Spurgeon at the Metropolitan Tabernacle: 365 Sermons
Work
‘I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.’ John 9:4
Suggested Further Reading: 1 Peter 4:7–11
There are ten thousand actions good in themselves, which it might not be right for me to choose as my vocation in life. I know a great many persons who think it is their business to preach, but who had much better make it their business to hear for a little while longer. We know some who think it is their business to take the headship of a class, but who might be amazingly useful by giving away some tracts, or by taking a seat in a class themselves for a little while. The fact is, that we are not to pick and choose the path of Christian service which we are to walk in, but we are to do the work of him that sent us; and our object should be, as there is so much work to be done, to find out what part of the work the Master would have us to do. Our prayer should be, ‘Show me what thou wouldst have me to do’—have me to do in particular; not what is generally right, but what is particularly right for me to do. My servant might, perhaps, think it a very proper thing for her to arrange my papers for me in my study, but I should feel but a very slender amount of gratitude to her. If, however, she will have a cup of coffee ready for me early in the morning, when I have to go out to a distant country town to preach, I shall be much more likely to appreciate her services. So, some friends think, ‘How I could get on if I were in such-and-such a position, if I were made a deacon, if I were elevated to such a post.’ Go your way, and work as your Master would have you. You will do better where he puts you than you will where you put yourself. You are no servant, indeed, at all, when you pick and choose your service.
For meditation: No Christian should try to be a square peg in a round hole. God must decide who does what and who goes where (Mark 10:37, 40). But no Christian is to be a peg without a hole. Each has received a gift and should be using it (1 Peter 4:10).
Sermon no. 756
21 March (1867)