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Sins of the Heart: Selfish Ambition · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to the deep dive. Today we're putting something
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under the microscope that our culture, well, it absolutely
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celebrates ambition. We're part of a world that runs
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on a very simple message. Push, climb, stay hungry.
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You hear it everywhere from business gurus to, you know,
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even some corners of the church. The biggest virtue, it seems, is
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having the biggest platform. Right success is measured by
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visibility. But when you turn to Scripture,
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you get this, the sobering clarity.
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It often looks at what the world calls drive and diagnosis it as
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something much darker, the idolatry of self.
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So that's our mission for this deep dive.
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We want to get beneath the polished resumes, the public
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ministries, and really examine the inner aim of the soul.
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We're diagnosing the hidden sin the New Testament calls erythea
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selfish ambition. And that's exactly where God
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starts. He weighs motives.
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He weighs the desires of the heart, not the statistics or the
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applause you might get from other people.
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So it's an inside out assessment.
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Completely. And the Bible makes it clear
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from the get go just how serious this is.
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James, for instance, writes that wherever you find jealousy and
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selfish ambition, there is disorder and every vile
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practice. That's not a minor warning.
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No, it's not a small personality quirk.
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This sin is a source of chaos. It actively undermines
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fellowship, it shatters integrity, and it invites all
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sorts of strife. It's like a spiritual poison
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that contaminates everything it touches.
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That's a really powerful way to frame it.
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It means we can't look at this through our usual cultural
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lenses, which might say ambition is, you know, a neutral tool.
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We have to get specific. So let's unpack that Greek word
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you mentioned erythia. What are its roots?
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What's the specific flavor it has in the New Testament?
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Well, as you said erythia is the central term.
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It's the word the apostles go to for selfish ambition, and you
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see it pop up again and again in those vice lists in the
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epistles. If you look at its historical
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use before the New Testament, it often described A hired worker,
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but not just any worker. It was someone laboring for pay,
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not out of devotion to the Craft or the Master.
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So a mercenary. Almost exactly a self seeking
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worker, someone who's in it for what they can get out of it.
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It had this sense of of a grasping partisan spirit.
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Often it was used for people trying to build political
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factions for their own game. So it's relational and divisive
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right from the start. It's not just a private wish.
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It's about getting ahead by creating camps.
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Precisely. And in the New Testament, that
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definition gets a spiritual edge.
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It becomes about rivalry, factionalism, a drive for your
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own advancement, even if it means you have to bend the truth
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or sacrifice genuine love. And Paul lists it with some
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pretty serious company. He does things like strife,
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jealousy, outbursts of anger. It's always in a list of things
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that tear communities apart. In Galatians 5, for instance, he
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puts it right there with the works of the flesh in direct
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opposition to the fruit of the Spirit.
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Its presence is a sign that the flesh is, you know, winning that
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internal war. And Paul gives us the ultimate
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contrast, doesn't he? If Erythea is the disease,
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what's the antidote in Scripture?
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The antidote is humility, and you see it laid out so clearly
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in Philippians chapter 2 you could almost call it the charter
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document for Christian humility. Paul commands do nothing from
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selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more
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significant than yourself mere. Significant, not just equal.
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More significant, that's the definitive contrast.
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Erethia elevates the self. Humility elevates the neighbor,
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and by doing that it elevates Christ.
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It's a 0 sum game in the heart. Either the self gets the credit
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or God does. This is a really vital
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distinction because we know the Bible doesn't condemn all
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aspiration. Paul praises the desire for the
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office of overseer as a noble task, right?
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So how do you perform that heart surgery on yourself?
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How do you know if the goals you're setting are driven by a
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sinful self seeking engine or a holy desire to glorify God?
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Where is that line practically? That line isn't visible on the
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surface. That's what makes it so tricky.
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It's not about the size of your role, CEO or janitor, or even
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how much you get done. It's all about the aim of the
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soul, the the direction of your internal motor.
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OK, so give us an example. Sure, think about two people
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doing the exact same work. One might stay late to perfect a
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project because they genuinely believe it serves the client
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well and that this excellence honors God.
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OK, The other person stays just as late, does the same work, but
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it's because they're craving the applause.
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They want the promotion, they want that feeling of being seen
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as indispensable. The labor looks identical.
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The love is completely different.
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Let's break down that internal monologue, then start with the
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sinful one. What does selfish ambition sound
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like in your head? Selfish ambition is always
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asking one question. Deep down, will I advance?
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It's craving is for status, influence, praise, control.
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It's competitive, It's covetous. It's a form of self idolatry,
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really. It's this quiet, stubborn
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insistence that my name, my platform, my success must be at
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the center of this. So it's a.
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Grasping impulse. It is.
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The internal logic is something like if I don't get the credit
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for this, it wasn't worth it. I need to be seen.
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I deserve this. And crucially, if that other
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person succeeds, that somehow diminishes me.
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It's all driven by anxiety about one's own reputation.
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And what about the other side, the holy God centered
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aspiration? What's that internal voice like?
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That voice asks a totally different question.
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Will God be glorified? It comes from a place of genuine
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love for Christ. The desire is to see His Kingdom
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built, His name honored through faithful, excellent work.
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The posture is different. The posture is surrender.
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It says, Lord use me however you want.
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High place, low place, seen unseen, it doesn't matter.
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My joy is in your success, not my visibility.
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That person can pursue excellence with all their might,
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but be genuinely indifferent to whose name gets attached to it
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in the end. That distinction, my name versus
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God's name, really raises the stakes.
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We're not just talking about a personality flaw.
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This is a matter of worship. That's exactly right.
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Selfish ambition isn't just bad office politics, it's self
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supremacy. When you live to advance
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yourself, you're living as if you are the rightful sovereign
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of your own life. As if your will must be done,
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your honor must be defended. It's a practical denial of God's
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rights over you. It is.
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It quietly tramples all over the first commandment.
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You shall have no other gods before me.
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The self, when it's elevated like that, becomes the
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functional working God of that person's life.
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Everything else, relationships, time, money, gets sacrificed on
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its altar. So if this self supremacy is a
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deep seated disease, not just a, you know, an occasional mistake,
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we'll get to trace it to its source.
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You mentioned 2 fundamental sins at the root of.
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It yes, the the source code for erythia is a potent combination
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of pride and unbelief. It's always a symptom of that
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deeper disorder of the soul that we all inherited.
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Let's start with pride. Pride is the ultimate route.
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It's that impulse to rise above the place of a creature, to want
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a status that belongs only to God.
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We see it right there in Eden. The serpent's promise was You
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will be like God. Pride is the refusal to just
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accept God's good rule. It's the desire to set yourself
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up as your own lawgiver, your own judge, your own source of
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significance. So it's not just a feeling of
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being better than someone else, it's an active movement.
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It's an active posture, you could say Selfish ambition is
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just pride with a plan. It's that boastful impulse.
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I must go higher. I must exalt myself.
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Applied to your career, your ministry, your reputation.
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The proud heart grasps it reaches.
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It can't stand to wait in line. And you know, a key tale is that
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it feels this immediate, corrosive resentment when
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someone else gets the honor it thinks it deserves.
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And the second route, unbelief, is that it acts like the fuel.
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So if pride is the desire to be God, unbelief is the fear that
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God isn't good enough. That's a perfect way to put it.
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Unbelief in this context is a practical refusal to trust God's
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providential care, to trust his timing.
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The ambitious person operates with a a scarcity mindset.
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They look at the future and they suspect that God's promises like
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Psalm 84, no good thing as he withhold, are just nice ideas on
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paper, not a rock solid reality you can build your life on.
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And that suspicion leads to a certain kind of behavior.
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It leads to the conviction that if you don't push, if you don't
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scheme, if you don't seize every opportunity, you'll be
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forgotten, you'll be overlooked, you'll fail.
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The ambitious person can't rest in God's sovereignty.
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They have to seize control. So the logic feeds itself.
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If you don't believe God will lift up the humble when the time
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is right, you conclude you have to lift yourself up right now.
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That is the tragic logical conclusion of unbelief, and it's
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what gives pride the green light to become active ambition.
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If you suspect God might be negligent or slow, then
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self-reliance starts to look like a virtue.
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That suspicion just removes all the constraints.
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And when those two roots, pride and unbelief, take over, the
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result is a complete reversal of God's law.
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It's law breaking at the deepest.
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Level. It's a total theological
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inversion. Selfish ambition systematically
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rebels against the 2 Great commandments.
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OK, how so? First, it reverses the first
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commandment. Instead of loving God with all
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your heart, soul, mind and strength, you replace that with
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an intense, all consuming love for self.
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You start living as if the first principle of the universe is You
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shall love yourself with all that you are and seek your own
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glory first. And what happens to your
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neighbor when the self becomes the idol?
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The rebellion against God immediately flips.
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The second commandment to love for neighbor is replaced with
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comparison and rivalry. Neighbors stop being fellow
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image bearers to love and serve. They become either competitors
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you have to outdo or stepping stones you can climb on.
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You shall use your neighbor to advance your platform.
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That becomes the operating principle.
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It's law breaking at its core because it's systematically
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replaces God and neighbor with the self as the object of all
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your worship and all your service.
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That framework is just so helpful.
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It explains why a sin that starts in the quiet of the heart
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can cause such public corporate ruin.
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Let's look at a biblical example, starting with maybe the
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biggest one, the Tower of Babel. A perfect place to start.
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So the people have been commanded to be fruitful and
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fill the earth, but instead of spreading out, they gather in
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one place to build this massive city and a tower.
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And their motive is stated so clearly in Genesis 11.
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Let us make a name for ourselves.
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This is the historical archetype of corporate erythia.
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It's selfish ambition on a massive scale.
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All their unity, all their technology, all their energy, it
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was all bent towards self exultation, not the worship of
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God. They were seeking security and
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fame in what they could build with their own hands.
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The. Fear of being scattered was the
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unbelief, and making a name was the pride.
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Exactly. They were trying to create a
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self-contained human Kingdom, a power structure that could be
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stable and famous completely apart from God.
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They wanted a monument to their own achievement.
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And God's response was swift. He confused their language,
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scattered them, and frustrated their exact goal of making a
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name for themselves. And that outcome is a timeless
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lesson. It shows us that God simply will
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not bless plans that put man's fame at the center.
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He will bring them down. He scatters them precisely
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because they're gathering. Was rooted in pride.
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That large scale failure is then mirrored in the small scale in
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the life of the Church. We see this with that searing
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example in three John, the man named Diatrifies.
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Yes, diatrifies is the perfect case study of erythia in
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ministry. John's description of him is so
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simple but so telling. He's someone who likes to put
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himself first. That's it, isn't?
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It that one phrase captures the whole inner drive, the lust for
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preeminence, for status, for control.
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He didn't want to serve. He wanted to occupy the highest
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chair. He wanted to be the final
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authority. And this ambition wasn't just a
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quiet feeling, it exploded into open abuse of his authority.
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It tore that fellowship apart, just like James warned.
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Absolutely. His desire for the top spot led
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him to do terrible things. He rejected the authority of the
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Apostle John, he spread wicked nonsense about him, and then he
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refused to welcome traveling missionaries and even through
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faithful believers out of the church for disagreeing with him.
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In Diotrophes you see the lust for power hardened into slander
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and persecution. So when leadership is infected
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with that spirit, the whole atmosphere of a church just
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changes, doesn't it? Going back to James 3.16, what
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does that disorder look like on the ground?
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It creates an atmosphere that James calls earthly,
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unspiritual, demonic. I mean, those are strong words.
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Very When that self seeking spirit takes hold, the spiritual
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temperature plummets. The unity just dissolves.
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Congregations become noisy, suspicious, brittle.
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They fracture easily because everyone is focused on
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self-defense and protecting their own turf, not on building
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each other up. And this often shows up as
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factions or party spirit. Yeah.
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You see it in Corinth with people saying I follow Paul or I
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follow Apollo's. Yes.
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Why is that specifically an expression of selfish ambition?
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It sounds like they're just, you know, admiring their favorite
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teacher. Because it flows from a heart
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that wants to feel superior by association.
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When you declare I follow the enlightened Paul, not that
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simplistic Apollo's, what you're really doing is quietly exalting
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yourself. You're leveraging someone else's
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platform to secure your own perceived spiritual rank.
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I see. It turns theology into a
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competition, and when leaders themselves are ambitious, the
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damage just multiplies. Ministry becomes a contest for
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power. Elders start vying for control.
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Pastors compete for speaking slots.
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Ministry teams guard their turf with jealousy.
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And the ones who get hurt the most are often the quietest,
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most faithful members. Always the weaker believers, the
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members who are serving faithfully in unseen ways, they
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start to feel useless. They feel like they're just
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there to prop up the visible projects of a few strong
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personalities. That has to be so discouraging.
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It breeds deep discouragement and cynicism.
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If the church starts operating on the same principles of self
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promotion as the corporate world, the gospel loses its
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distinctiveness. And tragically, some people just
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drift away, wounded by the feeling that the church runs on
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ego, not on genuine Christ centered love.
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It's sobering to see that domino effect.
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Now let's bring this diagnosis right into our own moment.
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Every Thea doesn't go away, it just adapts.
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How does this sin hide out in modern life?
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Often under acceptable labels like drive or personal branding.
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Oh, it finds incredibly fertile soil in our culture, especially
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with the whole hustle culture mindset in our professional
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lives. You see it when a person starts
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building their core identity around things that are external
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and fragile. Their job title, their income,
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their follower count. Work itself, which is a gift
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from God, gets corrupted. It stops being a way to glorify
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God and serve your neighbor and it becomes a stage for self
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exultation. Someone might crave that feeling
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of being indispensable, so they stay late at the office, not out
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of love for the work, but because it feeds their ego.
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And social media is like an amplification system for all of
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this. It's a relentless comparison
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machine. Careers become brands that have
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to be marketed. Every accomplishment is curated
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and displayed for public applause.
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If a success isn't posted online, the ambitious heart
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wonders if it even really happened.
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It sounds exhausting. It is.
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It's this constant, restless internal process, and it doesn't
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always roar. Sometimes it's just that quiet
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resentment when someone else gets an opportunity you wanted,
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or that corrosive disappointment that won't let your soul rest
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until you get the recognition you think you deserve.
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And the tragedy is that this isn't just a public square
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problem. It leaks into the home, into our
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most intimate relationships. That's one of its most
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destructive forms. In a marriage, ambition can look
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like a stubborn insistence on your own way instead of mutual
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submission. One spouse insists on their
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personal plans, their career, their ministry, and they start
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to see their family as an obstacle to their real calling.
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The spouse and children become a supporting cast.
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That's the bitter result. Someone might pursue a highly
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visible ministry with zeal, but their family is neglected at
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home, treated like props. To maintain that public image,
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the kids have to be well behaved and accomplished, not out of
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love for them, but because they have to reflect well on the
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parent's status. I can see how that plays out in
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parenting. It's devastating parents pushing
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their kids into an endless grind of activities, not for the
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child's good, but so the parents can look successful compared to
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other families. When your child's report card
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becomes the main mirror you used to see your own worth or their
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failure feels like a personal insult to you.
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That's a clear sign selfish ambition has invaded your home.
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And inside the church itself, this sin can be cloaked in the
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language of piety, making it so hard to spot.
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It's lethal when it wears that disguise.
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It hides behind the phrase I just want to be used by God when
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the real desire is I want to be noticed by people.
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You see it when someone chases the visible rolls, the pulpit,
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the microphone, while despising the unseen thankless tasks like
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cleaning up or working with the kids.
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Resentment over who gets to lead a small group, envy over who
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gets invited to speak at a conference.
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Those are painful exposures of the ambition hiding beneath the
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religious surface. Which leads to what we see so
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much of today, the weaponization of good theology.
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It's rampant sound doctrine is used not to build people up, but
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as a badge of spiritual rank to win arguments and humiliate
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opponents. Theological debates online
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become competitions, not opportunities to gently correct
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and protect the flock. Right.
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The motive isn't to see God glorified, it's to crush the
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opponent and get that feeling of self exaltation that comes from
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winning. This is exactly what James meant
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by that earthly, unspiritual demonic wisdom.
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Even when it's talking about spiritual things.
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So when a person is operating with that inner pattern, what is
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the cost to their soul? What are the eternal
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consequences we need to be aware of?
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Well, first and foremost, to live in self seeking is to put
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yourself in direct opposition to God.
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Both Peter and James warn us that God opposes the proud.
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So instead of peaceful communion with God, the ambitious person
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finds themselves in a state of inner turmoil, dryness, and
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strain because they're constantly fighting against
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their Creator. The internal misery alone must
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be crushing. It's the exhausting life of
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perpetual rivalry. A soul ruled by the sin is never
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still. It's constantly comparing who
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has more influence, who got more recognition.
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Joy becomes conditional, tied only to being first.
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Someone else's success feels like a personal loss.
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It fuels anxiety and a weariness that never finds rest in God's
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provision. And it seems like it would have
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to lead to moral decay. It inevitably does.
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To keep up the image, you have to hide your weaknesses, deny
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your sin. You're forced into a life of
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hypocrisy. A.
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Kind of calculated deception. Yes, and when advancement is the
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idol, the conscience gets dull. That's when you start cutting
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corners, flattering people in power, taking credit for others
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work, shifting blame. The vile practices James warned
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about are born right there. And before God, what's the
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ultimate consequence? Ultimately, selfish ambition
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robs God of the honor that is his alone.
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He says My glory I give to no other.
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And Romans 2.8 is chilling. It warns that for those who are
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self seeking and do not obey the truth, there will be wrath and
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fury. A settled, unrepentant pattern
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of self seeking really calls into question whether a person
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has truly grasped the grace they claim to know.
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The diagnosis is severe. The root is deep pride,
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unbelief. The consequences are
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catastrophic. So the answer can't just be try
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harder to be humble. That doesn't work.
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Where does the real cure lie? The curious found entirely in
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the gospel. It's about looking to Christ,
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who is the perfect Savior and the perfect model.
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He is the complete opposite of every selfish impulse we've
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talked about. The cure begins not with our
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striving, but with his perfect life and His substitutionary
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work. Let's look at his humility then
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as the opposite pattern. That Philippians 2 passage is so
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key here. It says that though Christ was
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truly God, he did not regard equality with God as something
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to be grasped. That one phrase seems to be the.
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Counter to the very definition of erythia, which is all about
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grasping for status. It's the ultimate reversal where
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Adam reached up in pride to grasp at being like God.
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Christ, who was God, came down. He emptied himself.
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He took the form of a servant. He humbled himself all the way
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to a humiliating death on a cross.
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His entire life was a refutation of our self exulting pattern.
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And where we demand our will be done.
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He prayed in the garden. Not my will, but yours be done.
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He accepted the low place. He submitted his own rightful
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desires to the Father's plan. And in doing so, he completely
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redefined greatness for us. He did when his own disciples
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were arguing about who was the greatest, a classic display of
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erythia. He told them that greatness in
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his Kingdom comes through service and self denial.
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His motto was clear. The Son of Man came not not to
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be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for
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many. But his work is so much more
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than just a moral example for us to try and copy.
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It's the decisive blow against the condemnation our ambition
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deserves. This is the truth of
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justification. This is the absolute core of it.
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Our selfish ambition deserves wrath.
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Christ stepped into that judgment.
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He bore the full guilt of proud self seeking sinners on that
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cross and his flawless humility, His perfect obedience, is
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credited to everyone who trusts in him by faith.
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So the verdict is already in. The verdict is in the truth of
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no condemnation in Romans 8.1 completely undercuts our need to
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strive for worth. If you're standing before God
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rests fully on Christ's perfection, then your resume,
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your platform, your success, none of it forms the ground of
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your security anymore. You are freed from that frantic
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need to climb over others because the verdict of acquitted
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and accepted has already been given.
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That security should release us from that restless compulsion.
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The ambition is neutralized. It's neutralized and then it's
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replaced. The gospel doesn't just pardon
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the old ambition, it births a new one.
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Through our union with Christ, the Holy Spirit begins to work
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in US. We come to the conviction that
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we should no longer live for ourselves, but for Him who for
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their sake died and was raised. So the soul gets new
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orientation. The question shifts from will I
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advance to that new holy ambition?
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Will God be glorified? That's the new aim, Paul says.
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We make it our aim to please him.
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The Spirit wages war against the old fleshly ambition and starts
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producing genuine humility, patience, self-control.
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He must increase, but I must decrease.
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That becomes the sincere daily confession of the believer.
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The self is willingly brought low so that Christ can shine.
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And you can finally let go of trying to get the 1st place now,
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because you can trust the promise that God who raised
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Christ from the dead, will lift up the humble in his own perfect
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time. And that shift is everything.
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The Gospel replaces that restless zeal to secure your own
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glory with a calm, passionate zeal to see the Lord Jesus
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Christ praised, even if your own name is completely forgotten.
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Yes, and the fitting response to seeing the sin exposed by the
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Gospel is a prayer. A prayer that redirects all the
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glory outward, away from the self.
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It's an honest acknowledgement that anything we have, anything
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we achieve, is a gift and so the credit belongs to the giver.
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That's the charge we want to leave you with.
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Take that prayer, make it the sincere confession of your
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heart, and let it shape your goals, your decisions, your
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interactions This week. The request is simple.
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It's from Psalm 115. Not to us, O Lord, not to us,
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but to your name. Give glory for the sake of your
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steadfast love and your faithfulness.