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In this video, Fr. Philip Hall talks about the true meaning of ambition, the real cost of chasing success and why true fulfillment isn’t found in wealth or status, but in embracing the Cross.
This is a sermon recorded on March 23rd, 2025 at the All Saints of Lincolnshire Orthodox Christian Church, Lincoln, England.
Watch the full sermon on Archimandrite Philip’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAP5cW77lW4
Fr. Philip:
There was one young man I used to know, sadly he did die, but he had written across his chest here: “Get rich or die trying,” tattooed neatly onto him. “Get rich, get richer, get famous, become more famous, buy a house, buy a mansion, have expensive jewelry, drip with diamonds, buy a plane, get a bigger plane, get a faster plane, get a huge jet, buy an island, get a bigger island, go to a fancy restaurant, begin to employ the chef at home, have a big business, become in charge of a multinational business, get qualifications, why not get two PhDs, get respect, be feared, be liked, be loved, be decent, be admired, perhaps even become very powerful, maybe even want to be prayerful, want to be a saint…”
All of these things are in the end worldly ambitions, the things that center upon yourself and your own selfish desires, but none of them have anything to do with God.
Let me tell you then about another person and another way. He had everything. Indeed He made everything, He was there at the beginning and He was there before the beginning, through Him everything that was made was made through Him and He holds it all of it in His being. He is equal to God because He is God and His home is in the highest.
Yet, He gave it all away, emptied Himself to become a human being, a servant among human beings, and even there He chooses to be born not in a palace, nor to enrich Himself, but rather to take the path that we know so well, the path of course of the Cross, and on that lowly, desolate, bleak, shameful path of the Cross He reaches towards each of us and invites each one of us to do the same, to go to the spiritual store and pick up your own spiritual cross and follow Him.
A cross that is unbelievably heavy and you may need somebody else to help you carry it. A cross upon which all earthly ambitions become crucified, across which appears to be personal disaster and loss and indeed all will be lost as you are enslaved to Christ. Life forfeited, some would say thrown away, but in that throwing, in that loss, each and every one of us will find Christ and be in Christ eternally. So, on this middle Sunday of the fast draw near in confidence to that throne of grace which is the Cross and receive mercy and find Christ and be united with Him.
God bless you! Your prayers! Amen.
