Back in 2013, Brian Houston made this outrageous claim:
In his attempt to slither out of his Hillslam controversy he created, we did two articles that exposed his deceit:
“Pull the Allah one, Brian” (Part 1)
“Pull the Allah one, Brian” (Part 2)
In Part 2 we documented Houston saying this (emphasis ours):
“Those propagating these false statements have taken one sentence from an entire message out of context.“
Our response in Part 2?
“We put up his sermon so people could see the quote in context. We had nothing to hide.
But it appears Brian Houston does have something to hide.
We didn’t take him out of context. It was Brian who pulled his own sermon thus removing any proper context of his problematic statement. To use his own words, it was Brian who took “one sentence from an entire message out of context”.”
SO WHO IS THE LIAR? BRIAN HOUSTON OR US?
Brian Houston went to great lengths to hiss, slither and lie when he was exposed of pushing Chrislam. He didn’t repent or apologise the way a Christian minister would. Instead Brian Houston slandered people, justified his behaviour and tried to align people to his “reason”.
Before reading the transcript of the Allah sermon, we are going to ask you:
- To put on your biblical discerning hats.
- To pull out your bibles to see if Brian Houston is honest with the scriptures and
- To observe if Brian Houston was deliverately leading up to make the allegation that Christians and Muslims serve the same God.
For the sake of Christ, be Berean. (Acts 17:11.)
SERMON TRANSCRIPT: LIVING FOR THE MASTER’S “WELL DONE” – Part 1
“I think my favourite thing to do in life, in terms of ministry, is build the local church. I just love being a local church Pastor. I can never be fulfilled for long just travelling around preaching in everyone’s churches, I love doing that and having relationship with friends but I just love getting my hands dirty, building a church. Anyone else like that? Anyone else like that? (Audience reacts)
And then my second favourite thing is talking to church pastors and leaders because Bobbie and I are genuine lovers of the church. We made a decision when we first actually decided to get married, that we would spend our life building what Jesus said he would build and that is His church. So I feel like I’m in my zone when I have the chance to talk to church pastors and church leaders.
And I want to talk to you about ‘living for the Master’s well done’ or if you like being on mission, on song, on purpose. Everything God does, He is purposeful about, when God created you He knew exactly what He was looking for and you are what He came up with. God is intentional, God is purposeful about everything He does. And what I want to encourage you with today, is to be purposeful in the way you build and lead and pastor a church.
Be successful on purpose, grow on purpose, have a vision that you are unflagging about on purpose. Not every leader is purposeful. You see we sometimes the lines my grow a little fuzzy and it’s not even all always that clear, what is purposeful and what is purposeless, but everything God does, He did with purpose.
Ecclesiastes Chapter 3, I love this verse, verse 11 (NKJV), where it says, “God set eternity in their hearts”, but in the Amplified Bible it’s described as, “a divinely implanted sense of a purpose”. And what a powerful thing to live your life, to lead, to build, to grow, to move forward knowing that you have deep down inside of you a divinely implanted sense of purpose.
One of my favourite verses, I think for leadership is 2 Timothy, Chapter 1 and Verse 9, where it says, “the Lord saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our own good works, but according to His own purpose and grace.” In that one verse, it says, “He has saved us, called us, purposed us and graced us.” You were saved for God’s purpose, you were called for God’s purpose. Some people lived ‘saved’ in our churches but they forget to lived ‘called’, lets never ever just be content to lead people who lived saved, let’s be content to lead people who live called. He has saved us for purpose, He has called us for purpose, He has graced us for purpose, it’s all about His purpose.
Your gifts and talents are about God’s purpose, your time and energy is about God’s purpose, your life and health is about God’s purpose, your finances and resources are about God’s purposes, your family and relationships and your marriage their about God’s purposes, it’s all about His purpose.
In Acts 13, verse 36, the Scripture teaches that David served God’s purposes in his own generation and then he died. What a great eulogy, he served God’s purpose, I’d be content to have that written on my grave site, he served God’s purpose. Well God is purposeful, I’m encouraging you to be purposeful in your leadership, be very intentional, be very purposeful, make no excuses, decide you’re not going to come down to the lowest common denominator and let them decide what your leadership and what your church should look like. But be purposeful, be successful on purpose, this is what I want you to catch.
Well, this story, maybe my favourite parable that Jesus told. He says, “…the Kingdom of Heaven is like”. And he goes on from verse 14, Matthew 25, to describe a man who was travelling to a far country. Interestingly if you look that up in the Greek and it literally is, “there was a man who was travelling to Australia, (audience laughs) …who called his own servants and delivered to them goods”. Now you know, he gave one 5, another 2, another 1, each according to their own ability, he gave them according to what they were capable to be great stewards with and to be purposeful with.
Now it’s talking about money, currency, but it’s a great metaphor for the gifts and talents God has given us and in a room there’s always some 5 talents, some 2 talents, some 1 talent, no matter which way you see yourself, if you live your life purposefully, you can take what God’s given you and you can live in that exceeding and abundant and above that you can hear about, but believe me, it can become your reality if you just decide you are going to be purposeful when it comes to all that God puts in your heart.
And the difference between the first two who took what the master gave them, and they invested it and were good stewards over it and they doubled their lords money, notice it says, ‘their lords’ money’. The third of course, he took what he was given, he said, “I knew you to be a hard man, you gathered where you didn’t scatter seed, you reaped where you have not sown, so I was afraid and I hid your talent in the ground, I hid my lord’s money in the ground.
The difference is the first two are purposeful the third one is purposeless and this is where I want you to think about this contrast. You see, the first two, they knew their Master, the third one had an entirely different view of the Master. Listen to what the first two experienced with the Master, they came to the Master and said, “here I took what you had and I invested it, here is your lord’s money”, and they had increased it and doubled it. And this is what they heard from the Master, “well done”, they heard encouragement, “good and faithful servant”, they heard positive reinforcement, “you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things”, they were given God given opportunity, many things, they experienced abundance, enter into the joy of the Lord, they experienced joy.
The third one, same Master, talking about exactly the same Master, “I knew you to be a hard man who gathered where you hadn’t scattered seed and reap where you hadn’t sown”. He said, “I knew, I knew”, he had that perception of his Master, “I knew you to be a hard man”, “well done good and faithful servant, encouragement, positive reinforcement, abundance, joy”, “I knew you to be a hard man”, their describing the same Master. We all serve the same God, but not everyone in the room see’s God the same way and nothing will determine the culture of your church more than your view of God. So our view of God is so important.
Without walking around judging churches, to go into a church and experience the worship and sense the atmosphere, maybe walk in the corridors. I think I can soon see a Pastor’s view of God, if a Pastor believes that God is free spirited and they live their life free spirited, their church will be free spirited. Sometimes a church is stiff, sometimes a church is conservative, sometimes a church is legalistic, sometimes a church is ridged, sometimes a church is lacking any kind of sense of rules, any resemblance of any kind of order, some churches they just reflect in different ways, but you should never underestimate your view of God. And if your background, if your religious background, if your denominational background, if your church school background, if maybe just some of your own condemnation and guilt that your parents put into you is determining your view of God, it will always affect your ability to live purposefully.
The one who lived purposeless, he took what he was given and he hid it in the ground. The two who knew the Master, they took what they were given and they doubled it, nothing will determine the way we treat people more than our view of the Master, of Jesus. Nothing will decide the way we conduct ourselves in our marriage and the way we raise our children, than the way we view God.
David said, Psalm 119, verse 68, about the Lord, “You are good and You do good.” You see, who you believe God is will determine what you believe God does. “You are good and You do good”, Psalm 11:7 is similar, “For the Lord is righteous, He loves righteousness; His countenance beholds His favour, His face is favour, His smile is on the upright or the righteous”.
The way you see God, decides what you believe God does, what you believe God loves and what you believe God blesses, where His favour will be. So I could not encourage any leader who wants to live purposefully and who wants to build a church that reflects the heart of God, I couldn’t encourage you more to make sure your view of the Master is through a New Covenant, New Testament lens, that we look at the Old Testament which is so full of beauty and power and example and wonder and so much of the tenner of God’s message that we need to look at it through the lens of the resurrection and the cross and back into it from where we stand now, but not from where they stood then, because otherwise it’s going to affect your ability to purposeful in building and leading, bringing release, bringing freedom and seeing those things God puts on your heart come to pass.
11:55 How do you view God in a desert? There’s two types of birds, there’s vultures and there’s humming birds. One lives off dead carcases, rotting meat, the other lives off the beautiful sweet nectar in a particular flower on a particular desert plant. In the same desert, they both find what they are looking for. You know if you take it all the way back into the Old Testament, the Muslim and you, we actually serve the same God, Allah to a Muslim, to us Abba, Father, God, and of course through history those views have changed greatly. But let’s make sure that we view God through the eyes of Jesus Christ, the beauty of a Saviour, the loving, open, inclusive arms of a loving God. And that way we will lead out of that and you’ll be purposeful about your leadership and you’ll draw people just like the Lord Jesus does through the power of the Holy Spirit.
The first two, here’s the second point, they were committed to increasing the Master’s domain, the third one had no interest in what was important to the Master. The first two they were committed to increasing or advancing the Master’s domain, so the Master he had entrusted them with five, one with two, they took what they were given and they increased it. The third, he had no interest with what was important to the Master, he was just afraid, so he took what he was given and hid it in the ground and said, “Here, here’s back what was yours”, he never increased anything.
If I think about Jesus, our Master and what’s important to Him, because as Pastors and leaders we want to increase the Master’s domain, we want to live according to what’s important to Him. And it’s fairly simple what Jesus loves, Jesus loves the Father, Jesus loves the world, Jesus loves the lost, Jesus loves the church and Jesus loves the poor, that’s pretty well what Jesus loves.
When we have churches that want to increase the Master’s domain, we’ll be intentional about reflecting those things. Jesus loved the Father, so we are worshipful churches, we are churches who worship God the Father, we are churches who the Will of the Father is important to us. Jesus loves the world, so our vision is global, our vision is vast, our vision is reaches out well beyond our four walls. You know, Jesus he loved the lost so we are reaching out for the lost and the hurting and the broken and the sinner and Jesus loved the poor and so, so of course we want to be people who are very much and intentional about doing what we can to help the needy and the poor, the hurting.
Jesus loved the church, I want to build the kind of church where we are intentional about loving the church. I couldn’t even bear the thought of pastoring a church that in its values and ethos it is reacting against the church. This conference is all about championing the cause of the local churches everywhere, I want to go down in history as a church building and a church lover. I would much rather be an artist than an art critic, a chef that a food critic, a movie maker than a film critic, a musician than a music critic and a church builder than a church critic, can anyone say “Amen”?
I find sometimes the world tries to dictate to us what the church should look like. Jesus said, “the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor, heal the broken hearted”. Preach the Gospel and the poor. Don’t let the world dictate to you what the church should look like, you see the world, they are quick to tell us what we should do to help the poor and yes, we want to do all we can to help the poor, but they do not care about most things that are important to the Master, including the preaching of the Gospel. Jesus came to preach the Gospel, the good news to the poor and I would encourage you to be intentional, purposeful about building and leading according to everything that is important to the Master. We are called to advance the Master’s domain and the world would love us to live like the third servant, who got afraid and so take what we’re given and hide it in the ground.
So I would encourage you to be purposeful about advancing the Master’s domain, don’t be afraid of it, see some people say, “they should be doing more for the poor”, of course the church does more for the poor than virtually any other body in all of society and does more to help people and the hurting and to the broken, than anybody does, the church of Jesus does, beautiful.
And so, nothing much has changed. In Jesus’ time, Mary she cared about what was important to the Master, so in Mark chapter 14, she took some costly perfume that was apparently worth an entire year’s wages and she broke it to anoint Jesus, she cared about what was of eternal value, spiritual value. And remember what they said? They said, “that was a waste, she could have sold that perfume and the money could have been given to the poor”. Same thing was said back then, usually by the way by people who aren’t doing anything for the poor themselves. They should have been given to the poor.
Then, Jesus said that interesting thing about the poor you will always have, me you will not always have, but then, he said, “this woman, as long as the gospel is preached, her story will be told as a memorial to her”. In other words, what she’s involved with is eternal and I would encourage you, don’t let anyone else, anything else frame what you believe is important to the Master, be purposeful about increasing the Master’s domain. We worship God, we are building the church, we are unapologetic and let’s build people around us who love building the church.
You see, there’s actually a lot of great, what’s the word? Philanthropists, out there in the world, you know, but you’re not going to find too many people in the world who care about building the church. That’s why we need to build people who are purposeful about the church and if you want to get the people in your world loving the church, you’re not going to get them there by beating them up all the time, saying, “get behind my vision, and we need more volunteers, we need more people in the choir”. People will love your church if you’ve got a church that’s changing their lives, blessing their children, raising their young people, keeping them off drugs, believing into people, building into people, be purposeful about not making it about you and your vision and people getting behind your vision and your church and what you’re doing, make it all about them and building their world and helping them to be all that God’s called to be and setting them up to win. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and you watch, you’ll have a church filled with people who love your church because you’re advancing the cause of the Master.
Third thing, the first two, they let the gift change their life. The third one didn’t let the gift touch his life. The difference between being purposeful in our leadership and purposeless, they let the gift change their life, well done, you’ve been faithful with a few things, now you’re going to be leader over many things, enter into the joy of the Lord. The third one, put it in the ground, didn’t let it touch his life.”
Video of Brian Houston:
“Well I’m at a conference with drums and rehearsals going on behind me, but it doesn’t change one thing, the will of God for your life is filled with God given purpose. You know the way we view God, I cannot overestimate how important it is. You see, I’ve been speaking about three servants who all had the same Master, but viewed him entirely differently. Whereas two found encouragement from him, he positively reinforced them, built into their world. But the other one, he saw a different Master, he started speaking about gathering where he didn’t scatter seed and reaping where he hadn’t sown and he’s telling a totally different story, he said, “I knew you to be a hard man”. And talking about the same Master but they’ve got a totally different view.
And it’s true in our lives, the way we view God, has such a huge impact on the frame in our lives. I couldn’t tell you just how important it is to read the New Testament, get the love of Jesus, understand His grace, have the big spirited heart that comes through, through the New Covenant of Jesus Christ because that way it will build your life in a powerful way. It will affect the way you build what you build, lead what you lead, do what you do, conduct yourself in your family, it will affect every area of your life.
The person who was legalistic, critical, negative in the name of God, they just don’t know God, that’s the way it seems.
Brian Houston Sermon: Living for the Master’s “well done” – Part 2
[Recap of Part 1] (Leaves out “The Muslim and you serve the same God”)
“To be honest you have gifts, gifts that God’s given you that can literally lead your way and change your life and change your world. But you also are a gift, you’re a gift to the people in your world, you’re a gift to the people in your church, I’m a gift to my children, they need to recognise that. You are a gift to the people in your world, but you know some people will let the gift, God’s gift in you, your leadership, your teaching, your heart for them, your love the church, some people will let that change their lives, other’s won’t even let that touch their lives.
Is there anything even sadder than when you’re a Pastor and you preach to someone for years and years and years and years, then they do something crazy like jump out of their marriage and take off with somebody else and suddenly abandon their whole life and you think, did you even listen to one thing I told you over the last 20 years? It’s sad, but they don’t let the gift touch their lives.
Well listen, I want to encourage you when it comes to building and leading and when it comes to the gift you are to the people in your world. Three things to watch out for, if you can write them down, write them down, I’ll give them to you twice. The first is the, it’s the evil eye, beware the evil eye. And the second is beware the miser’s heart and the third is beware the unbeliever’s limitation when it comes to building and leading and being purposeful, what are those three things?
Well first, the evil eye, Matthew Chapter 20, Jesus told the story, we heard the story once hear at Hillsong Conference today already, where there was a man who owned land, he was a vineyard owner so he had vineyards and this man he needed labours and there were people who would stand idle all day just hoping someone would employ them. You go to Africa and other parts of the world and maybe into developing countries you will see that, people gathered into one place and they stand there all day, or sit there all day just hoping someone will drive by and giving them a day’s work. That’s what’s happening in this story that Jesus has told.
So at 6 O’clock in the morning, he goes out, he hires labours, he takes them and gives them a full day’s work. 9 O’clock he goes and gets more, gives them work, 12 O’clock more. 3 O’clock in the afternoon, there all working till 6 O’clock he goes and gets more, then at 5 O’clock he takes people and gives them 1 hours work and then he pays those people who worked for 1 hour, the same as the people who had worked all day.
And here’s the evil eye, ‘hold on we worked here all day, we’ve been in the middle of this Middle Eastern sun, in the heat of the day, and we’ve worked all day, and you want to give these people the same as you give us? How can that be fair?’ Unions turned up.
And this is what the Master said, listen to it, Matthew 20, verse 14 (NKJV), ‘Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give this last man the same as to you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?’
You can never build around people who are ruled by envy, who are ruled by comparison, ruled by strife and you will never lead purposefully if you live your life looking over your shoulder at what the other guys doing, what’s happening in that other church on the other side of the road. If you live your life envious, frustrated and trying to run everyone else’s race, you will never be purposeful leading like that. Don’t let the evil eye become a part of your world, that is, where someone for whatever reason chooses to bless them, and maybe it isn’t fair, it doesn’t seem right, your church has been there longer, you’re more spiritual, you deserve it more and some whippersnapper comes along, breaks all the rules and suddenly God’s blessing them, and we can live our lives with the evil eye and I couldn’t encourage you more.
Listen if God is blessing something, don’t get threatened, don’t develop the evil eye, don’t let it twist your stomach every time, do everything you can to get into the, into the flip stream of something God’s blessing, because I know for a fact blessing is contagious, it rubs off on you. You get around something that’s growing and human nature often, because of that evil eye, we start thinking and we start comparing, there will always be new churches in big cities. Just get over it, there will always be new churches in big cities.
None of us own our cities, where’re not the spiritual mafia when it comes to our cities. You’ve just got to stay open hearted and you’ve got to trust the gift God put in your life, He may have given you 5, He may have given you 2, He may have given you 1, but if you live for the Master’s ‘well done’ and you’re intentional and purposeful, God will cause you to just be who you’re called to be and you’ll find yourself blessed no matter what’s going on around and about you. Just run your race and trust God and watch how God can be true to His word in your life.
And could I encourage you, lean into blessing, I will always lean into those who lean into us and we will always do what we can to help and bless those who lean into us. Over the years, some people have had their seasons at Hillsong Conference and for whatever reason, maybe now they’re off doing something else, you know what? That’s ok, that’s actually ok because there are dozens, hundreds of young leaders and pastors who are engaging and leaning in, and I just want to focus not on getting an evil eye about what everyone else is doing, but I’m just leaning into those who are leaning into us and make sure that we are staying in our lane doing what we’re called to do and it’s remarkable how that’s kept working for 27 years and counting when it comes to this conference. Just being true to ourselves.
Don’t let big brother threaten you, start looking through the evil eye, the second one, the miser’s heart, you know this verse, or part of it, we quote one little part of it and that is, ‘as a man thinks in his heart, so he is.’ Proverbs 23, verse 7, listen to the verse in its context, it says, ‘Do not eat a miser’s bread, beware the miser’s heart, do not eat a miser’s bread or desire his delicacies; cause as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. Eat and drink he says to you’. There are people like this you’ll meet in your world, in your ministry, they say, ‘eat and drink, your such a wonderful pastor, we love your message, we love your word, thank God for you’ and he says to you, ‘eat and drink, we’re going to be a great blessing to this church’, but his heat is not with you. You can only ever build on people whose heat is with you, don’t try to beat yourself up over people whose heart is not with you. Your just not going to be everybody’s cup of tea, not everybody likes our church and you know what I’m ok with that.
There are other churches in our area and I think we’ve got a pretty good relationships with them, most of them or all of them, they’re all good churches. I’ve never been to any of them on a Sunday, but there’s a couple of churches, I’m sure if I went down there on a Sunday morning, I would be able to name more people in their church than I could at our church. Not everybody going to love your church. But you can’t lead with people who are not with you, you can only lead with people whose hearts are with you.
Sometimes you know, when our church was smaller, we had a great board for its time, we were growing and we were growing faster, then we started growing faster and you know people who were on my board then, are still on our church board today because they have been able to grow in capacity along with the church and there still right within their grace zone and what a blessing they are to me and often times, saved me from myself and these guys they are anything but ‘yes’ men. But when we were smaller, a couple of guys, it all started getting a bit big and they started getting scared, and it got a bit big for them you know and all of a sudden they were acting like police men. I would go into the board room feeling like a naughty boy all the time, if we asked for a bit of vision or something for you to do, I would feel like a naughty boy. And these are people who sometimes, they are good people by the way, they were godly men but it just got too big for them. And sometimes you know, you just got to understand you’ve got to grow with those who grow with you and you’ve got to build with those who build with you.
Beware the evil eye, beware the misers, beware the unbeliever’s limitation. And this one’s good, 2 Corinthians 6, ‘Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.’ Now we all use that verse I’m sure when we come to young people and their relationships and trying to make sure that some girl doesn’t fall for some dropkick cause he looks ok, and miss out on an awesome man of God who may have a big nose and going bald, but I tell you what he will take you on a journey where you will see the world and see something awesome happen in your life in Jesus name.
But listen to this, there’s only one thing worse than an unbelieving unbeliever, because you expect unbelievers to be unbelievers, unbeliever is as unbeliever does. Forest Gump was smart, stupid is as stupid does, miser is as miser does, unbeliever is as unbeliever does. What’s tragic is not the unbelieving unbeliever, it’s the unbelieving believer or a believing unbeliever.
In your marriage you’re yoked, are you the believer or the unbeliever? In that yoke? My wife loves to give, she will give anytime, anywhere, every time compassion comes around, I’m like, ‘Oh my goodness, here we go again’, because I’ve got by far more compassion children than I’ve got grandchildren. My wife is a giver and she will always give, and so will I, I love to give but I’m also aware of the realities, I’ve also got to make all this work in the end of the day, you know. I mean so am I, but in our yoke, I think if one of us was the believing believer it would be Bobbie, and if one was the unbelieving believer, it would be me, but I do not want to live my life as an unbelieving believer and you cannot build your church on an unbelieving believers. If you’ve got board members who don’t believe in you, you can’t build with that, if you’ve got people around you and we can’t live paranoid, not everyone’s going to love us all of the time and love everything we do. But I want to encourage you in leadership, don’t be an unbelieving believer, I want to believe in my people, I want to believe in my children, I want to believe in my wife, I want to believe in the potential in young people, I want to take sons and turn them into princes in the land, I want to be a believing believer.
And I would encourage you if you’re going to be purposeful, decide that you are going to believe in the people around and about you, that you’re going to believe in your family, that you’re going to believe in your church, you’re going to believe in the message that God put in your heart, you’re going to believe in your call, don’t be an unbelieving believer if you want to live your life purposefully.
Are you going to take the gift God’s given you, and let it change your life? Or out of fear, or insecurity, or evil eye, or miser heat, or an unbelieving believer, or are you going to hide it in the ground and go along at half pace?
I’ve got one final thing to say. Fourth thing, when it comes to perception, the first two, they took what they had and used it to make a profit, the third was ruled by not making a loss. What would it profit a man if he gained the whole world and forfeited his soul? What would it profit a man? What does that mean? Profit and gain, what’s the difference? What would it profit a man if he gained? What would it benefit a person if he gained the whole world and forfeited his soul?
Think about the difference, do you lead with a commitment to building, doubling, profiting the people around you? Or are you ruled by a fear of losing people? You can’t be purposeful if you live ruled by losing people, you just can’t be ruled by losing, you’ve got to pastor on the front foot. You know if you’re a cricketer you’re either on the attack on the front foot or they get you up on the back foot and you’re about to get skittled, and some people, they try to lead on the back foot, they’re worried about who’s leaving and losing people and whose stealing people and what church there going to and you just can’t lead like that.
Can I encourage you, whether its business, or whether it’s church, or whether its leadership, or an apartment, if you’re called to lead, make sure you are committed entirely not to be ruled by losing, but committed entirely to benefit and just benefit the people, build them, strengthen them, empower them. Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. It’s the will of God for the people in our church to flourish, and if they can’t flourish why would they stay planted?
And do you know, if you get ruled by losing people, then you’ll never, ever have in your spirit to always be building something that causes people to grow and flourish and increase, it just doesn’t work. This guy was afraid of losing what he had so he hid it in the ground and so much you can give and contribute to people and raising them, and training them, and believing for them to get greater than you, If you’re just committed to profiting and benefiting the people is lost, if you’re so ruled by losing people.
My dad was a great leader in his time, he really was. He was a brilliant preacher, and just very funny, just a great leader especially in his middle age and as he got really old, and of course many people know my father came to a sad end, but doesn’t change the fact that he was actually a great leader in his time and um. But as he got older, Bobbie and I, we, right before we came in and took on what is now our city campus, which was my mum and dad’s church. You know, he arrr, he’s great but people could lobby him, as he got a bit older, you know he sort of, people could lobby him, so sometimes people would go in little groups and they would say, you know, ‘If you don’t turn the sound down I know so many people who will leave’. I’ve done investigations, I’ve done research on, ‘so many people will leave’, how many do you recon a big ‘so many’ is? A huge ‘so many’ is? Two, a massive on is three!
And so, my dad in fear of losing, he would be like, we need to turn the sound down, in different ways, people could lobby him. When we came in, there was this culture a little bit in the church, you know, ‘well if you don’t do such and such, we are going to leave, and such and such are going to leave’. And one of the first things I did as I spoke to our associates, I said, ‘don’t let anyone blackmail you by leaving, if they say they want to leave, bless them, encourage them, send them on their way, tell them we love them, our doors are already open and let them go’.
Do you know, that whole culture disappeared in a split second? I mean it takes all the power out of it, you’re not fearful of people leaving, it just takes the power of it.
God’s called you to lead purposely, if you lead purposely your view of the Master is everything. We’ve got to be careful that the Master we know is the God of the New Testament, the God, Amen, that we serve through Jesus Christ. We need to be sure that we are committed to advancing the Master’s domain and that is everything that is important to the Master, don’t let the world or anyone else, any other churches, or leaders, or pastors define what your vision should be and where your church should be going.
And we need to lead our lives with a commitment to let the gift God’s given us change our live, not let the evil eye, the miser’s heart, the unbeliever’s limitation get in the way and live to benefit those around and about you, and don’t live fearing lose because as Job put it so aptly [Job 3:25], ‘the thing that you fear, will come upon you.’ When you take all the power out of leaving, it’s amazing how few people actually decide to leave. They decide you believe in them, you’re benefiting them, they’re going to do this journey with you.
If you believe it, say Amen. Amen.”
[Audience cheers]
Video of Brian Houston:
“Well I find it interesting, the Apostle Paul taught us not to be unequally yoked. He said, ‘don’t be unequally yoked with unbelievers’. Some people, I mean, they are unbelievers, they don’t believe in anything or anybody, let alone believe in God. But you expect an unbeliever to be an unbeliever, but what’s sad to me is when you get people who are believers, they confess Jesus Christ, they are believers, and yet they’re full of unbelief. They don’t believe, they rule by what they don’t believe, ‘I don’t believe in that, I don’t believe in this, I don’t believe in the other thing’. And to be honest, it does not build a powerful life if you are leading all the time by what you don’t believe.
I love being around believing Believers, people who believe in a God who believes in people. People who themselves believe in those around and about them, they believe in their children, believe in their family, believe in those who work for them and those who are in their world, believe in their team mates on a sports field.
If you’re a believing believer, what you can bring to other people is very powerful. But if we find ourselves yoked in a marriage, in a business partnership, in any kind of way with friends, who they’re filled with unbelief, then it never will build anything in our own life. But if you are the unbelieving believer, I would encourage you to do what you can to reframe your mind, be transformed by changing the way you think. And start leading in life by what you do believe, and who you do believe and what God does do for you, and arrr, it’s amazing how what we don’t believe becomes a whole lot less important when we fill our hearts and fill our lives with who and what we believe in.
I believe in you, even though perhaps I don’t know you personally, I know what God says about you and He has a plan for you and it’s good and not evil to give you a future and to give you a hope.”
Categories: Hillsong
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