On the 16th April 2006, Hillsong Church held two live services simultaneously at Castle Hills and the city where both venues attracted record crowds with guest performer Rebecca St James conducting praise and worship at the city venue.
The service started off with Pastor Houston emphasising fellowship to the participants, which was followed by a short presentation on ‘Hope Rwanda:100 days’. Hope Rwanda was a worldwide Christian sponsored project that aimed to bring the blessing from the West to Rwandans who had gone through so much suffering in a country ravaged by the civil war. The goal of Hillsong within the 100 days project was to sponsor 1,000 Rwandan kids. So far 280 kids had been sponsored.
Rebecca St James a worldwide talented singer born in Sydney, fired up from the recent Australia Gospel Music Festival (AGMF) led the participants in a prayer where she dedicated the night to the celebration of the Lord Jesus Christ who had given us new life through his death.
During the opening praise, she sung her latest hit ‘You are Loved’ where she stated the song was not only for her childhood friend Daniel but for all of us. She said although all had fallen short of the glory of the Lord but by His grace He gave us a spiritual makeover through the enormous love He poured out on us.
She also thanked Hillsong Church for being so supportive of the Hope Rwanda project where she got a first hand look at the absolute devastation the civil war had inflicted on that country.
She also wrote and sung the song entitled ‘Forgive Me’ at the venue after being inspired by the Rwandan president who was a Christian that instituted a no revenge policy, which was applauded by the participants.
The sermon was then delivered by Hillsong youth pastor Phil Dooley who reminded everyone of the importance of Easter. Thanking Rebecca St James for her outstanding musical performance he told a humourous story of how his leg was broken by Jonathon Douglas (Hillsong United Program Director), which was an irony given the Hillsong tour in North America was entitled ‘United We Stand’.
Pastor Dooley started asking what was the best thing about Easter? Was it the holiday, was it a chance to hang out with family and friends or the Easter chocolates?
During the morning service Pastor Dooley 4 year old daughter confidentially answer this question saying: “It is all about Jesus,” which was the theme of the night service entitled ‘I will sing to the Lord a new song for He has done marvellous things.’
Pastor Dooley stated there were three important issues, which must be remembered every Easter.
The first was sacrifice where in the Holy Bible John 15:13 states: ‘Greater love has no one that this, that he lay down his life for his friends.’ With ANZAC day coming up next week this was a powerful scripture reading where although your grandparents and parents had died for physical freedom but the Lord Jesus Christ sacrificed his life so we gained eternal freedom. This Pastor Dooley stated was the greatest love where the Lord Jesus Christ led a perfect life and then gave it up so we could gain eternal life.
The next was the supernatural. Using visual performances he showed the arrogance inside of us thinking we could reach the Lord by ourselves through doing three spiritual steps. The first step was becoming a ‘Sunday Christian’ where you simply attend service every Sunday and then leave. If you were more committed then you give something of yourself such as donating to charity or helping an old woman cross the street. The third step was helping the woman across the street where you do not do it half way, which was greeted with the participant laughter.
He stated the Holy Bible said we all had fallen short of the glory of the Lord. We do not go to God using our natural abilities but through the Lord Jesus Christ who stepped onto you life by stepping down and leading you to his Father. The mystery of the cross he explained was Jesus lowering his life for us.
The last step was salvation. When the Lord Jesus Christ was carrying the cross he endured so much physical pain as well as spiritual pain of carrying the sin of the whole world. However inside of him there was great joy because by carrying the cross you could walk with God. The Lord Jesus had great plan for you. Simply receiving Lord Jesus words and accepting his love, you could form a right relationship with God.
Pastor Dooley prayed that in this Easter all the participants could accept Jesus Christ as their saviour and through this the Lord Jesus could bring life into a dead relationship. He could change victory from defeat and he could turn joy from sadness.
When the sermon was concluded, a group of people came to the front after the Pastor asked the participants to come to the front if they needed prayer due to difficult circumstances in their life.
Rebecca St James then came out again and sung in the closing praise where she urged all youths to avoid temptation and keep themselves pure before marriage.