Shepherding with Spurgeon

Weekly Newsletter for Pastors from SpurgeonBooks

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PASTORS (BY SPURGEON)

I would seriously recommend to you, when settled in the ministry, the celebration of extraordinary seasons of devotion. If your ordinary prayers do not keep up the freshness and vigor of your souls, and you feel that you are flagging, get alone for a week, or even a month if possible. We have occasional holidays, why not frequent holy days? We hear of our richer brethren finding time for a journey to Jerusalem; could we not spare time for the less difficult and far more profitable journey to the heavenly city?

SERMON ILLUSTRATION FROM SPURGEON

Spurgeon was a master illustrator. You can use this illustration in your own preaching to describe the need for humility as we grow.

If your child should have a rapid growth in its arms but not in its legs, or if its legs should lengthen but not its arms, what a strange being it would be! What a monster! It is the growth of each limb in proportion that brings the man to perfection.

So when our heads grow faster than our hearts, it is an ill sign. Yet how many know a great deal more than they feel, and criticize much more than they believe! It is also an evil thing when a man’s tongue grows bigger than his head; when he has more to say than he knows or does; when, like Mr. Talkative [of Pilgrim’s Progress], he can talk about the road to heaven but makes no progress in it.

ONE MORE REMINDER: PREACH JESUS THIS WEEKEND

“The sermon which does not lead to Christ will make the devils in hell laugh, but make the angels of God weep.” — Charles Spurgeon