Joshua 3:7
“And the LORD said unto Joshua, This day will I begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee.”
Watching how a church receives a guest preacher into the pulpit has always been an interesting thing for me to watch. I have gone to some conferences that when the preacher is introduced and he walks to the pulpit to preach that the crowd rises and applauds him as he preaches. Then there are times when the guest preacher is introduced to preach that nobody applauds and the preacher simply walks to the pulpit and starts addressing the people. One other way of which I’m not real fond of is when the host of a conference goes into a long introduction to talk about the greatness of the guest preacher who is about to preach before he asks him to come to the pulpit.
There is a reason men of God are introduced in these three different ways. Some men like their people to applaud the man of God when he comes to the pulpit because he wants the youth to have right role models to follow. They would rather their youth applaud a man of God than to applaud the world’s role models. Some men feel that only God deserves an applause, so they have trained their people not to applaud any person.
I agree with both of these ways to some extent in that God says in Isaiah 42:8, “I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.” We must be careful about lifting man so highly that he receives the glory and not God. On the other hand, Romans 13:7 says, “Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.” God’s Word teaches us that we should honor those who have earned a right to be honored.
However, there is a difference between honoring a man of God and magnifying a man of God. When it comes to magnifying the man of God, that should only come from God. God said about Joshua in the verse above, “This day will I begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel…” God understood that the man of God should be magnified, but that He should be the One Who does the magnifying.
When God magnifies a man of God, then He will make sure that man is not magnified to the point where His glory is not being taken from Him. It is interesting that when God chooses to magnify a man, He chooses a man who is not seeking the magnification and who will not try to take God’s glory from Him.
Always remember that we should honor men of God for the position they hold. I agree with those preachers that we should let our youth have men of God as role models whom they can follow, but be careful that you are not the one magnifying the man. Remember, you are honoring the position the man holds, but it is God’s job to magnify the man. Don’t try to magnify man yourself. When man magnifies man, then man will fall into man-worship, but when God magnifies man, then God will receive the glory for the works done through that man’s life. As a wise preacher friend of mine has said to me countless times, there are not great men of God, but there are men whom God uses in a great way. If we keep that focus, then we will honor the position and leave the magnification of man to God.