Not all children of God are of the same rank in God's family. The first source of difference are the various callings which God gives. The second source of difference is my focus today. I will bring you two key factors that define greatness in the kingdom of heaven. The first one is in our opening scripture, which is humility. In Matthew 23:11-12 the Lord said, "But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted". Paul said in Acts 20:19 (NIV), "I served the Lord with great humility and with tears and in the midst of severe testing by the plots of my Jewish opponents. The one who serves God with humility is great in rank before the Lord. Humility is the attitude of your heart, void of selfishness and pride. It's about yielding to God and His will regardless of what people will say, or how you feel. Even when you may feel or others may say it's humiliating, if it is God's direction, you yield. Jesus is the center of focus in true humility. In true humility you accept when in the wrong and you respect authorities. True humility sees others as important and as valuable before the Lord.

The second factor that defines greatness is the level of submission to the word of God. Matthew 5:19 states "Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven". In this scripture Jesus was talking of practicing the word of God and inspiring others to do the word. It is about submission to the Lordship of God's word in your life. This is what it means to tremble at God's word as shared in Isaiah 66:2 (AMP), "For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembles at my word". This is a deep honor for the Word. For instance David delighted himself in God's word (Psalm 40:8) and he inspired others to follow the instruction of the Lord (1 Chronicles 28:9). The word of God is the utmost authority in your life. These are the key factors that determine your rank before the Lord.