The Lord's Work in the Lord's Way and No Little People (Crossway Short Classics)

It had been a few years since I had last read these two sermons by the late Francis Schaeffer. This new release of them in the Crossway Short Classics series provided a great opportunity to reacquaint myself with them! First, in ‘The Lord’s Work in the Lord’s Way’, Schaeffer reminds his readers of the importance of genuine dependence upon God for our work on His behalf. As he insightfully notes, we can be prone to try and do the Lord’s work in the world’s way: “Besides, if we fight the world with copies of its own weapons, we will fail, because the devil will honor those with his own, but our Lord will not honor these with us, for that does not give him the glory. They may bring some results--activism does have its results --but they will not be the ones the Lord wants. Our hands will be empty of honor from God because he will not be getting the glory. We must not try to serve the Lord with our own kind of humanism and egoism.” (pg. 51).In the second sermon, ‘No Little People”, Schaeffer encouragingly points out, using the example of Moses’ staff, ‘a stick of dead wood’, how the Lord can use anything and anyone for His good. He also points out that the Lord using us does not always mean larger ministries or larger influence! ‘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. The problem for each of us is applying this truth to ourselves” (pgs. 72-73).Considering many of the recent scandals in evangelical churches, these sermons should be required reading for pastors! Schaeffer points out the irony that the Pope is called ‘servant of servants’, yet is carried in a gold-covered chair on the backs of men! He then applies this to us: “We may react against this, but is it not true that a great deal in our own lives manifests about the same level of humility? We speak of humility and crucifixion, but we are like the pope, speaking about being a servant of servants and then being carried on the backs of men. While we talk about humility and the power of the Holy Spirit, we spend much of our lives in the stance of Napoleon (“I did this”). As soon as we seek the Me rather than follow the example of Christ, we are walking in the flesh rather than in the Spirit.” (pgs. 41-42).I highly recommend these sermons, and this new book that rightly brings them back into circulation!

I've been liking this series from Crossway Short Classics. They provide a snippet of a longer book from an influential Christian and talk about who the person was, what setting they were writing in or against, and an overview of the longer book. This encourages someone who may want to have more than your average taste for a book before committing one's self to the longer work.With this work by the great Francis Shaeffer you get two for the price of one. While others in this series come from books, these come from sermons Shaeffer gave so you get a taste of Shaeffer you might not have gotten before of him as a preacher. However, if you know Shaeffer, he's an evangelist at heart and even his books have a flair of sacred sermon.The first section titled, "The Lord's Work in the Lord's Way" speaks on how in our Christian walk or in our lives as Christians we over-emphasize reliance on our own power but forget about relying on the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It's not our position or status where the ends justify the means - it's about reliance on who God is to strengthen the understanding of our Creator-creature distinction that is the reason we are given what we are for His glory.The second section titled, "No Little People" was actually a really fun and important message that surprised me (I enjoy being surprised by Schaeffer anytime). Here, he talks in a similar vein of the above but on focusing on who God is, His role in the sanctification process, and in not getting down on ourselves if we don't feel "big enough" to be useful to God in the ministry areas He has given us in our lives. Schaeffer points to God needing to be our focus not just in our thoughts but also in our actions.One of my favorite parts on this is Schaeffer's warning of a person, even an influential minister, wanting to grow their ministry so as to have more influence so they can, at least as their justification, to have a greater impact for God. He warns that while even the best intentions are sought (and they are not always the case), that having the bigger capture of influence might distract them having the quiet relationship with God that allowed them the position they are in and the more easy slippage into distraction one could have. I really found that porition insightful, convincting, and facinating. It shows the struggle that Schaeffer might have had with forming L'Abri or being a more (or less) public speaker. I thought this was a very insightful message for a very insightful man. Final Grade - A

Give Crossway credit for publishing this little gem, especially the first of the two sermons, "The Lord's Work in the Lord's Way." Yet the flowery little cover and effete design belie the words inside, doing this sermon an injustice. If anything could possibly symbolize this sermon it would be words written in flame, not flowery curlicues.I heard this sermon nearly forty years ago, via a cassette recording of the sermon given me by a friend who commended it to me. The sermon on the tape came from the second annual conference of Youth Specialties in 1971. I suspect Schaeffer may have preached this sermon more than once. Unfortunately, this sermon is not a transcript of the sermon I heard. It's similar, but I remember certain words from that sermon, in particular Schaeffer's scathing reference to "Madison Avenue" that aren't found in this book.That sermon was unforgettable. Though it would likely be dismissed as a "rant" at a Gospel Coalition conference in our day, it was the kind of Biblical logic-on-fire diatribe that Luther engaged in in his classic, "The Bondage of the Will."My cassette recording of this sermon is long lost. I would love to obtain another and make it available to all via the internet. It was one of those sermons that is better heard than read--plus, the version of the sermon on my tape was longer and deeper than the sermon transcribed in this book--or Crossway edited the transcript and took out some of the fire.In the meantime, this print version is as close as we're likely to get. I wish Crossway would bother to give at least minimal attribution for the occasion and date of this transcript. Unfortunatetly, they get Schaeffer's biography wrong as well, saying he received his education at Westminster Theological Seminary. While Schaeffer did attend Westminster after graduating from Hampton-Sidney, he left it for Faith Theological Seminary from which he graduated with his B.Div.

I first encountered Francis A. Schaeffer's Christian apologetics while studying for doctoral orals in 1975. Over the years I read all of his books, some more than once, visited the L'Abri in Switzerland and the UK, attended L'Abri conferences, and listened to numerous cassette tapes of his lectures and sermons. Francis Schaeffer was one of the most influential figures shaping evangelical Christianity during the second half of the twentieth century. He was and remains a major influence on my life and writing.This little book, THE LORD'S WORK IN THE LORD'S WAY & NO LITTLE PEOPLE is one volume in the series Crossway Short Classics, published by Crossway out of Wheaton, IL. The books in the series are beautifully bound and printed in little volumes (only 4 x 6 inches). They make excellent gifts for any occasion.This book by Francis Schaeffer consists of two chapters from the book NO LITTLE PEOPLE, a selection of sixteen original sermons first published in 1974. They take up 62 of the 92 pages. The editors chose well from the vast quantity of Schaeffer's work. The Lord's Work in the Lord's Way addresses the important topic of the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the individual Christian. Schaeffer distinguishes between the indwelling of the Holy Spirit experienced by every born-again Christian at the moment of conversion and the filling of the Holy Spirit which motivates and empowers the Christian to fulfill the great commission to take the Gospel to the whole world.Crossway is to be commended for publishing this series of Christian classics in this format. However, I feel I should point out that there are many copies of the original 240-page book available online from Amazon and many other used and new book dealers at a wide variety of prices.

I finally had the ability to start reading this little devotional book and it truly is so relaxing. I find that I am suddenly at peace when reading it and distracted from what was bothering me. They are short and sweet and give you just enough to leave you wanting more but time in your day to not feel overwhelmed.