Today is the day that the Lord has made. So let us rejoice and be glad in it. And everyone said, Amen. So as we continue this sermon series, calling out cultural lies, I want to address two quick things as we get going. First one is this.

I got a communication in light of this sermon series, and it basically went like this. Oh, here we go. Another self-righteous pastor wanting to call out culture when he should be calling out his congregation Now I got that I immediately thought You clearly haven't heard me preach brother I Have no problem calling out this congregation to live more faithfully and fully To God do you agree with that?

Amen. And I start with myself. Which leads to the other thing that I want to say. And I've said it before in this sermon series, but I definitely want to say it again. And that's the reason that we're doing this sermon series, calling out cultural lies. We're not doing this to pick on anyone.

See, God, through Jesus Christ, calls Christians to love everyone. We're not called to agree with everyone, but we're called to love everyone. So we love people. And see what these lies are doing is that they're keeping people in darkness.

And I don't know about you, but I don't like it when people I love are lied to. So this sermon series is not about picking on people, it's about pulling them out of darkness and into God's glorious light. That's why we're doing this, amen?

Amen. Which leads to the lie that I want to discuss today. And I'll just tell you, this lie, this cultural lie, is not exclusive to any one group or any one American demographic or either political affiliation. I've heard people left, right, up, down, black, white, we all have said this probably at some point, and it's this lie. The lie of follow your heart. Now, this will be a hard pill to swallow, but my hope is that coming out of this sermon, you will never again tell someone, follow your heart.

And so we're going to look at just one verse today, just one, but I think it's very powerful and I think it sums it all up. So please, if you have your Bibles, would you turn to Jeremiah chapter 17 verse 9. Now if you do want to use the Bibles we provided we are very happy for you to do that. Quick reference that's on page 819. But as you're turning there let me just remind us and show us why this nearly 2,500 year old passage is still relevant today. It's helpful if we know the context. So here let me just lay the context as you're finding that passage. This of course was set in the Old Testament.

Now this was during a time when God's people were divided into two nations, the northern kingdom called Israel and the southern kingdom called Judah. Now when the prophet Jeremiah comes on the scene, the northern kingdom of Israel has already been destroyed by Assyria and only the southern kingdom, Judah remains, and this is where Jerusalem was. And God sends Jeremiah to tell this nation, he tells them, if you don't change course, you're headed for the same fate as the northern kingdom, except it won't be Assyria that comes to destroy you. It will be Babylon. See, God had made a promise with his people, we call it a covenant, that they would follow him as their God, and he would love them as his people as he called them to be a light in the world. But here's what was happening. They were taking their status as being God's people and they got lazy and they stopped following in his ways. God had told them, take care of the poor, stay pure and distinct from the world around you. But these people were beginning to look only to themselves and they were beginning to assimilate to the cultures around them. And God is like, if you're not going to follow me, why would I protect you? God is saying, if you're going to openly sin against me, why wouldn't I judge you? And so God sends Jeremiah to deliver this message. And Jeremiah is like, listen up, my kinsfolk, we are way off path and it's because our hearts have led us there. Rather than following God, we have followed our sinful hearts.

Nothing at all like what is happening today, right? There are so many similarities. But I'm not talking about the culture at large. I'm talking about Christians. Let's look at some of these stats. Only 44% of Protestants attend church weekly.

That means on any given Sunday around 55% of the people aren't there Only 5% of churchgoers give 10% of their income and Did you know that if Christians would tie 10% of their income God's Church would have an extra Brace yourself. I hope you had your medication this morning God's Church would have an extra $139 billion annually. Imagine the impact the church could have, because listen to me, that $139 billion is going somewhere, more than likely to Disney, Verizon, and the big three auto companies. Only 40% of Christians pray, 40% of Christians only pray when they are at church. Only 45% of those who attend church actually serve at church, which means the vast majority of Christians are more than happy letting someone else do all the work. Now listen, I'm citing national trends here. I'm citing national trends.

Peace Church, I fully believe that we are bucking those trends at every turn. But there are still people who call themselves Christians who only show up sporadically, they only give when it's convenient, they don't serve, and then we all sit and wonder why the church doesn't have more of a positive influence in our society. Because here's the moral of the story, the state of the church is not pointed in a good direction and it's a heart issue. We look back on these people for the Old Testament. We can't believe that they would behave the way that they did But let me ask you are we really any different? In love I ask you are you any different? For those who went to Sunday school, you know how the story ends the people did not listen to Jeremiah or to God and

And Babylon does come in and destroys the kingdom and men women or children and children are carted off to Babylon Where they have to live in exile among the foreign people with a foreign culture But at this point in our passage The verse we're gonna read today Babylon hadn't come yet and Jeremiah is warning them He's pleading with them, but they aren't listening. And this is what he says. So would you hear the Word of the Lord?

Jeremiah 17:9

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick. Who can understand it?

This is God's Word. Let's pray and we'll continue. Let's pray. Father, we thank you, Lord, that we get to be able to gather here today so freely. Lord, we want to give you glory this morning as we lift up the name of Jesus and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. Lord God, we need you to continue to mold and shape hearts more and more into the image of Jesus. For it's in his precious, perfect, and powerful name that we pray these things. And everyone said, Amen.

So church, the world and the culture and many of us are saying even to our kids, follow your heart. But I'm here to give you this one main idea today. The rebuttal to follow your heart is very simply this. Follow God, not your heart. Follow God, not your heart. And we're gonna look at just one verse. We'll look at some other verses. But we're gonna primarily look at some at one verse today. And we're gonna try and siphon out three things from it. Here is ahead of time.

Follow God, not your heart, because our hearts are liars, our hearts are lacking, and our hearts are lost. Alright, first thing, let's see what God's truth says about all of this. Our hearts are liars. Listen to this first part of this verse and tell me that this doesn't fly in the face of everything our culture is saying. Jeremiah 17 verse 9 starts off by saying, the heart is deceitful above all things. I'll tell you this, when I have a bad day, my heart says, go get a box of donuts. My heart says, when someone treats me bad, treat them bad back. My heart says, if someone's going to be snarky to you, be snarky back. I don't know what it is for you, but I guarantee if you followed your heart 100% of the time, your life would not turn out well. Why? Because our hearts are actually broken. I don't mean broken as in your boyfriend dumps you. I mean broken as in they do not function properly. They are broken. They're missing pieces and they're broken by sin. This is why we need God not just to make all things new, but we need God to give us a new heart. Because our heart is broken by sin and because it's broken because it's broken. It's deceitful It lies to us. So no do not follow your heart follow God Why because he wants better things for you than what your heart does But this is so hard this is so Impossibly hard in our world, especially here in 21st century America.

There is not much that's not available to you that you don't have the means to get It is so hard to say no to our hearts in the world that we live in Our hearts lie to us and they tell us that what we desire is a good thing when it's not but we must Remember our hearts are broken. They lie to us a Broken clock lies to you about what time it is

Even though it may not mean to and our broken hearts lie to us even about what is truly good for us. And let me just remind you of something. I think many times our own hearts can speak sweeter lies to us than even the devil himself. Sometimes we blame the devil when we need to blame our hearts. The heart is deceitful above all things. Listen to me. It's not just that it's deceitful. It's deceitful to you. Your own heart will lie to you.

This is why we need to hide ourselves in the Word of God. So follow God, not your heart, because our hearts are liars, but also because our hearts are lacking. Our verse says the heart is deceitful above all things and then it says and desperately sick. This doesn't just mean sick as in your heart has COVID, but sick as in it's twisted. This is why the old King James would translate it like this. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Our hearts are wicked and it's wicked in full. But understand the picture here. It's not just that our hearts are unwell. It's not just that our hearts are unholy. Our hearts are un-whole. It's broken with missing pieces. Our hearts are lacking. They lack health. They lack wisdom and discernment. They lack the righteousness to make decisions that are truly best for us. And one of the biggest things they lack, which is also the biggest reason why we shouldn't trust them, hear me, hear me, especially you teenagers. Our twisted hearts want to serve our own passions rather than God's glory.

If our hearts were true and well and trustworthy, they would lead us to do the greatest good. Listen to me, not just the greatest good for ourselves, but the greatest good that there is, which is bringing glory to God. But our broken hearts seek to bring glory to ourselves, but we're not meant for that. We can't handle the weight of glory. It crushes us because we are neither worthy nor able to handle the glory that our hearts desire. Our hearts seek to glorify ourselves. And so what do our hearts do? Our hearts give ourselves to our passions. But when we do that, with an unsanctified heart, giving ourselves to our passions, we don't get glory, we get pain. And when this happens we see the final truth. We need to follow God, not our hearts, because our hearts are lost. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick, leading to this both love and hate. It says this, who can understand it? If you've lived any length of time, you can look back and say, I can't believe I did that. If you've lived any length of time, or maybe you're in that moment right now, you're like, I can't believe I did that.

I can't believe I'm doing that. Why am I doing this? I know it's wrong. The reason you say that is because your heart's lost. It's lost, it's wandering, it's looking for what it wants, but it doesn't know what it wants because it's broken. And don't forget the context here. Please don't forget the context. This was spoken 2,500 years ago to a different people at a different time, but it shows us that people are the same no matter when, no matter where. This was originally spoken to a people who were called to look at their life and make change or suffer the drastic consequences.

God was using Jeremiah to call his people back to himself, back to his plan, which was for their good. He wanted something better for them than what they were chasing after. God was saying, stop following your heart. It's leading to your own destruction. Turn and follow me.

Return to me and have life. Church, one of the clearest times in Scripture that we see God say, do not follow your heart, if not the clearest time, comes from Numbers chapter 15, a book of the Bible we rarely get to. Now, I will read it for you, but here's what's going on.

At this point in Numbers chapter 15, God is speaking through Moses to the people. Numbers chapter 15, verse 37 on down says this, the Lord said to Moses, speak to the people of Israel and tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner. And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord to do them not to follow after your own hearts and your own eyes which you are inclined to whore after who would love to say that in church well God said it verse 40 so shall you remember and do all my commandments and be holy to your God I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord your God. Did you hear that language? I want to be your God. It's all over this. A couple of things from this passage. We see God use some pretty strong language here and it's to wake us up so we can understand the reality of what it means to follow our heart.

When we follow our hearts, it's like being a prostitute. You know what a prostitute does? A prostitute gives herself to that which does not love her back. And that's what we do when we follow our hearts. We give ourselves to things that will not love us back. This is why our main idea is follow God, not your heart. Why? Because God will love you back. Because God loves us. And I love how God called his people to put a blue cord on their clothes, a symbol, a constant symbol to remind them not to follow after their heart, but to follow after him. Now listen, I don't know if anyone in here actually has a tassel on their clothes with a blue cord running through it. Maybe we should, but I'll tell you what many of us do instead. We have Christian tattoos. We have WWJD bracelets. We have cross necklaces. We have fancy faith shirts. Christians, listen to me. Yes, adorn yourself with reminders of what God has done. It's actually kind of biblical, but don't do that. And then laugh in God's face by following after your own hearts, following after things that won't love you back, no one will love you like the Lord himself. So follow God, not your heart. We can see the folly of following our heart even before the Bible gives us the wisdom not to do it. And so as we've been looking at in this series, we've been looking at how lies, true lies crumble under the weight of truth, but true lies actually crumble under the weight of their own deception if we are wise enough to stop and actually analyze the lie that we're buying into. So let's talk about how the lie of follow your heart falls short of everything it promises. See, the world and even some well-intentioned people and parents will tell us, follow your hearts. And you and I have said this because the heart behind it is at least well-intentioned, but it's very similar to live your truth. It seems good, but it's misleading. Here's what it means. Let's look at this from two different angles here. So, first thing, follow your heart, meaning, what we try to mean is only you know what you want, so go after it. People, people, is it not entirely possible that others might know you better than you know yourself.

Is it not often said that part of growing up is realizing that your parents were right? And your pastor.

I'm waiting for my kids to get to that point, too, by the way. We need to learn that others can see things in us that maybe we don't see.

But listen, it also goes another way. It also goes for the things that we want. Maybe others can see things in what we want more than what we can see. For instance, a girl likes a guy. If others know this gentleman better, isn't that something that she should listen to? Or what about a career? Do you follow your heart or do you listen to the advice of those who may be actually in that profession? Even before we bring the better answer of listening to God, we can already see that following your heart has a number of holes in it. Another angle is this. Follow your heart, people mean, don't follow the crowd, do what makes you happy. Listen, these statements seem nice and encouraging, and it's just what our selfish, pride-centered world wants to hear. But listen to me, just because the crowd isn't worth listening to, that doesn't mean that your heart is. There's a third option. God.

I was recently listening to this presentation that this gentleman was giving, and it was on following your heart. And the presenter said some things that I could not disagree with more. He said this. He said, following your heart is the very definition of what it means to be human. Now listen, you have to understand the context from which this man was saying these things.

Part of his story was that he was a cancer survivor. He had gotten very sick and was on the brink of death, but he overcame and he got strong and he overcame cancer, which is amazing and commendable and I'm very thankful for it. But that experience tainted his perspective and led him to craft this presentation that he goes around and gives. It led him to give this advice. He said this, he said, the secret to following your heart is one thing. Plan your funeral. The realization of our place in this world, that all of this is temporary, can become a lens through which matters of the heart are most easily viewed. Listen, I think that really deeply resonates with so many people. But if I could summarize how I heard this and why I think it's so popular, I think it'd be like this. I think this is kind of what he was saying. This life is all you got, and soon you will be gone.

So follow that passion because what matters is your happiness in this fleeting moment that we call life. We love sentiments like that. I'm even feeling the warm fuzzies here. But let me throw a monkey wrench into this. What if the end of your life isn't the end? What if, yes, life is short, but what if it's not temporary, but eternal? So this puts us at an existential crossroads here. Church, listen to me.

If, if the greatest good and the highest purpose is our own personal happiness, I would still tell you don't follow your hearts. But that's not the highest good, that's not our greatest purpose. We were made for more than this momentary life.

We were made for more. And not just made for more, I'm telling you, we were made for the most. The greatest good and purpose is the glory of God. And from that, listen to me, from that we get the greatest joy because that's what we were meant to do. We were designed to love God and to worship Him. But when we put our, when we put ourselves first, we will never be happy because you'll never have enough. But if you put God first, that's when the greatest joy comes, because He's more than enough. But we don't get, and I get it, we don't get the greatest joy out of bringing God glory or through worship while we have broken hearts, which is why God says this, says, And I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. This is powerful and somewhat graphic imagery of God ripping our stony heart out of our chest and giving us a new heart and a new spirit.

But here's what's going on. Ezekiel is pointing to the new covenant which we are now in and it's in this fulfilled promise that we get this new heart and this happens when we place our faith in Jesus and we trust in his life, death and resurrection which we call the gospel and then also we get a new spirit which by the way is the Holy Spirit who fills us, indwells within us so that we could live the life that God has called us to do. But this happens when we place our faith in the gospel of Jesus, Jesus Christ, who gave up his body to death on the cross so that we could have life, so that we could have a new heart. And by his resurrection from the dead and by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, living this new life with this new heart, we can truly not just love God, but truly understand, experience, and receive the love of God, from which we can truly worship into a season and a moment, an experience of joy that our dead hearts could never bring us. A joy that can only be found in God through the gospel of Jesus Christ as we rejoice in Him and we love Him and we worship Him with a new heart given to us by the gospel, as we experience the greatest good which is bringing God glory glory that he deserves Which our hearts were made for And this doesn't happen through following your heart. This happens through giving our hearts to God. And so let's Let's do that now. Amen.