The Lord's Work in the Lord's Way and No Little People E-Book

Francis A. Schaeffer

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Serie: Crossway Short Classics
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

A Collection of Sermons on Christian Leadership from Theologian Francis A. Schaeffer Christians serving the Lord can fall into two traps: depending too heavily on their own power or underestimating their God-given purpose. In this collection of classic sermons, renowned theologian and philosopher Francis A. Schaeffer teaches believers how to rely on the Holy Spirit—not personal effort or status—in matters of service and leadership.  This short ebook includes an excerpt from Schaeffer's sermon, "The Lord's Work in the Lord's Way," plus 2 sermons from the book No Little People. Covering topics including humility and servanthood, Christian office, spiritual battles, and trusting God's methods, Schaeffer encourages pastors, students, and church members to live as consecrated people, working humbly for God's approval instead of human praise. - Classic Yet Timely Messages: Powerfully addresses common issues for the church, including spiritual pride, humanism, and how to live as consecrated people - Perfect Gift for Students and Pastors: Motivates those serving in ministry to keep a Christ-centered perspective - Accessible Introduction to the Thought of Francis Schaeffer: With a foreword by Ray Ortlund Jr., this inspiring collection introduces modern audiences to Schaeffer's work 

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The Lord’s Work in the Lord’s Way&No Little People

The Crossway Short Classics Series

The Emotional Life of Our Lord

B. B. Warfield

Encouragement for the Depressed

Charles Spurgeon

The Expulsive Power of a New Affection

Thomas Chalmers

Fighting for Holiness

J. C. Ryle

Heaven Is a World of Love

Jonathan Edwards

The Life of God in the Soul of Man

Henry Scougal

The Lord’s Work in the Lord’s Way and No Little People

Francis A. Schaeffer

The Lord’s Work in the Lord’s Way&No Little People

Francis A. Schaeffer

The Lord’s Work in the Lord’s Way and No Little People

Published by Crossway 1300 Crescent Street Wheaton, Illinois 60187

No Little People © 1974 by L’Abri Fellowship

This edition © 2022 by Estate of Francis and Edith Schaeffer

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law. Crossway® is a registered trademark in the United States of America.

Cover design: Jordan Singer

Cover image: “Sweet Briar” by John Henry Dearle (Bridgeman Images)

First printing 2022

Printed in China

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-7158-9 ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-7158-9 PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-7161-6 Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-7160-2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Schaeffer, Francis A. (Francis August), author. | Schaeffer, Francis A. (Francis August) No little people. 

Title: The Lord's work in the Lord's way and No little people / Francis A. Schaeffer; foreword by Ray Ortlund. 

Description: Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2022. | Series: Crossway short

classic series | Includes index. 

Identifiers: LCCN 2021040196 (print) | LCCN 2021040197 (ebook) | ISBN 9781433571589 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781433571596 (pdf) | ISBN 9781433571602 (mobipocket) | ISBN 9781433571602 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Sermons, American. | LCGFT: Sermons. 

Classification: LCC BV4253 .S34 2022 (print) | LCC BV4253 (ebook) | DDC 252—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021040196

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021040197

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

2022-02-07 09:32:03 AM

Contents

Foreword by Ray Ortlund

Series Preface

Biography of Francis A. Schaeffer

The Lord’s Work in the Lord’s Way

No Little People, No Little Places

Scripture Index

Foreword

Do we treat God as real, or do we treat God as hypothetical? Is God, to us, our living and glorious helper moment by moment? Or is God, to us, an orthodox concept that simply exists while we keep making the important things happen in our own ways? This is a searching, unsettling question. Let’s not answer it easily. Let’s answer it honestly. Everything else in Christianity, everything else in the whole of our lives, hangs on our personal reality with the living God.

Francis Schaeffer knew that. He was gripped by that. He spoke about it persuasively. For example, in “The Lord’s Work in the Lord’s Way” he said:

The central problem of our age is not liberalism or modernism, nor the old Roman Catholicism or the new Roman Catholicism, nor the threat of communism, nor even the threat of rationalism and the monolithic consensus that surrounds us [nor, I would add today, postmodernism or materialistic consumerism or visceral sensualism]. All these are dangerous but not the primary threat. The real problem is this: the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, individually or corporately, tending to do the Lord’s work in the power of the flesh rather than of the Spirit. The central problem is always in the midst of the people of God, not in the circumstances surrounding them.

Who else is telling us where our central problem really lies—not out there with them but in here among us? Schaeffer also said in his “No Little People, No Little Places”:

The Scripture emphasizes that much can come from little, if the little is truly consecrated to God. There are no little people and no big people in the true spiritual sense, but only consecrated and unconsecrated people. . . . We are talking about quietness before God as we are in his place for us. The size of the place is not important, but the consecration in that place is.

Who else is telling us where our longing for significance can really be satisfied—not in prominence that human eyes can admire but in dedication that God alone can honor?

Francis Schaeffer compelled the attention of my generation by walking forward in the conviction that God was present right then and there. And that is why reading Schaeffer can energize us today. He brings us back to God as real, not hypothetical.

We Christians believe in God. But it is still possible for us to treat him as distant, in the background. At a practical level, we can treat God the same way the world treats him—as if he’s not here in ways that actually help us. And if we Christians do treat God in so insulting and worldly a manner, can we then be surprised if our world doesn’t find us compelling? The reason for their indifference toward us might be that we are treating our Savior with the same indifference.

But God has not forsaken us. We are living in a time of doctrinal rediscovery, and it looks like the beginnings of revival. In late twentieth-century America, our atheological pragmatism was building our own mega-churches by our own mega-methods for our own mega-glory. But now we are getting back to building healthy churches of all sizes by the power of the gospel message itself. Consider these evidences of God’s grace, all of which have either been created or renewed in recent years: The Gospel Coalition, Together for the Gospel, the Acts 29 Network, Reformed hip-hop and spoken word poetry, The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, and more, all surging forward by the power of theological clarity and conviction. All of this is good—very good.

But doctrinal faithfulness alone is not enough. Even more, doctrinal faithfulness with moral integrity is not enough, because Christianity is more than lofty ideas with upright conduct. It is not less, but it is more. We can have both right doctrine and right living and still keep our proud superiority unhumbled, our hidden sins unconfessed, our selfish agendas undisturbed. But real Christianity is looking away from ourselves to Christ as if everything vital depends on him, because it does:

The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Gal. 2:20 ESV)