The Hard Work of The Heart Work with Ken and Tabatha Claytor

And welcome to doing life with Ken and Tabula . We are so pumped to have you guys be a part of our podcast . And we got a good one for you today . Today , we wanna talk to you about the hard work of hard work . Mhmm . And at the end , you gotta stay around for the end . Because we're gonna give you three ways to protect your heart today's podcast .

It's gonna be everything . Yes .

And also , if you're new , go ahead and hit that subscribe button . So that you can be updated on all of our new things .

Our hope is to help you grow closer to god and closer to the people that god has placed in your life . And we believe today is gonna be exactly what somebody needs to hear . We wanna talk to you today about the hard work of hard work . Let me say it again . The hard work of hard work .

And I wanna start with the scripture , and I want you to just kinda jump in and just tell me what you get out of this . Proverbs chapter four verse twenty three . It says above all else , guard your heart for everything that you do flows from it . Mhmm .

Above all else , garden heart for for every above all else , guard your heart for everything you do flows from it . What sticks out to

you from there ?

We are spirit , soul , and body . And the spirit part of us is the real part of us . It is the center of who we are .

But anyway , they they said that surgeons know that there is a place in the heart that you can't touch that place in the heart because if you touch that place , they the person will automatically die .

So there's this protected place in the heart , And so there are some theologians and things like that that argue that this may be the place that , you know , that the spirit rests or this may be the most important place of the heart that , you know , where God speaks and all of that .

But then also there's science now that says that , you know , we think like the brain is like like , you know , you can't your brain is the most important thing . Mhmm . Well , there's science that says that your heart actually thinks more than what your brain does . That there are more the heart speaks to the brain , more than the brain speaks to the heart .

This is like this is on another level . Seriously .

Like , even in traffic and and getting angry in traffic and stuff like that .

And I started to talk about the crazy driving of these crazy drive drivers . And Kenny says , well , you know , it's better if you just don't say anything at all . Because when you start talking about it , then you get really upset .

Like , I don't know what it is that's going on in my heart .

Mhmm . You know ? I might not know everything might not be the best at what I do , but I can I can do something about my heart ? I wanna have a pure heart . The people that I I love in the bible the most are people like David . Mhmm . David was a man after God's own heart .

And so I just feel like we live in a day and time that God is gonna promote those who can just keep their heart right . In an election year with all kinds of everybody has their opinion and philosophy . There's so much debate and anger . I believe that God is promoting those who can just have pure heart .

And so it makes sense that that's the most important , like , gauge your heart . Man can't see it . Nobody else knows your intentions . Nobody else knows what's going on in there . You can dress it up to everyone else . But God sees . And I preach this to my kids all the time . Only you you you only I only I talked to them about the audience of one . Mhmm .

Only entertaining for an audience of one and that's God .

We're always getting into the Word of God . We're asking those who are people that we'd look to for

Well , that's how marriage is suck because it's two halves coming together .

What I mean by that is that a lot of married people are suffering in the relationship right now because they just got too much junk in the trunk . They have not done the hard work of heartburn .

They don't have a relationship that when you get married , marriage equals work . Meaning that if it was defined , it should be called work . And they're just not willing to do the hard work . Mhmm . But here's my thing . We've been creative for hard things . Yeah . And if it's in our life , we can take it . His grace is sufficient .

We have to roll up our sleeves . And say just because it's hard , doesn't mean that I run from it . I'm gonna run two hard things . I've been graced for hard things .

I had to do the hard work of the hard work to say okay , I'm not happy anymore . But then what happens is we point that finger to the other person . I'm not happy and it's his fault . I don't have peace and it's his fault . I don't have security and it's their fault . Yeah .

But really , it's not we have to go back to the heart and say why am I feeling like this ? Yes . Why have you have to feel those voids with God , not the other not another person . So

That we don't want or let's just say most things or let's just say many things Yeah . That we have in our life that we don't want . Could it be a product of where our heart is ? Mhmm . If that's the case , if we change our hearts , we can change our situation . So let's start working on the ground of our hearts .

Let's make sure that we guard our hearts above all else .

Here's a few scriptures . Tell me what you get out of this one . Jeremiah seventeen and nine , it says the human heart is the most deceitful of all things . And it's desperately wicked who really knows how bad it is .

Because of man's sinfulness and god holiness , and the power of the resurrection is not this just that Jesus got it from the grave on the third day . Is that when you accept Jesus , he steps into your heart and he brings your dead spirit back to life again .

Proverbs twenty one two , check this one out . It says every way of a man is right in his own eyes , but the Lord weighs the heart . What sticks out to you .

So we go to the word of God to find out . Do I have the right attitude toward this ? How should I be doing this ? You know , am I living my life according to principles ? And and you know what God says ? And I think that's how we know if our heart is right , not because our mom said it was right or our best friend said that it was right Mhmm .

We hold it up against God's word .

So Satan's main strategy now and days is that calls us to be so smart we get done . We're so smart with history that we cannot prove because we did not live there , but some YouTube channel , we watched a book that we read that would kinda come in and try to contradict the word of God or who Jesus is .

What he wants to do is get us to distrust the Bible . If he can get us to distrust the Bible or discredit the Bible , Satan takes away the one offensive weapon you have , which is the sword of the spirit , which is the word of god .

It has always been the Word . Jesus was the man at station of the word . He was the word made flesh and the beginning was the word . The word was with god and the word was god . So the word the only way you love God is that you love his word , and the only way you know God is that you know his word . Here's the challenge . Yeah .

We live in a day and time where people would rather uplift their opinions in their feeling over the word of God . Mhmm . And what the Bible is saying here is that every way of a man is right in his own eyes . But the Lord weighs the heart . Every way of a man is right . Like , I'm okay . I can do whatever I wanna do . It's my body . It's my choice .

It's how I feel . It's what I think and it's never been about that . Not for the believer . It can be like that for those who are not believers because God is not the God of their life yet . Okay ? Mhmm . But for us who understand that Jesus is not just savior , he's lord , we submit ourself to his words . Because we cannot trust ourselves .

So here's what I've realized . That my way is wrong . Mhmm . His way is right . Yeah . Doesn't matter what I think about something . I'm not gonna use I'm not gonna take my opinion to change the bible . I'm gonna let the bible change my opinion because the lord weighs my heart .

And then when he looks at my heart , I want him to see a heart that's lined up , submitted to his word .

Lord , your way is right .

He says , why do you think that God who knows everything repented for anointing , soulless king ? And he says , here's the reason because he got repented because Saul never repented . Mhmm . Meaning that Saul messed up got into pride , he wanted to destroy , I'm David , you know , so many things like that . Mhmm .

And because he did not repent , it caused God to repent . Mhmm . David , on the other hand , is known after a man after God's own heart . And we his name , there's a city of David , We all still love David . David was an adulterer , and David was a murderer . Mhmm .

He had an an adulterer's affair with bathsheba then putting your honor , her husband , on the front line of fire , had him kill . But when we think about David , we think a man after god's own heart , a person that we can learn some things from , not all things , but some things why .

Well , the reason that we uplift David and we don't talk much about saw is simply because even though David was a mess , he repented up his mess and he got it right . Saul was a mess and actually he was probably less messy than David but Sol didn't repent . And because Sol didn't repent , it caused God to repent .

The point of the story is this , is that we don't wanna live the kind of lives . Where God has put us in the office , favored us , and promoted us that later on , he will repent because our hearts are not right . Mhmm . This is the importance of having the right kind of heart .

Like , I don't wanna do anything to cause my mother or father to repent . Like , to hurt their feelings , to make them feel like man , that hurt my heart that my child did that . You know what I mean ? We have three kids and we are teaching them and we're pouring our life into them . Yeah .

We are giving everything to them , and we want them to do the right things . And it hurt , you know , it would hurt us if they would just do something that directly disobeyed us or took them out of the will of God for their lives . Now that's , you know , our earthly relationship with our parents . But God is the same way . He's our heavenly father .

And he didn't just give birth to us . He created us . He breathed life into us . And I think that now when we think that for god to repent , it's like we can hurt him . We can wound him . We can make him appointed in us . And I personally I don't wanna do that to my daddy . Yeah . My heavenly father . I don't wanna do that .

Or , man , I wish I would have never had those kids . I mean ,

They won't say it out loud , but somebody knows what I'm talking about . Man , I wish I wouldn't even have that kid . That's what it's like when we live outside the will of God . That I don't wanna live a life where God , my father , my maker , is like man , wish I would have gave his gifting to somebody else . Mhmm . I wish I wouldn't have called him .

I wish he wouldn't even been born . He's done more bad and good . I gave him so many I lay before him life and death of blessings and curses before whatever reason . He's using the gift to framework freemorals that I the free more the free will that I've given him Yeah . To use that against me

. And I just or , you know , God just took me through a journey where I was reading through chronicles . And I read first Chronicles , second Chronicles , and I come through the book of Israel . And I was just amazed to look at all these kings Mhmm . From Israel . That when they did bad they got bad .

And when they did good , they got good , but they couldn't get it through their thick head Mhmm . To just live for God . Yeah . And it was , like , out of listening , twenty king .

We live in a day and time where the strings of your heart is being pulled in so many directions . Mhmm . Compromise is the norm . I'm not just talking about secularly . I'm talking about people that are in leadership . I'm talking about those of you all who are in ministry right now .

Those of you all who've been safe for twenty and thirty years , compromise has now become the norm . Matter of fact , when you find someone who doesn't compromise , it's almost like there there's I can feel this sometime even with us . We don't know if we might be invited to this camp or that camp because our integrity is here Mhmm . And our holiness is here .

Mhmm . And I don't wanna come to a little green room party . I don't wanna come to to certain little unintegrable things . That's just not my flow . I was doing that when I was nineteen years old . I'm not impressed .

I'm not gonna have legalism , but I'm gonna use my grace filled liberty to live a life that is beyond reproach .

A life that is blameless , a life that is on another level , a life where I carry an anointing , a life where angels can be in our home and not fill out a place , a life where I travel and you don't have to worry about when I'm watching on TV and my hotel by myself , a life where I travel and and , you know , people come up and talk to me and I'm not

looking at somebody else , wondering if I can get them back to the hotel room . I wanna live a life that if heaven is playing my unsupervised arenas on a big screen in heaven , that all heaven is applauding the way that I live when nobody else is around . Yeah . That has to do with the heart . Yeah .

And I wanna raise up more men and women of God have that kind of heart . I'm not living for the audience of nobody else . I don't need anybody's platform . God's giving me my own . I wanna live so he can say , well done too . Yeah .

So there I am up on , you know , way high above everyone . I was just like the queen of the world Yeah . On top of my daddy's shoulder and I would see the smile on his face . But if I would like him that , you know , some people didn't grow up with a father . But I take that and I liken that to my heavenly father Yeah .

The smile that I would see on his face when he looks down and like , you know what ? Tabitha's doing it .

And you are this is one of the reasons why I'm attracted to you is one of the reasons why when we didn't get it , like , when we first met in high in college , I wasn't even saved yet , but I could see your heart . And I could see your integrity . Like , you wanted to do the right thing .

But I love that about you is just , you know , we talk about often about how you can live life in the gray , or you can live life beyond the gray . So the gray is what ? The gray is like that . I don't know . It might be right . It might not say this .

It's a little it's a it's not the it's the first simple one . It's it's that now it's one to two glasses . Now it's one to three glasses . That's one to four . It's just

I got so much joy and so much fulfillment out of just the the god's green earth , like skiing , like going to the beach , like enjoying my family , like cracking jokes , like having fun , like dancing till the sun comes up without all of the substances . I mean , so what happens is that you start to look at certain things don't know .

Just jump in with me , baby . I'm sorry . I got lost in what I was saying . I was thinking about the sun . As I think about the beach and all the things you get to enjoy .

You got gray in between . If if black is the perfect will of god Right . And white is the exact opposite Mhmm . Well , I wanna stay in the black . Right ?

Because I think that that's what will help people with a life that's beyond the grace . Yeah . Beyond the grace coming . I feel it coming . It's coming back . It's coming back . It's coming back . If you want beyond the grace , please let us know . It's we gotta write it . We gotta get it out there . Mhmm .

Because I just think it's a it's a it's a perspective on Kingdom Living . That needs to be promoted for the time that we live in . Like a lot of people don't think it's possible . Yeah . You know , I remember when you first when I first came to you , this is over twenty years ago , I said , sweetheart , I wanna drink no more .

Because back in the day , I was a social drinker , and she was more of come from an addictive back around .

And it was a joke and and , you know , I was in a class and people started laughing . But after that , he says , well , I don't drink . And he says the reason is it's because proverbs thirty one says that kings and princes sustained from strong drink . He says , I view myself as a king . I guess it just depends on how you view yourself .

And at twenty three years old as a social drinker , as a person who will go to different states , about say , not special brew , blueberry strawberry , and then sell it out of my trunk , and a person who would be a nice clubs and do different things and marry to someone that I will come home and she would be passed out around my toilet .

I made a decision for my family . I just said , I don't need it . If you mister Managot , you seem successful . You seem like things are working well for you . You don't drink . And I view myself as king as well . I'm new to the faith , but I view myself as a king . I'm happy to say that I've been sober now for twenty three years . Okay ?

And Why was I sharing that story ? Help me out .

Why can't don't be you know , I was I was ready to fight anyway . When you I was there when you asked the question , but when you came home and told me , like , you don't think we should drink anymore , I was like , well , how what are we gonna do for fun ?

And my attitude toward God was is just like , okay Lord , if it's possible , show me how . Well , that's a hard Help me do it .

I got a little drinks going on . You know what I'm saying ? But I'm happy to say that we found that you can live beyond the gray . And we've been sober now both of us for twenty three years . You better give God praise right now . Because it is a miracle for this one here . Alright ?

You cannot just stop by every fast food establishment , you're gonna have to start the meal prep , and you're gonna have to do the hard work if you wanna get out of debt . You gotta do the hard work . Listen , you're gonna have to live beneath your means . You're gonna have to say no today so that you can say yes tomorrow . Know today , but not forever .

That's the style . That's one of the phrases that we live by , but you're gonna have to be willing to do the hard work . If you're gonna have a pure heart , you're gonna have to do the hard work of the hard work . The things that other people say , oh , that's too much . Oh , you're too spiritual oh , it don't take all that .

It literally sometimes takes more than that . Okay . Do have to embrace the hard work . Mhmm .

I had to go through therapy and visit my childhood and re read talk talk about the events that happened in my childhood that hurt me so much . That was painful and it hurt . And some people be like , oh , it hurts too much . Just leave them alone .

Not gonna you know , we're not gonna do that , but that will keep you depressed , that will keep you bound , that will keep you sad and fearful . But when you do the hard work , that's where you can break the chains and set yourself free . And so I just encourage people to do the hard work . It is worth it . Yeah .

The more tears the better the freedom you're gonna have .

And so I just was in the UK not too long ago , and I was doing a young adult conference there in the UK . And , you know , I was so excited to go just because I've been hearing the sounds of revival .

I've been hearing it from prophets that I really respect you know , the UK and Great Britain and England has went through a very dark age spiritually , you know , got very religious on us and the movement of the holy spirit had been . Not as much as what it could be .

And so but I've been hearing it prophesied that revival's coming to the UK , revival's coming to Great Britain , revival's coming to England . And so I I wanted to go out there and be a part of the conference to see it in man .

It it was true that was such a hunger that was there , that was like this this desire to , this this this joy and this purehearted desire to go into the deeper things of god . But anyway , I was preaching the last night of this conference , and I was talking about a little bit what we've talked about already Mhmm . Living beyond the grain .

I don't know why I keep talking about this . It just must be time .

Classic escalator . The classic that there was a pub on every corner . Actually , right beside the church , there was a a brewery and there was probably three thousand kegs right beside the church . And when I said , you don't have to go to a happy hour to get happy , I came in happy right now because I'm drunk in the spirit . Mhmm .

When I said that , these young people who are in a very secular society that's come through a spiritual dark time Mhmm . Jumped to their feet and was like , I never heard nothing like that before . The joy of the Lord fail in the meeting . I didn't ask them to come to the front .

Young people ran to the front and started dancing under Jubilee and Celebration , drunk in the spirit out of the joy of the Lord , doing the dozy doe hand in hand I have pictures of of people climbing over the scenes . And then after we danced and shouted , and God gave us a prophetic song . He was like , we got that joke . Joe I mean , we've got that joke .

It was just we we're making this stuff up under the the the the empowerment of the holy spirit . After that , I gave them an opportunity to receive the baptism of the holy spirit and probably two , three hundred of them received the baptism of the holy spirit with their initial evidence of praying in the spirit .

And I just believe when you increase the sacred and decrease the secular , god's gonna honor it . And so one of the ways you do that is that you gotta guard your irrigate and your eye gate because it affects what's in your heart . If you're gonna increase the sacred , you need to listen to more preaching of the word of God , more worship music .

You need to decrease more rated r , mature TV content , stuff that you know is filled with perversion , violence , death , mayham , sexual perversion , all of the things that are evil we live in a day where that's normal to digest .

And you cannot guard your heart above all else if you just let everybody who is Antichrist , minister through songs and it's not about the beat of the song , but it is about the words .

Like , I got I can't even listen to it . I have to turn it off because I'm so convicted . By just guarding my heart and , you know , my ears and and what I'm putting in . So

And so the enemy , you know , Satan has taken music and perverted it and now we're singing these songs , but we're we're meditating on , you know , cheating on our spouse or getting another person or sex or drugs or you know , whatever it is day and night , and it's putting us in the wrong direction for as a man thinks in his heart .

So is he , this is good for parents to know . Yeah . Like , we have to guard our children and teach our children the importance of music because they're meditating what and in you hear the statistics of what's going on with high school kids and teenagers and things like that .

We're at all time high rates for suicide and low self esteem and depression and all of these things . And I personally believe a lot of it is what we're putting in our heart through music , through what we're watching on TV .

And I went to before I brought him up , I went and I got antifreeze . From the garage . And then I got a cup of water . Right ? And so I got clear glasses . Alright ? And I put anti freeze in one glass and I put water in one glass . And I brought the kid in . I said , listen . This is water . And do you know what this is ? Then he was like , no .

I don't know what that is . I said , it's antifreeze . I said , this stuff is deadly . It's poison . You're not supposed to drink it at all . I want you to drink it right now . There's like , come on . I said , listen , I want you to drink it right now . I want you to get this glass . I want you to drink this antifreeze right now .

And they're like , I'm not gonna drink the antifreeze . And I said , well , why won't you drink the antifreeze ? They said because it's poison . And I said , well , that's the same thing that you do when you listen to a bunch of perverse music . Things that are filled with profanity , things that are ungodly , you are putting poison in your heart .

And if you won't drink this antifreeze , you probably need to be very careful about what you're listening to because this right here , this antifreeze will kill you naturally , but what you're listening to could kill you spiritually . The kid was like . Okay . And then I said , but would you drink this water ? Of course , you would . Why ?

Because we are made up of water , we all need water to be healthy . And the water is the word of God , and we need the wash in the water by the word . And if you can listen to stuff that feed your heart and feed your spirit , it's gonna be nothing but strength to you and the poison will kill you .

And so , anyway , you can use that if you wanna use it .

I'm okay with and I'm gonna help them navigate through that moment , but that's just a little little something for y'all . But anyway , here's the last one . Number three , if you wanna protect your heart , you gotta set some boundaries for yourself . Okay ? You gotta set some boundaries . Now , here's the deal , and I want you to be able to see this .

Like , let's imagine that I have some tape . K ? Now , many people when it comes to their life , let's put the tape down on the floor . What they like to do is to kinda , here's the tape . They like the tip toe right over here and they like to live on the edge of the tape . Now let's assume that this tape represents what God says you can and can't do .

Like , if you cross over the line , it's considered sin . What people like to do is , like , they like to come right up to the edge of sin . Play with sin . Think about sin . Do everything they can as long as it's not sin . They like to go right up to the edge .

For those of you all who wanna live beyond the gray and you wanna pure heart , Don't put the tape of your life over here . You gotta put the tape of your life over here . What I mean by that is that I don't live right up to the edge of what's not seeing . I live way over here . Why ?

Because there is a gap in between where I am and what's actually saying . Therefore , if I'm over here , and I cross this line and I get over into this area , it's still not sin because sin is way over here . I can just jump back over here . What most people do is they live way too close to sodom and gomorr .

You live way too close to that , which is secular . But if you can live over here which is beyond the gray , then if you happen to have a bad day or two , you are still far away from sin . And that's really what it means to have a pure heart is that you're living beyond reproach . You're living a blameless life .

You're living a life where people can't even find something to false accuse you about the best you possibly have people make up stuff nowadays , the false accused you about . But I'm saying you're doing the best that you can to live well beyond this . So , you know , so that

Sorry , you know ,

I give you one more scripture , we're done . Psalms fifty one and ten that says create a me a clean heart of God and renew a right spirit within me . If this boy witnessed with you , we wanna hear from you .

Here's our prayer for you is that God would help you create a clean heart , that he would create a clean heart in you and renew a right spirit within you . So that you can have a pure heart . Yeah . You know , Matthew five and eight that says , blessed are the pure in heart . So they'll see God . How many of you all wanna see God ?

I wanna see God in our church . I wanna see God in our small groups . I wanna see the manifested presence of God . I wanna see the outpour of the Holy Spirit . Bless another pure in heart . Yes . And they don't see God . Everybody else is gonna they're gonna study about God . They're gonna read doctrine about God . We don't see God .

And he's gonna bless and promote those who are pure hearted because that's just what he does . Hey , we're out of time today , but man , we we we we're so thankful that you joined in with us on today . Our hope that this podcast was exactly what you needed to hear , how you needed to hear it .

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