Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Trinity
Sermons. This week we're continuing our sermon
series, The Bible Doesn't Say That, where we
look at things that sound really spiritual but
aren't actually scriptural. Follow your heart.
That's something you've probably heard in the
world. It's something that is the topic of a
lot of popular music. But is that really in the
Bible? Turns out it's not. In fact, the Bible
says your heart is deceitful above all else.
So are we supposed to follow our heart? What
is the way of Jesus? Tune in as Rob unpacks these
questions and more. Today's reading is from the
Gospel of John, chapter 16, verses 7 and 8 and
12 to 15. Jesus said, the Holy Spirit won't come.
If I do go away, then I will send him to you.
And when he comes, he will convict the world
of its sin and of God's righteousness and of
the coming judgment. There is so much more I
want to tell you, but I can't bear it now. When
the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you
into all truth. He will not speak on his own,
but will tell you what he has heard. He will
tell you about the future. He will bring me glory
by telling you whatever he receives from me.
All that belongs to the Father is mine. This
is why I said, the Spirit will tell you whatever
he receives from me. The word of the Lord. in
the middle of a teaching series that we're calling
The Bible Doesn't Say That. And you guys know
there are certain phrases or verses in the Bible
that maybe actually aren't in the Bible. We just
always thought they were in the Bible. Or they
are in the Bible, but they don't actually mean
what we thought that they meant. Like, you know,
God helps those who help themselves. It's actually
not in the Bible. Or do not judge. It kind of
is in the Bible, but maybe it doesn't mean what
we think it meant. We've been seven weeks at
this now, and there's no end in sight. We're
going to keep on going. We're going to keep on
going. And today, we are tackling a phrase that,
you know, I think many of us have heard. In fact,
in some ways, it's a bit of a creed that our
culture lives by these days. And that is follow
your heart or just follow your heart. You see
this in books. You see it in movies. You hear
it on talk shows. People put it on art and they
stick it on their wall. People get little pieces
of jewelry and they hang it around their neck.
And of course, we also love to sing about following
our heart. I did a little search and there are
some songs out there that are called follow your
heart. I don't know why, but a lot of them seem
to be by these like metal bands that like love
to do these rock ballads. So you got Triumph.
They sing about Follow your heart. There's this
other band called Scorpions, right? It's just
such a weird title. Scorpions. Follow your heart.
It doesn't seem to fit. I don't know. But anyways,
there they are. One that we are probably all
familiar with is Rock Set, right? How many people
here know or remember Rock Set? Do you remember
this big hit by Rock Set? It wasn't called Follow
Your Heart. It was called Listen to Your Heart.
I don't know where you're going, and I don't
know why, but listen to your heart. Come on,
sing it with me. Before you tell him goodbye.
Yeah, off it goes, right? Now, perhaps the most
interesting title I came across for a song about
this was where Reba McEntire and Vince Gill sang
a beautiful country duet called The Heart Won't
Lie. The thing that's interesting about this
title, though, is that's exactly... What I'm
going to say to you today is actually the heart
does lie. And for that reason, I'm sorry, Triumph.
I'm sorry, Scorpion. I'm really sorry, Roxette.
I'm sorry, Reba. But we are going to say that
following your heart might make for a great soundbite
or a great song, but it is not a great way for
you to live your life. Today is actually a really,
really good day to talk about this because today,
as we've already heard, is the day of peace.
Pentecost. And it's the day that we celebrate
that God has actually given us something better
to follow than our hearts. He has given us his
very self in the form of his spirit, his Holy
Spirit that can guide our hearts. So we're going
to get to that in a minute. But the way we're
going to structure today is basically this. I'm
going to talk about the meaning. I'm going to
talk about the mistake, and then I'm going to
talk about the message. What do I mean by that?
Well, what is the meaning of follow your heart?
What do we mean when we say that? Secondly, why
is it a mistake? Why is it really bad advice
to follow our hearts? And then thirdly and finally,
what is the real message? The message of Pentecost?
The message of the Bible? That we should... have
in our hearts as we leave this place today. All
of this is kind of part of the notes that you
were given on the way in. I encourage you to
follow along. We're going to jump right in by
talking about the meaning. What is the meaning
of follow your heart? When we say, hey, just
follow your heart, what are we really saying?
Well, Heart equals desires. That's what the word
heart kind of connects to, this idea that if
we follow our heart, what we're really following
is our wants. We're following our feelings. We're
following all of our emotional impulses. We're
letting our emotions get into the driver's seat
of our life, and we're letting them take the
wheel. We're giving them authority over the decisions
that we make in life. In other words, to follow
your heart is this philosophy that would say
that the heart is actually a very true and reliable
guide of what you really need and want in life.
That's right. To follow your heart means do what
you want to do. Do what feels right. Trust your
gut. Go with your intuition, right? This sounds
so real. And it sounds so authentic. We love
this. This is the kind of thing that you might
expect to find in the Bible. Because lots of
times, you can probably think of times when this
worked for you. You followed your heart and it
worked out. However... It doesn't always work
out, does it? In fact, I would say that most
times it doesn't work out for us to follow our
heart. I'm going to give you a little example.
Let's say you're an accountant and you're a good
accountant. You make a decent salary. You bring
home the bacon for your family. But deep in your
heart, you say, no, that's not my passion. Accounting
is not my passion. My passion is food. I love
food more than anything. And so you've kind of
been thinking about this for a while and you're
like, you know what? I don't want to be an accountant
anymore. I want to be a chef. I'm going to be
a chef and I'm going to open a restaurant. The
only problem is you can't cook. You're a horrible
cook. In fact, like your signature dish is burnt
toast. Or pizza with the cardboard still stuck
to the back of it, right? You want set off a
smoke detector while you are boiling a pot of
water. You are not a good cook, but you want
to follow your heart. So what do you do? You
take out another mortgage on the house. You quit
your job. You take all of your savings and you
open your dream restaurant. The heartbeat. And
you are all in. You are so invested. Now, you
have never run a restaurant before. You've never
done anything like this before. And your menu
is really not so great because somehow you managed
to create spaghetti that is both crunchy and
mushy at the same time. And one of your customers
found a melted plastic spoon inside their lasagna.
And pretty soon, the critics are giving you all
sorts of horrible one -star reviews on Yelp.
They are just absolutely eating you alive. They're
just savage. And pretty soon, nobody's coming.
Pretty soon, your money dries up. Pretty soon,
you have to close the restaurant. And now you
and your family are broke. What went wrong? What
went wrong there? Well, it turns out... Following
your heart can actually be really bad advice.
You probably know someone, or maybe it's been
you, and you followed your heart once into a
career you thought was going to be so fulfilling
because you just followed your heart and you
had that sense this is where God was leading
you, but only you soon were overwhelmed and you
were completely unqualified. Or you followed
your heart into a relationship. Oh, your eyes
locked across the room and you knew just like
that, this was the person for you. You followed
your heart. And then a little while later, when
things got really toxic, you were like, what
have I done? Or maybe you followed your heart
into a big purchase. You know, I feel like it's
time to upsize. It's time to kind of get a bigger
house or to get a bigger car. And you followed
your heart. But in the end, you just wound up
broke. Or maybe you followed your heart because
you had this sense that God was calling you on
an adventure to move to a brand new city. I have
this sense God is calling me. My heart is telling
me you're going to start over in a new city,
but only to find out later that you felt really
isolated and really lonely and disconnected.
What is going on? How does this happen? Well,
it first happens because of this. Our desires
might be real, but they are not always reliable.
Just because you feel something deep down doesn't
mean it's true. Desires are real, yes, but the
Bible tells us they can also deceive us. Your
desires can actually convince you that something
harmful is good, that something temporary is
worth giving it all for, that something selfish
is noble. You know, your heart plays tricks on
you. That's why Jeremiah said, the heart is deceitful
above all things. That statement is exactly the
opposite of Reba McEntire's song title. She said,
the heart doesn't lie. This says, the heart is
deceitful above all things. I'm so sorry, Reba,
but you know this is true because you yourself
have convinced yourself. at times, to do things
that you knew were wrong, right? And you just
have this way. We all have this way of deceiving
ourselves. Here's an example. On every street
corner in this town is a Tim Hortons. You walk
into a Tim Hortons and there's this big tray
of donuts that are staring up at you. You don't
need a donut. You don't. No one has ever in the
history of the world needed a donut, but that
doesn't matter. You want the donut. You want
the donut. And so you're going to now go through
this exercise where you're going to convince
yourself that you actually should get the donut.
You're going to say something like, oh, well,
they're so small. I mean, look, they're just
tiny little, tiny little donuts. Plus, they have
a hole in the middle. It's mostly air anyways
in there, right? And, you know, maybe if I get
a Diet Coke or a Diet Pepsi or something with
it, then it'll kind of cancel each other out.
And if I look at my Fitbit, it says that I've
already walked like 6 ,000 steps today. And then
sometimes people even get biblical about it.
They'll be, oh, well, you know, God. The Bible
does say God gave us all things for our pleasure
and our enjoyment, and I want to enjoy a donut.
And so there you have done it. Your heart has
done this little deception thing, convinced you
to do something that you really don't need to
do. Now that, of course, silly example. But it's
not silly when your heart convinces you to pursue
a relationship that you shouldn't pursue. It's
not silly when your heart convinces you to purchase
something. you really shouldn't buy. To visit
a website, you really shouldn't go to. See, our
hearts lie to us. And if we follow them, we will
end up in a very bad place. You know, James said
this. He said, each person is tempted. When they're
dragged away by what? By their own evil desire
and enticed. And then after desire, this is our
hearts he's talking about, has conceived, it
gives birth to sin. And sin ultimately gives
birth to death. Now that is something. Sin and
death. You trace it back, it all starts with
our misplaced desire. That is the first mistake
we can make and why we should never just follow
our hearts. And that is because our desires may
be real, but they are not reliable. But secondly,
a second mistake why we shouldn't just follow
our hearts is that... Our hearts aren't as pure
as we think. Now, I know that motivational speakers
and musicians tell us that in our hearts, that
is ground zero for purity. You want to know where
the pure you is, where all goodness really resides?
Go to the heart. That's what we are told. But
in truth, our hearts are not always beautiful.
In fact, they can be pretty messed up places,
our hearts. Jesus said, for out of the heart
come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual
immorality, theft, false testimony, lying, cheating,
slander. Our hearts are a dumpster fire and these
are all the fumes that are like floating up into
the air. All of our spiritual problems ultimately
trace back to our heart problems. And if you
take it all the way to the end of the road, ultimately
our hearts are willing to rebel against God completely.
A fool says, not in his mind, a fool says in
his heart, there is no God. That is your heart
speaking. Your heart can turn its back on God.
So I'm just trying to say, your heart's not always
a pretty place. There's lots of gross stuff going
in there all the time. Even think about the last
week. Think about your own heart this past week.
How were your thoughts and your attitudes? Were
they always kind? Were they always generous?
Or... When that guy, or you know, that guy who
cut you off in traffic, were you like, oh, it's
okay, sir, don't worry about it. You must have
a medical emergency. I'll pray for you. I hope
everything's going well for you. No, you probably
were far less sympathetic, far less pastoral,
said a whole bunch of things that you wish you
hadn't said, right? Because our hearts are actually
this really messed up place. And speaking of
words, look back on your last week. How were
your words? Jesus said that our words spring
from our hearts. So if you look at your words,
you know what's going on in your hearts. Were
all your words encouraging and truthful and nice
and gracious? Or were they critical? Were they
judgy? Were they sarcastic and mean? I am just
saying all this to say that if we actually just
acted out on all the impulses and stuff that
are going on in our heart, even if we did that
just for one week, we would be in such a load
of trouble by now. So no, our hearts aren't as
pure as we think. So the third reason, though,
why we can't just follow our hearts, why that
is a mistake, is simply this, that our hearts
are built to follow, not to lead. Another way
to say this, our hearts are built to be led,
not to lead us. Right? Let me show you a couple
examples here. If you look in the book of Proverbs,
Solomon says, listen, my son, and be wise and
direct. Your heart and the way. Notice he says,
you have to direct your heart. You can't just
follow your heart. You have to steer your heart
in the right way. Or trust in the Lord with all
your heart. He doesn't say trust in your heart
and let that be your compass. No, he says you
have to trust in something bigger and greater
than your heart. You have to trust in the Lord,
right? There's a huge difference, right? Our
hearts were never meant. to be in the driver's
seat. And when we ask our hearts to lead our
lives, we're asking something of them that they
were never meant to do. Only God can lead your
life. So why is following our hearts a mistake?
One, because our desires, though real, are not
reliable. Two, our hearts are not as pure as
we think. And three, our hearts were designed
to follow something, not to lead us. All those
reasons. The Proverbs sum it all up by saying,
he who trusts in his own heart is a fool. So
we're going to end the sermon there today. Thanks
for coming, everybody. It's been a great Sunday,
and I hope you have a great time out there trying
to follow your hearts and being so foolhardy.
Now, we can't end there, because all we've now
done is name what the problem is. But what we
really came here to do is to figure out what
the solution is, right? If my desires aren't
reliable, if my passions can't be trusted, if
my heart can't be followed, then what do I do?
Who do I follow? How do I live? That is a really
great question. Now, this scripture reference
is wrong. It should say Ezekiel 36, 26, and 27.
Point is, thousands of years ago, A prophet named
Ezekiel predicted a solution to the problem of
the human heart. He said, one day God is going
to send his spirit to change our hearts, even
better, to guide our hearts. God said, one day
I will give you a new heart. And put a new spirit
in you. And I will remove from you your heart
of stone. That's that divided and deceitful heart
that we have. And I will give you a heart of
flesh. And I will put my spirit in you. And get
this. And I will move you to follow my decrees.
You know what he's saying? He's predicting a
day when we will no longer have to stumble around
in the dark trying to follow our warped and twisted
hearts. No, he is saying a better guide is coming.
And people, they waited and they wondered, what
will it look like when this new guide arrives,
this spirit that was predicted? Well, it was
about 2 ,000 years ago. On the day of Pentecost,
and all the disciples were gathered together
in the room, Jesus had risen from the dead. He
had ascended into heaven. And then, with a rush
of wind, and with tongues of fire, and with the
speaking of many different languages, the Holy
Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, came upon the disciples
in a way that he had never come, the world had
never seen. And now we celebrate that even today.
The good news of Pentecost is this. You don't
have to rely on your heart anymore to lead your
life. Because now you can follow and you can
rely and you can walk in the way of the Spirit
instead. It is hard for me to imagine this, but
Jesus actually said it's better to have the holy
spirit with us than to have jesus himself which
is he actually told his disciples he said very
truly i tell you it is for your good that i am
going to go away because unless i go the advocate
which is another word for the holy spirit will
not come to you but if i go i will send him to
you right in our reading today from john's gospel
i want to end by showing you three ways that
the Holy Spirit coming actually helps us steer
our lives in a better direction. First, the Holy
Spirit leads us by convicting us. That is what
Jesus said he would do, the Spirit. He said,
when the Spirit comes, he will convict the world
concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.
Some of you, you see that word convict and you
immediately have a negative feeling about it.
You think of condemn or something like that.
But that's not what it means. Conviction is...
actually a really, really good thing. It is far
better to be convicted by the Holy Spirit than
to be left to the meanderings of your heart.
If we follow our feelings, who knows where they're
going to lead us. But when the Spirit convicts
us, we know we're being led in the right way.
It says the Spirit will convict us of sin. In
other words, the Spirit will come and will tell
you what is right and wrong in your life and
what is right and wrong in this world. The Spirit
will come and convict us of righteousness. In
other words, He will show us a better way to
live. The Spirit will show us a more godly way
to live. And the Spirit will also convict us
concerning judgment, we're told, which means
that the Spirit is going to show us that our
decisions, our choices, make a difference. For
this world and for the next world. While the
heart waffles this way and that, the spirit convicts.
Have you ever gone driving with someone and they
were in the passenger seat and they said they
knew the way? They said they knew the way, but
they didn't know the way. They were just like,
I think you turn left here. Or I feel like we're
going in the right direction. That's what it's
like to follow your heart. But when the Holy
Spirit comes, it's like a GPS. A GPS does not
guess. It knows the way. It reroutes you when
you're going the wrong way. It makes sure you
get to your destination. That is the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit convicts us when we're going the wrong
way. The Spirit steers us in a better way. And
the Spirit is not meant to be the passenger in
our car, but we can actually surrender our life
to the Holy Spirit. He can take the wheel and
reorient all of our desires, pointing us in the
right way. So that's how the Holy Spirit guides
us. by convicting us. But Jesus actually uses
the word guide when he speaks of the Holy Spirit
as well. He says, the Holy Spirit won't just
convict you, he will also guide you into all
truth. Now, that means the Holy Spirit's not
just like saying, Rob, you need to go that way,
but he's actually going to guide me as I go that
way. You might say, Tell me what that looks like.
I would love to know how God would guide me along
life's journeys, and we can't spend enough time
on it, but I would say that one of the best things
you can do to be guided by the Holy Spirit is
learn how to pray. What is a guide? A guide is
not just someone who gives you information then
walks away. No, a guide is someone who walks
with you on the journey, and you are in constant
conversation with them as you are moving along
your trip. Prayer is that way that you have a
running conversation with God as he guides you
each and every day in the big decisions you're
making, but also in the little decisions too.
That is the most important way that God the Holy
Spirit directs your life. When you pray, when
you really pray, you are not just offering up
God a list of things you want him to do, you're
entering a conversation. And over that time of
conversation with God, you start to recognize
his voice, and you can follow his leading. My
sheep listen to my voice, Jesus said. I know
them, and they follow me. The more we pray, the
more we learn to recognize his voice guiding
our life. Have you ever been praying, and all
of a sudden, God puts something on your heart?
And you're like, where did that come from? Maybe
it was a feeling or this sense of peace or he
dropped the name of someone into your thoughts
or he gave you this burden to do something, to
act in a certain way. That is often how the Holy
Spirit guides us in our times of prayer. So one
of the best prayers we can learn when we come
before God is something like spirit of truth.
I want to hear what you have to say today. Spirit
of Jesus, show me the way to go. Because to follow
the Spirit, we've got to listen to the Spirit.
To listen to the Spirit, we have to make time
for prayer. So, don't follow your heart. One,
let the Spirit convict you. Two, let the Spirit
guide you through prayer especially. And three,
let the Spirit speak to you. Jesus said, the
Spirit will not speak on his own. He will speak
only what he hears. And he will tell you what
is yet to come. Two things. One, do you guys
know the Spirit speaks? And secondly, the Spirit
will not speak anything on his own, but will
only speak what God the Father and God the Son
are also saying. Which says something very, very
important. I want you to understand this. But
that means that when we read the Bible, which
is how God has spoken to us, the Holy Spirit
will never speak something radically different
than what we find in the flow of the Bible, right?
Because the Bible is God's inspired word, and
it was inspired by the Holy Spirit when it was
written, but it is also inspired by the Holy
Spirit when we read it. If we were to read something
in the Bible and it went in a total different
direction than the Bible itself, or if we had
a sense that the Spirit was speaking to us and
telling us something very different from the
Bible, then that would mean that the Spirit is
actually speaking on his own, which is exactly
what we were just told the Spirit would never
do. The Spirit would never speak on his own.
So therefore, when you open the Bible, you're
hearing... the Spirit speak to you. These are
God's words written to you, inspired to guide
your life and to direct your steps. If you want
to know what the Spirit is saying, start by looking
at what he's already said. Develop the habit
and develop the pattern of reading the Bible
every day, okay? That's one way the Spirit speaks.
But there's actually another way I think that
the Spirit speaks, at least I've experienced
this. It's when someone else says something to
you that we can't hear for ourselves. Maybe you've
had a moment where a friend says something to
you, and they didn't know what they were saying,
but boom, it went right to the heart of you.
Or maybe you had a moment where you were listening
to a sermon, and man, it felt strangely personal.
Or you were talking to a mentor, and that mentor
said something to you, and it was something you've
been trying to ignore, but they just brought
it up. In all those ways, that is how God uses
his people to speak. into each other's lives.
The church, the body of Christ, the Spirit speaks
through his people. So yes, today we celebrate
that the Holy Spirit has come to you and to me
and to you, but also to us as a community. So
all that to say, the question is not, does the
Holy Spirit speak? Jesus already told us, the
Spirit speaks, right? The question is, are we
listening? Are we reading his word so we can
hear what he has already said? And are we being
part of community so he can speak to us in the
lives of others? That's how you follow the voice
of the Spirit. You open your Bible and you open
your life to others. So then, how do we end?
Should we follow our hearts? Well, I'm afraid...
The answer, I think, for the most part is no,
right? And your heart, though very powerful,
is often deceitful. It can inspire you, but it
can also trick you. It's a great passenger, but
it is a horrible driver for your life. And that's
why the message of the Bible is not follow your
heart. It's follow Jesus and be filled with the
spirit of Jesus. In fact, I would say that the
only time you should follow your heart is when
your heart is following the Holy Spirit. What
this means is, let's say you're new to church
or you're new to Christianity. Maybe one takeaway
for you today is to ask yourself, have I ever
really opened up my life to the Holy Spirit?
You may want to pray as Britton leads us in just
a few moments. You may want to pray a prayer
like this. Jesus, I open my life. to you. Holy
Spirit, I open my heart to you. That prayer will
put your life on a brand new journey. But others
of you, maybe you've been a Christian for a long,
long time, but let me ask you a question too.
Is the Holy Spirit leading your life right now?
And not just occasionally with a nudge here and
a nudge there, but truly leading you. If you're
anything like me, Man, there are still lots of
times, lots of places when you're just following
your heart and hoping for the best. Pentecost
tells us there's a better way. We don't have
to be slaves to our passions. We can be led by
the Spirit. He will convict us. He will guide
us. He will speak to us. So, don't follow your
heart. Follow the one who made your heart. Follow
Jesus who knows your heart. Follow the spirit
who wants to change your heart. Thanks be to
God. Amen. Thank you for listening to this week's
episode of Trinity Sermons. This sermon was recorded
at Trinity Church Streetsville in Mississauga,
Ontario on June 8th, 2025.