Bethel Deliverance International Church

Bishop Eric A. Lambert, Jr.: When you're in your place, there are things that happen in your place. And the body of Christ has been moved from their place. Now, I'm not advocating everybody be as aggressive as me. I'm not saying that. My point is that if you allow yourself to be structured by the world, then when does God step in?

Every relationship has contained within its core, in its nucleus, the need to evolve to something better. One of the primary, if not the primary reason for divorce in America is unrealistic expectation that leads to disillusionment. In other words, you married somebody with hopes that you would not—you're never going to receive them. So you do what's normal, you run off because you had unrealistic expectations. I would hazard a guess, and I would suggest to you believers, what were your expectations for your salvation?

When you eventually came to Christ, what were you looking for? Freedom from sin? That didn't happen because we still sin. Peace of mind? That didn't happen right away. It comes as the mind is renewed and refreshed. What were you looking for? Well, in comes Word of Faith to give you the sum total of your fleshly walk. All that is in the world—1 John chapter 2:15-17—all that is in the world, the pride of life, lust of the eye, and lust of the flesh.

What we've done is we've taken those three sensual desires and turned them into spiritual directives and we insist that God fulfills them. In short, we want God to guarantee our pleasure, which is the wrong reason to get involved. Many of you that are married are running into walls because your marriage is not what you hoped because you built your hope on what you saw, not on what you lived or what you can bring.

You married beyond your capability. That's when you know you married the wrong person. Beyond your capability. In other words, I can't give you what you need to satisfy you. So you then encourage them to find somebody else. Now, depending upon your culture, there are some cultures where we like to try to manipulate people into being what we want them to be. On the woman's side, it's withholding passion. On the man's side, it's withholding money and care. But we all have little tricks that we use to try to manipulate people into our understanding of relationship.

And you're not far removed from your natural expectations to your spiritual expectations, so you bring those same things to God. Only problem is you can't manipulate Him. This might shock you. You tell your man or your woman, "Baby, I need you." Most times it's a lie. But you say, "Baby, I really need you." No, you need something about them. But God doesn't need us.

Now, that's very humbling. Even during praise and worship, bless the praise leaders, they're like, "Come on y'all, let's praise Him. God needs our praise." No, He doesn't. No, He doesn't. God doesn't need your praise. He's got angels who praise Him 24/7. And then Jesus adds insult to injury by saying if you don't praise Him, God will raise up rocks. Do you understand the dynamic of that? God will raise up rocks to praise Him. He doesn't need you.

In fact, praise was not created for God. It was created for us. Because God needed to give us something to express how awesome He is to us. And when we refuse to do it, then God says, "Okay, I'll let something come into your life so you can see I've been keeping you all the time." You actually thought you and your degrees and you and your good looks and you and your talents, you actually thought you were managing your life. And God said, "Fine, I'll let something come to show you that I'm large and in charge."

And this is what Paul is communicating to the Ephesian church. It's a prison epistle. It's when he's under house arrest. He's not in that subterranean jail of 2 Timothy. He's under house arrest. Why? Because they don't know what to do with him. The Roman leaders, they don't know what to do with Paul. He's an enigma. They've never heard this message before. And it's far-reaching. It's touching people they never thought could be touched. So they put him in a halfway house and they allowed him to receive visitors. And some of these visitors would come and talk to him about the needs of the church community.

And these Ephesians were able to send someone to Paul and say, "Look, we've got these people who are now converts, probably fueled by those few people that you talked to over in Acts 19, and they need stability. They need to understand what it means to be a Christian," as do we. And the first sign to understand what it means to be a Christian is knowing what's your place. Where do you belong? One thing I remember my mother saying to me, when she said it, it wasn't with fondness, it was with passion. Oh yeah, but it was anger-passion. "Get over there and sit down, boy. Get back in your place."

You see all types of trouble comes when you're not in your place. "Sit right here until I come back and get you," and then you get up and you walk away. Why? Because you're unsure of your place. Or you may be tempted to move to another place. Why? Because you're not satisfied where you are. Christianity is under assault. Christianity is under attack. And I fear that we're going to see a continuing weakening of Christianity—not the body of Christ—but Christianity at large. Why? Because we don't have a sense of purpose.

This is why we look to Facebook and we look to YouTube and we look to all the other social media outlets to do what? To qualify us, to help us, because we've been convinced that God can't help us. Something the Holy Spirit told us to do once on Wednesday night—I feel Wednesday-ish—and it was very simple. I asked the question about the circumference of the earth and I had someone go onto their phone and pull it up on Wikipedia. And they pulled it up and I said, "Now do you believe that?" They said, "Yeah." I said, "Why?" "Because it's written here."

See, you believe what comes on your phone and on your computer. But then when you go to the Word of God, you struggle. Why? Why do you believe what the world tells you but not what God tells you? Why? Why are you easily swayed by the surrounding environment and not God? Even in my healing, even in my healing, the surgeon and his team, they gave me an outline and told me what to expect when. And told me, "This is what is supposed to happen at this certain time."

Now, Marilyn told me I did too much, but flesh and blood did not reveal that to her, but my Father. But I made this statement. I said, "They're drawing a conclusion based on their understanding." Now, my physical therapist says, "You've only been three weeks," and this morning I hit 120 degrees in knee flexion and I'm not supposed to be at 120 until nine weeks. I didn't care what the paper said. I didn't care what the rules say. I cared what Isaiah 53 said: "By His stripes I'm healed."

Why? Because you begin to understand when you're in your place, there are things that happen in your place. And the body of Christ has been moved from their place. Now, I'm not advocating everybody be as aggressive as me. I'm not saying that. My point is that if you allow yourself to be structured by the world, then when does God step in? And again, I'm not advocating you to go out and violate your doctor's orders or what's written. Everybody's different.

And you have to find—same way with Christianity—some of us have been born again for 15 years, but we act like one-year-old Christians. We need counseling every week, we're calling people to pray for us, we can't make any decisions. Why? You don't know your place. 15 years of walking with God and you still need hands laid on you? And you still need to be called down to the altar and you still need the baby food of gifts and titles?

And you're not perfected in love? And you're still carrying grudges and you don't know how to forgive? And you don't know how to endure and you don't know how to be long-suffering and you don't know how to be patient? And yet you speak in tongues and move in all of this stuff, but the essentials are far removed. Now, I think this is what came to Paul while he was sitting here and he said, "Alright, we're going to deal with this." And so he sits down and he writes the epistle to the Ephesians.

Now, usually Pauline epistles are not very large, usually. There are a few instances where that rule is kind of violated: Romans, Corinthians. But in general, Pauline epistles are small. They're to the point because he's trying to get across to the reader a message that they can apply. And it's easier to apply it if it's not theological. Here in the 21st century, you have people preaching to you and talking to you about a lot of stuff just to make themselves look educated. And you're going, "Mm, yeah, praise God."

Now explain what they just said. Explain what they just said. You walk out with the words, but no understanding. And so when Paul writes this, here's the principal purpose of the letter to the Ephesians: to reveal the purpose of God for the whole universe. Not just for the church. Now, this is very important as we get into this. This is very important because it helps to answer the question that we've asked over the past few months: Are you ready for the Lord's return? This letter will determine whether or not you are because you will get in your place.

If your supervisor says, "I'm going to go away. I'm leaving here at 9:00 AM, but I'll be back at 3:00, and I'd like these reports done by the time I get back," you may kind of skate from 9:00 to 12:00. You might have extra coffee breaks, run out to Dunkin' Donuts, you know, you might shoot over to McDonald's because you figure I got six hours. But at 12:00, it all starts crashing in on you. You say, "Ooh, I got to get back and get this done because he'll be back by 3:00." Well, that's what the Lord is saying.

"When I come back, will I find faithfulness on the earth? How will I find my body when I come back? Will you be sitting in church or will you be the church?" Will you learn how to function in the absence of theological hierarchy or will you determine that just because you have a pastor, they're supposed to do everything? Someone reaches out to you and says, "I need prayer. Such and such happened in my life." "Well, call the church and ask for Pastor Lambert." But aren't you the light?

You don't know your purpose. Why did our awesome God allow that to come to you? Because you were capable of handling it. And so Paul writes and he says, "God's purpose needs to be revealed to the whole universe, and He has revealed that purpose through His Son and then through His church, the body of His Son." And that's what you and I are. We are the functioning body of Christ. Now, when you compare this body to the first century and now to the 21st century, you've got to be honest. I'm a bit ashamed.

I'm ashamed of those who call themselves preachers and preach nothing. I'm ashamed of those who just use the gospel as a way to get money. And every time you turn around, the office of prophet has been so maligned that people say, "Oh, the Lord told me a thousand of you are going to give a hundred dollars." No, the Lord didn't tell you that. Why would He need to tell you that? I've never done that. I've just gotten up and said, "Okay, here's what we need to pay, here's what we have to do, and we can break it down into small segments, so if I get 200 people to do such and such, we can do it faster." But I never say the Lord told me.

Because the truth of the matter is, the Lord could speak to one of you and have you do the whole thing. That $600,000, one of you could have paid the whole thing. And don't even look at me funny. But because of your environment and your cultural understanding, you automatically assume that everybody else is supposed to do it, so you don't look at yourself. Why? You don't know your place. You keep thinking in terms of crowds and God is the God of one.

He told Gideon, "Go fight against the Midianites," and Gideon went out and mustered an army of 32,000 men. 32,000! And God said, "Tell the cowards to go home." He stood before those men and said, "Alright, all you punks go home." 22,000 went home! Now, I've never in my life seen 22,000 cowards. 22,000 left! And Gideon said, "Well, I've got 10,000." God said, "You still have too many." He said, "What do you mean?" He said, "You still have too many."

"Well, they've already determined they're not cowards, so how do I thin out the herd?" Take them down to the water brook and see who lays on their belly and see who kneels on their knee. And the ones who lay on their belly to lap up the water like a dog, choose them. Don't take the ones who get down on one knee. See, and I'm not even going into the theological ramifications of it, it just takes too much time. But understand he winds up with 300.

Now you think that's something? You know what was really mind-boggling? The 300 never had to fight. Put yourself in Gideon's place. The battle is being fought by the Lord. The 300 that are left are never really having to fight. You look up at God and say, "Why'd you have me choose an army?" "Well, I just wanted obedience. I knew I was going to fight. I just wanted to see if you trusted Me." And right now, if you look at your life, you see God is taking out the cowards, God is taking out the prideful, God is taking out everything that has come between you and Him.

And you're finding yourself stripped naked and in Samson's case, blinded by your own ambitions, and God is stripping it away. And how does He do it? He allows Delilah to come in and cut your hair. And the very person that you don't want in your life is the one God sends in your life so that He can strip you down till you need Him. Why? Because you're no longer in your place. And Paul wants to bring them there.

But now let's get down to the nitty-gritty. What was the purpose of God revealed through Christ? Optimally, at best glance, Paul will address two issues that truly reflect the kingdom of God and if they are employed not only in the church but in the world, I'm telling you Satan would not have a foothold in our lives. Number one: unity. We have no unity. Satan was crafty.

Back during the days of the Azusa Street revival when that so-called uneducated guy would have those meetings in that barn preaching from milk crates, he would be in there praying and seeking God and there were supernatural moves of God that are still discussed today. When the revival began to end, there was one prophecy that came out of that revival that said, "God says when you leave here, do not create denominations." And the first thing they did was create denominations.

There was one large denomination called the Church of God and they fell out with another group and that group fell away and called themselves Church of God in Christ. There were Baptists and Anabaptists and Methodists and there were all types of other groups, but God's not in denominational movements. It's an act of the devil to keep us separate. To make us believe man-made doctrine and not the Word of God. The church is the church. It is one body. And we should all work together.

Lord help me. I'm trying to keep it together y'all. Now, the spirit of oneness and unity is so vital that God uses your body, your physical body, to teach it to you. This is a lesson that I taught for years and they put that stuff up there that I'm entering my 40th year of ministry—I'm 39! Don't you let the devil deceive you and don't put that on that screen anymore. See y'all think just because I wasn't here, you can get away with a lot of nonsense. I ain't no blooming 40 years in ministry.

But I taught the insulation ability of the body of Christ through Pauline instructions of one-anothering. Why do you think Paul emphasizes one-anothering? Because in the body, there is love, forgiveness, edification, exhortation, encouragement, protection, and all the other one-another's that he talks about in the body. You understand me? I understand the psychological concepts of maybe needing to speak to someone who is licensed and trained to help you through mental anguish. I understand that.

But in the economy of God, your first course of action is in the body. Before I go out to the center to help me with my neurosis and my schizophrenia—and I understand all of that, that's what I'm trained in—but your first course of action is in the body because God gave the body everything you need. You follow me? Now, I taught that for years, but I began to master that concept over the last four weeks. Why was my knee swelling? Why was it going down to my leg?

Why did it slip into my foot so that I couldn't wear my nice shoes? I had to wear my Forest Gump shoes. And I began to think about it and it bothered me. I reached out to Marilyn and I said, "I don't understand this swelling!" Because I couldn't talk to God about it because, you know, He's like, "Eh." So I thought I'd talk to somebody who had compassion and her compassion went as far as, "You're doing too much." I said, "That's my friend, my sister."

And I began to evaluate something and then I compared it with some medical information. Something new was put in my body that was not part of my DNA. And every part of my body rushed over to protect what it didn't understand. And all that fluid and all of that stuff and all of those white blood cells and everything rushed over there and looked at that new implant and said, "What the heck are you doing in here? You ain't bone, you don't have any DNA in you. What are you doing in here? Loose him!"

And the more stuff came in to insulate, the more it swelled. But then after about two weeks, it says, "Okay, he isn't going anywhere. We've got to figure out a way to live with him. And he doesn't have any pain anymore. So we've got to figure a way to live with him." And it starts backing off. But the body always rushes to protect the body. Your brain sends a signal, your left arm itches, if you're right-hand dominant, you go [scratches]. Why? Because the body protects the body. Now watch what Paul says. Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. What's he saying? You ought to know when somebody's hurting.

Guest (Male): There are times in life when the pull of this culture wears us down and leaves us feeling defeated. But the Bible says we are more than conquerors through Christ who loved us. In his new book, *The Christian in the Culture 2: Walking in Victory*, Bishop Eric A. Lambert, Jr. reminds us of tools in the word of God that the Christian must use to maintain a life of victory. *Walking in Victory* offers fresh insight about living for Jesus with a focus on walking in the spirit and in the fruit thereof. Learn how to maintain your identity and purpose as a believer by ordering *Walking in Victory*. *The Christian in the Culture 2: Walking in Victory* is available at EricLambertMinistries.org and wherever books are sold.

Bishop Eric A. Lambert, Jr. is committed to influencing our culture with Christ. In his book, *The Christian in the Culture*, Bishop Lambert explores practical ways to avoid becoming ensnared by the trends of today's culture. Order your copy of *The Christian in the Culture* and achieve daily victorious living. Visit EricLambertMinistries.org to purchase the book and discover more resources that will enrich your Christian walk.

Thank you for tuning into Climbing Higher with Bishop Eric A. Lambert, Jr. of Wyncote, Pennsylvania. We pray that you are encouraged to grow in your faith as you listen to today's message. If you enjoyed today's program, feel free to order the entire message by calling 800-550-3284 and request the item number and sermon shown on display.

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