The Ordination of Ian Weber

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Lord, we've come to do just that to praise you, to witness a man laying down his life, giving up his rights, falling to the ground and dying in the hopes that there be many seeds.

Jesus, you made it clear that if a man, unless a man falls to the ground and dies, he remains alone.

But if he falls to the ground and dies, his life produces many seeds.

Ian Webber comes today to fall to the ground and die in public.

We should all be wearing suits today because we're attending a man's funeral.

And Lord, our prayer for our friend Ian is that he would be like the fish of the loaves that they took from the little boy.

And that you would bless him and break him and just give him away so that the masses could be nourished by his ministry.

That's what we've gotten together today in this first service to do.

So be among us and be over us and be sufficient for us in the doing, we pray in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

You could have a seed.

Let me explain to you if you walked in late what you walked into.

Usually this service is to ordain our student pastor, Ian Weber, to the gospel ministry.

Typically, an ordination service, tragically, they have it on churches have it on a Sunday night.

It's kind of tacked on, and they have cake and coffee, and about 50 people come.

But we as the elders decided we wanted to ordain people on our staff in the worship service because you, the church, have a responsibility of helping him live this out.

Someone once said that a God's call is an inner conviction given by the Holy Spirit.

It's confirmed by the Word of God and by the body of Christ.

Let me read that again.

God's call is an inner conviction given by the Holy Spirit, it's confirmed by the Word of God and by the body of Christ.

This is why we decided to take up one of our services for the ordination of Ian Weber.

It's why we've gathered here this morning as the body of Christ, the church, to confirm and affirm his call to gospel ministry.

This portion of an ordination service is called the charge.

The charge is where typically an older man is here to remind a younger man what he's in for and what he's responsible for as somebody that says, I'm called to gospel ministry.

So if you're here and you're like, dude, I just came to church, uh, it's not an accident that you're here.

You should listen this morning for this is what you should expect from uh from uh people on staff at a church, this church or any church you ever go to.

Uh, and this is what you should understand for those of you who are thinking you may be called, you students over here, some of you may be thinking, hey, I might be called to this.

God may have his hand on me.

I feel like I don't fit in anywhere else.

Some of you may marry someone in ministry and you'll have to give the pep talk when he or she wants to quit.

Like, oh, you can't quit.

You're a called person, okay?

Stop crying, sea biscuit, toughen up and go to work.

Because there's days you're gonna want to quit, Ian.

You're gonna want to quit because these church people are fickled, Ian.

They love you to your face and they'll slander you to your back, behind your back.

And then they'll call you two days later and need something.

And you got to give it to them, Ian.

You can't keep score because love keeps no records of wrongs endured.

For the most part, they'll love you and bless you, but when necessary, they'll flip on you in an instant.

It's a very Christ-like experience.

I've chosen it's a passage in 1 Kings chapter 19, starting in verse 19.

1 Kings 19 · chapter mention

It's where God uh uh tells the prophet Elijah to go cast his mantle, his cloak, his outer garment on a young man named Elisha, uh, because God's gonna use him as Elijah's successor.

But he's also more important, he's using him what God's doing to change the world.

Here's what the Bible says.

So he departed from there and he found Elisha, the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen in front of him, and he was with the twelfth.

Elijah passed by him and cast his cloak upon him, and he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.

And he said to him, Go back again, for what have I done to you?

And he returned from following him, and he took the yoke of oxen, he sacrificed them and boiled their flesh with the yolks of the oxen and gave it to the people, and they ate.

Then he arose and went after Elijah and assisted him.

There's just four things I want to point out from the passage, Ian.

Uh, number one, you gotta understand some things.

You have to understand some things.

You say, What do you mean?

Elijah just walks by and just throws his his his cloak, his his mantle on him and just keeps walking.

And Elijah, in the moment, he kind of understands, but he doesn't really understand.

And because when he casts this mantle on him, he he does it to discern if Elisha really understands what is happening.

And what's happening is referred to as the call or the doctrine of calling, and it's the means by which God sets a man apart for vocational ministry.

He's been selected, and what you're doing today, Ian, is you're sitting there next to your wife and in front of your family, and you're saying, I have been selected to play a role by God, to play a role in what God is doing to redeem the world.

And because of this, you're ruined for everything else, okay?

And your affections have been captured for one thing only.

You got to understand some things, and here's why.

By casting his cloak on him, he's transferring prophetic power and ministry responsibility to Elisha.

When he does this, Elijah just keeps walking because he wants to see if Elijah, if Elisha understands what just happened to him.

But I want you to understand this morning, Ian, what's happened to you.

There's two things that come with the call.

We, your church, we, your elders, we, your co-workers, other pastors on staff here, we believe your call.

There's two things that come with the call.

The first one is gravity.

Gravity.

Gravity is not seriousness as much as a weighty understanding.

Gravity means your antenna is tuned to a different frequency than everybody else around you, Ian.

You're listening to something that they can't even hear and most don't even believe exists, okay?

But you're not as you're an antenna tuned to that, you're you you hear different things because your soul is tuned into the invisible and your life is given to making the invisible visible to people around you.

So, because of that, you will appear out of step with people sometimes.

Sometimes people will say, Oh, he was angry.

Not angry.

You just see a bigger picture than those people.

People that see the big picture are always come off angry, the people that live in a really small picture.

It'll always be that way.

That's the way God set it up to see if you really believe and you really trust what God's given you to say.

If you don't sense this, Ian, this sense of gravity, let's quit now and go eat lunch.

And here's why, Ian, because the last thing the church needs is another weightless, inconsequential man who stands up before people, be they students or a congregation, and just speaks fluent helium.

Just happy, clappy nonsense.

And if you want to see it, just turn on the TV any Sunday.

They're on TV.

That's the way you get on TV.

There has to be, you can't be on TV preaching without this paralyzing shallowness to you.

Because the real gospel is too offensive to be broadcast on TV.

We don't need any more inconsequential, weightless men who speak fluent helium.

You got to be willing to be different, not for the sake of being unique, Ian, but because the reality that you're called, because you're called, you're ruined for everything else.

The God who calls you owns you.

You don't own yourself.

When the Bible says, Don't you know that your your your your life is not your own, you you're the first person that can testify that.

So with the call comes gravity.

Secondly, Ian, with the call comes gladness.

Gladness.

Gladness is not, howdy, sir.

It's not gladness.

That's personality.

And it's great.

It's genuine.

He really is.

People have asked me, is he really that happy all the time?

Unfortunately, yes.

Yes.

I don't think I'm having a bad day until I see Ian.

He's like, howdy, sir.

I'm like, oh, full of love.

Maybe I'm a little wintry today, okay?

Gladness is not happiness, it's not a good mood.

Here's what gladness is uh it is a God-besoded state of being that allows you to rejoice in your sufferings.

And it doesn't make sense to anybody around you.

And people speak ill of you, and these kids over here that love you until you tell them they can't go, and they go on social media, write about you.

You're like, you press in on me, you think that hurts me?

King Kong ain't got nothing on me.

That don't hurt me at all.

I don't even feel that, okay?

Are you kidding me?

You're 16.

I'm telling you no because I want you to be trusted with a bigger yes.

And they'll hate you and they'll go home to their parents and lie about you.

You just gotta smile the next time you see them, they'll say hey man, I'm glad you're here.

Here's what you have that they don't, Ian.

You have gladness.

They've just got a cell phone.

Their latest crisis is that TikTok may be banned.

You have gladness, Ian.

A called man has gladness.

You rejoice in your suffering.

So when people speak ill of you, you don't clap back.

You find it a very Christ-like experience to be betrayed.

This gladness brings with it a capacity that you don't find anywhere else or in anyone else.

A glad, called man, his life sings with the old hymn that says this joyful, joyful, we adore you, God of glory, Lord of love.

Hearts unfold like flowers before you, opening to the sun above.

Here's the part, Ian.

Only gladness can accomplish this.

Melt the clouds of sin and sadness, drive the dark of doubt away.

Giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the light of day.

Immortal gladness is a gladness that cannot be killed and refuses to die.

And this is what a called man has.

And when it gets hard, you're looking at Kendall and smiling and going, Hey, we're gonna be okay.

God called us, and what God orders, He pays for.

We're gonna be fine.

And Zoe giggles in the room next door because she hears you.

You're shaping your children's ecclesiology by the way you think about and relate to this place and to the church as a whole.

There's a level of seriousness in that makes a man glad because he finds it, and because of that, you find it hard to enjoy the lesser things that most people are willing to settle for, because you know there's so much of eternal consequence to be enjoyed.

So, all that to say, Ian, is simply is you got to understand some things.

Secondly, you got to say goodbye to some things and people.

One of those is easier than the other.

What do you mean you got to say goodbye to some things and some people?

Verse 20.

And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said to him, Let me kiss my father and mother, and then I will follow you.

And he said to him, Go back again, for what have I done to you?

You more than anybody has to understand what God has done to you.

Because unless you understand what God has done to you, he will not do for you.

You will not have clarity around that.

Every time he offends your preferences, you'll think you're being punished, but you're not being punished, Ian.

You're being invited.

You got to say goodbye to some things and some people.

One thing that Elijah, Elisha, had to leave was a standard of living.

We miss this in the text.

The Bible says he's plowing with 12 yoke of oxen.

He might as well be driving a Bugatti.

Remember what you drove when you started working here, Ian?

What kind of a piece of junk foreign car was that?

A Scion TC3.

Yeah, that's a single guy car right there.

About six inches off the ground.

Yeah, two doors?

Yeah, your days of two-door vehicles are over.

Yes, sir.

Your next stop is a minivan.

We slide into a open up.

You should tell your family for Christmas, take up a love offering.

We need a minivan.

Yeah, you gotta say goodbye to that little scion.

Did you drive out when you were at AM?

I bet you thought that was cool, didn't you?

A little bit.

Doesn't feel cool when you have kids, does it?

You gotta you got a grease Zoe to squeeze her in the back seat.

She's like, I do not enjoy this vehicle, Daddy.

Elisha had to leave his standard of living.

He was plowing with 12 oxen.

Why is that a big deal?

Most people had one yoke of oxen.

A yoke is a pear.

If you were crushing it, you had two.

Elisha had 12.

That's 24 oxen.

He was well off what the Bible's telling us.

He walked away from that when Elijah cast his cloak upon him.

And he doesn't require God to give him what he could have had if he stayed home.

You got to walk away from that, Ian.

You can't look back.

You can't look at your parents who've been married 40 years and say, we want to start where they are right now.

We want their ceiling to be our floor.

I hear 20-something say that, and I want to punch them in the face.

That's an insult to your parents.

You gotta struggle.

You gotta do without.

Sometimes you gotta say, you know what, we'd like to go, but we just can't afford it.

And you don't get pity, Ian.

No one should feel sorry for you.

No, the Webbers can't take another vacation.

Because your generation invented push gifts, baby moon, just stuff that never existed before.

Y'all think of reasons to spend money on yourself.

Well, the call to ministry will help you with that.

Absolutely.

You had to say goodbye to a standard of living.

You also got to leave some people.

Not gonna make it to every family gathering because loving and pastoring people is not convenient.

People die at inconvenient times, they remember your phone number at inconvenient times, they get sick at inconvenient times, it's weak to your phone number.

You don't get to turn your cell phone off because it's me time.

If I hear one more 20-something say, well, the most important thing in ministry is my mental health.

No, it's not.

The most important thing in ministry is the king and the kingdom.

People in ministry have horrible mental health because they're lazy and they never died to their preferences.

They never said goodbye to some things.

They try to take all these things with them into ministry and insist that everybody accommodate.

God's not going to accommodate a called man, he calls you and he just walks on like Elijah deceived.

Can you just figure out what I did to you?

As a called man, you're always on call.

I know your generation says, oh, family time, me time, mental health day, blah, blah, blah.

Here's the thing.

Those people that talk like that, I don't think they were ever called.

I think they borrowed some opinions they heard on a podcast because it validated their preferences.

You're shaping.

Zoe's ecclesiology and any other children God may give you guys in the future.

So think soberly about it.

You want to raise girls that love the church.

You don't want to raise little pee, little spoiled, dysfunctional preacher's kids that act out behind your back.

You want to raise someone, you look around, they're worshiping in church, and you're like, Yeah, we did something right.

Thirdly, you got to sacrifice some things, Ian.

You gotta sacrifice some things.

You say, I don't know what you mean.

You know, I should sacrifice the oxen.

I love this because it's kind of graphic.

That's just the way I am.

He says, This, and in verse 21, and he returned from following him, and he took the yoke of oxen and sacrificed them and boiled their flesh with the yolks of the oxen and gave it to the people, and they ate.

How long does it take to kill 24 oxen, Ian?

A while.

That's right.

That's exactly right, okay?

So when I say you got to sacrifice some things, he sacrificed his oxen because he knew he could never go back to this way of life ever again.

Because he was called.

He takes the yolks and he cooks the meat and he don't miss this part.

Not only does he sacrifice, but he gives it away to the people.

Other people, here's how you know you're called.

The majority of your sacrifices are for the sake of other people.

Other people benefit from your sacrifices.

He killed the ox and he fed the people.

You don't sacrifice to benefit yourself.

That's not sacrifice, that's selfishness with a cross on top.

Not sacrifice.

Ministry is full of uncalled men and women who can't sacrifice, who take an offense.

We don't need any more of that.

We're done with that.

Those people are inconsequential.

They flip around every three years to a different church because people get to know them, they don't like them, so they leave before they're unliked.

They're damningly self-centered, and God has consistently giving them over to the smallness of themselves.

This is why their mental health is a little dysregulated because you don't sacrifice.

The best thing for your mental health is to sacrifice every once in a while, to not get your way.

To always get your way, Ian, gives yourself the illusion that you're God and you're not.

Only God gets his way all the time.

It's good to sacrifice, it's good to say no to yourself, to your wife, to your children.

No, we can't do that.

Dad's got to go sit with a family at the hospital.

Their mom just died.

Welcome to it, Ian.

And there's nobody clapping when you walk out of the hospital at 2 18 in the morning.

There's nobody in the parking garage going, whoa, you're gonna get a bonus for this.

That's how you figure out if you're really called.

Because here's the beauty of most of the sacrifices you make.

None of these people will ever know.

Allow me to demonstrate.

He'll get mad at me about this, but I don't care because in the next service I'm preaching from Acts 26.

I'm gonna slay them fools.

Because one of the things God does is he pulls back the camera on Paul's Damascus Road experience where he converts Paul and he says to him, I've delivered you from your people and from the Gentiles.

I've been delivered from these people.

I love them, but they they they can't hurt me.

It's hard to help people like you can, unless and until you're free from them, man.

So this person may not like me telling this story.

I don't care.

I've been delivered from him.

When I say that the beauty is that most of the sacrifices you make, people will benefit from and never know about.

When we had the freeze, just hit us a couple weeks ago, eight degrees one night, while you and me and all these people were home, hunkered down, maybe with a fire going.

Wade Burchis was up here walking from building to building all night long, making sure we didn't have a leak.

He slept on the couch in Blake Hardcastle's office.

You ever laid down on that couch?

I have.

It's not comfortable, it's about that far too short to stretch out.

So you got to curl up in the fetal position on your side.

None of these people knew it.

They didn't send an email the next day and say, Hey, by the way, everybody, the buildings are all fine.

I was walking around all night long.

I took a little three-hour nap.

No, he's called.

And you make sacrifices.

And you don't say, Hey, hey, everybody, I'm sacrificing.

Come watch.

It makes it easier to do.

It's easy to do if you're called.

If you're not called, you don't sacrifice.

You do something else that starts with an S.

You keep score.

And you sit down at your annual review like you work for a law firm.

Here's all the things that I did this year.

That's a privilege.

It's not power.

We don't negotiate in the kingdom.

Finally, you gotta love, you gotta follow somebody, Ian.

You gotta follow somebody.

The last verse, last part of verse 21, he says this after he kills the animals and cooks them and gives them away because the biggest sacrifices are for other people, not for himself.

Then circle that word in your mind, Ian, then, because things in this passage are sequential.

Then after he arose, he went after Elijah and assisted him.

You gotta go hard after God, Ian.

Then he arose and he went after Elijah and he assisted him.

Things in this passage, like I said, are sequential because there's things that we have to do in order to be free of people and liberated unto God.

Now, earlier in the chapter, Elijah was having a little pity party.

He was telling God how hard it was.

And you're gonna have some of those, Ian.

You're gonna have those days where you think, people know how hard this is.

No, they don't.

And you gotta tell them because they wouldn't understand and you'd feel foolish for telling them.

You'd feel your favorite word, vulnerable for telling them.

Yeah.

He has a little pity party.

I'll read it to you.

It sounded like this.

He's told God this twice, like God forgot.

He said, He said, What are you doing here, Elijah?

And he says, I've been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts.

For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, they've thrown down your altars and killed your prophets with the sword, and I even I only am left.

Any sentence that you say that says, I even, I only, it's probably not true.

Just get that tattooed on your back.

I, there's nobody.

Everyone's left you, everyone's forsaken you, just but not me.

I even I only am left.

And they seek my life to take it away.

God's response to this was to instruct Elijah to go anoint Elisha.

Translation, Elisha was the answer to Elijah's prayers.

Why am I telling you that, Ian?

Here's why.

The most humbling experience you will ever have is to realize there'll be moments, circumstances, and situations where you will be the answer to people's prayers.

That's the gift of ministry.

That's the experience of a called man.

And it doesn't puff you up, it it settles you down, it humbles you at the deepest place.

I believe you're capable of that.

I believe you're competent for that.

And more than anything, I believe that you're called to that.

That's why we're here today as your church to affirm affirm you, to agree with what the Holy Spirit has started in you, that you're called and qualified for gospel ministry.

Now, because that in, I want you to stand up and walk a few steps forward.

Turn around and face your congregation.

Look over here where your students are, Ian.

Ian Weber, if you cheat on your wife, you will have failed these people.

You will have disillusioned these kids and given them a reason to doubt everything you've ever said.

Ian Weber, if you steal from this church, you will have dishonored the call.

If you engage in any disqualifying behaviors, you will have sullied God's name and marred his character.

Do you understand that, Ian?

Kendall, I want you to join your husband.

Because we understand, Kendall, that when God calls a man, there's consequence for the woman.

And so I want to ask our elders that would have come forward at this time.

There's anybody here you're ordained to gospel ministry.

Would you come forward at this time and get around Ian and Kendall?

Now, if you're here and you believe, I believe that man's called, I want you to leave your seat and come get around these people.

Take a few steps forward, Ian.

Get a hand on somebody.

You can't get it to him, but get a hand on somebody.

Look around, Ian.

On the days that you doubt it, and you don't just don't feel it.

You remember the faces around you.

Gospel ministry.

Good gospel ministry.

It's not about you and your needs.

It's about your responsibility.

And you have a sacred responsibility to every one of these people.

Now, I would like all of you that are left your seats to come forward just to begin to pray out loud, all at the same time.

Prayers of blessing, dedication, separation, and consecration over Ian.

Go ahead.

Lord, is Ian's faith community, more importantly, as a gathering of the body of Christ, the church, capital C.

We lay our hands on Ian Weber today as a sign of our acceptance of Him, His gifts, and a validation and verification of His calling.

He's not better than, He's more responsible.

So it's right of us to expect more of Him, which means we're not going to call and go, I hate to interrupt you.

No, He's one of our pastors.

He's to be interrupted.

If He's not interruptible, he's in the wrong line of work.

And God give Kindle the thickness of being she needs to live with a called man and to raise children who love the church and not resent it because daddy's not available all the time.

They'll be better for it if they're raised in a home where sometimes they get told no.

They'll be okay.

It's good for them.

God, we have a mental health crisis in this country because we all live under the illusion that no is a four-letter word.

No is a good word.

It's a soul-shaping, me-settling word.

We're so unsettled because we can't do no.

So God put in Ian a no and a yes, give him the wisdom to know when to use either one.

And again, Lord, our prayer for him is that he'd be like the fish in the loaves, that he'd be blessed, broken, and given away.

And let there be basketfuls left over.

When this man dies years from now, old and full of years, let there be basketfuls of leftovers of his ministry, the consequence of his ministry.

People going, oh man, Ian Weber was my youth pastor, and my life was different.

God, make of him a consequential man like that.

This is our prayer.

We prayed in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

Encourage you.

Just make your way back to your seat.

Again, if you're visiting today, you may be thinking, What in the world?

Look at me.

You should expect something of people that are called, you guys can have a seat, Ian.

You can expect something of people that are called to ministry, and you should.

Now, if you're sitting out there and you're thinking, Do you love Ian or hate Ian?

I'll let you ask Ian that question.

Because I've been delivered from you.

And that's not some catty phrase.

I meant what I said in the email.

Some of you are like, so are you going to preach a different sermon in the second service?

Unless one of you wants to be ordained.

Yes.

We're going to be preaching from Acts 20.

We'll get back in the book of Acts.

We've got to finish Acts.

And one of the things that God says to him is, hey, I've set you free from your people and from the Gentiles.

I've set you free from believers and unbelievers.

Gospel ministry is a place of freedom, students.

It's the most responsible thing you'll ever do.

And you'll be the freest cat in the room.

And some of you should be asking yourself, hey, why do I have so angsty?

I don't fit in this world.

It might be that God's got his thumb on your noggin.

You might just be saying, This one's mine.

This one is all mine.

That applies to guys and girls.

Girls, God didn't create you just to make babies and potato salad.

Some of y'all, God has a call on your life.

So be sober about who you date and who you marry because they could ruin it for you.

Thank you for being Ian's church and for your presence and participation today.

Would I conclude our service with a spoken blessing?

So if you would hold your hands out.

Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God.

And as such, you deserve called men and women to lead you, to sacrifice for you, to love you, to make you angry and make you glad with the truth.

That's just a part of it.

We love you.

Ian Weber loves you.

That's why he's here.

It's good to be the church.

Depart now and be who the Bible says you are.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.