Letting the Lord have his way in us

San Diego Reader: How long do you spend writing your sermon?

Pastor Brad Lambert: The preparation has been going on for the whole time I’ve been a believer. I’m changing and learning new things all the time about the word, God, and growing in Christ. I feel like I’m always preparing my heart, so when we get to the actual message, I’m praying about it and thinking about it during the week. I get serious about it more on Friday, and then all day Saturday, and early Sunday. So, I probably would say about 12 hours or so preparing.

SDR: What is your favorite subject on which to preach?

PL: The subject that’s impacted me more than anything else in the Bible is the New Covenant, because it speaks about the fullness of what Christ has come to do in the believer’s life. It takes you beyond yourself and anything you could possibly produce in your own abilities. It shows us the importance of letting the Lord have his way in us, where we could never have imagined what the Lord could do through us unless we see we’re dead to ourselves and to who we used to be in Adam.

SDR: What is your main concern as a member of the clergy?

PL: I’m concerned with the church’s preoccupation with the world and our love for the world and for the culture of the world that has infiltrated the church. We’ve allowed things to come in that have taken us away from what the Lord is wanting to do with us in the New Covenant. There are things we depend on and oftentimes it’s not the Lord.

SDR: Why did you become a minister in the first place?

PL: I was born again in the Jesus Movement, with Calvary Chapel in Orange County, back around 1970….It wasn’t until I was about 32 years old I felt the Lord was calling me, after I had achieved a lot of things in the public education system. My desire was to become a superintendent of schools and wanting to go as far as I could with that. But I felt the Lord at a certain point made it really clear that was not where he was taking me.

SDR: What is the mission of your church?

PL: We have outreaches in the downtown communities and at the beach. It’s kind of a beach ministry, and we’re evangelizing those people who are there. One of the things we want them to know is that the Lord is there.

SDR: Where do you go when you die?

PL: The popular answer is always trying to avoid talk of hell. You can’t talk about hell, sin or judgment. But Jesus talked about hell — more than he talked about heaven, even. So, there is that aspect people don’t want to know about or believe. It is part of the relativism where your truth is not my truth. But you must give the whole of God’s word — so we have to talk about sin, the moral character of God and his word and even hell. But I think that if you look at Scripture, the heaven part is a bit confusing…I don’t know what it’s going to be like, but it’s going to be indescribable.