It is not the least innocent kind of ambition, to seek after praise in the way of religious usefulness. (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion)
“The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).
The heart is very wicked and very deceitful and it is most likely that no human being understands a tenth of what that means. The wicked and selfish heart of human beings have ambition in them, though the idea of ambition is now thought of as good and at times other words are used. Ambition, when thought of as to what it really is when the deceit is taken away, shows the wickedness and deception of the heart. Ambition is to have a goal, but not all goals are bad. Ambition is to have an aim, but again what a person aims for does not have to be bad. Ambition is to have an objective, but not all objectives are bad. Ambition is to aspire for a goal, but not all aspirations are bad. Ambition is to dream, hope, and desire for something, but clearly not all dreams, hopes, and desires are bad. Ambition is to have a purpose, but not all purposes are bad.
When a person’s ambition is to seek after praise and the applause of others, that is wickedness and sin as it shows that a person desires for others to praise me (self) rather than to love God. When a person’s ambition is to seek praise in religious things or religious usefulness, this is a horrible type of idolatry. It is an attempt to take the things of God and use them to gain praise and honor for self. The Pharisees were masters at this and this is clearly seen in Matthew 6 as the Pharisees used religious things to get praise for self.
Matthew 6:1 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. 2 “So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. 3 “But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. 5 “When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. 16 “Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting.
The text sets out that the Pharisees practiced their righteousness before men in order to be noticed by them, honored by them, and to be seen by them. This tells us that their religious acts and practices were done for the praise and honor of self. While the Pharisees are rightly ridiculed for praying, giving to the poor, and fasting for the sake of obtaining praise to themselves, we must not think that this is something limited to the Pharisees. This is something that people do in our day and they do it on a regular if not a daily basis. We try to use religion to help us gain the attention of the opposite sex and perhaps find a spouse. “Ministers” use religion to try to gain converts in order to build church buildings and the size of the congregation, but deep down what they really want is praise and honor for self.
The heart is so deceitful that it is able to disguise the love and ambitions of self in the disguise of religion. As long as something external is being done in the name of God we are able to make ourselves think that it is being done for God and that we do it out of love for God. So much is being done today in the name of God that is actually being done in the love for the praise and honor of self. True Christianity has been exchanged for a way for man to be praised and honored rather than the grace of God, though indeed a lot of lip-service is being offered to God. But then again, we can praise God with our lips and even with our acts while our hearts just want something from God or perhaps think we are earning something from God by doing what we do. The power of God is not with a church and with the “ministers” until their hearts are broken from self and they are doing what they do out of a true love for God. But this too is by grace, but those who seek self only try to use the teachings of grace to distinguish themselves as well. It is true, even the doctrines of grace can be used as a way to bring praise and honor to self. The self is horribly deceitful and apart from a truly broken heart all religion will be used to serve wicked self.
God Loves... Himself 
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