A story on the theme of John 17.1-5

Sermon Series Theme:  "Teach-Pray-Live"

Sermon Title: “Praying God’s Glory”

Theme: Jesus models a conversational style of prayer that leads us to exchange our self-centered glory for the glory of God in all things.

Change the names/genders as works best for you.

Ricky had been walking on a steep trail, high up in the hills. Even though they were high in the hills, they were hiking in the fog and looking forward to breaking into the sun near the top. He had been walking with his dad, but his dad wanted to sit down and catch his breath. Ricky didn’t want to stop. He was full of energy. He wanted to race up the hills. His dad knew there was just one trail. Ricky couldn’t get lost, so he let him run ahead. 

Ricky had just come up out of the fog and was walking along the trail that goes along to ridge. He was so proud of himself. He thought about what he’d say to his dad when his dad, ...finally..., reach the top. He might rub it in a little that his dad had to stop and rest and when Ricky just charged on. He was just about done with making up his little speech in his head, when he looked up. Wow! What a view he saw. He could look to his right down on the Bay and to left out to the ocean. The water was the most beautiful he had ever seen it look. The city glowed in the sun. The towers of the bridges that poked through some small patches of fog were beautiful, too. Inside himself, he seemed to get bigger and bigger and bigger until he had to shout. 

And what came out was a shout to God! “God, you are so great. You’ve made the world so beautiful. Just looking out on it from up high makes me feel special and makes me realize how wonderful you are. That “glory” that I’ve heard in church, just seems to fit you.”

In a split second, he forgot about kidding his dad and bragging about himself and all the grown up things he could do. Instead, all he could think about was how great God was. And he kind of surprise himself. He was discovering that it was really easy to pray, to talk to God, in a beautiful place like this. It was almost as if he was seeing the world the way God sees the world and it was wonderful. As he listened to himself, he realized he wasn’t talking to God like he talked to God in church. He was talking to God the way he talked to his brother or his friends ...or his dad, just like God was right there next to him.

He stopped to take a deep breath. He got a little embarrassed thinking about how he had planned to brag about himself to his dad. He was glad that he had gotten to the top ahead of his dad so he had time to really think -- not about how great he was, but about how great God was. He wondered how he could tell his dad what had just happened to him. Well, he was about to get a chance because just then he heard his dad and turned to see him slowly coming out of the fog...