You are in God’s family. And under the New Covenant, God says that your sins and lawless deeds, He will remember no more. But there are three groups who have another message for you - one that reminds you of every shortcoming, weakness and failure -- 1) Your own religious mind, 2) The Church, and 3) The devil. You have this chorus of voices telling you that you’re not what God wants, that you're unacceptable to Him. And then we have the word of God that says that you're completely and totally accepted, and welcome in His presence.

People have a tendency to react one of two ways –

• Try to live a good life in your own strength. Those who work and try really hard, with limited success, can be overcome with self-condemnation as they wallow in their failures and shortcomings. Or some actually do have real success and then feel smugly superior over everybody else – that’s self-righteousness.
• Or, you can come into the light of the Gospel: The truth that says “Your sins are forgiven. You’re accepted by God. He’s begun a good work in you, which He promises to complete if you’ll just trust Him.” Right living is important, but how you get there is more important than just the outward living itself.

Pastor Joe concludes with a three-step process of humility that helps us properly frame our minds.

If you missed them, tune into part 1 and part 2. This episode is pulled from the Pleasing God MP3 series. A full transcript and show notes can be found at www.empoweringgrace.org/podcast24.