Before returning to Sydney where he faces a trial for failing to report his father Frank to the authorities, Brian Houston was welcome in churches across the US. In late August he preached at James River Assembly, a large Assemblies of God church in Missouri with four campuses. He reflects on his situation, but then leads an altar call with people responding to the offer of salvation.
While I am no Brian Houston expert, this sermon strikes me as similar to his preaching at Hillsong, although added to the mix is a sense of a wounded man, an attribute that often enriches much preaching.
“Lord, I am so thrilled to hear what you’ve been doing in the lives of people,” Houston prays after a brief discussion of what’s been happening at James River. “Father, I thank you for this church. I thank you for the team. I thank you Lord for all of us serving you here. I thank you Lord that every person in this room and who is part of this service, that every person is important to you. That you have a purpose and you have a plan for every single life. And we say to God, be the glory and I pray your word today or speak life to people. We thank you for it in Jesus name and a faith filled people said together. Amen. Amen.”
Houston announces the theme “A destiny that will consume you.” And after an anecdote, he launches into it. “I believe you’ve got destiny all over your life. Listen to what Job said about destiny in Job 23:14. ‘So he will do to me whatever he has planned, he controls my destiny.'”‘ It is so encouraging to realize that God controls your destiny, not fate, not things, not circumstances. God controls your destiny. Do you believe in destiny? I sure do. And Psalm 73: the Psalmist Asaph said in verse 24, ‘You guide me with your counsel leading me to a glorious destiny.’
“Well, heaven is a glorious destiny. But I believe here on earth God has for people something glorious, a glorious destiny. Life’s not always glorious. Sometimes life is challenging. Sometimes life is full of the kind of uncertain uncertainties.”
Jesus ‘changes everything about destiny’
Houston tosses the word destiny around a little. “Well they have those big double-decker red buses in London and I’ve had the misfortune, I’ve seen someone trapped under one of those red buses. Well, the reality is for some people, destiny is well what if you get hit by a bus? Solomon, when he wrote the book of Ecclesiastes … had become cynical, and jaded. He just saw life as futile and everything about life as futile.
“In Ecclesiastes 9:2 Solomon said the same destiny ultimately awaits everyone where the righteous or wicked, good or bad, ceremonially, clean or unclean, religious or irreligious, good people receive the same treatment as sinners. And people who make promises to God are treated like people who don’t. He was talking about death and he couldn’t see anything beyond really fate when it came to destiny.
“Well, Jesus changes everything about destiny. Can you say amen? Jesus changes everything about your destiny. Obviously the moment you surrender your life to Jesus Christ, you’re born again. You saved your eternal destiny changes forever. You exchange hell for heaven. That’s a good thing to know, right? But Jesus, I believe also changes destiny here on earth as people’s lives line up with the will of God. I think God brings destiny into every part of our lives.”
Destiny and inheritance
He tells the story of his relationship with his wife Bobbie, 45 years of marriage and the destiny he believes God had for their relationship. And then he preaches foreknowledge, predestination, a God who knows all. “I believe destiny can touch every single part of your life, right? Listen to the scripture, it’s Ephesians chapter one, verse 11. In the Amplified Bible it says ‘in him also, we have received an inheritance.’ Listen, a destiny, we reclaimed by God as his own, having been predestined,’ that’s a big word, ‘chosen, appointed beforehand according to the purpose of Him who works everything, who works everything in agreement with the council and design of his will.’ Listen, four powerful promises in that verse.
“First one is in him you have an inheritance. The spiritual inheritance we have through him, part of our destiny that God for it. Because, can I tell you this? An inheritance on earth may sound like a good idea, may be that long lost auntie you never knew who left you an inheritance you never expected. It’s a good dream. Inheritance may look different for different people. Naturally speaking. I mean my parents financially what I inherited was small. But the reality is it also came through my father with baggage cuz when I was 45 years of age now 23, 24 years ago, I found out my father many years before that in the sixties and seventies was a pedophile. It was the most shocking, crushing news I’ve ever had in my life and hope that I ever will have in my life. And the sad thing is all these years on I’m 68, I’m still dealing with things which I inherited not through any doing of my own. “
Like any Christian caught in tragedy, whether or not we have dealt with it well or not, Houston is making sense of the hand he has been dealt. Like any Christian who has been let down by a pastor/ mentor, but with the added complexities that have led to his court case, he is speaking from his new circumstance. That seems to be the case for this observer. “All these years on, I am still dealing with things that I inherited.” Dealing with the revelation of his father’s sin, and his revelation of it to others. – or not – is what Houston speaks about.
Predestination
For this man, predestination is a comfort. His link between his personal story and that doctrine is Mephiboseth.
“David who was betrayed by Saul, David, as time went on, decided he wanted to bless someone who was from Saul’s ancestry. So he asked, Is there anybody alive? …
“David brought Mephiboseth into his home, gave him a seat at the table and suddenly Mephiboseth belonged.
“That’s what God does for us. And I love the fact that God, he claims you as his own. It’s preordained, it’s destiny in Jesus name. Then the verse goes on. Third promise, we have been pre-destined chosen, appointed beforehand. Well, predestination is a big theological concept. And to be honest, it’s a big theological debate. And I’m not going to get into it with a exegenical preacher, teacher like Pastor John Lindellsitting over there. But I will tell you this in a simplest form, it means so much about our lives as preordained. God planned it and he planned it before the foundations of the earth. And I just loved that thought. In the scripture it says he predestined, chose you, appointed you beforehand. What a beautiful, beautiful thing to know that God has chosen you.”
He tells the James river audience knowing that is reason to be encouraged, despite circumstances. “
“Our lives are filled with the purpose of him who works everything in agreement with a council and design of his will who works everything. What a wonderful thing to know. God is working at circumstances, maybe terrible, but God is working, right? Opposition may be real, but God is working. That’s right. Maybe negativity surrounds you but God is working right. What an incredible thing to know that maybe people could betray you, [Yet] God is working everything in agreement with his counsel and his design. That is true for your life.
The year 2022
“This Sunday morning, I don’t know what sort of year 2022 has been for you, for Bobby and me, it’s certainly been a different year and a year of transition that 39 years, an era as pastors and founders of a church called Hillsong has come to an end. But I’ll tell you, destiny hasn’t changed in our lives. We’re still excited about what’s ahead of us. I mean I already said it, we’re young, and so much still there. So to me, Destiny is well a destination. A destination God knew about before you were even born.”
Hillsong
He tells the story of coming to Christ, and later founding Hillsong. “We were meeting in a little tiny school hall and right where I used to preach, hung two of those gymnastic ropes that you’ll see at the Olympics. And one day I was preaching, I was only 29, young and stupid and I got too excited and I grabbed one of those ropes and swung out over the congregation, which wasn’t hard cause I only went back three or four rows, and I swung back again and kept on preaching. Well, there was a young guy there who was later talking to friends and he said, ‘You guys should come to this new church. The pastor swings on a rope like a monkey.’
“And that week he brought 10 of his friends to church and they all gave their lives to Jesus. The week after that he went out and did the same thing again. And nine people gave their lives to Jesus. And then the next week after that, 11 of his friends gave their lives to Jesus. He led 30 people to Jesus in three weeks and then riding his motorbike, lost control and hit a tree and was killed and went to heaven. But the fruit of his life has never stopped. And from those humble beginnings, God raised up something that astounds Bobbie and [me], we had no idea when we started the destiny that was attached.
“And I don’t say this in any way to try and brag, I don’t feel like I need to do that. But by way a testimony to encourage you about what God can do with small beginnings in your life. Because from that church, that little little seed, the church did become a global church congregations all over the every continent of the world.”
What sense is Houston making of his rise and fall? There is a hint – just a hint that he regards himself as being betrayed. Yet his wider theme is that God is in charge, that God granted growth in the tiny church he founded. This observer has always seen Houston as astonished at how Hillsong flourished. He will be aware of Job’s response to his wife. Houston who has memorised large amounts of scripture will likely recall it in the New King James Version.
“Then his wife said to him, ‘Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!’ But he said to her, ‘”‘You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?'”‘ In all this Job did not sin with his lips.” (Job 2:9–10)
But in this public sermon, Houston does not pick this passage – and he’s not required to in order to satisfy this observer’s response or curiosity. It may be also that he believes the power of the Hillsong story outweighs his personal situation.
Destiny…
Having told the story of Hillsong he tells James River that God can use them too. “I love 2 Timothy 1:9. It says, He has saved you and called you not according to your own good works, but according to purpose and grace. In that one verse it says, God has saved you, he has called you, he has purposed you and he has graced you. You think about that for a moment. God puts us what lines up with our predestined journey and the place and the thing that God has for us. So don’t underestimate where God puts you and realise though he equips you because you’re saved. You’re called, You’re purposed and graced.”
In this part of the sermon, there’s a distinctive Pentecostal edge: “I believe through faith that your endeavour, your business has got destiny written all over it. And I’m gonna pray for your business. I’m gonna pray for you. And I’m gonna believe that everything that’s in your heart, everything that you are wishing to see, especially things related to the work of the Lord and to serving God, everything he put in your heart, everything that He predestined, I’m gonna believe with you that you’re gonna see it come to part and that you will have a testimony that exceeds anything and everything you could ever imagine that you could ever have hoped for. Can anyone say amen? Amen.”
… is not enough
And then he tells James River that being a churchgoer is not enough. “Have you ever surrendered ownership of your life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you ever made a conscious choice, that conscious decision that ‘Jesus, I want you to come into my life.’ That’s a destiny-defining decision right there eternally. And in terms of your life’s purpose here, I believe today for people to make a choice for Jesus. He knows [there is] so much difference [between] just being a churchgoer or being raised a certain way than actually living in relationship with Jesus. The Bible says if you ask him to come into your life, he will come in and he will live with you. And I believe today people are going to make a choice.”
The sermon is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wj7SxMrAELk
Image: Screenshot of the sermon