Shepherding with Spurgeon

Weekly Newsletter for Pastors from SpurgeonBooks

Thanks to The Voice of the Martyrs for sponsoring Shepherding with Spurgeon this year. Their Church Leader Network gives pastors access to a vast treasure trove of free digital and physical resources for YOU and your church. Sign up for free here.

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PASTORS (BY SPURGEON)

Now, dear friends, the hardest thing in the world is to give someone understanding. It is our duty, in our preaching and teaching, to make things very clear to the understanding; but if people do not have any understanding, we cannot give it to them; but God can. When the understanding itself is darkened, and ceases to be an understanding, God can so renew it that it shall be all clear and bright, and it shall be able to comprehend the things of God. “The Lord made me understand.” Oh, what a privilege! Not merely, “made me hear”, but “made me understand.” And how did the Lord do it? “In writing,” says David, “by his hand upon me.” The writing was written on David’s own mind; he had not to go upstairs to fetch it; he had not to say, “I cannot always carry it about with me;” but he did always carry it about with him wherever he went; for God had written upon David himself.

SERMON ILLUSTRATION FROM SPURGEON

Spurgeon was a master illustrator. You can use this quotation in your own preaching to describe our blindness to our sin.

Did you ever try to pull a bucket up a well? You know that, when it is full of water, you can pull it easily so long as the bucket remains in the water. But when it gets above the water, you know how heavy it is.

It is just so with you. While you are in sin, you do not feel it to be a burden. It does not seem to be evil. But if the Lord once draws you out of sin, you will find it to be an intolerable, a heinous evil.

RESOURCE FOR PASTORS

Add this book to your biblical counseling toolbox.

My first book, Sex and Self-Forgetfulness, just released one month ago. I’ve been so thankful to hear from couples about how God has used this 30-day, easy-to-use devotional to help them talk about and work towards God’s design for sex in a mutual and unifying way.

I can’t wait to hear about how God uses this book in your church, so make sure to grab a copy today. It’s available on Amazon, ChristianBook, and directly from the publisher OR ask for it at your local bookstore or library.

ONE MORE REMINDER: PREACH JESUS THIS WEEKEND

“Leave Christ out of preaching, and you have taken milk from the children, you have taken the strong meat from the men.” — Charles Spurgeon