July 17, 2025 • 24 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, visit their website at Royal Church.org. It's important
(00:25):
for every child of God to remember that they need
to keep growing in Christ throughout their walk of faith. Today,
Pastor Andrew Carter looks at 1 Corinthians chapter 3, where
Paul chides this young church for not growing as they should.
Here's Pastor Andrew.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
In 1 Corinthians chapter 3, it starts off like this.
It says, and I, brethren, could not speak to you.
As to spiritual people, but as to carnal, as to
babes in Christ. So again, this is Paul speaking to
the Corinthian church, and he's saying, look, I'm trying to
talk to you guys, but I can't even talk to
you because you guys are still babies in Christ. You
(01:01):
have not matured, you haven't grown up.
Verse 2 says, I fed you with milk and not
with solid food, right? He's even, he's even giving them
the infamil, the Kinder milk. He's giving them the baby milk, right?
The formula. He ain't even giving them the good stuff.
For until now, you were not able to receive it.
And even now, you were still not able
For you are still carnal.
(01:23):
Well, what does that mean? For where there is envy, strife,
and division among you, are you not carnal and behaving
like mere men?
For when one says, I am of Paul and another,
I am of Apollo's, are you not carnal?
Again, the issue here is that the church, the Corinth
Church was arguing about who they followed. Do you follow Paul?
Do you follow Apollo? So a better uh example is like,
(01:43):
do you follow Billy Graham or do you follow Tim Keller?
Do you, who, who do you follow? Are you more
of a pre-trib or a post-trib? Like, who is it
that you follow? Who is it that you believe in?
There was division, there was envy, there was strife. People
were still butting heads over secondary and small issues inside
the church, and he's trying to say, look,
God's trying to do something bigger and greater in you
(02:05):
and through you, but you're still operating out of your flesh.
You're not willing to, to move past these elementary things.
I'm trying to lay a solid foundation and help you
to grow and to mature in your faith by feeding
you loftier and heavier things, but I can't because you're
still stuck at go.
(02:26):
A couple of different verses. I want to jump over
to 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 2. I'm gonna give
you guys a second to find that.
21 Peter chapter 2.
Verse 2
We're gonna be jumping around just a little bit.
(02:47):
It says
And therefore laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy,
and all evil speaking as newborn babes desire the pure
milk of the word that you may grow thereby.
So here, here again, it's, it's pointing you you need
to desire the pure milk, right? You need to grow
(03:09):
up in your word you grow through devotion you grow
through interacting with the word you grow it's time to mature.
You gotta put aside the malice, the deceit, the hypocrisy,
the envy, all of the evil speaking, the fleshly and
the carnal mind, right? He's comparing them and, and saying, hey,
you guys are still carnal minded. I can't even talk
to you about.
Things that God wants to do. God wants to take
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you to a newer level to a higher level. He
wants to do more inside you, but he can't because
we're trying to get past these elementary teachings. And it's
time to grow up in your understanding of the word.
It's time for you to grow up in your level
of devotion to the scripture and to sitting in his
presence and spending time in the word. Spiritually, at some point,
you have to take accountability for your own spiritual growth.
(03:51):
You gotta stop blaming your leaders, you gotta stop blaming
each other. You gotta stop making excuses that you don't
got time to read, that you don't got time to pray,
that you don't got time to sit in your prayer closet.
You gotta stop making excuses for your spiritual immaturity. And
at some point, you gotta step up and say, look, OK,
I used to think like this. Before I was saved,
it was OK for me to behave like this. These
are the things that I did, but now I'm saved.
(04:12):
I'm new. I've got to put away the childish things
and I need to start walking in the fullness of
who God has created me to be.
I'm gonna take the quietness for conviction, right?
That's good.
So how do you grow up and how do you mature, right?
that because that's, that's the question here. I told you
that I, I want you, the bottom line here is
(04:34):
it's time to grow up in God, and I would
be uh amiss if I didn't instruct you or give
you guys a little bit of encouragement. Um, Oswald Chambers
says this, there is only one way to develop and
grow spiritually, and that is through focusing and concentrating on God.
He uses John chapter 7, verses 37 8 38 as evidence,
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where it says, if anyone thirsts, let him come to
me and drink.
He believes in me as the scripture has said out
of his heart will flow ri rivers of living water.
So if you wanna grow up and you wanna get
better and stronger, you wanna mature, you have to go
to the source.
Right, if you're thirsty, what do you need to do?
You need to drink some living water. If you're hungry,
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you need to eat the bread of life. You need
to go to Jesus in order to grow and to
mature in your walk.
In order to grow spiritually and to mature in our faith,
we must draw near to God.
So many of us say that we don't have time.
But if we were to look at our screen time
and how we're spending our time, I would beg to differ.
(05:37):
We cannot mature or grow on our own. Without him,
our works and our efforts are worthless.
However, he can make us clean. He can give us
the strength and the ability to grow and to put
aside sin. What I found is that until you establish
a basic rhythm or routine of regular devotion to God,
he's not gonna be able to take you any further.
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There's only a certain level, there's only certain things that
he can do without your obedience and without you trusting
in him.
So essentially, your lack of devotion is deterring your growth.
Your lack of devotion is detouring your growth.
If you want to grow in any area of your life,
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I believe that consistency plus discipline equals results, and we
could take that to any aspect of our life, physical, right?
If I wanna get bigger or stronger in the gym,
I have to be disciplined. I have to be consistent.
I know that if I eat enough healthy foods and
I get to the gym enough and do enough cardio,
there's going to be a physical result from the effort
that I put forth when I'm disciplined and consistent.
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In the same way, financial, if I'm disciplined and consistent
with my finances, I keep a good log of what
I'm spending. I make sure that I'm saving. I'm making
sure that I'm cutting and trimming the fat. I'm not
spending on every single streaming service or buying the things
that I don't need. If I'm disciplined and consistent, I
will be successful. I will lead towards better results. You
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guys following me?
Emotional. If I do the work, I cut the baggage.
I cut the ties with the past agreements that I
might have had with other people. If I do the work,
maybe I go to counseling, maybe I talk about some
of my problems, maybe I stop projecting my trust issues
and the things that I've gone through onto others. Maybe
I start taking accountability for my actions and owning up
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to my stuff. So if I'm disciplined and I'm consistent,
it's going to equal emotional health.
And in the same way, when it comes to spiritual,
when you are consistent and disciplined, it equals results. When
you set aside time to devote yourself to studying and
reading the word, when you spend time devoted to prayer,
when you spend time devoted to being around the people
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of God, when you make the intentional effort, it's only
going to equal results. It's going to get you into
a deeper, better place of understanding the scripture, and you
are going to grow up in your spiritual maturity, and
that is what we're talking about today.
Even when it's hard, even when it's tired. Who here has,
has gone after a physical goal, right? Oh, this, I'm
(08:01):
gonna get up at 5 a.m. every day, and I'm
gonna get to the gym, 6 o'clock.
Hey, that first week, oh man, it feels so good.
I'm sore everywhere, but man, it sure does feel good.
And then the next week, rather than 5 days, maybe
you get to 3, but you're still grinding.
And then 3 weeks down the road, you're just like, man,
I'm sore, I'm tired, I don't feel like it and
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so you stop going, you throw in the towel.
But too many of us allow our feelings and our
emotions to dictate our actions, but what we need to
do is lock ourselves into discipline and consistency when you're tired,
when you're sleepy, when it hurts, when you're sore, when
it doesn't feel good. There's things that we need to
do consistently and in a disciplined manner that's going to
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get us to where it is that God's called us.
He goes on and says,
In verse 5, he says, who then? And so, uh,
just a reminder, get us back on page. It's Paul
writing a letter to the church in the in in Corinth,
the Corinthian church. And again, this church was wild. There
was sexual immorality happening. There was people who were out
of order. There was selfishness, there was people being stingy,
(09:04):
there was division going on. And so here he is,
he's calling them higher. He's like, you guys are being immature.
God wants to do so much more in you and
through you, but he can't even, like, Paul can't even
speak because you guys are still like babies in Christ.
He wants you to eat the meat and potatoes, but
he still got to feed you infidel because you're not
taking accountability for your actions and doing what it takes
to grow up in the Lord, which means devotion and
(09:26):
time spent in his presence.
So verse 5 is where we pick up. He says,
who then is Paul and who is Apollos, but ministers
through whom you believed as the Lord gave to each one.
He's like, who am I? Who's Pastor Andrew? Who's Pastor Christian?
Who are these guys? We're nobody but ministers to you.
Please don't put your faith in me as a leader
because I will fail you over and over and over
(09:47):
and over again.
I'm merely a messenger, merely a minister. He goes on
and he says, look, I planted Apollo's watered, but God
gave the increase. So that neither he who plants is anything,
nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.
It's not, it's not me. I am just a messenger.
God, God told me to get up here and preach
His word, to read the word of God and let
(10:09):
the Holy Spirit do the rest. Don't put your trust
or your hope in me. Stop arguing about who's a
better teacher, who's a better pastor, who, like, all of
that is fleshly, it's carnal, and it's immature.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
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 3.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Now he says now he who plants and he who
waters are one, and each one will receive his own
reward according to his own labor. So here is a
warning to leaders, OK? And so if you're not a leader,
still listen because this is good. You might not be
a leader in the church, but you might be a
leader in your home. But what he says in verse 9,
he says, for we are God's fellow workers, and you
are God's fields. He's talking to the church. He's like,
where are the workers? You guys are the field. You
(11:01):
are God's building, not mine. This isn't my church, this
is God's church. This isn't my city. This is God's city.
Everything that's been given to us, this isn't mine, this
isn't Andrew's. I believe that Royal City Church, once I'm
dead and gone, will continue under the name of somebody else,
but this isn't my work. This isn't about me.
I'm merely just a messenger, and here he's trying to
(11:22):
get this through. He says, according to the grace of God,
which was given to me, this is verse 10, as
a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation and
another builds on it. But let each one take heed,
how he builds on it. Again, he's warning the leaders,
be careful, right? The foundation is Jesus, Pastors, leaders, teachers,
be careful how you build on what it is that
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you're doing. Because
For no other foundation can anyone lay that which is laid,
which is in Jesus Christ. Now, if anyone builds on
this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,
verse 13 says each one's work will become clear, for
the day will declare it, because it will be revealed
by fire and the fire will test each one's work
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of what sort it is.
Mainly, if I, what I'm teaching you, if this isn't
built on the word, it's gonna be exposed, and it's
going to fall apart. And I'm gonna be judged more harshly.
I'm going to have to be accountable for what is
it that you got up there and taught these people.
What did you teach them? Did you just give them
empty platitudes and gave them 16 ways on how to
(12:26):
have a healthier marriage? Or were you preaching the word
of God? Calling them to repent, calling them to devote
themselves to the word, calling themselves to live and operate
in the spirit. I'm not up here because I like
to do a song and dance. I'm here because God
changed my life. And I wanted to, I wanna be
faithful with this mission. I wanna preach this so that
it gets in your heart, and so that it starts
to change your lives. Because I understand that as a leader,
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I'm
Going to be judged more harshly. So this is more
for me right now than it is for you. He says, um,
in verse 14, if anyone's work, which he has built
on it endures, he'll receive award. OK? So if I'm
building with the gold and the silver and the precious stones,
the good gems, the morsels, the mature things of the word,
then I'm, there's gonna be a reward for me, low-key selfish,
(13:10):
but I'm here for it. Like, hey, there's gonna be
a reward. I'm doing it. Like I wanna, I wanna
do well, but listen to this part.
This is if anyone's work is burned, you're using the wood,
the hay, the straw, he will suffer loss, but he
himself will be saved yet so as through fire. He's
not like if, if you, if you're giving them, if
you're just tickling their ears, if you're not preaching truth,
(13:31):
if you're not standing on the word and you're just
here for a good time, it's gonna be exposed.
It's gonna be exposed. And so that's why I'm passionate
here preaching the word, just reading the scripture. Oh, he's
just reading the Bible. I don't need to have a
smoke show behind me, right? I don't need to have props.
I don't need to desecrate things in order to get
(13:53):
the message because the message is clear and the Holy
Spirit is our witness.
Verse 16 says.
And I'm gonna turn this back around on you guys
in just a second. Do you not know that you
are the temple of God and that the spirit of
God dwells in you? It says that you guys are
God's building. You are his field. You are the temple
(14:13):
of God. And verse 17 is a warning to people
like me. If anyone defiles the temple of God, because
you guys are the temple, God will destroy him for
the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.
We take that out of context many times. Oh, well,
you're the temple of God, you shouldn't put tattoos on. No,
he's saying, look, you guys are the temple of God,
you better be careful with what you're teaching them.
(14:35):
You better be careful with what it is that you're
preaching to them. It better, you better be careful with
what it is that you're calling them to do. Verse 18.
You guys with me still? It's quiet out there. All right, good.
Hey, let no one deceive himself.
If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age,
let him become a fool that he may become wise.
(14:57):
For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God,
for it is written, he catches the wise in their
own craftiness, and again, the Lord knows the thoughts of
the wise that they are futile. Just a, a couple of, what,
what is worldly wisdom? Does anybody know what worldly wisdom is?
This world tells us the ways in which we should live.
This world tells us the direction and what we where
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we should go. This world defines success for us many times.
That's worldly wisdom. This world will define what beauty is,
which is worldly wisdom when none of these things are
in alignment with the word of God and will lead
you astray. There's even sayings and mottos and worldly wisdom
such as, hey, you do you.
Hey, trust your gut.
(15:42):
Right, just let it be. It's gonna be what it is.
It is what it is.
Hey, just do what feels right to you.
Hey, be true to yourself.
Just follow your heart.
Now, I understand that we've been given a new heart,
and so it's safe to say, oh, I'm gonna, I
can follow my heart because I've been given a heart
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of flesh, no longer a heart of stone. I get
that part. But many times when people are saying, hey,
just follow your heart, he's not talking about following the
heart that's been surrendered to Jesus Christ. They're talking about
doing things that your flesh desires. So there's this worldly
wisdom that many of us live our lives by. What
are other ones? I'm gonna match their energy. I talked
about this a few weeks ago, right? We're matching energy
(16:25):
in 2024. That's not godly.
We're called to turn the other cheek. We're called to
return evil with love. So if I'm matching somebody's energy,
that means I'm lowering myself to their standard and giving
them back what they're giving to me. Am I not
supposed to treat others the way that I would want
to be treated?
And so we live by these mantras and these sayings,
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and we get them on our bumper stickers and we
wear them on t-shirts and we get them on hats.
We put them in our Instagram by, we share posts
by 11/11 and angel eyes and spiritual wisdom and what
what are the other ones? Law of.
Attraction stuff, we post all of these things that are
world of wisdom, spiritualized. We post them to our story
because they feel good, or they make us feel good,
they sound good. They, they, they talk to whatever it
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is that we're going through, but that's worldly wisdom. It's
not from the Lord, and it's leading you astray.
And this is the childish thinking and behavior. This is
that immaturity as God's trying to do so much more
in you and through you, but we can't even graduate
from discerning whether the things that we're believing in are
from the world or from the word.
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If this is what you're building your life on this
worldly wisdom, my brothers and sisters, you are building on
sinking sand.
You're building on sinking sand.
It says in Matthew chapter 7 verse 24, I got
to talk about it. Let's just turn to it real quick.
Matthew chapter 7, verse 24 and 27.
Do I have it written down in here? I give
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myself notes on the page so it's easier to find.
I know where it's at. There we go. Come on.
Thank you for your patience.
Verse 24 says.
Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine.
And does them, it will liken them to a wise
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man who built his house on the rock.
Verse 25, and the rain descended, the floods came, the
winds blew and beat on that house, and it did
not fall for it was founded on the rock.
So when you're building your life on the scripture, when
you're building your life on Jesus, no matter what storm
comes your way, no matter what suffering comes knocking at
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your door, whether it's grief or hurt or betrayal or
heartbreak or empty pockets, whatever that looks like.
It doesn't mean that life's gonna be easy, but it
is promised that God will be with you, and that
wherever you're at, you will not be moved, that you
can stand strong and stand firm because you're built on
the rock, and the rock.
I never shaken. But here it says in verse 26,
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but everyone who hears these sayings of mine, they listen
to the word and does not do them.
Right? How many of us are here? Oh, great sermon,
Pastor Andrew. That sounded great. I'm fired up and then
you go right back to what it is that God
rescued you from. How many of us allow the emotional
and the sensationalism, like you're excited, but you go right
back to what it is that God pulled you out of?
(19:25):
The same relationship. I don't even wanna talk about it today.
I don't even wanna do it. We won't even do that.
We won't even get into that. But how many of
us are running right back? It says that, hey, if
you're listening to this and do not do them.
You will be like a foolish man who builds their
house on the sand.
And the rain comes, the flood comes, the winds blow,
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and they beat on the house and it falls and
the fall was great.
It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when.
Because the wind's gonna blow, the flood's gonna come, the
water's gonna fall.
What you build your life on will be exposed.
I don't know about you, but I want to be
found with my life built on the rock and not
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on sinking sand.
Verses 21 back to First Corinthians, you guys still following me?
Are we together?
Again, bottom line, it's time to grow up in God.
Let me just bring us back like it's simple. All
of this message is about this it's time to grow up.
We have to stop settling for baby food. We have
to stop making excuses. We gotta stop blaming others and
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we have to take responsibility and accountability for our own
personal spiritual growth.
And the reason why, why is this helpful? Because when
you're spiritually mature, it helps you handle life better.
You stop running back to the familiar. You stop going
back to the things that God rescued you from. You
stop using the things of this world to numb your
pain or to take your mind off of what you're
going through. After a hard week, what do you, I
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just wanna take my mind off everything. Hey, you don't
need to take your mind off everything when your life's
built on the rock. You understand what I'm saying? You
don't need to take the edge off when your life's
built on the rock. You don't gotta, you don't gotta
keep yourself occupied. I just wanna take my mind off
of everything when your life and your mind is stayed
on him.
And so the idea here, it's time to grow up
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in God. Verse 21, back to 1 Corinthians chapter 3.
We're all over the place.
But it's good, isn't it?
Therefore, let no one boast in men, right? reframing this, he's,
he's again talking to the church and in the church
there's this division. They're exalting certain leaders they're allowing themselves
to be argumentative about secondary things. They're showing themselves that, hey,
(21:36):
we are immature, we're childish, and we're not growing up.
We're we're still arguing about things that don't matter. So
here in verse.
21, he says, look, therefore let no one boast in men,
for all things are yours, whether it's Paul or Apollos
or Cephas, that's another name for Peter the rock. Whether
it's Paul, Apollos, or Peter, or the world or life
or death or things present or things to come. Listen,
(21:58):
all are yours and you are Christ's and Christ is God's.
Stop limiting your growth by relying on leaders to change
your situation.
If you're here because of me, you're here for the
wrong reason. And and that's not to make you feel bad.
Oh well, I like your coffee and prayer, so that's
(22:19):
why I came. That's cool, that's dope. That's not what
I'm saying. If you, if you maybe resonate with my
message or you like the way that I present it,
that's cool. But what I'm saying is don't put your
hope in me.
Stop relying on me to fix your situation because the
only person who can fix your situation is him.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
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,
(23:02):
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 light. 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
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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.
(23:46):
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 Kwave 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, visit their website at Royal Church.org. It's important
(00:25):
for every child of God to remember that they need
to keep growing in Christ throughout their walk of faith. Today,
Pastor Andrew Carter looks at 1 Corinthians chapter 3, where
Paul chides this young church for not growing as they should.
Here's Pastor Andrew.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
In 1 Corinthians chapter 3, it starts off like this.
It says, and I, brethren, could not speak to you.
As to spiritual people, but as to carnal, as to
babes in Christ. So again, this is Paul speaking to
the Corinthian church, and he's saying, look, I'm trying to
talk to you guys, but I can't even talk to
you because you guys are still babies in Christ. You
(01:01):
have not matured, you haven't grown up.
Verse 2 says, I fed you with milk and not
with solid food, right? He's even, he's even giving them
the infamil, the Kinder milk. He's giving them the baby milk, right?
The formula. He ain't even giving them the good stuff.
For until now, you were not able to receive it.
And even now, you were still not able
For you are still carnal.
(01:23):
Well, what does that mean? For where there is envy, strife,
and division among you, are you not carnal and behaving
like mere men?
For when one says, I am of Paul and another,
I am of Apollo's, are you not carnal?
Again, the issue here is that the church, the Corinth
Church was arguing about who they followed. Do you follow Paul?
Do you follow Apollo? So a better uh example is like,
(01:43):
do you follow Billy Graham or do you follow Tim Keller?
Do you, who, who do you follow? Are you more
of a pre-trib or a post-trib? Like, who is it
that you follow? Who is it that you believe in?
There was division, there was envy, there was strife. People
were still butting heads over secondary and small issues inside
the church, and he's trying to say, look,
God's trying to do something bigger and greater in you
(02:05):
and through you, but you're still operating out of your flesh.
You're not willing to, to move past these elementary things.
I'm trying to lay a solid foundation and help you
to grow and to mature in your faith by feeding
you loftier and heavier things, but I can't because you're
still stuck at go.
(02:26):
A couple of different verses. I want to jump over
to 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 2. I'm gonna give
you guys a second to find that.
21 Peter chapter 2.
Verse 2
We're gonna be jumping around just a little bit.
(02:47):
It says
And therefore laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy,
and all evil speaking as newborn babes desire the pure
milk of the word that you may grow thereby.
So here, here again, it's, it's pointing you you need
to desire the pure milk, right? You need to grow
(03:09):
up in your word you grow through devotion you grow
through interacting with the word you grow it's time to mature.
You gotta put aside the malice, the deceit, the hypocrisy,
the envy, all of the evil speaking, the fleshly and
the carnal mind, right? He's comparing them and, and saying, hey,
you guys are still carnal minded. I can't even talk
to you about.
Things that God wants to do. God wants to take
(03:29):
you to a newer level to a higher level. He
wants to do more inside you, but he can't because
we're trying to get past these elementary teachings. And it's
time to grow up in your understanding of the word.
It's time for you to grow up in your level
of devotion to the scripture and to sitting in his
presence and spending time in the word. Spiritually, at some point,
you have to take accountability for your own spiritual growth.
(03:51):
You gotta stop blaming your leaders, you gotta stop blaming
each other. You gotta stop making excuses that you don't
got time to read, that you don't got time to pray,
that you don't got time to sit in your prayer closet.
You gotta stop making excuses for your spiritual immaturity. And
at some point, you gotta step up and say, look, OK,
I used to think like this. Before I was saved,
it was OK for me to behave like this. These
are the things that I did, but now I'm saved.
(04:12):
I'm new. I've got to put away the childish things
and I need to start walking in the fullness of
who God has created me to be.
I'm gonna take the quietness for conviction, right?
That's good.
So how do you grow up and how do you mature, right?
that because that's, that's the question here. I told you
that I, I want you, the bottom line here is
(04:34):
it's time to grow up in God, and I would
be uh amiss if I didn't instruct you or give
you guys a little bit of encouragement. Um, Oswald Chambers
says this, there is only one way to develop and
grow spiritually, and that is through focusing and concentrating on God.
He uses John chapter 7, verses 37 8 38 as evidence,
(04:54):
where it says, if anyone thirsts, let him come to
me and drink.
He believes in me as the scripture has said out
of his heart will flow ri rivers of living water.
So if you wanna grow up and you wanna get
better and stronger, you wanna mature, you have to go
to the source.
Right, if you're thirsty, what do you need to do?
You need to drink some living water. If you're hungry,
(05:14):
you need to eat the bread of life. You need
to go to Jesus in order to grow and to
mature in your walk.
In order to grow spiritually and to mature in our faith,
we must draw near to God.
So many of us say that we don't have time.
But if we were to look at our screen time
and how we're spending our time, I would beg to differ.
(05:37):
We cannot mature or grow on our own. Without him,
our works and our efforts are worthless.
However, he can make us clean. He can give us
the strength and the ability to grow and to put
aside sin. What I found is that until you establish
a basic rhythm or routine of regular devotion to God,
he's not gonna be able to take you any further.
(05:57):
There's only a certain level, there's only certain things that
he can do without your obedience and without you trusting
in him.
So essentially, your lack of devotion is deterring your growth.
Your lack of devotion is detouring your growth.
If you want to grow in any area of your life,
(06:18):
I believe that consistency plus discipline equals results, and we
could take that to any aspect of our life, physical, right?
If I wanna get bigger or stronger in the gym,
I have to be disciplined. I have to be consistent.
I know that if I eat enough healthy foods and
I get to the gym enough and do enough cardio,
there's going to be a physical result from the effort
that I put forth when I'm disciplined and consistent.
(06:39):
In the same way, financial, if I'm disciplined and consistent
with my finances, I keep a good log of what
I'm spending. I make sure that I'm saving. I'm making
sure that I'm cutting and trimming the fat. I'm not
spending on every single streaming service or buying the things
that I don't need. If I'm disciplined and consistent, I
will be successful. I will lead towards better results. You
(06:59):
guys following me?
Emotional. If I do the work, I cut the baggage.
I cut the ties with the past agreements that I
might have had with other people. If I do the work,
maybe I go to counseling, maybe I talk about some
of my problems, maybe I stop projecting my trust issues
and the things that I've gone through onto others. Maybe
I start taking accountability for my actions and owning up
(07:20):
to my stuff. So if I'm disciplined and I'm consistent,
it's going to equal emotional health.
And in the same way, when it comes to spiritual,
when you are consistent and disciplined, it equals results. When
you set aside time to devote yourself to studying and
reading the word, when you spend time devoted to prayer,
when you spend time devoted to being around the people
(07:40):
of God, when you make the intentional effort, it's only
going to equal results. It's going to get you into
a deeper, better place of understanding the scripture, and you
are going to grow up in your spiritual maturity, and
that is what we're talking about today.
Even when it's hard, even when it's tired. Who here has,
has gone after a physical goal, right? Oh, this, I'm
(08:01):
gonna get up at 5 a.m. every day, and I'm
gonna get to the gym, 6 o'clock.
Hey, that first week, oh man, it feels so good.
I'm sore everywhere, but man, it sure does feel good.
And then the next week, rather than 5 days, maybe
you get to 3, but you're still grinding.
And then 3 weeks down the road, you're just like, man,
I'm sore, I'm tired, I don't feel like it and
(08:21):
so you stop going, you throw in the towel.
But too many of us allow our feelings and our
emotions to dictate our actions, but what we need to
do is lock ourselves into discipline and consistency when you're tired,
when you're sleepy, when it hurts, when you're sore, when
it doesn't feel good. There's things that we need to
do consistently and in a disciplined manner that's going to
(08:43):
get us to where it is that God's called us.
He goes on and says,
In verse 5, he says, who then? And so, uh,
just a reminder, get us back on page. It's Paul
writing a letter to the church in the in in Corinth,
the Corinthian church. And again, this church was wild. There
was sexual immorality happening. There was people who were out
of order. There was selfishness, there was people being stingy,
(09:04):
there was division going on. And so here he is,
he's calling them higher. He's like, you guys are being immature.
God wants to do so much more in you and
through you, but he can't even, like, Paul can't even
speak because you guys are still like babies in Christ.
He wants you to eat the meat and potatoes, but
he still got to feed you infidel because you're not
taking accountability for your actions and doing what it takes
to grow up in the Lord, which means devotion and
(09:26):
time spent in his presence.
So verse 5 is where we pick up. He says,
who then is Paul and who is Apollos, but ministers
through whom you believed as the Lord gave to each one.
He's like, who am I? Who's Pastor Andrew? Who's Pastor Christian?
Who are these guys? We're nobody but ministers to you.
Please don't put your faith in me as a leader
because I will fail you over and over and over
(09:47):
and over again.
I'm merely a messenger, merely a minister. He goes on
and he says, look, I planted Apollo's watered, but God
gave the increase. So that neither he who plants is anything,
nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.
It's not, it's not me. I am just a messenger.
God, God told me to get up here and preach
His word, to read the word of God and let
(10:09):
the Holy Spirit do the rest. Don't put your trust
or your hope in me. Stop arguing about who's a
better teacher, who's a better pastor, who, like, all of
that is fleshly, it's carnal, and it's immature.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
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 3.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Now he says now he who plants and he who
waters are one, and each one will receive his own
reward according to his own labor. So here is a
warning to leaders, OK? And so if you're not a leader,
still listen because this is good. You might not be
a leader in the church, but you might be a
leader in your home. But what he says in verse 9,
he says, for we are God's fellow workers, and you
are God's fields. He's talking to the church. He's like,
where are the workers? You guys are the field. You
(11:01):
are God's building, not mine. This isn't my church, this
is God's church. This isn't my city. This is God's city.
Everything that's been given to us, this isn't mine, this
isn't Andrew's. I believe that Royal City Church, once I'm
dead and gone, will continue under the name of somebody else,
but this isn't my work. This isn't about me.
I'm merely just a messenger, and here he's trying to
(11:22):
get this through. He says, according to the grace of God,
which was given to me, this is verse 10, as
a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation and
another builds on it. But let each one take heed,
how he builds on it. Again, he's warning the leaders,
be careful, right? The foundation is Jesus, Pastors, leaders, teachers,
be careful how you build on what it is that
(11:43):
you're doing. Because
For no other foundation can anyone lay that which is laid,
which is in Jesus Christ. Now, if anyone builds on
this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,
verse 13 says each one's work will become clear, for
the day will declare it, because it will be revealed
by fire and the fire will test each one's work
(12:04):
of what sort it is.
Mainly, if I, what I'm teaching you, if this isn't
built on the word, it's gonna be exposed, and it's
going to fall apart. And I'm gonna be judged more harshly.
I'm going to have to be accountable for what is
it that you got up there and taught these people.
What did you teach them? Did you just give them
empty platitudes and gave them 16 ways on how to
(12:26):
have a healthier marriage? Or were you preaching the word
of God? Calling them to repent, calling them to devote
themselves to the word, calling themselves to live and operate
in the spirit. I'm not up here because I like
to do a song and dance. I'm here because God
changed my life. And I wanted to, I wanna be
faithful with this mission. I wanna preach this so that
it gets in your heart, and so that it starts
to change your lives. Because I understand that as a leader,
(12:48):
I'm
Going to be judged more harshly. So this is more
for me right now than it is for you. He says, um,
in verse 14, if anyone's work, which he has built
on it endures, he'll receive award. OK? So if I'm
building with the gold and the silver and the precious stones,
the good gems, the morsels, the mature things of the word,
then I'm, there's gonna be a reward for me, low-key selfish,
(13:10):
but I'm here for it. Like, hey, there's gonna be
a reward. I'm doing it. Like I wanna, I wanna
do well, but listen to this part.
This is if anyone's work is burned, you're using the wood,
the hay, the straw, he will suffer loss, but he
himself will be saved yet so as through fire. He's
not like if, if you, if you're giving them, if
you're just tickling their ears, if you're not preaching truth,
(13:31):
if you're not standing on the word and you're just
here for a good time, it's gonna be exposed.
It's gonna be exposed. And so that's why I'm passionate
here preaching the word, just reading the scripture. Oh, he's
just reading the Bible. I don't need to have a
smoke show behind me, right? I don't need to have props.
I don't need to desecrate things in order to get
(13:53):
the message because the message is clear and the Holy
Spirit is our witness.
Verse 16 says.
And I'm gonna turn this back around on you guys
in just a second. Do you not know that you
are the temple of God and that the spirit of
God dwells in you? It says that you guys are
God's building. You are his field. You are the temple
(14:13):
of God. And verse 17 is a warning to people
like me. If anyone defiles the temple of God, because
you guys are the temple, God will destroy him for
the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.
We take that out of context many times. Oh, well,
you're the temple of God, you shouldn't put tattoos on. No,
he's saying, look, you guys are the temple of God,
you better be careful with what you're teaching them.
(14:35):
You better be careful with what it is that you're
preaching to them. It better, you better be careful with
what it is that you're calling them to do. Verse 18.
You guys with me still? It's quiet out there. All right, good.
Hey, let no one deceive himself.
If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age,
let him become a fool that he may become wise.
(14:57):
For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God,
for it is written, he catches the wise in their
own craftiness, and again, the Lord knows the thoughts of
the wise that they are futile. Just a, a couple of, what,
what is worldly wisdom? Does anybody know what worldly wisdom is?
This world tells us the ways in which we should live.
This world tells us the direction and what we where
(15:19):
we should go. This world defines success for us many times.
That's worldly wisdom. This world will define what beauty is,
which is worldly wisdom when none of these things are
in alignment with the word of God and will lead
you astray. There's even sayings and mottos and worldly wisdom
such as, hey, you do you.
Hey, trust your gut.
(15:42):
Right, just let it be. It's gonna be what it is.
It is what it is.
Hey, just do what feels right to you.
Hey, be true to yourself.
Just follow your heart.
Now, I understand that we've been given a new heart,
and so it's safe to say, oh, I'm gonna, I
can follow my heart because I've been given a heart
(16:03):
of flesh, no longer a heart of stone. I get
that part. But many times when people are saying, hey,
just follow your heart, he's not talking about following the
heart that's been surrendered to Jesus Christ. They're talking about
doing things that your flesh desires. So there's this worldly
wisdom that many of us live our lives by. What
are other ones? I'm gonna match their energy. I talked
about this a few weeks ago, right? We're matching energy
(16:25):
in 2024. That's not godly.
We're called to turn the other cheek. We're called to
return evil with love. So if I'm matching somebody's energy,
that means I'm lowering myself to their standard and giving
them back what they're giving to me. Am I not
supposed to treat others the way that I would want
to be treated?
And so we live by these mantras and these sayings,
(16:46):
and we get them on our bumper stickers and we
wear them on t-shirts and we get them on hats.
We put them in our Instagram by, we share posts
by 11/11 and angel eyes and spiritual wisdom and what
what are the other ones? Law of.
Attraction stuff, we post all of these things that are
world of wisdom, spiritualized. We post them to our story
because they feel good, or they make us feel good,
they sound good. They, they, they talk to whatever it
(17:09):
is that we're going through, but that's worldly wisdom. It's
not from the Lord, and it's leading you astray.
And this is the childish thinking and behavior. This is
that immaturity as God's trying to do so much more
in you and through you, but we can't even graduate
from discerning whether the things that we're believing in are
from the world or from the word.
(17:34):
If this is what you're building your life on this
worldly wisdom, my brothers and sisters, you are building on
sinking sand.
You're building on sinking sand.
It says in Matthew chapter 7 verse 24, I got
to talk about it. Let's just turn to it real quick.
Matthew chapter 7, verse 24 and 27.
Do I have it written down in here? I give
(17:56):
myself notes on the page so it's easier to find.
I know where it's at. There we go. Come on.
Thank you for your patience.
Verse 24 says.
Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine.
And does them, it will liken them to a wise
(18:18):
man who built his house on the rock.
Verse 25, and the rain descended, the floods came, the
winds blew and beat on that house, and it did
not fall for it was founded on the rock.
So when you're building your life on the scripture, when
you're building your life on Jesus, no matter what storm
comes your way, no matter what suffering comes knocking at
(18:40):
your door, whether it's grief or hurt or betrayal or
heartbreak or empty pockets, whatever that looks like.
It doesn't mean that life's gonna be easy, but it
is promised that God will be with you, and that
wherever you're at, you will not be moved, that you
can stand strong and stand firm because you're built on
the rock, and the rock.
I never shaken. But here it says in verse 26,
(19:02):
but everyone who hears these sayings of mine, they listen
to the word and does not do them.
Right? How many of us are here? Oh, great sermon,
Pastor Andrew. That sounded great. I'm fired up and then
you go right back to what it is that God
rescued you from. How many of us allow the emotional
and the sensationalism, like you're excited, but you go right
back to what it is that God pulled you out of?
(19:25):
The same relationship. I don't even wanna talk about it today.
I don't even wanna do it. We won't even do that.
We won't even get into that. But how many of
us are running right back? It says that, hey, if
you're listening to this and do not do them.
You will be like a foolish man who builds their
house on the sand.
And the rain comes, the flood comes, the winds blow,
(19:46):
and they beat on the house and it falls and
the fall was great.
It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when.
Because the wind's gonna blow, the flood's gonna come, the
water's gonna fall.
What you build your life on will be exposed.
I don't know about you, but I want to be
found with my life built on the rock and not
(20:08):
on sinking sand.
Verses 21 back to First Corinthians, you guys still following me?
Are we together?
Again, bottom line, it's time to grow up in God.
Let me just bring us back like it's simple. All
of this message is about this it's time to grow up.
We have to stop settling for baby food. We have
to stop making excuses. We gotta stop blaming others and
(20:30):
we have to take responsibility and accountability for our own
personal spiritual growth.
And the reason why, why is this helpful? Because when
you're spiritually mature, it helps you handle life better.
You stop running back to the familiar. You stop going
back to the things that God rescued you from. You
stop using the things of this world to numb your
pain or to take your mind off of what you're
going through. After a hard week, what do you, I
(20:52):
just wanna take my mind off everything. Hey, you don't
need to take your mind off everything when your life's
built on the rock. You understand what I'm saying? You
don't need to take the edge off when your life's
built on the rock. You don't gotta, you don't gotta
keep yourself occupied. I just wanna take my mind off
of everything when your life and your mind is stayed
on him.
And so the idea here, it's time to grow up
(21:12):
in God. Verse 21, back to 1 Corinthians chapter 3.
We're all over the place.
But it's good, isn't it?
Therefore, let no one boast in men, right? reframing this, he's,
he's again talking to the church and in the church
there's this division. They're exalting certain leaders they're allowing themselves
to be argumentative about secondary things. They're showing themselves that, hey,
(21:36):
we are immature, we're childish, and we're not growing up.
We're we're still arguing about things that don't matter. So
here in verse.
21, he says, look, therefore let no one boast in men,
for all things are yours, whether it's Paul or Apollos
or Cephas, that's another name for Peter the rock. Whether
it's Paul, Apollos, or Peter, or the world or life
or death or things present or things to come. Listen,
(21:58):
all are yours and you are Christ's and Christ is God's.
Stop limiting your growth by relying on leaders to change
your situation.
If you're here because of me, you're here for the
wrong reason. And and that's not to make you feel bad.
Oh well, I like your coffee and prayer, so that's
(22:19):
why I came. That's cool, that's dope. That's not what
I'm saying. If you, if you maybe resonate with my
message or you like the way that I present it,
that's cool. But what I'm saying is don't put your
hope in me.
Stop relying on me to fix your situation because the
only person who can fix your situation is him.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
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,
(23:02):
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 light. 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
(23:25):
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.
(23:46):
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 Kwave Radio,
sharing life, delivering truth, giving hope.
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