Shepherding with Spurgeon

Weekly Newsletter for Pastors from SpurgeonBooks

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PASTORS (BY SPURGEON)

The preacher is above all others distinguished as a man of prayer. He prays as an ordinary Christian or he is a hypocrite. He prays more than ordinary Christians or he is disqualified for the office which he has undertaken. “It would be wholly monstrous,” says Bernard, “for a man to be highest in office and lowest in soul; first in station and last in life.”

Over all his other relationships the pre-eminence of the pastor’s responsibility casts a halo, and if true to his Master, he becomes distinguished for his prayerfulness in them all. As a citizen, his country has the advantage of his intercession; as a neighbor those under his shadow are remembered in supplication. He prays as a husband and as a father; he strives to make his family devotions a model for his flock; and if the fire on the altar of God should burn low anywhere else, it is well tended in the house of the Lord’s chosen servant—for he takes care that the morning and evening sacrifice shall sanctify his dwelling. He offers peculiar supplications as a minister, and he draws near to God in this respect, over and above all his approaches in his other relationships.

SERMON ILLUSTRATION FROM SPURGEON

Spurgeon was a master illustrator. You can use this quotation in your own preaching to describe God's care for us.

The gardener knows where his plants will flourish best. Some of them might wish to grow in the sunshine although, like the fern family, they are better in the shade. Some of them would prefer to be on a mossy bank, but the gardener puts them in a sandy soil because he knows that it is better suited to the requirements of their nature.

You may depend on it that there never was any earthly father who was so attentive to the needs of his child as your heavenly Father is to yours. When you decide as to the occupation you think it best for your son to follow, you may select the very career that will prove to be his ruin. But when God plans your future, he takes more care in arranging for you than you do in arranging for your boy. And as he sees the end from the beginning, which you cannot see either for yourself or for your child, he chooses for you with infinite and unerring wisdom.

ONE MORE REMINDER: PREACH JESUS THIS WEEKEND

“Preach Jesus Christ, brothers, always and everywhere; and every time you preach be sure to have much of Jesus Christ in the sermon.” — Charles Spurgeon