Thirst

Hey guys-- i was just reading this interview with Sonny Sandoval, the lead singer of POD-- he said some awesome stuff- i was really encouraged to hear his heart-- here are some excerpts:

It was never my desire to be in front of an audience or a crowd, but I didn’t know what to do, now that I was a Christian. I was like God, what do I do now?

I believe we have always had the hearts to just go out and give them God’s love and as we continue to do that God just opens up doors.

We have always had the mentality if for some reason tomorrow God was to put it on our hearts that that’s it, we are shutting it down, you guys reached the very last person I ever intended for you guys to reach in “Raleigh.” You know, that would be like: Awesome God! Now what? Now what do we do? I don’t hold on to rock-n-roll. Rock-N-Roll and POD, isn’t my life. My life is to my family and to my friends. My life is to serve God until my last breath, you know what I mean, and POD just happens to be a big awesome part of that right now. We always say that if God were to say you know what POD is done, and tomorrow you are going to go home and change diapers in the nursery. Or tomorrow you’re going to go home and collect garbage and love me, love me doing it! Then I’m going to do it, you know! I’m not going to fight “but God I really enjoy being on stage”! That was never my heart's desire in the first place.

Before, we would deal with issues and different things but you know it is not my job to talk about this, or to talk about that. My thing is to lead you to the cross- because that is where the answers are. Whether you believe this or whether you believe that. Whether you think doing this is not about tattoos… you know? Whatever! I’m not here to fight no fights. I’m here to lead you to the cross. Because once you get to the cross and once you sit with the Son of God, once you sit with Christ Jesus then that’s when you do the chat. That’s when you do the work and that’s when God explains things. You know, we never want to change you before we introduce you to Jesus. It’s like dude, let’s get to the cross and let’s find out together. You know what I’m saying?

I’m here to serve those guys (the secular bands they tour with). I’m here to love those guys. I’m here to show them the side of God that they have never seen before. I’m trying to, by being a servant, mend up all the wounds that people in the past who were Christians have basically run them out of the Kingdom of Heaven. Their examples, their immaturity in the Lord and the way they say the name of Jesus. And so other people thought, “If that’s Jesus, then I don’t want nothing to do with Him anymore”. I’m here to love these guys. I’m here to serve these guys. I don’t give kids the authority like: “you, go buy head PE” or “go listen to there music, act like them” They are in the world, dude. We are in the world. It’s a lions den. You know what I’m saying?

I mean a lot of kids they will leave (our concert) and say: “man, I thought this was a Christian show.” Actually, you need to do a lot of thinking because it’s not a Christian show, dude. This is the real world. It’s like when you come out here - when you come to see P.O.D come play in some secular club - don’t come to be entertained. Come to fight this fight with us. Come out to shine for the Lord. You know what I mean? Darkness is the absence of light. If you’re here you are going to light this place on fire with us. Don’t come here and expect to be youth group, church rallied-up by P.O.D. It’s warfare going on, dude! So buckle up, grab on to the power and the authority that you have been given to sing and dance and worship Him and shine. You know? Don’t come out here with lolly-gagin ‘cause your going to get your butt kicked. You know what I’m saying? I’m sorry dude! Some kids have come out with DC Talk shirts and all of the sudden they see the bands and they start to whimper and run away. And it’s like, dude! Buckle up young man. Ride up under what you know. Go out there and serve God. I saw you out there. Dude, you were out there in the middle of that pit. You were out there singing, and praising God and it’s like your shining. That’s what I tell kids, go out there and shine. Shine. Whether you are here, whether you are in public schools, whether you are in your church or youth group or whether you just work.

I see a lot of kids that are really in-tune as to what God is doing. They watch these guys, and they are like “man, those dudes are really hurting, man those guys need Jesus.” And it’s like, dude- exactly! That’s why we are here, man!! You know? But they are not judging them and they are not pointing their righteous fingers at them. They realize that these guys are hurting. They really are hurting. I was telling some kids that, just because you come out here and your saved and they are not does not make them evil. It just makes them…they don’t know the goodness of God.

This is the real world. Get out there and love these guys. Get out there and serve these guys. And as soon as they see that, they are going to see that you do serve a real God; that you do serve a loving God. A God that is true, not a God that is here to just kick everybody around.

God goes before us, and we bring God in to these places. We let the presence of God take over. We go in there and we serve and we worship God with our music and people see that. They see the bands that play and they see what’s going on and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what is going on.

In our set there is an awesome moment right before we do Zion, where we have ambient music. And it is just a time for quiet. We have seen in the past shows where guys just start lifting up their hands and crying and worshiping God. But tonight everybody decided they wanted to chant, “abortion is murder” during that moment.

It was a bunch in the crowd. My spirit was just like, “Oh, Lord!” Because even at that time I fall to my knees, and you don’t know how many times the lights are dark and it’s a quite moment and we have specifically designed it that way right before Zion, to be a quiet moment.

It’s been effective, and tonight we couldn’t do it because of the venue, and whatnot. But there were some people out there that decided they wanted to chant, “abortion is murder” during the special time were we have seen God do that. And you know what - that is lack of wisdom. It is lack of knowing what God is doing. So, when I got up there I had to say with a heart of love, I had to shush them up. Because it’s like you’re taking this moment right out of God’s hands. We are not here to make a stand at this moment. We are here to let the spirit of God touch these people and say: “dude, these guys are the real deal, man. These guys have nothing but love. These guys are Christians? That’s the love of Jesus? Dude, that’s awesome!”

So, I had to shush them up, and let them know- let God do the talking. A lot of times as Christians we tend to speak up over God. You know what I mean? A lot of times even with churches, and God has shown to me sometimes too. God, with all love and all sincerity has said, “Sonny, shut your mouth and serve me”. Shut your mouth. Stop talking the big stuff - stop talking it up.
God continued to bring wisdom and show us: you know what, you don’t have to fight for me guys. You don’t have to make a Christian stance for me. Because I stand for you guys. I fight for you guys. Go out there and love these people. Every band member, every band you play with; go out there and love them like I would. Every crowd that you play for; go out there and love them like I would. So, I learned - you know what - I gotta do that. I gotta go out there and worship God with the 45 minutes that he has given me, on and off stage. Don’t get up there. Don’t get up in front of MTV and talk the big Christian talk and end up turning away 99% of the people, but you won that 1% of the Christian audience that said “dude, those guys are right on, brother!”




So, some good thoughts from a God-lovin' rocker/warrior-- pray for those guys- they're doing some awesome stuff-- hope you're all doing well- later!