Secret Ambition
Romans 12:16
by Rev. Curtis J. Young
May 9, 1999
Michael W. Smith wrote a hit song about our Savior. He called it "Secret Ambition." It includes these lyrics: 
Some say, "death to the radical, He's way out of line." Some say "praise be the miracle" God sends a blessed sign, A blessed sign for troubled times.
Nobody knew his secret ambition, Nobody knew his claim to fame…Nobody knew his secret ambition, Was to give his life away.
What's your secret ambition? Jesus' ambition was to give His life away, first to God in obeying Him, and for people. That was His ambition: "I did not come to be served but to serve, and give my life as a ransom for many."
Jesus' ambition didn't carry about it the corruption of sin, the desire to exalt himself at the expense of others. It was quite the opposite: To live for the good, the salvation, of others, for the glory of the God who made them. Paul calls us to do the same.
This is not easy. Like everything else that God intended for good, sin has corrupted ambition, too. 
When God originally blessed Adam and said, "Be fruitful and multiply,fill the earth and subdue it," God wasn't only giving a command. He was shaping Adam's ambition. 
As Adam began to exercise dominion, as he place the name of his choice upon the animals and they became subject to him - not only to his command but to his blessing -- I have no doubt that he must have beamed with satisfaction, and turned to His Father with gratitude and praise. Because Adam knew that every accomplishment was God's gift to him, as a sinless son, he was determined to turn every accomplishment into an act of service, and a gift back to God.
Things have changed. We know from Genesis that human ambition has run amuck. Remember Lamech in Gen. 4, the descendant of Cain who expressed his ambition in terms of bloodthirstiness for men, "If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times." Recall Genesis 11 and man's attempt to build his own tower to heaven, to rival God. 
In the New Testament John wrote, "If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. All that is in the world, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the boastful pride of life is not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
Jesus made it very clear what it is to do the will of the Father. It has nothing to do with exalting ourselves, nothing to do with pride. The head of our church, our discipler who taught it is enough for a disciple to be like his teacher, is gentle and humble in heart. 
What's your secret ambition? When you dream about yourself - what do you hope to be, wish you were, want to accomplish -- what do you dream? 
Our ambitions are secret in the sense that we don't readily share these things with others. They are no secret when it comes to their impact on our lives. That's why John wrote as he did, and James and Paul. Our ambition effects every relationship that we have: Who we approach first in a room at a party, who we choose to care about, who we seek to know, who we avoid.
In fact, the term - it's Latin -- was invented to describe the way Roman senators approached fellow citizens when they wanted a vote. Ambition not only is the yardstick that determines how we view ourselves but the yardstick which determines how we relate to others. In the church of Christ - not while at the church but as the church no matter where we are, no matter whom we're with -- we are called to have an entirely different yardstick from the world. The problem is that it is in our nature as fallen human beings to have as our secret ambition to exalt ourselves. And that can only mean at the expense of others.
In vs. 16 Paul returns for the third time in this chapter to this desire in us for supremacy. It must be faced down again and again.
As I studied the text, it dawned on me: Perhaps the Spirit led Paul to write a threefold admonition because this was the church at Rome he was writing. Rome -- the capital of the greatest empire the world has ever known, where pride was in pandemic proportions, a deadly disease celebrated as the key to success. If it was needed there, is it not needed here?
Vs. 3 Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought. Vs. 10 Honor one another above yourselves. Vs. 16 Do not be proud; do not be conceited. 
This point so absolutely fundamental to who we are as followers of Christ, that I called this the first principle of Christian life. Romans 12 is all about transforming us by the renewing of our minds. After coming to faith in Christ, the renewing of our minds begins with how we think about ourselves - that is to say, with genuine humility.
Where Paul's point in vs. 3 is to admonish us to use our spiritual gifts to serve each other, and in vs. 10, it's to admonish us to love one another, here in vs. 16 Paul admonishes us to set aside that ambition that is so applauded in the world, that hook which Satan uses more than any other to snag men, which is so contrary to the grace of God - receiving it, experiencing it, living it, sharing it. 
Vs. 16 literally says, Mind not high things, but yield yourselves to the low (Some translations add people, others things. I think we should preserve the ambiguity of the term) 
NKJ puts it: "Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble." 
The last phrase, "Do not be conceited," translates more literally, "Don't become wise alongside yourselves." The analogy here is of standing in front of a mirror admiring yourself. 
Paul is saying with respect to your status, your position, what you have, how you're regarded by others, don't admire yourself. Don't stand around thinking how good you are. What's the opposite? Hate yourself? No Humble yourself (sober judgment) and live for the glory and honor of the won who is worthy of glory and honor.
Why is this so important?
I. Pride plunges us into every kind of sin.
Christian thinkers from Augustine to C.S. Lewis have argued so powerfully, that pride is at the root of all sin, the desire to exalt ourselves, to obtain position and honor that we don't have.
The world teaches that pride is what is necessary for progress. That's true if by progress we mean getting you to buy cars your don't need and clothes you don't need; if it means sacrificing your family for a career you don't need; if it means gaining the whole world and losing your soul.
As for genuine advances - in science, art, music, literature - does the record not show that approaching such matters as servants of humanity for the glory of God is even more inspiring than ego, with at least as impressive results?
C.S. Lewis argues in Mere Christianity that pride is the sin at the center of immorality. He calls it the "utmost evil," because it leads to every other vice. 
In the garden what lay at the root of the woman's determination to eat the forbidden and give some to her husband if not pride, that she knew better than God what was good for her and her husband? Or what lay at the root of Adam's determination to go his own way rather than adhere to command God had given him, if not pride, believing that he need not be bound by the rule of God?
Pride came before the greatest fall that ever occurred. It comes before every fall today. It corrupts us. We want to be more than we are or more than we can be, when we do not live in relation to God. Rather than exalting ourselves, we end up falling short of that truly great destiny for which we were created. We want to be more than we are when we do not recognize all that God has created us to be and the redemption by which we are renewed to God's purpose. We grasp for more when we do not see all that God has in store for those who live in the humility of faith. Pride makes us enemies of God.
Pr. 3:34 God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Pr. 16:5 The Lord detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished. Pr. 16:18 Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall…vs 19 Better to be lowly in spirit and among the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud.
Do you believe that? Do you believe it would be better to be a refugee from Kosovo than a General in Milosevic's army? Maybe we need to read the Proverbs 18:12 as well: Before his downfall a man's heart is proud, but humility comes before honor.
I don't know if there is any attitude more condemned in the Bible than pride. Yet we trifle with it. We say, "I'm too proud." "I need to be more humble." When was the last time you said, "I lie too much." "I need to be more honest." "Or, I'm stealing too much!" We don't treat pride as the sin that it is.
We trifle with it because we tend to separate our view of ourselves in relation to men from our view of ourselves in relation to God. "I'm proud before men, but humble before the Lord." The Bible won't let you get away with this kind of thinking.
If you're in relation to men, you are proud in relation to God. If you view yourself as exalted before your peers, you view yourself as exalted before the Lord. If you're humble before the Lord, you will be humble before men.
John wrote, "Anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen." May the same thing not be said of humility? In fact is humility not encompassed within this teaching?
II. Pride blinds us to the greatest ambition anyone could have. Just about everything in this world that is falsely peddled as good is a counterfeit to what is truly good in God. Self-centered ambition, the pride that leads us to draw distinctions among one another where Christ sees no distinctions, that leads us to refuse labors as beneath us when they would serve a brother or sister in Christ is a case in point.
The premise of Romans 12-15 is that we are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, to demonstrate to the world the will of God, that it is good, pleasing and perfect. This is a calling. This would shape your ambition. 
In this Paul was simply reiterating what Jesus modeled and what he had taught: "The kings of the earth lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves." Luke 22
We have around us everywhere role models of what the world says is good, pleasing and perfect. As in Jesus' day they are still the Lords of the earth. You know them. They are leaders. They are NBA All stars. They are actors and singers. They are lords who convince you that you should pay for the privilege of having them place their name on your clothes. They are people of power, wealth, and influence who dole out their largesse in grand displays of charity.
There is another kind of ambition. 
In Romans 15:20, we read, "It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ is not known." I Thess. 4:11-12 "Make it your ambition to lead a quite life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you." II Cor. 5:9 "So we make it our ambition to please Him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it." The Greek term translated ambition, literally means, the love of honor. This was the term used of lords who attempted to gather recognition for themselves by outward displays of generosity. Paul turns the term on its head. 
The honor we are to love, that we are to seek, is the honor that comes from above, not from below. It is not the honor that comes from being exalted by any man but the honor God bestows on those whom Jesus called, the meek of the earth. Those who have faithfully, patiently set aside the ambition of their flesh to live for Him will inherit the earth, and share His glory. 
Don't mistake what the meek look like. C.S. Lewis wrote: "Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most people call "humble" nowadays; he will not be a sort of greasy, smarmy person, who is always telling you that, of course, he is nobody. Probably all you will think about him is that he seemed a cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him. If you do dislike him, it will be because you feel a little envious of anyone who seems to enjoy life so easily. He will not be thinking about humility; he will not be thinking about himself at all."
The call of the Christian is not the call to set aside ambition for nothing, for a mediocre life that is undistinguished in any way. It is the call to set aside the counterfeit ambition of this world, to adopt instead a secret ambition, to live the most distinguished life you can, life of which it may be said of you, "He was a servant to everyone he met, for the glory of Christ." 
Amen.