The Prayer That Sets You Straight March 15 2026

This message confronts us with an uncomfortable but liberating truth: we are all born with a spiritual birth defect called self-centeredness. Drawing from John 17:1-5, we explore Jesus' high priestly prayer where He asks the Father to glorify Him so that He can glorify the Father in return. This radical prayer reveals the antidote to our broken compass that constantly points back to ourselves. The sermon challenges us to examine our natural tendency toward self-worship, illustrated through simple examples like checking ourselves first in group photos or taking selfies. But more profoundly, it addresses how this self-centeredness is not just about what we do, but about who we fundamentally are without Christ. The message offers hope through a daily practice of reorienting our lives: trusting Christ's authority instead of our own control, knowing God personally rather than just knowing about Him, praying for the desire to live for God's glory, and obeying what God puts in front of us each day. This is not about heroic acts that bring us recognition, but about faithful obedience in the ordinary moments of life. When we shift from pursuing our own glory to pursuing God's glory, we discover the eternal life Jesus spoke of, a quality of life that begins the moment we surrender to Him and continues forever.