The peace you are to pursue with others and the holiness you are to pursue before them is not possible if you do not first have peace with God and been made holy by Him. The Christian's task in the world is clear and it is simple. We are to engage those in the World out of the peace we have found with God and from the standpoint of the holiness we have realized before Him in Christ.

God does not punish his children for their sins. He disciplines them. The punishment fell on Christ. But His discipline remains for those He loves as children. God does not discipline everyone. He disciplines His children. You may think that your blessed life is evidence of your salvation but it may be evidence of its illegitimacy. If you have not experienced the hand of God heavy upon you bring you into deep contrition- if you don't have a record of Him disciplining you and purifying you, if you don't come under Holy Spirit conviction it would indicate you are not being disciplined of the Lord. You are not under his discipline and so you only have waiting before you his punishment. If you are under God's discipline this message is to teach you the way God would have you respond for His glory.

We explore the reality of God's discipline over his children. God is raising us up into maturity as a good Father. He see's our sins but he does not punish them. That punishment fell on Christ at the cross in our behalf. He see's our sins and so he does discipline us in love.

When we move to glorify God it is not because God is lacking in glory. When we say we give God glory we are not saying that we are adding or can add anything to God or give to God anything that He does not already have. God is all glorious. He is full of glory. He will never lack nor has He ever lacked a full expression of His own awesomeness and greatness of glory. So the act of glorifying God is not an act of adding anything to God or producing anything that contributes to the glory of God. If this is true than glorifying God or giving God glory must mean that we are returning to God or bringing to God what is already His. God is not glorified by getting something from you. He is glorified by bringing something to you.

Of the 19 Kings of Judah 9 were good and 5 of these led the nation in social, moral and religious reformation. Yet in every case these reformations were followed by periods of a great falling away. The greatest reform the nation ever knew was under Josiah. Yet not 20 years after the nation was led away into the Babylonian Captivity. Jeremiah a contemporary of Josiah gives us God's assessment of reformation without revival.

We begin with a consideration of the horrific loss that comes when a servant of God falls into moral sin that drives them from the race set before them in ministry.--Our attempts to understand the value of a ministry conducted by a man who falls into sin should only lead us to calculate the horrible loss that man suffers as a result of his sin. Then we turn to look at Jesus again. This time we look to Him to add up all the grief and hostility, all the bone wearing, spirit crushing experiences that Christ endured for that prize and we are to keep it in mind when we are facing great opposition and feeling the cost of the struggle and hurting in it and when as a result we are tempted to step out of the race set before us. Jesus leads us in the race by example. He presses on through the contradictions of life set against him and we are to follow Him by doing the same.

The Third message on motivation for ministry brings us to the most triumphant motive of all. We do it for the rewards- We pursue the prospect of joy- You will find no higher motivation in serving the Lord than this... pursuing the joy that is set before you. Consider the crown you will get and consider what you will do with it then go out to gain it for the joy.

A Second message on motivation in ministry drawn from the understanding that the --Hebrews 12-2 expresses the motivation of Christ. If no labor for the Lord rises in its value higher than what motivates it then we must above all find that proper motivation for what we do for the Kingdom. from Isaiah 6-1-8, Acts 16-6-10 and Luke 16-19-31 Here are three calls we dare not ignore and that should motivate our service. One comes from heaven, one from earth and one from hell. Listen-

There is a motivation for ministry illustrated in the Life of Christ that we should follow. But there are other forms of motivation that are insufficient or even mistaken.

Hebrews 12 tells us of a motivation that pressed Christ to the cross. So we learn that our labors must be correctly motivated if they are to honor God and count towards our own blessing. Today we consider a long list of popular motives that will fall short in that quest.