prayer

Our Business is to Live for God

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer 1 Comment

And ye shall be hated of all men for My name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. – Matthew 10:22

To bring souls to Christ is my main endeavour, but it is not the ultimate proof of my ministry. My business is to live for God, to lay aside self, and give myself up wholly to Him, and if I do that I shall be accepted whatever else may happen. I wish we had the spirit of that brave old man who was condemned to the stake. They were going to burn him. He knew that the sentence was to be carried out the next morning, but with a soul full of courage, and with a merry heart, he sat the last thing at night talking with his friends-faggots and fire to face in the morning, recollect-and he said to one of them, “I am an old tree in my Master’s orchard. When I was young I bore a little fruit by His grace. It was unripe and sour, but He bore with it: and I have grown mellow in my older days and brought forth some fruit for Him by His grace. Now the tree has grown so old that my Master is going to cut it down and burn the old log. Well, it will warm the hearts of some of His family while I am burning”; and he even smiled for joy to think that he might be put to so good a purpose. I want you to have that spirit, and to say, “I will live for Christ while I am young: I will die for Him, and warm the hearts of my brethren…Oh, go to the Master’s cross to learn the way to live and die! See how He spent Himself for you, and then sally forth and spend yourselves for Him. “Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall ye be glorious in the sight of the Lord.” Though you may think that you do not succeed, your whole-hearted consecration shall be your honour in the day of the Lord. By your hallowed life, and your humble service, you shall bring glory to His name. O Lord, set us in our charges, and encourage us in the service of Thy house! “Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us; establish Thou the work of our hands: yea, the work of our hands establish Thou it.” May the blessing of our covenant God rest upon you, my brethren, for Jesus’ sake. Amen. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1513.cfm

The Divine Economy

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises 3 Comments

And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. – John 4:37

If you really do serve the Lord thoroughly and heartily, He will accept you and acknowledge your service, even though no good should come of it. It is your business to cast the bread on the waters: if you do not find it after many days, that is not your business. It is your business to scatter the seed; but no farmer says to his servant, “John, you have not served me well, for there is no harvest.” The man would say, “Could I make a harvest, sir? I have ploughed, and I have sowed. What more could I do”? Even so our good Lord is not austere, nor does He demand of us more than we can do. If you have ploughed and if you have sowed, although there should be no harvest, you are clear and accepted. Did it never strike you that you may be now employed in breaking up ground and preparing the soil from which other labourers who come after you will reap very plentifully. Perhaps your Master knows what a capital ploughman you are. He has a large farm, and he never means to let you become a reaper because you do the ploughing so well. Your Master does not intend you to take part in the harvest because you are such a good hand at sowing; and as He has crops that need sowing all the year round He keeps you at that work. He knows you better than you know yourself. Perchance if He were once to let you get on the top of a loaded wagon of your own sheaves, you would turn dizzy and make a fall of it; so He says, “You keep to your ploughing and your sowing, and somebody else shall do the reaping.” Peradventure when your course is run you will see from heaven, where it will be safe for you to see it, that you did not labour in vain nor spend your strength for nought. “One soweth and another reapeth.” This is the divine economy. I think that every man that loves his Master will say, “So long as there does but come a harvest, I will not stipulate about who reaps it. Give me faith enough to be assured that the reaping will come, and I will be content.”

Though Christ cometh quickly He may not come for another ten thousand years, but in any case idolatry must die, and truth must reign. The accumulated prayers and energies of ages shall do the deed, and God shall be glorified. Only let us persevere in holy effort, and the end is sure. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1513.cfm

Laid Aside Yet Serving Still

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, Sovereignty of God 4 Comments

But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian…And Moses was content to dwell with the man: and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter. – Exodus 2:15,21

These times need so much Christian effort that when a man asks me, “How shall I do work for Christ”? I am accustomed to say, “Go and do it.” “But what is the way to do it”? Start at once. Get at it, my brother. Do not be out of harness a minute. But suppose that you are obliged to desist awhile, do not let your interest in the cause of our Lord and Master decline…If you are put away on the shelf, do not rust there, but pray the Master to brighten you up so that when He comes to use you again you may be fully fitted for the work which He has in hand for you.

Spend your time in prayer that you may be fit for the Master’s use, and, meanwhile, be prompt in helping others. You remember that, at the siege of Gibraltar, when the fleet surrounded it and determined to storm the old rock, the governor fired red-hot shot down upon the men of war. The enemy did not at all admire the governor’s warm reception. Think how it was done. Here were gunners on the ramparts firing away, and every man in the garrison would have liked to do the same. What did those do who could not serve a gun? Why, they heated the shot; and that is what you must do. I am master gunner here generally: heat my shot for me, if you will. Keep the furnace going, so that when we do fire off a sermon it may be red-hot, through your earnest prayers. When you see your friends sitting in the Sunday-school, or standing out in the street working for God, if you cannot join them yet say, “Never mind: I will heat the shot for them. My prayers shall not be wanting, if I can contribute nothing else.” That is counsel for you who are for awhile laid on the shelf. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1513.cfm

The Patient Becomes the Hostess

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, salvation 3 Comments

And He came and took her by the hand, and lifted her up; and immediately the fever left her, and she ministered unto them. = Mark 1:31

This is what they did when Jesus came. Immediately they told Him of her, for the word “Anon” is really in the Greek “immediately.” Directly Christ went in they told Him of her, and directly Christ went to heal her. He went into the chamber, spoke a word, gave a touch, lifted up the sick woman, and she was restored, and the wonderful thing was she was able to rise from the bed immediately and wait upon them. This never occurs in the cure of a fever, for when a fever goes it leaves the patient very weak, and he needs days and weeks, and sometimes months, before he recovers his wonted strength. But the cures of Christ are perfect; and so at once the patient rose and ministered unto them.

You have each of you, probably, some one left in your family unsaved, and you have said, “I was in hopes that this one would be converted.” Have you ever told Jesus of her or of him? Oh, I hope you can answer, “Yes, I have many times” but it is just possible you have not made a set business of it. Begin now, and go upstairs and take time every day to tell the Lord every bit about Jane, or Mary, or Thomas, or John. Wrestle with God, if need be, all night long, and say, “I will not let Thee go except Thou bless me.” I do not think that many of you will be very long with that trouble to carry when you have in that manner told it to your Lord. So when God’s grace comes, the one who has been the object of the most anxiety becomes the happiest of all; the sinner, saved by sovereign grace, becomes servant of the Lord; the patient becomes the hostess. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1236.cfm

Your Commonest Trouble Will be Sympathized by Him

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises, Sovereignty of God 3 Comments

But Simon’s wife’s mother lay sick of a fever, and anon they tell Him of her. – Mark 1:30

The seaboard of Capernaum in which Peter dwelt is said by travelers to be a peculiarly damp, marshy, aguish, feverish place, no end of people had the fever just around the house; but Peter and Andrew did not argue that they must not tell the Lord because it was a common disease. Do not let Satan get an advantage over you by persuading you to keep back commonplace troubles or sins from your loving Lord. Beloved, if He counts the hairs of your heads, if not a sparrow falls to the ground without His knowledge, depend upon it your commonest trouble will be sympathized in by Him. “In all their afflictions He was afflicted.” It is a great mistake to think you may not carry to your Redeemer the ordinary trials of the day; tell Him, yea, tell Him all. If your child is only a common sinner, if there is no unusual depravity in him, if your son has never grieved you by perverseness, if your daughter has always been amiable and gentle, do not think there is no need to pray. If it is only a common case of the fever of sin, yet it will be deadly in the end unless a balm be found, therefore tell Jesus of it at once. Do not wait till your son becomes a prodigal, pray at once! Do not delay till your child is at death’s door, pray now!

Peter’s wife’s mother was attacked by no ordinary fever. We are told it was “a great fever”: the expression used implies that she was burning with fever; and she was intensely debilitated, for she was laid prostrate. Now the devil will sometimes insinuate, “It is of no use for you to take such a case to Jesus; your son has acted so shamefully, your daughter is so wilful: such a case will never yield to divine grace in answer to prayer.” Do not be held back by this wicked suggestion. Our Lord Jesus Christ can rebuke great fevers, and He can lift up those that are broken down and rendered powerless by raging sin. “Wonders of grace to God belong.” Go and tell Jesus of the case, common or uncommon, ordinary or extraordinary even as they told Jesus of her. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1236.cfm

Tell Jesus of It

Sherry Attributes of God, Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, Sovereignty of God 5 Comments

But Simon’s wife’s mother lay sick of a fever, and anon they tell Him of her. And He came and took her by the hand, and lifted her up; and immediately the fever left her, and she ministered unto them. – Mark 1:30,31

The four friends have come in, and no sooner are they in than they begin to speak with the Master, for the text tells us, “Anon they tell Him of her,”-of Peter’s wife’s mother who lay sick. I like that expression-I do not know whether you have noticed it-“Anon they tell Him of her.” Luke tells us “they besought Him.” I have no doubt Luke is right, but Mark is right too. “They tell Him of her.” It looks to me as if it taught me this-that sometimes all I may do with my sore affliction is just to tell my own dear Lord about it, and leave it to His loving judgment to act as He sees fit. Have you any temporal trouble or sickness in the house? Tell Jesus of it. Sometimes that is almost as much as you may do. You may beseech Him to heal that dear one, but you will have to say, “Not as I would, but as Thou wilt,” and so will feel that all you may do is to tell Jesus the case and leave it with Him. He is so gentle and loving, that He is sure to do the kindest thing, and the thing which is most right to do; therefore we may be content to “tell Him of her.” With regard to spiritual things, we may press and be very importunate, but with regard to temporal things, we must draw a line, and be satisfied when we have told Jesus and left the matter to His discretion. Some parents may, when their children are ill, plead with God in a way which shows more of nature then of grace, more clearly the affection of the mother than the resignation of the Christian; but such should not be the case. If we have committed our way unto the Lord in prayer, and meekly told Him of our crisis it will be our wisdom to be still, and watch till God the Lord shall speak. He cannot be either unjust or unkind, therefore should we say, “Let Him do what seemeth Him good.”

Tell Jesus Christ all about it; His view of the matter will be to your advantage.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1236.cfm

Become a Messenger of Salvation

Sherry Character of Jesus, Christian Life, prayer, promises Leave a comment

He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ. – John 1:41

Andrew followed Jesus, and having become a disciple, he desired to lead others to be disciples too. He began, as we all ought to begin, with those nearest to him by ties of relationship; “He first findeth his own brother Simon.” Beloved friend, if you are yourself saved, you should cast about you and inquire, “To what house may I become a messenger of salvation?” …Perhaps Andrew had no wife, and no children; I cannot tell. If it were so? I feel sure that he said to himself, “I must seek the good of my brother and his family.” I believe, if we are really lively and thoughtful Christians, our conversion is an omen for good to all our kinsfolk. We shall not idly say, “I ought to have looked after my own children and household, if I had any, and having none I am excused”; but we shall consider ourselves to be debtors to those who are kindred householders. I hope that some Andrew is here who, being himself enlisted for Jesus, will be the means of conquering for Jesus a brother and a brother’s household. If there be no Andrew, I hope some of the Marys and Marthas will be filled with zeal to make up for the deficiency of the men, and will bring brother Lazarus to the Lord. Uncles and aunts should feel an interest in the spiritual condition of nephews and nieces; cousins should be concerned for cousins, and all ties of blood should be consecrated by being used for purposes of grace. Moses, when he led the people out of Egypt, would not leave a hoof behind, nor ought we to be content to leave one kinsman a slave to sin. Abraham, in his old age, took up sword and buckler for his nephew Lot, and aged believers should look about them and seek the good of the most distant members of their families; if it were always so the power of the gospel would be felt far and wide. The household of which Peter was master might never have known the gospel if a relative had not been converted. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1236.cfm