Well, we should dream big in our service for God and the church. Ambition is a necessary part of the church's mission in the world and that includes our own big lofty goals. But how do we guard against those lofty plans really just being an expression of our own self-aggrandizement?

Here's a specific question from a listener named Natalie. "Hello, Pastor Jon. I hear a lot of Christians today talking about having big dreams and dreaming big for God. In light of God's sovereignty, how do I think about this? I don't want to use God's sovereignty as an excuse to not work hard and achieve all I can, but how do the concepts of having big dreams and waiting for God's plan work together?" Seems to me that the concern behind this question is that our ego in the pursuit of big dreams, we may be so eager in that pursuit that we try to make a name for ourselves and either miss God's plan for us or maybe fail to rely on God's power in us.

So at root, I think Natalie is saying there's a possible ego issue here. But here's the catch. This is so helpful to me to realize. Here's the catch. Whether you have no dreams, cautious dreams, or big dreams, there's always an ego question, an ego battle. You can't escape it by choosing small dreams.

If you have big dreams, this may be owing to ego exhibition. If you have cautious, careful dreams, this may be owing to ego protection. And if you have no dreams, this may be owing to ego paralysis. And in every one of those cases, it's an expression of pride, not just the first.

We often don't recognize pride in the wallflower who hides in the corner, doesn't put herself or himself forward at all, when in fact, the withdrawn person who looks humble may be just as consumed with concern for ego as the guy who's out there in the middle of the floor attracting everybody's attention to stroke his ego.

They may be exactly equal proud people in God's eyes. Here's the illustration. When I was just starting out in my academic career at age 28, I had some big dreams about making a contribution academically to the discipline of academic New Testament studies. So I wrote two or three hard academic technical articles and published them in big shot journals.

And then after a while, I feared that maybe I was being motivated by ego exhibition. So I said to myself, "Okay, got to watch out for that. I'm going to stop that at least for a season and devote all my energies to being the best teacher I can be for these students and serve them well." Well, do you know what I discovered?

The battle with pride did not go away. It just shifted onto a new battlefield. Now I found out that I could get high student evaluations if I taught in a certain way. So the very same question had to be faced. Was I teaching for the sake of ego exhibition or for the good of the students and the glory of God?

And what I realized was that no matter whether you're a public figure or a private figure, the battle rages. We're proud, selfish, fallen, corrupt, ego-protecting, ego-exhibiting people, all of us, all the time, without the Holy Spirit. And so I made a choice to put writing back into my life, not because there was no danger of pride there, but because there was a danger of pride everywhere and there was no escaping it.

And in writing, I thought I could do the most good. So that's where the fight and the monster would happen. So what's the answer to whether we should have big dreams or not? Let's just take the Apostle Paul as an example. Paul said, Romans 15, 20, "I make it my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ has not already been named, lest I build on anyone's foundation.

And now since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, since I have longed for many years to come to you, I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain." So Paul was a driven man. Christ had given him a mission, and he poured his life into it.

He would reach as far and as many Christless places and peoples as he could. He was going to Spain. Who knows what might happen in Spain with those barbarians? And that's where he was going. And he tells the rest of us that in view of the resurrection of Jesus and our own resurrection and how every sorrow and every pain and every inconvenience will be rewarded a thousand fold in 1 Corinthians 15, 58, "Therefore, be steadfast, immovable, always," and here comes this phrase, "abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain." What does that mean?

Man, I have thought so much about this phrase, "abounding in the work." You know what that means? Lots of work. Lots and lots and lots and lots of work. That's what "abounding in the work of the Lord" means. It means lots of work, and that's a big dream. The key to whether that lots of work is going to be an exhibition of ego or deep reliance on Jesus is found in 1 Corinthians 15, 10, where Paul says, "By the grace of God, I am what I am.

His grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder." So that's that "abounding in lots and lots of work." I worked harder than any of them, "though it was not I, but the grace of God that was with me." So my response is, go ahead.

Dream your big dream. Do your work, lots and lots of it, but never, never presume that you're doing it on your own. What do you have that you did not receive? 1 Corinthians 4, 7. What if you received it? Why do you boast as though it were not a gift?

Every dream is a gift. Every accomplishment of a dream is a gift. And when we get to the end of life, we are going to say, I hope we're going to say, with Martin Luther on his deathbed, last words out of his mouth, "Wir sind betler deses wahr." We are beggars.

That is true. Wow. That is true. Thank you, Pastor John. Excellent question, Natalie. Thanks for sending it in to us. And as you can hear, we're still working through some audio issues on Pastor John's, and I thank you for your patience as we work through it. Next week, we have a couple of really good questions.

The first one is, "Would God want me if his glory was not on the line in me? Would he want me for me?" And then we have a number of emails from moms of newborns who want care for their own souls, as they're called to care for this new, dependent, and draining newborn infant.

And Pastor John has some thoughts on soul care for new moms. Until then, subscribe to our audio podcast and find our feeds and search our episode archive. Even reach us by email with a difficult question you may be facing. You can do all of these things through our online home at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.

I'm your host, Tony Reinke. Have a great weekend. We will see you on Monday. Desiring God's Care for Newborns You You