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March 8, 2025 24 mins

Ps Alex Huggett | 9.2.2025

Part of a series on Local Houses of Prayer

In a world overflowing with bad news, how can Christians become beacons of hope? This episode dives deep into the transformative power of faith, examining how believers can embody the message of good news amid prevalent despair and darkness. Personal stories of faith shine a light on the small yet profound impacts of blessings that can offer healing and hope to those suffering.

Through exploring the concept of Local Houses of Prayer (LHOPs), we illustrate how small groups can mobilise prayer and action to bless individuals and communities in tangible ways. Listeners will discover practical strategies, like the engaging “5-5-5” blessing approach, empowering them to reach out, uplift, and transform their environments. Join us for this insightful exploration that not only educates but inspires action—because any act of blessing, big or small, can significantly impact the community. Together, let’s commit to carrying good news forward. Subscribe, share, and let us know how you plan to bless those around you!

© Bentley Baptist Church Inc.
www.bentleybaptist.org

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Who knows that Christians are good news people?
Do you know we're good newspeople?
Yeah, no, you don't have tolook too far to see that.
The world's full of bad news,right, whether it's wars,
political turmoil, environmentalcatastrophe or personal tragedy
.
It's actually really hard outthere.

(00:22):
And the problem begins in thehuman heart.
Jesus said from the heart comeevil thoughts.
Murders, adultery, sexualimmoralities, thefts, false
testimonies, slander these arethe things that defile a person.
It's not a great image, is it?
These sins alienate us from Godand cause all sorts of conflict

(00:45):
between people.
But Jesus came with good newsabout the kingdom of God, that
the rule and reign of God, withhis goodness, beauty and truth,
has arrived.
Jesus died for the sin of abroken and hurting world so that
in the midst of the darkness hecan bring hope, healing and

(01:08):
light to those who trust him.
You know, I recently met with afamily.
It was really sad.
They're part of this guy'spartner and I met with the
daughter and son-in-law.
So mom had died when she washit by a car nearby in Carlisle.
Their faith was wafer thin, notjust because of that, but it
had been for a while.

(01:30):
But as I talked to them it wasevident that their faith was
real and so, in the midst oftheir pain, I was able to bring
some hope.
Not because they're good people, although they seemed lovely,
not because they had a big faith, because they're good people,
although they seem lovely, notbecause they had a big faith,
but because they didn't, butbecause whatever faith they had

(01:50):
was in a big God, a God whosegrace is big enough to carry
them.
And I felt confident to say hisgrace is big enough to carry
her.
I believe you'll see her again.
That's good news.
Christians are good news peopleand over the past few weeks

(02:12):
we've been exploring how you cancarry good news blessing to
your communities and how I canin my community, and we've been
seeing that as Jesus' people andwe've been seeing that as
Jesus' people.
God's spirit lives within eachof us and so we carry his
kingdom wherever we go.
If you want to know what thatkingdom looks like, then look to

(02:36):
the king Jesus.
Jesus was full of truth andgrace, full of holiness and
compassion.
He held these things together.
He said the kingdom of God hascome near, repent and believe
the good news.
So he called people to turnfrom their sins that lead to
pain and death and turn to God,who is the source of life life

(03:10):
and Christians carry this lifein us.
Through his spirit, jesus saidI will ask the father and he
will give you another counselorto be with you forever.
He is the spirit of truth.
The world is unable to receivehim because it doesn't know him
or see him, but you do know himbecause he remains with you and
will be in you and because wecarry God's presence.
The Bible says we are apriesthood and one of a priest's

(03:34):
responsibilities is tointercede between God and people
.
And as we spend time with Godstanding in his presence, we can
more effectively carry hispresence and speak blessing over
people.
And finally, we saw that Jesusgave us the Lord's prayer as a
model for us to build our prayerlife on.

(03:55):
He said pray like this and hesort of gave us a skeleton for
us to put flesh on.
He showed us that prayer beginswith looking heavenward to God
and we pray that God's kingdommay come on earth.
We pray heaven's blessings forpeople their physical,
relational and spiritual welfare, and so we've been focusing on

(04:20):
blessing these last few weeks.
But the real goal is healingand transformation.
Blessing is a vehicle to helptransform our world, and today I
want to get really practical.
What does this lifestyle ofkingdom blessing look like Now?

(04:41):
A key tool is local houses ofprayer, or LHOPs, and most of
what I'm going to talk aboutthis morning are in your
brochures on your seat.
It's actually a trifold.
I didn't want to fold a hundredbrochures, so I thought you
might fold your own, and so feelfree to follow along in that.
We'll hop around to differentparts.

(05:02):
And so feel free to followalong in that We'll hop around
to different parts.
It's designed for you to use,not as sermon notes.
What is an LHOP?
Well, while there is anindividual dimension to the
ministry of blessing, thekingdom of God is all about
relationships, first with Godand then with one another.

(05:24):
So, luke 10.1, the Lordappointed 72 others, and he sent
them ahead of him in pairs toevery town and place where he
himself was about to go.
You know, jesus called hisdisciples into community and
then he sent them out incommunity, and so being in
community is integral tofollowing and serving Jesus.

(05:47):
And you can see on the back ofyour brochure a definition of
Elhopt.
What is a local house of prayer?
So let's begin with the secondparagraph.
There, participants choose asmall local area for Jesus,
worship and pray for themanifestation of the kingdom of
God, proclaim blessings andactively participate in its

(06:10):
release through their lives andwitness, guided by the Caleb
questions in this brochure whichare inside.
So, in essence, an LHOP is asmall group of people who want
to see a neighborhood, communityor place transform and they
bless it and pray for it.
Question, then, is what makesan LHOP different from other

(06:35):
groups?
And if you've been tracking withus over the last few weeks,
you'll already be familiar withsome of the core tenets of LHOPs
.
Already be familiar with someof the core tenets of LHOPs
which are also on the brochureon the back Seeking the presence
of God.
You know, the presence of Godreally is everything in this
process.
If we go out and we pray or wework, we're just doing it all.

(06:57):
It's just words, it's justhuman effort, but where the
presence of God is leading andempowering us and it becomes
divine, presence of God isleading and empowering us and it
becomes divine.
Building an altar in ourcommunities, and that's about
inviting God's presence into aparticular place through prayer
and worship, longing for theredemption of all things.
You know we have a holisticperspective.

(07:19):
It's not just about gettingsaved and going to heaven, but
the renewal of all creation.
Not just about getting savedand going to heaven, but the
renewal of all creation,agreeing with heaven and each
other being in alignment withGod.
You know, unity is so important.
Unity is vital.
Blessing and interceding with anindividual and community slash

(07:40):
land focus.
So the blessing is specific forpeople, communities and even
places Breaking in of thekingdom, the rule of God in our
community.
So again we're looking forkingdom transformation and then
believing in the power oftestimony as we share stories of
green shoots breaking in.
So this is just encouraging oneanother, even when our story

(08:06):
seems insignificant.
I've heard the odd story Idon't know.
Does anyone have a story theywant to share this morning about
blessing, blessing someone orsomething, and something even
smaller has happened.
I need to be more proactivewith that, but I have heard
stories from people that justseem insignificant but they're
not.
You bless and then somethinghappens in a relationship or a

(08:31):
street or something.
So one of the key differencesbetween an LHOP and, say, our
discipleship groups is that Dgroups are more inward looking.
They're about growing togetherand caring for one another.
Lhops are more about lookingoutwards.
They're about praying for andcaring for our community, and we
really need both postures in achurch.

(08:52):
We need to be building upwithin and becoming stronger,
but taking that out and making adifference in our world.
At this point you might besaying, alex, I'm already in a D
group, I don't have time for anLHOP as well, I don't have time
to fit it into my life.
No, in an ideal world we'd doboth.

(09:14):
But who here lives in an idealworld?
None of us.
So I'm just happy you're infellowship, quite honestly.
So don't sweat it if you justdon't feel like I can add
something else.
But if it is on your heart, howis it we actually start a local
house of prayer?
It's about a group.

(09:37):
Well, although D groups andLHOPs do have different focuses,
your dGroup could be a naturalplace to begin and form a local
house of prayer.
Can you carve out time in yourdGroup to bless and pray for
your community, to share storiesof blessing and, as we'll see

(10:01):
in a moment, pray through thepeople you're each individually
blessing?
Or perhaps you can form asubgroup?
Some of you meet fortnightly.
Perhaps you could just gettogether with a few others in
your group on the off week to dothat, but maybe that doesn't
work for you at all.
There is a danger that yourgroup could lose focus, and not
everyone may have a heart forlocal houses of prayer, but in

(10:23):
which case maybe you could findtwo or three other Christians to
pray with and just do itanother time.
Independently of that.
Where would you find peoplelike that?
Well, you begin with praying,asking God to lead you to them
and them to you.
Look for the people younaturally connect with might be

(10:44):
in your dGroup, it might be inour church, it might not be, it
might be a Christian outside ofour church and listen out for
people who have a common burdento you, for whatever it is that
you want to pray for.
I've mentioned before I live ina little enclave in Ellenbrook
that's divided by a road, a railor two major roads and a rail,

(11:06):
and so it sort of feels likethis little isolated pocket.
I'm praying and blessing that,and I'm looking for others who
might share that common burdentoo, which isn't going to be
anyone here, I know, becausenone of you live in Ellenbrook
but what about your community orschool or whatever it is you're
praying for.
Another difference between LHOPsand D groups is that D groups

(11:29):
are a more formal ministry ofthe church and they need a bit
more organisation and, frankly,accountability, and small group
leaders have been getting onboard with some of our Safe
Church stuff in the last week ortwo and LHOP is far smaller.
It's really just two, three,maybe four people.
It's less formal and you know,these kingdom missional

(11:50):
ministries really need to benimble so it can meet anywhere
anytime.
It's about releasing thekingdom of God in our world, and
you just can't contain that,and so an LHOP can meet anywhere
a home, a church, a park, acafe.
What's important is peoplecoming together with a common
vision, and so you just go forit.

(12:12):
But please let me know ifyou're going to start an Lelhop,
not so that we can keep tabs onyou, but so that we can
celebrate what God's doing.
Well, whether you start Nelhopor you just want to start
blessing people by yourself, howdo you choose who to bless?
We've been talking aboutblessing lately, but we haven't

(12:33):
been talking about who and howdo you actually bless them.
Well, you can bless anyone anytime, of course, but one of the
LHOP principles is a focus onspecific individuals, places or
even the land you can bless.
I bless a park in my local areaand that's where the principle

(12:55):
of fives come in, which you'llsee on the inside of your
brochure.
There's a room there to listfive people who you want to pray
for, and down below it's someideas for identifying who might
be those five people.
Again, ask the Holy Spirit,think about people in your life.

(13:18):
It may be family, a friend, aneighbor, a colleague, maybe a
person of peace, a Christian ornot.
I mean, really, you don't needto overthink it too much.
You're praying for and speakingblessing over people, and as
long as your heart is to bless,you're not going to get it wrong
.
And so simply put who's on yourheart to bless.

(13:45):
I know some people struggle withthe idea of blessing people who
are far from God.
So what do we do with that?
Well, we don't bless sin, butwe can bless sinners.
Didn't Jesus do that?
In Romans 12.14?
It says Bless those whopersecute you, bless and do not
curse, and so we can bless evengodless people.

(14:05):
You know that we could blessthem, that they might have
wisdom to know the secret to thegood life.
What's the secret to the goodlife.
Jesus, right, the gospel.
You know that they might notknow that, but who's going to
object to that sort of blessing?
Bless them according to yourfaith, but there's nearly always

(14:29):
something you can bless someonewith, even your enemies, even
your enemies.
Well, how do I bless someone?
Well, the idea of fives is that, initially at least, you bless
and pray for five people fivedays a week for five weeks.
What do you do when you'reblessing them?

(14:50):
What do you pray?
Well, lhop has a great acronymto help you cover this, which
reflects the priorities of Jesus, and you'll see it again in
your brochure there BLESSB-L-E-S-S.
And that's we bless their body,so that's their health and
safety and so on.
Their labor, so their work,employment, their emotional life

(15:10):
, their social life, so theirrelationships and their
spiritual life.
What does that actually looklike?
Well, when I do this, I gosomewhere quiet.
When I'm just blessingindividually, I pull out my list
during my prayer time and I saysomething like this so maybe
I'm blessing Gary and I say,gary, this is me.

(15:33):
I say this out loud, there's noone else around.
Gary, I bless you in Jesus'name that you may have good
health.
That might be my Mondayblessing.
That might be it.
Maybe I know some stuff aboutGary, so I pray a bit more for
him.
Tuesday I bless you that youmight have favour and safety at
work.
Wednesday I bless you that youmight know the joy of the Lord.

(15:56):
Thursday I bless your marriagein Jesus' name, that it may be
strong and fulfilling.
Friday I bless you that you mayhave a deeper experience of God
, and that's it.
It doesn't have to be long andcomplicated.
As I say, it might flow outinto more prayer.
There might be more there I canbless someone with, but we're

(16:16):
just mixing it up every day andgetting a holistic picture of
their life every day and gettinga holistic picture of their
life.
I do think it's important to saythese things out loud, though
this is actually part of we.
I mean, do you know the first?
It wasn't until about the 4thor 5th century AD that people

(16:37):
suddenly got the idea I can prayin my head Before then reading
praying.
Everything was done out loud,and there's actually something
to be said for praying out loudeven when we're by ourselves.
This is part, I believe, ofbuilding an altar in a place.
So building an altar is aboutinviting God's presence into a

(17:01):
place which pushes back thedarkness.
I'll talk a bit more about thatin a moment.
But anyway, don't be shy.
And don't be shy about askingpeople if you feel they're open
to it, if you can bless themthere.
And then Just someone.

(17:21):
You've got something on yourheart where you just think they
need to pick me up.
They'd be open to this, toreceiving it.
Go for it.
What's the worst that couldhappen?
They'll feel better becausesomeone said something nice to
them.
Well, as I said earlier, lhopsare about community.
It's important that we meettogether in groups as much as we

(17:43):
can for this.
So perhaps you have a burdenfor a particular school or
street or housing estate.
You long for its redemption,and then maybe you discover one
or two as you're talking, or youjust know of them who share
that burden as well.
So you ask them would you forman LHOP with me and to pray and

(18:05):
bless that person or place orstreet or whatever?
What do you do next?
Well, ideally you'd gettogether every week, but if you
can't do that, get together asoften as you can.
In your brochure, again, there'sa model agenda that you could
follow.
You don't have to follow thatexactly, but it's a useful guide
and I want to highlight acouple of items in there.
And first of all, it says topray for your area.

(18:28):
And this is where the local inlocal houses of prayer is
important.
And again, it's part of what wemean by building an altar.
There is power in praying onsite and, as I said before, out
loud in a location does somehowinvite God's presence in and
pushes back the darkness andreleases blessing to the

(18:53):
surrounding area.
There's just somethingspiritual, spiritual warfare in
that simple act.
You're not having to binddemons and drive out the
darkness, you're calling God tocome and you're blessing and
he'll do the rest.
I know one church that prays fora local shopping centre across

(19:14):
the road from them and they haveseen some small transformation
happening there.
And yes, god even cares aboutbusiness.
He cares about the business orcompany you work for, because
businesses are about people.
You might pray for a street, aschool, a neighborhood, a park
Where's the need, where's theopportunity, or simply what's on

(19:34):
your heart.
And then in the brochure arethese what's called Caleb
questions which really can helpyou take this on a little bit
further.
Maybe there is someone I canspeak a blessing to personally,
maybe there's something I can dopractically to bring blessing
and Caleb.

(19:54):
Why are they called Calebquestions?
I actually haven't been told,but I'm guessing it's because
Caleb was a man of faith whotook hold of his inheritance in
his old age.
He let nothing stop him, hejust trusted God, and nothing is
too hard for God when we trusthim.
And so I reckon these Calebquestions could be dynamite as
you go forward and they start toput flesh on the spirit of your

(20:18):
blessing, flesh on the spiritof your blessing.
And then I've included in thebrochure a blessing which I've
gotten from local houses ofprayer.
They use it over in Wales, sowe've modified it, made it a bit
more generic.
We pray it at what will be ourTuesday prayer meeting.
We pray that over Bentley, andif you'd like to, you can use it

(20:43):
too, and if you form an LHOP,or just by yourself.
So after five weeks you reviewwhat you're doing.
And again there are somequestions in your brochure to
help you think through that.
And if you've been prayingthrough these fives and one or
two, perhaps it's just feelinglike a slog and not quite
working, you have permission tochange it up.

(21:03):
Uh, if you're in a flow, seeingfruit, keep, keep going, seek
the lord on on what next andjust repeat the cycle.
So as we start on this journeyas a church, it and and if you
start on a journey of blessingpeople, it might seem not much
is happening.
Is it really making a bigdifference?

(21:27):
But you know, jesus said thekingdom of heaven is like a
mustard seed that a man took andsowed in his field.
It's the smallest of all theseeds, but when grown, it's
taller than the garden plantsand becomes a tree, so that the
birds of the sky come and nestin its branches.
Here's a fun fact the mustardseed doesn't actually grow into

(21:48):
a tree, it's a bush.
I think Jesus knew that and hisaudience knew that, and in fact
there's not even a bush that'sbig enough for the birds of the
sky to perch in.
But here's what I think Jesuswas saying.
Given that background that theyall knew, it would have been
like well, hang on Jesus.
What are you saying?

(22:09):
Well, I think what Jesus wassaying that the kingdom of God
is something supernatural.
Change starts imperceptibly,but when the spirit moves,
something miraculous happens.
I've learned I have to bepatient and let that mustard

(22:35):
seed start to grow Once you'veplanted it.
There's not a whole lot you cando, but we do have to tend it
diligently.
We can't try to make it grow,but we can water it and
fertilize it through persistentfaith and prayer and in time
we'll see the fruit of thekingdom.
That is way beyond anything wecould expect, naturally.

(22:58):
And so who can you bless?
Who could you form a localhouse of prayer with and bring
kingdom transformation to yourcommunity?
Let's pray and then Gary'sgoing to lead us in a time of
communion.
Father, I pray that you willgive us a faith to enter into

(23:26):
this kind of transformationalmission, not because we feel we
are adequate because, frankly, Ifeel very inadequate, but
because you are an amazing Godwho has a heart that we just
can't imagine for our community,a heart that led just can't
imagine for our community, aheart that led his son to the

(23:54):
cross.
Lord, teach us to bless, toexpect, to carry your presence
into our world, and please movethrough us.
We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
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