Follow Your Heart // “Follow Your Heart” And Other Awful Advice // Read
“Some things are better left unsaid.” Have you ever heard that piece of advice? It’s a good one. Especially when it’s applied to other bits of advice we often hear. Phrases like “Follow your heart!” or “Speak your truth!” sound helpful on the surface. But when you actually apply this awful advice in your life, you’ll see the results are not what you hoped they’d be. The good news is, there’s a better way to a better life—far better than living by one-sentence slogans that don’t actually work. Behind every piece of awful advice we can find a timeless truth from God that, when lived out in practice, will change our lives for the better.
Humans are not intellectual beings with emotions. We’re emotional beings who happen to have an intellect! Most of the time, we allow our feelings and emotions to guide our life. But when that happens, we end up making decisions on momentary, fleeting feelings. The good news is we don’t have to settle for this way of living—God has given us something better than our heart to follow when it comes to making decisions.
Well, good morning. I am so glad to see you all. It's great to be here today. I was so excited to get to share with you today on this "Follow Your Heart" theme, not just because I enjoy speaking and I got to tell you a little bit nervous. I told Rachel, I'm not 100% sure if it's because I haven't done this in a while or what but you know, I enjoy doing this. But the topic I get to speak about this morning, "Follow Your Heart" is one in which I consider myself somewhat of an expert.
My counseling career has been very, very busy. Throughout my lifetime, I started when I was Charlie's associate pastor working with him. I started doing the counseling the majority of it at the church, and it just grew and grew and grew to when I was a senior pastor, senior pastors typically don't do that. Because it's so time consuming. It really doesn't leave you time for the things that are really necessary to do, but it was hard to move away from. Now because my career has been so busy with that I'm going to tell you the truth. I could have booked myself full, FULL just with the people who followed their hearts into pure disaster. In fact, I could supply seasons of scripts for American Horror Story. I could do that. I really, I really could. It's a particularly insidious piece of bad advice of all these that we've been talking about today. Because it sounds so sweet. And it sounds so wholesome and so good. Just follow your heart sweetheart. Not good advice.
It kind of reminds me of directions. Now my ability to follow my heart on directions is amazingly awful. I am so lousy at directions. Can I get an amen from my family and friends? Yeah. Back in the day, way back in the day when Rachel was our only child and she was very little, my friend Tracy and I turned a two hour and 20 minute drive to Circleville to go to the Pumpkin Show there into a six hour drive. A six hour drive. And it was because we followed our hearts. We did what felt right. See, I don't know why. But like right now, right now I'm just telling you, that feels south to me.
Pretty sure it's not. But it feels south to me, I have no idea why it just feel south to me. So follow my heart, I get myself into a lot of trouble. Our husbands were waiting on us after they had already gone. They had gone to Columbus to go golfing and then on down to the Pumpkin Show to meet us. That was in the day before we had cell phones and all of that. We pretty nearly needed some major marriage counseling ourselves when we finally showed up there, it was pretty rough.
Actually, when we talk about following your heart, we're talking about making decisions. That's how you make decisions, follow your heart, you are determining the direction of your life. And so you decide to follow your heart. Well, there are two other ways, there are three basic ways that people tend to make life decisions. The first one is intellect, that's using your head. Intellect is using your head. It's rational analysis. It's where you weigh the pros and cons of a particular decision. In that particular situation, you weigh the pros and cons. And here's the thing to watch out for, other people who want to give you advice, and they want to direct your your direction in life, they want to direct your choice, they will mostly use this intellect thing. They will claim that they know the facts based on the facts that they see. And they will tell you what is right, this is the wise thing to do. This is the smart thing to do. They will look at things from their perspective and all the facts seem to line up to them. They think it through using what they perceive to be the positive and the negatives of your situation. And they will tell you what you should do. But if you were wise, you will know that most of the time just listening to someone else's facts about your situation, if you're wise, you'll know that rings pretty hollow. Because they don't know all the facts about you. They don't know all of that, they don't know everything about you. There's more facts than they see. And then there's also more than facts, even if the facts they are considering are actually pretty well true. But that's intellect, you can make your decision sheerly by your intellect, using your head.
Then there's the second one, it's intuition. That's using your gut trusting your gut. Entire libraries could be filled with books written on this subject. Now women supposedly have more intuition than men do. And it appears, neuroscience says it's actually true, and that's because men are more left brained, and women are more right brain, that's a stereotype, it's not 100% true. But on the on the average men, it's easy to remember left is logical. Men are more logical. Can I get an amen from the men? Yeah, okay, men are more logical. And ladies, you know, this is true, right is we're mostly more relational than men are, we're able to do that. Now, the truth is, men are brain damaged. Just joking. It is true, though, when a baby boy is being formed in his mother's womb, there are certain chemicals in the body that wash over his brain. And it does take out some of the connectors between the two hemispheres of the brain. Really true. That's really, really true in a very simple lay person kind of explanation. And so those connectors that connect rational, logical side and the relational side, there's not as many connectors for a man. And that's why they say that women are more intuitive.
But no matter how intuitive you are, intuition is pretty sketchy on definitive details, but we all can testify to the strength of our gut, right? We just feel down here, we just feel it down here. Science has found that the gut instinct is most accurate in predicting physical danger. In fact, if you will follow the research on rape victims, like date rape, that kind of thing, almost 100% of the time, when they will ask the victim, did you have any uneasiness? Did you have any concern about this person before it happened, and almost 100% of the time, in the last while before this thing happened, they felt uneasy. Their intuition told them something not good was about to go down. I remember on a Dr. Phil show quite a few years ago, they had policemen there talking to young people and talking specifically to women. If you feel that uneasy feeling in your stomach, it's they said, it's nature's gift, we know that it's God's gift. It's God's gift telling you run for your life. Get out of here, that gut instinct can be very, very big when warning us about nature.
Now intellect and intuition, if we're honest, can give us some incredible information. But it's just not good enough. Either one of them on their own is just not good enough. The overriding message from culture is one that's even more dangerous than these two, and it is your feelings and emotions. Follow your heart. People will say to you with all the best intentions in the world, what is your heart saying to you? What is your heart telling you? Well, you know, at the end of the day, you have to do what your heart tells you to do. What is your heart - your heart is your feelings and your emotions. And you can override facts. You can override your intellect, you can override that gut sense of danger, you can override all of that, because of your feelings and emotions for the moment. We can override everything else.
So what does that advice follow your heart really mean? Well, the first thing we have to do is look at that word follow. What does follow mean? Follow means that something or someone else is going to lead me. So to follow my heart, listen to me now. To follow my heart sounds innocent and pure and good. But to follow my heart means I am going to let my feelings and my emotions be my guide. How horrifically dangerous it is to follow our feelings, our desires, and our emotions. They will lead us by fear. They'll have us to be fearful. They'll lead us by fear away from something that is wise and wonderful. And they may lead us to something foolish and hurtful because of unreasonable desire. Your feelings are so fickle. Can I get an amen on that? Yeah, our feelings are so fickle, that they can change with a phone call. We can change a life decision with a phone call. We can change them with a criticism. Comments from your friends or family will make you doubt something that you knew was true a few minutes ago. It's just so true. Did you know that you can change deep feelings just because somebody encouraged you? And did you know that your feelings can go from here to here? Just because you're caught in a traffic jam. Yeah, it's crazy. It's crazy. Your heart and your emotions are so fickle.
If you follow your emotions, they will have you all over the map. And unfortunately, that's how many of us live with our decisions all over the map. We're unreliable, we're completely lost. Now the Bible will speak to us a lot about the heart. A variety of authors will mention it. In fact, over 300 times the heart is mentioned, Jeremiah was a prophet, and he worked with his own heart. He was the guy who struggled with depression. He was the guy who could sometimes be totally on top of things and, and sometimes totally underneath it, he worked with his own emotions. And then he also worked with the crazy spirit of emotions of the nation of Israel, that he was trying to help lead and they were all over the place as well. Listen to what he said about the heart. Sounds like a wise man. "The heart is deceitful, above all things, and desperately sick. Who can even understand it?" Well, then Jesus Himself, left no doubt about the condition of our hearts. Listen to what he said, "For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying and slander..." You know, in the Garden of Eden, we didn't get in trouble because Adam and Eve, sinned. We got in trouble because they thought about it and felt like it first. They got in trouble because of their emotions. All of those emotions are in your heart. Every one of those, you have the capacity for every one of those things. That's what Jesus said.
So let me ask you this. Let's just suppose that you have a major decision to make. And you're looking for a counselor. You're looking for a guide. And someone says, I know, I know this guy. I know this guy, or I know this woman. Yeah, I know them. They're a counselor. Let me let me just give you the references on them. And so you read the references and you find out that they're desperately sick, that they're deceitful. That they think evil thoughts all the time. They have the capacity for murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, lying, and they're caught up in slander all the time. How fast would you run from that counselor? Pretty doggone quick, right? Yeah, you'd leave a trail of fire behind you getting out of that. So then why would you want to follow your heart? Who is described in such a way by the very one who created you and knows your heart better than anyone else? Why would you want to follow your heart?
It's foolish. It's dangerous. Here's the truth. Our hearts never tell us the truth. They only tell us what we want. Okay, now I'm gonna get real pointed here. Okay. So don't throw things at me. Every one of you. The only thing you want right now is Jesus. Because we just sang about it. And it was all emotional. And we're all saying, You're all I want. Oh, you're all I want. Let's check in and get about two o'clock this afternoon. See how you're doing? Okay. Let's check in tomorrow. Let's check in on Friday night. Is Jesus all you want right then? No, no, you and I cannot let our emotions run us. This morning. We're singing our aspiration. But we're not singing 24/7 truth. Come on. Now that's worth an Amen. There we go. That's better. That's better. You have to give me a bunch of them today cuz I won't get any more for a long time. Okay, so, so help me.
Okay, so let's think about it this way. We all claim that we value health. And we all claim that we want to live a really long time, right? But when the alarm goes off, and we're supposed to get up and work out, our feelings whisper in our ears, right? Our heart starts talking to us and we say hey, it's only Monday. I got the rest of the week. I can do this. Right. Our heart whispers to us about the food that we're supposed to eat and not eat. And we just say we can just go ahead and do it. Just one doughnut.
Okay, this is even tougher. Every dad, every dad, with any values at all, knows that he wants to have children when they're 10 years old, when they're 12 years old, when they're 16 years old, that respect him and want to spend time with him. But this Friday night is going to be with the guys. But that woman at work, no problem talking to her just a little bit, we're just talking. And then because he follows his heart, this dad ends up with a fling that lasts about six weeks tops. You know, that's how long infidelity usually lasts. As soon as it's discovered, it blows up. That's the national average, six weeks. He blows up his children's trust, he blows up their future, he blows up everything he claimed value, because he couldn't spend time with them. And because he followed his heart into disaster.
Happens all the time. It happens all the time. If we will even be marginally honest, every one of us will admit that there's a certain measure of self deception that we deal with on a regular basis. It's at work in your heart and in my heart right now. That's why wise Solomon warned, "Whoever trusts his own heart is a fool." Fool. That's Proverbs 28:26. Let me ask you what that is. What did Solomon say that we were if we trust in our own heart? A fool, absolutely. A fool, we trust in our own heart. We trust in our own direction, our feeling and emotion we're a fool. And God thought it was important enough that all through these centuries, he said that he made sure that that lived through all the destruction. If you trust in your own heart, you're a fool.
The ugly truth is that our heart tells us what we want. It tells us what we want. It doesn't talk to us about our values, our heart, our feelings and our emotions talks to us about what we want. And listen. Another important thing, this is so important if I can, if I can make you sear this into your soul, I would. Your heart will tell you what you want. And it will give you what you want. Your feelings and your emotions will encourage you to have your own way 100% of the time. And let me tell you what, if you give yourself your own way and give yourself what you want in the moment, you will never get what you really want. You will never get what you really want. You will never get what you were created for. You cannot be giving into your feelings, your desires, your emotions, you can't do it. You're burning your house down around you when you do. You cannot do it. You'll never get what you really, really want. Why? Well, because following your heart prioritizes your momentary desires above everything else.
We don't want to admit what our heart knows. Our heart knows that we are all, without God's help, without God's help. We are compulsively selfish, we are self indulgent. And we are self exalting. We're always putting ourselves up on the top. Your heart is just like mine. And do you know what my heart wants to do? My heart wants to prioritize what feels best for me. My heart, my ugly, deceitful heart can absolutely justify what is very painful to other people. What is very inconvenient for others, as long as it gives me what I want. You know, that old relationship breakup line? It's a joke, you know, they say it all the time. It's not you. It's me. That's how we break up with each other. When we break each other's hearts, it's not you. It's not you. It's me. And inside your heart is telling you, you know, it's true. It is me, it is me. It's all about me. It's what I want. It's what I want right now. It is about me.
We'll say that not just in relationships, but whenever we do something that is going to hurt other people, that's going to be inconvenient. It's going to be detrimental to them. We will convince ourselves by you know, a little bit of self deprecation, I'm so sorry to let you down like this, it's the hardest thing, but it's you're working out good for me.You know that's true. You know, it's true. My heart insists that what I feel is what is right and best, and others are just wrong.
I want you to repeat a sentence after me if you can stand to get it out of your mouth. Okay? If you can stand to say it. I give myself huge credit for seeing and knowing more than anyone else. Say it with me. Okay. It'll be a big growing step for you to say that. I give myself huge credit for seeing and knowing more than anyone else. How about turning to someone and looking straight in their eyes and say, I give myself huge credit for seeing and knowing more than you do? Go ahead. Go ahead, have fun. Here's the truth. Here's the truth. Our deceitful hearts are deceiving us. Our deceived, deceitful hearts are deceiving us. And our desires are tricking us.
If I had $100, for every time I've asked this question and gotten the same answer in a counseling session, Pastor Jacob, I can make a fabulous contribution to our Here and Now campaign. It goes like this. Someone's in my office. Their marriage is just absolutely a wreck. And there's pretty much no way to put it together. And it's within the first year of their marriage. It's just awful. And I will say to them, did no one tell you that you were headed for disaster? And the answer is 99 times out of 100. Well, yeah, kind of, kind of - investments, bankruptcy. All kinds of problems. People are are in there. And they're telling their sad story, which sounds very reasonable to them. But from the outside looking in, I'm saying bad decision. bad decision. bad decision. bad decision. And I will say did no one give you any advice about this? Well, yeah. But I thought - yeah, you thought. You thought with your heart. You thought with your deceitful, deceitful heart.
Another reason that following your heart is a bad idea is because our hearts will lead us down a path of vagueness and confusion. Following our hearts is a very windy and treacherous path to take. One minute, your feelings tell you to go this way. And in a snap, they tell you to go this way and you're all over the place. Following your heart with all the fickleness and all the changes of it will personally exhaust you. It will make your soul weary. And do you something else that it'll do that's really, really rough? It will destroy your credibility as a leader. It will destroy your credibility with your family. It will destroy your credibility with other people. And you'll tell your sad story. You'll tell your sad story and you'll say, but but you know, I only ended up in this position because of this. And your deceitful heart will tell you all kinds of excuses. You just won't flat out admit that you followed your heart into a hole. You don't admit that. You make your excuses. You say the things that sounds good to your heart. And most people are going to be too polite to do it actually to your face. But inside their eyes are rolling clear to the back of their heads. Because the only one who believes your story is you.
You know, how many times have I heard this? Yeah, but pastor Brenda? Yeah, yeah, I know. I know. I've been married two times and engaged three other times. But I swear to God, this time, it's really love. You know, it's a wonder my eyes haven't fallen on the floor. Because I'm just like, seriously, now, seriously, now you're talking to hear your head roar. Nobody believes you. Nobody believes you except you and your deceitful heart. If you and I are Jesus followers, we all have to face a very hard truth. My heart is a liar. Your heart is a liar. It is undependable, and it will cause us to squander our one and only life on multiple fickle decisions. Again, it will use you use your fear to lead you away from the path that God wants to take you. It will lead you away from things that are good and right. And it will use your unwise desires and feelings to lead you to choose fool's gold, instead of the real deal. As the man I had in counseling once told me and it seared itself into my heart. In that moment, he said it with a cynical chuckle. You know, what pastor? Every terrible decision I ever made, seemed like a great idea at the time. Can't you agree with that about your own bad decisions? It's because we have a deceitful heart. The hardest thing. If everyone went with every idea that seemed great to them, in the moment, our crazy world would be even more chaotic than it is.
So now, where's some hope here? If you want to live a life that is truly satisfying, and at the end of it, discover with great joy, that you have not lived out just what you wanted in the moment, but you've actually lived out what you truly claimed to value, you have to quit buying the lie that what you desire is what's most important. Whenever you go with what you're feeling in the moment, whenever you go with what gets you applause in the moment. Whenever you go with what seems comfortable, convenient, or even comforting in the moment, you're in for a hard ride, you're in for a very hard time. And again, everyone will see through your excuses on why life is so hard on you. But you'll likely keep believing yourself. Because you've fallen in love with your deceitful heart. So what do we do? We must turn to the one who made our hearts and who knows them. Did you know this? Your heart was never meant to be followed. Your heart was meant to be led. Your heart was meant to be led by God.
Your heart was meant to be led by God and being obedient to his word and to his principles. Having your heart be led by God is intentionally trusting him. On purpose submitting to him. It's letting him drive the car instead of bouncing around and playing bumper cars. Whatever I run into is just what I run into. Here's the thing. Every single one of us, every single one of us, every single person on the earth, bears the image of God. That means that every single one of us are capable of thinking of feeling and acting in ways that reflected the very character of God. Isn't that amazing? We, every one of us have that capacity. But by default, our auto pilot settings are all messed up. Because of the influence of sin into the human story. Back there, Adam and Eve in the garden, we all became sinners from then on. And this makes our hearts untrustworthy. Following your heart will repeatedly lead you away from healthy habits to unhealthy habits, from healthy relationships to unhealthy ones. From wise investments of your time and energy into poor investments of your time and energy. Your deceitful heart will lead you into a job that you're a bad fit for. But it was a great promotion. So you took it anyways. That's just foolishness. Decisions made with the heart are made with poor motives, decisions made with the heart are immediate gratification. I'm going to get applause for this. Now I'm going to get what I want. Right now I'm going to do this. Following your heart is easily influenced by the opinions of others. Your heart is impulsive. It doesn't weigh the consequences. It gives temporary relief and satisfaction because it doesn't want to listen to me. It doesn't want to tolerate the suffering and the inconvenience of living by our true values. That's why we follow our hearts. We can turn and we must turn to the source of our hearts for hope.
Here's really good news. Read this with me. This is 1 John 3, "We know that God is greater than our hearts." Have you ever heard better news than that? "God is greater than our hearts. And he knows everything." That's 1 John 3:20. "We know that God is greater than our hearts. And he knows everything." You know, you may be saying, Brenda, I just I have these desires, I do trust my heart. What can I do about it? Well, you need to look to God, he is greater than your heart. He's wiser than your heart. He knows everything. He knows everything. And listen, he knows when we are painting our true motives and virtuous ways to excuse the wrong choice. He knows what we truly need. And he knows, listen to this, he knows what your true self, the self you were created to be and live out, he knows what it truly values and what it truly needs. He can help you. He can help me because he is far greater and far wiser than our hearts.
Jesus spoke to a huge crowd of people one day he was actually speaking to his disciples and lots of people came to listen, and he says this "Blessed," or happy, "are the pure in heart." On the one hand, that's really good news. But then when we hear what we've just heard about our heart, it's really bad news. But Jesus is the one who can purify our hearts, he can take us there. And he will work with us if we will work with him every single day, to cultivate a heart that is motivated by a singular purpose. And that is to pursue him with everything. We need someone to help us clarify our true motives and our true desires, because we just don't tell ourselves the truth. That's why Jesus told his disciples, He said, look, I've, I've given you all I got while I'm here. But it's better for you - Pastor Jacob just preached on this not very long ago. It's better for you that I go away. Because when I'm here in the flesh, I can just be with a couple of you at a time. But when I go away, I'm going to send someone else, I'm going to send someone else who will be with you. Always. He knew how important it was. And they knew how important it was because they followed their deceitful hearts into betrayal of the one they claim to love the most over and over again. They kept doing dumb things, just like you dumb things just like me, because they followed their hearts. And he said, I'm going to ask my Father, and he will give you another helper to be with you forever. Jesus said that. And he did. He sent the Holy Spirit. And when you and I make our daily commitment and our daily goal to pursue Jesus with all of our hearts, the Holy Spirit will teach us and He will make a strong.
Most of us fail. We say, you ever say this? I didn't know. I didn't know. Oh, come on. You didn't know. You did know. Most of us don't fail because we don't have enough knowledge. We fail because we have a very weak, lousy, flimsy will. We're just not committed to it. The Holy Spirit will help us and you need it and I need it because we tend to cave when we need to be resolved. And then we get all bullheaded when we need to be brokenhearted. Right? That's our deceitful heart. We need the Holy Spirit to help us. Jesus, through the Holy Spirit wants to lead your heart. Don't follow your heart. Follow Jesus. The Holy Spirit, if you know Jesus Christ as your Savior, the Holy Spirit who now lives within you, will show you true through His Word. He will speak truth to you clearly and cleanly and plainly if you will shut off your deceitful heart.
Listen, here's one thing you need to tell your heart: The Holy Spirit will never lead you to do or say anything that is contrary to his character. If it's contrary to the character of Jesus Christ, you didn't get that from God. That was your feelings. That was your emotion. When your heart tries to bow to Jesus, that old nasty heart of yours will rare up and want to be the leader again. But you can submit to the Holy Spirit. You can, and you can change your choices and your outcomes. King Solomon, what a guy. He was the son of David, King David. He came to the throne in great shape. In fact, God said to him, before his coronation, God said, ask me anything that you want, anything that you want, and I will give it to you. Well, think about it. If God asked you to give you anything that you wanted, what would you ask for? Would you ask for long life? Would you ask for wealth? What would you ask for? Solomon said, God, if you'll give me one thing, make it a wise and discerning heart. God was so awed by that, because our deceitful hearts typically don't say things like that, that God said, because you didn't ask me for power and wealth and all these other things that were so so likely, I'm going to give those to you too. And he had a wise and discerning heart. God gave him everything, and he gave him that. But Solomon started to step away from the heart that God gave him. And he started listening to his deceitful heart. And he made so many bad decisions. He had over 1,000 wives. How bad a decision is that? Like? Like, I'm gonna say most you guys have a hard time with the one you got if you're married, right? Okay, so here's the here's the thing. When he started listening to his deceitful heart, he made bad decision after bad decision. Later in life, when he was reflecting and he was looking back over his life and how he had squandered everything that God had given him, He put together the formula that he should have followed. And he gave it to us as found in Proverbs 3:5-6. It was my husband's and my life verse, his life verse, and he passed it on to me and it became ours together. Listen to what he said, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding." What's the saying, don't follow your heart. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Don't lean on your own understanding. Don't lean on your gut. Don't lean on your intellect. Don't lean on your desires. "In all your ways, submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight."
Think of all the heartache that Solomon went through to come to this point. You don't need to do that. He's told you right here what to do. Don't follow your heart. Don't follow your heart. "Trust the Lord with all your heart. And don't lean on your own understanding." The Message is a tremendous translation, paraphrase of the Bible when it says it in such a wonderful way. Let's look at it. I'm going to ask you to read it aloud with me if you will. "Trust God from the bottom of your heart. Don't try to figure out everything on your own. Listen, for God's voice in everything you do. Everywhere you go. He's the one who will keep you on track. Isn't that the best news? Isn't that the best news right there? That's the way to go, to take yourself to a regret free life. God is faithful. God is faithful.
Now, so many people have told me I'm 68 now and you know, I've had an incredible life, my life just, you know, sometimes when I think about my life, it blows me away. And I think how did I get to be here? How did I get to do these things? How did I get to have the husband that I had? How did all of that happen? And and many people express to me that they think my life is charmed. No, it's not. No, it's not. I've had all kinds of struggles. I've had all kinds of things, but I have no regrets. I have an incredible life. I have much more joy than anything else. And do you know why? It's because there was a moment when I decided I don't have to be controlled anymore by my deceitful heart. I decided that I would start trusting and following God, I would submit to my Savior on everything.
Now the truth is, I found out what we just sang this morning. "I'm not enough unless you come," but tomorrow, you're not going to think so. Tomorrow, your heart's going to tell you you are enough. Tomorrow your heart's going to tell you go ahead and say that thing, they deserve it. Your heart is gonna lead you in all kinds of regretful paths. You have to wake up every single day knowing I am not enough unless You come. I am not enough unless I follow you. I'm just not enough. I'm just not enough. You know what you will do if you're not making that choice? You will mistrust God, because your deceitful heart. You know what your deceitful heart will tell you when you're choosing a husband or a wife or choosing a friend? God doesn't want the best for me. I know what's better for me. Your heart will tell you those lies. And you know why? When you're losing a husband, your deceitful heart will tell you those things too. I'm a witness, your deceitful heart will tell you. God knew it was better for Charlie to be here. Your deceitful heart will tell you, life is over. Your deceitful heart will tell you all kinds of things. Because until you recognize and choose to recognize it on a daily basis, that you are not enough, you will never be enough, your heart is not enough, your heart will never be good enough. You're not enough unless he comes. Until you make that choice, you will try to control your life, you will try to control the lives of your children, the lives of your friends, the lives of your spouse, you'll try to control everybody's life. And it will be coming from a place of deceit, and wrong desires. All I want is who you are, trusting God from the bottom of your heart.
If Jesus came to die, live a life here a sacrificial life and death for you and I, because he and the father loved us so much, would he leads you astray? I think not. I think not. That's your deceitful heart. My heart was not designed to be followed. It was designed to be led and yours was too. Yours was too. Let's pray together about that.
Father, don't let me follow my heart. Break my heart. Break my heart so that I can see how foolish my own desires are, and how much you want to work with me to take me into the place that I was created for. Help me see that I was not to follow my heart. Lead my heart to do your will. Which is my best choice always. Help me today to choose that all I want is who you are. Help me tomorrow and the next day and the next day and help my friends as well. When my desires and my emotions don't line up with your heart, Father, help me to follow you. To follow you into greatness, to follow you into satisfaction to follow you into fulfillment. Help me to do that this day, and every day that I have left here. And then durely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Amen. Amen.
Thank you for your awesome attention this morning. I'm so grateful to be here and still get to be with you. It's a great joy to be part of the wonderful team that is serving here, serving wonderful people like you. It's a great joy. If you made any decision for Christ online or here today to follow him more closely. Anything that we should know about, I hope that you'll let us know journey starting point online. So I hope that you'll do that. God is leading Cornerstone in great directions. And you know who Cornerstone is? It's you. It's you. He's leading you in great direction. So please be here and be part of the team. Would you stand with me please and receive the blessing of the Lord?
May Jesus Christ who knows you best and loves you most lean you and your heart today and every day. Amen.
