Redefining Ambition: From Fame to True Fulfillment

1. "This desire to be the best. This desire to win at all costs. This desire to be number one. Ambition. This desire to be known by people, to be known for something, typically to be the best. And we all wrestle with it. Like we all we all want that probably in some some way, shape or form. Back in the 80s, 90s, probably early 2000s. Your adults could probably tell you this. They grew up in this time. Not too long ago. Like the ambition, when you talk about ambition, you thought about like the corporate world, like, like where you're headed, if you go to college or to the workforce afterwards, where people, they were trying to climb that ladder of corporate success because they wanted to be at the top." [04:04] (42 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "You're living in a world of steroids. And the steroids are social media. Right. Like I'll tell you, like our generation, when we were your age, we didn't have to deal with that. You guys are having to. You're crossing some unfavorable. Uncharted territory. Like ambition for us might have been valedictorian. But you know what? About halfway through your freshman year, you probably had a good idea if you had a chance at that or not. Right. Like, you know, that C is going to, you know, in Spanish, knocking me out. If you look at Tom Brady, seven Super Bowls, like you might go, yeah, I want to be the best like that. But everyone in here kind of knows, like, hey, you've got to have some natural God-given talent. You've got to have, you know, some courage. You've got to have a lot of coaches. It takes a lot of money." [06:29] (44 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "Everything they do is for show. Here's what you don't want. Guys. Here's what you don't want. I promise you this. You don't want Jesus one day talking about you, referring to you and go, everything he does is for show. Everything that she does. I'm not pointing at anybody in particular. Everything that she does is for people to look at her. Everything that he does is for people to like him. Everything that she does is to have all eyes and all the attention on her. Everything they do is to be somebody. That's what he says. He says, everything they do is for show." [11:00] (40 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "If you identify what it is, kill it. Like, like if you know it's, if you know it, it's important to you. And it makes you famous rather than Jesus famous. Get rid of it. Like if you get a dopamine hit, if you get super excited when something that you post on social media gets a lot of traction and all of a sudden you get giddy about that, or you post something that doesn't get a lot of traction, nobody likes it. And you feel like you have to delete it because no one liked it. And oh my goodness, I can't have that out there because nobody liked it. So I'll delete it. That might be it. That might be a red flag. That might be a warning that, Hey, I, I have this desire inside of me to have everybody's eyes on me." [14:27] (48 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "You have to learn how to serve. Uh, y'all love Chick-fil-A, Christian chicken. Like everybody loves that Christian chicken. There's a story. It's a true story. There's a guy named Rick Warren. He was a pastor at Saddleback church, which at one point was the largest church in America. And it's in Southern California. Dan Cathy was now the owner, the CEO of Chick-fil-A. His dad had found it, Truett Cathy. He'd passed away. Dan Cathy's in charge. Dan Cathy's building a Chick-fil-A close to Saddleback. And Dan Cathy travels and speaks about Chick-fil-A. And he's talking about Jesus lots of places. So he and Rick Warren are friends. So he's in Southern California. He and Rick Warren are out walking around the site where this Chick-fil-A is being built. And they're talking, they're hanging out, just kind of catching up as friends. They get hungry. Chick-fil-A is not built yet. It's being built. There's a Taco Bell next door. So they go over to the Taco Bell and they go into the bathroom. Their hands are all dirty because they've been like out at the construction site. And Rick Warren's the one that tells the story. He says they go into the Taco Bell bathroom to wash their hands. As they're washing their hands, Dan Cathy, the CEO, not an owner of the Taco Bell, but Chick-fil-A, the CEO of Chick-fil-A out of Atlanta, Georgia. The Taco Bell bathroom counter has got paper towels on it, it's got water all over it. They finish washing their hands. Dan Cathy goes and pulls some paper towels, what's in it, and he starts wiping down all of the sinks in and around that Taco Bell in the men's room. Cleans it all up, makes it look nice. And Rick Warren's just watching him do it. And Rick Warren says something to him, he goes, man, this is, this is kind of crazy, ironic. That the CEO of Chick-fil-A. Is in the Taco Bell bathroom, his competitors cleaning up and making their establishment look great. Dan Cathy said to Rick Warren, he said, well, we have a philosophy at Chick-fil-A to leave things better than you found them." [18:15] (102 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6. "You were made not to receive glory, but to give glory to Jesus. I'll say that again. You were not made to receive glory. God made you to give glory to Jesus. And that's why this conversation matters. Because when we live in a world where I want eyes on me. I want to be the best. Best sound system. Best quarterback. Best volleyball player. Most likes. Most popular. Homecoming king. I want everybody looking at me. You're actually moving in the direction opposite from what you were created. And when you begin to go, I want all eyes pointing to Jesus. I want all glory given to Jesus. Is when you start living the life that God created you for. So if you can figure it out now. You'll be much better. Much better for it." [26:02] (51 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7. "Here's the second thing you might consider. I'm going to say you do all these things. Just here's some ideas. If you're thinking, Hey, what do I do? Some of you may need to consider like a social media fast. Like if the likes, if that really drives you, you want to go viral, you want to be an influencer, shut it down. Kill it. Maybe not forever, but go on that. I'm shutting it down for a month. I'm not posting anything. I'm not getting on. I'm locking it out. Parents having the password. I'll get it back on a month from now and see. And that might be what your soul needs to go, you know what? I don't care what everybody sees. I don't care." [24:31] (38 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8. "Just serve people humbly. Intentionally. Like look for ways that you can serve. Here's what's interesting. I'm going to close with this. In 2020, they interviewed 3,000 teenagers. And they asked them about being popular, about being an influencer. 21% of those teenagers, one out of every five, said it was absolutely necessary. Another 27%. So we're at 48. Almost one in two teenagers said it was very important. Like one out of two of you. Being an influencer. Being social media famous is very important to your absolutely necessary. That's why I talked about social media earlier. Because you're living in a world where it says you can do it. And here's what I want you to hear. Last thing. You were made not to receive glory, but to give glory to Jesus." [25:14] (57 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)