An powerful message which could have been written and preached today. It is so relevant to what many believers are struggling to understand about the modern church that I felt compelled to share it as a ‘midweek’ sermon!

This is an excellent reading by Tod from cloudaudio.

See transcript and link below, courtesy of Spurgeon Gems:

Metropolitan Tabernacle

PRAYER FOR THE CHURCH 

A SERMON 
INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD’S-DAY, JULY 20, 1902.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON,
ON THURSDAY EVENING, JUNE 20, 1878.

“Cause Your face to shine upon Your sanctuary.”
Daniel 9:17.

A TRUE-HEARTED Believer does not live for himself. Where there is abundance of Grace and great strength of mind in the service of God, there is sure to be a spirit of unselfishness. It was so with Daniel, who was a model man in the matter of decision of character and a holy, believing walk before the Lord. That “man greatly beloved” was, in all respects, faithful to his convictions. No lion’s den could silence his courageous prayer. No presence of mighty monarch or of his festive guests could turn him aside from delivering his fateful message. Yet Daniel was not satisfied. Whatever might be his own condition, he remembered what Jerusalem was and what the people to whom he belonged were and, in the depths of his soul he sorrowed, notwithstanding all that God’s Grace had worked within him.

I firmly believe that the better a man’s own character becomes and the more joy in the Lord he has in his own heart, the more capable is he of sympathetic sorrow and, probably, the more of it he will have. If you have room in your soul for sacred joy, you have equal room for holy grief and, depend upon it, you will have both of these
emotions if the Lord has perfectly consecrated you and purposes to use you for His Glory.

Daniel was also a man of many visions. With the exception of John, whom Daniel greatly resembles, it has scarcely fallen to the lot of any man, unless it is Ezekiel, to have so many wondrous visions of God. Yet his visions did not make him visionary. There are many persons who could not be trusted to see the tip of an angel’s wing—for they would become so proud, afterwards, that there would be no holding them. But he who is fully consecrated to God may see vision after vision and he will make a practical use of what he sees—and try to find out something to be done, something to be 
repented of, something to be prayed for—something that shall be for the good of the Church of God.

Daniel had also been studying the prophecies, and he knew, by what he had discovered, when certain predictions would be fulfilled. But he was not, like some students of prophecy in our day, utterly unpractical. They seem to be so taken up with the future that they do nothing in the present! They are so fully occupied in looking up to the sky, with their mouths wide open, waiting for the coming of the Lord, that they forget that the very best way to wait for the coming of the Master is to be found doing His will! “Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when He comes, shall find so doing.”

What Daniel learned from the study of the Sacred Books, he turned to practical account and, finding that a certain time was near, of which good things were foretold, he set his face toward the Lord and began to pray—not for himself, but for his people, many of whom were at Jerusalem, hundreds of miles away from him, or scattered in various places all over the face of the earth. For them he used those bright and sparkling eyes which had looked up into the celestial fires. For them he used that thoughtful and enlightened mind which had studied the Oracles of God. For them he used those knees 
which were so familiar with the attitude of prayer and, getting alone by himself, he wrestled mightily—as Jacob had done of old—only Daniel’s pleading was for a far greater number of people who were in a still direr trouble—and he, too, wrestled until he came off more than a conqueror!

I am anxious, dear Friends, that Daniel’s prayer should, by the blessing of God’s Spirit, inspire us with the spirit of prayer—and that his example, in forgetting himself and remembering his people, would help us to be unselfish and lead us to care for our people—even God’s people—to whom we have the honor and privilege to belong.

Read the rest of the sermon transcript here.

This sermon contains an extraordinary challenge and encouragement to the Body of Christ. Please share it with others!