Iran’s Underground Church And The Cost Of Hope

Headlines blare. Missiles fly. But in a quiet living room in Tehran, believers gather with curtains drawn and phones set aside, praying soft prayers that carry more weight than any soundbite. We open that door for you—carefully—and invite you to see how Iran’s underground church meets danger with courage, and tension with a hope forged in fire, not in feeds.

We trace the ancient lineage of the Persian church, older than many nations and present long before modern missions. That history reframes today’s crisis: when faith costs something, worship becomes intention, not habit. You’ll hear why Iranian Christians aren’t cheering destruction, how they hold dignity above dominance, and why prayer is not retreat but resistance to despair. We explore the difference between peacemaking and passivity, and how Christ’s way of sacrifice shapes a posture that refuses both rage and naivety. Along the way, we name what often goes unnamed—war impacts civilians first—and commit to language that humanizes rather than reduces.

This conversation moves from headlines to heartlines: specific ways to pray for underground leaders, families under pressure, curious neighbors searching for truth, and for freedom of conscience that lasts beyond the news cycle. We talk about cultivating a long horizon, remembering that empires rise and fall while the church quietly multiplies. And we challenge ourselves to trade outrage for intercession, partisanship for presence, and cynicism for a steel-strong hope rooted in a kingdom that has outlived every superpower.

If thoughtful, hope-filled engagement matters to you, partner with us and help amplify voices that choose wisdom over noise. Subscribe, share this episode with a friend who needs perspective today, and leave a review to tell us: How will you practice peacemaking this week?

Transcript

A Hidden Church In Iran

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Let's start with this. Somewhere in Iran tonight, a family is going to gather. They're going to gather quietly. Curtains are going to be drawn, phones turned off, voices will stay low, stay low, and a small group, maybe six, maybe twelve, will sit close together in a living room. No church sign outside, no live stream, no stage lights, just a worn Bible prayer. No political slogans, no war chants, prayer. Okay. And outside that home, their world is loud. Missiles have flown, governments have responded, analysts are arguing, and news anchors have speculations. But inside that room, a mother is praying for her children, a father is praying for safety, a young believer is praying for courage, and they're not cheering escalation. They're not applauding destruction. They're praying for peace. And that's the story beneath the headlines. Okay. And it deserves our attention now. So let's talk about it. Guys, I'm Mark Castro. If you didn't know that by now, uh, I'm the host of the Mark Casto program. Guys, I left the four-walled pastor model behind to build a business. And that's what led us to building this media company. And guys, now what I'm doing is I am helping messengers, thought leaders, kingdom entrepreneurs, pastors, authors package their God-given wisdom into impact online. And what I believe is wisdom is greater than entertainment, giving value is far more important than going viral. And that digital products and the online space is a tremendous opportunity for the kingdom of God. And every week I want to sit with you, not to impress you with my knowledge, but to peel back the layers, sharing raw stories, proven strategies, and the unfiltered truth behind what it really takes to share God-given wisdom and turn that message into a movement. So really excited that you guys are here. I want to jump into this, guys. Um today, we're going to be talking. What's up from St. Louis? Um, we're going to be talking about Iran's believers. There's a church that is emerging out of Iran, and we're going to find out, I feel like, a lot more about this church in the days to come. Um, but I want to give you some perspective on some of what I'm reading, some of the articles that are coming out, and some of the things that are coming out about the Iranian church and how they feel in this moment. And I feel like that's a group of people that we as the kingdom of God should be focused on because we have brothers and sisters that are in that nation right now that's being ripped apart by war. And so I want to actually show you an article that um I saw on uh, I believe this is on Relevant Magazine, and they're talking about 800,000 Iranian Christians, resilient, prayerful, and deeply rooted in hope after U.S. strikes. And I was reading this article last night, and um it's just talking about the church that's emerging, open doors, a Christian NGO, which tracks persecution worldwide. Estimate that over 800,000 Christians in Iran, and many of them uh converts who worship in underground house churches because public expression of their faith can bring surveillance, arrest, prison, or even death. And so I read this article and I was so moved by it, and I thought, man, we really need to go a little deeper and um and talk about this. So that's what we're going to do. Okay. So in recent weeks, guys, if you've not been following the the news, military escalation involving Iran has dominated our headlines. Okay. Terms like Operation Epic Fury are being used. So what you're seeing is strategic strikes, defense briefings, political posturing, national security uh narratives. And when moments like this unfold, something predictable happens. The internet divides instantly. One side celebrates strength, another side condemns aggression, hot takes, flood timelines like crazy. And guys, here's the reality: while we are debating policy, there are nearly 800,000 Christians inside Iran navigating something far more personal. And again, according to the article that I just showed you a minute ago from Relevant Magazine, believers on the ground are not celebrating this moment. They are cautious, they are concerned, they're prayerful, and many of them already worshiping underground because public conversion from Islam can result in harassment, arrest, imprisonment, death. And they live in this tension every day. And now tension has increased. Okay. And so the important detail from the article that I was reading is their primary uh response, the Christian church in Iran, is not triumph, it's hope, but not naive hope, not patriotic hope, not partisan hope. It's hope rooted in something deeper. They are praying for protection, they're praying for peace, they're praying for freedom of conscience, they're praying not to be forgotten. That's a big one. And guys, that posture matters because it reveals something powerful about mature faith. Okay. So here's what most Western believers don't realize because, guys, we live in a bubble. Uh, many times we live in a bubble. And so Christianity in Iran is not a new thing. Okay. Um, you need to know that. Like, um, I'm I'm sorry, I'm reading the comments a little bit. So Christianity uh actually predates Islam. So the Persian church is ancient. Some historians trace Christian presence in Persia back to the first century. So the church in that region has survived empires, it has endured cultural shifts and it's navigated persecution before. And historically, something remarkable happens when the church faces pressure. It deepens, it clarifies, it strips away excess. And the reality is when faith costs something, it becomes intentional. Guys, in underground churches, you don't just attend casually. I know you and I kind of live this life where we can pick and choose when and where we want to go. And that's not how it is in Iran. Like in Iran, you attend because you actually believe. You don't get to sing loudly or be entertained by church Christian music culture. Um, you don't gather for convenience. Like these people are gathering for survival. And somehow throughout history, the church has often grown most powerfully in those environments. And I'm not saying that because suffering is good, but because authenticity thrives when comfort disappears. So, um, what I want to be careful is I don't want to romanticize or bring a romanticization of persecution. I'm just simply giving you an observation about the church being resilient. Okay. So the church in Iran, they've already navigated surveillance, they've already navigated imprisonment, they've already navigated social exclusion. Now they are navigating geopolitical instability. And guys, their instinct is not rage, it is prayer. And just trying to even put myself in those shoes, that's a really humbling thought to think about. So let's address something clearly here. So when conflict erupts, some people feel justified celebrating if they believe justice is being served. But Christians inside Iran are not celebrating bombs falling over their homeland. Why? Because they understand some something that I believe we sometimes forget. War affects civilians first. And again, we don't know how to deal with this because we're uh like most of us, the the craziest thing we've seen is 9-11. Um, but like we've never really felt the true effects of war here in our homeland. But war affects civilians first, children first, neighborhoods first, infrastructure first. Because they live there. Their families live there, their neighbors, Muslims, secular, religious, they live there. So their response is not finally, their response is Lord, protect us. They're not asking for domination. They are asking for dignity. They're not asking for destruction. They're believing God for freedom. And guys, there's a massive difference. And that difference reflects the heart of Christ. Christ did not conquer through force, he conquered through sacrifice. Jesus didn't celebrate destruction. Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary, he absorbed it. And guys, our theology and that theology matters in moments like this because it shapes posture. And their posture is telling the world something really powerful. Our hope is not in missiles, our hope is not in regimes, our hope is not in retaliation, our hope is in something that outlives empires. And friend, that is not weakness, that is spiritual clarity. So let's go a little deeper, okay? Let's talk about hope, hope in the middle of instability. Now, when I talk about hope, I'm not talking about the shallow kind, not the Instagram caption kind, not the everything will work out kind. I mean the kind of hope that survives when everything feels unstable. Because hope in America often looks like optimism. Hope in comfort is easy. That's the reality. Hope in freedom is assumed. But hope in a restricted nation, hope under surveillance, hope when your faith could cost you your job, your safety, your freedom, that is a different substance entirely. That is steel. Um, guys, Iranian believers aren't hopeful because conditions are favorable. They are hopeful because Christ is steady. And that distinction changes everything. Their confidence isn't rooted in whether a strike succeeds or fails. It's rooted in something far more ancient. Guys, empires rise and empires fall. Borders change, leaders rotate, but the kingdom of God has survived every empire that tried to crush it. Rome tried, failed. The Soviet Union tried, failed. Countless regimes have literally tried to erase Christianity from off the map. Guys, those empires are footnotes now. But you know what remains? The kingdom of God, the church of Jesus Christ remains. And that doesn't mean suffering disappears. It means suffering does not get the final word. And that is the kind of hope underground believers cling to. It's not loud, it's not flashy, it's not trendy, but it is unbreakable. And so my heart really does go out for the church of Iran right now. Um, just believing God for them, for them to see the change that they're believing for. Okay. Now, I want to kind of talk about this thing from like the global body. Like, how should we look at this as the global body? Okay. Because it's easy to listen and think, well, man, that's tragic, or that's far away, or that's geopolitical. But scripture doesn't treat suffering like that. It doesn't categorize believers by their passport. It doesn't divide the body by language, it doesn't segment the church by borders. When this is what the scripture says, when one part suffers, the whole body feels it. That means that whatever happens in Tehran matters just as much as what happens in Tennessee. That what happens in Iran, it should affect us whether we're living in Chicago or Mobile. And what happens in underground homes ought to matter in megachurches. Because, guys, we're not called to sit on the sidelines and be spectators. We're connected. And that connection demands something of us. It demands maturity, it demands restraint. It demands that we refuse to turn real human lives into political talking points. Because somewhere inside Iran right now, there's a young believer praying for courage. There's a pastor praying that he's not discovered so he can continue to love on his people. There's a mother praying for peace right now. And guys, they're not over there debating strategy like you and I are. We're privileged to be able to sit over here and talk strategy. They're not planning, they're not debating strategy. They're praying for safety. And if we truly believe in the global body of Christ, then right now is not the moment that we join political sides and religious sides. This is a time where we intercede. This is not a time where we try to escalate arguments. And no, this is a time we intercede for the people of Iran. And here's where um this gets deeply theological, but I think it helps us uh helps this thought become accessible. Christ did not build his kingdom through force, he built it through surrender. He did nothing to advance through violence, he advanced everything through sacrificial love. And that does not mean governments don't act. It means the church operates differently. Iranian Christians they certainly understand this tension. They live inside of a political system they do not control. They endure restrictions that they never have chosen for themselves, and yet they do not respond with rage. Okay, and I think this is I think this is really important, guys. They respond with prayer. And and guys, prayer is not passive. Prayer is resistance to despair. Prayer is a declaration that darkness does not own the future. And when believers gather quietly and pray for their nation, that's not weakness, that is spiritual authority. Because the most powerful revolutions in history often begin unseen. Rome didn't fall because Christians picked up swords. Rome fell while Christians quietly multiplied. Systems began to shift and they shift slowly. See, hope grows underground first, always. So let me say something here, and I want to be clear about this. It is dangerously easy for Western Christians to become more passionate about geopolitical outcomes than about spiritual formation. We can drift into cheering policies more loudly than we pray for people. We can reduce um complex human realities to party loyalty. But the church in Iran isn't cheering, they're praying. And that posture should recalibrate us, guys. Because if believers living under pressure are choosing humility, I think maybe we should too. If believers living under risk are choosing intercession, maybe we should examine our outrage. Guys, mature true Christian maturity doesn't celebrate destruction. We don't celebrate death. True Christian maturity longs for redemption. And and I'm not talking about, well, you know, living in um being naive. Um, it doesn't mean that we pretend like evil doesn't exist. It re what it means is remembering that our ultimate hope is not in force, it's in restoration that comes through Christ. So the question becomes, what do we actually do? Well, first, we pray specifically, not vague prayers, specific ones. Things that I'm thinking about right now is that we need to be praying for the underground church in Iran. We need to be praying for wisdom for leaders navigating impossible decisions. Guys, I know how hard it was to lead a young church through COVID. I couldn't imagine leading a young church through war. Um, we need to be praying for courage for pastors who feel unsafe and are afraid they're going to be imprisoned and taken away from their families. We need to pray for Muslim neighbors who may be searching spiritually right now in this time of crisis. We need to be praying for freedom of conscience, pray for peace that lasts longer than just headlines. Second, we must refuse dehumanization. See, governments make decisions, but civilians bear consequences. Guys, there are children in Iran. There are families in Iran, there are believers in Iran, and none of them are abstractions. And guys, don't ever dehumanize a situation. There are real people being affected by what we're seeing in the news. Thirdly, we need to cultivate a long-term vision. I know that everybody thinks Jesus is coming back tomorrow. It's not happening. Jesus doesn't come back for a war-torn world. It says that Jesus Christ, according to Acts chapter 3, will remain in heaven until the restoration of all things. He's not coming back because the whore has gotten more filthy. He's coming back because the bride is without spot, wrinkle, or blemish. So we need a long-term vision. History is not written in news cycles. It's written in decades. It's written in underground movements. It's written in faithful endurance. See, the Persian church has survived centuries. And this moment is not the end of its story. Okay. So we need to be looking at things from a long-term vision in hopes of restoration. And fourth, we chose we we must choose hope deliberately. Okay. Not because it's easy, but because despair is contagious. But hope spreads and hope is stronger. So let me bring some thoughts full circle here. Somewhere tonight in Iran, a small group will gather quietly. They're going to pray softly. They're going to sing quietly. They're going to open the scriptures. And they're not going to be celebrating the things that we celebrate. Guys, they're going to be praying. And I I pray that maybe we would shut off the news and allow this image of children, families, mothers, fathers, pastors, churches. I pray that that image would matter more to us than military briefings. Because empires, they dominate with force. But the kingdom of God grows with faithfulness. And history has proven something time and time again. You cannot bomb hope out of existence. You cannot intimidate faith into extinction. You cannot legislate the spirit away. Light spreads quietly, it multiplies underground. It survives pressure. And it often shines brightest in the darkest rooms. Guys, Iran's believers are not celebrating, they're praying. And maybe that's the most powerful response of all. So today, instead of choosing outrage because of what Democrats or Republicans said, choose intercession. Instead of amplifying fear, uh, well, you know, these are these nasty wars of the end times. No, they're not. You need to read your Bible and actually get an understanding of what's happening. We don't need to be amplifying fear. We need to be amplifying hope. Because hope rooted in Christ has outlived every empire in history. And it will outlive this moment too. So my prayer is that you would open your heart, you would pray boldly and remember hope is louder than the headlines. Now, we're about to land the plane here, but before we continue, I just want to take a moment. If Conversations like this matter to you. If you care about thoughtful, hope-filled engagement with global events, if you believe the world needs voices that refuse outrage culture and choose wisdom instead, then I want to personally invite you to partner with us. Guys, everything that we're building through the Mark Casto program, through Longpath Publishing, it exists for moments like this to bring clarity where there's confusion and to bring hope where there's fear and to bring depth when headlines go shallow. And guys, the reality is producing content like this consistently and at the high level that we want to take it to, it takes time, it takes a team, it takes equipment, it takes focus. Guys, like it costs money to do this. We pay for studios and equipment and electricity. It takes a lot to do this. Um, so let me say this. If this episode is serving you, would you consider becoming a monthly partner? And you can do that. All you have to do is go to markcasto.co backslash donate. Go to marcasto.co backslash donate. You can see it there on the ticker at the bottom of the screen. I'm reading through some of the comments here. Um, I appreciate you guys just bubbling up with hope. That is the goal. And guys, let me say this too. Um, when you're partnering with us, you're not just supporting a podcast, you're helping create a platform where faith meets current events with spiritual maturity, where wisdom replaces us being reactionary and it fuels consistency. And so my prayer is that it helps us continue building content that strengthens believers globally. And if that's valuable to you, I invite you to stand with us again at marcasto.co backslash donate and become a partner. One last thing before we jump into the last part of this. Um, if you're listening to this and you're thinking, I have something inside of me to say too, Mark. I have wisdom, I have a message, I have lived experience that can help people, but you haven't built it yet. You've been sitting on it, you've been waiting, you've been hesitant. Guys, I want you to know this is your moment. And I have a free community for people just like you. Voices who know they're called to build something meaningful, messengers who understand that their message matters. And inside that free community, we're gonna help you clarify it, structure it, and begin building it. Um, not with gimmicks, uh, not in a way that's gonna burn you out, um, but we're gonna give you real blueprints because if your message matters, then you need to build like it does. So you can join that free community right now. It costs you nothing, but it can change everything about how you steward what's inside of you. Guys, the reality is we need more voices, um, people that are not just making more noise, but they're wise builders. Uh, so I ask for you guys to partner with us. Um, and then also if you have something to build, then we want to teach you how to build it properly. Um, yeah, that's my invitation to you guys. So let's finish with this. All right, let's zoom out one last time for a moment. Christianity in Iran did not begin with modern missions, okay? It didn't arrive with Western influence, it predates most modern nations. The Persian church is ancient. By the second century, Christian communities were already forming within the Persian Empire. By the fourth century, there were established bishops. By the fifth century, the church of the East was spreading Christianity as far as India and even China. So I want you to let that sink in for a minute. Long before Europe industrialized, long before America existed, there were Persian believers worshiping Christ. Guys, this is not a foreign faith, like Christianity is not a foreign faith in that land. It's historic, it's rooted, it has endured waves of political change. Guys, Persia's seen empires rise and fall. Islam, they've watched Islam become dominant. They've watched restrictions tighten, and yet Christianity has never vanished. And guys, one of the greatest outpourings of the spirit is happening in Iran. If you didn't listen to me talk yesterday, I talked about that extensively. But guys, where they're at now as a church is it's a quiet time because it's an underground time. But I want to tell you the church hasn't disappeared. And that tells you something profound. Faith rooted deeply survives pressure. It may bend, but it will adapt. It hides when necessary, but it survives. And today's underground believers are standing in that lineage. They are not anomalies, they are heirs of endurance. So let me paint a picture. Okay, because I want, I want you, the we have the propensity to dehumanize. I want to humanize this for you. Let's just imagine that you're invited into a house church in Tehran. The door closes quietly, shoes are removed softly, curtain is pulled tight, phones are placed in another room to avoid surveillance. There are no stage lights, there's no sound system, there's no Instagram reels, just a circle of people sitting close. Someone reads a scripture quietly, someone shares testimony, um, someone leads a hymn. There's tension in the air, but there's also the warmth and love of Christ and the presence of Christ in the room. Because, guys, when gathering costs something, community becomes precious. And maybe, maybe that's why we have so much division and and and so much opinions is because we're so comfortable. But but gathering together is precious, man. Now imagine this gathering happening during geopolitical tension. That that, like while you're gathering, missiles are flying over top of your head, and and maybe something goes wrong, and your house might get struck. You you're watching the news, leaders are making speeches, rumors are spreading, uncertainty is rising, and this group prays, Lord, protect our families, Lord, bring peace, Lord, open doors for freedom. Guys, they're not doing this to be seen or heard. They're they're they're not by us, but they're praying for God to intervene. And so I want to just take a moment here and say this that again, this is kind of in closing. There is something history teaches us that if um it only if we're willing to look, empires always believe they are permanent. Rome believed it, Persia believed it, Britain believed it, every superpower believes it, every regime believes it. But history is a graveyard of permanent powers. The Roman Empire once ruled the known world, it persecuted Christians brutally. It it like public executions, imprisonments, confiscated property, forced allegiance, and yet Rome collapsed and Christianity multiplied. Not because Christians overthrew Rome, they just outlasted it, because they loved differently, they lived differently, they suffered differently. And here we are, 2,000 years later, still talking about Christ. No one worships Caesar. And guys, that perspective matters in moments like this. Because when missiles fly and tensions escalate, and it can feel like history is being decided by force, but the deeper current of history has always been shaped by the faithfulness of Christ's followers, not force. Iran has seen empires, ancient Persia, Islamic caliphates, modern regimes, but the church remains, even if it's just quiet, sometimes hidden, sometimes persecuted, but it's always present. And that's the tension that we live in. Kingdoms rise, kingdoms remain. That doesn't mean governments don't matter. It just means they're not ultimate. And Iranian believers understand this better than most of us because when you live under pressure, you quickly learn what's eternal and what isn't. And so let's talk about peacemaking. This may be the most important thing that I say to you today. Peacemaking. Okay? Listen to this. Not pacifism, not passivity, peacemaking. There's a difference. Peacemaking is not pretending evil doesn't exist, but it's refusing to let evil dictate your heart. It's refusing, I'm gonna say it again, to let evil dictate your heart. Iranian Christians are not celebrating destruction, but they're also not naive. They know injustice exists, they know oppression exists, they know restrictions exist, but they also know this responding to violence with celebration corrodes the soul. And when you live in a tense nation, your soul is already under strain. So they pray because prayer protects the heart, prayer guards against bitterness, prayer keeps hope alive without surrendering to rage. And friend, I don't even, I mean, like I'm trying to comprehend that, but it's extremely difficult. Guys, especially in a culture, especially online, where we reward voices of outrage, we we reward reaction, we reward hot takes, but mature faith doesn't rush to cheer, it moves to intercede. And that posture is countercultural everywhere, not just in Iran. So let me slow this down. Guys, there's something sobering about realizing that believers in restricted nations often have a deeper grasp of eternity than believers in comfortable ones. When your faith costs you something, it sharpens you. When your gatherings are secret, they become sacred. When your worship is quiet, it becomes intentional. And I have to ask myself this, guys, and maybe you should too. Have we confused comfort with blessing? Have we mistaken convenience for spiritual strength? Because when I read about the underground believers, when I read some of the article yesterday about these underground churches prayer in prayer and intercession during this instability, it exposes something in me. It exposes how quickly I can be distracted by headlines, how easily I can be drawn into reaction instead of reflection, how tempted that I can be to think history is shaped only by force. But history has always been shaped by hidden faithfulness. Guys, some of the most powerful spiritual movements in history were born out of obscurity. It happened in rooms that no one photographed, in gatherings that no one broadcasted, in prayers that no one tweeted. And that's what's happening right now in the nation of Iran. Faithfulness, hidden, steady, quiet, but a real faith in Christ. And there's something profound about how God works in that. He often builds underground before he builds publicly. See, seeds grow beneath the soil before anyone sees green. Roots go down deep before branches go wide. And maybe what we're witnessing in Iran is not the end of something. Maybe it's the strengthening of something. Historically, moments of instability often awaken spiritual hunger. When systems shake, people look for something stable. When fear rises, people search for hope. When certainty collapses, people seek truth. And underground believers are often ready in those moments. Not because they planned it, but because they endured long enough to be prepared. The Persian church has endured. The endurance matters. The resilience matters. And sometimes the very pressure meant to silence faith actually amplifies it. Now, that doesn't mean that we celebrate suffering. What it does is it means we recognize God is not intimidated by instability. He's not scrambling when headlines break. He's not surprised when leaders do the things that they do. He has always worked through fragile people in fragile moments. And friend, my God, Jesus Christ is still working. So what does hope really look like? Hope is not denial. Hope does not pretend that bombs aren't real. Hope does not ignore suffering. Hope looks suffering in the face and refuses to surrender to despair. Iranian believers are not hopeful because the situation's easy. They're hopeful because Christ is alive and that matters. Because they actually understand. If Christ conquered death, then no regime is ultimate. If Christ defeated the grave, then no empire is permanent. If resurrection is real, then despair is premature. And that's the kind of hope that carries believers through prison cells, through restrictions, through uncertainty, through war headlines. Hope doesn't remove tension, but it does anchor the soul. So let's bring this to brass tacks again. We live in a polarized culture in America. Everything is framed as left versus right, team versus team, for versus against, win versus lose. But believers inside Iran are modeling something different. They're not cheering destruction. They are not collapsing in fear. They are praying for peace. Guys, that posture transcends political partisanship. It transcends geopolitics. It transcends internet arguments. It's rooted in something eternal. And maybe that's the invitation for us in America to be people who respond differently, who refuse to dehumanize, who refuse to reduce complex nations to caricatures, who remember that civilians are not governments, who remember that children are not policies, who remember that believers exist inside borders we argue about. The global church is bigger than political alignment. It is deeper than national identity. And it is stronger than military escalation. And this is where I'll end. This is like my second closing here. There's a quiet room, curtains drawn, lights low, and a handful of believers sitting close together. They're whispering prayers while the world debates war. No one's filming, no one's trending, no applause, just faith. And that room is more powerful than we realize. Because every empire in history has underestimated quiet faith. Every regime has believed pressure would extinguish it. Every government that tried to crush Christianity assumed it would disappear. And yet the church remains. So again, Iran's believers are not celebrating what's happening. They are not collapsing, they're praying. And prayer is not weakness, prayer is declaration. It is the Iranian church saying, God, you're still sovereign. God, you're still good. God, you're still building something eternal. And guys, my prayer for the Iranian church is that we don't bomb hope out of existence. That their faith is not silenced by force. That their light is not extinguished by threatening darkness. And somewhere tonight in Iran, a small group will open scripture and they will pray for peace. Not just for themselves, for their neighbors, maybe even for the leaders they disagree with, not overnight, but over time. Guys, that kind of faith changes history. So instead of choosing outrage, I want you to choose intercession. Instead of amplifying fear, I want you to be a voice of hope. And instead of reducing nations to headlines, remember the believers in the living room in Tehran tonight and pray. Because hope rooted in Christ has outlived every empire in history. And it will outlive this one too. So I pray again. Open up your heart, pray boldly. And I want you to remember, guys, hope is louder than headlines. I hope that helps you guys. I hope that helps. Again, just believing for the Iranian believers for praying and um giving their life to the kingdom of God while living in intense persecution. Guys, again, I want to remind you of two things. Number one, if um you guys love what we're doing, bringing kingdom commentary to cultural uh headlines today, love for you to partner with us, become a monthly partner. All you have to do is go to markcesto.co backslash donate. Guys, every gift matters, whether it's$5,$10,$100 a month, all of it makes a great impact. Um, we'd love for you to partner with us and stand with us. And secondly, maybe you're a voice that you're like, Mark, I feel like I've got a message burning in me, but I just don't know what to do with it. I don't know how to package it. Guys, there's an incredible opportunity online right now for you to take your God-given wisdom and use it to make impact upon other people. So just like I'm doing with this message of hope and the gospel in this situation. There, I've got people in Long Path Creator Academy that are doing cooking classes, and there uh some that are teaching homeschool uh how to how to host homeschool in your home, how to help mothers organize for homeschool. We've got a lot of different creators in there that are packaging their God-given wisdom into digital products, learning how to create podcasts, learning how to make YouTube videos, learning how to utilize social media to get that wisdom out there to make an impact. I'd rather talk about impact than income because, guys, at the end of the day, if you can change people's lives, income will always come. So, guys, God bless you. Thank you for being a part of the Mark Casto program. I hope you're enjoying this going live. Um, I think what we're gonna do realistically is try to go live three days a week rather than every day. Just depends. Uh, because I'm always posting content. But um, man, just super thankful for you guys. Looking through the comments here, I want to make sure that I um my friend here, Voice of Freedom, said I partnered yesterday. Thank you so much for partnering with us. Uh, man, I'm telling you, every gift that you give to us matters. Guys, I want to give you an update too, real quick, for those of you that are still watching. I want to give you an update as well that um you guys know for 10 uh years I've done minimal, very minimal travel. Um, just really felt like uh the Lord wanted me to really be seated and to learn. I've pastored, I've helped lead, and we're here in Mobile, Alabama, now uh part of a local community here called the Homestead of Mobile. And I absolutely love being a part of this. But back in November, the Lord spoke to me and he said, Mark, when are you gonna quit telling me that you're not gonna travel? And I was like, uh, today. I'm I'm I'm not gonna tell you, I'm not gonna do anything for you. But there have been so much in me of like, man, I used to burn up the roads years ago. I really love being home with my wife and my kids. And um, I've really put the traveling on the shelf. And uh, but the Lord's stirring that in me again. And so I've got several places that I'm gonna be going in the month of March. Uh so here um this weekend, uh actually on uh let me get my calendar out here so I can be specific. But uh actually this Sunday, March the 8th, I'm gonna be in uh Michigan, Detroit, Michigan area. My dad is having a pretty major back surgery this weekend, so I'm going up to help my mom take care of him. But then on Sunday morning at Clinton Revival Center, uh there in the Clinton Township area, I'm gonna be doing the Sunday morning service there. And um, I would love if you're in the Detroit, Michigan area, for you to come join us, or if you have friends there, I'd love for you to come join us. Then that very next weekend, I'm gonna Be traveling with the Love Joys, my family and their family. We're going to Atoka, Oklahoma. And we're going to be a part of some gatherings there for the weekend. It's going to be amazing. Then the very next weekend, uh, the 21st, 22nd, I'm going to be with our good friends, uh David and Christy Brackens in Pittsburgh, Virginia. Um at Deep River Chapel. Cannot wait for that. That's going to be an amazing time. Then um, then in uh April, actually going to be going up and spending time with the Lovejoys in Ohio. And so I think it's on either April 1st, maybe we are going to um, I think it's April 1st. I mean I don't remember my dates are all over the place, but in the month of April, beginning of April, I'm gonna be at the homestead of Ohio. So it's gonna be a great time. So I'm starting off strong, man. We're going back on the road hard. Um, but um and I'm excited to get back into churches. I've always been um passionate about pouring into pastures and going into local churches and building those communities up and speaking life into them because I believe the local church is so important. Um important. But thank you, Brian LaRue. Always great to have him. He's been such a tremendous friend to me and uh uh always giving me encouragement on social media. And so I appreciate that, Brian. Um, but guys, I appreciate you. I hope you're enjoying this. If you are, hey, make sure you send me a DM and say, Mark, I'm really loving these live streams. If not, keep it to yourself. God bless you guys. I hope you have a wonderful day, and I'll see you soon.