Shepherding with Spurgeon

Weekly Newsletter for Pastors from SpurgeonBooks

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PASTORS (BY SPURGEON)

The art of saying commonplace things elegantly, pompously, grandiloquently, bombastically, is not lost among us, although its utter extinction were “a consummation devoutly to be wished.” Sermons of this sort have been held up as models, and yet they are mere bits of bladder which would lie on your finger-nail, blown out until they remind you of those colored balloons which itinerant dealers carry about the streets to sell at a halfpenny each for the pleasure of the extremely juvenile. The balloon, I am sorry to say, holding good a little further, for in some cases these sermons contain just a tinge of poison by way of coloring, which some of the weaker sort have found out to their cost.

It is infamous to ascend your pulpit and pour over your people rivers of language, cataracts of words, in which mere platitudes are held in solution like infinitesimal grains of medicine in an Atlantic of utterance. Better far give the people masses of unprepared truth in the rough, like pieces of meat from a butcher’s block, chopped off anyhow, bone and all, and even dropped down in the sawdust, than ostentatiously and delicately hand them out upon a china dish a delicious slice of nothing at all, decorated with the parsley of poetry, and flavoured with the sauce of affectation.

SERMON ILLUSTRATION FROM SPURGEON

Spurgeon was a master illustrator. You can use this illustration in your own preaching to describe God’s victory even when the world rejects him.

Owls hoot, but the sun shines on.

None of the mole-eyed critics have robbed the Bible of its power or blessing, or Christ of his crown, or God of his glory.

SHEPHERD YOUR HOME

“He must manage his own household competently and have his children under control with all dignity. (If anyone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of God’s church?)” (1 Timothy 3:4–5)

Pastor, your kids and wife are not distractions from ministry. If you aren’t regularly pointing your kids to Jesus, you can’t be trusted to point the church to Jesus.

With this in mind, I’m going to start a new section in Shepherding with Spurgeon to help equip you to disciple your kids and shepherd your home.

Should I read “R-Rated” Bible stories to my kids?

Sodom and Gomorrah.
David and Bathsheba.
Judah and Tamar.

When we read the Bible with our kids, we’re going to come across some stories that aren’t “family-friendly.” We might be tempted to skip over these R-rated stories, but here’s three reasons we need to read scandalous Bible stories to our kids.

Read the full article here.

ONE MORE REMINDER: PREACH JESUS THIS WEEKEND

“Preach Christ's life as much as you will, but never apart from his death. For it is by his blood that we are redeemed.” — Charles Spurgeon