Ever wonder how the Book of Ruth ties into the Christmas story, or how the first Gospel promise in Genesis leads to the birth of Jesus? Come explore these intriguing biblical connections and the transformative power of adoption as God’s children.
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
Ever wonder how the Book of Ruth ties into the Christmas story, or how the first Gospel promise in Genesis leads to the birth of Jesus? Come explore these intriguing biblical connections and the transformative power of adoption as God’s children.
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 place award radio is the best. 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. It's great to have Jingle Bells and stuff like that and Hallmark movies and stuff like that. It'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 David on that?
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:Amen, amen, amen. Welcome. Plays On Word family. Welcome back to Plays On Word Radio. I'm Fred David Kenney Jr.
Speaker 1:We are going to continue with what we started last week, which was a message at Sandy Cove, maryland, and we are in. We are right in the middle of our Christmas Joe season, where we're doing our Christmas Joe play and the concert and sometimes we bring an extra word, like we did at Sandy Cove, and so I'm hoping that you guys heard the first part of this, if you didn't go back and listen to episode 46. And it'll give you some context. This entire message will make available, if you want, in one shot. But what we're going to do is you just continue along, as continue along, listening with this message here. If you have your bobbins, you can mark it.
Speaker 1:It's the proto-Evangel in the first gospel promise, the first promise of a gospel, 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 same point. It is the same point. 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. And from that point on it starts talking and it shows.
Speaker 1:You know, this concept of a miracle birth. Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was 90. And she left when the Lord said yeah, I'll come, I'll be back in 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 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.
Speaker 1: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.
Speaker 1:And we talked about Boaz last night. 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 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. I get Amen on that.
Speaker 1:Boaz, the reason Jesus had to be born and came in the flesh is because he had to be one of us. Adam was one of us, and that plunged us into a life of constant sin that ends in death. It separated us from God. And Christ came to redeem mankind and he had to be one of us, like Boaz, had to be a kinsman, a close, he had to be able to able to redeem, being close enough, a relative, and he had to be willing. And Christ was willing for the joy set before him. Right, he was willing and obedient. So, and he's next verse, verse four born under the law, to redeem those under the law. In a small sense, israel, the law of Moses, but in a larger sense, the entire universe was subject to sin and the entire universe is under the law of the law of God. That does not change. Which, which had the law of God, was around before Israel even had existed. So the idea is the whole creation is waiting with expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. The whole, the entire cosmos, the entire creation is waiting for the sons of God, which is us, the people of God, to be revealed so that we might receive adoption as sons.
Speaker 1:The speaking of adoption is anybody here adopted? Just show of hands. Is anybody here? Amen, amen. I saw two hands. Is anybody here in Christ? Oh well, if you're in Christ, can I get an amen? So next time someone says you anybody here? That's right, I've been adopted. I'm adopted child of God. That's right. I have been adopted into the family of God, and he is a loving parent who would do everything and did everything for the child that he loves and that he has adopted, and that's me and you.
Speaker 1:This book says that this season, this Christmas season that we're in, is about that. Christ came. The word, became flesh because there was no other, and, believe me, if there was another way to do this, to make it make things right, god would have done it, because God does everything perfectly and right. He doesn't make mistakes. So that tells us that the way that this has been done is the right way. Again, just like the coach said, there's one way, and it doesn't make God mean or whatever they like to the complaints they like to lodge against believers, you narrow minded people, or whatever. No, there's one way. You can agree with people, though, when they say all roads lead to God. You know, I believe all roads lead to God. You could, hey, we have, we have common ground there. You're right. All roads do lead to God. Everybody's going to be before God Every knee shall bow.
Speaker 1:Every road is going to lead right before God. The question is are you on the one road that leads to eternal life? So we do have common ground. Let's start there. Amen, amen, so we might receive adoption of sons. And verse six.
Speaker 1:And because you are sons, god has, oh God, because you are sons, god has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying Abba, father, meaning daddy. When you see Abba, that means daddy. And in the area where we actually just moved from, it's the. I think it's the largest Hasidic Jewish population next to Jerusalem in the world. It's Lakewood, new Jersey. Yeah, lakewood, new Jersey. And if you go to the supermarket there the Target or Walmart or you know any of the, the supermarkets you see the little Jewish kids and behind their Orthodox Hasidic fathers with the tassels and the hat and They'll often say Abba, abba, abba, abba, daddy, daddy.
Speaker 1:When the spirit of his son, the Holy Spirit, is sent into our hearts, we cry out Abba. Because we have been adopted into his family, we can say that we're not just an employee. You know what I mean. It's a no, we're family. We have different access to him. Hallelujah, because of that, we, because of the gift of Jesus. That's the thing. Don't forget it. Because of the gift of Jesus, we also have the gift of the Holy Spirit. Thank you, lord.
Speaker 1:I mean I can I don't know what my without the Holy Spirit. I wouldn't be able to do the play Without the Holy Spirit. And people say, oh, he does a one man play. No, I never feel like I'm up there by myself, because I'm telling you, there have been times I've been up there doing some plays, like our Pete play, which is longer and I'll tell you, and our Genesis, our longer play. Sometimes I'll be doing a play and I just where am I at? What did I tell Katie I was gonna? Did I forget to put the toilet seat down? You know, whatever it might be, I'm always. My mind just goes in like a million directions and the Holy Spirit, who is there with me amen puts me right. He's never left me out there to dry. Katie usually knows when I'm like when I ADD in the middle of a play because I start stuttering yeah, da, da, da, da, da da. It's only lasts for about a couple seconds and the Holy Spirit straightens me out and he helps me. Does anybody know what it's like to be helped by the Holy Spirit, and the gift of the Spirit of God is a gift that it is. He is a gift that continues to give, because a lot of times we'll get a gift, you know, and then it like for me.
Speaker 1:I have a bunch of gifts that people have given me. They're in my storage unit right now. I mean, I don't even use them, and when they weren't in my storage unit they were in my attic. You know what I mean? Anybody here having any of the plays on where mugs that we have. So I know somebody, somebody told me this morning right, right, it makes the coffee taste better, right, but when you make your coffee with the mug, you can look at that and it brings you joy because it brings you back to the event. It's giving, it's continually giving. In that sense, the Holy Spirit is infinitely more giving than any of that stuff. I'm just trying to give an example of something. The gift of the Spirit infinitely produces fruit too, fruit in the believer's life.
Speaker 1:Now, on a side note, I just have a question, just a little question who are the greatest apostles? Who are the two? No, not all of them, just give me the two greatest apostles Peter, paul, john, judas. Okay, okay. What does apostle mean? Means? What sent? Who is sent? The two greatest apostles are Jesus and the Holy Spirit, because the Father sent the Son, the Son and the Father sent the Spirit the two greatest apostles, in the most technical way of looking at it. So how does this work? We are in Christ, right, the Holy Spirit is in us. God is in God. It says Corinthians. First Corinthians God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. So God is in Christ, we're in Christ, and the Holy Spirit. How does this work? And I had a friend of mine.
Speaker 1:He was struggling with this concept of being filled with the Holy Spirit. Right, let me take a sip of this water real quick. I'll use this as an apple. So if I took this bottle and put this bottle, went down to the shore right here in the Chesapeake and put it in the Chesapeake, right there, would it be in the Chesapeake and it submerges, so the water could get in. Would the Chesapeake be in it? Yeah, this is the water level here. So it's in the Chesapeake, the Chesapeake is in it.
Speaker 1:So why do I have to be filled again? The problem is the things of this world, the things that beat us up, that deal with this are like rocks and grains of sand and dirt. So if I put that in there, it would fill up and it would push a lot of the water out. It doesn't mean that this is not in the Chesapeake, it doesn't mean that we're not in Christ, but it needs a new, it needs a fresh filling. So a lot of times you need to a jet of water to go in and get the dirt stuff out so it can be filled with the spirit of God. Does that make sense? That example you know what I mean being filled, and that's why it's important to be. You know, to be filled and to have the Lord remove anything that hinders your fellowship with them. Now, it's, being filled is way better than having a whole bunch of stuff and having a few drops of God in you. It's. You know what I mean. It goes way beyond that analogy I gave you. It's about a relationship rather than location. It's way more about relation than location.
Speaker 1:But for the sake of this message, we will leave it at that. Verse seven oh so you are no longer a slave but a son, and if you're a son, then you're an heir through God. Who here knows that they are no longer a slave to sin. You could say I am no longer. I am no longer a slave to sin. I am a child of God, a blood bought, adopted son or daughter of the king. You know the world is. Don't be surprised when the world comes against us and tries to make you feel like you're less than one, less than what you are. We are royal in God, right.
Speaker 1:But yet now look at this Christ himself. When he came, you would expect royalty to show up with a limousine fanfare. You know all kinds of police, you know escort and everything like that. How did he show up? He showed up, you know, being born with the animals in the manger. His parents had no money.
Speaker 1:Yet if you really examine the story, god gave his son a heavenly procession because and he had witnesses the shepherds the shepherds saw stuff that I'm sure it was hard for them to describe what they saw. They saw into the heaven and they heard the heavenly proclamation of glory to God and peace on earth. Because Christ, because the child, came, there is peace between God and man. There was a problem before. We talked about that last night. The problem between God and man was sin. Man had sinned, but because of Christ, now there is reconciliation. Like Boaz was able to redeem and get all the stuff that was thought to be lost back, christ Jesus, the greater than Boaz, redeemed us, purchased us back, has given us hope and a future. Praise the Lord. Right, I mean, this is good news. This Christmas story goes way beyond what we a lot of times, what we think. Let's expand it from the scripture and recognize whoa, and this is the greatest thing because he sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law. So as I close up this message, I'm gonna close it up.
Speaker 1:Many of you are either coming out of a difficulty in the midst of a difficulty or about to go into a difficulty. I encourage you. I encourage you to find him in the midst of whichever section you are. Find God. If you're in the middle of something right now, find God in it. He's not surprised. Like I said, we have an on-time God. He's on time and he will orchestrate things for his will, what he wants to be done. That's the key. It's not our will. I'll take you back to my football story. When I had to bring it later, I was like man, this isn't going to work. I just want to, I just want to mail it to him. God was like no, trust me, go to the fence, go around to the back of the school, go to the fence. That coach did not show up one second early or one second late. The coach had no idea what was going on, but God was directing his steps and he was working all things together for the good to accomplish his purpose.
Speaker 1:So patience is one of the things that the spirit of God, in dwelling us, can grant us. I stand up here, will not be a hypocrite and act like I have mastered patience, because sometimes in traffic I'm like what is going on? My wife is back there saying amen. I don't know, that's a little loud there, they don't need to be testifying right now. But yeah, patience, and especially when you don't know what's going on.
Speaker 1:And my dear brother, bishop Way, he told me when I was I was dealing with some difficult things. He said listen, when you cannot trace God, you have to know to trust God. That's a way of life and you know what I'm saying. When you can't, what is God doing? I don't know, I, I don't know, I can't trace him, I can't trace him. So therefore, I'm going to trust him. By doing that, you short circuit anything the enemy is trying to do. Anyway. The enemy thinks he's oh, I got him, I got her, oh, I got her. Yeah, hit it with another arrow, launch another one, and when you offer a sacrifice of praise in the midst of a difficulty, that breaks his teeth, he's like that's how you defeat the enemy. I'm going to praise you in the midst of this and I'm looking for you, lord, I'm waiting on you, not my will. Let your will be done. Speak, for your servant is listening. Okay, he's not slow, peter.
Speaker 1:The second Peter says he's not slow, and that was one of the accusations they were lodging against the believers Where's this God of yours? Where is he? Where is he? And Peter had to straighten it out. He said don't you realize that a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day to God? He's not slow. Some people count slowness. No, he is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. This is the long suffering patience of our great adoptive father in heaven. He loves us. He's patient with us. He's not surprised when we make mistakes either.
Speaker 1:The enemy is going to be the first one coming up to you and say you call yourself a Christian and you said that you did this. You, you, you, you, you, whatever, pulling his arrows out and trying to hit you and make you feel a certain way. And that's why I believe the helmet of salvation is is part of the armor, that the helmet protects our thoughts. We, you, can get hit with an arrow or you know. Okay, but after a minute you have to do the ways. I wait a second. I know what's going. On my hand is protected helmet of salvation.
Speaker 1:Salvation meaning I am no longer a slave to sin, I am a child of God. That thought's taken captive. I'm tossing it, not having it, not believing it, not even hearing it. And that's how we move move through this life, recognizing that we have been made royal because of our relationship with the king. We have been adopted into the family of God. Every one of us has been adopted into the family of God by a loving parent that loves us infinitely, above what we can even imagine.
Speaker 1:And if he takes care of the lilies in the field there, how well. And he knows every hair on our heads, and some of us have a little less than others, you know what I mean how will he not take care of us, though we go through difficulty? Praise him in the midst of it. Though we face adversity, let's praise him, let's be a people of praise. In the midst of it, we lift up the name of God because, no matter what happens to us, he is still God and worthy of all praise.
Speaker 1:And that praise concert is still going on, no matter what, and there is nothing better I tell you this from experience looking back at a difficulty he brought you through and saying, huh, I'm glad I didn't complain, hallelujah I, I praised you in the midst of that. Though he slay me, I will trust in him. I will trust in him. Looking back is a testimony that is set in stone in our lives and our faith is worth more than gold, it says. And believe me, gold is nothing for God. He paves the street with it. It means it's about, it's worth more to us. It really is about the worth of it for us, because when we have faith, that goes way beyond gold for us. Can I get amen?
Speaker 2:Amen Amen.
Speaker 1:We're going to continue worshiping this king. All right, amen, amen. That's what we did at Sandy Cove. That was the conclusion of the message, and then we led worship for a little bit, led the people in the praise of the king, and we're going to continue Next week. We're going to continue with with Christmas Joe. We're going to give you guys a taste of what Christmas Joe is all about. But that's all the time we have for today and I pray that you are blessed on plays on Word Radio for today. We're going to continue next week and if you don't know this person that we keep talking about, all you have to do is you just pray to him, ask him to come into your life, forgive you of your sins, fill you with his Holy Spirit and live through you, and you will have passed from death to life.
Speaker 1:He made it simple. It is not a difficult thing. Faith in Christ is not a difficult thing, and there are answers. For those of you that like to say I'm a skeptic, yeah, I'm a, you know, I'm a man of reason, but there are answers. There are answers. I approached the scripture as a skeptic many years ago. I found answers. You don't have to check your brain at the door, as Josh McDowell used to say. Anyway, it's Christmas, y'all, and until next time we get together. The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face shine upon thee and be gracious to thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace, and give thee peace.