Joel Houston said he and Hillsong United would never stop praising God amid the controversies surrounding his father and the Australia-based global church network.
In between sets of the band's performance at Amway Center on Saturday, Houston told the packed crowd of 20,000 that as he gets older, "It's funny the things you don't care about anymore and the things that just start ripping your heart out the best kind of way," The Christian Post reported.
The Platinum-selling Christian worship band has been performing on tour with Chris Tomlin. He said "He (God) doesn't change. We change; the world changes. Everything falls apart. Yet God is still the same and He always will be. He doesn't decide to change His mind on certain things."
The Tomlin United Tour gave the combined band members from both the U.S. and Australia the chance to be on the road together since 2020.
"The world was a very different place back then," Houston told fans in the audience. "God was the same then as He is now. For everyone, in some way, the last couple of years have been tricky."
The worship leader made the public know that the tour had been postponed four or five times. That's why he believed that everyone came together during this time for a reason. "A couple of weeks ago, we weren't sure that we were going to be here tonight," Houston said. "There were some voices in our world saying, 'Hey, now's not the right time.' We thought about it. We talked about it. We prayed about it."
"If this was just about promoting something, or if it was just about going on tour for some reputational reason or to turn a buck or whatever reason, then maybe this wouldn't be a good time for us to be on tour," he added. "But it's never been about that for us."
"If worship was only about the mountaintops, then yeah, this wouldn't be a good time for us. One thing I'm certain of is that worship is not reserved for the mountaintop. Worship is our response in the valleys. Worship is our response in the trenches. Worship is our response when the whole world is falling apart. Worship is our response when there's nothing else to hang on to. Worship is our response in the fire," he continued.
Houston spoke about God's power to redeem, reconcile and restore. "There is power in coming to Him from whatever background, whatever is going on in our world, wherever we are," he said. Houston said he hoped to encourage anyone who was hurting, saying that one thing remains true, and that is the love of God.
"That's the only hope for this entire planet. And tonight, we get to celebrate together that God is that good amid all the madness. He's able to meet with every single one of us in the most unique and personal way, and that's what we're going after and that's why we're here," Houston said.
As he ended his message, he assured the audience that God placed hope in their hearts.
