Author: Charles Spurgeon

Pray with Spurgeon: Everyone needs to praise God

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

While we praise you this morning, we are longing that others might do the same. The deepest prayer of our own heart is, “your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Lord, bring our friends and kinsfolk to praise you—everyone. Just as all the tribes stood in their representatives around their father’s bed, so may all your children gather to the living God and praise him; let no one be absent.

We pray now, that you would bring in the lost sheep of the House of Israel; the many redeemed by blood, not yet redeemed by power, the many chosen who have never chosen you, the many who will be in the glory but as yet are glorying in their shame and minding earthly things. Bring, we pray, many under the influence of the gospel, myriads to worship Christ and to be saved by him; and may his name be as ointment poured forth in every place today, enchanting many and attracting them to bow at his feet.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Blow the ram’s horn on the day of our feasts during the new moon and during the full moon.” (Psalm 81:3)

Announce the sacred month, the beginning of months, when the Lord brought his people out of the house of bondage. Clear and shrill let the summons be which calls all Israel to adore the Redeeming Lord.

Obedience is to direct our worship, not whim and sentiment. God’s appointment gives a solemnity to rites and times which no ceremonial pomp or hierarchical ordinance could confer. The Jews not only observed the ordained month, but that part of the month which had been divinely set apart. The Lord’s people in the olden time welcomed the times appointed for worship; let us feel the same exultation, and never speak of worship as though it could be other than “a delight” and “honorable.”

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

How God’s grace helps you grow

As you make New Year’s Resolutions and plan for your growth in the New Year, do not slide into self-reliance.

God saved you by grace, and he is going to help you grow by grace too.

We ask God to help us grow in holiness, because we know that God’s grace doesn’t just save us from sin, it also gives us the power that we need to slay sin. The work of growing in godliness is a work of cooperation between us and God’s grace.

One of my all-time favorite books is The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges. This book explains how God’s grace empowers Christians to slay sin and grow in godliness. It is one of the helpful, practical, and encouraging books that I have ever read! If you want to grow in godliness, start with The Discipline of Grace.

Reading The Discipline of Grace will definitely help you grow in holiness in 2023. I hope you’ll grab a copy today.

Buy The Discipline of Grace:

This is the final newsletter for the week (we’ll be back on Monday)

I’m challenging parents to read the Bible with their kids every day in 2023. I’ve created some resources to help you, including my family devotions subscription, God Centered Family. I hope you’ll use these resources to make 2023 a #YearInTheWord. Click here to learn more.

Pastor, long for souls to be saved

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ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PASTORS (BY SPURGEON)

It is a marvel to me how men continue at ease in preaching year after year without conversions. Have they no bowels of compassion for others? No sense of responsibility upon themselves? Dare they, by a vain misrepresentation of divine sovereignty, cast the blame on their Master? Or is it their belief that Paul plants and Apollos waters, and that God gives no increase? Vain are their talents, their philosophy, their rhetoric, and even their orthodoxy, without the signs following. How are they sent of God who bring no men to God?

As a man to be set apart to the ministry, his commission is without seals until souls are won by his instrumentality to the knowledge of Jesus. As a worker, he is to work on whether he succeeds or no, but as a minister he cannot be sure of his vocation till results are apparent.

SERMON ILLUSTRATION (BY SPURGEON)

Spurgeon was a master illustrator. You can use this quotation in your own preaching to describe the free offer of salvation.

The point in the invitation is—when is it? Somebody says, “Will you come to my house to dinner?” Well, if that is all he says, I do not come. But if he says, “I dine at half past five,” then he gives me the time of day and tells me when he wants to see me. You know if a person says, “Whenever you are going by this way I shall be glad to see you,” you never call in at all. But if a man says, “I will be glad to see you at such-and-such a time,” you understand his invitation.

And now the Holy Spirit puts a time to the invitation. I am not invited tomorrow, but the Holy Spirit says to me, “Come to Christ today.” And he says to you, “Today, even now, come seek and find every good in Jesus joined.” “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth.” The time is fixed, and the time is fixed for today.

THANKS FOR READING

Brothers,

This week, Spurgeon claimed that a man cannot be a minister without seeing the fruit of conversion. While I think he is probably overstating it a little bit (there are many other valuable fruits to search for from a man’s ministry, not only conversion), his words are a reminder that we must earnestly long for and work toward the conversion of sinners.

God has saved us by grace and we must long for his grace to extend to many more. Let us pray and work to this end in the new year.

If this newsletter is encouraging, please share it with another pastor. You can forward this email to a pastor you know.

If someone forwarded this email to you, sign up to get another one every week. Click here to subscribe.

Blessings to your ministry,

Doug H.
Creator of SpurgeonBooks
Preaching Pastor of Pillar Church of Washington DC

Pray with Spurgeon: Whether healthy or sick, we praise God

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Here, in your presence, we would each one render that form of praise which is suitable for the hour. The healthy and the happy praise you with exultant voice. The sick and the sorry praise you with a living hope. Those who are suffering and bowed down, praise you with a willing acquiescence, desiring that even from the loosened string some music may come to the Most High.

Our Father, when we shall get up to see you; when your unveiled face shall appear to your perfected ones, we shall gladly have nothing to do but to praise. There will be no regrets, no remembrances of any hard words from you, or rough stroke from your rod. It will be praise and only praise; as it will be so, as it ought to be so. Let it be so now.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Lift up a song—play the tambourine, the melodious lyre, and the harp.” (Psalm 81:2)

Select a sacred song, and then raise it with your hearty voices. Beat on your tambourines, let the sound be loud and inspiriting.

God is not to be served with misery but with mirthful music. The tambourine for sound, must be joined by the harp for sweetness, and this by other stringed instruments for variety. Let the full compass of music be holiness unto the Lord.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

A Resource to Help You Pray in 2022

It seems like every year, I make a new year’s resolution to pray more frequently and more biblically. This is healthy — we should realize our need for prayer more and more every year. This year, my prayer life has been REALLY blessed by a really great resource, Psalms in 30 Days by Trevin Wax.

This book is a collection of thirty days of prayers (morning, midday, and evening) that includes all 150 psalms and prayers from Scripture and church history. With this book, you can pray through all of the psalms every month.

These prayers are so incredibly fresh, deep, and life-giving, and having a book that is set aside just for prayer is a physical reminder (on your table, shelf, desk, or bedside table) to pray (Plus, the book looks great!)

I’ve been using Psalms in 30 Days this year and it’s been such an incredible blessing. I’m excited to continue diving into it in 2023 (it definitely hasn’t gotten old yet!). I hope you’ll grab a copy and join me.

Buy Psalms in 30 Days:

Pray with Spurgeon: We can always trust God (because God is always love)

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

O God, our God, we praise you this morning, not only with the voice of song, but with the heart. Sometimes our praise takes the form of thankfulness, and, indeed, we have good reason to thank you for mercies more numerous than the sand. “Bless the Lord, O my soul.”

We would learn also to thank you when your hand is heavy and your ways are dark. “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” We are persuaded that the sweetest praise that ever comes to you comes from your tried children when, under a smarting rod, they kiss the rod, and him who has appointed it. Help your dear children who are much afflicted, to praise you by a cheerful submission to your will. It must be right, for God has done it; it must be for the best, for God is love. Father, when you stagger us, when we seem at our wits’ end, and know not what to do or what to say, may we still hold to you, and feel it is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Sing for joy to God our strength; shout in triumph to the God of Jacob.” (Psalm 81:1)

The God of the nation, the God of their father Jacob, was extolled in gladsome music by the Israelite people. Let no Christian be silent, or slack in praise, for this God is our God. It is to be regretted that the niceties of modern singing frighten our congregations from joining lustily in the hymns. For our part we delight in full bursts of praise. We would rather discover the ruggedness of a lack of musical training than miss the heartiness of universal congregational song. The social pride which lisps the tune in whispers or leaves the singing altogether to the choir, is very like a mockery of worship. The gods of Greece and Rome may be worshipped well enough with classical music, but the Lord can only be adored with the heart, and that music is the best for his service which gives the heart most play.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

What would happen if your family read the Bible together every day next year?

I really believe that daily family devotions will transform your family for generations to come, so I’m challenging parents to make 2023 a #YearInTheWord.

Will you commit to read the Bible with your kids every day in 2023?

That’s the challenge.

And if you take it seriously, God will definitely prove himself faithful. Your kids will learn the Bible, you will grow your love for the Word, and your whole family will be brought closer together.

And if DAILY family devotions seem impossible for you, I want to help.

Family devotionals from God Centered Family will give you everything you need and it will only take ten minutes each day.

Learn more about how to (actually) make family devotions a daily habit and preview the devotionals from God Centered Family.

Pray with Spurgeon: God, make me holy

Get a prayer from Spurgeon in your inbox every day. Subscribe to the Pray with Spurgeon newsletter for free.

DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Lord, make us a holy people. May we not only have the name of Christians, but may we have the life of Christians. Lord, forgive the inconsistent ones. Sanctify, we pray, the consecrated ones, and if any are unconsecrated, take them today; make them to feel that they are not their own, but are bought with a price.

Father, bless those new Christians who are newly added to us. May they be good and strong. May the Spirit of God build them up, and make them to be temples for his own indwelling. Bless all the work done by my church, in every department.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Sing for joy to God our strength; shout in triumph to the God of Jacob.” (Psalm 81:1)

 The Lord was the strength of his people in delivering them out of Egypt with a high hand, and also in sustaining them in the wilderness, placing them in Canaan, preserving them from their foes, and giving them victory. To whom do men give honor but to those upon whom they rely, therefore let us sing aloud unto our God, who is our strength and our song.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Spend the New Year with Spurgeon, trusting God’s promises

Spurgeon frequently said that God’s promises are like checks. And because God is never lacking in resources, his account is always full and his checks never bounce.

Spurgeon’s classic devotional, The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith, contains 365 readings (one for each day of the year) to help you trust and treasure God’s promises.

Reading through The Cheque Book in 2023 will definitely encourage you.

Pray with Spurgeon: God, help us know your love today

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Oh, for the inflowing of divine love. May we feel the heart of God beat toward us, this morning. Open our hearts, Lord, to receive your heart, and let your great heart flow into us, until our heart flows back to you with tides of warm emotion and tender love. May the Holy Spirit come, may the floods of God come, and may this be a blessed day to the people of God, a time of great nearness to God, and the light of God shining into every secret part of the soul.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Sing for joy to God our strength; shout in triumph to the God of Jacob.” (Psalm 81:1)

“Sing” in tune and measure, so that the public praise may be in harmony; sing with joyful notes, and sounds melodious. “Shout,” for the heartiest praise is due to our good Lord. His acts of love to us speak more loudly than any or our words of gratitude can do. No dullness should ever stupefy our singing, or half-heartedness cause it to limp along. Sing aloud, you debtors to sovereign grace, your hearts are profoundly grateful. Let your voices express your thankfulness.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Helping families make 2023 a #YearInTheWord

I believe that families reading the Bible together will be one of the most effective ways to change the world.

And that’s why I’m challenging parents to make family devotions a priority in 2023.

Here’s the challenge: Read the Bible with your kids every day in 2023.

I really believe that if you make family devotions a daily habit in 2023, you will see some incredible fruit.

To help you get started, I’ve put together a few resources to help you:

  • — (FREE) 6 practical steps to (actually) make family devotions a daily habit.
  • — (FREE) Printable habit tracker you can use to stay focused and reward success.
  • — (Paid Subscription) Simple family devotionals that give everything you need to teach your kids the Bible in ten minutes each day.

Are you ready to take up the challenge? Will you make 2023 a #YearInTheWord for your family?

Find all the resources you need at GodCenteredFamily.org

Pray with Spurgeon: Let no sin keep us from God

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Is there anything this morning between us and God; does anything darken our light? Lord, take it away. Have we any doubts? Let the light remove them. Does anything trouble us? May we cast our care on you. Have we any dark worry? May we put our worrying away, for sufficient unto the day is its own trouble.

Enable every child of God to have perfect rest in God, this morning. May we be on loving terms with God. May we have not even the least grit in the machinery. May there not be a speck of dust in the eye, for in dealing with God our heart is tender, as the apple of the eye, and the least thing offends. May we be, in Christ Jesus, accepted in the Beloved, dear to God, and may God be dear to us.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Now to him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, without blemish and with great joy…” (Jude 24)

The power to create a world, to divide the rocks, to shake the mountains or set them ablaze is inferior compared with the power that is able to keep us from stumbling. God has been pleased to make us free agents and never deprives us of our free agency. Yet, without the destruction of a quality necessary to our responsible personhood, God is nevertheless able to keep us from stumbling. He could do this by shutting us up in a prison or by depriving us of the power to commit sins. But he does not keep us in that way. He leaves us with every faculty and propensity that we had before. Yet, by some mysterious, omnipotent working of his Holy Spirit—which we can no more understand than we can the blowing of the wind—he keeps his people from stumbling.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Christmas (or New Years) Gift Idea for a Teen: Help them Know Their Faith

Teenagers today are living in a really difficult environment. If a teen wants to follow Christ today, he is surrounded every day with a seemingly endless list of objections to the gospel. From evolution to LGBT issues; from racism to God’s sovereignty over suffering, it can be hard to follow Christ in the midst of a hostile world (or a hostile high school!)

A great resource for teens to help them know, understand, and defend their faith is 10 Questions Every Teen Should Ask (and Answer) about Christianity by Rebecca McLaughlin. This book is tackles ten really pressing, important topics with Bible-saturated reasoning and Christ-centered hope.

We should never discourage our teens from asking questions about God or his world — but we should always help them find solid, true, biblical answers to their questions.

10 Questions is a great resource to help your teen follow Christ, and it’s a great Christ-centered Christmas gift. I hope you’ll grab a few copies for teens that you love (in your family or your church).

Buy 10 Questions Every Teen Should Ask (and Answer) about Christianity:

Pastor, Christ himself has sent you to preach this Christmas

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ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PASTORS (BY SPURGEON)

Suppose that, this morning, after reading this letter, an angel should meet you, and lay his hand upon you, and say, “The Lord God Almighty has sent me to commission you to preach the gospel henceforth.” Brother, you would feel a burden laid upon you, and yet you would feel renewed confidence and ardor. But no mere angel’s hand has touched you, brother; the Lord Jesus Christ himself, who redeemed you with his most precious blood, has laid this “necessity” upon you.

The pierced hand, which gave you healing, has appointed you to your Lord’s service, and made you a chosen vessel to bear his name. Hear afresh from His lips the commands, “Feed my sheep” and “Feed my lambs,” even as Peter did by the Sea of Galilee.

SERMON ILLUSTRATION (BY SPURGEON)

Spurgeon was a master illustrator. You can use this quotation in your own preaching to describe the wonder of the incarnation.

Those little hands will one day grasp the scepter of universal empire; those little arms will one day grapple with the monster ‘Death’, and destroy it; those little feet shall tread on the serpent’s neck, and crush that old deceiver’s head; yes, and that little tongue, which has not yet learned to articulate a word, shall, before long, pour from his sweet lips such streams of eloquence as shall fertilize the minds of the whole human race, and infuse his teaching into the literature of the world; and again a little while, and that tongue shall pronounce the judgments of heaven on the destinies of all mankind.

We have all thought it wonderful that the God of glory should stoop so low; but we shall one day think it more wonderful that the Man of sorrows should be exalted so high. Earth could find no place too base for him; heaven will scarcely find a place lofty enough for him.

THANKS FOR READING

Brothers,

Merry Christmas! We have a ministry because our Lord came to save us, and that is something worth preaching (at Christmas and all year).

The sermon illustration above came from “A Visit to Bethlehem,” which is one of my all-time favorite Spurgeon sermons. I’d highly encourage you read it devotionally this week.

As you preach this weekend, remember that the glorious Christ who came to save you has commissioned you to preach his gospel. No matter how many people show up to your services this weekend, he is worthy of your all.

If this newsletter is encouraging, please share it with another pastor. You can forward this email to a pastor you know.

If someone forwarded this email to you, sign up to get another one every week. Click here to subscribe.

Blessings to your ministry,

Doug H.
Creator of SpurgeonBooks
Preaching Pastor of Pillar Church of Washington DC

Pray with Spurgeon: Jesus died once and he will never die again

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Jesus, we believe in your precious blood. Once for all, it has put away sin; the great sacrifice has made complete atonement; it can never be repeated, it never needs to be. In that one sacrifice we are clean, as many as have believed, and there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.

But Savior, we now sin in another fashion, as children against paternal government, against a Father’s love, and as children we ask to be pardoned. Hide not your face from us, put not your servants away in anger; deal graciously with your children, and let us walk in the light, as God is in the light, and have fellowship with the Father and with the Son, and may joy and peace abound in us.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“If we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7)

If guilt returns, his power may be proved again and again. There is no fear that all my daily slips and shortcomings will not be graciously removed by this precious blood.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Christmas Gift Idea for Your Pastors

Your pastors labor week-in and week-out to shepherd you, preach the Word, manage the church, and pray for your family. Christmas is a great opportunity to thank them for their labors with a small gift.

What do you give a pastor who has everything? Check out The Visual Wordby Patrick Schreiner. This book features a visual guide for every book in the New Testament. Your pastor will LOVE reading this book and it will help him prepare sermons.

This book is absolutely beautiful and I know it will bless your pastor and your church. I hope you’ll grab a copy to gift!

Buy The Visual Word:

Pray with Spurgeon: God is full of grace and forgiveness

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DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Lord God, sacred Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, reign on earth. Let your eternal purposes be accomplished. Let the decrees of your sovereignty be carried out. Let your grace be glorified. Let the whole earth be filled with your glory. We know no deeper and no higher prayer than this. Oh, that it were fulfilled right speedily!

Now suffer us to speak for ourselves, having thus endeavored to pay in homage to you. We confess that we have sinned. Father forgive us. To many, forgiveness has been once for all bestowed. You have washed us, and he that is washed does not need to wash, except his feet. But give us the foot washing, this morning. Oh that we might come to the laver and be clean, and then go in as priests into the Holy Place of the Most High.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” (Philippians 3:8)

The very high value that the apostle Paul set on the Savior is most palpable when he speaks of gaining him. This shows that the Savior held the same place in Paul’s esteem as the crown did in the esteem of the runner at the Olympic games. To gain that crown, the competitor strained every nerve and sinew, feeling as though he were content to drop down dead at the goal in order to win it. Paul felt that if he were to run with all his might, straining soul and body to gain Christ, it would be well worth the effort. Christ would be well worth dying to gain.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Christmas Gift Idea for Young Readers

If you know a kid who can’t get enough books — you need to check out the Wingfeather Saga. This is a series of fantasy novels for kids, ages 8–12, by Andrew Peterson.

These are not cheesy, Christian adventures — these are incredible fantasy novels written from a Christian worldview (like a modern day Narnia). These books will keep kids glued and will help them think about Christian themes like redemption.

You can grab the first four books in the Wingfeather series in a great boxset with cool art that will get any kid excited to dive in.

Buy The Wingfeather Saga Box Set: