You are invited to shift your perspective and honor the leaders God has appointed over you, recognizing that this respect opens the door to receive His gifts. When you treat their calling as sacred rather than common, you align yourself with the flow of ministry God intends for your life. Start practicing this honor today to unlock the fullness of what God has for you.
Thank you so much. Wow. Well, Lord Jesus, we just we thank you for who you are. We give you the honor and the glory. We thank you that you're in the room.
*Lord*, it's a it's a joy to get to be here at church on a Sunday morning, and it's a joy, Lord, to give you our Sunday mornings. Lord God, and if there's anybody in here that this was a sacrifice to come, Lord, I pray the message shifts, so their attitude shifts, and they start following you because they want to, not because they have to. Lord God, I thank you for your goodness and your love. In Jesus name, I pray. Everybody said, Amen.
Amen. Well, a little bit of a light crowd on a 09:00AM when we we just fell forward, On the time thing. My name's David John Phillips. I have the joy and honor of getting to be the pastor. There's no place I'd rather be, nothing I'd rather be doing.
I say it that way every single Sunday because I want you to know it. I want you to to feel it deep down, and I also want you to have the same attitude in everything that you do. I get to be the pastor. You get to do your job. You get to be a mom.
You get to be a dad. You get to be a brother and a son. It's a privilege to get to steward the life that God entrusted to you. Amen? Man, if we shift our attitude to that, everything begins to shift.
It's a good thing. Alright. So we have some special things that we need to do today, and and I want to make sure that we give the appropriate attention to this. So mister Robbie, would you come forward, please? You have a seat.
I'll let you have a seat because I'm gonna talk for a little bit. We're gonna we're gonna teach on this a little bit and you didn't want you to just stand here all awkwardly as I'm speaking. So I'll just sit here. So you'll sit here awkwardly. And you're looking spiffy.
We're ordaining Robbie today. Ordination is a big deal. It's a huge deal in the kingdom. With ordination, we're we're I have 2 things up here and I'm gonna explain them both. I have a towel and I have anointing oil.
And both of them are a part of ordination. It's it's a a big deal vital process in the kingdom of God and I want you to understand it completely and understand what we're ordaining Ravi to while we're ordaining him, and what that means for you, and what that means for him. In Ephesians-4, what kind of Ephesians. In Ephesians-4:11, says, *Jesus*, or verse 10, it says, after Jesus ascended, he gave gifts to the church. He gave the apostle, the prophet, the evangelist, the pastor, and the teacher.
These are gifts given to the church, and the role of these gifts are to do ministry. That's what they do. Ephesians-4:12, to equip the saints for the works of ministry. If you've given your life to Jesus, then God has credited his righteousness to your account, you're a saint in his eyes, and your role is not to sit on a chair on Sunday morning, "check it off the box" and go about your day. Right?
You can do that if you're religious and you're checking your religious box, but if you're a true Christian that's following Jesus, this is just an overflow of what God's been doing in your life and your role is to daily do ministry. You're a minister, a full time minister of the gospel. Now, with that being said, there are some that their calling in life is to be either an apostle, a prophet, evangelist, a pastor, or a teacher, And the role, their role is to equip the saints, others for the works of ministry. Now, when we're anointing Robbie, we're not actually anointing him in any way. God has already called and anointed him for this calling.
He did that a whole, like, long time ago. *God called him. God anointed* him. "Many are called", but few are chosen. Because few are willing to walk out the process of development to where the people anoint and recognize what God already anointed decades ago.
Now, David was anointed as king, and then he went back to the pasture, and then fought the lion, the bear, or the bear, the lion, then the giant. Then he was serving the king for a while. Then he went into exile for a while. All of this was the process of development, developing the character necessary to walk out the fullness of the call, and the faith to trust God in the pressures that are required with leadership in the kingdom. Robbie's been walking through a process of preparation for a long time.
Much longer than I've known him. And, at Real Church, we do not ordain or promote anyone into any official leadership title until you've at least been serving, at least at least a year. Because leadership in the kingdom's not about your title or about your pedigree or about anything. Leadership in the kingdom is about service. To lead, Jesus said, is to serve.
So as we *anoint* Robbie with this, you're gonna notice something. Right? You're gonna notice that you honor the anointing and the calling that God's already placed on him more than you do. Now, here's the deal. It's very important.
**What you honor**, you're able to receive from. What you dishonor, you can't receive from. Those that you honor, you receive. God has gifted this man and put gifts in him, but also given him as a gift to the body of Christ. When you honor a leader in the kingdom, you receive from the gift that God gave them.
When you dishonor them, you reject the gift that God gave them, so you're rejecting what God put on his life. So, in a sense, you're rejecting God. It's a big deal. Now, of those Ephesians-4:11, apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher, God sent him here as an evangelist. You've seen him do the work of evangelist, equipping you to share the gospel in your daily life, and to make disciples.
And if you hang around him much, that's gonna splash off on you, and you're gonna want to share the gospel with others in your life. You're probably gonna start wanting or desiring words of knowledge, praying for healing. You might even see some demons cast out because what's biblical is real today. If you hang around Robbie, it'll probably overflow onto your life. Because that's what he's anointed and gifted to do.
And the reason that God is promoting him here is because he called him and anointed him a long time ago, and he decided to live out a life of ministry, surrendering, and he got so good at it, at living out a life of ministry, God's like, let me promote you to equip the saints to do what you've been doing. That's kinda how it works. Make sense? Yeah. Okay.
So at Real Church, we're not gonna call him evangelist Robbie Huffman. Because in American culture, that's weird. People think that that's weird, and so we're just gonna We're going to become "all things to all people", so that we might win some. Make sense? So Will will call him pastor Robbie Huffman.
With the knowledge deep down that he's an evangelist, and he's an evangelist in this house, to equip our house for the works of evangelism and discipleship. Amen? Now, here's the deal. At real church, in any official real church function, small groups, anything, call him pastor Robbie Huffman from now on. Here's why.
He's also the youth pastor. Right? And he's developing our kids, our teenagers, and the same thing, and training them up, but here's why. It's honor. When you honor the authority that God has given him, you're able to receive from it, and when you dishonor it See, dishonor is defined as treating as common.
What have you treated as common that God wanted you to honor, and that prevented you from receiving from it? I don't wanna treat anything or anyone as common. I want to treat them exactly the way God appointed them, and so my challenge to you, and as your pastor, I'm leading you to do this. From now on, in any official real church thing, he's pastor Robbie Huffman. You hanging out as friends, Robbie.
Say, I'm never going to make you call me pastor David, or doctor David. I'm never gonna do it. But, in official real church things, our people call me doctor David John Phillips, or pastor David. Why? Cause it's to serve, and to promote honor in the kingdom of God.
I'll never say, here I am, I am Doctor. Never. Right? But, when we learn honor, we respect what God has promoted so that we can receive every gift that God wants to give to us through them. Amen?
Okay. So we're gonna anoint him with oil here in a second, but the other thing, it's not only are you *anointed* and the *anointing* that God gave helps is gonna help him to fulfill that purpose and promise, and as he grows, the ability to to or the capacity to carry that anointing to give out will grow too, and you'll see that. But also, leadership in the kingdom is servanthood. *Jesus* showed the example of leadership in the kingdom, the ultimate leader, the king of all kings. What did he do in John-13?
He girded himself in a towel and got down and washed the disciples feet. This was the thing that that caused Judas right afterwards to go betray Jesus. Because Judas was about his position or what he could get, and said about becoming a humble servant of others. So if you don't like servanthood, and this is kinda rubbing you wrong, maybe you need to repent for having a Judas type heart and start to get down and go clean some toilets and wash some feet. Jesus, when he was washing the disciples feet, this is the other part of his role, when he's washing the disciples feet.
Peter said, well, wash my whole body as well. And Jesus said, no no no, you're clean because of the word that I've spoke to you. But as we're How many know as we're walking in this world, sometimes our feet get a little dirty, and we might look down at our dirty feet and think we're all dirty. And we need brothers and leaders in the kingdom to help get down, wash our feet of the dirt, and remind us of who we are in Christ so we could remember that we are clean in him, and continue walking about the calling that God has for us. Now, this is biblical because it says Jesus girded himself with a towel.
Everything that Jesus did was very intentional, and he was referencing by his action prophetically, *Isaiah-11:5. Isaiah-11:5*, I'm gonna turn to it real quick, because I don't wanna quote it wrong. But it says, righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, or the girdle around, and faithfulness the belt of his loins. So, the towel, the girdle that he was doing, was righteousness and faithfulness. He was down and he was reminding them of their standing with God, washing the dirt off their feet, but he was also reminding them of his faithfulness to them, and also a challenge for them to continue to be faithful.
To not just take steps of faith, but to be full of faith in those areas. Amen? So the towel goes along with Robbie's ordination, because he is required as a leader in the kingdom to wash your feet, reminding you of your identity, to be a faithful leader in the kingdom like Jesus is faithful, but also to challenge you forward in faithfulness. Amen? Miss Jenna, would you come up here?
It's her birthday.
Amen. Now this is his beautiful bride, wife, Jenna Hoffman. She's not being ordained today as Robbie is, but maybe 1 day, if the Lord so says, maybe she'll be ordained in her own right as well. Who knows? But in a sense, because she's 1 with Robbie, she is helping to carry this ordination with him.
So there will be greater anointing and authority in her life just because she's 1 with him. And also, she's accepting the call as well. She's his *helpmate*. She's his helper. That's not a degradation of her position.
Actually, God is called our helper. Same word. God helps us to fulfill all of the purposes and calling that he's put on our life, and that's her role in this, is to help him to fulfill every purpose and calling that God has in this ordination and what he's ordained Robbie to do. And I feel bad for those pastors and leaders that have a wife that's like a constant dripping, it talks about in Proverbs. That's not helping, but actually hurting and preventing the person from walking out their calling, and they have to stand in more faith because of the wife, that it's not a push forward.
That's not Jenna.
Amen. Come on.
Jenna is a good helpmate. Amen. And Jenna will encourage Robbie when he wants to quit down the road, because sometimes ministry is hard. You ain't quitting, boy. Get back up and get walking.
I know this is hard. You signed up for hard and I'm with you. Let's go. See it, you can see it in her smile. It's there.
Thank you, Ryan. Yeah. She is gonna she is gonna obey *God* in helping him to fulfill the calling. And together, there will be an overflow of an anointing that will serve this local body. And as the Lord leads influence for the greater body of Christ.
Amen? Amen. Alright. I want all the elders that are in here, Jerry and Heidi, Courtney, my my co leader with me. Bart, why don't you come on as well?
Y'all don't know this, but we're promoting Bart and Dixie to elder. It's a different calling. I didn't tell you guys that. That that is that's coming later in a couple weeks. Is there any other elders in here for this service?
I don't think so. Okay. Alright. So we're gonna lay hands on you guys together. Why don't y'all stand right here in the middle?
Come on. This is what I want to do. Let's have Jerry, you pray, and then Heidi, and then I'll pray. Here.
Oh, yeah. Forget about that. Yeah. Get it good. Good on
that. So,
Lord God, we thank you for this mighty man of God, Lord. We thank you, God, that the word that's in him has properly positioned him at this moment. Thank you for the submission of he continually putting himself on the altar for you, Lord, to to take and mold, to make all that he is because of who you are, Lord. So, Lord, we thank you for your anointing, your power, and your authority in Robbie to be the evangelist, to be the youth pastor, to be a leader in his family, Lord, by serving. He began by serving, Lord.
**"Serving to lead"** and leading to serve. So, Lord, we thank you for everything that you're doing in Ravi, that he would continue to catch the father's heart of your great love that you have for him, Lord. Let him walk in the your presence, your promises, and your great love. And we thank you for him right now in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen.
*God*, I just honor you. We just honor you right now. We say thank you, God. Thank you for this gift that you have been that you've given real church. Who are we, Lord?
Who are we? You gave us your best, Lord. I thank you for who Robbie is, God. I thank you for choosing him and calling him to this place for this moment before he was ever even in his in his mother's womb, Lord. You called him to be an evangelist for your kingdom, and I thank you for him.
*God*, thank you that we get the opportunity to serve such a mighty man of God and his wife, Lord. God, I pray that you will continually sustain him. I know his heart is for you. Lord, that you would put the barriers in place that wouldn't cause him to go to the right or to the left because, Lord, we need you a 100% of a 100% of the days that we are on this earth. And I thank you for Jana, Lord.
I thank you that you have empowered her, and you've equipped her to be what she needs to be to help Robbie, Lord. I thank you for what you're doing in her life, Lord. I pray that you will grow her as a helpmate, that she would continue to be somebody that everyone can look at in the body of Christ and say, this is what it looks like to be a helpmate. This is what it looks like to be a couple in the kingdom, God. Protect them, Lord, and bless them in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Courtney, why don't you pray for Jenna as well?
Yeah. Lord, thank you so much for my sweet friend. Thank you for the giftings that you've put in her, not just to to come alongside Robbie and all that you've called him to, but in the call that you have on her life, Lord. Thank you for the gift of creativity, Lord. I pray that it expands, *God*.
*Lord, I pray that you will anoint* her for even more. Lord, prepare her for more, that this "power couple" can can, make just major impacts on your kingdom here on earth. Thank you for the honor of having them move on *faith* to Florida to be with real church. The best truly is yet to come in you, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen. Bart, what's God showing you?
*God*, we just thank you today for this amazing couple. As they grow in the purpose that you have designed for them, God, we just ask you to be that light, be that lamp to their feet, to their path. Let their election be sure. Let them be confident in who you are and who they are because of what you've done for them. We just thank you for it, and we're excited to see how you're gonna grow our body because of what this couple will be able to do and teach and train us to be able to walk out your great commission.
And we thank you for it in advance. Amen.
In the name of Jesus, we **commission Robbie** and his wifey as a part of that. All grace. Yeah. And we thank you, Lord God. We commission them to service.
Lord God, in real church. We just, I just pray Lord an increased anointing on their lives. Yes. Lord God, and let us learn how to honor what you honor, the way that you honor it, Father. And we pray that we teach us, Lord, as a leadership team, how to serve them in such a way that equips them and empowers them to fulfill every good purpose that you've prepared them for, not only here, but Lord, anywhere and everywhere that you give them influence or send them in Jesus name.
Amen. Amen. Amen. Alright. This is yours.
So, he didn't know we were doing all that. We're getting better at honoring and ordaining people as we mature as a church, and I'm sure we'll continue to get better at that. Not that anybody that we've ordained before was any less, we've just matured. Amen. Amen?