Jephthah: Deadly Ambition

Good morning. My name is Alfie, and I help out with university students here at Watermark Church.

And today I'm going to be talking to you not about child sacrifice, well not mainly, mostly about ambition.

See, ambition is a very interesting thing. It takes us into all kinds of places.

Ambition gave us business class, and Facebook, and Wi-Fi, and lots of really great and convenient things.

When people talk about ambition, they almost talk about it as a good thing, almost always.

If you look at the newspapers recently, you'll see in the sports, the football team Arsenal has just hired a new goalkeeper,

and they have ambitions there of winning a trophy. And maybe one day they will.

Morocco is building a whole raft of five-star golf resorts, because they're hoping to bring people in,

and their ambition is to be a tourist destination.

Nokia and Facebook are teaming together to bring the internet to two-thirds of the world that doesn't have internet,

and the people say that is an ambitious goal, and it is a good goal.

You know, the ambitions of NASA got a rocket from our planet Earth all the way to Pluto.

And you see the picture of that, that's amazing, right?

Ambition does amazing, good things.

And whether you call it drive or desire or motivation,

you know, you'll find people saying good things about ambitions and people's goals

and, you know, what they do in pursuing them.

European emperor, French emperor Napoleon said that great ambition is the passion of great character.

But is ambition always good?

You know, right after saying that, Napoleon said,

those endowed with great ambition may perform very good or very bad acts,

and it all depends on the principles that direct them.

And the question I have is, is ambition good or is it bad?

Or maybe it's just the effects of ambition.

All right, ambition itself might be a good thing,

but the results of it could be good or bad,

depending on the person who has that ambition.

I think as much as ambition does great things that we see in the news,

it can lead to very disappointing things.

You know, I've been following the story of a couple of Chinese tech companies

who, after having been listed in the States for a while,

decided that they would, you know, exit the U.S. exchanges and go and list in China,

you know, only to arrive and to find the Chinese stock market collapsing.

You know, an economic analyst talked about Hong Kong

and said that Hong Kong's ambition and drive to do more and do better

is actually taking life out of its people,

and Hong Kong is seeing skill and talent leaking out of Hong Kong into China,

into the rest of Asia.

We see the ambitions of athletes destroy their bodies with drugs

and eventually their reputations and their careers.

We see conflicting ambitions causing tension between Hong Kong and Beijing.

And not too long ago, we saw the ambitions of the finance sector

bring, you know, the world economy to its knees.

There's an author, David Foster Wallace,

and in an interview he talked about his ambition and his desire for perfection.

And he said that his desire for perfection would kill him

because he would never be able to be or write as perfectly as he wanted to be.

The idea in his head would never make it onto paper.

And he said he hated it because it killed him and it hurt the people around him.

I think as much as ambition is a good thing,

it can be a dangerous thing.

It can hurt those around us.

It can kill us.

And ambition is what we see that hurts Israel and hurts Jephthah in this story.

So we're in the third week in a series we're doing in the book of Judges.

And I don't like the book of Judges.

I've hated it.

I always hated it.

I read it for the first time when I was in high school,

and I was frustrated because Israel was so stupid.

You know, God would say, don't worship these gods,

and they would go and worship those gods, and God would punish them.

And they'd come and they'd repent, and God would save them.

And you'd think, all right, they've got it.

You know, the rest of Israel's history is going to be great.

But they'd do it again and again and again.

It's like watching a horror movie, right?

You know, don't open that door.

There's a guy with a machete behind it.

But over and over again, they'd do it.

I hate Judges because I'm frustrated with Israel.

They don't seem to get the message.

They don't seem to see that God should be their goal

and not these other idols around them.

But then I stop, and I realize that the book of Judges is about me.

All right?

The book of Judges is about how I am a huge idiot,

and I'm always running away from God to worship other things.

You know?

I think sometimes I've barely finished praying a prayer of repentance,

and the next thing I know is I'm thinking about the next fabulous way I'm going to sin.

All right?

The book of Judges is about me and about how God continually comes to save me

and rescue me, even though I really,

at least my actions don't show that I want that.

When we started this series two weeks ago,

Eric talked about this, this way that we talk about the gospel,

two ways to live, and we have a diagram of it.

All right?

I'm going to run through it really quickly.

All right?

And so it's a way to talk about the gospel.

It's a way to show, you know, this is what the Bible story is about,

and this is how God goes about saving us.

All right?

And I want to go through it and talk a little bit about how that ties into this story,

how it ties into the story of Judges.

So in the first picture, we see God who's represented by the crown,

and he creates man to rule earth in his place.

All right?

And that's the good way that it's meant to be.

But in the second picture, we see that man rejects God's rule

and gives itself its own little crown.

All right?

And it fails to take care of the earth properly.

That's why it's off to the side and not standing on the earth.

And then we see that God won't let us continue to live like that,

that God will judge us,

that the consequence of this treason, this idolatry is death.

The good news of the gospel in that fourth picture is that God doesn't leave us like that.

He doesn't leave us to sit there and just be dead.

He gives us an opportunity for life.

He sends his son, Jesus, who did what we're supposed to do in the first place,

who lived under God's law, who obeyed and did all the things that we would not do.

And he died in our place.

And now in the fifth picture, we see that Jesus is in heaven.

He is raised up, and he is ruling over earth.

And at the end, we have two choices, two ways to live.

Jesus can be our king, or we can be our own kings.

Now, some of these pictures, I think, show the story of judges quite well.

There's the way that Israel is supposed to be, living under God's law.

But they reject God, and God punishes them.

Not with death.

He sends some enemy to oppress them.

And they call out to God, and God sends a judge to save them.

It's convenient.

The birth letter J, Jesus, judge.

And they're saved, but when it comes back to how they're going to live,

they go right back to the beginning.

And they choose to serve someone else.

And this goes on and on and on.

By the time we get to the story in Judges,

this is about the sixth cycle of them running away from God,

and God saving them.

It says that they go and they worship all these different gods,

the Baals and the Ashtoreths.

They worship the gods of Sidon and Syria and Moab and Ammon and the Philistines.

They worship seven different gods,

a god for every nation around them.

And it's interesting.

If you look at what biblical historians have to say about Israel during this time period,

it's amazing because we know Israel's there because people write about it.

The Bible writes about it.

Other historical documents write about it.

But if you were to look archaeologically, you would never know that Israel was a nation.

Because where Israel was supposed to be,

they didn't have the structures that would go around worshiping God.

They had all these other gods from these different nations around them.

Their idolatry was so widespread and complete that if you went into an Israelite house in this time,

you wouldn't know that they're Israelites.

You could usually mistake them for a Philistine or an Ammonite

because those are the gods that they kept in their house.

Those are the gods that they had around them.

You know, through their journey time and time again,

God tells the people of Israel,

this is not how I want you to worship.

You see these people and the way they sacrifice their children?

I don't want you to do that.

It says this is the right and proper way for you to worship me.

So, when Israel goes and they worship all these different gods,

he punishes them.

He sends the Ammonites and the Philistines to come and oppress them.

And the people come and they repent.

But when they go to God, they say,

Save us.

But God is fed up.

It says that he is weary of their misery.

He's tired of their false repentance.

He's tired of them coming and saying,

God save us, we'll worship you,

only for them to turn around and go right back to the gods

that they had been worshiping before.

And God says, you know what?

You chose these gods.

Let those gods serve you.

And for a moment, we think that Israel is going to go back to worshiping God

because they say, you know, God, we'll worship you,

do the punishment that you think is right.

And in this very same breath, they turn back and they say,

Oh, and if there's anybody here who can save us,

you know, you get to be our king.

You get to rule over us.

They don't get it.

They come and say, we need someone to save us.

God won't do it.

So we're going to find our own way.

And that's where we meet Jephthah.

Jephthah was a mighty warrior, but he wasn't always like that.

He started off as a baby.

He was born and his mother was a prostitute.

When he grew up, his brothers hated him and they cast him out.

And so Jephthah went off into the wilderness and he gathered a little gang around him

and they would go around raiding villages, causing mayhem.

And that's how he became a warrior.

He became a warrior because if you're not living in a city,

if you're not protected by the city, you need to know how to fight.

And so when Israel is in trouble, they're trying to think, who is going to save us?

And they say, oh, right, you know that guy Jephthah?

That guy we kicked out?

I heard he's been raiding villages.

He can fight.

We'll get him to save us.

And so they go to him and he says, no, I'm not going to just fight for you.

I don't want to be just a military leader.

I want to rule over you.

And Israel is desperate.

They want their freedom.

And they say, you know what?

You can rule over us.

You can rule over us if you save us.

And so Jephthah goes to fight.

Well, he doesn't fight first.

First he tries to negotiate.

He writes to the king of the Ammonites and he says, you know what?

This isn't really your land to begin with.

God gave us to us.

If you want a land, maybe your God can give you some land.

He tries to negotiate, but he's not a very skilled negotiator.

That or the king of the Ammonites really doesn't care.

And so he goes and we see for the first time God intervening in this story.

We see God coming and he sends his spirit on Jephthah.

Now, any other time in the book of Judges when we see God's spirit on a judge, they go to victory.

There's no question about that.

But Jephthah isn't really concerned about God's victory.

Jephthah is concerned about his own name.

He's been cast out of his community.

He's been left by the side.

He's been rejected.

He wants to be restored.

He wants to be a member of society in good standing.

He doesn't want to be just the son of a prostitute.

He doesn't want just to be a gang leader.

And so he goes to God and he makes a vow and he says,

God, you saving Israel isn't enough because I need to make sure my name is restored.

And so I'm going to give you something.

I'm going to give you a little bribe so that you guarantee my victory.

And he says, you know, the first thing that comes out of my house, I'll sacrifice that to you.

See, I don't know what Jephthah was thinking would come out of his house.

You don't normally keep animals inside your house.

I don't think he was expecting two sheeps and a bull to run out.

I think that Jephthah intended to offer a human sacrifice.

If you look at all the nations around them and the way that they worship their gods, that's what they did.

They would sacrifice their babies to their gods.

And so I think that Jephthah thought, you know, maybe a servant will come out of my house and I'll offer that to God.

I think it shows just how much Israel was lost in their idolatry.

Not only did they worship these false gods, they forgot the right way to worship God.

They forgot the things that God said were good and the things that are not good.

So Jephthah goes on and with God's power, he destroys the Ammonites.

He destroys their cities.

And everything seems great because Israel has what they want.

Israel has manufactured their own salvation.

Right?

They needed to be saved.

God wouldn't do it.

So they found someone who would do it for them.

Israel is happy.

Jephthah is happy because, you know, he's been restored.

He used to be the son of a prostitute, but now he's a ruler over Gilead.

He's a ruler over a part of Israel.

And he has status and he has his name restored to him.

He can now walk out in the city in pride because he has achieved something.

Israel can stand up in pride because they have achieved something.

And everything seems to be great, but very quickly it all falls apart.

Jephthah returns home and the first thing he sees coming out of his door isn't a servant.

It's his own daughter.

And he goes from the high of being a leader and he tells his daughter,

you've brought me very, very low.

Because, you know, when I made a promise to God,

I think you have to credit to Jephthah, he's a man of his word.

And the thing that he says he will do,

offer up his daughter as a burnt sacrifice, he does.

The next thing I find a bit strange,

because Ephraim, they pick a fight on a guy who's just had to sacrifice his daughter.

They come to him and say, you know, why didn't you take us to fight with you?

You know, we're great warriors. We're archers.

We could have been very useful in your fight against the Ammonites.

And they pick a fight with him and Jephthah isn't as diplomatic as Gideon was.

You know, Gideon also had an argument with the Ephraimites.

And instead, 42,000 of the Ephraimites die.

That's a lot of people, right?

42,000.

Just because of a little squabble over who got to fight the enemy.

See, this is a story of ambition gone wrong.

The ambitions of Israel to be a free nation,

the ambitions of Jephthah to be a man in good standing.

It didn't go wrong when he had to sacrifice his daughter.

It didn't go wrong when Jephthah killed 42,000 Ephraimites.

It went wrong right at the beginning.

When they said that my freedom, my reputation is more important than God.

It went wrong when they made their idol the thing that would drive and direct their ambition.

Israel wanted to be free.

But they weren't humble to do it God's way.

They had to do it for themselves.

Jephthah wanted to restore his reputation.

But he didn't want to do it God's way.

He wanted to do it himself.

I wonder what it would have been like for Israel to say,

God, this is the punishment you're giving us, and we deserve it.

And we're going to take it, and we're going to wait for you.

We're going to wait for you to save us.

I wonder what it would have been like for Jephthah to look at himself and say,

You know what?

I've been disinherited.

But I'm going to find my identity in God, and I'm going to get my salvation, my restoration God's way.

I think the amazing thing is that despite Israel's sinfulness,

despite Jephthah's pride, God saves Israel over and over again.

Even though they went about it the wrong way, God still used Jephthah to save Israel.

Neither of these people, neither the Israelites nor Jephthah, was willing to be humble before God.

And that was their undoing.

Because they looked and said that we want this.

We want our freedom.

We want our restoration.

We want our names to be restored.

And we're going to do it our way.

We're not going to do it God's way.

So I look at this story, and I think, what has this got to do with me?

Because you won't find little idols in my home.

You know?

I wouldn't be so stupid like the Israelites to worship another God.

All right?

I would never turn away from God to worship something else.

All right?

Maybe I do a little bit.

Just a little bit.

But when I do, I repent.

I'm good at that.

I'm very good at repenting.

All right?

And if God decides to punish me, he's God.

He can do that.

You know?

I think it's great because my ambitions are not selfish.

My ambitions are very, very godly.

But, you know, I still need to take care of business.

All right?

I've got rent to pay.

So I'm going to try and do that.

Hong Kong's not cheap.

And so, you know, where I try to get ahead, I'm justified in that because, you know, those are things that God would want me to do.

But most of all, I would never, ever let my ambitions get in the way of worshiping God.

I do.

I do all the time.

I think that I don't worship God the way I'm supposed to.

I don't let God drive my ambitions.

I think I have far too many things that I want, that I desire.

You know, I want to be an amazing dad.

I mean, I'm still quite aware from that.

But if you look at the books that I read and you think, yes, that's a good ambition.

But, you know, I also have this ambition of driving a 1988 Mercedes-Benz SL.

It's my most beautiful car.

I love it.

All right?

But, you know, every now and then I find that my desires are driven by those things.

All right?

I'm always looking in the newspaper to see if any of those, you know, that classic car is up for sale.

All right?

I'm always obsessed with how I can do things to make myself an amazing dad and a classic car owner.

All right?

And that definitely gets in the way of me worshiping God.

But, you know, I don't think ambition is a bad thing.

You know, I think God created ambition.

I think ambition is a good thing.

If you look at the book of Judges, it talks about people who have no ambition.

And it doesn't talk about them nicely.

Ambition is a good thing.

And God created us to be ambitious people.

To have high goals and big aspirations.

But where we go wrong is when we put our own desires.

And we make those things our driving ambitions.

And we take our idols of reputation, of money, of wealth, of being a good parent or a good spouse.

Or being good at your job.

Being liked by people.

And we make that the thing that drives our ambition instead of God.

You know, I think that God sees that and God knows that.

And I think we have a great example of good ambition.

I think we look at Jesus and we get to see someone who was ambitious.

Jesus had big aspirations and big goals.

He wanted to save humanity.

And he pursued that.

You look at the way that he spoke.

He said, you know, I need to be going about doing my father's business.

He said, I need to do these difficult things.

Because they're about honoring God and seeing God as the highest goal and my highest ambition.

But when we look around, we see people who say different things about ambition.

If you look at ancient Greek and Roman philosophy,

they would say that ambition is inherently selfish.

And that's not a good thing.

And we see Christianity coming and saying that,

yeah, selfish ambition probably isn't too good.

And we need to respond to that with humility.

But the Greeks say, no, no, no.

Humility is for slaves.

You know, we want some kind of community-mindedness.

Some, what's the word, altruism.

That should be what drives humanity.

You look at people in Hong Kong and in China.

20% of books sold in China are about entrepreneurship and business.

People look up to, you know, Jack Ma and Li Ka-shei,

and they say, those guys are great people.

Their ambition is good.

And we're going to buy books so we can figure out how we can be like him.

You look at some philosophers like Nietzsche,

and, you know, they would say that actually ambition is quite neutral.

And that it really depends on how you're using it.

You know, I don't agree with Ayn Rand on many things,

but she was spot on, I think, when she talked about ambition.

She said that ambition is the dedication to improvement in pursuit of a goal.

She said that ambition guided by an irrational standard does not lead to improvement,

but it leads to self-destruction.

She says ambition is not bad, but when your goal isn't quite right,

it's not going to improve you.

It's not going to help people around you.

It's going to destroy you.

It's going to hurt you.

Right?

And, you know, as Christians, we look at the Bible,

and we say that, you know, this is God's word for us on how to live.

Right?

And if we believe the things that it says,

then that has an impact on our lives.

It says that God is a creator, and he created us for a purpose.

He created us for himself, for his glory.

All right?

The Bible says that when we live our lives,

we should order it around pursuing God and his kingdom and his goals.

And so, you know, as a Christian, if you take other ambitions,

if you say that, you know, that's very nice,

but I'm going to have other ambitions,

that we're going to destroy ourselves,

that when we have ambitions other than what God has created us for,

we will be destroyed.

You know, I think that I don't really understand

how much my ambitions destroy and hurt me,

even the ambitions in the work that I do.

You know, I think this past year, about a year ago,

I decided that I would be good at my job.

I would be, it would be awesome if I could get just tons and tons of students

into the university ministry, into Watermark Church,

and it'll be great.

And so I went around and I tried to figure out,

how could I be awesome?

How could I, you know,

do things that would help this university ministry look good

and make me look good so that, you know,

when I talk about what I do,

I can talk about, ah, look at all these 150 students

who come to our fellowship.

Isn't that amazing?

Aren't I amazing?

And so I went and I knew a student who had lots and lots of friends,

and I said,

I'm going to make this student a leader

so that this student will bring all of his friends

to the university ministry,

and it'll be great.

And I did,

and what happened wasn't what I had hoped.

I think what happened is I spent a lot of time

being frustrated and angry

because this student didn't get it.

He wasn't on mission.

He didn't see that, you know,

the gospel was important.

It needed to be spread among his friends.

I became really angry and bitter,

and I spent a lot of time just trying to,

you know, trying to get him to do the things

that I wanted to do so that I would look good,

so that I could come before the church

and talk about how amazing the university ministry is.

But in the process,

I neglected the other leaders.

I neglected the other students who were there,

who were concerned about God's things.

You know, I think this past year

in the university ministry would be very different

if I was concerned about what God wanted

and not about what would make me look good.

I think it's hard to figure out

when our ambitions are good ambitions

and when they're bad ambitions,

when our ambitions are godly

and when they're selfish.

I think I don't realize often

until it's way too late,

until I've looked back

and I see people who I've hurt

and I see me failing

to do the things that God has called me to do.

How do we figure out

if we're following God?

How do we know if we are like Jesus,

if we're concerned about God's kingdom?

How do we know if our ambitions,

good as they may be,

are driven by idols?

I think we can ask some questions.

I think that if you see yourself

sacrificing your children,

you probably have bad ambitions.

But it could be something a bit less drastic.

What are the people that God has called you

to reach out to?

Are you doing that

or is something taking you away from that?

How do you relate to people?

I think that when I am driven

by my selfish ambitions,

I only like to talk to people

who are useful to me.

I like to hang around people

who will help me,

you know,

get my job done.

How much time do you spend

with people who

have nothing to offer you?

As your wife ever told you,

you don't listen to me anymore.

That might be a sign.

Or your friends wonder where you are

because they never see you.

Or you're the last one in the library

when all your friends have gone home.

Maybe you're too busy

or too tired

to spend time with your family.

Maybe you're too busy

or too tired

to serve

in your church.

Maybe you notice

that your kids

stop calling your mommy

and they call you

by your first name.

You know,

when you think about your job,

when you think about

changing your jobs,

maybe you're given a promotion,

how much of that

do you think about,

how's that going to affect

my community group?

How's that going to affect

my family?

How's that going to affect

my ability to serve?

What are the relationships

that you will sacrifice

to build other,

more useful relationships?

You know,

I think I can come here

and I can talk to you

about your work

and, you know,

what you should and shouldn't do

and, you know,

what jobs you should

and shouldn't take.

But, you know,

that,

I've got to be honest with you,

I've never had to wear

a tie to work.

I think every time

I work late

it's because I want to,

not because my boss

is making me.

I think that

I've had a very

different story of work.

But,

you know,

I know somebody

who does

have a good story

about work

and about ambition

and about

following God

with their ambitions.

The story's about my dad.

My dad came to Hong Kong

in the mid-80s

and

by the mid-90s

he'd met this guy

and they started up

this company together.

and they worked

and they did lots

of really cool things.

They made stupid toys

from McDonald's

and that was really awesome

for me as a kid

because I had all of them.

But,

my dad would work

and he would work hard

because,

you know,

he needed to

take care of his family.

He needed to

feed us

and,

you know,

my brother and I

eat a lot.

He needed to

pay for school fees

and that's not cheap

and rent isn't

cheap in Hong Kong

either.

And so,

he,

he would work

very hard

and,

you know,

one day he woke up

on a Sunday morning

and he was exhausted

and he couldn't get out

of bed.

And so,

he sent mom

with the three of us

kids to church

and in the afternoon

he woke up

and he prayed

and as he was praying

God said,

you need to change

something

because

the way that you're living

is not good.

It's going to kill you.

It's going to hurt your family.

So,

the next day,

Monday,

he went in

and talked to this

business partner

and they restructured

the company a little bit

so that my dad

could have more time

at home,

more free time

but,

you know,

it wasn't a couple more weeks

before he was back

to the same schedule.

And,

it wasn't just that,

it was other things,

right?

Because I stopped

calling my dad,

Daddy.

Right?

I never saw him.

I called him

by his first name.

And,

you know,

he looked at

his work

and he looked at

the people

that were working

for him.

He looked at his

business partner

and he realized

that these were

all relationships

that were

being broken down

and were being

destroyed.

And so,

one day he said,

you know what?

If I'm going to

follow God,

if I'm going to be

obedient to changing

things,

I need to do

something drastic.

And so,

without a plan,

my dad quit.

He had his partner,

you know,

say,

this is all yours now,

you run the company.

And so,

you know,

that meant big things

for our family.

It meant that

we moved from,

you know,

our big flat,

Poc Fulam,

to a tiny flat

in Taihang.

And I didn't really

notice it that much

as a kid.

You know,

it meant that

instead of,

you know,

walking all the way

over there

to get my toys,

they were just

like right here.

But for four years,

for four years,

our family struggled

because my dad

tried to,

you know,

get another business

together.

And,

you know,

my dad asked me

to say that

his wife was

very,

very important.

That my mom

was very important

in getting him,

getting us through that.

Just reminding him

that,

you know what,

if what the Bible

says is true

that God can provide,

if what the Bible

says is true

for pursuing after God,

God is going to

take care of us.

That he should be

concerned about

following God

and not about

trying to do

all the right things

and taking care

of his family.

That if

he takes care

of following God,

that God would

take care of it.

I mean,

it doesn't make it easy.

It meant for four years

it was tough.

It meant that for,

you know,

for a couple of years,

you know,

we didn't pay school fees

and the school

let us,

you know,

defer those payments

until we got

to a time that could.

It was difficult.

It was difficult

for my parents

and I didn't realize it

until,

you know,

much later looking back

just how much

we sacrificed

because my dad

thought that

following God

was important.

I look back

and I realize that

my life could be

very different.

My relationship

with my dad

could be very,

very different.

My relationship

with God

would be very different.

I don't think

that I would be

standing here.

I don't think

that I would have

my trust in God

if I didn't see

my dad

making sacrifices

of things

that are

really temporary

like,

you know,

a nice flat

and a stable job

because I saw my dad

making sacrifices

of those things

because he said

his relationship

with God

was more important

because he said

doing things God's way

was better

than doing it

my way.

You know,

I think

another way

that we can tell

if our ambitions

are about God

is the way

that we pray.

Tim Keller

wrote a book

about prayer

and I really enjoy it.

And in his book

he talks about

the things

that we pray about.

He says,

in our natural state

we pray to God

to get things.

We may believe

in God

but our deepest hopes

and happiness

reside in other things.

So we therefore pray

when our career

or finances

are in trouble

or when our relationships

are in jeopardy.

but

when things are going well

we don't pray.

You know,

our prayers

are pretty bland.

Usually you're asking

God for things

and occasionally

if you've sinned

we'll pray

a prayer of repentance

but

we

when our ambitions

are not on God

our prayers show that

because our prayers

are not about

God

and following him.

they're about God

giving us things.

Now I look around

and I think that

I don't know

a lot of you

as well as

I would

like to.

But I know

some of you

and

I know other people

around Hong Kong

and I would say that

ambition

ambition

for reputation

ambition

for wealth

ambition

to be

a good

parent

ambition

to be popular

ambition

to be a good

student

all those are

almost definitely

idols that

that we face.

All right

I don't want to sit here

and beat you up

about your ambitions

and tell you that

you know

you working your job

is bad

because it's not.

I think it's good

to work

and to have a job

but I think that

it's not enough

to just

you know

quit your job

and go

right

it's not enough

to move to the

countryside

and say that

we're going to

have a simple

life

because that's

what it means

to follow God.

Now I think

that the gospel

calls us

to a big

dynamic change

it calls us

to change

the thing

that we worship

to stop

worshiping

ourselves

and what

we could be

to stop

worshiping

our ideal

that we have

in our head

of being

a perfect parent

or an amazing

worker

or a perfect

student

to turn our

lives to

to worship

God

not

not

not

not with a part

of your life

not just on Sundays

but with everything

in the relationships

that you have

to worship

God

as you relate

to your friends

to worship

God

as you sit

in the office

to worship

God

as you

look for a job

it's not enough

to reject

worldly ambition

we need to set

our eyes

on God

we need to set

our eyes

on what

he has set

up for us

you know

we look at

Israel

and we see

that

their ambition

destroyed them

because

they were not

concerned about

God

they were concerned

about themselves

even when they

said God

you know

we're sorry

they weren't

sorry because

they worship

false gods

they were sorry

because they were

being oppressed

by this nation

and they wanted

to be freed

we look at

Jephthah

and Jephthah

is struggling

with his reputation

his

the way he's

perceived

in the eyes

of the people

around him

and the problem

wasn't that

being free

was bad

the problem

wasn't that

having good

standing

and community

was bad

their issue

was that

they worship

those things

above God

I think that

we should probably

have a look at

Jesus

and see what

his ambition

looked like

because we look

at Jesus

we see that

his ambition

was not an ambition

of personal gain

but an ambition

of sacrifice

it wasn't for

a kingdom here

on earth

it was for

a kingdom

in heaven

the way he lived

his life

wasn't about

things

that are here

and now

but he set

his life

on something

that is

for eternity

you know

I think that

Jephthah

saw

his reputation

as something

that would

save him

Israel saw

their freedom

as something

that would

save them

but those

are not

good saviors

they won't

save us

for eternity

they'll make

life a bit

nice now

but they

aren't

eternal

things

I think

that

when

we

transform

our

worship

from ourselves

and we turn

it towards

God

that we

have this

amazing

freedom

because

it means

that we

can be

an amazing

parent

it means

that we

can be

a good

student

it means

that we

can be

good

workers

and

we can

do that

well

because

our life

isn't about

being a

parent

or a

student

or a

worker

I think

when we

set our

ambitions

on Christ

it means

that we

can fail

we can

drop out

of school

we can

lose

our

jobs

and we

can still

worship

God

because

our

God

is a

God

who

promises

to

provide

for us

I

think

that

having

God

as our

ambition

is a

good

thing

because

when

God

is our

ambition

when

God

is the

center

of our

lives

the

center

of our

worship

we

can

see

that

things

are

probably

going to

be

difficult

here

but we

know that

we have

an

eternity

that

is

secure

we

know that

we may

have to

sacrifice

some

things

here

but we

know that

we gain

something

that we

can never

lose

you

know that

I

think

Jesus

is better

than

Jephthah

because

he

doesn't

just

save

us

from our

enemies

here

today

to a

freedom

that we

can lose

but he

gives us

a freedom

that lasts

forever

I

think

that

Jesus

gives

us

an

ambition

a

pursuit

something

that we

can chase

after

that

isn't

going to

destroy

us

or hurt

the people

around

us

but that

will put

us in

good

standing

with

God

that

when we

go and

we face

God

we can

say that

my faith

was in

Christ

and my

life

was about

obedience

to him

it was

about

doing

occasionally

difficult

things

because

God

was the

thing

that I

was

chasing

Judges

repeats

this

phrase

in those

days

there was

no king

in Israel

and everyone

did what was

right in

their own

eyes

what the

Bible tells

us is that

we do have

a king

his name

is Jesus

and that he

does give us

things to do

he directs

our life

and he

says

I'm not

wanting you

to do

the things

that are

right in

your own

eyes

I want

you to

do things

that are

good

in my

father's

eyes

I think

he did

that

he showed

us how

to do

that

he wants

us to

do that

too

so

ambition

what are

our

ambitions

are we

ambitious

for things

here

are we

ambitious

for

God's

kingdom

are we

going to

chase

after

security

here

or are we

going to

chase

after

eternity

with God

are we

going to

do the

right

things

the wrong

way

or are we

going to

do

things

God's

way

are we

going to

do

difficult

things

because

it means

obedience

are we

going to

choose the

easy way

out

because

that's

easier

for here

and now

the Bible

asks us

a question

it's a

question

that

Israel

and Jephthah

never quite

got right

who is

your king

are you

going to

choose your

own king

or is

God going

to be

your king

am I

going to

be my

own king

or is

my ambition

and my

life

going to

be centered

around

Jesus

am I

going to

let my

ambitions

be

about

God

let's

pray

father

father

god

I

confess

that

I

don't

get it

I don't

get it

right

that I

have set

up so

many

things

as

gods

before

you

that I

love

the idea

of being

seen as

a good

church

worker

more than

I love

obedience

to you

father

I

I pray

for us

as a

church

God that

you would

open up

our eyes

to see

our hearts

to split

those motives

to see

where it

is that

we have

valued

something

above you

and we're

worshipping

something

more

than you

God I

pray that

the story

of judges

wouldn't

frustrate

us

but remind

us that

when we

set our

eyes on

something

other than

you

that you

come back

to save

us over

and over

again

father God I

thank you for

Jesus and the

example that he

sent

to live a

life that is

focused on you

that is focused

on your

kingdom

I pray for us

I pray for our

church

that you would

be our

king

that you

would be the

center of our

worship

and you'd be the

direction that we

set our lives

we pray this

humbly in Christ's

precious name

amen