Faithfulness in Small Places with Sinclair Ferguson

Written By Sinclair Ferguson
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Today we get to hear from Dr. Sinclair Ferguson about living with gracious courage as we seek to be faithful followers of Jesus Christ. We talk about the life of John Knox and the importance of studying Church history and the lives of saints who have come before us. We are so excited for you to hear this episode and pray it comforts your heart to be reminded that you are part of a family of believers that stretches thousands of years and endless miles.

 

NOTES & QUOTES

Speaking about his conversion: “I was really convicted I was a sinner and needed a savior and not just a good person who needed a good example in Jesus.”

“The Bible has been such an anchor and a guide to me, it’s really been like the lenses through which I've learned to see everything.”

“In Christian service, sometimes we know the names of individuals like John Knox or Martin Luther or, you know, some other great hero of the faith. But actually, when you begin to read about them, you realize that there was a whole circle of people who had influenced them and they wouldn't have been anything without them.”

“Sometimes we can despise ordinary faithfulness and there's nothing to despise about just walking in faithfulness to the Lord in the big and the small.” - Lauren

“The friends who care for us are really tremendously important. And I think it's, I sometimes say now to younger people, you should just sit down beside some older person in the church and say, how did you get here? And you'd be absolutely amazed who is in your church.”

“Even if no one else in my family had been a believer, I belong to this more fundamental family of God that is history long and as wide as the world to know that you belong to that family is just a tremendous thing.”

“God is not in the business of just cloning Christians.You'll encounter Christians who are so different from you. You know, it strikes me John Knox was wired quite differently from me. But then there are so many others that seem to be wired like me and I can both be challenged by one and encouraged by the other. . . . Reading church history and biography has been a huge encouragement to me in my Christian life.”

“If from early on in our Christian lives, day by day as we read God's word, we just remind ourselves: This is coming to me out of the mouth of God, out of the mouth of my heavenly father. And pray Lord, help me to listen to what you want to tell me today. It gives great stability and direction to our Christian lives.”

“The great lesson from Knox's life is that he was willing to do that no matter what it cost. And it usually is costly to be courageous. Now, obviously, as I've been saying, we really need to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. Now, when Peter speaks about giving a reason for the hopeless in us, he says we have to do it with respect. So we're not kind of spiritual bulls in a china shop. But I think for many of us the big challenge today is just to have courage. Courage brother, do not stumble. And God will honor that because he honors those who honor him.”

 
 
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DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  1. How does it bolster your faith knowing that you come from a long line of heroes of the faith and faithful followers of Jesus?

  2. What did you learn about John Knox’s life that encouraged you today?

  3. How did hearing about Sinclair Ferguson and John Knox’s journeys to faith remind you of the importance of God’s Word and the community of believers? 

  4. What might it look like for you to have gracious judicious courage in your relationships today?

  5. What might you do or implement based on what you learned in this week’s episode?

 

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Sinclair Ferguson

Dr. Sinclair B. Ferguson is a native of Scotland and is a Ligonier Ministries teaching fellow and Chancellor’s Professor of Systematic Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary. He previously served as senior minister of the First Presbyterian Church in Columbia, S.C., and currently serves at Trinity Church in Aberdeen, Scotland. He has authored and contributed to more than 50 books, most recently a book for children called John Knox: The Boy Who Changed a Country.

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Prioritizing God’s Word with Raechel Myers