Saying 'No' to the Spirit of Babel

We’ve been driving home the point the last few weeks that Leadership is _____________? Leadership is Influence Because anyone can have influence, everyone is called to leadership in some capacity. Followers of Jesus especially are called to use the leadership influence God has given them to bring about his vision for the world. So we’ve been looking at God’s Blueprint for Leadership from 1 Timothy.

Let me ask you a question. Is there a place for ambition in the church?

For 18 years I lived and worked in corporate America, first for a major oil company, then for a major trucking company. Without a doubt, I saw some of the worst in human beings when it comes to ambition. I’ve seen people sacrifice their family to achieve promotions. I watched them stab people in the back and use people to advance themselves. Not always, but it seems that often our places of work become places of reckless ambition for the sake of status, accolades, and greed.

The truth is that in thousands of years, we’ve not actually moved very far from Babel. Do you remember the Tower of Babel story? After the Flood, rather than spreading out and filling the earth as God originally demanded, the people grouped together in the place called Shinar. In their sinful ambition, they said Genesis 11:4 “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves.” What characterized Babel was ambition, but it was an unholy ambition. And it seems that many today still want to build monuments to self that reach to the heavens and to make a name for themselves.

Is there a place for ambition in the church?

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Because of the abundance of ambition gone wrong examples, I think it has led many in the church to believe that ambition is bad. That it is naturally corrupting, and it might somehow contaminate me if I am ambitious.

In a similar way, I think we resist ambition because it feels self-serving. Our culture is very me-centered - the narrative we operate with is that life is about me. As Christians, we (hopefully) know that this is a false narrative. But being ambitious feels life we are being pulled back into a me-centered life.

More than anything, we resist ambition because it confronts our passivity. To be ambitious demands that we care, that we risk, that we inconvenience ourselves. The hard truth is that many in the church have ambition for promotions, for bigger paychecks, for nicer homes, for longer vacations. We employ our ambitions all the time to chase after the rewards offered by the world. Do we not believe that the rewards offered by God are better?

I’ve called the message this morning Saying ‘No’ to the Spirit of Babel. We must be leaders who resist the destructive, corrupting influence of unholy ambition. But I hope we see that there is such a thing as good ambition, and that having the right kind of ambition can change the course of your life and those you come into contact with. This morning I want to give you an imagination for ambition that leads to human thriving.

In our passage this morning, Paul is giving instructions to Timothy about how to choose qualified elders and deacons, but what he begins with is worth paying attention to. He tells Timothy that...

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Holy ambition is good

1 Timothy 3:1 “The saying is sure: whoever aspires to the office of bishop desires a noble task.”

Notice the word he chooses: to aspire. It means to desire strongly, to exert effort for. This is the language of ambition. Paul is telling Timothy that there is such a thing as holy, godly, ambition.

And so it is OK to want to lead. To feel called to lead. You have permission from God to embrace the holy ambitions He has put in your heart. There is such a thing as good ambition when it is ambition directed toward the welfare of others.

But that means there is also a bad ambition. An unholy ambition. As a leader called into God’s kingdom work, you must always be aware of the potential for your ambitions to lead you back to Babel. We must constantly check our motivations. How do you know when your ambitions are misdirected?

You feel unhealthy pride over your success

You experience a growing need for accolades - to be noticed by others

You begin finding your worth in your performance

You justify compromises, falling for the lie that the ends somehow justify the means.

But these dangers should not keep us from doing what God has called us to do. The church, the world, your school or workplace, needs leaders who are ambitious for the things of God AND who have their other ambitions in check. The church needs you to unleash your ambition. Holy ambition, ambition centered on the good of others, is good.

The next thing Paul says to Timothy is crucial, that holy ambition requires holy character. I’ve asked Jasper to come help me this morning...

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Holy ambition requires holy character

1 Timothy 3:2–13 “Now a bishop must be above reproach, married only once, temperate, sensible, respectable, hospitable, an apt teacher, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, and not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, keeping his children submissive and respectful in every way— for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how can he take care of God’s church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may be puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace and the snare of the devil. Deacons likewise must be serious, not double-tongued, not indulging in much wine, not greedy for money; they must hold fast to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. And let them first be tested; then, if they prove themselves blameless, let them serve as deacons. Women likewise must be serious, not slanderers, but temperate, faithful in all things. Let deacons be married only once, and let them manage their children and their households well; for those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and great boldness in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.”

Jasper does this part...

He will ask to play The Chosen video at some point...

Finally, sacrificial leadership requires a...

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Holy ambition is ambitious for Jesus

1 Timothy 3:14–16 “I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these instructions to you so that, if I am delayed, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth. Without any doubt, the mystery of our religion is great: He was revealed in flesh, vindicated in spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among Gentiles, believed in throughout the world, taken up in glory.”

As in all of Paul’s writings, he brings everything back to Jesus. He speaks of the “mystery of our religion”. Mystery technically means something hidden that is now revealed. In this short hymn, he expounds the mystery that has now been revealed - Jesus. Jesus who suffered in the flesh but has been raised in the power of the Spirit. Jesus who was worshipped by angels and now proclaimed among the nations. Jesus who has been preached throughout the world and now sits at God’s right hand.

The primary check for our ambition is who is our ambition for. Is it centered on me, or is it centered on he. This does not mean you can’t want to excel at your job. But who are you excelling for? Godly leaders resist the siren call of Babel to make a name for themselves, and instead submit their ambition to Jesus and his mission.

When we do this we gain a reward that can’t be taken away. Whatever you give yourself to in this life, it can be stripped away. Whatever promotion you gain, whatever possessions you accumulate, whatever status or accolades you garner, all of them are destined to fade. You really can’t take it with you.

But when you submit your ambitions to Jesus and to his vision for others, you gain a reward in this life that cannot be taken away. Listen to the promise he gives the apostle Peter:

Mark 10:28–30 “Peter began to say to him, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life.”

Peter was ambitious for Jesus. He sacrificed time with his family to follow Jesus. He sacrificed his family trade. I’m sure he had to sacrifice friends along the way. And so he tells Jesus very pointedly… Implied question is, “Do we gain anything by directing our ambition to you?” And Jesus doesn’t rebuke him. He doesn’t call him selfish or self centered. He doesn’t feed Peter some altruistic nonsense. He acknowledged the sacrifices Peter - and you - will make. Such ambition, Jesus says, will be rewarded in this life AND in the life to come.

Your little sacrifices for Jesus now reaps eternal rewards for you and others. Where else can you get a hundredfold return on your investment?

What are you ambitious for? Holy ambition is ambitious for Jesus.

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Have you ever thought about what Jesus is ambitious for? The writer of Hebrews says to look, Hebrews 12:2 “to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Jesus is ambitious for you! Jesus was ambitious to see you reconciled and restored to his Father. His ambition led him, not first to glory, but to the shame of the cross. Love for you fueled his ambition.

Have you ever received this love of Jesus...

I know most of you are called to keep the same jobs you have now. Your calling is not inside the church but outside. Whatever it is your doing, it is a holy calling. But does your ambition toward that job need to be redirected? Do your motivations need to be corrected?

But I think there are some of you that God has been stirring up your ambitions for ministry inside the church. That he’s begun to lay a specific burden on you. Don’t quench that ambition.

Whether our calling is inside or outside the church, as followers of Jesus our ambitions must imitate his. Not toward self-glory and Babel, but toward the cross. The shape of the Christian life, the shape of a Christian leader, is always cruciform. Don’t quench your ambition; harness it for the kingdom.

Prayer...

For salvation.

Ministry. Pray for those who feel some pull toward leadership in the church but have been afraid of appearing self serving...

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*** Announcement reminders ***

As has been our habit during this series, we’re going to close our service by praying together an ancient prayer of the church called the Prayer of St. Francis. It expresses the kind of leadership God calls us to and that the world is desperate for. Let us be formed by this prayer.

Lead in Prayer of St. Francis:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace: where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Now as we prepare to take this time of worship into the week ahead, the Lord who loves you says in Isaiah:

Isaiah 30:21 NRSV

And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”

GO BE THE CHURCH!!