let me make this plain kids god is the greatest he never changes his ways are blameless for his own glory and at different stages he raises up servants to make his name famous i ll highlight one particular servant for the purpose of encouraging your worship to the lord furthermore charles haddon spurgeon was born on the outskirts of london 1834 his dad and his grandpa were both in the ministry his mother was praying for his soul since his infancy naturally intelligent rapidly developing but lacking jesus fellowship that would be irrelevant the god of his mother unknown though christ was up in his home the faith just wasn t his own the lord answered prayer when at the age of 10 young charles became convinced of the wages of sin for the next five years the spirit brought conviction terrors and affliction aware of his condition one sunday morning though the stormiest snow kept charles from going in the church he d normally go randomly stepped into a church heard the words look to me and be saved all the ends of the earth and though only heaven knows the name of the preacher that s the day that spurgeon became a believer the lord is so merciful always so purposeful those whom he draws find his call irreversible immediately after spurgeon s conversion obediently he was earnest to serve him the lord poured his spirit on spurgeon abundantly anyone could see that he spoke with profundity extraordinary giftedness seen proclaiming god s mysteries at the age of fifteen in a place called waterbeach graced with the sort of speech that even made the old folks say this boy can preach in fact he was so crafted after the master a baptist church snatched him and asked him to pastor at the time he was seventeen years old on fire for the king who redeemed his soul people flocked from everywhere it was quite a scene called to a church in london at the age of nineteen he was more than ready to his lord he was dedicated even though he was never formally educated if you would have scratched him he would bleed bible a rich prayer life was his means of survival amount that he read was truly mind blowing steeped in the writings of dudes like john owen and by god s grace he fed the sheep new manna in london met his wife her name was susannah behold the grace of god stand to the side the spirit exalting the lamb who has died it can t be denied this man we describe was simply a tool in the hand of his god to observe this servant s extremely instructive one word about spurgeon is he was productive preached jesus no speakers loudly he d shout it each week packed houses of crowds in the thousands his sermons were published sixty two volumes he worked almost like he just knew he would die soon made mad disciples passed on his knowledge established a school to train pastors in college sold out to the lord jehovah his portion also he built two homes for the orphans a monthly magazine plus he wasn t too busy to write books about a hundred and fifty god s grace in spurgeon was manifest but remember the best man is a man at best yes he struggled with depression consistently sick kid both he and susannah physically afflicted he experienced as a servant of jesus the power of god made perfect in weakness later on comes complications his stands for orthodoxy got him shunned by his denomination but through all the hardship and all the controversy he never stopped relying on the sovereign god of mercy and when he had finished pressing towards the goal he entered into heaven at the age of fifty seven his life is a case of god s grace effectively at work in sinners to leave a great legacy the proof is many years later in your speakers we re praising jesus for raising up the prince of preachers 