Hey , welcome to Doing Life with Ken and Tabitha . We are so pumped that you're tuning into this podcast . It has been designed for people just like you . We wanna do life with you , share our wins , our defeats , our ups and our downs , in hopes that you'll grow closer to God and to the people that you love in your life . Sit back and enjoy today's podcast .
What's up everybody ?
Hey everyone .
Welcome to another episode , season two . This is Do you know we have two seasons . Wow , that we've been able to . We're halfway through season two .
It doesn't seem like that long .
Man , and it's been really , really good . We got a great one for everybody today . That's right , guys . We are doing how to Live a God First Life today , and this is like one of the most foundational principles of our life that has caused our life to flourish and to be what God wants it to be Today .
We want to pay it forward to you , so we just want to say welcome .
Absolutely Welcome everyone . Thank you for tuning in If you're new to our podcast . We want to say thank you . We believe that God is sending people to this podcast who really need it and who will be blessed by it . So thank you , and we just hope this is a blessing for you and we love hearing from you , man .
We love hearing from you . Your feedback means the world to us and we also love it when you pay it forward . This is going to be a very shareable , like postable , kind of commentable episode . We want to hear from you . If this podcast is a blessing to you , please don't keep it to yourself . Use the comments , write a review , email us .
You'll see all that information in our show notes , but we got a great one for you today . If you're new to our podcast , make sure you hit the subscribe button right now . There's like this little icon I think that you can also hit , because we want you to be the first to get the episodes as they're dropped .
We drop a new episode every Thursday , and do you know how this whole thing started ? Do you remember how and why we started this ?
podcast . I think why is ? Because are so many people saying I need help in my marriage . I need help in my marriage and we wanted to give that help .
Yeah , do you remember when Was it like this moment , where it was like we need to do a podcast ?
It was like years coming . It was like years ago we'd be like , oh my gosh , we need to do a podcast . Oh my gosh , we need to just sit down and give people Bible principles . We need to sit down and share with God , share with people what God is doing in our lives .
And year after year would go by and it's just like you know , we get busy and we're doing stuff .
Was it always a podcast idea , though ? Did you always know like we're going to do a podcast ?
No , I mean we talked about doing like sitcoms , like you know , the reality shows , like you know , like what would it be like if there was a camera in the house with us ? This would be crazy .
Yeah , but I don't want people to get the wrong idea , because that wasn't a deep thought .
It was , you know , we tossed it around . Our kids would have shot that down .
Oh no , we would have nickily split .
But we are both .
I'm way too private for that in my Private life well , at the same time , we're Way too called , and if that's what we feel , god , Wanted us to do to bring value to people .
I know that we would do it yeah , but we talked About it and it was fun to talk About my recollection of this whole Podcast thing was probably about three , four Years ago and we knew that we had so much in us and we were only releasing about 10% of it in our church .
And so every Sunday we would come and you would preach for 35 minutes , but we were only hitting like the tip of the iceberg and there was 90% that we just didn't have a medium or a platform to be able to share with people that we thought could bring value to their life .
And the crazy thing about it for me is that I never really thought about what a podcast was . I didn't research podcasts and didn't listen to anybody else's podcast .
The idea for a podcast just kind of jumped in my heart as just a medium to bring value to people and for me , when we started it , I didn't have any goals of like we're going to reach 20,000 people , 50,000 people , a million people . I didn't really have anything , I just wanted to get what was in us into the lives of people . Do you remember that ?
Yeah , absolutely .
And do you remember what we were thinking about calling it at first ?
I don't .
Yeah , I had a name . You vetoed the name . I think it was Living Well .
Yeah , I didn't like that . Why didn't ? Like that Because I think of a well like a water well and it just doesn't .
You think of a ?
well , yeah , I think of a living , the living what like living water , I think what you thought was like it sounds like almost like a medical thing .
like living well . Yeah , you hear a lot of rehab centers or like a lot of health places . Like living well , but the premise of why I like Living Well , it was because I just felt like all the things that we've learned in our life .
We could help people live better , live better in their finances , live better in their relationships with God , live better in their marriage , and so to me , I kind of feel like doing life with Ken and Tabitha has a Living Well kind of thing Like this is going to really hit people wherever they are .
To me , I kind of feel like doing life with Ken and Tabitha has a living well kind of thing . This is going to really hit people wherever they are . I'm talking about business , people who want to be better . I'm talking about people who want to grow in the gifts of the Holy Spirit , people who want to understand God , people who want to be better parents .
We just really want to help people be better , and so doing life with Ken and Tabitha was a name . Where did that come from ?
I don't know .
You don't remember it , I don't know . It was just . I think that was your idea and I didn't really like it in the beginning , because it's just me and your name . But then I think it's kind of grown on me because that's what our audience gets to do . They just get to do life with us .
Well , it's because our ministry comes from our life and the good and the bad , the up and the down , and I found from myself I learn best when I just sit down and listen to what other people have experienced in their lives , what they did wrong and what they did right , how they turned it around and how they stayed from going down the wrong road in the
first place . They stayed from going down the wrong road in the first place and so if we could share those things in our lives , I think people will benefit from it .
Yeah , and I think people are . By the amount of comments that we're getting , I would never think that we have come so far so quickly . We're just like a little nation almost like a community of people . I love it and that's what we love to do .
We love to do life with people and this should feel like Ken and Tabitha sitting down for a coffee , you sitting down with Ken and Tabitha every Thursday , friday , whenever you download it , and just us being able to share life with each other . And that's why you all reaching out to us and us hearing your stories .
It just is I don't know , is the wind beneath our wings or just like motivation for us or encouragement . I mean it's just so good , but we're just going to keep building this community all around the world .
I mean we see people tuning in now from Africa and from India and from just all over the world , and that is a great blessing and we're just going to keep on doing that .
Come on , babe , let's do it .
Let's do it . We're about to celebrate 25 years . We are . I want to know how you feel about it . This is coming up .
That's crazy . Next week Okay , look , I have to do this . This is crazy . Okay , I have to do this . What ?
do you have to do ?
Whatever this is , it has to be fixed .
There we go I fixed it .
It's like you're talking and Anyway , yeah like if it had a , if it had a sound , that's what it would be doing La , la , la , la la .
Yeah , yeah , is it not right there ?
I don't know , I think it is . Do you guys ? Do you all see that it's like ?
I think it's going to be all right , OK fine , ok , let it be All right . Back to our 25th anniversary . Yes , praise God .
Yes , how do you feel about that ? I feel good about it . It is crazy .
Yes , how do you feel about that ? I feel good about it . It is crazy . It's a little funny if I think about like 25 years oh my goodness that . I feel like I'm Coming up in just a couple of weeks . And we got married July 3rd 1999 . And we parted like it was 1999 .
We got married on July 3rd , we had fireworks on the 3rd and the 4th Come on somebody . And so we are celebrating listen to this a quarter of a century . Oh no , are you tired of me yet , or what ?
No , I love you .
No , tell the people the truth , it's okay , I'm not , I'm not .
I feel like you're funny .
I'm a little tired of you . No , I'm just playing . Offense came in Offense . I saw that .
Listen , we will just take a brief commercial break . Okay , I don't like breaks .
I don't like cuts .
I don't like cuts , I don't like what it is . No , I'm not tired of you , but I'm mad at you now . I was playing .
I know you're playing , you love me , but I was talking to someone the other day and it was like man , you're coming to your 25th year anniversary and a good friend of mine's coming in for our vow renewal ceremony and he was just like how does it feel ? Like like , literally , like how does it feel ? And I say well , I feel , does it feel ?
And I say well , I feel older .
Because that's the best way that I can describe it I just feel older , not necessarily old , but when you start talking about I've been married for 25 years , Like mature ?
Yeah , I mean Experienced , older Wise . I mean you're talking ?
about . I'm just telling you how I feel .
Yeah , I mean you're talking about .
I'm just telling you how I feel . Yeah , feel like older , you know , I don't know what to say . It's kind of like , you know , I meet a lot of people .
Like I've been married five years , I've been married 10 years .
I've been married 15 years . I'm like man , I've been married 25 years . I know people have been married 40 , 50 years , but you feel like we would make it this far .
I did , but you know , you don't , you , you don't have a concept of what it's like to be 15 years , 20 years , 25 years . You know what I mean . So , like you , you , you kind of you think about it , but you don't really think about it .
Okay , let me take you way back , cause I know you don't know where I'm going with , with what I'm saying , all right . So when you first saw me in the stadium in Morgantown , west Virginia , at a football game and I looked at you and you looked at me , did you have any clue in your mind that that would be ?
No .
No , because you was engaged to somebody else at that point . Okay , you know that's crazy , yeah , okay , so let's go to the second time we met . Okay , a year and a half or so goes by . You break up with that person . You're doing your single thing . I wait for the right timing . I come into Elements Nightclub . It's your birthday . It's your 22nd birthday .
When you met me and I came up to you and I said , hey , what's your name ? And you're really not even paying much attention to me until I said my infamous line . I said , well , I seen you in church on Sunday and it was like I mean , the clouds went back , the sun came out all of a sudden . He was like who is this guy talking about ?
Church in the nightclub , which is a whole nother message for another day . Everybody said a long time ago . But when you met me that night and you gave me your real number , was there anything in your mind ? Yeah , you gave me the real number . Was there anything in your mind where you was like this is going to be 25 years later .
We going to be that's going to be him .
No , not at all . No , not at all . I didn't have marriage , wasn't like a concept . It's funny , cause you said that I was engaged before . It just wasn't even , it wasn't a concept . I didn't know anything about being a wife , like that stuff . That just wasn't real to me , that just wasn't my world . So I wasn't thinking past like next month .
You know , literally I was trying to get through the day , I was trying to get through the week , let alone to think about 25 years in the future . So yeah , I didn't think that . But you know it's crazy how God works , because you know I wasn't saved .
Back then in the stadium , the football stadium , I remember looking back to you and you were to my right and I remember turning to over my right shoulder and that's funny that you say that , because I remember turning around to see you .
So in your mind you feel like I was in front of you . I felt like I was behind you . Things can get a little gray here after 25 , 26 , 27 years . You know what I'm saying . That's what your brain does . I was just telling somebody the other day because they called me and they were just so upset because part of their testimony they was like .
The Holy Spirit told me that part of my testimony I've been sharing is not correctly , and this person was crying . I was like listen , preachers can sometimes be the biggest exaggerators ever and it's not even that we're trying to do it on purpose . Your brain is plastic and if you go back 30 years it's like the gospel , according to Matthew Luke , john .
You know what I'm saying . Everybody has a different perspective .
My perspective is that's crazy . I remember sitting down and looking back at you and your friends , but you sitting down and looking back at you and your friends .
But you remember looking back at me ? Yeah , I do . Yeah , I remember seeing you , you know turning around . But anyway , looking back at you and like now I know and this is the first time I've ever had this thought when you said that is that God gave me a glimpse of my future . When I looked back at you at that time , I had no idea .
Looking at you , you were my future , you were my future husband . I had no idea . Looking at you , you were my future , you were my future husband . I had no idea . But in that moment , you know , because my friends were making a big deal out of it , Tab , Tab , look , he's looking at you . Oh , he's checking you out . Oh , who is this ?
He must be a grad student . We don't know who he is . He must be from out of town .
I was macking in the Appalachian , come on . But um no , I mean I was one week on campus , complete freshmen , and she's a couple of years older than me . But I'm surprised your friends were saying that Was I checking you out that hard ?
Yeah , you were , and that's why , like I remember , looking back , I was embarrassed you know all of it , yeah . I was just like oh my gosh y'all .
Well , that means that I was in front , though , because your friends , if I was behind you , I would have been looking at the back of their head . They wouldn't be able to tell how I was checking you out unless they were looking back as well , and that wasn't happening .
I'm telling you , I was in front of you and I was looking back , because I must have been looking back a whole lot , because I like what I saw .
And I still like what I see today . You're crazy , I gotta be crazy , I don't know . You're funny . 25 years ago , yeah , yeah , but yeah , that's , that's crazy . Those memories are really taking me back then . But yeah , I didn't know Totally different person I was unsaved at that time , you know like totally different .
It makes me really thankful for what the Lord has done Just really thankful .
Well , so we get married and then the first year or two of our marriage is really , really bad . I want to have a divorce , I want to be with another woman . I want out of the relationship , out of the marriage . In that time , could you think that we would make it to 25 years ?
No , I mean not really Um again , it wasn't if I , it wasn't an intentional thought of mine . I wasn't thinking about the future . You know , at the time I was depressed .
I was trying to make it through the day , so it wasn't something that I was conscious of , like aware of , I was just trying to make it through the day and so to think back to that moment it'd be like , wow , you just , you know , I made it through the day , and another day and another day , to find God , to redefine my life according to the word of God ,
to declare what the Lord has for me , to speak to my destiny and to make it to where I am today . It's really good .
Are you glad we make it to 25 ? Yes , yeah , you ready . Yes , it's been fun , you're fun .
It's been fun being married to you .
Am I always fun .
You're not always fun .
You know , you can get very serious .
You can get very serious . You know you were one of the reasons why I loved you and we see that in our son Kenny . Now he has a lot of your carefree personality . You were always just fun , like about having a good time , always smiling . I liked you because you know , back in the day this is like in the late nineties , early two thousands .
You know everybody wanted to be a roughneck and I'm from the hood , I'm done with roughnecks .
I ain't got time for that .
Look , I'm not trying to be your chick on the side , I want you to treat me right . And so , you know , a lot of people would come up to me in the night clubs or like in between classes and things like that , talking about yo , baby , yo not articulate .
And you know , like you know , you're in college , you have the ability to articulate , but you don't have . You know , I'm not special enough for you to articulate some words Like I just didn't like that . And so you came along and you smiled . You weren't , like you know , standing up on the side of the wall somewhere just expecting .
In our world at the time , there were sports players , and you know like , and girls would flock to them , like you know , and I'm like , oh my gosh , I just don't want to be that person . And so you were that guy that pursued me . You respected me and you respected yourself . You know you knew how to have fun . You were very popular .
Everybody knew who you were , but people respected you at the same time as well , and I just liked that and you never changed . You know , you never changed . Now , as we grew up , and you know , we built businesses and built churches and have families . You know you're a boss , you know you're going to handle your business .
You're going to get serious when you need to get serious . What happens is that your carefree , joyful thing also , as you grow , you get more responsibilities , and I was just listening to a podcast by my main guy .
Chad Veach has a great podcast that I've just been leaning into called Leadership , lean In , ironically , and he was just talking about how it's easy to serve God when you're young and it's harder to serve God as you get older , because now you have bills , now you have weight , now you have responsibility , now you have other things that might be happening in your
body and things are changing . And so I want to help people age . Well , you know like I'm not that kind of person . It's like you know people . Well , I'm 30 years old . Oh my God , I'm going to have a break . I'm 40 . Oh my God , I'm so . I'm like thank God , I'm 40 . Like I'm 46 and proud of it .
I don't want to go back to 40 or 30 or 20 .
Like , I'm good where I am Every single second of every single minute , every single moment of every single day and just love it all . When I look at scripture , the gray-headed is actually a symbol of wisdom and longevity . And it's something that we should all aspire to .
And I know I dye my beard and people dye their hairs and all kinds of stuff , so it's not something like , oh , I gotta have a gray head . But I think the principle is like I am not like feeling bad about me because I'm getting older . I'm more so celebrating the fact that I'm still in the game . I could go on and on .
There was a bunch of stuff that you shared that I could dive into . But anyway , happy anniversary . There's two things I want to do for our audience . Number one , I think next week I want to share 25 marriage principles that we've learned over 25 years of marriage . I have no clue how long this podcast is going to be , but please join us on Thursday .
I think that's what we're going to jump into . But secondly , I would love for you to come and party with us for our 25th anniversary . We are throwing a special shindig . I mean , we're going to party . I'm talking about we're going to party like it's 1999 again and we're having this just great time . We're going to have some great food .
We're going to have some dancing , but now when it comes to music , it's going to be music from our generation . It's going to be some music from back in the day that we enjoy . So we're going to have a good time , we're going to have some special guests , but we're also going to have a vow renewal , and so she's looking so forward to this vow renewal .
This is all that she talks about .
She's been wanting this for so long . This is pressure . Y'all this vow renewal is pressure . I'm doing it because my husband wants to do it and I want to please him and I'm going to enjoy it . We want you to come .
All right , listen , if you've never been to Orlando , florida , you want to fly in . This will be like a night on a town . I think there's . A husband should take his wife out and come to our vow renewal party . We're celebrating 25 years of marriage , but also three years of her being cancer free , and it's going to be one night to remember .
But not only that . God bless you . God bless you . But not only that . Y'all , all of the proceeds , all of the proceeds are going to help other people who are overcoming cancer as well .
We are partnering with Wishful Thinking , which is an organization like no other that comes along families as they are overcoming cancer and they bring them food , they clean their house , they minister to their needs .
The things that people did for us when I had cancer and was fighting cancer .
Wishful Thinking was the organization that came into our house and helped you and our family get through that horrible season . We want to be a great blessing to them . If you've ever given something to an organization , I'm telling you you want to be a part of this gala .
So if you cannot get here but you still want to be a part of the night and you would like to sow and you would like to give towards this gala , please follow the instructions in the show notes below . We would love to have you , We'd love you to participate in some kind of way . But let's look at a scripture real quickly .
I want to talk about the God first life and I want to look at Haggai , chapter one , verse one , because I think that this is one of the most important principles for us to get hold of Years ago . I think the reason that we've made it 25 years is because I decided to become a God first man .
Yeah .
And to be a God first husband and to raise God first children and to have a God first home and to have a God first church Before we get into . Hey God , how do you feel like I've done at that ?
I think you've done very well .
In which way I love it .
Some of the things I see you do . It gives me strength and I want to do the things that you do . I mean God first in like wake up in the morning , god first in planning for the family , leading the family , leading the church , leading our businesses . I see you every maybe six months .
You take a what you call a plan and pray where you go off and you know kind of stay in a hotel room for three days and just pray .
It's you and God and you come back with so much instruction for your life , for the ministry , for our family , and you just oh , and God said this and God said that , and then oh , okay , and at my plan and pray , and you just come up with pages and notebooks worth of information and I'm in awe , I'm like Lord , speak to me like that please .
But it gives me such security and I just love that about you just literally putting God first .
I feel like I have a lot of things that I need to work on in my walk . There's a lot of areas of me , whether it be competition , jealous thoughts , ungodly thoughts , motives , so many different things that I always give myself a really hard time . So for you to say that means a lot when you say there's things that you do , that . What did you say admire ?
Is there anything else ?
Yeah , and like I hear you in worship every morning . You're either at the house worshiping very loudly and I'm like , oh my goodness , can you hear that ? Yes , we can hear it Because you put your headphones on , but then you sing out loud and we hear you , and then it's like pride , but you're all asleep , but we don't know , we , you .
And then it's like probably , but we don't know , we don't want to hear , but we feel like we'll be like , oh , that I mean like it's the kind of work we don't want to be a part of , that . We're like that's him in the lord and that's private .
So let's turn up the tv so we don't , y'all are not asleep , yeah , so you don't hear me it's , it's all , anytime typically I get up before you guys .
Yeah , I know 5 , 30 no , we will hear you , but then sometimes it's the middle of the day and you're up there stomping around dancing like David I'm assuming , because we hear stuff and then we hear a shout that sounds a little weird , you know like no , it's not weird , I'm telling you , it is true .
And what's your point here ?
Okay , so I don't know why you asked me about that About admire you , admire me stomping around .
Oh no , I just admire you seeking God like putting God first .
You're always seeking God and the time , the intimate time that you spend with God , I mean it's a big deal .
Yeah Well , I feel the same about you . I feel like I admire your walk with God For 24 years , since you got saved in 1998 , I've never seen you backslide , which means you're just making a conscious decision to kind of go back to the world or pull back in God .
It's not that you've been perfect , but I've seen nothing but a person who wants to do what God's asked her to do . I feel like everything that you read in the Bible . You try your best to apply it to your life , you will probably go over and above to where you probably will fall into perfectionism or being too hard on yourself over the years .
Those are the things that we've had to minister on . I think our IQ is really really high as it relates to , not our IQ , like our . I think every couple has like a combined fervency level or what they are , combined Meaning that me and you together we're like high passion , high fervent , high God .
First you know it could be me , and then if you was like , oh , okay , and the God had to drag you to church , our combined score on spiritual things would be like low , but scale of one to 10 , like a five . But together we're more . Like you know , when it comes to giving , we're the couple that will probably give too much .
Yeah , we're both going to go real hard .
If we do a fast . I remember the first fast that our church ever called , before we were a pastor . This was 20 years ago and they said that on the fast we don't want you to eat carbs , right , and we was so technical we was like well , there's carbs in corn , there's carbs in peas .
Carbs are carbs . There's carbs in green beans .
Yeah , do you know what we did ? For 21 days I lost 30 pounds . I was drinking water and trying to avoid carbs .
But they didn't say carbs , they said starches .
Is that what it was ?
Yeah , they used the word starches . Starches is what it was and we're not . I don't know . I guess it was just their thing , but they used the word starches . So I'm like that's pasta , that's rice , it's peas you know All of the stuff I just named .
it has a starch in it . Yeah , it's starch , and so we took it , so literal I mean . And then we were with our pastors one time and he was eating some peanuts , some honey roasted peanuts . It was like , well , you can have peanuts .
And then we started a conversation and realized they didn't really mean like starches , they meant put down donuts and sugar maybe bread or something like that , but I enjoy that . We always are going to go hard .
Yeah , we're going to stay out of the gray . I'm going to stay out of the gray .
Now I know that there's a lot of people that go into the Bible to kind of find things to live the life that they want to live . They like go in the Bible to find reasons why it's okay to gamble or okay to smoke or okay to drink or okay to flirt or okay to do everything else .
And then if you try to front them on it then they're like well , show it to me in the Bible , we ain't that crew . We're not that crew . We're on it if it don't look right . We want to live beyond reproach . We want our good to never be evil spoken on .
We want to live a blameless life , so living for God is nothing but a pleasure to us , but we're going to go hard so when it comes to live a God first life . We started this back in 2001 and we were so serious about living a God first life you remember , I put it on the front of my business card .
Absolutely Putting God first On my business card .
Absolutely Putting God first On my business card Quote unquote here's the thing we weren't in ministry , we were in real estate . So I was selling real estate . I put putting God first , which I don't know . What do you think about that ? Did you like that back then ? I ?
don't think it's a good business decision .
I don't think like now , where I am , because I don't have to put God first on my business card .
I can be it and live it and speak it , and it's you know what I mean , like you know . But I think for where we were back then it was , you know it was what did you think about it back then though ? Back then .
Um , I was all in yeah , okay , yeah , if you don't like it , don't do business with me when I put out my card and people saw that the people who wanted to put God first or had any belief was like oh , I'm using him . Yes , so I had such good business .
Yes , even though I probably wouldn't do it today , because I like to do business with people that aren't believers so that I can win them to the Lord . Or maybe I like to advertise a different way , without putting that as the runner .
Well , we're just in a different space right now . Back then , we were in contact with a bunch of people in the world who didn't know Jesus , so that was a connection that we could make with them . Now we run into belief , we live in , we're in a church .
We're in believer land .
Yeah , we're in believer land , and so now I'm trying to do things that I can reach non-believers , and it's not by having a business card with God first . But I think the point is this that's where our heart was .
I'm talking about . In our early 20s , we made a decision to be a God first family , and there's a principle that I want to share with people today . That's in God's word . It is just a principle that when you put God first , everything else that you need in your life he's going to add to you .
It has to do with this is my decision , my posture , my position that God's going to be first , not second , third , fourth or fifth .
After my kids .
After my endeavors , after my degree , after my business . He wants to be number one . And when he's number one . Everything else is going to be blessed because he's first . And there's an interesting story in Haggai . It says in and there's an interesting story in Haggai .
It says in the second year of King Darius , on the first day of the sixth month , the word of the Lord came to the prophet Haggai , to Zerubbabel , son of Shealtiel , governor of Judah , and to Joshua , the son of Zosedach , the high priest . And this is what God says . These people say the time has not yet come to build the house of the Lord .
And the word of the Lord came to the prophet Haggai . Is it time for you yourselves to be living in paneled houses or nice houses or taking care of your house and having a nice crib , while my house remains in ruin . And this is what God says Give careful thought to your ways . You've planted much , but you harvest it little .
You eat , but you never have enough . You drink , but you never have your fill . You put on clothes but you're not warm . You earn wages , only to put them in a bag with holes in it . We've been there before where we made a lot of money but we lost a lot of money . It was like we made a lot of money but we had nothing to show with it .
It's like having a bag or a purse with holes in it . This is what God says Give careful thoughts to your ways . Go up to the mountains . Here's the command Bring down timber and build my house so that I can take pleasure in it and be honored , says the Lord . You expected much , but see , it turned out to be little .
And what you brought home , I blew away , and I think there's many people that think that they're being attacked by the enemy , but God is actually blowing some things out of their life because they're not ready , they don't have the right priorities yet . And this is why he says why , declares the Lord ?
Because of my house , which remains in ruin , while each of you is busy and I think that's the key word busy because so many of us in this generation , we're so busy with what we want , our endeavors , our degree , our for and no more , while each of you is busy with your own house . What jumps out to you from hey ?
guy . That's crazy . Um , first of all , I think it's funny that you say what do you say , zerubbabel , why you got to go back there .
Because it's funny . That is not funny . Say it again . How do you say it ?
How do you say it ? Now , I could be wrong . You say it Uh-huh , zerubbabel , zerubbabel . It could be , but you said have you went to the school of zerubbabel it is not zerubbabel , it is not that anyway thank you , some professional .
I'm not professional , I am not professional , okay , but it is zerubbabel it could be zerubbabel no , if it were babble okay , because it's the double l would be at the end , behind the a , but it's Zerubabble .
Why are you stopping this whole podcast to point out a mispronunciation of a dude's name ? Anyway , I just want you to know for the next time . That is not even the point of the text , because that's hilarious .
That is not the point of anything we're talking about Zerubabble , all the stuff that is good that I just said .
You're talking about Zerobab , no okay , so let's move on .
That's just funny , anyway . No , but this is really really good . Okay , here's what I think about . You know sometimes and I've been in places in my life , like this right , where you just feel like you're doing everything , right , you feel like you know well , you know what am I doing .
You know like you're working and working , and working , but you're still not getting anywhere . It's like you're on the treadmill . And I think this is for people who you feel like you're on that treadmill , you feel like a hamster running around and running around , but you're not getting anywhere .
Sometimes it looks like , okay , I'm going around in life but I'm not getting where . Maybe I moved from one job to another job , to another job , to another job . You're just on this cycle , like you're not . You move from one relationship to another relationship to another , one church to another church , to another church .
It's like you are stuck on that treadmill . And I love the Bible . It said twice here consider your ways , consider your ways . And for me , I want to look at the anytime I get in life where I feel like I'm stuck on the treadmill , I want to stop and consider my ways . Where am I not putting God first ? Where am I not ?
You know , am I not serving in the house of God , am I not ? I love what he says about building God's house . I think , as believers you know we are we have a place in the local church .
Believers , you know we have a place in the local church and you know the local church is designed to strengthen us , to build us up , to perfect the saints and to mature the saints , and all of that . And so I don't know . This scripture just speaks to me in so many different ways and I think it's guardrails .
It's like , okay , I'm doing good right now , but if I ever get in this spot where I feel stuck running on that treadmill , okay , let me stop and consider my ways , let me examine my life .
Yeah , I mean there's so much that we can get out of this one . I think the main point of Haggai for me is this is a message about priorities , and so of course , I love to give the context , because the context is basically the Babylon comes in , invades Jerusalem , leads the Jewish people over into Babylon . They're there for 70 years .
This is basically the post-exiled Jewish people . King Cyrus is like okay , we pass a decree , you can go back now into Jerusalem and rebuild the temple . The temple represents the presence of God . It represents being God-centered as a culture . It represents everything that's right . They come back into Jerusalem .
Fifteen years goes by after the decree is passed and there's no temple that's built . They might have started it , but it's just the foundation . They got busy with their own plans . They got busy building their own plans . They got busy building their own houses . They got busy with their work , their degree , their children .
They got busy with their world while his house remained ruined , and so , even though it's talking about the house of the Lord , it's not even for us and our context . It's not just a specific house , it's not really just building the house of God . It's building anything that God's asked us to do . It's building the life that he's asked us to build .
It's building the kingdom , it's making disciples , it's putting him first . And so , for 15 years , their priorities were out of order . And so God raises up a prophet named Haggai with one prophetic word of the Lord Get your house in order , make sure that God is first and everything else is second .
I believe that God is raising up a prophetic voice right now in our generation where we're saying get our house in order . God doesn't want to be second , third and fourth . After you build your platform , after you build your degree , after you build your family , he's a jealous God . He wants to be first .
And truthfully , when he's first , he's going to help you build your business , build your platform and also build your family . He doesn't want to be second , third or fourth , he wants to be first . The same spirit that was moving back then , back in that day , is the same spirit speaking to us today , and it's all been about priorities , wow .
That's so good . That's so good , and I think , of putting God first and even like first and even , like you know , 10 commandments .
Worship the Lord , god , you know , like no other God above God and the things that we worship , the things that we meditate on , the Lord's been speaking to me a lot lately about just idolatry , you know , and how we have to make sure that there is no idols around us , meaning that there's nothing that we worship more than him .
I mean , I even think that sometimes in ministry we can make ministry an idol , like the number of people that come to our church , the churches and the campuses that we're trying to build .
And I want to serve in ministry , but I don't want to make ministry an idol , because sometimes you can actually make a good thing an idol , like you're my good thing , but I can't make you an idol to where I allow my relationship with you to get in front of my relationship with God .
And I think that sometimes we , even in ministry , can get busy with good things that are not God things but because they're good things , we don't realize we've allowed those things to come in between our first love and it's all about getting back to the priorities . I don't know . You feel like God's been speaking to you about anything .
What's he been speaking to you about lately ? What's been in your heart ?
My heart , really just communicating with God and hearing from God , moving into the prophetic realm , living a spirit-led life . Really , I'm realizing now that God is speaking to me in ways that I don't even understand .
You know , I didn't even realize that God was speaking to me , that God wants to be with me , even more than like like realizing that all day , 24 , seven , the Lord is with me and just having that God consciousness .
When we talk about seeking God first , it's just like knowing that when I wake up in the morning he's there , His presence is there , and learning to hear Him next to me , hear Him in me , hear His voice . He's all around , doing all things .
I'm not sure what that I'm liking a similar season as well . I felt like we came out of a season that was very like a challenging season , and this season is still challenging , but I feel God really , really close to me and really really helping direct me . But it's more like as I'm inviting him into situations , just like driving in the car .
I'm hearing him say we'll go this way or do this or do that , or giving me wisdom , or had a conversation with somebody the other day and it was something that I said from the pulpit that fell wrong based upon kind of what the person is going through and as I was praying about what this person could take it like this and take it like that , the Lord was
like well , you need to be more sensitive .
And it was just like I could just sense the Lord directing me to be more sensitive and more things , and so I've been thinking a lot about gentleness and the fruit of the Spirit and all of these things , and so I don't know , it's just a really cool season where I'm feeling like God is up to something in His development of me and I'm all in for it .
So it's cool to hear I mean , we haven't had a chance to talk as much here lately , but it just feels like I don't mean that , like we're not talking , because we are talking .
We got a lot going on , but about , like you know , some of the deeper things that the Lord is sharing with us . I think there's a time when and I say this with so much reverence and like it just brings me to my knees , really , when I think about it when God says that I will be with you , I will be with you .
I will never leave you or forsake you , and there's sometimes in ministry where I'm like God do this , God do this , and God says no , but I'm with you . You go do it , when you do it , I do it . So if you want this person to be healed , go pray for them to be healed like you . Go heal them , because I am with you .
Well , you're talking about the authority of the believer and I think there needs to be more teaching and also more understanding of the authority of the believer . I feel like there are a lot of people who know that there are promises in the Bible but they don't know how to stand on the promise .
Know that there are promises in the Bible but they don't know how to stand on the promise , and so they're going through things and they're categorizing them all under suffering and affliction and trial . And the Bible does say that we will have suffering , affliction and trial .
But when it comes to how you look at what God's promised you versus what's in your life , how do I make a withdrawal or place a demand on his word where he says I watch over my word to perform ?
it .
I confirm my word with signs following . All of my promises are yes and amen . I think we need to do some teaching about how to believe God for what ?
he promised yes , yes . And there's so many of us I know there's so many of us that we want to be prophetic . The Bible tells us to covet the best gifts , to desire the best gifts , to desire prophecy , because he wants us to speak life to his people . But to do those things we don't understand .
Some of us , we think that we've got to get these deep mysteries from God and all that . But you can prophesy by speaking the word of God . I wake up every morning and prophesy the word of God over my family , over my church , over my city , over my nation , because I am speaking the word of God .
And so I think , when we you know just those basic Bible principles that you're talking about , I'm all over it . The next PIO meeting we're going to talk about declaring the word of God .
For those of you , who don't know what PIO is . It's our women's ministry . Here we do these wonderful women's ministry where so many women come . You can find more information about that at our website . We do them twice a year , but Haggai is a special book . It's only two chapters .
I would really encourage you check out the book of Haggai and look for how God would speak to you concerning your priorities . Here's the principle God wants to be first and everything else is second . Okay , in the New Testament , I'm going to give you what I consider to be like one of my favorite scriptures in the New Testament .
Here's the law of priority in the New Testament Matthew 6 , 31, . It says why do you worry saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear ? For the pagans run after all these things and your heavenly father knows that you need them .
Here's the principle but seek first , not second , not third , not fourth , but first the kingdom of God , and his righteousness . And all these things will be added to you as well . Okay , now we could break this down and we can get into . What did it mean by his righteousness ?
and what does ?
it mean by all these other things ? Is it just things that we need , or is it also things that we want ? But let's not get into that today . Let's just extract the principle . And the principle is so powerful , so simple If you seek first God , the things you need is coming your way .
Let me say it again that if you seek first God , the things you need is coming your way . First God , the things you need is coming your way .
Over 25 years of marriage , I can say that we've been through battles , We've been through challenging times , We've been through mountaintop experiences and valley experiences , but because in every season we seek first God , everything that we've needed in our life God has provided for us resources , finances , homes , health , healing , protection , divine connection and everything
that we need because of this simple principle that we are God-first people .
And what does that mean ? That we seek God first in every season of our life . That means that , okay , so when we got pregnant with kids and things like that , yes , we go to the doctor , but first we go to God . That means if there was a problem in our marriage and you know we were struggling with , we first .
Okay , we're going to talk to our pastors , we're going to talk to our counselors , we're going to talk to our mentors , but first we're going to go to God . Sometimes we don't . We seek doctors and counselors and our best friends and our parents and our mentors first and then we seek God . No , we want to seek .
God first in everything . And I know people all the time say well , how do I do that ? I do it very simply . This is not everything , but this will get you going . Put God first in the three Ts , put God first in your time , put God first in your talent . Put God first in your treasure .
If you want to put God first , it's not just putting him first in words , it's putting him first in ways . Put God first in your time , your talent and your treasure . That means that I want to give God the first part of my day . I want to give God the first part of my day in worship , in attention , in prayer and also in study of the Bible .
And so what I've learned is that when you put God first in your day , the rest of your day is better . I want to put God first in my talent , meaning that we all have certain talents and we don't want to just use our talents to make money . We want to use our talents to serve people .
I think 1 Peter talks about that , that the things that God has given you is not just for you . It's to be a part of something that's bigger than self , and I just feel like we're in a day and time where we just need to get back to servitude .
Jesus washed feet , and I'm not saying that we have to literally wash feet , but we should have the spirit of servitude . That's what he displayed as a servant leader . He displayed that he was willing to do small things , and I think there are many people they want the big things but they're not willing to do small things .
My pastor used to say if you're too big to preach in a small church , you're too small to preach in a big church , because many people want platform accolades and popularity but they don't know how to steward small things and the Bible says if you're faithful over the small , he'll make you ruler over the much .
I want to raise up thousands of people that have a servant's heart . One of the keys to having a great marriage is serve your spouse . Serve your spouse , lift them up , encourage them . You take the low road , you bow the knee , because marriage is a service .
And so the third T is the most important one for me , because I think this is the one that most people stumble on , and it's treasure . And so we got to put God first on our time , our talent and our treasure , say , pastor Ken . Why is this the most important one ? It's really because of Matthew 6.21 .
It says that if you seek first no , I'm sorry , matthew 6.21 says for where a man's treasure is , that's where your heart is also . That means that and let's be very practical where your money is , shows us what you really love , when your money is shows us what you really love yeah , where your money is . Shows us what you really care about .
Where your money is . Shows us and heaven where your priorities really lie . Many people say they're God first , but you can't see it in how they manage and steward their resources .
Everything changed for us 23 years ago when we put God first in our treasure and we started see , and even when it comes to tithing , tithing is not just giving God 10% , it's giving God the first 10% . It's the law of first fruits . If I give God the first 10% , he's going to bless the next 90% . That the rest is blessed by the first .
Don't just give God the leftovers , like after you got your hair done and your nails done and you went on a cruise and you got your gym membership , you put your kids in private school , you got yourself a new iPhone and then I might give if I have it .
And that's where a lot of people get stumped because they say , well , I just don't have it , I can't afford it . That's not true . God's just not first . He doesn't want to be on the bottom of our budget .
He wants to be on the top of our budget , not because he wants our money , but he does want our priorities and we put God first in our time , talent and treasure and closing anything on that one .
I love that . I love that . You know , coming from the projects , being born and raised in the projects , never having enough money , I always thought that money was the root to all evil . You know , that's all . I didn't know the Bible , I didn't know scripture but . I knew money was the root to all evil .
You know , at least I thought yeah .
And , but then finding out through the word that the love of money was that made so much sense to me Like , oh yeah , because you love money . That's why it's the root to all evil . And it changed my perspective when we were young in marriage . It changed my perspective completely . It made me , I thought that rich .
I had this perspective that rich people were evil . Rich people were self-centered , they only cared about themselves and they only cared about getting money . So if I was poor , at least I wasn't like a rich person . And you know like I had the wrong perspective .
But it almost sounds like that's the doctrine that's taught in some denominations and some churches , and it's not a biblical doctrine , but it's vow of poverty . They feel like to be poor .
You're closer to Jesus , but the Bible says that Jesus was rich but became poor so that we , through his poverty , might be rich , and so that means that he actually took our poverty so that we could be in a place to use the money that he gives us to build his kingdom .
He was rich but became poor , so he already did poverty for me . I don't have to do that again .
That's a spiritual richness . Well , maybe it is a spiritual richness , but if you look up the words , it wasn't just talking about that . It's natural and also spiritual . I learned over the years when we had no money at all , that I can't be a blessing if I'm not first blessed .
Yeah , it was such a good , you know . So for me growing up in the projects , for me , like if I didn't have sugar and I go to my neighbor and they don't have sugar and the next neighbor doesn't have sugar , that was not a blessing , that's not good , that's not blessed . No , I want to be blessed with the overflow so that I can help other people .
I mean , god bless the Salvation Army and different charities , the Goodwill that brought turkeys and hams and all kinds of food to my house so that we would have food on the holidays and things like that , that is . I mean , it was a blessing to have that available . But I want to be the one to be blessed , to be a blessing .
I double dog . Dare somebody who's listening to this to start positioning yourself not to need help but give help . Not to come to take , but come to give . Reposition yourself and say God , I want to be blessed , not just to buy new homes , cars and go to Dubai and go to Disney and get season passes and stuff like that .
Position yourself that God , I want to be blessed so that I can be a blessing . I want to be a distribution center of your resources . We did that 23 years ago and the blessing I learned this years ago that got to get it to you , if he can get it through you .
Come on .
Right , it's all about putting God first . Amen . We're out of time for today , guys , but we've enjoyed being with you guys . If you enjoyed today , let us know . Thank you for being a part of our community . We want to do life with you , man .
We're going to be here every Thursday at 3 pm sharing with you life hacks , helping you grow closer to God and also to the people that God has placed in your life .
If you are new to our podcast , wherever you're tuning in from or listening from , make sure that you hit the subscribe button or do whatever you got to do so that you can be the first to know when the content , the new content , is released . We got some things that are happening , sweetheart .
What's going on ?
Well , we got the Better Marriage Bootcamp . Okay , the Better Marriage Bootcamp , yes , and you got anything you want to tell the people about our bootcamp ?
I mean the Better Marriage Bootcamp is so good , wherever you are in your marriage . Now we've been married for 25 years . This is 25 years of information the goods , the bads , the ups and the downs and it's based upon the premise that wherever you are in your marriage , it can be better . God takes us from one level of glory to another .
I know our marriage is good , but I want it to be better .
But you have to invest in your marriage .
We invest . Listen , you got to invest in your body .
You got to invest in your spirit . You got to invest in your spirit , you got to invest in your marriage . If you want more information about our Better Marriage Bootcamp , it's 12 weeks with us .
It's 90 days with us as a marriage coach , we're going to be with you in your living room .
With you and giving you assignments of what to do , and we believe that your marriage and relationship can be revolutionized in 90 days if you do the right thing . For more information about that , you can check out our website . Visit the show notes below . Hey , if you're ever in Orlando , come worship with us . Tampa , come worship with us . Gainesville , florida .
If you are in this state , we have campuses in different cities in the state of Florida . We would love to see you here and until next time I'm on doing life of Ken and Tabitha . We'll see you soon . God bless you guys .