RDS Commissioning

We love what we get to do here. If you haven't met me yet, my name is Cole. I am one of the RDS pastors, and I get the privilege of doing this with my wife, and I get the privilege of preaching with her today, and that is a first time for us. A little bit about me is I went through three years of RDS, and I've served on staff for the past five years, three as the assistant director, and now two as the director. We're going into our third year directing this program, and honestly is the greatest joy for us. It is such a privilege to walk with these students in this way, and it truly is just the desire of our hearts to see the church discipled into the image of Jesus. And if you haven't met me yet, my name is Mary L. She's the best. I am very kind. I get to pastor the refuge discipleship school, like Cole said, along with my amazing, wonderful husband. I've been on staff at the refuge for four years, but I've been in full-time ministry for five years. I did three years of discipleship school in Chicago, did a year on staff there, and then we got married, and came here under pastor Abe. I want to give it up for pastor Abe, everyone. Just come on, yes. Any opportunity to start with this, he did it for 10 years. Most of the time, he was by himself. I don't know how you did it, 'cause--

He put up with me for several years, so that's got some crowns in heaven for that one, man. A little bit about me, I guess I could say. I am a proud Puerto Rican Latina girl. I'm a passionate-- Yes. I'm a passionate communicator, so God's me. If you ever see me in a corner with Cole, and I'm like this, I'm not angry with him, the topic is just really good. And with me being a Puerto Rican pastor communicator, I'm an overshare. So if you want to get coffee, ladies, anybody want to ask me out for coffee, you'll know my story in the first five minutes, just letting you know. Oh, my goodness. I am so excited to do this. This is a sobering privilege. Goodness. I'm shaking, I'm, you know, this is not my favorite thing, but I'm so grateful for what the Lord has done in my heart and to be able to share with you guys with Cole, because I said if I'm going to do this, you are going to sit right next to me. That's what it's going to be. I want to thank Pastor Jay and Mel, not only my pastors, but my in-laws, and not only my in-laws, but my mom and dad. That's right. They have taken me in, and I'm so grateful for them.

Thank you for this opportunity. It is a privilege. Thank you for trusting us with a discipleship school. That's right. It's, again, I, we tremble because we fear God and we just want to bless him and please him in it. So thank you so much. Thank you guys. Yes, if you don't know this, we get to be a part of one of the most incredible churches at the refuge. If you're new here, you've never joined us before. I'll tell you about the refuge. Number one, we're not going to let you be a sideline Christian, right? We're not going to let you just go through life and add Christianity. This is a church that will challenge you. It will tell you the truth. It will teach you the word of God. And, you know, that might not be for you. And if it's not, God bless you. But man, we want to pursue Jesus more than anything else. And that's what it means to be a part of the refuge church. And I just honor my parents. I honor our staff because every single one of our pastors, every single one of our staff members carries that heart to say Jesus is the main thing and we're going to pursue him with all of our hearts. Man, so today I just want to set us up

when we were anticipating preaching this word. We felt such a sense of urgency about, hey, the Lord is coming soon. I don't know if you don't know this. Maybe you haven't read through the Bible. But since the time Jesus was resurrected and ascended, the people lived with the anticipation that he was coming soon, right? And soon is closer now than it has ever been. And that means that we don't need to live in a casual way. We don't need to live in a way that's flipping about the day we're in. That means, hey, I better get my affairs in order because I don't want to be caught off guard when the king of the universe steps back into this earth. Right, it means that I don't just wear the merch of Christianity, I don't just wear the outer garment What does it mean to be a Christian? It means that I'm gonna lose my life because Jesus says if I do that, I will find it in him. It means I'm not gonna look for my life in the things of this world, right? Whatever it has to promise is hollow and that's what he's communicating when he says, if you find your life in this side, you're gonna lose it. But if you take up that cross, if you lose your life, for my sake, it will be given to you, you will find it. And that's what, through reading the Old Testament, lines up perfectly with it being commissioning Sunday.

It lines up perfectly with what we feel to talk about today. So we're gonna be going back and forth a lot through Second Kings, 16 and 17, Second Chronicles 28, Isaiah and Micah, it's a lot of scripture. So pray for us. But as we were preparing, God just reminded us, we're gonna let the scripture speak for itself today and we're gonna remind you what it looks like when we aren't walking with God. That's God's desire for all of us is that we walk with God. So before we open up, will you pray for us today? - Sure, yes. Jesus, we are here for you and nothing else, God. - We acknowledge your Holy Spirit in this room, God, and the privilege it is to worship you together as brothers and sisters in Christ. It's all about you, Lord, we thank you, God. It's a privilege to be able to sit here, God, and preach your word and go through your word and understand what you're trying to convey to us and communicate to us. Thank you, God, I thank you for every person in this room, Father, that has decided to be here to live into your word, Father. I pray that, God, that you will start to prepare their hearts and that in whatever we share, God, if there is something, Lord, that touches them, Jesus, that they will take time to reflect with you, Father. - Yes, Lord. - Thank you, Jesus, for the cross. - Thank you, Lord.

- Thank you, Jesus, for what you did in our place, Lord. May we never take that for granted, Father, and then may that always be in the forefront of our mind to thank you for that, because we wouldn't have this life, we wouldn't be able to have a relationship with God that we do if it wasn't for you, Jesus, we needed you, so we thank you. We pray all these things in your name, amen. - Amen. - Amen. - As we've been walking through the Old Testament, we see the same pattern emerge in the people of God, right? They know God, they know His word, they've been given His commandments, they've been given His presence, they've seen His faithfulness, His miracles, and yet despite everything that they've experienced, there's a disconnect between them knowing God and actually walking with Him, they continue to resort to idle worship, they continue to live in this compromise, in this corruption, and when we say walking with Him, we mean being His disciple and becoming like Him, that's what walking with Him actually embodies. See, they had His presence among them, but their lives were increasingly being shaped by the nations around them who practice idle worship, and God in His love was so patient with them, He gave them warning after warning, He sent His prophets to warn them, He continued to give them opportunity to turn back, and His judgments were never a sign

that His mercy had ceased, it was a sign that He was still pursuing them, it was an evidence of His mercy, He was continually calling the people back to Himself, Micah 6.8 clearly embodies the full essence of what God is trying to say to the people, He has told you, oh man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God, that is what Christianity is meant to do, it's not about following rules, and that is where we find ourselves at this portion in Israel's history. So the kingdom has been divided, there's the northern kingdom of Israel that has walked in rebellion for generations, for about 200 years now they have pursued idle worship, sexual immorality, greed, corruption, injustice, and at this point they have chosen whom they're going to serve, and that's not gonna be God. And by the end of this, Israel is gonna come to its end. There's also the southern kingdom of Judah that has had a mixture of good and bad kings, and is now under the leadership of King Aha. Lord. So Ahaz coming into his reign knew the history of God. He knew God's faithfulness. He knew God had delivered the people from Egypt. He knew that God provided for them in the wilderness.

He knew that God had repeatedly protected them and bailed them out of trouble. But we also read that Jotham did not confront the idol worship going on in Judah. So now Ahaz has two choices as King to either walk with God or to walk in the ways of the kings around him in idolatry. Second Chronicles 28 verses 1 through 4 tells us what he chooses. Ahaz was 20 years old when he began to reign and he reigns 16 years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father David had done, but he walked in the ways of the king of Israel. He even made metal images for the balls and he made offerings in the valley of the son of Hinnam and burned his sons as an offering according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had driven out before the people of Israel. And he sacrificed and made offerings on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree. Something I want to highlight is Jotham's casualness with idolatry led Ahaz to not only tolerate it but be consumed by it. This is a message for all of us that whatever we are casual about, whatever we tolerate in our lives is going to lead the people behind us to do in excess. To the older generation, you can't look at the younger generation and say, "Man, look out how far they've fallen without saying, where have I been casual that has led them to that?" Younger generation, you can't afford to be casual and not expected to have an effect outside of your own life. We have to take a stand. We have to commit to the ways of God wholeheartedly or else it will permeate everything we do. It continues by telling us that Ahaz chose not to walk in the ways of God. God gave Judah into the hands of Syria and Israel, Syria and Israel weak in Judah, and then the Edomites and the Philistines come against Judah as well. So at this point, Judah is surrounded by armies. That's right.

And then the Lord in his kindness, he sends Isaiah to them. And Isaiah 7 tells us that while Syria and Israel are marching in Jerusalem, Ahaz and the people of Judah shake with fear. God tells Ahaz through Isaiah, "Stay calm and stop worrying. These two attacking kings are nothing more than burned out embers. He promises that they will completely fail and Israel will be crushed. He's saying, "Cling to my promise and wait on me. Remember who I am. Remember what I've done. I am the one true God. He's walking with God means trusting Him even when we cannot see." Yeah, that's right. And after this, He gives them a warning that relates to all of us. Isaiah 7, 9, "If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all." And church, that is something that we need to stand on. If we are not firm in faith and faith in God alone, then we will not be able to stand. That's right. In Hebrew, Isaiah is using the word "firm" with the same root in two different verb forms. First, it's "tha aminu," which means "believe and trust." And then it's "te aminu," which means "remain and establish." He's connecting these two and saying, "Faith is what establishes you." That's good. Faith is the only thing that can keep you steady. That's right. Cause and effect. Belief in God's Word is the interaction and stability is the outward result. And thank God for that because who are we that He gives us that promise and says, "Just hang on to my Word." That's right. If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.

After this warning, God tells them, "Ask me for a sign. Ask the Lord your God for a sign and let it be deep as shield, let it be high as heaven." And A has in the most non-genuine way, response, and He says, "I will not ask. I will not put the Lord to the test." Instead He puts His trust in what He could see. In second, King 16 tells us that A has sent a message to the King of Assyria, asking Him to rescue Judah and Syria from Israel. And He doesn't just ask Him to rescue us. He doesn't just say, "Please help us," but He takes the gold and silver from the temple of God in Jerusalem and gives it to And Assyria does listen. In the moment, it probably did look like the right decision. The king of Assyria marches up to Damascus, takes it, kills the king of Syria. But remember, church, we can only see what's going on around us in the moment. But God sees what will happen in the future. And that's why he says, "Lean not on your own understandings, "but in all your ways, acknowledge me." Because he knows what's gonna come after the decision that he is making and not only what we can see. - That's good. And that's the dangerous thing about idolatry. - Yeah. - Is that it rarely starts with this conscious decision to go against God or to start putting your trust in something else. It starts so subtly, it starts when a self-made solution appears to work, right? Sometimes success can be a dangerous thing.

- Yeah, that's good. - But 'cause then we cling to that, we walk with it, we reorder our lives around what we think gave us success. And idolatry today isn't what it was then, right? We don't see people bowing down to little statues, right? That would be kind of weird. Idolatry is anything that has our trust over God. That can look like finances, that can look like our own strength in abilities, that can look like a relationship. It can be as simple as a system of doing things that causes me not to inquire of the Lord in a specific area or altogether, right? If I say, "I've gotta make this decision," and I know how to do this, that's idolatry. When my heart is for the Lord, I'll say, "God, what should I do in this decision? "You lead me." It doesn't say, "I'm gonna depend on the resources "that I have and get myself out of this situation." It says, "God, I'm gonna wait upon the Lord." Whatever you say, I'm gonna do. And that's our second point, is what we walk with will shape who we become. It's through this choice that A has begins down a road that is consumed with serving idols and rebelling against God. You see, he believed that his decision to put his trust in Assyria worked and that Judah would be okay.

Later in 2nd Kings 16, we read that A has travels to Damascus to meet the king of Assyria, and while there he spots a pagan altar, sends the blueprints of that altar back to Jerusalem and commands the priests to build an exact replica, replacing the altar of God in the temple. This is A has officially declaring who his allegiance is to, and what he will continue allowed to shape his beliefs, shape his heart, and eventually shape his character. You see, A has impulsively chooses to look like the better option that drove Judah farther and further away from God. He then moves the bronze altar of God out of its place, and he tells the priest to use this new altar for all the sacrifices, while he would use the bronze altar only when he wanted to inquire of the Lord. A has was now completely consumed by adultery to the point where he defiles the temple of God, and Judah is invaded again. And guess what A has does? He goes back to Assyria for help, but this time, the king of Assyria comes against him and afflicts him instead of strengthening him. - Yeah, that's good. One of the most sobering verses about A has is found in Second Chronicles 28, 22. And it says, "In the time of his distress, "he became yet more faithless to the Lord." A has then shut the doors of God's temple. He destroys the temple's vessels

and builds altars to other gods throughout Judah. Pressure didn't cause what was in A has his heart, pressure exposed what was already there. A has doubled down on his idols because he was shaped by them. That's what he already knew. That's what he was already practicing. So that's what his faith and his trust was going to be in. Pressure does not cause what's in our hearts church. It reveals what was already there. That's discipleship. That's God saying, "I'm gonna allow this to happen "in your life to show you where your trust is in "and then give you the opportunity to turn back to me "and trust in me because my word is firm "and my word is true." - That's right. - And it's never let you down the wrong path and he's been so faithful. - That's right. - This is how idolatry progresses in our lives. It starts with letting fear dry. The solution seems to work in the moment, but when it betrays us, we sink even deeper into it, convinced we had no other way. I saw the problem, and I know God, and I know he's gonna make me wait on him. So I just took it into my own hands, and it worked for a moment, and then it betrays us, and then we turn to God and betray him even more. Where were you, Lord?

- Yeah, that's right. - This is why God continually calls his people to listen to him, and allow him to redirect them. God tells Isaiah and Isaiah eight not to fear what the culture fears, or call conspiracy what they call conspiracy. Instead, they are to honor the Lord of hosts as holy, letting him be their fear. And church fear of God is a healthy fear. It's not being afraid of him, it's fear of being without him. - Yeah, and it's a reverence of his holiness. Lord, I need you. My director used to say it's like a child in a grocery store that's lost their parent, that's lost their provider, that's lost their protector, that's lost everything. Where are you, God? Where are you, God? I need you, come back to me. - Right. - Because whatever we fear, we will eventually obey. - That's right. - And walking with God is humble obedience. - Yeah. - In God's kindness, he doesn't only send Isaiah, but he also sends Micah. He's like, I'm gonna give you two. - Yeah, that's right. - This is where Micah helps us to understand while Ahaz is rebelling against God,

what the people of God are doing. The people of God's misplaced trust had produced a people who could maintain the appearance of religion while living in rebellion against God. - Yeah. - And that's so convicting, 'cause I think sometimes we can come to church and think that this is our relationship with God, and then at home, where we don't look like Christ, right? - That's right. - And I'm the first one that would say that sometimes I feel the Lord in those areas. - Yeah. - So Micah's concern isn't simply you broke a rule. - Right. - It's you no longer fear God enough to live God's way. - Yeah. - In Micah three, he is talking to the leaders who judged, who judged Judah. They judged for bribes, priests who taught for money, and prophets who practiced divination for payment. And yet in that same, the same people would say, is not the Lord in our midst. No one's disaster shall come upon us. - Right. - They became so proud of the fact that they had the temple, which is where the presence of God dwelt, that they believed God's presence gave them security while they live in direct rebellion against his character.

- Wow. - And some of us do that church. - Yeah. - Sometimes we believe I'm in the church and I felt the presence of God so I must be good. - Right. - That must be him affirming my life. And that is not true. - Not true, right. - His presence can move for somebody else in here and he's still telling you, listen to my voice and do what I've commanded you. I know what's better. - Yeah, you better preach that word. Come on. (congregation applauding) But the Lord says back in Jeremiah, the complete opposite to them. Jeremiah 747, he says, do not trust in these deceptive words. This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. For if you truly amend your words and your deeds, if you truly execute justice with one another, if you do not oppress a soldier or the fatherless or the widow or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, then I will let you dwell in this place. Then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.

- Right. - Again church, do not mistake in God's presence in the temple for his approval. - Right. - They had turned, God is with us from a call to holiness into a shield against accountability. - Yeah. - God is with us, so we should become even more consecrated. God is with us, Lord, expose my heart, where I just wanna please you with everything that I have. That should be our response to the Lord. Now, I'm okay. I've felt his presence today, I must be okay. Be good, he's with us. - Oh man, that's so good. - And that is true, but he wants to refine us, he wants to make us look more and more like him and praise God that it's for our benefit and it's for our good. - That's right. - That he's gonna bless us through that and we're gonna see the fruit of that when we obey him. They thought they could just add God to however they wanted to live and still receive the benefits of walking with him, walking with him will bring. But Jesus says no one can serve two masters or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. - And that's where walking with God requires you to be all in. There's no one foot in, one foot out.

That's all feet out, right? If you live on the fence, guess who owns the fence? The world in Satan, right? You have to be completely in. And that can feel harsh, that can feel condemning. Like, come on, God, I'm giving you 99%. What if I just have 1% for the world? And God is saying, no, that 1% will corrupt and consume your heart. It happened with Israel, it happened with Judah, who had every opportunity to turn to me, who had everything they needed to follow me perfectly, and they allowed compromise. You see, the 1% is detrimental to us. It's like, your allegiance must be with God fully. And if it's not, he will allow you to choose whatever has your allegiance. He will allow you to go into that. He will honor your choice. And the truth is, you can be around the things of God and still not walk with him. You can know the word and not have it in your heart or live by it. You can worship here at the altar and still live in compromise. You can experience God's presence and still resist his conviction. All of these things without choosing to actually live for God, they will only make us proud. They'll only make us hypocritical.

They'll only make us comfortable in our sin. And that's a dangerous place to be, church. That's a dangerous place to be. Jesus even says, men woe to those who think they have the light but walk in darkness. How dark is that darkness for them? Because there's nothing that can reach your heart at that place. That's why the question is not simply whether you've encountered God. I believe all of you in this place have encountered God today. Man, that was powerful. But that's not the question. The question is, is that encounter transforming you? Is it producing greater obedience to God? Is it church? Is it causing you to speak more gently, graciously and edifying? In the way you treat people, is it more loving and considerate of them? Are you generous with the money he has given you to steward? Are you operating in self-control and patience when you're angry? Do your interactions with people, leave them wanting more of Jesus? Do you welcome and receive godly correction? Does God have the final say in your decisions? Our worship of God cannot remain disconnected from the way we live before God. That is discipleship. That's why we need this.

That's why it's more than just showing up on a Sunday and saying, I'm buying in to the whole thing. That's where I get the benefit of being like him. Because you can still show up here and sit in a service and worship right up here at the front and do ministry and serve and still end up in hell. And that's not God's desire for any of us. You know why that's the case is because you can do all those things and not let your heart be affected by the gospel. That's like if you had the vaccine to cancer right up here and I said, all you have to do is just take that vaccine and you're going to be cured of your illness. And you picked it up and you walked around with it and you held it and you told people, I've got the cure to cancer in my hand, but you never administered it to yourself. That's illness is still going to kill you because you never partake of it. You never allow it to transform you into a healthy person. And that's the heart of the issue. That's what Micah in chapter six verse eight brings us back to. He has told you, oh man, what is good? And what does the Lord require of you? But to do justice, to love kindness and walk humbly with our God. That is the heart of the issue. Walking humbly with our God. God was not looking for people to perform religion well.

That's not what he wants out of relationship with us. God was looking for people who would say, I desire to walk with God with my whole heart. That's what Enoch did, that's what Moses did, who walked faithfully with Him embodied. When God has our hearts, it looks like when He says go, we go even if we are afraid. When He says stop, we stop even if we wanted the opportunity, the relationship and the gratification. When He corrects us, we listen because being with Him and being like Him is the most important thing to us. When we do not understand what He's doing, we trust Him anyways because we know who He is. There are times, and there will be times, that we recognize we have gone a wrong direction and humility means trusting and turning around and allowing God to lead. Israel failed to do that, Judah failed to do that, A has failed to do that. And again, God tried to call His people back. He didn't just let them wander away. But tragically, as we mentioned earlier, Israel officially refuses to walk with God. - And eventually the question becomes, how can people who continually refuse to walk with God ever be reconciled to Him? And as most of us know and hear, the answer is that we could not fix the distance between us and God on our own. We could not become good enough, obedient enough,

or faithful enough to make our way back to Him. - That's right. - And here's a reminder. We could not walk with God perfectly, so God came to us. Praise God. - That's right. - In the midst of this corruption and idolatry, God promises an ultimate deliverer through Isaiah. Isaiah tells a future day of restoration. The land of Galilee once humbled will see a great light. God will break the yoke of their oppression, and a child will be born to us, a son given whose government will never end. He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, reigning on David's throne with justice and righteousness forever. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him with wisdom, power, and the fear of the Lord. Jesus came and taught us how to fear God. - Yes. - He won't judge by outward appearance or hearsay, but He will bring true justice to the poor and righteousness to the earth. This is Jesus. So thank you, God, that us right now, we have the full revelation of Christ. The Israelites didn't. They were waiting for that. They were trying to figure it out.

But church, we have no excuse. - We have no excuse. That's right. - And this convicted me so much because there are times when I needed God to come through. And God's track record is this kind of consistent sometimes most of the time I'll say, He's always making me wait. He's telling me what He's gonna do, and then He's making me wait. - Right. - So I take it into my own hands and it solves it for a moment, and then I'm back to square one. - Right. - And when I feel like success in my ministry means that I have arrived somehow. I must be doing a good job. And when my own understanding eventually fails, I question God. - Yeah. - Or when I'm in a season of self-criticalness. And so everything and everyone around me needs to be critiqued. And it's just because of me, I don't believe I'm good enough. I'm so critical of myself. - Yeah. - And my question to myself, church becomes who am I, and when has this become about me? - Right.

- And that's a question that we want all of you guys to ask yourselves this morning. When has it become about me, Lord? It's always been about you, Jesus. - Right. - Will you stand with me this morning church? Can we get the keys out? Please. - Yes. This is my dilemma, this is our dilemma constantly. So we're preaching from a place of needing to be told this and reminded all of this as well. - Absolutely. - If you want to come sit at the altar now and just meet with the Lord, you can do that. But our response time today is just going to be for you to self-reflect. - Yeah. - So if you come up to the front, that's up to you. Walking with God is what we're talking about. So if you want to walk up here. - Yeah. - And sit with him and talk to him. - That's right. - That's what we want you to do. If you could close your eyes for me church, and I'm just going to ask you a few questions, we're going to sing together, you're going to reflect with the Lord, and then you're dismissed to go to your homes

and really dig deep in yourself and say, Lord, with everything that I've heard today, please expose the things in me that don't look like you, that haven't relied on you, that haven't trusted you. (gentle piano music) - So, to my fellow pastors and elders, ministry success does not equate to walking with God. When was the last time you answered an altar call on a Sunday? Are you still excited to serve God's kingdom? Do you receive corrections or do you feel as if you have arrived? Do you still love people while the people are used so much that you now fear them? To those who serve the house serving the people does not equate to walking with God if your life isn't fully submitted to him outside of here Does because you volunteer make you feel entitled does volunteering still feel like a privilege or is it just something you have to do? Do you love the people you serve see Jesus in them and reflect Jesus to them Do you serve your family your spouse with the same intentionality? students Coming to discipleship school does not equate to walking with God if your life isn't fully submitted to him outside of here surrender to the process Will you just do all the assignments without letting God speak to you speak to you through them? Will you just get through this year or allow yourself to grow in Christ like character and everyone else in this place? Coming to church does not equate to walking with God if your life isn't fully submitted to him outside of here Right is church the one thing you do on Sunday because you should or do you desire to be in the presence of the Lord because you love him and his people because you need him Do you take what you receive here and truly apply it or is it forgotten the moment you walk out the door? Do you come for what you can receive or because he already has given you everything?