Brothers and sisters, one of the greatest dangers in the modern church is that people are putting words in the mouth of Christ that he never spoke. They invent phrases that sound spiritual, that sound compassionate, but they are empty of truth and dangerous to the soul. Jesus is not our puppet.
He is not our echo chamber. He is the Lord of glory, the eternal son of God who spoke with authority. And when we twist his words or worse, replace them with slogans. We are not following Christ. We are following our own imagination. So today, let’s tear down five of these false sayings that are paredited in churches, on bumper stickers, and even in pulpit.
We will expose them with scripture and we will see the danger of building our lives on words that Jesus never said. When people say follow your heart, it sounds so gentle, so affirming, so freeing. It rolls off the tongue like wisdom.
But in reality, it is one of the most destructive lies that Christians repeat because it stands in direct opposition to the word of God. The heart is not a trustworthy guide. It is a traitor. Scripture doesn’t flatter the human heart. It exposes it. Jeremiah 17:9 makes it painfully clear. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? That is not the description of something we should follow.
That is the description of something we should crucify. And yet countless believers, even pastors, will comfort someone in sin by telling them to simply follow their heart as if God himself placed our desires within us as a flawless compass. That is not Christianity. That is a pagan philosophy dressed up in Christian language. Think about it.
If following your heart was truly the way of Jesus, then sin would have no boundaries. The adulterer could say, “I followed my heart.” The thief could say, “I followed my heart.” The addict could say, “I followed my heart.” But Jesus didn’t call sinners to follow their impulses. He called them to deny themselves. In Matthew 16:24, he said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
” That is the exact opposite of following your heart. Following Christ requires you to reject the sinful cravings of your heart, to put them to death, and to submit every thought, every desire, and every ambition under his lordship. The truth is our hearts are not only weak, they are bent toward rebellion.
