ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PASTORS (BY SPURGEON)
Prayer will singularly assist you in the delivery of your sermon; in fact, nothing can so gloriously fit you to preach as descending fresh from the mount of communion with God to speak with men. None are so able to plead with men as those who have been wrestling with God on their behalf.
A truly pathetic delivery, in which there is no affectation, but much affection, can only be the offspring of prayer. There is no rhetoric like that of the heart, and no school for learning it but the foot of the cross. It were better that you never learned a rule of human oratory, but were full of the power of heavenborn love, than that you should master Quintilian, Cicero, and Aristotle, and remain without the apostolic anointing.
SERMON ILLUSTRATION (BY SPURGEON)
Spurgeon was a master illustrator. You can use this quotation in your own preaching to describe how Jesus makes us holy.
You thrust a bar of cold, black iron into the fire, and keep it there till the fire enters into it. See, the iron is like fire itself—he who feels it will know no difference. The fire has permeated the iron, and made it a fiery mass. I would like to have seen that bush in Horeb before which Moses took off his shoes. When it was all ablaze it seemed no longer a bush but a mass of fire, a furnace of pure flame. The fire had transfigured the bush.
So it is with us when Christ enters into us. He elevates us to a nobler state; even as Paul says, “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20). Jesus sanctifies us wholly—spirit, soul, and body—and takes us to dwell with him in the perfect state above.
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THANKS FOR READING
Brothers,
There are weeks that I feel my own neediness more than others — when I’m more inclined to rush to God while preparing my sermon. I know I’m not the only one who preaches “better” sermons on the weeks I feel weakest.
But we also need to pray for our people. We need to pray for God to prepare them, humble them, remove distractions, and help them see the glory of his Son as we preach.
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Blessings to your ministry,
Doug H.
Creator of SpurgeonBooks
Preaching Pastor of Pillar Church of Washington DC