Shepherding with Spurgeon

Weekly Newsletter for Pastors from SpurgeonBooks

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PASTORS (BY SPURGEON)

For a very considerable number of years an esteemed and venerable pastor in another town sends me a gift to thank me for my sermons. Enclosed in the parcel which his kindness awards to me is a text from which he hopes that I may preach on the first Sunday morning of the New Year. This year he sends me this golden line, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).

I have preached from this text before—you will find a sermon from this text in print; but we need not be at all afraid of preaching from the same text twice, the word is inexhaustible, it may be trodden in the winepress many times, and yet run with generous wine. We ought not to hesitate to preach a second time from a passage, any more than anyone going to the village well would be ashamed to put down the same bucket twice, or feel at all aggrieved at sailing twice down the same river; for there is always a freshness about gospel truth and though the matter may be the same, there are ways of putting it in fresh light, so as to bring new joy to those who meditate upon it.

SERMON ILLUSTRATION FROM SPURGEON

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

It is only in imagination that there is any close of one year and beginning of another: and yet it has most fitly all the force of a great fact. We are crossing the line now. We have sailed into another year of grace; therefore let us keep a feast unto the Lord. If Jesus has not made us new already, let the new year cause us to think about the great and needful change of conversion.

RESOURCE FOR PASTORS

In 1858, Spurgeon encouraged everyone in his church to ask themselves these 15 questions at the start of a new year. As pastors, it can be easy to neglect our own spiritual growth as we constantly work for the advancement of our church in godliness. I hope this set of questions will help us remember our need for grace and see opportunities for growth this year.

1. How far has Christ’s purpose of sanctifying me been answered in my own case?

2. How far have I progressed in sanctification during the past year?

3. How much has my faith increased during the year?

4. How many of my corruptions have I overcome?

5. How much nearer am I living to Christ, now, than on the first Sunday of last year?

6. How much do I know of the Savior?

7. How much closer do I approach in my likeness to him?

8. Have I more power in prayer?

9. Am I more careful in my life?

10. Is my spirit more loving than it used to be?

11. Am I more decisive for that which is right?

12. At the same time, am I more meek in standing up for it?

13. Am I, in all respects, more like my Master than I was a year ago?

14. Or, on the other hand, have I been going backward?

15. Stand still, I cannot; I must either go forward in grace or go backward. Which have I been doing during the past year?

ONE MORE REMINDER: PREACH JESUS THIS WEEKEND

“That which glorifies Christ the most of all is the preaching of the gospel to sinners.” — Charles Spurgeon