Listen to Your Heart?
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Intro:
Intro:
We’ve probably all heard the phrase before along these lines:
“Just listen to your heart”
“Follow your gut”
“Do what you think is right”
or “Follow your heart”
“Do what you think is right”
And they all operate along the same trajectory and idea, and that is this:
Do what you think is right, or
Listen to what your body, mind, or heart is telling you to do
Do what feels right “in here”
Now, how many of you think that is good advice?
How many of you think that is bad advice?
Why?
Our question submitted tonight is this:
“Everyone tells you to listen to your heart because God will show you the way, but why don’t I always know what my heart is telling me to do?”
Which again, is a really good question
Proud of you all
But again, this week, we’re going to break this down because it’s extremely important to look at the first part of this question, in order to know the second part
Listen to Your Heart
Listen to Your Heart
Society, our world today, is riddled with thousands and thousands of songs, ads, movies, tv shows, ideology that is centered around this phrase, “Just listen to your heart”
And you know what, the Bible talks a lot, I mean a WHOLE LOT, about the heart
If you would turn in the back of your Bible to your concordance, you’d see a whole lot of references to the heart
How do you think it talks about the heart? Good or bad?
When I think of this, one of the first passages I go to is , turn there with me
God is speaking through Jeremiah here, and what He says is not very good:
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it”
Yikes, right?
So when I hear the phrase, just follow your heart, I come to this passage, and I ask myself, “Why in the world would I do that? Why would I follow something that is desperately wicked?
It’s like when you’re watching a movie, and a person is being lured in by a terrible person, and you’re sitting there screaming “Don’t go with him!!!”
But they ultimately do what? They follow right? And it never turns out good!!!
That’s essentially the same thing we are doing when we just “follow our heart”
We’re following something that God refers to as deceitful and wicked above everything else!!!!
Jesus even says in this, “ 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Pretty much this: everything that is wrong with a person is because of the fact that he followed his own heart
Charles Spurgeon - “The heart is the rudder of the soul, and till the Lord take it in hand we steer in a false and foul way.”
Examples
Examples
In fact, I’m reading through Judges right now, and a phrase that is repeated in Judges, and Proverbs is this:
“Right in his own eyes”
And this is the same exact thought as follow your heart.
And if you know anything about Judges, what was the pattern for the Israelites?
Do what was right/follow their heart —> things go really bad —> cry out to God —> He rescues them and then it all starts again
DON’T FOLLOW YOUR HEART
Murder - How many of you think it’s okay to murder?
Pro-Abortion - they are convinced that they are right, and they are acting upon that belief
Hitler - how many of you think he was right?
“Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.”
AGAIN - WHEN WE FOLLOW OUR HEART, WE WALK RIGHT INTO WICKEDNESS
So..the heart is very dangerous.
Create In Me A Clean Heart
Create In Me A Clean Heart
So, we’ve got a pretty big problem then…because so many of us are guilty of following our heart. We tend to operate this way pretty much all the time
But if it’s only capable of leading us into sin....what do we do?
Turn to with me....someone read verses 7 - 12
Do you see?
Our wicked hearts can only be cleansed and made new by God
He will remove our heart of stone and put in us a heart of flesh
He will renew our spirit
He will uphold us
The world tells us to follow our heart
God tells us to give it to Him
The world tells us to do whatever is right in our own eyes
God tells us that only He can show us what is right
So we come before God and we realize our depravity, that our heart is wicked, and we ask him to cleanse us, to purge us, to wash us and make us whiter than snow
And then we’re good right?
Then we can follow our heart without any reservation?
Not exactly
See, we still have this sinful body, and we still will want to follow after our old desires
And so even then, it’s a dangerous game to play
Like we talked about Sunday, blessed are the pure in heart
2nd question - How do I know then, what my heart is telling me to do?
2nd question - How do I know then, what my heart is telling me to do?
And so the second part of the question is still tricky. “How do I know then what my heart is telling me to do?”
And I think what they were getting at is this, “How do I know what the will of God is in my life?” “How do I know what God wants me to do with my life?”
Because the asker wasn’t wrong, God will show you the way
But if my heart is wicked and deceitful, how can I trust it
Well firstly we go to God for salvation - step 1
Step 2 - We need to align ourselves with Him
We talked about this Sunday night....we all know the overarching will of God for our lives as creatures with a new heart
and that is to glorify Him by making Him known to all nations
There’s no other answer to that question
But on a personal, individual basis, how do I know where to go to college, what should I do for my job, whether I should marry this guy/girl or not, and on and on and on
And those are really big questions, because so much depends on those things.
And the truth is that we really only know those things when we are walking in a personal, daily, intimate, real, true relationship with Him. When we are seeking after His heart.
Because the more we know about Him, the more we want to glorify Him
Because the more we walk with Him, the more we want to be like Him
Because the more we see Him, the less we see ourselves, and what we view as right in our own eyes
McKesson training - sitting side by side at people’s desks for two weeks, watching everything they were doing, practicing what they were doing
And a big question to ask yourself in these questions is WHY
When your WHY is glorifying Him, the HOWS AND WHERES AND WHENS will make themselves clear
Pick someone for why they want to do a job. ask them why?
For me, they were monetarily driven:
Dentist - nice car - I’ll do that
Physical Therapist - job with a top professional team, rub shoulders with them - I’ll do that
Government - full time job - gs-14 - making six figures, I’ll do that
When I finally quit following my heart, and started longing after His heart, God made a path very clear to me
Closing
Closing
Don’t trust in yourself, trust in God
Your ways are wicked, His ways are perfect
Don’t rest in salvation alone, get to know Him
If you’re ever feeling wayward, or unable to know what God wants for you, ask yourself this, “Am I aligned with Him? Have I been spending time with Him?”
Trust that He will make your path clear
You already know the ultimate goal, to glorify Him
Trust in His plan, listen to His leading, and He will make your paths straight