Learning How to Fight What You Can’t See

GOLIATH NEVER WINS

In Pastor Sam’s book, Goliath Never Wins is “the algorithm that best captures what [he] truly believes is the current spiritual landscape.” It speaks to giants. A giant is an entity, a fixture, a posture, a moment that obstructs forward progress. “A giant will obstruct my vision,” says Pastor Sam. His goal with this book is to face the giants that have never been confronted before.

He wrote the book to let the next generation know that there are stones that can bring these massive giants down. This book is the result of a five-year journey that started with a message called Anointed to Prove Hell Wrong, which was about how David was anointed on three separate occasions and how on multiple occasions David was told that it was never going to happen. In the book of Samuel, Saul doubts David, telling him that there was no way he was going to defeat the giant. David was also doubted when he was about to conquer Jerusalem. Everything he was told he was never going to do, he did, all because he was anointed to prove hell wrong. In his book, Pastor Sam writes about how through the finished work of Christ, we are anointed by the Holy Spirit to do the same as David. 

THE HEART OF THE BOOK

At the heart of the book is the idea that the obstacles people face do not have to determine their future. Pastor Sam goes beyond the familiar message of finding the courage to face your Goliath and instead examines what prepared David for that moment. The book centers on five “stones” that are essential for overcoming life’s giants: identity, intimacy, integrity, influence, and innovation. Identity: we are everything Jesus paid for on the cross, nothing less. After identity comes spiritual intimacy, which is our prayer lives, Bible reading lives, speaking with God, and taking the sacraments, among other holy things. The next one is integrity. Integrity calls readers to keep their character consistent with their calling, while influence challenges them to use their lives and positions to make a difference. Finally, innovation encourages readers to recognize that defeating a giant sometimes requires approaching a problem differently than everyone else. Through these five principles, Pastor Sam argues that preparation for our greatest battles often begins long before we face them. 

What makes the book particularly compelling is Pastor Sam’s willingness to look at David’s entire story rather than focusing only on his victory over Goliath. David eventually became a king, but he also experienced failure, temptation, loss, and serious consequences from his decisions. Pastor Sam uses those highs and lows to show that defeating one giant does not mean a person will never face another challenge. Instead, the goal is to develop the spiritual foundation necessary to keep moving forward when new giants appear. The book ultimately challenges readers to reconsider how they view the obstacles in front of them: rather than seeing a giant as proof that they are unqualified or destined to fail, they can see it as an opportunity to discover what God has already placed within them. Through Goliath Never Wins, Rodriguez draws on the story of David to deliver a message about faith, identity, perseverance, character, and purpose – encouraging readers to stop allowing the size of their circumstances to determine the size of their expectations. 

After reading this book, readers “will walk out with clarity of a number of biblically substantiated truths,” says Pastor Sam, continuing to say, “the anointing on our lives is greater than anything that can be opposed on our lives.” He calls it “removing Saul’s armor,” which refers to the act of removing things like skewed dogma or teachings that could form as a lid on what God wants us to do. Pastor Sam continually emphasizes that Christians are anointed to prove hell wrong. 

PASTOR SAM

Pastor Sam is a pastor, author, and speaker. He is the president and founder of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, which is comprised of forty-two thousand U.S. churches. He is also the lead pastor of New Season Church in Sacramento, California, which has two campuses. Over the course of his ministry, Rodriguez became known for engaging both the church and the broader culture, partly through his work in media and entertainment. 

Pastor Sam does not consider any of these experiences as accolades but as the fulfillment of God’s purpose in his life. He draws from Psalm 138:8 and Romans 8:30, which talk about, respectively, God fulfilling his promise and how God has given right standing to those He has chosen and placed his glory on. He understands that the achievements and accomplishments are not his but God’s, and it is this humble disposition that helps Pastor Sam do everything God has called him to do. 

To learn more about Samuel Rodriguez, or to purchase his latest book, Goliath Never Wins, click the LINK!

CREDITS

Author, Goliath Never Wins (Chosen Books, 2026); Senior Pastor of New Season Church in California; president of “NHCLC” (National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference); advisor to Presidents Bush, Obama, and Trump; producer on movies “Breakthrough” (2019) and “Flamin’ Hot” (2023)