Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, David, Paul, Peter, John, James, John the Baptist etc.. What do all these names have in common? They were all pillars of our faith, they were some of the greatest men of God to ever walk the earth. We hold them in the highest of regard, we make statues and paint pictures and hold them in the highest reverence, and why? Because they were in a world that didnt even deserve them and they counted themselves as nothing giving up there bodies even  unto death. And there was no greater example of this then Jesus, because Jesus was the perfection of all things good, the mighty God, the Prince of Peace. But yet he humbled himself even unto a despisable death and humiliation.

Philippians 2:5-11 “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in the very nature of God, did not consider equal with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-even death on a cross!”

Yet even though we somewhat today see these great men for what they were, the world rejected and despised them in there time and even they thought of themselves as the least of all men, the refuse of the world. But God chose them because of there hearts, and God glorified them because they humbled themselves and brought Glory to God.

Isaiah 53:3 “He was DESPISED AND REJECTED BY MEN, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.” (this verse is about Christ but it really sheds light on most of the men of God, that they were despised and rejected.)

1 Corinthians 4:9- “For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like men condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to men. We are fools for Christ… We are weak… …we are dishonored. To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. up to this moment WE HAVE BECOME THE SCUM OF THE EARTH, THE REFUSE OF THE WORLD.”

Hebrews 11:36-38 “Some faced jeers chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated-the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.”

Now this is how the greatest men of God lived, they lived humbly and lowly and not in high status or in good living, they were disliked and hated, they were murdered and persecuted, yet they humbled themselves all before God not thinking of themselves higher then they ought have. This is the type of men we should look for to lead us in our society and church organizations. Our society has transformed the way the church conducts its business, this should not be so. We look for Pastors and leaders the same way that businesess look for there employees and managers. We look at there education, there outward appearance, there record of wrongs, we look at there age, and there experience and we judge them by the same measurements that the world judges itself. This should not be. We should look for leaders the same way God does, we should judge them by there hearts, and by there humility, the word says that God opposes the proud but glorifies the humble.

1 Samuel  16:7 “But the LORD said to Samuel, ‘Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, BUT THE LORD LOOKS AT THE HEART.”

My point is this, the greatest men of God were great because they humbled themselves, they humbled themselves not as a single act of humility, meekness was not an act performed before the LORD, it was a characteristic exhibited every day of there lives and in every act of there worship toward God. The humility which led every aspect of there lives to obediance and even sacrifice which all brought Glory to God. And when we desire to pick a leader to lead us, we should look at him like God made Samuel look at David when Samuel was looking for  King to lead Israel, not at his outward appearance or accomplishments, but at his heart, and at his humility with which the greatest few have obtained.