{"id":3636,"date":"2015-10-02T00:33:23","date_gmt":"2015-10-02T07:33:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hoc6.org\/global\/?p=3636"},"modified":"2015-10-02T09:35:54","modified_gmt":"2015-10-02T16:35:54","slug":"102-godly-ambition-%ef%bc%88%e8%af%971161-11-%e8%85%9331-41-%e8%80%b6410-531%ef%bc%89","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hoc6.org\/global\/2015\/10\/02\/102-godly-ambition-%ef%bc%88%e8%af%971161-11-%e8%85%9331-41-%e8%80%b6410-531%ef%bc%89\/","title":{"rendered":"10\/2: Godly Ambition \uff08\u8bd7116:1-11 \u81533:1-4:1 \u80364:10-5:31\uff09"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u8bfb\u7ecf\uff1a\u8bd7116:1-11 \u81533:1-4:1 \u80364:10-5:31<\/h2>\n

Godly Ambition<\/h2>\n
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Chuck Colson was a self-made man. As a student, he arrogantly turned down a scholarship to Harvard. He joined the Marines, set up his own law firm and entered politics. By the age of forty he had become one of President Nixon\u2019s closest advisers. Later he described himself as \u2018a young ambitious <\/em>political kingmaker\u2019. He was known as Nixon\u2019s \u2018hatchet-man\u2019.<\/p>\n

He pleaded guilty to his part in the Watergate cover-up scandal and was sent to prison. By then he had encountered Jesus. When he left the court after hearing the sentence he said, \u2018What happened in court today… was the court\u2019s will and the Lord\u2019s will \u2013 I have committed my life to Jesus Christ and I can work for him in prison as well as out.\u2019<\/p>\n

Colson did just that. After his release he set up Prison Fellowship and has since been directly or indirectly responsible for leading thousands to Christ. I once heard him say, \u2018I was ambitious, and I am ambitious today<\/em>, but I hope it is not for Chuck Colson (though I struggle quite a lot as a matter of fact). But I am ambitious for Christ<\/em>.\u2019<\/p>\n

Ambition has been defined as the \u2018desire to succeed\u2019. There are ultimately only two controlling ambitions to which all others may be reduced: one is our own glory, and the other is God\u2019s glory.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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1. Be ambitious about your relationship with God<\/h2>\n

Psalm 116:1-11<\/a>Make your relationship with God your number one priority. Like the psalmist, declare that your ambition is to walk before the Lord: \u2018I\u2019m striding in the presence of God\u2019 (v.9, MSG). Make sure that your life is centred on a love relationship with God. This is the way to find \u2018rest\u2019 for your \u2018soul\u2019 (v.7).<\/p>\n

This relationship is founded on the many ways in which we experience God\u2019s help. The psalmist remembers how God \u2018heard my cry for mercy\u2019 (v.1), how \u2018when I was in great need he saved me\u2019 (v.6), how \u2018the Lord has been good to me\u2019 (v.7) and how God \u2018delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling\u2019 (v.8). This is then the basis of his ambition to \u2018walk before the Lord\u2019 (v.9).<\/p>\n

Lord, I love you. I want to make it my ambition today, and for the rest of my life, to walk before you in the land of the living.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

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2. Be ambitious for Christ<\/h2>\n

Philippians 3:1-4:1<\/a>Sometimes Christians wonder whether it is right to be ambitious. They associate ambition with pride and think that humility means not being ambitious.<\/p>\n

However, Paul was fiercely ambitious. Before he was a Christian, Paul had been ambitious in his zeal for Judaism, which led to a desire to persecute the church. After his conversion, he did not lose his ambitious nature, but its direction changed. If anything, he was even more ambitious! He describes himself in this passage as being like an athlete desperate to win a race (vv.13\u201314).<\/p>\n

Paul contrasts his great ambition for Jesus with two wrong types of ambition. The first is his own ambition before he became a Christian. He describes how he put his confidence in the flesh (\u2018outward privileges and physical advantages and external appearances\u2019, v.3, AMP), trusting in the different marks of his old religion (vv.3\u20136). But, as Karl Barth once said, \u2018Jesus Christ came to destroy religion.\u2019<\/p>\n

God wants you to be confident, but not \u2018in the flesh\u2019. Rather your confidence should be in God alone \u2013 his love and provision. Paul\u2019s religious ambition and zeal were misdirected. He ended up \u2018persecuting the church\u2019 (v.6).<\/p>\n

The second wrong type of ambition is the material and earthly focus of so many in the world around us: \u2018Their god is their stomach [\u2018their appetites, their sensuality\u2019, AMP], and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things\u2019 (v.19).<\/p>\n

Paul now had a godly ambition. In vv.8\u201311 he describes the \u2018surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord\u2019 (v.8), and the ambitions that flow from it.<\/p>\n

Paul realised he could never attain perfection. All his ambitions to attain \u2018a righteousness on my own\u2019, he now regards as \u2018rubbish\u2019 (v.9). Instead he was enjoying the fact that through trust in Christ he received \u2018the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith\u2019 (v.9).<\/p>\n

God never allows us to achieve perfection in this life. Our weaknesses keep us dependent on him, leaning on him and on his love and grace.<\/p>\n

What was Paul\u2019s ambition? What should your ambition be?<\/p>\n