Holy Ambition - Create a Strategic Plan, Part 1

Has God put a dream in your heart, a dream for a kind of marriage that you know would honor Him, a dream for kids that walk with God and turn out in a way that you say, oh God, thank you. A dream that has to do with your work and Him using you to reach others for Christ. But down deep in your soul you say, I don't know how to turn even my God-given dreams into reality.

If that's the case, stay with us. Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. The mission of these daily programs is to intentionally disciple Christians through the Bible teaching of Chip Ingram.

I'm Dave Truhey. Thanks for joining us as we continue our series, Holy Ambition. Chip's in the process of explaining how to turn our God-shaped dreams into a reality by highlighting six key conditions for that to happen. Now in this program, he'll cover the fourth condition, create a strategic plan. Now Chip's going to share some really practical advice today. So let me encourage you to use his message notes while you listen. They include Chip's brief outline and all the supporting scripture he references. It'll really help you remember what you hear and maybe even help you share what you're learning. To download these message notes, just go to the broadcasts tab at livingontheedge.org.

App listeners, tap fill in notes. Okay, if you have a Bible, open now to Nehemiah chapter two and let's join Chip for his talk. Why is it that so many people sincerely desire to do so much and usually accomplish so little? I mean, I'm just going to go out on the limb and think that many of us who've had some sincere desire that, you know, I think God might want us to address this issue in our marriage. You know, we need to address this with one of our kids. You know, there's this person at work, a holy ambition.

I think God wants me to do something here at work. I'm new in a neighborhood, at least I am right now, and a sincere desire I have is to, you know, invite the neighbors over and get to know them. But I also know me that I've had that sincere desire before and lived next to people and not got to know them very well.

So why is that? And you might jot in your notes the answer is good intentions, good intentions. And what I mean by that is that I think there's this psychology. I can't explain it any other way. That when God speaks to me or when you have a very genuine, sincere desire, and you really believe that you are going to do it, you think you've actually accomplished something just because you have the desire.

You with me there? It's like I really do care more about my neighbors than I used to care about them, or I really do want to address this marriage issue, and so yeah, now I haven't really done anything, but that's a big step to get there. And so I think what happens is we think we did something when really what we did is we got aligned to do something. Second question, why is it that others who carefully prepare to do even a little, maybe not very much, but they carefully prepare to do a little accomplish so much more than they even imagined? And the answer is a strategic plan, a strategic plan. Don't let that word scare you.

You don't have to be in graduate school or go to Stanford or get an MBA from Harvard. We're going to find that some of the best strategic planning and thinking in any literature anywhere is in Nehemiah chapter 2. And you're going to find a man with leadership gift that has an impossible situation with a ragtag group with zero resources when he starts out is used by God through this strategic plan after his heart is dislocated, his broken spirit, and he takes this radical step of faith where God does through an ordinary person exceedingly, abundantly beyond what he could think or imagine. And that's what we're going to learn. We're going to learn how to develop a strategic plan.

So open your notes, or as many of you are already there, I'll catch up with you. There's four things that we're going to see in this chapter, chapter 2 verses 5 through about 18. I put the text in there for you, and what we're going to see is there's four things very critical to developing a strategic plan. And this is what will take, you know, that good intention about your marriage, that good intention with one of your kids, that good intention as a single person to reach out and really get connected, that good intention at work, that good intention that you really want to kind of in your neighborhood. A strategic plan is what will turn that good intended, God-shaped, God-deposited idea or heart that He gave you into reality. First, it must begin with a vision. It must begin with a vision. Now that word's thrown around in lots of different literature, so let me use it in sort of the way I'm describing it here. A vision is a God-given burden to see what could be and should be in a person, place, or situation if God's power and God's grace was unleashed in it. When I'm talking about vision here, that's what I mean. It's a preferable picture of the future.

What would happen if God's power and God's grace was unleashed in your marriage or in your parenting or in your singleness or if His grace in this particular difficult situation or in this need? It's a God-given burden. Almost all great visions flow out of there's a big need. There's a big need. The walls are down.

The gates are burned by fire. There's a big need, this whole group of unwed mothers. There's a big need of Christians who have kind of gone through the motions and grown up in church and rejected Christianity, and they've not met an authentic, real Christ follower or what we call an R12 Christian, so it's a big need.

What is the preferable future if you had unlimited resources and a group of people were standing behind you and they would line up to help you and they have gifts that you don't have? What's the biggest need? What's the biggest burden that you can't even explain it at times when people start talking about it or if you maybe see something on TV or even a movie that touches on it? You just find emotions coming out that you can't shake, so you don't need to solve the problems of the whole world, but you need to be sensitive to what is it in your heart that when you're close to it and when you slow down long enough and when you get out of the busyness, God really begins to whisper to you, I want you to help that group.

I want you to help that person. For me, it's the church. I don't mean just church work.

I mean churches actually being the church of Christ, Christians who actually live out their faith. Every time I get around people, when I see genuine life change and when I see churches that just won't accept the status quo and see the biggest needs in their community and want to make a difference, I just tell you something deep inside of my heart. That's what I want to give my life to. It's a burden. That's my burden. That's my vision.

What's yours? The second thing is that it grows out of need, but there's a process of the heart, and there's a process of the head. Certain things have to happen in you. That was chapter one, and then certain things have to happen through you. I put a little chart.

Let me show you how this gets borne out in everyday practice. In chapter one, there's a problem, right? The walls, God's agenda. Chapter two, we're going to get a solution. In chapter one, it's in the comfort zone. He's living the lap of luxury. Chapter two, he's in Jerusalem. He's out of his comfort zone, but he's in the excitement in the center of God's will. Chapter one, it's about prayer.

It's the process of discernment and formation. I'm only one person. God, what do you want me to do? Chapter two, there's an answer. God confirms this is what I want you to do.

Chapter one, there's a promise. He says, God, you know, I know you have an agenda just like today. We know God has an agenda for the world. He has an agenda for the poor. He has an agenda for Christians.

He has an agenda for people who don't know him. Then chapter two, it goes from those promises to actual provision, and God's going to resource that burden that he's put on his heart. Chapter one, there's a purpose. He clearly articulates. This is why I'm here.

God wants me to rebuild that wall. Chapter two, there's a program. There's timelines. There's peoples.

There's resources. Chapter one, it starts with an individual. One guy, just one guy, one business guy goes, I mean, what can I do?

Well, after four months of praying, he goes, okay, I'm going to go before the king. I'll put my life on the line. I'm going to leave my comfort zone. Here am I.

Send me. And the way it always happens, then a movement starts for just a small group. And then pretty soon, you're going to see by the end of this chapter, all the people of that city say, let us arise and build. In chapter one, it's perceptual. It's just an idea.

You know, someone ought to do something about that. By chapter two, it's practical. There's a game plan. Chapter one, it's a heart issue. By chapter two, it's the head. God did something in him.

Now God's going to do something through him. So, what's your vision? And what's the vision that you feel like is the top priority?

And by the way, different seasons of your life, it looks different. And it might be—I don't mean just ministry vision as you think about ministry at work, or ministry here at the church, or maybe ministry that you're involved in. I'm talking about the first and foremost ministry, if you're married, is with your mate. The next ministry that's most important is with your kids. The next ministry outside of that is being the kind of person that shows up at work that actually lives like a Christian and loves people in authentic ways. My wife had a pretty difficult childhood, and her holy ambition is very, very focused.

She sets boundaries better than anyone I know. And her holy ambition was that God would give us the opportunity to raise kids that would walk with him, love him with all their heart, find mates that love God as well, and then raise the next generation of kids that would make a difference for him. And that was her holy ambition. Now, being married to me, I've been involved in lots of stuff, but she never felt compelled to run the women's ministry or do this or do that.

Now, she discovered her gifts, and she was involved in different ministries, but I'm telling you, man, we ate at 5.30. We read stories to our kids when they were little. We had a very specific plan that we were checking off all the years that they were in our home. We had a plan about how they were going to learn about the opposite sex. We had a plan about how they were going to learn about money.

We had a plan about which friends and who they were going to date. We had a plan about sending them out on crazy things that got really risky that scared us to death, that we knew that was the only way that they would really discover and own their faith for themselves. But I'll tell you, her holy ambition has been focused and praying and investing in.

And we knew that we couldn't control that. They were going to make decisions, but that was her holy ambition and dream. And now what I can tell you is because of that kind of focus and a very dislocated heart, broken spirit, radical steps of faith, and a very clear strategic plan, she has been the rudder of our home. When our kids woke up at 5.30 in the morning, they saw their mom in front of the couch on her knees praying for them.

And she just had this holy passion about family. And I will tell you, those kids now, by God's grace, are all walking with God, have all married mates that have a heart for ministry, and in different ways they're all in ministry. I mean, one does it through physical therapy, and the other through preaching.

One writes a song, and the other works with a nonprofit. But as we're talking about vision, what's your vision? What I've observed, and I mean this respectfully, because it's happened to me so many times, is you get a vision for your home. You get a vision for work. You get a vision for ministry. And what happens is then you think about what it will really take. And you start thinking, well, these people, we might need some space. Oh, heaven forbid, we actually might need some money, or we might need some people a lot smarter than me. And you look at all the resources, and then when you see all the resources, you say, oh, well, it can never happen. I mean, I'm just one housewife. How can I help those people in the inner city? I'm just one business person.

What can I do? I'm a software programmer. I'm just a doctor, and my life is so full already.

There's no way. But I've got this burden. Most visions die on the operating table of God's plan, because when we see how much resources it will take, we give up thinking God can't do it. So, you have this dream for an ethnic group. You have this dream for women. You have this dream for kids. You have this dream for kids around the school. You have this dream for your family. You have this dream for other men that have addictions.

You have this dream. And here's what I'm telling you. Where God's agenda is championed, God's resources flow.

Where God's agenda is championed, His resources flow. Don't start thinking about the how. Just get focused on the what and on the why. God will take care of the how. He'll bring people, dream a dream, form a team. He will resource the vision, and He'll do something in you in the process.

Nehemiah shows us how it works. Chapter 2, verse 5. And I said to the king, if it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me, radical step of faith, where? To the city in Judah where my fathers are buried, so I can rebuild it. That's his vision.

That's his. Circle it. I can rebuild it.

Just very clean, very clear. He didn't say, send me back to preach. Don't send me back to do a revival.

Tell you what, there's a physical issue. I'm a business person. I've got leadership gift. I've been praying about it.

Send me to rebuild it. Then the king with the queen sitting beside him asked me, how long will your journey take, and when will you get back? It pleased the king to send me, so I set a time. Circle the phrase, so I set a time. And he knew I can only set a time when I know, here's the extent of the damage. Here's the resource I need. Here's how many people I'm going to need.

Here's about how long. I better put a little margin and buffer into it, so he had a strategic plan. Strategic plans don't have all the details. It has all the major building blocks and steps of how to get from where you are to where what you know God wants you to do. He goes on. So I said to him, if it pleases the king, may I have letters to the governors of the trans-Euphrates, so they will provide me safe conduct until I arrive in Judah. So he needs protection. And may I have a letter to Asaph, keeper of the king's forest, so he'll give me timber to make the beams of the gates of the citadel by the temple for the city wall and for the residents that I will occupy. He needs provision. Translation, king, I need your MasterCard.

Okay? And he has a broken spirit. He understands it's not about him. Here's his reason why he is so bold. And because the gracious hand of my God was upon me, the king granted my request. It wasn't because I was a great leader. It wasn't because I'm persuasive. It's not because I had this great big vision that people ought to get behind. It's because the good hand of my God is upon him, and he knew his good hand was upon him, because for the last four months he's been fasting and praying and seeking God, and has said this isn't about Nehemiah. This is about your agenda, and he's championing God's agenda. So I went to the governor of the trans-Euphrates. I gave him the king's letters, and the king also—this is the exceedingly abundantly beyond when God provides—the key to the vision becoming a reality is a strategic plan. The key to a strategic plan is first and foremost, what's your vision?

You must have a picture of a preferable future. What is the burden on your heart that could be and must be in a person, place, or situation if the grace of God and the power of God was unleashed in it? And where God's agenda is championed, his resources flow, and here's how you get his resources. Ask the king. That's what Nehemiah did. I mean, he went from an idea to a prayer meeting to a game plan to can I go, and he says yes, and then he says, and by the way, would you finance it? Really, will you finance it? The king goes, yeah.

You have a king that's a lot bigger than the king of Persia. He'll finance it. You need staff, he'll give you staff.

You need ideas, he'll give you ideas. God will direct. God will fund it. God will resource it.

I wrote a very specific line in my notes I want to read to you. Great movements of God are not lacking because of lack of resources, but because of lack of vision and radical faith with a clear-cut strategic plan to accomplish them. God's just looking for a man, for a woman, and he'll give you eyes to see.

Later we're going to hear Nehemiah say that what he shared with the people, what God put in his heart. There are needs that prick your heart like no one else's, that make you tear up when you give yourself time to really think about it. There are needs that desperately need the grace of God, and the love of God, and the compassion of Christ to move into and you are made differently than any single person. And often, God's provision is how he confirms that you're on the right track. You've been listening to part one of Chip's message, Create a Strategic Plan. He'll be right back with his application for this teaching from his series, Holy Ambition, Turning God-Shaped Dreams into Reality.

Do you long for your life to make a difference? Is God stirring something in your soul, but you don't know how to get started? Well, through this series, Chip explains how those deep-seated convictions and promptings can become God-shaped realities. Stay with us as Chip lays out a six-step process for ordinary people, like you and me, to follow God's calling and impact our world in unbelievable ways. For more information about Holy Ambition or our series resources, go to LivingOnTheEdge.org or call 888-333-6003. That's 888-333-6003 or LivingOnTheEdge.org.

App listeners, tap Special Offers. Well, I'm joined in studio now by our Bible teacher, Chip Ingram. And Chip, as you continue to teach on this topic of Holy Ambition, you know, there may be some people out there who are uncomfortable with that word, ambition. To them, it feels a bit unchristian, almost like there's an element of arrogance or maybe even greed involved.

Explain what you mean when you use that word. Well, Dave, I want to be very, very clear because the truth is, in all walks of life, in business, entertainment, I mean with the rise of social media, and even in the world of kind of Christian celebrity pastors or musicians, there's kind of this underlying, you know, how do you build a platform? In fact, a lot of young pastors have asked me, how did you build your platform?

And I tell them, I didn't do it. What I had was a Holy Ambition. And God began to put some dreams on my heart. And then I struggled with him, honestly, Dave, and I think a lot of people do because, for me, that word ambition was negative. And I already knew I was arrogant.

I thought, I don't want to pour ambition on top of it. And I remember having this thought in my mind of pastoring a large church. And I talked to a mentor who was the pastor of a large church.

He's about 20 years older. He said, Chip, small churches, medium churches, large churches, you know, no one's any better than anyone. God gifts different people for different sized churches.

The key is to walk in humility. And what I would say to people is, maybe we have plenty of selfish ambition, but what we really need is a Holy Ambition from God. And what this book does, it helps regular, ordinary people develop holy ambitions that God uses in great ways. So, Dave, could you take just a minute and tell people how to get this book?

Be glad to, Chip. To order the newest edition of Holy Ambition, go to livingontheedge.org or call us at 888-333-6003. Through this resource, Chip will walk through a step-by-step process to turn your dreams and good intentions into a God-infused reality. Now, during this series, we've discounted this latest edition of Chip's book, so order yours today.

Simply go to livingontheedge.org or give us a call at 888-333-6003. App listeners, tap Special Offers. With that, Chip, let's hear your application for this message. As you listen to today's program, how are you going to turn your good intentions into a strategic plan? What area, what is it that began to bubble up in your soul? What came to your mind as you listened to today's program?

And as we think about that together, I want to remind you of the two points we covered today. In order for a strategic plan to be used of God, it must begin with a vision. What is your vision? What need in some other person, in some other group, sparks something so deeply in you that as I was talking today, it came right to your mind.

Your heart started to beat a little faster, and you said to yourself, wow, I didn't think I was a person that had vision, but maybe that's it. Let me encourage you. Pursue it. Pursue it. Ask God. Go after that.

See if, in fact, He isn't in that. Second thing, don't be afraid. Remember what we learned?

Don't be afraid. If you will champion God's agenda, what's the promise? God will resource you. He's looking for someone just like you whose heart beats fast for a specific need, and you step out, and you'll find there's other people that will get excited about that, and He will bring you what you need when you step out. Money, time, resources, He's for you.

He loves you. Come up with that strategic plan. I hope you'll be with me on our next broadcast because we're going to talk about how to turn those good intentions into that strategic plan. Thanks, Chip. Just before we close, I want to thank each of you who's making this program possible through your generous giving. One hundred percent of your gifts are going directly to the ministry to help Christians really live like Christians. Now, if you found Chip's teaching helpful but you're not yet on the team, would you consider doing that today? To donate, just go to livingontheedge.org, tap Donate on the app, or give us a call at 888-333-6003. And let me thank you in advance for doing whatever the Lord leads you to do. Well, until next time, this is Dave Drewy saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.