Could you ever imagine there would be a unique parallel between the principals of Football and our walk with Christ? Join us as we marvel at the perfect precision of God’s timing of the virgin birth and in everyday life.
Message by
Fred David Kenney, Jr.,
Pastor/ President & Artistic Director of Plays On Word Theater
Message given at
Sandy Cove Ministries' "Christmas Celebration": https://www.sandycove.org/
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Could you ever imagine there would be a unique parallel between the principals of Football and our walk with Christ? Join us as we marvel at the perfect precision of God’s timing of the virgin birth and in everyday life.
Message by
Fred David Kenney, Jr.,
Pastor/ President & Artistic Director of Plays On Word Theater
Message given at
Sandy Cove Ministries' "Christmas Celebration": https://www.sandycove.org/
Have a question or want us to dive deeper in any of these segments? Let us know here:
https://playsonword.dm.networkforgood.com/forms/podcast-reviews
To Support Plays On Word Radio and Plays On Word Theater, please visit:
https://playsonword.networkforgood.com/
How can we Pray for YOU? Please tell us here:
https://playsonword.org/how-can-we-pray.html
Plays On Word website
Plays On Word YouTube
Plays On Word Instagram
Plays On Word Facebook
Email us: team@playsonword.org
Lord, you know you listen on the PlayStation World radio. It's the best. I got the ball and I saw no hole. So I was like I'm out of here, man. No, and I upped it, kicked in the gears and I went around the end and I dusted. Everybody Scored a touchdown. I was like all right, yeah, the team was going nuts. They were all happy, they were hugging, they loved me. And the coach walked up to me. I was like they grabbed my face, man. I said you run the play the way the place designed. There's one way to run. My head's going like this as he's pulling my face, man, I'm like it shocked me. There was one way to run that play the way it's designed.
Speaker 2:Hello and welcome to plays on word radio, where we discuss, analyze, work and play on the word of God. Thank you for joining us on this excursion. Today let's join Pastor Teddy, also known as Fred David Kenney Jr, the founder of plays on word theater, as he does a deep dive into the word of God.
Speaker 1:All right, hello, hello. All of you listening to plays on word radio, welcome. My name is Fred David Kenney Jr and we are in the middle of a Christmas Joe tour right now and we recently did our Christmas Joe presentation down at Sandy Cove with our family down there, andrea Hampton and the whole team at Sandy Cove, maryland, and we did the Christmas Joe play and concert and then the next day we led worship and brought the word and I'm going to share with you guys in this two part radio program the message that we brought and one of the things that we focus on in the Christmas Joe presentation is the real reason for the season is the birth of Jesus, specifically that he is born to die to take away the sin of the world. The Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, god sent his one and only son that so ever would believe in him, would not perish but would have eternal life, would live forever and stand before God not guilty. That's right. There is no other way to be saved. There's no other religion or system in the world that removes your sin. And if you're hoping to do enough good deeds to maybe, hopefully, just by chance, luckily get into God's good graces, then you're on the wrong track Because the work's already been done From before. God said let there be light. Christ In the mind of God. Christ was the Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world. He was. It was already a done deal. He came and paid a debt he didn't owe. Because you and me, we both owed a debt we could not ever pay.
Speaker 1:There is no way to get back to being completely righteous and perfect, and every single person has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That's the problem. The Bible says in Matthew 548, jesus sets the bar at perfection. He says you've got to be perfect If you want to get into the kingdom of heaven. You're going to have to be perfect. As your father in heaven is perfect, you're going to have to be perfect like him. So the Bible, jesus, basically sets the bar at perfection. Then in the book of Romans it says for all of sin and fallen short of the glory of God. Let me paraphrase that means nobody's perfect. So the Bible says you have to be perfect.
Speaker 1:God's not mean, he's just got standards, man. He's got the highest standards ever. You must be 100% perfect. You must fulfill the requirements of righteousness. There cannot be any uncleanness in you, your mind, your thought. If you had one crooked thought, you're disqualified and it really has nothing to do with being good, being good. Let me give you an example of how ridiculous this lie from ourselves and the enemy is being good.
Speaker 1:I can swim and soak in Michael Phelps and we go down to the ocean Atlantic Ocean, both of us. It doesn't matter that Michael Phelps is a better swimmer than me, that he's good and I'm not. The problem. The difference between a completely perfect and righteous God and sinful, corrupt man is like the Atlantic Ocean, but exponentially greater than that example of the Atlantic Ocean. Now we both have to swim. It doesn't matter that he's a better swimmer than I am. We have to swim to France.
Speaker 1:The result is going to be the same. It doesn't matter that he's good or that I'm not good. So being good really doesn't have anything to do with it. It's are you in Christ?
Speaker 1:We can, you know, and all the religions of the world, like clowns, are running up and down the beach saying here, let me show you how to do a better backstroke. Here, let me show you how to swim better. Let me show you how to float, that is, we don't need that. Nobody needs that. We need somebody to come over and up boat and come get us and bring us there. Christ Jesus is the boat. On top of that, people don't even realize they're carrying a ball and chain of sin and unrighteous things. Some have more, some have less, and we're expected to swim across the Atlantic Ocean. Who cares if you're a better knife? The result is going to be the same.
Speaker 1:Christ Jesus comes over, he came to us. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. God sent his one and only Son that whosoever would believe in him would not perish but would have eternal life, that whosoever would say you know what? I can't do this. I can't swim, I can't close this gap, no matter what I try to do, all I can do is get in that boat. Christ is the boat and he's holding at his hand saying hey, jump in this boat, get in this boat. I am this boat. By faith you trust in him by getting in the boat and listen to what the scripture says.
Speaker 1:So let me back up the scripture in Matthew 548. It says you must be perfect, you have to be perfect. That's the bar In Romans 3 23,. It says no one is perfect. That's where the gospel comes in. Now listen to what it says in Hebrews. I'm going to read from chapter 10. It says in verse 10, in just a little context he's talking about by the will of God and by that will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all. And verse 14 says for by a single offering, he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified, that process of working out our salvation and being cleaned and the process of being transformed into the image of Christ. So it's a process, but it's also a one-time thing where we have been declared right and been declared perfect because of faith in Christ. That's why he came, yes, and that's why the Christmas season, or the celebration of Christ coming into the world, is so important.
Speaker 1:Anyway, I don't want to preach a whole message here. We still got to break into the message that we did at Sandy Cove. So, yeah, we're going to break into this. It's going to be two-part, but check it out, you guys ready to dive into the word. It is a pool of living water which children can swim in and the smartest theologians cannot get to the bottom of. That's the word of God. The word of God is alive, it's active, sharper than any two-edged sword. Amen, Lord God, we commit this time to you. We commit this excursion into your word, lord God, to you. We ask that you would speak, that you would speak through me. I pray you get me out of the way here, lord, and what you once said, I pray, I pray that would go forward. Commit to you Jesus, amen.
Speaker 1:Okay, so before we get started, I wanted to tell you guys a story, because I'm a storyteller. About 20, 20 years ago maybe 20, yeah, about 20 years ago I found out my old high school football coach. He had pancreatic cancer and he was dying and he lost a lot of weight. He was a hard man, he was a tough guy, good guy, but a tough guy. I felt the Lord put on my heart you need to, you need to write him a letter. And I was like, okay, write him a letter. What do you want me to just write down John 316 or something? What do you want to share the gospel? So you know, I'm thinking to myself. What do you want me to do? And the Lord reminded me of an event when I was in high school and I was a running bag, I ran, I ran a football.
Speaker 1:So there was this play that was designed, a specific play that was designed, where we faked like we were going this way and then we took steps this way Okay, so it's like a misdirection play so said, ready down, we go this way. And then I go this way and get the ball and run through the line they're supposed to open up the hole this way and our offensive end is over here. And I did, it went this way. I got the ball and I saw no hole. So I was like I'm out of here, man. No, and I upped it, kicked in the gears and I went around the end and I dusted everybody Score the touchdown. I was like, all right, yeah, the team was going nuts, they were all happy, they were hugging, they loved me.
Speaker 1:And the coach walked up to me. And he walked up to me and he grabbed my face, man, and said you run the play the way the play's designed. There's one way to run. My head's going like this. As he's pulling my face, man, I'm like it shocked me. It absolutely shocked me, because here I, you know, I was like just one way this play is designed. You need to see. He knew that was not a game situation, that was a scrimmage. We were scrimmaging another team. That's where you work out the bugs. He knew that there was one way to run that play, the way it's designed.
Speaker 1:And so fast forward a few weeks. Now we're in a game situation same place called Okay, got the going this way. I got the ball. I saw no hole to run through but to protect my neck from the coach and out of short fear, what he said, you run the play. And I went like this I must admit this, please don't tell anybody but I closed my eyes when I came up to the hallway like this. At that point the hole opened up and I had miles of daylight and I was like okay, and I ran for a touchdown in the game and it made it, I believe, on ESPN's Galastic Sports America or something. Back then it was a big deal, it was a you know they were Madison Square Garden show or something like that, and it was. It made it on TV. It was like it was like a 40 yard run or almost a 50 yard run, but I decided to run it the way he wanted me to run it, the way he designed it.
Speaker 1:God brought that to my remembrance. I was like oh so I wrote my coach. Coach, you remember that play. You probably don't even remember me, but I remember you. My neck is still dislocated.
Speaker 1:The play was designed to be run one way. This life has been designed to be run one way. There is one way. It's through Christ that we have eternal life. There are not a bunch of different ways. There's one way to run it. Let me use this as an example for you.
Speaker 1:And I wrote him this long letter. But after I wrote the letter, I'm thinking to myself now what I can't just roll down. I haven't seen the coach in like 30 years. Besides that he's and I'm making all these excuses to God, besides that it's football season, he's got practice, probably you know. And the Lord was like are you gonna trust me? And I'm like okay, all right, I'll mail it to him. So I'm like do I have an envelope? I don't even have any envelopes. I'm really trying to get out of this. I'm like maybe I could just mail it to him. And he said go to the post office and get an envelope. I went post office is gonna get an envelope. Said don't mail it. No, you take it to him. And I'm like take it to him, all right, all right, I haven't seen him in so long. I mean, I was a little nervous Today. I'd be like here you go, buddy. But I was not. But I wasn't the guy that you see now as bold.
Speaker 1:And so I'm driving past the high school and I see all the coaches, everybody, and I see the football practice going on and I'm like now, what am I gonna do? Because he's evidently he's busy. There's no way I can't just walk up to him in the middle of practice and give him this. I can't do this. Lord said go around to the back of the building. Go around to the back of the building, go up to the fence. And I went up to the fence. Guess who rolls over to the fence in a golf cart? The coach.
Speaker 1:I couldn't believe it. I was like you brought him to me, god brought him to me. I just had to follow what God was saying. God brought this coach who I was still scared of, and he lost like a hundred pounds. He was really frail, he was look, he would die in like two months. And I said, coach, I was so surprised that God did this Like I was expecting like nothing. I was like, okay, I'm just gonna end up going back home and have to get some stamps or something. And I saw him and drove right up to where the door was. Apparently he had to get something. He just had to get something. He comes in the golf cart and I said, coach, and he looked at me. I said, coach, I got something for you here. It won't take a second, please take this. And he said that's good, because I only have a second. He was a busy guy. He's like he's a straight, no, no nonsense type of guy. Okay, and he took it.
Speaker 1:And it's my hope that he took that message because the gospel was in that message and I'm sure he's heard the gospel, but I don't know if he ever heard the gospel in a message that way that because football was his life and he understood that I spoke to him about our coach, and so I say that as a pre-story to what we're gonna get into. If you have your Bibles screen, I wanna take a look. We're gonna look at what I like to think of as my Christmas passage. Most people don't think of this as, or they don't think of this immediately as a Christmas passage, but it absolutely deals with Christmas and it's Galatians yeah, I said Galatians. Galatians four, paul. He's talking about how we were slaves to sin, and it's verse.
Speaker 1:The focus of this message is I wanna focus on verse four through seven. I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he's the owner of everything verse two but he's under guardians and managers until the date set by his father verse three In the same way, we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of this world Verse four. Here we go, verse four. But when the fullness of time had come, god sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who are under the law, so that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, god has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying Abba, father, so you're no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
Speaker 1:So look at verse four for a second, because this is what I do. I mean, I'm really a verse by verse guy, but the Lord has given me a message for this event that we're at. Don't wanna end on that one, this event that we are attending. And, yeah, I have an English major buddy of mine. He's a lawyer and every time I end with ad he goes nuts. He's like you can end with that man. I'm like, all right, I get where you're at buddy. So, yeah, that's the guy I am Okay.
Speaker 1:So, but when the fullness of time? Who here knows that we have an on time? God, like on time, you can count on him. I mean, I'm not just making noise to be making noise. God is always on time. He's never one second early or one second late, right? So the question is why did God do when he did, let that soak in for a second?
Speaker 1:So most of us here probably not my sister on the in there, but most of us here were around in 1983. Can I get any men on that? All right? So I'm gonna take you back to 1983 in a time machine, right and just, I need you to just go with me mentally here. Imagine we go back to 1983 and I tell you we don't go back. I go back to you in a time machine and I say this to you I wanna zoom with you at 4pm. Just use the app on your cell. Also, check your email for the link and the QR code.
Speaker 1:And when you get a chance to listen to my podcast, why y'all laughing? Yes, you realize how ridiculous that would sound. Just to 40, some years, not far. But those things hadn't even come around yet. The time was not right. Many things had to happen, had to come together in order for that sentence or those statements to even make sense. You had to have all kinds of technology come together. Computers had to be built a certain way, networks had to be built out. The time was not wouldn't be right for that statement. Right, you follow me on that. So why did God do when he did?
Speaker 1:If you back up about 300 years before Christ was born, okay, the empire on the scene was the Greek empire, alexander the Great. And what Alexander the Great did is he spread not only Greek culture but, most importantly, the Greek language. Okay, the Greek language, the Koine Greek, the common language was throughout the entire Mediterranean, all the way to India, I mean from what we call Iraq today, and Iran. All that. Everyone spoke Greek because it was the language of the merchants. The merchants were you needed to be able to speak Greek to make that money. So the Greek language was spread throughout most of the world. That's one when if you back up a little bit farther, when you remember the story about Daniel and those guys and Ezekiel and the captivity, when Israel was taken into captivity into Babylon, well, at that point, when they were taken and they were scattered, they set up these things called synagogues throughout the Babylonian Empire, the Persian Empire and the Greek Empire. There were synagogues because they wanted to be able to study the Word of God. The synagogues were more than what we even think of today. So if you were Jewish, you could go to the synagogue and be like, hey, can I camp here for a month? And they would be like, yes, we have rooms for you, you can get food, you can get clothing, you can stay. It was a location of Jewish culture, so you had the Greek language. You had synagogues throughout the land.
Speaker 1:During the Romans, which was after the Greeks, the Roman Empire came in and the Romans, because they wanted their armies to be able to go, they built these roads. They built roads so that their armies could travel. There's nothing worse than, I guess, trying to have your army move or going through and not have and being stuck in the mud. So they built roads which are still around today. The Romans are no joke. I mean their engineering skills. When we went to Albania, I stood on a bridge that was 2,000 years. It was built out of stones and built out of rock and I'm like this thing's pretty solid. It lasted for 2,000 years. They were great. So they had Romans built infrastructure right. There was one other thing that the Romans did.
Speaker 1:The Romans also provided what's called the Pax Romana, the peace meaning because their army was so strong. If someone got out of line, the military could clamp down on them, and that caused relative peace. It's not a great example, but you think about whether you're forward or against it. That's not the point. But, like the American military has, because of the American military, the ocean ways, to a certain extent, are free from a lot of craziness piracy, except for certain areas. But you go off the coast. Here you're not worried about pirates because the military is strong. You know what I mean. There's a certain amount of peace.
Speaker 1:So you have the Greek language, you have synagogues all over the place, you have the Roman roads and you have the Roman peace. Now this is the right time, when the things came together for Christ to come and the gospel to be shared and to go viral. Because when the church after Christ was put on the cross and resurrected and the church began, and when the church got scattered, when Stephen got stoned and a lot of them were like I'm getting out of here, I'm moving what they did is they went along Roman roads to the synagogues first, right, and they preached the gospel and everybody could understand, because they're probably speaking Greek or Aramaic, but the Greek language. There was a common language. There was a quick way to get from point A to point B. You listen to look at Paul's letters. That's what Paul did. They went to the synagogues first and from there there was an infrastructure already built.
Speaker 1:So the timing was right for God to send his son. Amen, all right. So follow me on this. God sent forth his son, verse four yeah, when fullness of time become, god sent forth his son. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. And Jesus did not need. He didn't need to do this, he didn't even need.
Speaker 1:It says in John 17,. Father talks about the glory that we shared before the foundation of the world. Jesus said that he shared God's glory before God even said let there be light before the beginning. Jesus was. Think about that for a second. He's the same yesterday, today and forever. You know he's. He's the Alpha, the Omega. He claims that in Revelation I am the Alpha, the Omega, the almighty. That's Jesus speaking. He's there before creation, before anything happens. He is there in glory, but, you notice, I always put the glow in it. He did not need, he didn't, he didn't need to come do this, but he did. This word that was with God, that was God. He became flesh and dwelt among tabernacled, among us. It says and he, god, sent forth his son, the gift of the son, the son that is given. We talked about that in the play yesterday. You know, for unto us a child is born, for unto us a son is given, god is the ultimate gift giver. I said that over and over. We have to keep that in mind. It is that. It's about the gift that he gave.
Speaker 1:But here's where it gets cool, interesting Born of a woman. On the surface that might not seem like a big okay. Everybody's been born of a woman. What's Paul's touching on? There is the promise that was given in Genesis three.
Speaker 1:You go back to Genesis, when Adam and Eve first sinned right and God comes on to see Adam. Adam, where are you, god? Always, every question God asks, he knows the answer. Believe that it's, really it's. You always want to look at what's the response of the person that God asked what's? How did they respond? Adam really passed the buck. He was like you know, he blamed the woman, the woman you gave me, and then he blamed God, the woman you gave me. Little perspective change there. Right, talk about passing the buck. Anyway, god said in that, in that episode he said the seed of the woman will is going to crush the head of the seed of the enemy. Okay, it's the first place in the Bible. If you have your Bible you could mark it it's. It's the proto-Evangelum, the first gospel promise, the first promise of a gospel.
Speaker 1:And from that point on, this book opens up as a GPS coordinate thing saying left turn, right turn. He's coming, he's going to do this, this, this. He'll be this, this, this, this. He's going to be like this, this, this, this, this. He's going to expect you to do blah, blah, blah, blah. And then it stops with Christ. It's GPS to the Messiah. Yes, for some of you that don't use GPS, it's a Hagstrom map. You know what I mean. Like I know somebody's feeling, I'm a map guy, I'm going to, you know, this new fangled amen, this new fangled GPS stuff. Anyway, it's the. It's the same point. It is the same point.
Speaker 1:So the seed of the woman and Paul notice, paul did not say born of man and woman. So it's pointing right there that Genesis 315, the seed of the woman. Everybody understood back in the day. They understood what the seed of the man. That's usually how it's understood here. God says the seed of the woman. It's the first gospel promise. That's the virgin birth, genesis 315.
Speaker 1:And from that point on it starts talking and it shows, you know, this concept of a miracle birth. Abraham was a hundred years old and Sarah was 90. And she laughed when the Lord said yeah, I'll come. I'll be talking about a year, man, she's going to have a baby. And she was like the Lord asked Abraham, it's funny. Lord said Abraham, why did she laugh? I couldn't put yourself in Abraham shoes, that's. That's a whole. Nother play folks. But a year later she had Isaac, which means laughter. She gave birth to a son. It was a miracle. It was the one who could not conceive. She was beyond being able to conceive. Like Elizabeth, she was beyond the concept of a miracle birth. What we celebrate, it points to Christ, the fulfillment of all these shadows and types in the Bible, particularly the Old Testament. These shadows and types Samuel is another one. I'll give you that example. You guys, you know the story of Samuel. His birth was a miracle birth. You know. His mom was, was barren and she prayed and the Lord answered. So there are examples of the miracle birth. And we talked about Boaz last night.
Speaker 1:Anybody surprised that we put Ruth into play? No, it made sense. I mean, have you ever had Ruth in a Christmas play before the Book of Ruth? Did you realize? The Book of Ruth is part of the Christmas story. That's what we're about. We're about the scripture. Let us. It's great to have jingle bells and stuff like that and and hallmark movies and stuff like that. That's great. But it's really about Christ and when you see that this book is about Christ, it all makes sense, like the Book of Ruth being part of the Christmas story. Can I get an amen on that? Amen, yes, well, that's all the time that we have for this episode of Place on Word Radio.
Speaker 1:We're going to continue this and this. We're in the Christmas season. We're going to be. We're going to be doing this for the next few weeks. We got some stuff going on here. We're going to be in the Christmas season. So if you do not know him, I would encourage you to reach out to him and ask him. Ask him if what I'm saying is right. Ask him to come into your life, forgive you of your sins, repent for your sins. I'm telling you he will answer that call. So until next time, may the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you. The Lord be gracious to you, lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Hallelujah.
Speaker 2:This program was made possible by the Place on Word family of supporters. To find out more, check out our website at pleaseonwordorg.