Will Shepherd for Glory
Shepherding God’s Flock Part 4
1 Peter 5:2c-4	5-26-2013
Summary: Elders must not shepherd for temporal gain, but out of eagerness for the work (money is not a powerful enough motive for this work). They must not force people into submission, but rather lead by example (don’t require anything you are not willing to do). The incentive is eternal reward. The degree to which that motivates you shows your faith and love for God. The glory is all the delights of heaven, as illustrated by the delights of this earth. And the crown refers to honor – like a medal, the meaning of which depends upon the greatness of the one pinning it on your uniform. 
The Shepherd’s Guidelines
Not External Pressure, but Internal Passion
Not Greedy but Eager
Not Greedy
Eagerness
Money isn’t a Strong Enough Motivation
Not Heavy Handed, but Exemplary
Lording it Over
Selfish Control
Exasperating the Sheep
Retaliation
Manipulation
Politicing
Serving as an Example
We Need Human Examples
The Shepherd’s Incentive
Crown of Glory
Fundamental
Difficult
Glory Means Our Inheritance
Crown Means Honor
You Like Honor
Must Crave Honor From God, not Men
Unfading
Conclusion: How to Become Motivated by Eternal Reward
Use the Illustrations
Think about the Giver
Archshepherd
1:25 Questions

1 Peter 5:1 Therefore to the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ's sufferings who also will share in the glory to be revealed: 2 Shepherd God's flock that is under your care, overseeing--not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; 3 not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. 4 And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.  
The Shepherd’s Guidelines
Not External Pressure, but Internal Passion 
We have been studying verse by verse through the book of 1 Peter, and the past few weeks we have been taking a careful look at this opening section of chapter 5 where Peter instructs elders about shepherding the flock. First Peter gives us a very solemn command to shepherd the flock of God. Then he gives us three guidelines – warning us of pitfalls and then giving us the solution for each one. And then finally in verse 4 he gives us the incentive we need to be able to accomplish this work. We looked at the first of the three guidelines last time – not because you must, but because you are willing (v.2). The motivation for this work must come from inner passion, not external pressure. The second guideline has to do with money.
Not Greedy but Eager
Not Greedy
2 not greedy for money, but eager to serve
The pastor must not be driven by greed. That is not to say he cannot take a salary. You may be surprised to know that in the New Testament church elders were paid a salary.
1 Timothy 5:17 The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those who labor at preaching and teaching. 18 For the Scripture says, "Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain," and "The worker deserves his wages."
It is most definitely appropriate to pay elders a salary. And if they do their work well and labor hard, pay them more. There are no examples in the Bible of a lay elder. It is possible they existed, but the norm is for elders to be paid. So there is nothing wrong with taking a salary. I am thrilled to get a salary, because that enables me to spend my full time on this work rather than having to spend 40 hours a week doing something else.
So a salary is appropriate, however, there is a danger. Any time you have a position of influence, there is the potential for corruption - using that influence in a way that results in you getting money or possessions or perks. The problem of spiritual leaders using their influence to get rich has been an issue for thousands of years. The bad pastors in Ezekiel 34, instead of feeding the sheep, used the sheep to feed themselves.
Isaiah 56:11 They are dogs with mighty appetites; they never have enough. ...each seeks his own gain.
Jeremiah 6:13 all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike
One reason the Pharisees rejected Jesus’ teaching was because they loved money (Lk.16:14).
2 Peter 2:1 ...there will be false teachers among you. ...3 In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. 
14 ... they are experts in greed ...15 They have wandered off to follow the way of Balaam ... who loved the wages of wickedness. 
The false teachers in Ephesus thought of godliness as a means to financial gain (1 Tim.6:5). The circumcision group in Titus 1:11 were ruining whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach-and that for the sake of dishonest gain. Loving money is a real problem for spiritual leaders, and so Paul told Timothy, “When you select an elder, he must not be a lover of money” (1 Tim.3:3).
Titus 1:7 an overseer ... must be blameless... not pursuing dishonest gain.
Years ago, when I was first starting out as a pastor, an older pastor took me to lunch one day in order to give me some guidance. But the only advice he ended up giving me had to do with how I could use the ministry to get money. He said, “The best advice I can give you is this: Make sure whenever you go to a church that you require in your contract that you get a $20,0000 raise for every hundred new people that join the church.” 
Most pastors are not quite that crass about their greed, but it is always a temptation for a staff pastor to start thinking about his salary, benefits, vacation time, days off, bonuses. And then you start giving special treatment to the big givers. And more and more your heart attaches to the world’s treasures, until finally you end up like Demas, who abandoned Paul because he loved this world. Woe to the pastor who uses the sheep for his own selfish ends.
Eagerness
So what is the solution to the problem of greed in the leadership? Some churches think the solution is to keep their pastor at poverty level. Pay him a tiny salary. But that won’t work. According to Proverbs 30:8-9, that will just make him more tempted to steal. Greed can flourish with or without money. The only way to win the war against greed is by crowding it out of the heart with the virtue of eagerness.
2 not greedy for money, but eager to serve
The elder is to be motivated not by a drive to get, but by a drive to give. What you want in an elder is not someone who does the ministry in order to get the salary; but someone who takes the salary in order to do the ministry. That is why you do not ever hire a pastor who is not already doing the work of shepherding even before being hired. That is a man who is not driven by passion.
In the first guideline he said not because you must, but because you are willing – that emphasizes the voluntary nature of it. And now this word takes it a step further and emphasizes the idea of enthusiasm for the work. Money motivates everyone, but the elder must be one who is more motivated by the joy of doing the work than he is by money.
Peter really wants us to get this concept of internal drive. Someone who is a baby Christian, who lacks spiritual maturity – you give him a simple ministry task, and you have to give one-on-one instruction, then you have to get him motivated, then you have to hold his hand all the way through – call him twice a month to make sure he is still on track. And even then he might bail out half-way through, because he loses motivation. An elder cannot be like that. 
Money Is Not a Strong Enough Motivation
If an elder lacks internal passion for the work, and he is just driven by an external thing like money, what is going to happen to all those aspects of the ministry that can be neglected without jeopardizing his salary? For example, suppose I’m working on a sermon, and it has been a long week, and I am almost done - but then I do a little more digging and realize I have missed the point of the passage. I have just poured my heart and soul into this sermon, and I know it is going to be a popular one. I have got some great stories and jokes and parts that will move people to tears, and it is really upbeat and encouraging, but now I realize the emphasis of the passage is not what I thought it was. The passage is actually pointing in a different direction. And if I try to preach that, for one thing it is not going to be a great sermon because now it is so late in the week I don’t have time to really work much on developing the idea. I have to strike those stories and jokes because they distract somewhat from the real main point. So in order to be faithful to what I think the passage is saying, I am going to have to deliver a much more boring sermon than what I originally wrote. 
What happens in a situation like that when a man is focused on salary? He will gravitate toward preaching the first sermon. What happens in a situation like that when a man is driven by a passion for applying God’s Word – what is really in God’s Word, in the purest, most accurate form possible to the hearts of men and women? He will gravitate toward the second sermon. He knows that afterward, as people are driving home, instead of saying, “Wow, our pastor is amazing,” they will be saying things like, “It seems like the pastor is slipping a little. His sermons aren’t what they used to be.” And he is the only one who will know that they went home more fed than they would have otherwise. But knowing that is what keeps him going in ministry, because that is what is driving him in the first place. You cannot have a man motivated by salary because there are so many crucial areas of ministry that no one can see, and those are the corners that will be cut when the going gets a little rough.
The problem with money is it just is not valuable enough to provide as much motivation as we need for this job.
John 10:11 The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand 
If you are motivated by money, when it comes time to lay down your life you are going to say, “No paycheck is worth this,” and you will bail.
Not Heavy Handed, but Exemplary
Lording it Over 
Let’s take a look at the third guideline. 
3 not lording it over those entrusted to you
What does it mean to lord it over someone? That word is only used in two other occasions in the Bible. One is in Acts 19 where the demons lorded it over the seven sons of Sceva, or, as the New English Translation puts it, “jumped on them and beat them into submission.” To lord it over someone means to force them into submission with heavy-handed rule.
Selfish Control 
For some pastors, it is an issue of control. Instead of being money hungry they are power hungry. They want to be in charge so they can get their way. This is the control freak. He just wants to control people’s lives. I heard last week about a little girl who said she wanted to be a teacher when she grew up. She was asked why, and she said, “So I can give assignments.” No burning passion to teach or make a difference in kids’ lives or anything like that. She just saw the control her teacher had and thought, “I’d like that kind of power over people.” Pastors like this see people as tools to get their agenda done. The sheep are simply resources for his use.
That is a pride problem, and it is incompatible with love.
3 John 1:9 Diotrephes, who loves to be first, does not acknowledge our authority.  10  ... he refuses to welcome the brothers 
Loving to be prominent always goes hand-in-hand with lack of love. The more you desire to be first, and the more you want to control people for your selfish ends, the less you welcome the brothers in love. The man who loves power, who needs to be up front, who likes to be addressed with titles, who has to be the focus of attention – he is not qualified for this ministry.
Exasperating the Sheep
Sometimes that is what is behind lording it over – lust for power – but not always. In some cases it is not that the pastor wants power or wants to control anyone – it is just a lack of sensitivity. Just as fathers are not to exasperate their children, pastors should not exasperate the flock. A pastor can bulldoze over people without even realizing it just because he lacks sensitivity. He speaks the truth, but he does it in ways that he does not realize are discouraging to people, and that put people in the defensive. Or he makes decisions that affect people and it does not occur to him to let them know. He gets so excited about his ideas that he acts on impulse and moves ahead without thinking things through, and it creates headaches for everyone.
Retaliation
The point is, there is more than one way to be harsh in your leadership. In many cases it is nothing more than just following the sinful impulses of the flesh. Someone hurts you, and now you are tempted to not treat that person the same anymore. You don’t show the same warmth as you used to. Or you punish them in subtle ways in order to get them to behave in the way you want. That is using your authority to control them.
Manipulation
And for some pastors it can come from the other direction – they get their way through sympathy plays. This is the “Woe is me” tactic. He starts talking about how hard his job is, and how poorly he is treated, and how much he puts up with, and he has a way of tugging at people’s sympathy all the time. 
“Poor pastor. He’s really hanging on by a thread. He’s so overworked and underpaid – I don’t want to add another burden, so I’ll just go along with him on this one.”
He gets his way by manipulating emotions. He is like a wife who just cries every time she wants to get her way. It is coercion through emotional manipulation.
Politicking 
Yet another way this is done is through politicking. Some pastors have church politics down to a science. They know who the power-brokers are in the church, and they know just who to schmooze, just who to take to lunch, just who to cater to in order to get things to swing their way. They even adjust their sermons to preach things they know will make those power-brokers happy, because with those people on his side, he will get what he wants. 
None of that is leadership. Leadership is not just coercing or manipulating people into doing what you want. Leadership is inspiring people to willingly follow in the direction you are going. How do you do that? Peter’s answer is a little different from what we would expect.
Serving as an Example
What you would expect him to say is that the solution is servanthood, because that is what Jesus said when He warned about lording it over people.
Matthew 20:25 Jesus called them together and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 26 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant
In the world the underlings hold the door for the big boss; in the kingdom of God, the big boss holds the door for the underling. When Jesus and the twelve were in the Upper Room, and the feet needed to be washed, the most logical candidate to wash everyone’s feet was Jesus, because He was the highest authority in the room. That was not some unusual thing Jesus was doing to make a point. It is the norm for the kingdom of God - servant leadership. That was Jesus’ solution to lording it over. But that is not what Peter says.
3 not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. 
Why does he say that? I think it is because Peter has in mind the rest of what Jesus said in Matthew 20. Listen to the rest of Jesus’ sentence:
Matthew 20:26...whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave- 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve
Jesus immediately pointed to His own example. You see, one solution to heavy-handed leadership is the servanthood model, but another solution is to serve as an example. And the reason that will work is because heavy-handed leaders always tend to require things of the people that they themselves are not willing to do. Like when Congress exempts itself from all the laws it imposes on the rest of us. The Pharisees did the same thing.
Matthew 23:4 They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.  
Leaders who lord it over people tend to require things of others that they are not willing to do themselves. But good shepherds understand that you do not drive sheep – you lead them. And people are far more motivated by your example than by your rules.
Now, obviously you do not want the elders to spend so much of their time doing menial tasks that they neglect the ministry of the Word and prayer. But if the pastor ever gets to the point where he believes he is somehow above doing certain tasks because they are too menial, or if he uses his position to be served, he is not going to inspire anybody. A true spiritual leader is someone who can say, “Follow my example.”
We Need Human Examples
We need examples in order to live the Christian life. Sometimes people say, “The only example I need is Jesus.” That is not a biblical attitude. 
Hebrews 13:7 Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. 
1 Corinthians 4:16 Therefore I urge you to imitate me.
We need flesh and blood examples that we can see. There are some times when you ask, “What would Jesus do?” and you are not sure. But you can think of a really godly man or woman who is strong in that area and you are able to picture in your mind “What would that person do?” Or you can call them on the phone and ask them, “What would you do?” And they can tell you, and you can check that against Scripture, and if it checks out, now you have learned something.
There are some things that we cannot learn at all from Jesus’ example. For instance, repentance. You cannot learn from Jesus’ example about how to overcome a sinful habit, or how to recover from a terrible fall, or how to accept forgiveness. Jesus never did any of those things. But godly leaders in the church, who have been learning about those things from God’s Word for a lot longer than we have, can show us the way by their example. 
The Shepherd’s Incentive

Peter has stripped away a lot of motivations. We cannot be motivated by external pressures. We cannot be motivated by money. We cannot be motivated by power or prestige or praise of men. All the natural motivations are forbidden. And yet we have a job that requires an extraordinary level of motivation. When the ministry is especially painful, or especially difficult, or especially boring or especially mundane – when you hit the wall in those really hard times, you get discouraged as a pastor, what motivation will be enough to keep you going? The answer is in verse 4.
Crown of Glory
4 And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away. 
Fundamental 
Now, when you hear that, is that motivating to you? How badly do you want to get a crown? Of all the areas where we set an example for the flock, I don’t know of any more important one than showing them how to be motivated by eternal reward. Nothing is more fundamental to the Christian life.
Some people say you should not be motivated by reward. The Bible says the opposite. A third of the Sermon on the Mount is all about motivating us to strive for rewards. If anyone comes to God he must come to God as a rewarder (Heb.11:6). Jesus commanded us, “Store up for yourselves treasure in heaven.” 
Living for eternal reward is fundamental because it is a mark of both faith and love for the Lord. If God says, “Do this and I’ll make it worth your while,” and that has no impact on our emotions, that means we do not trust Him and we do not love Him. If your wife came to you and said, “If you take me away for a weekend together – just the two of us, I will make you the happiest man on earth” and you say, “No thanks. I’d rather hang out with my friends,” – that shows you don’t desire her very much and you don’t trust her to be able to follow through on her promise. The gifts of God are expressions of His heart. Thinking little of them is thinking little of God.
And being motivated by God’s promises of reward is the only way to win the war against sin in a way that honors God. If you resist sin, but it feels like a loss to you rather than gain – how does that honor God? If some guy at work tries to seduce your wife, and she tells the guy, “No – I’m married.” And she comes home and says, “You’re going to be really pleased with me. I said no to this man at work who was making advances, and I feel like I REALLY missed out. But at least I didn’t give in to temptation,” – would that honor you? No. It would honor you if she said, “I’m so glad I said no because what I have with you is so much better! I feel like I came out way ahead.” The degree to which the promise of reward motivates you is the best measure of both trust and love that there is.
Imagine you are a little kid and you have two uncles who comes over every Christmas. They both bring a gift every year, and one of them is great at picking out gifts and the other one is terrible. That second one has never once gotten you something you liked. But the first uncle – he is amazing. Every year his gift is your favorite gift. And it is never something that was on your list either. He is so creative, he thinks of things that are better than all the stuff you thought of. And that happens every single year. It is such a certainty that now, your heart starts racing as soon as you see him pull up into the driveway. He brings in the gift, and you are more excited about that gift than anything else, and you are full of joy – even though you have no idea what is inside it. You cannot even imagine what might be inside it. So why are you so happy? Trust. You trust in his goodness and generosity and creativity. When someone offers you a gift, you can tell how much you trust that person by how excited you are about the gift before you even see what it is.
So verse 4 really matters. If you want to teach something, teach by example how to be motivated by eternal rewards. Show the people how to get to the place where verse 4 goes from being just print on the page to being something that touches your emotions and makes you unstoppable and tenacious and impossible to discourage in ministry.
Difficult 
That is not easy, is it? We tend to be motivated by temporal things and not eternal things. We might try to deny that, but if we do we are kidding ourselves. What would happen if some rich person said, “I will give you $1 million if you will just go make an attempt to talk to your neighbor about the gospel”? Would that be more likely to motivate you to act than if God says, “I will give you treasure in heaven if you do this thing?”
How do you get to the place where the promise of a crown of glory can move your emotions more than a million dollars? I mean honestly - who wants a crown? Do you know anyone over age 6 who actually desires to have a crown on his head? Is this a literal crown? You get to heaven and your big reward is that Jesus puts this little hat on you that says “Glory” on the front – like little kids at Burger King? 
No, it is not a hat. The phrase crown of glory means a crown which is glory. The crown is a metaphor, and the glory is the reality.
Glory Means Our Inheritance
So let’s talk about the glory first. This is the same, vast, breathtaking, glorious inheritance that Peter mentioned in chapter 1 and has been talking about all through the book. It refers to the treasures and pleasures and delights of the new heavens and new earth. This earth has things like good food, roller coasters, beautiful beaches, skydiving, hammocks, gentle breezes, mountain cabins, skiing, motorcycling, family gatherings, sports, money, riches – and the reason all those things exist is to teach us what our eternal existence will be like. Glory is the better, unfallen, uncursed version of food and sports and beaches and camping and parties and all the things you enjoy in this world.
Crown Means Honor
And our portion of that glory will be given to us in the form of a crown. What does that mean? There were two different kinds of crowns back then. One was the kind we think of - the crown of a king. The other was an award. It had nothing to do with royalty - it was awarded to people who were given some great honor. Like someone who did heroic things in battle, or won the Olympics, or something like that. What is the modern day equivalent of that? What do we give people to honor them for doing heroic things in battle or winning the Olympics? A medal. So if you want to get the idea of this word, think of a medal. Your eternal rewards will be given to you like a medal. In other words, it will be God bestowing a high honor on you.
You Like Honor
We all crave honor. If you think you don’t care about being honored, it is probably because you are just thinking about one particular form of honor. There are a lot of forms of honor. Some people like to daydream about being on stage and having thousands of cheering fans. That is a form of honor. Other people do not desire that form at all. But they would love to get honor in a military setting – to do something truly heroic, and receive a medal for valor and courage. Others would love to be honored as a great athlete. Others would love to have some article refer to them as being the best in their field. Maybe for you it is none of that. You are more motivated by informal honors. Like walking down the hall and you just happen to overhear some people talking about you. And  they are going on and on about how smart you are or how much you have blessed them or how strong you are or how good looking you are or whatever. Or maybe it is your father saying, “I’m proud of you.” Or maybe it is your wife speaking to you in respectful ways and actually looking up to you and admiring you. Maybe it is people being really impressed with how your kids turned out. Maybe you just want the honor of being listened to and taken seriously when you give your input. Whatever forms are most appealing to you, the reality is God built us to crave honor.
Must Crave Honor From God, Not Men
And that is not wrong. It is only wrong to prize honor from men more than you prize honor from God. God wants us to crave honor from Him. We saw that back in chapter 1.
1 Peter 1:7 [trials have come] so that your faith ... may result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Remember we found that that is a reference to the praise, glory, and honor that we receive from the Lord at the Second Coming.
Romans 2:7  to those who... seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life
The only people who receive eternal life are the people who seek to be honored by God. Everyone wants honor – that is by God’s design. The only difference is some people care about honor from men, and others care about honor from God. If you treasure man’s honor more, that displeases and dishonors God. If you treasure honor from God more, that glorifies God.
Unfading
I know this is new to some of you. You are sitting there thinking, “Live for reward. Seek personal gain. Seek honor and glory for yourself – none of that sounds right. So often the Bible tells us not to seek personal gain or glory or honor for ourselves. How do you know when it is ok and when it is not?” The answer to that question is very simple. Do you see that word unfading in verse 4? That is the key. Anything that is eternal you are allowed to desire and strive for as much as you want. You can be as “greedy” as you want for anything that is eternal. The more the better. The only things you are not allowed to make your treasure is anything that is temporary.
Conclusion: How to Become Motivated by Eternal Reward
So how do you do that? How do you increase the impact the promise of reward has on your emotions? There are two parts to it.
Use the Illustrations
First, let the illustrations of heaven that God gave us do their job. All the wonderful things in this world that are so delightful – every time you enjoy or desire one of them, let that turn your attention to the uncursed version. If you turn on the TV and see some rich person living in a luxurious mansion, and desire starts rising in your heart, or you find yourself wishing you were on a beach somewhere, or you wish you were the person on the big stage getting all the applause – let that desire turn your attention to the reality in heaven that those things illustrate.

Think about it!
Do not skim over verses like verse 4 and just write them off as some kind of pie-in-the-sky religious rhetoric that is detached from reality. Bring it down to earthly terms if you have to – whatever it takes to touch your emotions.
Raise your hand if you believe it is possible for God to send an angel in visible form in our day and age. Imagine God sent an angel today to Agape, and this angel gets up here on the platform. He is so awesome in appearance that every single person here is shaking in fear. My knees buckle and I fall on the floor. And this glorious angel says, “I’m here to deliver a message from the Almighty.” And then he singles you out by name and says, “Everyone – this servant of the living God has been doing exemplary work. The Father is thoroughly pleased with her, and He has decided to lavish rewards on her this afternoon. The first of those rewards is sitting right outside those doors right now. You can go see it right now if you want.” (And he gets a huge smile on his face.) “The rest will come before sundown tonight.” Instead of daydreaming about winning the lottery, daydream about that.
What if we knew for sure an angel was coming to do that very thing on this date next year? He told us ahead of time that is going to happen, and he will give the honor and reward to those who excel in some area of the Christian life. Would that motivate you? Would you work hard for the next twelve months to be included in that group that is rewarded next year by the angel? If that is how tiny you have to reduce this promise of reward in order for it to be real enough to touch your emotions, start there. That is a biblical thing to do. That is why Scripture describes future glory with terms like “treasure” and “riches.” We can relate to those concepts as being valuable and desirable, and so it is ok to think of our reward in heaven as being like those things. So use the earthly illustrations of treasures and riches and rewards and honors and medals as training wheels to think about the realness of eternal rewards.
Think about The Giver 
That is the first part, but it is not the most important part. The important part is to focus on the honor. And the honor comes from the One pinning the medal on your uniform. The impact of a “Well done, good and faithful servant” depends on who is saying it, right? If the head of Planned Parenthood said that to me, I would not consider that an honor. I would be horrified. But if John MacArthur or John Piper heard my preaching and wanted to give me the Expositor of the Year award, I would be elated – even if the award were just something they wrote on a napkin. What makes an honor an honor is the greatness of the one bestowing it.
Archshepherd
Who will pin the medals on the uniform of the faithful elder?
4 when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.
That term Chief Shepherd is actually one word. The Greek word for shepherd is poimenos. This word is arch-poimenos. In the Catholic church they have someone they call the archbishop, who is over all the bishops. And you know the word archangel - the greatest of all the angels. What if in that scenerio I just described, it is not just any angel, but the archangel Michael? What if God sent the archangel to bestow this honor on you? Would you feel honored? What if it is not the archangel, but the Arch-shepherd? What if it is the Lord Himself?
The degree to which the honor will motivate you depends on your regard for the greatness of the one bestowing the honor. If you cannot get excited about a reward that you cannot see, that just means you do not trust the giver. Remember the first uncle? The child does not have to see what is inside the box to get excited. His level of excitement is based solely on his knowledge of the goodness and generosity of the uncle. If the promise of reward does not move you to action, spend more time studying about the goodness and generosity of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Someone might say, “I’ve observed the way God treats me, and He’s not very loving and kind. He’s harsh. He’s like that second uncle – he’s not very good at giving gifts.” That is like looking out your window and deciding the earth is flat. 
“It looks flat from where I’m standing, therefore it is flat, not round.”
People who believe in a flat earth are considered fools – why? Because they go by the way things appear instead of accepting the best evidence. Some people think God appears to be unloving based on their observations, but we have evidence that is more reliable and more compelling that our observations – the Word of God. This is where you learn what God is like. And if you believe what this book teaches, you will come to see God like that first uncle – the one who is really good at giving good gifts. Fix your hope on the One who said, Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world (Mt.25:34).

Benediction: Hebrews 6:10 God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. 11 We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. 12 We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. 
1:25 Questions
1)	Do you have any heavy-handedness in the way you deal with people? (Controlling through harshness or bullying, exasperating people with lack of sensitivity, various forms of retaliation when you are hurt, sympathy plays, or politicking)
2)	In times of discouragement or difficulty, is the promise of eternal reward something that lifts you and inspires you and moves you to do things you cannot otherwise seem to bring yourself to do? What could you do to increase the degree to which heavenly reward motivates you? (Such as making better use of earthly illustrations, or learning more about the goodness of the Giver)