#2629: Three Hearts We Cultivate

[Music] [Music] Well, hey Cornerstone, Pastor John Kelly here. So good to be with my Cornerstone family. It's always a joy just joining in with you guys on the things that God is doing in and through your midst. And to jump in on this series called Cultivate, this topic of cultivation is very dear to my heart. I believe it's vital for every follower of Christ to consider what am I cultivating in my life and my walk with Christ that may be healthy or unhealthy as we pursue Christ. And man, even thinking about cultivation in my life, it's a season in Chicago now where it's warmer finally. And my wife and I, we love to be outside. We love to take care of just maybe the plants and the things in our yard. And I'm back in that season of mowing the lawn. And I've grown into the guy that is very tight now about having a nicely cut lawn and green grass. I never thought I would be that guy, but yes, I have become that guy. And one thing I've learned about just caring for the lawn in our backyard and our front yard as we mow the lawn, I mow the grass is healthy grass, a nice lawn, you know, flowers that are taking care of. It requires cultivation. Yes, you need sunlight, yes, you need rain, but you have to cultivate your lawn healthy grass, healthy plants normally come from you just cultivating the lawn. And I found that when I get busy with ministry and life and I'm not able to consistently get to mowing the lawn on time or taking care of the backyard, weeds will pop up. I'm going to start to show up in the lawn. And if I want the weeds and not show up, I have to tend to my lawn and take care of it. And such is our heart. Our heart can be the same way. We get busy and we're not aware, we're not focused, not even intentionally. Sometimes unintentionally, we're just going with life and we don't realize that weeds start to grow up in our heart and it begins to choke out the spirit and choke out the things of God and prayer and the word. And so, it's important for us, this is with the lawn to cultivate the right heart posture to guard my heart. And so, I want to show you from God's word today, from Exodus 32, which is one of the most well-known passages in the Bible about the golden calf story. I want to show you the three different kinds of hearts that we find in the text. The title of today's message is three hearts that we cultivate. And I want to walk through Exodus 32 in hopes that you will examine your own heart in this season and say, "Lord, what kind of heart am I cultivating? Are there any weeds that are growing up?" "Lord, I want to tend to myself in this season so that I may walk humbly with you and experience all that you have for me in Christ." And so, I've been praying for you, but my prayer is that the spirit would use this message to just open your eyes to ways where maybe intentionally or unintentionally. You may be cultivating some things that are good and some things that maybe aren't good. And so, again, the title of today's message is three hearts that we cultivate. If you just bow your heads with me, I want to pray for you right now and trust that the Holy Spirit would speak to you and encourage you during this time. God, I just pray for my sister and my brother that's listening right now. We thank you that your grace is sufficient for us no matter where we are today. That we rest upon the goodness and the faithfulness of God. But yet you have placed your Holy Spirit within us. You are sanctifying us. You are growing us. You are making us mourn more into the image and reflection of Christ. And God, even as we grow spiritually, part of that is us intentionally pursuing you, praying, seeking your face, reading your word, cultivating, cultivating a good heart, a healthy heart, a spiritual life that bears fruit. God, I just pray. There's no judgment. There's no condemnation. But I pray you would show us through this passage where our heart might be today. And would your spirit empower us? Make us more like Christ through what we learn today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well, if you have your Bibles, if you could turn with me to the book of Exodus in the Old Testament, Exodus chapter 32. I want to show you three different characters and we're going to look at the heart posture that each character has. Now, where we arrive in Exodus chapter 32, God has sent Moses back to Egypt to deliver the Israelites from the slavery and the bondage of Pharaoh. God has parted the Red Sea, set the captives free in Israel and now they are in the land of Median by Mount Sinai. And Moses has gone up on Mount Sinai to meet with the Lord to seek his face on how the best lead the children of Israel. And he's been up there for some time now and the people of God are starting to get restless as they wait upon Moses. And we're going to see three different characters in this scene here and look at the heart posture to see what we can learn from them. And so that's the backdrop and here's the first character we find is the Israelites, the Israelites and their heart posture is the neglected heart. The neglected heart. Now, what does this neglected heart posture look like? It looks like a loss of direction, a heart that has become cold towards Jesus. It is a heart that has drifted. It fully desires something other than God to satisfy itself. That is the neglected heart. Look with me in chapter 32, verse one, I'm reading from the C.S.B. translation. It says this, when the people saw that Moses delayed and coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said to him, come, make for us. No, come, make God for us who will go before us because this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him. So Moses has taken a long time on the mountain and the Israelites come to Aaron and they say, come, make God for us who will go before us. And it says when the people saw that Moses delayed and coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron. Notice when the people saw that Moses delayed and coming down from the mountain, you know, the longer that God takes the answer of sometimes, the more your faith gets stretched. The longer Moses took, the more restless they became. A lack of patience, beloved, can lead to poor decisions. And we find that this lack of patience leads to irrational decision making. They start to get led by their desires, their cravings, their flesh. It says in verse one through six, it said that they asked Aaron to make for us God who will go before us. Verse two says Aaron replied to them, take off the gold ring that are on the ears of your wives, your sons and your daughters and bring them to me. So all the people took off the gold rings that were on their ears and brought them to Aaron. He took the gold from them, fashioned it with an engraving tool and made it into an image of a calf. Then they said Israel, these are your gods who brought you up from the land of Egypt. Can anybody say this is not going good? Verse five, when Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of it and made an announcement. There will be a festival to the Lord tomorrow. Early the next morning, the rose offered burnt offerings and presented fellowship of the offerings. The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to party. Some translations say to play. So they say to Aaron, make us gods who will go before us and lead us. I want you to think about how foolish that sounds. They go to a human being, Aaron, and ask him to make them a God out of metal, who will lead them. If you remember the ten commandments, the first commandment was don't have any gods that are before me. The second commandment was don't make any graven images. So don't have any gods before me. Don't make any graven images. And yet they disobey that. Here's a thought to consider. Too often, people will want God that people don't want God as he is. They want him shaped in the image that they desire him to be. And that's just the truth. Too often, people don't want God as he is. So how do they go from singing praises to Yahweh? At one point, and then now dancing around a golden calf. I mean, when God parted the red sea and delivered them, they were cheering. They were singing songs. They were singing praises to Yahweh, and now they have rejected him and built it a golden calf. How did they get to this place of rejecting the God who saved them? Here's the truth. We'll be fine here. You become like whatever you worship. They have turned now from worshiping the true and living God to worshiping false idols. Psalms 135, 15 to 18 says, "The idols of the nations are silver and gold. The work of human hands. They have mouths but do not speak. eyes but do not see. They have ears but do not hear nor is there any breath in their mouths. This said is those who make them become like them. So do all who trust in them. Those who make an idol made of material things become void and empty just like that idol. Second Corinthians 3, 18 says, "We all with unveiled face behold in the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. That as we behold Christ we are becoming more like Christ. As we behold a golden calf that is shallow and empty we start to reflect that. Scholar GK build in his book we become what we worship. He has this quote that I love. He says, "What people revere they resemble either for ruin or restoration." And so the people of Israel here are now starting to reflect this idol that they have made from metal, from gold, this golden calf and they are falling into extreme sin. Looking verse 6 it says, "Early the next morning they rose offered burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to party." Some translation says, "And rose up to play." That phrase rose up to play. The Hebrew word signifies drunkenness, immoral origenes and sexual play. It's just extreme just kind of, immasectual immorality and just, you know, they are just completely in sin. The Israelites have drifted away from God who loves them, has saved them and who has kept them. They have completely rejected him. How did they get to this place of drifting away from a neglected heart? From a neglected heart. Our wife and our kids, we love the ocean, we love beaches, we love the Beby water. If you're around the Kellays, you know, we love a good pool, we love the ocean. And when my kids are out in the ocean and Danielle and I are on the shore just sitting in a beach chair or something or sitting on a tile just laying around, our kids will go out in the water and they'll be playing where we can see them and then within 10 minutes they're like over here somewhere or over there somewhere we have to say, Ben, Judah, hey, come back over this way guys, come back and they look up and they're like, oh, and they kind of move back over to the middle and in 20 minutes we'll go by and then they're back down here and we're like, hey guys, come back over here and, man, how did they slowly drift? Well, as the waves are coming in, as the current is moving, it's the water just slowly moves them away and they're not even aware they're just playing and yeah, they walked out in front of us but within 15 minutes they're drifting to the side and that's how it could be. We don't always just run off away from God. Sometimes we just start to slowly drift through the currents and the waves of life and this is what happened to the Israelites. Their heart posture is that of a loss of direction. Their heart has become cold towards Jesus. Love for God has become stale. They have slowly drifted. Their heart fully desires something other than God to satisfy it. They're looking now to a golden calf made of made from their gold metal earrings. So what does this heart need? The heart that is an neglected heart. What it needs is a recentering upon Christ. Isaiah 557 says, "Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts let him return to the Lord that he may have compassion on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon." If your heart has drifted, man, there is just so much grace for you in Christ, so much forgiveness for you in Christ today. If you're listening to my voice, you can return to Christ today. The second character we see the first is the Israelites. The second character we find is Aaron. Aaron and he represents the compromising heart. The compromising heart. Now what can we know about this heart posture? Well, the compromising heart, this heart posture, gives into pressure. It's lured by the things of life. It's influenced by the fear of people and a fear of rejection. This heart wants God and something else. And it's willing to blur the lines. So look again with me in verse one of chapter 32. It says, "When the people saw that Moses delayed and coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said to him, "Come, make us gods for us who will go before us, because this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him." So they come to Aaron and they say, "We want you to make us false gods. We are not worshiping Yahweh right now. We want to worship a false god and we want you to make that god for us." This is a test of leadership. Can you tell people know and endure the backlash that will come with it? Are you willing to make an unpopular decision because it's the right decision? So what should Aaron do? Should he obey God or should he fear the people? Look at Aaron's decision in verse two through six and reply to them, "Take off the gold rings that are on your ears of your wives and your sons and your daughters and bring them to me." So all the people took the gold rings that were on their ears and brought them to Aaron. He took the gold from them, fashioned it with an engraving tool and made it into the image of a calf. Then he said, "Israel, these are your gods who brought you up from the land of Egypt." Man, Aaron, rather than standing faithfully with God, he compromises and he makes this golden calf for the Israelites. He caters to them. He fears the people. He's a people pleaser. You know what you'll find is people want leaders and friends that will co-sign their idolatry. When people are in sin or they're looking to sin, they look for co-signers who will co-sign their foolishness and their mess. A good friend, a good leader doesn't help you build a house of rebellion against God. So many people, and here's a problem that we face. So many people value the peace of the relationship more than the health of their friend. So they see that their friend is unhealthy and they're more concerned with just keeping the peace rather than the health of their friend. They call it loving, but it's really passivity. You're being very passive and we've represented as being gracious, but you're being naive and you're actually enabling bad behavior. The challenge with being a people pleaser, because that's really what it is. That's what Aaron is doing. He's drifting into being a people pleaser. The challenge with being a people pleaser is you run the risk of compromise. You allow unhealthy practices to fester for the sake of peace between you and the person at the expense of peace between you and God. You give people what they want and not what they need. And that's not loving. What good parent would parent well and truly love their kids, if they just let their kids do whatever they want. A good parent says, no, you cannot have ice cream right now. Too much sugar is not good for you. Hey, you need to put the electronics down and go to bed. Hey, you need to get your homework done. Like this is, you know, it may seem like it's not fun and it's unloving, but that's the most loving thing you can do. And some of us struggle with the fear of man. The Bible has called us to be peacemakers, not peacekeepers. Peace makers, we pursue peace, we desire peace, but we also desire you to walk in health. A peacekeeper is someone who I don't want to wrestle anyone's feathers. Man, I don't want to rock the boat. I just, man, I'm just going to keep the peace. I'm not going to say what needs to be said or do what needs to be done. And that's not always loving. So Aaron's compromise we see in verse five where he builds this altar. It says Aaron saw this. He the golden calf is now made. It says he built an altar in front of it and made an announcement. Listen to this contradiction. So he builds an altar for the golden calf and he says there will be a festival tomorrow to the Lord. So he builds an altar for the golden calf, but he still wants to offer worship to Yahweh. Brother, you can't have it both ways. You can't, you can't build a golden calf and then try to sing praises to Yahweh at the same time. God is not having that. Man, I love a good breakfast and I could imagine if you and I were having breakfast and you weren't a cold glass of orange juice and I I brought you some orange juice. You're at our house with me in Daniel and we brought you some orange juice and 75% of its water with 25% orange juice and I brought that out to you and it was just so watered down. You probably would drink it. Go, I wouldn't this. This is not what I thought of when I thought of orange juice. You don't want water down orange juice. You don't want 75% water, 25% orange juice. You want fresh, greased, good orange juice. And so often that's how we come to the Lord. We bring water down worship. Jesus, he challenged the church of Layoutesia about this in Revelation. He says, man, your lukewarm, I wish you were just hot or cold. Just choose one, but you can't be both. You can't be lukewarm in your and your worship of me. And so often we accept lukewarm worship. We're willing to compromise where we got half of our foot in the world cheering that on and doing things we know don't please the Lord and the other half is in the church and in Bible study and and it's not that there's a problem with struggle. We always struggle. It's that we're okay with living in both basis. And that's compromised. That's not good. And so I want you to see now Moses conversation with Aaron. God tells Moses all of that's going on. We're going to unpack that in a little bit. Moses now comes down from Mount Sinai. He's coming down with Joshua because God is like, yo, they are down there making a golden calf. I'm done with them. Moses comes back down and I want you to look at this conversation between him and Aaron. See verse 19, it says, as he that's Moses, as he approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses became enraged and through the tablets out of his hand smashing them at the base of the mountain. He took the calf they made, burnt it up, grounded to powder, scattered the powder over the face of the water and forced Israelize to drink the water. Look at verse 21, the Moses asked Aaron, what did these people do to you that made that you have led them into such grave sin? Listen to Aaron's response. Verse 22, don't be enraged my Lord. Aaron replied, you yourselves know that the people are intent on evil. They said to me, make God's for us who will go before us because this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him. Verse 24 here it is. So I said to them, whoever has gold, take it off and they gave it to me. Then I threw it into the fire and out came this calf. Oh my goodness, talk about a lame excuse. What is he says I threw the gold into the calf into the fire and then out came this immaculate golden calf. I want you to just kind of roleplay this with me for a second here. I want you to be Moses when I go like this, I want you to say, Aaron, what have you done and I'm going to be Aaron, I want you to just hear how dumb this sounds. All right. So you show up and I'm like, hey Moses and you. Well, they gave me their earrings and their gold. I threw it into the fire and out came this calf. I don't know. How dumb is that sound? Aaron, a heart of compromise. What does this heart need? This compromising heart. This compromising heart needs courage and conviction. Courage to not give into the fear of man and conviction based on God's word that by God's grace, I'm going to fear the Lord and walk with him. In Joshua chapter 1 verse 7, the Lord says this to Joshua, only be strong and very courageous. Being careful to do according to all the law that Moses, my servant, commanded you. Do not turn to it from the right hand on the left that you may have good success wherever you go. And verse 9 of Joshua 1 says, have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened and do not be dismayed for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Three hearts be called to be. The neglected heart. Am I drifting? Am I compromising? Or lastly, the devoted heart? Am I devoted? And we find the third character here and that's Moses and he reflects the devoted heart. What can we know about this heart posture of the devoted heart? The heart posture here is a posture of love and consistency. This heart remains aligned with God even when it's hard. It's not perfection, but it is persistence. So look with me in verse 7, Moses is on the mountain. Aaron and the people have made this golden calf in verse 7. It says, the Lord spoke to Moses, go down at once for your people. You brought up for the land of Egypt, have acted corruptly. They have quickly turned from the way I have commanded them. They have made for themselves an image of a calf. They have bowed down to it, sacrifice to it and said Israel, these are your gods who brought you up from the land of Egypt. The Lord also said to Moses, I have seen this people and they are indeed a stiff necked people. Now leave me alone that my anger may burn against them and I can destroy them. I will make you into a great nation. Let me just pause right there. Notice how God is so frustrated. In his holiness, he separates himself from them. Notice that he changes the process of pronoun. He doesn't say my people. He says, look again in verse 7, the Lord spoke to Moses, go down at once for your people. You brought out of the land of Egypt, have acted corruptively. Not my people that I brought up you, your people. And then notice Moses response. God is like, yo, I am done with them. All they doing is complain. I have delivered them. They murmur. They chase after false idols. Watch out. I'm going to destroy them. I'm going to make a whole new nation and look at Moses' heart posture. Verse 11, "But Moses sought the favor of the Lord, his God." Lord, why does your anger burn against your people? You brought out of the land of Egypt with great power in a strong hand. Why should the Egyptians say he brought them out with an evil intent to kill them in the mountains and eliminating them from the face of the earth? Turn from your fierce anger and relent concerning the disaster plant for your people. Remember your servant Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. You swore to them by yourself and declared, I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars in sky and will give your offspring all this land I have promised. And they will inherit it forever so the Lord relented concerning the disaster he had said he would bring on his people. Moses begins interceding and prayer on behalf of the people. They are in sin. They are back stabbing Moses. They are talking down about his leadership and yet even though he's frustrated with them, he goes, he's on the mountain praying for God's grace over them. God's mercy over them. He intercedes on their behalf. And then you look in verse 30, it says the following day, Moses said to the people, "You have committed a great sin. Now I will go up to the Lord. I'm going to go pray on your behalf. Perhaps I will be able to atone for your sin." Verse 31, "So Moses returned to the Lord and said, "Listen to this prayer. All these people have committed a grave sin. They have made a god of gold for themselves. Now, if you would only forgive their sin, Lord, forgive them. But if not, please erase me from the book you have written. This is powerful right here." Moses says, "God, please forgive their sin and God, if you need to just take one of us, take me and forgive them, but I'm going to sacrifice my life that they might be near to you." That is powerful. Think about this prayer. Have you ever prayed? God, I want this person to know you so deeply. Man, if I could switch places, if they could be in glory knowing you and not me, God, let it be so. I've heard very few people pray like that. Paul says this in Romans 9, "He says, "For I wish that I, myself, were accursed and call off a Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh." This is this heart of intercessory where the person praying once, God, the people to be so near to God, the person to be so near to God and in Christ, they're like, "Lord, if I have to be separated from you so that they can get to you, then God, whatever it takes." Now, we know that the Lord won't do that, but it does show the heart of how much they value you, you being near the Christ. I remember being with a pastor, friend of mine, one time out in Boston, and there was a young man in his neighborhood who had a terminal illness of cancer and had maybe a few months to live. I remember us praying together for this young man. I remember hearing my friend with tears, I mean sobbing and saying, "Lord, if there's any way he can make it into your presence, if I could just switch places, God, God, God, please don't let him perish." And I remember looking up and being like, "Man, I've never heard anyone pray like that." This is Moses's heart. Now, why is Moses praying like that? Because Moses is near to God and he loves God and he wants them so desperately to be near to God and this is the heart of devotion. Moses doesn't join in the sin like Aaron. Instead, he destroys the idol and he removes the sin from the camp because the idol, the sin is was blocking the people from being near to God. His heart is being near to God. And let me just say, that is the mark of a devoted life. The mark of a devoted life, a devoted heart, is not perfection. A devoted heart does not mean you are perfect. It means nearness to God. It means you are seeking to be near to God. A devoted heart is not a perfect heart. It is a persistent heart. The day after day by God's grace, I'm trying to pursue Him. Some days are better than others. Some days I fall flat on my face but I'm always falling forward. Some days I take two steps back but then I take three steps forward. Sometimes it feels like I'm moving at a snail's pace but by God's grace, I am moving forward. This devoted heart that Moses embodies, that we need to embody a heart of devotion to God, that we need to cultivate. Well, if you have a heart right now that is not perfect but persistently pursuing Christ, which you need to do. You need to guard yourself from burnout and pride. Being so busy and getting burnt out can lead you to a neglected heart. And pride can also lead you astray. On going intimacy with God, rest in humility as what keeps this devoted heart tender. You have to avoid pride at all costs. Yes, you might have a good week of being in God's Word, a good stretch of pursuing the Lord in a sweet time of worship, but if you are not careful and you fall into spiritual pride, you can slowly drift, become overly confident and fall flat on your face. As much as we can say about Moses and his devoted heart, he ends up striking the rock down the line and not making it into the promised land. Heart gets filled with anger and drifts away. So what we see here is we look at this pattern in Exodus 32, the pattern goes a neglected heart and neglect leads to drifting and drifting eventually produces compromise and compromise ultimately leads to idolatry. The way we avoid neglecting is daily cultivating nearness to God. So as we close, what kind of heart have you been intentionally or unintentionally cultivating? Are you the neglected heart, slowly drifting from God? Are you the compromising heart, falling into people pleasing at the expense of your faithfulness to God? Are you the devoted heart, staying aligned with God even when it's hard? Not perfectly, but persistently. Wherever you find yourself today, there's grace for you and Christ. The good news of the gospel is that Jesus is not merely interested in exposing your heart, but he is committed to transforming it. And that's a beautiful thing, beloved. Let's pray. God, I just pray for my siblings in Christ as we reflect on your word, three different hearts that we cultivate, but you show us where we land today. Maybe someone here has the neglected heart, they have slowly drifted. God, the story of the prodigal son reminds us that you stand ready looking for us to return home with love. God, I just pray you would bring them back to yourself and maybe them listening to this message today was just an act of turning back to God. Then God, maybe someone's listening today and they have the compromising heart, Lord, they have compromised, they're like Aaron and they have one foot of devotion to you and then one foot in people pleasing and God, they get lured into sin and they're afraid to say the hard things or to make a stand and say, you know, that's, I used to dabble in that and I'm not into that anymore. Or man, I won't go back to that place or maybe just making a stand in some way. God, would you help them to stand on the truth of your word and not compromise? Then yet, Lord, I pray for those who have the devoted heart here and God, maybe there are some people here today and God, that's their, they have a heart like Moses, Lord, they have a heart that is pursuing you and seeking your face, God, would you help them to cultivate this heart of the motion? This nearness to God, that Lord, they are not perfect, but they are persistent, daily, reading your word, weekly, seeking your face, humbly walking with the Lord their God. God, as we continue this series, call cultivate, would you help us truly to tend to the state of our heart that weeds may not grow up within it, but that we may reflect the heart of tenderness and the spirit of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit, humbly walking with the Lord our God who has saved us. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well, beloved, I pray that you are encouraged and that the Lord maybe have revealed some things to you and that today you are walking in the goodness of His grace. Go in peace. Thank you. (soft piano music) ♪ My soul's designed with praise in mind ♪ ♪ It all leads back to you ♪ ♪ Your ways not mine ♪ ♪ Your well my life ♪ ♪ I live for you alone ♪ ♪ My heart was made to worship ♪ ♪ To honor you in all things ♪ ♪ Nothing will take your place ♪ ♪ I'll love you for all my days ♪ ♪ From the moment I rise ♪ ♪ 'Til the moon lights the sky ♪ ♪ Let my world be devoted to you ♪ ♪ May I always align ♪ ♪ With the angels' desire ♪ ♪ To sing for your glory alone ♪ ♪ My heart was made to worship ♪ ♪ To honor you in all things ♪ ♪ Nothing will take your place ♪ ♪ I'll love you for all my days ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ All of my heart's soul ♪ ♪ I give all little ♪ ♪ All of my heart's soul ♪ ♪ Let every breath ♪ ♪ I'll love you for all my days ♪ ♪ In all things ♪ ♪ To honor you in all things ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ My heart was made to worship ♪ ♪ To honor you in all things ♪ ♪ Nothing will take your place ♪ ♪ I'll love you for all my days ♪