Rhythm and Blues: Ambition

Jeff Jones, Senior Pastor

April 20/22, 2007

Ecclesiastes 4

Good morning/afternoon and welcome to Rhythm and Blues, this series on Ecclesiastes where we are looking at how to find God’s redemptive rhythm in this world of blue…in a broken world, subjected to futility, subjected to the curse, how God wants to work in our lives to reverse the curse and help us build solidness and depth and meaning. Today Solomon is going to talk to us about ambition, and keep in mind that Solomon was a man who had accomplished a lot. He was a king of Israel who took a small nation and turned it into a wealthy super-power nation. He had amassed great wealth, a stellar global reputation, and accomplished the ambitious goals he had set for himself. He is going to talk to us about the futility of ambition. Let’s get a picture of ambition’s futility as we see this scene from one of my favorite movies, The Christmas Story. Let’s join Ralphie as he sets out to write the class projects of all class projects about his biggest dream in life: getting a Red Ryder BB gun.

Christmas Story Clip

Poor Ralphie. All he wanted was a BB gun. All he wanted was to write an A++++ paper…but for Ralphie out of reach, futile. Let’s talk about ambition, the drive to accomplish, to drive to be significant. I think we would all agree that much of what we run after and strive for doesn’t amount to much and might be futile, but does that mean that ambition itself is bad? That the drive to achieve is just futile?

In the church world, the answer often seems to be yes. Ambition gets a bad wrap in the church, especially in ministry. What would you think about a pastor that described himself as a “highly ambitious pastor?” Doesn’t sound right. Pastors are supposed to be humble, not ambitious. In business, if someone is considered “driven,” you want to hire them. But if that same person was in some small group and described themselves as driven, people would want to pray for them…that God would fix them.

When you read the Bible though, you get a different story about ambition. Ambition itself can be very good or can be very bad, deeply significant or incredibly futile. The world ambition is used in the NIV translation of the New Testament 7 times, sometimes in a positive way and other times in a very negative way. The truth is that you and I were created to be ambitious…we are created with a desire to accomplish, to achieve, to do something that makes a difference. Ambition is a divine gift. Yet, the reality that we talked about last week of the fall of man and the invasion of sin into this world means that we take all of God’s good gifts and mess them up…we tend to pervert them, ruin them. The wrong kind of ambition gets us nowhere…yet God can redeem ambition in our lives to allow us to build true greatness, lasting significance.

Today we are going to talk about both kinds of ambition, futile ambition and redeemed ambition, as we learn how to funnel our God-given drive to achieve away from futility toward something solid and truly significant. As we do, I’m going to challenge us to be very honest with ourselves. If we are, I believe this will be a highly life-changing and life-challenging message. I know that, because it was for me this week as I was preparing it. Be honest with yourself and with God, and be willing to ask yourself some hard questions about what is really driving your life right now and what, if you stayed on the same course, you would end up accomplishing.

We are going to contrast Solomon’s teaching about futile ambition with the example of the apostle Paul who shows us how to trade futile ambition for redeemed ambition. Paul made a clear choice, and revisited that choice every day of his life. Let’s look at both Solomon and Paul to find out how to make the same trade.

Slide: _____________

· Futile ambition is driven by selfish motives…redeemed ambition by kingdom motives

What really drives our lives, fuels our activity? Solomon is going to accuse every one of us who are goal-oriented, who are working to achieve things, with this charge:

Slide: _____________ Ecclesiastes 4:4

And I saw that all labor and achievement spring from man’s envy of his neighbor. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind (4:4). Solomon observes that most of what drives us boils down to envy and greed, wanting to have more and do better than the people around us…for our houses to be as up-to-date as everyone elses, for our cars to be as good as the guy next door, for our job titles to be respected ones by people who ask what we do for a living…for us to be able to have a good answer when someone asks, “So, what does your son or daughter?” Or if still kids at home, “How is your child doing in school right now?” In other words, much of what drives us, he claims, is keeping up with the Joneses. The great news for me is that I can relax on that one, because I am the Joneses. All you poor people have to keep up with me…but that’s actually more pressure. As a Jones, I’ve got to stay ahead of you. All you goobers are always trying to catch up.

Solomon says that the futility of being driven this way is that even if you do stay ahead or get ahead, in the end who cares? He says it is a chasing after the wind. You can never catch it. Trying to be seen a certain way by others, or to be more successful than others, is an unreachable goal, because there is always somebody ahead and somebody behind—and even if you become #1, like Solomon did, who cares? It’s like the dog chasing the remote control car…if he catches it, big deal? Did you notice in the video when he does catch it? He doesn’t know what to do with it. It’s nothing.

I would love to say I’m above selfish ambition, but I can’t…even though I’ve learned the futility of it over and over again. School was that way for me. At some point in school, the desire to not only get good grades but to be at or near the top of my class took over. I would never have admitted it, but it did matter to me. In college, my GPA was a 4.0, and I graduated at the top of my class. Secretly, it mattered to me, though I wouldn’t have admitted it if you had asked. I skipped a lot of fun alternatives to stay in libraries and study to accomplish the goal, but I got it…and then came graduation, and the awards, and you know what? Big deal! Who really cared? After all, I was going to graduate school, to seminary, to get a masters degree in theology, so my sites were already set on grad school. At DTS, I approached school the same way…finished with the GPA I wanted and at the top of my class. My goal was not just to pass tests, but to embarrass tests…not just write papers that got an A but write papers that made the professor cry with pride and joy at the insight and the thoroughness. Graduation came, awards came with it…but that day was one of the emptiest days of my life. I felt so stupid, so small. Who really cared? I looked around the room at some really great people who were going off into ministry, and I realized how much I sacrificed to stay ahead of them in the rankings. I didn’t take much time to get to know them. And in the end, who cared? When I graduated, not one church asked me what my grades were or where I finished up? I wanted them to, but they never did. I felt the futility. I got what I wanted, but big deal.

Contrast that with the apostle Paul, who traded futile ambition for redeemed ambition. In Philippians 3, he says,

Slide: _____________ Philippians 3: 4b-6

“If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. In the Jewish world, Paul was a superstar. He was a better religious zealot than anybody. He out legalized all the legalists…but in the end, big deal! Paul gladly threw all that away when confronted with the opportunity for redeemed ambition. He says,

Slide: _____________ Philippians 3: 7-14

But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Do you hear his ambition? His passion? The antidote to selfish ambition is not passionless living, a life without goals and ambition…the antidote is redeemed ambition, where we trade our lesser goals for the goal that Paul is talking about—to know Christ and to help others come to know him…to know Christ and fulfill God’s calling, his mission, for our lives…that’s what drove Paul. Paul was driven, but by kingdom goals, not small, selfish ones.

Be honest. What is really driving your life? If you hired an external auditor to come and examine your life, what would they say you are primarily driven by? If they looked at your calendar, how you use your time, at your checkbook, how you spend your resources, what would they conclude?

Please understand, trading one ambition for the other doesn’t generally mean that you have to quit your job, switch careers, become a missionary in Botswana. What it does mean though is that your primary question in life, in your job and all other areas of your life, is, “How can I advance God’s kingdom?” A friend of mine in this church that I respect tremendously asks that question as well as anyone I know. He is a business man who is very goal-oriented, and his company is growing…but growing with a passion to expand God’s kingdom. Everyone in the company knows that. Therefore, the values in the company, how they treat vendors and customers, is incredibly important…and they peal off a large percentage of their earnings to give to churches and ministries around the globe. He is one of the best examples of a driven kingdom believer I’ve ever met. How about you? What is really driving you?

Slide: _____________

Futile ambition isolates…redeemed ambition connects

Solomon tells us how isolating futile ambition can be:

Slide: _____________ Ecclesiastes 4:7-8

Again I saw something meaningless under the sun: There was a man all alone; he had neither son nor brother. There was no end to his toil, yet his eyes were not content with his wealth. “For whom am I toiling,” he asked, “and why am I depriving myself of enjoyment?” This too is meaningless—a miserable business! 4:7-8. Solomon gives us a picture of this guy who is working so hard and amassing more and more wealth and power, yet is more and more isolated from others every day…finally he looks around and realizes the futility of it. “Why am I doing all this? Who am I doing it for? I have no one to enjoy it with.”

I have fallen into this far too often, as my example with school. If I had it to do over again, I’d make more B’s, maybe even C’s (uhh…maybe not)…at any rate, less A’s, and more friends. But I tend to live life now and do my job now the same way. Like many in this room, I’ve had to fight the temptation of futile ambition to make sure I give priority to my marriage or my kids. I’m certainly not alone in that. Solomon is pointing to the myth of the golden plateau, that time in the future where if we can just get through this next project, just land this next deal, just earn the next promotion, just get my feet under me in my new job, then I’ll slow down for family, for kids, for friends, for a small group. But it never happens, and too often people get older and their career ends, and they are alone. They have no friends. That is one of the biggest problem older men are facing right now in our culture—no real friends. They just never made time for that kind of thing.

I met with a man a few weeks ago whose ministry is to heads of state and heads of government for the nations on this planet. He meets with Presidents, Kings, ambassadors, and his list of people he has regular contact with is a global who’s who. It’s really amazing. I asked him how he does it, how get gets through all the barriers to build relationships with such high-placed people. He said, “Jeff, I just offer friendship. I don’t ask them for anything. I’m not trying to get anything out of them, only to be a friend, to pray for them, and if there is an opening have spiritual conversations. The truth is, they are the loneliest people on the planet. What I’ve learned is that they like everyone else crave connection, but they are the least connected people you could ever know.”

Contrast that to the apostle Paul. When you read through his epistles, notice how relational they are. Notice how many times he greets or commends or talks warmly about his friends in ministry. Paul was driven, but in the process of living out the mission, he made time to build great relationships. And I believe the reason is this—futile ambition is very self-oriented, it is about us getting ourselves ahead…but redeemed ambition is shared ambition. Kingdom goals are not solitary, but shared. We cannot know Christ without building deep connections with other Christians. We cannot fulfill the mission, without partnering with family and friends as a team to help build Christ’s church together. My family becomes my key ministry team, as we serve Christ together and help each other know Christ. Engaging in relationships with other Christians is essential. I can’t fulfill spiritual goals without spiritual friendships.

It is no accident that this church is largely built around two things, in addition to this environment where we connect to God, and that is connection to need, or mission, God’s kingdom goals, and connection to others, deepening relationships with others in life groups to do life together and help each other fulfill the mission and know Christ. God designed the church to be the place where we could live out redeemed ambition, serving his purposes together with other Christians, enjoying the process together.

When you are driven by kingdom goals and living with redeemed ambition, over time you will build enduring relationships with family and friends…which means this: If you are becoming more and more isolated, you are being driven by futile ambition and your life is going nowhere. Most people in our culture, certainly most men, would have to raise their hands on that one. Isolation is a sure sign and consequence of futile ambition that leads to nothingness.

Slide: _____________

Futile ambition sacrifices character…redeemed ambition builds character

Solomon actually starts his conversation in chapter 4 about futile ambition this way:

Slide: _____________ Ecclesiastes 4:1

Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun: I saw the tears of the oppressed—and they have no comforter. And I declared that the dead who have already died are happier than the living who are still alive. But better than both is he who has not yet been, who had not seen the evil that is done under the sun.

The evil that Solomon is talking about is the evil that is done fueled by selfish ambition, where one person or group oppresses others so that they can get ahead, get what they want. The powerful get more powerful at the expense of those underneath them, and Solomon says that this is one of the greatest of all futilities on this cursed, sin-soaked planet.

Futile ambition gets ahead at the expense of others, which means at the expense of our own character. It is amazing what people will do in the heat of the moment in order to get ahead. We all know people like that at work or in other arenas of life…people who walk on other people, who intimidate others to get what they want, who take undeserved credit to pad their reputations, who undermine others in competition for a promotion or sale, who backstab, cheat, lie, whatever it takes to advance their own careers or make the next sale. Probably names are coming to mind, and if you are honest maybe we could put our name in there at times.

On the flip-side of ambition, redeemed ambition, we’ve already seen what Paul would say about this in Philippians 3, that the real goal is to know Christ and represent him well to the world around us…that the ultimate goal at work is not advancing our career but advancing the reputation of Christ, reflected in our character and treatment of others. We would all agree with that aspiration, but we would also admit that it is not always easy to live that way, especially at work.

But it is also hard to keep this in mind in other areas of life as well. Where God hit me with this over this last week while preparing the message was in my parenting. If you ask me what “true greatness” is really about, I will tell you that it is what the Bible teaches…that achieving true greatness is about character, about becoming more like Christ, people who love sacrificially and exhibit Christ-likeness in our character. So, if you ask me what I want most build into the life of my kids, what I want to accomplish the most as a parent, I would say to help them become that kind of person, to reach true greatness, to know Christ and be Christ-like…much more so than false greatness, futile ambition, meaning to accomplish lesser goals, to be better than others, to get ahead. But last week, God showed me I was just kidding myself on this one.

As many of you know, I am a hockey coach. I am the head coach of my younger son’s team, and the assistant coach of my older son’s team…for his team I coach the offense. I do have another job, this senior pastor thing, but I am a hockey coach. If you come to Sunday services and hear me speak, you might notice something about my voice. Often on Sundays, I am fighting losing my voice. Most Sundays lately my voice has been fairly weak…in fact, I have to drink hot water and try not to sing too loud, all to try to keep my voice together. Guess why that is? It isn’t from speaking…but coaching two games on Saturday. I won’t say that I yell at the kids out on the ice, or floor…after all I am a pastor…but I do participate in spirited, loud, communication, all with the sincere and loving desire to motivate them to do their very best. Aren’t I sweet! The Bible does say to “spur one another on to love and good deeds,” and I’m just trying to be biblical out there. Not yelling, spurring kids on. Okay, I yell. Honestly, I really don’t yell out of anger for those kids, but in addition to line changes, I am constantly communicating to the kids on the floor, instructing, motivating, spurring them on.

Last Saturday was a humbling day for me, because I really blew it as a dad and a coach. The first game I coached was Caleb’s game, this peewee hockey team, and they were playing well, but not with quite the intensity they could play…and my son Caleb, who is a good little hockey player, I wanted to be the one to turn the tide, to show the other kids what intensity and smart play looks like…I heard myself singling him out quite a bit…One time, as we had the puck right at the other team’s goal, he passed behind the goal instead of in front where we had an open man, and out of my mouth came, “Caleb, no! no! What are you doing! No! Don’t ever do that. Look for the open man!” He tried to ignore me. Then something else, and again I heard the words coming out, “No! No! No! Pass it to a person, don’t dump it…control the puck…come on Caleb!” Spurring him on to love and good deeds.

A few hours later was Collin’s hockey game. On that team, he plays offense, and I coach the offense. He too is a good hockey player, and it was a very competitive game. I had ridden him a lot in that game, too, and in the last couple of minutes of the game, he got so frustrated with me, that he slammed his stick against the board and exclaimed something to the effect that I’m not spurring him on to love and good deeds. I benched him.

After the game, God made it clear to me that I benched the wrong person. It is me that needed to be benched, both games. What I taught my kids that day is that it is okay to trade character for winning…that what was most important to me wasn’t true greatness but their performance…and not just for them. I don’t mind people thinking my kids are great players. I felt very small and very stupid when I thought about my coaching and fatherhood that day. I had to apologize and talk with both of them what true greatness is really all about, and how I had blown it.

I wonder how much of our parenting in a place like North Dallas is about the wrong thing. I wonder how much of our pushing and prodding and expectations are about true greatness, redeemed ambition, and how much it is about the other. I believe as parents we better ask ourselves that question honestly and often.

If you are a parent, I do want you to know that we have a great opportunity coming up here at this church in May. Family Life is doing a parenting seminar on “Grace-Based Parenting” on May 6 by Tim Kimmel. I respect his perspective on parenting than any other writer or speaker I have encountered, and grace-based parenting vs. performance-based parenting is revolutionary. My prayer is that 100% of our parents or parents to be will sign up. It is that important, and it really will be that good. It is just far too easy to allow futile ambition to destroy good parenting.

Slide: _____________

Futile ambition is ultimately unsatisfying….redeemed ambition is eternally rewarding

Solomon was the most respected person of his day, the one person people would point to as the one who has accomplished more than any other. And here is what he says about his own success:

Slide: _____________ Ecclesiastes 2:4-11

I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees. I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired men and women singers and a harem as well—the delights of the heart of man. I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me. I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. Yet when I surveyed what my hands had done and what I toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun (2:4-11).

After all the success, Solomon as an old man, realized that it was just a bunch of nothing. Have you ever heard someone really wealthy or really successful say that…how unsatisfying it is ultimately? We probably all have. Some millionaire or billionaire talks about how empty having all this money feels, how it complicates life. I always want to shout out, “Why don’t you just give it to me, then, see if I like it!” It is hard lesson to learn vicariously, that great success and wealth in the end is no big deal, it just doesn’t satisfy…it is futile, not solid, meaningless.

To help us though, I want you to hear from Paul, who knew that he too was at the end of his life. He had allowed God to redeem his ambition, and he gave up the lesser stuff for the greater. You will hear me use this passage probably quite often, because it more than any other passage in the Bible is what God used to motivate me to switch ambitions. What God used was the contrast of Paul and one of his friends, a man named Demas, in 2 Timothy 4. Listen to Paul’s summary of his life, and remember what Solomon said about his own:

Slide: _____________ 2 Timothy 4:6-8

For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. When someone first shared this passage with me, it blew me away, to think that Paul was able to say all that he did. He didn’t live life perfectly, but in the end he had no big regrets. He threw away lesser ambitions, and had decided to make Christ’s kingdom his one ambition…knowing Christ and serving his mission, and he was able to say in the end that he accomplished it. He stayed with it. Wouldn’t you love to be able to say that?

Contrast that to Solomon, who couldn’t…who basically said, “In the end, I didn’t accomplish anything that really matters. I had everything, and accomplished nothing.” How sad. Even in 2 Timothy 4, the very next verse is another picture of futile ambition, about one of Paul’s friends, a man named Demas. Paul tells Timothy, who was also living in redeemed ambition, this:

Slide: _____________ 2 Timothy 4:9-10b

Do your best to come to me quickly, for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. Demas bailed out on Paul; because he loved his world more than God’s kingdom…he was living for the lesser. When I first taught this passage, I had to ask myself, “Which story is going to my story? Paul or Demas? In the end, what is my life going to be about? What will I have at the end of my life to look back on?”

Ask yourself the same question. Be completely honest. Which ambition is driving your life right now? Futile ambition or redeemed ambition? Are you heading toward emptiness and regret, or a life that is full of meaning and empty of regret? What is really driving you? What is your life really about?

Think back through what Solomon is teaching us…let’s think back through the points of the message and turn them into questions. These are hard questions…do don’t answer them too quickly. Be open.

Slide: _______________

1) Are you primarily driven by selfish motives or kingdom motives?

Slide: _______________

2) Are you moving toward greater isolation or greater connectedness with God and others?

Slide: _______________

3) Are you sacrificing character or building character?

Slide: _______________

4) At the end of your life, if you stay on the same course you are currently on, will you be grateful for a life lived for the eternally significant or will you be full of regret with very little real significance?

These are big questions, fundamental questions. Take some time with them this week. In the end, I’d love to relate more to Paul’s story than Solomon’s. Ambition is not the problem, but an incredible opportunity. C.S. Lewis, in one of his sermons, summarized what we are saying today incredibly well:

Slide: ______________

Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. Or as someone else has said, “Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at something that doesn't really matter.”

C. S. Lewis

Let’s go to God in prayer, and trade futile ambition for redeemed ambition.

Prayer – Gene Getz –In Russia and Kazakhstan for two weeks of teaching pastors and leaders—Returning April 26. Pray for safety, health and effective communication of vital truths.

Song

“I want to invite you to Replant Central to check out updates and service opportunities AND I would love to meet you in the Welcome Area right next to Replant Central.”

BB Gun Story from “A Christmas Story”

In A Christmas Story, young Ralphie wants a Red Ryder BB gun, but his parents' only response is, "You'll shoot your eye out!" All the adults in Ralphie's life seem united in keeping him from this dream.

At school, Ralphie's teacher asks the class to write a theme paper titled, "What I want for Christmas." Ralphie's face beams with joy as he sets about to write the greatest theme paper ever submitted in an elementary school. When he turns his paper in, we hear his thoughts: "I was handing Miss Shields a masterpiece. Maybe Miss Shields in her ecstasy would excuse me from theme writing for the rest of my natural life."

Ralphie is convinced he has submitted his magnum opus. He imagines the teacher reviewing one bad theme paper after another in dramatic disgust, until she finally comes across Ralphie's paper. The teacher is swept away by Ralphie's submission.

"Poetry! Sheer poetry!" she exclaims, writing A++++++ across the blackboard, as Ralphie is hoisted into the air by his classmates.

Later, his teacher lays his graded theme paper on his desk. The grade on his paper is a C+ . Ralphie is devastated. Worse yet are the words written underneath in red pen, "You'll shoot your eye out."

Content: Rated PG

Elapsed Time: Measured from the MGM logo, this scene begins at 34:03 and ends at 36:33.