Holy Ambition - Dreaming Beyond Dreams

Welcome to the Charlie Mitchell Teachings Podcast.

In this inspiring episode, "Holy Ambition - Dreaming Beyond Dreams," Charlie delves into Nehemiah 1, exploring how we can cultivate a holy ambition that aligns with God's grand vision for our lives and our communities.

Episode Overview:

1. Introduction to Holy Ambition:
   - Charlie introduces the concept of holy ambition, challenging the norm of survival or minimal Christianity.
   - He shares his passion for seeing believers move from mere maintenance to mountain-moving faith.

2. Nehemiah's Example:
   - The episode focuses on Nehemiah's journey as an ordinary person called to an extraordinary purpose.
   - Charlie emphasizes that Nehemiah was just at work, like anyone else, yet he was called to rebuild a city.

3. Key Points from the Sermon:
   - Holy Ambition Asks: It starts with asking brave, transformative questions about our surroundings and situations.
   - Holy Ambition Weeps: It allows our emotions to become revelations, leading us to divine purpose.
   - Holy Ambition Prays: Encouraging listeners to have cosmic conversations with God, laying open their aspirations and seeking heavenly wisdom.
   - Holy Ambition Acts: The call to step out in faith, moving from fear to action, inspired by Nehemiah’s journey.

4. Application and Challenge:
   - Charlie challenges listeners to expand their imagination and align it with God's vision, moving from survival to victorious Christianity.
   - He urges the audience to dream big, not just for personal gain but for community transformation and alignment with God’s purposes.

Relevant Scripture:
- Nehemiah 1: The story of Nehemiah, an ordinary person called to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, demonstrating holy ambition in action.

Conclusion:
- Charlie concludes the episode by inviting listeners to join in dreaming big, embracing a holy ambition beyond personal limits and tapping into God's extraordinary plans.

Connect with Charlie Mitchell:
- Instagram: Charlie Mitchell
- Facebook: Charlie Mitchell
- Website: Charlie Mitchell
- For Church Planters and Pastors: Maroon House

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Embrace your holy ambition, dream beyond your current reality, and step into God's incredible plan for you and your community.

Transcript

Charlie Mitchell: 0:12

Nehemiah chapter 1. is where we're going to be looking today. And the value that we are discussing is an interesting value that I don't even know if you've ever heard of or heard preached about before. And this value is called holy ambition. And holy ambition is a unique value. It's an interesting value that I was passionate about seeing added to our, value statement as a community. And the reason I was so passionate about it is because I have a pet peeve when it comes to Christians and Christianity and the church. Can I be honest with you about my pet peeve? All right, so it's not that, you know, sometimes we got to sing really mushy songs as dudes in church. That's not the pet peeve. That's in there, but that's not the one. But the one thing I really struggle with in all my years of doing church, this will be my third. Uh, a church plant that I've actually gotten to be a part of the groundwork and the development and the building of and establishing of a church. And over all these years in different contexts, white, black, rich, poor, international, national, wherever I am, whatever I'm doing, there's a seemingly thread that I continue to struggle with. And it's this survival Christianity. It's almost like this minimal, viable Christianity. Well, we're just going through life, just going, Lord, just, if I can just make it to another day, I'll be all right, Lord, and Lord, just, if you just, I don't want to go to work today, but if, if you just give me a little grace, I know your grace is fresh every morning and I just want to get through the day and make it, but man, I don't want to maintenance Christianity. I want a mountain moving Christianity. I don't want a victim Christianity where we're always in the state of perpetual needing more and more salvation, but I want a victorious Christianity. And so for many of us, we, we're so prone to just see my situation, my problems, my issues, my bills, my relationship that we don't, we don't begin to identify and go, okay, I want money. I want better houses. I want a better job. I want these things. But have you ever considered the fact that God may have a vision for the world, for this community, for your family that is bigger than what you can conceive? And so many of us have a small and shrunken view of what our imagination in our prayer life can be. And I understand it because the community I grew up in was just four or five blocks. It's probably about 1300 people in my whole little neighborhood. And many of my friends never got past that 1300. And when I drive around a city like Baltimore and I I meet people and I hang and I develop and I build relationships. I realized, Oh, you don't leave East Baltimore. You don't leave West Baltimore. You don't leave town. You don't, you don't go too far. And so your confines of what, when the Bible talks about, Hey, you know, God can do more than you could ask or imagine. But if your imagination ain't, but so big, the biggest thing God can do is provide a little bit of money at the end of the month. But I serve a God who created all things. That's interesting to me. So now all I'm asking for is, God, can you give me this 50? That's just so I can get, get a little something. And God is like, man, do you know what I created? There are spaces and places that have never been explored that are only open to me and my imagination. And I've invited you into it, but you settle for just getting to the end of the block. So holy ambition is a complete assault on your ability to dream big. So what I'm praying today is that you would get bigger than a little bit of dreams. Is that you would expand your gaze to say, okay, God, if you could do it for them in the same God lives in me, that was in them, then dog on it. I want to see it happen in me, in my life, in my family, in my community. So here's what Nehemiah chapter one says, Nehemiah chapter one, the words of Nehemiah, son of Hakeliah. During the month of Chislev in the 20th year, when I was in the fortress city of Susa, Hannah and I, one of my brothers arrived with men from Judah, and I questioned them about Jerusalem and the Jewish remnant that had survived the exile. One thing I want you to notice as we even dive into this text is a lot of times when you hear a pastor up here preaching or you hear these people on YouTube or Instagram and they're preaching a lot of times as believers in Christianity, we can go, okay, that applied to them, or because they are pastor or a preacher, it's more likely that'll happen to them. What I love about Nehemiah is he's at work. Yes, regular work. Yes. Not priest work, not profit work. Regular work. Your work. Okay? He's just at work. And he finds himself in a situation where his friends, family come from out of town. You ever had one of those kickbacks? Oh yeah, you coming back to town? Okay, cool man. Yeah, let's catch up. So they're at the bar, they're in the backyard, they're chilling, they're having a few drinks. They're catching up on life. And what happens? He sits there and he says, Hen and I, one of my brothers, arrived with men from Judah, and I questioned them about Jerusalem in the Jewish remnant that had survived exile. We can start to hear stuff like that and begin to go, oh, okay, well, I don't know what it's like to be in exile. I don't, I don't know nothing about that stuff, but we all have friends that move away. And maybe we were the one that moved away. I know in my family, me being all the way up here in Baltimore is unique. None of my family moves that far from where you from. Most of my family's back in Florida doing a thing, living life. And I am all the way up here in Baltimore. So what happens when I get home? I got to have all these meetings with people. And so here we have Nehemiah. He's the one that's far away. And his friends have come after being back home for a while. And I love having those conversations. I don't know if you had those types of conversations. Hey man. So, um, what's up with Mike? What's up with Chaz? Man. So what's going on back in the city, man? I saw something weird on the news. You know, being a Floridian here in the Northeast, it is crazy. So I'm, I can't tell you how sad I get as a Floridian living up here, watching the news about Florida. And going, this is why people think we crazy. So I'm like, yo, I mean, so it's gotta be like gators walking around everywhere. There's a dude carrying somebody's head down the street. Florida man has gotten into more trouble than anybody on earth, you know? So there's all this stuff. NAACP has released a press release saying it is not safe for black people to travel to Florida right now. Hey sis, so what's going on in Florida? I don't know. I'm at work Oh golly, yeah, you're right you're right my bad my bad And I have to remember yeah charlie you live there now There's gonna be news about there, but it ain't gonna hit the same when you're apart from it And this is what's happening in mi right now my friends coming back from my hometown Giving us a report On what's going on? Here's what happens. They said to me, the remnant in the province who survived the exile are in great trouble in disgrace. Jerusalem's wall has been broken down and its gates have been burned. Now I'm gonna stop right there. Cause that's my first two points. See, when it comes to holy ambition, we understand selfish ambition where we, we see it all the time. It's in many of us. It's why many of you have been able to acquire the degrees you've gotten. It's why many of us go to school and do the things that we do. It's why we travel. We have ambition. I want to build a business. I want to earn a million dollars. I want to. I want to. That's ambition. You have a drive. You have a passion to go above and beyond to get the things that you want. And we celebrate those people. We celebrate the athletes that win the championships. We celebrate the people that have overcome great odds because they had this burning desire to acquire this goal. But a holy ambition is a different kind of ambition. It's an ambition that says because God is a visionary, creative God, I want to align my life with his vision for this generation. So when we look back at all that God can do, I need my imagination muscles to begin to work as I drive through the city. Because I go, okay, if he's a visionary, creative God, and he has dreams and visions and goals, what are those goals? And I want to be a part of making them happen. So that's what a holy ambition is. But how do you tap into a holy ambition? Some of y'all like, man, I'm so used to just trying to survive and make it, I know that's me. I'm so used to doing my thing and trying to get out of the hood and, and make a way where there was no way. I'm trying to provide something for my kids and my family. I don't got time to be worried about, man, what the church thinking and all that. No, I'm not telling you to think about what the church is thinking. I'm saying align your life with the vision that God has. So here's where he goes. First thing you have to do in order to tap into. A holy ambition is, a holy ambition asks. It asks a question. It starts with a single or several question. What was the first question that Nehemiah asked? Yo, how are things back home? How are things? For many of us, why are things the way that they are? You begin to ask real questions like that, but In an environment like the one we are currently sitting in, it can numb you to the fact that you even question the reality that you're driving through. So many of us are so used to the condition of this community, this city, our family, that we never ask a question. Does it have to be this way? And can it change? I tell you, I didn't intend to ever do the work that I'm doing right now. My ambition, you got, you see, I got a sweater on that says Copenhagen. It's not Copenhagen, the tobacco that you chew, that some of our grandmas used to chew. Mine surely did. If you ever spit, you ever seen one of those spit cups that those old grandmas used to have? It is the, it's looking at death. You're looking at death. That's what the lake of fire is going to be right there. They said fire, but it's going to be one of those spit cans. And it's going to be rusty on the outside. It's going to be nasty. Anyway. So here's what he says. Yo, how are things? And I, I was on my way to living in Europe. I lived in Europe for two years. That's why I met Aaron. Some of y'all know the story. We were in a program of 25 students. I'm just from this little small town, this little neighborhood. Nobody don't ever leave. Man, all my friends said, don't white people going to leave you over there. Don't you get on that airplane and go over there. They going to leave you. And I said, nah, man, I gotta, I gotta take it. I got, I mean, I only got one life. Like, I gotta try it. So I took this opportunity, I lived in Europe for two years and while there, man, this pigmentation that I have on my skin was the biggest key that I had to build relationships with people. I had access, I made friends, built relationships, had influence. I'm 19 years old, 20 years old, 21 years old, and I'm walking around the streets and I go, okay God, whew, I'm, I'm, uh, I think this is where I'm supposed to be. Nobody in my family's ever done this. I'm doing this. And babe, we gonna go home. I'm gonna get my little degree. We gonna come back and we gonna live life right over here. Little did I know, things were gonna change when I got back home. But something happened in the midst of all of that. One of my best friends, Phillip Harris, I've never told this story. One of my best friends, Phillip Harris, was killed by another friend of mine in the neighborhood. They was selling dope. Phillip stole his phone with all his contacts in it. And the guy came back to him and killed him right there in broad daylight in the same playground where we grew up playing. I still have the newspaper clipping in my sketchbook. And those little moments as I read that story and I see my friend's face in that black and white, I said, man, why is it like this? Why is it like that? Shouldn't be like this. Little did I know, just like Just like for Nehemiah, what started out as a conversation ended in a calling. Some of you are scared to ask brave questions. You're afraid to ask that question. Lord, why is it like this? Lord, what would you have me to do? Nah, nah, cause that ain't my business. I don't, listen, I got to do me. I ain't got time to be and see y'all always want somebody to do. No, no, no, no. I'm asking you to sit with the Lord and ask him. What are those things that are stirring in your heart? Because I'm you got to get past one of our values is curiosity. I want you to get curious, but I want you to keep pressing past curiosity to those soul searching inquiries. that seeks God's vision. Do you have the, do you have the unmitigated gall, the chutzpah to ask the disruptive questions, the ones that will unsettle your comfort and ignite transformation? So I asked that question not knowing the trouble that was ahead of me. Here's the promise I have for you. Every great spiritual awakening, every revival, every significant move of God starts with a, starts with a question and a question that saw clarity, direction, and alignment with God's ambition for that generation. God, what do you have for these people at this time in history that I can get to be a part of? I ain't got to pull it off, but I want to be a part of it. And where can I put my hands to the plow in partnership with you? But what happened to Nehemiah after he asked that question? I want you to look real close and see it's right there in verse four. When I heard these words, I sat down and wept. Did you see what just happened to me? Just thinking about my friend in that newspaper clipping. Something had emotionally gripped my heart. And that's the second part of holy ambition. Holy ambition does what holy ambition weeps. There are sacred tears that come with a holy ambition. It's something you can't shake. It's something you are going to keep you up at night. It's something that's going to make you angry. It's something that's just, you just can't let it go because it won't let go of you. All these years later, man, that was back in the early 2000s. My friend got killed, but still to this day, when I walk around this city and I know that in the time that I have lived here in the time that me personally, over 300 black men have died every year. That's 2100 black men that done died on my watch. I take that personal. Cause it shouldn't be like that. Holy Ambition weeps. Some of you have such a passion for the lost. You have a passion for children. You have a passion for the orphan. You have a desire to see something built and established that would do good in the community. But you're afraid to even ask the question. But it's bothering you on the inside. You feel your stomach not up. It's like, why isn't this here? And that's what sacred tears do. His tears weren't just an expression of sorrow. They were a divine revelation. They were a spiritual awakening to a deeper realm of reality. They signaled a visceral connection to the world that yearns for transformation. Now, do you realize the earth groans? This is in Romans, the earth groans, waiting for the sons of God to be revealed. There is certain brokenness that is happening in this world because God has designed it so that you can be the solution to that groaning. So the longer you push off those sacred tears, the longer the groaning goes on. And it's real time, it's real, because many of us, as me and Pastor Trevor years ago, drove around Baltimore looking and saying, man, ain't nobody care about us being here. We want to plant this church. We want to try this. We want to do that. And I said to Trevor, listen, There are people that are praying and waiting on us to arrive. I don't know who they are. I don't know where they at. Hopefully we can find them before the money runs out. But, they are praying that somebody will show up. And little did we know that when we pulled up on cold spring, we had several people come up to us. You know we've been praying for somebody like y'all to show up. So there's groaning that is happening in the world right now in this city, in this neighborhood, in your, in your household that needs a little bit of holy ambition. And I don't want you to just think, oh man, well, I do the bare minimum. No, want you to see total transformation where there seems to be no transformation. So here's the thing. When we worship, some of y'all get emotional and you feel the music, but here's the thing I want to ask you to into. Can you let your emotions be more than just feelings? And sometimes, sometimes, sometimes allow them to become revelations that will push you into God's divine purpose. Sometimes allow those emotions to push you. Why am I upset that my friend got killed? I wasn't here. That ain't none of my business. I'm going this direction. But God uses these emotions to pull us aside. You remember Moses when he realized who he was, he got angry and he killed a man because he became so passionate about his people. Remember Paul as he's walking around the city and he sees all these idols and he gets upset. This shouldn't be like this. And I'd rather be cut off from the promises of God than see my kinsmen go without knowing Jesus. Man, that's a, those are emotions that get cultivated, but will you allow them to push you past the surface and into the street? But let's keep going further. Verse four says, when I heard these words, I sat down and wept. I mourned for a number of days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven. Here's what it does. Holy ambition prays. And so some of y'all are so used to saying, yeah, I pray every day. No, I want you to have cosmic conversations. I want you to have cosmic conversations. One of the reasons I like watching movies so much is because it helps my imagination to grow, helps me to think beyond my situation. And I'm like, yo, if they can come up with a multiverse for some superheroes, I know I can serve the God of the heavens who created everything. And we can have a conversation because that's my pops. He know my name. He know how many, how few hairs I have on my head. He knows everything about me. He designed me. So when I'm talking to him, we not how we not talking about me and just the struggles. I'm trying to have some cosmic conversations. I want you to reframe those quiet time prayers in the morning and go. Nope. I'm dialing into the eternal and seeing if I can bring heaven to Earth. And so what does he do? He says something in his prayer that's very interesting. He said, Lord, the God of the heavens, the great and awe inspiring God. How do you think about God? Is he awe inspiring to you? Have you ever felt a sense of awe? Man, this week we got a chance to fly on a plane and I just, man, I like a window seat even though it cramps my knees up and I get a little Charlie horse in my leg and all kinds of stuff. But I look outside and I say, man, I got to marvel at the fact that I'm I'm flying over the top of clouds. And wow, this is crazy. And nobody in my family did this type of stuff. Flew on a weekday. Came on back home and I just have to marvel at the fact, one of my favorite favorite spaces is to sit next to large bodies of water and I go, man, God, you helped me to put my stuff back in perspective because you've got the whole world in your hands. Is he awe inspiring to you or is he almost like a deadbeat dad that you gotta call to get a little something from? And Jesus said it clearly, if you as a father want to give good gifts to your children, how much more? How much more do I want to give to my kids? I didn't grow up with a daddy, but man, you are an awe inspiring, good, good God who loves his children. So I need to begin to ask, and he says, Lord God of heaven, great and awe inspiring God who keeps his gracious covenant with those who love him and keeps his commands. Let your eyes be open and your ears be attentive to hear your servant's prayers that I now pray to you day and night for your servant, the Israelites. So I'm coming on behalf, not of myself, but my people we're broken. We don't have what we need to make it in this world. And he goes on to say, what we have committed. I confess the sins we have committed against you. Both me and my father's family have sinned. We have acted corruptly towards you and have not kept the commands, statues, ordinances you gave your servant Moses. Please remember what you commanded your servant Moses. If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples. But if you return to me and carefully observe my commands, even though your exiles were banished to the farthest horizons, I will bring them back from there and bring them to the place where I chose to have my name dwell. There you have your servants and your people and you redeem them by your great power and strong hand. Please Lord let your ear be attentive to the prayers of your servant and that of your servants who delight and revere your name. Give your servants success today. Some of us pray prayers that God can't even answer because you won't say what you need. Lord God, I just pray that your will will be done and if you want to do it, Lord, it's up to you. I don't know what you want to do, but I pray that you would just do you boo boo and help us to just be with you when you do what you want to do, but hopefully you do what we want you to. Come on, man. He like, yo, I can't, I can't, what am I supposed to do with that? What did Nehemiah say? He confessed his sin. He repeated God's words back to him. Man. Hey, listen, I ain't even telling you nothing. You don't know. I'm telling you what you know. This is what you said. So I'm gonna hold you accountable to you. And many of us, that's why you got to read that Bible because you're struggling with stuff that God already promised you. But you like, man, I don't know if you want to give it to me. And God's like, I already said, I would give it to you. You just got to talk to me. Now he goes, listen, I'm going to say all of that, but at the very end, give your servants success today and grant him compassion in the presence of this man. So I'm asking you to pray a prayer that god can actually answer, Lord, I need help with that person right there. If you don't turn their heart towards me, it ain't going to happen. Okay. And now it's a yes, no, or maybe so. But at least you said what you needed to say, and we're always wondering, man, I hope God heard my little kinda, sorta prayer. No. Pray for success. Where you feel the vision and the ambition pulling you. So we have cosmic conversations. We don't, this isn't just routine. It's a lifeline that connects us to a realm beyond our immediate reality. Nehemiah turned a prayer, not he, he went to prayer, not as a last resort. He started weeping. He asked the question. He started weeping and he went to prayer. This wasn't no last resort, but it was the first step in his ambitious journey. He sought divine guidance, strength, and wisdom. Now what I love about so many of us is we will idolize those who have gone before us as if they just had ultimate poise and confidence. If I'm honest with you, I'll tell you, I'm a reluctant leader. I don't like doing this. I don't want to be up front. I'd rather be in the background somewhere doing my thing, drawing some pictures, hanging out by the water, doing my thing. But the Lord has asked me to be in these spaces and he feels me. He fills the gap where I'm lacking. Right. But I love it because when I get to understand the mind and the experiences of so many leaders that we look up to, they were in the same place. I found the story of Dr. King. Here's what it said. Before he became the symbol of the civil rights, Dr. King, found himself at a crossroads. Dr. King was just an educated brother with a daddy who had a pa who was a pastor. He didn't have to get no fight. He could have done his own thing. That's, what is that? Ambition. I won't name. I won't status. I got a degree, man. Let me make my money piece to these people and I'm gonna live my life. He found himself at a crossroads with the weight of responsibility and the threat to his life and family. He was close to giving up. But in his moment of despair, he did not turn away. He turned upward. He once said this. I was ready to give up with my head in my hands. I bowed over the kitchen table and prayed out loud. And just like Nehemiah, King turned to prayer and it wasn't no monologue with flowery language. It's Lord, I can't do this, but I need you to do what I can't do. You called me to do it. I don't have the capacity to do it. But if you're going to call me, you better deliver. And what happens? That cosmic conversation gave him the clarity and the courage he needed to keep going. So my question to some of you is this, are you ready to elevate your prayer from just being a routine activity and just being rehearsed words that you're so familiar with saying, will you allow God to get into the The ambitions that you have, do you know, God gave you your desires? So many of us have trepidation when it comes to God because we, we think he wants to minimize our desires. I'm here to tell you, your desires are way too small. Your desires ain't big enough. Your, your mind, your eyes, your, your, your, your heart cannot contain all that God can imagine in the possibilities. And so I'm saying, man, can we get past the regular mundane and get into cosmic conversations? Where you lay open your vulnerabilities and your aspirations and you seek wisdom that is greater than any human can give you. Any podcast, any preacher, any book can give you. Man, you get to have cosmic conversations with the creator. And last but not least, Holy ambition. It moves into action. Chapter two says, during the month of Nisan in the 20th year of the King of Artaxerxes, when wine was set before him, I took the wine and gave it to the King. I had never been sad in his presence before. So the King said to me, why are you sad? Why are you sick? This is nothing but sadness of heart. I was overwhelmed with fear and replied to the king, may the king live forever. Why should I not be sad when the city where my ancestors are buried lies in ruins and its gates have been destroyed by fire? Then the king asked me, what is your request? So many of us will stay locked up in fear that you'll never move into action. Cause you're looking for the path to be laid out for you. And God says, either you're going to walk with me or you're going to walk the path. Which one is it? I'm not going to lay the whole thing out for you. I'm not going to do that. Either you're going to walk with me in faith or you're going to trust me. Come on. Which one? Cause if you stay comfortable, you're not going to move. And so many times we're looking for the path to be laid out and it's not going to work like that. He says, no. And with fear, Nehemiah opened his mouth and told him what he needed. Nehemiah's actions were about rebuilding walls and transcending perceived limitations. Who does this employee think he is to go back home and rebuild a city? Who gave him, where does that come from? How you go from being a cupbearer to the king to now being a general contractor for a whole city? But when you have cosmic conversations, and that burden is in your heart, And you don't ask the right questions. I can do anything I put my mind to because God called me to it. So when I look around and I say, Okay, Charlie, can you plant churches? No. Are you qualified? No. Do you have the capacity? No. Is the money there? No. But I still believe I want 300 baptisms because there were 300 murders. I want 300 baby dedications because there were 300 abortions. I want 300 graduates because there were 300 incarcerations. So I don't know how it's going to work. I don't know when it's going to happen. I don't know if I'm going to be the one to do it. I don't know any of those things, but I know that God called me. And so if he called me to it, he'll fulfill on it. So listen, Hopeville, Hopeville, here's what I need you to do, man. Take your thinking cap off and put your imagination cap on. Jesus said, I want you to have faith like a little child. A little child pulls on their parents. They don't care how much money it costs. This is what I want. And I got three of them jokers at my house and they ask all the time, so what does he do? Can you look beyond your immediate task and perceive the transcendent purpose and become co creators of an imagined future, but you got to see your job is more than just you doing your job. You got to see school in your classroom is more than just school in a classroom. You got to see it as a calling that I am here to make transformation. This won't be the same because I'm here and God called me to be here in this season. And some of us walk around just going, man, I just want to get through the day, not realizing you are the determining factor on how well or how bad that situation does. So I look around this room and I see the miracles that have already taken place. I just heard an amen from a woman who is a grandmother turned missionary to international countries. You see, I, I, I don't just talk this stuff. I moved here because I said, God said, you raised people from the dead. You came back and that resurrection power lives in me. Oh, okay. Okay. If that's the case, I ain't going somewhere comfortable. I want to see the dead raised to life. I want to put to test. What it is that you say you do. And in the seven years I've seen life in ways I've never thought possible to see parents that have buried their children serve the next generation of children. Stories in this room would blow your mind, but they seem so ordinary to you that you don't know that you have already been playing in Nehemiah's shoes, but you never saw yourself that way. So in closing, here's what I have for you. Here's what I have for you. Will you begin to ask questions? You drive down Greenmount, does it have to be like this? When you drive by the vacant buildings, does it have to have so many vacant buildings? Or couldn't there be families that live in those? Can there be people that are walking and holding hand in hand in marriages and weddings? Man, does it have to be this dangerous or can it be, can it be more fun? Some of you, I'll challenge you, y'all need to leave town from time to time. Why? The only reason I can talk this talk is because I done been to some places that I go, oh man, if they can have it like this, then I can have it like this over here. If they can do it like that, then I can do it like this over here too. Some of you need a paradigm shift. Your worldview is limited by what you are exposed to. If that's the case, expose yourself to something more. Why does Charlie talk in big language and go all hard and talk about this and talk about that? Man, I'm trying to expand your mind and your vision and your heart to go, man, it ain't got to be like this. The second thing I would ask for you to do is to take your emotions and channel them into something productive. That hurt, that pain I felt about my friend being killed in the street by my own friend that moved me into something called church planting. Now it's moving me in the different spaces and places and it's doing all kinds of things. But I need you to understand it started with that emotion, but you can't just take that emotion, cry it off and then go to sleep. No, let that thing move you, impress you. Don't let it let you go. Chase it down. Then I need you to go to God in prayer. Fasting and develop your spiritual discipline. What we see is Nehemiah didn't just go to the king right away. He didn't cry. He wasn't wiping tears from his eyes and then immediately went to the king. No, that's not what he did. Three to four months later, that thing had just rested on him and he had been praying, fasting. And asking the Lord and building the courage, getting the confidence. He didn't even know it, it wasn't written yet, but the Spirit of the Lord does not give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self control. So that even though I'm fearful, and even though I'm afraid, I have the courage now to speak to the King, the most powerful man in the world, about what it is that I need. And once you get that kind of courage, I need you to step out on faith and see what happens. So those are your four takeaways to how you cultivate holy ambition. And my dream and my prayer for many of you is this is that some of you would get enraptured by the love of God, that he has dreams and visions for you. The reason we did that baptism today, those baptisms is because God has been dreaming of reuniting with you. So if you don't know him, he has a holy ambition to get to you. How do I know? He sent his son, Jesus to die for you. So that's how ambitious he is. I'm willing to die for them so that we can be in relationship. So if you don't know Jesus, his, his main ambition is to get to you first. But if you're in Christ and you've been attending church and praying and in worship and all this and this and this and this, I'm gonna challenge you to grow that holy ambition. God, what is your vision for this place? The 12 inches around my feet. If you place me there, what is your vision for this place? And if I feel like I don't have the capacity, Lord, put the people around me that'll expand my capacity, expand my vision, expand my heart, expand my dreams. Because you are the God that does more than we could ever ask or imagine. Lord, I can only imagine this much. Can you give me a little bit more? And when I step out in faith, I just want you to walk with me. I know you said it ain't going to be easy. I know you said it ain't always going to be fun. I know you said that there's an enemy out there that's trying to steal, kill, and destroy. But I don't got to tell you, I ain't got to worry about that because you have overcome the world. So let's move from a minimal Christianity, a survival Christianity, to an overcoming and victorious Christianity, uh, uh, uh, uh, an ambition that is holy in its movement. We want a church here at Hopeville that is filled with dreamers. Doggone it, I want y'all to put so much pressure on the pastors of this church, because we got dreams bigger than just being in a room like this. Why aren't there 300 kids in the back room instead of just 40? Why aren't there 3, 000 in this room that are worshiping Jesus, whose lives have been transformed by the power of the Holy Ghost, and not just moved from another church? I ain't looking for nobody to transfer. I'm looking for transformation. So let's dream together. And that's what it means to be a part of Hopeville is that we're dreamers that dream beyond dreams and lean into holy ambition.