuming I would be the only one.

He went, that was the original plan, but you know, can you accommodate?

And I went, okay.

He goes, Do you want to go first or last?

Something inside of me said, Son, go last, so you can fix the mess everybody else makes before you politically incorrect.

I know how terrible of me.

So they went up, and the first and they all went up, nice people, affable people.

They went up and the first person prayed, and and and and the person she prayed, and and and you know, God, you're the God of many names and no name at all, and and you're the air, the wind, the tree, the leaf.

You are everything, and yet you are nothing.

Amen.

And then a rabbi prayed, beautiful prayer, and then uh uh an imad prayed, and and and and and in his context, and I came up and I went, I went up, I'm arguing with God, I'm saying, God, how do I pray?

How do I pray?

How do I pray?

I don't want to offend anyone.

There's cameras here, television cameras here, all the networks are here.

I don't want to be controversial, I don't want to be polarizing, I don't want to marginalize.

I had a prayer, prepare, but I don't want to offend them.

How do I pray?

How do I pray?

I mean, I mean, do I pray in the name of Kumbaya, love, be a barney, the big wind?

How do I pray?

So, how do I pray?

So I'm coming up and I'm fighting with God.

I kid you not, I'm doing it in Spanish so people wouldn't hear me.

So I'm I'm coming, I'm coming up, and I hear the Spirit of God tell me, Son, pray the way you pray at church.

You guys have never been to my church.

So I got the microphone, I went upstage, hit the microphone, went like this.

Started, picked up the microphone, and I went, let's pray.

I kid you not.

There's a guy named Tony Suarez who works for me now, who came to work for me because of that prayer, what he saw that day.

And they were all quiet, deered headlights going like, Why are we praying in the first place?

It's not it's not it's not a religious event, it's a secular event.

Get this guy off the stage.

So I get the mic.

The other faith leaders were there.

So cameras, I said, let us pray.

In the name that is above all the other names, in the name to whom which every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess, no other name given unto man, through by which salvation has come unto all mankind, in the minimum of he who saved, in the minimum of him who lived, and the minimum of him who comes in the holy mind, stop, stay standing.

I'm gonna just stop finishing.

Oh, real quick, but that's what it did.

Man, it's like you're already standing.

That's what they did, but I kid you not, for three and a half, four minutes, maybe four and a half, they wouldn't sit or stand, they wouldn't even be quiet.

For four, a a politician came up and he tried to speak and he couldn't because the crowd wouldn't shut up.

They just kept on, and I'm walking off the stage, and my friends are with me.

I'm walking off.

People are going, all the secular people going, why are people responding like this?

It's real simple.

There is still power in the name of Jesus.

I said there's power in the name of Jesus.

Lift up your boys, raise the right hand, let me declare this upon you and walk away.

From this moment, you will not in 2016.

From this moment, my God, this season, you will not go back to the pit.

You will not drown in the threshing floor, you will not sacrifice truth on Baal's altar.

You will not listen to the Midianites, you will not bow before the astropo.

You will not believe the lies, sacrifice truth, quench the spirit, hide the light, or conform to this world.

You will not fail or merely survive.

You and your house will do nothing less in Jesus Christ than to thrive.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

God bless you.