May the mumbling commence!
Ambition – it can be good or bad, depending on how it’s
directed. Are we trying to be the best
of the best or the worst of the worse?
King Ahab of Israel was at the bottom of the barrel when it came to the
throne of Israel. Read from First Kings
chapter sixteen:
Ahab son of Omri began to rule over Israel in the
thirty-eighth year of King Asa's reign in Judah. He reigned in Samaria
twenty-two years. But Ahab did what was evil in the Lord's sight, even more than any of the kings before him. And as though it were not enough to live like
Jeroboam, he married Jezebel, the daughter of King Ethbaal of the Sidonians,
and he began to worship Baal. First
he built a temple and an altar for Baal in Samaria. Then he set up an Asherah pole. He did more
to arouse the anger of the Lord,
the God of Israel, than any of the other kings of Israel before him.
(Verses 29-33)
Be careful who you yoke yourself with. A spouse can lead you astray to worshiping
things other than God. And your
wickedness will only multiply from there.
For Ahab, it meant building a temple of worship for Baal and setting up
an Asherah pole. Our God is a jealous
God. No wonder that the Lord was angry!
Well, that is one extreme for ambition. There is another side to this coin. Read from Acts chapter twenty about Paul’s
marathon sermon at Troas:
On the first day of the week, we gathered to observe the
Lord's Supper. Paul
was preaching; and since he was leaving the next day, he talked until midnight. The upstairs room where we met was lighted
with many flickering lamps. As Paul
spoke on and on, a young man named
Eutychus, sitting on the windowsill, became very drowsy. Finally, he sank into a deep sleep and fell three
stories to his death below. Paul went down,
bent over him, and took him into his arms. "Don't worry," he said,
"he's alive!" Then they all went back upstairs and ate
the Lord's Supper together. And Paul continued talking to them until dawn;
then he left. Meanwhile, the young
man was taken home unhurt, and everyone was greatly relieved.
(Verses 7-12)
Paul was striking while the iron was hot. Paul knew that he would be leaving soon, so
he preached a marathon sermon – from before supper to dawn. I would guess that a lot of eyelids were
drooping, but the fact that no one left means that Paul had something of
importance to say for all those hours.
Soon after midnight, a preacher’s shame happened. A listener fell asleep. I suppose that preachers who preach with any
kind of regularity have experienced dozing congregants. I don’t know about any other preachers, but
when a sleeper happens during my sermon, I am a more than a little embarrassed. And Eutychus fell three stories to his death!
How did Paul respond?
Paul raised Eutychus from the dead, finally ate the Lord’s Supper with
the people present (in the wee hours of the morning), and proceeded to continue
teaching and preaching until sunrise.
Then he left.
How’s that for ambition?
Paul had ambition for the people of Troas to know as much about the Lord
Jesus as possible before Paul needed to leave. So Paul preached the night away.
Think about it: Ambition to further the kingdom of
God! Would that you and I would do the
same thing! Let’s have ambition to climb
the holy mountain of our Lord rather than getting loss in the deepest of
valleys of human degradation and sin.
Enough mumbling for now…
Peace Out
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