Shepherding with Spurgeon

Weekly Newsletter for Pastors from SpurgeonBooks

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ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PASTORS (BY SPURGEON)

Perhaps you say, “I feel so discouraged in my Christian work, and even feel as if I must give it up. I have seen no conversions lately, and therefore I cannot go about my work with the spirit I once had.”

Brother, you are falling into a spiritual lethargy, but if you just touch your Lord again you shall be made whole. Did not the Lord Jesus heal you at the beginning? He can heal you still. He loses no virtue when he gives forth his power. If a master takes a scholar and fills him full of wisdom, the master is just as wise afterwards as he was at first, and when our Lord grants us a fulness of grace he remains as full of grace as he was originally. Come to him, then, you downcast saints. Come now. Come always.

SERMON ILLUSTRATION FROM SPURGEON

Spurgeon was a master illustrator. You can use this illustration in your own preaching to describe finding contentment.

I have sometimes admired a dog for his economical use of comforts. When it has been a long, rainy day, the sun has just peeped out, and there has been a gleam of sunlight on the floor; I have seen him get up and wag his tail, and shift his quarters so as to lie down where the bit of sunshine was. It is a fine thing to have just that state of mind—never to go sullenly into the shadow, but always cheerfully to accept the square yard of sunshine, and make the most of it. There is something, after all, to be thankful for, something for which to praise the name of God. And if the Lord Jesus Christ had taught us nothing else but that—the practice of lying down wherever there is a trace of sunshine, and, better still, of always finding sunshine in his dear name—I am sure we are bound to say that we have been “blessed in him.”

RESOURCE FOR PASTORS

A simple guide for helping marriages thrive

Sex, within marriage, is a gift from God. It’s meant to be wonderful, unifying, and really, really pleasurable. But it can often be frustrating, isolating, and scary instead.

My book, Sex and Self-Forgetfulness, is coming in just a few weeks from New Growth Press. This book will help Christian couples live out a more biblical vision for sex — a vision that’s more wonderful for EVERY spouse.

In the book, I offer a redemptive path forward to some of the most common sexual hangups and Christian marriages face, including…

• One-sided sex

• Sexual sin (past and current)

• Difficulty talking about sex

• Feeling guilty about sex in marriage

• Past sexual abuse

If you want to help couples in your church get PAST these roadblocks and grow to love their spouses in a more pure, giving, and Christlike way, I hope you’ll pre-order the book.

Pre-order your copy of Sex and Self-Forgetfulness wherever books are sold.

ONE MORE REMINDER: PREACH JESUS THIS WEEKEND

“I wish that our ministry might be tied and tethered to the cross. I have no other subject to set before you but Jesus only.” — Charles Spurgeon