Make 2000 the Best Year of Your Life

Tom Shrader contrasts the world's definition of ambition—accumulation, speed, and self-obsession—with a Christian vision of ambition centered on knowing and glorifying God. Drawing from 2 Timothy 1, Romans 9, Philippians 1, and Ephesians 3, he presents four practical goals for the new year: improving relationships, increasing freedom from enslavement, intensifying passion for Christ, and expanding knowledge through Scripture. He closes by grounding all growth in four disciplines—prayer, study, fellowship, and sharing faith—urging listeners that the only obstacle to a transformed life is their own unwillingness.

“If there's nothing worth dying for, there's nothing worth living for.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: Year in Review

Recorded: 2000 at East Valley Bible Church

Duration: 46 min

Themes: ambition, new year, spiritual growth, knowing god, freedom, passion for christ, relationships, scripture, feeling stuck spiritually, starting fresh, new year resolutions, struggling with worldliness, young adult, new believer, seeking purpose, wanting deeper faith

Scripture: 2 Timothy 1:2-4, Acts 20, 1 Corinthians 6:20, Romans 9:3, Philippians 1:9-10, Ephesians 3:14-19

Theological Themes: sanctification, becoming holy, glorifying god, spiritual disciplines, scripture study, fellowship, spiritual formation, christian living

Full Transcript

A Fresh Approach to Ambition

Here's what we're looking at: a fresh approach to the new year. This is the second part of our discussion. Last week we looked through the rearview mirror at 1999, and today we look forward to the year 2000. We are going to ask you to exhibit in your life a characteristic that is not typically identified with Christians, and that is the idea of being ambitious.

What the World Calls Ambition

When we look at ambition, here is a normal approach. There is a fellow by the name of Shrelly Blotnick who wrote a New York Times bestseller called *Ambitious Men: Their Drives, Dreams, and Delusions*. What Blotnick discovered is that there has been a change in attitude among people, and ambition is now seen as something very positive — more positive than it has been in the last twenty-five or thirty years. In fact, people viewed each other as somewhat defective if they did not consider themselves ambitious. So it raises the question: what does it mean to be ambitious?

What Blotnick did was gather groups of people and show them video vignettes of people in different settings, asking them to gauge ambition as they saw it. What he hoped to get was a definition of ambition, and here is what his control groups discovered. They identified five characteristics of ambition.

The first was a desire for more. Someone was considered ambitious only to the extent that he wanted more money, fame, prestige, and power. If a person said they wanted to be happy, that was not considered evidence of ambition.

The second characteristic, closely related to the first, was an emphasis on quantity. These people determined that ambition was a quantitatively oriented word — how much was the issue, not what kind. They said it was irrelevant whether a person was having a good time or a bad time; all the focus was on accumulation.

The Five Marks of Worldly Ambition

The third characteristic was a shortage of time. People were not inclined to give a person forever to accomplish their goals. To be judged ambitious, he had to be in a hurry, and the more of a rush he was in, the more ambitious he was seen as being. They had to want the big four — money, fame, prestige, and power — not later than nine o'clock tomorrow morning. There was a sense of, "I'm late, I'm late for a very important date." I was talking to somebody the other day who said, "I don't have any time — I'm so busy, every minute of every day is scheduled." What the control groups said was that unless you were that kind of person, if you had time to relax or think or meditate, you were not considered ambitious.

The fourth characteristic was an absence of satisfaction. If somebody said, "Once I make a million dollars, I'll never work again — I'll just lie in a hammock and smile," that person was considered more goal-oriented than ambitious. If the word ambition were truly to apply, they felt the person had to be willing to strive virtually until the day he died. The highest and best evidence that you were truly ambitious would be this: you are a salesperson, and as you take your last breath you are knocking on a door, cold-calling the next client, saying, "I may not be able to serve you, but somebody from the company can" — and then you drop dead. That is how they defined it.

When you look at those four characteristics together — accumulate more, focus on quantity, shortage of time, absence of satisfaction — you understand there is no way to sustain that. It is a very frustrating way to live.

The Danger of Self-Obsession

To those four, a fifth had to be added: an obsession with self. Blotnick discovered that a person had to be, according to those who observed the tapes, somewhat ruthless. To the extent a person was concerned about other people's feelings, to that degree observers downgraded the level of ambition they saw in that person. Unless someone gave the appearance of being entirely out for themselves, many were reluctant to identify them as ambitious.

Let me state the obvious. If you are here today and this is the way you live your life, you are destined for a life of loneliness, frustration, bitterness, anger, and emptiness. If all you care about is getting more, if all you care about is the next deal, if all you care about is moving fast — I was at a high school basketball game Friday night, and at halftime there were three different people in the stands on cell phones. There is this idea that you have to be in constant contact at all times.

Some people say, "It's been five years since I've had a vacation — I work best under that kind of pressure." No, you don't. It is inefficient and ineffective, it is egocentric, and your pride is in the way. You are afraid that if you leave, it will not fall apart — you are afraid that it will stay together. That is what you are really afraid of. When you are obsessed with yourself, your view of the world is this: here you are, and here are all the other planets of the solar system, with all other people circulating around you. When you live that way, you are destined for frustration.

A Better Kind of Ambition

So when we ask you to be ambitious, what we are calling for is a fresh approach to this idea of ambition. Let me give you four or five things this morning to lay out as targets for the coming year.

The first is to improve relationships. You have to have other people around you. When we talk about fellowship, we are talking about your fellowship with God and your fellowship with other believers. We were having a discussion on staff this week — not in a cynical way — about a particular person, though he becomes symbolic of dozens we see in the course of a year. Through some crisis in life, or some need — a spouse who leaves, a child who gets sick, or a personal struggle — people find themselves without the relationships they need to carry them through.

Nurturing Relationships Through Crisis and Growth

Sickness, financial hardship, whatever the cause, crisis brings people to the church. It brings them to a place where they say, "I can't go this alone." What happens is people come around them, they begin to grow, they begin to study, and inevitably it seems they start to drift away again. We don't see them until another point of crisis, and this time the crisis is typically deeper than before, because now there is the embarrassment that goes with it.

When somebody's life falls apart, it rarely goes from a spiritually healthy person to somebody in total crisis. What happens is: I'm spiritually okay, but I start to study less, pray less, spend less time with believers, I don't share my faith, I pull away from some of my Christian friends, and gradually all of my spiritual immune system goes down. Now I'm in crisis — not because of a singular event, but because of the steps I took way back before. You need other people in your life.

Paul writes to his son in the Lord, Timothy, in Second Timothy, Chapter 1. He says, "Timothy, my dear son, grace, mercy, and peace to you. I thank God whom I served as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. Recalling your tears." Some friends of mine who weren't Christians once bashed Paul, calling him a male chauvinist pig with no emotion and no feeling. Does this look like a guy who has no emotion or feeling? He looks at Timothy and says, "You're my dear son" — not biological son, but his spiritual offspring — and declares that he prays for him night and day and recalls his tears.

Paul is probably referring to the incident recorded in Acts, chapter 20, where Luke tells us about Paul saying goodbye to the elders at Ephesus — arguably his favorite church, the church where he left Timothy, whom he considered perhaps his favorite person on the planet, as pastor. Luke describes the tears at that moment, and that may be what Paul is writing about here. When we are converted, it is not just a conversion of the intellect, not just a change of action — it is a change of heart. There is an emotional side that accompanies this, and with it a recognition that I cannot go at this alone, that I need other people in my life.

Four Things Paul Did to Keep Friends

Paul saw this need and nurtured relationships intentionally. There are four things Paul did to keep friends. Number one, he prayed for them — you saw it right there, he prayed night and day. Number two, he wrote to them. He put his thoughts and his emotions on paper and communicated them. Number three, he visited them. There is one thing to talk on the phone or email back and forth, but to actually sit down together is another matter entirely.

Here is the problem with the internet. There are a lot of great things about the internet and about email, but ultimately, the problem is this: it is person to person, but it is not face to face. I am communicating, but I cannot see you. I need to be able to look you in the eyes. We need to be able to see each other and communicate that way. The fourth thing Paul did was network. He would write a letter and say, "I have this person over here — you need to go and see him." I receive calls like this all the time, especially from Southern California, where friends will say, "You need to meet so-and-so. He's moving to Phoenix and starting a business. You and he have a lot in common. You'd really hit it off."

You need to be nurturing these relationships in your life. I want to speak especially to some of you who, because of the business you are in, are here for three or four or five years, then move somewhere else for three or four or five years, and then somewhere else again — or you are here while all your family is back in the Midwest or in Dayton or wherever that may be. You really need to grow these relationships. You need a certain group of relationships that travel through life with you, and others that are hands-on and close, people you can see and experience. This is how you grow relationships: you pray for each other, you communicate with each other, you visit together, and you network. That is what Paul does, and you must have this in your life.

Increasing Your Freedom

The second part of our fresh approach to ambition is this: increase your freedom this year. A few years ago I went through a Civil War phase, reading Shelby Foote's trilogy and everything else I could get my hands on, and I found the Civil War — other than Scripture — to be the most fascinating singular topic I had ever explored. I was sharing that with one of my study groups, and a man afterward said, "I believe there is more slavery now than at the time of the Civil War." I said, "Really? Tell me about it." He said, "People are more enslaved now than ever. They are not enslaved to a master — they are enslaved to Bank of America, to booze, to sex, to drugs, to that promotion, to that new house, to that car, to that material thing." What a great insight.

Paul writes this to the church at Corinth: "You are bought at a price; do not become slaves of men." We do need to define what this means. We are not asking you to free yourself up so you can live any way you want and spend six months a year in La Jolla and six months a year here. That lifestyle may or may not be fine, but it is not in and of itself a goal for life. Paul says you are bought at a price, do not become a slave to men — and then turns around and identifies himself as a slave to the Lord Jesus Christ. I free myself up so that, like Paul, I can enslave myself to the Lord Jesus Christ. The question is: what are the things that have you enslaved?

Breaking Free from Chains

I am not naive, so I know that many of you are here today in chains of slavery. Maybe it is a relational chain — you are chained to somebody in a bad relationship, not a marriage relationship, and it is destroying you. You are a high school kid hanging around with the wrong group, and it is amazing: whenever you are with them, you are in trouble, and whenever you are not, everything is fine. Let me help you out — do not go with them.

That is obvious with kids, and we can all see it. But the same thing is true for adults. Your life moves along and everything is fine, but there is a certain group of people, and when you are with them, all of a sudden things become a problem. Do not hang around with them. It is not a complicated issue.

A Letter That Says It All

I got an email this morning — hot off the press. Someone emailed me looking for a recommendation on a book they were getting ready to read, *Chosen by God* by R.C. Sproul, wanting to know what I thought about it, whether it was okay, whether it was safe. By the way, it is. In the middle of that email was a kind of testimony, really just reflecting on life. The person was in the process of talking about a Bible study they were doing and the impact it had as they went through it.

Here is what they wrote: "We carry so much baggage we do not even stop to understand why or how it affects our Christian life. I broke free from an old habit during this study, one that has been convicting me more and more. What opened my eyes was a lesson that taught five benefits God intended for every one of His children." Here they are: to know God and believe in Him, to glorify God, to find satisfaction in God, to experience His peace, and to enjoy His presence.

The person continued: "I compared my old habit to these benefits and found that I had not" — and listen, this is great phrasing — "really wanted to give up that old habit. God already knew that. He knew my heart better than I did. My old habit could not compare to the benefits listed above. During my study at home, I confessed this to God. I asked Him to forgive me and to take it away from me because it was keeping me from being closer to Him. And He took it away immediately."

Then came this: "Tom, that habit was drinking. I was not a happy person before I came to Christ, but I was still numbing myself even afterwards out of habit and selfishness. I did not want to be numb anymore. I wanted to experience Christ in the fullest sense. Christ broke those chains for me when I truly believed He could and would. I knew that it was not glorifying to Him. By continuing that old habit, I was actually telling God that I found more satisfaction in that than in Him. When I realized this, I was convicted. I certainly was not finding a fullness in His peace and enjoyment of His presence."

Now listen to this next sentence: "His love and His grace just get better and better the more obedient I become. I prefer His addiction to any worldly addiction."

The Real Reason We Stay Enslaved

Do you see this? I love this letter because this person is not saying, "I am a victim, I am hooked on alcohol and there is nothing I can do." The person said, "Here was the problem — I wanted the alcohol more than I wanted God." And then, all of a sudden, they saw His love and His grace more and more as they became — did you catch it? — obedient to Him. There is the ticket. There is the answer.

You are enslaved in something today — fine. Let us go ahead and acknowledge it. But also understand that you have the power to break that chain by becoming obedient to Him. I do not care what it is. You can stop that behavior. You will not stop because you will not stop — period. It is as simple as that. We can come up with all the excuses in the world, but until you reach a point where your love for something — ideally for Christ — is stronger than whatever has you in bondage, only then will you stop, and not until.

The whole thing is about becoming obedient: understanding what God says and then doing it. And with that comes a release and a freedom. You can sense it in this letter. You can hear this person writing about the joy and the constant presence of Christ in their life, with other people now asking them, "What did you do? What happened?" And this person can say, "It is not me. It is not a program. It is Christ in me."

If you are a Christian, your testimony can be the same as this person's — if you will let it be. The only thing stopping you is you. You will not change because you will not change. As simple as that is, it is true.

Intensify Your Passion

Here is the third thing: intensify your passion. I look around and I see so many people who just drift from one thing to the next — fine, nothing, whatever, sure, okay. There is nothing particularly attractive about that. Passion is contagious.

Look at the passion in the life of the apostle Paul. He writes in Romans 9 about his love for the Jewish people. He says, "For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of Israel." But then he says he cannot. He wishes he could, but he cannot. That is passion. He says he would give up his life for something.

Is there anything you would give your life up to acquire? A recent poll found that 47% of teenagers in this country said they cannot imagine anything worth dying for. Contrast that with the Greatest Generation, who said they would die for freedom. And contrast all of that with the martyrs of the faith —

The Power of Passion

Let me state the obvious: if there's nothing worth dying for, there's nothing worth living for. There's something about passion. There's a man who used to come to one of our studies — I love this story — and when he came in, he was apparently a fairly prominent attorney, openly antagonistic to the Christian faith. So here is an antagonistic pagan attorney at a Bible study.

He was sitting in the third or fourth row. The first time I made eye contact with him, this is exactly what he did — he dropped his head and shook it from side to side. He did this the whole lesson, for five consecutive weeks. At the end of the fifth week, I said, "Can I see you for a second? Every time I look at you, you drop your head and shake it from side to side. What is the deal?"

He said, "I've been here five weeks, I've listened to every word you've said, and I don't agree with one thing you've said." Then I asked him the question you would ask: "Why would you get up at 5:30 in the morning to come here?" He said, "I don't agree with anything you say, but I love to watch you say it." I said, "What do you mean?" He said, "I don't know anybody who cares as much about anything as you seem to care about what this Bible teaches."

There's something about that. John Wesley — at one point in his ministry, all the common men, all the miners, were coming out of the mines to hear Wesley preach, and it was driving the church establishment crazy. They went to Wesley and asked, "What's the answer? What's the recipe?" Wesley said it this way: "Light yourself on fire. Everybody loves to watch somebody burn."

In your life, you say Jesus Christ is my Lord and my Savior, He's everything to me. Thank you, Lord, for all You've done and all You're going to do. How can that not excite you? I'm not talking about something synthetic that you manufacture — some hollow, performative enthusiasm. That's not natural, and it's not my style. My style is low-key and sarcastic. But there is a genuine passion that, when people encounter it, they see your countenance change and they think: that person cares about this.

Passion as an Evangelistic Tool

One of the most effective tools in evangelism is to allow people to see your passion. Ask yourself: is there anything in your life that you are fully committed to? You live in a world committed to mediocrity, committed to averageness — and you will stand out.

I was telling some people: if there was ever a time I'd love to be a young person graduating from college and trying to get a job, now is the time. If you can make change, you've beaten 75% of the competition. The doors ought to be swinging wide open. When you find your purpose and you're passionate about it — and something more noble than just work, something more noble than that, the cause of Christ as it relates to work and everything else — it will attract people.

This is the year, in a real way, to intensify your passion.

Expanding Your Perspective Through Knowledge

Here is the fourth thing: to expand your perspective, to grow in your knowledge. Paul writes this in Philippians 1: *"This is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so you're able to discern what is best and pure."* He says, I want you to grow in knowledge and in insight, and the goal is discernment — to know what is right and what is best and what is pure.

The only way you will grow in knowledge is to study this Word. I'm not talking about the knowledge that's already out there. Every eighteen months we are doubling our total accumulation of human knowledge, and there is plenty of information available. That is not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the knowledge you need to discern your way through life — and for that, you need to study God's Word.

Now, if you're here today and you're ignorant, that's fine. If you're stupid, we're in trouble, because that's a permanent condition we can't change. But we are rarely stupid. Our problem is that we are ignorant. I put myself in that group. We are all at different levels of ignorance as we begin to understand the things of God, but you will never have knowledge if you are not studying and reading this book.

Some of you just started reading through the Bible in a year at the beginning of January. Some of you do it every year — this is your tenth, fifteenth, twentieth time through. And the book never changes, but the reader does. Your understanding does. Your insight does. Your desires do. Someone came up after the eight o'clock service this morning and said, "You taught that lesson totally different than last year. Last year your entire emphasis was on money and freedom from money, and this year all of your emphasis was on knowing God to see a change in your life." I don't know if that's entirely accurate, but I know this: we are continually changing and growing, and this is the year to expand your perspective — to learn, to study.

You Don't Have to Do It Alone

When you start to look at all of this, you may begin to say, "I don't know if I can do all that. I don't know if I can work on improving relationships, increasing my freedom, intensifying my passion, and learning more all at once." The answer is: you don't have to do it on your own. Here is Paul, praying again: *"For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth..."*

The Simple Formula for Spiritual Growth

I pray that out of His glorious riches, you may be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. He goes on to talk about the power that we have: "I pray that being rooted and established in love, you may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ" — that's His love for you — "and to know this love that surpasses all knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all fullness." You'll be filled with the Spirit that will allow you to live this kind of life.

It isn't — and I can't say this enough — it's not that hard. Those of you that have been around know my lifelong struggle: get fat, get a little less fat, never get thin, get fat, get less fat, hopefully always keeping that equilibrium somewhere toward presentable. So I'm talking to a guy not long ago, and he said, "Tom, I know how to do that." I said, "I'm not buying some pills or any of that." He said, "No, two things you need to do." Here's what he said: eat less, exercise more.

I said, it's a thought — it demands some level of consideration in this whole process. But here's the deal: I don't want to do that. I'm ready to pay sixty dollars for a pill that I can put in my cheese enchilada that'll keep the cheese from going straight to my back. I want that thing I strap around me so that all the time I'm sleeping, I'm working out real hard. I don't want to just eat less and exercise more.

But you know what? He's right. You want a guaranteed weight loss system? Eat less and exercise more. It's the same principle spiritually. You want to grow spiritually? Pray, study, fellowship with God and His people, and share your faith. You cannot miss.

Nothing Is Stopping You

Here's what I want you to see: there is nothing that stops you from this. Pray — that's dependent upon you. Study — that's dependent upon you. Fellowship with God and with others — that's dependent upon you. Share your faith — that's dependent upon you. This is not that hard. The problem we have is we want to find a way to microwave this spiritual growth. We want to find a pill that gives us a mind like R.C. Sproul and a passion like John Wesley. That's not how it works.

You have to pray and you have to study. You have to fellowship with God and His people, and you have to witness. That's how you are going to grow. There is no other way to do this. It's not about any one singular part of that. You have people running around sharing their faith everywhere, talking about bringing people to Christ, and they are offensive and obnoxious, and rarely are they growing spiritually, because they are out of balance.

Or — and this is more common — I have friends who study. They study and they know this material far better than I do. They love to come and ask me questions and I say, "I don't know." There is nothing wrong with studying, but subsequent to that there must be fellowship with God, fellowship with His people, and the sharing of that faith. When I am doing those four things — praying, studying, fellowshipping with God, fellowshipping with other believers, and sharing my faith — I cannot help but grow. There is nothing that can stop me.

If you are a person of prayer and study and fellowship with God and fellowship with His people, and you are sharing your faith, you will grow. You can grow this year if you will pray, study, fellowship with God, fellowship with His people, and share your faith. That is all you have to do, and the only thing stopping you is you. Nothing else. You can start right now.

Concrete Steps to Put It Into Practice

Here are some concrete things — and someone came up today with a list from 1984 and said I had changed it a little. I did lower the standard just a bit. First, develop three relationships — three people. Women, you need other women in your life. Men, you need other men in your life. Couples, you need to be in a small group setting with other couples. Second, remove two constraints. I don't know what they are for you — food, alcohol, money — but identify two things that have you enslaved and remove them.

Third, find a passion. What is that thing that turns you on spiritually? It is that gifted area where, when you are there, you love it. Find it and feed it. Fourth, read five books. We chose five for a specific reason: that is one book every other month — or, more honestly, all five in November and December because you haven't done any in the first ten months of the year. But maybe you need to read more. I got an email from a man this week who read forty-four books last year. Some of you haven't read forty-four books in your entire life, but you need to find books and read them.

There is something powerful about sitting down with the Word of God, with commentaries, with books on spiritual topics, Christian history, secular history, and biographies. You grow in that process. Fifth, find two healthy activities where you can be involved. You need to be serving — at the church, in junior high or high school or career ministry, in children's ministry, in the women's ministry, in the men's ministry, or in a small group. Our desire is that when someone walks on this campus, the question is not "Are you in a small group?" but "What small group are you in?" You need to be engaged in all of these activities, and when you are, you will grow.

Growing in Faith: The Simple Truth

Pray, study, fellowship with God, fellowship with His people, and share your faith. That is how you are going to grow. I don't mean to burst any bubbles here, but it is that simple. You don't need to go and get a new book or run out looking for a magic formula. It is not about going to the next conference — those things are all fine, but there is no easy way.

There is no switch that you flip and all of a sudden you are mature. It comes from discipline and hard work, and a motivation that says my desire to know God and to love Him is greater than any other desire. When that is in your heart, the discipline and everything else will follow. You cannot be stopped in that environment. Nothing will stop you, because that is what you want most in your heart.

An Open Book Test

Next year, when we go through this entire exercise again, if you discover you have had a lousy year 2000, I am already telling you two things. First, it is an open book test — we are going to look at exactly these same issues. Second, you will have no one to blame but yourself.

I would encourage you, throughout the year on a regular basis — maybe every Sunday at communion — to ask yourself: God, how is my prayer life? How is my study? How is my fellowship with You and with other believers? And am I sharing my faith?

A Life Nothing Can Stop

When you keep those questions before you, you have something magnificent — not just a great year 2000, but a great life committed to Christ. It is a contagious life that will attract other people, not to yourself, but to Him, to your Savior, and to your Lord. You can live that way if you desire it.

You have the power. If you are a Christian, you have the power and the strength of the Holy Spirit, and the only thing stopping you is you.

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*Father, help us. Give us strength and wisdom and insight. Put in our hearts a passion and a desire. God, let us be people of prayer and study and fellowship with You and with each other, and people who share our faith. God, we ask it of You in Jesus' name, amen.*