What's going on, Street Team? We are back for another incredible episode. And we just want to, right here at the very beginning, just thank you for going on this journey with us. There is no podcast, listeners, and viewership as faithful as the street team. We are so honored that we get this opportunity to go on this journey of uh faith and uh intimacy with the father, yeah, uh with you. And um what an honor and a privilege it is to be on this journey, to be in our second season, uh, to be going back on the road here in a little bit for our second tour. Yeah. And uh we're hitting some cities in the Midwest, we're hitting some cities on the West Coast. West Coast, yeah. And uh, I'm expecting, bro. I'm excited, man. And and I know uh if you go to the website, you don't see a city, like, okay, when are you guys coming to my city? And uh me and Phil were talking right before we press record, or some ideas we have uh that will kind of spread the love a little bit more. And uh, although we can't get everywhere in the same year, we do have a desire and we do have uh the heart to get as many cities as we can before the return of Jesus or one of us go to meet him first. And so bear with us as we continue to plan out, pray through the various cities that we feel God is laying in front of us to go and spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. And uh we're gonna continue uh to track through uh first Peter today.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I also want to say I think it's important for people to understand from the very beginning um of our podcast, um, being on the road was our heart's desire. Yeah. Right. And I think it's important for people to understand that's not like something we threw in, you know, um just on a whim, you know, just to say that, oh, we're on tour, you know, that we're not those kind of dudes. Um uh not really like platform-driven, that's not our hearts, but uh that's why even the name of our podcast, Street Preachers, from the very beginning. I don't know, we I think we might have talked about this in season one, but from the very beginning, Tim and I had uh desire to just be on the road, and that is to be with people. Yeah, right? Uh it was never our desire to be in the studio. I think studio recording is dope, and you know, obviously Tim and I enjoy being with each other, but from the very beginning, our heart's desire uh is to be with you, and it's to be out on the road and to see people eye to eye and face to face. And that is the reason for tours. I mean, we went on tour our very first season, which you know, which is um almost unheard of. Nobody does that. You know, you'll be in a studio for a little while, but our heart's desire from the very beginning was to be in the room with the people. And so touring for us is like really the heart of what we wanted our ministry to be in terms of street preachers. We want to be with the people in the various cities. And so um we do see those comments, right? When we do see the requests um for street preachers to come to various cities, and we enjoy that and we appreciate it. And our heart is to try to get um take street preachers to as many U.S. cities as possible, and God willing, if should he tarry and should he give us grace and the resources to do it, because touring is very expensive, people don't know that. Yeah, it's very expensive to do a tour. Um I don't even know if I should tell him how much it costs to do our last tour, but people think like that stuff is expensive, man.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, people putting figures out there and making up assumptions and all these things, yes, it's crazy.
SPEAKER_00But touring is very expensive. There's a lot that goes into that renting venues and tour buses and flights and bringing out teams is very expensive, it's not easy. And um, but but you know, we we see we see those requests for street preachers to come to various cities, and it means a lot to us. And should the Lord tarry, you know, if the Lord tarry, our our heart's desire is to bring street preachers to every major U.S. city if possible, and even uh, you know, cities and countries outside the United States of America. Ours is to get the gospel to as many people as possible and to pray and and and and and be with as many people as possible before Christ returns, and and that is the heart behind street preachers, man. We want to be in and amongst the people. Yeah, man. Yeah, man. Um yeah.
SPEAKER_01And it's a very beautiful thing, and very humbling to think that something we have said, some way God has used us, yeah, man, has impacted you, the listener, the viewer, yeah, in a significant or supernatural way.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And and we don't have it all figured out, right? Uh I think we'll be the first to admit that Tim and I, you know, we don't we don't have we don't have it all figured out. No, no one does. Uh I think we're just two regular dudes that God saved out of the street who just really just trying our best to do our part. Yeah. You know, I I I don't I think that that's a fair assessment, right? Um I would say we're just kind of like ghetto theologians. I don't, you know, it's just I don't have a seminary degree. You don't have a seminary degree. Um we're just two regular dudes that God saved out of the street and just trying to do our best. Oh, I should say this word again, right? Uh to be good stewards. That's right, good stewards, man. Right, to be good stewards of what God has entrusted to us time, opportunities, giftings, resources, whatever. They're trying to make much of Jesus while we are alive. Um, as we do feel that time is running out, and the Lord is probably going to return soon. We want to be do all we can to be good stewards in these final hours. And and that's why, you know, we use street preachers as an intersection between um the word of God and culture and the word of God and the times that we're in. And um right here in season two, we're just kind of walking through First Peter and and and we just feel it's necessary for the times. Um we're in very tough times, very difficult times, very trying times, and times when and I'm gonna keep saying this, I'm gonna keep saying we've seen a growing hostility against uh the believers of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we we're working through First Peter as a as a sort of uh exhortation, yeah, a word of encouragement. A word of encouragement uh to the street team that no matter where you are or what you're going through, um there is hope in the Lord and there is hope in what he has gone to prepare for us, and and there's things that we can stand on that the devil can't take and the world can't take. And uh and that's why we're walking through First Peter together, right? It's not a podcast, we just want to ramble, we want God's word to be at the center of what we're doing. And so um we're in first Peter one, and um we went through the intro of Peter's letter. Um we began his encouragement to the saints at verse three, and we came all the way to verse ten when it says concerning this salvation, and which we were talking about two episodes ago, this salvation, when um my my friend MG kind of invaded that episode towards the end, and he said, Concerning this salvation in verse ten of first Peter, uh the prophets prophesied about the grace that was to be yours and searched and inquired carefully. And then we move on now to these last two verses of this section eleven and twelve, inquiring what person or time the spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you in in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. This is it is so robust and so meaty and so weighty. And let's let's let's unpack this a little bit, Tim. Uh he said concerning this salvation, we unpack that together. Uh the prophets are old. Uh they prophesied about the grace that was to be yours. Uh, that's you and I who are the believers, and they searched and inquired, inquiring what personal time the spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ. The predictions of the sufferings of Christ, I think is a very, very important statement that Peter makes here because it helps me to understand that we can trust in the word of God. I I think I said a couple episodes ago, I don't know which one we were in, that the Bible, um, which is really a library of 66 ancient documents, right? What we call the scriptures, is the only religious text in the world that have prophecies that have come to pass accurately. Yeah. Not not one prophecy recorded in the scripture has ever fallen to the floor. And so therefore we know the word of God can be trusted. It was inspired by the Holy Spirit, right? And since God cannot lie, we know that his word could be trusted. This is also too very important because we know that anything that God has said, we could bank on that. And what he said about himself can be trusted. We know that he is good and we could believe that. We know that he's a provider and we could believe that. We know that he's a healer and we could believe that. We know that he's a way maker and we could believe that. We know that he is the truth, the way, and the life, then we could believe that. He is the resurrection and we could believe that. He has gone to prepare a place for us and we could believe that. He's coming again, and we better believe that.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00Right? He's coming again and we better believe that. And it says that that there was a prediction about you know the spirit of Christ and his subsequent glories. It lets us know that the word of God can be trusted. None of these prophecies are going to come to the floor. And Peter's encouraging them about the man who appeared, the man who suffered, and the glories that will be revealed in that man. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01Look at this. Yeah, the prophets saw glimpses, the apostles saw fulfillment, but now as believers, we live inside of a generation of what those prophets and apostles prayed for. Yeah, right. We're seeing it now. We're seeing it now. One of the wildest tensions in this passage to me is that the prophets preached about a messiah they would never personally see in his fullness. They died, they died before he was born before he was born, believing that the Messiah would come. And and they carried this revelation that they could not fully experience. Right. We get this opportunity to fully experience the power of Jesus, fully experience the presence of Jesus, fully experience the authority and the dominion that Jesus has. And Peter, he he's saying that they were searching, they inquired carefully, they were trying to discern the times. And even angels long to look into these things that we now have a revelation of the power of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00Ain't that powerful now? And I think about this, I think about like in the Old Testament, Christ is hidden in the Old Testament, right? All of scripture reveals Christ. From Genesis to revelation is a revelation of Christ. So it's like the New Testament is hidden in the Old Testament, right? And and and Christ is revealed in the New Testament, although he's hidden in the Old Testament, right? From the very beginning of time, from the garden, you know, from the first prophecy about Jesus in Genesis 3.15, Christ is being revealed all the way through the Old Testament. And the prophets, for thousands of years, are prophesying about this coming Messiah, about this coming Son of God. And they prophesied about where he would be born, how he would be born, to whom he would be born, what his ministry would be like, what his life would be like, how he would die, how he would be buried, how he would be raised, how his body would not see corruption. They prophesied all these things, never saw him. Then in the first century, the people living in the first century saw this light. The apostles got to walk with that light, spend time with that light, travel with that light, ate food with that light, drank wine with that light, right? Looked into the eyes of that light, heard his voice, seen his face, saw his tears, prayed with him in the garden, all the things. And now, post the first century, now we have the revelation of that man. Things that angels long ago only wished to have. And through men like the Apostle Paul and the Apostles who gave us the New Testament, we have access to the revelation of Jesus Christ in his fullness as the Son of God, the Savior of the world, the one who came and died for us on the cross, and we have access to that. Isn't that a powerful thing?
SPEAKER_01It's powerful. The Greek wording here in this passage for long to look into, it paints for us this picture of heaven kneeling down, peering over into time from eternity to see the redemption story unfold. Yeah. And that's a very beautiful picture to think. Man, even heaven marvels at the redeeming grace that only Jesus can give. Yeah. The great mercy we talked about in previous episodes of what only Jesus can give. And it's almost like, you know, when someone's whispering, you gotta get really, really close to them, right? And you can barely hear their voice. Yeah. The closer you get, the more you can hear. And sometimes the reason we miss moments like this in scripture is because we view it like this. So far away. So far away. Yeah. Instead of bringing it close and saying, okay, these things were predicted. These things were were prophesied by the prophets. Yeah. They were seen in fulfillment by the apostles, but now we live in the totality of what even the apostles prayed for.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, isn't that powerful? And and I I even as you're talking, this thought was coming to me as you were talking. Not only the prophecies around Christ, what about the prophecies around you? What about the prophecies around you? Right? When I was in when I was in Bible college, I'll never forget October 2009. I was in the home of a pastor. His son had come to visit us from Florida, and we were all in there in worship, and he was playing an acoustic guitar. And I remember he put the guitar down. He said, Brother Philip, the Lord has spoken something to me concerning you. Can I give you this word of prophecy? And I said, Go ahead. So the Lord says, very, very soon you're gonna have to make a tough decision. And then you're gonna end up in a new city. And when you get in that city, I see you moving into youth pastoral ministry very quickly. And then into pastoral ministry. He says, I see a ministry in you called the gospel. And I see an impact to the next generation, and I see that your ministry will be controversial. And God says to you, do not worry. Everything will happen very soon, as in the very next season. And I remember going home that night and I journaled. I've been journaling for like 20-something years and pulling out my journal, and I wrote down everything that man said to me. And I made a photocopy of that. I have it in the back of my Bible. That was a word of prophecy concerning the future of my life. And and that was in October 2009. The very next thing that happened is we had to decide where we were going to go. And I remember Linda and I was graduating Bible college in May of 2010 and not knowing where we were going. I remember we had like a list of all these cities praying where we were going. And I remember I wanted to come back here. I wanted to come back to New York. So I had the list of New York, Philly, DC, Maryland, because I wanted to be in the Northeast, right? Because of where I'm from. I just thought I would fit better up here. And I remember I don't know why I did this, just in my mind, let me just throw Atlanta at the bottom of the list. I didn't want to go to Atlanta. I was like, man, it was too hot. And I didn't want to go down there. But I'm not thinking. I just throw it at the bottom of the list. And as Lena and I are praying and fasting that May, God knocks every city off that list. He tells us about Atlanta. We pack up everything, and with no job, no jobs, no money, no resources, no friends, no family, we moved to Atlanta with nothing. We spend the last bit of money we had to come to Atlanta. I wrote a check for $700 for the first home that Lena and I lived in that we rented. I talked about that home in the last podcast, very small, 800 square foot home. And I found a job in six months. I found a job, I think it was like the first couple weeks at FedEx. Six months later, I was a youth pastor. Two years later, I had planted our church, which was victory at the time. And I'm looking back on it like everything that man prophesied about what was going to happen.
SPEAKER_01God used him to give me glimpses of the glimpses of the future.
SPEAKER_00And those things have unfolded as God has said. Right? And so I'm I'm looking at what Peter's talking about, about these prophecies and glimpses of how angels look into them, but then I'm thinking about you, the street team. I think about all of you where there's words of prophecy concerning your life, right? Where God has spoken things concerning your life, and things that have been spoken to you by credible voices that God has used to speak about your future. There are people watching right now, listen to me right now. There's things that God has said concerning you. And here's why I'm bringing this up because I want to say to you, my brother, my sister, God is not a liar.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00And what he said, he would bring to pass. And the only thing that would ruin that is you.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00Pause. The devil's not going to ruin that. Right? The devil is not going to ruin that. We give him too much power and credibility. Tim was talking about that on an earlier podcast. The only thing that's going to ruin that is you. Right? If we are unwilling to cooperate with God, unwilling to obey, unwilling to submit, unwilling to walk in step with the Holy Spirit. It's like the children of Israel coming out of Egypt and God promised to take them into the land of Canaan. It's their own rebellion and lack of faith and doubt that God had to kill off a whole generation. Say, Let me try this again with your children, right? Let not not let that not be your testimony, my brother and my sister. God has spoken some things over you both in his word. And for some of you, he's spoken some things to you that are specific for your life and what he wants to do in your life. And my question to you is this is Have you submitted? Are you being obedient? Are you walking the step with the Spirit? God is not a liar. Right? He will bring to pass what he said. Watch this, in the right season in which it's supposed to unfold. My whole thing, are you being faithful in the season that you're in? Are you obeying the commands he's given you? It's like you're worried about three seasons down the road. What about the step that's right in front of you? Absolutely. Are you being faithful there? Um we're talking Peter's talking about prophecies here. He's talking about the coming of Christ and things that they long to see and things that the prophet said. And as I'm looking at this, I just have this thing burdened in my heart that God does not lie. And what he has said is credible. What he said will come to pass both. It happened in the life of the Messiah, and now we have the revelation of Jesus' life, but it would happen in your life too, as you obey God and walk in step with him. What about you, Tim? I I don't know. Have you had any encounters where God has prophesied things to you through people or directly that has that has come to pass in your life? Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01This this season that I'm in, um one of me and Jen's mentors, an incredible pastor, and uh he's become a very close friend of ours. Um he'll call me out of the blue. As a matter of fact, I'll put him on the phone with you.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah, and and his word was accurate too.
SPEAKER_01I mean, just laser players, yeah. And um, you know, what we are seeing now, he prophesied over us in private four years ago. Yeah, we couldn't see it. Yeah. And as I'm I'm reading this, you know, as you were talking, I asked myself the question Have I become casual in things other people have cried for? You know, it says here that they the angels longed. The angels longed for this.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they did.
SPEAKER_01Right? The the prophets predicted this predicted this.
SPEAKER_00Have we taken it for granted? That we on the backside of that revelation.
SPEAKER_01In in enjoying what they longed for. Yeah. Have we become casual and what other people have cried for? That's good, bro. You know, and uh, you know, just really trying to search my heart in this moment in real time and and acknowledge yes, there's some things that I have become casual in because they become familiar to me. And anything that I allow to become familiar uh really loses its awe and wonder in my life. It loses awe, it's wonders, power, right, familiarity, yeah. And so uh, you know, even you know, right now, real time, casual conviction and want to make sure that I take this moment and take steps, intentional steps, to make sure that the things the apostles and the prophets cried for, I don't carry casually. I carry from the posture of familiarity because sometimes I think we look at our days and we're like, oh, it's just another day. Uh you know, we we go into church on Sunday, we can do that freely. Yeah, we just go into church again. When in fact, across the world, there are people who can't gather together. Yeah. There are people who can't publicly sit down and read the word of God, there are people who cannot proclaim and profess their love for Jesus Christ in public without being persecuted and killed. And so I think, you know, we have to really um honor what Jesus has done with gratitude, with humility, but also with this reverence, this holy fear, this understanding that uh what people and generations have laid their lives down for, we can't carry this lightly. Um, you know, some people they carry this revelation, that this this you know just echoes in my soul. They carried this revelation of Jesus Christ, and they never got an opportunity to experience him, right? The old testament, the prophets of the old testament. And some of us carry revelation for a generation that we may never meet. I believe years from now, when we are long gone, this episode is going to get passed to somebody that we will never physically meet. Come on, bro. But we have carried this message through conviction and through the the nature of Christ Jesus and how we have to be very intentional and very mindful that these days that we get are precious and these gifts that Jesus gives us are precious. And God will sometimes let you build what somebody else will walk into.
SPEAKER_00That's good, bro.
SPEAKER_01That's very powerful. You know, it says seeking to know what person or time the spirit of Christ within them was indicating as he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. There will be things that we do, there will be things that we steward, there will be things that we pray for that we will not personally and physically see, but we will still be credited as success because of it.
SPEAKER_00A thousand percent. You know, and uh two things I want to say that's coming up in my heart. One, the the likelihood mathematically that one man could fulfill all of the Old Testament prophecies about the coming of the Son of God is almost like a couple billion to one. It's like it's almost impossible. Yeah. With the the fulfillment of the life of Christ, is what I'm trying to say, without without it having been something that God engineered. But then I do think we should we should give a small disclaimer uh for maybe somebody who's watching who may be young in the faith and might try to go awry. Because this little section right here is talking about the predictions of the coming of Christ. But I think I do think we should be much we should be careful to give this one disclaimer. Um because there's a there's a lot of people running around calling themselves prophets. Yeah. And the disclaimer I want to give is for the younger believer, is to not feel like you have to go look for a prophet to get a word from God. Yeah. Um, because then we will we we can subject ourselves to spiritual abuse and to lies. And uh there's a lot of um a lot of that going around. People call themselves prophets who are taking advantage of God's people, fleecing them for money. I call it gospel grifting, is what I call it. Gospel grifters who use the title to rape people for finances and lead them astray. So I want to I want to give a disclaimer about that to our street team. Um to be careful about just searching for people with titles, prophets, um, who will easily lead you astray. But rather, if a prophetic word comes to you, let it come organically that God wanted to work through a real man of God to get that word to you. So I don't want people to think because you got a word uh of prophecy, I've gotten words, prophetic words that I knew were from God and have unfolded in my life. I don't want people to think you need to go run and looking for that everywhere. There are real prophets in the earth, no doubt about it. And I think God gives people prophetic revelation, obviously. Um, but I just want to say there's also a lot of false prophets in the earth, and we just want to say be careful about the voices you listen to. You don't have to run here, there, and there looking for a prophetic word. If God wants to get a prophetic word to you, he will. Yeah. Right? He's not limited in his ability to get a message to you. And so I just want to uh encourage our street team about that. And um, and I wanted to also to um use these final moments of this episode to um encourage you um based on this text we're reading here in Peter, uh a couple things. Let's not take for granted uh that we are on the backside of revelation of things angels long to look into.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Right.
SPEAKER_00Let's not be so familiar with the Lord Jesus Christ and with his word that it loses awe and wonder. I still got on my back deck and I look at the sky and I marvel at what God has created, and I marvel at the fact that one day I'll be beyond those clouds to be with the Lord. I'm still like a little kid around the Lord Jesus. I still marvel at him. I marvel at the things he's taught, his miracles, his love, his patience, his grace. I have not lost that wonder at all. I've been walking with him for like 23 years. I have not lost that wonder. Let's not lose wonder around God. Let's not lose awe around him. Let's not take for granted that we we live post the resurrection of Christ, where he has come, lived, died, and rose, and we have the record and the testimony of his life. We are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Uh we're living in the in the age of grace, the church age, living in one of the best ages of time, in an age that's coming to an end very, very soon. Let's not take those things for granted. Um, let's also not take for granted that we have a God who does not lie. And not just a God, the God, one and only. He does not lie. Um, his word can be trusted, and everything he said could be trusted. I want to say to you, my brother and my sister, if it's written in this word, you can trust it. There's nothing that is written in here that's going to fall to the floor. It is the only book in the world with prophetic accuracy, and everything that God has revealed about himself and his son from Genesis to Revelation, it could be trusted. His comforts, his promises, his wisdom, all of it. All of it could be trusted. You can trust your life and your heart and your family and your businesses and everything you can trust it uh with the word of God. And so um these prophecies and these things will not fall to the floor. I love how the scripture says it is forever settled in heaven. Right? We cannot add to it and we cannot take from it. It is forever settled in heaven. And my last thing I want to say to you about the things God has spoken to you, trust it will come to pass in the right season, at the right time, according to God's perfect will, so long as you remain obedient and faithful and inside his perfect will. You want to pray over our street team, Tim? Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I would say in the old testament, the prophets looked for a timeline while God was preparing their testimony. And sometimes it's not that you don't have the right information, it's that you're not looking in the right place. You got the right information. It's here. Yeah. Search it, read it, retain it, share it because this word, it will change your life. And if anyone gives you a prophecy that can't be found in the word of God, it is in fact not from God at all. Because God always confirms his word. And so, right now, yeah, I just thank you for my brother and my sister. Yeah, those that are in search to hear your voice, God, may they find it in the word of God. May they find it through trusted voices, may they find it through hearing your voice, may they find it through the impressions in their spirit, man, God. We just ask right now that you would confirm your word time and time again, God. And God, may our ears not itch for any word. May our ears be set on fire by the word of God. May our souls be set on fire afresh, God, by the word of God. May our spirit man be revived because we've had encounters with you that we cannot put into words. And right now, in the name of Jesus, I just ask that you would allow us to stand in the testimony of those that have gone before us as witnesses, as as people who believe that you are still alive and will allow our lives to be living testimonies of your faithfulness and your greatness. Yes, Lord. Even in seasons of hardship, may people see your grace and your glory echoing and reflecting through our lives. We thank you, God, for our street team all over the world. All over the world. And we ask God that they would feel your undeniable presence right now. Allow them to know that you are for them and you are with them. May they be reminded that if you be for them, nothing can stand against them. Yeah. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.
SPEAKER_00Hey, Street Team. Uh, very soon uh Tim and I will be going on tour. We look forward to seeing all of you in the various cities. If you want more information about where we will be, where Street Preachers is coming, you can just go to our website, streetpreachers.tv, and there you'll find all the information you need for where Street Preachers is coming to on tour. And if there's a city you think we can come to, man, you can go ahead and drop that in the comments too and let us know uh where we could be a blessing to your city. If this episode has been a blessing to you, do us a favor, like, comment, talk to each other in the comments. Uh, we read testimonies too in the comments, subscribe, and share this episode with somebody you feel it could be a blessing. If there's people you know who maybe they don't know if I should trust God's word, is it credible? God has said things to me when it happened, man. We see these kind of things happen in conversations you have Starbucks like him. I remember that brother was talking about that over that cappuccino. Yeah. Man, share the episode with that brother or that sister, man. Um uh we love your street team. Can't wait to see a lot of you on tour uh very, very soon. And can't wait to catch you in the next episode of the Street Preachers Podcast. All right, peace.