July 17, 2025 • 25 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 Church.org. Today on Pastor Spotlight, Pastor Andrew
Carter directs our attention to Galatians chapter 5. It's here
we're reminded of how important it is to God for
him to reveal himself to us and for us to
walk in the Holy Spirit. Here now is Pastor Andrew
Carter to open up our time in God's word.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
In Galatians chapter 5, if you guys would turn there,
this isn't gonna be on the screen.
But in Galatians chapter 5,
It talks about the fruit of the spirit.
It talks about the true nature of God, of who
he is.
God was trying to reveal Himself to us in so
(01:04):
many ways for so long.
That he had to come down and he had to
show us. He had to lead by example. He had
to come and show us. In Galatians chapter 5 verse 22,
it says, but the fruit of the Spirit is this.
The fruit of the Spirit is the spirit of God
that lives inside of us. This is the nature and
the true character of our God. It says that the
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fruit of the Spirit is love, it's joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
and self-control.
Against such there is no law. That is the true
nature and character of the God that we serve. And
I don't know what kind of misconceptions you might come
in here with this morning thinking that God is mad
(01:47):
at you, that he hates you, that he doesn't hear you,
that he doesn't love you, that he forgot about you.
I wanna remind you about who.
God truly is. He is just that. He is love,
He is joy. He is peace. He is longsuffering. You
and thank God for his patience and longsuffering. Thank God
for his longsuffering and patience. He is kind, good, faithful, gentle,
(02:08):
and self-controlled. God is not like us.
And we have to stop trying to relegate him into
a box that's the same size as the way that
we think. Amen. So we're gonna start in First Corinthians.
And so First Corinthians is an epistle. This is a letter,
and I wanna paint for you guys a picture of
the letter that is being written. Uh, the, the letter
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is being written to a church in a city called Corinth.
And Corinth is very much like modern day New York,
Los Angeles, maybe Paris. It's a large booming city, a metropolis.
It is a hub and a center of trade. There
are different cultures. It's a diverse city. And so I
think that this letter from Paul to the Corinthians is
so applicable today because it mirrors and looks like the
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modern day church, especially a church.
Church here in Inglewood. And so it's written by Paul
and Paul was a church planter. He planted this church.
He spent a year and a half in this city,
building it up very much like what we've done here.
We've come to a city, we've planted it and now
we're building it. We're feeding it, we're growing it, we're
trying to multiply, raising up disciples. And so Paul did
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the very same thing.
When you read First Corinthians, what it's about is Paul
was in Ephesus. You guys ever heard of the book
of Ephesians? OK, so that's a letter to the Ephesian Church.
So Paul is in Ephesus at this church plant, and
he gets a letter from his old church plant. That's like,
if I left Royal City Church here in Inglewood, and
I'm in Culver City Royal City Church, I'm speaking that
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into existence down the road, right? So I'm down at
Culver City RCC and Jorel hits me up and sends
me a letter and he's like, bro.
Inglewood is crazy right now. There is chaos in the church.
And so the letter is Paul writing to the Corinthian
church that he's already spent time there. He's answering questions,
he's addressing some of the issues and the sin. It's
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because he heard reports of pride, sexual immorality, their gifts
being used improperly.
Uh, even Christian doctrine that was being misunderstood. And so
Paul's writing this letter to try to set things straight
and get the body organized. You guys with me?
So it starts out, uh, he, he goes on and says, hey,
(04:20):
it's me, it's Paul, like, dear church, um, I want
you guys to know that you have been called to
be saints. He says that I thank you concerning you
for the grace of God. He loves them. He's speaking
to the saved. He's speaking to the believers. He's speaking
to a church that he's once been a part of.
In verses 10 through 17, he realizes that people are
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being divided inside of the church. Some people are saying, uh,
that they're from different sects, right? One's from, oh, I'm
from Paul, I'm from Apollo, I'm from Jesus, and they're
arguing amongst themselves. And what he's doing, he's saying, hey,
you guys need to knock that off because Jesus isn't
coming back for a denomination. He's not coming back for
a sect. He's coming back for his body. He's coming
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back for the bride. And so you guys need to
knock that division and all of that nonsense off.
But what we're gonna dive a little bit deeper into
today are between verses 18 and 31.
And so here in verse 18, this will be on
the screen. It says, for the message of the cross
is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us
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who are being saved, it is the power of God.
In today's day and age, Christianity is a joke.
It is a joke to atheists. It is a joke
to Satanists. It is a joke to other religions. Christianity,
Christ crucified, is a joke and it's foolishness.
Even yesterday, as I was getting ready for coffee and prayer,
(05:45):
I got an email, OK? I'm, I'm, I'm preparing myself.
Somebody got up at 5 a.m. and sent me an email,
and this wasn't a short email, this was a long email.
And the title says, uh, what you believe is stupid.
And it goes on and says that I have a bias, uh, what,
what is it? It's um
Uh, uh, a biased fallibility. I also, uh, am gullible
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and I believe in a sky daddy and my faith
is wrong and that religion's been used to manipulate and
to oppress and how could you believe in something so
foolish in 2024 called me a clown when, I mean,
I read the whole thing, you know what I mean?
I like, I, I was like I got time for this,
like I'm gonna read it. And you guys know how
I responded?
I clicked spam on that bad boy. You're going.
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You don't got time for that. I don't, I don't
have time. You don't have to stop and throw stones
at every dog that barks. You don't have to cast
your pearls to the swine. But in the world that
we live in, Christianity is a joke, and even here,
it was looked at as foolishness. But you and I know,
brothers and sisters in Christ, that this word of God
is power. This.
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The Word of God has the power to change. The
word of God has the power to transform. The Word
of God has the power to challenge us, our biases,
our preconceived notions, our assumptions. And so even here, written
thousands of years ago, Paul's talking to the church because
then it was foolishness even to the, the other religions
and the areas that he was preaching the gospel in.
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In verse 19, it says, for it is written.
I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring
to nothing the understanding of the prudent. What he was
doing is he was quoting from Isaiah, the book of Isaiah.
We're going through that in coffee and prayer right now.
But this is a prophetic word spoken by the prophet Isaiah,
the words of God saying, I will destroy the wisdom
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of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of
the prudent. The wisdom of the world pales in comparison
to the wisdom of God.
The wisdom of the world tells us to chase after money,
to go get success, that sex is going to make
you more fulfilled and happy. The wisdom of this world
is a pipeline straight to destruction. But we hold on
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to the truth of the cross of Jesus.
Verse 20 says, where is the wise? Where is the scribe?
Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God
made foolish the wisdom of this world? This speaks loudly
because we can look at the wisdom of this world
and see the foolishness in it.
(08:16):
The wisdom of the world is constantly changing. Is the
world round? Is it flat? Did we go to the
moon or did we not? Right? Don't eat eggs. Only
eat egg whites. No, definitely eat eggs, right? It's like, whoa,
sugar-free is good for you. No, you need to get sugar,
but not aspartame. Make sure that it's stevia, where is it?
Yeah, or which one are we supposed to eat? What
(08:36):
sugar can I have? The wisdom of the world is
constantly changing and transforming right before our eyes. In fact,
it's not wisdom at all because it changes it's foolishness.
But the wisdom of God that we stand on is
the same yesterday, today and forever. It doesn't change.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
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. And now here's Pastor Andrew with more
of his study in Galatians chapter 5.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
In verse 21, he says, for since in the wisdom
of God, the world through wisdom did not know God.
It pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached
to save those who believe. When Jesus came, it was foolishness.
Because the Messiah that the Jews were waiting for was what?
He was big, he was the lion of Judah. He
(09:35):
was a warrior. He was coming to rescue them from
the oppression of the Romans. So, so the Jesus or
the Messiah, they weren't even looking for Jesus. The Messiah
they were looking for and waiting for was this political
power that was going to overthrow the government and return
them to a place of prominence. But what they got
was a carpenter. What they got was a Messiah riding
(09:55):
on a donkey.
What they got was a little baby in a manger,
a Nazarite, a man from Bethlehem. It wasn't what they thought,
so to them it was foolishness.
And in the same way, the world believes that the
message of Jesus is foolish here and now.
He goes on and says,
(10:15):
In verse 22, for Jews request a sign, and Greeks
seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified to the
Jews a stumbling block and to the Greek foolishness.
But to those who are called, verse 24, both Jews
and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom
of God. They say that it was foolishness to the
(10:36):
Greeks because the Greeks were all about the stoics. You
guys heard of the Greek, uh, the Greek stoic, uh, Aristotle.
Or Plato, or Socrates. They were big on meeting and
debating and having conversations about who thought this and who
thought that. They would have these intellectual conversations about philosophy.
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So to hear Jesus talking about parables about seeds and
about fishing and about farming and about sheep, they thought
it was foolishness.
And again, to the Jew, in their mind, it was
weak because they couldn't imagine a crucified savior. That's not
the way the Messiah was coming. They weren't expecting that.
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But again,
To those of us who were called.
The power of God and the wisdom of God is ours.
If you're in this place and you know Jesus Christ
as your Lord and Savior, you are called. You have
been chosen, and the word of the cross, the message
of Jesus is life in itself. The gospel is the
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power to change. The gospel is the power to transform.
The message of the cross might be foolish to the world,
but it's our power, it's our anchor, it's our firm foundation,
that's unshakable.
Well, I want to spend more time.
Talking about here in verse 25, it says, because the
foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness
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of God is stronger than men, even if God could
be foolish because God can't because he's perfect. But God
on his worst day is greater than man on his best.
God's weakness, his weakest moment is still greater than man
at his best.
We hold on to this truth. God is our way.
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God is our truth. God is our strength. God is
our portion.
And how we apply this scripture, how we look at
this scripture is we understand that you're going to be disliked,
you're going to be criticized, you're going to be persecuted,
you're gonna be put out, you're gonna be uh looked
at differently for your faith and for your belief. And
I wanna remind you guys that the world that we
live in is perishing.
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It's falling apart right before us. And so this is
right on par. This should do multiple things. One of
them being stirring you up. It should be waking you up,
reminding you of your faith, reminding you of your truth,
reminding you of the world that we live in.
What I love that it says in verse 26.
He says, for you see your calling.
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Brethren, not that not many wise, according to the flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble are called.
This is no offense to any of you.
But as I look at the called, I don't see
a lot of Aristotle's and Plato's and Socrates in here.
I don't see a lot of Samsons and Hercules, even
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though that's not biblical mythology. That's like a whole different thing.
I mean, Alonzo's pretty big, he's strong, but I don't
see like the big, like, I don't, I don't see that.
I don't see the wise. God likes to take the
foolish things of this world and use them for his glory.
When I read this, I'm reminded of where I come from.
Weak, unqualified, right? Not, not who you would think would
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be up here preaching a sermon. I never thought this
for myself. God has called you and wants to use
you and use your story.
The ups, the downs, the hurt, the pain, the things
that you've gone through for him. Everything that you've gone through,
everything that you've made it through, everything that God has
carried you through is for a purpose. And so many
of us look at our past or the things that
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we've gone through with a bad taste in our mouth,
but those things have the power to testify to the
goodness of God.
Verse 27 says, but God has chosen the foolish things
of the world to put to shame the wise, and
God has chosen the weak things of the world to
put to shame the things which are mighty and the
base things of the world, and the things which are despised, has, uh,
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has chosen, and the things which are not to bring
to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should
glory in his presence.
Ultimately, he's talking about Jesus.
He's talking about Jesus.
God used Jesus, this little baby in a manger, right?
A carpenter, a man of no noble birth or noble descent.
He used Jesus.
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As our offering for sin. He used Jesus to reconcile
us back to him. He used Jesus as the model,
Jesus as our prime example. In many eyes looking at him, yes,
we talked about it yesterday. David thinks that Jesus was
buffed because he was a carpenter. I get it. Like
he might have had some big forearms, but I don't
see my Savior as like somebody who was sitting on swole.
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What I do see is somebody who is humble and
meek and gentle, and yes, a man's man, but God
used these characteristics.
To reach the lost.
To better relate to other people. You understand that we're
here not for the righteous, we're here for the lost.
And so your story of how you overcame, your story
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of what you've been through, your story of what you've
survived is a tool in your hand to reach those
who have gone through similar situations. And so many of us,
we don't see that. We don't see what we have.
have in our hands. We don't see the stories of
our lives being something that God can use. We spend
so much time putting makeup on it and putting a
filter on it and trying to highlight really it. We
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spend so much time trying to wear a mask of
who we truly are, not realizing that you are fearfully
and wonderfully made and God wants to use you as
you are.
God loves you to the point that he called you
as you are, but he loves you enough that he's
not gonna allow you to stay right where you're at.
He uses the base things. The base things means he, he,
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he loves the underdog.
He loves the overcoming story. He loves using the things, uh,
the like the runt of the litter. He likes to
use the things that have been overlooked and discarded. He
likes to use those things. And why?
So that no flesh should glory in his presence.
If I'm smart, then everything that I accomplish is because
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of my own power. If I'm strong, everything I accomplish
is because of me. Too many of us have this,
I pulled myself up by the bootstrap story, but I'm
here to tell you, I didn't pull myself up by
the bootstraps. Jesus reached his hand down into the pit
and pulled me up.
It's only him.
He uses us so that we don't glory in ourselves
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so that we don't try to get credit for what
he's doing.
In verse 30, it says, but of him, you are
in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. That as it is written,
he who glories, let him glory in the Lord.
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Don't allow what you've gone through to disqualify you from
what God called you to, because God will qualify the call.
He will make sure that you have the right education.
He will make sure that you have the right connections.
He will make sure that you're in the right places.
He'll make sure that he opens the right doors at
the right time. He'll make sure that you have the
right words at the right time. He will make sure
that you have everything that you need in order to
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complete the plan, purpose, and will that he made you for.
Remember, he made you. He planned out the days of
your life. He knit you together in your mother's womb.
He knows every hair on your head.
Why do we keep taking control?
Why do we keep trying to steer the ship? Why
do we keep questioning him as if he doesn't know
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what he's doing? Or like he's forgot about us.
I want to remind you that he loves you, that
he cares about you, that he's with you, that he's
for you.
And as somebody who's called, he will provide everything it
is that you need on the road that he's called
you to. Amen.
(18:27):
I want to share a story about myself, um, obviously, when, uh,
I was a kid. I grew up in a home
where I was the only black kid or person of color.
I was mixed in a white family till I was
11 years old. So from basically birth to 11, I
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was the only person of color, so I was quite
literally the black sheep. Like I did not feel connected.
I didn't feel seen.
I didn't feel understood. They tried to cut my hair
with scissors. That it's just not a good look because
you can't get a nice fade with scissors, um, you know,
they didn't know anything about cocoa butter or lotion. It was, um,
and this isn't for all of my Caucasian brothers and sisters.
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This is the family that I was raised in.
And so I felt like I was an outsider. At 11,
I met the black side of my family and things
got worse because the way that I behaved, the way
that I spoke, the music that I listened to, I'm
listening to the Lion King soundtrack and they're listening to
Wu-Tang Clan and um.
Watching Bruce Lee movies, you know what I mean? I'm
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just like, I don't know who this Bruce Lee is,
and they're trying to put me on. It was, it
was wild, right? There were two different, uh, two different
cultures colliding and I was right in the middle of it.
I didn't know where I fit in. I didn't know
my identity. I didn't feel seen or connected.
I share that because when I was 14 years old, OK,
fast forward from 11 to 14, uh, my mom left
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me at home by myself for 3 months. Um, she
moved to, I was in Oregon, she moved to South Carolina,
and she was on a fishing boat. Uh, like I
don't know how she went from Oregon to the deadliest catch.
It doesn't make sense to me.
But that's where she was and she left me with
her EBT card, the keys to her car, and she
paid the rent 3 months in advance and she would
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send me money back every week. OK? Imagine giving a
14 year old kid the keys to the house, the
keys to the car, an EBT card with all the
food you can eat. I was going shopping, buying licorice
and beef jerky. That's all I was getting the entire time.
I wasn't.
In a place to, you know, take care of myself,
but my mom's gone. It was like Home Alone meets
Ferris Bueller's Day off. It was wild. I wrecked the
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car during the time, almost got us evicted. Like it was,
it was crazy, but during that year I dropped out
of school. I was like, I'm not going to school.
I'm a freshman in high school. I'm not going to school.
Nobody's here to make me. So I literally dropped out
of high school my freshman year.
When my mom got back, she was strung out on drugs.
She spent all her fishing money on using and just
wild and out. Um, that summer, she got arrested for
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kicking out a cop car window and I got put
in foster care.
Uh, for that year, so while she was in jail,
I was in foster care for my entire sophomore year.
Uh, my sophomore year, I got a 4.0. I played
basketball for the first time, which ended up me leading
me to play college basketball. But what was different is
that I had structure, I had stability, I had consistency,
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I had some guidance, and what I realized is that
my environment shapes my behavior a lot of the time.
I was a good kid, but when left to myself,
I was gonna make poor decisions, but if I was
put in the right environment with some discipline and consistency,
I would make better decisions.
And so that stuck with me. I realized that, hey,
if I can control the things that I can and
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accept the things that I can't, I can succeed, I
can thrive. That became an issue. That became an issue
years down the road.
So, I ended up going to college, got a couple
of college degrees, played college basketball. I started a business.
I started a CrossFit gym. And I share this because
we're talking about glorying in yourself. I wanna talk a
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little bit about pride. Because of that previous experience and
where I was, I had this pride built up inside
of me. I had that pull yourself up by the
bootstraps mentality.
I made 6 figures in the first year that I
opened my gym. I had some achievements, some accolades, and
some different awards, and, uh, I remember at my 2
year gym anniversary, we're celebrating the success of this gym.
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This gym has over 200 members. Each member pays over
$100 a month to be a part of my gym.
So just do the math. I was making money hand
over fist, and that's not the stuff I was bringing
in under the table. I was killing it.
So a kid who came from foster care, parents who
were drug addicts, had no identity, had no security, didn't
know who he was, was now succeeding.
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And so inside of me, I had that Rudy chant, Rudy, Rudy,
I thought that I was the man. I didn't think
I could be touched. Nobody could mess with me. I
was able to pull myself up from the bootstraps.
That same night, I remember this vividly because this is
the night that I got in trouble and ended up
going to prison.
I was celebrating 200 people there and they were cheering
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my name. I just remember them. Andrew, Andrew, and I
had this big gold chain on with a cup and
I was taking shots and I was popping bottles and
I was just wild and they were just cheering, they
were praising me. They were praising me and I was
receiving all this glory. They're just like, man, you're on
the chamber of commerce, you're making money, you're on, you're
at the country club, you're doing all these things and
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I'm just like, look at me. I am the object
of your guys's worship.
And that night I committed a crime that sent me
to prison for 18 months, and I lost everything.
So at my highest point, achieving all of the things
that the world tells you is going to bring you happiness.
Pride got in the way. There was no humility.
I was not humble, I wasn't thankful, I wasn't grateful.
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I was receiving the praise and the glory that belongs
only to God.
As human beings, we were not created to be worshiped.
We were not created to receive that kind of glory,
only God.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
And with that, Pastor Andrew Carter brings his study in
Galatians chapter 5 to a close. We're so thankful to
Pastor Andrew for being our featured speaker all this week
here on Kwave's Pastor Spotlight. If you've been blessed by
this week's teaching, be sure to reach out to Pastor
Andrew at Royal City Church. Pastor Andrew Carter is the
lead pastor of Royal City Church, which he helped to
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found in October of 2021. Royal City Church stands on
1 Peter chapter 2, verse 9, which says, but you are.
Chosen people, a 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
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so that those who attend start to understand who they
are and begin walking in the fullness of their identity,
which will inspire 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.
(25:03):
For more information, visit their website at royal Church.org. We
invite you to join us right here at this same
time Monday for another time of growing in the grace
and knowledge of Jesus Christ. Here on Pastors Spotlight, we'll
feature the teaching of another of our wonderful pastors from
here in the California area. We hope you'll join us.
Pastor Spotlight is a production of Kwave Radio sharing life,
(25:26):
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 Church.org. Today on Pastor Spotlight, Pastor Andrew
Carter directs our attention to Galatians chapter 5. It's here
we're reminded of how important it is to God for
him to reveal himself to us and for us to
walk in the Holy Spirit. Here now is Pastor Andrew
Carter to open up our time in God's word.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
In Galatians chapter 5, if you guys would turn there,
this isn't gonna be on the screen.
But in Galatians chapter 5,
It talks about the fruit of the spirit.
It talks about the true nature of God, of who
he is.
God was trying to reveal Himself to us in so
(01:04):
many ways for so long.
That he had to come down and he had to
show us. He had to lead by example. He had
to come and show us. In Galatians chapter 5 verse 22,
it says, but the fruit of the Spirit is this.
The fruit of the Spirit is the spirit of God
that lives inside of us. This is the nature and
the true character of our God. It says that the
(01:26):
fruit of the Spirit is love, it's joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
and self-control.
Against such there is no law. That is the true
nature and character of the God that we serve. And
I don't know what kind of misconceptions you might come
in here with this morning thinking that God is mad
(01:47):
at you, that he hates you, that he doesn't hear you,
that he doesn't love you, that he forgot about you.
I wanna remind you about who.
God truly is. He is just that. He is love,
He is joy. He is peace. He is longsuffering. You
and thank God for his patience and longsuffering. Thank God
for his longsuffering and patience. He is kind, good, faithful, gentle,
(02:08):
and self-controlled. God is not like us.
And we have to stop trying to relegate him into
a box that's the same size as the way that
we think. Amen. So we're gonna start in First Corinthians.
And so First Corinthians is an epistle. This is a letter,
and I wanna paint for you guys a picture of
the letter that is being written. Uh, the, the letter
(02:29):
is being written to a church in a city called Corinth.
And Corinth is very much like modern day New York,
Los Angeles, maybe Paris. It's a large booming city, a metropolis.
It is a hub and a center of trade. There
are different cultures. It's a diverse city. And so I
think that this letter from Paul to the Corinthians is
so applicable today because it mirrors and looks like the
(02:52):
modern day church, especially a church.
Church here in Inglewood. And so it's written by Paul
and Paul was a church planter. He planted this church.
He spent a year and a half in this city,
building it up very much like what we've done here.
We've come to a city, we've planted it and now
we're building it. We're feeding it, we're growing it, we're
trying to multiply, raising up disciples. And so Paul did
(03:13):
the very same thing.
When you read First Corinthians, what it's about is Paul
was in Ephesus. You guys ever heard of the book
of Ephesians? OK, so that's a letter to the Ephesian Church.
So Paul is in Ephesus at this church plant, and
he gets a letter from his old church plant. That's like,
if I left Royal City Church here in Inglewood, and
I'm in Culver City Royal City Church, I'm speaking that
(03:36):
into existence down the road, right? So I'm down at
Culver City RCC and Jorel hits me up and sends
me a letter and he's like, bro.
Inglewood is crazy right now. There is chaos in the church.
And so the letter is Paul writing to the Corinthian
church that he's already spent time there. He's answering questions,
he's addressing some of the issues and the sin. It's
(03:59):
because he heard reports of pride, sexual immorality, their gifts
being used improperly.
Uh, even Christian doctrine that was being misunderstood. And so
Paul's writing this letter to try to set things straight
and get the body organized. You guys with me?
So it starts out, uh, he, he goes on and says, hey,
(04:20):
it's me, it's Paul, like, dear church, um, I want
you guys to know that you have been called to
be saints. He says that I thank you concerning you
for the grace of God. He loves them. He's speaking
to the saved. He's speaking to the believers. He's speaking
to a church that he's once been a part of.
In verses 10 through 17, he realizes that people are
(04:41):
being divided inside of the church. Some people are saying, uh,
that they're from different sects, right? One's from, oh, I'm
from Paul, I'm from Apollo, I'm from Jesus, and they're
arguing amongst themselves. And what he's doing, he's saying, hey,
you guys need to knock that off because Jesus isn't
coming back for a denomination. He's not coming back for
a sect. He's coming back for his body. He's coming
(05:02):
back for the bride. And so you guys need to
knock that division and all of that nonsense off.
But what we're gonna dive a little bit deeper into
today are between verses 18 and 31.
And so here in verse 18, this will be on
the screen. It says, for the message of the cross
is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us
(05:23):
who are being saved, it is the power of God.
In today's day and age, Christianity is a joke.
It is a joke to atheists. It is a joke
to Satanists. It is a joke to other religions. Christianity,
Christ crucified, is a joke and it's foolishness.
Even yesterday, as I was getting ready for coffee and prayer,
(05:45):
I got an email, OK? I'm, I'm, I'm preparing myself.
Somebody got up at 5 a.m. and sent me an email,
and this wasn't a short email, this was a long email.
And the title says, uh, what you believe is stupid.
And it goes on and says that I have a bias, uh, what,
what is it? It's um
Uh, uh, a biased fallibility. I also, uh, am gullible
(06:07):
and I believe in a sky daddy and my faith
is wrong and that religion's been used to manipulate and
to oppress and how could you believe in something so
foolish in 2024 called me a clown when, I mean,
I read the whole thing, you know what I mean?
I like, I, I was like I got time for this,
like I'm gonna read it. And you guys know how
I responded?
I clicked spam on that bad boy. You're going.
(06:29):
You don't got time for that. I don't, I don't
have time. You don't have to stop and throw stones
at every dog that barks. You don't have to cast
your pearls to the swine. But in the world that
we live in, Christianity is a joke, and even here,
it was looked at as foolishness. But you and I know,
brothers and sisters in Christ, that this word of God
is power. This.
(06:50):
The Word of God has the power to change. The
word of God has the power to transform. The Word
of God has the power to challenge us, our biases,
our preconceived notions, our assumptions. And so even here, written
thousands of years ago, Paul's talking to the church because
then it was foolishness even to the, the other religions
and the areas that he was preaching the gospel in.
(07:11):
In verse 19, it says, for it is written.
I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring
to nothing the understanding of the prudent. What he was
doing is he was quoting from Isaiah, the book of Isaiah.
We're going through that in coffee and prayer right now.
But this is a prophetic word spoken by the prophet Isaiah,
the words of God saying, I will destroy the wisdom
(07:32):
of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of
the prudent. The wisdom of the world pales in comparison
to the wisdom of God.
The wisdom of the world tells us to chase after money,
to go get success, that sex is going to make
you more fulfilled and happy. The wisdom of this world
is a pipeline straight to destruction. But we hold on
(07:53):
to the truth of the cross of Jesus.
Verse 20 says, where is the wise? Where is the scribe?
Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God
made foolish the wisdom of this world? This speaks loudly
because we can look at the wisdom of this world
and see the foolishness in it.
(08:16):
The wisdom of the world is constantly changing. Is the
world round? Is it flat? Did we go to the
moon or did we not? Right? Don't eat eggs. Only
eat egg whites. No, definitely eat eggs, right? It's like, whoa,
sugar-free is good for you. No, you need to get sugar,
but not aspartame. Make sure that it's stevia, where is it?
Yeah, or which one are we supposed to eat? What
(08:36):
sugar can I have? The wisdom of the world is
constantly changing and transforming right before our eyes. In fact,
it's not wisdom at all because it changes it's foolishness.
But the wisdom of God that we stand on is
the same yesterday, today and forever. It doesn't change.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
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. And now here's Pastor Andrew with more
of his study in Galatians chapter 5.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
In verse 21, he says, for since in the wisdom
of God, the world through wisdom did not know God.
It pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached
to save those who believe. When Jesus came, it was foolishness.
Because the Messiah that the Jews were waiting for was what?
He was big, he was the lion of Judah. He
(09:35):
was a warrior. He was coming to rescue them from
the oppression of the Romans. So, so the Jesus or
the Messiah, they weren't even looking for Jesus. The Messiah
they were looking for and waiting for was this political
power that was going to overthrow the government and return
them to a place of prominence. But what they got
was a carpenter. What they got was a Messiah riding
(09:55):
on a donkey.
What they got was a little baby in a manger,
a Nazarite, a man from Bethlehem. It wasn't what they thought,
so to them it was foolishness.
And in the same way, the world believes that the
message of Jesus is foolish here and now.
He goes on and says,
(10:15):
In verse 22, for Jews request a sign, and Greeks
seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified to the
Jews a stumbling block and to the Greek foolishness.
But to those who are called, verse 24, both Jews
and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom
of God. They say that it was foolishness to the
(10:36):
Greeks because the Greeks were all about the stoics. You
guys heard of the Greek, uh, the Greek stoic, uh, Aristotle.
Or Plato, or Socrates. They were big on meeting and
debating and having conversations about who thought this and who
thought that. They would have these intellectual conversations about philosophy.
(10:58):
So to hear Jesus talking about parables about seeds and
about fishing and about farming and about sheep, they thought
it was foolishness.
And again, to the Jew, in their mind, it was
weak because they couldn't imagine a crucified savior. That's not
the way the Messiah was coming. They weren't expecting that.
(11:19):
But again,
To those of us who were called.
The power of God and the wisdom of God is ours.
If you're in this place and you know Jesus Christ
as your Lord and Savior, you are called. You have
been chosen, and the word of the cross, the message
of Jesus is life in itself. The gospel is the
(11:39):
power to change. The gospel is the power to transform.
The message of the cross might be foolish to the world,
but it's our power, it's our anchor, it's our firm foundation,
that's unshakable.
Well, I want to spend more time.
Talking about here in verse 25, it says, because the
foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness
(12:00):
of God is stronger than men, even if God could
be foolish because God can't because he's perfect. But God
on his worst day is greater than man on his best.
God's weakness, his weakest moment is still greater than man
at his best.
We hold on to this truth. God is our way.
(12:22):
God is our truth. God is our strength. God is
our portion.
And how we apply this scripture, how we look at
this scripture is we understand that you're going to be disliked,
you're going to be criticized, you're going to be persecuted,
you're gonna be put out, you're gonna be uh looked
at differently for your faith and for your belief. And
I wanna remind you guys that the world that we
live in is perishing.
(12:43):
It's falling apart right before us. And so this is
right on par. This should do multiple things. One of
them being stirring you up. It should be waking you up,
reminding you of your faith, reminding you of your truth,
reminding you of the world that we live in.
What I love that it says in verse 26.
He says, for you see your calling.
(13:04):
Brethren, not that not many wise, according to the flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble are called.
This is no offense to any of you.
But as I look at the called, I don't see
a lot of Aristotle's and Plato's and Socrates in here.
I don't see a lot of Samsons and Hercules, even
(13:26):
though that's not biblical mythology. That's like a whole different thing.
I mean, Alonzo's pretty big, he's strong, but I don't
see like the big, like, I don't, I don't see that.
I don't see the wise. God likes to take the
foolish things of this world and use them for his glory.
When I read this, I'm reminded of where I come from.
Weak, unqualified, right? Not, not who you would think would
(13:48):
be up here preaching a sermon. I never thought this
for myself. God has called you and wants to use
you and use your story.
The ups, the downs, the hurt, the pain, the things
that you've gone through for him. Everything that you've gone through,
everything that you've made it through, everything that God has
carried you through is for a purpose. And so many
of us look at our past or the things that
(14:09):
we've gone through with a bad taste in our mouth,
but those things have the power to testify to the
goodness of God.
Verse 27 says, but God has chosen the foolish things
of the world to put to shame the wise, and
God has chosen the weak things of the world to
put to shame the things which are mighty and the
base things of the world, and the things which are despised, has, uh,
(14:32):
has chosen, and the things which are not to bring
to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should
glory in his presence.
Ultimately, he's talking about Jesus.
He's talking about Jesus.
God used Jesus, this little baby in a manger, right?
A carpenter, a man of no noble birth or noble descent.
He used Jesus.
(14:54):
As our offering for sin. He used Jesus to reconcile
us back to him. He used Jesus as the model,
Jesus as our prime example. In many eyes looking at him, yes,
we talked about it yesterday. David thinks that Jesus was
buffed because he was a carpenter. I get it. Like
he might have had some big forearms, but I don't
see my Savior as like somebody who was sitting on swole.
(15:15):
What I do see is somebody who is humble and
meek and gentle, and yes, a man's man, but God
used these characteristics.
To reach the lost.
To better relate to other people. You understand that we're
here not for the righteous, we're here for the lost.
And so your story of how you overcame, your story
(15:35):
of what you've been through, your story of what you've
survived is a tool in your hand to reach those
who have gone through similar situations. And so many of us,
we don't see that. We don't see what we have.
have in our hands. We don't see the stories of
our lives being something that God can use. We spend
so much time putting makeup on it and putting a
filter on it and trying to highlight really it. We
(15:58):
spend so much time trying to wear a mask of
who we truly are, not realizing that you are fearfully
and wonderfully made and God wants to use you as
you are.
God loves you to the point that he called you
as you are, but he loves you enough that he's
not gonna allow you to stay right where you're at.
He uses the base things. The base things means he, he,
(16:19):
he loves the underdog.
He loves the overcoming story. He loves using the things, uh,
the like the runt of the litter. He likes to
use the things that have been overlooked and discarded. He
likes to use those things. And why?
So that no flesh should glory in his presence.
If I'm smart, then everything that I accomplish is because
(16:39):
of my own power. If I'm strong, everything I accomplish
is because of me. Too many of us have this,
I pulled myself up by the bootstrap story, but I'm
here to tell you, I didn't pull myself up by
the bootstraps. Jesus reached his hand down into the pit
and pulled me up.
It's only him.
He uses us so that we don't glory in ourselves
(17:01):
so that we don't try to get credit for what
he's doing.
In verse 30, it says, but of him, you are
in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. That as it is written,
he who glories, let him glory in the Lord.
(17:23):
Don't allow what you've gone through to disqualify you from
what God called you to, because God will qualify the call.
He will make sure that you have the right education.
He will make sure that you have the right connections.
He will make sure that you're in the right places.
He'll make sure that he opens the right doors at
the right time. He'll make sure that you have the
right words at the right time. He will make sure
that you have everything that you need in order to
(17:45):
complete the plan, purpose, and will that he made you for.
Remember, he made you. He planned out the days of
your life. He knit you together in your mother's womb.
He knows every hair on your head.
Why do we keep taking control?
Why do we keep trying to steer the ship? Why
do we keep questioning him as if he doesn't know
(18:06):
what he's doing? Or like he's forgot about us.
I want to remind you that he loves you, that
he cares about you, that he's with you, that he's
for you.
And as somebody who's called, he will provide everything it
is that you need on the road that he's called
you to. Amen.
(18:27):
I want to share a story about myself, um, obviously, when, uh,
I was a kid. I grew up in a home
where I was the only black kid or person of color.
I was mixed in a white family till I was
11 years old. So from basically birth to 11, I
(18:47):
was the only person of color, so I was quite
literally the black sheep. Like I did not feel connected.
I didn't feel seen.
I didn't feel understood. They tried to cut my hair
with scissors. That it's just not a good look because
you can't get a nice fade with scissors, um, you know,
they didn't know anything about cocoa butter or lotion. It was, um,
and this isn't for all of my Caucasian brothers and sisters.
(19:08):
This is the family that I was raised in.
And so I felt like I was an outsider. At 11,
I met the black side of my family and things
got worse because the way that I behaved, the way
that I spoke, the music that I listened to, I'm
listening to the Lion King soundtrack and they're listening to
Wu-Tang Clan and um.
Watching Bruce Lee movies, you know what I mean? I'm
(19:30):
just like, I don't know who this Bruce Lee is,
and they're trying to put me on. It was, it
was wild, right? There were two different, uh, two different
cultures colliding and I was right in the middle of it.
I didn't know where I fit in. I didn't know
my identity. I didn't feel seen or connected.
I share that because when I was 14 years old, OK,
fast forward from 11 to 14, uh, my mom left
(19:52):
me at home by myself for 3 months. Um, she
moved to, I was in Oregon, she moved to South Carolina,
and she was on a fishing boat. Uh, like I
don't know how she went from Oregon to the deadliest catch.
It doesn't make sense to me.
But that's where she was and she left me with
her EBT card, the keys to her car, and she
paid the rent 3 months in advance and she would
(20:14):
send me money back every week. OK? Imagine giving a
14 year old kid the keys to the house, the
keys to the car, an EBT card with all the
food you can eat. I was going shopping, buying licorice
and beef jerky. That's all I was getting the entire time.
I wasn't.
In a place to, you know, take care of myself,
but my mom's gone. It was like Home Alone meets
Ferris Bueller's Day off. It was wild. I wrecked the
(20:36):
car during the time, almost got us evicted. Like it was,
it was crazy, but during that year I dropped out
of school. I was like, I'm not going to school.
I'm a freshman in high school. I'm not going to school.
Nobody's here to make me. So I literally dropped out
of high school my freshman year.
When my mom got back, she was strung out on drugs.
She spent all her fishing money on using and just
wild and out. Um, that summer, she got arrested for
(20:58):
kicking out a cop car window and I got put
in foster care.
Uh, for that year, so while she was in jail,
I was in foster care for my entire sophomore year.
Uh, my sophomore year, I got a 4.0. I played
basketball for the first time, which ended up me leading
me to play college basketball. But what was different is
that I had structure, I had stability, I had consistency,
(21:20):
I had some guidance, and what I realized is that
my environment shapes my behavior a lot of the time.
I was a good kid, but when left to myself,
I was gonna make poor decisions, but if I was
put in the right environment with some discipline and consistency,
I would make better decisions.
And so that stuck with me. I realized that, hey,
if I can control the things that I can and
(21:40):
accept the things that I can't, I can succeed, I
can thrive. That became an issue. That became an issue
years down the road.
So, I ended up going to college, got a couple
of college degrees, played college basketball. I started a business.
I started a CrossFit gym. And I share this because
we're talking about glorying in yourself. I wanna talk a
(22:01):
little bit about pride. Because of that previous experience and
where I was, I had this pride built up inside
of me. I had that pull yourself up by the
bootstraps mentality.
I made 6 figures in the first year that I
opened my gym. I had some achievements, some accolades, and
some different awards, and, uh, I remember at my 2
year gym anniversary, we're celebrating the success of this gym.
(22:25):
This gym has over 200 members. Each member pays over
$100 a month to be a part of my gym.
So just do the math. I was making money hand
over fist, and that's not the stuff I was bringing
in under the table. I was killing it.
So a kid who came from foster care, parents who
were drug addicts, had no identity, had no security, didn't
know who he was, was now succeeding.
(22:45):
And so inside of me, I had that Rudy chant, Rudy, Rudy,
I thought that I was the man. I didn't think
I could be touched. Nobody could mess with me. I
was able to pull myself up from the bootstraps.
That same night, I remember this vividly because this is
the night that I got in trouble and ended up
going to prison.
I was celebrating 200 people there and they were cheering
(23:06):
my name. I just remember them. Andrew, Andrew, and I
had this big gold chain on with a cup and
I was taking shots and I was popping bottles and
I was just wild and they were just cheering, they
were praising me. They were praising me and I was
receiving all this glory. They're just like, man, you're on
the chamber of commerce, you're making money, you're on, you're
at the country club, you're doing all these things and
(23:27):
I'm just like, look at me. I am the object
of your guys's worship.
And that night I committed a crime that sent me
to prison for 18 months, and I lost everything.
So at my highest point, achieving all of the things
that the world tells you is going to bring you happiness.
Pride got in the way. There was no humility.
I was not humble, I wasn't thankful, I wasn't grateful.
(23:49):
I was receiving the praise and the glory that belongs
only to God.
As human beings, we were not created to be worshiped.
We were not created to receive that kind of glory,
only God.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
And with that, Pastor Andrew Carter brings his study in
Galatians chapter 5 to a close. We're so thankful to
Pastor Andrew for being our featured speaker all this week
here on Kwave's Pastor Spotlight. If you've been blessed by
this week's teaching, be sure to reach out to Pastor
Andrew at Royal City Church. Pastor Andrew Carter is the
lead pastor of Royal City Church, which he helped to
(24:22):
found in October of 2021. Royal City Church stands on
1 Peter chapter 2, verse 9, which says, but you are.
Chosen people, a 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
(24:43):
so that those who attend start to understand who they
are and begin walking in the fullness of their identity,
which will inspire 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.
(25:03):
For more information, visit their website at royal Church.org. We
invite you to join us right here at this same
time Monday for another time of growing in the grace
and knowledge of Jesus Christ. Here on Pastors Spotlight, we'll
feature the teaching of another of our wonderful pastors from
here in the California area. We hope you'll join us.
Pastor Spotlight is a production of Kwave Radio sharing life,
(25:26):
delivering truth, giving hope.
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