NEW ORLEANS (BP)–During Christmas of 1996, God told Tony Lambert, “The problem with you, Tony, is you know your wife better than you know me.”
From that time forward, he has sought to know Jesus Christ more intimately, Lambert said Sept. 22 at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
A graduate and trustee of the seminary, Lambert has been pastor of the 4,600-member Westside Church in Omaha, Neb., since 1992. Previously, he served as a pastor of various congregations throughout Mississippi for 14 years.
In 1996, Lambert recounted, he was spiritually empty, not having sought to know Jesus Christ in a way God desired throughout his years of ministry.
Lambert said he was miserable and was considering resigning his position until God spoke to him through his wife. As he was driving his father’s 1986 Jaguar home after a family visit, the heat in the car would not work. His wife pulled up beside him on the interstate to tease him just as Lambert knew she would. It was at this point that God told Lambert that he knew his wife better than his own Lord.
Preaching from Mark 3:13 in his New Orleans chapel message, Lambert emphasized how Jesus called the 12 apostles to be with him and then sent them out to preach.
Lambert said he desired to be the example to his children that Jesus was to his disciples after hearing from God. He said that he began to read Scripture daily at the breakfast table so that his children would see the importance of it. Within three months his son also began voluntarily reading his Bible at the breakfast table.
Spiritual disciplines can bring a person closer to Jesus but Lambert warned that devotional times can become a demonic tool if they are seen as just another chore instead of genuine time with the Lord.
Lambert cited men of God like John Wesley who once spent the entire day in his prayer closet on his knees before God, not realizing how long he had been there. Today there are still knee prints in the floor from Wesley’s knees to prove how important seeking God was to him.
“If you are not daily communing with Jesus Christ,” Lambert said, “then you have no right to do ministry.”
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Mintz is a newswriter at New Orleans Seminary.
