“Follow Your Heart?” – FBC Morning Light (4?18/2024)

Well, a good Thursday morning to you. Today we're reading in 2 Samuel chapter 7, 1 Chronicles 17, and Psalm 110. I want to zero in on this passage of 2 Samuel 7, and the passage in 1 Chronicles 17 is actually the parallel passage for this.

Why You Should Not Simply Follow Your Heart

But before we look at the text though, how many times have you heard, and I know you're not gonna be able to count them, but how many times have you heard the mantra, follow your heart? You need to follow your heart.

How many times have you heard someone tell you, well, this is what my heart is telling me to do, and I've got to obey my heart. I've got to do what my heart is telling me to do. I've known people who have taken that approach regarding something that was clearly against God's Word.

A married person says, you know, my heart is for this other person that's not my spouse, and I just need to follow my heart. And then they proceed to divorce their spouse to go after the other person.

Well, one of the reasons why you don't follow your heart is because the heart is deceitful above all things, and it's desperately wicked, and you can't know it. You can't know it. You don't always know the depths of the motives of the heart.

So to follow your heart is not wise advice. I've heard the counsel or the idea of putting your heart above your head. You know, you think something through, and you know that, you know, it's da-da-da-da-da, but I'm gonna put my heart above my head and go ahead and do what I want to do, what my heart is telling me to do.

And I've known so-called Christians who take that kind of approach, that, well, I know, I know, there's the head, I know God's Word says this, but my heart tells me I need to do that, and I'm gonna follow my heart.

So obviously, following your heart when your heart is taking you down a clearly sinful or unbiblical path is a wrong thing to do. But what about when that thing in your heart is a good thing? Should you follow your heart?

David’s Desire to Build a Temple

Maybe, but maybe not. Let me explain. Here in our passage in 2 Samuel chapter 7, David has a very, very noble thing in his heart. Verse 2 says David is speaking to Nathan the prophet, and he says, see now, I dwell in a house of cedar, I'm living in this beautiful home, but the ark of God dwells in tent curtains.

And clearly what David is expressing here is, it's in my heart to build the Lord a temple. Because Nathan says to the king, go, do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you. Now what Nathan's getting at here is that, you know, the Lord has prospered David, the Lord has used David as the king, and shown himself to be favorable toward David, and so Nathan's initial response is, well certainly, you know, if this is a, this noble thing is in your heart, then, you know, the Lord must be in it.

But that night, the Lord appears to Nathan and says, go tell David, don't you build me a house. You're not going to build me a house. It's good that it's in your heart, but you're not going to do it. In other words, yes, this was a noble desire on David's part, to build the Lord a temple, but it was not God's will for David to build the temple.

David had skills that the Lord used in other ways, and David was going to use, or the Lord was going to use David's son Solomon, and the skills that Solomon had to build a house that was worthy of the glory of the Lord.

So it wasn't God's will for David to follow his heart, even in a good thing. And that's good, that's helpful to keep in mind, that just because something is in your heart that's a good and noble, worthwhile thing, it doesn't necessarily mean it's God's will.

Waiting on God’s Will and Seeking Counsel

I'll give you a couple personal illustrations. When I was a sophomore in college, my major in university was pastoral studies. From my freshman year, I was aiming toward going into pastoral ministry, but I can't remember what it was, but something...

I got enamored with Germany. I took German in high school, and I think at our Bible college there was a German team that would go every summer to Germany and do missions work, and they presented their work one time in chapel, and I got antsy about going to Germany as a what I'm gonna do.

I'm gonna go to Germany as a missionary. I even went and changed my major to missions, so I could go to Germany as a missionary. But then I started listening to some counsel, and I came to realize, even as time went on, I realized pretty quickly, that's really not what the Lord has for me.

That's not God's will for me. And a few years later, I was out of college, out of seminary, and was pondering, what would the Lord have me to do? I was in between ministries, and I went to a friend's church and preached a week of meetings for him in his church, and the Lord blessed the preaching and so forth, and I thought, I know what I'm gonna do.

I'm gonna become an evangelist, a full-time, itinerant, traveling evangelist. And I went to a pastor and I expressed to him, this is what I think, this is what I want to do. This is in my heart, to do this, if you will.

And he thought long and hard about that, and he said, you know, you're not really suited for that kind of work. You are more pastoral material, and I envision you to be a pastor and not a traveling evangelist.

And before long, the Lord opened up another avenue of ministry, and that desire of my heart was completely gone. I no longer had any interest whatsoever in becoming a full-time, itinerant preacher. So the point is this, that just because something is on your heart doesn't mean it's God's will for you to pursue it.

Be patient, give the Lord, I'm talking about a good thing now, be patient, seek counsel, seek advice, give the Lord time to clarify that which is in your heart, whether or not it's a passing fancy, or it's really a burden that is inescapable, that He has for you to do.

Take your time with it. So our Father and our God, I pray, give us spiritual patience, and Father, deliver us from this mantra that says if something's in our heart, well it must be something we must pursue.

We pray in Jesus' name, amen. All right, well listen, have a good rest of your Thursday, I hope the Lord blesses you in it. Good day.