30th April 2017 - IS IT RIGHT OR WRONG TO BE AMBITIOUS?

We live in a world in which the winner takes all. Consider the Olympic swimming. As little as one hundredth of a second can separate gold from silver in the final.

But we only value the gold medal. We only remember the gold medalist. 

Yep, it’s definitely a winner–takes–all world we live in, because the one thing that this world values above everything else, is success.

And who doesn’t want to succeed at whatever you turn your hand to. You start a business, you embark on a career, you enter into a marriage relationship, you bring children into this world. Is there anyone amongst us who doesn’t want to succeed at those important things?

Of course not!

And yet there’s something about ambition that can get real ugly, real quick. There’s something in each one of us that wants to shy away from ambitious people.

Think about it, how much do you value the quality of “ambition” in other people. It’s not up there in your top ten is it? Even in your top 20?!

In any case, didn’t Jesus say that “if you want to be first, you have to be last?”

So now, we have a dilemma. We all value success, yet we don’t much like that “ambition” label. But don’t you, at least to some extent, need to be ambitious in order to be successful?

Well, this Sunday, we’re going to take a look at the rights and wrongs of ambition.

From a different perspective. From the Bible’s perspective. From God’s perspective.