Samuel Rodriguez - It Begins With Faith
High five your neighbor and tell 'em, "I believe it". Your other neighbor, tell 'em, "I believe it. I believe it. I believe it". You may be seated. It really begins with faith. Somebody say, "Faith". Not just any faith, not nominal faith, not casual faith, but in referencing the gathering, and this may be a little bit old school, but I'mma release it. I'm talking about devil rebuking, demon binding, mountain moving, atmosphere shifting, father glorifying, Christ centered, spirit empowered faith. Not just the faith for Sunday morning and kumbaya Christianity, but the kind of faith that you still believe, that there is power in the name of Jesus. The kind of faith that will make you confront every visage of darkness and declare the promise of John 1:5 that, "Light will shine in the darkness and the darkness will never overcome it".
That faith. It is the faith of Matthew 21:22. "Whatever you pray, believe, and by faith you will receive it". It is the faith of Hebrews 11:1. What is faith? "The conviction of things hoped for in the assurance of things not yet seen". The faith of Hebrews 11:6, "The one that pleases God". Faith. Everybody say, "Faith". So, in this auditorium today, arguably, if not by faith, I am hoping, praying that every single person here is a person of faith. If not, you will be by the end of the service. Faith, 'cause we need faith in these troubled times. Faith overcomes fear. We need faith. But there are moments when that faith is tested. There are moments that faith goes through a test, a framework, life's journey, a rubric of tension. The outcome of that faith that goes through the proverbial fire, we get tested.
If you've never been through anything or if you haven't been through anything in the past three to five years, please come up here so I can just take your number and begin to worship you, because we all go through things. If your faith has been tested in the past three to five years, raise one hand. If it's been tested on multiple occasions, raise both hands. If it's been tested so much, hashtag #pleasebringanendtothetest. Lift up both hands and a foot if your family has been tested, your children. How about your health, finances, your calling, your community? We've all been tested. What if I tell you that when that faith goes through the fire, it doesn't come out on the other side as faith? What? What if I show you through scripture that when faith goes through the fire, it comes out as favor? When faith goes through the fire, the outcome is favor.
So let me prophetically layout, biblically substantiated, prophetically layout the following for your consideration. If you've been through the fire, if you're going through the fire right now, if you've been through the fire, whatever it may be in your life, put a smile on your face because on the other side of that fire, there is favor waiting for you like you have never ever seen before. Anybody ready for God's favor in this house? Anyone need God's favor in this house? Let me make it legal. There's a biblical narrative that encapsulates that. Daniel 3, a story everyone here should know.
Daniel 3:4, "Bow to the ground to worship king Nebuchadnezzar's gold statue". Verse 6, "Anyone who refuses to obey will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace". Verse 23, "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego securely tied, fell into the roaring flames. Suddenly," somebody say, "Suddenly". "Nebuchadnezzar jumped up in amazement and exclaimed to his advisors, 'didn't we tie up three men and throw them into the furnace'? 'yes, your majesty'. 'look,' he shouted, 'i see four men unbound walking around in the fire completely unharmed and the fourth looks like a God'. So, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego step out of the fire". Verse 27. "Then the high officers, officials, governors, and advisers crowded around them and saw the fire had not touched them, not a hair on their heads was singed, and their clothing was not scorched. They didn't even smell of smoke. They didn't even smell of smoke".
Then verse 30, "The king promoted," there it is, the favor part, "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, to even higher positions in the providence of Babylon". I wanna speak to you in the next 25 minutes or so in a very accelerated matter the following, "Faith, fire and favor. When faith goes through the fire, the outcome is favor". And the subtext is this, "I've been through hell, but I still smell like heaven". Number one if you're talking any notes, and good luck with that, faith becomes favor when you refuse to bow. I'll repeat that for the hearing impaired. Faith will become favor when you refuse to bow. You will come out smelling like heaven when you refuse to worship the God of Babylon. We are a prophetic minority living in a pathetic world. To the great degree we're living spiritually, prophetically, immorally in America and around the world in a new era of Babylonian captivity.
Nebuchadnezzar wants us to worship. The objective of the enemy is to make us bow, to make us worship. When you bow, you worship. When you bow, you surrender. When you bow, you submit. And there are people that bow. They bow to lies. They bow to fear. They bow to depression, anxiety. They bow to ideologies and social constructs that are counterintuitive to the word and the Spirit of God. Even in the church in America today, we see, unfortunately, leadership bowing, succumbing, acquiescing, sacrificing truth on the altar of expediency. Bowing, bowing, bowing. I believe this. I believe we are in a shaking. Even in our nation, there is a shifting, the separation between the wheat and the chaff.
What does that mean? God is showing up, folks. There are churches that will not stand, will not be able to stand because they have watered down the gospel. They no longer preach biblical truth. They are afraid of losing followers. They are afraid of having some sort of protest. We need a church that'll rise up, that will not bow in the mighty name of Jesus. They want us to bow. They want us to sacrifice truth to worship the false, to accept the teachings to embrace sin. They want us to rewrite the Bible and delete whatever is politically and culturally incorrect. That spirit of Nebuchadnezzar wants us to bow before our problems. They, there's, but there, in Jesus name.
I didn't travel from California on route to Columbia to talk about what's bowing. I'm here to prophesy and tell you in 2024 we are about to see a generation that will not bow. I'll repeat that for the hearing impaired. All the way from myrtle beach, South Carolina, there is a church in America declaring right now that we will not bow. We will not bow. There is a church in South Carolina that will not bow. We will not sacrifice God's word. We will not quench the Holy Spirit. And this will get me in trouble if we're streaming, we will not permit our children to be held captive by the devils and the demons that are coming after them in the schools, in the teachings, in the movies. We will not let our children be confused by the works of the enemy. We will not bow. Is there a church in myrtle beach that...
There are things that I preach from California, from Sacramento in Los Angeles, and I do it with love. We preach truth in love, with love, and for love. But we got to preach the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help us, holy God. And we even do it in California. And that's why, I don't drink the Kool-Aid, by the way. I'm prophesying to California now. This whole thing about California is gonna go to hell in perpetuity, we're about to see a righteousness and justice movement take place in California. Watch God show up. Surprise, surprise, surprise. All of a sudden, the Holy Spirit shows up in California, poof. He'll do it again. He did before in de sousa, he'll do it again. But this idea that one day soon every knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of all. I don't know if you understand what that means.
Imagine CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, CBS. Imagine all of them covering the day that every knee shall bow, every president will bow, every ayatollah will bow, every cleric will bow, every atheist will bow, every president will bow, every king will bow, every athlete, every artist, every double demon legion principality, cancer will bow, diabetes will bow, alcoholism will bow, pornography will bow, and they will all declare that, "Jesus Christ is Lord of all". Somebody, shout if you actually believe that. Faith becomes favor the moment you believe and declare that, "God is able". "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied, 'Nebuchadnezzar, we don't need to defend ourselves'". Wow, what a line. "If we are thrown into the blazing furnace of God, whom we serve is able to save us, he is able. He will rescue us from your power, but even if he doesn't, we wanna make it clear to you that we will never serve your Gods or worship the gold statue you have set up".
Three words that make devils flee and prompt demons to tremble, three words that shift the atmosphere from darkness to light, from sorrow to joy, and from fear to faith, three words that make room for the impossible. I want everyone to shout them, "God is able". That's not just like Pentecostal mantra. It is the power to believe that God is truly able. God is able. They spoke faith in the midst of their adversity. Don't just believe it in your heart, say it with your mouth. Say it with your actions. Say it with your postings. Say it with your prayer, your praise, your worship, your living, your giving, and your forgiving, "God is able". We are the generation fully committed to declaring to the world, a broken world, that the God that we serve is a God that is able.
"The God that we serve is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all, anything and everything we could ever imagine or ask for". Ephesians 3:20, "He is able to keep us from falling". Jude 1:24, "Faithful to fulfill his promises". Romans 4:21, "God is able. God is able". So, if your children are lost right now, you need to have enough faith to believe that God is able to save your children and your children's children. How many have enough faith in this place to believe that God is able to save your children, that before this year is over your household will be saved? How many believe God can do it? God is able. God is able as it pertains to your family, your health, your ministry, your community. God is able.
Luke 1:37, "Nothing is impossible for God". The Word of God never fails. God is able. Faith becomes favor when it goes through the fire. Faith becomes favor when we come in agreement. I wanna illustrate this. Let me have my guys, quickly, up here, please. I invited Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, the myrtle beach, South Carolina version of this. And then I invited Jason to be Jesus on steroids, creatine, muscle Jesus. I need one more. There it is. So, here's what we're gonna do. So, we're gonna do Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. We're gonna have you here. You're gonna be Jesus in the fire. So, let's do this right here. You're gonna be in the middle of the fire.
Now, but, Jesus, give me a second here. I wanna talk to these guys here. Y'all, the fact of the matter, give me just real simple stuff. You know this story. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you know, fourth man shows up. Gotcha. Okay. And so, but this whole thing it kind of lays out the framework from Matthew 18:19. Let me explain. So, it's in the Old Testament now. So, what do I mean by that? So, they came together and, like, this is, like, a logical continuum of what could have happened. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Nebuchadnezzar comes along. "Bow, worship or die". Right? "Bow, worship or die". All three of them, the three amigos. The three amigos come together, and no pun intended. Whatever you are. A little slightly racist but it works, man. I mean, right now it's just working. It works for me at least. Somebody else may not work, but for me it works. We'll check that box. Boom.
Okay. The three amigos come together but this is what messes me up. At least one of them, one of them could have said, "Yeah, yow, yubuyobo. I'm out". Because at least one of them could have said, "Listen, you know, like, Shadrach, are you in? You gonna bow"? "I'm not gonna bow"? "Shadrach, Meshach, you wanna", "No, no, no". And then you shouldn't be Abednego. Okay? This is, you should flip it. You should flip it, but it is. And then, "You're going to bow"? "No, no, no". One of them, just one, would have said, "No". All three came in agreement. No, no, you're not getting that part. Matthew 18:19 fast forward what is it? "If two are more come in agreement in my name over anything, I will be in the midst of them and I will do the very thing they ask for".
So, it's a Christophany plus, the fact they came in agreement. It's all cameo appearances in the Old Testament, just pointing towards what's coming to the finished work of Christ. But they came in agreement. This was so cool. One of them could have said this, and maybe one of them could have said, "Listen, I'mma do this. I'm not gonna go, y'all. I'm gonna bow and then I'mma repent because God is a forgiving God. So, I'm gonna bow, repent, and live". Right? Here's what you need to understand that favor, and it's true. You messed up. You repent. God will forgive you. But favor is reserved for those that refuse to bow. I'mma to say that one more time. Favor is reserved for those that refuse to bow.
Genesis 6:8, "God favors the righteous". Psalm 84:11, "He bestows favor and honor". It is reserved. Hence, I'm gonna to double down on the notion, on the fact, on the truth. There is a clarion call from heaven for Christian leadership in America not to bow. We cannot bow. We must never bow. We got, the Bible says that they came in agreement. They came in agreement and they stood. They did not acquiesce. They didn't... By the way, surround yourself with people that'll go to war with you. Surround yourself with people that'll praise you through. Don't surround yourself with people that are always bringing up your past and reminding you of your trauma, and your drama and, "Look what the devil did, and look at the hell you went," no. Surround yourself with people that remind you, "Look what the Lord has done. Look what God is doing in you, with you, for you, and through you". They came in agreement.
The Bible says, "They stood, and they stood together". They stood together in agreement. And then the fourth man showed up, but they stood in agreement. They stood, they stood, they stood. Somebody look at your neighbor and tell them, "We stand". Now, I heard rumors. Y'all, put a little one-minute clip of what I'm gonna share with you right now, which is adorable, and God bless you and bless your heart. But let me give you the full gamut story. Pastor tony knows this because I've been talking about it. I shared it at pastor Joe Dobbins' church and because it's my testimony in the past year. I live in California, and in California we experienced supernatural growth coming out of COVID. We were one of those few churches in California that did not, and I'm not gonna go into the politics of what took place, and God bless you if you were different, but we refused to close and shut down our church. And we were in California, but we just felt like, you know, the church is essential, and we need to be open.
So, we stayed open with great protocols, and care and, and all of that. And God protected us supernaturally, but we stayed open. As a result, God rewarded us with a great harvest and the church blew up, multiplicative, just growth. And it blew up, blew up, blew up and the county came in and, you know, and little threats and stuff because, and then, you know, that kind of stuff. And then you have the father, son and the Holy Spirit and a great attorney. And the point to you is... And it always works for us. It always, so, yeah, what a great firewall. So, we grew, we grew, we grew, and it got to the point where my wife and i, we did a sermon and we went through it. And then, we did a whole thing and then, the Holy Spirit, just God was saying, so we felt the honey, the harvest is wait, we have more people than chairs, and we have three services. In the auditorium, it's a limited auditorium. It only fits 800 people.
And now, we're not trying to do four services, five services. The way I preach, it's just a lot of complications. How much coffee can I drink in one day? And so many confused, the complexities of, you know, the reality of the painting. So, all of a sudden, we got a call. Church is blowing up. I mean, standing room only. Get a call. "Pastor Sam, what's going on? Pastor Sam, there's a church in the region, very prominent church in the region that didn't survive COVID. They have a 3,000-seating auditorium. They have a thousand seating in the same property. And then, they have a have a 300-seating auditorium, 1,018, and 300 over the third one. Three auditoriums same property, 40 plus acres, highway frontage in a very important part of the region. And that church did not survive COVID. Would you have any interest in having conversations about you taking over this ministry"? So, I went like what, I mean, two words, answered prayer. #thisisit, right?
So, I went like, "Woah, this is it". We have preliminary conversations, about five of them, and the finance committee, and the board, and so forth, and then finally, it happened. The pastor of the church gives me a call and says, "Alright, Pastor Sam, we're doing this. You bring your board in. Well, we'll have our board there and we'll sign an MOU, and we'll begin the process of the merger". In essence, us taking over the ministry, with a measurable amount of debt. But even that we had that, like, already set in place to address. So, alright. We're doing this so, no question. So, I met with my team beforehand. I never got a list of the questions they were gonna ask. So, I met with my team and I'm gonna tell you in full disclosure where we met. We met across the street from the church in a certain coffee establishment whose name, I don't need to mention. It's the one with Jezebel on the cup.
So, so, we were there. So, we met in that coffee establishment. I had an almond milk latte because I always do. And so, you know, we were meeting, and we were talking. "Hey, guys, what questions do you think they're gonna ask, 'cause they never gave me a heads up"? We're gonna meet, sign the contract, and then pshew... So, I'm si... what questions? "They're gonna ask questions, fiduciary governance questions, merger questions, integration of systems, possibly attrition regarding current employees and staff, risk management questions". "Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. What else"? "They're probably gonna ask you questions of, 'which services will you have, you know, English, Spanish, Slavic in the region, etcetera"? "Alright, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. Anything else? Anything else"? "No, that's probably it. I mean, everything else is, you know, you can find on Wikipedia, so might as well go for it, right"?
So, alright. Boom. So, we finally said, "Any more questions? Good. Are you ready? Yeah. I mean, what else could he possibly ask? No, no, no. 'why does he speak so fast'? They're not going to ask that question, not gonna ask that". So, well let's just, here we go. So, help me. We crossed the street, approached the building, go through the door. We walked in. Their board is there. We walked in there. "Pastor Sam and his members of his church board, have a seat here". So, we sat across each other. It looked like this meeting, right? This treaty meeting here. So, we're across and I'm waiting. They go, "Pastor Sam, thank you for coming". I go, "I'm honored to be here and we're excited". And then, "Well, our board has questions, Pastor Sam". And I go, "Please proceed". "First question". The guy across looks at me and says, "First question, Pastor Sam".
And this is me. This is the Pastor Sam enthusiastically waiting for the question. First question. Yeah, this has been, like, certified. Everybody there, you know signed off and said, "This really happened just like this". So, it was pretty cool. "So, first question". "Yeah". "Pastor Sam, we want to inform you that our church ministry, we lean left and we wanna know where do you lean"? Because I hadn't, honestly, is it a prank? There's a camera here somewhere. I'm being pranked. Like, out of all the questions in the universe, that was the first question. And I'm going, "What"? And my face, this is... And then, because, like, first of all, but, you know, I'm a pastor and I do all the assignments God ordained me to do on this planet. But I'm likewise a part time comedian. So, the first thing that went through my mind wasn't a prophetic response. It was, "Hey, Sam, you have enough comedy here for the next five years, right here. This will land". This is actually happening.
So then, right after that fleshly moment, I'm going... And then nothing came out of my mouth. My team is here, and my team, experienced a sign and a wonder. Their pastor was silent. They haven't seen that. They're going like, "Why isn't he answering? Like, say something. Say something". And nothing is coming out. The reason is because I'm having an internal fight between Sam Rodriguez and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is telling me, "Go ahead, answer. Go ahead, you know what to say". And I'm going like. "I don't want to". Because if I would answer what the Holy Spirit was telling me to answer we were not gonna end up with that building, which we did not. But we ended up coming now June 30th and then fulfilled at the end of this year with another building completely paid in full with absolutely no debt.