Classic Sermons on Prayer

Classic Sermons on Prayer by Warren Wiersbe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is an excellent resource for those looking for a study on "pray." Warren W. Wiersbe has collected 14 sermons on prayer. The sermons are by the following men: Clarence Edward Noble Macartney (1879-1957); Dwight L. Moody (1837-1899); C.H. Spurgeon (1834-1892); Frederick W. Robertson (1816-1853); J.H. Jowett (1864-1923); W.M. Clow (1853-1930);  D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1895-1981); R.A. Torrey (1856-1928); Alexander Whyte (1836-1921); Alexander Maclaren (1826-1910); G. Campbell Morgan (1863-1945); A. C. Dixon (1854-1925); G. H. Morrison (1866-1928); and W.E. Sangster (1900-1960). As you can see a wide variety of preachers.

Here is one quote from the sermon by Spurgeon, "If I am called upon to pray in public, I must not dare to use words that are intended to please the ears of my fellow-worshippers, but I must realize that I am speaking to God Himself and that I have business to transact with the great Lord."



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Below are quotes some some of the sermons found in this book:

Clarence Edward Noble Macartney (1879-1957)

“The Word That Conquers God”

The first recorded prayer is a prayer of intercession. Life’s golden altar is the altar of intercession. A person never does a nobler act than when he becomes a priest to others and makes intercession for them. p. 10

Do not fear your solitary moments. God will come closer to you then than any other time.                                                                                                                      p. 13
                                                                                                                              

Do not mourn over the hard and difficult experiences of life, over the touches of providence that, as it were, have thrown your thigh out of joint, for in ways that you know not they have made you strong. Still more is this true of our sorrows and our trials. At first they seem to come upon us with threat and anger, as that mysterious battle came upon Jacob there in the lonely watches of the night on the banks of the Jabbok. But their only purpose is to bless us, change us, to teach us how to pray, to transform our characters. Therefore, when these angels in disguise come upon you, hard though the battle is and desperate the encounter, heavy and labored though the breathing of the soul may be, make sure that you conquer God in them. Make sure that you utter the prayer of struggling Jacob, “I will not let the go except thou bless me.” p. 14

Dwight Lyman Moody (1837-1899)

“The Prayers Of The Bible”

Our Master’s prayers were short when offered in public; when He was alone with God, He could spend the whole night in communion with His Father. My experience is that those who pray most in their closets generally make short prayers in public. Long prayers are too often not prayers at all, and they weary the people. p. 23

Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)

“The Throne of Grace”
                           

The Need for Enlarged Expectations: if it be a throne, it ought to be approached with enlarged expectations. Well does our hymn put it: Thou art coming to a king, large petitions with thee bring. p. 30

If I am called upon to pray in public, I must not dare to use words that are intended to please the ears of my fellow-worshippers, but I just realize that I am speaking to God Himself and that I have business to transact with the great Lord. p. 32

John Henry Jowett (1864-1923)

“Where Our Greatest Battles Are Fought”

Prayer is not always petition, sometimes it is just communion. It is the exquisite ministry of friendship. It is the delicate passage of intimacies; it is the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. p. 54

William M. Clow (1853-1930)

“The Energy of Prayer”

The highest attitude in prayer is not desire nor aspiration nor praise. It is surrender. In surrender we open our whole being to God as a flower opens itself to the sun, and we are filled, up to our measure, with His divine energy. It is because man can be filled with the fullness of God that he has been chosen of God as His instrument in the world. p. 65

Bunyan wrote: Whether to heaven or hell you tend, God will have glory in the end. p. 67

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1895-1981)

“Jesus on Prayer”

Is the terrible sin of praying in public in a manner which suggests a desire to have an effect upon people present rather than to approach God with reverence and godly fear. p. 77

Public prayer should be such that the people who are praying silently and the one who is uttering the words should be no longer conscious of each other, but should be carried on the wings of prayer into the very presence of God. p. 78

Reuben Archer Torrey (1856-1928)

“The Power of Power”

As I said, we do not live in a praying age. We live in an age of hustle and bustle, of man’s efforts and man’s determination, of man’s confidence in himself and in his own power to achieve things, an age of human organization and human machinery, human push and human scheming, and human achievement, which in the things of God means no real achievement at all. p. 89

I believe that the devil stands and looks at the church today and laughs in his sleeve as he sees how its members depend on their own scheming and powers of organization and skillfully devised machinery. “Ha, ha,” he laughs, “you may have your Boy Scouts, your costly church edifices, your multi-thousand-dollar church organs, your brilliant university-bred preachers, your high-priced choirs, your gifted sopranos and altos and tenors and bases, your wonderful quartets, your immense men’s Bible classes, yes, and your Bible conferences, and your Bible institutes, and your special evangelistic services, all you please of them; it does not in the least trouble me, if you will only leave out of them the power of the Lord God Almighty sought and obtained by the earnest, persistent, believing prayer that will not take no for an answer.” p. 89

Prayer can do anything that God can do, and as God can do anything, prayer is omnipotent. No one can stand against the one who knows how to pray and who meets all the conditions of prevailing prayer and who really prays. p. 90

“They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk [plod right along day after day, which is far harder than running or flying], and not faint.” It is the privilege of every child of God to have the power of God in his service. And the verse just quoted tells us how to obtain it, and that is by “waiting upon the Lord.: Sometimes you will hear people stand up in a meeting, not so frequently perhaps in these days as in former days, and say: “I am trying to serve God in my poor weak way.” Well, if you are trying to serve God in your poor, weak way, quit it; your duty is to serve God in His strong, triumphant way. But you say, “I have no natural ability.” Then get supernatural ability. p. 94

You say, “I have no natural gifts.” Then get supernatural gifts. p. 94

George Campbell Morgan (1863-1945)

“Prayer or Fainting”

Men “ought always to pray, and not to faint.” Interpret your prayer by negation. Prayer is the opposite of fainant. Fainting is a sudden sense of inability and helplessness, the cessation of activity, weariness which is almost, and ultimately is, death. Pray and do not faint. To pray is to have the vision clear, the virtue mighty, the victory assured. To pray is to “mount up with wings as eagles,” to “run and not be weary,” to “walk, and not faint.” p. 128

Amzi Clarence Dixon (1854-1925)

“How To Pray”

There is a profound something about prayer which never lies on the surface. To learn it, one must go to the depths of the soul and climb to the heights of God. The importance of it cannot be overestimated. Luther’s motto gives us the secret of success along all lines: “To have prayed well is to have preached well, to have written well, to have worked well, to have resisted well, to have lived well, and to have died well. Prayer is the key to success. Not to pray is to fail. To pray aright is never to fail. p. 135

It is said of a great general that he expressed his purpose to destroy all his enemies, but when he had captured the opposing army, he forgave them and sent them home to their families. When asked why he did not keep his word, he replied, “I have destroyed all my enemies; they are not my friends.” God would destroy all His enemies by making them His friends by the power of His forgiving love in Jesus Christ. p. 139

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On Earth As It Is On Heaven

On Earth as It Is in Heaven by Warren Wiersbe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As usual Warren Wiersbe has written an excellent book. Many great insghts on the lord's Prayer! Check out this quote, "When God is not permitted to rule, He often over-rules and is able to bring blessing out of disobedience and disappointment." If you are interested in learning more about "The Lord's Prayer" then this is the book for you!


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Below are several quotes from the book:

Martin Luther said that “the ancients ably defined prayer an Ascensus mentis ad Deum, a climbing up of the heart unto God.”  p. 10

“Not to want to pray, then, is the sin behind sin,” wrote P.T. Forsyth, “and it ends in not being able to pray.”  p. 10

Prayer isn’t a luxury; it’s a necessity. P. 12

If prayerlessness is one of our sins, this is a good time to confess it. p. 12

The most important “great thing” about prayer is that, when God answers, it brings great glory to His name. Jesus told His disciples, “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13). No Christian believer can take credit for the miracle of answered prayer, whether that answer is the healing of the sick, the providing of employment, the conversion of the lost, or the solving of a difficult problem. “We do not know what to do,” King Jehoshaphat prayed, “but our eyes are on you” (2 Chron. 20:12; see also Heb. 12:2).

God answers prayer, not just to meet the needs of his burdened children but to bring glory to His name through the answers. That’s one reason why God permits difficulties in our lives, so that His ministry to us will reveal His power and glory to those who are watching. Do we pray only to have our needs met and our wants supplied as soon as possible, or do we pray because we want to see Jesus glorified on earth? Are we willing to suffer or even to fail if this will honor the Lord in a greater way?  p. 14

If our praying calls attention to itself or our abilities instead of glorifying God, something is radically wrong. p. 15

To be gripped by the miraculous magnificence of prayer means to be humbled and broken, deeply grateful for the privilege of access into the presence of the Almighty. It means following the example of the publican and crying out for help, not bragging about our achievements as the Pharisee did (Luke 18:9-14). It means depending wholly on the grace of God and not being ashamed to admit it. p. 15

This prayer (The Lord’s Prayer – Matt. 6:9-13) is at the heart of the Sermon on the Mount and is preceded by two warnings from our Savior: don’t use your prayers to show off how religious you are (6:5-6), and don’t just “babble” a lot of meaningless words (6:7-8). Get to the point! It’s the strength of our faith and the length of our prayers that pleases Him. Yes, some long prayers are recorded in the Bible (see 2 Chronicles 6, Ezra 9, Nehemiah 9, and Daniel 9), but there are many more short prayers that God heard and answered (e.g., “Lord, save me!” [Matt. 14:30]).

The Lord’s Prayer contains six requests, and we will study them in this book. Since the days of the church fathers, it’s been pointed out that the first three requests in this prayer focus on matters that especially concern God – the glory of His name, the coming of His kingdom, and the accomplishing of His will – while the last three requests deal with the needs of the one who is praying – the necessities of life, personal forgiveness of sin, and victory over trail and temptation. The prayer asks the Father to forgive the sins of the past, to provide what we need for the present day (both physical and spiritual), and to guide us in the future as we anticipate the coming of Christ’s kingdom. Just about every prayer burden we might have, either for ourselves or for others, can fit into each of these six requests.  pp. 16-17

The plural pronouns in the Lord’s Prayer remind us that we belong to a great family of faith and we must never ask anything for ourselves that would adversely affect our Christian brothers and sisters in the church at large. p. 17

This prayer is simple and to the point, and there is no needless repetition, the very practice Jesus warned about in Matthew 6:7-8. Jesus rebuked the teachers of the law who “for a show [made] lengthy prayers” (Mark 12:40). I recall preaching at a church in Norhern Ireland where an elder stood and prayed at great length. As he journeyed through Scripture, I was worried that my passport might run out before he ended. In one of his public meeings evangelist D. L. Moody asked a man to pray, and the man prayed for so long that Moody interrupted him and said to the crowd, “As our brother finishes his prayer, let’s sing a hymn.” That helped to save the meeting and perhaps even some lost souls. p. 18

God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in His holiness (Hebrews 12:10). He is a Father who is determined that His children will obey Him and grow in godly character. pp. 24-25

What does it mean to walk by faith? It means to obey God's Word in spite of the feelings within us, the circumstances around us, and the consequences before us. The people of Israel saw the Red Sea before them and the Egyptian army behind them, but Moses looked by faith to the Lord above them, and he led the nation safely out of Egypt.  p. 29

To live above with saints we love,

Will certainly be glory.

To live below with saints we know -

Well, that’s another story. p. 36

As a Christian, I'm not a physical unit in a religious organization. I'm a living part of a miraculous spiritual unity in Christ - a member of one body, a stone in one temple, a branch in one vine, to name but a few of the New Testament images of the church. All Christians are different, and yet we are all united in Christ. Regardless of race, color, gender, political, or economic status, believers are "all one in Christ Jesus."  Unity without diversity is uniformity, and diversity without unity is anarchy; but unity and diversity combined by the Holy Spirit in the church will produce a dynamic life of sacrifice and service that can change the world.  p. 41

Humble prayers build bridges, but selfish prayers tear down and build barbed wire fences.  p. 42

The Lord usually starts to answer prayer by working first in the hearts of those who are praying.  p. 43

"Well, the least I can do is pray for you," we hear Christians say, but they are dead wrong. The most we can do is to pray for others, because that's the first step in our getting involved with them to help meet their needs.  p. 43

The phrase "love one another" is found at least a dozen times in the New Testament, and prayer is one way we practice that love.  p. 43

"The purpose of preaching is to express and not to impress," and the same truth applies to our praying, especially our public praying. We should pray because we want the Father to be glorified, not because we want to impress Him or anyone else with our vocabulary or our theology. How tragic to please everybody except God!  p. 48

Has the glory of God departed from some of our homes, churches, and parachurch ministries and we don't realize it? Is there really "glory in the church" or just crowds of people seeking religious entertainment? Not to desire to glorify God  is the beginning of sin and leads to a dark and foolish heart (Romans 1:21).  p. 56

When I see worshipers arriving late and walking into the sanctuary carrying cups of coffee, I wonder if they would arrive late to see the president at the White House and carry their cups into the Oval Office. . . . I recall visiting a famous national historical site, and the sign at the door read: "No Smoking-No Food-No Chewing Gum." I wanted to get copies for the church I was serving.  Standing on a church platform, I've often seen people in the congregation chewing gum one minute and singing "Holy, Holy, Holy" the next minute. There is a better way for those who revere God's name (Mal. 4:2).  p. 57

"Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God" (Ps. 20:7). If you want a 20th-century application of that verse, I suggest: "Some trust in money and management, others in clever promotion and sophisticated equipment, and some in Hollywood-style religious entertainment, but we will give ourselves to prayer and God's Word and trust in the name of Jesus."  p. 59

I once was an outcast stranger on earth,

A sinner by choice and an alien by birth;

But I've been adopted, my name's written down,

An heir to a mansion, a robe, and a crown.

I'm a child of the King, a child of the King:

With Jesus my Savior, I'm a child of the King.  ~Harriet E. Buell  pp. 62-63

Our task as a chosen people is to advertise by our words and deeds the glorious virtues of Jesus Christ. We are to live and serve in such a way that others will want what we have in Jesus Christ.  But how can the church advertise the virtues of Christ if the church is imitating the world? We have been called to shine as lights, not to reflect as mirrors. We don't belong to this world system (John 17:14-19) but to a heavenly counterculture that is hated by the same world system that hated Jesus and crucified Him.  p. 66

Near the end of the Fiddler on the Roof is a brief but poignant conversation that may help us better understand the use and abuse of a future hope. The Russian authorities gave the residents of the Jewish village of Anatevka three days to clear out and find other places to live. Mendel, son of the rabbi, says to his father, "Rabbi, we've been waiting for the Messiah all our lives. Wouldn't this be a good time for Him to come?"  His father replies, "We'll have to wait for Him someplace else. Meanwhile, let's start packing."  Like some people today, Mendel saw the coming of Messiah only as the perfect solution to the painful problems of life. Let Messiah come! In an instant, the enemy will be defeated and the village will be rescued! But the beloved rabbi had the correct approach. To paraphrase his reply: "The promise doesn't change, only our location changes, and we can take the promise with us. The promise must not be an excuse for indolence. Now, get to work!   p. 69

"Your kingdom come" implies that God rules first of all in our lives and then through us in the lives of others as we pray for them and minister to them. We want God's kingdom to rule in homes and families, in places of employment and ministry, in various government offices and agencies, and in places of authority and ministry around the world. p. 73

Someone has said, "The secret of happiness is to have someone to love, something to do, and something to look forward to."  Certainly we who have trusted Jesus have someone to love, and He asks us as He asked Peter, "Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?" (see John 21:15-19). Jesus didn't ask Peter about his doctrine or his progress in preaching. He asked Peter if he loved Him most of all. That's the foundation for ministry and the first step toward happiness.   p. 73

Someone to love means worshiping.

Something to do means working and witnessing.

Something to look forward to means waiting and watching.  p. 74

The will of God is nourishment, not punishment! To live and serve in the will of God means to mature spiritually day after day, to discover our gifts and use them joyfully, and to become all that we can become for the glory of God. The more we do the Lord's will, the more we enjoy the Lord's blessings that he has tailor-made especially for us.  p. 79

Yes, there are times when obeying God's will is costly and painful, but not doing God's will is even more costly and painful.  p. 81

Don't try to explain God's ways (Romans 11:33) . It can't be done. Just do what He says by faith and He will take care of everything. Faith is living without scheming.

Don't try to change God's mind (Romans 11:34). You'll be the loser.

Don't try to buy God off (Romans 11:35) His will is nonnegotiable. You don't bargain for God's blessings; you obey his commands. 

Don't try to steal God's glory (Romans 11:36). Then you'll miss everything God wants to give you. He will provide all that you need, but He will never give His glory or praise to anyone else (Isaiah 42:8)  p. 84

Romans 12:2 says, "test and approve what God's will is." The verb test means "to discern, to find and to follow," as in testing metals and separating the gold from the dross. It suggests that God's guidance usually involves several factors that must be evaluated carefully, such as circumstances, personal counsel, Scripture, self-examination, and the Spirit's inner direction. p. 84

If we are living in the Word and seeking to glorify Christ, the Spirit will direct us when we must make these "routine" everyday decisions. If we unintentionally begin to move in the wrong direction, the Lord will stop us and instruct us (Phil. 3:12-14). Paul called this "keeping in step with the Spirit" (Gal. 5:25).  p.  86

When God is not permitted to rule, He often over-rules and is able to bring blessings out of disobedience and disappointment.  p. 88

It's much easier for us to ask God to change other people than it is to ask Him to change us.  p. 98

If somebody is being a file or sandpaper in our lives, let's ask God to use the experience to polish us, not to scratch or irritate us.  p. 90

We exercise our stewardship a day at a time, a fact so important it is mentioned twice: "Give us today our daily bread!  p. 90

As Henry David Thoreau said in the first chapter of his classic book, Walden, "As if you could kill time without injuring eternity." Christian believers respect time because the way we use time prepares us for eternity. p. 99

Someone has said that the average American is being "crucified" between two thieves: the regrets of yesterday and the worries about tomorrow.  p. 100

There is always time for the will of God. I complained about my schedule at our family dinner one evening and our youngest daughter asked, ,"Dad, who plans your schedule?" Ouch!   p. 100

Knowing, loving, and doing the will of God is the key to an effective life.  p. 101

We are not manufacturers; we are distributors. Our works depend on His grace, and we can't earn grace. "But He gives more grace" (James 4:6), and we receive it by faith.  p. 101

When your outgo exceeds your income, your upkeep is your downfall.  They who go a-borrowing, go a-sorrowing, says an old English proverb, and when that was written, there were no credit cards.  p. 105

We may forget our decisions, but our decisions will never forget us.  p. 106

You can measure the distance from the north pole to the south pole but not from east to west. It's a beautiful image of our sins being taken away forever!  p. 107

Love is the circulatory system of the body of Christ, the church.  ~Howard Hendricks p. 112

The word restore  (Gal. 6:1) was a medical term that meant "to set a broken bone." Would you want your physician to set a broken leg using a pipe wrench and a sledgehammer? We must not be gentle with sin, but we must be gentle with sinners. "So if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall!" (1 Cor. 10:12).   pp. 112-113

"If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear" (Ps. 66:18 NASB). The word translated "regard" means "to know it is there and approve of it."  p. 114

When we don't permit God to rule, he will overrule us and accomplish His great purposes anyway, but there will be a greater price for us to pay.  p. 114

“The first duty of every soul,” wrote P.T. Forsyth, “is not to find its freedom but its Master.” When Jesus is our Master, we have in Him the freedom we need to live, serve, and grow. We are free to experience all that will make us what we were born to become. p. 117

Sunshine is good for plant life only if the plants have roots. Trails bring blessings to true Christians but not shallow "professors" (Matthew 13:6).  p. 119

. . . faith is living without scheming.  p. 120

. . . the Lord never permits temptations or trails unless they are necessary. We may not understand why God allows us to suffer, but we don't live on explanations - we live on promises.  p. 122

To quote P.T. Forsyth, "It's a greater thing for pain's conversion than for pain's removal." Paul pleaded three times that God would remove his painful thorn in the flesh, but instead God converted the pain into power and transformed Paul's weakness into strength (2 Cor. 12:1-10). p. 123

We don't fight for victory but from victory, the victory Christ won for us on the cross. "And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross" (Col. 2:15).  p. 130

The tail feathers of pride should be pulled out of our prayers, for our prayers need only the wing feathers of faith.  ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon p. 135

True worship involves praise wrapped in prayer.  p. 140

The command, "Be still, and know that I am God" (Ps. 46:10) literally means, "Take your hands off. Relax!" We are too prone to tell the Father what to do and to start manipulating circumstances to suit ourselves, when we should submit to Him because the kingdom is His. p. 141

. . .  my life is fragile and transient; only the Lord can make anything lasting out of it. "The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever" (1 John 2:17).  p. 143

C.S. Lewis wrote in The Four Loves, "All that is not eternal is eternally out of date." We Christians are often called "old-fashioned" or "not with it" or "outdated" by people who don't know Christ, when actually it is our accusers who are out of date! Because we share in God's eternal life, the passage of time takes nothing away from us that really is essential.  p. 145

As unbelievable as it sounds, here on earth we are sharing in eternity! That's why the words kingdom, power, glory, forever,  and  amen, are so important. They help us to take inventory so we can make sure we are "on praying ground."

Kingdom-Am I a faithful child of the King?

Power-Am I depending on His power as I serve Him?

Glory-Is my motive only to glorify Jesus Christ?

Forever-Do I live with eternity's values in view?

Amen-Am I walking by faith and saying "Amen!" to His promises?

If we can answer "yes" to the above questions, then we are privileged to share in eternity as we pray.  p. 148

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God Isn't In A Hurry

One of my favorite Bible teacher's Warren Wiersbe has a book titled, God Isn't In A Hurry: Learning to Slow Down and Live. Most of us can take his advise to heart. Several quotes below were helpful t me and I trust they will be for you too!

Churches do not grow by addition; they grow by nutrition. True growth is from the inside out-at least the kind of growth that lasts. During more than forty years of ministry in many parts of the world, I have seen all sorts of schemes for building the church; and some of them, unfortunately, have worked-on;y to the detriment of the ministry. George Macdonald was right: "In whatever man does without God, he must either fail miserably, or succeed more miserably.

If you are interested in the praise of men, then use the shortcuts and publicize your statistics. But if you are interested in the glory of God, stick with God's methods-the Word, prayer, witnessing, sacrifice, and suffering-and leave the results with Him. After all, it is "God who gives the increase" (1 Cor. 3:7). p. 13

I may be wrong, but I have the feeling that we are looking for shortcuts because we don't want to pay the price for doing things God's way. Travail in prayer, hard study, serious heart searching, and patient sowing of the seed have been replaced by methods that guarantee instant results. Results, yes; fruit, no. You cannot have fruit without roots, and you cannot have roots unless you dig deep; and that takes time.

I recently read again an address that Spurgeon gave to his Pastors' College students and alumni back in 1881, and I was struck by his closing words: "Do not be afraid of hard work for Christ; a terrible reckoning awaits those who have as easy time in the ministry, but a great reward is in reserve for those who endure all things for the elect's sake."

Beware of the high cost of shortcuts. p. 15

Faith is not believing in spite of evidence; it is obeying in spite of consequence. p. 24

Times of adversity are always times of opportunity. "For a great and effective door has opened to me, " wrote Paul , "and there are many adversaries" (1 Cor. 16:9). When you look at the difficulties through God, they turn into opportunities, and you see open doors. p. 24

Corporate worship is only as good as what each person brings to it, and that means each of us must spend time alone with the Lord. p. 40

There is a subtle danger in cramming ourselves full of Bible knowledge that never really gets into our inner person. We start equating knowledge with spirituality , and activity with ministry; and then we start living on substitutes. Manton also said, "Then end of study is information, and the need of meditation is practice." He is right. Knowing Bible facts is not the same as receiving Bible truths and making them a vital part of our inner person. p. 48

The bridge between learning and living is meditating-prayer over the Word, pondering it, applying it to our own lives. p. 49

When some American visitors asked Charles Haddon Spurgeon the secret of his ministry, the great preacher quietly replied, "My people pray for me." p. 50

Said Spurgeon, "Texts will often refuse to reveal their treasure till you open them with the key of prayer." p. 51

"Beloved brethren, " said Spurgeon to his ministerial students, "let us pray. We cannot all argue, but we can all pray; we cannot all be leaders, but we can all be pleaders; we cannot all be mighty in rhetoric, but we can all be prevalent in prayer. I would sooner see you eloquent with God than with men." p. 53

The way we respond to criticism depends on the way we respond to praise. If praise humbles us, then criticism will crush us; and both responses lead to defeat. p. 60

William Lyon Phelps, who headed the English department at Yale for many years, used to say that a knowledge of the Bible apart from a college education is more valuable than a college education without a knowledge of the Bible. He was right.

The person who chooses to ignore Jesus Christ is actually destroying himself; for Jesus Christ came as man to show us what God wanted us to be. He came as man that He might die to make us what God wanted us to be. p. 82

We are supposed to "proclaim the praises" of God who saved us (1 Peter 2:9)-which literally means "to advertise God's wonderful character"-and yet we busy ourselves competing among ourselves and arguing who is the greatest. p. 87

"Therefore putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the Word implanted, which is able to save your souls" (James 1:21 NASB). We must pull out the weeds before we can receive the seeds. p. 92

What was the Word of God before 1611 when the King James Version was published? What is the Word of God on the mission field where people cannot read English? Who authorized the King James Version to be the Word of God?

If some person or group authorized a translation to be the Word of God, then that person or group would have a higher authority than the Bible itself. And it is inconceivable that the great saints and martyrs from Pentecost to 1611 did not have the Word of God. It is even more inconceivable that our missionaries, who dedicate their lives to the translation and distribution of the Bible, are wasting their time on publications that are not the Word of God. p. 111

We Christians pride ourselves on not being worldly. We shun alcohol, tobacco, and impure entertainment; but at the same time we join the world's rat race and compete with each other for all the time we can get. We forget that God gives each of us only twenty-four hours a day. The entire universe operates a day at a time while we attempt to cram a week's work into a weekend.

In the final analysis, it still takes time to be holy. The great masters of the spiritual life in church history were not jet-propelled. They were not afraid to be alone, to wait. When I was in high school, I had to read John Milton's "Sonnet on His Blindness;" and for the life of me, I could not understand the meaning of the last line: "They also serve who only stand and wait." Today, I have a better grasp of what the blind English poet was trying to say, even though I may not always practice it. p. 126

Who knows? If all of us slowed down a bit, if we cancelled a few meetings from the church calendar, if we took time to wait before God in prayer, we might see God work in wonderful ways. We might see some fractured marriages mended again, some discordant ministries brought back into God's harmony, some exhausted believers given new strength and zeal for God. We might even see revival!

Be still, and know that I am God" (Ps. 46:10).

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On Being A Servant of God

Warren W. Wiersbe’s book, On Being A Servant of God, Thomas Nelson Publishers 1993, is not only be an encouragement, but it also, challenges you to be a better servant (leader). Below are several quotes from the book:

Chapter 1

Methods are many, principles are few; Methods always change, principles never do. p.2

God does not want us to have ministry by imitation. He wants us to have ministry by incarnation. p. 2

Ministry takes place when divine resources meet human needs through loving channels to the glory of God. P. 3

Chapter 2

God did not call us to be manufactures. He called us to be distributors. p. 5

Chapter 3

True servants of God help others whether they themselves get anything out of it or not.
p. 10

Chapter 4

God works not inspite of us or instead of us (Let go & let God!) but in us & through us! Serving God isn’t punishment; it’s nourishment. p. 14

When people we serve irritate us or disappoint us, we should pray for ourselves and ask God to increase our love. p. 14

God often allows problem people to come into your life so that you’ll learn to depend more on His power and not your own resources. p. 16

Don’t pray, “How can I get out of this?,” but pray, “What am I going to get out of this?” p. 16
Remember to always keep your chin up and knees down! p. 17

Chapter 5

Bob Cook says, “If you can explain what’s going on, God didn’t do it.” p. 20 When God blesses your work, you won’t be tempted to take the credit. P. 6
It’s possible to (Ps. 106:15) succeed in Christian work and be a failure in Christian ministry. p. 20
God is glorified when people see the Lord and not the servant. (Matt. 5:16) p.20
You have to decide whether you will be a servant or a celebrity, whether you will magnify Christ or promote self. p. 20

God is glorified when people see the Master and not the minister. p. 21

There is a difference between “fruit” and “results”. You can get “results” by following surefire formulas, manipulating people, or turning on your charisma; but “fruit” comes from life. p. 21

Chapter 6

Be yourself – your best self – and God will use you in a special way. p.26

…build on your strengths, and ask God for helpers who can compensate for your weaknesses. p. 26

Chapter 7

Focusing on serving the Lord can make a big difference in your ministry. For one thing, you will be motivated to do your work and not look for excuses. If you serve only to earn a salary, you never do your best as long as you think you’re underpaid. If you minister to get recognition, you will start doing less when people don’t show their appreciation. The only motivation that will take you through the storms and keep you on the job is, “I’m serving Jesus Christ.” p. 29

You can’t please everybody, so don’t even try. Just live and work in such a way that your Master will be able to say, “You are My beloved servant in whom I am well pleased.” p. 32

Chapter 8

If you’re serving in the will of God, you’re like Esther: “You have come to the kingdom for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14) p. 37

Chapter 9

A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God. Robert Murray M’Cheyne p. 40

There’s no substitute for Christian character. No matter how much talent and training we may have, if we don’t have character, we don’t have anything. pp. 40 - 41

Your … sermon lasts but an hour or two – your life preaches all the week. Robert Murray M’Cheyne p. 41

Chapter 10

Your purpose in serving isn’t to build the biggest church or Sunday school class, the greatest choir, or the most efficient band of ushers. Your purpose is to build people of Christian character whom God can bless and use to build others. You can use all kinds of gimmicks and techniques to gather a crowd or build an organization, but that’s not the same as building His church. pp. 45 - 46

The danger is that we exploit people to get things done instead of ministering to them so that what they’re doing helps them mature in Christ. Remember, in God’s eyes, the worker is more important than the work. If the worker is what he or she ought to be, the work will be done right and will please God. p. 46

Christian educator Dr. Ted Ward says it best: “Leadership is a serving relationship that has the effect of facilitating human development.” p. 47

Chapter 11

Thomas Merton said, “To consider persons and events and situations only in the light of their effect upon myself is to live on the doorstep of hell.” p. 51

W.A. Tozer once said, “Never be afraid of honest criticism. If the critic is wrong, you can help him; and if you’re wrong he can help you. Either way, somebody’s helped.”
p. 52

Chapter 12

…laughter is also the lubricant that helps people work better together. p. 54

Chapter 13

…(1) our work is supposed to make us grow; (2) we’re always being measured; (3) each job prepares us for the next one; and (4) the Lord may move us when He sees we’re ready. Matt. 25:21 This outline goes with the quote by Marsden

“Make every occasion a great occasion, for you can never tell when someone may be taking your measure for a larger place.” p. 58

If our service for the Lord doesn’t make us grow, two things may be true: either we’re in the wrong place, or we have the wrong attitude toward the right places. p. 58

There’s no place in the Lord’s work for “pyramid climbers”…p. 61

Chapter 14

Let’s begin with the obvious fact that nobody except the Holy Spirit is indispensable in the Lord’s work. p. 61

It’s a law of the Medes and Persian’s that we never resign when (1) we’re tired and discouraged, (2) we aren’t getting our way, and (3) we feel unappreciated and we’re looking for some strokes. p. 66

When your best ideas are turned down, remember two things first, if the Lord wants to expedite your ideas, and if you wait and pray, He’ll start to change people’s minds. Second, your ideas may come to fruition after you’ve moved out into a different ministry. It’s amazing how much God can accomplish if His workers don’t care who gets the credit. pp. 67 – 68

Chapter 15

When your service is the most difficult, God may be doing His deepest work in your life, so don’t run away. p. 70

God uses you to build His work, but He also uses the work to build you as He prepares you for the next assignment as well as for eternal service in glory. p. 70

Chapter 16

How do we learn from our failures? The smart thing to do is to evaluate what we did and try to find out what went wrong. p. 76

Honest self-examination is one thing, but brutal introspection only opens the way for the devil to start accusing you. p. 77

Chapter 17

The older we get and the longer we serve the Lord, the more we need to work at being contemporary and not becoming dusty relics in a religious museum. p. 79

Chapter 18

1). Never take down a fence until you know why it was put up. p. 84

2). If you get too far ahead of the army, your soldiers may mistake you for the enemy. p. 84

3). Don’t complain about the bottom rungs of the ladder; they helped to get you higher. p. 84.

4). If you want to enjoy the rainbow, be prepared to endure the storm. p. 85

Chapter 19

Readers are leaders. Your heart grows by giving out, but your mind grows by taking in…p. 86

Readers are leaders only if they turn their learning into living. Assimilating what you read, relating it to what you already know, and practicing it where you serve put the treasure to work paying dividends. p. 88

Chapter 20

Marriage means a man and a woman must no longer say “mine” and “yours”; they should only say “ours”. If one of them has a ministry, they both have a ministry… p. 95

If you do get married and you want to serve the Lord, choose the kind of Christian mate who is pleased when you please the Lord. p. 95

…if your ministry is hurting your love, there’s something wrong with your home or your ministry or both. God doesn’t usually tear down one good thing to build up another good thing. Remember the best thing you can do for your ministry is build a godly family; and the best thing you can do for your family is build a ministry that glorifies God. p. 98

Chapter 21

M’Cheyne wrote, “It is not great talents God blesses so much as great likeness to Jesus.” p. 101

…nothing happens to you except what God ordains. p. 102

…God’s servants have the privilege of investing their lives in what is eternal. p. 102

Chapter 22

We read the Bible to get to know the heart and mind of God. p. 105

One of the dangers in ministry is that we start thinking the way the world thinks and then doing things the way the world does them (Ps. 1: 1-3). To be sure, the children of this world can teach us some things (Luke 16:8); but note that their counsel is limited to “their generation” and doesn’t touch the eternal.

“For as the heaven’s are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isa. 55:9) p.106

Your place of service may not be a big one, but it’s an important one; and God put you there because you’re the right person for the job right now. p. 109

Chapter 23

No matter what task God has called you to do, always remember that your ministry touches a whole world if you are truly serving the Lord. p. 113

You may not see how God is using your ministry, but that’s not important. You may think that your place in His vineyard is a small one, but it isn’t. p. 113

As far as we know, only 15 people in Bethany saw Mary’s act of worship when she anointed the feet of Jesus – and 12 of them criticized her for it! – but Jesus said that the message of what Mary did would travel around the world! (Mark 14:3 – 9; John 12: 1-8) p. 114

Chapter 24

Our English word “loyal” comes from the Latin word “legere”, which means, “to choose,” “to pick.” It also gives us the words “diligent”, “eligible”, and “allegiance”, all of which are good words to remember in ministry. p. 115


Many disagreements and divisions start when we focus on a minor detail and forget the big picture. p. 116

I know of one Christian ministry that reads its “ministry purpose” at the start of every board meeting. Then the directors look at the agenda to make sure everything on it relates in some way to that purpose. If during the meeting the discussion starts to digress, somebody will say, “Focus!” and the directors will move the discussion back on track. p. 117

If I’m determined to protect and promote only my small corner of the field, I’m bound to create problems. p. 117

Chapter 25

Philip Brooks said, “To be a true minister to men is always to accept new happiness and new distress, both of them forever deepening and entering into closer and more inseparable union with each other the more profound and spiritual the ministry becomes. The man who gives himself to other men can never be a-wholly sad man; but no more can he be a man of unclouded gladness.”…the next time a Lot or an Esau or even a Judas breaks your heart, and you wonder if it’s worth it all to serve the Lord, remember what Phillips Brooks: Ministry means deeper depths of sorrow and higher heights of joy, and they often come together. pp. 120 – 121

When Moses was discouraged because of what his people did, he communed with God and prayed, “Please, show me Your glory” (Ex. 33:18) No matter how much we fail or people fail, the only thing that really matters is the glory of God. The sin of Israel gave Moses the opportunity to glorify himself, but he refused to do so. p. 122

So, the next time people fail you and you feel like you’ve failed, go to the mount and ask God to show you His glory. Don’t focus on yourself or the people you serve; focus on God and His glory. p. 122

Chapter 26

The joy of the Lord grows primarily out of our relationship with Him, while the fear of the Lord grows out of our responsibility to Him. p. 125

Chapter 27

…acceptable Christian service isn’t based on feelings; it’s based on obedience - p. 130

In my devotional time each morning, I like to pray my way through the day’s schedule and turn every commitment over to the Lord. That means the day’s obligations and interruptions are in His hands, and I shouldn’t fret if He changes my plans. This little step of faith takes away a lot of the pressure that can be generated by a busy schedule. p. 131

Chapter 28

You aren’t responsible for the way others treat you, but you are responsible for the way you respond. p. 134

Chapter 29

…it’s good to have things that money can buy, provided we don’t lose the things that money can’t buy. p. 142

Chapter 30

…John Wesley’s dying words were right on target for today’s church: “The best of all is, God is with us!”

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