How Can I Serve God when My Heart is So Selfish?

Spiritual Disciplines

How Can I Serve God when My Heart is So Selfish?

25 min

Spiritual Disciplines

How Can I Serve God when My Heart is So Selfish?

25 min

Episode 487 Show Notes

From the Show

Even though the good works we bring before God are tainted with sin, you can still offer yourself to the Lord because you can come to the Lord through Jesus Christ. There’s this quote by Charles Spurgeon in a sermon that he preached that has always stuck with me. He said, “The Christian sometimes has to pray to God to forgive his prayers because he feels that there is sin even in his best offerings. He has to sprinkle the atoning blood on everything that he does.”

–Adriel Sanchez

Questions in this Episode

1. When Jesus called God Father in John 5:18, was this a new concept for the Jews, or did they have something like this in the OT?

2. I thought I was a Christian, but then I got caught up in the lie that I was supposed to be the opposite sex. I went through with a sex change, but now I have realized it was all a lie. Am I an abomination unto God? Can I return to him?

3. I have a question about two parables: Jesus describes himself as the good shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine to find the one sheep who went astray. How does this match with the parable of the prodigal son? Does Jesus seek us out or do we have to come to him of our own accord?

4. When I read about Paul in the NT and how his whole purpose was to spread the gospel, it inspires me to be a better Christian. But I find myself with this almost selfish intention. I want to be seen as a superior Christian, almost like people in the Bible were. I want God to be so pleased with what I’m doing, not just like regular Christians, but someone willing to die for him. And so when I sin, I get mad at myself because I think God will look at me like a regular Christian, and that is such a selfish thought. And I just started crying in my car because of how selfish that is.

Resources

The Gospel-Driven Life: Being Good News People in a Bad News World by Michael Horton

What Is the Trinity? by Core Christianity

Rid of My Disgrace: Hope and Healing for Victims of Sexual Assault Book by Justin S. Holcomb and Lindsey A. Holcomb

Request our latest special offers here or call 1-833-THE-CORE (833-843-2673) to request them by phone.

Sola Newspaper

Today's Offer

Sola Newspaper

A quarterly print publication featuring articles on theology, the confessions, & reflections for the Christian life, delivered straight to your mailbox. For free.

Subscribe Now

Michael Horton (Ph.D., Wycliffe Hall, Oxford and Coventry University) is the J. Gresham Machen Professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics at Westminster Seminary California and Founder & Editor-in-Chief of Sola Media.

More on this topic

Spiritual Disciplines

Explore All

Meditation as a Bridge to Prayer

Meditating upon the Law of the Lord leads us to prayer. The goal is that as you meditate, the Spirit brings conviction, thanks, praise, or some other reality up into your heart. It is with these realities in mind that you then approach God directly in prayer. In this sense, prayer is truly conversation with God, and there is much to discuss. We talk to God directly concerning the things upon which we have reflected.

Help! Saved but Still Sinning

Help! Saved but Still Sinning

Sanctification isn’t effortless. The act of dying to sin implies spiritual battle and life-long war against sin. Living unto righteousness implies costly, intensive labor that daily says “no” to sin and “yes” to Christlikeness. So what do we do when we fail yet again? How can we overcome feelings of failure, defeat, and self-loathing when we sin?

The Weight of Steadfastness

The Weight of Steadfastness

What if the discomfort we’ve avoided—the very trial we’ve begged God to remove—is the instrument our loving Father is using to bring us to completion, the place where lasting joy is found?

What Does a Protestant Vision of Spiritual Formation Look Like?

What Does a Protestant Vision of Spiritual Formation Look Like?

Kyle Strobel joins Michael Horton to discuss different views of spiritual formation, how pastors and theologians from church history have approached this topic, and why seasons of desolation (spiritual dryness) are meant for our good, not punishment.

Help more people know what they believe and why.

Support trusted articles, podcasts, and resources that deepen faith, point people to Christ, and strengthen the church.

Give Monthly