ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PASTORS (BY SPURGEON)
Do I address any servant of God here who is afraid of losing his reputation? This is not a reason which will stand examination. My brother, that is a fear which does not trouble me. I have lost my reputation several times, and I would not go across the street to pick it up. It has often seemed to me to be a thing that I should like to lose, that I might no longer be pressed with this huge throng, but might preach to two or three hundred people in a country village, and look after their souls, and stand clear at last to God about each one of them; whereas, here am I tied to a work I cannot accomplish—pastor to more than five thousand people! A sheer impossibility! How can I watch over all your souls? I should have an easy conscience if I had a church of moderate size, which I could efficiently look after. If a reputation gets one into the position I now occupy, it certainly is not a blessing to be coveted.
SERMON ILLUSTRATION (BY SPURGEON)
Spurgeon was a master illustrator. You can use this illustration in your own preaching to describe the power of Scripture.
Certain plants are so full of vitality that if you only take a fragment of a leaf and place it on the soil, the leaf will take root and grow. It is utterly impossible that such vegetation should become extinct.
And so it is with the truth of God. It is living and incorruptible, and therefore there is no destroying it. As long as one Bible remains, the religion of free grace will live. More than that, if they could burn all printed Scriptures, as long as there remained a child who remembered a single text of the word, the truth would rise again. Even in the ashes of truth the fire is still living, and when the breath of the Lord blows on it, the flame will burst forth gloriously.
THANKS FOR READING
Brothers,
It’s really, REALLY hard to look out at the congregation on Sunday morning and not compare our ministry to others. Sometimes, we pridefully believe we deserve a bigger church; sometimes, we pridefully believe our church is small because we’re the only one preaching the truth.
But God has called us to love the flock among us, not only to long to have a different, larger, better, healthier flock. These sheep are yours to care for.
And of course, we want to see our churches grow as the Kingdom grows, but we must never do so at the expense of shepherding the sheep that we currently have, for we will certainly give an account for their souls.
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Blessings to your ministry,
Doug H.
Creator of SpurgeonBooks