Defeating Your Ego - Episode 31

Edging
God
Out

The hosts discuss the concept of the ego as a barrier to spiritual growth and fulfillment, described as 'edging God out.' They explore how an egocentric perspective can prevent deeper relationships with God and others, and the importance of moving beyond self-centric thinking to embrace a spiritual relationship rooted in love, humility, and divine understanding. The discussion also touches on societal perceptions of success and fulfillment, contrasting them with spiritual teachings and the transformative power of accepting Jesus. Through personal anecdotes and scriptural references, the hosts underscore the need to overcome ego for a richer, more meaningful spiritual journey.

Transcript

Episode 31 - Defeating Your Ego

[00:00:00] Justin: Hi everyone, this is Justin Olbrantz and this is Don Schaefer And you are listening to the wise and the wandering podcast for those who know “The Way” And for those who are led astray And if you feel like you fall into either of those categories Then you're in the right place So let's dive in.

[00:00:31] Justin: So Don, what are we going to talk about today? I believe we're going to talk about defeating your ego Defeating your ego. Yes Okay, so the ego is the problem. 

[00:00:42] Don: It is the issue and what we're going to talk about here, I believe is gold Yeah, because it's going to give answers to a lot of the issues that people would have issues that I have Right, you know because if we can get an understanding what ego is we always say it's edging god out 

[00:00:57] Justin: edging god 

[00:00:58] Don: out Yeah, you know, okay 

[00:00:59] Justin: [00:01:00] like an acronym.

[00:01:00] Don: That's right. That's good. And and I know that when you come to stuff like this You know That God has got a moment in time for people. Yeah, he's got a moment in time with people and right now is that moment, right? And I think God is wanting to give us an understanding a little bit what ego is and how destructive it is in a person's life 

[00:01:20] Justin: Yeah, 

[00:01:21] Don: and how so many people battled this and they don't even realize it 

[00:01:24] Justin: Yeah, 

[00:01:24] Don: because it is something that you know, tries to disrupt us from having a good relationship and 

[00:01:30] Justin: Right.

[00:01:30] Justin: With 

[00:01:30] Don: God, 

[00:01:31] Justin: period. Yeah, it does. That's, I was going to ask you, my first question was going to be, what is ego to you, Don? So you answered that pretty good. So edging God out. Yes. So edging God out of your life. So it's all about. Yourself. It's all about you. Yeah. I think that's, that's ego. Everything is egocentric in a way.

[00:01:49] Justin: I think we live in a very egocentric world. I think that we're kind of taught. I've said this probably a variety of times, but we're kind of taught in this world to just be full of [00:02:00]ourselves. 

[00:02:00] Don: We are, 

[00:02:00] Justin: we're marketed to be full of ourselves. We're sold products to be full of ourselves. You need this new makeup.

[00:02:06] Justin: You need this new, you need these new shoes. You need this new phone. Now you need, everything is. To be indulged in self. Yeah, and then we kind of critique people and we judge other people For not having the things that we have for not possessing the traits that we have the abilities We have because we're so consumed with just what we have and what we have going on 

[00:02:29] Don: Oh, yeah.

[00:02:30] Don: Oh, yeah, because I know in the bible it talks a little bit about the lust of the flesh lust of the eyes and a pride of life. Yeah, and this is an ego System here that sometimes people live in you know, and a lot of times, you know You want love you want to be able to be loved to be able to give love you want a beautiful life You know and and on the bible talks about a new birth you want all this stuff here, but it's your ego You know, it's the edging God out.

[00:02:56] Don: It's it's the process where you're living life As [00:03:00] you're saying justin where you're allowing yourself and your selfish ways To get in the way and a lot of times people don't even realize it. They want things in life They want the peace and joy bible says we can have peace surpassing all understanding But we have to realize there's an element here.

[00:03:17] Don: There's an element that's destroyed disrupting the whole thing You Uh huh. And, and it's our ego. Yeah. And a lot of times people say, you know, you need a good ego. You know, you got to get your ego. Well in the things of God, it's just the opposite. It's the ego that kills the opportunities that we have 

[00:03:33] Justin: in life.

[00:03:34] Justin: All right. That's so true. Yeah, that's that's that's good because your ego is really what sets you back. And like you were saying, a peace that surpasses all understanding. Okay, for many people that understand this phrase, pun intended, for every, For people that understand what this means, , it's hard for people that don't understand what this means because you can't understand it until you feel it.

[00:03:57] Justin: You can't understand it until you live it. [00:04:00] You can't understand it until you believe it. Hence, uh, It's without understanding. It goes beyond understanding. A piece that surpasses all understanding. So it's something that you have to experience rather than understand. You see what I'm saying? Because you can't understand it because it surpasses all of it.

[00:04:16] Justin: So it's one of those things where In your own ways, in your own ways of doing things in your life, in your own ways of getting by, in your own ways of thinking, in your own ways of reacting, in your own ways of responding, you only know how to understand within your restricted ways, within your limited scope of understanding.

[00:04:38] Justin: So when you are, like you're saying, edging God out, He's not a part of the process. When He is a part of the process, , There is divine revelation that's made. There's a divine encounter that can happen. Right. And when you have, the Bible says with God, all things are possible. Right? So all things, it's not saying some things that's not saying a couple things that's [00:05:00] saying all things.

[00:05:02] Justin: And that's for someone who doesn't, who only understands based on ego and based on their own limited worldview, they cannot understand that. Right. All things aren't possible. We're taught that not everything is possible. There's a word that's impossible. 

[00:05:19] Don: If 

[00:05:20] Justin: all things were possible, we wouldn't have the word impossible.

[00:05:23] Justin: See what I'm saying? Right. So we're also taught, don't get your hopes up. I wouldn't go getting your hope. I wouldn't go. I've heard that growing up. I wouldn't go getting your hopes up. Or it's like the Bible teaches me. I have a hope, you know, teaches me there is a living hope, right? Right. But the world.

[00:05:40] Justin: And it's often called the wisdom of the world, the wisdom of man, right? The wisdom of the world, right? James chapter three, uh, verse 15, it says that the wisdom is not from above. It's actually earthly. It's sensual and demonic, right? Where [00:06:00] these things where these, uh, where self seeking exists, all evil things are there.

[00:06:07] Justin: Full of confusion and envy. Yeah. Okay. So that's an interesting scripture to just,, to highlight the wisdom of the world. Right. The wisdom of man is not the wisdom of God. 

[00:06:18] Don: Yeah. 

[00:06:19] Justin: Because when you have an ego, you have not allowed God to God to be centered in your life. This is true I often like to tell people you're either christ centered or you're self centered, right?

[00:06:31] Justin: Right, which one are you? 

[00:06:32] Don: Yeah, and you it's for many people that are letting their eagle get in the way and You know, it's interesting. You know, this is an interesting topic We have here justin because it it base it lays a lot of things out And I think it's got some good understanding in it because I know a lot of times we use the word religion You 

[00:06:50] Justin: Yeah, 

[00:06:50] Don: we use the word religion and uh, people ask you are you religious?

[00:06:54] Don: Well, I you know, I tell them I you know, i'm not religious as far [00:07:00] as what religion is Religion is a good thing. Don't get me wrong on this here because religion brings you to a place where you can see things and understand things. I remember religion brought me to a place where I knew about Jesus and I, you know, I knew about the church and I knew about certain things, but there is a relationship, you know, and there's a relationship, like you talk about Justin, you know, worldly wisdom, people get egotistic, you know, they get themselves an attitude and a way of looking.

[00:07:30] Don: They think they've got all the answers in life. So many people in life. Their ego gets in their way. They want to find a religion, you know They want to find what religion would teach them to get themselves plugged into it and they feel comfortable and safe I'm a part of this religion see religion. It wasn't meant bring us to a relationship with Jesus Christ Yeah, it was just to show us what we could have We have to take the next step and that's where the ego has to go, you know That's where the [00:08:00] self centeredness comes in All about me all this sort of thing.

[00:08:03] Don: I a lot of times say that's where Don has to go Yeah, that's where Justin has to go. Yeah, Jesus has to have a place in our hearts, you know And that's where the true love is. That's where the true joy all the things that we'd want in life We find these things and so religion itself sometimes can be a little bit rough on a person But religion what it does it awakes us it wakes us up.

[00:08:27] Don: Yeah, it should good icebreaker Oh, yeah, you know it shows us, you know Yeah, we need we need jesus, you know, and a lot of times people say, you know, do you have you accepted jesus? Well, yeah, I accept him or or did you know you accept the fact that he came into this world He died on a cross, but there's another level Uh huh.

[00:08:44] Don: You know, 'cause I know the Bible talks about us not being able to sin or do wrong. 

[00:08:50] Justin: Yeah. And 

[00:08:51] Don: as long as we can do wrong and stuff, we're 

[00:08:53] Justin: dead. We're dead to sin. Yeah. Dead to

[00:08:55] Don: sin. That's right Justin. And so that's telling me there's something wrong with the process. [00:09:00] Mm-Hmm. and I, and that's why this is, I think it's such a good topic, uh, we've got here because it's something that has to be defeated.

[00:09:06] Don: Mm-Hmm. , you know, it's our ego, you know, it's where we edge God out by thinking we got the answers, or we got, we got a special formula. That's going to get to get us to heaven. Yeah. So I, you know, I've had people in the past that asked me, you know, I, cause I used to, I gave a lot of Bible studies and stuff, they would come up.

[00:09:23] Don: So Don, what do I have to do to get to heaven? Could you write me out a list? You know, they're looking for like five or 10 rules or something. I can write down this and get you to heaven. The playbook. Yeah. This is not going to do it. The holy playbook. No, it's not going to do it. Because I know we talked about last podcast, how the rules and laws of God are written upon our hearts.

[00:09:42] Don: Yes. So we have to get into relationship with Jesus. And that's the process. And if we can ever get ourselves, and I'm in the middle of Toronto working on 

[00:09:51] Justin: this, get that eagle. Yeah, you got my mind going on this because religion is a whole nother topic. And that's so true what you said, [00:10:00] you know, religion defines rules that we have to follow.

[00:10:04] Justin: And it's, there's rituals that take place. And like you said, there's good things that happen from religion and religious people. But you're right. We just did an episode. About the heart and living from the heart and walking from love, not walking in a place where we're needing love, walking from love.

[00:10:24] Justin: Yeah. And the way that we walk from love is realizing who is inside of us. And the way that we realize who is inside of us is getting out of our own way, right? Like you were saying, like, Justin needs to go. Don needs to go. We are often our, our ego. We call it our ego, but we're, we're in our own way. Oh yeah.

[00:10:40] Justin: Romans 12 says, Romans 12 2 says we should present our bodies as a living sacrifice to what is acceptable and well pleasing to God, right? If you're going to do that, if you're going to present your body as a living sacrifice, you've got to get out of your own way. Yeah. Christ is trying to do the work in you.[00:11:00]

[00:11:00] Justin: He has a will, right? Nevertheless, your will be done, not my will. Christ has a will. He has a will that he wants to do through you, through you as a vessel, but your ego is in the way. Your selfish ways are in the way. Yeah. A lot of the times , you're standing in the way of the cure. You're standing in the way of your own salvation and you don't know it because you've been duped by the world.

[00:11:26] Justin: You've been told to believe things that are lies. You've been told to trust people who are liars. So you don't understand the truth when it's standing there in front of your face the whole time. That's true. And then you go to a place. That treats it like a pep rally once a week. And it treats in some, ,, you know, sometimes it could be treated like a country club and they might tell you all the things that you want to hear to make you feel good, but it doesn't really improve a relationship.

[00:11:54] Justin: It doesn't, it doesn't initiate and it doesn't enhance and it doesn't benefit. build a [00:12:00] real relationship. I think sometimes we delegate what we're supposed to be doing through relationship with God. We delegate that to people of the church, to leaders of the church. And the church body does this. And it's, I would say it's not by accident, but it also is something that we just need to recognize.

[00:12:20] Justin: We got to get away from rules. And rituals and we need to get into real relationship. 

[00:12:27] Don: Yeah, that is so true, Justin. And it's interesting too, you know, you talk about salvation, you know, people, a lot of times they say, you know, I got saved, you know, and I always say, Save from what? You know, and that you're saved, being saved from yourself, you know, or God allows you to be saved and the thing that's hindering you is an ego.

[00:12:49] Don: But what's really interesting, if you look at Jesus himself, you know, God in his love for mankind, he actually allowed, a child to be born, you know, at [00:13:00] Bethlehem and to be raised just like any other child. And I believe that Jesus probably had to be potty trained and everything else just like a normal child would.

[00:13:08] Don: But, uh, but he had to take care of ego, you know, and he was tempted by the devil. You know, the devil took him out in the wilderness and he was fasting and whatever. He was tempting him in all ways of where we're tempted, but he never let his ego Ego to get in the way he never yeah edge got out It was thine will not my will be done, you know So jesus was a perfect example and he actually went to the cross And died, you know, they 

[00:13:36] Justin: found him at 12 years old when he was in the temple Yeah talking asking questions and that's right and also, he was also sharing wisdom with the teachers.

[00:13:46] Justin: Yes, he was. And then when Mary and Joseph approached him, he says, don't you know I must be about my father's business. 

[00:13:53] Don: You know, and I, I did the math on that. That was like about two or three years ago. To three days. So he's 

[00:13:59] Justin: 12 when he's [00:14:00] saying this. I'm about my father's will. 

[00:14:02] Don: Oh, yeah, he knew and not joseph 

[00:14:03] Justin: my 

[00:14:04] Don: Yeah, his heavenly father father.

[00:14:06] Don: Yeah, and he amazed everybody because the spirit of god was working in him That's where jesus I don't believe ever sinned You know, it's he was he was in a position that god wants all of us to be in Yeah, but I like I was saying, you know what amazed me that If you do the math on that piece of scripture there, Jesus had to have been missing for a couple of days.

[00:14:26] Don: Because they went like a day down the line before they realized he was missing and had to go back and try to find him. Right. But, you know, and then he said that he waxed strong in the spirit or whatever. Yeah. It wasn't until you reached the age of twenty five. 30 which was the age that people would start ministering that he started a ministry preaching With disciples, but he had a mission.

[00:14:46] Don: So that 

[00:14:47] Justin: was the custom of the time It was okay, 

[00:14:49] Don: because you weren't really an authority to be able to teach and educate people You know, they believed that maybe Uh, people had to, , live a little bit longer before they had answers [00:15:00] to things. It's probably pretty good they did that, actually. Yeah, you know, but that was a custom of the time.

[00:15:04] Don: But Jesus had a mission and he actually took them to the, to dying on a cross. And that's where, you know, if we look at that, and we look at what Jesus did, and we look at our egos, and you look at what's working against us, we're working with something that is very ugly. Very hard. I mean, uh, our ego to get that removed from us.

[00:15:24] Don: I mean when we're born into this world We're born with a nature. Yeah, and this nature gives us an ego. Yeah, it does and that's where adam and uh, Eve in the beginning they got an ego the edge got out, you know, and so from that point on mankind was born Born with a nature that would develop an ego that would learn how to sin and all this stuff But jesus came to show us a new nature that relationship with him would be able to take and Remove that old nature and put a new nature a divine nature inside of us that could [00:16:00] be free so when you talk about being saved and salvation.

[00:16:05] Don: We're saving ourselves from ourselves from the old nature that's destroying us. And that's where you, as you had mentioned earlier, you know, a lot of people get caught up thinking that they're part of this group and organizations and all that stuff. And, you know, there's nothing wrong. And I don't want to criticize a lot, but, you know, just telling good stories and stuff like that.

[00:16:27] Don: That's good. But, you know, there has to be a death to an old nature. 

[00:16:33] Justin: And 

[00:16:33] Don: that's an ugly process, because it does not want to die. You know, who I am, my ego, and the way I look at things, my selfish ways, does not want to die. It wants to stay. But it's gonna kill me. It's gonna kill me as far as my spiritual walk with God.

[00:16:49] Don: If you look at the spectrum of things and where we're going. You know, we're here for just a short period of time. 

[00:16:56] Justin: The 

[00:16:56] Don: Bible says it's just a mist, and then we enter into [00:17:00] what's called eternity, which has no time limit to it. It's forever. You know, like the books always say, and they lived happily ever after.

[00:17:09] Don: I say to myself, that can't happen on Earth. 

[00:17:13] Justin: Because there 

[00:17:13] Don: is no That's true until we get to the other side. That's a good point But our ego will never allow us to get where god wants us on the other side Yeah, so when we the title on defeating our ego, that should be our mission in life. This is gold Justin it really is 

[00:17:30] Justin: and you know, jesus says if you Jesus says to follow me, deny yourself, pick up your cross.

[00:17:39] Justin: I've often heard, I think it was Dan Moeller. Somebody said, picking up your cross. What does that mean? And it says, do not allow sin that is used against you. Give the right to produce sin within you. And that's what Jesus did. Jesus operated in this world as love. We touched on that last week. And that's, that's [00:18:00] really what it was.

[00:18:01] Justin: , love beats everything, I guess. Love doesn't know any sin. Love is patient. Love is kind. We went through the verses last week, and this is how he operated. This is how,, This is what the Father's will was, was love. So people that are stuck in their ego might be stuck in their ego because they don't understand what real love is.

[00:18:23] Justin: Okay. Real love is John 3, 16, real love is that That God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. Right. Okay. So he loved the world. Right. So much. We talk about the world, the world we grew up in. He loved, he loved the world that he gave.

[00:18:48] Justin: When you love, you give. Right. It's not just about receiving love is about giving it's an action. You're moving and so what he so he loves so much that he gave He loves so [00:19:00]much that he gave love, right? Yeah, because it's saying he loves so much So what did he give he gave love because it said he loves so much, right?

[00:19:07] Justin: You see what i'm saying? He didn't just give his son. He gave love it said he loves so much So he gave love to the world So that the world would understand love and the world would understand that they don't need to operate from the wisdom of man of the wisdom of world of being so consumed with ourselves that we need to find other people to love and we need to, we operate from a standpoint or a position of needing love and we need people to do this for us and we need people around us.

[00:19:36] , , we only keep people close by because we don't actually love them. We just need them for our own sake. So we tell them. We love them, but we really just only need them because it's not true unconditional love. See what I'm saying? Feeding our ego. Exactly. He brought love into the world so that we would understand what it means to actually be loved because that was our way back to our father.

[00:19:59] Justin: Like you were saying, [00:20:00] the fall, Adam and Eve, the stuff that happened, the fall pulled us away. Right. From God. Right. And Jesus came. God loved the world so much to bring Jesus here as love. He was love. Right. So that we would be an example. Yeah. And that would be our mission back to the Father, who is love.

[00:20:18] Justin: It 

[00:20:18] Don: is. It's good stuff you're bringing up here. It's interesting to look at this, Justin, because, you know, , when Jesus was, Given to us into the world at Bethlehem. Mm hmm. It was probably the greatest gift we could ever have Yeah, and like you say it was a gift of love and it's amazing how our world at Christmas time We give gifts.

[00:20:40] Don: We try to show our love by the gifts, you know But we fail to realize what the greatest gift of all was was Jesus Christ Because he gave us a gift that could change us and make something, you know And that's where I know the Bible says that Jesus is the light of the world You know, it's all of a sudden, sudden seeing it and [00:21:00] getting it.

[00:21:00] Don: Yes. You know, we always often talk about the fact you can teach a lot, but not a lot is caught. Yes. You know, and that's where if people can catch an understanding, realizing what is keeping them. from their happiness, joy, from, uh, excitement about the future or from the love you're saying. Because once we get into hands of Jesus and, and we allow that ego to be defeated or we've given up, we've given up.

[00:21:28] Don: We say, Lord, I can't, cause I know it says in Romans chapter seven, Paul says, Oh, wretched man. Am I? Who can save me from this body of sin? You know, we ourselves cannot do anything. Jesus has to do it all. And even in the Bible says our righteousness is as filthy rags. No matter how good we try to make ourselves, we can't do it.

[00:21:50] Don: God has to do it all. But once we get that understanding, and once we humble ourselves and reach out to him and allow him That gift [00:22:00] that he gave us at Bethlehem to be a part of us, because I know, um, I sometimes at Christmas time, I've talked about this. I talked about that, which was conceived in Mary was birthed into the world.

[00:22:12] Don: It was a gift to all mankind. But I tell people that, That seed needs to be conceived in all of us, you know, because Jesus has to be birthed in our life, you know So what eventually what happens is we talk about don and justin Stepping aside what the world sees is jesus christ, right? They see it in us.

[00:22:32] Don: They see it in you anybody that Can step aside can take the ego and shove it out, right? God has to do it though. It's all relationship I can sit there and try to come up with a yeah, it's not 

[00:22:42] Justin: justin. It's not dime. 

[00:22:44] Don: It's not 

[00:22:44] Justin: jessica. It's jesus 

[00:22:46] Don: It's jesus. Yeah, but but it's it's a relationship with him.

[00:22:49] Don: It's me spending time Me going to him in prayer me setting myself up where I can develop a love and just being you know Taking a half hour here, [00:23:00] 15 minutes there, where I'm in relationship. Cause the people I love, I'm in relationship with. I remember what my wife, you know, and I don't know about you, Justin, but I remember Shirley, when I first, uh, got to know her.

[00:23:11] Don: We were on the phone all the time, you know, and, and we'd go on Yeah, I remember 

[00:23:15] Justin: the days. Oh, 

[00:23:16] Don: yeah, you'd go on a date. date and, you know, it didn't matter. 

[00:23:19] Justin: Um, my wife, Karina and I, we used to send each other, uh, voice notes so we would actually be talking into the phone. Okay. I remember I go back years, years ago, back seven years.

[00:23:29] Justin: And I look at the conversations. We weren't even saying any words. It was just voice notes back and forth. And 

[00:23:34] Don: you love that. 

[00:23:35] Justin: Yeah, yeah. You love that. 

[00:23:36] Don: It's the same thing in our relationship with God. Yeah. You know, it's getting, because a lot of times, you know, the Word of God shows us a lot and helps us, and it's a beautiful thing.

[00:23:44] Don: It develops us. But, you know, it wasn't until the 14th century that they actually had the written word. Yeah. It was all relationship. It was all realizing that Jesus is alive and it's a spiritual operation But we pray to him and we ask him Lord I [00:24:00] know I know that my righteousness is his filthy right no matter what I try to be good I can never be good enough for you because you have to do it You have to do it and my ego is an ugly thing You know, it wants to take me over it once it's all about me It's 

[00:24:16] Justin: all about me.

[00:24:17] Justin: Yeah, your your ego is what keeps you conformed to the world, you know, paul the bible said do not be Conformed to the world, but instead be transformed by the renewing of your mind some translations say Renewing of your mind daily, right? Okay. You are conformed to the world when you're stuck in your ego Like I was saying your your salvation is on the other side of your ego Your ego, your ego is getting in the way.

[00:24:42] Justin: You are in the way of your own salvation. Like you were saying, being saved from yourself, 

[00:24:48] Don: right? 

[00:24:48] Justin: Because you, you need to separate yourself from the world, you've got to separate yourself from the ego. Like I'm saying, the ego is conformed to the world. So you need to separate yourself from that [00:25:00] because once you start to do that, you know, Jesus was very unpredictable.

[00:25:07] Justin: We know Jesus in the Bible, we can read about Jesus in the Bible, and we can predict things because we can read about it in hindsight, right? Yeah. When it was happening, it was very early. Unpredictable right you're great your greatest tool just to give you some spiritual knowledge, right? Some spiritual wisdom your greatest tool against the enemy is being unpredictable When you are stuck in your ego, you are not unpredictable to the enemy.

[00:25:35] Justin: He's not afraid of you He likes to keep you stuck right where you're at He likes to keep you suffering, but the same thing is where you're at. He likes to keep you fighting with your relatives the same way you're at You know believing the same things coming up with the same arguments and getting offended by the same things every time Because he knows what this has said If this is said to you if this thought is brought to you you're going to react the same way each time So he relies on you [00:26:00] being predictable.

[00:26:01] Justin: Your ego is what keeps you predictable. Yeah When somebody strikes you and you say You To them, you must turn the other cheek, right? As Jesus says, that was unpredictable when the Pharisees try to corner this guy and try to say you're casting out demons because you're working with Beelzebub. Yeah, which was a Satan like figure at the time.

[00:26:23] Justin: The Pharisees, the religious leaders go back to religion, right? The religious leaders 2000 years ago were telling Jesus you're casting demons out only with the help of the devil. So Jesus says to them, A house divided against itself cannot stand. If I'm working with the devil, how is the devil casting out demons out of his own house?

[00:26:42] Don: So, 

[00:26:44] Justin: but what I'm saying is that was completely unpredictable. They weren't prepared for that. So when somebody, what I'm, what I'm trying to get to here. , the point I'm trying to make here is that your ego is keeping you in predictable patterns. You need to become unpredictable. When something hurts you [00:27:00] in life, when you become depressed or some thoughts come to your head, when the enemy is throwing things at you, you gotta go out and do something that is unpredictable.

[00:27:09] Justin: Go help somebody. Go reach out to somebody who you normally would not get along with. Go reconnect. Forgive, do something that is going to, cause, cause then he's not going to, , the enemy is not going to know what to do. And the more you become unpredictable and do things, the more you get out of your own comfort zone, the more you get out of the shell of your own ego, the more you can invite God to work into your life, and then the more you can have a real relationship with God, where, All the things that you thought were impossible you can start to achieve 

[00:27:42] Don: that's true And you know and it helps you get over your selfishness You know, especially when you help people and that's a lot of times your ego does that but there's another avenue to that I'd like to address just yeah, what's that?

[00:27:54] Don: Um, your life is perfect You know, uh, there's no problems. [00:28:00] Everything is grand. You know, you got your cars paid off or whatever. You got a nice house, nice job. You got a couple nice children and all this sort of thing. And, um, but there's no issues. There is a part of life that also wants you comfortable.

[00:28:16] Don: Yeah, because you sometimes you got to get out of your comfort zone, you know, ego is has a way of hiding itself And a lot of times in life We just want to have ourselves to the place where our ego thinks it's got everything figured out You know, I have managed to manage my money. Well, i've raised my children.

[00:28:36] Don: Well, you know, i've got a nice job And the years are going by i'm getting older Older. Life is good, yeah. That's right. You know, so, I mean, as far as our adversary, why should he even disrupt that? You know, because this guy here is going to eagle himself right into eternity and find out that God was never, he was never in relationship with God, because he always had the answers.[00:29:00]

[00:29:00] Don: You know, whatever the circumstance he didn't have to worry about this and that and that's where there's a lot of people are right now That probably need to have the tables turned over a little bit in their lives It's just like there's a story in the Bible of a rich man that came to Jesus and this guy had a lot of stuff and and he realized that what Jesus was saying was probably pretty accurate and He asked Jesus.

[00:29:23] Don: What do I have to do to enter the kingdom? And Jesus says go Go sell all you have and give it to the poor. Well, he hung his head and he left, he left and the disciples say, wow, that was pretty tough. And Jesus says, you know, it's easier for a camel to go through an eye of a needle than a rich man getting into heaven.

[00:29:42] Don: And then he said, well, then it's impossible to get to heaven. Jesus says, as you were saying earlier, With man, it is impossible, but with God, all things are possible. And you know, when you look at the rich man, the rich man, he was wealthy, but [00:30:00] a lot of us, you know, I mean, we came into this world with absolutely nothing.

[00:30:05] Don: You know, the only thing I have, and we'll leave this world with nothing. I don't see a lot of money being transferred when we die, but, uh, but we'll leave this world with nothing. Right. But the only thing we have that we have to sacrifice is our selfish ways. It's ours. We have to get over ourselves Jesus says, you know if you can get rid of that self inside deny yourself Deny yourself and deny that ego defeat that ego inside you He says you will have that kingdom, you know, and that's where the king in fact as jesus said the kingdom kingdom is at hand.

[00:30:41] Don: You know, I like to tell people you can grab onto it. You know, it, this stuff is close. It really is. But our ego, the fact that we've edged God out of our life, we haven't sold ourselves, you know, the actual body itself. I know I did some reading. This is years ago, but at that time they were saying that we [00:31:00] have about 87 cents worth of 87 cents worth of minerals or whatever in our body.

[00:31:05] Don: We are not worth much, you know, but we're worth everything to God. Yeah, we're worth everything to God. We really are. But it's our ego that's keeping us away from Him. And the riches are there, the kingdom is there. And that's where I question sometimes, are we winning the battle? You know, are we winning that battle?

[00:31:26] Don: I know I question myself, Justin, in the fact that ego sometimes hides its face in a lot of ways. And, you know, sometimes our attitudes, sometimes the way we handle things, the way we look at things, our ego pops up in areas. 

[00:31:41] Justin: It does. And I guess the last thing I'll say on this is that your ego is what hinders your salvation like you're saying but it is a lot easier To get over this right now and to start becoming accepting and opening up to that relationship Right [00:32:00] rather than letting things get so bad in your life Before you might get saved So those things do make you and i've heard this Uh somewhere, but it said the reason he's coming You Is to break me but he runs the risk of making me if I believe the gospel Right, and he does run the risk and that's what he wants to do And he doesn't necessarily just want to break you But a lot of the times that's what happens is because people have gone so far separated Before realizing that there's something greater than themselves that they need to reach out to right, but you can reach out before that 

[00:32:38] Don: Yes, you can you can 

[00:32:39] Justin: make this a lot easier for you and to be honest You I would be jealous of people for doing this because I wish I would have did it sooner I wish I didn't get to a point where I went so far and what was so far What was led so far astray before coming to my relationship with God?

[00:32:56] Justin: I see people that are like Seven [00:33:00] six years old five years old whatever I see people that are Four years old that are in love with the lord and it's like man. I only wish I would have had more time. Started earlier. Yeah. Well luckily for us we we have eternity but just saying your ego Is what is halting that process?

[00:33:19] Justin: so You don't have to We did an episode where you don't have to do it alone. You don't have to do it by yourself Right now is the best time to start that relationship. 

[00:33:29] Don: That is so true Justin and and it doesn't matter what situation you're in, you know, god is There for us and bible says that when we draw near to him, he draws near to us, you know So even if horrendous things are going on sometimes it's the process god is using to get rid of To help you defeat that ego in your life 

[00:33:51] Justin: Amen.

[00:33:51] . Well, I think that wraps it up for today. This was a good one, Justin. I think so too. Hey, we're glad you guys found your way [00:34:00] here today, and we hope you can join us again next week for another good word. Until then, stay blessed by the best. See you guys.