July 17, 2025 • 23 mins
A study in the book of 1st Corinthians.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to K Wave's Pastor Spotlight featuring the Bible teaching
of our local Southern California pastors. This week we're pleased
to bring you the Bible teaching ministry of Andrew Carter,
lead pastor of Royal City Church in Inglewood. Royal City
Church meets each Sunday morning at 10 a.m. at 226
South Market Street in Inglewood. For more information about them,
(00:21):
visit their website at Royal CityChurch.org.
The Book of First Corinthians is a letter that the
apostle Paul wrote to one of his church plants while
he was pastoring at another church that he had started
in Ephesus. Today Pastor Andrew Carter begins our week of
studies looking at chapter two of Paul's letter to the Corinthians.
Here now is Pastor Andrew.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
And so today we're talking in 1 Corinthians chapter 2.
We're gonna talk a little bit about how do you
understand the word? How do you receive the Spirit? How
do you use the inspiration of God to understand what
it is that he's writing. Amen.
So in First Corinthians, the book of First Corinthians, again,
just to recap, is a letter from Paul to the
(01:06):
church in Corinth. Now, at the time, the church in
Corinth was in utter chaos. They had people sleeping with
other people's stepmoms. They had, uh, people were wilding out,
they were out of control, they were getting drunk, they
were keeping money to themselves. It was a church that
very much looks like the church today, if I'm being honest.
(01:27):
So when Paul writes this letter to
Some of you are like, wait a second, who's sleeping
with who's stepmom in this church? Look, I'm not here
to point fingers or to make judgment, but I'm just
saying that the same issues that they dealt with in
this church are some of the same issues that we
deal with inside the church in America today. And so
we're reading this letter from Paul as he's correcting them.
(01:47):
He's instructing them, he's leading them, he's calling things out,
and he's helping them to have a deeper understanding of
the word and how to operate as a Christian.
So in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, we're going to read
through and it says in verse 1, and I, brethren,
when I came to you, did not come with excellence
(02:08):
of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony
of God. For I determined not to know anything among
you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's verse 2.
So in the previous chapter, he was talking about how
God can use
The foolish things, the lame things. He can use the
base things, the normal things of this world for his
glory so that we, those who are the normal, the base,
(02:30):
and the standard things, they don't take glory. They don't
rob God from His glory. And so here he's saying,
I didn't come to you trying to impress you. I
didn't come with this deep vernacular. I didn't come with
these words that you couldn't understand. I came as I
was and I preached the gospel to you.
The gospel doesn't need to be dressed up. The gospel
doesn't need to have lipstick put on it. The gospel
(02:52):
doesn't need my words to make it more powerful and impactful.
The gospel in the word of God is powerful in
and of itself. And so here he says, I, I
determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. Verse 3, he says, I was with
you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.
(03:12):
Some believed that maybe he was sick, maybe he was
dealing with something, he maybe had an infirmity. Others believed
that he wasn't a great speaker. Although we know that
Paul was an educated man, he was smart, he was sharp.
Some believed that his presence, he, he talked big in
his letters. He would call people out, but when they
would see him, some were like, you're really not.
that impressive. So, here he comes to this church, and
he's speaking to them in weakness and fear, and much trembling.
(03:37):
Verse 4 says, and my speech and my preaching were
not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration
of the spirit and of the power.
He didn't need to have elaborate smoke shows and all
of these different, uh, these demonstrations on the stage. And
there's nothing wrong with that. I'm not condemning anybody or
(03:59):
anyone who uses props or demonstrations because who here loves
a good prop? I, I, I personally love a good prop,
but what he's saying is I didn't have to come
with props. I didn't have to come with cards.
Smoke shows and magic tricks to try to convince you
guys of the truth of the word. All I had
to do was preach the word and people's lives were changed.
And so in the same way, I wanna encourage you
(04:19):
guys that look, you don't have to be articulate, you
don't have to be well versed, you don't have to
go to a Bible school, you don't have to be
something that you're not in order to preach the gospel
to the people in your lives. Amen.
So verse 5 says, and this is a continuation, that
your faith should not be in the wisdom of men,
but in the power of God.
(04:41):
We live in a society and in a time where
we praise and worship the pastors and the leaders. We
put them on a pedestal. We even boast and argue, well,
who do you follow? Well, I follow MacArthur. Oh, well,
I follow Spurgeon. Well, I'm more of a Billy Graham guy.
We argue and we measure one's worth based on the
theology or the preacher or the pastor that they were
(05:03):
schooled underneath.
We need to stop being so enamored and taken away
by the people who preach the word and be more
enamored and more interested in the word itself.
So whether or not I come up here with props
and all kinds of uh of showmanship and hilarious jokes
that you guys laugh at, even when I bring those up,
(05:25):
you shouldn't be impressed by me, you should be impressed
by the power of God.
Charles Spurgeon, to drop the name, says this. He says,
let us remember as ministers of the gospel, what's been
beautifully said, depend on it.
He said that it is God's word, not man's comments
upon God's words that saves souls. It's not my interpretation,
(05:47):
it's not my translation. It's not how I break it down.
It's the power of the word of God. He goes
on and says, and I have marked that if ever
we have a conversion at any time, in 99 cases
out of 100, the conversion is rather traceable to the
text or to some scripture quoted in the sermon.
So if somebody gives their life to Jesus, it's not
because I preached a great sermon. Anybody ever be like, man,
(06:09):
I'm bringing my friend and I hope pastor preaches a
good word today.
I hope that he really brings a good one today.
Last one was like, uh, but this one, I really
hope that it's fire, right? Or, or I'm preaching, you're
nudging your friend like that part's free. That's not me.
You're putting your hope and your faith in me. I'm
going to fail you. If you're relying on my preaching
or my pastoring or my leadership, I'm going to fail you.
(06:32):
Our hope, our faith and our trust should be in
the word of God, a conversion or a heart marked
by the Holy Spirit comes from the word of God
and from the gospel being preached.
So he goes on and he says,
Uh, any trite or original saying by the preacher, that's
not what it is. It is God's word that breaks
the fetters and sets the prisoners free. This is old school,
(06:54):
so fetters are like chains. Like it breaks the handcuffs
off of people. So it breaks the fetters and sets
the prisoner free. It is God's word instrumentally that saves souls,
and therefore, let us bring everything to the touchstone. Everything
we do must come back and point back to the word.
And so as your pastor, as your leader, my goal
here is to bring you guys back to this. Stop
(07:15):
being impressed by fancy clothes and sneakers and chains, and
who's got the biggest, greatest, uh, uh, worship team behind
them and the concerts and the conferences. It's so much
more than that. That same change could happen in you
and in your life through devotion to the scripture.
It's the power of God.
(07:38):
In verse 6, it says, however, we speak wisdom among
those who are mature.
Yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the
rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. Verse 7,
but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery.
The hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for
our glory. Verse 8, which none of the rulers of
(08:00):
this age knew, for had they known, they would not
have crucified the Lord of glory. We'll hold for just
a second right there. This is what I'm talking about
when it comes to these 3D glasses as you're reading
the word.
The word comes alive. The word is alive. The word
speaks to us. For those of, uh, for the individuals
who are outside of the Lord, it doesn't make sense.
(08:21):
They'll ask you, well, how can you believe in this?
How can you believe in the word of God? It
was written by dozens of different people, and over time,
it's been changed, and how can you stand on the
reliability of this? They don't see what we see. They
don't understand what we understand. We're looking at this through
the lens of the Holy Spirit.
The word comes alive and then changes and transforms our life.
(08:42):
We're not building our lives on the wisdom of this
world because the wisdom of this world is sinking sand.
And so if you, if you're here and you're asking yourself, well,
how do I understand? How do I get a better
grasp of the word? And the answer to that is
through the Holy Spirit. We ask, we receive, and we
believe that we've been sealed with the Holy Spirit, and
now the word comes alive and starts to take root
(09:04):
and anchor in our lives.
It says in verse 9, but as it is written,
I is not seen nor ear heard nor have entered
into the heart of man, the things which God has
prepared for those who love Him.
Verse 10, but God has revealed them to us through
His Spirit. Would you guys say that with me, his spirit?
(09:25):
Through His Spirit. God has revealed them to us through
His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things. Yes, the
deep things of God. Verse 11 says, for what man
knows the things of a man except the spirit of
the man which is in him, right? You don't know
what's going on inside of me. I know what's going
on inside of me. So in the same way,
(09:46):
It says
Even so, no one knows the things of God except
the Spirit of God. But verse 12 says, now we
have received not the spirit of the world, but the
Spirit who is from God, that we might know the
things that have been freely given to us by God.
We know the word, we understand the word. We hunger
(10:08):
for the word. The word starts to make sense because
of the spirit that was given to us.
You guys understand what I'm trying to tell you guys.
This isn't just a book to be read. This is
a book that reads you. This is a book that
speaks life. This is a book that gives correction. This
is a book that will change your lives, but too
many people aren't looking at it. They're not reading it.
(10:30):
I wanna read this from Rickon from a book called
Finding Time. It says, men are always seeking for greater wisdom,
but they usually bypass the ultimate source of wisdom.
How many people like to follow motivation pages? You're trying
to work out a little bit. So you're on that
motivation page, they got the dope track and somebody's sweating
and it's a dark scene and they're hovered over the
(10:50):
weights and it's just like, yeah, you know, put God first.
And you're just like, yeah, man, I need that motivation.
So many of us are looking for motivation, we're looking for.
Wisdom. We're looking for uh quotes from Socrates and Aristotle
and Plato, and well, this stoic movement has passed where
people are, they just want to grind and they wanna
listen to positive things. That's great, but look, they're overlooking
(11:10):
the ultimate source of wisdom. It says the scriptures clearly
point this direction. They reveal the fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the
Holy One is understanding.
But what has man done with this tremendous resource at
his fingertips?
Ignored it.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
You're listening to Kwave's Pastor Spotlight featuring the Bible teaching
ministry of Andrew Carter, lead pastor of Royal City Church
in Inglewood. You can learn more about Pastor Andrew's Church
at Royal CityChurch.org. Now here's Pastor Andrew with more of
his study in 1 Corinthians chapter 2.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
For even though they knew God, they did not honor
him as God or give thanks, but they became futile
in their speculations and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing
to be wise, they became fools.
You guys have the greatest resource at your fingertips and constantly,
consistently overlook it and ignore it.
(12:12):
Constantly and consistently.
I share this uh illustration several times. If I had
a treasure chests with $10 million in it, and there
was a four-digit code to open it up.
And I wrote that four-digit code somewhere on one of
these pages.
How would you search for that four-digit code through this book?
(12:33):
You would grab a magnifying glass and you would go
over every single page until you found what it is
that you were looking for so that you could unlock
that $10 million. It's $10 million worth more than your eternity?
It's $10 million worth more than your purpose. Some of
you are looking at the word, you're going through the
word as if it's just, uh, it's just something that
(12:55):
you get to, like, you have to do it. No,
it's something that we get to do.
Many of the questions and the things that you're struggling with,
the answers that you're searching for are found in the scripture.
To close what this guy is saying here.
It says since God's wisdom resides in His word, it's
imperative to know what he has revealed. But even many
Christians ignore a regular time reading and studying the scriptures. Therefore,
(13:16):
many of their decisions are foolish because they have not
consulted the ultimate source of wisdom.
A lot of people are making foolish decisions in their business,
in their relationships, in their jobs, and the moves that
they're making. We're making these foolish decisions without consulting the
ultimate counselor, without getting advice from the Holy Spirit, without
running to the word. Many of us are making choices
(13:37):
and decisions that contradict what the word of God says.
I, I, I sometimes go through my messages um on
social media when I have downtime, which isn't often, and I'll,
I'll get these messages, and this isn't a judgment. This
is just an observation. I'll have people say, hey, I
am in a relationship with a non-believer, or I'm in
(14:00):
a relationship with somebody from a different religion. How can
I get them to come to Jesus? Or how, how
will you pray for me?
And my prayer is like, how did we get to
a place where we're ignoring what the word of God says,
where it tells us not to be yoked with non-believers. So,
so the situation that you're in, you're ignoring the word,
and now you're finding yourself in trouble, and you're asking
(14:20):
God to pray your way out of it. But you
were never supposed to be in it in the first place.
And that's one example. I have people who, well, I
met this man and he's married, and I'm in a
relationship with him. How do I get him to leave
his wife? Are you serious?
I have
I
I'm not trying to spill too much tea. I'm just saying.
(14:44):
We're making foolish decisions, but we're not coming back to
the word of God, the ultimate source of wisdom. And
our lives are in disarray many times because we're not
standing on the rock. We're not standing on the word.
And so, yes, again, I promise you, every sermon's gonna
come back to, are you reading what this is saying?
Cause I wanna go to verse 13.
(15:07):
Where it says these things we also speak not in
words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches.
Comparing spiritual things with spiritual, but the natural man does
not receive the things of the spirit of God, for
they are foolishness to him. Nor how can we know them?
How can he know them? Because they are spiritually discerned.
(15:30):
Somebody who is inspired and led by the Holy Spirit
is gonna see things differently than somebody who is not.
And as born again believers, you are sealed with the
Holy Spirit. And so the things that you see don't
look like the things that the world sees. You guys
have a sneak peek, you guys have these 3D glasses,
you have these magic eye points of view where you're
able to see things and discern things that other people
(15:52):
aren't able to see or discern. Do you guys understand
what discern means?
Discernment defined is a wise way of judging between things
or being perceptive in the way that you see things.
Because we're led and guided by the Holy Spirit, we
see things differently, or at least we should.
Many Christians don't exercise or use their discernment or the
(16:16):
wisdom that has been given to them by the Holy Spirit.
They're walking around just like the man that we talk about,
the man who is of this world, who stands on
the wisdom of this world. They're making decisions and choices
based on their own flesh, based on their own desires
and wants, and not consulting the ultimate book of wisdom.
Discernment
Verses 15 and 16.
(16:39):
Say this.
But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he
himself is rightly judged by no one.
Verse 16 says, for who has known the mind of
the Lord that he may instruct him, but we have
the mind of Christ.
So verse 15 saying that the person who's spiritual and
(17:00):
is seen through these spiritual eyes who has got these
3D glasses on.
He's not judged by this world rightly.
We're called foolish for believing this. We're called ignorant. We're
called weak, uneducated. We we're persecuted. There's places around the
world where the Bible's illegal.
There's churches in China where they tear small pieces of
(17:23):
the Bible and they memorize them, and then they eat
them and swallow them because it's to be caught with
scripture is uh a crime worth death.
There are places in this world where churches are, are
being overran by people and people are being martyred and
killed in the church.
And we can't find 1015, 20 minutes to read our scripture.
(17:46):
I feel like the church in the West has gotten
so comfortable.
We're so OK with just going to another service, or
going to another conference, or another concert. And none of
those things are bad. I'm not here like we, we
love that for you guys. We want you to get
more involved with concerts and conferences. That's where a lot
of people get fed and they, uh they meet new people,
(18:07):
but it's so much more than conferences and concerts and
Christian gatherings.
We have an opportunity to fellowship with the living God
and to make a difference in this life. I don't
know about you, but I want to leave this place
better than the way I came into it. I wanna
leave a legacy of faithfulness and loyalty to the Lord.
(18:30):
I wanna impact people's lives for, for, for the positive
and for the glory of God.
And it happens when you allow this to get in here,
when you allow the word to start to permeate your
innermost being, and you can only do that through the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
There's no other book.
(18:50):
There's no other book that has this power.
Whatsoever
Understand that the Bible is the most despised, derided, denied, disputed, dissected, debated, deconstructed, disallowed,
and destroyed book ever in the history of man.
No other book are they doing that with?
(19:12):
They're not doing this with a George Orwell book. They're
not doing this with Moby Dick. They're not doing this
with Cinderella. They're not doing this with Plato or Aristotle.
They're doing only this with the word of God. Why?
Because it has the power to save, it has the
power to change. And many of us look at this
flippantly as if it's something that we have to do
and not something that we get to do.
(19:34):
And so my, my, my passion and my cry is
that you guys would understand what you have at your fingertips,
the ultimate guide to wisdom.
We must, church, listen to me. Watch this, listen. We
must do a better job of reading our word and
understanding what it says.
We must do a better job of consulting our word
(19:55):
before making decisions and choices.
We must do a better job of devoting time, energy
and effort to understanding what the word is saying. When
you read this, it changes your life. When you read this,
it challenges your decisions. When you read this, it calls
you higher. It would be foolish to show up to
(20:16):
a job unprepared.
It would be foolish to show up to a battle line, the,
the front line of a battle without the weaponry and
equipment that you need.
It would be foolish to do any of those.
So many of us are showing up for this spiritual war.
Ill equipped
(20:37):
Without strengthening ourselves in the Lord.
Without standing on this truth, without having this immovable rock
to build our lives on.
The Bible says that when the storm comes, the house
that was built on stand was what? swept away.
But the one that was built on the rock withstood
the storm. And so you might be going through a
(20:58):
storm right now, might be going through hell on earth,
and if you're being washed away, what does that tell you?
What is your house built on?
On sinking sand.
I'm calling you higher. You guys build your life on
the rock. There is no better choice, there's no better
decision than you that you will ever make in your
entire life.
(21:20):
What I see is in a lot of our relationship
with the Lord.
Uh, we're more concerned with the absence of problems than
we are with his presence.
Let that sink in. We're more concerned with the absence
of problems than we are than with, with his presence.
We want to pray away our problems, but we don't
(21:42):
want to spend time with the king of kings.
We want God to bless our situation. God bless my relationship,
bless my finances, bless my job. God bless my health,
answer my prayers according to my will, but you don't
want to spend time with Him. You don't want to
spend time with the Lord.
He's an inconvenience for a lot of us.
(22:04):
I'm gonna take that silence as conviction and I love that.
That's good. That's good.
I want you to know that you are fully equipped.
The word of God fully equips you for whatever it
is that you're going to face in your day to day.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
And with that, Pastor Andrew Carter brings our study for
today to a close. We invite you to join us
right here at this same time tomorrow as Pastor Andrew
continues his study in First Corinthians right here on Kwave's
Pastor Spotlight. Pastor Andrew Carter is the lead pastor of
Royal City Church, which he helped to found in October
of 2021. Royal City Church stands on 1 Peter chapter 2,
(22:43):
verse 9, which says, But you are a chosen people.
Royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession that you
may declare the praises of Him who called you out
of darkness into His wonderful life. The church focuses on
teaching and preaching the word of God so that those
who attend start to understand who they are and begin
walking in the fullness of their identity, which will inspire
(23:06):
them to tell others about the good news of Jesus.
You and your family are invited to come and worship
this next Sunday morning at Royal City Church. The Sunday
service time is at.
10 a.m. they're located at 226 South Market Street in Inglewood.
For more information, visit their website at royal Church.org. Well,
that's all the time we have for today on Pastor Spotlight.
(23:27):
We invite you to join us right here tomorrow at
the same time for more of the Bible teaching ministry
of Pastor Andrew Carter, lead pastor of Royal City Church
in Inglewood. Pastor Spotlight is a production of K Wave Radio,
sharing life, delivering truth, giving hope.
Welcome to K Wave's Pastor Spotlight featuring the Bible teaching
of our local Southern California pastors. This week we're pleased
to bring you the Bible teaching ministry of Andrew Carter,
lead pastor of Royal City Church in Inglewood. Royal City
Church meets each Sunday morning at 10 a.m. at 226
South Market Street in Inglewood. For more information about them,
(00:21):
visit their website at Royal CityChurch.org.
The Book of First Corinthians is a letter that the
apostle Paul wrote to one of his church plants while
he was pastoring at another church that he had started
in Ephesus. Today Pastor Andrew Carter begins our week of
studies looking at chapter two of Paul's letter to the Corinthians.
Here now is Pastor Andrew.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
And so today we're talking in 1 Corinthians chapter 2.
We're gonna talk a little bit about how do you
understand the word? How do you receive the Spirit? How
do you use the inspiration of God to understand what
it is that he's writing. Amen.
So in First Corinthians, the book of First Corinthians, again,
just to recap, is a letter from Paul to the
(01:06):
church in Corinth. Now, at the time, the church in
Corinth was in utter chaos. They had people sleeping with
other people's stepmoms. They had, uh, people were wilding out,
they were out of control, they were getting drunk, they
were keeping money to themselves. It was a church that
very much looks like the church today, if I'm being honest.
(01:27):
So when Paul writes this letter to
Some of you are like, wait a second, who's sleeping
with who's stepmom in this church? Look, I'm not here
to point fingers or to make judgment, but I'm just
saying that the same issues that they dealt with in
this church are some of the same issues that we
deal with inside the church in America today. And so
we're reading this letter from Paul as he's correcting them.
(01:47):
He's instructing them, he's leading them, he's calling things out,
and he's helping them to have a deeper understanding of
the word and how to operate as a Christian.
So in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, we're going to read
through and it says in verse 1, and I, brethren,
when I came to you, did not come with excellence
(02:08):
of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony
of God. For I determined not to know anything among
you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's verse 2.
So in the previous chapter, he was talking about how
God can use
The foolish things, the lame things. He can use the
base things, the normal things of this world for his
glory so that we, those who are the normal, the base,
(02:30):
and the standard things, they don't take glory. They don't
rob God from His glory. And so here he's saying,
I didn't come to you trying to impress you. I
didn't come with this deep vernacular. I didn't come with
these words that you couldn't understand. I came as I
was and I preached the gospel to you.
The gospel doesn't need to be dressed up. The gospel
doesn't need to have lipstick put on it. The gospel
(02:52):
doesn't need my words to make it more powerful and impactful.
The gospel in the word of God is powerful in
and of itself. And so here he says, I, I
determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. Verse 3, he says, I was with
you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.
(03:12):
Some believed that maybe he was sick, maybe he was
dealing with something, he maybe had an infirmity. Others believed
that he wasn't a great speaker. Although we know that
Paul was an educated man, he was smart, he was sharp.
Some believed that his presence, he, he talked big in
his letters. He would call people out, but when they
would see him, some were like, you're really not.
that impressive. So, here he comes to this church, and
he's speaking to them in weakness and fear, and much trembling.
(03:37):
Verse 4 says, and my speech and my preaching were
not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration
of the spirit and of the power.
He didn't need to have elaborate smoke shows and all
of these different, uh, these demonstrations on the stage. And
there's nothing wrong with that. I'm not condemning anybody or
(03:59):
anyone who uses props or demonstrations because who here loves
a good prop? I, I, I personally love a good prop,
but what he's saying is I didn't have to come
with props. I didn't have to come with cards.
Smoke shows and magic tricks to try to convince you
guys of the truth of the word. All I had
to do was preach the word and people's lives were changed.
And so in the same way, I wanna encourage you
(04:19):
guys that look, you don't have to be articulate, you
don't have to be well versed, you don't have to
go to a Bible school, you don't have to be
something that you're not in order to preach the gospel
to the people in your lives. Amen.
So verse 5 says, and this is a continuation, that
your faith should not be in the wisdom of men,
but in the power of God.
(04:41):
We live in a society and in a time where
we praise and worship the pastors and the leaders. We
put them on a pedestal. We even boast and argue, well,
who do you follow? Well, I follow MacArthur. Oh, well,
I follow Spurgeon. Well, I'm more of a Billy Graham guy.
We argue and we measure one's worth based on the
theology or the preacher or the pastor that they were
(05:03):
schooled underneath.
We need to stop being so enamored and taken away
by the people who preach the word and be more
enamored and more interested in the word itself.
So whether or not I come up here with props
and all kinds of uh of showmanship and hilarious jokes
that you guys laugh at, even when I bring those up,
(05:25):
you shouldn't be impressed by me, you should be impressed
by the power of God.
Charles Spurgeon, to drop the name, says this. He says,
let us remember as ministers of the gospel, what's been
beautifully said, depend on it.
He said that it is God's word, not man's comments
upon God's words that saves souls. It's not my interpretation,
(05:47):
it's not my translation. It's not how I break it down.
It's the power of the word of God. He goes
on and says, and I have marked that if ever
we have a conversion at any time, in 99 cases
out of 100, the conversion is rather traceable to the
text or to some scripture quoted in the sermon.
So if somebody gives their life to Jesus, it's not
because I preached a great sermon. Anybody ever be like, man,
(06:09):
I'm bringing my friend and I hope pastor preaches a
good word today.
I hope that he really brings a good one today.
Last one was like, uh, but this one, I really
hope that it's fire, right? Or, or I'm preaching, you're
nudging your friend like that part's free. That's not me.
You're putting your hope and your faith in me. I'm
going to fail you. If you're relying on my preaching
or my pastoring or my leadership, I'm going to fail you.
(06:32):
Our hope, our faith and our trust should be in
the word of God, a conversion or a heart marked
by the Holy Spirit comes from the word of God
and from the gospel being preached.
So he goes on and he says,
Uh, any trite or original saying by the preacher, that's
not what it is. It is God's word that breaks
the fetters and sets the prisoners free. This is old school,
(06:54):
so fetters are like chains. Like it breaks the handcuffs
off of people. So it breaks the fetters and sets
the prisoner free. It is God's word instrumentally that saves souls,
and therefore, let us bring everything to the touchstone. Everything
we do must come back and point back to the word.
And so as your pastor, as your leader, my goal
here is to bring you guys back to this. Stop
(07:15):
being impressed by fancy clothes and sneakers and chains, and
who's got the biggest, greatest, uh, uh, worship team behind
them and the concerts and the conferences. It's so much
more than that. That same change could happen in you
and in your life through devotion to the scripture.
It's the power of God.
(07:38):
In verse 6, it says, however, we speak wisdom among
those who are mature.
Yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the
rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. Verse 7,
but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery.
The hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for
our glory. Verse 8, which none of the rulers of
(08:00):
this age knew, for had they known, they would not
have crucified the Lord of glory. We'll hold for just
a second right there. This is what I'm talking about
when it comes to these 3D glasses as you're reading
the word.
The word comes alive. The word is alive. The word
speaks to us. For those of, uh, for the individuals
who are outside of the Lord, it doesn't make sense.
(08:21):
They'll ask you, well, how can you believe in this?
How can you believe in the word of God? It
was written by dozens of different people, and over time,
it's been changed, and how can you stand on the
reliability of this? They don't see what we see. They
don't understand what we understand. We're looking at this through
the lens of the Holy Spirit.
The word comes alive and then changes and transforms our life.
(08:42):
We're not building our lives on the wisdom of this
world because the wisdom of this world is sinking sand.
And so if you, if you're here and you're asking yourself, well,
how do I understand? How do I get a better
grasp of the word? And the answer to that is
through the Holy Spirit. We ask, we receive, and we
believe that we've been sealed with the Holy Spirit, and
now the word comes alive and starts to take root
(09:04):
and anchor in our lives.
It says in verse 9, but as it is written,
I is not seen nor ear heard nor have entered
into the heart of man, the things which God has
prepared for those who love Him.
Verse 10, but God has revealed them to us through
His Spirit. Would you guys say that with me, his spirit?
(09:25):
Through His Spirit. God has revealed them to us through
His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things. Yes, the
deep things of God. Verse 11 says, for what man
knows the things of a man except the spirit of
the man which is in him, right? You don't know
what's going on inside of me. I know what's going
on inside of me. So in the same way,
(09:46):
It says
Even so, no one knows the things of God except
the Spirit of God. But verse 12 says, now we
have received not the spirit of the world, but the
Spirit who is from God, that we might know the
things that have been freely given to us by God.
We know the word, we understand the word. We hunger
(10:08):
for the word. The word starts to make sense because
of the spirit that was given to us.
You guys understand what I'm trying to tell you guys.
This isn't just a book to be read. This is
a book that reads you. This is a book that
speaks life. This is a book that gives correction. This
is a book that will change your lives, but too
many people aren't looking at it. They're not reading it.
(10:30):
I wanna read this from Rickon from a book called
Finding Time. It says, men are always seeking for greater wisdom,
but they usually bypass the ultimate source of wisdom.
How many people like to follow motivation pages? You're trying
to work out a little bit. So you're on that
motivation page, they got the dope track and somebody's sweating
and it's a dark scene and they're hovered over the
(10:50):
weights and it's just like, yeah, you know, put God first.
And you're just like, yeah, man, I need that motivation.
So many of us are looking for motivation, we're looking for.
Wisdom. We're looking for uh quotes from Socrates and Aristotle
and Plato, and well, this stoic movement has passed where
people are, they just want to grind and they wanna
listen to positive things. That's great, but look, they're overlooking
(11:10):
the ultimate source of wisdom. It says the scriptures clearly
point this direction. They reveal the fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the
Holy One is understanding.
But what has man done with this tremendous resource at
his fingertips?
Ignored it.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
You're listening to Kwave's Pastor Spotlight featuring the Bible teaching
ministry of Andrew Carter, lead pastor of Royal City Church
in Inglewood. You can learn more about Pastor Andrew's Church
at Royal CityChurch.org. Now here's Pastor Andrew with more of
his study in 1 Corinthians chapter 2.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
For even though they knew God, they did not honor
him as God or give thanks, but they became futile
in their speculations and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing
to be wise, they became fools.
You guys have the greatest resource at your fingertips and constantly,
consistently overlook it and ignore it.
(12:12):
Constantly and consistently.
I share this uh illustration several times. If I had
a treasure chests with $10 million in it, and there
was a four-digit code to open it up.
And I wrote that four-digit code somewhere on one of
these pages.
How would you search for that four-digit code through this book?
(12:33):
You would grab a magnifying glass and you would go
over every single page until you found what it is
that you were looking for so that you could unlock
that $10 million. It's $10 million worth more than your eternity?
It's $10 million worth more than your purpose. Some of
you are looking at the word, you're going through the
word as if it's just, uh, it's just something that
(12:55):
you get to, like, you have to do it. No,
it's something that we get to do.
Many of the questions and the things that you're struggling with,
the answers that you're searching for are found in the scripture.
To close what this guy is saying here.
It says since God's wisdom resides in His word, it's
imperative to know what he has revealed. But even many
Christians ignore a regular time reading and studying the scriptures. Therefore,
(13:16):
many of their decisions are foolish because they have not
consulted the ultimate source of wisdom.
A lot of people are making foolish decisions in their business,
in their relationships, in their jobs, and the moves that
they're making. We're making these foolish decisions without consulting the
ultimate counselor, without getting advice from the Holy Spirit, without
running to the word. Many of us are making choices
(13:37):
and decisions that contradict what the word of God says.
I, I, I sometimes go through my messages um on
social media when I have downtime, which isn't often, and I'll,
I'll get these messages, and this isn't a judgment. This
is just an observation. I'll have people say, hey, I
am in a relationship with a non-believer, or I'm in
(14:00):
a relationship with somebody from a different religion. How can
I get them to come to Jesus? Or how, how
will you pray for me?
And my prayer is like, how did we get to
a place where we're ignoring what the word of God says,
where it tells us not to be yoked with non-believers. So,
so the situation that you're in, you're ignoring the word,
and now you're finding yourself in trouble, and you're asking
(14:20):
God to pray your way out of it. But you
were never supposed to be in it in the first place.
And that's one example. I have people who, well, I
met this man and he's married, and I'm in a
relationship with him. How do I get him to leave
his wife? Are you serious?
I have
I
I'm not trying to spill too much tea. I'm just saying.
(14:44):
We're making foolish decisions, but we're not coming back to
the word of God, the ultimate source of wisdom. And
our lives are in disarray many times because we're not
standing on the rock. We're not standing on the word.
And so, yes, again, I promise you, every sermon's gonna
come back to, are you reading what this is saying?
Cause I wanna go to verse 13.
(15:07):
Where it says these things we also speak not in
words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches.
Comparing spiritual things with spiritual, but the natural man does
not receive the things of the spirit of God, for
they are foolishness to him. Nor how can we know them?
How can he know them? Because they are spiritually discerned.
(15:30):
Somebody who is inspired and led by the Holy Spirit
is gonna see things differently than somebody who is not.
And as born again believers, you are sealed with the
Holy Spirit. And so the things that you see don't
look like the things that the world sees. You guys
have a sneak peek, you guys have these 3D glasses,
you have these magic eye points of view where you're
able to see things and discern things that other people
(15:52):
aren't able to see or discern. Do you guys understand
what discern means?
Discernment defined is a wise way of judging between things
or being perceptive in the way that you see things.
Because we're led and guided by the Holy Spirit, we
see things differently, or at least we should.
Many Christians don't exercise or use their discernment or the
(16:16):
wisdom that has been given to them by the Holy Spirit.
They're walking around just like the man that we talk about,
the man who is of this world, who stands on
the wisdom of this world. They're making decisions and choices
based on their own flesh, based on their own desires
and wants, and not consulting the ultimate book of wisdom.
Discernment
Verses 15 and 16.
(16:39):
Say this.
But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he
himself is rightly judged by no one.
Verse 16 says, for who has known the mind of
the Lord that he may instruct him, but we have
the mind of Christ.
So verse 15 saying that the person who's spiritual and
(17:00):
is seen through these spiritual eyes who has got these
3D glasses on.
He's not judged by this world rightly.
We're called foolish for believing this. We're called ignorant. We're
called weak, uneducated. We we're persecuted. There's places around the
world where the Bible's illegal.
There's churches in China where they tear small pieces of
(17:23):
the Bible and they memorize them, and then they eat
them and swallow them because it's to be caught with
scripture is uh a crime worth death.
There are places in this world where churches are, are
being overran by people and people are being martyred and
killed in the church.
And we can't find 1015, 20 minutes to read our scripture.
(17:46):
I feel like the church in the West has gotten
so comfortable.
We're so OK with just going to another service, or
going to another conference, or another concert. And none of
those things are bad. I'm not here like we, we
love that for you guys. We want you to get
more involved with concerts and conferences. That's where a lot
of people get fed and they, uh they meet new people,
(18:07):
but it's so much more than conferences and concerts and
Christian gatherings.
We have an opportunity to fellowship with the living God
and to make a difference in this life. I don't
know about you, but I want to leave this place
better than the way I came into it. I wanna
leave a legacy of faithfulness and loyalty to the Lord.
(18:30):
I wanna impact people's lives for, for, for the positive
and for the glory of God.
And it happens when you allow this to get in here,
when you allow the word to start to permeate your
innermost being, and you can only do that through the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
There's no other book.
(18:50):
There's no other book that has this power.
Whatsoever
Understand that the Bible is the most despised, derided, denied, disputed, dissected, debated, deconstructed, disallowed,
and destroyed book ever in the history of man.
No other book are they doing that with?
(19:12):
They're not doing this with a George Orwell book. They're
not doing this with Moby Dick. They're not doing this
with Cinderella. They're not doing this with Plato or Aristotle.
They're doing only this with the word of God. Why?
Because it has the power to save, it has the
power to change. And many of us look at this
flippantly as if it's something that we have to do
and not something that we get to do.
(19:34):
And so my, my, my passion and my cry is
that you guys would understand what you have at your fingertips,
the ultimate guide to wisdom.
We must, church, listen to me. Watch this, listen. We
must do a better job of reading our word and
understanding what it says.
We must do a better job of consulting our word
(19:55):
before making decisions and choices.
We must do a better job of devoting time, energy
and effort to understanding what the word is saying. When
you read this, it changes your life. When you read this,
it challenges your decisions. When you read this, it calls
you higher. It would be foolish to show up to
(20:16):
a job unprepared.
It would be foolish to show up to a battle line, the,
the front line of a battle without the weaponry and
equipment that you need.
It would be foolish to do any of those.
So many of us are showing up for this spiritual war.
Ill equipped
(20:37):
Without strengthening ourselves in the Lord.
Without standing on this truth, without having this immovable rock
to build our lives on.
The Bible says that when the storm comes, the house
that was built on stand was what? swept away.
But the one that was built on the rock withstood
the storm. And so you might be going through a
(20:58):
storm right now, might be going through hell on earth,
and if you're being washed away, what does that tell you?
What is your house built on?
On sinking sand.
I'm calling you higher. You guys build your life on
the rock. There is no better choice, there's no better
decision than you that you will ever make in your
entire life.
(21:20):
What I see is in a lot of our relationship
with the Lord.
Uh, we're more concerned with the absence of problems than
we are with his presence.
Let that sink in. We're more concerned with the absence
of problems than we are than with, with his presence.
We want to pray away our problems, but we don't
(21:42):
want to spend time with the king of kings.
We want God to bless our situation. God bless my relationship,
bless my finances, bless my job. God bless my health,
answer my prayers according to my will, but you don't
want to spend time with Him. You don't want to
spend time with the Lord.
He's an inconvenience for a lot of us.
(22:04):
I'm gonna take that silence as conviction and I love that.
That's good. That's good.
I want you to know that you are fully equipped.
The word of God fully equips you for whatever it
is that you're going to face in your day to day.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
And with that, Pastor Andrew Carter brings our study for
today to a close. We invite you to join us
right here at this same time tomorrow as Pastor Andrew
continues his study in First Corinthians right here on Kwave's
Pastor Spotlight. Pastor Andrew Carter is the lead pastor of
Royal City Church, which he helped to found in October
of 2021. Royal City Church stands on 1 Peter chapter 2,
(22:43):
verse 9, which says, But you are a chosen people.
Royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession that you
may declare the praises of Him who called you out
of darkness into His wonderful life. The church focuses on
teaching and preaching the word of God so that those
who attend start to understand who they are and begin
walking in the fullness of their identity, which will inspire
(23:06):
them to tell others about the good news of Jesus.
You and your family are invited to come and worship
this next Sunday morning at Royal City Church. The Sunday
service time is at.
10 a.m. they're located at 226 South Market Street in Inglewood.
For more information, visit their website at royal Church.org. Well,
that's all the time we have for today on Pastor Spotlight.
(23:27):
We invite you to join us right here tomorrow at
the same time for more of the Bible teaching ministry
of Pastor Andrew Carter, lead pastor of Royal City Church
in Inglewood. Pastor Spotlight is a production of K Wave Radio,
sharing life, delivering truth, giving hope.
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