ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PASTORS (BY SPURGEON)
“He was diligent in every deed that he began in the service of God’s temple, in the instruction and the commands, in order to seek his God, and he prospered.” (2 Chronicles 31:21)
This is the kind of man whom people will follow. Let them just see that the whole of the man leads them, and not only a bit of him, and they will quickly learn to rely on his word. Put all your heart into what you do, or else put none of it in. There are some people who seem as if they have no heart, or at least their heart is only a kind of valve for the expulsion of blood, and not over vigorous in that direction, I fear. Any other kind of heart you cannot discover.
Nobody will follow mere head. There must be heart displayed by the man who would have a hearty following. If you want to lead others aright, lead them by showing that you yourself love the way. Be intense; be emphatic; throw your whole being into it. Be hearty when you are working, when you are praying, when you are singing. In all that you do for God and for your fellow-Christians, let your heart be manifest; and then it is highly probable that it may happen to you, as it did to Hezekiah, that many will rest upon your words.
SERMON ILLUSTRATION (BY SPURGEON)
Spurgeon was a master illustrator. You can use this illustration in your own preaching to describe God’s love for sinners.
The principle of division of labor is a very admirable one for the production of results on a large scale, but it is a miserable business for the workman to have to do the same thing over and over again, all day long, as if he were an automaton. Get a man at work on a statue—an artist whose whole soul is in his chisel, who knows that there is a bright spirit within that block of marble, and who means to chip off all that hides the lovely image from his sight. See how he works! No man does a thing well who does it sorrowfully.
The best work that can be is done by the happy, joyful workman, and so it is with Christ. He does not save souls out of necessity—as though he would rather do something else if he might. But his very heart is in it, he rejoices to do it, and therefore he does it thoroughly, and he communicates his joy to us in the doing of it.