You Heart Matters Series

Your Heart Matters

The Path Series

CCCAG October 17th 2021

Scripture- Proverbs 3:5-6

Last week we talked about what to do if you are on the wrong path, and the need to seek God on how to get pointed in the right direction.

Today, we will be talking about the source of what gets us on the wrong path.

How many people here know someone who is stubborn?

Don’t look at your spouse!

How many people here are thinking “I’m looking at a stubborn person right now!”

All of us are stubborn about certain things.

For some, you will be a fan of a losing team your entire life- think Cubs fans before they went to the series- entire generations lived and died stubbornly holding on to the dream they would win the World Series.

Being stubborn can be helpful if used in a Godly way- to stay on the straight and narrow path with God.

But what happens when our stubbornness causes us to fight against our Father God’s will for us?

Here’s what we do sometimes.

We come to a fork in the road and weigh our options. Then, we choose the road that feels the best to us at the moment. That path may not be the best path for us, so as soon as we figure out what we want to do, we put our minds to work figuring out reasons that justify our decision.

I found a few great quotes about running on feelings, and following our hearts-

What the heart wants,

The will chooses

And the mind justifies (repeat- personalizing it)

A second very similar quote (Tim Keller)

What the heart most wants

the mind finds reasonable,

the emotions find valuable,

and the will finds doable.

How often have we bought something we didn’t need, can barely afford, and often in a few weeks or months discard?

“We traded in our old car because it was a gas guzzler,” we say. “We couldn’t afford it,” but we laid down $20,000 after the trade-in, and if we drove our new, more efficient model 35 years, the difference in gas consumption would still not add up to $20,000.

Or the battery on our cellphone no longer lasts a full day. So we decide to pick up an iPhone, even though the iPhone costs $1300 and a new battery would have cost $60.

If only it were just bad financial choices, but this principle also applies to every decision we make.

More and more these days, I hear from people who ask, “How did I end up on this path? How did I get here?

Why did God let me get into this situation in the first place?”

It’s always God we blame, and not our poor decision-

It’s usually not a lack of information.

It’s not that some key fact was hidden from us

It’s because we looked at what would make our heart happy in the moment, and forgot to think about where that road would eventually lead us.

That gives us a hint as to the answer of one of the questions we need answers for this morning-

A. Why Do We Find Ourselves on the Wrong Path?

Two reasons: and they both come from following our heart-

1. Our heart is on a happiness quest, not a truth quest.

2. Our heart chooses the happy-now rather than the happy-later path.

Almost every time.

Isn’t that true?

Think of a moment in your life that you chose happiness at the cost of truth.

Is that moment right not?

If so, God has a message for you- turn around and follow Jesus.

Let’s pray

Prayer

Two weeks ago when we started this series, we said there is an unbreakable principle in the universe that if you try to break it, it will break you: Your direction determines your destination.

This principal trumps just about every other natural principle in the universe.

Last week we said that prudent people switch paths when they see trouble coming. They make course corrections, even though that often requires more energy and determination than almost anything else on earth.

The prudent see danger and take refuge, while the simple keep going and pay the penalty.

Solomon diagnosed this problem 3,000 years ago, right along with the problem we’re looking at today.

People back then weren’t too different from people today.

Open your Bible to Proverbs 3. There Solomon gave a solution to the happiness quest in what may be the most famous section of the book of Proverbs.

Some of you who’ve been in church a long time may have a portion of this memorized.

Close your eyes for a moment, and let this truth sink deep into your hearts:

Proverbs 3:5-12

Trust in the LORD with all your heart