Strong leadership is always going to be extremely valuable. Prior to COVID, an estimated $370 billion was spent on leadership training. Successful companies include leadership training in their annual budgets, and for good reason. It has been estimated that the ROI for leadership training is $7 for every $1 spent. Strong leadership can often be the difference between an organization flourishing or floundering.
Companies and organizations aren’t the only entities who value strong leaders; so does God. Throughout history, God has raised up strong leaders to guide and direct his people and to oversee his church. Joseph’s leadership skills saw him rise to being the second most powerful man in all of Egypt, which God used to bless Joseph’s family and the establishment of his chosen people, the Israelites. God used Moses’ leadership skills to confidently challenge Pharaoh face to face and to navigate the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt and journey to the Promised Land. David’s leadership skills showed themselves in war and in worship as God used him to rule over his people. Paul’s leadership skills in relentlessly sowing the seeds of the gospel through his mission trips and church planting could not be questioned. God has always raised up strong leaders to serve his people. And each of those strong leaders also share another quality that had as much to do with their successful leadership as anything else: they were exceptional followers.
While leadership is valued tremendously in the world, not as much is made about the importance of following well. In Christ’s church, however, it is essential. In fact, with Jesus Christ as our Savior-leader, the head of his church, a case could be made that the church never has a leadership problem as much as she has a followership issue. Where the church struggles or stumbles, it is not a lack of leadership or direction – our Good Shepherd provides that. Rather, it is a lack of faithful following or downright foolish following on the part of the sheep (and those leading the sheep). So as we work through this series, The Need for Followership, with the Lord himself as our leader, we pray for the Spirit to raise us up as strong followers.
If we are to grow in our capacity as followers, the church is a great place to start, because the world’s track record when it comes to equipping people to follow is rather poor. I base this conclusion on what is some of the worst – and sadly most widespread – advice that’s out there: just follow your heart. This is bad advice for a number of reasons; here are three of them.
First, it’s emotionally driven. It’s feelings-based. Now feelings aren’t bad, but making decisions based on them is unwise. Why? Because they change. Every one of us here has experienced the regret of having done or said something in the heat of the moment that was entirely emotionally driven. Later, when we weren’t as emotionally charged, we found ourselves having to do damage control for a situation that would have never gotten out of hand if we had not let our emotions get the better of us. So “just follow your heart” is bad advice because being emotionally healthy means managing your emotions rather than letting them manage you and your decisions.
The second reason “just follow your heart” is bad advice is because it’s driven by selfishness. True, while the decision you are likely struggling to make primarily affects you, it almost never only affects you. People belonging to God realize that we are here to love and serve our neighbors. That means we give consideration to how our decisions affect our neighbors. We don’t just dismiss or disregard others in making decisions, but like Jesus, consider the needs of others even before ourselves. So “just follow your heart” is also bad advice because it doesn’t take into account how my decision may affect others, what serves the common good, or what my neighbor needs from me (side note: ironically, as we lament the lack of social concern and compassion for others in out society, is it any wonder where this is coming from when we encourage everyone to follow their own heart and do what is best for themselves?).
The final reason “just follow your heart” is bad advice is that your heart is a horrible navigation system! There are plenty of navigation apps out there: Google, Apple, Waze, and others. We all have the one we like for a number of personal reasons. But I can bet you this: no one would keep using a navigation app that gave them the wrong directions 100% of the time. To keep relying on that source for direction or guidance would be foolish!
In his interaction with the Pharisees from Mark 7, Jesus seeks to show them how misguided the heart is as a navigation system. Jesus peels away their outer veneer of venerability and exposes the real issue.
The Pharisees always serve as a good reminder for us of what happens when religion becomes a platform for performance. They had a reputation for adhering to rules and fancied themselves so good at it that they made up extra ones, a good number of which were traditions handed down from previous generations. Having become so wrapped up in themselves and enamored with each other’s daily displays of righteousness, they would immediately recognize when other supposedly religious folks dropped the ball in observing this custom or that rule.
So when the disciples, dared to eat food without ceremoniously washing beforehand, the Pharisees jumped all over it. They were caught red-handed! Their hands were defiled! How dare they! Eating with your hands and not ceremoniously cleaning them first was a big no-no in their book.
Not out of compassion or caring concern, but because they were interested in discrediting Jesus as a respected rabbi by pointing out what a disgrace his disciples were, they called Jesus out. “So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?” (v.5).
Jesus’ interaction with the Pharisees gets to the root of the issue. Look at the source of their concern. They did not reference the Law or the Prophets – the Word of God available to them in their day – but rather “the traditions of the elders.” Their man-made rules carried more weight than the God-given words of Scripture.
Jesus responded quite differently, not referencing man-made traditions, but highlighting the Word of God by quoting one of its prophets. “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules’” (vs. 6-7). They had come to Jesus convinced that his disciples were in the wrong, but Jesus would make sure they didn’t depart without knowing how wrong they were. Jesus showed them something they needed to see. The issue was not the outward failures of his disciples, but the inward flaw in their own hearts.
In quoting Isaiah, Jesus also has something to say to us. How does one honor God with lips while hearts drift far away from him? That’s what happens when we are going through the motions. Two people can both show up on a Sunday morning, and one is there to pay lip service to God while the other is there, longing to be served by God and to praise God from a heart of faith. I can do the things God calls me to do as mere obligation rather than opportunity to love, serve, and thank him. I can render my service begrudgingly because no one else will do it or I can render my service gratefully because I get to do it. I can support gospel ministry with my offerings because I am supposed to do so or because I am blessed to do so. All of those things can be done in the same exact way by two people and they may look identical externally. But God sees what’s going on internally, and it’s a Cain-and-Able-type difference! Hearts are in drastically different places!
The awareness that Jesus sought to bring to the Pharisees is the same awareness that we need today. We so naturally gravitate toward the outward stuff, too. Outwardly, we can compare our highlight reels with the everyone else’s lows or bad days. That keeps us feeling pretty good about ourselves. That keeps us convinced we’re above average, doing better than most. That puts us… right where the Pharisees were. So we need not the traditions of men, but the Word of God, to direct us to the real issue.
And Jesus does just that. “For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come…” (v.21). Jesus’ words challenge our narrative that the evil in this world, and even that of which I am guilty, is a product of my surroundings. It’s “out there.” It’s someone else’s fault. It’s simply my response to the real issue, which is always some outward occurrence. My upbringing is to blame. The workplace environment is at fault. However we choose to spin it, Jesus stops the wheel, jams his index finger right into our chest and bluntly states, “Wrong. Your heart is the source of evil. It isn’t out there; it’s in here. That’s the problem.”
Ouch! There isn’t a more painful reality or realization than what Jesus reveals to us here: we are the problem! Our hearts are far from whole or holy, but instead are filled with holes, defiled and deficient, and incapable of the true holiness that God requires.
How did the Pharisees and teachers of the law response to Jesus’ charged accusations? They didn’t like the message so the planned to get rid of the Messenger. They rejected his words, rejected his teachings, and set their wicked hearts on getting rid of the One who exposed them.
But grace moves us in a different direction. The confidence of faith, which beckons us to repentance, follows the encouragement given in the book of Hebrews: “let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water” (10:22). We own our sins, confess them, and return to God again and again in repentance, completely confident that he has cleansed our hearts of evil. Having purified them and made them holy, he gives us new hearts that cannot get enough of Jesus and long to love and serve him and follow him in faith.
That heart is not naturally found in any of us. Rather, it is graciously given through faith in Jesus. The apostle Peter said it like this: “God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them… for he purified their hearts by faith” (Acts 15:8-9).
“Just follow your heart” is good advice… to avoid at all times. Here is much better advice: follow Jesus’ heart for you. Amen.