Category: Shepherding with Spurgeon

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ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PASTORS (BY SPURGEON)

Too frequent an intrusion of self in your preaching is a form of pride to be avoided. I hope our sermons will never be of the same order as those which were set up in a certain printing office, and the chief compositor had to request the manager to send for an extra supply of capital I’s. The letter “I” is a noble vowel, but it may be sounded too loudly.

Great “I” is very apt to become prominent with us all; even those who labor after humility can barely escape. When self is killed in one form, it rises in another; and, alas! There is such a thing as being proud of being humble, and boasting of being now cleansed from everything like boasting.

SERMON ILLUSTRATION (BY SPURGEON)

Spurgeon was a master illustrator. You can use this illustration in your own preaching to describe the need for self-examination and repentance.

You are not to take it for granted that you are saved. If you do, you may be sadly mistaken. In London years ago every shop had its sign, and they had a saying that the house which had the sign of the sun in a certain street was darker than any other: all their sun was outside: it had the sun for a sign but no sign of the sun.

So there are some who have grace for their sign, but no sign of grace. God grant we may not be such. To have a name to live is a wretched thing if we be really dead. In such a case we are nothing but living lies, devout deceits, bastard professors, in a word “reprobates.” To pretend to be other than what we are in the sight of the heart-searching God is despicable and damnable.

RESOURCE FOR YOUR CHURCH

A New Kids Bible Focusing on God’s Presence*

I wanted to tell you about a new resource that will definitely be a huge blessing to parents in your congregation.

God With Us is a new storybook Bible written by Jeremy Pierre, counseling professor at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. This book is theologically rich, telling the big story of the Bible, focusing on the theme of God’s presence with his people.

Thirty Bible stories, with stunning story-telling and captivating illustrations, told over the course of nearly 300 pages — all focused on telling one beautiful, hope-filled story about God dwelling with his people.

And the illustrations by Cassandra Clark are absolutely breath-taking.

God’s presence is what we were created to enjoy, what sin robs from us, what Christ came to bring us, and our only future hope. Share this hope with the parents and children in your church with God With Us.

Pre-order God With Us on Amazon.

THANKS FOR READING

Brothers,

While personal anecdotes can make for powerful illustrations, they can often distract from the real hero of the story. Even the most faithful pastors make for pitiful saviors — labor to encourage your church to place all of their confidence in Christ alone, not in your gifts or even your care.

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

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Blessings to your ministry,

Doug H.
Creator of SpurgeonBooks

Get wisdom encouragement for Spurgeon in your inbox every week. Subscribe to the The Pastor’s Note newsletter for free.

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PASTORS (BY SPURGEON)

Dear brothers, may we, every one of us, be as far removed as possible from anything like egotism, which is hateful to the last degree! It is to be hoped that vanity is rare in ministers, for vanity is the vice of novices, and may be sooner excused in young students than in actual teachers of the Word.

Experience, if it be worth having, exterminates a man’s vanity; but so bad is our nature, that it may increase his pride if it be an experience sweetened with success. It were hard to say which is the greater sin, vanity or pride; but we know which is the more foolish and ridiculous. A proud man may have some weight, but a vain man is light as air, and influences no one. From both these egotisms may we be kept, for they are both injurious to ourselves and hateful to God.

SERMON ILLUSTRATION (BY SPURGEON)

Spurgeon was a master illustrator. You can use this illustration in your own preaching to describe God’s power.

The Lord knows right well that you cannot change your own heart, and cannot cleanse your own nature; but he also knows that he can do both. He can cause the leopard to change his spots. Hear this, and be astonished: He can create you a second time; He can cause you to be born again. This is a miracle of grace, but the Holy Ghost will perform it.

It would be a very wonderful thing if one could stand at the foot of the Niagara Falls, and could speak a word which should make the river Niagara begin to run up stream, and leap up that great precipice over which it now rolls in stupendous force. Nothing but the power of God could achieve that marvel; but that would be more than a fit parallel to what would take place if the course of your nature were altogether reversed. All things are possible with God. He can reverse the direction of your desires and the current of your life, and instead of going downward from God, He can make your whole being tend upward toward God. That is, in fact, what the Lord has promised to do for all who are in the covenant; and we know from Scripture that all believers are in the covenant.

THANKS FOR READING

Brothers,

Whether your ministry is “successful” or struggling, stay rooted by remembering your identity in Christ. You are saved (from your infinitely nasty sin) by Christ’s blood and resurrection — not the size or faithfulness of your ministry.

Hold fast to Christ — he is your only hope!

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

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Blessings to your ministry,

Doug H.
Creator of SpurgeonBooks

Get wisdom encouragement for Spurgeon in your inbox every week. Subscribe to the The Pastor’s Note newsletter for free.

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PASTORS (BY SPURGEON)

We have tasted of the honey of communion with Jesus: we have not, perhaps, feasted upon handfuls of it, as some of our Samsons have done; but we have at least, like Jonathan, dipped the end of our rod into it, and our eyes have been enlightened, so that our hearers can see them sparkle with joy while we tell them how precious Jesus is. This gives emphasis to our testimony.

When we speak as ministers and not as men, as preachers instead of penitents, as theologians instead of disciples, we fail; when we lean our head too much upon the Commentary, and too little upon the Savior’s bosom; when we eat too largely of the tree of knowledge, and too little of the tree of life, we lose the power of our ministry. I am myself a sinner, a sinner washed in the blood, and delivered from the wrath to come by the merit of my Lord and Master—all this must be fresh upon our mind.

SERMON ILLUSTRATION (BY SPURGEON)

Spurgeon was a master illustrator. You can use this illustration in your own preaching to describe reading difficult portions of Scripture.

If you have difficulty, take it before God in prayer. Tell the great Father exactly what it is that puzzles you, and beg him by his Holy Spirit to solve the question.

If I cannot believe a statement in a book, I am glad to inquire of the author what he means by it; and if he is a true man his explanation will satisfy me; much more will the divine explanation of the hard points of Scripture satisfy the heart of the true seeker. The Lord is willing to make himself known; go to him and see if it is not so. Repair at once to your closet, and cry, “O Holy Spirit, lead me into the truth! What I do not know, teach me.”

THANKS FOR READING

Brothers,

The key to more faithful, fruitful preaching is often knowing God and loving his glory. Don’t short-cut sermon preparation by jumping right to commentaries (or copy-pasting from someone else’s manuscript 🙄) — spend unhurried time in God’s Word to know and enjoy God.

Don’t settle for manufactured “passion,” pray hard and read the Word and allow God to bring love for himself into your heart.

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

Get wisdom encouragement for Spurgeon in your inbox every week. Subscribe to the The Pastor’s Note newsletter for free.

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PASTORS (BY SPURGEON)

At times I have thought, when I have done preaching, that I have laid down the gospel so clearly, that the nose on one’s face could not be more plain; and yet I perceive that even intelligent hearers have failed to understand what was meant by “Look unto me and be ye saved.”

Converts usually say that they did not know the gospel till such and such a day; and yet they had heard it for years. The gospel is unknown, not from want of explanation, but from absence of personal revelation. This the Holy Ghost is ready to give, and will give to those who ask him. Yet when given, the sum total of the truth revealed all lies within these words: “Christ died for the ungodly.”

SERMON ILLUSTRATION (BY SPURGEON)

Spurgeon was a master illustrator. You can use this illustration in your own preaching to describe the need to be born again.

To put the matter very simply—did you ever hear of Mr. Rowland Hill’s illustration of the cat and the sow? I will give it in my own fashion, to illustrate our Savior’s expressive words—“You must be born again.”

Do you see that cat? What a cleanly creature she is! How cleverly she washes herself with her tongue and her paws! It is quite a pretty sight! Did you ever see a sow do that? No, you never did. It is contrary to its nature. It prefers to wallow in the mire. Go and teach a sow to wash itself, and see how little success you would gain. It would be a great sanitary improvement if swine would be clean. Teach them to wash and clean themselves as the cat has been doing! Useless task. You may by force wash that sow, but it hastens to the mire, and is soon as foul as ever. The only way in which you can get a sow to wash itself is to transform it into a cat; then it will wash and be clean, but not till then! Suppose that transformation to be accomplished, and then what was difficult or impossible is easy enough; the swine will henceforth be fit for your parlor and your hearth-rug.

So it is with an ungodly man; you cannot force him to do what a renewed man does most willingly; you may teach him, and set him a good example, but he cannot learn the art of holiness, for he has no mind to it; his nature leads him another way. When the Lord makes a new man of him, then all things wear a different aspect. So great is this change, that I once heard a convert say, “Either all the world is changed, or else I am.” The new nature follows after right as naturally as the old nature wanders after wrong. What a blessing to receive such a nature! Only the Holy Ghost can give it.

THANKS FOR READING

Brothers,

After preaching this past Sunday, I felt like I had blown it. It had been a rough weekend, I gave my everything in the pulpit, and walked away feeling discouraged. And yet, several church members told me how encouraged they were. My imperfect sermon showed them a perfect Savior, and they were built up.

I hope that Spurgeon’s words remind you today: the success of your ministry is not dependent on you. God saves his people in the perfect time. God always grows his people in the perfect way. It’s not dependent on us! God is the one who saves.

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

Get wisdom encouragement for Spurgeon in your inbox every week. Subscribe to the The Pastor’s Note newsletter for free.

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PASTORS (BY SPURGEON)

We should avoid everything like the ferocity of bigotry. There are religious people about, who, I have no doubt, were born of a woman, but they appear to have been suckled by a wolf.

Some warlike men of this order have had power to found dynasties of thought; but human kindness and brotherly love consort better with the Kingdom of Christ. We are not to be always going about the world searching out heresies, like terrier dogs sniffing for rats, and to be always so confident of our own infallibility that we erect ecclesiastical stakes at which to roast all who differ from us with bundles of kindling, but with those coals of juniper, which consist of strong prejudice and cruel suspicion.

SERMON ILLUSTRATION (BY SPURGEON)

Spurgeon was a master illustrator. You can use this illustration in your own preaching to describe the power of God in salvation.

It would be a very wonderful thing if one could stand at the foot of the Niagara Falls, and could speak a word which should make the river Niagara begin to run upstream, and leap up that great precipice over which it now rolls in stupendous force.

Nothing but the power of God could achieve that marvel; but that would be more than a fit parallel to what would take place if the course of your nature were altogether reversed. All things are possible with God. He can reverse the direction of your desires and the current of your life, and instead of going downward from God, he can make your whole being tend upward toward God. That is, in fact, what the Lord has promised to do for all who are in the covenant; and we know from Scripture that all believers are in the covenant.

THANKS FOR READING

Brothers,

One of the qualifications for the office of elder is “not quarrelsome” (1 Timothy 3:3). We should not be quick to pick fights or hate on others. In your church, from your pulpit, and on social media, preach the Word of God in love.

Don’t be distracted by cultural issues or trends — preach and apply the Bible and God will build up his people.

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

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Blessings to your ministry,

Doug H.
Creator of SpurgeonBooks

Get wisdom encouragement for Spurgeon in your inbox every week. Subscribe to the The Pastor’s Note newsletter for free.

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PASTORS (BY SPURGEON)

Let us be thoroughly well acquainted with the great doctrines of the Word of God, and let us be mighty in expounding the Scriptures. I am sure that no preaching will last so long, or build up a church so well, as the expository. To renounce altogether the hortatory discourse for the expository, would be running to a preposterous extreme; but I cannot too earnestly assure you that, if your ministries are to be lastingly useful, you must be expositors.

For this purpose, you must understand the Word yourselves, and be able so to comment upon it that the people may be built up by the Word. Be masters of your Bibles, brethren; whatever other works you have not searched, be at home with the writings of the prophets and apostles. “Let the Word of God dwell in you richly.”

SERMON ILLUSTRATION (BY SPURGEON)

Spurgeon was a master illustrator. You can use this illustration in your own preaching to describe the foolishness of salvation by works.

An old preacher says, “A silly servant who is bidden to open a door, sets his shoulder to it and pushes with all his might; but the door stirs not, and he cannot enter, use what strength he may. Another comes with a key, and easily unlocks the door, and enters right readily. Those who would be saved by works are pushing at heaven’s gate without result; but faith is the key which opens the gate at once.”

THANKS FOR READING

Brothers,

Preach the Bible. Don’t fall prey to the temptation to preach your own thoughts. God’s Word has all of the wisdom that your people need.

And to preach the Bible, we must know the Bible. Friends, make Bible reading a priority in your life. Know God’s Word. Seek to learn new things about it. Plunge its depths and enjoy its glory. The Bible is amazing, so let’s be amazed by it.

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

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Blessings to your ministry,

Doug H.
Creator of SpurgeonBooks

Get wisdom encouragement for Spurgeon in your inbox every week. Subscribe to the The Pastor’s Note newsletter for free.

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PASTORS (BY SPURGEON)

An average hearer, who is unable to follow the course of thought of the preacher, ought not to worry himself, but to blame the preacher, whose business it is to make the matter clear.

If you look down into a well, if it be empty, it will appear to be very deep; but if there be water in it, you will see its brightness. I believe that many “deep” preachers are simply so because they are like dry wells with nothing whatever in them, except decaying leaves, a few stones, and perhaps a dead cat or two. If there be living water in your preaching, it may be very deep, but the light of the truth will give clearness to it. At any rate, labor to be plain, so that the truths you teach may be easily received by your hearers.

SERMON ILLUSTRATION (BY SPURGEON)

Spurgeon was a master illustrator. You can use this illustration in your own preaching to describe the bondage of sin.

If you had a bird here—say, a canary—and it was all free except one leg, it would not be a free bird then. ‘It is only held by a single bit of cotton,’ you say. Still the bird is not at liberty: it cannot fly as it pleases. As long as a man is held a captive by a single vice, no matter how small it is, he is still in bondage to iniquity. If any one sin binds him, masters him, he is not the Lord’s free man. He is still a slave in the worst form of slavery: he is under the dominion of evil.

THANKS FOR READING

Brothers,

We don’t need to be complicated in our preaching. God’s Word has power, we don’t need to help it by being overly deep or spiritual. Don’t succumb to the temptation to offer a lot of seemingly impressive head knowledge: just preach the Word — it will never return void.

In your preaching this weekend, don’t strive to be impressive, strive to show the Lord to be impressive.

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

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Blessings to your ministry,

Doug H.
Creator of SpurgeonBooks

Get wisdom encouragement for Spurgeon in your inbox every week. Subscribe to the The Pastor’s Note newsletter for free.

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PASTORS (BY SPURGEON)

Faith cries, “Trust me, my son, to make you preach better. Have more enterprise. Be more daring. Do not fight your own battle in the church-meeting, leave it to your God; trust all with him. Do not be afraid to go and speak to that foul-mouthed man; I will give you the right word to say to him. Trust me, and go with prudence but with zeal into the darkest haunts of vice. Find out the worst of men, and seek their salvation. There is nothing you cannot do if you will but trust in God.”

Brother, your failure, if you fail, will begin in your faith. The air says to the eagle, “Trust me; spread your broad wings; I will bear you up to the sun. Only trust me. Take your foot from off yon rock which you can feel beneath you. Get away from it, and be buoyed up by the unseen element.” My brethren, eaglets of heaven, mount aloft, for God invites you. Mount! You have but to trust him. An unknown glory rests upon Him, and the radiance thereof shall come upon you if you only know how to trust Him.

SERMON ILLUSTRATION (BY SPURGEON)

Spurgeon was a master illustrator. You can use this illustration in your own preaching to describe the importance of work.

We must have done with daydreams, and get to work. I believe in eggs, but we must get chickens out of them. I do not mind how big your egg is, it may be an ostrich’s egg if you like; but if there is nothing in it, pray clear away the shell. If something comes of your speculations, God bless them; and even if you should go a little further than I think it wise to venture in that direction, still, if you are thereby made more useful, God be praised for it!

THANKS FOR READING

Brothers,

God really is at work through your preaching. Your preaching this weekend is his plan to teach your people, grow the saints, call the lost, build the church, and glorify his Son. Any of those tasks are far too great for us, but not for our God. He loves to do the impossible in and through our ministries. Have confidence — he will empower you.

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

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Blessings to your ministry,

Doug H.
Creator of SpurgeonBooks

Get wisdom encouragement for Spurgeon in your inbox every week. Subscribe to the The Pastor’s Note newsletter for free.

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PASTORS (BY SPURGEON)

Faith in God enables many of you, I know right well, to bear much hardship, and exercise much self-denial, and yet to persevere in your ministry. My heart rejoices over the many brethren here whom God has made to be winners of souls; and I may add that I am firmly persuaded, concerning many here present, that the privations they have undergone, and the zeal they have shown in the service of their Lord, though unrewarded by any outward success, are a sweet savor unto God.

True faith makes a man feel that it is sweet to be a living sacrifice unto God. Only faith could keep us in the ministry, for ours is not a vocation which brings with it golden pay; it is not a calling which men would follow who desire honor and rank. We have all kinds of evils to endure, evils as numerous as those which Paul included in his famous catalogue of trials; and, I may add, we have one peril which he does not mention, namely, the perils of church-meetings, which are probably worse than perils of robbers. Underpaid and undervalued, without books and without congenial associates, many a rural preacher of the gospel would die of a broken heart, did not his faith gird him with strength from on high.

SERMON ILLUSTRATION (BY SPURGEON)

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

Faith occupies the position of a channel or conduit pipe. Grace is the fountain and the stream; faith is the aqueduct along which the flood of mercy flows down to refresh the thirsty sons of men. It is a great pity when the aqueduct is broken. It is a sad sight to see around Rome the many noble aqueducts which no longer convey water into the city, because the arches are broken and the marvelous structures are in ruins.

The aqueduct must be kept entire to convey the current; and, even so, faith must be true and sound, leading right up to God and coming right down to ourselves, that it may become a serviceable channel of mercy to our souls.

THANKS FOR READING

Brothers,

In the last few weeks, I’ve felt the pressing demands of planning Sunday-after-Sunday weigh heavy on me. In the daily grind of ministry, it can be easy to lose focus on the supernatural power of God that equips us for ministry.

Don’t allow yourself to be distracted from God’s power — he is at work in you and through you. He will preserve you to the end. Trust him, and walk by faith through whatever trials of life and ministry he sends.

May Romans 12:12 describe our lives as sinful, suffering pastors: “Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; be persistent in prayer.”

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

Get wisdom encouragement for Spurgeon in your inbox every week. Subscribe to the The Pastor’s Note newsletter for free.

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PASTORS (BY SPURGEON)

The passion for saving souls is implanted in believers for the church’s good. There can be no doubt that the passion for winning souls expends the church’s energy in a healthy manner. Churches that do not care for outsiders quickly suffer from disunity and strife. What unites a church completely is the calling out of all its forces for accomplishing the Redeemer’s grand objective.

This passion for saving souls not only employs but also draws forth the strength of the church. It awakens the church’s latent energies and arouses its noblest abilities. Communion in service and success welds the saints together and is one of the best securities for mutual love. As a common desire to defend their country welds all the regiments of an army into one, so the common desire to save souls makes all true believers akin to one another

SERMON ILLUSTRATION (BY SPURGEON)

Spurgeon was a master illustrator. You can use this illustration in your own preaching to describe the benefit of serving others.

I may care about myself till I grow morbid; I may watch over my own feelings till I feel nothing; and I may lament my own weakness till I grow almost too weak to lament. It will be far more profitable for me to become unselfish, and out of love to my Lord Jesus begin to care for the souls of those around me. My tank is getting very low; no fresh rain comes to fill it; what shall I do? I will pull up the plug, and let its contents run out to water the withering plants around me. What do I see? My cistern seems to fill as it flows. A secret spring is at work. While all was stagnant, the fresh spring was sealed; but as my stock flows out to water others the Lord thinks upon me. Hallelujah!

THANKS FOR READING

Brothers,

Have you ever thought about the power of evangelism to unify your church? Let me encourage you — get your people active in ministry together and you will see your church grow in Christlikeness.

At our church, we host “Gospel & Grub” nights twice a month. We meet up, go out in pairs for street evangelism for an hour, and then we gather up again and have dinner together.

We’ve seen incredible fruit — not just non-believers hearing the gospel and coming on Sundays, but also the members of our church committing to live for God’s glory together!

Don’t overthink it — just “do the work of an evangelist” (2 Timothy 4:5).

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