Lectures To My Students
by Charles Spurgeon
This is not even a drop in the bucket of the good info he gave in this book.
– We will do our best when we are spiritually in order.
– No man does any good if he preaches a message to others that he first has not preached to himself.
– As does the workman, so does the worker go.
– Too many ministers forget to serve and represent God when they are out of the pulpit. True ministers are always ministers.
– We should be ministers powerful both in word and deed
– Do not make your sermons with so much information that it is not easy to eat. One nail nailed down well is better than 50 tacks barely sticking to the board.
– Keep the children’s attention while you are preaching – throw in a little story or parable to have even the children pay attention while you are preaching.
– You must attract attention to the hook. If the fish are not attracted to the hook, it is not the fish’s fault rather the fisherman’s fault.
– You should never go beyond 40 minutes in you’re preaching. If you cannot say what needs to be said in 40 minutes you should not say it.
– Preach on practical themes and matters that are needed to the listeners. Speaking is silver but pausing is gold. Say something worth hearing. Be close to the Spirit of God, your cup freshly filled from the presence of God so you can truly give to something your listeners.
– Ecc. 7:21 — have a blind eye and death ear
– He spoke frequently of Calvinism, his view of Calvinism must have been different from what is today called Calvinism. He pretty much disproved the idea that there is only Calvinism and Arminianism. He said that when you preach the Gospel come to the end of the sermon, you should “call sinners to repentance instead of being like some Calvinist to preach the Gospel and then sit down saying that it is only for the elect” – this was his example.