Street Preachers

Hostile Territory

• Phillip Anthony Mitchell & Tim Timberlake • Season 2 • Episode 3

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 46:31

To the Street Team, scattered across cities and nations, grace and peace be multiplied to you in Christ Jesus.

As we continue our journey through the letter of Peter, we are reminded that following Christ has never promised the applause of men. The people of God have always been strangers in the world, citizens of another Kingdom, and witnesses in places that do not always welcome the truth.

In this episode, we consider what it means to live faithfully in hostile territory.

How should believers respond when they are misunderstood, opposed, or treated as outsiders? How do we stand firm without becoming bitter? And what does it look like to represent Jesus in a culture that grows increasingly resistant to Him?

Peter reminds us that suffering for Christ is not evidence of God’s absence, but often confirmation that we belong to Him.

Though the world may reject us, we have been chosen by God.

Stand firm. Do not grow weary. Continue the work entrusted to you.

“For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly.” — 1 Peter 2:19 NASB95

If this conversation strengthens your faith, share it with someone else and invite them into the journey.

Grace be with you all.

SPEAKER_01

What's going on, Street Team? We're back for another incredible episode. We've been walking through First Peter and uh blown away by the response. Thank you all for sharing it. Thank you for subscribing to the YouTube. Thank you for sharing the Spotify and the Apple Podcast. These shares matter in helping us spread the word, helping us share the gospel of Jesus Christ. I also want to encourage you if you have not already, go purchase your merch. This is not just merch, it is mission, it is a message on these clothing uh pieces that I believe uh will testify of the goodness of Jesus. My brother has on the Marinath right now, and you can find that on the website. And uh thank y'all for bearing with us in season one, the first three weeks of apparel and merchandise. We were not expecting or anticipating it to go like it did. Y'all was crashing websites, we were running out of merchandise, but we are prepared this season. We have an abundance and it will ship quickly, so go pick that up. Also, I need y'all to go pre-order my brother's book, Contend. Come on. Uh I'm excited for this. I I last season, season one, yeah. We talked a little bit about you signing and writing this book. The book is written, it is submitted, it is available for pre-order. I am excited because I know I know that this book is going to bless everyone that reads it. I know it's gonna be hard for booksellers and retailers to keep it on the shelves. So I'm encouraging you, stop what you're doing right now. As a matter of fact, pause the podcast, go pre-order the book, come back after you pre-order the book, press play, continue the episode, continue to go on this journey with us after you have pre-ordered content. Phil, just give us a little bit of uh just an elevator level of why the message of content is so important in this day and time.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I just think we're living in an era right now where we're seeing the the waning of the influence of Christianity um in America and countries around the world. And at the same time, uh a lot of believers are just struggling with things that are um attacking the faith on the inside of the heart. So I think that there are two fronts that we need to contend for the faith on. We have to contend for the faith in the culture that is in our spheres of influence. But I also do believe we have to contend for the faith in our hearts when we're dealing with things like shame and insecurities and doubt and fear and all the things, and uh that's essentially what the book is written around. It is that timeless message of Jew that I think is necessary for the hour that we're living in. We'll have to contend in the faith, and then I add in something that um uh to the book that is uh contending on the inside, which I think is both important. And um uh the book is available right now online for pre-order, and I trust that it'll be a blessing to um the body of Christ.

SPEAKER_01

I know it will be. I believe it's the first of many books that the Holy Spirit pins through you. Yeah. Your voice is needed in this hour. Yeah. Your voice is so important to not just shaping the kingdom of God, but helping to shape culture and pointing people back to the heart of the Father and helping people establish uh in-depth relationships with Jesus. Yeah, we we've had opportunity to travel all over the country and every single stop. I marvel at the grace that rests on your life to impact people in a significant and supernatural way. The testimonies that we get a chance to hear, yeah, uh, the messages we get a chance to read. We we go through all of those messages, whether it's on YouTube, whether it's on Instagram, even on Facebook. And we are so grateful that you all would take our time to just write uh your heart as to what Jesus is doing through Pastor Phillip, uh, whether it's through 2819, uh, whether it's through Street Preachers Podcast and Celebration Church. Celebration church, but for this book, contend. And so I want to encourage you, pre-order copy, pre-order copy for your family, pre-order copy for your friends, even pre-order copy for the people that don't like you because they need this message as well. And so go pick up that uh pre-order today. Uh I guarantee you it's going to be a blessing.

SPEAKER_00

Also, too, you know, I I I you know I suck at I suck at promoting myself, but um if I think that if anybody wants to take the journey with me from um announcement until actual book drop, uh they can go to the website uh contendbook.com and join the emailing list there. And uh the entire contend team uh have put together uh a beautiful journey that will uh walk uh with those who are interested in the book. Um they can follow the content journey from its its its announcement. There is an interactive journey from its announcement all the way to the time the book actually releases on October 13th. And if they are if they go to contendbook.com, sign up in the email, um uh we will take them on that journey. And there are um things in there that I think will be a blessing to them. And so I just want to put that out there for those that want to follow along on the journey.

SPEAKER_01

That's wonderful, man. Y'all know we don't just talk about it, we be about it. We are faithful supporters of things that will push us closer to Jesus Christ. And so y'all know what to do. Go rent it up for my boy, go pre-order the book, contend, share that message, share this episode, subscribe, like if you have not already, and continue to go on this journey with us. We are uh walking down through First Peter.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, we're in First Peter, and um one of the things that's important to Tim and I is that we don't um use our platform to just ramble about things that's not gonna matter. Yeah, right. And so if you're new to the street team, that's the family of those who watch, who subscribe, who are tapped into the Street Preachers Podcast. We affectionately call them Street Team and uh for our street team here at Street Preachers Podcast, it is really the intersection of the Word of God and the times that we're living in, right? It's the intersection of the Word of God and culture because Tim and I don't want to waste our time just running off at the mouth about things that's not gonna matter. And um uh we were sharing in the beginning uh episode of this season, uh how our brother Tim was flying back from Europe and uh the Holy Spirit kind of put in his heart. Uh First Peter dropped into his heart, and uh uh we were sharing in the beginning of this season, just two episodes ago. Um we feel like it is very, very pertinent for the times. Um although First Peter was written in the first century A.D., we feel like the things that Peter was addressing to the church in the first century A.D. is very germane to what's happening right now. He is or he was, right? Because past tense, Peter wrote to a church um that was living under the persecution of Rome, but not just any persecution, under the persecution of one of the most violent emperors of Rome, Nero, and um where the believers were really suffering, and the church under that persecution is being scattered to various cities. They are hiding out, they're really dealing with the tension of society squeezing in on them. Um, the hostility towards Christianity. It is akin to what we're feeling right now in America, and for some of you in countries outside of the United States, we are living in a in a time and an era where there is an increased hostility against Christianity. There is an increased intolerance for Christianity. Uh, we are calling things that are good evil and things that are evil good. And um, you can mention the name of other progenitors and have no problem. You know, talk about Muhammad, no problem.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, no problem.

SPEAKER_00

Talk about Joseph Smith, no problem. Right? Talk about Buddha, no problem, Confucius, no problem. There is a man whose name stirs up drama in the earth, whether you're for him and against him. And there is a hostility growing against the name of Christ and the people of Christ. Um, even right now, as you as as Tim and I are talking to you, we're seeing the persecution of our brothers and sisters across the continent of Africa and in the Middle East. We're watching our brothers and sisters being put to death, right? And Sri Team, listen to me, man. Especially for those of us in America. We we haven't seen persecution yet. I think it's coming to our country, right? But we haven't seen anything like what our brothers and sisters are suffering with outside the country. And I I just want to remind some of us who are here in America to not lose sight of the the freedoms we have, albeit maybe temporary, the comforts we have, albeit temporary, and while we have them, to not take them for granted, right? To not be so entitled to think that God owes us any of that. And to remember our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world. I we don't talk about that enough in America. I'm gonna talk about it right here for just a moment. Okay. The church is being persecuted outside of America, right? And we have persecuted brothers and sisters right now who are literally dying for the faith, right? In our first season, Tim and I, when we were in North Carolina, yeah, uh, met a pastor from India, I think, right?

SPEAKER_01

Northern India.

SPEAKER_00

Northern India, whose brother had been kidnapped by a militia.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And at the time we met him, he could not find his brother, right? This is what's happening to our brothers and sisters uh all across um the continent of Africa and across the Middle East, and we should remember them in our prayers, right? We should not be so comfortable in America and so bougie that we forget our brothers and sisters who are suffering. We should be praying for them. This is essentially who Peter's writing to, right? He's not writing to people who feel like the devil got them because they had a bad day at work. Nah. That's not who he wrote to. He wrote to a church that was feeling the fire, the refining fire of Roman persecution when they're watching women being drugged out of their homes and the heads of fathers being chopped off. I mean, he's writing to believers who are really suffering, and the faith is costing them something. And it's not like if I go to church, somebody don't like me on Instagram. Nah. He's writing to believers who the faith was costing them something. Yeah. Right. We have a we have a Christianity in America where the faith costs nothing. That's a it's a faith of convenience and comfort, and God forbid the faith costs us anything, is is is flight, right? Um he was writing to a church where the faith was costing them something. And and um and and that is that is the atmosphere uh of the text. And um, and really it's the atmosphere right now. Um the faith is is costing a lot of believers something. There are believers right now who are living in real time the type of persecution that Peter was writing about. And uh, for us in America, it's social, um, but it may not stay there. That battleground may shift to physical persecution. And you know what I wonder? I wonder what voices are you listening to? What podcasts are you listening to? How much word do you have in you? They made this illegal. Do you have enough of it in you to sustain? Come on. Um if the laws in our country make the Bible hate speech, is there enough of this tattooed to your heart for you to pass them down to your children or or to sustain in the midst of trial? Would the Holy Spirit have enough to pull on to remind you of what God said in the midst of trial? What teachers are you listening to? And when you're listening to these voices, what are they preparing you for? Yeah. Where are they pointing you to? Is Christ being exalted or is man being exalted? Is the scriptures being preached or are you getting a TED talk every single week? Um is the word being impregnated in your heart or are you being pregnant with foolishness? If things shift, then I might be so inclined to say when they shift, yeah. Um will you be able to sustain? And um who are you listening to right now? Right? Who are you listening to? And um it matters who you're listening to, and so uh Peter wrote to the church. Um he introduced himself as an apostle. He wrote to those who were exiles, those who were sojourners. Tim and I talked about that two episodes ago, that we are just sojourners. We are men and women who know that we have a hope that goes beyond this life. He talks about the foreknowledge of God, that nothing catches God by surprise. He talked about those who are chosen, those who were sprinkled in blood. And and uh in our last episode, we we spent time talking about his prayer for grace and peace. Uh, my brother Tim took time to encourage the street team around these two powerful words, grace and peace. Um very, very powerful words. And he's he's praying that that would increase in a time of trouble as a reminder to the reader that when trouble hits, these are the things that need to increase in our life. Grace needs to increase, peace needs to increase, and then we find those things in the presence in the person of Christ. And then he makes a pivot now into the meat of the letter, verse three uh blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to his great mercy, his great mercy to him. His great he doesn't even just say mercy, he says great mercy, great mercy, you know. I gotta I gotta stop right there for a second. He says, Great mercy. You know, when I when I when I hear that, great mercy, great mercy, a couple things come up in my heart are kind of stripping us away from entitlement. I I feel like in America we have a lot of entitlement, right? We feel that God owes you a job, owes you a spouse, uh you know, owes you a roof, owes you food, owes you your vision board, owes you all the things we are begging them for. We we almost feel like we we listen to the type of teachers that may feel like God is is enslaved to our personal desires, right? But but Tim, if if we just hold fast to the word of God with fidelity, you know what God really owes us? Wrath? Yes. Damnation? Yep. Hellfire, eternal separation, what we were born into. Um and it's only by his great mercy that we escape that, right, for the believer, because he's writing to those who are the chosen, the elect, those who God has brought into the kingdom. And uh he doesn't just say mercy, he says great. Great mercy. And I think sometimes we can't fathom how great God's mercy is because we can't fathom the horrors of hell and the horrors of damnation. We can't fathom the fact that every day people are slipping into eternity, they're waking up on the other side of eternity and realizing that they're separated from God forever. Yeah, and they're realizing there is no purgatory, there is no second chance, there is no pray me out. That's why Jesus told the account of Lazarus and the rich man, these two men that die. One goes to glory, the other one goes to damnation. And the one of damnation is conscious of where he is, right? Because the Lord is teaching us in the text that there's consciousness in the in the afterlife. There is no, there's no like we sleep. No, when we die, we wake up on the other side of eternity and there is consciousness. I am either with the Lord or I am separated from the Lord, right? And now you're conscious, but now you can't make another decision, right? Once that funeral comes, once fate is sealed. Yeah, right. Um, once fate is sealed, and we wake up on the other side of the consciousness, and and think about every day how many people are ignoring the Lord. I'll get right with the Lord next week. You're sitting in churches hearing the gospel and saying, I'll get right next week, or you're hearing the word and you think it's for the person next to you down the road. That's not for you though, right? Or it's not for this person. And you think about how many people, Tim, day in and day out, are slipping into eternity and waking up on the other side of damnation. They're not hearing the gospel, they're not being warned, like Colossians 1.28, they're not being awakened by any real preachers, they're not hearing that there's life, they're not hearing that. So a lot of them are unknowingly slipping into that, and others are in rebellion and slipping into that. And if and if we just wrap our minds around all the things Jesus taught about hell, because Jesus spoke a lot about hell, he spoke a lot about damnation, the gnashing of teeth, he talked about darkness, he talked about suffering, he talked about eternal separation from God, right? He he he talked about not going there. He even looked into the eyes of the Pharisees. Who's gonna save you from going there? That's right. With all of your foolishness. Side note, you know, his biggest enemies were religious people. Come on. Okay, just want to parenthetically insert that, right? Not not unbelievers. Right, right. Let me just throw that out there, right? The unbelievers was not his enemy. And and and and there's a lot the scripture talks about in damnation. And when we wrap our minds around the fact, this truth, Tim, that you and I were not born into the kingdom. Right. Right? We were born sinners. You were born a sinner, and by nature of our sin, according to Romans, we earn something for that, for the wages of sin. Romans 6 is this. We've earned something from that. That every person was born separated from God. And if we die in that state, that eternal state, that wrath, we're not you know what people out here think they're tough. They're not that tough. Ain't nobody ready to die apart from Christ. Nobody. And it's crazy to me that the that the grace of God is even keeping the unbeliever alive in their rebellion, the atheists alive, the person in the false religion, the grace of God is waking up and keeping them alive while they're running from God. Right? And and and here's where this word comes in, Tim. And I want you to jump in here because he doesn't just say mercy. Yeah, great, great mercy, mercy, great. You know the level of mercy it takes for God to keep a person alive who is in sin, and then to woo them into the kingdom. He talked about the elect to woo them into their kingdom, and then they wake up on the other side, like their eyes are open. Like I remember the day my eyes opened and say, Oh snap, there is a kingdom. Yeah, there is a God, there is a savior, I'm filled with the Spirit. My name is Recording Lamb's Book of Life. I have escaped that wrath. And now I'm walking in this purpose with Jesus. That's not just mercy, Tim. That is great. Great mercy.

SPEAKER_01

Talk about this for a second because this theology is creeping into certain churches that hell is not eternal. Yeah. And eventually your soul disappears after a couple of years of separation from God.

SPEAKER_00

You know a lot of that talk, Tim. And uh, I'm gonna be very careful when I say this. Okay. He goes into a wilderness and he's tempted there by the devil for 40 days.

SPEAKER_02

Remember that?

SPEAKER_00

And you remember during that time people forget this. Peep the text, right? Street team peep to text. The devil's quoting scriptures to Jesus. Yes. The Lord says it is written. Yes. And the devil says it is written. And he's actually quoting the Psalms to Jesus. He's quoting Psalms to the Lord. They both says it is written. Christ says it is written, the devil says it is written. The difference is we don't know the difference. Right? And right now in culture, there are servants of God saying it is written. And there's servants of the devil saying it is written. But we a lot of people don't have the discernment to know the difference between the two. And so what's happening right now is the enemy who knows the word. Yep. He knows his end and his demise. You see where I'm going with this sim? Absolutely. Is working through either knowingly or unknowingly, pawns to twist the word of God, to give people alternate narratives that are not found in scripture, to dumb down the text, to water down the text, and to give people, watch, a false comfort that they can pray themselves out of damnation, or if you make it there, it won't be that long. And you know what that does? It robs people of the type of concern they should have for a life outside of Christ. Or it will even embolden some people to say, you know what? If hell is temporary, I'ma do me.

SPEAKER_01

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00

I'ma go there. Yeah, I'm gonna rock out my bid for a little bit and I'm gonna get out. No, my G. No, my ninja, no, my brother. There is no purgatory. There is no purgatory. There is no getting out. Right? Once your funeral comes, that is a permanent stealing of your fate. Don't get it twisted. The scripture doesn't say anything other than that. When a man dies, that is it. This is why the unknown rite of Hebrew says it is appointed to a man to live once. That's it. Then he must face the judgment. Not twice, not second chance. Once. That's it. Right? So what the enemy does, he works through mouths, he hijacks and then uses those mouths to preach heresy. Package eloquently that the undiscerning person can't separate the two. That's why we need to know the truth, right, Tim? Because the more word we know, the easier it is to discern a lie. Right? And just imagine. Imagine if the devil really wanted to mess people up, make them comfortable in sin, and make them think there's a second chance when they die. Or there is um a reincarnation. Yeah. I'll come back and I'll be a better man, I'll be a better woman. You keep feeding that into the culture. You know what you rob men of? A healthy fear of God. Come on. I ain't worried about God. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I I remember, man, my dad telling me when he was pastoring, he was in his office, and the devil came and visited him in his office and offered him all the entrapments of this life, like Matthew 4 with Christ. Would make him wealthy, would give him the desires of his heart, would give him all of the things that he had dreamed of. And the thing that stuck out to me, he said, he didn't tell me to start preaching. I said, What did he tell you to do? He said, He told me to alter what I preach. As God is my witness, he said to alter what you preach. I don't want you to lose your influence. I just want you to alter what you preach. Just change the measure. Change it, just tweak it a little bit. And if you don't preach the gospel, if you don't preach righteousness, if you don't preach integrity and godly character, I give you all these things. He said that to your father. Said it to my father. And it made me think how many pastors have taken that deal. Like, like, you know, we hold on, bro.

SPEAKER_00

Hold on. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, Tim. Hold on, man. Hold on. Hold on, man. Pause, bro. Pause. You ain't never tell me that, bro.

SPEAKER_01

I just thought about it when we're when we're just talking about just the subtle way.

SPEAKER_00

He gave your father an offer. Yeah. The same way he gave Jesus an offer. Absolutely. So the devil makes offers. 100%. You know why I'm coming back here? I just want people to pick up on that. The devil makes offers.

SPEAKER_01

But look look at where the devil makes these offers. When we when we read about the Holy Spirit leading Jesus into the wilderness, we forget that Jesus is on top of a mountain. Yeah. He's in a high place. He's in a high place.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, there's valley. And high places.

SPEAKER_01

It's both. And sometimes our wilderness is not a wilderness of lack. Sometimes our wilderness is a wilderness of options.

SPEAKER_00

But but this is also too why, you know, Jesus said, man, it's harder for a rich man to go through the eye of an idiot than for him to enter into the kingdom of heaven. And this is not the Lord being anti-wealth, right? This is the Lord teaching us how materialism can become such a God in the lives of people that um that it almost eclipses them from seeing the glory of Christ. But the devil made your father an offer. Don't don't don't stop preaching. Just alter the message. Alter it just a little bit. Right. So that way I can now use your voice to promote my message. 100%. But he's he's and then you said something so powerful you wonder how many proclaimers have taken that deal. Um and that's why we gotta be careful when we just look at platforms, right? And I I want to say this, I want to say this is very important, right? There's a um there's a fig tree in my front yard, Tim. I ever told you this.

SPEAKER_01

Uh uh.

SPEAKER_00

I heard you say I never told you this. I have a fig tree in my front yard. Yeah, I heard you say it, uh I have a I have a fig tree in my front yard, right? And um I have a long driveway, right? And uh if you pull up in front of you pull up in front of my house right now in Atlanta and you saw that fig tree, uh, the leaves are big and green. Right? So it it looks like it's in full bloom and blossom. But to know if there's figs on there, you gotta get up close on that tree. And you gotta pull back those leaves, and then you'll see these little polyps on the tree. And my kids, they'll when they were small, they will pick it and they would crush it and eat eat the jam. It would taste real good. But if you pulled it right now, you couldn't, you couldn't see it. But the leaves are big, right? But you can't really see the fruit until you get up on that tree. You know what I'm saying? And there's a lot of ministries and people that's like that tree. It's like the leaves are really big, the platforms, every all the things look good from the distance, right? You get up on that tree, right? And you see man like, nah, there's no there's no real fruit there, right? And I say that because there's a lot of people who maybe the devil has given them all the leaves, right? He's given them all the leaves and and all the things, and in our humanity, we will automatically say, Oh nah that's a man of God, that's a woman of God. But we we we haven't inspected that fruit to know that maybe they took the deal, maybe they took the offer, and so we should be listening absolutely to what they guys discernment, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

You know, and and man, this this passage goes crazy. When when you were reading uh just now, and as we continue to walk through it, blessed be the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. I love this because Peter does not deny pain. Unpack that though. He introduces something radical, yeah. A living hope that is rooted in a resurrected Savior.

SPEAKER_00

But we know we touched this a little bit two episodes ago. Yeah. Unintentionally, when we talked about hope that goes beyond this life. Goes beyond this life. Right. But but this this right here, this verse that Peter said, it brings out something we didn't get a chance to touch. That hope is anchored in the resurrection. Right? It's anchored in the resurrection because if Christ is not raised, there is no Christianity. Yes. And if Christ is not raised, right, there is no hope beyond his life. So, like, if he if Jesus is the firstborn from the dead, we have hope we will be the second born from the dead. Yeah. If he was raised, we too will be raised. And that is a living hope that cannot be taken away from me. You see what I'm saying? Absolutely. Yeah. Let me let me pause and just say that song is going crazy right now. Oh man, I didn't even think about that. It's crazy. For Christ Alone. You know, shout out to 2019 Worship for Christ Alone. Uh, if you haven't heard it, um you know, go download the song for Christ Alone, a song that our our camp wrote about the return of Christ based on Matthew chapter 24. Very, very powerful song, man. I love that song. So powerful. Our church is singing it, our church is going crazy. Man, I appreciate that. Absolutely, man. I mean, that song is not for 2019, that song was for the body. Oh, absolutely. It really is from Matthew 24. Yeah. That's what we hijacked it from Matthew 24.

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely. This is powerful because.

SPEAKER_00

Yo, can I make a disclaimer real quick, bro? You know what I mean? Yo, somebody was telling me, like, somebody was saying, oh, they they took a Meek Mill song. Um, I forgot the name of the song, Nightmare and Dreams, or something like that. I don't I never listened, I never heard the song. It's like, yo, 2019 remix Meek Mill's song, Nightmares and Dream. I haven't heard the song. I'm not knocking Meek Mill. I don't know what the song is. I just want to throw it out there. We ain't remix nobody's song. We ain't take Meek Mill's song and try to remix it. We're like, we ain't do that, right? Like, nah, our you know, our worship past and the team around him was listening to the word of God being preached. Matthew chapter 24, when when when Matthew's talking about the return of Christ, and the Spirit of God moved on him, moved on them, and the song is born from the text. It's not born from something we hijacked from. So I just let me just throw that out there since you know people got altered altering motives and alternate narratives. Like, no, no, that song came from Matthew 24. You don't get inspiration from nightmares. Yeah, we don't get inspiration from nightmares. I never heard the song. Somebody told me the song, somebody said the song was dope. They was like, yo, that joint, it was like, yo, that joint go hard in the club. I'm like, I don't know, bro. You know what I'm saying? Like Christ for long, yo, for Christ for long, go hard in the church. Go hard in the gathering. Absolutely. So But yeah, a living hope.

SPEAKER_01

A living hope, right? Roman culture at this particular time, they worshiped strength, they worshiped the visibility of what looked like earthly success. Yeah. They are worshiping man-given victories. And Peter tells suffering believers that hope is not built on circumstances. What is it built on? On resurrection. Come on, man. Unpack that though. The hope that we have is built off of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And scripture teaches us the same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. It lives in you. So anything you feel buried in right now, anything you feel is covering you, anything you feel like you're drowning in right now, I just want to remind you that the resurrection power of Jesus Christ, it is at work, it is living on the inside of you, waiting on you to activate it. And this you know, thought that Peter gives us, he says, this living hope. Peter says that this faith is more precious than gold tested by fire. Come on, man. You know, and to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable. So for a moment, let's just take that word imperishable.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Unpack that, Phil.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Um if you've ever been in a pantry, and if you have one in your house, uh, we're all familiar with the word imperishable. Uh the things that are imperishable are things that Shelter said, bring this. Bring these goods that are imperishable. Why? Because they last.

SPEAKER_01

Yes.

SPEAKER_00

Right. They last. They will not rot or spoil before it's time. And Peter said we have something that is imperishable. That is, we have something that will not rot. It will not fade with time. In fact, the hope that we have, the faith that we have will outlive this life. It will, it will, it will, it will stabilize us in this life, it will anchor us in this life, but it will it will transcend this life. We have a hope that is imperishable. It will not rot, it will not die, it will not fade, because it is anchored in a historical event that changed the world, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And because he is the firstborn from the dead, I will be the second. And then I know that when my funeral comes, they will shed tears, but I will not shed tears. I would have gone into the presence of my Savior. I would have received my reward and I would have laid my crown at his feet, and I will be preparing myself for the marriage supper of the Lamb and the new world that is coming. Alright. And that is a hope that I have right now because of the word of God, Tim. It is a hope I have on the mountaintop. It is a hope I have in the valley. It is a hope I have in my trials. It is a hope I have in difficult difficulty. It is a hope I had when I was dealing with that medical issue in my body. I'm healed in Jesus' name.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_00

My doctor was confused. It's a hope I have in all things. And it's a hope that's gonna transcend this life. It is imperishable. It will not perish with death. It will carry me through death into the eternal state. And that is a powerful hope. And where else will you find that hope? Will you find that hope in things of this world? No. Will you find that hope in the vices of this world? No. Will we find that hope in false religions? No. Will we find that hope in the things that man has given us as a placebo for biblical truth? No. Will we find that hope in anything outside of Christ? No. Any progenitor outside of Christ? No. Any religion outside of Christ? No. Any teaching outside of Christ? No. We will not find that hope in any other place but the man Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. That's powerful.

SPEAKER_00

Imperishable.

SPEAKER_01

Imperishable. Some people only worship when life edits out suffering.

SPEAKER_00

Come on, come on, man.

SPEAKER_01

Come on. Right? We we only have a tendency to worship when things are going the way we expect them to. There's something powerful though about knowing who Jesus is in your suffering, in your pain, in your persecution. This is what I believe. I believe that pain it has a tendency to teach us at a level of depth that we cannot be taught in any other way. I agree, man. You know, it it's almost like pain reveals to us what pleasure never could. I agree. It it reveals to us the character, the nature of Jesus, the power of God, the the ability to overcome. We would not have scriptures like we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the words of our testimony if we did not have anything to overcome. And so I think sometimes as believers, we have gotten soft. Yeah. In that we have stretches where there is no suffering, and we believe and we become entitled to think that that is the journey of the believer. When scripture never promises that.

SPEAKER_00

You know the other thing too, Tim, is powerful because I think pain should pay you. Absolutely. And one of the things pain has paid me is deeper intimacy with God. Right? Because if we use pain properly, some people will go through pain and it will push them to a vice. Others will go through pain and it'll push them to their knees. And when pain pushes you to your knees, it pays you. And what it pays you, it pays you intimacy, it pays you trust, it pays you that closeness with God, the pain I've endured. I've probably been shaped more of my character by pain than mountaintops. You know what? This is a true story, right? Let me not say true story. This is a true statement. Right? I I think there's people that sometimes may see your life or may see my life and say, man, we want what Tim Timmerick has or what PAM has and all that stuff, man. Like all these things are gonna burn up anyway, right? That's what Peter will say, they're gonna dissolve. And I I think I want to say to somebody who's maybe a maybe a pastor who's watching, who's um daydreaming about a mountaintop, and thinking that when they get there, if I get the large staff, if I get the big budget, you know, all my pain is gonna go away. It just really multiplies the compounds, you know. Um But you know what though? You know what I you know what I realized, Tim, looking over my shoulder? I I think I've been shaped more in my in my pain than I have like all mountaintops. I I think in terms of like what God has done in my character and in my life, I think more of that has been shaped through tears, thrown through mountaintops. I've passed through mountaintops now and I enjoy them, I thank God for them. But it's in terms of the man that I am and the man that I feel like I'm becoming has been shaped more, my character has been shaped more by the tears I've shed and the things I've gone through more than the mountaintops, right? And so I think pain is to pay you, right? And um and one of the things pain can pay you is is intimacy with God and and and your character being forged in the fire of some of the hardships we go through, right? And and this is essentially what Peter's kind of getting to here because he's writing to believers who are going through, and can I be honest, he will he he's writing to and wrote to believers who some of them wasn't gonna escape what they were going through. I know we probably shouldn't even go there because people are gonna get they're gonna get discouraged now. As you know, we get into the end of this episode, they're gonna start getting discouraged. Like, what if it don't shift as quick as you want it to shift?

unknown

You know.

SPEAKER_00

What if it don't? I prayed for my father to be healed from cancer and he's in eternity. Yeah, mine too. Yeah, yours too. Your your father, my both our fathers slipped into eternity battling cancer. I'm sure you prayed for yours, I prayed for mine, but they were healed, but not healed in this life. They were healed in the world to come. We will be healed regardless. Everybody who's a believer will be healed regardless, either in this life or the next. But what if what if the season lasts longer than what we anticipated? You know, I'm going through a battle right now, leading our church that I'm not gonna talk about on camera, but we we're being persecuted by someone who's really doing us a number right now, and um, it's been going on for months. And I've been praying about it, Tim, you know, and um and the Lord has not delivered us from that yet. You know what I mean? And you know, what if the what if the season lasts longer? You know, um, you know, will we sustain, will we endure? And Peter's writing to believers, and I'm saying the point I'm trying to make is writing to believers and wrote to believers who for some of them what they're going through is gonna last a very long time, and for some of them, the situation wasn't gonna change. That doesn't sound hopeful, but look at the stuff he's talking about. Grace and peace and blessed be the God of our father. He's talking about great mercy and talking about us being born again in a living hope. I mean, if I just read this really quickly, this don't sound like somebody who's writing to people who should be depressed. Right. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfaded, kept in heaven. Oh, there it is. Set your mind on things above, not kept in the culture, kept in heaven for you who by God's power are being guarded through faith for the salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. We're gonna have to come back to that in the next episode. 100%. We we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna you're not gonna have to come back to that in the next episode. But that don't sound like somebody who's trying to make them feel discouraged. That sounds like man, look at the this is his encouragement to people who are being killed.

SPEAKER_01

Man, let me tell you something. When you read that last that last wabar, you know what I'm saying? Like that last statement.

SPEAKER_00

Nah, Tim.

SPEAKER_01

Let me let me let me just drop this. Nah, bro. It's burning. Hell attacks who heaven invests in.

SPEAKER_00

Yo, come on, Tim. I'm I'm closing my Bible right there, man. Look at what hold on, hold on. We even got no mics to drop. I'm about to can we just take this off? We just drop this on the floor. Look at what he's saying. No, no, no, no, no. Hold on, bro. Hold on. Say the statement again, Tim.

SPEAKER_01

Hell attacks who heaven invests in.

SPEAKER_00

Is that why you got is that why you've been attacked?

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely. That's why you've been attacked because heaven has invested in you. Heaven has invested in 20819. Heaven has invested in our brothers and our sisters on the other side of this camera right now. That is why hell is attacking you because heaven has invested in exhort the people to. Now just think about that for a second. The fact that you are under attack right now means that you are good soil. Heaven sees value in you. So heaven is investing in you, which is why hell is attacking you.

SPEAKER_00

So let's pray for those. Like this alarm going off right now in the streets. We sound an alarm right now. Yeah. We we sound we put an alarm out right now for the awakening of the brother and the sister who's going through, who is the called of Christ, receiving grace, great mercy, born again, imperishable hope. I feel like we need to pray a prayer fire up onto some of them right now.

SPEAKER_01

Yo, pray that Tim. Absolutely. Something so pure that it takes heat to bring up. I feel heat in the studio. And right now, in the name of Jesus, I just thank you that you would begin to move the pieces in our lives to make us turn back to you. Yes. Thank you for your grace. Thank you for your great mercy. Great mercy. Your great mercy that you have given us. And God, may we never take it for granted. Hallelujah. May we always be reminded of the alternative outcome without your great mercy. Hallelujah. And God, we thank you for giving us time to get it right when time is running out. Thank you, God, for allowing us to get it right. Lord, sound the alarm, Lord. And so right now, God, we ask that you would constantly remind us of what you have invested on the inside of us when we are under attack by hell. May we not get distracted by the arrows that are angled and pointed towards us because we understand who is our great defender. We understand who is our shade in the heat. We understand who is our fire in the nighttime, God, in our cloud by day. We understand, God, that you have been with us before we even could identify who you were. And we thank you, God. Not for the pain, but we thank you for what you're delivering to us in the pain. And as Peter has unpacked, God, this message to us, we just ask that you would keep our minds on you in the middle of pressure, in the middle of persecution, in the middle of pain, and understanding that if hell is attacking us, it is because heaven has invested in us. In Jesus' name we pray.

SPEAKER_00

Amen. So, Street Team, if you are watching right now, and uh we just want to encourage all of you who are going through a difficult time, a difficult season, whatever it may be, heaven has invested in you. And uh never forget that we have an imperishable hope. It is strong, it is anchored in the resurrection of Christ, and it will translate all the way uh into the new life. So um if you've enjoyed this episode, uh Tim and I ask for a small favor uh like, comment, subscribe, share this episode with somebody who you feel like needs it, and it will be a blessing to them. Uh we want you to know that we love you. Uh we're praying for you, and uh time is running out. Um so the cry right now as time is running out is Maranatha. Uh come quickly, Lord Jesus. Um the answer to the human suffering ultimately is the return of Christ. Repeat. The ultimate answer to human suffering, all that we go through is the return of Christ. Um, so we cry together. Uh Maranatha. Right? It's more than a word on a sweater. Let it be the cry of the bride in this hour. Uh, we love you, Street Team. We'll catch you in the next episode of Street Preachers Podcast. You know, peace.