Ep 65: The Call to Spiritual Arms (Part 1) - A Gathering of Faithful Warriors

"Today, the guys from Horizon Christian Fellowship in Brooklyn emphasized the challenges of faith, the importance of leadership, and the power of prayer. How do you prioritize spiritual discipline in your life amidst daily challenges?"

Angelo and some dedicated men from Horizon Christian Fellowship in Brooklyn, including Jodeci, John, Mike, and Matthew, join us, bringing a night of candid discussion to life. On this night, laughter mingled with devotion and exhortation abound.

Our dialogue transitions to the sobering theme of our recent, highly impactful retreat, 'Becoming a Mighty Man of God.' We dissect the critical nature of standing firm in faith and how, especially in a world fraught with challenges and temptations, it's essential for men to take up the mantle of leadership with unwavering integrity. Comparing our spiritual commitment to that of an elite athlete, this conversation is a call to arms for rigorous spiritual discipline, ensuring we're equipped to lead and protect those in our charge. We reaffirm that prayer is not just a practice but an armament crucial for victory in the battles that lie ahead.

Rounding off our discussion, we share the profound impact of prayer gatherings on our lives and how these sessions serve as a wellspring of rejuvenation for the soul. By contrasting the effort it takes to attend these meetings with the effortless time we spend with friends, we uncover a powerful truth about the joy of communion with the divine. Join us as we extend a hand of peace and encouragement, promising to nurture these conversations that aim to embolden and inspire your spiritual life.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Lord, you know you listen on the place of word. Radio is the best I was thinking about my kids.

Speaker 2: 0:06

I got a six and an eight year old at home and even the smallest thing they do One of my kids found a crib today, first thing he does. Can we FaceTime, daddy, right? Like boom, like that excitement Right? When I go home they don't even have like hi, how are you? They just kind of like on you. It's like this is it? This is the day, right? Do we have that, that fervent love for the lord where we want to be? Oh, lord man, you can't, you don't believe what happened to them.

Speaker 2: 0:29

I know you already know what I gotta tell you anyway, like you know, do we have that with the lord? Are we kidding each other? Your name, your name, your name.

Speaker 5: 0:59

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 Kenny Jr, the founder of Plays on Word Theater, as he does a deep dive into the Word of God. Yeah.

Speaker 4: 1:20

Amen, amen, amen. Thank you very much, mr Josh Taylor and Katie Kenny. My name is Fred David Kenney Jr and welcome to all of you listening to Plays on Word Radio. We are broadcasting from our Southern Command in North Carolina right now and we are going to I've been wanting to bring this podcast to you guys for a long time. This one, we are going to this. I've been wanting to bring this podcast to you guys for a long time. This one we did an interview with some dear brothers of mine from Brooklyn, from Horizon Christian Fellowship Angelo and the crew, jodeci, john and Mike and the whole crew, even even a brother, matthew, was there. All right, check it out. All right, plays on Word Radio. We are down in Whiting, new Jersey, at America's Keswick, and I'm here with my brothers from Horizon, horizon Christian Fellowship, out of Brooklyn, nyc. If you could just go around and just give your name, my name is Jodeci.

Speaker 1: 2:19

Clive Angelo.

Speaker 4: 2:21

Matthew, matthew, I love your book. 24 is a little bit debatable Chapter 24. I love your book, man, listen.

Speaker 2: 2:30

I'm John. It's a better gospel, right, John? I love your gospel.

Speaker 4: 2:34

I love your letters. You know, if you go to the dollar store, you find Bibles with the book of Angelo in it. So yeah, man, I just wanted to touch base with you. So yeah, man, I just I just wanted to touch base with you. When I first met you guys, we kind of crashed your men's retreat back in 2018, I think in 18 or yeah, I think it was 2018 we could.

Speaker 4: 2:53

Yeah, it was before covid, and we crashed your men's retreat and we had. You guys remember that time of worship we had. Next to the fire we had, there was there was a fireplace. Poor Angelo was so mad. He got up the next day and everybody was like yo.

Speaker 1: 3:07

We had we had a worship night we had a worship night. Oh yeah, you were there, the first, the first time I meet Angelo. That's when I got up I said who did what Worship what? So after I started like like smacking dudes.

Speaker 4: 3:26

Angelo was not happy, disrespective. Yeah, he was not happy, he was like. My first interaction with angelo was like yo man, you know, I'm all about worship man and I can't believe they did this to me. No, but I, what I? What struck me was how you guys, uh, you were all, it was all business man, it was, it was about the lord man, it was, it was about the Lord man and you guys, I mean, there's something special about men worshiping the Lord full on. You know, if you guys remember, that night, we were, we were, it was. It was really special man, just a time of of guys getting in in worship with the Lord. But just a general question. You know, this is for the, for the podcast here. This, the theme of, uh, you want to tell us what the theme of this retreat?

Speaker 1: 4:06

has been. The theme of this retreat is becoming a mighty man of God. Mighty man of God we need more mighty men.

Speaker 4: 4:14

Yeah, so, jodeci, what are you taking away from this? You actually ministered at this retreat. What are you taking away from this? What is sticking out? What is?

Speaker 3: 4:24

the Lord showing you in this.

Speaker 3: 4:25

Yeah, I think the message I shared on Elijah and just all the other messages are just pointing out a lot of the same things, and that's that we're living in a time and a day and age where we, as Christians, are going to really be tested and we're really going to have to show where our faith truly stands.

Speaker 3: 4:46

And we're going to have to show, you know, whether we truly stand for Christ or we're just going through the motions. And you know, as men, you know a lot of times, through our own faults and through the enemy just deceiving us and just lying to us, we can kind of sit back and and just have that lazy spirit and just be nonchalant and just so passive, um, but god just wants us to be, um, you know, just very active in our faith and just bold and to be men, like mike was saying, and to not be afraid of confrontation or of opposition. Um, because the lord didn't call us to be saved, to be cowards. He called us to be a light and to stand up for what's right, um, regardless of what anyone has to say about it. So I'm just getting that from you. You know all the messages, amen. Amen.

Speaker 4: 5:49

Yeah, that's a good point right there, angelo.

Speaker 1: 5:51

anything specific stick out Any themes, yeah, I mean, the theme is one thing, but there's like an underlying tone, is that something is going to happen. You know there's something brewing in the spiritual world and the Lord is preparing men, at least warning them, to get ready. You know, and when this thing happens, whatever it is, you know whether it's you know, trials, tribulation to coming to America for the saints, whatever it may be, are you going to be able to stand with him? Right, you're going to be able to be one of three men who stands with your king when everyone flees. You're going to be able to protect, you know, the hill of lentils, which you know is, you know, which I look at as the word of God, like the nourishment, the food source for those people around you. Can you stand and protect that with your life and will you do that?

Speaker 5: 6:47

So, yeah, stand and protect that with your life, and will you do that so?

Speaker 1: 6:49

yeah, I mean, something is on the horizon, right, but, uh, whether it's not well, we don't know what it is yet. But the lord doesn't surprise his people, right? He doesn't do that, he always. He gives warnings. Whether you know that little when your spider sense starts to tingle, right, right, like there's what's going on, lord, there's something brewing, and like, just randomly, I'm sitting in church on a Sunday and the Lord's like you know, men's retreat, something we haven't done in years. It wasn't on my mind and then the Lord organized it and it happened. So we're here and we're trying to encourage the men that came to go higher, to go deeper with the Lord.

Speaker 4: 7:28

I concur with that, and it's not just from looking around and seeing what's happening in the world that's just adding to it. But in my soul I'm like man. We need to get make sure we are standing right. God is calling men to be men standing right.

Speaker 2: 7:42

God is calling men to be men. The Lord is showing me that he's calling us to really be serious about our relationship with God, Not to fool ourselves, Not to be like oh, I love Jesus, but I don't read the Word Right. Well, God is the Word, Jesus is the Word. The Word became flesh. You don't say I love my wife and you don't spend time with my wife.

Speaker 2: 8:04

That's not how it works. You know all these relationships I think of. You know I was thinking about my kids. I got a six and an eight year old at home and even the smallest thing they do what do my kids found a crib today, first thing he does. Can we FaceTime, daddy? Right like boom, like that excitement right when I go home they don't even have like hi, how are you? They just kind of like jump on you. It's like this this is the day right. Do we have that, that fervent love for the lord where we want to be? You know, lord man, you can't.

Speaker 3: 8:33

You're not gonna believe what happened today I know you already know, but I gotta tell you anyway, like you know, do we have that with the lord?

Speaker 2: 8:38

are we kidding each other, is it, hey, lord?

Speaker 5: 8:41

I'm here again you know what?

Speaker 2: 8:42

Yeah, when it's like forced, and when that happens, whether it's in a marriage with your kids, like where did that come from? Where did it go? Like you got to cultivate that relationship.

Speaker 4: 8:51

You can't let that die down. Was it you or was it Angela who spoke about the? You know, the new believer has that fire, oh yeah.

Speaker 2: 8:59

I think it was Angela.

Speaker 4: 9:00

Yeah, yeah and it's you know that's that fire wanting to spend time.

Speaker 2: 9:05

Yeah, you know, I don't know for those of us in the room when you're married, at what point of the day where, if you haven't heard from your wife, you're like looking at your phone. She hasn't texted me. I got to text her Right, or whoever you know, whoever it is your mom, whatever, like something happens, you're like dude, I haven't heard. I have to talk to them. Do we yearn that way for Jesus? You know that's what has been really, the Lord speaking in my heart, as all the guys have been sharing.

Speaker 4: 9:30

Amen, amen. One of the things that I tell the congregation that I said. You know, imagine if you were in the stop and shop or the shop, right, I think. What do you guys got stop and shop in Brooklyn, ok, so, uh-huh, okay. So imagine you're in the Stop and Shop and you're in the produce aisle and all of a sudden you see your boy walk in and you know your boy texted you 66 different messages and you haven't read them. What's the first thing? You I mean me personally, I know, if my boy walked in and I know he texted me 66 times and I didn't read none of them, yet I would find another aisle and I'd be like scrolling, like okay, where's what?

Speaker 4: 10:09

Let me read these messages as fast as I can, but God has sent us a group text message, 66 group text messages to us, and we don't want to. You know, I don't want to be in glory and be like, oh man, I, yo man, I read some. I read John 316. I can, you know, I read a few of the text messages, but I have not gotten your whole counsel. I have not read all your text messages. It's important as believers, man, if we put it in that context and so, and that should help us to want to storm the castle, which is what we all were about to do after Mike spoke. Mike will you share, you know, just any theme, anything sticking out that you know from this retreat here, this being men of God, any message you might want to say, because there's a bunch of people that are listening to this right now, a bunch of men of God that weren't here that need to hear this.

Speaker 6: 11:12

No, I mean, the message, like I shared tonight, is you know, we're living in a world where men are under attack, and that's because the devil knows you wipe out the men, that's it. You know what I'm saying. We're the front line of defense. We're here to protect, we're here to provide, we're here to lead. You know what I mean. If the world don't have men, that's it. Everything is done. So you know you're living in a world where men are under attack and you know, the unsaved man, the man that's not saved, they're going to go along with what's going on. You know what I'm saying. It's like something that I was mentioning earlier today. Like in the Garden of Eden, when Eve ate, adam went along. You know, she gave it to Adam and he just went along. He was right there.

Speaker 6: 11:52

You know what I'm saying. He was right there. He was right. And that's what feminism is. It's men doing nothing. Wow, men going along you know what I'm saying? Like they're leading, and then you have the men that are just being passive and they're going along. They're not standing firm, they're not standing up, they're not standing against it, and that's what, like what I shared, that's what Paul was telling the men stand firm. You know, I mean, yo do everything be be correct. So I think that's basically it's marching orders. I think that's what we've getting today as men, and I think that's why the Lord put it on Angelo Hart to go to the mighty men, because it's war, we are at war. I don't know what everybody else is seeing, but just men, period are at war. Now, imagine the Christian man. You know, we're not just dealing with feminism and all of that, we're dealing with the world.

Speaker 6: 12:47

Right them the flesh yeah we, we're, we're on the super duper front lines. Yeah, you know I mean, and we're supposed to be the light and soul of the world. So the christian man? Is this not about the man? The man, yeah, has to be in the front, but the christian man has to be in front of the man do you think that many Christian men today don't realize they're on a battlefield?

Speaker 4: 13:08

They might think they're on a playground instead of a battleground. The mentality is, you know, because I forget who it was, but this Christian author wrote this book and there was a cannon on the front of the book, a cannon and a girl with balloons, holding these balloons sitting on the cannon, and it said spiritual warfare playground or battleground. And how you see it, how you see it, the world is it a playground? If it is a playground, then when things start blowing up, you're going to go oh my God, I don't know what to do, oh my God, what's happening. But when things start blowing up on a battlefield, okay, I'm on a battlefield, you recognize that you're on a battlefield and I think I just personally.

Speaker 4: 13:48

I think many men of God haven't made that distinction. Like this is a real battle. Like you said, this is a war, this is a straight war. The enemy is he can't take our and I like how you said it in your message. You know he's not taking your salvation, but he can. He can render you ineffective. You know what I mean and that's why he comes after men of God If he can get them to fall and ruin their credibility, ruin their testimony. We're told to guard. You know, guard that which was given to us I forget which one of you guys. It might have a mic, but we're to guard that.

Speaker 4: 14:21

The other thing is the enemy. He didn't go straight at Adam. That's the thing. Adam, being a dude, most likely would have been like one plus one equals two. No, get out of my face, man, I'm not no, but he. He went through Eve to get to Adam. He did. He never takes the man of God on face, on Like. It's very cowardly in that sense. He went after Jesus, not on day one, two, three, four, five, six of the fast. He waited till the end of the fast, 40 days, 49. Ok, let's, let now, let's, let's get him because he's hungry, remember we're talking about. He's hungry, he's tired, he's isolated, but he's the enemy. Doesn't step to the man of God like, and he comes in an unorthodox way many times.

Speaker 1: 15:04

And he comes in an unorthodox way many times. I like when you said that, because think about it In Scripture you don't hear of Satan when it's just man and his relationship with God, right, when it's that one-on-one intimate, just spending time with God, you don't hear of Satan. It's when the woman came in the marriage, right, and that's the first time that you hear of him. You know, and as men, if we're spending that time with the Lord, if we're intimate, you know, then we're going to be prepared for the battle that you mentioned, and the only way to know that you're on a battlefield is if you're reading the battle plans which is the word of God.

Speaker 4: 15:40

You got to be in it and I like what John said. Man, how can you say that I love God and have no desire for the word? How many times have you set your mind to read the Bible or go pray and the phone rings or something, and then you start thinking about stuff that's like wait a second, I haven't thought about that in 15 years. Why am I? Oh, I got to do email so-and-so or I need to get back to everything you can possibly imagine as a distraction.

Speaker 2: 16:08

It's never a crazy thing oh my god, I dropped my bible somewhere or something. It's never like a direct pull. It's always something subtle that grabs you, the same way he's always grabbed us. He'll put a thought in and what he wants to do is replace the truth with the lie, convince you. Like Mike was saying earlier, nobody knows what a man is. Nobody knows what a mighty man is. Nobody knows what a man of. Nobody knows what a mighty man is. Nobody knows what a man of God is. Nobody these days even knows if they're a man or a woman. Right, there's so much confusion and deception where truth has been swapped for a lie. Mike, was it you that said that we have an absolute truth? Living in a relative world these days, there's such an attack on truth, truth.

Speaker 3: 16:43

Right, because Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, and he is the father of lies and deception.

Speaker 2: 16:47

And this is the battleground that the way he gets us is for us to buy a lie, to buy the lie, and once we buy the lie, we're done, like you were just saying. Oh yeah, I can have a great relationship with Jesus Christ, I'm loved, I'm saved, I'm this and that we're really good, jesus.

Speaker 4: 17:07

That is a straight lie. Yeah, especially because the word of God is food for our soul. So you think about how you know. Ok, how far can you?

Speaker 4: 17:16

go, if you stopped eating, Maybe I don't know. I mean some dudes. I know three guys in the Bible that went 40 days, 40 nights. Ok, how far can you go if you, if you stop drinking water? The results are going to be the same You're going to die if you don't eat food. Man, and spiritually it's the same thing, except, unfortunately, people can live a whole lifetime without getting spiritual food, and David talked about the word of God being, you know, food.

Speaker 4: 17:47

It literally is the food for our soul. And the enemy is going to come at the man of God when he sets his mind to pray and when he sets his mind to get in the word of God. And I can't tell you, man, I had recently left my Bible somewhere. I have a million Bibles, but I moved out of my house to another location, so a lot of my books are in storage and I have this one and another one that are like go to's and I forget I left them somewhere. So I was using the Bible on my phone, the app, and I was like, all right, I'm going to get to the Word, this is my time to go get the Word. And I tell you the distraction. I was like, oh, there's a YouTube thing came up, let me, let me. Two hours later, no, I'm like, oh, I got to go now. I never even got Airplane mode right, it's like Jesus.

Speaker 4: 18:36

If you don't cut it off, if you don't Right, we ain't that strong. No, I didn't even realize what was happening, man. I'm like, oh, that's funny. I got to email Angelo, I got to this, whatever it is you know.

Speaker 4: 18:48

whatever it is, you know whatever it is, but the distractions are real man and for the man of god, I've just found that that is something we have to active. Be active about. What do you say to the the guys listening right now how, how do you overcome these, like the distractions of the world when you want to go pray or you want to get into the word? What is a technique? What can we do?

Speaker 1: 19:09

I mean it, the truth of the matter is it's, it's not easy, it's uncomfortable. Right and we read the story of of the, the man of david's mighty man who swung that sword until it was connected to his hand it wasn't easy right, all of those swings.

Speaker 1: 19:27

And that's what we have to do. We have to just be committed and dedicated to swinging that sword until it doesn't disconnect from our hands in the spiritual realm. And it's. It's gonna be hard work, but you know, like mike was saying, like mighty men of god are always fighting we're always alert spiritually. You have to be, and it's for the people around you and not until you step into eternity will you understand the spiritual significance of what you had to go through in life to potentially save countless people around you.

Speaker 3: 20:06

Yeah, I always like to think about it. Like you know, I'm a boxing fan, right. And there's one boxer, marvin Hagler. Well, this dude lived his whole boxing career in a basement training. The dude had tons of money, he could have been sleeping on silk sheets, but this guy had a mentality that I'm constantly at war and whenever I'm training for a fight I'm in war mode and I'm not going to live comfortable. I'm not going to, you know, just tend to my, you know my, my fleshly desires to, you know, to live comfortably. I'm going to seclude myself. I'm going to keep my mission, you know, at hand and, and that's always gonna be my motivation to train and to put in the work and day in and day out.

Speaker 3: 20:57

And I just think it's a lot about that mentality as men, as men of god, just knowing that we're constantly at war and we're constantly in a state of training and that you know that's where the fight is won. It's not the 12 rounds in the ring, it's the months and months of training that you did in preparation for those 36 minutes that you're in the ring and you know when you it as as um marching orders, you don't see it, um, like flowery, or you know, like you know, the bible was painted to people these days, where it's just something to make you feel good and it's something to uplift you, that's not what it is. It does that come?

Speaker 4: 21:49

to god to get a new car. But that's not the, that's not the purpose is it?

Speaker 3: 21:51

does that Come to God to get a new car? But that's not the, that's not the purpose of the word of God. Right, the word of God is to train us and to, um, you know, for us to take that and to go out into the world and to fight, and to fight the good fight, like Paul said. Yeah, so you know, that's how I like to think about, you know, the faith. That's what it is.

Speaker 2: 22:15

It's a battle and it's like a war, and it's something that we constantly have to be training ourselves. That application, I love how you say it. How do you run 10 miles right? Run one mile first, then two miles, then three miles, because the day will come when you need to run 10. Pray for five minutes, just five minutes. Get five minutes focused. Can the Lord get five minutes?

Speaker 3: 22:36

Yeah, then give them ten Before you know it, because you're always like oh man, how do these guys pray for hours?

Speaker 2: 22:37

You know, and as us, as Christians, to put it, you know, I really like the way Jodeci shared this right when you're at the beach. I'm at the beach with my kids and they're in the water. If they get swept out, can I swim out and save them? I'm not strong enough. I need that lifeguard yeah, to save. He's the one who's trained to swim that way. The average man is not going to go out there and fight the current and this, and that we're the spiritual lifeguards to go out there and get these drowning souls that are on their way to hell to get before they're swept away if we're not trained and we see someone drowning and we can't swim to get there.

Speaker 2: 23:09

You know that's when see them flapping, it's too late, that's right, it's too late, it's too late.

Speaker 4: 23:13

A lot of Christians are like, oh, I'll be all right. No, you need to. What you're saying is you need to get the work in, get the work in. You've seen both. He said I'm butchering it, but he said I trained for four years for nine seconds. That's right. The real work was in that four years of training and working and getting it in. And it's not about works with us. But, mike, I think you said was it four o'clock in the morning?

Speaker 6: 23:48

Yeah from three to six. Three to six, right I? Yeah for um from three to six.

Speaker 6: 23:55

Three to six right I always say that's when the throne room is open, that's when, uh, the incense is, it's piping hot. Yeah, that's when everything, and I think that's the reason why I think that it's the most active up there, because it's the quietest down here. That's a good point, you understand? So there's. So let's, that's when this world is there's less distractions. So the prayers that are happening there, it's loud and clear, yeah, up there, because when you're praying at three, four in the morning, there's no distractions, right?

Speaker 6: 24:26

right, right, right you're right sleep, the neighbors are asleep, the dog is even asleep. Yeah, yeah, everybody's sleeping.

Speaker 4: 24:33

So those prayers are loud let me tell you one of the things I I have a notebook where I record I'll record prayers that the lord gives me, particularly between in that midnight or the three o'clock hour, uh, and the other part is the throwaway sheet which is the distractions, because you know I'll be praying. Oh Lord, I just want to lift up my brothers from Brooklyn. You know all the guys.

Speaker 4: 24:59

And then, all of a sudden, I'm thinking about oh man, I got to change the oil in my car. That's right. Like stupid distractions, dumb distractions you can just have that scrap note oil in the car. Get right back to what you're doing praying boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Any stupid distraction or something that's important, oh, I got it, you're.

Speaker 4: 25:17

You are staying focused like a laser beam on hearing from god and and taking a pen and a piece of paper showing him saying I'm expecting to hear from you. I'm gonna share my soul, but I want to hear from you. And it's also a good thing to do that when you get the word, because that 99% of the time he speaks through the word. But in that midnight hour sometimes he'll lay something on your heart or somebody, or share with you something. That's still a small voice and it's really important to just have a pen nearby.

Speaker 4: 25:45

And the enemy has attacked me relentlessly in that three o'clock hour because I used to get up when I hear that voice. All right, come on, let's pray, let's pray. And now when I get up to pray, I'm hit with man. You're tired, man, just you need to rest, get your sleep, get your rest. You're exhausted, you're exhausted, you're really exhausted. I'm not even necessarily exhausted, but I'm, I'm, I'm getting hit with the, you're so exhausted. I'm like, all right, you know, I I'm getting hit with the, you're so exhausted. I'm like, all right, you know what? I'll pray after breakfast. Man, that's what I'll do.

Speaker 2: 26:15

I'll throw up, Miss the opportunity. You never went to a prayer meeting or had a prayer session, and afterwards you went. Oh man, what a waste of time.

Speaker 3: 26:22

No.

Speaker 2: 26:23

You never come. Oh man, you come and you're like oh man, I feel great. It's always no matter how tired that's the battle.

Speaker 5: 26:29

like Mike was saying, you get in and you fight and you get the victory and you're like, oh man, it's like when you're hanging out with your friends and you leave like oh I had such a great time with them.

Speaker 2: 26:36

This is your heavenly father.

Speaker 4: 26:38

Amen, amen. Well, check it out. We are going to continue this next time on plays on word radio, because these brothers got a lot more to say. Alright, until we get together again, though, may the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

Speaker 5: 27:29

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