Nehemiah 2:1–5 (NIV)

In the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was brought for him, I took the wine and gave it to the king. I had not been sad in his presence before, so the king asked me, “Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart.” I was very much afraid, but I said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not look sad when the city where my ancestors are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?” The king said to me, “What is it you want?” Then I prayed to the God of heaven, and I answered the king, “If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my ancestors are buried so that I can rebuild it.”

The Shadow of Ambition

(Introduction) The Paradox of Ambition

The word ambition can evoke two greatly different range of emotions. For some men, that word makes you want to jump out of bed in the morning and go and win your day. You rise up early. You conquer your morning routine. You are a member of the 5AM club, You’re a man on fire!

Where are all of my men of ambition?

Why don’t I see you here for 5:30 AM prayer? I’m kidding, I’m kidding…

And for other men, that word triggers you. You aren’t fueled by ambition. You’re actually turned off by someone who is wound up that tight. You have no desire to wake up in the mornings, and as a matter of fact, you prefer to go with flow of life and you’d never create your own path.

I won’t ask any of you to raise your hands and identify what side of the spectrum you are on, but we are on here somewhere.

The Shadow of Ambition

Now, unlike some of our previous meetings, my goal today is to not spend a lot of time on the shadow side of ambition.

We will expose it, but then we are going to quickly go on to talk about Godly Ambition.

But it is important to highlight what wordly ambition looks like so that we can get a vision for Godly ambition.

Worldly ambition is defined by dominance and attention.

Ambition is a force in our world that men must contend with. Ambition gone wrong in the life of a man will cause you to mistreat people you love, ignore your neighbor, and it will leave a bloody trail in the wake of your ambition for dominance.

This is the godless pursuit of money:

More money.

More titles.

More stuff.

Ambition is the gas on this train and it will run over everything in its path!

That’s ungodly ambition, and it is a shadow.

When we look at the lives of the disciples, surprisingly we see this shadow all the way up until the final days of Jesus.

Jesus has a meal with his disciples, which is known as the Last Supper, and the conversation quickly turned to “Who will be the greatest in the Kingdom?”

Luke 22:24–26 (NIV)

A dispute also arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest. Jesus said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves.

Listen if these 12 guys at the end of 3 years of living with Jesus struggled with ambition, just know you’re in some good company of men.

And what about attention?

That’s something that’s been flipped on it’s head in recent years. Ungodly ambition yearns for attention. We want to seen. And, I’m not talking about simply walking into a place where everyone knows your name, but in 2024 the desire is to go viral.

I remember once asking my kids what they wanted to do when they got older and their response was, “I want to be a famous YouTuber.”

A famous what?

A YouTuber?

Is that even a word?

I know I sound old when I say that, but that wasn’t an option for me when I was in high school.

There is a desire to be seen. To be known. To have clout.

If you did something great and didn’t post about it, did it even happen???

That’s what our generation is now contending with.

I’ve wondered when kids are truly ready for social media… and I read and I listen to a lot of podcasts. As a matter of fact, I think that’s my super power. But there is a sense that most kids should not have any sort of social media until they are 16 years old. That’s it. And that’s only it if they are mature enough to handle people not liking their posts.

I remember working with a creative and he posted something and I liked it. Later he took it down and I asked him why and he said, “Not enough people liked it.”

Are you kidding me?!?!

If it was meaningful to you, then why would you care if someone else doesn’t find it meaningful?

And this is still a developing shadow, guys. The need for attention. We don’t know where this will go but we must proceed with caution.

Remember that Biblically, Jesus would do incredible miracles, and what would he say? Don’t tell anyone what happened here today. This is just for us.

Ambition. Dominance. Attention. These are all shadows that we contend with.

Transition

While worldly ambition leads to dominance and self-centeredness, godly ambition seeks to serve and honor God.

The Lord’s Prayer

Jesus was a man that had power with God. He embodied a Godly ambition. He was not living a life of passivity, and he unapologetically carried a message that the Jews needed to repent, because the Kingdom of God was at hand.

I know that wasn’t a “feel good message”, but Jesus didn’t come to make men feel good. He came to call men to repentance so that they could be experience life in the Kingdom of Heaven while they were here on earth.

But I want to go deeper into the life of Jesus and discover what fueled his Godly ambition.

[TRANSITION]

“Jesus' prayer life was the foundation of His godly ambition. It was through prayer that He aligned His desires with the Father's will."

I believe that because His disciples knew that Jesus was not like anyone or anything they had ever seen, and when they wanted to know what made him the way he was they asked this question, “Can you teach us to pray?”

The disciples hit the bullseye on that one.

They didn’t need his diet and exercise routine, or study the way he preached like we study the most celebrated Ted Talks as examples of effective communication.

No, these men knew where his authority came from. It came from his prayer. And so, these man asked him, “Can you teach us to pray?”

Now, many of us know the prayer, but let’s say it together anyway…

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. They Kingdom come, they will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

STOP - let’s pause there.

Jesus starts his prayer and it is entirely oriented around the Father.

Jesus orients prayer around:

The Father’s Name

The Father’s Kingdom

The Father’s Will

He hasn’t asked for anything. He hasn’t demanded anything. He has only oriented his prayer around the Father.

Now, let’s go on…

Give us this day, our daily bread and forgive us our debt as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For thine is the Kingdom and the glory forever, amen.

Now we pray for:

Our needs

Our forgiveness

Our protection

Men, I’m not done preaching yet, but that’s a prayer masterclass given to us directly from Jesus himself.

The Shadow of Ambition disorders our priorities and instead of praying for Jesus’ name we’re seeking for our name to be great.

Instead of prayer for the father’s Kingdom to come, we’re asking the father to bless our kingdom.

Instead of submitting our will to the Father, we are asking Him to submit to our will.

I’m not saying we don’t come to the Lord with our requests, but Jesus shows us that the order of our prayers is often a reflection of the order of our heart.

To develop godly ambition, start by asking God to reveal His desires for your life. Pray for guidance, seek His will in your daily decisions, and commit to serving others.

And, can I let you in on a little secret?

When the order of our lives more closely resembles the order of our Father’s heart, he will bring into alignment all the things you need anyway. This is another word direct from the mouth of Jesus.

Matthew 6:33 (NIV)

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

When our ambition is submitted to Godly ambition, the Father is going to take care of you.

I promise you Men, if you build His house, he will build your house. If you build His kingdom, he’s going to see to it that you never lack anything. This is the nature of our Father. He’s a good Father!

Nehemiah

Now I want to take you back to our text today as we consider the man Nehemiah as an example of Godly ambition.

Before we can explain the verses we read in chapter 2, let’s look at chapter 1. Nehemiah is a Jewish man serving in the court of King Artaxerses, the Persian King.

During this time the Jews were captives to the Persian Empire. But there was a remnant of Jews living in Jerusalem that were trying to carry on their culture and traditions, central to which was worship in the temple. Nehemiah asked for a status report on how things were going back home. That’s when he hears the news that things weren’t looking good…

We need to stop right there.

When is the last time you asked God what he needed?

I know we’re real good at letting him know what we need. But when was the last time you went to the Lord and asked him to put a burden in your heart for the things that burden His heart?

That’s the beginning of Godley Ambition. When we come to God with questions.

Lord, how am I to love and lead my home?

Lord, how can I serve this city and make your name known?

Lord, can you put someone in my path today that you want to save so that I can be a vessel?

Do you see what I’m talking about, men? We don’t pray these types of prayers. We pray self-centered prayers and God is looking for men who will stand in the gap and be the kind of men that are active in what God wants to do in our city.

Nehemiah asked, how are things going back at home?

Do you know what that takes?

It takes Godly Ambition to ask that kind of question. It takes Godly desire. It takes a man that is more concerned about the will of our Father, than for our will to be done.

Once Nehemiah heard about how things were going back at home, the word burned in his soul. If you read verses 4 through 11 of Nehemiah 1 he is REPENTING for Israel and the remnant back at home.

Please don’t read right past that. He is living and working in the palace of the King, and while that is happening he is weeping for his countrymen and the un-repaired walls back in Jerusalem.

This is a man with a Godly burden. This is ambition rightly ordered in the heart of a man.

Let me just say that I believe that God still looks for men who weep over their cities. Men who weep over their communities. Men who don’t sit passive and allow the world to destroy what God has created. We need men who will pray for our city.

Every Thursday morning there is a small group of men here who will pray the scriptures, and then pray for our city. We have men who are believing that God is not done with Vista, and that our best days are still ahead of us. I know the time is early, and I get that we’re a small bunch, but I have seen the hand of God answer our prayers.

Why?

Because we aren’t just praying for our will and our desires. We are praying for God’s will, and His desires.

Then, we get to the point of our text when Nehemiah explains to the King that the walls of his city are burned down and he’s mourning for his country. He has an audience with the most powerful man in the earth at that time, and he clearly has favor with the King, and he’s not asking for material things. He’s not asking for personal advancement. He’s not asking for favors. He’s asking to be sent back home with the King’s resources and authority so that he could rebuild the walls of his city.

This is a bold request.

This is Godly ambition.

This is a man who is embodying the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth.

We don’t have time to complete his story, but let me just give you what happens next.

Nehemiah is sent on the King’s authority, and with the King’s resources to rebuild the walls. He did face opposition along the way, but when that happened he appealed to the King and was able to continue to build the wall in record time. What Nehemiah was a miracle. But there is a principal within that - Godly ambition leads to holy acceleration.

Just as Nehemiah sought to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, ask God how you can contribute to building His kingdom in your community.

Conclusion

Deep within the man is the desire to achieve much and to earn his place in this world. That ambition is neutral, but it is innate. We must submit this ambition to God and ask Him to redeem it and to use it for His purposes.

Men, do you have a Godly calling on your life or are you lacking a purpose that is bigger than you?

I believe God wants to fill each of you with Godly ambition, and together we’ll see God continue to accelerate the anointing on this church.