TheeSoulFuel Podcast
Welcome to your essential pitstop, where your soul gets the fuel it needs for life’s journey. In Christ, faith is the vehicle steering us through every twist and turn. Join us as we dive into real conversations about real-life challenges, all viewed through the lens of scripture. Don’t leave empty—come and be filled with the wisdom, strength, and grace to keep going.
TheeSoulFuel Podcast
Jesus Ain't a Color
In this episode of TheeSoulFuel Podcast, we challenge the racialized gospel. From black church to white church to brown church—how did we get so off track? The truth is, when culture becomes our lens, Jesus gets distorted. Pastor Willie breaks down how racial identity, political constructs, and spiritual hypocrisy have hijacked the church’s mission—and how to return to a Kingdom identity that transcends culture, color, and division.
If your version of Jesus looks just like your skin color, votes like your political party and worships like your culture, you're not following the Jesus Christ of Scripture. You're following a cultural clone that you created to feel comfortable, and that is not the gospel, it's idolatry. Let's talk. I just want to walk in obedience. Welcome to another episode of the Soul Fuel podcast, the pit stop for your soul to be fueled for your journey in life as you do it with Christ. Listen, today's episode is definitely going to ruffle some feathers. It's kind of in line with the previous episode with some feathers. It's kind of in line with the previous episode that we talked about when it comes to preference, but this is so necessary. The truth is that the church, the people, or the group of people, or the group of people that come together on Sundays and throughout the week here, here and there, have been more loyal to skin color and politics than they have been to Christ. I mean, they're even more faithful to tradition than they are to the Lord Jesus. Let's get into it, listen. Race-based religion is not the gospel. Let's just flat out and say it just like that. Race-based religion is not the gospel. The fact that there is even called a black church is a problem. The fact that there is, uh, even called a white church is a problem. The fact that it's even called a brown church is a problem. And each carry all of these things carry a man-made culture, not kingdom culture. Listen, the problem with black church is that it's black. The problem with white church is that it's white. The problem with brown church is that it's brown. Culture has become the filter for faith, instead of the fruit of faith, instead the fruits of the spirit. In fact, there are no fruits of the spirit really displayed on a deeper level because it's all surface. You got to understand how this creates identity confusion and spiritual division and delusion, because you think that you can love the lord and hate your brother and really I get it.
Speaker 1:And somebody will say well, pastor, will, or or will, um, um, you have to understand. You know, the white man, the oppressor. They didn't want us to do it, we were segregated and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, all of that. But forget that. That's over. Why are we still living in the past? Why are we still living like there is active Jim Crow laws and we are in the 60s when it comes to church, when it comes to the word of God, when it comes to his word.
Speaker 1:Why is it limited? Huh, because church today is designed to make people feel good about where they're from rather than where they are going. And where we're supposed to be going, ladies and gentlemen, saints and aints, is to heaven. How can we get there if we're practicing a specialized, segregated heaven on earth? And when I say that I'm really, I'm talking about church. How do we? How do we say that we want to go to heaven but we're segregated in worship? But I've seen people come together.
Speaker 1:I'm not talking about the churches that are, that are genuinely mixed, that have different ethnicities. There should not be a multicultural church. There should just be a multi-ethnic church, which means they're multi-ethnic and diverse in skin tone, not cultures, because your culture means nothing to God, because culture is man-made. We are supposed to be a part of kingdom culture, right? Galatians 3 and 28,. Just to take away from that, says you are all one in Christ Jesus. Acts 10, verse 34 and 35 would say something very simple that God shows no partiality. So why do we? Why do we? Why do churches feel the need to hire certain people and have diversity, equity and inclusion in church, when we should be. We should have been leading in the first place.
Speaker 1:Well, you don't know people's motives. Well, use discernment, but see, the problem is everybody. Nobody's really, in a lot of these churches. I'm not going to say nobody, because there are people who are well aware of what I'm saying and agree with what I'm saying. So I know that there are churches that are what I look for and what the Lord is looking for in his church, but there are a lot of people who are being taught false teachings and wrapped up into a prosperity gospel that speaks to your ethnic background and your cultural background through a created culture that they have persuaded you to be a kingdom culture. But it's not. It's a man-made culture, politicking from the pulpit on worldly matters. It makes no sense. It makes no sense, you know, and everything that I've been talking about, all of the topics that I've been discussing ever since I preached this sermon series titled Scheduled Program, I have to say this I have to say that society has programmed us.
Speaker 1:Society has programmed every single person, male, female, boy, girl, saved, unsaved, churchgoers, non-churchgoers Everybody has some of the same views, some of the same perceptions, some of the same notions, some of the same stereotype, uh stigmatisms because of culture. Culture taught us to wrap jesus in our experience instead of submitting our experiences to jesus. Instead of looking at the culture of uh, the cultural and historical backgrounds of text, which is, of the text of Scripture, which is called exegeting, the who, what, when, where getting the actual background that we need to know in order to understand the Scripture, society has programmed the so-called people of God to wrap Jesus around their own culture. There's a danger of equating black pride or American patriotism with spiritual truth, because, although I'm proud to be an American, I do know and recognize that this world is not my home. This is just where I was born, this is just where I'm from and I'm grateful for where the lord allowed me to be born.
Speaker 1:I could have been born in any other country, but I was born right here in america, and I know some people might have a problem with that and that's fine, that's okay, but I, I I'm not ashamed of it. I'll say it ain't, it ain't pretty, it ain't beautiful, it's a lot of ugly things about it, but it's my country and it's your country too, and if you think like that, you would take it back and you would, you would own it, and maybe you would. There would be less poverty if you really thought that way. We know that the devil is everywhere. It doesn't matter what country you move to, the devil gonna be there too. All right. And again, this world is not our home.
Speaker 1:But again, I say that to say, although I am a proud american, I know that I am more, first, first and foremost, proud to be a citizen of the kingdom of god. That's first, really. That's why I said american, uh uh. American patriotism can take the, the second, the back seat right, but jesus takes the wheel. Jesus takes the front seat. My faith, my salvation, that takes precedence, always and forever. That's why I choose what Jesus says over what the world says, over what society says, over what the law says. If there's ever a law that goes over, that goes against what my God says, what Jehovah says, what Yahweh says, then I can't do that. I can't do what that American law says, what that American belief is right. I'm believing the word. I'm believing the word because that is the spiritual truth.
Speaker 1:And when you equate your blackness or your whiteness or whatever your culture, whatever those labels are for you, right, because I don't believe in black and white. But whenever you try to equate all of the boastful pride of life and american patriotism with spiritual truth, you end up causing your own destruction. You know why it's easier to wear black and proud or the american flag or whatever mantra or whatever. You know blm, whatever it is. You know why it's easy to wear that stuff than it is to boldly say I follow jesus is because those things make you feel good in the flesh. It makes you feel good about living here on this hell-bound earth, this destructive bound earth, and it doesn't get you excited about heaven that people get real sad people. People get real sad. You talk about death, don't want to talk about it, and when they do, they joke with it as if it's. You know they get another chance. There is no purgatory. Let me tell you that right now Ain't no purgatory. You got to get it right now. Get it right now while you can.
Speaker 1:Right John, chapter 17, verse 21. Jesus prayed for unity in him, not culture. He didn't pray for you. He didn't pray for culture to be, to be unified. He, jesus, prayed for unity in him. We need unity in Jesus, not in culture. When we have a false gospel floating around and people receiving a false gospel.
Speaker 1:We create transactional religion. Many worship a God they've created in their image, one who aligns with their race, with their race get it their race. One who aligns with their ethnic and their cultural background, their own party, their own emotions emotions People love to listen to, the distorted gospel that fits into their paradigm of their own fleshly desires. I could say this a thousand different ways, but we have to make sure that we are willing to call out the transactional theology. It's transactional theology.
Speaker 1:God bless me, bless me, bless me, bless me, but don't change me. Lord bless me, but I'ma do me, i'ma do me, i'ma just be me. I'm going to just be me. I'm going to do me. Baby, you know, I'm going to just be me and God going to bless me, god going to bless me, but you don't change. You got to change your mindset, you got to change your brain, you got to change the way you think, you got to change the way that you see people, because if you can't love your enemy, how can you truly say you love god? How, how can you? How can you really say that? With a straight face you can't.
Speaker 1:This is idolatry with a mask on. It's idolatry with a mask on because You're so wrapped up into Self and your community. This is why I say and I know people get offended when I say it, but I don't care, you don't pay none of my bills. You probably not even, as you you never supported me in nothing more than likely you ain't sent the dime for jack squatterly. I just made that up, so I don't care how you feel about what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:It's idolatry when you hold up your skin color to feel good about Jesus and you wrap Jesus around your culture and the way that you want to do it and the way that you want to move. It's just a disguise Full of pride. Because what pride is? It's easy for hate to grow. As a matter of fact, pride is the atmosphere and the condition for hate to grow. Thank you, holy Spirit. Pride is the environment with the condition for hate to grow, and not only grow but thrive and be deeply rooted from all of your issues, of the culture that you have allowed to program your thinking.
Speaker 1:Thinking I love the way Paul says this in 2 Timothy, chapter 3, verse 5. They hold on to a form of godliness, but they deny the power. They hold on to what looks good, to going to church, to shouting, to dancing, to speaking in tongues. They hold to these things but deny the power, the transformative power, to transform their minds from thinking in a way that is holding them back from being the believer that they're supposed to be. Jesus said you will know them by their fruit. There's a lot of people today, y'all, there's a lot of people today that scream out they know Jesus and they really don't.
Speaker 1:And I heard a brother say this and it explained a lot about this process of, or this theology that I heard about, and I just think it could be named differently. I'll get into that in another episode. But he said this statement and it it it agreed with my spirit. And he said a true believer is not going to remain unrepentant. True believer is not going to remain unrepentant. That's a fact. So people who hear this word and understand what I'm saying and take it for what it means and really sit with it and unpack it, they will repent if they were seeing things differently, if they were seeing things that in a way that they weren't supposed to see them, because we have to understand that, that when it comes to ethnicity or what people call race and I'm just using the word race for the sake of the conversation, because there's only one race we've established that already and that is the human race.
Speaker 1:But race or racism is a barrier, it's not a blessing. Race was never God's design for separation. It's become a satanic construct to divide people Again. This is another fact that we've already established. The political construct of race symbolizes satan's barrier to entry to heaven. That's the barrier to entry. You allowing satan to have his way in your mind through your thoughts. Isolation gave birth to cultures that divide instead of uniting. Uniting that's what it did.
Speaker 1:You got to understand that even when you see this, underline this, this undertone, I mean. I mean, and in some churches they're just outright, just racist, outright, just hateful, and I want to call it hate. Let me now transition that word to hate. They're so hateful Even in the church. It creates a counterfeit. Kingdom Means it's not really what it is. Kingdom means it's not really what it is. Every person of any ethnicity should walk in the room, walk in the building and feel the love of God and even, and even receive welcomes from a welcoming, a warm welcome from those that are in there that claim that they know God, regardless of what it is that they have done or who they are related to. He himself is our peace.
Speaker 1:Who broke down the dividing wall? This is what Paul says to the church at Ephesus, in Ephesians, chapter 2 the Lord Jesus broke down the dividing wall. So let me ask you this what lens are you seeing people through? Because the true lens of the believer is compassion. It's not color. It's not color. Although we're all. Every single person on this earth is a person of color, whether you like it or not. It's not my melanated people, everybody's melanated dummy, everybody's melanated people, everybody's melanated dummy, everybody's melanated. Even the perilous caucasian from the caucus mountains is melanated. Ain't got that much of it, but nonetheless it's still melanin.
Speaker 1:And here's the thing that kills the whole argument. Here's the. The thing that kills division that nobody really wants to think about is that if there were a room full of caucasian people in a room full of af, a room full of americans of african descent who are way darker than they are, and the whole room got disintegrated in flames and they all burn in a fire so hot to where they become ashes, I want somebody right now to scientifically prove to me that you will be able to tell who was the Caucasian man, woman, or who was the American of African descent, male or female? Tell me, will you be able to tell? No, you won't. And we can go science, you won't prove it.
Speaker 1:But that is the proof that we are all made equal. And because we are made equal, there is no partiality when it comes to the Lord. There is no partiality to whom he saves. So woe to those who say that salvation is only for the Jews, salvation is only for so-called quote unquote black people. Salvation ain't for black people. Salvation ain't for white people. Salvation is for people. The world that's a better word For God. So loved the world John 3, 16, that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever shall believe on him shall not perish but have everlasting life. That is a promise that is made to the world, not one group of people. So are you walking with the same compassion Jesus had when he walked the earth? Ask yourself do I see others through hurt, politics, or through the lens of Jesus? Because a lot of people are seeing other people through hurt. They're seeing other people through.
Speaker 1:This is the reason why you get all of these kind of movies, that that that have strong messages about ethnicity and culture in history, and none of it matters. People watch historical movies, movies about slaves, and they get angry all over again. They get angry all over again. Same people told you don't go watch sinners was the first ones to watch 12 years. A slave, mad ticked off. Christ is all and in all.
Speaker 1:According to colossians, chapter 3, verse 11, you cannot say that you love god and hate your brother, for if you are a person that does that, you are a liar. John said it you are a liar. There are many that are in love with the idea of a transactional God, but not in love with the actual Lord. I want to challenge you to do something, because I know there's some of you that may say, no, I don't think about it, but you have wrestled with it, you have had conversations, you have had stuff that really bothered you. I want to challenge you to lay down your cultural lens. To challenge you to lay down your cultural lens. Lay down your cultural lens. Pick up your cross. Picking up your cross is a symbol of dying To walk with Jesus, free and clear, not allowing the flesh to rise up and block you from following him, letting people getting get in the way of the path of righteousness by getting upset because somebody said something that was out of line. Somebody said something that was out of pocket. Somebody said something that was out of line. Somebody said something that was out of pocket. Somebody said something that was racist. Because you have to understand the people who are racist. That literally means that they are hateful people and they do not love themselves. That's all it means. So pray for those who don't know God. Pray for those who don't know God. Pray for those who are having a tough time. Pray for those who struggle with cultural identity. But you have to be able, you have to be willing to keep a lookout and examine yourself. Make sure you reflect on this. Share this episode with someone who needs to hear it, even if it's uncomfortable.
Speaker 1:Listen, I love y'all so much. I want y'all to make sure that you leave a line down in the comment section, make sure that you're leaving a review. Make sure that you join the soul fuel family. You can join by joining the youtube channel and you can also join by the patreon, which is patreoncom forward. Slash the T-H-E-E soul fuel, s-o-u-l-f-u-e-l. The soul fuel on Patreon, and every contribution helps me to continue to do what I do right here. Listen, I love y'all. There's absolutely nothing you can do about it. Until next time, stay fueled and stay full. All right, peace. I just want to walk in obedience.
