Plays On Word Radio
An in-depth look at the Word of God, the Plays On Word community, and the Plays - with original music - we perform, that are based on the Word of God. New episodes drop Fridays at 7AM EST! To find out how Plays On Word Theater can perform 'LIVE on YOUR STAGE' and to support this missionary & podcast visit: https://playsonword.org/
Plays On Word Radio
Ep 68: The Timeless Beacon of Scripture Applying Biblical Narratives to Contemporary Life
"Today we explore the relevance of ancient texts like Joseph’s in Genesis, discussing how they offer insights into overcoming life's challenges. Can you see parallels between biblical narratives and your own modern life?"
As Pastor Teddy— also known as Fred David Kenney, Jr. — sat navigating rush-hour traffic, a journey that was once filled with frustration transformed into a profound spiritual classroom; the Bible became his companion, offering a treasure trove of wisdom with each mile. Today, we examine the relevancy of Scripture for today and investigate how ancient texts like those of Joseph in Genesis continue to offer strategic insights into overcoming life's famines, both literal and metaphorical.
Pastor Teddy brings to light the Plays On Word productions where Scripture meets stage, an intertwining of drama and comedy that looks from a new perspective into the tales of Joseph and, very soon, Daniel. Their stories of dream interpretation and unwavering humility before God's wisdom resonate in our discussion as we reflect on the humility necessary when faced with praise and recognizing divine guidance in our successes. The parallels between these biblical figures and our contemporary lives underscore a timeless narrative of providence and purpose.
Wrapping up, we delve into the essence of Joseph's foresight during Egypt's years of plenty and need, a beacon of hope that we contrast with Christian salvation through Christ alone. It's more than a historical recount; it's an allegory for the singular path to spiritual fulfillment and redemption. With a heart full of hope, we extend an invitation to find solace in faith, leaving listeners with a sense of anticipation for what's to come in our next episode, along with blessings of peace and grace from our Plays on Word family.
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Lord, you know you listen in the place of word. Radio is the best. I went through the entire Bible in a month. It was the month of January, I forget what year, but it was the month of January and I went through the entire Bible because I was reading and I was listening while commuting I had a lot of commutes going on, so I put the Bible on and listened to it and I absorbed the Bible in a month and it was life-changing. The Word of God, the Bible, is more accessible now than it has ever been for us in the Western world. Your name, your name, your name.
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, Amen, amen, amen, amen. Thank you very much, mr Josh Taylor and Katie Kenney, and welcome to all of you listening to Plays on Word Radio. That's right, we're still going strong. Episode number 68 now we are kicking it. We're kicking it from our Southern Command down in North Carolina right now. We're going to be back up in New Jersey in a couple weeks.
Speaker 1:We are back at our Southern Command and we are going to continue in chapter 41 of the book of Genesis. We are going through this story of Joseph and how amazing this story is. The story of Joseph and the Genesis Joe play that we do is based. The foundation of it is Genesis 37 through 50. In fact, one time early on, when we were doing the uh tennessee, the very first year, you know tennessee joe is 10 years old and so is pete. Christmas joe is nine. Hopefully we're gonna birth the dan play soon. Um, yeah, 10 years. Man, we've been all've been all over the place. We've done it overseas in a bunch of different states, back home here and people they come up to me afterwards and many people are excited because of the Scripture and for me that's worth more than gold People excited about getting into the Word of God and the Word of God speaking to people and it's just exciting to see people excited about the Word of God, because the Word of God is the gospel and in the gospel is the power of God. Yeah, so that is, my prime directive is to lift up Christ, and by lifting up the Word of God and I will lift Him up in any way I can and one of the ways that we do is through the plays, the music, the play, the drama, the comedy those of you that have been to the productions we do there are comedic elements. Hey, the Scripture's funny itself. I mean it just is. There are certain passages that are funny. Certain passages are suspenseful. I mean some of the best. I think about the story of David, just to sidetrack here off into the weeds, like I normally do, but just think about the story of David when Saul was coming after David and Saul and his army was on one side of the mountain and David and his boys, 400 or 600 strong, I don't remember right off the top of my head, but they're on the other side of the mountain and it's the suspense, as you're reading, that is amazing, because Saul, he's closing in on Dave. Anyway, that's just one example. Let's get back to this story we are studying right now in Genesis 41.
Speaker 1:And we finished up where Joseph was exalted from prison. He interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh. Pharaoh. Then, not only did Joseph interpret the dream, but Joseph, he showed knowledge by interpreting the dream. He understood and knew what the dream was. And then he showed wisdom by applying knowledge and wisdom to Pharaoh on how to best deal with the revelation that God gave him. And he said you know, let Pharaoh find a wise and discerning man and put him in charge of the land of Egypt. Let Pharaoh appoint commissioners throughout the land to take a fifth of the harvest 20% and store it up in storehouses, and that food is supposed to be used and be kept on reserve for the years of famine so that the country may not be destroyed. And he just used wisdom from God and did it in front of all of the magicians and all the wise men, on the payroll for Pharaoh, the people Pharaoh's paying.
Speaker 1:There are parallels between this and the book of Daniel, when Daniel interprets the dream, for not only interprets the dream, he tells Nebuchadnezzar the dream. You know, that's one of the, that's what you can't tell me. That's not funny if you just look at it like wait a second, what you look at the wise men that are on the payroll for Nebuchadnezzar. And Nebuchadnezzar says tell me the dream and the interpretation. And what's funny is the wise men are like there's not. There's not a man alive, there's no king. No king has ever asked any of any wise men to tell them what he dreamed. And then the interpretation king tell us the dream and we'll tell you the interpretation.
Speaker 1:Nebuchadnezzar's like nope, you tell me, I've been paying y'all all this money. I'm paying your mortgages, your cars, paying for your cable, your electricity and everything. I'm paying for everything, paying for your Netflix, paying for all your bills. And you can't even tell me this. You better tell me this or I'm going to hang you up on a pole. I mean that's basically what he said. You up on a pole? I mean that's basically what he said. Tell me what I dreamed. If you're wise man, I'm paying all these, paying all these things for you, buying your houses and everything else. You're on my payroll. Who knows, you know what?
Speaker 1:There are some different theories on what led to that, but he clearly was not having it from the wise men. He wanted them to earn their keep and if they didn't, they were about to, they were going to die. And they were like we can't do this. And he gave the order All right, well then, you're all done, not fired. You're done, your heads are going to roll. He was serious and so the chief unit guy came up to Daniel and told him what was happening. And Daniel was like why is the king? Why what's going on? And the guy told him, and Daniel said, well, give me some time and I'm going to pray. And he went and prayed and got his boys, hananiah, mishael and Azariah, otherwise known as Shadrach, meshach and Abednego and he got them to pray. And that night the dream was revealed to the. The king's dream was revealed to Daniel while his boys were praying, while he was in prayer. The dream was revealed to him, the interpretation, and they were so excited they were I mean, they were no doubt they were elated. And they went to the chief eunuch guy and were like take me to the king. And Daniel was brought to the king and Daniel, just like Joseph, gave props to the Lord.
Speaker 1:He didn't take credit and say you know, man, this is because I'm pretty special, I'm tuned in with the universe. Or I'm tuned in with God, or I'm so whatever man would normally tuned in with the universe, or I'm tuned in with God, or I'm so whatever man would normally do. To take a little bit of credit Well, you know, I only eat organic and God speaks to me. I'm spiritual. No, daniel doesn't do that. Neither does Joseph Daniel.
Speaker 1:He says listen, king, nobody's going to be able to tell you what your dream is, nobody can do that. But there's a God in heaven. There's a God in heaven. Yeah, and that theme of the God in heaven, the Lord of lords, the King of kings, that theme goes throughout. Daniel Nebuchadnezzar will reference him again. He is the true God. And Daniel says to him listen, there's a God in heaven, and now we're going to tell you what the dream is and the interpretation. And so there's a similarity. When you get a chance, go and check out Daniel. Particularly if you read the first five chapters of it, you see a reoccurring theme. I don't want to say a parallel to Joseph, but there are similarities to Joseph's experience before the king as well. And Joseph said listen, I can't interpret it, but God, stop right there for a second. But God, but God, but God, but God will give Pharaoh the answer that he's looking for.
Speaker 1:So Joseph also gives credit to the Lord where it's due and does not take or infringe in any kind of way on the glory due to the Lord. Woe to us if we do that. I pray. I never, ever do that. I always want to give glory to God, give glory to the Lord for every good thing and I'm grateful he allows me to participate in what he does.
Speaker 1:You know, people come up to me oh, you're so great, you're so great and I really try. I've gotten better. It's hard to. I mean, it was hard for me to accept. I don't want to call it praise, but compliments. But what I do is I direct it towards the Lord first. God is great and I'm just an employee is usually what I say. God is the one who's great and he's the one that did it. But thank you very much for your kind words to me.
Speaker 1:I think, as long as you put it in perspective that it is God that does the work, god is the one who needs to get the praise and the glory. If someone compliments your part in that, the Lord using you, I think it's okay not to. You don't want to bask in that, but to say thank you very much for your compliment. Thank you, thank you. Praise God, praise God, hallelujah. I think that is a better way of operating than operating out of a false humility. But that's all. I don't want to go off the rails. Let's continue back with Joseph. I just rambled for a little while there. Let's get.
Speaker 1:This is the middle of the chapter 41, verse 46. It says Joseph was 30 years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Now, for you Bible scholars, does that ring any kind of bell for you to think about that Joseph, when he was elevated, when he was raised to the right hand of power with all authority and majesty given to him I mean earlier on. It just said when they rode around in Pharaoh's chariot verse 43, and they made him ride in his chariot and the people shouted make way, make way. Right there, the people were to give honor and glory to him. You don't say that for somebody who's not way up on the totem pole there. He was 30 years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh.
Speaker 1:Let me give you another 30-year-old King David. Yeah, it says King David began to rule at the age of 30. Yeah, 2 Samuel 5, verse 4. It says David was 30 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 40 years, and he reigned for seven years in Hebron, which is interesting because that's the same area where Joseph was from Well, not from.
Speaker 1:Joseph wasn't born in Hebron, but they lived in Hebron, and when this whole episode of this whole story started for Joseph, when he was 17. They were in Hebron. That's where they were living. So Hebron is I think we talked about that on one of the podcasts it's a very important town. Abraham was there, isaac was there, joseph was there and King David reigned. He began his reign in Hebron and then for 33 years, he reigned in Jerusalem after that, but he started in Hebron and then for 33 years, he reigned in Jerusalem after that, but he started in Hebron His ministry, not his earthly ministry. His ministry started when he was 30 years old, though. So, basically, he lived till he was 70, or reigned till he was 70. Yeah, and he died.
Speaker 1:Now anybody else? Come to mind Another 30-year-old that starts their ministry. Yeah, I hear some of the light bulbs going off. Does that make any sense? How do you hear a light bulb going off? Okay, jesus, at the age of 30, began his earthly ministry. Yes, yeah, luke, chapter 3, verse 23. Yeah, it says Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about 30 years of age, being the son, as was supposed, of Joseph. So Jesus is another. And these are not just lucky, random things, no, this is important stuff here. David is a type a precursor. David is a type a precursor, joseph is a type a precursor of Christ.
Speaker 1:And you know, I remember the Lord actually put a call on me when I was 30, 31, somewhere around there. I remember it was when he captured me by the word. There's something just special about that period of time for me, when he captured me completely. I completely, because up to that point I believed in him, but I had no power of the Holy Spirit in my life. I was compromised, I did not know the word. I could quote a couple of verses but I didn't know the word. That's like I say it all the time.
Speaker 1:That's like somebody who sent you 66 text messages. You call them your friend, you say you love, you know. You say you love them and then you're, you know great, but you never even read their message. You never read their text messages. How close of a friend are they If you don't care to even read the text messages of this person.
Speaker 1:You don't have to understand it, and that's the one thing I really love to get across. You don't need to understand all that's in the Word. Anybody who tells you they understand everything they're lying to you. There's nobody who understands it all. This is something the theologians have studied for millennia and have not gotten to the bottom of it. But it is simple enough for a child to take hold and digest enough to be saved, the Word of God. We're going to explore it for all eternity. My point is I don't mean to beat anybody down, but I just you know, listen. Time is short right now and we need to. We really need to be in check.
Speaker 1:If you have not read his text messages, I would encourage you read it. There's all kinds of ways to read it. You got all kinds of apps. Now you have BibleGatewaycom. You can put it on and listen to it. You can listen while you're commuting.
Speaker 1:One time I went through the entire Bible in a month. It was the month of January, I forget what year, but it was the month of January and I went through the entire Bible because I was reading and I was listening while commuting. I had a lot of commutes going on back and forth to Philly and all over the place, so I put the Bible on and listened to it and I absorbed the Bible in a month and it was life-changing the Word of God. I just encourage you. If you're one of them folks that the Spirit of God is speaking to right now saying, yeah, that's you. You read a couple of my text messages but you haven't read them all. You're missing out on a lot. I would encourage you and I'll tell you what. If you're not sure, send me an email. I can send you all kinds of links audio links that will suit your need. Audio link I don't want to say video link, but I'll send you websites where you can get the Bible. The Bible is more accessible now than it has ever been for us in the Western world at least. It is more accessible the Word of God. I can go to Bible Gateway and pull up I don't know, like a hundred different translations, a hundred versions, or you can pull up the original Greek and Hebrew if you want, and the different versions of that Point being is, there is no excuse for not not at least letting your eyes and ears have gone through every message from the Lord. It's so important.
Speaker 1:Back to Joseph, joseph. End of verse 46. Joseph went out from Pharaoh's presence and traveled throughout Egypt. Verse 47. During the seven years of abundance, the land produced plentifully. He said it was going to happen. Verse 47, during the seven years of abundance, the land produced plentifully. He said it was going to happen. Verse 48, joseph collected all the food produced in those seven years of abundance in Egypt and stored it in cities. In each city, he put the food grown in the field surrounding it. Let me tell you something Amazon has nothing on Joe. I mean, joe had the warehouses going, man, he had the network going. Come on now. Amazoncom had nothing on Joe.
Speaker 1:Verse 49, joseph stored up huge, huge quantities of grain like the sand of the sea. It was so much that he stopped keeping records because it was beyond measure. Doesn't that just sound like God pressed down, shaking together and running over? I think of the guy that does not know the dream that God shared with Pharaoh, right? Think of the person We'll take you into Egypt here. So think of the guy that's out in the field, that's been working out in the field and he just you know things going on as they've always going on, and all of a sudden, you know the, the, the, the, everything starts ramping up and the grain starts coming in like crazy and it's just prospering, prosperity, prosperity. He probably thinks it's going to go on forever. You know what I mean. You get in that mode where people I mean because there's people that think that the stock market when it's going up remember the 90s oh, it just kept going up, going up, going up, going up. Yeah, it's going to continue. There's been a paradigm shift where markets just continually expand, they never contract. And I can't help but wonder if somebody was like that while this was going on.
Speaker 1:Verse 50 says before the years of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph by Asenath, daughter of Potiphar, a priest of all. Joseph named his firstborn Manasseh and said it is because God has made me to forget all my trouble and all my father's household. The second, he named Ephraim and said it is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my sufferings. And just notice that these are Hebrew names, they're not Egyptian names. These are Hebrew names. And these two boys would go on to basically be the beginning of the tribe of Manasseh, or the half-tribe of Manasseh and the half-tribe of Ephraim. And those two tribes, or two half-tribes when put together, make up Joseph. Except in the book of Revelation I'll let you Bible scholars go figure that one out.
Speaker 1:Verse 53. The seven years of abundance in Egypt came to an end and the seven years of famine began. Just as Joseph has said, there was famine in all the other lands, but in the land of Egypt there was food. Verse 55, when all Egypt began to feel the famine. So Egypt wasn't feeling it right away, but everybody else was. The people cried to Pharaoh for food. Notice, they went to Pharaoh for food. They knew he had stored up food because he kicked up the tax it was generally 10% and then it kicked it up to 20% of the grain and they saw the Amazon warehouses being built and the infrastructure that Joseph laid out. So they knew Pharaoh had the food. Then Pharaoh told the Egyptians this is the key go to Joseph and do what he tells you. Notice, there was only one way to be saved, and the sovereign directed the people to go to the one that he had put in position to be saved Verse 56, when the famine had spread over the whole country, joseph opened the storehouses and sold grain to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe throughout Egypt Verse 57,. And all the world came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph, to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph, because the famine was severe everywhere.
Speaker 1:Now, did Pharaoh have to accommodate the people, and what I mean by that? Did he have to provide multiple ways of salvation, or did he provide one way to be saved through Joseph? It's a rhetorical question. To be saved through Joseph? It's a rhetorical question here. Notice, he didn't give a bunch of different ways. There was one way and it didn't matter.
Speaker 1:I'm sure there were some clowns on the side of the road saying hey, follow me, I'll show you how to grow grain better. I'll show you how to. I'll teach you how to grow in this hot, non-growing type of soil and a special irrigation system. No, uh-uh, it didn't matter, man, it didn't matter. There was no other way to be saved. And religion are those clowns out there trying to tell you a better way to grow and if you're just good, a good way. And no, uh-uh, we don't need to learn how to eat dirt or how to eat rock during the famine, and that's what religion is teaching. But we need to be saved from death, and there's only one way to be saved.
Speaker 1:Christianity is not a religion. It is a relationship with the Savior, through whom eternal life exists. There is no other way to be saved. If there was, then Jesus was wrong, the Bible is wrong, and if Jesus was wrong, you've got a much bigger problem, because if he was wrong, then he couldn't die for his own sins and he definitely couldn't die for your sins. I got good news, though he's not wrong and the Bible's not wrong.
Speaker 1:There is one way to be saved through the man, christ Jesus, and if you have not made it official with him, it's pretty simple. You just come to him by faith and ask him Lord, please forgive me of my sins. I repent, I turn from my sins and I turn towards you, the true and living God. Fill me with your Holy Spirit. Save me, lord, Live through me, show me something along those lines from your heart, you reach out to him, you call on the name of the Lord and he will be found, and if you're ready to do that, then you've already been found by him. He's been searching for you, calling you. Do that today, while it's still called today, amen. Well, that's all the time we have, for today.
Speaker 1:We're going to have to continue the story next week as we kick it and continue in the story of Joseph, but until we actually I don't even know if we're going to next week we have something special for you. Oh yeah, yeah, we got something special for you. We're going to take a little break from this again. Yeah, yeah, we got something special for you. We're gonna take a little break from this again and we got some, uh, something special for you next week. So until we meet next week, 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 2:This program was made possible by the Plays on Word family of supporters. To find out more, check out our website at playsonwordorg.
