Sermon On The Mount | Our Father | Jonny Hughes

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"Here as in Heaven."

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Intro/Outro: 00:01

Welcome to Garden Church podcast. We're taking a break from a revelation series while our lead pastor, Darren Rounce, is on sabbatical. During this time, we're gonna continue to push into the Garden's mission of creating resilient disciples by working our way through the Sermon on the Mount. Over the next few weeks, we'll have some amazing pastors from all over the world coming to impart their wisdom and insight on what is the most influential and profound sermon ever given. Enjoy.

Jon Rosene: 00:31

With that, I have the privilege and honor of introducing our friend this morning, pastor Vicar Johnny Hughes. Johnny is gonna be with us. He's with us for all three of our gatherings this morning. But Johnny has been ministering, gosh, for a quarter of a century now. And, I've known Johnny since, gosh, 02/2016.

Jon Rosene: 00:52

And he is he leads a a church with his wife, Amy, called Trinity in Nottingham. He is a man who carries a heart for the Lord and intimacy with the Lord that, I I know is gonna be an impartation for us this morning. So would you welcome my dear friend, Johnny Hughes?

Johnny Hughes: 01:13

Trying to

Jon Rosene: 01:13

make you, you know, quarter of a century. Just trying to really

Johnny Hughes: 01:15

give some weight. Yeah. Thank you.

Jon Rosene: 01:17

Yeah. Jesus, we thank you for all that you're doing. God, we thank you that you're already just revealing yourself. Father, we we know that when our attention and our worship is on you, that there is, there's just a heart posture that we take. So I pray that as we prepared our hearts to receive from you, you're a word king Jesus.

Jon Rosene: 01:36

May it land on good soil. God, I pray that you would anoint Johnny's words. We thank you for everything that you have, done through him, Jesus. And I pray that the word would catch fire this morning in our hearts, and we would lock eyes with the one who has our attention. We love you and praise you.

Jon Rosene: 01:52

In Jesus' name, amen.

Johnny Hughes: 01:54

Amen. John, thank you so much. My, how you've grown? It's full in the house of God today, isn't it? It's, it's great to be here.

Johnny Hughes: 02:04

As John said, my name's Johnny, And, have had the privilege of, leading Trinity Church in Nottingham for eight years with my wife, Amy. We we planted the church. But I've been checking in on your story as The Garden Church for a lot longer than that. I I first met Darren. It it is almost twenty five years ago, now that I met him.

Johnny Hughes: 02:27

It was in Newport Beach, and, the first thing he did was to to buy me a white chocolate mocha, which was my introduction to coffee. It's not really coffee, it's just more sugar. But he was my that was my gateway drug into a serious addiction to coffee, and, and he's become a firm friend of mine since. And I've had the privilege actually of checking in on your story numerous times. I think now, I've preached to every one of your locations.

Johnny Hughes: 02:54

So it's a real gift to be here today, to make sure that I I was able to say that, still. I have, five children together with Amy, which I have to say got out of hand quite quickly. And, and it's, I'm looking forward to getting back to them and fly out tonight, so it's gonna be great to see them tomorrow. But it's a gift for me to to be with you today and to continue the series that you've been in on the Sermon on the Mount. And I would love just to pray, and then I'm gonna read scripture, just the text that we have for us today.

Johnny Hughes: 03:29

And, I'm gonna read from Matthew six verses five through 15. And at the end, I'll say this is the word of the Lord, and your bit is thanks be to God. Is that alright? So father, we just pray that your presence would be upon your people, and you would achieve today the purposes that you have for us. And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others.

Johnny Hughes: 03:57

Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your father who is unseen. Then your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think that they'll be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your father knows what you need before you ask him.

Johnny Hughes: 04:28

This then is how you should pray. Our father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

Johnny Hughes: 04:53

For if you forgive other people, when they sin against you, your heavenly father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your father will not forgive your sins. This is the word of the Lord.

Intro/Outro: 05:08

Thanks be to God.

Johnny Hughes: 05:09

Amen. Friend of mine called Pete is a pastor in London. And one day recently, one day, he was walking the streets of London near his church in a place called Hammersmith, actually, when he saw a piece of paper on the ground that attracted his attention because it had the word awaken written on it. That caught his attention because that's a word that he and his church have been praying into, as I hear that you have, as well for some time. A word that was really dear to him.

Johnny Hughes: 05:42

So he picked that piece of paper up and saw that it was an advert for a new well-being cafe, which was about to open up in that area. Unfortunately, it was gonna become a place where lots of new age spirituality was to be hosted. Things like palm reading, tarot cards, and the like. So he prayed in that moment a simple prayer. Lord, would you awaken people through this?

Johnny Hughes: 06:10

He took the flyer home, he showed his wife, and after that didn't really think anything else of it until a week later when he received a text message from someone who he and his wife had known because they'd met her at the school gate. Their children, their daughters were in the same class, and they've got to know each other. But then their their daughters have left those schools and graduated, and so they lost touch. But this person emailed them and said, Pete, last week I was having a major crisis in my life, and I had some kind of encounter with God, the Holy Spirit, Jesus. I don't know how to describe it because I'm not a Christian, but what happened to me means I can't ignore this anymore.

Johnny Hughes: 06:51

Can we meet? Now, I've been a pastor for a little while. I know that when somebody asks you, can we meet with that kind of story? The answer is yes. And so Pete, being a good vicar, being a good pastor said, yep, of course we can meet.

Johnny Hughes: 07:07

So they got together, they went for a walk together, and she shared her story with Pete. In short, she had been in a court case for custody of her child. And it looks certain she was gonna lose this case. She could not afford legal representation to fight her corner. And it was coming to the last day of the trial.

Johnny Hughes: 07:28

And on the morning of the last day of the trial, her mother who had some kind of Catholic faith said to her, look, just take this cross with you. Put it in your pocket and and pray at some stage in the day. And she said, no, I'm not a Christian. I don't believe in any of that stuff. I'm not taking that cross.

Johnny Hughes: 07:43

But her mother insisted. And so she did. She took the cross with her. And later that day in court, she was asked to give her final plea by the judge. And as she did so, she placed her hand on the cross in her pocket.

Johnny Hughes: 07:59

And she cried out to Jesus saying, If you're there, you have to help me right now. She then simply and tearfully said to the judge that she had nothing else to say, but that she felt an injustice was about to be done. And just then, someone else in the courtroom, someone who this woman had never seen before stood up and began to present evidence in her favor. It took twenty minutes or so. This evidence she had never heard of or seen before.

Johnny Hughes: 08:30

And the evidence totally exonerated her. And having heard this, the judge threw the case out of court. In that moment, this woman felt that she was encountering God. She knew that it was Jesus who had saved her in this situation and no one else. As she was walking around the park with my friend Pete, she confessed that though this was indeed very good news, she now had another big problem.

Johnny Hughes: 08:59

Because she had just opened a business in the area, a wellness cafe called Awaken, founded on new age spirituality. And she knew that this business could no longer go forward, at least not with her leadership because she had met Jesus. What kind of God is this? What kind of God cares about single mothers who are desperate to keep custody of their children enough to send social workers or angels into courtrooms to provide evidence on their behalf? What kind of God is the kind who listens to the fleeting prayers of his disciples, both priests and these mothers, and answers them in the most unlikely ways?

Johnny Hughes: 09:49

The kind of God who would use even the desperate cry of somebody who doesn't really even believe in them while clutching a cross in that pocket. Surely, this is a God who's more involved in any of our lives than we actually believe or can understand in every given moment. The kind of God who wants every person, no matter how young, to be awakened to his power and his presence. Do you wanna get to know a God like that more? You do.

Johnny Hughes: 10:20

That's why you're here. However hard, however hard you're trying, however much you've considered the possibility that you could know and commune with a God like that, you care at least a little bit because you've bothered to show up. Even if you've been dragged here this morning by the collar, there's some sense of openness to that for you. Getting to know that God more is called prayer. And that's what the text in the Sermon on the Mount is all about today.

Johnny Hughes: 10:51

And I don't know about you, but that somehow feels a little bit idealistic, doesn't it? Oh, you know, my prayer life doesn't exactly look like that all the time. In fact, if I'm honest, there's been a few moments in the forty one years of my life that I've experienced and seen God break through in a way something like that. But mostly, my prayer life is mundane. It's fairly dull at times.

Johnny Hughes: 11:23

Sometimes when I'm praying, I'm questioning whether there is somebody listening, whether there is even a God. Maybe that's just me. But there are moments like that. There have been seasons in my life like that. Where prayer has felt more obedience than it has anything else.

Johnny Hughes: 11:43

Sometimes it feels like prayer is pushing a rock up a steep hill and getting nowhere slowly. Sometimes I feel not just, not just that prayer is idealistic, sometimes I feel ignorant. Sometimes I feel like I don't really know how to pray. Do you ever feel that you see the person in the church? I'm sure there are a number of these people in the church who just seem to know what they're doing.

Johnny Hughes: 12:07

And for me, I've read loads of books on prayer and I've seen loads of other people, but sometimes I just don't feel like I'm doing it right. So many different patterns of prayer, so many ways to do it. Am I do Is this what you had in mind? Is this working? Is this what you want for me?

Johnny Hughes: 12:22

Sometimes prayer feels impossible. Perhaps you feel like you could do some praying if you had a minute to think. Maybe you're a busy parent, maybe you're an executive, who knows? Maybe you're a college student, And you're one of those college students who works really hard at your degree and you just don't have the time to do what it is that you feel God wants of you in prayer. Yes, if you're a monk or a nun, maybe you could do it, or professional Christian.

Johnny Hughes: 12:56

But what if God wants to involve all of us in the life of prayer? What if he wants to do that so much that he'll even use scraps of paper lying on the ground to grab our attention? How might he want to do that? What's clear is that Jesus was an expert in prayer. His prayer life was unlike anybody's before or since, and his disciples noticed it.

Johnny Hughes: 13:26

In the corresponding text in Luke's gospel where we receive from Jesus the Lord's Prayer, the question that provokes Jesus to teach them is, John's taught his disciples to pray, would you teach us how to pray? And so it's called the Lord's Prayer or the Our Father. It's the response that Jesus gives to his disciples' desire to learn from him how they should pray. I wanna just make a couple of quick comments about the structure of it because that's relevant to what is contained within it. Firstly, notice that this prayer is all in the plural.

Johnny Hughes: 14:04

Notice it doesn't say, my father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven. Give me today what I need for the day. Forgive me my sins and so on and so forth. Everything here is plural.

Johnny Hughes: 14:16

Why? Well, because prayer is a communal activity. It's something that belongs properly to the whole people of God. And that's really good news by the way, because it means if you're in this place today, and you don't know how to pray, you can borrow that. You can be swept up in that.

Johnny Hughes: 14:35

You can be swept up in the prayers of all God's people. God wants, he's invested in you learning how to pray. You know, when we pray, we're not just gathered up into the the prayers that are in this room of which there are many. We're actually gathered up in the prayers that the church across the globe, including the persecuted church, are praying right now. And in fact, if you have eyes for it, we're actually drawn up into the prayers of the whole communion of saints throughout history.

Johnny Hughes: 15:09

We're joining in in in our prayers are like incense rising before the throne. We're joining in with the prayers that are happening in heaven right now. It's an extraordinary thing that happens. And so it's in the plural. Secondly, notice that the sermon notice because Seth very kindly put these slides together for us this morning.

Johnny Hughes: 15:25

Notice that the sermon or the the the prayer is in two halves. Broadly speaking after the our father in heaven and introductory comment, there are two sets of three requests. All of which overlap and reinforce each other's meaning. The first half has to do with God's honor, his kingdom, and his purpose in the world. Your, your, your.

Johnny Hughes: 15:49

And once we've done praying your, your, your, we will be properly oriented to be able to pray for our, our hour. And that's designed in that way. But this prayer isn't just something a it's not just something to pray as it's written, although I use that every day at midday. Alarm goes off and just pray through this prayer and allow one or the other of the lines to pop. You can do it like that.

Johnny Hughes: 16:17

But actually, this is also it's like a, an expandable, instruction manual. This is, about how we are to become people of prayer. So then what is it all about? What is prayer all about? How do we do it?

Johnny Hughes: 16:36

Well, Jesus actually begins by telling his disciples what prayer is not about. When you pray, don't be like the hypocrites and so on. They love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. We might call this prayer as performance. But prayer is not about getting other people's attention.

Johnny Hughes: 17:02

Jesus is critical of those who pray for the benefit of others. I I have to say, this this particular instruction is particularly worrying for those people like me who get paid to pray publicly. It's so easy to allow personal prayer to become religious performance. And Jesus says the best antidote to that is to have the vast majority, a bit like an iceberg I think, to have the vast majority of your prayer life under the surface. If you wanna learn to pray, you do it in a secret place.

Johnny Hughes: 17:39

That's not to say that we can't pray together. I love praying with other people, particularly when it comes to intercession, contending prayer, which I know is a a key grace upon this church. But there is something about crafting your prayer life in the secret place. And so simplicity, directness, and honesty seem to be the order of the day when it comes to learning how to pray. We are to pray for the audience of one.

Johnny Hughes: 18:06

Second kind of prayer is, prayer as pagans do it or we might say, prayer, in order to get God's attention. And Jesus says, no. You don't have to pray in that way. He's critical of, pagans who loaded up phrase upon phrase upon phrase upon phrase, seeking to attract God's attention by the sheer weight of their words. This creates but here's why I think he's so critical of this, because beneath this is an image of who God is.

Johnny Hughes: 18:44

And the image of God is that he's not really listening and he's not really interested. And a bit like the prophets of Baal in that incredible story with Elijah, we have to get his attention by shouting and speaking at length. You may have prayed this kind of prayer. I certainly have. This week.

Johnny Hughes: 19:07

This is the wrong starting point for prayer. You don't need to get God's attention in prayer. Why? Because you already have it. Our father in heaven.

Johnny Hughes: 19:21

As many of you will know, the the word father here reflects the Aramaic word Abba. Abba means something like papa, daddy. It's intimate, although not so informal. But this was Jesus' distinct approach to prayer. This is how Jesus prayed.

Johnny Hughes: 19:39

And what's fascinating is that when teaching his disciples, he does not dilute this. This word communicates intimacy and privileged access. And that privileged access, as I said, properly belongs to Jesus because of his unique relationship to Abba. And yet, he enables and indeed encourages his disciples to share in his status before God. It's absolutely extraordinary.

Johnny Hughes: 20:14

Jesus is saying, you're my disciples. You share in the access I have with Abba. It's as if he's saying, in prayer, take my hand. I wanna take you into not just not just the broader environment of the father, but into his lap, onto his lap. But before prayer then is about speaking, it's about seeing.

Johnny Hughes: 20:44

It is about seeing God as our father and us as his children. Prayer is the journey of that discovery. It's the I guess you would say it's both the departure point and also the arrival point. I have to confess that I found this really difficult to trust that this could possibly be true. But God is fully invested in teaching us this.

Johnny Hughes: 21:21

That is what Jesus has come to do. And that's what the Holy Spirit is here to do. You know it says in Romans eight, Galatians four, it's the Spirit himself that testifies with our spirit that we're children of God. It's by him that we cry out, Abba Father. This insight is where prayer begins.

Johnny Hughes: 21:39

Have you ever had that experience? You're in some kind of public setting or maybe a party or if you're a college student, a lecturer or something similar, and you just become aware. Out of you can't see it, but you feel that somebody is looking at you. Is this just me? And it's beyond your peripheral vision.

Johnny Hughes: 22:01

You just sit and you turn around and they are. And you think, how does that even work? How can I see what I can't see? That's prayer. God's attention is on his people.

Johnny Hughes: 22:14

And in prayer, what we're doing first and foremost is to turn our attention to his attention and find that he's had his eyes on us all along. God is looking at us. His attention is on us. He's our father in heaven. We don't need to go looking for him.

Johnny Hughes: 22:30

We don't have to perform in order that he see us, we don't have to shout loudly enough so that he be awoken from his slumber. We are the apple of his eye. The trouble is that we expect we have to do something in order to qualify to be heard by Him. We think we need to perform in order to be loved perhaps. As some of us will have had to do for our earthly fathers.

Johnny Hughes: 22:57

Now don't get me wrong, our father is our father in heaven. We're not talking about over familiarity here. This God is holy and that's why the next thing we're called to do is to pray that His name be hallowed on the earth as it is in heaven. But there is a fundamental intimacy to prayer that is it is the unique contribution of Christian prayer. This does not exist anywhere else in any religious system.

Johnny Hughes: 23:30

You only get it through Jesus. Only Jesus gives you privileged access to God who made the heavens and the earth, who is holy, and who is your father. A while ago, I read a book by a woman called Begum Bilkis. And in it, she recorded her conversion from Islam to Christianity. And the book's tie I love the title of this book.

Johnny Hughes: 23:55

The title is I dared to call him father. She was a wealthy woman living in Pakistan, and she was spiritually searching. She had been for many years. She had she was one of those people who just just wanted truth wherever it would lead her. And she began to read the bible alongside the Quran thinking, God, show me which of these is your book.

Johnny Hughes: 24:16

Show me which of these books you're speaking through. Around that time, she had a series of strange dreams. In one of those dreams, she, saw Jesus appearing to her. And as a consequence of those dreams, she went to see some local Christian missionaries who prayed with her, and then sent her home with a Bible and told her to read John's gospel, which she began to do. Shortly after that, her son became sick, contracted a mysterious illness, and she took him to hospital.

Johnny Hughes: 24:47

And where, she went to hospital, it was a Christian hospital, and she met a doctor there, a nun, doctor Santiago. Seeing the bible, which she'd taken with her, the doctor asked Begum, who was a prominent person in Pakistan, why she had a bible with her? Here is what she said. I am earnestly in search of God, I answered. And then while the candle burned lower, I told her very cautiously at first, then with mounting boldness about my dreams, my visiting with missus Mitchell, the missionary.

Johnny Hughes: 25:21

Am I comparing the Bible and the Quran? Whatever happens, I emphasized, I must find God. But I'm confused about your faith. You seem to make God so, I don't know, personal. The little nun's eyes filled with compassion as she leaned forward.

Johnny Hughes: 25:40

Begum, shake, she said, a voice full of emotion. There is only one way to find out why we feel this way. And that is to find out for yourself, strange as that may seem. Why don't you pray to the God you're searching for? Ask him to show you his way.

Johnny Hughes: 25:56

Talk to him as if he were your friend. I smiled. She might as well suggest that I talk to the Taj Mahal. But then doctor Santiago said something that shot through my being like electricity. She leaned closer and took my hand in hers, tears streaming down her cheeks.

Johnny Hughes: 26:13

Talk to him. She said very quietly, as if he were your father. A little while later, Begum Shaikh knelt beside her bed and did just that, and here's what happened. Oh, father, my father, father god. Hesitantly, I spoke his name aloud.

Johnny Hughes: 26:34

I tried different ways of speaking to him and then as if something broke through for me, I found myself trusting that he was indeed hearing me. Just as my earthly father had always done. Father, oh my father God. I cried with growing confidence. My voice seemed unusually loud in the large bedroom as I knelt on the rug beside my bed.

Johnny Hughes: 26:56

But suddenly the room that room wasn't empty anymore. He was there. I could sense his presence. I could feel his hand laid gently upon my head. It was as if I could see his eyes filled with love and compassion.

Johnny Hughes: 27:10

He was so close that I found myself laying my head on his knees like a little girl sitting at her father's feet. For a long time, I knelt there, sobbing quietly, floating in his love. Found myself talking with him, apologizing for not having known him before, And again came his loving compassion, like a warm blanket settling around me. What a vision of prayer. This is how prayer begins.

Johnny Hughes: 27:39

We honestly, simply, and directly speak to God as if he is our friend, as if he is our father. Friend, do you dare call God your father this morning? Do you dare to trust that he loves you so much as this, just as you are, not as you should be, but just as you are. That you do not need to perform for his attention or affection, but that in Christ it already belongs to you. That he does not need your many words.

Johnny Hughes: 28:22

The right words, the right techniques, but simply covers your attention. Maybe you wanna do this. Maybe you're beginning your journey in prayer. Maybe you're an old hand. You've been doing this forever, but you know that there's more.

Johnny Hughes: 28:43

How might we take this journey together as God's people? Well, firstly, let me just recognize that there are people in this room, many people in this room, who have forgotten more about prayer than I've ever known. But I did come across this simple pattern, which I think probably is helpful for most people. So firstly, prayer involves talking at or to God. Prayer begins where Begum Bilqis began.

Johnny Hughes: 29:17

Begins by simply speaking to God, or sometimes it begins just in speaking at God. I met yesterday with a a friend, just down the road actually, in Huntington Beach, and, just catching up with him and talking about his life. And he shared with me that when he was younger, he'd he'd grown up in in the Catholic church, and and he'd been taught the our father, this prayer. And whenever he got scared as a child, he would just pray that prayer. He'd just talk at God with that prayer, and he used to help him.

Johnny Hughes: 29:54

What a great beginning in prayer. Maybe that's where you're at, and and and your prayer life, it just needs to begin with talking at God, or maybe talking to God. Maybe talking at God with somebody else's prayer, maybe talking to God with your prayer. All I would say to you if that's you is make it simple. Let the hallmark of your prayer be honesty.

Johnny Hughes: 30:20

Don't pray the prayers of the person you wish you were. Pray the prayers of the person you actually are. If you're in crisis, pray crisis prayers. Here's a good one, help. Seriously, there actually is a book, forget who writes it called Help, Thanks, Wow.

Johnny Hughes: 30:42

It's about prayer. There's three great prayers that will get you going. God loves that kind of prayer. I have this, an an analogy for this, I have with my daughter, my eldest daughter Grace. And, couple times a week, I take her to ballet.

Johnny Hughes: 31:03

It's about a fifteen minute drive. And, I I've I've no idea what happens in there. Honestly well, ballet, obviously, but it's it's a mystery to me. But on the way home and on the way there, we sit in the car and she just tells me what's happened. And if I'm really lucky, she tells me other stuff as well.

Johnny Hughes: 31:27

And you know what I love about those those I I what I love is when she just starts babbling to me. She's just telling me, dada did this, and then it did that, and and then the other thing, and it's just beautiful to me. And I have no idea what any of the things she's talking about are. First position, second position. I've got no clue whatsoever.

Johnny Hughes: 31:47

But that time of hearing from her blesses me. Talking to God. I realize in that image I've made myself God, and that is a concern. But it is an analogy, and all analogies break down. Secondly, listening to God.

Johnny Hughes: 32:11

The next stage of by the way, these overlap, don't they? But the next stage of prayer has to do with listening to God. It's not just speaking to him, speaking at him, but it has to do with hearing from him, hearing a response and a reply. If I'm honest, this is the one I struggle with most. Bono said, I like the sound of my own voice and never gave anyone else a choice.

Johnny Hughes: 32:30

I like speaking. And what I have struggled with in prayer is anything that has to do with letting go of control. Sitting in quiet scares me. Scares me because I might not hear anything. And it scares me because I might hear something.

Johnny Hughes: 32:46

And if I hear something, I might have to do it. But this begins when when we are persuaded and when we allow the holy spirit to persuade us of God's goodness as father, we don't need to be afraid of hearing from him. And so we may want to begin the day in this way. God, here I am. Speak to me.

Johnny Hughes: 33:10

Now I have a friend called Jay Pathak who is he leads the vineyards in the USA Vineyard Church Movement. He's a wonderful guy and I recorded a podcast recently with him. And if you think that's a shameless plug, you're right. And in it, he spoke about how he begins his day. And he said this, before doing anything else, Johnny, I ask this question, father, are you proud of me?

Johnny Hughes: 33:38

And he said to me, Johnny, unless I hear this in the morning from God, I will spend the rest of my day looking for an answer elsewhere. Father, are you proud of me? Maybe that's not your question. It's certainly mine. What about this?

Johnny Hughes: 33:59

Father, am I safe? Am I special? Does my life matter? Do you love me? We listen to God.

Johnny Hughes: 34:15

And sometimes when we listen to God, we don't hear anything. And so we've passed over into the next stage which is simply being with God. There are times in prayer where God draws us into communion. It's not about speaking. It's not about saying.

Johnny Hughes: 34:35

It's about looking at him and watching him look back at us. Contemplation would be another word for that. Sometimes words aren't enough. This happens sometimes between my wife and I and any of you who've had a friendship for a long period of time. You know that you can have times with dear friends or perhaps a parent, a spouse or similar, where actually you can be with each other without saying anything, and still have had a great time.

Johnny Hughes: 35:08

In this phase of prayer, perhaps we spend more and more time just being in God's presence. Being with God. Talking to God, listening to God, being with God. Could it be, garden church, I say this as I close. That the Father is inviting you as a church to continue the journey of prayer that he has already got you on.

Johnny Hughes: 35:33

Could it be that he's bringing more and more of you into that journey for the sake of those who are not yet in the room. What if the first thirty minutes of your day, before you touched your phone, and the last thirty, after you've tucked your phone into bed, Belong to God and God alone. What if during that holy hour, you concerned yourself with growing in fascination with God in one of these ways? What would it look like if a community of people did that at the same time? I think that is the invitation before us all today.

Johnny Hughes: 36:18

So should we pray for that? Maybe you would stand with me if you're willing and able. And I'm just going to pray. I am not going to babble like the pagans. I've done enough of that this morning already.

Johnny Hughes: 36:37

I wanna encourage you to open your heart to this father. You will have recognized the more awake of you will have recognized that I've left almost the entirety of this prayer untaught. But I'm sure that there are great, resources for that in this church on your website, I'm sure, or failing all else, go to join the Bible project. So I just wanna pray. Maybe you would open your hands as a a sign of being ready to receive from God.

Johnny Hughes: 37:17

Holy Spirit, the Bible says that you search the deep things of God. Holy Spirit, your job is to make Jesus known to us. And Jesus, you promise that when you're with us, you're gonna lead us into the arms of our father. So God, that's your job description. I pray you would do it.

Johnny Hughes: 37:48

I ask you now to do that for the garden church, for individuals in this room, for this whole community. May this be the season of contending from a place of security, not from lack, but from superabundance. Now just for this time that we're gonna stand in quiet for a few moments together, I just wanna encourage you. This might be a moment to listen to God or just to be with God. Don't worry if you you don't hear anything or even feel anything.

Johnny Hughes: 38:32

Some of you will. It's just the moment collectively for us to be with God. Just gonna continue to wait together. In in a moment, John will come and lead our response time. But, yesterday, I was reading Psalm 68.

Johnny Hughes: 39:00

And it says this, a father to the fatherless, a defender of widows is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families. He leads out the prisoners with singing. And I asked a friend of mine to pray for us this morning. And she said that, she kept getting drawn while driving to notice isolated buildings that stuck out to her because they weren't surrounded by anything else.

Johnny Hughes: 39:34

Isolated lonely buildings. And she was praying this morning. She sensed God's say that there are those today who feel isolated, alone, and separated. That God wants to draw them in today, draw you in today like a little child to a parent. God wants our identity to be known and seen as part of a family, his family.

Johnny Hughes: 39:57

She just felt that God particularly wanted to say to some that you stand alone and set and separate yourself, but today he wants to draw you in and ask you to make the choice to trust that he won't turn you away. So, Holy Spirit, create bonds of family in this place.

Intro/Outro: 40:22

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