Re-Aligning My Heart

Re-Aligning My Heart

Jeremiah 11:1-17

Is your heart “in alignment” this morning? Is your heart “out of sync?”

I need to re-align my heart.

Example: Alignment on your car

My van has alignment problems. I can tell because when I drive my van and let go of the wheel it starts to veer to the right. Last week, I was getting ready to take the kids to the library when I noticed that the van had a flat tire. So, I took it to Wal-Mart to replace the tire. You know, that fixed the alignment problem for awhile. But in order for my van to work properly, I can’t just fix the tire. I have to fix the alignment. I have to fix the part of the vehicle that keeps the vehicle running straight.

The same is true with my heart. But there is a problem. I have been “changed,” my heart has been replaced. My heart can easily get “out of alignment.”

How do I know this? The Bible tells me this:

Yet they would not obey or pay attention; each one followed the stubbornness of his evil heart. So I brought on them all the curses of this covenant, because they had not done what I commanded them to do."

(Jeremiah 11:8 HCSB)

The heart is more deceitful than anything else and desperately sick--who can understand it?

(Jeremiah 17:9 HCSB)

My heart can get me into TROUBLE.

There are two problems with the heart:

My heart was broken before I came to Christ

Before I came to Jesus Christ, my heart decided to do whatever it wanted. Everytime I followed my heart, it got me into trouble. It had three characteristics that showed me that my heart could not be trusted:

It is foolish

The world says to follow your heart. The problem is that I may chase whatever “feels” right at the moment, whether it is actually right or not.

The one who trusts in himself is a fool, but one who walks in wisdom will be safe.

(Proverbs 28:26 HCSB)

It is unreliable

Feelings and emotions are shallow, fickle, and unreliable. They change depending upon the circumstances. What feels right in the height of emotion often feels like a sour mistake a few years later. This selfish philosophy is the source of countless divorces. Many people decide to excuse themselves from life-long commitments because they no longer “feel in love.”

It is corrupt

The truth is, our hearts are basically selfish and sinful.

For from the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies.

(Matthew 15:19 HCSB)

As a Christian, sometimes I want to go back to my broken heart.

The heart is the seat of the “ego.” If you have ever heard of Sigmund Freud, he suggested that our wills are made up of three parts:

The id

The ego

The super-ego

He suggested that the ego is the “peacemaker” between the “id” and the “super-ego.” The “id’ controlled your passions, your primal, uncontrollable desires. Your super-ego drove you to do things perfectly and when you couldn’t you would have feelings of guilt. The super-ego punishes the misbehavior of the id. The ego is the mediator in between making those decisions.

We know that while the ego is in the mind, and the heart was considered the seat of emotions in the Bible. Our ego, which is the will in the mind, can actually be used to lead our heart. People do it two different ways:

Some people use their ego to Edge God Out.

EGO – Edge God Out

They lead a life just like these Israelites at this time. They have “stubborn hearts” which are only interested in what they want.

They have returned to the sins of their ancestors who refused to obey My words and have followed other gods to worship them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah broke My covenant I made with their ancestors.

(Jeremiah 11:10 HCSB)

Our hearts have become out of tune. Because we have “edged God out,” we have returned to the sins that we enjoyed before we became a Christian. We may “say” that we are a Christian, but we don’t “live” like one.

We got baptized, saying that we wanted to follow Christ, but then we got off-course. We “edged God out” of our lives.

By returning to the sins of my ancestors, I try to re-live my past mistakes and sins. I re-visit my old habits and ideas that get me into trouble. Why do I do that?

Because it is a whole lot easier to replace my tire, than to fix my alignment. But I still have not solved my underlying problem – my ego, my stubborn heart.

So what can I do about it: