Author: Heath Lambert

How Should Christians Think About The SBC Report?

Written by Heath Lambert on May 30, 2022. Posted in Marked By Grace.

The Love of God and the Stench of Sexual Sin On Sunday, May 22, 2022, something that Southern Baptists in particular, and Christians in general, had been waiting for a long time happened. And what that was, was the release of the independent investigation into sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention. What I want to do on the podcast today is just honestly speak to you from my heart about that report. I’ve been very clear in statements to our church at First Baptist and a blog that I wrote that’s available online. I want to be clear here that I rejoice over the release of that report. I think it is good news and a good day. I want to be clear abuse is wrong. Cover-ups of abuse are wrong. Exposure of abuse and exposure of cover-ups are a very good thing. We have been asking...

God Has Been Merciful to Us: Three Reasons to be Encouraged by the Devastating SBC Report on Sexual Abuse

Written by Heath Lambert on May 23, 2022. Posted in First Thoughts.

The SBC Report on Sexual Abuse We have been waiting for months for the Report of the Independent Investigation to detail sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention and the response to that abuse. That report was released yesterday afternoon; I read it with great interest and a broken heart. The report is full of abuse, pain, cover-up, and sin. Every Christian must mourn the shocking mistreatment that so many precious people received at the hands of those charged with their care. The report is long and complex with many details, but at the risk of oversimplification, I want to communicate the report’s findings in one sentence. For years a group of leaders in the Southern Baptist Executive Committee resisted openness, transparency, and protection of sexual abuse victims out of a...

Do Babies Go to Heaven When They Die?

Written by Heath Lambert on May 23, 2022. Posted in Marked By Grace.

This week on the podcast, we are talking about one of the most difficult, sensitive, and tender issues we could ever address. It’s the issue of whether or not babies go to heaven when they die. This is so important for all sorts of reasons. Let me mention two reasons why it’s important. National Reason There’s actually a national reason for Christians living in the United States of America why this is such an important question. It has to do with the legality of abortion on demand. As I record this podcast, there is every reason to believe that the Supreme Court of the United States is going to throw the question of the legality of abortion back to the States. That would be a remarkable witness, not a full-blown victory, the fight will continue. But it will be a remarkable...

Why Do We Worship on Sunday’s?

Written by Heath Lambert on May 16, 2022. Posted in Marked By Grace.

A few weeks ago, on the podcast, I talked about why you need to be at church. Why it’s good to be together, and why it’s good to worship together. But there have been questions asked now about, okay, so if we’re going to come to church, why on Sunday, why is it that Christians gather together for worship on Sunday? I want to respond to those questions that have been asked and explain to you why it is that Christians need not just to worship and not just to worship together but why we need to do that on Sunday. This is something I’ve discovered that a lot of Christians don’t understand. It’s actually something that the pandemic and the culture have changed. We used to live in a culture where everything was closed down on Sunday, and that was, so everybody...

Can I Lose My Salvation?

Written by Heath Lambert on May 9, 2022. Posted in Marked By Grace.

One of the most frequent questions I get in ministry is the question, can I lose my salvation? It comes in different forms. Some people will ask if their daughter can lose their salvation or if their dad might have lost their salvation. Different people ask the question in different ways, but at the heart of the question in whatever form it comes is, is it possible to lose my salvation? This question is not just a frequent question. It’s also a really tender question. The kind of person who is asking this question has the weight of the world on their shoulders. They know that salvation, in Jesus’s name, is the most important reality in the world, and they want it, or they want it for their precious loved one. And they are afraid that having once possessed it, it is going to go...

Can Pedophiles Attend Your Church?

Written by Heath Lambert on May 2, 2022. Posted in Marked By Grace.

I want to talk this week on the podcast about a topic that is as important as it is sensitive, I want to talk about the reality of pedophiles in our churches. This is a massive topic, there are all sorts of things we could talk about. For example, we could talk about how to institute safety measures, safety protocols in your church, to keep the children in your ministry safe from child predators. There is a time and a place to do that. There’s a lot of information available for that there are a lot of best practices available for that. Your church should follow those best practices as mine does. That’s a different topic for a different day. What I want to talk about today, among all the different things that we could talk about, is a more specific question of allowing a pedophile...

Should Christians Go to Church on Sunday?

Written by Heath Lambert on April 25, 2022. Posted in Marked By Grace.

Come to Church on Sunday It’s the spring of the year 2022. It’s just after Easter. I am aware that two years ago, our church, like all of your churches, our church here in Jacksonville, Florida, at First Baptist Church, was on lockdown. It was in early March that I made the decision, together with our other leaders, that we had to close this thing down like everybody else was. We were closed up for about three months before we started to realize, okay, this isn’t what it appeared that it might have been, and we’ve got to start having church again. We found over the ensuing months, and now over the ensuing years, that it was actually a fairly easy process to shut down church. And opening church and getting people to come back has been a fairly complicated process. I’ll...

Has Coffee Mastered You?

Written by Heath Lambert on April 18, 2022. Posted in Marked By Grace.

I want to address a really sensitive topic. I want to talk about a really controversial topic, a truly hot topic. I want to talk to you about your coffee. And I want to ask you a very sensitive and very controversial question. And the question is, have you mastered coffee, or has coffee mastered you? In your relationship with coffee, who is in charge? Personal Testimony I want to talk to you about that this week, and I want to talk to you about it by telling you a story. Many of you will know about this problem that I have in my brain with these nerves that are damaged. Some blood vessels in my brain dislocated and rested on a nerve in my brain and began to do damage to those nerves, which began to cause problems with movement on the right side of my body. And it’s been years of treatment...

Celebrating Your Resurrection This Easter

Written by Heath Lambert on April 11, 2022. Posted in First Thoughts.

Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. Romans 6:4 Celebrating Easter Every year at Easter, Christians celebrate the historical, literal, physical, and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus was really dead, and he really came back to life. He is alive now and reigning in heaven, and we are awaiting his historical, literal, physical, and bodily return to earth to reclaim his bride. The Bible teaches that when Jesus returns, every person who has believed in him will be transformed and will receive a glorious and perfect resurrection body (1 Corinthians 15:35-49). There is another resurrection that Christians experience, however. It is the resurrection...

Should Christians Cuss?

Written by Heath Lambert on April 11, 2022. Posted in Marked By Grace.

I grew up with a lot of my family members feeling very comfortable using cuss words. It wasn’t everybody, but it was a commonality in my family, with many of my relatives deploying cuss words left and right. It was a very common occurrence. I heard them all the time growing up. I was not very old at all when I knew what all of the cuss words were, including the worst ones. I think that’s a common approach to cussing that it’s just great. It’s a normal way to speak. It’s a great way to speak. It emphasizes what we want to speak about on the other end of the continuum. There are people who view cussing as very, very bad. You’re never supposed to cuss. This is not something you’re ever supposed to do. And somewhere in the very broad middle is where...