"Be Quiet" Francis Chan | Pastor Reacts

Living a Quiet Life and Resisting the Pull of Platforms

How many of you came into this day, or you just think about life and you go, what my ambition is to live a quiet life. We have a lot of people clamoring to be voices. We need fewer voices and more examples.

To be a leader of any kind in the kingdom of heaven is to be a servant. Chan's right. It's not about your own platform. It's about using the things God gives you to serve everyone around you. If we're not obeying the scripture, which many of us are not, let's be real, then why would we expect the Lord to use us?

Francis Chan is well known amongst Christian circles, if nothing else, but because he famously left the limelight at Omega Church and walked away from all that success out of a deep conviction that it was the wrong way to do church.

But how is he as a preacher of God's word? We're going to take a look at one of his most recent sermons and break it down in just a moment. Welcome back to Wise Disciple. My name is Nate, and I'm helping you become the effective Christian that you were meant to be.

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This is such a dangerous place to be, seriously. No, I'm talking about a stage. It's almost like every time I step on a stage, it's like almost drinking a little bit of poison, where you can really be thinking about God right now, about him and his glory and his holiness and how everything needs to be given to him while there's flesh going on and fighting that and going, well, the people like me, how are they going to respond to this message?

The praise, the criticism, everything, it all can really mess up your walk with the Lord.

I love this start to the sermon. I really do. What Chan is going to do—I mean, I'm just looking at the title— is he's going to talk about living a quiet life. It comes out of a certain place in the scripture, and he's probably going to unpack that.

But I've said this before. Every pastor at the pulpit is faced with the unique task of beginning the sermon. Maybe the question they even ask themselves is, how do I begin this message? And I think it's a unique task because every Sunday provides the pastor an opportunity to use a new way to begin.

But there are lots of ways to do it. Maybe they begin by telling a story. Maybe they ask the congregation a driving question that then the sermon will answer later. Maybe it's a combination of some of these things.

Or maybe they set the stakes for the entire message, which is to reveal in some sense how important and relevant this message and the biblical passage is going to be for the sheep. That's what I think Chan is doing right now.

He's setting the stakes for how relevant this is to everyone.

Well, one of the reasons I'm very excited about this is it's very rare—those who have heard me speak—it's very rare that I have notes and I stick to the notes. And it's more common that I put notes together and then I show up and go, yeah, I'm going to forget the notes.

God's given me something different. But as I was praying for this specific gathering this week, it was like, boom. And this doesn't happen normally. Just verse after verse, statement after statement, even a title.

I don't think I've ever gotten a title for a sermon, seriously, in my life. But this one's called The Power of a Quiet Life. And I'm going to stick with this. I believe the Lord has given this to me. As I was praying about it this morning, I just felt like complete disobedience if I do not teach this.

So you see what he's doing? He's reinforcing the notion that it's incredibly important. What he's about to say. He's setting the stakes for the rest of the message, and so his audience needs to, in response, lean in and pay attention.

I think this is great. And it's not—so don't get the wrong idea—it's not manipulative to do this. When you believe wholeheartedly in what you're saying, if it really is the case that the Word of God is true, and our eternal salvation, as well as our spiritual sanctification, is on the line, then of course the stakes are high, right?

So don't misunderstand this exercise. The reason why I do these kinds of videos is because I think that we all need to be better receivers of God's Word when it is preached. But we also need to understand as pastors, too, how to handle or divide the Word of Truth rightly.

That's 2 Timothy chapter 2, right? So there's kind of a double responsibility. It's for those of us who will receive someone else handling that Word of Truth or dividing that Word of Truth rightly, but it's also if we get up as pastors to the pulpit and try to do the same thing.

So that's the focus and why I do these videos. So let's keep going.

1 Thessalonians 4 and the Call to Aspire to Live Quietly

It's out of 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verses 11 and 12. 1 Thessalonians 4, 11 and 12, it says, Aspire to live quietly. Some of your Bibles say, make it your ambition to live a quiet life and to mind your own affairs and to work with your hands, as we instructed you.

So that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.

I love that he went to the text right away. I love it. He sets the stakes, then he goes right to the Word. That's how I would do it, and that's how I encourage most pastors to do it. The text should drive the message, and so we should let the scripture be heard at the outset in order to let it lead the sermon.

This is really, really great so far.

Aspire to live quietly. Make it your ambition to live a quiet life. How many of you came into this day, or you just think about life, and you go, what my ambition is to live a quiet life? So I hear a lot of young people go, oh, I want to speak to the crowds.

I have a message to the world.

I have a voice.

And then scripture says, make it your ambition to live a quiet life. What's he talking about here? Because we're living in a time when it's assumed that the virtuous thing to do is getting bigger and bigger crowd.

And so you're a successful believer. You're a great Christian because look at all these people you're leading. Look how loud your voice is. And I'm not saying not to proclaim the gospel. And if you read 1 Thessalonians, actually in chapter 1, Paul talks about how their faith is being proclaimed all around the world so that he doesn't even have to say anything about it.

But then to the same group of people, he goes, I want you to make it your ambition, aspire to live a quiet life. But I've been caught up in something these last few years, maybe the last 10 years or so.

There's just this assumption of, I've got to reach more people, more people, more people. I need more people following bigger crowds. But let me ask you, did Jesus, can you show me any verse in scripture where Jesus pursued a crowd?

Ooh, that's spot on. He's right. I made mention of this last week, but Jesus saw crowds come to him, but he didn't go out of his way to seek them. As a matter of fact, at the end of Matthew chapter 4, take a look at this.

So right at verse 25, it says,. And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis and from Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan. So the crowds come from all over because of his fame.

So that's right at the top, verse 24 there, his fame spread. But then watch this, chapter 5, verse 1,. Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. So he sees the crowds and then he turns around and walks away.

It's amazing. We're not told that he invites them or that he welcomes them.

Nope.

We're told that he sees the crowd and then walks up a mountain and begins to teach his disciples. That's what verse 2 shows us. So the crowds act as really flies on the wall and come to listen in on a teaching that Jesus is giving his own disciples.

Amazing. So Chan is right, and what's interesting is he's answering the three questions of the pastor at the pulpit differently than, say, Voti Bacchum, right? So again, the three questions every pastor should answer at the pulpit are what does the Bible say, what does the Bible mean, and how can we all live by it, right?

Chan gives what the Bible says, 1 Thessalonians 4, and he almost immediately jumps to what it means, especially for us today. Like in the next breath, that's what he does. Bacchum would probably have taken some time developing more of the historical context to help answer the first question more fully, maybe even pay attention to also the literary context.

That's what I do when I'm at the pulpit. But Chan doesn't do that, and I don't think that there's a whole lot wrong with it. That's just his style. And as long as he's answering those questions sufficiently for the congregation, he's doing a great job.

Or he looked at his disciples and goes, let's get more of you. Bring a friend. Like, do you see that? Because I see the opposite. I see him running from crowds. I can tell you many verses where he ran from crowds and escaped the crowds.

And so I just think it's unusual that we're all chasing crowds, more and more followers. And yet we think that's the right thing, the best thing to do. I mean, we're at Jesus 23. Let me ask you a question.

What did Jesus do when he was 23? Does anyone know? I mean, we know he was a carpenter. What did he do at 25? I mean, we know he was a carpenter. 28? Probably a better carpenter. I mean, we're talking about Jesus.

How is it that we don't know what he was doing when he was 23? It's almost like he made it his ambition to live a quiet life and to work hard with his hands.

That's good. And I think Chan knows who he's talking to, you know? I'm sure there's a wide range of demographic in the audience, but he's talking to young people right now, right? What are they doing at 23 to obey 1 Thessalonians 4?

It's pretty convicting.

You see, there's a principle in Scripture. In Luke 16, verse 10, it says that he who is faithful in little will be faithful in much. And I'm just—I get concerned. Um, I love the passion that I see in young people today for Jesus.

That gets me so fired up. And it's out of my love for you that I'm saying, you gotta be faithful in the little before you can be a voice to the world. We have a lot of people clamoring to be voices. We need fewer voices and more examples.

Amen.

In 1 Timothy 3, he says in verse 4, when he's talking about elders in the church, in 1 Timothy 3, he gives this principle again. Verse 4, he must manage his own household well with all dignity, keeping his children submissive.

For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.

Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil. Again, he's saying, look, if you can't manage your house, if you can't even—if your own kids don't respect you, if you don't even have a right relationship with your wife,.

What are you doing leading the church?

And then he says, be careful. Like, you don't want to give too much to a young convert because it's going to lead them into this trap,.

The condemnation of the devil. It's going to lead to this pride.

You give a platform to a young man? You better be careful with that. Man, I became a believer when I was, like, 15 years old. And something in me was like, man, you— like, I knew I had something in me, like I'm supposed to be teaching.

And I remember my youth pastor was so wise. He never let me teach. He seriously didn't. I seriously—I would listen to him teach, and in my head I'm going, I could say that better. I really just sat there as a teenager thinking that, and I still believe it today.

I probably could have. But in his wisdom, he says, no, go clean the bathrooms. Go stack the chairs. You're not preaching. Because he loved me.

I don't know how many times I've heard from young men who sense a calling on their lives. Well, scratch that. I've seen grown men with the same sense. But my mentor taught me a long time ago, and I've learned this the hard way myself, but before God sends you, He prepares you.

And that preparation is usually in the area of your heart. And by preparation, I mean God breaks your heart so that it can be humble, lowly, and tenderhearted for those that you should care for. To be a leader of any kind in the kingdom of heaven is to be a servant, to care for others.

It's not about—he's right. Chan's right. It's not about your own platform. It's about using the things God gives you to serve everyone around you. And that is only appreciated through the lens of a broken, humble, tender heart.

A lot of young men may know their Bibles, but it takes more than that to be a leader. And that's what Chan is communicating right now. Good for him. This is really good so far.

And he says, look, I don't want you falling into this. There's something about these lights. They aren't good for you. One of my mentors is this guy in India. And I remember him telling me this story.

He goes, you know, everyone's chasing a bigger and bigger platform. He goes, but if God wants to give it to you, he'll give it to you. And then he said, he goes, you know, I remember just— he goes, I remember my friend Teresa.

I'd visit her all the time. We would just go serve the poor, do our thing, whatever. And then one day God decides, I want the whole world to know about you. So everyone knows about Mother Teresa. And he goes, you know, never in her wildest dreams would she think to promote herself.

Just quietly do her thing. And then God decided to make her a household name. And I just always thought that. I'm like, wow, God, if you want to lift someone up, you can do that. But my wife asked me something the other day.

It was actually a couple months ago. She was reading in Matthew chapter 6.

Hidden Righteousness, Secret Prayer, and the Warning Against Self-Promotion

Do you notice how many stories Chan uses in his message? More so than Bauckham, right? It's incredibly useful to do this.

Why?

Well, because we learn information better through narrative. Did you know that? The way that our brains work as human beings, we learn and process information better if it's told through story. Now think about the Bible.

I think the reason why the vast majority of it is in the form of a narrative is for the very same reason. The Lord knows how he made us. And so he is communicating to us in ways he knows are helpful. If you are a pastor at the pulpit, stories are your friend.

The right story, obviously. Told at the right times, of course. But, you know, this isn't some cool, hip marketing strategy. This was Jesus' own methodology. How many stories did Jesus tell in his ministry?

Why did he tell those particular stories, right? Have you ever asked those questions before? That's a bit of a rabbit trail here. The point is, if Jesus told stories, we can tell stories too. They are extremely helpful in communicating the things of God to his people.

Where, in verse 1, it says, Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them. For then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others.

Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, but they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who's in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. My wife was reading that and she just asked me, she goes, does anyone do anything in secret anymore?

We're so into posting things, that even your quiet time is your Bible with a coffee and a little muffin, time with Jesus. And this passage, she goes, does anyone do anything in secret? Sadly, I go, yeah, sinful stuff.

And I'm not judging. And I understand forgiveness. I'm just saying, God, could we have another generation rise up that has nothing to hide? Because we hide our sin and then we post our good works. The Bible tells us to confess our sins to one another and hide our righteous deeds.

This is a powerful message, guys. I won't be able to play the whole thing, but I strongly encourage you to go watch the whole sermon. I'll give you the link in the notes. But Chan is on fire.

I mean, it's the exact opposite of what Scripture tells us to do.

He says, man, we've got to tell each other,.

Confess your sins to one another, make it known.

Look, this is what's going on in my life.

I need to walk away from this. And then if you're praying, then just close the door, lock the door, pray in tongues, pray in English. I don't care, just pray. And then care for the poor, do these good deeds.

But you don't have to tell everyone.

What if there was a generation where when you died, it's not like all this sin is uncovered.

But people go, whoa, look at all the good she did.

That we never knew about. Look at all these things that she did in private. And now he was working hard with his hands to give.

And all his money went to this.

No one ever saw his bank account and all of that until he was gone. And it was all good works uncovered. The Bible so that the outsiders would look upon it and have nothing bad to say about us. We need to confess our sins.

We're doing it all backwards. And we need to quietly do our works of righteousness where no one sees but the Father.

Love it.

You know, there's certain passages in the Bible where just for years I go, gosh, that doesn't make sense. Like I'd look at all the passages like in Luke 8 when he raises someone from the dead and then he tells everyone that saw it, he goes, don't tell anyone about this.

Imagine how frustrating that would be to you. You have a prayer meeting in your house and you raise someone from the dead. And he goes, don't tell anyone. Are you kidding me? Over and over.

You were healed.

Well, and the people who experienced these miracles on the ground in the first century, they wanted to go and tell. I mean, you know, Jesus had a reason for that. But the point is well taken by chance.

Of something and God says, I don't want you to tell anyone. One of the passages that always puzzled me was Revelation 10. In Revelation 10, you know, John is getting this revelation from the Lord. And then in chapter 10, it says the seven thunders spoke.

And so John starts writing down what the seven thunders are screaming. And God stops him and says, no, seal that up. And so you're just left going, well, what did they say? So you're telling me John was the only human being who knew what the seven thunders said?

And for the last 2000 years, there's one person who got to hear it. Just John. I go, that doesn't make sense. John's like, I'm just getting ready to post it. Nope. It's just for you.

Why Quiet Obedience Matters More Than Visibility

So we're nearing the end of this sermon. And it's very straightforward, extremely simple, which is in and of itself a wonderful method of communicating God's word. A lot of pastors like to turn things into three to six points, you know, or they look to break things down into multiple components.

But Chan has one point to make, and he's just driving home that one point by giving story after story and biblical verse after biblical verse of the same recurring theme. Live quietly. Live quietly. Mind your own affairs.

Work hard so that you may walk properly before outsiders. Because guess what? They're watching. Now, a couple points of criticism here, and if I may, and I'll, you know, try to be constructive here. But first, I think it would have been helpful to define what Paul meant by the word quiet.

Okay? You can go to the Greek, you can use the surrounding verses to help you out, but it would be nice to define this term for the audience, because maybe Paul had something very specific in mind by the word quiet, right?

I mean, certainly he didn't mean stop talking to people.

Right?

So something is meant by the word quiet. But how would we know what that specific word means unless it's brought out in the teaching? Chan doesn't do that. I think he presupposes that the congregation will know what he means by that.

And you know what? Maybe they do. But I would not take that for granted at the pulpit. The other thing is, remember the three questions, right? What does the Bible say? What does the Bible mean? And how can we all live by it?

That last question, it's an equipping component that comes out of Ephesians 4. I think that, to some degree, Chan has answered this, okay, in various ways, but it would be helpful, again, to spell this out a little more clearly for the audience so that there's no question that they understand how the scripture comes to bear on their own lives in today's culture.

Maybe Chan will do that, actually, because it's not over yet. Maybe he'll save that to the very end. So let's see what happens.

You guys, here's why I want to share this. It's real simple. I'm just about done because Michael took all my time. But here's what I want to say. What if by you living a quiet life and you doing things in secret meant that God would show you miracles, more miracles than you've ever seen, but they were just for you?

And what if by being quiet and seeking God, he starts thundering messages just for you? And he says, I've never told anyone this, and I'm not telling anyone this.

This is just for you, Francis. You can't post it.

I don't want you telling people that I told you something. Have you ever had a friend go, look, I've never told anyone on earth this, and I'm trusting you with this. Don't you tell anyone? You take this to your grave.

There's just this honor where you're going, oh my gosh, I can't believe you trust me. What if God Almighty, because he sees you in your prayer room,.

And no one knows about it.

And he sees what you do with your time and your money that no one knows about. And he just starts doing miracles and saying, that's just for you. Here's a message. I've never told anyone. Would that be enough for you?

Or would it drive you nuts? Because you go, wait, I can't post that. I can't gain followers through that. Would it frustrate you? Or would you go, oh my gosh, that'd be the greatest honor of my life.

Boy, that's really convicting. I think some of you might, you know, take issue with the loose kind of way that Chan is communicating the idea of God speaking. Somebody might push back and say, well, wait a second, you know, in the book of Revelation, God is communicating to a prophet.

Not everyone's experience is going to be that of a prophet. Like, John, okay, yeah, that's a good point. I don't have a problem with this, personally. I think that Chan has left enough room to interpret what he just said in the various ways that Christians do.

And he's drawing his hypotheticals technically from the examples out of Scripture. But, so having said all that, I think the point remains. Will we live our lives quietly or not? He's right. The Scripture teaches us to do that.

It was Jesus' own teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, and it was his own example, on occasion in the Gospels, to act this way. And if we're not obeying the Scripture, here's the question. If we're not obeying the Scripture, which many of us are not, let's be real.

Then why would we expect the Lord to use us? I don't think that question is off-limits at all. I think that's something we all need to wrestle with.

There's power in a quiet life. Now, I'm convinced God has some people that he wants to use as a voice, and that's great. I'm just saying there needs to be a lot more of us that are ambitious about living a quiet life, and excited to live a quiet life, because we actually believe in eternal rewards.

And then the very thought of, wow, God might say something to me. He might show me miracles. He might do so much more from my prayers. Because I get it. I remember being a young man, sitting in a crowd like this, and seeing a guy up front, and going, I want to go up there one day.

I'd love to say it was all godly ambition. But the Bible tells us to be aware of selfish ambition. And he says, where selfish ambition and jealousy exists, so will every vile practice. There's something about desiring this that is a selfish ambition, that is a jealousy, and it will lead to every vile practice.

And I believe we're seeing that in the church. And I'm just praying for a new generation that just says, you know what, God? I just want to go back to doing things in private. I just want to close my door.

I just wonder, God, would we see more miracles and hear more from you, if we made it our ambition to live like Jesus did, and just work hard with our hands, lead a quiet life, absolutely share the gospel with everyone we can.

But we don't need to post it all. We don't need to just let everyone know. I really believe that the next revival, if there is one here, it's going to be people like you that are just secretly praying.

And it's when we get away from posting all of our good deeds that we may see a movement of God, the power of God.

Love it.

Wow, what a powerful message, and completely true. I remember my own journey, you know? I've been saved for 15 years as of the recording of this video, and even then, I was not a young man when I got saved.

And I remember creating this ministry 11 years ago, and even back then, I really never had the desire to get up in front of people and speak. I don't know if I've mentioned this before in my testimony, but when I grew up, I struggled to speak.

I couldn't for a long time. I would either try to get the words out, and they would get stuck in my throat, and then I would just cry when I was very young, or I would stutter. I would try to get it out, and it would sound like, I don't know, a dying boat engine just sputtering and things coming out.

It was really quite a mess when I was young. And so when I got into my teenage years and into my college years, a lot of that for me, even though I was unsaved back then, was me trying to just overcome this humongous struggle that I had in the area of communicating.

And so when I got saved at 30, man, with all that in my history and background, I didn't have a burning desire to run up to a microphone here and, hey, everybody's got to hear what I have to say, you know?

So it's been a long journey, and there's been several moments along the way where it looked like things might take off for me in this ministry, whatever take off means, right? But at every turn back then, now I look back and I see the Lord, it never happened.

Only in the last few months has this ministry become visible in some sense to a large amount of people, and you know what? I only feel like I was the most ready for the Lord to bring an ministry just a few months ago.

Can you believe that? Along the way, there were so many times where I felt disappointed, where I was hurt emotionally, where I was brokenhearted over not only missed opportunities, but just my own sin, you know?

The Lord revealing my own pride, all this kind of pride that was wrapped up in there. So many lessons from the Lord and His patient and loving care for me to get me to the point where I feel like my heart is so tender for you, for those of you that continue to come back and watch and then you reach out in some sense, emailing me or something else, right?

And we talk to each other. I don't take any of that for granted. You want to know why? Because it's not, for me, it's not about making videos. It's about you. I'm here to help you. I genuinely care about you, about God's people, those who He has brought to me.

Even if it's just for one video, even for a moment, my heart breaks for all of you, and it drives me to continue to do this ministry. And that attitude and heart posture, that took time for the Lord to do that work in me.

And only when I was the most broken, you know, the most low I've ever felt in my life, all of a sudden, now the ministry starts to take off. It's funny how that works, huh? I'm diverting. Anyway, this was supposed to be about a sermon reaction.

I think it just got me, you know? Chan is right, and I thought this was a solid sermon. Even though I had a few notes on things that I thought could have been developed, this was so good. Do yourself a favor.

Watch the whole sermon. I'm gonna put the link for that below. But now it's your turn. What did you think about Chan's message? What do you think about living your life quietly? Is that easy for you in today's culture?

Let me know in the comments. I'd love to get your feedback. As always, if you made it this far, you need to join my Patreon community, even just to read the Bible with me. Yeah, we're studying the Gospel of Matthew right now on Patreon.

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You can ask me anything you want. The link for the Patreon is below for all of that. I will return soon with more videos, friends. Thank you for watching, but in the meantime, I'll say bye for now.