In our continuing journey of visiting a new church each week and crossing more and more places off the All-Star Churches to Visit Before you Die list, we decided that being in London we had to go to Hillsong. We attended the central Hillsong campus located in the Dominion Theatre on Tottenham Court Road. Being a Hillsong Church we kind of had an idea what we would be in for… great music, lights and impressive multi-media, excitable amped up preacher giving us a message of prosperity, a huge crowd where we could slip in and out without being noticed and all-in-all a good and entertaining show (we’re not cynical at all!). My response to the sentence I have just written, is to get out my mixing bowl. Then I will add in my pride, my cynicism, bias, sarcasm and all of those words I wrote. Mix quickly with a whisk, add a pinch of an apology and a dash of humility. Bake for 30 minutes in a high oven. Then I will serve my humble pie with a dollop of respect and feast.
Yes the music was brilliant and yes there was lighting and effects. But none of it was overstated, showy or distracting. Like the previous week, we only knew 1 or 2 of the songs but the worship was incredible. The worship session before the message went for almost an hour but to me, it felt like only 10 minutes. I was immersed in an experience that was incredible. Even though our son was going a bit crazy and climbing all over ArgeyMum next to me, we still managed to get lost in this moment.
But I am getting ahead of myself…
Before we had even made it inside the building, we had been greeted and welcomed by at least 3 members of the welcoming church plus a few of the regular attendees. once we made it into the foyer, the greetings continued to flow. And they didn’t seem disingenuous. They actually seemed happy to see us at church. It took all of 45 seconds for someone to see that we had children and they immediately came to us and invited our children to go up for the children’s church. Our daughter decided she wanted to go but our son wanted to stay with us. So we climbed the stairs to the top of the theatre and signed her in for kid’s church. They still had a band and worship time and all that so she was excited. Back downstairs for us where more welcomes and greetings were forthcoming. We entered the theatre and took our seats.
It was nice to hear a familiar accent from the Senior Pastor Gary Clarke, not sure where in Australia he is from, but was nice to hear none the less. The message was to be delivered by a guy named Robby Lewis. Robby was the campus Pastor at Hillsong London and he looked after some of the programs at the Dominion campus. He used to be the kids church Pastor there. This was to be Robby’s first time preaching at Hillsong. Now, I have seen a few ‘first time preaching’ attempts over the years, I still remember my first time preaching. Not too many of them (including my own) are what I would have called resounding successes. In fact, many of them I am sure would like to be forgotten by those that presented them and those that had to listen to them. But… if this is Robby’s first time preaching, I can’t wait to hear him speak once he has some experience under his belt. He was fantastic! Funny, engaging, well read, well spoken, he had his audience from the start and didn’t even come close to losing anyone throughout the whole time he spoke.
Robby’s message was titled – How do we know that we haven’t believed lies?
Galatians 1:6-7 & 3:1-5
6 I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ.[c] You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News 7 but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ.
3 Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast an evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross. 2 Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ. 3 How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort? 4 Have you experienced[a] so much for nothing? Surely it was not in vain, was it?
5 I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ. (NLT)
How many of you grew up being told lies by other people. Family, friends, teachers etc. They all told lies of some sort or another to us. Lies like, if you swallow a watermelon seed, then a watermelon will grow in your stomach, or, if you pull a funny face and the wind changes direction then you will be stuck like that forever. These lies are pretty harmless really. But there are also some more serious lies that people get told. Lies like, you aren’t pretty enough, you aren’t good enough, you need more things to be of value. Churches as well tell some lies sometimes; you need to do more good things so God will bless you, you have to follow the 10 commandments to get salvation, the Holy Spirit and His gifts were only given in the bible times and they are not applicable anymore. So how do we know that these things are not true?
First question, How did you receive your salvation?
The answer lies in chapter 3 verse 2 where it says did you receive the Holy Spirit through obeying the laws of moses (10 commandments)? no, you got them because you believed the message about Jesus. This is the very basis of the Christian message; Salvation is there for those who believe. There are no works to be done, no ceremonies or rituals to perform, all that is required is belief. Robby told a story about some kids at his school growing up (Christian school). Their uncle passed away and after the funeral they returned to school and the teacher said “Well at least you know where your uncle is now.” of course implying that he was in heaven. The kids looked a bit uncertain and then said, “well you know he did curse a lot!”
The point here is that you don’t have to be a good person who does good things to receive salvation. That’s not what the bible says, the bible says that salvation is there for all who believe.
Second question, How does God expect me to live this Christian life? also, What do we need to do to be righteous before God?
It is really important to understand that it is not possible for us to ever be perfect. Equally as important to understand is that we cannot work ourselves to perfection. Perfection is not something that we can achieve if we work hard enough at it for the rest of our lives. The only human who has ever been perfect was Jesus. This is really important, because he was the sacrificial lamb that took the penalty for our sins. Only an unblemished, perfect sacrifice would be sufficient to do this. 1 Corinthians 1:30-31 says
1 Corinthians 1:30-31 says: 30 God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin.31 Therefore, as the Scriptures say, “If you want to boast, boast only about the Lord.”[a] (NLT) .
It is only through Jesus that we are made right before God. There is nothing that I can do to make myself right before God, only Jesus’ sacrifice can do that. It is only though Jesus and the Holy Spirit that we can move closer to God and to sanctification.
Third question, am I still receiving the benefits of the Spirit?
This part really got me. I have heard a lot of messages preached in pentecostal churches. I have even been to Hillsong in Sydney. Some churches of this persuasion appear to be in favour of something that is called prosperity preaching Prosperity preaching is all about how God wants to you proser and wants to you be wealthy/rich and if you give enough to the church or to Him then in turn He will bless you with riches. This is the point of Robby’s message where I expected him to say something along the lines of, you have received the Holy Spirit and God is just waiting to pour out his blessings upon you but he is waiting for you to give something to Him.
But he didn’t say anything like that. Robby made a couple of statements that have made me really think hard. Statement 1 – We have already received the gift of the Holy Spirit so why do we think we need to do good things to earn God’s favour? This is inline with what he had already been saying and makes perfect sense, God has already given us the gift of His Spirit for simply believing etc. the next statement is the one that has really impacted me…
Statement 2 – I don’t have to try to ‘get right with God’ for Him to do a miracle in my life. I am already right with God through His grace and the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross. God can and wants to do miracles in my life, all I have to do is (wait for it… here comes the prosperity preaching part…) believe He can.
Huh? wait what… where is the part where I have to give something to God or someone else before He will bless me? This has really made me think, all I have to do is believe, truly believe that God can do miracles in my life and He is ready to do them. It’s not about how much I give, how much I do, how many old ladies I help across the street or how many souls I win for the kingdom, it’s about how much do I believe that God can deliver what He has promised? Matthew 17:20 says
“You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.”
I am the one who gets in the way of God’s blessings for me, my lack of faith, my lack of belief that I am worthy of His blessing, my lack of belief that He will do it. The truth of the matter is, I am uniquely and wondrously made in the image of God and i am worthy because Jesus says I am worthy.
Galatians 5:4-6 says:
4 For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace.
5 But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us. 6 For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love.
Most interesting and thank you. Continue to enjoy your trip and I will look for more good messages.
This was very touching and a message I needed to hear! Thanks for your insight!