Samuel Rodriguez - Respect The Glory
If you're here for the first time or you're here for the last couple of months, there are phrases that are Germane to the New Season lexicon. One of the is, let's make it legal. Let's make it legal is a phrase we use or let's go to the Word of God. It's not legal unless it's in the word. Here it is. Let's make it legal. 1 Samuel chapter 5, here's the story, "The Philistines captured the ark of God, they took it from the battleground at Ebenezer to the town of Ashdod. They carried the ark of God into the temple of Dagon". Somebody say, "Dagon". "And they placed it beside an idol: a statue, a big statue of Dagon. When the citizens of Ashdod went to see it the next morning, Dagon had fallen with his face to the ground in front of the ark of the Lord"!
You gotta visualize this. We gonna show you this. "So, they took Dagon and they put him in his place again. But the next morning the same thing happened, Dagon had fallen face down before the ark of the Lord but this time", somebody say, "This time". Oh, this time the outcome was different. "This time his head and hands had broken off and were lying in the doorway. Only the trunk of his body was left intact".
Respect the glory. Respect the glory, baby. You're in my space. When the prophetic stands next to the pathetic, the prophetic always wins. Respect the glory. Number one, you are what you tolerate. Repeat after me, "You are what you tolerate". Preach to yourself. Have you ever preached to yourself? Have you ever spoken to yourself? You gotta learn how to speak to yourself. Gotta learn how to pray over yourself. Gotta learn how to prophecy over yourself. You gotta know how to praise all by yourself. So, just preach to yourself and tell yourself, "I am what I tolerate". You are what you tolerate. I am what I tolerate. Do not permit anything or anyone to capture the glory in your life.
Now, let me break this down with a little bit of teaching. In the Old Testament, the ark of God, God's treasure chest, represented God's presence, power and promise. The ark of God facilitated the glory of God. The glory of God is to manifest presence of God. So, whatever heaven touched, the rod of Aaron, manna, the commandments, these idols are described as glorious. So, if I had a box here, the glory of God, the presence of God would only be made manifest wherever the ark of God was present. So, God would say wherever this box, this treasure chest is present I'm gonna show up. It was the most sacred thing on the planet. It was literally a box with the most sacred, glorious elements, things that God interacted with physically. So, God supernaturally, boom! The rod of Aaron had power, boom! Manna, literally God's menu what he created, what he sent out, what he provided for his children when they were in the desert.
The Ten Commandments, Moses on the mountain, the Ten Commandments and the finger of God, the Ten Commandments was wild because the finger of God. So, it's very powerful. It was what God interacted with in the secret treasure chest. The Philistines, watch this. The Philistines came against the Israelites. The Philistines said our army is ginormous. The Israelites had an army this big: this is easy. So, the Philistines declared war on the Israelites. The moment war was declared, the Israelites would do this, we have a small army, we're not the biggest country in the world, these guys are ginormous, but we have a secret weapon. Take out the presence of God. So, they would come out with the ark of God and anytime the ark of God would lead the way, the bad guys would lose. I wish we would learn the same secret, that every time we are driven by the presence of God, the bad guys will lose, right.
So, the Philistines said, "Wait, wait, wait, stop! Let's do it again. We have 100.000 troops: they have 10.000 troops. We're gonna invade then in the middle of the night, go"! And they attack them. Once again, the Israelites heard the noise and they would say, "They're coming after us, what do we have? We have the glory. Let's bring out the glory". And guess what happened again, the Philistines lost the battle. The Philistines get together and they go like, "Every single time we come against these guys, they have that thing. That thing, that thingy, thing, thing, thing, thing. That mh-hmm and every time that mh-hmm shows up we 'hm.' we could have a million troops: they could have ten troops". But ten troops with the glory of God is more powerful than a zillion opponents against the glory of God. Is anyone here aware of the fact that "Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world"?
Has anyone, could anyone here bare witness that you have been in the most precarious circumstances? Everything came against you, but it was just you and God, and that's all you needed to overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of your testimony. So, the Philistines came to this crazy conclusion. "Stop! Let's meet, strategic meeting, what do we do, what do we do? We can't defeat them, we wanna defeat them. We hate them. Can't stand them. We wanna defeat them. What do we do, what do we do? Got it. If we can't defeat them because of that mh-hmm. Let's capture the mh-hmm. So, let's go for the Ark of the Covenant. That glory presence box that God's treasure chest thing. Let's capture it". So, they did. They literally captured and they believed they took the power of God captive. How many know here, that they discovered in the temple you can't incarcerate the glory? You missed that. You can't imprison the power of God.
"For the Lord our God is our sun and our shield. He gives us grace and glory," Psalm 84:11. I want you to put this in prospective, Romans 8:30 says this, "Through the right Carriers to the work of Jesus, we are Carriers of the glory, having chosen them: he called them to come to him, having called them he gave them right standing with them selves and having given them right standing he gave them his glory". Talking about Jesus to us, Romans 8:30. You missed it. You don't carry generational curses. Touch yourself right here, you don't, stop that. Stop talking about the fact that your grandparents, and yours before you, and your family that they have been 20 generations of alcoholism, 30 generations of sexual promiscuity, 40 generations of diabetes, change your language.
The moment you became born, the moment you accepted Jesus, every generational curse, you're not getting that. There is no generational curse on your family. There is no bondage on your family. Your family does have a generational thing, it's generational blessings. Somebody praise like you know. Do you know what you carry? You carry glory. I don't know if you understand that. You are a glory Carrier. Your neighbor, the person next to you literally Carries the glory of God. That right there is powerful. Do you understand that you have a celebrity next to you? Forget about anybody... All right you're not Johnny Depp or Amber Heard, that's not the point right now. But you carry glory, you carry the glory of God.
This is why... This is why the prince of darkness hates your gut. The devil hates you because you carry glory. He doesn't hate you because of the color of your skin. The great thief doesn't care if you're republican or democrat or independent. He hates you because you carry the glory. You carry glory, it's not about what you did, it's for someone here. It's about what you're about to do. The enemy is not threatened by your past, he's threatened by your future. He is attacking you not because of the wrong things you did in your past. The enemy is coming after you because of the amazing things you're about to do in the future.
So, you can say, "But Pastor Sam, what does that mean now"? The Philistines believe right now they can capture the glory. They are attempting to capture the glory. There's this idea that the spiritual principalities and powers to darkness are capturing glory. There's four words for you, watch God show up. "Pastor Sam we're coming out of a global pandemic, watch God show up. Pastor Sam the country is more divided than ever before... Pastor Sam, there're food shortages even baby formula, oh no! Pastor Sam, there's a war in Ukraine, Russia is threatening Poland, and China is threatening Taiwan... Pastor Sam, personally speaking, Pastor Sam my marriage is falling apart... My children are rebellious... The medical report came in... They're about to fire me..." does anybody here really believe God's about to show up? Somebody praise like you actually believe it and worship.
Lift up your hands! How many believe that in your family, the next thing that is about to happen is God is about to show up? Somebody say, "Watch God show up". How do you know God is about to show up? Because of Luke 1:37, it says, "The Word of God never..." and when Luke wrote this, Dr. Luke feels the Holy Spirit. Do you realize the New Testament was not written yet? You missed it. He said, "The Word of God will never fail". What word was he referencing? John 1:1: "In the beginning was the... And the word was with... And the word was... And the word became flesh and he dwelt among men". Jesus never fails and all the promises in the Old Testament, New Testament that Jesus laid out for us. 2 Corinthians 1, "The Word of God never fails". Watch God show up. The Philistines, raise your hands.
Can I just declare this prophetically? You're about to see God-matter of fact, let me just declare it. Some of you may receive it. Those that receive will see it. Those that receive it will see it. The next thing to fill your family, will not be more drama. The next thing to fill your family will be the glory of God. The next thing to capture your mind will not be more negative thoughts. The next thing to capture your mind will be the glory of God. Can we do this? The next thing to invade your atmosphere will not be demons, legions, principalities devils, sins, or powers of darkness. The next thing to invade your atmosphere will be the holy, righteous, powerful, transformative, life-changing, destiny catapulting, ministry elevating, harvest producing, joy revealing, glory of the living God. If you believe it, now give God your best praise.
"For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea," Habakkuk 2:14. This is the glory that yields the unprecedented harvest. It is the glory. So, Jesus said, "I have given them the glory you gave me". Jesus said this, "I have given them the glory you gave me. So, they may be one as we are one". You missed it. The glory of God brings people together. Be careful. Don't ask God to show you his glory and give you his glory. If you don't wanna hang around people that are different from you. I'm gonna double down on this, because it's John 17:22: "I have given them the glory you gave me so they may be one as we are one".
I'm telling you: this is the devil's worst nightmare. The moment we worship together, the moment every different ethnicity worship together, the moment every race worships together: look around you, the moment... We're gonna see more of this around the world. We're gonna see more around this. I know I can get banned on Facebook for saying this, but if we live in a community where there's diversity and you go to church that's only monochromatic. Monochromatic is just a fancy word for one skin color. If you go to a church, and I know this is controversial, but I don't give a holy hoot anymore. If you live in diverse community and you wanna worship with people that look like you, you're never gonna see the fullness of God's glory. I'm not gonna apologize for the fact that when we worship together, when white and black and Latino and Asian and native Americans worship together, every devil has to run out, every demon has to flee. Because Jesus said, "Let them be one".
Is there anyone here ready to see the glory of God show up? The power of divine diversity, it is so amazing, and it's just not skin color. It's PhD with GED. Some people gotta worship with people of the same academic educational level. Some people just wanna see if you don't make this amount of money, I don't wanna worship with you. No! We have diversity, we have people that drive a Prius and people that drive a Maserati. We have people that drive a bicycle and people that own three triumphs at the Harley. We have people coming together, why? Because we are about to occupy more territory than ever before in the name of Jesus. A multiracial, a multiethnic church is the devil's worse nightmare. And the glory of God brings people together, not just ethnic wise, race wise. But even generations.
Can you raise your hands? I'mma prophecy something crazy here. Even for my family, what if tell you in Jesus name that we get this right, we're gonna see generations in your family worshipping together. Oh, you missed it. Pastor Sam but you, no, no, no, watch generational baby. You're gonna see you with your children, with your grandchildren and with your great grandchildren. You're gonna see at least four generations. How many are ready to have that kind of gathering, that one day you'll have four generations worshipping Jesus together? Is there anybody here in Sacramento that actually believes God is about to show up and the glory of God is about to be poured out in such a way that generations are coming together and we will not permit the devil to hold hostage, not even one generation. All the generations will be saved.
If you got this raise your hands. All right, so here it is, I'mma pivot here real quick here. Limited time, next week we continue it is two-part series. So, this is what happened. Watch this, let me show you. The Philistines, so when we capture the box, if we capture the glory we win. All we gotta do is capture the glory. If we capture the glory, the Israelites can't win. We win, the Philistines, we got this. So, they capture the glory and they took it to a temple that the Philistines worship a God called Dagon. So, matter of fact, I'm gonna have James, come on, give it up for Dagon. You're Dagon today, come on. You're Dagon, right here.
This really happened. I'm not making it up. They actually brought the Ark of the Covenant and they placed it right next to the statue of Dagon. In the temple of Dagon, they actually did this. Watch. So, visualize this. On the Ark of the Covenant, the treasure chest. So, they place it right next to Dagon, so "They carried the ark of God into the temple of Dagon and place it beside it". Verse two, "They carried the ark of God", what, "They carried the ark of God," Hebrew exegetical extrapolation of the passage. Do your biblical diligence, make sure it's correct. "They carried the ark of God". Stop! They did what? I can't' hear you. They did what? Did they drag it? Did they push it on the floor?
Stop for a moment. These are the enemies, the enemies, why were they so careful? You missed it. This is the enemy of the Israelites and yet the enemy knew, oh, I'll even break it down for you. If you wanna do away with the secret sauce, if you're the Philistines, why don't you just open up the box? You missed it. Why carry it? Ugh. Why not open up the box and say, "There's a rod there"? Break the rod. Ten Commandments, do away with the law, break it. Take the manna, shake it. No! They ain't even dare touch it. You're gonna get this in a second. Why didn't the enemies destroy the Ark of the Covenant? Because they couldn't. The Philistines already knew, they already heard from the moment, there was a testimony that the Israelites left behind. From the moment the walls of Jericho came down there was a testimony, that anybody, anyone who would open up that box would what? I'm here to tell you, I don't care what the devil does, there're things in your life he will never be able to touch.
Lift up your hands. I'm here to tell you there are things in your life, the devil will never have access to. Oh, you missed it. I'm preaching now. There are things in your life says the Lord. There are things in your life the enemy will never have access to. When in John 10:10, Jesus said, "The enemy came to rob, kill, and destroy, but I came to give you life and life abundantly". Do you know what he's saying? Before you meet me, the devil has the power to rob, to kill, and to destroy but after you receive me... Somebody should be getting this. After you receive me, the enemy will not be able to rob, kill or destroy what is sacred in your, somebody shout like you know it. Lift up your hands. Somebody say, "Respect the glory". No, say it like you mean it. "Respect the glory". The Philistines didn't open up the box. The Philistines didn't take away the rod. The Philistines didn't even drag it, they carried it with great respect because even the devil knows that you're anointed. Hell knows that you are blessed.
Stand with... You are standing. Stand with me if you're not standing. I don't want Christians, I don't want you ever outta your mouth to say, "The devil is robbing my peace". That's theologically incoherent, which is a fancy term from a pastoral perspective to tell you, you made that up. He can't. Pastor Sam, why did I lose my peace? Cause you permitted your peace to be lost. Pastor Sam that's crude. No that's Bible. That's Bible. You're telling me the devil can't rob what's inside the box baby, and I'm not talking about the Old Testament box. Everything Jesus did for you, Colossians 2:15, Colossians 2:15 doesn't say one day Jesus would defeat the devil. He doesn't say he'll overcome every principality and power of darkness. It says, "On the cross, he publicly defeated every principality and power of darkness. And he made a spectacle out of them".
Luke 10:19 says, "I have given you power over all the powers of the enemy and nothing will harm you". 1 John 5:18 says that, "God's children do not make it a habit is sinning. If you're born again, God protects you and the enemy will never be able to touch you". 2 Thessalonians 3:3, "God protects you. He is firm, he is your guard and the enemy will never be able to touch you". Why do we act like the devil can take away things that God has already secured in our lives? The Philistines never ever dragged the glory box. They respected, they actually, just like that they carried it nicely and they did not open it cause Israel had a testimony. Your testimony tells the devil, you know you're a liar and you're gonna try to deceive it cause it's who you are. But don't you dare, don't you dare, don't you even dare ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever even get close. Respect the glory.
Can I tell you one more thing? Not only did the Philistines respect the glory, not only they're things in your life the devil will never be able to touch, your salvation cannot be touched. Your eternal life cannot be touched. Your abundant life cannot be touched. Your new life cannot be touched. The Holy Spirit inside of you cannot be touched. The anointing in your life cannot be touched. The purpose for your life cannot be touched. Your calling cannot be touched. The gifts of God in your life cannot be touched. Are you with me right now? The promises of God for you and your children and your children's children and your children's children's children they are sacred trust, they cannot be touched.
If you really believe what they Bible says about you not being able to be touched I dare you to shout, "Respect the glory"! Shout it like you believe it, say, "Respect the glory"! I'm done. As you stand with me, I wanna ask you one little thing. If the enemy knows there are things that he has to respect, things his hand can't touch: if the Philistines know it, why do you permit people in your life that don't respect the glory? I will submit to you for your prayerful consideration the following: there are people in your life that are no longer around your life that are still living on this planet, and the reason they are no longer in your life is because they did not respect the glory of God upon your life for... No, you missed it. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, when God remove somebody from your life, don't text them, don't DM they, don't go after them.
If God says they are no longer part of your... Then say praise be to the Lord, why? If you don't respect the glory of God in my life, surround yourself with people that respect the glory of God in you, the glory of God with you, and the glory of God through you. And you yourself you need to have self-respect for the glory you carrying. You'll never receive external respect if you don't respect yourself. Stop asking people to respect you if you don't respect yourself. I'm gonna say that one more time. Stop demanding something you're not giving yourself. Respect yourself. Respect yourself with your actions, with your thoughts, with what you do, with what you say. Respect yourself privately and God will re-facilitate respect for you publicly. If you got this word, raise your hand.