Follow Your Heart?
How many of you remember the old Fruit Loops commercial which featured Toucan Sam? Let me test you. "Follow your nose. (Say it!) It always knows." I found this website that catalogs misheard lyrics. Tell me how you like this version. "For flavors of fruit, just follow your snoot." Some of you are going to be repeating this phrase all day long in your head. Some of you will be at the store and you'll wonder why you picked up a box of Fruit Loops. It's because jingles work. They stick in your brain like gum sticks in your hair.
I know it's not a jingle per se, but how many you of have heard the phrase, "Just follow your heart."? How many of you have given that advice to a friend? We hear this everywhere. It's the single most common self-help advice out there. You're not sure whether to quit a job or take a job. Just follow your heart. Should you go to that college or another one? Should you continue dating or break up? Should you stay married or get divorced? Just follow your heart. Why did you lie, why did you steal, why did you ruin your marriage, and what led you to make that choice? "Ah, I was following my heart."
From a biblical perspective, your heart is your will. When we tell people, "Follow your heart." what we're really saying is, "Do whatever you will." Now what kind of advice is that? It's not advice at all. It's consent. It's approval. The moral ethic of today is to follow your heart and do whatever you will. Is it any wonder that people are in such trouble today? It's because everyone is a law unto themselves. Remember what the apostle John said in 1 John 3:4 (ESV) about sin? "Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness." Sin is you doing whatsoever you will.
So how is lawlessness, and following your heart and will, working out for you? If you are a Christ-centered person, and your heart is set on the things of Jesus, we don't have a concern. But if your will is not set on the things of Jesus, you're probably in a world of hurt. Proverbs 14:12 (ESV) says, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death." Jeremiah 17:9 (ESV) says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" In Mark 7:21-23 (ESV) Jesus warns, "For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person." Romans 1:24 (ESV) describes how, "God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity....."
So are you sure you want to follow your heart? You wouldn't want your enemies to follow their hearts, so why would you encourage your children or other people you love to follow their hearts? Or why would you follow your own heart? In Ezekiel 36:26 (ESV) God promises, "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 give you a heart of flesh." In Luke 10:27 (ESV) Jesus says, "And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind..." Colossians 3:2 (ESV) says, "Set your hearts on things that are above, not on things that are on earth."
Be wary of following your heart! Instead of being led by your heart, let your heart be led by God. The heart is like the bridle in a horse's mouth. It turns the whole body. Give your bridle to God, let him lead your heart, and he'll lead you into paths of life and righteousness.
Allow me to steer your attention to 1 John 3:19 (ESV) which is our text. It says, "By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him (God)." This is the fundamental issue. Our hearts don't need the well-intentioned, but often misguided assurances of men. Our hearts need the assurance of God himself. Friends, that's the best kind of assurance there is! But too often, we're more concerned with the assurances of people instead of the assurances of God. Our text suggests five ways that we can gain assurance from God.
Reassurance comes through Yielding.
1 John 3:20-21 (ESV) says, "...for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God..."
This is the core issue. Think back to your week. How many times in a given week did your heart condemn you? You were about to do something, and your heart condemned you. You were about to say something, and your conscience rebuked you. You were about to click on something, and something in your mind said, "Don't go there." Whenever our heart condemns us, we have an important choice to make. Do we proceed with our sin? Do we do whatsoever we will? Do we follow our evil heart? Or do we yield to God?
Remember what God told Cain in Genesis 4:7 (ESV) as Cain was about murder his brother Abel? "If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it."
When sin presents itself, we have a choice to make. Is God greater than our heart, or is our heart greater than God? Does God know everything, or does my heart know everything? John says that God is greater than our heart, and God knows everything! This is the fundamental difference between a Christian and a non-Christian. The Christian follows God to life. The non-Christian follows his heart to his own peril.
I've noticed that the more we defy God, the more we tend to seek reassurance from people. If God is showing you something, and it's peace you're seeking, there is no substitute for yielding. Our goal is that in whatever we do and say, our heart never condemns us. Our goal is that we always have confidence before God. Reassurance comes through yielding to God, not defying God.
Reassurance comes through Asking.
1 John 3:22 (ESV) continues, "...and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him." One of the greatest assurances we can have in walking with God is answered prayer. When our will is aligned with God's will, when our heart is yielded and it's our goal to please God, we receive whatever we ask.
There are certain things that are always God's will. First, it's always God's will to give you wisdom. James 1:5 (ESV) says, "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given (to) him." Second, it's always God's will to forgive. 1 John 1:9 (ESV) says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Third, it's always God's will to break the tyranny of sin in your life, and set you free from wicked temptations, people, and forces. Psalm 34:4 (ESV) says, "I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears." Psalm 71:4 says, "Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and cruel man." Fourth, God promises to always meet our needs. We just have to ask. Philippians 4:18 (ESV) says, "And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus." Fifth, God promises to bring healing into your life. James 5:13 (ESV) says, "Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray." James 5:15 (ESV), "And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven." Sixth, God promises to save your soul. Acts 2:21 (ESV) says, "...everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."
Answered prayer is one of the greatest assurances that God's favor rests on you. But answered prayer only comes when your heart is fully yielded to God. If what you want in your heart of heart pleases God, the answer is yes. God will give you the desire of your heart.
Reassurance comes through Believing.
1 John 3:22-23 (ESV) says, "...and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us."
There are two heart-reassuring commandments mentioned here. First, there is believing in the name of God's Son, Jesus Christ. Several times in recent weeks someone has said to me, "I don't feel God." More often than not, what we feel has absolutely nothing to do with God. We have this tendency to overly trust and misinterpret our emotions, our impressions, feelings, intuitions, moods, experiences, impressions, and circumstances. When things are great, God is great. When things are bad, we wonder where God has gone.
Feelings are not the basis for our relationship with God, nor are they an accurate barometer. Feelings aren't facts, nor do they always reflect reality. Our basis for assurance is believing in the name of Jesus. It's taking God at his word and trusting what he says, no matter what we feel. Otherwise, our emotions are like shifting sands. Or our emotions leave us like a boat in the sea being tossed about by every wind and current. God's word anchors us. God's word gives us a rock solid foundation to build upon.
Sometimes it's not our feelings, but our works that we rely upon as a basis for reassurance. The nature of the religious man is that we construct arbitrary standards of righteousness for ourselves. "If I do this or if I do that, then I am saved." We approach God legalistically and programatically. ("If I attend this church thing, and that thing, I will be saved"). We approach God traditionally. ("If I do this sacrament, or sing that hymn, then I will be saved.") We approach God devotionally. ("If I go sell all I have and give it to the poor, I can save my soul.") Our only approach to God is by faith and belief. We must approach God by trusting in Jesus' righteousness, not our own. See how liberating the gospel is? Believe on Jesus and you will be assured of salvation.
Reassurance comes through Loving.
1 John 2:23 (ESV) says, "And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us." This, to me, is the critical test of a heart properly aligned with God. Do we love one another? We don't love one another in order to get saved. We love one another because we're saved. 1 John 4:7-8 (ESV) says, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love." In fact, let me tie this with the apostle John's next point.
Reassurance comes through Abiding.
1 John 3:24 (ESV) says, "Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us." When our heart abides with God, when our heart's yielded, when we're praying and receiving good things, when we believe on Jesus, then our lives manifest the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
The analogy here is that of a vine and its branches. When the branches derive their life-sap from the vine, they have the energy and strength to bear clusters of fruit. So if a person is abiding in God, what is the fruit? What evidence does the Spirit of God manifest in that person's life? Galatians 5:22-23 ESV) says, "...the fruit of the Spirit is love (as in brotherly love) joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law." Pretty amazing. The heart that does whatsoever it will produces all sorts of vile things. Mark 7:21 (ESV) says, "For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness." But a heart yielded to God? It produces the fruit of Spirit.
Follow your nose or your heart. It hardly knows. Follow your God. He always knows.